With the unexpected feast of nine 6th stage cores ranging from early to peak in progress, Kayn decided to take a bit of a break to consume the cores. Any extra strength he could gain before going against the Carnet Emperor, the better. From everything he heard, the man was truly on another level, and Kayn wasn't going to take any risks.
He left Larend in the shadows and set up the Wanderer's Villa some miles away. He had the thought to take back full control from Wrath, but decided against it as he knew that there would be difficult choices to come once he broke through the last two barriers. While he knew Wrath was essentially just another part of him now, it was easier to blame his actions solely on it controlling his current state of mind.
The majority of the continent was overrun with undead before he stepped in, so while his kill count was somewhere in the upper hundreds of millions, most of them were undead. But those undead included the converted children and elderly. Then there were the cursed races which he essentially wiped from existence if he found they were in collusion with the liches.
No matter how he tried to justify it, it was true that along the way he had crossed his own moral thresholds and killed innocents. He used to think that children shouldn't suffer for the crimes of their parents, but he had slain entire family lines in some cases. Even with Wrath brushing off most of the guilt he felt, he still felt remorse and disgust with himself. However, he needed to focus on the good that would hopefully come out of all of this.
Kayn was able to digest and absorb all nine cores in a little over a month. His progress within the 6th stage was rising each and every day and he was closing in on the halfway point, but his true power was far above what any 6th stage should be capable of, at least he thought so.
Flying back to Larend, Kayn wasted no time and started attacking the second to last barrier immediately. It had been strengthened in the month or so he was gone, but he had also strengthened himself and was packing more and more mana into each attack as he was tired of the ceaseless fighting. His mind was on the brink, and what he needed now more than ever was family to help stabilize himself, or maybe a good therapist.
It didn't take Kayn long to destroy the barrier, but once it opened up, what he saw made him halt his movements. Standing at the forefront were several 5th and even six 6th stagers, behind them were the less powerful, and even further back were families all huddled together, holding each other in fear.
The strongest were all holding onto large poles that had white bed sheets attached to them, flying in the air. Seeing that Kayn didn't attack right away, the strongest of the mages there, a bulky man with a large two-handed axe strapped across his back stepped forward, hoping to engage in conversation with the one who would most likely cause their demise.
So far, Kayn hadn't shown mercy to anyone in the city aside from the slaves he freed, but looking around, he found no slaves among the people gathered here, nor any shoved into buildings. Even with his Mana Sense covering every part of the city he just exposed, he found no evidence of slaves having ever been present. No dead bodies, nothing. This was why he decided to talk with this man and see what he wanted before he acted.
Kayn floated down to the ground and stood several meters away from the man who, if Kayn stood next to him, would be towering over himself. The man had a scar running from one cheek to the other across his nose bridge and his right cheek was marred with a burn scar. This man was somewhere in the upper half of the 6th stage as far as his core went, but Kayn knew that core progress didn't correlate to how strong one was at this point.
"Death God, we do not wish to fight with you. My name is Cordont Weaver, and I am in charge of the group you see behind me. We never wanted to be a part of this war to start with and we never participated in it. However, it is true we are part of the Carnet Empire. We, the soldiers in front of you, only wish that you would spare our families in exchange for our lives and the information we can provide you about what awaits you." Cordont spoke, addressing Kayn with all the courtesy and respect that a stronger individual garnered.
"Never participated in it? I find that hard to believe knowing the attitude of your emperor. He would have killed you or your families if you didn't, if I have understood his temperament correctly that is." Kayn replied with a scoff.
"My unit has been stationed at the Inmortuea border for the last few decades. We were there when the war started, and it was also there that it revealed that our empire was in cahoots with the undead. We refused to do to anything but fighting the undead after that. Our previous general, and the man I looked up to the most in this world, wouldn't have wanted us to fighting for a greedy bastard in such a fashion.
"Not to mention once we all learned the truth of his execution, we stopped listening to commands from the inner chambers. Our general wasn't a traitor, but was murdered for trying to expose our heinous emperor's plans before they could come to fruition.
"We only ended up back within the city without being hunted because the emperor's forces were too busy dealing with Mancea first, and then you. The emperor himself, no one knows what he's doing as he hasn't shown himself for years now, at least publicly. We sought protection within the city's defenses, but maybe that was the wrong choice as we are now at your mercy."
Cordont grit his teeth as he spoke while clenching his fists. His hatred for Carnet and its emperor was evident. It was also true that they probably felt cornered. First with the undead running rampant across the continent. Then with Kayn, who appeared to be slaughtering people left and right, though that wasn't necessarily true but the communication network was in shambles currently.
"I see. I didn't sense any lies from what you just said, so that's a start. With as strong as you are, I assume your general was stronger, why didn't he just rebel once he discovered what was happening? I'm sure you all would have followed. From what I've seen of Carnet's forces, you all would have been quite the annoying rebellion with a powerful peak 6th stage at your lead. At least enough to escape and maybe join Mancea instead."
Kayn asked curiously, this group was formidable from what he could tell. If back then they had all joined forces after their general revealed what he found, they could have alerted Mancea before any of this started and the outcome could have turned out very different.
Cordont's head hung low as he replied, "The previous general of our platoon, General Ezekiel Vestarius, technically wasn't stronger than me. In fact, he was only at the peak of the 5th stage. But he could fight me on even ground regardless. The man was truly talented and gifted beyond words. He's the one who gave me this scar on my face. I was unruly when he first took command of our unit, but he put all of us in our places before rising to the rank of general within a few years. I didn't get it healed as a reminder to myself to stay the man that he made me. If he could have reached the 6th stage, maybe he could have gone up against the emperor himself…"
Cordont sighed and after a slight pause he continued, "Truth be told though, we don't know the exact information he gathered that led to his death. We only learned after the war with Mancea started that he was killed for finding out something that the emperor was doing.
"One day, over 15 years ago now, he left to saying he had a report to receive in Larend. The next thing we knew, we were told he was a traitor and that he and his family were executed. There was nothing we could do to help. If only he told us what was going on, we could have stood with him and helped. We could have at least tried to protect his family for him…" Cordont stated as his voice sounded more and more helpless as he spoke.
"It sounds like you held him in very high regard and were loyal to him to a fault. I'm sure he would have appreciated that," Kayn said as he pulled back his hood, revealing his face to the gathered crowd.
"However, you're wrong about one thing. My father wouldn't have been able to defeat the emperor, even if he reached the 6th stage. The man is a monster and is only growing stronger as time passes, even I'm not confident I can fight him without suffering severe injuries."
Cordont blinked a few times at seeing Kayn's appearance. "Wow you look so young…wait…did you just say your father? Who is your father?"
"General Ezekiel. I have my mother's hair and my father's eyes, but a power I'm currently using has my eyes looking a bit off. But I definitely have my father's looks."
"I'll say," replied a female voice from not far behind Cordont. Cordont rolled his eyes at the peanut gallery commenting on his looks, but refocused back to the main topic.
"Ezekiel didn't have any children who should be much older than their early 30s from what I knew and he only had one son that he talked about. There's no way you're his child. To claim to be from his family when they were all killed…" Cordont's anger began to cause his intent to attack Kayn evident in the air.
"My father hid my talents well. I survived the blast at the estate with my little sister and had been living in Mancea until the war started. Then unforeseen events happened and now here I am. My proving it to you doesn't really matter though. As you were my father's subordinates and friends, you can all leave with your lives, but I would like the information you talked about before you go. Otherwise, you can try to fight me and I'll leave a scar on your other cheek to remember me by." Kayn gave off a devilish grin that sorely reminded Cordont of the same grin Ezekiel had once given him.
"I…thank you. Once things are organized and everyone has begun to depart, I'll tell you everything I know, though it may be out of date by now."
Cordont bowed a full 90 degrees, but Kayn simply waved it off. "You probably know my name if my father talked about me to you all, but I'm Kayn. Take care of your business and come find me, I'll be meditating on that building over there." Kayn said as he pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the building behind him.
Cordont nodded, "I understand, I will come to you as soon as possible."
Cordont then turned to the group of people to inform them of the situation in case they were not able to hear what had transpired. Thankfully, their loyalty to a man over a decade dead had saved them from the vengeful wrath of his son.