Kayn stood in shock as he glanced around the massive room. A scene more disturbing than anything he had ever done or seen was laid out before his eyes. Piles of bodies, drained of blood and mana, some cut open with harvested organs or mana cores. The most prominent theme was the faces of these bodies, filled with horror and pain, frozen in the expression they were showing before they died.
As he looked further into the room, he noticed several bodies hanging from massive meat hooks, their blood draining into a vat underneath them. With his Mana Sense, he could also see that the mana from their bodies was being drained by a strange tube stabbed into their chests.
There were men, women, and even children both hanging and already dead. Kayn didn't know what to think of the situation initially, but after thinking about it a little more his conclusion horrified him. All of these people, they were the emperor's family. They were his wives, concubines, and children!
How could someone do this to their own family?
While he was standing there trying to figure out how he wanted to proceed, he heard two voices coming from the other side of a door on the far end of the massive structure. Quickly using Shadow's Embrace, he hid in the shadows to see who it was approaching this area.
Kayn watched as the Carnet Emperor and the head healer of the Royal healers of Carnet walked through the door, though, the healer was an undead now from what Kayn could tell.
"-finished before we needed to use the last remainders of mana and blood. What would you like to do with it?" the head healer asked as Kayn caught their conversation mid-sentence.
"Give the bodies to Mitas as a thank you for letting me have you back for a while. As for the extra and blood, they are no use to me anymore, we can just use it in other future experiments. I wonder how far that bastard destroying my labs has gotten in the last few months while we were completing my operation and recovery." The emperor replied back as he completely disregarded the bodies of his own family hanging before him or sprawled out dead on the floor.
"Hmmm we may be able to use their mana as a stabilizer to my own condition, slowly transforming myself back into a human. Outside of Mitas's eyes and ears if you'd be willing to allow me to-" the head healer wasn't able to finish his sentence as without warning, his head was sliced from his body and a black fire consumed his flesh.
"Ah, so you've made it this far already." The emperor, a cold and calculating human with black hair and brown eyes smirked as he saw Kayn materializing from the shadow across the room from him.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you kill your own family?" Kayn asked with rage lacing his voice. He would have killed them too, but it was unthinkable for the emperor to do it himself.
"My family?" The emperor expressed confusion as he spoke before looking around at the bodies piled around him. "Oh! They were tools, nothing more, nothing less. They were only ever created to help me achieve what rightfully belongs to me in the first place. If you want to be picky about it, I can just make a new family whenever I want. Though, I suppose I'll have to deal with you first, but that shouldn't be hard now with you standing in front of me.
"My name is Polix Carnet, I figured you should know my name before I take what's yours and make it my own since it should have been mine to begin with. I've heard about you using all of the elements and even some new never before seen ones like that black fire, I can't wait until I have it!"
Finally, finally Kayn realized what the feeling he was getting from the emperor was and why it felt so familiar. It also explained everything that happened around the man and how he was able to get people to do what he wanted. He was a Sin holder, and if Kayn had to guess, it was Envy.
"Ahhhh, I get it now. You hold Envy, don't you? I think you'll find that it won't work quite as you expect on me," Kayn grinned excited to see how Polix would react. His reaction didn't disappoint.
"What? How did you know? Are you also a child of my god? Is that why I feel something familiar inside you? If that's the case, why would you do this to my Carnet Empire? What have I ever done to offend another one of god's children?" Polix showed visible confusion on his face as he spoke.
Instead of answering him, Kayn thought of a better idea, "Tell you what, I'll explain it, but only if you follow me outside. I promise I haven't set up any traps, I'm not that much of a coward."
"Lead the way then." Polix spoke confidently. He didn't think he would have any trouble killing this person if he needed to. By way of mana core alone, he was already at the very peak, only refusing to ascend. On the other hand, his enemy was maybe halfway through the 6th stage, if even that. Add on his strength obtained from Envy, and he was confident he could destroy Kayn in a fight.
Kayn had taken a risk showing his back to Polix, but he was confident he could defend if the bastard was to sneak attack him. As soon as they arrived above ground and Polix saw everything around him destroyed or burning, his expression became shrouded in anger and sorrow.
Then Kayn spoke, "All hail the emperor of nothing, behold your empire of dirt you bastard. Look into my eyes Emperor Polix, just because I have a Sin as well, that doesn't mean we are the same. I am Kayn, the son of Ezekiel and Zerana Vestarious. Your sin was killing my family in front of me and torturing my master for years upon years.
"You thought you killed me, but I survived, I paved a path of death and destruction these last few years to just arrive here in front of you. You dug yourself this grave and this is as far as you go. I won't even have to use my full power to kill you." Kayn angrily spoke as he allowed Wrath to take over just a slight bit more.
"Children can be remade, my empire rebuilt, and once I'm done with you, I will be a god on this world. Why ascend when I can rule an entire world? You're nothing but a child throwing a tantrum in my eyes. Once I kill you, I'll present your Sin back to my god as you have shown you don't deserve such marvelous power! He might even reward me!"
…
Sitting in a secluded room and watching the scene through his connection to Polix as he no longer had a connection to Kayn, Lucifer slammed his fist down on the table next to him, crushing it into pieces.
"DON'T YOU DARE BRING THAT BULLSHIT ANYWHERE NEAR ME YOU BASTARD! GO ANGRY DRAGON KID!"
…
Thankfully Kayn couldn't hear the peanut gallery cheering for him, otherwise he might have puked blood. "Looks like our talks are over, time to die you piece of shit."
However, before Kayn could act a massive earth spike shot out of the ground underneath him, forcing him to dodge into the air where spikes from several directions were already near spearing him through like a pin cushion.
Polix thought that he would have an easy fight after Kayn failed to react read his movements, but to his surprise, Kayn simply clenched his fists and began punching or kicking each of the spikes with movements so quick that even Polix's eyes were having difficulty following him.
"Show me more of what I should have been born with, I'll take it all!" Polix yelled out while laughing maniacally.
Kayn felt a slight pull on his mana and the power he was using to infuse his body with the elements. Realizing that this is what Polix meant by taking things for his own by using Envy, Kayn decided to play along a little bit to give him some confidence before he thoroughly crushed him and his soul.
Letting just a small amount of his power flow out of himself and into Polix, Kayn slowed down just a tiny bit while Polix could feel a new way to use his elements, wind and earth, being ingrained into his body and mind.
"Yes! More! I'll take it all! Once I have every element under my control, everyone will be nothing!" Polix was shouting about his victory while still shooting continuous spikes of earth at Kayn and trying to throw him off balance with wind blades.
The fight continued in this manner for several minutes with Kayn purely on defense, seemingly being overwhelmed while slowly having his power transferred over to Polix, and Polix became sure of his victory.
However, just as Polix was expecting to have Kayn pinned down so that he could force him to reveal everything else he could take for himself, the flow of mana he was stealing stopped. Polix stopped casting his spells and stood there looking dumbfounded as Kayn returned to the ground and began dusting off his clothes.
"I think that's about enough of that. I just wanted to get your hopes up before smashing them to smithereens. I gave you maybe 0.05% of my knowledge of wind and earth. I didn't even lose it, more so just let you think you were stealing from me, but no more. It's time to end this. First, I'll make you fear the true power my father held."
With those words, lightning began to crackle around Kayn's entire body, his hair floating into the air. Kayn extended his hands outward with both palms forward and mana flowing through his tissues. Smacking his hands together, he caused a sonic boom to radiate out in a wave of extreme sound and wind, slicing through anything in front of him and bursting the ear drums of any to hear it.
Without waiting, Kayn launched a beam of lightning from his mouth that was mixed with fire, blasting away everything inside a cone shaped area in front of him. This was something Kayn discovered from his dragon side. It was a mixture of his elements with a classic Dragon Breath, an innate skill of all Dragons with the result depending on their subspecies elemental affinity.