Life continued on. Charlotte stayed for a month or so more, but since Kayn was back to watch over Lara now, she wanted to get back to Lavanth. As she wasn't there to help with the war efforts, she wanted to at least go back to help with the rebuilding process and maybe catch up with Yelena along the way.
Before she left, Kayn holed himself up in his study within the Wanderer's Villa so that he could create Lara's necklace. It was his first time doing any enchanting or inscribing, but with the directions he had on hand, and his proficiency with mana, it didn't prove much of a challenge. He even inscribed the array that Yvaris helped him with back in the day so that Lara wouldn't have to worry about her increasing weight as she ranked up.
When he was finished, he presented Lara with a beautiful pendant with an amethyst gemstone infused with the core of a rare SS-rank rune beast and Kayn's own mana. She was ecstatic to receive such a beautiful gift from Kayn. She had been mad at him when he said that he needed to seclude himself for a little bit after just coming back to her, but it was like her anger flew out the window as soon as the pendant was around her neck.
After Charlotte left, the small town was starting to feel the loss of their healer as visitors stopped showing up and the people who lived there had to travel several days to the next healer just to get their check-ups or deal with injuries.
Lara wanted to help the people, but her core was purely of the dark element, so even with Kayn's instruction she wasn't able to help most people. Not to mention she was far more skilled in utilizing her magic for close combat than anything else.
Kayn had taught her a few spells that required the mana of a tier 3 spell, but were just as powerful at tier 5 or 6 spells. Her favorite was a spell that was a spell that required a large amount of mana, but it made several tentacles of darkness spread from her back that would lash out at her enemies, inflicting them with the decay of the dark element.
Aside from assisting Lara and spending as much time with her as he could, he would stay awake while she slept in order to increase his own knowledge and power. He worked tirelessly night after night with the avatar in the Wanderer's Villa to dissect the knowledge he obtained. Unfortunately, even keeping himself busy and having Lara with him didn't stop his mental health from declining.
The stress and guilt that built up over the years was not something that his loved ones simply saying "it was the right thing to do", would make go away. He didn't need sleep often, but when he did, he dreaded it. Every time he fell asleep, he would be met with nightmares of him slaughtering like a madman.
Lara would often wake up to his nightmare ramblings and join him on his bed, holding him, trying to comfort him even though he was asleep. Much like back at Est and Horace's place, Kayn decided to make a change one day to try and improve his mental health, not only for himself, but also for Lara.
She worried about him and would always ask him to talk with her about it, or at least tell her how she could help. However, Kayn refused to share the things he had done with her in detail. He knew that she was aware of most of the basics, but that didn't mean he was going to tell her the exact scenes of his dreams.
Much like before, Kayn would start his mornings with a light jog around the town, at a pace that any ordinary person could run. After he finished his run, he would go through the martial forms from the original Tethers of the Void manual as it was a meditative practice for him. He would then make breakfast for both himself and Lara before he sent her off to her room to go through some studies he prepared for her.
Approximately three months after Charlotte left, the healing shop was back open with a new healer. The villagers had thought that Kayn was just an ordinary man with how he acted around the regular folk and his slow running pace.
People were skeptical at first, but once they learned that Kayn was healing any and every problem for a single copper coin, the hesitation they once had vanished. If he could truly do what he advertised, and for such a meager price, it was worth checking out. If it turned out that he wasn't capable, it was only a copper coin they would be losing and soon his shop would close after word spread.
Opposite to everyone's expectations though, the new healer was true to his words on the advertisement flyers that were handed out. No matter the problem they had, he would heal it within minutes if not in less than a minute. Missing limbs, blindness, infection, hearing loss, you name it and he could heal it.
The only times he was even strict with his patients was when he healed them of their issues brought on by alcohol or drugs. He told those people that if they came back to have him alleviate their struggles caused by drugs and alcohol again, he would charge them triple the standard price of the continent in which he now resided.
Kayn only opened his shop for approximately 10 hours a day. As word got out about the miracle healer who worked for essentially free, the line to his and Lara's small home grew longer and longer.
As the days passed, the former village chief turned town mayor approached Kayn with the intention to come up with a plan to address the massive line of tents flowing out of the town. He was happy as Kayn's business was bringing money spending people to his town and their local stores were flourishing, but the line of people and the waste they brought with them were getting out of hand.
Kayn was too lazy to want to deal with it, so he just tossed all of the copper coins he made over the last few months to the mayor in a storage pouch and told him to do whatever he wanted with it. Though he stipulated that a portion should be used to build housing that the people could use temporarily. How the mayor decided to do that was up to him, and whether he wanted to charge the people or not was also up to him as Kayn wanted to be hands off for those aspects unlike Charlotte when she first arrived.
Kayn didn't care about the money, he just wanted to help people for a while. By no means would it erase what he had done, but it helped to ease his weary mind. He found how he could repay his debts, and this was one way. He couldn't erase his past, but he could still find some closure.
Half a year after Kayn became active as a healer again, his home was visited by Kinzie and Rowen. Kayn treated them to dinner and Lara told Kinzie all about her studies and how much she was learning from her brother.
The dinner was awkward between Kinzie and Kayn at first, but the atmosphere soon eased into a merry one as they both knew it was the right thing to do. The only bitter person was Rowen, who didn't like Kinzie's new boyfriend nearly as much as he enjoyed the company of Kayn and Lara.
The original reason for their visit was for Kinzie to say goodbye to Lara and Kayn. She had decided that it was time to venture out on her own again, though she would be joining her new adventuring team, which included her boyfriend. They were a solid group of 3rd stage mages and magic warriors who were planning to explore the continent while completing odd jobs here and there.
Rowen scoffed, but he said that he was staying in the town as Kayn's business was making him so much money he needed to buy several storage chests just to hold all of his wealth. In fact, he was worried that someone would come rob him one day for his wealth. Kayn laughed at the old elf's worries as Rowen would probably die on the spot if he knew the amount of wealth Kayn was currently carrying.
Thinking it would be a waste to keep all the good things to himself, he pulled out a simple golden ring and handed it over to Rowen. He was confused at first, but once he understood what it was, he nearly dropped it. Kayn had just handed him a dimensional ring like it meant nothing!
Rowen tried to refuse the gift, but Kayn was firm in his decision and didn't let Rowen give it back. It wasn't because he was being overly generous, he just had too many that he collected during his time fighting in Lavanth. He killed a large portion of the 6th stage experts on that continent, and over half of them had dimensional rings. That together with fact that every single lich had one as well put a good number of Lavanth's dimensional rings in Kayn's hand.
He looked through the contents of the rings during the months leading up to his opening of the healing shop again, and some of the rings left him disgusted by what he found inside. There was more than one occasion that he had to secretly leave the town at night to go burn the contents inside.
However, he now had money enough to fund the world over most likely. Liches loved hoarding money and things apparently, so Kayn now had no need for most anything. Whether it was rune beast stone cores, treasures, or artifacts, Kayn had plenty.
The only thing he failed to find was a decent sword. There were a few legendary grade swords, but none of them suited his particular combat style as they were too large or dagger sized. He could only sigh at this point; it wasn't that he needed a sword to deal with anyone in this world anymore but he at least wanted to practice. He ended up just using a simple uncommon grade sword that matched his desires and practiced with it without using any Sword Aura on it in order to not make it explode.
While Rowen was dazed admiring his new shiny ring, Kinzie walked over to Kayn and thanked him for the gift he gave her grandfather as it would ease her worries a little. Kayn also promised that he would set up several formations around Rowen's shop to keep him safe as well.
Kinzie gave Kayn a short friendly hug, and just as she was about to turn around Kayn asked her to wait. Kayn accessed the Void Loop where he stored everything and after standing still for a few moments, a traveling bag appeared in his hand, which he promptly extended to Kinzie.
She stared at him in shock, but he said that despite how things ended between them, he still cared for her and wanted her to stay safe. She nodded and accepted the bag, only looking in it later. Seeing the artifacts and other things he provided to her caused her to cry for the a while before she finally smiled, accepting his kindness for what it was.
…
More time passed and soon the small town turned into a large hub of travelers coming and going constantly. Kayn and Lara moved buildings to accommodate more patients and the economy boomed with the influx of visitors.
The news had spread so much, that even the empress of the empire Kayn resided in heard tale of his miracles. A man who healed anything and everything, asking no more than a single copper coin. He supposedly even saved people who were on their death bed, causing them to look years younger again. It was as if he was getting rid of any built-up injuries or ailments, giving these old people a few more years to live.
Healing societies around the continent became aware of this miracle healer and some chose to join in his practices while other sought to cause him trouble. Unfortunately, they were met with the royal guards of the empire as the empress had secretly visited him and he healed her of her infertility.
Over time, the once village became a large hub of trade and commerce, bringing wealth from all over the continent to it. The empress even promoted the former chief to a count and they renamed the town to the City of Light.
Kayn worked tirelessly day after day with no complaints for a few years until finally the day when Lara's core advanced to the 3rd stage arrived. He had promised her that he would let her explore and adventure on her own once she reached that stage, but he wasn't going to let her do that in this continent, nor was he going to leave her completely alone.
It was time to finally retire as a healer and get back to his original purpose anyway. Finding the Sin that he was told would help him achieve what he desired. He needed to find Sloth.
The count and empress were both distressed when he announced that he needed to enter seclusion for a few months. He asked that they make an announcement for any and all to gather around the city during this time if they required healing, promising that he would deal with it after he returned.
Kayn took this free time to hole himself up inside the Wanderer's Villa, finally absorbing the mana from the Celestial's core as he needed to be at the peak of his power before his plan would succeed. In the meantime, he told Lara to figure out exactly what she wanted to do and to look at Talgonoth's map and pick a new continent to explore.
Three months later, Kayn exited the mana gathering room of the Villa. He and Lara then started to place anything they wanted to take with them into the Villa and she stayed inside of it while Kayn brought it back into his soul. She was adamant about experiencing flight with him, but he convinced her to let him get them to somewhere secluded first.
Kayn then flew up into the sky and everyone who had been anxiously waiting watched as a figure with long snow-white hair and dressed in casual white clothing hovered above the city. A few minutes of waiting later, he began to glow with a golden-white light before it suddenly exploded out from him, covering everything in a dome of healing light for miles on end.
Then he was gone. The healer who had just instantly healed tens of millions of people simultaneously, vanished. It was a tale much like that of Lavanth continent's God of Death, who after slaughtering countless undead and undead allies alike, vanished from the face of the world.
Thus, the legend of the God of Life was born.