Around 10 minutes after they stopped talking earlier, Aurelion hit the brakes in front of a new house.
"You will have to stay here for some time. Some of the members you didn't see for two days are here."
"These shifts in my life have started to feel normal now." Kaelen had kept that sentence in his head since yesterday.
"If you are going to keep crying, then I will have no intention of keeping you."
"You just made me go through hell, and now you are saying I have to work more or else I get kicked out." Kaelen felt relief from saying it. Like a son standing up for himself against his father for the first time.
"You are just pretending to be tired of everything; you act how people acted in these situations, and all of them get it from others. You have to give your own reactions."
There was a long pause.
"Are you a philosopher? Every time we talk, you pull out a sentence that silences me."
"This is again you pretending, complimenting me, and pretending to be worse than me. When you have the scariest superiority complex I have ever seen."
Kaelen kept still; he accepted what Aurelion said but couldn't understand it.
Three minutes after parking, they got out of the car.
The house was bigger than the last one. It was bigger with three floors and a backyard big enough to play almost any sport, the kind of building that felt like it had always been there.
The door opened. A man stood at the door while two girls looked outside from the stairs.
"Aurelionn!" A girl came running towards Aurelion and hugged him.
For the first time, Kaelen witnessed Aurelion smile.
Aurelion patted her head as she closed her eyes and gently squeezed him.
Her white and short hair gave her a divine look. The traditional clothes she wore made her look exactly how goddesses were described.
"Kaelen, come inside," the man said, still standing at the door.
Kaelen nodded.
"I have to examine you; let's go upstairs."
Strangely, Kaelen could sense the way to that room; he took each turn his instinct told him to.
The room's door felt no different from the others.
The man stopped at the same door.
The door opened.
Every single tool from the basement room and more.
The man sat down in front of a long table with multiple weapon designs and said, "Your chains and you went through drastic changes; I will have to inspect both of you."
Turning towards Kaelen, the man asked, "Give me one of your chains."
"How do I separate them?"
The man stood up in frustration. He pulled down one of Kaelen's sleeves and broke a chain by chopping it with his bare hands.
Kaelen stood there in disbelief. What if he were to ever fight someone of the man's level? His chains wouldn't even work.
"Can everyone inspect these items?" The question came before he'd finished processing what just happened.
"Yes, all of us can read identity, but making or modifying is something only Zeph and I can do."
"What did you mean by 'change' earlier?"
"You and your weapon have been upgraded. The cold amount of killing and the blood from your fight were considered sacrifices because they were done in a place related to a ritual. You got a portion of the energy from them, and the leftover energy went to the black hole that sucks all the leftover energy that humans or gods lose."
Kaelen leaned forward without meaning to. "What black hole? Something that sucks energy is removing things from existence, and what upgrades?"
The man looked at the ceiling, rubbed his hands on his face, and said after a pause, "There's a hole that takes in everything; it never grows or changes. It's what makes it scary. From its infinite potential, it gave birth to theories of a lot of religions of infinite potential, cycles of life, and many others. "And about the upgrades—from inspecting your chains, it seems like you, only you, can finish an attack the moment you start it."
Kaelen moved back to his initial position. "Finish an attack as soon as I start it. An instant strike? How do I do that?"
"It's hard to explain; it's like the chain will move to its final position, affecting everything in between its initial and final position." The man tried to demonstrate with his hands, but his words were good enough.
Kaelen was sure but still asked. "So I can easily win against people like Seraphina, no?"
"Yes, but if they were alive, they would have upgraded too. No one stops improving here; only the strongest get to live. Newbies die faster and faster with each decade." The man said it with a dry voice with signs of fear; he too looked scared of the possibilities.
"Newbies keep dying faster; why doesn't it all end with the remaining ones?"
"The strongest ones like Aurelion never die; they will live through the end and watch a new age start and end once again."
"What upgrade did I get?"
Aurelion's voice came from downstairs. "Kaelen, come here."
"It was getting interesting; we will talk later, then." Kaelen said, waving goodbye.
Downstairs, Aurelion was in front of a board with many pictures connected to each other with strings in front of the white-haired girl and the one who kept looking at him from inside.
"Kaelen, are you ready for another mission?" Aurelion asked; his eyes told Kaelen that 'no' wasn't a good answer.
"Is it my call this time?"
"Some things were inevitable, but this time it's our choice."
Footsteps on the stairs. Someone coming down.
"What is the mission?"
"Leave him; he won't work," the pink-haired girl said.
Kaelen inspected the room properly. It wasn't an investigation room or a random room; it had cross marks over photos of people. One of the pictures was of Ravus.
These three were assassins.
"I think I can give you some time to recover, make food, do laundry, and clean the house for a few days, and I will tell you when it's time."
The man pointed toward the room. "Go rest. I will come and inspect you properly."
Kaelen shut the door loudly and punched the nearest wall. All his life he felt completely powerless, unable to do anything, and now that he has so much power, he still can't do anything major. Even this power of his came from clinging onto others.
Tears ran down his face as his hand came down from the wall. His body shook, teeth clenched. He sat down on the floor. And even worse, the chains kept making their clink sound whenever he moved. He kept mumbling in a low voice to himself.