Inside of the dim lighted cave tunnel. Kaël was standing immobile after hearing the explanation of Alissia about the long extinct Zaettey.
He took 10 second before any word came out of his mouth.
"Doesn't this mean Aporiphian are extinct ?"
Delman, witnessing the scene couldn't hide his emotion, his face exposing his surprise.
Meanwhile, he myriad of thought invaded Kaël's mind
*No it can't be possible. How is it possible ? Are they ? is everyone dead ?*
No one present said a single word. At some point Kaël feel on his knee and arms, putting himself in a vulnerable position, his face covered with tears. Muttering to himself.
"No. ... No. ... No ... It can't be ... It can't be. Why ... Why... We fought so hard... So why... We... Didn't deserved it."
He thought back to the face of his family, his friends, his comrade, his allies.
Frisch Open, a good friend he made during his school days with short brown hair, he was regularly coming to his home to play games when he had the time.
Zall Karim, a comrade in war who lost his hair due to the stress, he was always to crack a joke to lighten the mood.
Clara Karim, another comrade and Zall's sister, sharp and smart, she was the type to remember everyone 's birthday.
"Are you telling me they are all dead ?"
Suddenly, something seemed to open in Kaël's mind, images flooding in.
A house being consumed by dark blue flames, imolating everything it touches.
Scream of pain coming from everywhere.
Cry flooding his ears.
Curses directed to the world.
Kaël saw himself back in Aporiph, the cyan colored grass of the capital city now colored black and red from blood and fire.
Kaël saw himself back to the day he couldn't remember, where is memory was blurry.
He remembered Frisch's body, cut in half, his head missing, laying there in the living room of his house, with blood splatered all over the furniture of the room. His lower half completly scorched by flames.
He remembered Zall screaming "Duck !" Before jumping in front a spear that was thrown toward a family of 3, fear and despair show on his face.
He remembered Clara's chest and waist being erased by a black laser, leaving her body parts to fall to the ground.
He remembered everything, all the pain. Soldier falling one by one.
Decapitated by a sword. Impaled by a spear. Cut in half. Burned alive. Eaten alive. Crushed under the might of a behemoth. Dismembered. Poisonned to death. Corrupted till madness. Limbs bended. Bones crushed. Organs removed. Blood covering the walls, the ground, the sky. Scream and cry filling the air, filling his ears.
Everyone suffered. Everyone died with no exception.
The guard surronding the city. All dead.
The soldier in his team. All dead.
The political leaders Aporiph. All dead.
The civilian taking arms for their nation. All dead.
The families trying to run away. All dead.
All soldiers. All dead.
All civilian. All dead.
All animals. All dead.
All life form. All dead.
All the pain other's suffered. All the pain he suffered. He remembered them all.
Etched to his mind. Etched to his skin. Etched to his soul. All the memories returned to Kaël.
He was himself standing in a piece of ground severed from all other. One of the only remaining piece of what was the planet Aporiph.
Laying down there, waiting nothing but his death. He could hear a voice he couldn't understand, from a figure that he couldn't discern the traits, as if was the reflection of a blurry mirror.
The only words he could understand were one filled with sadness.
"I'm so sorry."
Inside the cave, Kaël's figure, still on its arms and knees, stayed still for a moment. As if he transformed into a lifeless statue.
This silence was broken by a scream from Kaël. A scream so blood curling and do filled with a mix of sadness and rage it left Delman, and everyone else in the room, stunned.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH !"
Kaël lifted his arms before slamming them to the ground, breaking the ground in the entire room, creating a shockwave by the force of the blow. Blood flowing from his now injured fist.
"NO ! NO ! NO !"
Screaming like a madman. Kaël wanted nothing more than to escape the pain and suffering he was subject to. He lifted his head before slamming it to the ground. Trying to make himself suffer from amnesia.
Delman started to dashed towards Kaël, trying to stop the rampaging man with the little energy he had left.
Kaël, in his mad state, sensed the ill intent of Delman the moment he started approaching. He sprung back to his feet in a second and threw his arms towards Delman, his hand in the form of a fist, a light pink aura surronding it.
Delman, caught off guard by the speed of the man the was lying down a few seconds prior, could only put his one remaining in front of the incoming fist to mitigate the damage.
As Kaël's fist collided, a pink shockwave came out of his fist towards Delman's body, the force behind it being strong enough to send him back to wall instantly, the bone on his back cracking.
Delman's figure fell to the ground, unconsious, after this exchange of blow that did not lasted a single second.
This was the cost of a simply mistake. One that couldn't be done.
Following the sudden attack, Cassidy, who was hiding behind a stone pillar all this time, sprung into action. A red and orange aura now surronding her. Marks, akin to tatoo, of the same color started to appear all over her skin, glowing a mystical golden hue.
This transformation was the manifestation of the uses of the energy known as Rapiid by an Azeimi. Every races had a different name for the energy they used. And they all had their properties, giving every races a different way to fight. The pink energy emmiting from Kaël's fist was the same, Aporiphian called it Exilium.
Cassidy lunged at Kaël, who turned his back to her to attack Delman. The force used to jump being enough to reach Kaël's back before he could even hear or sense her. She delivered a powerful kick strong enough to send most flying away.
Shockwave from the strength of the kick could be felt in the entire room, yet Kaël stood his ground with a loud grunt, not moving a step.
While taking a step back to put distance between each other, Cassidy made conjecture about her opponent.
By her analysis, Kaël was more resistant and stronger than her, she was faster, but not by a lot. Experience was unknown, but she was confident with her own. For range it remain to be seen, but she couldn't be better, Rapiid could be used for long ranged attack but she focused on training physical improvement. Endurance was also unknown, but with the mad state of the opponent, he would likely not stop until he couldn't.
She collected all of this information from the small interaction both her and Delman had with Kaël, it was yet to be confirmed if they were correct or not.
After receiving the strong kick, Delman turned back to face Cassidy and started running at her zt an impressive speed.
Garleen remained away, ready to act if the madman was trying to attack him or Alissia. He took this decision for 2 reasons, the first being that, if he left Alissia's side, Kaël could try to attack her and nobody could defend her. With the recent display of strength and speed, it was possible for her to die from an attack targeting her vitals or skull.
The second reason was the state of his body. He was badly injured and tired, there was a high chance he would not be able to hit Kaël due to his greatly reduce reaction time, rendering him useless and a target easy to elliminate. He could only hope to react fast enough if the enemy were to assault him or Alissia.
Kaël reach Cassidy's position in a singlular swift and soundless step. After closing the distance he threw a punch with his right arm that was sprung back.
Cassidy dodged the coming punch with a single sideway step to the left. Being now right in front of Kaël, she lifted her knee to strike at his chest before steping to his left side.
Kaël, not having the time to dodged due to his momentum, braced himself for the knee strike before extending his left arm, trying to grab at the colar of Cassidy's armor.
Cassidy, understanding the opponent's intent, bended her body backward to be out of reach of the hand. This position was unsuitable for attacking, so she could only retreat with a step backward.
The distance now closer than the previous time, Kaël lunched at Cassidy once again at an impressive speed. This time with his arm extended to both size, as if ready to hug Cassidy.
At the same time, Cassidy dashed toward Kaël with a similar speed. She lowered her body to be lower than Kaël's shoulders, put her own forward to strike at the opponent.
Both charging at each other with such impressive speed that dodging was impossible.
With a position that was adapted to the opponent's stance, Cassidy slammed Kaël's chest with her shoulder.
With another grunt and barring his teeth, Kaël forced himself to not be send back by the blow and closed his arm to embrace Cassidy.
Cassidy used the little time where Kaël was stopped after her attack to jump in the air with calculated force. She flew above Kaël's arms with her entire body and her armored shoes at the level of Kaël's head.
She extended both her legs to kick Kaël right in the face. Kaël reacting to the sudden jump, sprung his body forward so that Cassidy's attack flew over him.
Cassidy, now in the air, was defensless target, Kaël raised his right hand into a fist and prepared to punch Cassidy in her exposed back, not facing the ground.
Suddenly, the glow from Cassidy's Rapiid tatoo like marks become more prononced. The previous orange and red hue got replace by a pure bright orange.
A pillar of the same color emerged from Cassidy's back and toward the fist of Kaël. This was the most basic application of long range Rapiid. It wasn't beceause Cassidy was not proficient with it that she couldn't use it all, anybody who fought in war would never forfeit the use of such a convenient technique.
Kaël's fist entered in collision with the glowing orange pillar and shattered it into hundreds of fragment that quickly vanished into nothingness.
However, stopping Kaël's attack was not Cassidy's objective, in the meantime between Kaël's fist collision with the pillar she also extended it toward herself, being propulsed away by it. This allowed her to gain distance and defend herself at the same time.
Kaël and Cassidy now distanced away from each other were looking at each other's every move.
All this while, Kaël's body was moving itself, without the mind's will. Something else was going on inside of it.
*No. No. Non ! Ah, Ah, Ah Ahahah. Of course. Why ? Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.*
Seeing the images of his comrade die again and again. His face lost the previous fury it had which got replace with the previous pained expression on his face.
Kaël's body, with this little moment of pause in the fight, fell to his knees again as if remembering it was in pain.
Kaël clutched his head with both of his hand. Tears glowing down his face. He screamed at the air, he shouted at the world.
"WHY !!! WHY !!!"
Seeing the fall to the ground of the madman, Cassidy wasn't sure how to act. It was as if he just forgot they were fighting 5 seconds ago.
Panting heavily, Kaël spread his arm up, embracing the sky. Tears stopped glowing from his face. His eyes were closed. It looked like Kaël was waiting for something to come to him.
He stopped screaming, his face changing expression once again. The corner of his mouth curled up, showing a smile. A beeming and serene smile akin to a peace of the soul.
*This is unfair. This is trully unfair. Why did I lived ? Couldn't I just die ?*
He put his right hand to the ground, using it to help him stand up. Still looking at the sky. He stayed there. Silent. Not looking at anybody. Alone with his thought.
Cassidy and Garleen both stayed wary of the changing state of Kaël, but they did not attack knowing it would likely cause him to go rampant again.
Kaël stood there for multiple seconds. Alone in his thought. Immobile. He then put his right hand on his face.
*There's only one choice left, huh ?*
He thought back to all his friends. It was not a pleasant moment, not being able to differenciate their normal from their bloodied dying and hopeless face.
Extremely condensed energy, Exilium, started emmiting from his entire body, making it glow with a pink and purple hue.
The energy expanded in the entire room, bathing it in a display of lights akin to an aurora, captivating anyone that lays their eyes on it. The air feeling extremely heavy.
Cassidy became paralyzed by the weight of the energy comming out of Kaël's body. Her mind thoughts becoming blank. Not a single muscle moved, not a single drop of sweat falled, fearing the slightest mouvement, the slightest move sound, the slightest change in the room would make the monster standing in front of her react and attack her.
The already injured and tired Garleen could not withstand the change in the atmosphere and got put unconsious after some resistance. Alissia's body gained glowing orange marks, representative of the use of Rapiid. She would undeniably pass out without it.
The situation only lasted a few second before the aura experienced a change. It started to converge back towards Kaël's body, being assimilated back into his body.
After all the energy in the surronding vanished, Kaël's immobile figure, now adorned with a thin yet strong pink layer of energy, finally moved. He removed his hands from his face, making them hang down to the ground, parallel to his body.
His face displaying a mix of pain and deep sadness, contrasting with his inhuman aura. He turned his head to face Cassidy, then Alissia and the unconscious Garleen. A single tear dropping down his face.
He tried to smile with no succes, he simply couldn't, and uttered hollowed words he could understand the meaning but not believe in it.
"I'm sorry"
Resonating in his mind, were the same words from a voice he couldn't remember the origin of, yet they felt so real and so honest that he couldn't forget them.
Kaël's figure lost all the thin layer of energy that was covering him, seemingly completely depleted, and dropped to the ground with a thud. Unconscious.
The last thing he could think of were the words he spoked.
"I'm sorry"
Those words he somehow hated the most. Those words he couldn't believe in