Kaelen ran through the streets with great speed, unlike Sunny or Nephis who could physically enhance themself with a X2 boost using their shadow and flame; he could not
But with the addition of his monster core, his speed had increased to twice what it had been previously.
'I want to test out my flaw with others around just in case.'
His flaw definitely seemed odd, to say the least but it was something that was his flaw before the spell had revealed it to him—it was just that he personally did not think of it as a flaw
Turning a corner, Kaelen heard the sounds of battle grow louder. The unfortunate thing was that there was a few houses that he would need to go through
Kaelen clicked his tongue and continued to run towards the sounds while taking alleyways and even hopping fences to get there and eventually he had reached his destination
'Yeah... thats definitely a devil.'
The creature was large, about 4 meters tall, with 3 hands. It looked like a cros between a lizard, a monster, and a human that was placed on some sort of performance enhancement drug
There were also a number of other nightmare creatures here and there, but they all seemed to be weak, definitely dormant and not above the rank of a monster
They were also not with the Awakened Devil because they were also being killed by it when they crossed its path
There were a few awakened, 3 to be precise, who were on the scene.
One of them was engaging the devil that was spitting an acidic slime at him, another was dealing with the little monsters, ensuring that they did not get far and the last one was...
'... They're dying.'
The man was holding his hand against a grievous wound on a middle-aged man's chest; a small child was lying next to the man, crying and seemingly begging
Kaelen paused momentarily despite being exactly where he was going to
'Thats right... this isn't a story anymore...'
Could he have stopped this from happening if he didn't stop to become a monster and inspect his soul's sea?
'No, there's no time for useless thoughts.'
If he stood here and waisted time procrastinating, that man would die, which Kaelen assumed would happen if he did not intervene—being [Unbound] allowed him to change what happens in this world, but it was not a cheat code
In the first place if he had decided to stay at the station with Jet that man would have died regardless
Kaelen ran forwards—the awakened who was dealing with the monsters and the one who was applying pressure to the dying man's wound turned their attention to him
"Who are you?" The man asked
"Help, move aside; my aspect can be used to heal." Kaelen knelt and immediately brought out a manifestation, allowing it to become "Life."
The shimmering white mist manifestation responded to his will and moved to the wounded man. Kaelen watched as the wounds began to mend from the lowest level
It was like his ability forcefully instilled a supernatural ability to regenerate that worked incredibly fast
About 30 seconds in and the wounds had mostly healed, the awakened man watching patiently as Kaelen got the job done
Healers were amongst the rarest type of aspect ability users amonst the awakened—if Kaelen was going out of his way to help, then it was obvious he was not an enemy
Just then a few of the monsters had made their way towards the little group, charging towards the largest concentration of humans where they were gathered.
The awakened women was dealing with the other 6 that were trying to escape
Kaelen spoke in his mind as the awakened man already gripped his sword
"You stay here; I'm going to help them."
He seemed to be low on essence.
'There must have been a lot of monsters.'
Kaelen smiled a little as he woke up from his kneeling position—"I want some blood too, you know; I didn't run here for nothing."
The man looked at him with an odd expression—a healer was often not someone who fought in the front lines; in fact, awakened healers didn't really enter the battlefield in general
Usually waiting at a secured compound from where they would perform their duty
That was why he had asked Kaelen to stay here
But Kaelen was here for the kills too.
Looking forwards with a smile Kaelen watched as the dog-sized reptilian monster jumped at him, jaws open towards his face—but before it did and before the awakened man could come out of his stupor due to Kaelens words and actions and respond
There was a 2-meter-tall black nightmare that materialized in front of Kaelen
Its massive jaws opened and snapped shut instantly
[You have slain a dormant monster: Scale Skulk.]
"Wha...What the hell is that?!"
The awakened man gripped his sword and aimed it at Kaelen's little friend
"Hey, put that thing down!" Kaelen hit the man's head with a fist and winced internally. 'Fuck, awakened bodies are strong.'
Kaelen's beast turned around and growled at the man stepping forward.
It made sense, honestly; the pure abomination was larger than any typical dormant creature, and its appearance was more threatening than some mere awakened one, even though its strength could be called only "pseudo-awakened."
That was simply a perk of being the first breath's first creation
"No, no, no, he didn't mean it, pup—he just thought you were here to hurt us." Kaelen rubbed the creature's head slowly
It glared at the man for a moment before turning back to Kaelen and started to wag its tail and...
'Is that a smile?'
Kaelen smiled back and patted it.
"Pup, can you take care of the little ones while I go help with the big one?"
The beast nodded and turned with a snarl—the cuteness disappearing the instant its attention was not on him
"You just take care of the boy and his father, okay?"
Kaelen turned to the man who turned his head to the pure abomination who had already disposed of the next 2 Scale Skulks and back to Kaelen
"Is that your echo?" He said
Echoes like that were something that he had most likely never seen; it also seemed far too conscious to be a mere echo—unless it was one of the rare kinds like the one that psycho murderer Master Jet had.
"Echo? No—that's... my pet."
"Pet?!" The man screamed.
Kaelen stretched and summoned the light and dark swords—"Yeah, He is a relic from my Aspect Legacy."
Kaelen did not mind disclosing these little bits of information—this man was a part of the government-awakened forces; chances were that he would never see this man again and even if he did, he had no doubt that if he worked with the best, an awakened would not be a problem
"Okay, I'm going to deal with the big one."
He charged forwards both greatswords dragging behind him as he ran forward; the beast had already disposed of all the monsters on their end and was moving to help the women
Kaelen on the other hand was with the man facing the devil
"Are you here to help?"
The man said while using his spear to slash at the devil
"Yeah," Kaelen responded shortly as he moved to the side, dodging a spray of acid that shot out from the creature's body.
That thing was not a one-trick pony—its body in general was powerful, three arms and two thick trunk-like legs, all tipped with claws; its teeth were also extremely sharp and it also possessed intelligence.
But the damning thing was that the creature's acid would mend wounds and was not limited to being sprayed from just its mouth
That was the reason this battle had taken so long despite there being 3 awakened here.
First, the dormant monsters were obviously no threat or issue to an awakened but with so many of them, way more than 30 spawning from the gate while there are houses with people around—they could not just leave them be
Also, judging from the wounds on that man, he had being fleeing with his son before getting injured, causing the other to awakened to stay with and protect him and the father
As for the last reason? This awakened devil bastard was actively trying to slip away
Each time the awakened man landed a cut, the creature would use the acid to heal—or more like meld its flesh and stop the bleeding—while simultaneously using the moment to try and escape—most likely to take a hostage
All 3 awakened must have been exhausted trying to deal with the situation
Kaelen had noticed how it was pushing the battle towards the boy and his father
Because of those reasons the battle had been forced to drag out this long
But there was not just 3 people responding now—it was 5, well 4 people and one pet
Kaelen used the window created by the man as he stabbed at the creature with his spear; the creature moved back, whirring up a mound of acid to spray but before it was able to, the Dark Sword was slung at its leg
It was forced to turn back its plan but before it could regain its bearings Kaelen already swung the light sword and then the dark sword again
The creature spat its acid at him but using a manifest and becoming air the acid flew straight through where his body was and landed on the floor behind him melting it
Unlike the awakened, Kaelen did not need to be worried about these type of attacks
He brought the swords up and slashed, the air he had become increasing the speed of the cross slash
The blades dug into the creature, the left one first digging frorm where the shoulder would be to where the naval would have been, the right side experiencing the same
[You have slain an awakened devil...]
The battle was actually over - But Kaelen did not realize
He was still in the form of air, so no one could see him...
Kaelens head felt like it was being split apart as if someone had taken his mind and began to hit it with a hammer, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months , years, decades, centuries worths of information was pouring into his mind all within a second
But that was not all that happeed within that second
Kaelen was forced to watch the life of the nightmare creature he had just killed play before his eyes, but it had not always been a nightmare creautre
He watched the things life from the time it was born, the moment it took its first steps, the moment it had grown into a young man and started training, the moment the corruption bloomed in its soul, the moment it slaughtered his parents and siblings, the moment it claimed its grassy territory and killed those that came around its home - killing and absorbing them eventually becoming a devil
But
Even that was not the end
Kaelen saw the seed of corrution sprout and had been exposed to its knowledge and existance and the corruption sprouted in his soul, poisining his core - or trying to
Before it could there was a mix if sickly black flames and beautiful white flames that ripped the corruption apart as well as his soul - and then mending it again as if nothing had happened
Kaelen was air and his sword had already fallen to the ground but now so had he
'This... this is not what I had imagnined'
His flaw - his flaw was going to force him to bear witness to the entire life of that which he kills, if it was a nightmare creature, an ancient one - he was going to get infected with the corruption and experience the pain of his soul being purified by the divine and profane flames
He was glad that as air there was no saliva or tears and snot leaking from his face nor would the wakened be able to see him or hear him scream
Kaelen tried to move his 'body' to stand up and with a shit ton of difficulty he was able to do so even if his mind was still reeling
His clothes had fallen to the ground when he became air and he did not try to keep it on so he brought out the [Life Seal] and allowed it to coat him as he materialized as a human again
A he did he was on his knees bent over and holding his head which surprised the awakened man, but before the government worker could check if he was okay Kaelens pet had appeared just as fast and moved in a protetive gesture over Kaelen growling at the man - rage boiling in his eyes
"Dont! its his echo!"
The awalened who had been guarding the kid and the unconcious man yelled at the awakened who had been figting the devil - and was currently brandishing his spear at the beast
Though, after hearing his companions words he started to back away slowly in an attempt to show th beast that he was not a foe
Kaelen who had materialized already had a few tears that appeared in his eyes due to the pain and getting up of his kees using the beast as a hold he wiped his eyes
"Its... Okay pup you can go rest"
He said taking a step away from the beast
It looked at him with concern, worry but after seeing his reassuring smile it dissapeared back into his soul
"Hey kid what... happened?"
"...Dont worry about it" He spoke with an almost tired voice now