The watch kept ticking each minute.
He had an address in his pocket and 30 minutes left; most of the time had gone into him tracking the member and Kaelen reaching the address. That came with a feeling of achieving what he wanted without knowing what he would do with it now.
The house was at the end of a crowded street, aroma of local food was tempting, which made it all harder, and he had to kill him inside his house.
Caeran had given him a clear instruction: "Kill the guy and return."
The house was compact; walls short enough to be climbed in a jump.
When he turned around after jumping on it, he saw a few suspicious followers of different gods; they knew about each other and walked with a clear distance between each other.
Kaelen knocked on the door. Footsteps came from inside; they stopped, and a drawer opened up before they continued moving towards the door.
The door was slightly opened, revealing red eyes in the gap staring into Kaelen's soul. The man said in a fast, creaking voice, "Who are you?"
"You opened the drawer on the way to this door; you must know what I am here for."
The door opened a bit more, revealing a gun. Kaelen changed its identity — toy gun — and pushed through the door.
He stared at the man; his back had the arch of doom. In that posture his legs were twice his torso, half the size of Kaelen.
The house was the same from inside mostly empty and small, no decoration or table, t.v or any other commonly found thing.
He ran for it towards the stairs, slipping a few times.
Kaelen sent a chain flying towards the stairs; it stuck inside the stairs. Kaelen brought it down, collapsing the stairs.
The man, despite his height, was able to jump the height and reach the second floor.
Kaelen followed without rushing; it was the fear that his chains had yearned for.
They kept running through the crowded streets, playing a game of cat and mouse; passersby were shocked by the scene. Those followers had turned active, waiting for Kaelen to enter a small lane where the man was running towards.
The man turned towards his right and into an apartment building. The apartment building was their base. The moment Kaelen entered, most of the tenants rushed toward him.
The more he looked at them, the more deformed they looked; some had multiple arms, and some had humans developing out of their necks, stomachs, chests, and legs.
The others were deformed in their own ways. It was hard for Kaelen to kill them; he pitied them for their worse luck. Kaelen and they had one thing in common: no dependence on gods, and yet he could single-handedly wipe them all out.
Kaelen let out a maniacal laugh, unhinged and too loud for the space, his mouth opened too wide, eyes wandering deep into the sky, hair covered his forehead. He dropped his guard and looked up, still laughing.
The sect members backed off, as the man had successfully escaped into a basement.
Kaelen dropped all of his chains and sent himself into a berserker state.
Kaelen struck where the members were deformed; a single strike and they died.
A long step... strike ... dead.
Blood started covering his eyes, blurring his vision, he realized too late that his eyes were already closed.
The watch didn't stop ticking.
A long step... strike ... dead.
A long step... strike ... dead.
The last one fell, but the watch kept ticking.
Kaelen rushed towards the basement; the man came out of it as Kaelen turned towards it. He ran again; Kaelen let him go.
The basement had a lock; Kaelen changed it.
It was only one huge room, a lab. People there were even more deformed, with wings and multiple arms, but none of it was done right. Arms were deformed, coming from the wrong places, and some legs were coming out of legs.
The lab had test subjects inside cages, some humans, some animals, some couldn't be classified as any living object. Monitors showing every necessary stat of the subjects, and weapons for situation like these.
Kaelen counted them less than twice the members he had killed.
Kaelen turned back and prepared to leave. Some of the followers that had been following came covered in blood, blocking his path.
Kaelen clicked his tongue and checked his surroundings; the sect members were happy about the coming of the followers.
Kaelen checked the clock. 2 minutes remaining.
Everyone was lined up, yet none dared to attack Kaelen first.
Even more followers came downstairs.
Someone moved behind Kaelen, a member with shorter hair. Kaelen grabbed his hand and tossed him over; Kaelen grabbed the man's palm and twisted it. They screamed and cried in pain, barely managing to speak, "You want answers... I will give them to you."
Kaelen had rotated the man's hand completely three times when it made a crackling sound; it didn't break, just a warning sound.
Everyone kept watching; some turned their eyes in other directions.
The man screamed in an alien-like voice so fast that it outran the pain. "Whatever you want, I will give."
Six rotations. The man still trying to speak.
The stairs collapsed and were replaced by walls made from red parasitic mold. The same kept happening for the walls and ceiling till the room was covered in it from each direction.
Kaelen checked the clock: less than 30 seconds remaining.
Nine rotations. The arm separated.
He checked the clock. 6 second left.
He opened his arms, the count was right.
The clock stopped ticking. Every sect member died with it, with no blood or pain; they just collapsed.
The counting was right: 20 people were killed above and 32 were in the lab.
He had never been out of control only counting.
The followers ran back into the red mold, burned to death, not burned, melted away from existence before they could even realize.
Kaelen tested it, a chain went flying into it, melted not just the part that touched it even the roots that were away from it, a red mark it left on Kaelen's chest. It hurt like hell for a second left a small hole and no pain after that.