Enigma of Sin

*Mature Content Warning*

As Kayn made his way to the makeshift prison room he set up inside the Villa, he promised himself that he would spend more time with and pay more attention to Lara in the coming days. He owed her that much for how absent he had been recently.

Refocusing, Kayn changed into some regular clothing with long sleeves, some gloves, and placed the Hood of Infinite Emptiness back on and pulled it up to activate the veil. Now that he was covered from head to toe, covering any identifying features, Kayn entered into the room with the woman.

She was still passed out somehow, so Kayn took this opportunity to strip her almost completely, only leaving on her undergarments. He found a distress beacon around her waist and under her pants, but fortunately with her mana being sealed, she wasn't able to activate it.

Now that Kayn was positive that she had no way to contact the outside or act as a beacon, he summoned a good amount of water above her head before cooling it down and letting it drop. The woman jolted awake at the freezing cold water falling onto her. She was surprisingly calm, but the second she noticed that most of her clothing was missing, a frown appeared on her face.

"What? Are you some kind of pervert?" She asked Kayn in a mocking voice, trying to get the upper hand right off the bat by putting him off-kilter.

Kayn could only chuckle a bit at her attempt to belittle him before he started asking questions of his own. "What's your name and what role do you hold within the Carnet Empire?"

"Fuck you, that's who I am! Who I am is none of your business!" The woman shouted at him. The group had searched her spatial pouch and unfortunately found nothing to identify her other than the emblem on her clothing being from Carnet.

Kayn slowly approached her while causing the air around her to freeze before lifting her up by the hair and holding her face in front of his veiled face. "We can do this the unpleasant way, or the even more unpleasant way. Make your choice"

Ice crystals began forming on the woman's previously soaked skin and she began to shiver ever so slightly. But she remained adamant about not saying anything and instead tried to spit on Kayn's face through the hood.

Fortunately for Kayn, the spit was sent straight to the void. However, a sadistic smile was creeping its way onto his face as he summoned out an Epic grade knife into his hand.

"Are you aware of someone named Yona that used to work for the Carnet Empire? Apparently, she was quite the torturer, I also learned a few things from her." Kayn spoke as he began dragging the knife down her arm, starting from the shoulder and ending in her finger webbing, just as had been done to him once upon a time.

He was also imbuing the knife with fire mana in order to cauterize the wounds as he made them. The woman held out for the first few lines, but once Kayn moved to her second arm, she began screaming out. Kayn didn't stop what he was doing until she had marks that matched his, at which point he asked the same questions once again.

"What's your name and what role do you hold within the Carnet Empire?"

"Fucking fuck! Tessa, my name is Tessa! Fucking stop please!" The woman quickly replied before Kayn started dragging that damned knife through her skin once more.

"And your role?" Kayn asked emotionlessly.

"I work as the ambassador for the Carnet Empire between the underground groups for the purchase and selling of goods!" Tessa grit her teeth before revealing a little more about herself which Kayn found more important than the previous information.

"I'm also one of the Emperor's concubines! If you let me go, I'll be sure that you are paid a generous amount! That's what you want anyway, isn't it? Money? I can make sure you get however much you want!"

Kayn thought for a moment before dropping her down to the floor and reaching into the spatial sash he was still wearing, pulling out a box and a ring.

"Tell me, how did you get these and why did the Emperor decide to sell them?"

"I was given them to sell in a black-market auction outside of our Empire in order to draw less attention! They were acquired when Ezekiel was executed due to being a traitor as was mentioned during the auction." Tessa rattled off the generic information that Kayn already more or less had knowledge of.

"Why was Ezekiel branded a traitor?"

"I don't know." Tessa replied, but Kayn could see the hint of hesitation in her eyes.

Kayn once more approached her and lifted her into the air before dragging the knife down one of her legs. She once again began to scream out, but Kayn didn't stop until he had created four gashes from hip to toe webbing down her right leg.

"Why was Ezekiel branded a traitor?" Kayn asked once more, but this time with a little more force while also holding the knife up to her left leg, starting to drag it down once again.

"Ahhhh because the Emperor said so! If the Emperor says you're a traitor, you're a traitor! Damnit, fuck, shit, stop!" Tessa begged, but Kayn wasn't satisfied with that answer, so he continued dragging the knife through her skin.

"All I know is what the Emperor murmured about while sleeping with me! He said that Ezekiel had learned about an experiment that the he was forcing one of the Royal Healers to participate in! I also know that after Ezekiel's mansion was blown up that he was extremely mad because the healer said that the former general's son was needed because he came up with the foundation of her original spells!

"He also sent out a search party to look for the son to see if he survived the blast or was somewhere else, but we never found him! I was personally part of that search party even if I didn't know why we were looking for him!" Tessa screamed out as she sighed in relief when Kayn stopped cutting her leg.

"The healer, are they still alive?" Kayn asked. If Lydia was still alive, he needed to try and rescue her. Knowing he wasn't strong enough to actually save her pained his heart, but if she was alive, that was all Kayn needed for now.

"Yes! She was locked up in a private research area, but I don't know where it is!"

"Why would the Emperor kill one of his best and most loyal generals, just to keep the fact that he kidnapped a healer secret?"

"Because what he is having her do is classified as forbidden magic! That's all I know! I swear!" Tessa was revealing anything she could at this point. The wounds the man had made previously were starting to feel a little strange, and were leaking yellowish fluid now.

'Forbidden magic? Wait, I remember when I was initially captured with Lydia that the counselor was trying to have her do the same thing. The counselor had to have been working for the Emperor at the time then.' Kayn thought to himself before asking his next question.

"Why was Ezekiel's family targeted and killed? Why not just kill him and leave them alone?"

"They weren't supposed to be killed! The Emperor said that his men were only going to question the wife, but she must have self-destructed her core or something of the sort!"

"DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!" Kayn screamed out as he grabbed the skin of her right leg and tore a strip off before Tessa could even register what was happening.

Tessa screamed out as tears were streaming from her eyes, but she still answered without lying this time.

"He didn't know if they knew anything, so they were to be killed to take care of any loose ends! The son was the only one who was supposed to live so that he could be put onto the same project with the healer! I don't know how a 1st stage healer was supposed to help, but that's all I know!"

"So, the Emperor killed an entire family, including innocent children, just to tie up loose ends for some random forbidden magic project? A loose end is all we were?"

Kayn spoke as he removed the hood that was covering his face, revealing his bright crimson eyes and snow-white hair.

"You-you-you're the son! You lived! How?! We looked everywhere in the vicinity for you, but no one found even a trace!" Tessa stuttered as she finally realized what situation she was in once she recognized Kayn.

"Your Emperor's dogs tried to kill me too, so they don't listen to orders very well. I watched as my father's and sister's heads were thrown on the ground like trash to try and intimidate us. I watched as my mother's head was separated from her body as she desperately tried to defend my sister and I. But at least I got a small amount of revenge by killing each and every one of the bastards that invaded our home that day."

It was only now that Tessa stopped to think about who the person in front of her was. The son was only supposed to have a 1st stage core a few years ago, there was no way the person in front of her was the same son as he was definitely at the 4th stage!

"There's no way! Ezekiel was said to have two young adults and a newborn! You have at least a 4th stage core! It would be impossible for you to actually be his son!" Tessa screamed out as her brain was overloading with pain and confusion.

"Heh," Kayn scoffed as he summoned a strand of lightning and began to wave it around the room like it was a ribbon on a stick. "Convinced?"

Kayn smirked as he saw the expression of Tessa fall even deeper into a pit of despair. "My mother's identity was probably their best kept secret, but I was the second."

As Kayn spoke, he summed every element above his hand, fluctuating them between their deviant and normal forms. "What do you think your Emperor would have done if he knew that Ezekiel's son formed his core at a mere 8 years of age and had and aptitude for every element known to exist?"

Tessa remained silent as she literally could not process things anymore. Between the pain and Kayn's logic breaking existence, not to mention him still being alive, her brain momentarily shut off.

Seeing that he had probably milked her for all of the information that she knew, Kayn decided to end the interrogation and her life. "I hope the Emperor likes my present, I'll be sending you back to him in pieces."

Tessa's eyes opened wide, but before she could say anything, Kayn's hand burst through her torso and ripped her mana core out at the same time as the lightning bolt that was still flying around the room pierced a small hole through her head.

Kayn glanced between the core in his hand and the Tessa's body that was now hanging limply in his grasp. Kayn dropped her to the floor as he pulled out the sealing container where he was keeping the other three 4th stage cores and put hers in as well.

Then he took care of Tessa's body, arranging it in a small box with her face staring directly up at whoever opened it. He found it hard to believe what he was capable of, but he felt no remorse for his actions tonight.

He still had about half of the night before his lecture started, so he quickly donned his Jester alter ego and swiftly made his way to the branch office. Once he arrived at the reception desk he asked if it was possible to send less than legal packages from the location, to which he was told no, but directed to a business that did.

That night, a box was sent out of Palatine via courier, addressed to the Carnet Royal Palace.