Enigma of Sin

The temples in Japan were a combination of temple and shrine, and several had already been found. For now though, Kayn only had the intention to visit two of them before leaving towards Europe once more.

Kayn arrived at the first shrine, Kagutsuchi's. Upon arriving, Kayn stared in awe as the entire surrounding area was filled with flames, everything had been burned down and only a massive wall of fire remained. The place looked like how a demon lord's temple was described.

Chuckling to himself because of his ridiculous thoughts, Kayn entered into the fiery hell and sat down before a shrine which was engulfed in purple flames that somehow didn't destroy it.

As he concentrated on the shrine itself, he activated the Void Star technique as usual. It didn't take long for him to enter into a meditative state, and the next thing he knew, his eyes were opening once more.

It had only taken him 11 days to fully absorb everything from Kagutsuchi's temple, but he had gained quite a bit of knowledge about the destructive capabilities of fire. It wasn't that Kagutsuchi was a weak god, it was just much easier for Kayn to comprehend as it was similar to his bloodline's inherited talents.

His core was a different story at it regressed a full third of the way back from where it was currently. He was now somewhere a little above the middle of the 2nd stage, but this only made him more excited as he couldn't wait to see what was going to happen.

No one was around this area, even after the pillars and wall of flame vanished since they were all too scared to come near it initially. Instead of waiting around, he launched into the sky and headed towards Takemikazuchi's shrine.

Upon entering the vicinity of the temple, which had the appearance of a large pagoda with nine floors, Kayn started to feel a prickly sensation on his skin. It was as if several needles were trying to poke him all over his body as he got closer to the temple.

Once he actually entered inside of the pagoda, the needle pokes turned into small cuts that even started cutting his ridiculously tough skin. All of the cuts were no more than small paper cuts, but regardless, this had Kayn worried for the first time since he started exploring these temples.

He could tell that the part of the shrine where he needed to circulate his Void Star technique was on the topmost floor of the pagoda, but he wasn't quite sure how to negate the cuts from happening to get there. As he stepped on the second floor, his fears were confirmed as rather than small paper cuts the cuts turned into actual gashes in his skin.

Kayn started to bleed from several places all over his body, despite using earth to strengthen his skin. Even pure mana as a defensive barrier didn't work, he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do in this case.

In every other temple he was able to adjust the element he used to what was attacking him, the only problem was that he didn't know what was attacking him. Even when he concentrated on the area around him, he couldn't see or understand what was attacking him.

Takemikazuchi was known for his lightning mastery, which was why Kayn came here in the first place, but then it occurred to him that the god was also known for something else, the sword.

Without any other choice and not wanting to risk the third floor, Kayn sat down and began to circulate the Void Star, meditating and trying to understand what was attacking him.

In the end, it took him a few days, but he understood that he was being attacked by mana which had somehow been imbued with the sharpness of a sword attack. It wasn't anything he was familiar with, so he was having a difficult time comprehending it.

When Kayn really thought about it, it should be something similar to the so-called sword aura that he read about during his time on Earth, but he hadn't read or seen anything similar to that on Talgonoth.

As he thought about it though, it made sense Talgonoth didn't have information on everything. There were potentially a countless number of worlds out there. If these worlds had as many differences as he expected, surely some world's inhabitants would apply mana differently than others.

It also occurred to him that there was a possibility that each of the gods, whose temples he had been visiting, came from different worlds. Now that he speculated this, he decided to make the most of this opportunity and thoroughly immerse himself in the aura that surrounded him.

It wasn't until a week later that the cuts began to appear on his body less consistently. He had been healing himself this entire time, but fortunately the place was flush with mana, so he was absorbing as much as he used.

Kayn then walked up the stairs to the third floor where he once again proceeded to sit and plunge himself into the aura that was constantly trying to take his life. This would proceed until Kayn reached the topmost floor.

…

A mana imbued arrow soared through the air before embedding itself into the skull of a member of the opposing army. As the human dropped dead to the ground, another replaced him as their line marched forward.

Over half a year had passed since the war began, but Mancea was on the back foot. They were fighting armies from two separate empires at the same time on different fronts.

On one side was an army composed of mostly humans and demon races while on the other a fearsome army composed of the undead.

Once the news came out that Carnet was in league with the undead Lich King, the Carnet Emperor threw off the facade of fighting it out with the undead and marched his entire army into Mancea.

Likewise, the undead stopped their efforts towards Carnet and focused solely on Mancea. The only issue they had in marching forward was that they were also fighting a two-front war against Mancea and the conglomerate of different races who resided in the Inmortuea Empire.

However, half of the continent wasn't under the control of the undead for no reason. Their numbers were essentially limitless, only held back by the number of enemies they could kill.

The Lich King, Mitas, had dispatched several tens of liches to each front. Some of them refused to come out of their seclusive research at first. That was until Mitas showed up on their front door with the threat of erasing their phylacteries from existence.

There were maybe 29 liches in total in the entire continent, but each of them commanded armies in the hundreds of thousands if not millions, hidden away in secret areas.

Twenty of the liches had been dispatched towards Mancea, but they were all the strongest of their kind, including Mitas himself.

Mancea had a few hundred million residents, but only a fraction of them could be counted as an actual fighting force.

Kayn had been surrounded by mages for most of his life, so his estimation of the number of them around the world was skewed, but in reality, the majority of the forces on the front lines against the enemy armies were normal people.

At this point in the war, all of the cities, towns, and villages in Mancea were evacuated and abandoned. The residents all fled towards Palatine where the final defense was now taking place.

Palatine was an absolutely massive city able to hold many times more people than even the biggest cities on Earth. Even with millions of people having died in the war already and the middle and inner rings being opened up to house more people, there still wasn't enough room.

Encampments started to appear all around the outside of the walls and the army did their best to set up a perimeter around the encampments. Any able-bodied individual who was willing to fight was recruited and supplied with their choice of basic weapon. These were all being mass produced at this point by the conscripted blacksmiths.

Fortunately, Mancea was an empire founded upon the blood and sweat of its people banding together to free themselves from slavery. Almost anyone who could fight had volunteered and even though many had little to no training, a fighting body was helpful to the war efforts.

As a green haired elf looked at the surroundings, she realized that this battle was lost. She had slain several hundreds of enemy combatants with her bow in the last few months, but it just wasn't enough. The enemy simply had too many mages compared to them and their regular soldiers were quickly overwhelmed and slain.

Kinzie was on the front fighting against the Carnet Empire. Despite Charlotte's strong rejection to her wishes, she left to fight against the people she blamed for taking Kayn away from her. It was an irrational and emotional response, but it was what she felt that she needed at the time.

After a few months of fighting like this and steadily being pushed back, she was beginning to lose hope that she would be alive by the time Kayn came back. Even if she retreated from the front and reunited with her grandfather and Lara, Mancea was on the losing end of this war and she didn't know how long they could hold out for.

By her estimates, once the armies arrived at Palatine and the defensive formation, Seven Origins Wall, was activated, they could probably last for at most 5 to 10 years before they were overrun. Though she didn't know the exact strength of the formation, that was what she had heard.

Mancea had several strong 6th stage mages and the defensive formation was incredibly impressive, but the attacking army was led by several liches who commanded the undead. Once the citizens who were not able to fit into Palatine were slayed and converted, the countdown timer would begin as it would only be a matter of time.

As Kinzie started to retreat, she was assaulted by several spells fired from a few 3rd stage mages on the other side. She wouldn't be able to dodge or block these spells, so she could only smile ruefully while closing her eyes and thinking of Kayn once last time.

However, the impact she expected never happened. Wondering if she had simply died without feeling it, she opened her eyes only to see a blazing golden barrier around her.

"Are you satisfied now? If I let you die, he surely won't forgive me. Come, it's time for us to leave Mancea." A soft but lecturing voice resounded from behind her.

Kinzie turned around to see Charlotte standing there with her hand up, maintaining a barrier around them. She was grateful to Charlotte for everything that she had done ever since Kayn's disappearance and hung her head in shame before she suddenly realized the last part of the sentence.

"What? We're abandoning all of those people in Palatine? You are abandoning them all? You're one of the most powerful figures in the empire! You can't just leave!" Kinzie shouted. She had made several friends in Palatine and didn't want them to perish, even if she knew it would happen whether she was there or not.

Charlotte sternly looked at the child throwing a tantrum in front of her before sighing and shaking her head. "I can and I will. It's also a difficult decision for me as many of the people who formed this empire are close acquaintances of mine, but I haven't lived this long without seeing the deaths of people I'm close to.

"The Emperor is already aware of my decision and he doesn't blame me for it. Sure, he may feel some resentment, but he understands. I was clear when I began living in Mancea that it was never my priority, nor would I sacrifice my life for it.

"I also made a promise to someone that I fear will somehow become even more of a monster than he already is upon his return. Even if we can't stay where he can find us, if we leave a trace he can track, I'm sure we will eventually meet again.

"You know exactly what he's been through. You've also been informed of what happens when he loses control. I will tell you right now that after witnessing what he's capable of if he releases everything, he would definitely become a catastrophe far worse than the undead.

"Not only Lavanth, but even the entirety of Talgonoth would be in trouble if Kayn returned to find his sister dead, that's not including that his lover would also be dead. Coming to know him over this last year, there are two things he cares for above all else, even himself. His sister first and foremost, and then you. So, use your brain and think about what he would want."

Kinzie went through various emotions as she was berated by Charlotte. These included anger, sorrow, and surprise. After thinking for a second, she just nodded her head and remained silent.

Charlotte taking that as her complying, she picked Kinzie up and launched into the air after two fiery golden wings appeared from her back. She was going to meet up with Rowen who was taking care of Lara as well as Yelena before they abandoned Palatine, intending to travel to a different continent entirely.

…

Kayn finally emerged from the pagoda dedicated to Takemikazuchi after a total of 97 days. The further he progressed towards the top, the more time he was having to spend on each floor before climbing the next set of stairs.

In the end he increased his understanding of the lightning element as well as added a few lightning spells to his repertoire, mostly related to using it with a sword. His core had also fallen below the halfway point of the 2nd stage.

His biggest gain however, was the change his body had undergone. His movements were now sharp and precise, like that of a sword strike. He gained something that was described as the Martial Sword Constitution from the shrine after over three months of study.

The aura that he had immersed himself in for these last 97 days became one with his flesh and blood with his aura adding a sharpness to it that wasn't there before. He also learned a few of what the shrine described as Sword Arts, which used mana to emit Sword Aura strikes from the movements his body made while wielding a sword.

Kayn's happy smile then turned upside down as he looked into the sky. If he wasn't him, there was no way he would have seen it, but less than a hundred kilometers away from his position and moving extremely fast, was a missile.

This missile didn't seem normal as it was launched from space and was much, much larger than anything he had read about in his past life. Most likely, it was whatever new weapon of mass destruction the world had developed in the last couple of decades.

Without knowing the reason, it was falling near his location in particular, his frown turned back into a smile as he launched himself into the air. This was the perfect test for his new understanding of sword aura.