Enigma of Sin

Kayn was making his way back from his training in the forest, spending his time walking back instead of flying as he was appreciative of all the flowers that were blooming and the nice weather in general.

Things had been progressing smoothly and he was planning on leaving within the week as he felt ready and also that it was finally time to move on. However, when he returned to the farm, he noticed both Horace and Est running around with bags and throwing them into a small wagon that was attached to their one and only horse.

Kayn quickly approached them before asking what happened or why it looked like they were trying to run away in a hurry.

"Kayn! We were waiting for you! We have to leave! Now!" Horace quickly shouted while he was still moving about trying to collect important things from the house and shed.

"Can you tell me what's happening? Why are we leaving so suddenly?" Kayn was caught off guard by how urgent and desperate Horace sounded.

"A messenger passed through our area a while back and warned us about a beast tide! It's coming from the eastern edge of the forest. We were told that it already destroyed one village and they would arrive here in the next day at the slowest! We need to leave and get to the safety of the village we normally trade with as they should have some stronger guards."

"A beast tide? Did they tell you how strong the beasts were?" Kayn knew what a beast tide was as he had read about them before, but they were rare and normally caused by something. This something could be a being that forced them out of their normal areas or a disease that drove them mad, at least those were the usual two culprits.

"The messenger said that the previous survivors from the last village estimated that they were mostly D and C-class rune beasts, though they speculated that at least a dozen or two B-classes were deeper within the tide, possibly even an A-class!"

"Oh." Kayn almost sighed a breath of relief, but didn't want to seem like he was downplaying the seriousness of the situation to the couple. "Well, is there anything I can do to help you guys?"

"Yes! Grab the kids please, we are just about ready to leave." Est quickly shouted as she threw another bag onto the wagon.

Kayn only nodded his head in affirmation before entering into the house and picking up both infants that were playing in a gated off area as they were both able to walk around now. With that, the family plus Kayn and Lara set off towards the village that Horace and Est usually traded their produce at.

…

As they approached the village after traveling through the night, they noticed other families with wagons or large bags entering the village under the guards' direction. While everyone else was panicking and trying to solidify the defenses around the village, Kayn was too busy marveling at what he was seeing.

This was the first time he had seen a village of just elves. He and his sister could be considered as part elf as well, so the only one he noticed that was out of place was Horace. Some of the elves even sent dirty looks their way, but when Kayn noticed this and stared back at them, they quickly averted their eyes. Kayn wasn't about to be nice to anyone who mistreated these two.

Luckily, there were a lot of rooms available at the local inn since elves didn't often travel from village to village and other races generally didn't even try to travel the Great Forest. The inn was turned into a makeshift refugee center and Horace, Est, Kayn, and the two toddlers were given a single room with two beds.

The wagon, their valuables, and horse were all separately stored in a temporary holding area that the village chief organized.

Kayn watched as the family held each other tightly on top of one of the beds as tears could be seen forming at the edge of the husband's and wife's eyes. He understood why though, their farm and home were probably going to be completely flattened and they would have to start all over from scratch.

A spark of determination lit up in Kayn's eyes as he looked at these two who had proven themselves time and time again to be like family to him. Kayn could give them all of the money he had, which was more than enough for them to live relaxed lives until they passed, but he also knew that there was more to it than that.

That farm was their home and where they had built their family. If it was destroyed, that was just something money couldn't replace in their minds. With that in mind, Kayn stood up before handing Lara over to Est and walking towards the door to their room.

"Where are you going?" Est asked as there was a restriction on movements in the village currently. "Oh! Are you going to offer healing services to those who entered after being injured or something?"

"Yes, something like that. Please watch Lara for me while I'm out." Kayn spoke without giving much information as he grabbed a cloak Est had made for him from his bag as well as his mask that he wrapped up with the cloak to keep it hidden from the couple.

Once Kayn closed the door and left the inn, he sneaked out of the village while acting like he was helping move supplies to the makeshift walls they had built. Only when he was far enough away did he place the mask on his face and put on the cloak with the hood up to cover up his hair.

He honestly wasn't too worried about people seeing him, but he didn't want to bring any troubles to Est and Horace in the case someone noticed him.

With that, he protracted his wings and launched into the sky heading east towards the farm. He wanted to arrive as soon as possible to ensure he could confront the tide before they even approached the farm.

D and C-class rune beasts were no more than cannon fodder these days for him and the B-classes shouldn't give him much trouble either as he had fought plenty of them during the last few months while he traveled into the depths of the Great Forest.

The only problem was with the possibility of there being an A-class rune beast. A normal stage 3 core mage or warrior wouldn't even dare look at one for too long, much less fight one.

The minimal strength one usually needed was a stage 4 core with lots of experience in fighting as A-class rune beasts generally had quite a bit of intellect that was applied as fighting instincts.

However, Kayn only smiled as he thought of the possible A-class rune beast. He had something up his sleeve he wanted to try out and he was more than happy to make a strong beast his test dummy.

…

As much as Kayn wanted to try and raise a massive wall around the farm using earth magic, he knew that it would be a waste of time. Not only did he not have enough mana for that and then to fight after, but if the beast tide was as big as he heard, a wall wouldn't last long, at least one that he could create quickly.

Thus, he flew straight by the farm and continued eastward until he came across the first signs of the tide.

In the distance he could see a massive dust cloud being kicked up as well as being able to see falling trees and hearing the loud stomps of all types of animal feet. Even looking at the dust cloud he could see the silhouettes of several different type of flying rune beasts hidden within the dust storm.

While he remained in place in the air with his wings, he used his Eagle Eye ability that he hadn't activated in a long time. Kayn was shocked, just from his initial estimations and without being able to see deeply into the dust cloud, he could tell there were several hundred rune beasts charging his way.

Kayn's eye couldn't help but twitch as this far exceeded his expectations based on the stories of the survivors he overheard at the village.

However, he didn't really feel scared or nervous, instead he was feeling a massive amount of energy and excitement rush through his every tissue. Kayn was smiling like a mad man and even his eyes looked like they were glowing with happiness.

Kayn wasn't sure if he was that confident with his newfound prowess or if it was just reckless bravado, but he knew one thing was certain, this was the perfect opportunity to vent off a bit of the anger and stress he had built up.