KINETIC

After the largest explosion of the fight had happened, the area Cain and the creature were fighting each other in had been covered in fire.

There wasn't much damage done since they were on the edge of the explosion but it did cause a distraction.

Using the confusion, Cain closed the distance between himself and the creature and slammed his hammers into its chest.

The creature was flung backwards and rolled along the ground several times. It lifted its head and looked back at where Cain was while roaring at him "Roooaaaarrgghh!!".

Cain had chased after the creature and as it started roaring at him he brought his hammer down on its head.

The creatures head slammed into the ground and Cain continued to attack relentlessly. What followed was a series of attacks numbering in the 20's, each of them hitting the creature in its head or chest.

Cain had been covered in the creatures black blood and he was breathing heavily. He stood over the creature while gripping his hammers tightly, just waiting for the creature to move so he could continue attacking. But it never did.

The creature was dead and Cain felt how tired he was after attacking so many times. With each swing of his hammers he would lighten them and then make them heavier again.

This used a tremendous amount of Energy and Stamina to do.

"Cain...? Are you alright?" Cain heard a voice ask from behind him. He turned and saw that it was Rene, she had some light burns on her skin but otherwise she was completely fine.

"Yeah... I'm alright. Where's Leo?" Cain started looking around the room to see if he could spot Leo.

"I don't know. After the explosion I couldn't see him anymore and that's when I saw you. I thought it would be better to come to you rather than try looking for him by myself." Rene replied while looking around with him.

"There! I see him over there!" Cain pointed so that Rene could see him too. "Why is he just standing there...?" Cain asked, confused.

The two of them slowly approached Leo while looking around to make sure there wasn't anyone that could attack them.

As they got closer they were able to see that Leo was just staring straight ahead of him and not moving.

Rene noticed the injuries on his body and immediately ran to help him. "Leo your... Oh gods..." Until this moment, Rene and Cain had been on Leo's left side.

When Rene stood in front of Leo so she could start healing him, that's when she saw how badly burnt his right side was. His face was the most horrific sight she had ever seen, with the right side having had all the skin burnt away.

"Leo..." She reached up to his face but hesitated. 'I need to touch his face to heal it but...' "Leo...? Im going to heal you but it's going to hurt when I touch your face."

Leo didn't respond to Renes words. He didn't answer her, nor did he even so much as acknowledge their presence by looking at them.

Rene placed her hand on Leo's face and he immediately pulled away from her while grabbing onto her wrist.

" Ouch! Leo stop, you're hurting me!" Rene cried out. Leo looked at her for several seconds before releasing his grip "What's... What happened after they disappeared?" Leo asked with a dry voice.

"Who disappeared?" Cain asked.

"Trent and... John. A cultist that could... Teleport took them away." Leo replied but tried to make his explanation short because it hurt his throat to speak.

"We didn't see that happen. After the explosion I killed the creature and then we came over to you. You've just been standing there this whole time." Cain explained.

Leo looked down at the ground but it was difficult to tell what kind of expression he had due to most of his skin being charred black or outright missing.

" I'm sorry...for hurting you." He said while looking at Rene. Rene was still rubbing her wrist when she replied "It's alright. I'm just going to heal you, okay?"

She lifted her hands again and this time Leo didn't react other than wincing from the pain. The golden light of Renes healing spread over Leo's face and into his body.

A warm and soothing feeling washed over the areas her ability touched and the pain lessened with each passing second.

After about 10 minutes, Rene managed to heal Leo's face enough that it had its skin back, although still mildly burned. She also healed his throat and lungs, which were her priority once she felt the damage that was done to them.

Although she couldn't quite explain it, when ever she used her ability on someone it's like she was able to see everything inside of their body, like they were made of energy.

Any injuries a person had would look like black spots in the energy. Leo's lungs and throat were extremely large black spots when compared to most of his body so she focused there.

The only other places comparable were his hand and face, but because he couldn't survive without his lungs and he couldn't talk without his throat, she fixed them first.

Leo could tell that Rene was already running out of Energy from how tired she looked and how heavy her breathing was "You can stop now." He said.

"But I haven't healed your arm at all and your face isn't done either..." She replied with concern as she continued to heal Leo's face.

He reached up with his left hand and gently grabbed her hand, pulling it away from his face "It's alright. Take a break and recover, once you have your Energy back, then we can worry about my arm and face. Thank you for healing me this much." Leo said and then started scanning the room with his eyes.

"Where did that other cultist go. The one that made those blood shards?" He finally asked.

"Oh, he's over here. Follow me." Cain said as he started walking over to a different part of the room.

Lying on his stomach and at the entrance to the room was Silas. His legs had both been crushed at the knees and he was missing one arm. It looked like he had tried to crawl away using his remaining arm but gave up when he reached the door.

Leo grabbed Silas and flipped him over onto his back "Where did they go? Where are the other bases!?" He immediately asked.

"Fuck off... Why should I say anything to you?"

Silas replied with a smile befitting a maniac.

"Let me guess... because you'll torture me? That's not going to work on me kid, I don't feel much pain anymore anyways."

"So no matter what I do, you won't tell us anything?" Leo asked.

"That's right." Silas answered, still smiling.

"Then there's no need to keep you alive." Leo said with an emotionless tone of voice.

"What?" Silas lost his smile and looked confused for a moment, and then he became

afraid.

Leo placed his hand on Silas' forehead

"Goodbye."

"No! Wait please do..." Silas attempted to beg for his life but before he could a hole the size of a finger blasted through his head.

* Ding

[You have killed an Imperium]

- 250 000 XP awarded

[Level up]

[1 Stat point awarded]

[1 Skill point awarded]

[Multiple Quests have been completed]

[Hidden quest - Defeat An Imperium]

[Short term Quest - Obtain source material for evolution]

[Rewards]

- Level up ×2

- + 2 Stat points

- Regeneration (Level 2)

- + 1 All Stats

[Source material acquired]

[Evolution is now available]

[Begin Evolution?]

[Yes/No]

'What the... There's so many messages.' Leo almost couldn't believe his eyes. He had received so many rewards that he felt like all the pain he had felt from being burnt was worth it.

'I didn't think about it too much before but what exactly does it mean by evolution?' Leo asked.

'Well, an evolution is when a creature becomes something better. Think of it like a piece of metal becoming a sword. Right now you're the metal, but after an evolution you'd become the sword. Or at least you would be closer to being the sword.' Dreifus explained.

' I see... But then what will I become? What does a human evolve into?' Leo asked.

'Uhm... Well... I don't think they do.' Dreifus hesitantly said after trying to come up with an answer.

'What's that supposed to mean?' Leo frowned.

'Well there isn't any known evolution for a human so I don't really know what to say. I can think of two possibilities here, one is that you're the first human to ever evolve. Meaning you'll just become a better human in some way.'

'Alright, that makes sense I guess...i don't understand what would be improved exactly. Maybe strength and stuff like that?' Leo was confused by the concept of a creature evolving.

'That would be part of it, probably. Though it could be anything from appearance to physical attributes like wings.'

'Then what's the other possibility?' Leo asked.

'Well the only other option is that you aren't actually human, but if that's the case then what exactly are you...?'