KINETIC

"The village... It's been destroyed..." Leo couldn't believe his eyes. Almost every building within the village was either burned down or partially destroyed by other means.

"Yeah...they didn't just attack us, they attacked the entire village." Rene replied with a crestfallen tone as she watched the villagers attempt to salvage whatever was left of their homes and businesses.

The two continued walking in silence until they reached the tavern. Hearing the cries of all those that lost their homes, livelihood and family members to the attack made Leo's heart ache.

'This is my fault... The cult came here for me. If I wasn't here then none of these people would be suffering.' Leo felt as though a heavy weight had been placed upon him.

"Don't do that." Rene chided Leo. "Do what?" Leo asked with a confused look. "Don't blame yourself. The ones responsible are the cult, not you. If you want justice for these people then the cult needs to be taken care of." Rene replied with a gentle tone of explanation.

"Yeah... I suppose you're right." Leo replied half heartedly. He understood what Rene meant and he did agree, but he still felt as though he could have done something to avoid all of this meaningless death and destruction.

The tavern was in surprisingly good shape. There were some holes in the walls, but otherwise there wasn't too much damage. Rene pushed the door open and pulled Leo into the tavern with her.

Cain was the only one inside and was currently sitting at the table nearest to the bar by himself. "Holy shit dude... You look even worse than I do!" Cain blurted out upon seeing the state of Leo's body.

"Yeah" Leo chuckled slightly, glad to see Cain had the morale to joke around. This at least confirmed that Clay and Nila were both alright. "We're lucky Rene is with us. Without her healing Clay was definently not going to make it and Nila was a few cuts short of his condition as well. They both survived thanks to her." Cain gave Rene a big smile and a thumbs up as she helped Leo sit down opposite Cain.

"Thanks for the praise but you guys are the ones who saved me first." Rene shyly replied while blushing slightly. "Nah don't mention it. It's what a good guy would do." Cain pointed to his chest with his thumb and smiled widely.

"So how are the others, what happened in here while I was gone?" Leo asked. "Well, Clay and I each fought against a single opponent. Mine had the ability to move stuff from a distance, telekinesis is what I believe it's called. Clays opponent could make it so your body refused to move or respond to your commands. He would then use his daggers to attack in those moments." Cain explained.

"How bad are the others injuries?" Leo asked. Cain looked at Rene who was now sitting next to Leo. "Oh, uh well... Clay was badly stabbed at the end of his fight, but I managed to heal those wounds in the end. I didn't have the energy to do much else for him but luckily I had healed him during his fight a few times, so his injuries weren't too severe." Rene explained and Leo nodded.

"We didn't see what happened to Nila, but there were clear signs of an explosion. The walls, floor and ceiling were all burnt and Nila was charred slightly on the front of her body. I managed to heal the burns to a more manageable level, I'll be able to heal them both some more tomorrow after I've recovered my energy." Rene finished her explanation with that.

"That healing really is amazing! My hand was sliced in two between my middle and ring finger. It really hurt! But Rene managed to heal my hand once she was done with Clay's stab wounds." Cain had a look of relief on his face as he stared at his hand.

"You really did a great job." Leo reached over and placed his hand on Renes shouler. She looked up and smiled at the praise, not declining the compliment this time.

"Oh yeah, where's Rosalia? The Barmaid that works here. I don't see her anywhere." Leo asked while looking around the room.

Cains smile faded "I'm sorry man, she didn't make it... Her body is behind the bar. I put a bed sheet over her for now until we can bury her properly." Cain answered in a slow and sympathetic tone.

"I see..." Leo was clearly upset by this, but he didn't say anything further. "There is something you should know about her death. There was something strange." Cain added after a few moments of silence had filled the room.

"I don't know if I want to hear it right now." Leo answered truthfully. The events that transpired today had made him feel extremely down. He wanted nothing more than to be left alone for a while.

"I know you're probably not in the mood to hear it, but I think it's important you do. It's probably connected to how strange the cultists are." Cain added, hoping to persuade Leo to listen.

"They really were strange. The woman I was fighting had 3 abilities." Leo said as he rembered her turning the tables when she grabbed his arm.

"Oh wow...thats definitely weirder than what we saw but that just goes to prove that something isn't right here." Cain was shocked to hear about the woman having multiple abilities. 'Just one ability is already able to make someone incredibly powerful, I can't even imagine someone with three.' Cain thought to himself as he shuddered slightly.

"Fine then. Tell me what was so strange about Rosalia's body." Leo said hesitantly. "Well her body was partially under some rubble when I got down here, so I pulled it all off to check if she was alive. Her body had been impaled by some wood and her legs were crushed." Cain explained.

Leo was feeling more depressed by the second. He remembered how sweet she was. Picturing her body in the condition described by Cain was tough on him.

Cain continued explaining "I knew she was dead right away by looking at how pale her skin was, but that's when I noticed it. There was no blood anywhere near her. It was as though her body had all the blood removed before she died."