Lowly Ascent

The battle had stopped, the attackers gawked at the person they came to save while the defenders became increasingly fearful.

Some of the audience redirected their sight to the guard trying his best to crawl away.

The guard had a look of inexplicable fear and seemed deranged, helplessly clawing at the ground to move even an inch farther from Cain.

Anders long glued his eyes on his master, Cain felt different... and cold. He began to fear the worst.

"We came to save you...." Anders barely got out. 

Cain stayed impervious to emotion, his face stiff and not moving a muscle.  "Ah, I see. Well, that's not needed as I have already freed myself."

"Cain?"

Alex came out of the crowd. Cain narrowed his eyes on her. He would be lying if he said he wasn't bemused by her presence. But it was only that. 

"Alex? I'm surprised to see you, but I suppose it only makes sense. You're the leader of that mercenary group, am I wrong?"

Alex warily responded, "You're not...what happened to you?"

Cain raised his hand to his chin to think. 

"Well I was captured by Victor, he tortured me for who knows how long. When I was bored with everything I killed him and left, and now I'm here"

Daniel interjected "Victor is dead? Then how did you get captured?"

"Well he was quite powerful and got me off guard, I had to wait and bide my time before killing him. Of course, I had to lower his guard and use a surprise attack but it got the job done."

Anders glared at Cain, he felt something was off. Something was wrong.

"You said you were tortured, what did Victor do to you?"

Cain answered, "Lots. He stuck metal rods into me, tortured me with all kinds of gadgets, and used his serums and such, they caused lots of unbearable pain. If you want to see, I was held in the deepest cell, my corpse should still be there"

"Corpse?"

"Yeah." Cain didn't care if they understood or not. 

Anders's face twitched in confusion, he was suddenly frightened when he heard screaming behind him. He turned and saw a few guards helping the one Cain had first thrown.

They were asking him what happened. The guard began to have a look of horror and began to scream, they calmed him down before he heaved a few words.

"Dead! They're all dead! He killed everyone! H-he's a Monster! A Monster!"

He pointed to Cain before passing out unconscious from shock and fatigue. Everyone turned their heads to Cain.

'How..... typical.' Cain remained unfazed. But it didn't stop him from explaining himself.

"What? I had to relieve some stress. They are all criminals and people who work for the Empire, what's the harm?"

Alex studied Cain, she saw nothing, and no emotion or feeling came from his cold stare. She choked out a few words, she began to feel terrified by this..... this...new Cain.

"L-Lets go back to our hideout, we have to recoup before returning."

Cain half-heartily smiled, "Alright, let's first clean up the rest"

He walked towards the remainder of the guards but Anders quickly stepped in front of him.

"Master, why would we kill them they have already stopped fighting"

Cain sighed. "My inexperienced apprentice, they are the enemy, not to mention they have seen us and know our faces."

Anders wavered in front of Cain. The pressure Cain now gave off was overbearing. Anders couldn't react even if he wanted, his master had already passed him and was in front of the group of guards.

What followed was a slaughter. Cain used his body as a weapon, he plunged his hands into their chests, crushed their heads with a single backhand, or just stomped on the ones who remained paralyzed in fear on the floor.

Blood went everywhere. He was done in less than a minute.

"Alright, let's go. I've been starved for a long time, I'm hungry, to say the least."

Alex walked next to Cain to lead him, although he was different and scary, at the very least he was also someone she knew for a long time and trusted.

In her mind, there was no way he could have changed beyond recognition, he was still Cain, right?

"We can go immediately, let me just form a squad to send to search the prison for anything of importance"

...

Anders stared at his master the whole way back, he felt like Cain had changed. He treated everyone like they were lesser than him. Anders was afraid to bring it up so he tried to study Cain instead to find a rhyme or reason for his attitude.

He went through a lot, there were bound to be problems. 

The group eventually made it back to the abandoned building and upon entering it, Cain was greeted by a bunch of refugees.

He turned to Alex, "So you are the group who survived Free City and Yoen."

Alex nodded. "Yeah...I wanted to ask, how's Luna?"

"Dead" For the first time since he escaped, emotion escaped with Cain's voice as his sober tone left Alex frozen.

She lowered her head and didn't respond. The rest of the group was left in an awkward silence. But it quickly dissipated due to excited yells.

"Cain? Cain!"

Rebecca saw the groups return and when she saw Cain her face lit up. She ran to him and locked him in a tight hug. Only Cain didn't hug back, he looked at her before tapping her shoulder to let him go.

Rebecca was stunned, his body was cold, so cold. When she looked into his eyes, she shivered. She was defeated, she already suspected Cain didn't love her for her, and he had now confirmed it.

The young noble began to tear up. Anders came to her side to cheer her up.

"Master, why do you treat Rebecca like this? She's your fiancé!"

Cain let out a plain tone that made everyone shiver, "We both know that was just to get to Victor, just tell Targan I died or something. Also before we leave I have to go to Ornate Palace"

Anders blankly stared at his master in disbelief. He didn't say anything and escorted Rebecca to her room.

Alex then took Cain over to a table and sat down with the rest of his team. They proceeded to ask him about his experience to which he told them of the horrific torture he experienced like it meant nothing.

After he was done, Cain went to bed after having something to eat. However before he could, Rebecca had someone notify him to visit her in her quarters.

He went up and knocked on the door, no response.

Cain already knew what was happening. He knew had to step through the door or he would be bothered again and again until he gave in to these childish actions.

'Humans just prove again and again how worthless they are.'

He opened the door and walked in. Clothes were everywhere.

Anders and Rebecca were under the covers of a moldy and old bed. Cain's apprentice was dumbfounded while Cain noticed Rebecca presenting a wide smile behind him.

Before Anders could explain, Cain spoke up, he sounded like a parent disappointed in his child's actions.

"What some people resort to... Anders doesn't say a thing, It's obvious she did this to get back at me to relieve her anger. Miss Garsh, I thought of you as intelligent, it's upsetting to see such childish actions. Actually, it isn't, I expected this. Happy now? Can I leave?"

Rebecca's face grew grim. Her face turned into a tomato. She was flushed with anger.

"You treated me like a tool, you seduced me and used me to take advantage of my family! Once I return to brother, I will have him kill you!"

Cain chuckled "You do that." He then walked out and headed to bed.

Anders was left there having a mental crisis while Rebecca tried to get him back to bed, he simply got up and headed to a separate room to which Rebecca acted understanding and let him go.

'So emotional. Hah, nobles are the most annoying in the hierarchy.'

Cain sat in his room thinking. One of the walls had crumbled long ago and left an open view outside to the rest of the city. He relaxed in a chair while taking in the state of the city as cool air brushed his face.

The room didn't have a bed, just some pallets stacked together in a corner. It was far worse than Rebecca's room.

That room was the old manager's room for when the factory managers would stay overnight to work. The floor was riddled with holes and Cain could see below him. In one of the holes was another room where some refugees slept.

He began to ignore everything, he closed his eyes and tried to feel the microorganisms around him. Cain felt them on his skin, crawling and living in his pores. He felt it in the air drifting around him.

Everything felt like a thick fog of life. Cain could connect with this fog ever so slightly, he could use it as an extension of his senses, he could use it to see another world.

'Bacteria and Viruses should not be the only thing I can control, all these things in the air can be seen and felt yet I can't control them. Why are my abilities only stuck to bacteria and viruses? They feel different from bacteria, they're all different and feel more alive....if I can control all these things that cannot be seen, then can't I become invincible?'

Cain spent the rest of the night in a meditative state feeling the microorganisms around him, trying to understand them.