Kaelen was now against 2 experienced followers and restricted from using any form of power other than physical attacks that didn't require his chain.
Zephyr explained to Seraphina how the chains worked.
The last time he didn't use the chains, it didn't end well. But that was something only Kaelen would have cared about, not Rowan Kade.
Kaelen finally started embracing the identity, accepting what he used to hate the most: losing himself.
Rowan Kade rushed towards them with chains in his hand. Kaelen doubted the decision, but he had already put all his trust in him.
Seraphina struck first. Even at an advantage, dropping his guard, Seraphina pulled out a gun.
Rowan Kade suppressed the gun by changing its identity to a toy one.
Seraphina realized it too late. By the time he used the gun, Rowan Kade was in range to use chains. Seraphina deceived the chains and was quickly suppressed by Rowan, who had changed the chain's identity into becoming Kaelen's blessed item and resisted changes below stage 1.
Sweep—
Seraphina was sent flying into the wall, hard enough to leave marks of his blood.
He stood up. "Augh!" He spat blood from his mouth.
Zephyr took a step back; his instinct told him to run. Seraphina's dying body kept his feet attached to the ground, unable to move anywhere.
"I—deceived the—" Seraphina stopped mid-sentence.
Rowan Kade slowly moved towards Zephyr; the fear coming from Zephyr was healing him. His legs stopped the lag; his shoulders steadied.
Seraphina caught his leg, tightening the grip that didn't stop Rowan at all.
"The chains, I..." He pressed his hand on the wound in his chest. "Deceived the chains."
His body started slipping; he was unable to react to anything, but still conscious.
Rowan respected his will and answered, "Your luck ran out."
Seraphina did great; he would have surely won against someone of the same stage as him.
Zephyr screamed and ran away from the scene. Seeing Seraphina dead in seconds, it was the most reasonable thing to do.
Rowan swung the chains, cutting off Zephyr's right leg and leaving a big scar on his chest.
Both of them now lay on the ground; only one target remained.
Rowan traced Ravus's location. Ravus was on stage 3, a door that led to stage 2; Ravus couldn't open it; he didn't have access to it.
Rowan sprinted down the halls till he reached the last hall. Ravus stood in front of him, screaming at the door, waiting for someone to open it.
All of his chains were broken by then.
He wrapped the main chain around his knuckles.
"Rowan, how can you do this to me?" the boss pleaded to him.
Kaelen tried to take over but couldn't; his mental state didn't allow him to. Rowan wouldn't just kill his best friend.
"How could you do this to me, Ravus?" Rowan said. "We weren't some priests, but at least we never did something against our morals."
"We will start it all over; just give me one chance, Rowan," Ravus said, his voice trembling, eyes shaking.
He sat down, dragging his body to the door to the 2nd level.
"No, we are bastards; we are not true to even ourselves, and you expect me to trust you?"
Ravus closed his eyes, accepting his fate.
Rowan picked him by the collar, grabbed one end of the chain with his offhand, slowly placed it around Ravus's neck, and churned it till his neck fell off.
His blood fed the chain's hunger, ascending the chain to have its own ability.
Rowan looked at the door; nobody was there. He returned.
The office was a mess; he could hear people screaming below. His clothes needed cleaning; blood was all over them. His boss's clothes fit him; they were tight but wearable.
The ground floor was as chaotic as the sounds; the workers had gone insane, fighting over documents, calls, and each other. He looked at it from the stairs; it was unbearable for him.
Bodies lay there with people sucking blood; everyone turned on each other once a body had lost all its blood. Everything had lost its color; it reeked like someone had mixed the smell of rotten flesh and rotten eggs in the air.
Kaelen was an intruder; they rushed at him.
Something lit inside Kaelen before he reacted. Not fear. Not anger.
He was no different from them.
He thought of every person he had ever dismissed without reason — the ones who sat wrong at lunch, the ones whose interests didn't overlap with his, the ones he had simply decided weren't worth the effort of understanding. He never sucked blood. He never lost his mind in a hallway. But the instinct underneath it — the one that said you don't belong here — he knew that one.
He took one big leap and then another and jumped out of the window.
Kaelen asked, "What do you think happened?"
"It was a consequence of the failed ritual they were a part of, not a voluntary one," Aurelion replied.
"What took you so long? You didn't say a single word."
"I respect your decisions. I never said that I would control your life. I am stuck in this chaos just like you; none of us wanted to be a part of it."
"I wonder how you ended up here; you look experienced. How did you never get a chance to return?"
"Return?" Aurelion said. "Return to what I am, only a sum of fragments of myself."
Kaelen sighed. He tried to strike up a new conversation.
"So—"
Aurelion stopped him. "Every ritual only took from me; identity erased the memories that seemed to weaken my results."
Kaelen was happy seeing Aurelion open up, but he knew he might suffer the same fate.
"Sometimes I see some memories; I could have had a happy life, but others would have faced the consequences of my happy life." Aurelion still didn't stop. "You see, Kaelen, there is no perfect choice or ideal outcome; it's only us filling our weaknesses or avoiding them."
Kaelen's head became heavier as he accepted the truth, not just believing in its existence but rather realizing why it happens and why it's not wrong.
Aurelion stopped his car in front of Kaelen.
Kaelen got in.
"I know I can't go back to my life, but what do people think happened to me?"
"They have replaced you with someone to take over your identity."
Kaelen turned on the car radio. He opened his mouth and turned to Aurelion to ask what his next goal was; he realized that was something he should ask himself, not Aurelion.
Revenge still wasn't complete; followers of the miracle sect still lived.