Temple of Byagoona

Next morning,

Buckfastleigh

"Ticket please," the train conductor demanded.

Kai fumbled around the chest pockets of his long black overcoat and took out a slim piece of parchment. The conductor examined it, marked it with a small tear, and then hurried off to the next passenger.

Three hours had passed since he left the capital city of the nation, bordering the Wall. The Steam locomotive he was traveling in was nowhere near the quality and comfort of its counterpart running between the Arrival Zone and the nation and had only one first-class carriage, where Kai was now, seated on an upholstered seat near the window.

Throwing the ticket back into his pocket, and adjusting his hat, Kai looked out through the window as the open fields rushed past him in a brown-green blur. His thoughts went back to the moments that had led to this unplanned and unavoidable trip.

When she returned after attending the opening ceremony, Item-M had found him healing, covered in blood, black and light green fluids, and charred flesh. A black, crumpled figure had been sprawled In front of him that was once alive within the broken tank, a fist-size hole in its chest telling a barbaric tale.

'Oh, no!' Item-M had gasped then. 'What have you done, master? Didn't you tell me that an unresolved Karma can become a major hindrance in achieving Absolute Power? Why did you kill her? We…'

Kai had indeed said those words to her, he remembered. If the man with the Rinnegan was right, then his actions of goading Little Hao to tell him the names of the Temples and the Old Ones, though unknowingly, had become a Cause. Yes, a Cause, whose Effect was the death of Little Hao and the fate of Seline Hao, making him fall into a Karmic Cycle, which if not dealt with, would become shackles for him in the future.

As that man had told him, this was Kai's Karma, and it must be him who had to resolve it. After thinking over it for many hours, Kai had come up with two ways. First, kill everyone related to the incident, and that meant killing all Priests and Priestesses of the Temple of Amon-Gorloth until he finds the one who had ordered little Hao's kidnapping and then Seline's death by burning her. It could take months, years, or even decades to root out every single rat hiding in some corner. It was the easiest, surest, and most time-consuming way, he knew. One day, this method would resolve his Karma, Kai had reflected. But when that day would come, he dared not guess.

Kai had discarded this method the moment it had surfaced in his mind. Yes, it was less risky, but it would have undone all of Kai's progress up to that moment as well, a thing Kai abhorred doing.

The second method was the one he had finally gone with.

Turn misfortune into strength, weakness into an advantage, and a burden into a benefit. All this had only one beginning, making the dying figure his slave; another loyal servant. Only then Kai could have brought himself to share with her his thoughts and emotions. But the very first step of this method was the riskiest. It all depended on whether Item-S would resurrect. From the white-skinned man, Kai knew that the kidnappers of Little Hao had killed him after knowing about his heritage, even before training the boy as per norm, and thinking that it was in his blood to resurrect.

Yet, the boy hadn't returned, and thus, there was no guarantee that the mother would return, either. This was a monstrous risk, like the ones Kai had taken many times before. His only reasoning behind this risk was that, unlike her son, Item-S was a master of Gentle Fist. The kidnappers must have not known this, but he did because Kai had spent a significant amount of time with the mother and son. He could tell even then that the boy didn't have any fighting experience, otherwise, Little Hao could have used such methods while fighting back to save himself from the goons, who were after his father's Credit Storage Card.

All Kai's planning was based on this risk and hope. By making her his slave, he would make sure that Item-S would never betray what she had learned from his thoughts, and then when the time comes, he would use her ancestry as a springboard for himself. An even more hideous plan was that if she somehow managed to get the Byakugan Skill, then he would steal those eyes from her as well. When Kai had told these things to Item-M, she had looked at him as if he was mad, for only sheer madness could be the reason to gamble everything on an unprovable theory.

He had made worse gambles than that, Kai thought, smiling. And it wasn't like he had gained nothing out of it.

His Advance Telepathy had increased by a whopping 5% then, becoming 8% in total. Kai still did not know how to send out only his thoughts or read others' thoughts one way.

For now, he could only do a mutual thought transference, but he also knew that this path was right, and once he found his footing on it, it would be a major boost in his power.

And this increase in efficiency was the reason for him to be on the steam locomotive, heading to a distant countryside within the nation of Buckfastleigh. 'It's time for me to visit the Temple of Many-Faced God,' he had told Item-M. 'Before the last day of the auction, I must go there to learn the secrets of Occlumency and Legilimency. I can't postpone it any longer.'

Item-M had advised him against venturing alone to the Temple of Byagoona, considering that they were extraordinary Legilimens, and she couldn't go with him either, for she needed to attend the auction.

But Kai had other thoughts.

'They wouldn't do that,' he had reasoned. 'They know me, and they have an idea about my capabilities. Not to mention, we are on the 4th floor. Worse come to worse, I would just level the Temple down to the pits of hell if needed. Just let me know the location, and I will meet you on the night of the auction.'

And now, he felt the train slowing down.

It was his stop.

The train stopped with a jerk, and Kai stepped out on the platform, the crowd running busy as the morning sun gained height.

Kai followed Item-M's instructions and walked out of the station. He called out to the nearest horse carriage, paid him 20 MC to go to the Green Hills Bridge, and prepared himself for the meeting.

It took the carriage around 15 minutes to leave every trace of the station and enter the thick of a country, resting uphill, and a stream running down the valley to the northeast. The Green Hills Bridge was just outside the village, and one must cross it to go further in the fields and reach the next village.

Kai jumped off the carriage, took a deep breath of the cool, village air, and walked towards the stone bridge curving over the stream. A few men walked by, eying him warily, children running behind them carrying tiny buckets of water.

Kai ignored them and stopped in the middle of the bridge, facing down the river. His eyes followed the stream and saw it disappearing into the distance against a small hill. When he made sure that he was alone, he took out the broken Iron Coin, tossed the two halves in his hand, and then dropped it into the stream.

Then he waited.

The morning became afternoon, and by now, the entire village knew that a strange man was haunting their bridge. Item-M had told him that there were Contestants in this village too, but unless provoked, they wouldn't confront him on their own.

Kai tapped his fingers on the bridge's parapet as the afternoon idled away in a magnificent evening.

It was then he heard the steps. Buried, light, and almost imperceptible. The steps of an assassin.

From the path running through the Green hills, opposite the one leading into the village, walked out a man in a black cowl. At one glance, Kai recognized the gait. That hideous walk, like a pheasant darting around. When the man neared Kai, he took off his hood, and a one-eyed man peeked out, smiling.

Was this Simon? Kai didn't even deign to ask this question now. It didn't matter.

"You are alive!" the Faceless man exclaimed impressively. "This is the second time you have proved a man wrong, Blood Demon."

"I am not here to gossip like some roadside wench," Kai said slowly, taking a stance. "Am I still the candidate for the Many-Face God's priesthood?"

"You certainly are," the faceless man nodded. "It takes more than that for us to strike off a name from the list. The question is, why are you here?"

Kai knew this question implied that his answer would dictate how things would play out from here onwards. But his answer was already sitting on the tip of his tongue.

"I want to learn Occlumency and Legilimency," he told him. "And I have 6 days on me."

Both men stared into each other's eyes, the faceless man trying to learn some unknown secret from Kai's face. But Kai had already locked his emotions.

"Your slave has a big mouth, eh?" the faceless man quipped. "One can't just come and learn our arts, Blood Demon, even if they are candidates."

"I will pay…"

"However," the faceless man said, cutting Kai's offer, "the High Priest has specific instructions regarding you. If you have something to say, then you can say it to him directly."

"The High Priest is here?!" Kai asked, his eyes widening. "On the 4th floor?"

The faceless man smiled slyly and nodded.

Had his luck changed for good? Was he truly that lucky? If he could threaten the High Priest, given that his Stats would be restricted, then…

'No!' Kai reprimanded himself. 'This is a dangerous thought. I must not act against them unless there's no other choice. I am here to learn not to kill. Remember.'

"Take me to him, then," he told the faceless man. "I will not go back empty-handed."

Simon laughed. He lifted his hand, and under Kai's stunned gaze, uncurled his fingers. There was a wet Iron Coin in his palm, broken in half.

'How?!' He had just asked himself, when the man threw the two halves towards him, which Kai snatched out of the air.

"Follow me," the faceless man said, donning back the hood. "The Many-Faced God has waited for you too long."

As he saw the robed man stepping off the bridge, Kai narrowed his eyes before taking a deep breath and following him.

Their destination lay somewhere in the sea of darkness, deep into the hills which were not green anymore.

*******

AN: Images relevant to the chapter are available on discord.