His Death, Part - I

"Is this all? Will I be left alone like this? I-I never showed gratitude to my parents for their sacrifices, I never expressed remorse to my girlfriend for hurting her, I never reconciled with my friends for abandoning them…"

One by one, all the regrets that plagued Kyle's heart surged forward. There was something inside his body that amplified his emotions. Filled with remorse, he pleaded again and again,

"I was mistaken... I-I'm sorry... I'm sorry…"

… but his plea only drifted into the endless void, making him feel empty. Regrettably, it had already reached a point where seeking forgiveness was futile.

Just like his remorse, all of his thoughts were also slowly being suppressed by the void, threatening to be consumed at any time.

He felt his mind becoming more and more hazy by the second. When his whole identity seemed to disappear, forever, he heard an ethereal voice calling to him.

"-ren, Ko..ren…"

The voice was incomplete, but it stirred a number of emotions inside him. His chest tightened with desperation, his limbs went numb with helplessness, his breath quickened with urgency. But more than that, like an anchor to reality, it triggered his natural instincts to survive.

Survive, even after dying.

As the voice kept calling him, gradually growing clearer, he came to understand that it was a desperate cry for help. The language it spoke was unlike anything he had ever heard on Earth, unfamiliar and alien. Its words pierced his mind like shards of glass, causing unimaginable pain to surge through his entire being.

Then, as if all the emotions inside his spirit became still like a sea before a thundering storm, he muttered a name under his breath.

"Kohren…"

After a second, when he thought everything was over, he felt as if he was showering in cold water during winter, goosebumps creeping over his skin on the first contact.

He felt his body heavy and wet, his clothes soaked, icy droplets raining down from the sky and splashing on his face.

"Kohren!!!"

With a sudden jolt, Kohren snapped awake, his heart pounding inside his chest wildly, while his body felt foreign.

He found himself in an unfamiliar place, shrouded in darkness and showering by the relentless rain.

The weeping of a young woman echoed in his ears, mingling with the sound of water splashing on the ground.

Confusion engulfed him when he noticed his trembling hands, realizing that he wore different clothes than before. The scorched fabric on his left arm and the bloodstains on his chest and neck left him stunned.

"Wh-what happened? What is this place? How am I alive?"

As he covered his face with his wet hands, checking if it was real or a sick game played by the God for not being grateful for his kind parents, his voice trembled with a quiver. The confusion that had consumed him gripped his heart with ever-increasing fear of the unknown.

'I was supposed to be dead, I felt my body crushing, no one can stay alive after being hit by a car like that, so why?'

He craned his neck upwards to see the dark and gloomy clouds, thunder roared at the same time, illuminating the dark alley for a moment.

'I need to go back, I need to go back home, I need to go back…'

Lost in thought, he failed to notice the presence of others, who were with him, under the rain.

"Kohren, Kohren…"

He looked at the young woman who was covering in front of him. She wore a petrified look on her face, lips trembling when she muttered the only thing he could make out, again and again, looking down with dead eyes. Soaking in the rain, she sat there without any manners, her soul, devastated.

Hugging her like a baby, was a girl no more than 10 years old. Her eyes were wide but her face told another story. Shivering in the cold, she looked at him as if she saw a ghost.

Even though it was his first time seeing them, there was a sense of familiarity that was making him to move forward, and hug them.

However, the girl raised her hand and pointed at something behind Kohren's back, but he was a moment behind to realize that something was amiss.

Zzzzzt, Boom!

Without any warning, a sparkling ball of pure energy assaulted his back like a comet, blasting him to the nearby wall.

The young lady named Reaina notices the bright light that lit up for a moment before diminishing as it shone. The girl who was hugging her mother, Kimly, closed her eyes and tightened her grip with her trembling hands.

"Everything is a dream, everything is a dream," She whispered under her breath.

"Did we get him for real?"

A man with a blurry figure asked. His name was Den. Under the dark cover, one of his eyes was shining blue like a solitary star in an empty sky. His question was addressed to one of his companions who were all Modders like himself.

"Probably," his companion Blerg answered after lowering down his silver mechanical arm that was shaped like a long pointed rifle. Soon, that rifle broke down into parts and shaped itself to form his hand.

"... but I clearly blasted off his head," he mused silently.

"Guys..." One of their accomplice, Zon, a man with most of his face replaced by a robotic counterpart, pointed towards the spot where Kohren had crashed and landed.

"He-his heart, still b-beating!!" He cried.

"Impossible! No record showed he was Awakened, so how can he still be alive after hitting two times?"

All of them became silent when Blerg expressed his disbelief. His first attack had already obliterated that man's head out of nowhere and everyone saw the bloody bath, including his wife and daughter, resulting in them losing any hope they had.

Even if the attackers thought it was an illusion or holograph, the second blast had proved them wrong by clearly hitting their target.

The young woman and her child noticed their commotion and looked in the direction where Kohren was laying with his eyes closed.

Rumble!!

The sky crackled with another thunderous clap that roared before brightening up the place for a second.

In that short moment, everyone saw Kohren's lying body with a huge hole in his cloth.

In contrast to the attack that was meant to blow off his upper body, it merely left a wide cut in his clothes.

Before long, they saw his hand twitching. The assailants were left dumbfounded, while Reaina and Kimly's eyes sparkled with a glimmer of hope.

"Fuck the records, everyone! Initiate synchronization!"

The single blue-eyed man, Den, barked his commands. His body produced various sounds of clicking as he strolled down to where Kohren was, his fist getting two times bigger along the way.

Similarly, the other two followed his suit and initiated synchronization.

Blerg with his silver automated arm, fell on his knees while gritting his teeth. His arm slowly changed its form by getting bigger, sharper, and more ominous than before.

With the 'Swizz,' Zon, whose face was already dominated by machine parts, transformed his whole head into a robotic visage. He joined their leader and started to surround Kohren.

He opened his mouth which started to gather energy, converting them into a ball, he started to shoot it rapidly into Kohren's body.

His leader Den, who didn't back off from the continued attack, started to add his own by punching Kohren with his powerful iron fists.

BANG! BANG!

Swizk, swizk,

Staring at the continued assault on her husband, Reaina couldn't help but shudder in fear; her tears, swallowed by the unforgiving rain.

Her heart repeatedly gets crushed by the guilt of her helplessness.

"Papa, no!" Her daughter Kimly screamed at the cruel scene that was playing in her vision. She left her mother and took a step, but was soon pulled back. She wanted to stop those bad guys from hitting her father, in any way she could, but her mother's strong embrace forbade her.

"Please… I don't want to lose you too," She heard her mother's cry and stopped struggling.

Meanwhile, no matter how much the attackers' Den and Zon attacked, Kohren's body regenerated that part within a second.

"Damn! He's an undying monster!" The boss who repeatedly crushed Kohren's head, spat out those words when he saw it regenerate back.

"Boss… His heartbeat is rising faster," After stopping his bombardment of short bursts of energy, Zon spoke in a monotone.

"Let's see how he can survive after this," The remaining one who was transforming his mechanical hand before, voiced out. His arm now was the size of a cannon, with three angular tips protruding out like a trident, the middle one being shorter than the rest. He walked out to them and pointed his weapon at Kohren's body.

Den revealed a smile after noticing the big weapon.

"I wonder how will you regenerate after this?" He said coldly.

Both Den and Zon took a step back and made way for Blerg to take aim. His weaponized arm glowed blue at the edges. Sparkling electricity circulated with branches on the three prongs before condensing into a small ball at the tip of the shorter spike.

With each passing second, the condensed ball increased its power fold after fold. The three of them waited for the ball to reach maximum capacity to shoot and disintegrate Kohren's body.

"Wait, don't shoot at Papa!" Kimly couldn't stand watching it and cried out, struggling once again to escape from her mother.

"Boss, do you need that girl?" Zon asked. "Not necessarily. She'll be used as blackmail material for her mother." Den replied. He noticed that the little girl's eyes were still bright and pure. Then, he curled up the edges of his lips.

"I only need her life as a bargaining chip." He added.

"You got it," Zon spoke without any emotion. He took out his sleek gun from behind and pointed it at the girl.

"No!!" Her mother cried out. "Please, not her, I'm willing to tell you anything, please don't hurt her," She locked her hands on her daughter's waist and turned around, there was a little hope that they wouldn't attack her.

However, everything became silent the next second. Even the rain didn't dare to make a voice and stopped.

Thud!

Then, she heard the sound of someone landing. She turned her head a little, wanting to take a sidelong glance at what was happening.

Soon, her eyes widened with horror, and tightly held her child.

Zon, who pointed his gun at the lady and her child, spewed his blood like a waterfall from his mouth.

Blerg, who was about to shoot the condensed blast, screamed in horror the next moment.