This is not a hopeful world we live in
Kain! Kain! Where's Kain?!
What are you yelling about, Joanne!? Focus on helping the front line!
Fuck, that metahuman is a monster! Fucking trash!
What do we do?!
REMY!?
The camp was being attacked, or rather, besieged. This was the second day of the raid turned siege, only the second week after Kain's joining of the group.
It was a war. Another group had heard of the gains they had made in there, and, given a lack of food, decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for survival – other people's lives.
Leading the charge was none other than a metahuman who could seemingly control plants and cause fires out of nowhere.
That was a main part of the other group's tactic. They had set fires to the snow and surrounding trees causing a mass mix of steam and smoke.
It had all happened so quick there no room to move their encampment. John's little civilization was effectively trapped and in desperate straits.
After all, the other group was not looking for more mouths to feed, just more food to eat.
Bullets flew by in the night. Small explosions rocked the snowy suburban city terrain.
All in all, it was quite a strange scene.
To those who were lying on the ground in tents, some of those individuals that had foraged deeper into the center of Atlanta, everything might have been a blur.
Bullets were silver lines leaving behind spatial distortions. Fire was a roaring fucanglong circling them with eyes intent on satisfaction and prize. Their fellow friends and spouses that were firing back, nothing more than leaves following the wind's derelict path.
Yes, the path that this conflict was taking would soon yield a winn-
Crunch.
The sound of boots crunching could be heard distinct from all the other noises.
Screams, cries, whimpering, sighs, yells, and silence. Over all, these footsteps reigned supreme.
Not because they held some particular power over those actions, but simply because those who heard it knew what it meant.
Relief. Hope. A chance.
Many eyes from in the tents looked towards the direction of the sound. Not many others could hear this slight sound.
Crench. Crunch. Cruuhch.
The trench coat was the first thing to be seen of the figure who walked out of the smoke that surrounded the camp.
I go out for a bit of mapping and I return to greed?
Kain looked towards the area from which he heard consistent gun fire, then towards the tents.
The surrounding wind which could only lightly blow snowflakes towards north suddenly picked up.
For a bit, he simply stood there as if taking in the scenery.
Of course, the information was flowing.
John is on the ground bleeding out. Luke was defending Joanne. Joanne was firing at a metahuman who was defending with…wood? People were suddenly combusting. And…the other group had a division that was circling around towards where he had entered the camp. With them, he could hear the "ching" of metal tapping metal.
Kain flicked a finger.
Wind blasted upwards over the area he had entered through, causing the small embers to light up once more.
Almost too cozy for this coat. So, what do we do here to save the most amount of people?
Kain questioned the efficiency of the various methods at his disposal.
I could cause a massive blast of wind, but that's more likely to kill everyone. I could make use of water, but the other group back there seems to want to do the same to end this skirmish quick. I'm actually pretty useless here. I can't let Joanne die though.
Kain strolled towards the tents and opened one.
Can any of you move? If I needed you all to move for the sake of your lives, could you do it?
Out of the six people lying in the tent, only two nodded.
Sigh.
With this information completing his network, he simply could not imagine a way the group lived through this encounter.
His control of his abilities was nowhere near being specific enough to have the wind not affect a large part of the camp. The group sieging them was larger. They had a good strategy. John, the leader of this group, was dying without even the strength to give a command.
As much fun as he had had with this group, this seemed to be the end of it - their little paradise in an officially post-apocalyptic world. They had hoped to keep some form of civility and had failed to hark the wind which had brought tidings of war.
Of course, stepping back into Atlanta in competition with others would spawn envy and bloodshed.
Such a shame.
Kain only whispered these words as he began to walk towards Joanne and the other people defending the other side of the camp.
In such a moment, he did not forget to take in everything that was happening. It was too rare an experience not to. Everything was so falsely visceral. The "sssss" of burning snow and the occasional "pop" of a crystal shattering. The "papapa" of various smaller guns, the rumble and crackle of wood weakening under a force it could not withstand, the grey visual made even more monotone by the dark veil of smoke. The feeling it evoked in the lungs. Coughing, hoarse yelling, shrill screams. He didn't truly feel any of what was occurring before him. He had long been numbed in the mind to such things, but his body could still feel so much of this scene that only a selective few in existence would be able to claim having been apart of.
It was a horrid moment under a beautiful lens.
His biology was calling him to yell with them, to experience the fire with them.
However, it could only be disappointed. His current mindset was already a result of steeling himself through fire, of surviving. Now was the time, once more, to survive.
He made it rather quick as he picked up both Joanne and Luke while yelling for everyone to follow him in retreat.
He chose a path to the side of the camp. The enemy division that went to the back of the camp would have to sprint to catch up and the group of enemies at the front of the camp were blocked by fire.
Let's go! Take who you can! As for the others, may god either bring forth a miracle or rest their souls above! GO! GO! GO! NOW!
---------------------------------------------------------
What are the chances we could be something more, Celeste?
…
…
I-I can't right now. There's…there's too much going on.
Obviously, I get that. I'm referring to the fu-
The future? Ah! The future! What future do we have right now?
There is a solution to most problems. We are not certainly going to die.
On a planet we don't know due to reasons we don't know being attacked by enemies we don't know? How could we live through this?
…
---------------------------------------------------------
We left them. Maria, Kiki, James. You…left them! YOU LEFT THEM. COULDN'T YOU HAVE SAVED THEM?
No.
WITH ALL THE POWERS YOU HAVE? BULLSHIT! YOU JUST DON'T CARE YOU SOCIOPATH! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!
…
AHHHHHH-
Calm down, Joanne. He allowed for all of us to escape a situation we otherwise wouldn't have gotten out of.
The look in Luke's eye as he nodded towards Kain was, for once, without any negative influence. Unlike Joanne's now, it was simply thankful.
Out of 43 people, only 8 survived.
Though Kain truly had tried his best in experimenting at using the wind to misguide the bullets when escaping, with the sheer number that were flying through the air, there were many he failed to misguide.
Their path to survival was paved with body after body of their allies, friends, and families.
Cardinal and gold lay the snow.
---------------------------------------------------------
You know…I seem less badass the more you know about me, right? Then, I just seem dangerous. And humans have a notorious streak when it comes to danger…
Kain tried to sip the dark brown coffee he had made but ended up coughing and sputtering.
Shiai, unsurprisingly, looked unimpressed and her expression softened a little, though her aura did not.
So, are you going to explain what just happened, Er…erwaswhatsit?
Here, I'll give you three pieces of information, and no more than that. The rest…well, you'll have to follow the lines. The first piece is that I protect something that 26 individuals have tried to pass. The second is that your powers have an origin outside of yourself. The third is that it's about damn time humanity cared for itself. I've grown old in so short a time fighting for you all. I think it's about time I get a break.
What the hell are you talking about?
You know, I don't like coffee.
One of the spheres, cardinal in color, that had appeared in the room suddenly became a brunette man of short stature.
Master Kain is referring to our discovery and monitoring of multiple other planets in nearby connected main-planes where there are species that are easily our intellectual equivalent, but more importantly our spiritual and physical equivalent. They are starting to understand the notion of world branches.
A black sphere suddenly popped out a stunningly tall, black-haired woman.
To put it in terms you are familiar with, a new colonial period is upon us. We know that you are aware of sub-planes. The "Gods" of the various organizations clearly make use of the few they have discovered, but we refer to main-planes, spaces that can contain contradictory life. It is important to reiterate; a new colonial period is upon us.
A green sphere shattered and the outline of the figure of a man stood in its place.
We have created an alliance with some of the powers of one of the other planets in the name of Humanity. Master Kain, however, finds it time that he step out of the political equation now that humanity has developed enough, thus his point in meeting you here is to have you break this knowledge to the world. You are, after all, the strongest power on Earth.
Throughout this torch-passing discussion, Shiai's outward expression did not change.
Sigh.
Tell me then, Era-
Kain was long gone; the only thing left was the coffee he had sipped. However, it was empty, as if it had never been filled.
HOW?!
Please calm down Mrs. Shiai. He likes this place. He would prefer it not be destroyed. '
HOW DID HE DO IT?
…
It might seem silly to imagine that Shiai of all people would react like this, but rather, it was exactly because it was her that she did react like this. In all the ten years that had passed, she had never been defeated in any manner by a fellow metahuman, god, whatever they wanted to call themselves. She had never not been aware of their coming and going. Her aura alone was enough to suppress most beings and identify even more.
Yet, she did not even realize when the man had left.
This meant that he had to at least be her equal…she had never had an equal.
Well, Mrs. Shiai, we are assigned to accompany you to the conference. My name is Allure.
The tall, black-haired woman spoke up.
Conference? What conference?
The one that you scheduled, at which you'll tell all the powers of the world that it is time they took the survival of humanity seriously once more.
The one I sched-You didn't.
It was a simple trick. There are no lasting effects nor any malicious intent. Now, if you please, you have a meeting in two hours!
ERASMUS! ASCETIC KING! WHER-
A whisper suddenly blew by her ear.
"Do enjoy the water I left you…and have a wonderful meeting."
AHHHHHHHHHH!
Allure snapped her fingers and a wave of what looked like ink washed over everyone whose body was currently in the shop in physicality, before fading away like a firework.
---------------------------------------------------------
Kain was currently taking a phone call.
No, no, she's not particularly unintelligent, no, she just doesn't want to use all of what she has up there. She's certainly an excellent fighter, but give her some inspiration, would you? Mrs. Crim-Celeste?
And, what's in it for me?
You said you needed sources, right?
Semi-divine.
Right! You do this for me, and I will get you a few semi-divine sources.
I want them within five days.
Wooh, you push a hard bargain.
…