- How The Roles Switch Again

"Well look who we have here?"

Cain clutched the blade, refusing to let it slip from his grasp as his eyes made contact with the man's, who had remained hidden this entire time.

But the man wasn't willing to give up just so soon, and as his feet touched the ground, he lashed out with his other hand, delivering what he had hoped would be a solid punch to Cain's abdomen.

However, he was left disappointed when the fist never made contact, as Cain's second hand shot out, grabbing his wrist, and using a portion of his strength, flung the man to the side against the trees.

Leaves fell from the branches covering and littering the floor with different colors.

Autumn seemed to be drawing nearer, as the trees were beginning to change their color.

"I was wondering where you had gone? Tell me Krill, what did you hope to accomplish by revealing yourself."

Cain smiled as he gestured to Krill, as he struggled to get up.

"Shut…Shut up!"

Krill shot forward, his speed was fast, but not as fast as he thought. Where others would see a blur, Cain saw a man running in slow motion towards his direction.

Smirking, the corner of his lips rising, Cain shot forward himself, his speed truly a blur, as even in slow motion, his body appeared right next to Krill's with his knee positioned right under his chest.

To Gloria however, all she saw was how Krill shot forward, secretly praising the gods that he had come back to help her. However, just as he made it about half way, Cain disappeared, reappearing with his knee embedded deep in Krill's stomach, who gasped at the force of the blow, spitting out saliva.

"Kagh! Guuu…"

Krill clutched his stomach, doubling over in pain, as he struggled to regain the breath he lost.

But Cain wasn't done.

"You're so prideful…"

He reeled back his right leg, and kicked Krill square in the head where he was doubling over.

"...you forget who's the monster here."

Krill's head flew back, blood on his mouth and seeping from his nose.

He struggled to reach for a second blade, a small dagger attached to his side against his rib cage. Drawing it however, proved more difficult for him, as the moment he did so and realized it against Cain, the man was already in front of him, slapping the blade away.

Krill watched the blade fall to the ground, his hopes crushed as metal made contact with dirt.

Picking the man up by his shirt, Cain punched him deep in the gut, sending another mouthful of blood pouring out of his mouth and onto Cain's shoulder, who barely batted an eye at the gruesome scene.

"A small question if you don't mind?"

Krill made no motion to respond, blood and tears pouring from his mouth and eyes.

"Why work with her?"

Cain gestured to Gloria, who was scrambling on her back in fear of what had just happened before her.

After all, she knew just how strong Krill was, and while he didn't stand much to gain against her men, she was quite doubtful in bridging them.

In fact, her guards had only been that, guards. They were just meant to be there for Gloria to feel protected. However, she knew that Krill, if he was really trying hard enough, could kill them.

But if there was anything that Gloria hated more than that, was not being in control. She was the client, and Krill was the subordinate. So why was he always acting like she had no say in the things he did.

She hated it, and Cain knew this.

"Krill, come on man, answer me. I know you are stronger than that."

Looking at the man, whose head was reeling over his shoulder, Cain could only sigh in disappointment.

"Out of all the people - all the clients you could have ahad, you chose to take her order?"

Cain repositioned Krill in front of him so that their eyes could meet.

"Her arrogant, blood thirsty, power hungry, selfish ass. Of all the people you chose her? Why?"

"F*ck you."

Krill's sorry attempt to cuss Cain out proved fatal for him as Cain took that opportunity to slap Krill across the face, leaving a streak of blood on his palm.

"I need to know why Krill. Was it money? Fear? What? Come on, you can tell me. It's not like you're going to live long after this, so you have no one to fear."

Krill said nothing, and just looked deep in Cain's smiling, sadistic eyes.

"Krill…don't tell me you did all this for her looks?"

"F*ck no."

"Ha! I knew it. But in case you didn't get the memo here, she hired you to come after me and someone I happen to care about. So I need some information."

His smile loosened on his face, and so did his sadistic eyes, as it was replaced by sole and absolute stern seriousness.

"Tell me."

"N…No."

"Why?"

Krill spat blood on Cain's cheek, proving his resolve.

However, as Cain wiped away the blood, not breaking eye contact, he grabbed a finger from Krill's hand and broke it.

"Gha! S-Stop-Gha!"

Cain broke another, and another, until three fingers had been broken, and only then did he stop. His mind was reeling but it was blank. His mind filled with pictures he couldn't see, memories he couldn't identify, and ideas he couldn't picture.

"Torture. It's the best option when you have nothing at your disposal."

Cain's face told everything, and Krill's eyes, wide with fear, told more than Gloria needed to know. In shock she yelled out, fear controlling her.

"You'll kill him you psycho!"

"Oh I know. That was the goal after all."

Cain paid Gloria barely a glance as he turned his focus back on Krill. But as he opened his mouth to continue speaking, Gloria interrupted him with more of her yelling, clearly not done with her little rant.

"You're a monster!"

Not even thinking about her words, Cain just shrugged and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Thank you for noticing. Now-"

He turned to her, his eyes flashing red with rage.

"Shut. Up."

"Eep!"

Gloria held both hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with fear and filled with horrid imagination.

"Thank you."

Turning back to Krill, his eyes grew serious for a moment.

"Now, Krill. Tell me again, why did you take her job?"

Krill's eyes, having had some color return to them, glared daggers into Cain's.

"You!"

He yelled through barred teeth.

"You killed Katlina!"

"Who? Oh - the little spy in the inn."

Cain's face formed a smile as he realized the connection between them.

"Sorry, but she didn't really give me a reason not to kill her. She was a bit…well, how would you put it. Devious?"

"She was on a job. My job! You shouldn't have killed her, just kill me instead!"

"A fair point you have there."

-Snap!

Krill's body fell to the ground, as Cain's eyes paused on his still raised hands.

"Huh. Didn't think that would kill him. Oh well."

He brushed off his hands and patted his clothing down, wiping away the blood on his shoulder and hands with a towel, all the while talking to himself.

"I didn't expect this to end so quickly, but I guess weaklings are still weakling. Now, if this was a real battle against experienced Phantom members, maybe I might have had some fun. A bit more than thirty minutes at least."

He turned to the forest, his eyes passing over the branches of the trees that hung over the clearing.

"Kal, you can come out now."

From the trees, a shadow flew down from the branches and leaves, landing on his two feet firmly on the ground.

In his left hand, he held the shirt of another man, a much, much younger man - most likely in his early twenties.

"Well?"

Cain asked, not paying a glance to the young man.

"He had archers stationed along the branches. Leave it to a gang leader to come to a meet up armed."

Kal was straight forward with his explanation, not bothering to imply that the archers were already dead, still sitting on their branches as they had been long before Cain ever entered the clearing.

However, as his eyes passed to the body next to him, he frowned.

"You killed him?"

Cain shrugged.

"I didn't expect him to die so easily. The others - yes, but him? No."

"We did need him to get information. What now that he's dead?"

"Oh I already know all of that."

"You do?"

Kal was confused, as if what Cain was telling was true, it meant they had committed murder for nothing. And the last thing Kal liked was to do something meaningless.

However, as he sensed this, Cain reassured him that everything was okay.

"Yes. I asked indirect questions and got direct answers."

"That doesn't make sense."

"It will if you think about it. Leave someone to talk about some small detail enough, and they eventually pour out the whole story to you, so long as you ask the right questions."

Cain turned to Gloria, who was shattering violently, her eyes to the ground, not daring to move.

"Now then, let's deal with you."

Gloria's shuttering became even more violent, as Cain's footsteps filled her ears until it was all she could hear.

Then they stopped.

***

As Kal watched the woman - Gloria, running away, he secretly stole glances at the body of Krill, and the many horrid details of what had happened were all over his body.

He was still unconvinced.

'Torture? Why torture?'

"Ask me what's on your mind Kal. You don't need to hold back your words."

From behind him, Cain, whose eyes were still watching Gloria as she ran through the woods, spoke.

In Kal's mind, Cain was currently debating whether it was a good idea to keep Gloria alive. But he knew Cain wouldn't go against his decision. It was either he won, or he lost, and more than likely if he lost, he would deal with it. That was just how he was.

Kal's eyes narrowed as he looked at Cain, his mind somewhat racing as he debated really telling his master what was on his mind.

In the end however, he made his choice.

"Why go to such lengths to get information. There were better ways to do this."

"True there were. However, I wanted to send a message."

"To who?"

Cain didn't say anything as he turned his head to Kal, pointing back to Gloria's rapidly disappearing body.

"I already got what I wanted. But I knew I had to send a message to the Phantoms through her."

He turned to look over the violence of his works, plastered all over Krill's lifeless body.

"That's why I was so violent. If they know I'm this hard to control based on my personality, there is a chance they'll keep to themselves from now on."

"Are you sure it will work?"

He shrugged, his face somewhat lost.

"Don't know. But I can make do with what I have. Frankly speaking, it's better to try an option while it's still available then to leave that option open until it's gone. By then I would have lost this chance, and I'll always wonder, 'Would I have been right?'"

Kal wanted to ask more, but he knew it was impossible to get a straightforward answer from Cain. After all, Kal knew Cain best, as he had served his side since the Great Collapse.

A time in which his world was scorching and Cain was at the center of that burning flame.

'I miss those times.'

Kal instinctively thought, as his mind went back to all those long forgotten memories, when he was fighting by Cain's side, against people his master once called his own.

"Me too."

Cain said, causing Kal's mind to snap out of his memories, meeting Cain's nostalgic look.

"Me too Kal."

Taking in a deep breath, and looking up to the sky, Cain took in the scenery. The smell of iron filling his nose, the smell of Autumn in the air and breeze, and the sounds of the earth that rolled in the ground, the dirt, and the trees.

"It's moments like these that I miss. Winning a battle, celebrating in glory. Those are all great, but it's truly this peace that changes me."

"How so?"

Kal asked, tilting his head.

"Peace, Kal. The peace before the war."

Taking in another breath full of air, he sighed.

"It's intoxicating."

The sound of rustling leaves and grass snapped Cain out of his moment, feeling the nostalgia wash away with the times of the present.

And as his eyes passed over the cause of this noise, he thought simply one phrase in his mind. A phrase he often used to close the door to these memories.

'The past remains the past. Nothing will change that.'

He took several steps towards the tree line, followed closely behind by Kal, who moved as silently as he did, not even the grass waving as he brushed past.

The cause of the sound was the young man Kal had captured from the group of archers Krill had. At the time he had been knocked unconscious, but now he was beginning to wake up.

As he did so, Cain could already feel the plans he had put in place, beginning to form along the edge of reality.

"Now then…"

He said squatting down, looking over the boy.

"What shall we do with you?"