Chapter Fourteen: The Legend of the Benevolent Goddess

Luthen and Sophia reached the safehouse. She held the book they had gotten from the Archive; Luthen called it the Legend for short.

The book was did not look special. It just had its title and a seven pointed star on its cover. In fact, Sophia may had not noticed it if it did not look recently used. She wanted to find out what made the last person who was in the Archive use the book.

Just then, Kane and Almighty opened the door. Sophia felt something and went to check the door. She saw them drenched in blood.

"Kane! After 4 days? What happened?" She frowned at their appearance.

"It is not my blood. At least, most of it isn't". He then turned to look at Almighty "This is–"

"The Matter Shard. Yes, I know. I knew when I saw him"

She turned to Almighty.

"Hello. Nice to meet you" Almighty said extending his hand for a handshake. It dripped blood.

"Same here. I am not going to shake on it though." Sophia and kept her hands close to herself. "How did you ever leave the middle of the city looking like that?"

"We stuck to the shadows." Almighty said.

"I do not think that can hide all this blood..." She said in doubt.

"We need to clean up." Kane said

"Definitely." She said.

Luthen called "Sophia, I found something!" He rushed to where she was, only to first notice blood-soaked Kane and his blood-stained friend.

Huh? He thought.

*******

Kane relaxed in the bath. The past half-week had been a long one. It rested his muscles. Almighty had been an incredible opponent.

Sophia's expression when she saw him came into his mind. It started with worry and relief and shifted to disgust. She probably knew that amount of blood on him then wasn't from one person and also wasn't given by their respective owners willingly. She would think of him as a murderer. Not that he cared. She did not see Edram being molested.

He would tell her everything and then how she felt about it was to be left to her discretion. He could care less if she called him a monster. Not everything could be solved through diplomacy and talking. Anyways, after all this, he did not plan on staying close to her anyway.

With that, he shook the thoughts of his mind and fully relaxed.

*******

Kane met Almighty, Sophia and Luthen in the living room. Sophia and Luthen were discussing something with Sophia holding a book.

"Hey."

They all looked at him.

"You could start by telling us where you were for the last 4 days. Please, do not skip the part where you acquired that much blood on your clothes. Luthen and I are interested."

Am I? Not really. Luthen thought

Kane could have just ignored them and just provided the information he had, even if it meant breaking away from their group. Instead he sighed and started to tell them everything.

The alley incident and Edram, When he was taken to their boss, the numerous tournament fights he had to fight in, How he sensed Almighty, final match and every detail of how he massacred most of the members of the fighting ring.

"Done." he said at last. "Now, you return the favour."

"Wait first. We have questions."

"Ok then. Ask."

"What is his name?" She said referring to Almighty who had arrived in the middle of the story telling. "You realize his name is not 'Almighty' right?"

"Is that an important question right now?"

"So you do not know it?" She said.

"Whatever." Kane said.

She turned to Almighty "Sorry I did not ask your name earlier. You were…"

"It is fine. I'm Somen. Somen Torun" Almighty – now Somen – said.

"Next question. Were you followed here?"

Kane smiled. She did not believe he could have completely eliminated everyone. They could be back for vengeance.

 It was Somen that answered though.

"If anyone could have survived that massacre, and followed us, we would have sensed them before coming here."

 "We have answered your questions. Now what's up?"

"We broke into the Archive."

"What is that?" Somen asked.

"You are not from around here?"

"No. I am not."

She sighed. "The Archive is a repository of records of the Great Nobles from the time of the First Seven."

"Why'd you break into it? I thought we were looking for information on Voyne?" Kane looked puzzled

"We needed to know what the High Council had to give him." She said

"Why would the Great Nobles grant him anything?" Kane asked.

"When Voyne staged that explosion at the mall, he did it to present evidence against us Shards, so he could force the Circle to grant him three requests." She said

 "You are just saying this now?!" Kane said

"S-Sorry. It slipped my mind. I did say it but you weren't around." She said.

That explained why Luthen did not share in their confusion.

"So this Voyne is the bad guy. What are the requests?" Somen asked

"Firstly, that all forms of persecution against the Church and him should cease."

"Secondly, one-tenth of all Soul Aspect users currently known and yet to be discovered will be placed under his command"

"He said he would reveal his third request before only the High Council."

"No wonder though." Kane looked grim

"No wonder what?" Luthen said, wanting to understand why Kane's face changed from being normally stoic.

"What have you got?" She asked Kane.

"Voyne has started gathering mercenary fighters with Abilities. He's planning a big expedition and needs a lot of fighters"

It is another reason they all had to die. He thought. He did not regret it one bit.

"Y-Yeah. Some cloaked guys came to meet me and tried convincing me to join them many times. They even gave me a location to meet them." Somen said

"Where's that?" Luthen said

"Jerletown, the capital of Sacred Island. An island off the coast of Garth."

"Garth? Why is he gathering there?" Sophia said

"It has to do something with his last request, I'll bet. Now that he can operate freely, he is started to accelerate his plans." Kane said

Sophia looked at the Legend. They needed to accelerate theirs too.