Kairo pushed himself up from beside the grave, fists clenched at his sides.
"Ohh yeah… they think like that, huh? Don't worry kids just stay silent and don't utter a single world i can cast magic and protect you "
He pulled a scroll from Kai's pouch and began reading it aloud, his voice steady at first. An hour dragged by under the cold night sky. Several of the younger children dozed off, curled up against each other near the fire.
"Uhh, it isn't working…" Kairo muttered, lowering the scroll with a heavy sigh. "Seems like I need to chop those trees."
He gripped the nearest trunk and pulled with raw strength. The whole tree shifted and then Kairo was able to remove it with roots. His arms trembled from the effort.
"Well, because of that brutal training where all my ligaments and lots of muscle tore… now I have the strength of an average man here. Or maybe an old man."
His shoulders slumped as he stared at his shaking hands.
"And I am just worthless. I couldn't even use magic properly. I couldn't even protect these kids. Look at them… there are so many out here, around eighty, and they're sleeping peacefully because they think I can protect them. Uhh, damn it… damn it…"
He stacked the remaining branches for the fire, then dropped to his knees, burying his face in his hands as quiet sobs shook his body. Hot tears slipped between his fingers.
I don't know why, but I feel so worthless. If I had accepted becoming a monster, I would have killed everyone in seconds… and maybe Kai would have been alive. Uhh, if I had just found a single clue… a single clue would have been enough. Kai isn't smart enough to pull off something like that alone. There is someone in the shadows observing me.
A presence prickled at the back of his neck. Kairo whipped around, heart leaping into his throat—only to see a pack of wolves emerging from the darkness, eyes glowing.
"Talk about timing. I thought it was a shadow, but it's just wild animals. And I am screwed."
The wolves froze, then suddenly turned tail and vanished into the trees.
"Wait, what? They just ran away from here… but why?"
Kairo stepped toward the nearby river and leaned over the water. His reflection stared back—not his human face, but the monstrous form he had nearly become, eyes glowing with feral power.
Smoke coiled up from the ground beside him, slowly taking the shape of a hazy version of himself. A familiar voice echoed from within it.
"Hey, I will help you become that monster again. And I don't need any contract or anything. I am you. Think of it as Kai's last gift. It's me, Kairo."
The smoky figure extended a hand. "Accept me."
"Oo Kairo, let's burn these people."
"Oo Kairo, let's conquer the whole world."
Kairo's breath hitched. "Tell me about the powers I will get if I accept you."
"Power? You can create any power you want. The only thing which will make you powerless is your ability to think."
"Ability to think?"
The smoky figure tilted its head with a smirk. "Kairo, think of it as a very good deal. Can't you just make your thinking prowess more good and powerful? More and more intelligent."
Kairo's jaw tightened. "I should have listened to my father."
"Wait, what?"
"I should have believed in God instead of that. I became an atheist."
The smoky Kairo recoiled. "Are you nuts or something? I am giving you unlimited power, strength, intelligence—all that—and you will believe in tales of your stupid father?"
Kairo stepped forward and slapped the figure hard across the face. The smoky version dropped to its knees, flickering.
"This is the belief of a person who believes in God."
The figure threw its head back and laughed maniacally. "Ohh, that slap is nothing but your arrogance. Look at you. You think you are a tough guy who can take all that beating from those people? You just died yesterday from those kids. You think you can take those adults? You think you will defeat a whole kingdom all by yourself just because of your imaginary good?"
The smoke surged forward and poured into Kairo's body.
Power flooded through him instantly. With a casual snap of his fingers, a sturdy house materialized beside the sleeping children. Kairo's feet lifted off the ground as he soared upward, the forest shrinking beneath him. Higher and higher he flew until the entire land spread out below like a map.
"It just looks like our Earth but with a different landscape. It has no islands… it is just one piece of land. They are not separate, huh?"
He drifted even higher, approaching the sky. "Wait, I saw two suns. Why is there only one?"
His body suddenly moved against his will and plummeted from the heavens. Heat engulfed him as he tore through the atmosphere, flesh burning and healing in an endless agonizing cycle.
"Stop it!" Kairo screamed, voice raw.
"Only if you accept me."
"I don't make the same mistake twice!"
The house he had built looked tiny far below. If I hit near the river it will still be hard as ground and wake the kids up. Now let me go away from them.
He twisted mid-air, skydiving far beyond the children's camp, still screaming in agony as tears evaporated from the intense heat. His tear glands burned away completely. He kept falling, faster and faster.
Right before impact, time froze.
The smoky voice whispered inside his head. "Accept my deal, oo Kairo. I can save you… or taste dirt."
"No way."
Time resumed.
Kairo slammed into the earth with cataclysmic force. He unleashed a desperate spell to contain the impact, turning what should have been a devastating explosion into something focused inward. The blast that would have vaporized the land and killed the innocent children detonated entirely inside his body instead.
His form exploded into tiny pieces in a storm of blood and agony. Yet he did not die. Every shredded fragment of his being burned with unrelenting pain, forcing him to endure it all—conscious, suffering, and still alive.
Kairo lay in the massive crater, his broken body trembling as waves of agony crashed through him.
"Why me…? Why me…?" His voice came out hoarse and cracked. "Why can't I just live a normal life? I didn't choose this world… Why do I have to suffer this pain? If I say yes… if I say no… Why…? Why can't I just die already? I need rest… If I die, everything will be over… then why won't I get free? I can't handle it anymore…"
He fell silent, chest heaving with shallow, ragged breaths. For a long moment, only the distant crackle of the faraway campfire and the cold night wind filled the air. Then his trembling fists slowly unclenched.
"It is no use… I give up on keeping my hopes high." His voice grew steadier, though pain still laced every word. "If I have to live, then I will live like a brave man. I won't quiver and say 'why me.' If it is my future to suffer, then I will make sure no other people suffer as I have."
Kairo paused again, staring up at the indifferent stars. His bloodied lips pressed into a thin line as bitter realization settled over him.
"My pride… it's gone now. I know why. How bad it feels when someone who is trying to do his best, who wants to be very good at something… and then a genius—who was me—who acts cold…" He swallowed hard, eyes glistening. "Now I know how it feels. So that's why…"
He pushed himself up with shaking arms, dirt and blood caking his face.
"I will stop being arrogant. See the other me—I am not an arrogant brat anymore. Because there is someone out there who is always better than me. Who is stronger than me. Who is better looking than me. Who is smarter than me."
Kairo stood on unsteady legs, swaying slightly as he gazed upward.
"Instead of telling myself I am better than others, I will say—even if I am better than others, what's the point of showing your powers which will be lost one day?"
He looked at the stars, eyes distant.
"Yesterday I was someone who could destroy a planet. Now I can't even destroy a fly in my condition."
His legs gave out. Kairo fell backward, landing heavily inside the enormous crater left by his fall from space. The impact sent fresh spikes of pain shooting through his body, but he barely reacted anymore.
"Now I know why he sent me here. He wanted me to ensure that these people break my heart over and over again. He is manipulating events… giving them power by killing kids. In exchange, they get power… and he gets something more important. His goal is to make people go toward Hell by giving them worldly things."
Even though every movement hurt like fire, Kairo forced himself to stand once more. He looked up at the sky, eyes locking onto a specific faint star—the one near where he had built the campfire. Gritting his teeth, he began the long walk back.
Each step was more agonizing than the last. Four grueling hours passed. Sweat poured down his face, mixing with blood and dirt. His breathing grew shallow and ragged, but he never stopped.
Finally, he reached the campsite. The eighty or so children were still sleeping peacefully around the dying fire, completely unaware that Kairo had built an entire house in an instant, or that he had once uprooted massive trees with raw strength.
A faint, genuine smile touched Kairo's cracked lips.
Then his body gave out completely. He collapsed face-first onto the ground beside them, unconscious.
Kairo's eyes fluttered open slowly. The first thing he saw was the group of children sleeping peacefully around him, their small bodies huddled close for warmth. The sky outside was still dark, the campfire reduced to glowing embers.
He tried to sit up without making a sound, but his movement stirred one of the kids. The boy's eyes snapped open.
"Sorry for waking you up," Kairo whispered, voice rough and weak.
The child suddenly lunged forward. Kairo tensed, but the boy wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. One by one, the others began to stir, rubbing sleepy eyes.
"Big brother! You've finally woken up!"
Kairo blinked, looking around the group with a faint smile that quickly faded. "Wait… why are there only seventy kids here? There were eighty."
All the children fell silent at once. Their small faces grew somber.
Kairo's gaze drifted outside the campsite. His stomach dropped. The young girl he had first spoken to—the one who said they were offered as prey to predators—lay motionless on the ground. Dead. And the ones responsible were the same group of kids who had nearly beaten him to death days ago.
"Was it those kids again?"
"Adults too," one of the boys answered quietly, fists clenched in his lap.
"Hmm. What were their causes of death?"
"Food," the same boy replied. "It was because of food. You slept for a whole week. Your body looked normal, but when we touched you, you screamed like crazy. After four days, you stopped screaming, so we brought you here."
Kairo exhaled shakily. "Hmm… so I built a house at Kai's place…"
"Who is Kai?" a small girl asked, tilting her head.
Kairo turned and pointed toward the grave he had made. "He protected me from that cursed forest."
One of the older boys frowned. "But this grave has been here before you even came. You're a traveler, right?"
Kairo froze, confusion clouding his face. Wait… I'm confused right now.
He crawled closer to the gravestone. The stone he had carefully placed looked ancient now, weathered and old, as if it had stood there for years. Etched into it was a single name: Kai.
"Uhh… I forgot about it, but wait… it says Kai."
"But it must be a coincidence," another child offered.
"We used to stay here because other animals weren't able to come near," a boy added.
"We stay here because no animals attack us," another confirmed.
Kairo stared at the old grave in silence as a chill ran down his spine.
Wait a second… so does that mean Kai was already dead and he still helped me? Or was he some kind of angelic monster which I never asked about?
The night wind whispered through the trees, carrying an uneasy stillness over the campsite.