Collin looked at Edward strangely.
“So he just does whatever he has to? I don’t exactly understand why that’s such a scary thing.”
Nola raised an eyebrow.
“Though I don’t like agreeing with Collin, I really feel you’ve been stepping around this topic. Couldn’t you just tell us?”
Edward blinked a few times.
“That’s why I said I would tell you guys about it. Just… give me a second to remember it all.”
Nola leaned back in her chair.
“Alright then. Don’t take too long.”
Edward muttered to himself.
“It’s almost like he doesn’t even understand what he’s doing is cruel.”
While he was thinking to himself, Kairos was currently holding a man’s mouth shut.
The reason why was because he could tell that he was going to scream loudly, thus he stopped him. This had actually come out of nowhere. Although there were signs that the man began realizing what exactly was going on, he didn’t show any blatant signs that he was going to scream.
Kairos furrowed his brows slightly.
“I didn’t expect that you would be smarter than you look.”
The man strained himself, twisting his limbs and even channeling mana to cast a spell. His struggle was actually a feint so that he would be able to cast the spell. However, it wasn’t exactly going to work on Kairos that could see mana in his body.
As the mana flowed towards the man’s hands, Kairos placed his thumb against the man’s elbow, pushing it to the side, and then pinching it.
A crack resounded in the room, while a muffled cry of pain came from the man. Kairos directly pulled off that arm and did hesitate to do it to the other arm either. The mana that had funneled towards his hand dissipated and fell to the ground.
Quinn had a complicated expression on his face as he saw all this.
“You really didn’t hesitate, huh? Was that really necessary?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“He was about to shout. Then after I stopped him, he tried to cast a spell. So I broke off his arms to stop him.”
Quinn’s eyelid twitched.
“I… see.”
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
“Actually… he’s probably going to try to talk, isn’t he? It’s not like I can keep him quiet the entire time, but we still need him alive.”
Quinn slowly nodded.
“I guess that makes sense.”
The man continued to struggle and was beginning to tear up from the pain of losing his arms. Though, soon after, his eyes widened all the way from shock.
Because Kairos had directly torn his lower jaw off, before tossing it to the ground.
The man proceeded to let out various painful gurgling sounds. As he collapsed on the ground. He then tried to run away, which prompted Kairos to grab onto him and rip off his legs.
Afterwards, Kairos tossed the man onto the ground and let out a soft sigh.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this.”
Quinn looked at the man that was gurgling out in pain with a scrunched-up expression.
“Did you not consider how loud he is? The others definitely heard that.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“I already thought of that. There’s one of them called Liam that is currently in the process of transforming into a monster. I’m just going to tell them that the sounds came from him.”
Quinn blinked a few times.
“You brought someone in just for that purpose?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, that was one of the reasons, but I still intend to experiment on him too.”
Quinn couldn’t speak for a good few seconds.
“I see.”
Kairos looked down at the man.
“He’s a little bloody now, but you can still observe the changes in him, right?”
Quinn slowly nodded.
“Yes, I will continue to observe him.”
The man was sobbing as he moved his stubs as though his limbs were still there, as though trying to deny he lost them. Though, there was only so much he could do before coming to realize what had happened to him.
Around this time, Edward slowly opened his eyes.
“To start this story off, I suppose I should say that we were quite close friends when we were younger.”
Collins blinked a few times.
“You chose to become friends with someone you were scared of?”
Edward shook his head.
“I wasn’t afraid of him at the time. Though I say we were close, I suppose I never really understood him. The point is, I’ve spent a long time with him. And for all intents and purposes, he may be a bit of an introvert at times, but he acts more or less like a normal guy.”
He shrugged.
“Both of us didn’t really know what we were doing, but we went wherever the hell, going to new places one after another. As time passed, we went further and further, to more obscure places. Realistically speaking, it was a little dangerous considering how easy it would be to get lost, and we did get lost at times, but somehow it worked out in the end.”
He blinked a few times.
“I suppose that’s what led us to eventually go to some obscure camping site together. In fact, now that I think about it, that place probably wasn’t an actual camping spot, but some sketchy place that claimed it was one before sending people off into the forest for some free money.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Being kids, I guess we never picked up on the dangerous aspect. Our excitement got the better of us and we went on a camping trip in the middle of the woods with just the two of us. If our parents knew, they would’ve been livid.”
Edward leaned back into his chair.
“Anyway, we set up all of the camping stuff we had and planned to stay there for the evening before going back home. We were there for such a short time that there shouldn’t have been any problems unless we were just really unlucky.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“But unfortunately, we were just that unlucky. A lone wolf had apparently sniffed us out and came to where we were camping.”
Nola frowned.
“That’s quite the terrifying thing for kids to face. How old were the two of you?”
Edward smiled bitterly.
“If I remember correctly, we were about eight years old.”
Collins sucked in a cold breath.
“At least wolves aren’t all that aggressive to humans.”
Edward nodded.
“That’s true. But this one looked to be on the verge of starvation, so it didn’t exactly have any plans of letting us go. I remember when I saw it, my brain basically short-circuited. The only thing I could do was yell out to run away and take a few steps.”
Nola raised an eyebrow.
“That’s already pretty good for a kid that age. Most probably would’ve just broken down and maybe started crying right there.”
Edward let out a bitter laugh.
“Well, honestly it wasn’t too different from that. In my mind, I thought that Kairos would run away at the very least because of my warning. But he didn’t. I remember quite vividly he shoved me to the side, moving me when I didn’t have the courage to. And right when he did, the wolf lunged, going right past me.”
He paused at this point.
“At that point, I turned to him to yell at him to run once more. Yet, he didn’t once more. I remember his eyes were widened to the limits and were straight on the wolf. As he acted, he told me we wouldn’t be able to outrun a wolf. So… he picked up one of the sticks we were going to use for marshmallows and tried to fight it.”
Collins furrowed his brow.
“What?”
Nola blinked a few times.
“Even an adult man has no chance against a wolf, yet a child was trying to be a superhero?”
Edward smiled bitterly.
“…At the time, that was my actual thought. That he was like some superhero. After missing the initial lunge, it continued running for a few moments before turning around to face us once more. From there, Kairos just stared at the wolf without making a single move, while the wolf just growled.”
He closed his eyes, as though wanting to visualize the scenario himself.
“Then out of nowhere, he dashed to the side, right when the wolf lunged. On top of that, he had his stick right where the wolf’s eye was going to be.”
Collins clicked his tongue.
“That’s just dumb luck.”
Edward shook his head.
“If it was only one time, I would say it was dumb luck, but it wasn’t just that. The wolf lashed out at whatever was nearby after getting stabbed by the stick. Kairos pushed me aside so that I would get hit, then got another one of the sticks that we were using, and was able to get it right into the other eye despite the fact it was flailing its head around.”
Nola blinked a few times.
“…So good reflexes.”
Edward cleared his throat.
“Anyway, at the time I didn’t question how he did it, but was just relieved that the wolf was now blind. I called out to him one more time that we should just run away, but he was insistent. He was panting badly, but still got out the words to tell me that it would still chase us down with its smell. That the only solution was to kill it. I don’t know why, but I’m pretty sure nothing would’ve convinced him that there was any other option.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“I didn’t know how to respond to that. So I just stood there like an idiot, not even helping him. But I watched it all. I watched every single bit of it. The wolf continued to flail around, destroying our tent and the other things we brought there. As for Kairos, he began picking up the logs that were used to make a fire, while the flame was still burning on them, and began fighting the wolf with it.”
Collin visibly recoiled.
“…Savage kid.”
Edward sighed.
“The wolf was so fast. Each of its movements were a blur, definitely faster than what a normal person could react to. But somehow he was able to dodge every single one of them and was even able to burn the wolf with the logs he had in the process. The biggest injury he got was actually just the burns on his hands.”
He blinked a few times.
“…But all of that is not why I’m bringing this up.”
Nola looked at him strangely.
“It isn’t?”
Edward paused for a moment.
“Instead it’s just… he liked it too much. He liked fighting that way too much. It wasn’t too but what was initially panting instead began laughing. With the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face, he gradually began cackling like he had absolutely lost it.”
Nola sucked in a cold breath.
“Sounds like a complete psychopath.”
Edward grabbed onto the side of his head with frustration.
“I wouldn’t say that. Though I didn’t notice it at the time, while he was fighting, he was making sure that the wolf never got too close to me, even if it meant doing dangerous things in the process. Even as he began laughing his head off like that, he hadn’t lost it.”
Collins furrowed his brow.
“Um, that sounds like you’re just lying to fool yourself.”
Edward shook his head.
“Maybe I am. But that’s what I believe happened. Anyway, that’s not the point. It’s still a little hard to believe now, but he killed the wolf. Yet, even when it was on the ground and no longer moving, he continued to stab it with any sharp object he could find, just like he couldn’t stop his lust for blood.”
He tilted his head to the side slightly.
“But when I told him to stop, he just calmly told me that he was making sure it was dead.”
Then, he spoke softly.
“He has the courage of someone insane, but is somehow completely calm at the same time. On top of that, he has some unbelievably strong intuition that stops him from dying. I just have this feeling if we do try to kill him… he’ll definitely know and be prepared.”