"Wh-what are you doing here?" Amelia sputtered.

Nicola laughed. Kain frowned. Nicola’s smile looked so sickly sweet that it made his blood pressure spike.

[Warning. Warning. Parasitic entity attempting to enter the host’s bloodstream.]

[Emergency measures must be taken.]

[Purge triggered.]

Kain’s hand shot out, gripping Nicola by the throat. He had no control over his body. He was experiencing everything, but couldn’t control any of it.

"Kain! What are you doing?" Amelia shouted.

He turned, eyes once again turning red. Unlike when he was underwater, where he hadn’t noticed the changes, he was minutely aware of the changes in his body.

The spiderweb veins covered his face, travelling down his neck, arms, and legs.

He turned to everyone, his voice booming and deep.

"Move away."

Their bodies reacted automatically, as if responding to an authority they couldn’t understand. They hadn’t had time to comprehend what was happening when Kain slipped into the water, hand still clutching Nicola’s neck.

"You should not be here." The bass of his voice caused the water to ripple. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

A shrill cackle came from Nicola. "You can come. Why can’t I?" The voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

"Disgusting," Kain said.

"Disloyal," Nicola replied.

"Did you kill this child?" ’Kain’ asked.

"The body was already dead when I got it. I accompanied his lover until recently," ’Nicola’ chuckled. "Sweet girl."

Kain listened to the brief conversation. One thing he could understand: the Hartwells were dead. The rest, he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He knew whatever this thing was, it wasn’t talking to him. Was it talking to the system?

A faint sense of panic welled up in Kain’s mind. Can the system control him?

Before his train of thought could spiral, he heard the voice in his mind.

"The system doesn’t control you. You control it. Kain, the world is so much more vast than you understand. You and the children need to grow. Grow quickly."

As quickly as it came, the voice disappeared. The water around them began to boil. Kain felt like the blood in his veins was boiling. He could imagine it rolling, but he felt no danger.

The grip on Nicola’s throat tightened. He felt the bones snapping. Still, Nicola kept smiling. His tongue lolled from his mouth, saliva dripping onto Kain’s wrist.

The drops wiggled like worms before being sizzled away by the heat of Kain’s skin.

Nicola’s face began turning red. His eyes bulged out of their sockets. Snot dripped from his nose. His entire body began to flutter.

"Now is not the time, Parasite."

Steam rose from Nicola’s head, and his body began to melt. Kain did not let go. He held on until there was nothing left, then his hands sank into the water.

Flames erupted from his palm creating a circle around him, burning a circle around him. Minutes passed before the flames fizzled away.

The dark veins on his arms and legs began to withdraw. Before they were completely gone, Kain felt his body move; the water rumbled. A large piece of steel surfaced.

His body shaped it before he lay on it. As soon as he did, Kain drifted off into unconsciousness.

When he woke up again, the sky was dark. Amelia was sitting next to him, holding his hand. He flew up, touching himself all over. He breathed a sigh of relief.

’What the fuck x10.’

He couldn’t stop himself from repeating it. The feeling of not being in control of your own body is not fun. Feeling like an outsider in your own skin is very disturbing.

He didn’t understand. He wanted to ask the system what the frak was happening, but he remembered there were people around him.

He could barely explain why he wasn’t worried about the children.

’Shit, the kids.’

He didn’t care about anything. He closed his eyes. He could see what was happening in the nurturing station. He saw the children eating.

Confused, he narrowed his eyes. He didn’t give them food. All the cooked and uncooked food is in the storage. Could they access it?

[Responding to the host.]

[The nurturing station adapts to the children’s needs.]

[Whether the child is hungry or cold, the system will adjust to meet their needs.]

[Based on their current biometrics, the necessary ingredients have been taken from storage. Automations are currently in place for items to be cooked without the host being present during times of duress.]

’Good. I thought they would be hungry. As long as they’re safe.’

This time, he spoke directly to the system. He already looked like a crazy person with his eyes closed, sitting there. He wanted to wait, but the system made itself known.

"System, what exactly happened earlier? What was that voice? Why couldn’t I control myself?"

[Host does not have clearance to receive an answer.]

He pursed his lips, ready to curse the system out.

"How so I get clearance then?"

[Host is currently an Awakened. Level clearance can be obtained by opening new system functions. The host can also access more information based on the host’s previous question after becoming an Eclipse.]

’Eclipse? What the hell is that?’ he posed the question to the system.

[An Eclipse: An evolved human who had created their domain. Within the domain, power is absolute. Eclipse individuals are capable of creating small pockets of an alternate reality or a pocket dimension. An expansion of their domain.]

He nodded to himself. He remembered when the children had their fight, they were Ascendants. The highest rank at the time was Sovereign. So Eclipse must be after that.

Outwardly, he was calm. Inwardly, his heart was beating so loud he could hear it in his ears. His inner child was doing backflips.

Who doesn’t want to be powerful? When he died, people were just finding out about Awakened. His time as a soul is what gave him all the other information.

A giddy laugh slipped out.

"Kain?" Amelia’s worried voice made him open his eyes.

"I’m fine," he stroked her hair. "Sorry for making you worry."

Scanning the others, he saw that everyone was doing well. Their eyes held confusion and a weariness that hadn’t been there before.

His first instinct was to laugh it off. But he knew how serious the events of the past few hours had been. The questions in their eyes weren’t something he could answer.

He needed answers himself and had nowhere to find them.

"Don’t worry about anything. You only need to be loyal to me. As long as you are loyal, you can become one of the most powerful beings on the planet."

The words were said, and to others, they might sound like a boast, but to Kain, it was the truth. According to both the voice and the system, he needed to grow.

Ever since hearing the name Pantheon, he understood that the apocalypse wasn’t some freak accident or a simple act of nature. There were hands behind the scenes doing something he couldn’t understand.

But he wouldn’t allow himself to remain clueless forever.

The first step is to become stronger. Awakened is fine for now, but he needs more power, much more.