Once all of Kayn's injuries were fully healed and his mana replenished, he started to look around the city once more. He avoided the central area as a good portion of the army was stationed there, constantly bombarding the defensive dome around the palace.
For the next few days Kayn hunted down one 6th stage after another. After his 8th kill, every 6th stage individual was surrounded by hundreds of army personnel and at least five 5th stage mages and magic warriors each. The undead simply swarmed around their 6th stage leaders, it was hard to tell just how many powerful guards they had.
On Kayn's 12th kill, he was actively being pursued and forces attacking the dome were sent to find him instead. With every 6th stage moving around in pairs or more now, it was becoming far too difficult for Kayn to kill targets quickly before retreating. His Shadow's Embrace spell ensured he wasn't found, but if he couldn't collect cores anymore, there was little point to continuing.
Kayn tried assassinating a duo of mage and magic warrior for his 13th and 14th kills, but he ended up barely making it out with his life. Within minutes, reinforcements were on top of him and it became a one versus five. He put up a decent fight, but he couldn't do enough damage that stuck as one of the reinforcements was a high tier 6th stage healer.
He ended up destroying his body by once again using the void element with the vambracers' teleport spell. No matter what trick he used, they weren't going to work on fully prepared and cooperating 6th stage opponents.
He tried to control their blood, but none of them were weak enough to let someone else take control of their body in that manner. Extinction elements like flame and lightning were brushed off due to the healer having more powerful mana than Kayn. Even with how potent his mana was after Earth, it couldn't compare to someone nearing the end of their journey in the lower realms.
This only proved to Kayn that the difference between the top of the 6th stage and the bottom were like heaven and earth. Only Kayn would be able to bridge that gap, and only when he was most likely in the 6th stage himself, or at least close to it.
During his exploration of the city, he noticed that most of the population who were turned into slaves were no longer in the capital. Millions of people gone, just like that. Kayn didn't know if they were all dead or taken elsewhere as slaves, but it wasn't a bad thing in Kayn's opinion. The fewer civilian casualties during his future rampage, the better.
He had saved around 50 people in total including the first family of five. He created small underground bunkers for all of them and he planned to ask Talaro if the teleport formation could get them all out. If that was the case, he was going to sneak everyone he saved back to the palace through the underground passageway.
With 16 total 6th stage cores in his possession, he called it quits for the time being. It was becoming far too risky to continue attempting assassinations, but at least there was a benefit besides the cores. He had drawn many forces away from the defensive barrier, and he didn't expect them to return to barraging it again any time soon for fear of being picked off one at a time again.
This would ease up the workload of those who stayed behind in the palace while he focused on strengthening himself. Kayn estimated that within a year, he would be able to reach the 5th stage and potentially even further once he consumed all of the cores within the Mana Gathering room.
In that time, he expected a few things to happen.
First, the enemy forces would begin striking at the dome even harder, possibly with every remaining 6th stage they had within the city, which was around 19. Carnet didn't start the war with that many 6th stage mages, but over the course of the war, many at the peak of the 5th stage had advanced.
Second, with the enemy forces bombarding the dome, the sealing formation they set up would be left woefully under-protected. This meant that as soon as Kayn was ready, he could destroy it without any issues, allowing Emperor Talaro and his remaining forces to leave via the escape teleportation formation inside the palace.
Third, if everything went according to plan and neither Mitas nor Emperor Carnet appeared, Palatine would be wiped from the map after all was said and done. That's right, Kayn planned to essentially nuke the city after he destroyed the sealing formation and the others escaped.
Kayn set up multiple temporary hidden explosive arrays around the city that would detonate as soon as his and only his fire mana came into contact with them. This was a special trick he picked up on Earth from one of the temples. He didn't think those on Talgonoth had discovered that arrays could be used in such a manner yet, but little did he know that his own father was quite talented in arrays and formations himself, and had been utilizing similar tricks for years.
Kayn decided he was going to take a major risk with this venture. Regardless of how much mana he had, he was going to fly as high into the sky as he could after the sealing formation was destroyed and create the most massive and powerful attack he could conceive while pouring at least 85 percent of his total mana into it.
This would leave him with 5 percent to destroy the formation beforehand and another 10 to get away after he launched his attack. If he could, he would return once he could activate Shadow's Embrace again so that he could salvage any 6th stage cores or finish off any 6th stage individuals who survived the explosion.
He also wasn't planning on telling Talaro about his plans, as the emperor would surely disapprove, probably even doing everything in his power to stop Kayn. Kayn knew that he was destroying the homes and history for millions, but the Earth way of ending wars wasn't necessarily wrong in this case.
Make a single decisive strike. One with absolute and overwhelming power to demoralize and demolish your enemy. With one move, Kayn was planning to wipe out millions of the enemy's forces. It weighed heavily on his mind that he would be killing so many people, and he was having troubles justifying it.
Simply put, this was just the easiest and most convenient way. Soldiers fighting for their countries or empires often didn't deserve to die, but that was just war. At least he wouldn't be killing innocents as these were all people who had invading homes, taken people as slaves, and allied with the undead.
Kindness was trying to persuade him otherwise in the back of his mind, but Wrath swept the influence of mercy under the rug like dust. Kayn would show no mercy to his enemies and after he wiped out Palatine, he would continue killing those involved with this war until he could finally confront the two masterminds and kill them too.
Kayn already knew that something was going on with his head. He was such a kind and caring individual back on Earth and when he first got to Talgonoth. But slowly over the years, his thoughts had changed and killing his enemies became the best solution to his problems. Now that he was considering annihilating millions, potentially hundreds of millions once all was said and done, was he really still himself?
Would he even be able to recognize himself after this? Could he even recognize himself now?
The more he thought about this topic, the more his head started to hurt. It was like his mind was breaking apart due to his personality beginning to diverge from what he thought of as moral and ethical. Kayn could feel the way that the Sins and Virtues within him were clashing against his being, clearly showing him that Wrath was not yet fully his own as he thought.
The division and conflicting thoughts were beginning to drive him insane. His mind hurt so much that he had to stop moving towards the underground passage as he crouched down holding onto his head.
"SHUT UP!" Kayn shouted loud enough that he had most likely revealed his position to anyone looking for him.
A brief reprieve of silence allowed Kayn to enter back into the shadows. Something was definitely wrong with him and he felt like he was going insane, no he was going insane. He needed to get to the palace so that he could take some time to examine himself in a calm environment.
…
In a distance world, a middle-aged man sat under a tree on a mountain peak, staring out into the cosmos. He had a pondering but irritated expression as he spoke to himself.
"I wonder if that boy has gone insane yet? I guess I should have warned him about absorbing both Sins and Virtues into his soul when he asked me to mitigate them. Unfortunately, if one doesn't have the opposite nature, they will simply fight with each other, regardless of my suppression.
"I would check in on my pawn if I could, but that damn Odin somehow shared with him the one thing that blocks my vision. I should punish that bastard when I get the chance, but I don't know where he is either…maybe I'll just destroy part of Valhalla?
"Haaa, damn greedy child. I just needed him to get all of the Sins for me again and I would have let him live. I can't risk it if he somehow overcomes the insanity, I'll need to kill him before he can collect all 14 aspects."
Then the man vanished from his spot. All that remained was the lone flowering tree he sat under.