Cain- no, Kai stumbled back, tripping over the scientist below him, who yelped at the sudden unseen touch. He felt the world quickly rise to embrace him, he fell to it, but before his head hit the ground, his muscles tensed, spinning him to point his feet towards the ground, avoiding the impact entirly.
How could Kai do that?
Was it Cain?
Was Kai truly in control of his body?
The brand across his skin felt fresher now, as though molten steel was currently being pressed to it, burning the name into Kai's mind until the blue sky above the sandy beach of his memories below his feet was polluted with the name.
'Cain'
That…
Wasn't his name.
He could remember it clearly now.
The beach below him shifted, forming an office where Kai was greeted by a man in a suit that matched the one he had somehow changed into.
"Cain, I take it your last mission was a success?"
The word was like a knife being driven into his skin, but Kai knew something now.
Cain wasn't his name.
"Yes, sir, the target has been eliminated."
This wasn't him.
He was Kai.
Not this beast.
"May i see the proof of termination?"
"Of course, sir."
Kai felt his hands reach for a duffel bag that was placed at his feet. and throw it to the desk in front of the man, who unzipped it to reveal the head of a man.
No.
No, this wasn't him.
These weren't Kai's memories.
"Really, Cain, sometimes I worry that I don't pay you enough, and eventually i'll be the one in a duffel bag." The man chuckled as he zipped up the bag.
"You need not worry, sir."
No, why was he talking like this was so casual?
What the fuck was wrong with him?
Kai couldn't take it anymore; he couldn't live with this. The familiar knife formed in his hand as he raised it to his own throat.
If he were Cain right now, Cain would atone for his actions through him.
The knife began to dig deeper into his throat, forcing blood to spill from it as it slowly crept towards one of his arteries, which he knew would surely end his life if severed.
Only it never made it there.
A hand stopped his own before he could.
Not just one hand.
A sea of them.
Each coming from differently dressed figures, sharing Kai's own face.
They were all Cain.
Different masks Cain wore for different jobs, each only serving one purpose.
To make his "job" easier.
Suddenly, Kai was ripped away from the office, face meeting the cold stone in the dark room as he felt a foot drive into his gut.
"Get the fuck up, Cain."
No, he wasn't that monster; he refused to follow any order that was associated with that thing.
"I said…"
Kai looked to the source of the voice, only to be greeted with the familiar figure of the scientist, who was now holding a ball of flame, which illuminated the area, as well as the words on the wall.
'Cain'
That wasn't it, though, as Kai looked up, he found that the arm the scientist was holding the flame in was blackened, as though burnt in a terrible fire.
Suddenly, the scientist pulled back his foot. Kicking forward at Kai with enough speed to turn blurry.
"Get the fuck up!"
Kai's body reacted before anything else, springing up multiple feet into the air to avoid the attack, hitting the ground and immediately moving to kick the scientist in the torso, only to never meet it as the scientist dodged. pointing his hand towards Kai, causing a blue flame to leap out at Kai, who dropped to avoid it. Only to be greeted by the cool, almost euphoric, sensation of water running across his back, he almost wanted to dive deeper into the flame, to feel the sensation in its entirety, but was quickly cut off by an intense burning sensation all across his back.
The scientist barked out a laugh at this, apparently amused at the situation.
"I told him it was you! Told him there was no way for another person to still be alive in this cursed world after so long…"
The…
Scientist?
Cut off for a second to fire more flame towards him again, only this time Kai knew better, he launched to the side as far as his muscles would allow, not caring as he rocketed towards the wall, which seemed to swallow him, closing back up as he fell through onto a pitch black alter that rested below some tremendous figure holding a massive broadsword in its hands.
Kai lay there for a second, relief flooding his system, only to find that the figure was swiftly moving its sword down, bringing it towards Kai at breakneck speeds.
Kai rolled out of the way of the sword's path, only to find that he'd rolled off the altar and was on the floor below it.
The sword was ever closer now, only speeding up as it approached him, blotting out everything above him until suddenly it stopped just above the altar. Avoiding impact with it.
Suddenly, the wall just behind the figure exploded with blue flame, causing a couple of bits of the wall to fly off, betraying the fact that the wall was made up of thousands of tiny beetles.
"Come face your judgment, Cain!" the scientist called out.
"My name's Kai!" He screamed back.
"I don't even know who Cain is!"
The scientist barked out another laugh at this.
"That guy might have fallen for that, but I won't, I know your history, Cain."
A blast of more blue fire torched the altar as the scientist spoke, causing the gaze of the giant to shift towards the scientist as he spoke.
"I know just how many identities you adopted, just to kill more people."
The scientist sent another blast of fire spiraling towards the altar, causing the giant to suddenly shift to face the man. It moved its sword at lightning speed, bringing it down towards him.
No.
He couldn't let him die.
But how could Kai stop this?
It's not like he had any advantage against the thing; hell, he didn't think the thing had any real weakness, just some weird obsession with the alter.
The alter…
The thing only attacked the scientist because he had attacked the alter, and it made a pretty obvious point not to harm the alter.
The sword was inches from the scientist now. Kai had no more time to think; he had to act now.
And so he kicked the altar.
It was a small action, but apparently it was enough for the giant because it broke its swing, stopping suddenly enough for wind to fill the room, pushing Kai away from the Altar.
Only he was too late.
The scientist's neck was already half severed by the giant, the life fading from his eyes as the giant turned to face Kai, sword ready to strike him down.
Only it never did, after it registered Kai was away from the altar, it simply froze, as though not detecting any threat from him.
And so Kai ran towards the scientist, who was still somehow standing up perfectly straight, only his head was dangling off his shoulders.
Kai felt his heart shatter into pieces. He was no different than Cain after all, just like that thing, he'd directly caused a man to die.
Suddenly, the scientist's arm moved towards its head, grasping the scalp and ripping its own head away from its neck, and tossing it away from itself.
Sudennly the stump where its neck was started to bubble, with each bubble solidifying into flesh, slowly building into the head that was missing from the stump.
Soon enough, Kai was greeted with the face of the scientist once more, grinning at him like he'd done some kind of magic trick.
"Miss me?"
Before Kai could even register the statement, he heard the familiar yelp of the scientist from behind him, causing him to jump to the side to view the source as well as the scientist, only to find that he was looking at two practically identical scientists, except one of them had a charred arm, and the other didn't.