"War?" Kai took a step forwards towards pops. "Then so be it. What's the point of sitting here and letting those bastards step all over us? Let's bring the fight to them. Pops, you got your revolutionary buddies still in contact, right? Might want to start dusting off some cobwebs on your weapons and your connections."
Pops shook his head. "No."
Kai thrust a questioning hand towards the trembling old man. "Why?"
"To fight would be a waste of lives." Pops shook his head, his beard trembling as his cloudy eyes recalled distant memories. "Thirty years ago, I led a rebellion, and it was crushed. So many people died. So many innocents. Some of my companions – they killed themselves out of the guilt. Me, I survived, lived through it all because I thought I learned a lesson: the value of a life. How precious each of the lives was in the army I led, how each and every one of those men had spent years building up lives full of loves and family only for it all to come falling down because of one or two bad orders. I promised never to command anyone again."
"It's different this time." Kai gripped his black sword and tapped it on the ground. "You didn't send me up for nothing, pops. I found god, and it's within me now. He's giving me power you can't even imagine. With it, we can turn the tide, stick it to those Elsian fuckers."
"Your god is not a generous one. The voices that plagued my head told me as much. Do you truly trust it?"
"I do. I mean, what else we got? And besides, are we really going to stand by and let the Elsians kill more of us?"
Pops sighed. "Elsia has not stepped out of its city walls ever since they quelled our rebellion. They have not been responsible for how we live. The unfortunate truth is: we are."
"You can't put the blame on us." Kai felt his voice growing louder, angrier. "You have to be fucking kidding me. Imagine if Elsia opened their gates and let us in. Gave us all their medicine and tech. We wouldn't be squatting around in the Fields making a living off of junk. And pops, are you really going to ignore the fact that Elsia still kidnaps people?"
"I understand your frustration. I know that Elsia took your parents. But in the grand scope of things, the amount of people that Elsia takes for their experiments is very few. Other than that, they do not bother us."
Kai clenched his hands into fists. They trembled, hot rage coursing through them. He hadn't felt this kind of anger in so long. He'd buried these strong emotions all those years back, when he had to so that he could survive in a harsh world that didn't give a damn about what he felt.
"So my parents were just sacrifices for the greater good, huh?" Kai spat. "Fuck off with that shit."
"Kai, don't talk like that to pops," said Leeva.
Grunt nodded.
"I don't care." Kai's words were loud and sharp like blades. He pointed an accusing finger at the old man. "You preach so much about family. How it matters above all else. Now it's sounding like you're a shitty hypocrite. As long as this 'greater good' you believe in stays up, you'd be fine with even us dying, yeah?"
"It's not like that, Kai," said pops, his voice weary and weak. "I didn't word myself well, forgive me."
"No, no you worded yourself perfectly." Kai tore off his heavy outer layers – his overcoat, his goggles, all the equipment that belonged to pops – and threw them on the ground. The anger made all his movements a rush, his actions a blur that surprised even himself.
"And I know now that I'm your 'son' in name only. The relationship's skin deep, if even that. You're fine with letting the whole Isles live in this shitty squalor, and you're willing to trade our lives for that. I'm done with you."
Kai stepped to the center of the platform and rammed his boot on the button, starting the lift up.
"No," said Grunt. He reached forward for Kai with his burly green arm.
Kai swatted it away, now much stronger than the orc.
"If you're not going to stand up for us," said Kai. "Then so be it. I'll do it myself."
Pops stared at the ground. Grunt rubbed his arm, right where it started stinging from Kai's swat. Leeva looked away.
Kai spent the rest of the lift in silence.
When he hopped off, into the desert world above, he felt a few twinges of regret stabbing at his heart.
"Fuck," whispered Kai.
He didn't know why he'd acted so brashly. He'd just felt so much emotion that he couldn't handle it and he'd just ended up venting and now he couldn't face the consequences of what he'd done.
You don't have to, said the god.
"Huh?"
You have the power to change this world. They do not. It is natural that you would distance yourself from them.
"But they're…" Kai wanted to say 'family', but he couldn't. How could he say that after he treated them like that?
Family? Amusing, but pathetic. They will not come for you. They will stay in their hole and let Elsia slaughter your kin. All those Daemons so helpless – and they, your little 'family' are more than willing to do nothing.
But not you. You must not be like that. For you are my Chosen, and I did not choose a weakling and a coward.
Kai looked at the black longsword in his hands. It had an alluring glare to it, a glint of white under the harsh sunlight that drew him in like a jewel. He could feel strength coursing from it, into his palms, shooting up his veins like a drug.
"I'll prove it to them," said Kai. "They won't do anything because they think they don't have a chance. I'll prove them wrong."
And I will be your guide. Head North of here, my Chosen, to a concentration of life forces. You will find enemies there to vanquish. More experience for you, as well.
Therma? One of the four main villages in the Isles, and where Kai had spent his childhood in what amounted to basically slavery under the Don. He didn't have fond memories of that place, but so did everyone else in his situation.
"I got it," said Kai.
He headed North, towards Therma, the black blade dragging in the sand behind him. Once he got done killing the Elsians there, he'd wipe out the Don too.