Kain ignored the crowd surrounding him and calmly picked up the severed arm of Gerris. Kain's jaw warped and formed into a fearsome caricature of a canine jaw as he quickly devoured Gerris' arm.
"You..you aren't human! Surrender yourself and things will go easier for you. There is no way you can escape the encirclement!" yelled Rengar.
"Excuse me a second. I believe there seems to be a fly." said an unconcerned Kain.
A shadow appeared behind Kain and revealed itself to be an apoplectic Gerris with a missing arm and the pinion stabbed into his eye.
"YOU FUCKER!" yelled Gerris as he punched towards the back of Kain's head.
A tentacle flew out of Kain's back and smashed into Gerris' stomach, doubling him over. Gerris' remaining eye was threatening to pop out of his socket as he groaned in pain. Another tentacle whacked Gerris flying into the air once more and Gerris' howl of fury and pain became more distant as he flew to who knew where.
Kain was not concerned at all about Gerris escaping. No, he was too damn prideful to run away with his tail between his legs. Kain had purposefully left him one eye so that he would make his way back each time. He would embarrass the shit out of him and make him feel like an ant, just as he did to him and his brothers.
"Now, where were we? Oh yes, we were negotiating about my surrender, right?" said a smiling Kain.
The ones surrounding Kain had each taken a step back from him. They grew slightly nervous seeing how easily Kain dispatched Gerris. Most didn't witness the first time Kain launched Gerris flying, but they definitely saw how Kain manhandled Gerris just now. Gerris was supposed to be one of the strongest in all of Bastion. Why was he a complete joke in front of this man?
"Men, the next time Gerris arrives, we will attack in concert. There is no way he can stop all of us at the same time." Said Rengar.
The surrounding men grew some spine after hearing Rengar's words. Surely, this man would not be able to handle a full on assault from all of them.
"Hold on. Those under my command who are dissatisfied with what was going on down here, follow me! We will not be partaking in this fight." said Bartock.
After saying so, half of the Grandia Brigade gathered behind Bartock and they were about to move a distance away, when Kain stopped them.
"Hey, your name is Bartock, right? I like your way of thinking and if you and your men ever want to join me, look for me around Taria Academy. Ask for Sylvia. She will treat you guys well."
Bartock smiled and nodded, as he and his men moved a good distance away to watch the fight.
Kain held his hands behind his back as he casually glanced at the many men surrounding him.
"I have to give a friendly reminder to all of you. If you think that I will calmly stand here and take your attacks, you are sorely mistaken. I'm in a terrible fucking mood as I lost a good friend today. I really want to start a massacre and make it rain blood right now. If any one of you dare to attack me, it certainly won't end well. Choose wisely."
Having given his ultimatum, Kain actually started whistling. It was actually quite unnerving as no one knew how strong Kain really was. They just knew he was no joke.
Just as everyone was vacillating on what to do, an earth-shattering roar broke out far away and the distant wall exploded. Everyone was confused because Gerris had been launched in the opposite direction.
Looking towards the commotion, people saw three figures slowly emerge from the cloud of dust. The first two figures revealed themselves to be Famine and Pestilence, while the 3rd figure towered over them. It was obviously Felgin in his new hybrid form.
"HA HA HA! Just the one I was looking for! This is perfect, as I could test out my new power on you!" yelled Felgin as he glared at the familiar form of Kain. The three of them started to walk over towards the platform.
The group surrounding Kain grew excited and bold, having such strong figures appear as backup. They inched forward again.
Kain wasn't paying attention to the ones around him. Instead, he was honed in on Gerris, who was currently near the back asking a healer to stop his bleeding. Kain wanted Gerris to be healed so that he could continue beating down on him. Every time Kain struck Gerris, he would absorb and take a bit of his strength and power. Maybe Gerris was so furious that he still didn't notice?
When he fell back down to Genji tier, he was bound to notice. By then, it would probably be too late for him to escape.
The healer finally stopped the bleeding and Gerris was about to rejoin the fight, when another explosion occurred.
Everyone looked over and saw that the booby-trapped entrance was set off. Amidst the cloud of debris, the intruding force trickled out of the entrance. Soon enough, a crowd of people were arrayed just past the entrance. Tyrin was at the front and finally got a chance to see this mysterious Kain. He held back the forces from advancing as he wanted to see what was going on.
Gerris rushed out to attack Kain again while everyone was distracted. As soon as Rengar saw Gerris attacking with multiple shadow clones, he ordered the attack,
"KILL HIM!"
Sniper shots rang out first. Kain's body became a mass of tentacles that smashed out with him at the center. The surrounding men and a few of Gerris' shadow clones were pierced through and launched away. Eventually, the entire platform collapsed as Kain increased his mass explosively. The sniper shots pinged off a tentacle that wrapped protectively around Kain's head.
The melee fighters who were lucky enough not to be knocked flying immediately used their armaments to attack Kain. Swords, spears, and axes glanced off Kain's tentacles and the majority of the weapons snapped like twigs.
Kain released a deafening howl shockwave that hurled the remaining fighters flying away. Suddenly, only a few of Gerris' shadow clones remained on the shattered platform. Before Kain could continue the battle, Felgin created a crater as he landed near Kain and pelted him with mighty blows that smashed apart the remaining platform.
The onlookers watched in amazement as the combatants on the platform disappeared from their sights. They soon heard muffled, earth-shattering blows coming from the area below where the platform used to be. Soon enough, the tentacled figure of Kain was launched through a barricade and the tentacles latched onto the ground, stopping his momentum.
Felgin and a few shadow clones of Gerris appeared opposite of Kain.
"How the fuck are you not hurt?" asked a surprised Felgin.
The same thought was running through everyone's mind.
Gruesome vorpal hooks pierced out of Kain's tentacles. At the same time, hundreds of pinions flew out from Kain's body. Some of them were encased in ice, while others were red hot and on fire. A heavy presence grew explosively out of Kain and when it reached the surrounding crowd, men toppled to their knees in abject fear. Some even released their bodily fluids. Even Gerris and Felgin took a step back.
Kain decided to go all out because he didn't want to be overconfident in his abilities and have an accident occur. There were many variables in a battle and overestimating himself could end up being a fatal flaw.
He launched his attacks mercilessly and the first wave of casualties fell to the ground from the pinions. He specifically targeted the snipers. Almost every one of the snipers were taken care of, sparing one or two.
Just as he was about to launch himself at Gerris, he felt his body petrifying and corroding. He focused his regeneration and reversed the effects. Pestilence and Famine landed near Gerris and Felgin as they had bewildered looks on their faces. Why did Kain seem perfectly fine?
Kain opened his jaw and a ball of liquid hot fire formed ever bigger outside his mouth. A dangerous humming sound grew in accordance with the increasing size of the ball. When it grew to be twice as big as Kain's head, it transformed into a laser like beam that was bigger than Kain's body, and it shot forth towards the four opponents in front of him.
In a panic, all four tried to scatter away, but Pestilence was not so lucky as he lost the two arms on his right side. He screeched in pain as the arms practically melted off. The beam continued on past and slammed into the distant wall. When the beam disappeared, there was a dark hole melted into the wall.
Pestilence stood there clutching at where his arms were missing. It was a fatal mistake on his part to stop amidst his pain because Kain appeared next to him and abruptly chomped off his head. Sickening crunching echoed out of Kain's mouth as he seemed to enjoy the spiderlike head…mandibles and all.
He didn't stop as he immediately devoured the rest of Pestilence's body. Kain didn't forget to remove Pestilence's void dimension pendant, as he felt an incredible amount of radiation emanating from inside. He threw the pendant into his own void dimension.
Many of the onlookers were weak in the knees watching the inhuman spectacle of Kain eating a human spider.
"Fuck this shit." said one of the defenders and threw his weapon on the ground and fled towards the void emblem. Immediately a wave of people followed after the fleeing individual. Rengar did his best to rally his forces, but about half of them still fled.
Kain felt his strength spike up yet again, as he also gained the petrification ability. This might be the key to freeing that naked woman in his void dimension. He specifically targeted Pestilence because of this reason.
He didn't bother with the fleeing men because he considered them the small fries. His true goal was the three remaining opponents in front of him. He could let everyone else flee except for them.
"Hurry and use your fucking trump cards or we will all die!" yelled Gerris.
Shadows flowed from the various walls and barricades and melted into Gerris as he grew bigger and stronger. Felgin actually grew into a giant, towering until his head scrapped the ceiling. Corrosive tentacles grew out of the ground and launched forward to engage Kain's tentacles.
Rengar and the remaining forces launched projectiles at Kain from far away. The projectiles smashed into Kain and his surroundings, but he merely shook the attacks off. Half the tentacles coming out of Kain launched themselves into a pitched battle with the corrosive tentacles, while the other half flowed towards the enlarged and empowered Gerris. The pinions in the air were harrying the giant Felgin, as hole after hole was punctured all over his body.
Felgin realized his giant form was actually a disability in this situation, so he shrunk back down to normal size and rushed to attack Kain. He rained mighty blows on Kain's face, but Kain ignored his attacks, as he focused his efforts on raining down blows with his tentacles on Gerris.
Both the attacking Felgin and the defending Gerris came to a cruel realization. Felgin actually felt his power leaking out of him every time his fist came into contact with Kain's face, while every blow from Kain's tentacles did the same to Gerris.
It wasn't long before Gerris felt his power crash down back to Genji-tier, and true horror seeped into his very bones. He turned to his allies seeking help, but realized that this fight was a complete disaster. Famine had already lost both his legs and was currently being ferried away by his corrosive tentacles towards the void emblem. Felgin was also attempting to flee, but the pinions and tentacles were burying him into a crater. The spiked tentacles were making quick work of Felgin, as his newly attached hybrid parts were ripped off and dissected again. The tentacles ferried the dismembered body parts of Felgin back to Kain. The remnants of Felgin's remaining body was also ferried back towards Kain.
The pinions sped away into the air and soon enough, the perforated body of Famine appeared once again, as the pinions embedded in him dragged him back towards Kain through the air.
Rengar had long since fled seeing the brief 'battle' between Kain and the three leaders. He knew he completely fucked up and made an enemy that he couldn't afford to offend. He would have to hide in Lavaris and hope that Kain deemed him too much of a small fry to personally go after him.
Despair joined in with horror on Gerris' face, as the full weight of all Kain's tentacles arrived to deal with him. Blow after blow rained down on Gerris' face, and his strength dropped from high Genji tier, to mid Genji-tier, to the very bottom of the Genji-tier.
Kain was walking toward Gerris while chomping away on the hybrid parts of Felgin. He had already absorbed away the growth power that Felgin had just gained in his hybrid form. However, he didn't kill him and left his torso hanging from a lone tentacle. Kain had used Felgin's old power to make him fall asleep while impaled. A groan of pain still leaked out from the sorry figure of Felgin.
When Kain was finished devouring the hybrid parts, the nearby floating Famine was practically offered to Kain like a side dish by the floating pinions. He merely absorbed away the corrosion power and didn't bother to devour any of Famine's body parts. Famine was left to float next to the impaled Felgin, as if the two of them were hunting trophies. One was asleep and the other was unconscious.
Kain finally arrived in front of Gerris and promptly sliced off the remaining arm. He slowly devoured the arm with relish, causing Gerris to vomit blood at the insult.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU TARGETING ME?" yelled the despairing Gerris.
Kain actually healed the wound on the just severed arm because he didn't want Gerris to pass out on him from blood loss. He then revealed his true form.
"It's you! How are you still alive? Why did you get so powerful all of a sudden?" said a distraught Gerris.
"I never knew that revenge tasted THIS sweet. If only my brothers were here to witness this moment. How does it feel to be powerless like an ant? Isn't that what you taunted me with in my earlier defeat? In your great pride, you left me alive thinking that there was no way I would return alive. What an incredibly dumb ass mistake that was, don't you think? I mean, if you had snuffed my life out then, you would have had a smooth ride all the way to dominating Bastion. You probably would have stolen Saya and Sylvia from me as well. Instead, here you are weak as a kitten in front of me." said a smiling Kain.
Gerris clenched his teeth in regret, as Kain's words were like hammer blows to his heart. It was infuriating that he was so close to the apex of power, only to have the rug swept out from underneath him. If only he had a chance to flee, he would do everything in his power to return back this humiliation a 100-fold no matter what it took. He looked out at the far away onlookers and caught sight of his master, Tyrin.
"Master, please save me. As your disciple, I ask for this one last favor." implored Gerris.
Tyrin hesitated when he heard his words. He felt great pity for Gerris and wanted to do one last thing for him.
"Kain…that is your name, correct? Can you please let him go?" asked Tyrin.
Kain thought about it and then nodded his head.
"I know your daughter, Sylvia. She is someone I care about. I will let Gerris go." said Kain.
Tyrin was relieved that Kain didn't blow up at the request. He had a favorable impression of Kain and was glad that his daughter knew him. He would have to interrogate her the moment he returned. How dare she hide such a talent from him? He even entertained thoughts of spanking her for her transgression.
Kain walked up to Gerris and stole away the rest of his shadow power. Gerris blanched as his hopes crashed and burned. The tentacles holding him released him and he stumbled toward the void emblem. Kain watched the retreating form of Gerris as he smirked.
Kain turned back to the awestruck crowd. He ignored their gazes and walked towards a group of women, who couldn't hide their hateful gazes that tried to bore a hole through the impaled Felgin. The crowd parted and made a path for Kain as he brought the floating Felgin forward. He removed the tentacle from Felgin's chest and dropped him on the ground in front of the group of women. This act woke Felgin up and caused him to start screaming in pain.
"I bring you a gift. Do as you see fit." said Kain.
Immediately, the group of women pounced on the fallen Felgin. Most of them screeched like banshees, as they tore away at his flesh. They bit, clawed, trampled, punched, and kicked like there was no tomorrow. Soon enough, Felgin was lost to sight amidst the rabid crowd of women. Kain saw blood spurt out like a fountain from within the middle of the crowd. The hoarse, throaty scream from Felgin reached a fevered pitch, before finally dropping off in the throes of death. When the women finally came out of their trance, they immediately rushed forward and fell to their knees and bowed their heads down towards Kain. Kain observed and saw that all that remained of Felgin was a gory pile of flesh.
Kain couldn't help but shiver at the wrath of a woman scorned. He floated out the unconscious Famine, before saying,
"If you girls don't mind, can I offer this man to Tessa? I am sure she would want to get as much information out of him as she can. I'm sure she will let you girls at him when she is done." asked Kain.
For some reason, Kain felt like his voice sounded a little weak. Staring at the blood-stained mouths of many of the women, as well as their crazy looking eyes, he knew that deep down he was a little afraid.
The girl bowing down at the front of the group seemed to be the leader and she replied,
"We will follow your will. Please allow us one last request." asked the woman.
"Okay, shoot." said Kain.
"We wish to follow you and become your loyal servants till death takes us. You are our great benefactor and savior. Our bodies, our lives, our swords, will be yours forevermore. We have no greater desire than to serve you with all our hearts. Only then, can we forget the shame and cruelty we experienced down here. Please grant your humble servants this request."
"Please, grant us this request!" yelled out the other women in unison.
Kain couldn't help but look around at the watching crowd. Was he supposed to say yes? Looking at Tessa and seeing her nod at Kain, he finally acquiesced and said yes to the women.
The women on the ground cheered as if given the greatest of gifts. They hurried to form a protective phalanx around Kain, even though he didn't really need it. Kain still let them play the role of bodyguards.
Off in the distance, he detected the fleeing form of Death. Kain smirked and decided to let him go. He had killed plenty today and was honestly a bit sick from all the bloodshed. Besides, he felt that the petrified woman in his void dimension would want revenge against Death more than him. He would free her from her stasis when he got back and question who she was.
Kain smiled as he detected far away and felt that Gerris was almost at the void emblem. It was about time for him to act soon.
He floated over the unconscious Famine towards Tessa, and the pinions separated from his body. A healer had to immediately heal his wounds as blood started to leak out from the holes. He nodded towards Tessa and then waved the girls around him towards the surface.
"Let's go home, girls." said Kain.
"Yes, master!" yelled out the girls.
Tessa had her hands full as she watched Kain being escorted away by her former Penta girls. She also had to allay the fears of Lana and Kara by confirming multiple times that they would indeed be gifted to Kain as soon as they figured out where he lived. The two girls heaved sighs of relief as they couldn't help but look after the disappearing form of Kain. Thinking of how Kain put on such a crazy show for them, they couldn't help but want to learn as much as they could about him.
The others in the crowd quickly formed groups to go deeper into the depths of Dominius' hideout. Surely, there would be some treasure left behind in their haste to flee, right?
---
Gerris saw the void emblem ahead of him and he couldn't help but grin wickedly. He would make sure that Kain would rue the day he let him go. Just as he was about to step into the void emblem, he felt a disconnect with his body and then felt empty below his neck. To his horror, he saw his headless body topple down in front of his eyes.
A nearby shadow coalesced into the figure of a smiling Kain.
"You..you lied! You said you would let me go!" shrieked Gerris.
A bloody pinion floated back into Kain's body as Kain replied,
"I did let you go, didn't I? It isn't my fault that you didn't value this opportunity and run faster. Besides, you were never going to get away, because I am not so stupid as to make the same mistake you did. In your next life, if you have one, make sure you learn the value of being humble. That way, you may not have the same bloody end as you did in this life."
Kain patted Gerris on the cheek and drained the last of his life away. Kain watched as rigor mortis set in and locked Gerris' face into a perpetual grimace of horror and despair. He then threw the head and the body into his void dimension. He wanted to show Barton and Desmond that their blood oath was now complete, and they can focus their attention on getting stronger for the sake of getting stronger, and not just for revenge.
He sensed his clone moving up to the surface at a leisurely pace. Kain decided to lead them to Death's room and temporarily house the girls there. He didn't want them to return yet to the mansion, as he had long waited for this moment to fuck his girls to his heart's content. He shivered at the thought that the crazy girls would probably want to pounce on him themselves, if they heard the sounds of lovemaking between him and his girls.
Kain smiled as he finally felt he could shower his girls with many gifts and treat them to a night they would never forget. He entered the void emblem and appeared in the stairwell within Death's lounge. He removed the void emblem so others couldn't come this way through the portal. Kain quickly flew through the walls and into the open sky. He quickly broke the sound barrier as he barreled towards his house.