Chapter 21: Chapter 21- Lone Monster
Chapter 21- Lone Monster
The parachute continued its descent swiftly for a while. Since Kai had deployed it slightly earlier than the normal level, the journey down took a long time. During that time, Kai kept his eyes on one thing.
'Hmm, it still didn't hit the ground yet. Is the one inside still resisting?' He thought as he examined the mysterious jet that followed them.
Even though Kai had deactivated the engine which made the jet fall down, it still didn't hit the ground yet which by Kai's calculations should've already happened by the time he deployed the parachute.
"Do you have any idea who they are, Kai?" Eva asked with a serious expression. As much as she wanted to quietly enjoy Kai's rare embrace, she knew that they weren't out of danger quite yet.
"No. They can be anyone from the Guild or Divinity. Hitmen are all required to have a multitude of talents to be able to perform successful missions no matter the situation." He replied.
"But, how would they know your identity? Did that woman Kaya unveil something?" Eva's face darkened as her aura grew a degree colder for a moment.
Kai however stayed silent for a while, seemingly in deep thought.
"No, they aren't after me. They're most probably after you."
"What?" Eva's eyebrows rose slightly in surprise.
"Before coming here, I made sure to pretend as if I'm leaving on a bus to the next city. It was mainly to trick Kaya but that would also work on anyone else that was trying to follow me. Even then, I never noticed any presence near us. That means that this individual knew about the jet, knew when it was going to leave the airport, and even prepared a special aircraft to follow after it and destroy it." Kai replied matter-of-factly.
"I see…" Eva nodded her head as she fell into deep thought.
'Ah, Kai is so smart~~ I love you!!' Her serious expression didn't project her real thoughts. They were way rosier than normal.
Eventually, the parachute landed on the ground in what seemed to be a forest of some kind. Kai then looked around before he put Eva down.
"Ugh, where are we now?"
"A forest of some kind in the north. We shouldn't be that far away from our destination."
The normal trip takes around 2 hours and the accident happened around 1 hour and 20 minutes into the flight.
"I see… Hmm, wait, I'm feeling the presence of something." Eva turned around along with Kai as they were met with the rumbling of the trees. Birds started flying away as if they were escaping from something.
A second later, a huge silhouette appeared in front of the duo. Towering over 2 meters in height, a grizzly bear stared at the two with ferocious, hungry eyes.
Its sharp teeth were baring at them with saliva trickling down from its mouth. Then, the beast charged at them rapidly.
Eva took a stance ready to fight. However, Kai mysteriously stepped forward casually before he extended his hand forward, aiming at the moment.
"Sit down." His mouth uttered two extremely cold words as his aura was unleashed, aimed directly at the charging bear.
Instantly, the monster's run halted as he looked at Kia with fearful eyes. Its anger was completely gone and was replaced with wariness like nothing else. Its instincts told it that the human in front of it was extremely dangerous.
Then, in a surprising sight, the monster bowed down meekly in front of Kai as if it was a loyal dog, not daring to look him in the eyes.
"Wow…" Eva murmured in admiration.
No matter how many times she sees Kai masterfully using Origin, she could never get enough of it. Eva was someone who can use Origin herself and was even pretty good at it. But, compared to Kai, it was nothing, just child's play. Even amongst the strongest individuals in the guild, Kai was in a different league when it comes to controlling Origin.
There was something about it that was so elegant, so swift and so perfect that she couldn't grasp yet.
"Hop on." Waking up from her thoughts to Kai's voice, she found him sitting on top of the bear cross-legged.
"Huh? We are going to ride this bear?"
"Do you want to walk the rest of the distance to the nearest town?" Kai asked.
"No…"
"Then hop on. We will leave."
Eva couldn't retort to her beloved's logic and so she could only shake her head and jump on top of the bear too.
"Move," Kai ordered the beast with one word which made it immediately start running.
Passing through the thick forest, the two made their way north, heading toward the closest village. Before arriving here, Kai made sure to memorize the general map of the area just in case and he remembers that there was a small town not that far away from where they fell.
"Keep your eyes open. The jet didn't fall that far away from here." Kai said as he looked around constantly.
"You don't need to tell me."
Almost thirty minutes passed before the bear finally reached the end of the forest. On the other side, a small town could be seen, located near a small mountain chain that cut through the continent from north to east. Behind the mountain chain was D-Country, their destination.
"Leave." After the two jumped down from the bear, Kai ordered it to leave. The beast immediately groaned meekly and then ran back to the forest like a scared cat.
"It became your loyal pet. Fufufu!" Eva chuckled.
"That bear became more of a servant than a pet. It doesn't like me, it fears me." Kai said as he turned around and started walking toward the village.
However, Eva didn't immediately follow. For some reason, the words Kai said resonated with her.
'It doesn't like me, it fears me.' Those words could be said about pretty much everyone who knew Kai's identity. He was the Black Phantom, the monster that hunts down everyone he chooses and never fails.
Nobody liked him, they all feared him, his name, his presence, and everything related to him. He was the boogeyman of everyone, young and old, rich or poor. Being at the peak might be amazing as a notion itself but when someone truly experiences the peak, alone, they will eventually realize that being different isn't always better.
The main reason why humans get better, improve, have ambitions or even a desire to live stems from goals and dreams to reach the peak.
So, what would someone who reached the peak aim for? How could they get close to anyone else beneath them who can never understand them? These questions were something that even Eva can't answer.
'To be feared by everyone and no one to truly trust or rely on. How would he be feeling?' She thought with a sad expression.
This was a part she would never understand about Kai. How he felt being alone, being different from everyone, and being treated like a monster when he simply wanted a peaceful life, far away from trouble.
Till this point, Eva still didn't understand why he quit being a hitman. But, she now could understand why, to a certain extent.
"I'm sorry, Kai. It must've been painful. I'm sorry…" She murmured to herself as she looked at Kai's lone silhouette moving through the dirt road. Then, the young man turned around, staring straight at Eva.
"Eva?"
"Mm, I'm coming." Nodding her head, Eva put on a warm smile before she approached Kai.
'For all the suffering you went through. I will do everything I can to ease that pain, Kai. I will never allow you to feel lonely ever again.'
At that moment, a new resolve spurted inside Eva's heart. What the girl wasn't aware of was that this small moment of enlightenment will be the reason why the future will completely change. When the moment comes for her deep love for Kai to finally show its true power, Eva's desire to make Kai happy will be at the center of that.
But, that's a story for another day.