Godfire: The Split Soul-Chapter 184: Cast Him Out

Sweat traced thin lines on Kai’s temples as the moonlight shifted from the necklace on his chest to the floor.

With soft steps, he walked toward his bed, then sat on it, the bedsheet crying under his weight.

Ayra, Lieutenant Gray, Clara, Lena, and the covered figure’s face all reflected on the blade as he picked the sword up.

For the first time after Lena’s death, Kai’s fingers didn’t tremble as he held the sword upright against his chest.

As if the sword and the necklace were sharing warmth, the reflection beaded into the smooth surface of the love-shaped metal.

It warmed Kai’s skin whenever it moved with the rising and falling of his chest.

When Kai focused on the blade of the sword, all the faces parted aside. In their place, his reflection looked back at him.

"I will do as you please." A breeze fogged the blade as he whispered onto it.

He sat there until the first grey light of the morning began to fill the room, giving back warmth to the sky.

He slowly placed the sword at his right side, then clutched his fingers together, head bowed.

The training yard slowly began to fill up as boots slammed hard against the ground. Whispers welled up and fell like angry sea waves.

Soldiers and volunteers, whose faces were drawn with sleep, tried their best to hide it, yet the lines remained on their faces.

From the entrance of the yard, mouths began to lower, the booming whispers becoming as a mouse’s love song as Kai emerged from a distance.

"What is this boy coming to do here again? Hasn’t he had enough already?"

"They should send him away. What kind of human has blue and red eyes?" a lady with huge, soft breasts said, then folded her arms on her chest and churned her lips.

"He’s just a small boy. Maybe he’s in his early twenties. All he needs is time. He will break," a soldier with scars on both cheeks whispered into a skinny colleague’s left ear.

Some looked at Kai when he walked past, but most of them looked away, almost as if he were a curse in disguise.

When he was nearing the center of the training yard, following the others, a soldier with a scorpion tattoo on his neck waited beside a foldable table stacked with tablets and papers.

He gestured at the volunteers without introducing himself, like how the other soldiers did in the previous days. "Form a line and stop that stupid arrangement of yours."

He threw sharp glances at the crowd, then sat back on his plastic chair, his hands on the table.

’A Grey and he’s behaving like this?’ Kai thought, then brushed it off. He stood at the back, where he already was, then folded his hands behind his back.

From the left side, Rockson ran, then halted. "Why are you so fast, bro...?" he asked, then wiped the sweat from his face.

Two others joined them. A woman with short black hair that was bunched at her back, and a man with a bandage wrapped around his knuckles like a boxer.

The moment the lines became straight, Wang’s voice echoed softly from the right side, where all the soldiers exited.

"He’s a liability. His strength is unstable. He will cause more people to die when we train him. He has to be monitored."

Just as Wang fully exited the door, Merlin followed. He doubled his steps and sidestepped Wang.

"That is not your decision to make. He has to be free like everyone." Merlin’s voice echoed loudly, spiking confusion in the volunteers and some of the soldiers.

Kai kept his eyes forward, the warmth of the necklace thudding against his skin as if he wasn’t hearing the arguments.

Wang’s voice bounced, then sent chills down everyone’s spine. "The High Council of Hunters will review that. And he will be cast out soon. I promise you that."

Merlin countered, "And when that happens, we will know who has power over the other."

"Really. I see where this is going. I will make sure they see what I see. The weapon he is." Wang ended the argument, then climbed onto the podium.

Staring at the frowned look of Lieutenant Wang’s face, those at the front lines swallowed hard, clearing their throats.

Two soldiers turned, faced the volunteers, then screamed, "Form four rows. Now!"

In a flash, boots skittered on the ground, then rushed into groups, friends joining each other, ladies joining the guys that had flashy muscles.

Kai, on the other hand, found himself in the second row, Rockson on his left, Brann on his right.

Although Brann had all that he needed to be a permanent soldier, he was counted as a volunteer.

From the soldiers standing at ease on the right side, a man, who got called Sarge, walked toward Kai’s group.

His expression kept changing as he drew nearer to him. And when he stopped right in front of him, a weird smile tore across his face.

"You are the one they call Titan Killer, right?"

Every head turned toward Kai, expecting the boy to remain quiet and not talk back.

"They are the ones that call me that," Kai responded, then smiled back.

Sarge narrowed his gaze at the boy, then shook his head. A short laugh escaped him. And when he calmed himself, he turned and looked at the empty ground.

"Well. Then you go first."

Rockson’s mouth opened and remained like that until the soldier threw a sharp glance at him. "What are you looking at, boy?"

He swallowed his thoughts, then closed his mouth and placed his hands rigidly at his sides.

Folded chairs were arranged in a semicircle facing a cracked screen on the far wall when Kai entered the briefing room.

Dust, old sweat, and a metallic tang floated in the air as he inhaled. The clot of blood lanced into Kai’s head as more of the metallic tang made its way into his lungs.

Sarge entered the room, walked toward the screen, and then folded his hands on his chest. His brow furrowed when he saw Kai. "Sit."

Kai sat in the front row.

Sarge exited, then came back later, four volunteers entering with him. On his third return, Rockson entered the briefing room as the last person, then shut the door.

Rockson went and sat in the empty seat at Kai’s left.

Brann, who happened to be among the first to come with Rockson, sat beside Kai. His fingers drummed on his thigh as he focused on the movement of the soldier.

A blinding light blasted in the room as the large screen on the wall shimmered to life. One after another, images began to take shape.

The first to appear on the screen was a serene land that seemed to welcome life. Then, it flickered to the Nurse’s Estate.

Wingreapers moved across the sky, the streets, and on top of the burning buildings.

They came in blurry at first, but when Sarge zoomed in on them, their crooked faces, red eyes, and jagged teeth sent chills through some of the volunteers.

With every press of the black remote in Sarge’s palm, more images flashed in. He didn’t offer any comments or ask any questions.

He adorned the fear in their eyes as he drifted his smiling face across the volunteers, one after another.

Just as the footage shifted to a district Kai had no idea of, Sarge finally spoke.

"I know each one of you here saw something yesterday. Something impossible to unsee." He placed his right hand behind his back, then walked to the center of the room.

"You’re going to face more than that once we move out of here."

He scanned the faces, then paused on Kai’s. "But first of all, what did you see yesterday?" He pointed at the lady with the short black hair.

In a flash, sweat began to bead on the lady as she stood on trembling legs, her eyes drifting from the soldier’s face to the screen.