Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

Looking at the man that Kairen referred to as 'soil dude', he thought to himself.

'What is wrong with this guy?'

Why was he acting like this? 

Wasn't he different last time?

No. Even from the first moment they saw him, he seemed unwilling to fight.

Still, he was not like this!

'What should I do?'

Kairen waited a little bit more for the man to say his words, but no matter how much he stood there, the man just mumbled to himself and said nothing understandable.

So Kairen decided to ask his own question.

"Last time, why didn't you kill me?"

The man visibly flinched at Kairen's words. He raised his head and clenched his spear.

"You..."

His voice trailed off.

"Me...?"

"You... are..."

'Come on, spit it out already!'

Kairen screamed in his mind.

"Do you, by any chance, know me?"

"...."

The man closed his mouth shut. Using that chance, Kairen asked another question. A question that he had to ask no matter what.

"Do you... not belong to this place?"

Kairen was worried about Asa who was standing behind him so he couldn't say 'Did you come here from Earth as well?', so he tried to ask the same thing in another way.

"...."

The man's hand holding the spear started to shake.

"I'm-"

It was right when the man started to talk again.

BAAAANGGG

A loud explosion was heard from behind them.

"What was that?"

Kairen turned back. 

He was currently in the jungle but he wasn't too far away from the temple. He could see dust rising into the air from the distance.

'What is going on? Is there a monster again?'

From his past experiences, Kairen knew that something like that was not impossible to happen. There might be some strange stuff happening there again, and the fact that Kain was nowhere to be found made him even more worried.

"We should go!"

Kairen pushed Asa forward as he also started to run. 

"Ah?"

Asa seemed fazed for a moment but she also started to run towards the temple with Kairen.

"Wait!"

Kairen heard the man's voice from behind telling him to stop. He almost stopped running after hearing him, but he soon shook his head and ran faster. After passing a few trees, they could finally see what was happening.

There was a big pile of dust where the three of them were standing a few minutes ago. But that wasn't important. What mattered was the unfamiliar man who was standing on one side of the platform while holding a sword. 

On the other side of the platform, someone was sitting on the ground surrounded by floating water blades.

"Kain?!"

Kairen stopped running towards Kain after noticing that something was wrong with him. 

There was a red light around him. 

A red light that was being emanated from his arm. From the red circle that was wrapped around his wrist.

'What is that...'

The red light was making it seem like Kain's all water blades were red, as if they were made out of the blood.

"Give that thing to me."

The unfamiliar man started to talk to Kain while opening his palm as if he expected Kain to obey him immediately. Kairen examined the man's face. He was not hiding his face at all. He had blond hair and navy-blue eyes. Kairen didn't know who he was but the unfamiliar man looked oddly familiar.

In his answer, Kain gritted his teeth.

"What are you doing here?"

His voice was coarse and it was shaking a little bit.

"How?... Weren't you... dead?"

Kain was sitting on the ground and looking at the blonde man with shaky eyes.

"What is... What is going on...?"

The First scoffed.

"I said, give that thing around your wrist to me."

"..."

Kain looked down at his wrist and touched the bracelet-like thing.

"Why do you want it?"

"Why? To give to my master of course."

"...."

Kain bit down his lips.

"M-Master..."

He mumbled.

The man started to walk towards Kain.

Tap

But he had to stop walking as he hit a transparent barrier. The First turned towards the mage that was standing beside a tree with a raised eyebrow.

"Hmm!"

He looked at him from head to toe before snickering. 

"Hey, Kain, isn't that boy your dear 'brother'?"

"...."

Kain's face paled and he frowned deeply.

"And the one who has been causing quite a lot of problems... I didn't think it was the same person..."

The man mumbled the next words in a really quiet voice that nobody but him could hear.

"B-brother...?"

Kairen heard the low voice of the soil dude from behind his back.

"EEK!"

He almost jumped up from surprise and took some steps away from him.

'When did he...'

He hadn't sensed the man's presence at all.

"Don't do anything useless and just hand that thing to me."

The unfamiliar man said again as he pointed at the red bracelet-like thing on Kain's wrist.

"Kain..."

While eyeing the soil dude, Kairen walked towards Kain from behind and asked in a whisper.

"What is going on? What is that red bracelet and who is that man?"

Kain didn't take his eyes off of The First.

"I don't know."

He shook his head.

"A red light covered my eyes for a moment. The next second, you two were gone and this thing was on my wrist. A few seconds later he came, telling me to hand this thing to him..."

Kain touched the red bracelet.

"What is that thing?"

"I don't know...But I can feel some... power? from inside it.

"Power?"

Kairen nodded his head again.

"...And it doesn't come off."

Kain tried taking the bracelet off of his arm, but the thing didn't move at all as if it was glued to his wrist.

"Who is that man?"

The man seemed to know Kain as he talked to him casually and he also knew Kairen. 

"I'll... explain later..."

While the two of them were talking, The first gestured to Mr. Hey.

"So this is where you ran off."

He looked around.

"I was watching you from where I was and came following you..."

The First chuckled. 

"I saw that girl was about to cry after seeing that you left her alone! Will she survive in the jungle alone?"

"...."

Mr. Hey didn't even look at him. He was only staring at Kairen and Kain with clenched fists. 

"Oh!"

The First chuckled again and mumbled to himself.

"That boy is also the one you were looking for, huh?"

He turned towards Kairen and Kain again.

"Oy, famous boy!"

He raised his sword and pointed it at the due.

"Stop chitchatting and give that thing to me."

'Famous boy?'

Kairen blinked stupidly.

"I can't!"

Kain said through gritted teeth.

"And even if I could, I wouldn't!"

He glared at the man's blue eyes.

"I wouldn't give it to you!"

"...."

Standing awkwardly behind Kain, Kairen hesitantly looked around.

'What are we doing? Shouldn't we... fight?'

He heard a loud sound before coming here. That meant Kain and this man had probably clashed with each other at least once. But why were they now just talking?

Kairen thought there might be a reason why Kain was not attacking that man so he also only cast a few spells but didn't attack him, waiting for Kain.

"Answer, why are you alive?"

Kain finally stood up.

"And why are you with Philomns?"

He pointed his water blades to The First.

The First pushed away his blonde hair as he chuckled.

"So you won't give that to me? Maybe I should just cut off your arm?"

Flinch

Kairen clinched and looked back at Kain's arm.

Cut off his arm?

That was too scary!

'Is this because of me?'

The blast happened as soon as he used mana. The last time too, he was probably the cause of the blast. 

And that thing appeared after the blast.

'Why do they want that thing? Do they know what it is?'

Why Kain? He was the one causing trouble why was that thing attached to Kain?

Kain glanced at his wrist one before touching his communication device.

-We've faced an enemy. All unit 6 gather in this location.

Kain said that and turned off the device.

"Shouldn't you also call unit 5?"

"...."

Kain thought for a moment then shook his head.

"No. They shouldn't come here..."

"Huh? Why?"

"I said no!"

"...."

Although Kain was calling for reinforcement, The First didn't seem fazed at all. Instead, he started to smile.

"Do you want to repeat things again?"

"...."

Kain clenched his fist. A long water whip appeared on his hand

Seeing Kain prepare to fight, Kairen also finished his spells and cast layers of shields around the three of them.

Kairen looked at The First once before turning to look at the soil dude. He was still staring at the two of them while clenching his spear.

'I wanted to talk to him...'

Kairen really wanted to know what the man's answer was, but it's not like he could talk about the other world or a twisted time in front of Kain. 

"Hah!"

With another chuckle, The First finally started to move. With his sword in his hand, The First rushed towards Kain.

CRASH

The barriers and the shields in his way collapsed easily with a single touch of his sword.

BANGG

The sword finally stopped after clashing with a water barrier.

Kain then moved his other hand that was not holding a whip. With that movement, all of his water blades rushed at The First.

Bang Bang Bang

The First easily slashed all of the water blades one by one and opened his mouth.

"Kain, even after all these years, it seems like you still can't defeat your previous team leader!"