Myriam was staring at me, her blue eyes wide open, partly in surprise and partly because of the pain my stab had caused in her belly. I could not feel pleasure as lowly humans could, but I bet this was as close as I would ever get.

Her quizzical expression would have been very amusing to a human. I could see she was still holding on to whatever hope she could find. Her eyes still held a glimmer of affection, not wanting to believe that her little Kai betrayed her.

Myriam, you were always so naive. So easy to manipulate. Ever since I can remember.

“You are but a step, Myriam,” I said, and I twisted the dagger in her body as the runes on the Tree and the circle around it started pulsating with light again.

My hands were now wet and warm with her blood, my thumb and index fingers touching her skin. I pushed her slightly with my fist and pulled the dagger back. Immediately, I started feeling the blockages in my head disappearing.

Mana was flowing freely through me now and I could already tell I would be able to cast spells without needing to go into a rage state. More mana was being released with each passing moment, as if the dams that had been holding it back had now been destroyed in me as Myriam’s life faded away, her body falling backward.

“NO!” Adel screamed as he ran up the four steps between us and him, barely catching Myriam before her almost lifeless body hit the ground.

His face was surprised, but in a different way than Myriam’s. He looked surprised, no doubt. All the signs were there. His eyebrows were up and curved, his mouth was wide open, his upper eyelids were raised higher than usual, and his forehead had horizontal wrinkles. Yet his eyes were different. I think I recognized regret in there.

“I should never have trusted you, you Divine beast!” Adel shouted with tears in his eyes, his left hand holding Myriam’s wound and his right embracing her.

This was such a gratifying moment. Sometimes I did envy them for being able to feel. It was a weakness, of course, but this moment right here would be something I would be able to cherish forever. My best friend dead in the hands of my worst enemy. My plan finally coming true.

“Myriam, stay with me,” Adel said, as Myriam’s breathing became shallow and rattling toward the end of each exhalation.

She was looking into his eyes and for a moment her face looked… happy? She smiled at him and whispered the usual three words that people held so dear.

“NO!” Adel screamed again, shaking Myriam’s body and caressing her face, which only accomplished painting her with blood. Her eyes remained open and unmoving.

The magical seals stopped breaking, and I could barely keep my mana from exploding.

So this is the power of The Divine. I wonder how much stronger I can become if the other half of the seal is broken.

“Please, Kai,” Adel started once more, “I know you’re in there. Please do something to help her. I beg of you. Help your sister!”

This looked like the perfect cue for me to start one of those long and unnecessary maniacal laughs which villains usually let out when their plan was about to succeed. On the other hand, whenever Seika or Myriam imitated them in tales, I cared little for them, so I just went on with my plan.

“There’s no need to cry, Adel,” I told him, trying to keep his attention. “You might well meet her again when I kill you.”

Instead of replying, he turned back to Myriam, tears flowing from his eyes once more. He whispered something to her though I could not, and didn’t care enough, to hear. I mentally searched through the vast array of spells the liberated Divine Essence had made available to me and decided to start with a simple one. Just to test how far my mana could go at the moment.

I wanted to see if I could already cast stilled spells. I looked at Adel’s neck and cast a 32-word spell which made a chain attach itself to the ground on one end and to a collar on the other. Instead of shouting the spell while moving my body as per the spell’s somatic components, I chanted it in my head, and sure enough, the collar locked itself onto Adel’s neck.

The spell landed perfectly, but Adel didn’t seem to notice, as he didn’t move his eyes away from Myriam.

“Why, you monster?” he asked me angrily, the chain attached to the collar around his neck stretching as he moved. “We were trying to help you. We were trying to—”

“Shut up now,” I said, as I removed the magical horse-summoning whistle hanging around his neck with a small telekinetic cantrip and simultaneously cast a muting spell on him. “I am not The Divine. It’s still me, Kai. Though not the Kai you thought you knew. This is the real me… without masks and without the need to pretend I care.”

He was looking at me with a very unusual expression on his face. I had never encountered such facial movements. The muscles around his eyes were moving rapidly and his eyebrows were furrowed as if he was in pain. I guessed I really needed to explain the truth to him so I would be sure he considered me his worst enemy.

“Let me break it down for you, you dumb manaless,” I said and started, for the first time in my life, explaining the truth about me. “Ever since I was a baby, I was different. Not just different. I was unique. I was not bound by the moralities of society and the feelings you lowly humans are servants to. My parents, of course, thought something was wrong with me and they tried to fix me with magic, but as I grew up I understood that it would be easier if I just pretended to be one of you. But I was never one of you.”

Adel was now simply staring at me, a blank expression on his face. Lost.

“So, I started watching people. I studied them, I learned how they talk and how they move the muscles of their face according to the situation. I could be happy,” I said and smiled widely, my teeth showing and my eyes narrowed.

I then dropped my eyes to the ground and kept my eyes open until they watered before continuing, “I could be sad. I learned all of the faces and the sounds you make, and how they were connected to situations. Yet I never cared one bit for you, or my parents, or our beloved Myriam. You were all strings and levers I pulled, waiting for my time. And I had all of you fooled. Even my parents eventually believed that my previous—‘alarming’ as they called it—behavior was just something I grew out of. In reality, I simply pretended to be chained by the meager feelings you mortals value so much, waiting for the day I would receive my mana. Little did I know I was destined to become mana itself.”

I walked down one step and noticed a few soft lines were beginning to form on Adel’s forehead. Alert. Finally, he was starting to realize what was happening.

Good, I need him to pay attention to the next part.