The next few months were a blur to Kayn. He killed, rested, ate cores and cultivated, and then killed again. Kayn eradicated entire legions of soldiers, leaving only their slaves alive. At times, he even ran into entire platoons composed of slave mages marching through the lands.
When that happened, he merely sent out a massive collar disabling pulse causing all of the slave collars to fall off their owners. The slaves would immediately turn on their captors, killing and torturing them for all they had endured under their tyranny.
Neither soldier nor slave ever got much of a glimpse of Kayn. He would appear from nowhere, quickly dispatch everyone and everything who were part of Carnet or Inmortuae before freeing any slaves if they couldn't handle attacking their captors themselves. If the released slaves could fight back, he would let them do so and left.
Kayn's actions were swift and decisive. If he killed, it was never one at a time, he wiped out entire armies with single spells. He caused explosions of blood, apocalyptic lightning strikes, mass decapitation, none could escape from death once he arrived.
The few 6th stages he encountered trying to make their way back to Carnet were no different. A few of them were in the middle to high tiers of the 6th stage, but Kayn was well into the 5th stage by now, and would close in on the 6th himself after a few more cores.
As it turned out, he only needed 12 of the original 6th stage cores to go from the 4th to the 5th stage within the Mana Gathering room. Kayn had been using his own room within the Villa recently after adjusting the formation to its maximum settings. Between the core stones he stole and the other 6th stage cores in his possession, he was making significant progress every day in between hunting down the dogs of Carnet.
At his current power level, finishing off a single 6th stage wasn't very difficult. He still couldn't overpower their blood unless they were truly a bottom of the barrel 6th stager, but that didn't mean he didn't have other options. Most of the time he would appear from the shadows with his sword drawn and decapitate them on the spot before plunging his fist into their body to take their core out and throw it in his mouth.
Within less than half a year, Mancea was freed of all Carnet and undead influence. Kayn didn't know if there were more people hiding as was the case with Yelena, but they would eventually realize that outside world was safe once more to come out and restart their lives.
Though, until Carnet and Inmortuae were truly dealt with, they wouldn't feel safe. Thinking about his next course of action, he decided to head south first. He wanted to get more 6th stage mana core. Unfortunately, the majority of the 6th stagers left within the continent of Lavanth, that he wouldn't feel guilty for killing and eating, were down south.
Even if he wanted power and Wrath was mostly in control, he was still himself. He wasn't going to attack allies like the orc tribes or elven clans to obtain more 6th stage cores. There were still plenty within the army of Lich King Mitas, and he intended to take every single one.
Not only was he going to hunt every lich down, he was going to hunt down any cursed or minor intelligent race that sided with the Lich King during this war. This mostly meant the vampire clans and lycans as they were within the few cursed races that had mana cores and had 6th stage beings who fought with the undead.
Thus, his plan was decided to start rampaging through the south.
…
Over time, Kayn began to hear rumors during his short breaks about what people were calling him. To Carnet and those allied with the undead of Inmortuae, he was known as the Death God. A being who had millions upon millions of deaths on his hands. If a being garbed in black with a black hood appeared, none would make it out alive.
Liches feared the Death God more than anything as it was rumored that he could kill them regardless of if he found their phylactery or not. Something he did could follow their soul back and it would eventually purge them from existence. They started going into hiding, but none could hide from the eyes of the Death God.
Vampire clans were wiped out with their own blood. The irony of the situation quite remarkable. Werewolf clans turned into massive silver statues after lakes of molten silver poured down on them from above. The terrified werewolves forever depicting the horror on their faces as they were encased in molten silver.
Goblin and hobgoblin nests were wiped out without a trace and seemed to be hunted down with a specific passion. Though weak individually, the numbers that they could gather in the south if they all joined would be terrifying, but that would never happen now. As time drew on, the goblin race drew closer and closer to complete extinction.
On the other hand, the orc tribes and dark elf clans who lived in the south and were one day fighting with all of their might against the relentless aggression of the undead found themselves free of attacks the next day. A scout had glimpsed the moments a figure draped in black entered the enemy's camp turning it to ash before disappearing once again.
As more and more areas of contention found themselves at peace once more and stories of this black garbed figure were spread. From the mouths of enemies, they learned that the figure was nick-named the Death God.
On one side, known as a hero and the savior of the Tribal Mancean Alliance, the Death God was celebrated and toasted to at any feast happening in celebration of their victory.
On the other side, the Carnet Emperor and Mitas were cursing this Death God, but neither decided to take him out as they were close to succeeding in their own plans.
Lich after lich perished under Kayn's formidable might. The only liches he left alone were those who did not involve themselves with the war and refused Lich King Mitas's orders until the very end. Some of them, not even Mitas could force into doing his bidding, so Kayn wasn't going to worry about them as they wanted nothing more than seclusion and to be left alone.
Then the day finally came. While circulating the mana from a mana core that he had eaten a week ago with the Void Star technique inside of his boosted Wanderer's Villa, he entered the 6th stage.
The number of impurities extruded from his body filled up almost the entire mana gathering formation room and he had to spend hours just to get it cleaned up and scent free. However, he felt powerful. So powerful, that he could crush the world within his fingers.
Obviously, he wasn't able to do that, but his new level should finally put him on an equal footing to those two monsters who still refused to show themselves, Carnet and Mitas.
…
Kayn spent yet another month flying all around Inmortuae looking for Mitas, but the lich had just vanished. Kayn didn't think he ascended as there should have been news about that. No matter who he captured and questioned, none knew the whereabouts of their former King.
Deciding to give up on Mitas for now, Kayn started his journey back north, no longer staying within the shadow realm and flying out in the sky for all to see, not that many peoples' eyes could track him at his current speed.
As soon as he crossed into Carnet, his revenge began. He slaughtered whatever remaining soldiers he could find one after the other, trying to draw out the cowardly emperor. However, killing wasn't all he was doing as he was using his Mana Sense at full capacity constantly, looking for one specific person. He promised himself that he would find her if she was still alive and he wasn't going to stop until he did, or at least found evidence of her death.
Villages were wiped out, towns were destroyed, and even major cities within Carnet didn't stand a chance. Oddly enough, no slaves were harmed during the destruction, nor were any who were just trying to live while not partaking in anything having to do with the bustling slave business that started up in Carnet a few years back.
Kayn spared none. If they were involved in the ownership or abuse of a slave, he ended their life. Many toddlers and infants became orphans after Kayn swept through a town, but he wasn't about to kill children not yet old enough to think about their actions. There were plenty of other adults to take care of the kids and he always left something behind to help with that.
Slaves begged for the day when the Death God would come to free them, and slave owners wished the day the Death God visited would never come. Some were so afraid of the stories being told that they willingly released their slaves and did their best to repent for their sins, if only for the Death God to not see them as evil.
Many of the families of nobility in Carnet fled into secret bunkers with their favorite slaves. The bunkers were not salvation, but a trap. The only living things that exited the hidden bunkers were freed slaves.
Some of those keeping slaves tried to blend in with their slaves when the inevitable visit happened, but they were always seen through and killed on the spot.
By this time, the only remaining 6th stage Carnet mages resided inside their capital city. There were four in total, not including the emperor. This was the latest number that Kayn knew about anyway, there could be more. Kayn had killed two others during his time in Carnet as he caught up to them trying to escape towards the capital city.
Oddly enough, Emperor Carnet had not yet shown himself. Much like Lich King Mitas, Carnet was a no show when Kayn was blatantly taunting him. However, his revenge on the emperor could wait as Kayn still hadn't found who he was looking for.
He destroyed countless hidden research facilities throughout the empire, but none of them held the person he was looking for. He was about to give up and just assume she was dead, but his Mana Sense registered something odd deep below the ocean as he was traversing the coast.
Kayn dove into the water and blasted through like a torpedo in the direction he felt the oddity. There, on the floor bed of the ocean, a vent was blowing air up into the sea. Kayn tried to examine where the vent's pipe led to, but surprisingly not even the vast range of his Mana Sense could track how deep or far it went.
Without any other choice, Kayn ripped the vent cover off while using wind mana on the entrance so that no water would get inside. He then jumped in without hesitation. He was determined to see where this shaft led him. If only he could find Lydia, there was only one more thing he needed to do on this damned continent before he could finally go find Lara.