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

Something landed on the ground with a strong force, breaking all of his shields on their way, cracking the ground, creating a strong gust of wind, and shooting Kairen back.

“Gasp!”

Kairen gasped as his body helplessly flew back, floated in the air for a few seconds, hit the ground, rolled a few times, and finally stopped after hitting a damaged pillar.

“Oww!”

The half-broken pillar broke after getting hit by Kairen and fell on top of his head.

“Ouch! Oww!”

Kairen curled up, covering his head with his arms while broken parts of the pillar were falling on his head. It hurt. It hurt so much! Huge pieces of stone were falling on him. Kairen thought he would die. If not for the protective gears he was wearing, he was sure he would’ve turned into nothing but mashed meat by now.

-Kairen! Wha- Shh You-SSHHH SHHH Hey- SSHH SHH

.....

Kairen heard his team leader’s worried voice in his ear once again, but the voice soon got static to the point that he couldn’t understand what he was saying. After a few seconds, he couldn’t hear anything at all.

‘Did the device break?’

It would’ve been surprising if the communication device was still intact after the thing that happened just now.

“Who-”

Kairen uttered as he slightly raised his head. His head hurt and he felt dizzy after the pillar crumbled on his head. His vision was also a little bit blurry, but he could still see the thing, no, the person who just landed on the ground and was now approaching him.

“Oh? Have you gotten dull? I didn’t think you would get blown away...”

He heard the voice of a man. The voice of the man who was now standing in front of him.

“Huh?”

He has gotten dull? Why was this man surprised? Wasn’t Kairen always dull?

Kairen looked at the man. Even in his blurry vision, he could still see the man’s face.

Long white hair, white eyelashes, white brows, white pupils, pale skin, and soft facial features. He was wearing red and black clothes. The clothes looked good on him, but the style was a little bit strange. They were like the ones that Kairen had seen in webtoons he had read back at earth, those transmigration webtoons. The clothes looked like the ones worn by noblemen in those series. Kairen didn’t know the name of the style, but the overcoat, the shoes, the shirt, and even the gloves didn’t look to belong to the fashion styles of this time and world.

‘Where did this dude come from?’

No matter how you looked at him, his appearance screamed that he didn’t belong to this place, at least not this country.

The man was tall and handsome, but as much as Kairen could see he didn’t have any muscles. He was thin, even thinner than a normal person.

‘How did he survive the fall?’

And the ground under his feet was also shattered. The man should’ve been at least injured after that fall. No, wait, where did he even fall from? Sky?

“Gasp!”

Kairen gasped once again. The pressure he felt a few seconds ago was now much stronger. It was because the source of that pressure, the man, was standing right before his eyes.

“Who?”

Kairen couldn’t help but ask again. It took the man a few seconds to answer. He looked really surprised after hearing Kairen’s question.

“Eh? Really?”

The man suddenly made a hurt expression.

“Why? Are you pretending like you don’t know me now? Is that how you treat an old friend? It’s true that it’s been such a long time since we last met, but how could you forget your best friend even if it has been so long? Has the old age finally affected your memory?”

The man said, his voice as if he was nagging and whining.

“Pardon?”

Friend? Old age? Pretending?

That was all Kairen could say.

As he was still warily looking at the man, he raised his body while grabbing the half-broken wall. It was a little bit hard to breathe under the pressure and his body was sore after hitting the pillar, but he couldn’t sit on the ground the whole time while an unknown man was talking to him.

As he stood up, Kairen peeked at his group. He wanted to somehow tell them to get away from this place. This man was dangerous, they couldn’t win against him no matter what they did. He wanted to somehow warn them.

But once he turned his head and looked at the location where the others were standing, he couldn’t see the team members. The reason was a barrier. A thick, blank barrier that was surrounding the whole temple.

“What?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

He heard the man’s voice again.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t expect me to be able to create such a simple barrier? You are underestimating me too much!”

‘Bro, what the hell are you talking about?’

Why did this man talk so much? He even made conclusions based on his own words and thoughts!

“You created it?”

Kairen turned to the man again. The man’s eyebrow rose a little bit.

“Yeah? Sure I did. I didn’t want anyone to ruin our reunion after all.”

“...Yes?”

Reunion?

Kairen didn’t understand even a single word this man said. He didn’t even know if this man was an enemy or not. Kairen thought he had to do something, but it wasn’t like he could attack this man. He knew even without trying that he wouldn’t be able to pull a single hair out of this man’s head. Attacking him would seem as if an ant was slapping a dragon’s face.

“Hmm?”

The man frowned a little bit. Raising his hand, he touched his chin and narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t tell me you’ve really forgotten me?”

He soon shook his head.

“Nah! What would you be doing here if you had forgotten me? Am I wrong, my prince?”

“...Yes? P-Prince?”

“Hah!”

The man scoffed, his lips soon curled up to an irritated smile.

“Acting as if you don’t remember anything won’t help, you know. You think you can fool me?”

“....”

Kairen looked away from the man’s smiling face, which looked kinda scary now.

“Um...”

He took one step back.

“You must’ve mistaken me with someone else, sir.”

He smiled to the width of his face, though the man wouldn’t be able to see it as his mask was covering his face.

“Is that so?”

“Yes! I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Kairen took another step back, though he knew that it was useless as the man could crush him at any moment even if Kairen was a few steps away from him.

“Then...”

The man put his hands on the pockets of his coat and leaned against the wall.

“...Am I mistaken about the power you have as well?”

“...Yes?”

Kairen wanted to cry.

Power. This power again!

What is it this time? What new kind of shit has he stuck in again?

“My prince.”

“...”

‘And why is he calling me a prince? Gah!’

Kairen felt chills all over his body.

“You should have expected me to come to meet you when you started to visit my temples one by one.”

.....

“...Your temples?”

‘What? What? Why is it his temples? What?’

“You should’ve expected me to come when you activated the mechanisms one by one.”

“....”

Kairen took another step back.

“Don’t tell me you thought I wouldn’t know it was your doing when I got the alarm from the mechanisms when I’ve set them up especially only to detect your presence, hmm?”

“...”

Kairen took another step back. He was sweating buckets and feeling chills all over his body at the same time.

Set up mechanisms to detect him? Does he mean the eagles, the red lights, and all of the other freaking things that happened whenever he was in a temple?

Kairen was sure that this man has mistaken him for someone else. Why would someone try to detect him? That was the funniest thing he has heard in five years. Wait, the most recent funniest thing he had heard was when Reyan told him that they were cadets on his first day here... so this would be the funniest thing he has heard in the last few months. Yeah.

‘Wait, he said he set up mechanisms... in his temples...’

His temples? Why his temples?

‘Long white hair... white eyelashes... white brows... white pupils’

Kairen’s mouth gaped, his eyes widening in shock.

Weren’t those facial features the descriptions he had read somewhere before about a specific man? Someone mysterious, with mysterious powers. Someone whose name and deeds were erased from the history.

“You...”

Kairen muttered. The man’s eyebrows twitched upon hearing Kairen.

“You are him?”

A smile formed on the man’s face.

“So you finally decided to drop the act-”

“The head of the religion?”

The man’s words were interrupted by Kairen.

“The holy saint?”