The sun sets for rebirth

Even though a short time had passed, a lot had happened, and seeing the apartment where we had been welcomed in Frankfurt was like coming home after a very long trip.

I walked out of the house to see how the survivors were doing and met up with the senator's friends and guards with whom I had arranged the funeral.

"T-Tenkei? Are you back in Frankfurt?"

"Hi. Sort of, it's a long story..."

"And Emmy and Evan, where did they go?"

"... They're also part of the long story... they.... didn't make it..."

"D-did they? Geez, they were so young, they didn't deserve to die. How do we tell Emmy's parents?"

"Oh, that's right, her parents are still alive, I almost forgot. By the way, I should see my parents again too..."

"Well, but in the end...did you find those two killers?"

"Oh, you mean Reid and Clark. Yes, we eliminated them, but they were the two killers of my companions. And by the way, I also met two people, actually not really people, but I'll explain that later."

"... I see, it must have been hard for you to keep going forward and back as well. By the way, how did you make it back without anyone seeing you? The borders are all surrounded by guards to see if more people are arriving."

"That too is part of the long story."

"But what is this 'long story'?"

"I told you, I'll explain it later."

"Tsk, all right. Now there's a worse problem, by now we're running out of the water Mr. Weber left us, wouldn't you happen to know where to get any?"

"Well, in the long story, there is also another fact: I have all the powers of the gods-, I meant to say, the 8 kamien."

"A-all of them? You left them at home?"

"No, you don't understand, I absorbed them."

"What! And you didn't die?"

"No, because the power of the void one is to engulf the other 7."

"Really? You're awesome, Tenkei!"

"T-thank you..."

"But I'd like to ask one last thing about it: if the kamien sucked up ALL the energies of the earth, how come the void one is still there? I mean, if it wasn't there, everything would be full of molecules of various substances or atoms, right?"

"Well, now that you mention it, you're right, but I have a theory in mind that is part of the long story."

My theory is that Izanami during the meteorite impact, made sure that not all of the energy in the void disappeared, precisely so that living things could survive.

"But back to us, you have the water kamien, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, so you can fill the empty vessels?"

"Well, I don't have much energy, but if it's urgent I can do it right now, yes."

"Well, it's a lot of energy to use, so if you can't you can also wait until tomorrow, we can hold out for another week or two anyway."

"Perfect, so if that's the case, I'd go get some sleep."

"Don't worry, you've had a lot of hard work I guess, get back all the strength you lost."

"Okay, so I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure, have a good sleep, Tenkei."

"Thanks."

And so, I rested for the first time, in a not too ruined house, and in a populated city, which for me, meant the end of that hell I had gone through.

The next day.

I had woken up, I had slept a lot, it was barely afternoon, and since I had no food, I decided to ask one of the people from the day before.

Once I got there, I rang the doorbell, and they opened right away.

"Tenkei, nice to see you again, did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you. Sorry to bother you, but I don't have any food in the house. I wanted to ask if I could eat at your place."

"Oh, sure! You're in luck, I eat at late hours, and I am cooking some pasta now. I hadn't made it in a long time, since there was little water and no fire, but now that you're back with all the kamien, it seems like the right situation, and now I guess you, too, haven't eaten it since you left, right?"

"Well, actually, that's not a bad idea. I'll take it, thank you very much."

"No need to thank me."

And so, I also regained the carbs that I lost during the battle.

After eating, I took a nap and woke up at 6 pm. I had taken my time and then went to the plant to give water to the city, which, by the way, I had noticed, had also gotten more prominent.

"Well that makes sense, after all, it's been over a week since I've been there, who knows how many survivors have arrived in my absence?"

I arrived at the water containers, and indeed they were all empty except for one, which was about to run out anyway. There were the senator's two guards there, to whom his inheritance belonged. I guess they were there on guard, in fact, other people were checking the water as well.

"Tenkei Nowak, good to see you, did you sleep well?"

"YES, thank you. I came to fill the containers."

"Ah perfect, have you recovered all your strength?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure? If you're still tired, it's no problem, you can still rest."

"No, thanks. I can do it."

"Well, if you say so, then we'll walk you to the top and let you insert the water. Initially, the containers weren't all joined together, but afterward, we joined them thanks to holes on each side so you don't have to open them all one at a time."

"I see, so now I won't have to move around in all of them, you guys had a good idea."

"Well, it wasn't much of a stroke of genius, but it sure helped make things a lot more comfortable for us."

We got to the top, where there was a huge circular door above the receptacle at the top. I guess the senator had managed to fill them up in such a short time because of those.

The guards opened it, and let me concentrate so that I could get the water out. I had already used even larger amounts out in fights, and by the way, I also had some of Izanami's energy inside me.

I started filling everything up, and in order not to break the containers with the force and speed of the water, I had to use less than my maximum power, so it took me longer than expected: about ten minutes.

"Good, Tenkei, are you tired?" one of the guards asked me.

"Actually no, I've been doing far more complicated things on my journey."

"Perfect, so you didn't even work too hard."

"No."

"Good, thanks for your help. Have a good evening."

"You're welcome, bye."

After that, I went home, and I thought I might as well get the electricity back on.

So the next day, I proposed it to Mr. Weber's friends, who, by then, had become the leaders of the post-apocalyptic city, and they agreed.

So we went to the power plant, where I had first checked my kamien to send the emergency message in the early days of the apocalypse.

Then, as I had done with the vessels, I also did with the electricity, and so gave people the ability to communicate with each other (also to use the internet, but since it hadn't been used for long and many of the servers for various websites and services were in America, it couldn't be used yet).

"Way to go, Tenkey. You've got a great idea. Now you can mind your own business and even take a walk around the town if you want."

"Thanks for the compliment, and by the way, I think I'll take your advice, it's been a long time since I've seen a community."

"Perfect, then go ahead."

"Thanks, bye."

"Bye kid."

"Damn, he must have gone through hell. Poor guy...well, he's home now," he told his friends nearby, thinking I wasn't listening.

All this made me feel useful and happy, what I had been looking for for years and my life had never been able to give me.

When I had begun the walk, I could see that everyone had immediately used the water I had given them or were immediately trying to phone each other to see if it worked or something, or were just taking a walk like me. As I hiked, I thought that I had finished my task, killing Reid and Clark... but... something was missing...

"Hey, now that I think about it... I have all the kamien, aka the essences of the lesser gods, the eight energies of the world. I have them, but the Earth should keep them..." I thought.

I couldn't get it out of my head... so I rolled up my sleeves and looked for a way to give back what belonged to the real owner.

I thought I could give it to her directly like that, but it would be too complicated, I wasn't capable of that. I thought about it for twenty minutes, and I had some ideas, but they were too dangerous: I could try to combine the energy of the kamien and Izanami to succeed in my intent, but I didn't know how to do it, and I didn't know if I could contain that power, nor if Izanami herself would be able to strengthen herself since now her energy was very little.

I also thought about destroying the kamien to get the gods out, but it could have been that they would have destroyed the whole city, given their power, and besides, they were too hard to break.

I stayed a few weeks thinking about other solutions while helping the survivors and continuing to supply the people, but nothing came to mind, so I focused on the two initial ideas, trying to figure out which one was the least dangerous or the one most likely to work.

After a few hours thinking about it, I realized that mixing the energies, seemed impossible to do, while splitting the kamien, could work, if I found the way, and if they were all out of one shot, I could die, but at least they were back in the Earth, even if not as originally, at least there were, and I could move away from Frankfurt to avoid destruction and death of innocents.

I proposed my idea to the senator's friends, and they said it was too dangerous.

"But I can't keep them all to myself, they don't belong to me."

"I understand what you're saying kid, but what if something goes wrong and they run off the land or something? Besides, I still can't believe this whole gods thing..."

"I do believe in those legends, but I can't believe that Izanami killed her brother, then locked herself inside you, and then died to leave you part of his energy." said another.

"Why would I lie to you?"

"Let's say you're telling the truth, but it could have just been a dream, you were very tired."

"What! Then how do you explain that the meteorite sucked up all the energies of the world, and then also locked them up in almost indestructible stones?"

"One hypothesis of ours is that it was a meteorite from an alien race, we have no guesses as to why, but we believe it to be so, it is the most logical explanation."

"What are you talking about? You are wrong, There were gods, who were then sealed, and everything I told you before, actually it was an illusion as if it was a dream, but it was real, I saw what happened during the impact of the meteorite, and the fight between the two gods."

"Even if it was, it would still be too dangerous, so that's a no."

"But--"

"No argument, you can't think you're taking the liberty of choosing how to use the world's energies, if it goes wrong and you lose them, we'd all die of dehydration too."

"But if I didn't try to do that, time would pass, and the part of the planet that is devoid of energy would calmly go away, eventually losing it."

"What kind of talk are you making! I think you're tired from the amount of water and electricity you used before and now you're delirious, go to sleep!"

"I'VE ALREADY SLEPT YESTERDAY!" I yelled.

"NOW STOP! WE SAID NO, SO YOU WILL NOT CROSS THE BORDER TO FRANKFURT! IS THAT CLEAR?!" they replied, also yelling.

"Well, if that's the case, then I'm going to work on my own to find a way to destroy the kamien, and I'll quietly cross the border, you won't be able to stop me."

"That remains to be seen. GUARDS! TAKE HIM!"

A lot of soldiers armed with knives nearby started running towards me, I tried to escape, but in front of the exit, which they had closed, there were more, I had to get rid of them, I didn't want to kill them, so I simply decided to make them fly away with the wind kamien, while I destroyed the door with the brute force obtained thanks to Izanami's energy.

"He's getting away! Get him!" they shouted.

They kept chasing me, but I escaped with the speed of the Susanoo with the fire thrusters.

I couldn't go home, because they would have found me right away, So I thought of a place to go, and finally found a house almost outside the city, where there were no survivors yet, or so I thought.