"…So were you saying something earlier?"
At the center of the crater, Kaelis was grinning up at the dazed biba.
"Heh?"
Now that the dust screen has been blown away, the others in the vicinity got a good look at the aftermath of his punch.
"Monster!"
"A—AAAAAHHH!"
All those who had the ability to run did so and those who did not, were breaking down.
Looking at the remains of his loyal subordinate, biba nearly lost his sanity.
"You… what did you do to horobi!?" He shouted hysterically while pointing at Kaelis.
Walking up the pile or rubbles, Kaelis answered calmly, "Just punched her a little hard. And don't be concerned about her now. You practically sent her to her grave." He shrugged.
Hearing this, Biba was shocked beyond words.
"Punched…?" His eyes trailed from Kaelis's face down to his fist.
"!"
The faint sight of smoke still rising from his fist confirmed his words but his mind jumped straight to denial.
"No… no, that's impossible. A single strike?! Not even the Black Smoke could—"
"Could what?" Kaelis cut him off coldly. "Could fly? Could summon swords? Or maybe… punch someone so hard they got vaporized? Do I look like one of those freaks?"
Biba froze. He hadn't considered any more possibilities of Kaelis abilities.
He knew about the sword summoning power because he showed him.
He had also seen Kaelis fly before and he knew Kaelis's physical power must be high as well.
But the matter of how high was the problem.
Although he also knew about the people praising Kaelis as god, he knew better, there is no possibility of god existing as they never showed themselves before, and now shouldn't be any different.
So that only means he is another kabane variant so even if he was powerful, his strength shouldn't be anywhere near that of a colony.
Flying might be strange but it's not out of the equation—the sword thingy is kinda out of place but as before, a slight chance.
And Kabanes are powerful but he looks normal so horobi should've been more powerful.
"But… but I thought—" Biba tried to say something but was again cut off by Kaelis.
"Well you thought wrong, boy." Even if he doesn't know what he might say, it still would be incorrect.
Standing back up, Kaelis clenched his fist again and biba began shaking.
"Ah… Remember what you said to me back when we first met? What was it again…? Yes. "The weak are destined to perish, and the strong endure"."
Despair filled biba as he recalled that memory.
He had always thought himself powerful and would not be on the weak side of the scale ever since he was betrayed.
That line had become his life motto, preaching it to remind himself at night that the strong survive and the weak die.
And now hearing it at the end of his ropes…
"Ironic, isn't it?" Said Kaelis, calmly gazing at the weak individual in front of him.
The situation is quite clear.
"No Kaelis! Please stop!"
Off to the side, mumei was dragging her injured leg trying to get over to them.
She was promptly ignored.
"Don't worry though. I'm not an evil enough to torture you. I'll just punch you really really hard. It's gonna be quick."
His arm is already pulled back and ready to fire, under his breath, he muttered softly. "Should've chosen your fights wiser, kid."
"NOOOO!"
DOOM!
With a little more intensity than the last, an explosion caused by a punch rang out along with another series of knock backs.
Dust again filled the air, blocking the vision of everybody but with it, footsteps could be heard.
Standing above the unconscious mumei, Kaelis gazed at her lying figure…
…in the blink of an eye, days passed.
On top of the station's outer wall, Kaelis could be seen standing with his arms crossed, gazing at the outer area of the wall.
"Report," he said flatly.
Behind him, a man saluted sharply, and lowered his head.
The insignia on his armband marked him as one of the surviving soldiers—Ryou.
Ryou swallowed before answering.
"Y-yes, sir. The perimeter's been secured. We cleared every tunnel and drainage line within the outer wall. Burned out the nests and sealed the breaches with rail plating."
"Losses?"
"Three men during the cleaning—all bitten. We've burned the bodies as ordered."
"Good." Kaelis's gaze shifted toward the wall's interior.
From his vantage point, he could see soldiers and civilians hauling scrap metals to seal the preach, and engineers rerouting steam lines.
"And the wall breach?"
"Reinforcement's underway. We've been using the remains of Biba's armored cars to patch the gap. Should hold until the forge teams rebuild the support frame."
"How about the watchtowers? Have they been built?" Kaelis asked.
Ryou nodded. "We've finished building watchtowers along the east and north sectors with flare signals. The gunners have orders to shoot kabane on sight."
"And the inner perimeter? Storage tunnels, air vents, undercarriages?"
"All cleared, sir. Every corpse accounted for and burned. The engineers rigged pressure valves to flood the lower ducts with superheated steam—nothing will crawl through again."
He finally turned to face Ryou fully. "Good work. Keep a two-man patrol circling every hour."
"Yes, sir!"
Ryou saluted again, almost trembling—not out of fear of punishment, but awe.
Everyone who survived that day had seen what Kaelis could do. There was no questioning his command anymore.
Kaelis made way for the room where Ayame and Maeda kept their meeting…
It's been five days since the whole incident with Biba went down.
After Biba's death, Kaelis had planned to take the Koutetsujou and continue the journey to Kongokaku.
However, that plan came to a halt when they discovered several train lines were broken, making departure impossible.
Rebuilding them would take time—if it ever happened at all, given the state of the station.
With no remaining choice, Kaelis decided to stay and help, taking it upon himself to assist the survivors and aid in the station's repairs.
Since their lord, Maeda, was ultimately killed by Biba, the station was left without a ruling figure.
Iwato Station had become a complete wreck.
With no one in charge, it was only a matter of time before chaos took over.
A place like this, without leadership or order, had no real future—and in the current state of the world, that meant it was basically up for grabs.
Either that, or kabane creates more families.
Anyone with enough power or resources passing through could easily claim it as their own.
And Kaelis, being present and aware of the situation, saw the opportunity to take control and rebuild the station, putting an end to the chaos that had overtaken Koutetsujou.
Pushing open the door to the chamber, he found Ayame and Kurusu sitting neatly in seiza, speaking to eachother.
"Sir Kaelis. How's the progress on the walls coming along?" Kurusu asked, noticing him approach.
"It's coming along well. Should be finished in, give or take, another week or so," Kaelis replied casually, settling beside them.
A heavy silence fell over the room.
"So… we're really rebuilding Aragane Station… here?" Ayame finally broke the silence.
Kaelis looked at her and shrugged. "Yeah. Why? Is something wrong?"
"No, no! Don't get me wrong. It's just… are we really not going to Kongokaku anymore?" she asked quickly, a hint of worry in her voice.
"One, we can't leave the station. Two, it's essentially a free place now. And three, there's no guarantee Kongokaku will give you a better quality of life. Might as well build your own here."
"I-I… okay."
"…what he says is true Ayame." Kurusu tried to lift her spirits.
Seeing her looking down, Kaelis said after some thought.
"You know… you can retake Aragane station in the future. Now you got an up and coming army of your own."
She immediately beamed. "Really!? We can do that?"
"Mhmm." He nodded. "By the way, where's Ikoma? Haven't seen him in a while."
"He and Suzuki are held up in their projects somewhere now that they have a wider and more stable environment to work with." Kurusu shrugged.
"They sure adapt fast." Ayame muttered.
"Yep."
"…"
Suddenly the door was pushed open and someone, who was out of breath entered.
"What's wrong kajika?" Ayame rushed over to the young woman.
Catching her breath, she said, "mumei… she's…"
"She's what?"
"She's… she's awake!"
Chapter 36 end.
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Had to spend more time to learn about logistics and shit to write this.