Kevin awoke with a disconcerting sense of disfigurement, the throbbing pain in his head demanding attention.

Ignoring the ache, he slowly opened his eyes to find himself enveloped in darkness, surrounded by a sea of trees devoid of any sign of civilization. As his senses adjusted, the realization dawned that he was deep within a forest, a realm far removed from the familiar trappings of humanity.

A perplexing fog shrouded his recent memories, prompting Kevin to question how he ended up in this enigmatic wilderness. Was it some bizarre accident, or had he stumbled into the unknown while inebriated? The notion of drunkenness dissipated as he grappled with the elusive fragments of recollection. Something more profound echoed in his mind.

A flash of memory bombarded him, and Kevin's eyes widened in shock as the pieces fell into place—his own demise.

Kevin looked around his surroundings once more with confusion. This didn't look like an afterlife. The realization that he had not transcended into some ethereal realm filled him with bitterness. He had already lost everything in the war against the Honkai, and with the promise that had kept him tethered to the mortal plane now gone, he felt the weight of despair press upon him.

The forest, though serene in its own way, offered no solace. With a heavy heart, Kevin resigned himself to the idea that peace could only come through his own demise. As he steeled himself to fulfill that grim resolution, ready to snap his own neck, he paused in shock.

A peculiar sight caught his attention—the hand before him was not the calloused and weathered hand he had grown accustomed to. Instead, it looked soft, almost delicate, bearing none of the scars and battle-hardened marks of his former self. A strange dissonance settled within his mind, halting his desperate resolve. The mystery of his altered form now overshadowed his yearning for peace, giving him a pause in the face of this newfound enigma.

Now aware of his changed form, Kevin noticed two distinct things. The first revelation struck him with the force of a revelation— his body had become younger, barely his teenage self. The second, though perhaps not as immediately important, was the unnerving fact that he was naked. Annoyed and irritated, Kevin couldn't help but wonder what had caused this unexpected metamorphosis.

Deep in thought, Kevin contemplated the circumstances that led to his current form. The only conceivable explanation emerged in his mind is—Mobius. Kevin's thoughts drifted to his old comrade, the enigmatic scientist with ambiguous morals, whose experiments had always clashed with his best friend's principles. In a flash of recollection, he remembered Mobius choosing Sesa's gene to be ingrained within her, granting the power of resurrection at the cost of a youthful regression.

As the unsettling pieces of the puzzle fell into place, Kevin realized the source of his unexpected transformation: the same beast included in one of the thousand beast genes implanted in his body during the second operation. It was all part of the audacious plan to become Chimera, a being capable of bearing the essence of a hundred formidable creatures. And Sesa's gene within him was more potent due to Chimera's unique nature.

The bitter irony struck him like a cruel joke when he connected the dots. In his final battle, as his dying body teetered on the edge of oblivion, the same state that even he doubted Mobius could resurrect, Sesa's power manifested.

Garuda's gene regeneration, always at the forefront, had consistently healed him before reaching the state where Sesa's resurrection could take effect, causing him to forget that he imprisoned the beast inside his body. The creature, forgotten and caged within him, was unleashed by his dying state, as if in the form of revenge, turning what should have been a merciful release into a twisted transformation.

Kevin's bitter laugh echoed through the silent forest. He had endured unimaginable suffering in the war against the Honkai, and now, even the sweet release of death was denied to him. The realization that he had unwittingly imprisoned the means of his own escape within his body, all in the pursuit of power, added a layer of cruel irony to his predicament. Now, as a child in the dark and mysterious forest, Kevin grappled not only with the consequences of his choices but also with the harsh reality that his pursuit of strength had cost him the very peace he sought.


being meguca- I mean, being Kevin is suffering