Feng was marching at high tempo along the dusty dirt road leading from the farmlands towards the village. Kaiko was trailing behind her and failing to match her pace and tempo. Every time he was about to catch up to her she would speed up just a little, and hit the ground just a little harder, kicking up slightly more dust.

She wasn’t entirely deliberately staying ahead of him, she simply stomped forth with anger and determination. It was uncanny to Kaiko how she seemed to just known whenever he was about to reach her.

By the third time she sped away from him, Kaiko called her name but she didn’t hear it.

He tried a few more times to no avail, she was singularly focused on her feet and the road ahead. She was almost running at this point and paying her surroundings no mind at all.

“Oi! Feng!” Kaiko shouted as he bound forward and finally managed to put his hand on her shoulder, “Slow down, will you?”

As soon as she felt his hand on her shoulder she froze and they both stood still while the dust around them settled, completely.

There was a couple of agonisingly long awkward seconds before Kaiko finally spoke.

“It isn’t like you to lose your cool like that.” Kaiko said as he got closer and stood next to her.

She didn’t more but turned her head away from him.

“I know,” She said softly, “Just give me a moment longer, and I promise I will explain.”

He nodded and let her go. They were now walking at a regular pace, side by side this time, in silence.

For the next five minutes they continued to walk at a leisurely pace, however the determination in Feng’s steps had not diminished, and neither had the anger in the tight grip of her staff, while Kaiko was slightly more distracted; the silence had him reflecting on the old lady, too.

During the incident he was taken by surprise when she appeared as he received no prior warning from his rocksies when they crossed the terrain. He felt that not having been forewarned of the old lady meant that the responsibility for her death had shifted from him to Feng, and he wasn't ready to forgive himself for that.

As the minutes passed, the dirt road beneath their feet had slowly turned to rough cobblestone while the scenery had turned to dense forestation all around them. The foliage was thick and the already dim twilight light had even more trouble illuminating their way forward. As they walked further away from the farmlands and closer to the village the twilight was also giving way to the darkness of night. And while neither of them noticed it in the moment, both preoccupied within themselves, the atmosphere was growing thicker and heavier and more oppressive with every further step.

When the silence seemed to have gone on for just too long, Feng stopped dead in her tracks, catching Kaiko by surprise. He turned his head to look at her and almost tripped over a particularly misplaced cobblestone.

He caught himself quickly though awkwardly, which made her smile a little, despite trying her best not to look at him.

“I’m so sorry, Feng,” He started while taking a step towards her, “I’m sorry it came down to you to deal with the old lady…”

Kaiko didn’t quite finish his thought, which Feng took as the perfect moment to interject.

“No, it wasn’t” She sighed, “This was exactly my job. I think it’s time to tell you what I think we encountered.”

She proceeded to sit down on the spot in a basket, then waved Kaiko to sit too.

"She was gone a long time ago," Feng began, "I know that, it's not… it's not that…”

Kaiko sat down too and leant his back against a tree facing her.

"Every time when I think we have seen the depths of the human heart…" Feng paused once again. She needed a moment to breathe and think it out in her head.

Kaiko sat and waited patiently for her to continue.

"I know that you know so much more about the Kami world than I do,” Feng then continued, “But I don’t think you would know about it, and we've never talked about this kind of magic before."

Kaiko looked at Feng, waiting with anticipation in his eyes.

"Shadow magic.” She said without hesitation, “Have you ever encountered it before? Or even heard of it?”

Kaiko shook his head wordlessly, he had never heard of such a thing.

"According to Master Obeno,” She continued, “It's one of the most vile magics imaginable. It’s also incredibly rare, however, so we don’t know much about it.”

“What makes it different from any other Yohkai or human magic we’ve encountered so far?” Kaiko couldn’t help but ask.

“Well,” Feng began, with a somewhat smug look on her face, “For starters, according to Master Obeno, it requires a human and Yohkai hand, both.”

Kaiko looked somewhat taken aback which Feng was actually rather pleased with that. She often felt that she didn’t get enough chances to impress him with her knowledge of human magics. He tended to be better at hiding his surprise, which he relied on not to show that he felt the same about his knowledge of the Kami world with her.

“I didn’t know such a thing was even possible.” He eventually said.

“It almost isn’t, sort of,” She responded, “And why it's so rare.”

“Though the Elders taught me many things over the years as their student,” Feng continued, “It was only after being officially sworn to the title of Saizo Taisen that I was pulled aside, a few years before we met, and told about some of the more dangerous things I would need to know.

“One of the things they told me, and even swore me to secrecy on the subject, was that while Yohkai magic corrupts the body this combined magic corrupts the soul, too.”

Feng paused while Kaiko crossed his arms and took a moment to think. She didn’t let him think for very long though.

“Moreover…” Feng continued before taking a deep breath and exhaling, while Kaiko hung forward to show he was paying attention again.

“If the user even survives the horrific corruption, and that’s a very big if,” She continued, “Corrupting another person’s soul like that requires a close personal connection…”

Feng paused suddenly, giving Kaiko the impression she hadn’t expected to get hung up on her thought. Nevertheless he had a pretty accurate idea on why she cut herself off when she did.

“So the old lady was related to whomever did that to her…” Kaiko said softly, with a both a twinge of sadness and drop of anger veiled in his intonation of the word ‘related.’

Feng nodded silently to confirm.

They both went silent for just a moment.

Both knew enough of each other’s circumstance with regards to family that the thought hung heavy around them, as they shared a mutual moment of understanding while looking at each other wordlessly.

Kaiko knew that Feng had been an orphan from a very young age and then later taken in by Shoi Ni and raised as a prodigy, while she knew of him only that he had lost his parents long before he was magically trapped underground.

On this at least, in this moment, they were in agreement: Neither of them could ever understand how someone could do something like that.

Kaiko eventually closed his eyes and scuffed, after which he got up, walked over to Feng and offered her his hand.

"You don't have to take on all the responsibility by yourself, remember?” He started with a wide grin on his face, "We are in this together now, because we chose it for ourselves, three years ago.”

Feng looked up at Kaiko then looked down and away for a moment. Kaiko responded by kneeling down and putting his hand on her shoulder.

"You and I together, we will make it through," He continued, his eyes sparkling with energy, "You no longer carry the burden of your title alone.”

He reached under his clothing for a pendant and pulled it out for Feng to see. She looked at it and without realising herself put her hand on the pendant under her own clothing. Her face lit up a little and the faintest part of a smile could be seen now.

Kaiko got up and offered his hand once more.

“So, partner,” He said intentionally overly jovially, “Are we doing this together?”

Feng looked up at Kaiko with a smile.

“Of course,” She said as she satisfyingly clasped her hand into his and pulled herself up, “We still have a job to do.”

They dusted themselves off, almost as if to physically shake off the doubt, and regain their composure.

Once more they marched up the path, more determined this time. It did not take long for what seemed like a dead end to appear in the distance in the face of a cliff. Due to the darkness of night having crept in further while Feng and Kaiko were preoccupied, it took until they actually got within throwing distance of the cliff face to see that a long set of stairs had been partially carved out and partially built into rock. It led up to the edge of the cliff far above them, the true height of which they couldn’t discern in in the dark.

As they were making their way to the beginning of the stairs Kaiko sensed something, flinched a little before stumbling down to his knees.

“Are you okay?” Feng asked as she turned around to check on him, "Rocksies?"

"Oh yeah,” Kaiko said through gritted teeth as he struggled to put down his backpack, “We just lost one.”

“Where?” Feng asked as she started walking towards the stairs.

By the time Kaiko had managed to put down the backpack the pain had subsided and he did his best to sense his own energies. He waited a moment to feel the energy he had put into the golem return to him, and it allowed him to experience the last thing the golem did and pinpoint where it had come from.

“Its not far from us, up above," Kaiko shouted owards Feng, as soon as he felt the energy, "One human. Well, maybe human. I think that it’s in the middle of the town.”

“Can you contain it?” Feng shouted, now running up the stairs.

"We have three left," Kaiko shouted back with his eyes still closed, "That should be enough to make a rudimentary barrier to keep them in."

"Sounds good," Feng shouted from a few flights up now, making her barely audible, "Do it."

Feng continued to run up the stairs aiming to reach the top, leaving Kaiko to catchup to her.

Kaiko had a chuckle to himself and gave himself a nod. She'll be fine.

"I'll catch up in just a moment!” Kaiko shouted, knowing full well that she had already stopped listening, was no longer close enough to hear him even if she was listening, and was likely singularly focussed on running ahead and confronting the one responsible for that old lady's fate.

Kaiko sat himself comfortably in a meditation pose, legs in a basket with his hands clasped in front of him and focused his energy into his hands. He waited for the energy to emanate a small film of light along the edges where his hands met, before raising them up palms facing the sky, trying to pull in energy from the area around him.

This felt a little more sluggish and difficult than it should have. He had forgotten that they were inside a dome that dampened his abilities. He had to focus much harder and for much longer than he was used to. It was most definitely tiring and he could feel his body complain at him.

Eventually he felt the gathering of energy, it began to gather in the palms of his raised cupped hands like water. He had never tried syphoning energy from the environment for extended continuous periods of time before nor was he confident under these oppressive condition, so he hoped he had gathered enough by the time he could no longer hold his hands or concentration.

He slowly brought his hands down, trying to not to break the cups of his hands so as not to spill the fruits of his labour. Once he managed to bring his hands carefully into his lap, the energy began to rise out in droplets from the palms of his hands into a small sphere hovering at around chest height. Once all the particulates of energy had vacated his hands, he moved them around the floating orb, cupping it from above and below. He then tried pushing down, kneading, squishing, compressing the orb until it became smaller but brighter. After several squeezes the floating ball had shrunk twice in size and became twice as bright.

I think it’s ready now!

He carefully used both hands to pinch the edges of the ball, and in one swift fluid motion he pulled his hands apart. He was now holding a small speck of light in each hand while a smaller ball still remained in front of him. He then proceeded to perform the trick one more time, leaving him with four small lights in front of him.

He took one orb in the middle of his palm, and pushed it into his chest. He flinched. Though not because it was painful but because he wasn’t expecting the shockwave through his body. As soon as he caught his breath he took the three remaining lights and collected them into his right hand.

All he had to do now was focus on finding his golems so he could send them the energy, which proved more difficult than he wanted, though luckily not impossible. He found the first one, far to the left of the town, then a second near the right edge, but couldn’t quite sense the third. It took at least another minute of deep concentration for him to sense anything. Then all of a sudden he could sense a faint light, far far ahead, on the edge of the mountain, somewhat shrouded by mist. He didn’t have to see it clearly, he just needed to know where it was, and so he could finally set up their trap.

He poured some more of his energy into the palm that was holding the three balls of energy then slammed them with all his strength into the ground before him.

The ground shook a little, and from the ground below him, Kaiko became surrounded by light.

From him three light beams darted out along the ground, up the cliff and away towards the three golems in waiting.

One by one the light beams reached the rocksies, first the one the left, then the right one, and finally the last one all the way in the back.

Once the light had reached all three of them, they sat down to mimic Kaiko’s position. Once they were in place they froze, eyes releasing a perfusion of light.

A small circle of light began to rise from the ground beneath them all, Kaiko included.

They each beamed a pillar of light straight up into the sky, causing wild energy discharges against the barrier high in the sky.

From the very tips of the columns of light, distorting against the upper firmament, the light began to shake and wiggle and fold in on itself rapidly, crawling along the spectacle of sparks and fog generated their interactions with the clouds; beingdrawn towards the closest point between them all. They eventually met and formed an initial shape akin to a square-based pyramid, however the edges were not straight, but slithered around on an invisible bulge that seemed to now cover the entire surface above them, like a bubble. The serpentine beams of light then began to tighten and straighten and diffuse atop a semi-translucent dome, now slowly forming and becoming visible in the darkened sky.

The three golems then sank slowly into the ground, and as they did the bubble above them seemed to press down into the ground. Once the three rock men had completely submerged the ground shook with a deep, loud and palpable thud, followed by a large displacement of air and dust in a circle along the ground connecting Kaiko and his golems; signalling the successful locking down of their trap.

The displaced debris and dust that had been ejected was settling down along with the light that made the bubble up above visibility; there was no longer and indication of its presence anymore.

The light underneath Kaiko faded out and he could finally relax his body. When he let the tension in his body go he could feel the strain and needed a moment to lie on the ground. He let himself fall backwards onto his back.

He took this moment to instruct the golems to get closer but try to remain out of sight for now.

Far away each of the golems burrowed out of the ground and autonomously went looking or a place to hide out, waiting for further instructions.

Before attempting to stand up, Kaiko sensed for the bracelet on Feng’s wrist, and she was quite far ahead, almost to the top of the cliff. He knew he wouldn’t be able catch up to her by just running up those stairs normally, especially considering how drained he felt right now.

He reached into his robe to grab onto the amulet under his shirt. He infused it with some of his spiritual energy and it started to glow under his robes. Energy rushed from the amulet into his body, slowly replenishing some of the energy he spent on the trap. He could feel it rushing everywhere in his body, his heart rate beating loudly and slowly, pulses beating through his body over and over. He turned to lie on his front. The light emitted from the amulet enveloped his body, forming the shape of his animal aura.

His body absorbed the aura, then his body started transforming, forcing him to hunch down on all fours, which was much more comfortable in that form.

His hands became clawed paws, his ears and nose became pointed and he grew a bushy tail; like his aura he now had the shape of a large fox.

Filled with renewed energy and in his fox form he looked up at the stairs and no longer felt the task painting, as he could now leap and bound to catch up to Feng who was already over three quarters of the way up the stairs into Wansen Tai.

In his animal form Kaiko was fast and nimble, requiring only a minutes to catch up to Feng, who knew he had used his amulet, as it used some of her energy to replenish his. She had decided to wait at the foot of the last flight of stairs so he could catch up to her.

“Are you feeling so out of shape that you require your Kami form to catch up to me?” Feng shouted humorously as he approached her like a swift shade, leaping entire flights at a time.

He reached the landing she was standing on, walked up to her, twirled around her and sat himself next to her, all the while growling softly.

The growl transformed along Kaiko’s appearance as he stood up and his human features returned; eventually standing upright next to her.

“That’s not fair,” Kaiko protested, trying to hide a grin, “That barrier takes a lot of energy.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have energy to spare, isn’t it?” Feng said while she pet his head a dog.

“You know,” Kaiko mused as he tried to get his head away from her hand, “When we decided to work together, I didn’t think I’d get all the energy intense jobs.”

They gave each other a serious look before laughing simultaneously.

They both ended their laughter at the same time with a deep sigh, followed by looking up the last flight of stairs at the same time.

While they couldn’t see what was over the threshold, they could see a radiant misty glow condense like fog around the base of a large red gate at the top of the stairs. The gate, accentuated by an orange glow that illuminated the area like candle light, indicated they had finally reached the entrance to the village.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“No time like the present,” Feng eventually said, nervously, breaking the moment of contemplation, “I think we’re being invited.”

Feng took a first step before stopping as she noticed her heart started to race.

“Kaiko?” Feng said without turning to face him, still looking up at the end of the stairs ahead of her.

“Hmm?” Kaiko responded while tightening the roper around his robe which had come loose during his transformation.

“Do you hear music?” Feng then asked him.

“Well,” Kaiko said as he closed his eyes and propped up his ears, “Now you mention it…"

He closed his eyes and tried to listen attentively.

“Actually,” He continued, “I’m hearing chitter-chatter, too. It’s becoming pretty lively.”

Feng could start hearing it too, the sounds of a bustling community becoming louder and clearer. She could have been fooled into thinking that a whole crowd of people were making their way towards them.

The glow combined with the noise to overwhelm their senses, the oppressive heaviness of the atmosphere around them was beginning to hit them once more. It was drowning out everything except the way forward.

“Say Kaiko,” Feng began while she looked around her and up into the sky, “Did it just become particularly dark?”

“I think so,” Kaiko responded while he looked around him, “And that heavy feeling just got worse.”

The light shining from the top of the flight of stairs intensified and the large red gate cast an ever growing shadow over them.

The mist that was streaming and streaking down the steps became more dense and started surrounding them from all sides, leaving the next twenty steps barely visible through the effervescent fog.

“I think someone is getting impatient,” Feng said as she finally took another step forward, “I think this is our formal invitation.”

“I think you’re right,” Kaiko confirmed as he glanced around at the thick fog, “Best not to keep them waiting, then.”

They confidently walked up the last steps, the fog seeming to give way for Feng’s feet with every step.

As the pair reached the top of the stairs they were taken somewhat aback, despite having the unspoken shared suspicion to expect another theatric display to fool them into a false sense of security.

They were, however, not expecting to be presented with what could have been otherwise described as a perfectly normal summer night’s festival.

In front of them there was a large and circular stone market square, with plenty of stalls for food and entertainment all around.

The square was well illuminated by spherical lanterns that were hung from cables strung from the central beam towards the stalls, and every one of those stalls was not only open but bustling with activity.

Chatter could be heard amongst vendors and patrons alike.

There was the sound of children and adults both throwing metal hoops at jugs in an attempt to land inside, while elsewhere on the market there as a pebble throwing game in progress.

Smoke and steam could be seen rising from some of the food stalls as the crackling of fire and broiling oils cooked all manner of things.

The air quickly filled with various overpoweringly convincing aromas of meats and fish and vegetables.

The combined bombardment of all senses which permeated excessively across the entire square would have seemed to any ordinary human to have been a normal midsummer festival.

Feng and Kaiko stood still directly beneath the looming red gate at the very edge of the square and gave each other a distinct look of understanding, after which they observed the scene before them.

“Do you sense anything?” Feng eventually asked Kaiko in a near whisper.

Kaiko shook his head.

“Nothing,” he whispered back, “Not human or otherwise.”

“Same.” Feng nodded in acknowledgement.

Having established that everything they were experiencing was most definitely an illusion tailored to fool them, they tried to reassess what they saw.

Upon closer inspection the facade of a playful and occupied festival began to fade. The once full spectrum of cacophony seemed hollow, devoid of life and soul. The chatter vanished, as did the cooking and entertainment from the stalls.

The rich aromas of food that had once tantalised their nostrils were now stale as the smell of night forced its way into reality once more.

Moreover, with the illusion of the festival now fading, the distinct lack of details upon the inhabitants of the square became noticeable, too. They had no faces, their clothes were torn and ragged, their movements dull and awkward and lacking any determination. While there was no lack of illumination coming from the lanterns, everything looked grim and dark and lifeless. The stalls were all in tatters and the lantern lights now revealed their state of disrepair, rather than aid the illusion by masking it with a false glow of life.

It was also then that Feng and Kaiko both realised what should have been a dead giveaway, something that had they not noticed till now, and completely explained the empty feeling that had now replaced the warm and exciting illusion; they were the only ones casting a shadow.

Despite the numerous human figures in front of them remaining tied to their roles as festival goers, they were the only one actually there.

Armed with this new realisation, they both took a single step forward out of the archway of the gate and into the square.

As soon as their feet hit the ground every single shadowless human puppet turned their attention entirely in their direction. While they had no visible faces, Feng and Kaiko could feel the stabbing of murderous intent coming from their non-existent eyes.

“They don’t seems as developed as the old lady.” Kaiko whispered to Feng.

“I’m guessing they are all victims of the Yohkai aura,” Feng responded in whispers, “I don’t know if they still have a soul left to save.”

“So, what do you think?” Kaiko asked Feng as quietly and motionlessly as possible, “What’s our best course of action here?”

“I think,” Feng said as she briefly darted her eyes around at the crowd of faceless shadowless empty husks motionlessly staring them down, “That we have to clear these guys, and maybe we can use it to lure the one in control out.”

Kaiko, too, had a quick glance, and a deep sniff of the air; he nodded.

“I’ll leave dealing with the people to you, then.” Kaiko whispered, “I’ll try to find out the one pulling the strings.”

Feng nodded.

Kaiko bowed elegantly and offered Feng way by gesturing his arm forward.

“Master Saizo,” he grinned, “After you.”

“So kind.” Feng responded with head bow, before stepping ahead of him.

She rolled her eyes with a smile once she knew he couldn’t see her face. He often called her by some variation of her title when he wanted to joke at her expense. As she had just gotten a dig in on him, she thought it only fair he return the favour.

Feng took a few steps forward into the market while Kaiko stayed put and crouched, keeping a sharp eye and a propped ear and his nose out for the scent of whomever was hiding out in the shadows.

As soon as Feng walked into the market all the faceless villagers simultaneously took a single step towards her, their gaze still firmly fixed on them both. Feng stopped moving, as did they.

She calmly put her stand on top of a flap stone in front of her, it stayed standing up without moving. She then closed her eyes, clasped her hands together and wordlessly recited mantras.

The staff began to emit a small amount of light, as did pendant around Kaiko’s neck.

It did not take long before both the staff and Kaiko were entirely surrounded by a small extrusion of light. It was strong enough to obfuscate the shadows created by the market lanterns and supplant it with one created by their glow alone.

The puppet villagers ahead of Feng did not like this at all, and all proceeded to screech loudly before launching themselves towards her.

The glow between the two kept intensifying, to the point of seemingly creating a physical, though semi-translucent, wall that separated them from the market.

This did not deter the attackers at all as they prepared to launch themselves, several at a time, at the wall of light.

Three of them threw themselves into the wall of light and found themselves stopped by it. It not only stopped them but every part of their body that touched the light starting burning away in black fire.

This did not deter any of them and they kept pushing themselves into the wall until nothing of them remained. Burned away to the last speck in a sad sigh.

Once all three had burned away the remainder of the hoard now gathered before them stopped their advance. Immediately the group fanned out in an attempt to surrounded them. Having noticed this equally quickly Feng swung her arms out and the wall of light followed, extending in a circle all around them, once again separating them from the hoard.

“Anything yet?” Feng asked Kaiko as her eyes darted all around her.

“Nothing.” He had to admit.

Two more villagers from the group surrounding them jumped at the barrier, and predictably they burned away with a soft sigh.

Another two villagers started stepping forward but they were each holding a dagger. They lunged forward, dagger in hand, aiming for Feng through the wall with synchronicity, mechanical precision, but not determination or resolve.

The tip of the daggers were the first to reach the wall of light and passed through unimpeded. The moment the hands wielding the blades touched the light they burned up, along with the rest of the body thrown at the wall with tremendous momentum. The daggers retained some of their momentum but failed to meet their mark, luckily for Feng.

Clearly the hoard was now testing for their next moves, and it wasn’t long before weapons of all kinds were being passed from the outer ring of the hoard to the front.

“I think I’m going to need a little help now,” Feng said as she looked at the two daggers that landed near her feet, “I need just a little longer.”

Her staff had not become so bright it was no longer visible through the glow it was emitting and the same was true for Kaiko and the amulet around his neck.

This display of luminosity had no impact on the hoard of shadow villagers as several of them now readied weapons to charge forward with.

A singular villager with a spear lunged towards Feng trying to use the longest range possible so as not to hit the light himself.

The spear that was heading right for her got intercepted by Kaiko who had suddenly appeared beside her, he had managed to dash forward quickly enough to grab onto the spear just below the bladed tip. The pole began glowing from where he had held it while started burning the hands of the villager. He pulled the pole towards him and away from Feng, which also tipped the the villager off balance, falling into the wall, burning him away with a bittersweet sigh.

Having freed the spear of its previous owner and glowing with the light radiating off him, Kaiko was now free to use it himself.

“I think I have an idea,” Kaiko announced as he picked up one of the daggers which, too, started to glow and flung it through the wall at the hoard, “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

The glowing dagger landed square in the chest of the first villager it hit, which hit her with such force that it flung her and three other villagers back, creating an opening in their formation. The villagers then disappeared in a blackened flame each screeching softly into sweet sighs.

Kaiko used the gap he created to dash and appear behind the hoard and stab forwards piercing two villagers who had armed themselves with long blades, burning them from the wounds where the spear was. Kaiko then used his spear to push a several more into the wall, clearing up at least halfthe villagers surrounding Feng inside the wall.

As the entire group of villagers burned in black flames and each sighed their mixed emotions into the aether the wall began emitting cracks all over from which small beams of light shot out.

Quite a few of the villagers were hit by these beams, inevitably burning them away in soft sighs of relief.

“Here it goes!” Feng shouted so Kaiko could hear it.

Kaiko immediately jumped up high, spear in hand and flung it directly into the middle of the remaining hoard.

Feng thrust her arm straight into the pillar of light that surrounded her staff, confidently holding onto it firmly and deliberately.

“Howl!” She commanded with her voice but requested with her heart, as she tightened her grip.

As instructed, from the tip of the staff, a deep howl rung loud and heavy, causing a shockwave to silently and visibly push outward in all directions horizontally.

The shockwave bent around Feng, leaving her entirely untouched. The hovering shards of light, however, were flung outward, striking all the remaining villagers exploding into thick, all consuming blinding light that burned the villagers and wiped away the dark flames.

A deep relief set as every villagers remorseful screech was replaced by a sigh of relief, finally released from their torment.

There was only silence as Feng stood still, staff in hand, while Kaiko was still suspended above her, both engulfed in warm light.

The silence was interrupted by the sound of Kaiko landing, after which the light around them, as well as the one surrounding the staff and Kaiko, faded softly and gently. The market eventually became visible again.

Both of them were now alone, mere steps from the entrance.

Though the lanterns were still lit, the warmth of the atmosphere was now gone. The lanterns barely illuminated and did not bring any further life to the abandoned and ruined stalls, finally showing their true age and degradation.

Feng pulled her staff out of the ground and they both walked towards the middle of the market. She held her staff high up, and whispered a small prayer. The tip of the staff began glowing, and when the intensity of the light stopped increasing, she let it go, and let it drop.

It landed, not with a thud, but with the sound of a singular drop of water breaking through glass; it rippled and filled the entire market, and its ringing could be heard echoing across the entirety of Wansen Tai.

In a single instant all malice around the marketplace accumulated over years of resentment evaporated.

When the echo of the ringing droplet had passed, Feng grabbed onto her staff that stood suspended perfectly horizontally, hovering only just above the ground.

"I know you are there somewhere, watching!” Feng shouted into the darkness hiding amid the trees all around the market, “Your puppets have been liberated!”

She tried her best not to let the anger in her voice permeate.

She waited, let her words ring loud and clear, but only silence responded.

"We are not going anywhere," Feng continued after a few moments of continued silence, "We'll release every one of them until you're all that's left, you coward.”

Again, no reply.

“We’ve been sent to deal with a Yohkai threat,” She then continued, “And we specialise in monsters like y…”

Feng did not have time to finish her sentence before Kaiko appeared in front of her and deflected a blackened projectile with his energy infused hands.

"The monster appears!” Kaiko smiled at Feng over his shoulder.

“So, are you done hiding, at last?” Feng said loudly into the darkness.

They waited, at the ready for anything, but again, nothing happened, there was no follow-up.

The silence and stillness didn’t last long, however, as it broken by the hushed echoes of many approaching footsteps. Each step was muted and devoid of weight, but together they formed an eerily synchronous marching.

As the noise grew stronger and louder, the darkness behind the trees seemed to ooze forwards, uniformly. The lights of the market dimmed and flickered as the shadows kept pouring out of the tree line and up ended making an imposing and intimidating circle all around the edge of the market.

All the shadow creatures stopped simultaneously. One single set of steps could be heard moving closer now. Against the backdrop of silence, these footsteps sounded more overwhelming and louder than the entire hoard had been before.

It seemed to take an eternity, step by step the sounds became louder and drew closer. Eventually, in the distance, straight ahead of them, a figure in dark attire with a hood began to materialise out of the shadows.

It was as if the wall of shadow creatures wasn’t even there, the figure walked right through them, into the square, into the little bit of illumination left.

It was the shape of a man, and by Feng and Kaiko’s estimation, a reasonably young one. He couldn’t have been much older than Feng, maybe by only a few years; he’d be in his mid-twenties at the oldest.

As he walked away from his army of shadows and closer to Feng and Kaiko, the outline of his face started showing from under his hood. Though his eyes were dark, they were also clearly visibly as they glowed in the night. His gaze pierced through the darkness of his presence.

He stood still, snapped his fingers, after which all shadows clapped their hands at the same time in a rather odd and unconvincing tempo.

He took a bow and raised his hands for his shadows to stop clapping, and they did so immediately.

“Welcome my esteemed guests, I am Jin,” He began with a self-satisfied smirk on his face, “Welcome to my humble domain.”

“You’re the one who turned all those people into shadow puppets?” Feng demanded to know, as she motioned her arm all around her, pointing to the army that surrounded them.

Jin started laughing.

“That it was,” Jin finally responded, “I am the one who turned all those ungratefu-…”

Jin was cut off by the sudden appearance of Kaiko next to him.

Before Jin could react Kaiko had appeared next to him and launched a punch, dead-centre in his jaw, with all the strength he had, taking him entirely by surprise.

Jin was sent hurtling like a rag doll, flying right through a few members of his shadow army, directly into the hard bark of one of the trees. He fell to the ground, motionless, seemingly dead. His army stood motionless, much like he was.

Kaiko looked over and Feng and she nodded with a soft smile. It took a few moments, during which Feng walked over towards him, but eventually Jin did start moving again. It was mostly small movements and lots of groaning.

Feng walked up to him slowly and steadily, the bottom of her staff touching the ground with every other step. The accumulating resonance of the the air ringing with every step was becoming deafening to Jin, which not only made the pain and groaning worse for him but also distracted him.

He waved for a few of his shadow soldiers to help him up, while others launched themselves at Feng.

Kaiko jumped in and repelled the shadows, leaving Feng untouched and unhindered as she walked towards the now standing Jin.

She reached within an arm’s length of Jin, who wasn’t quite steady on his feet yet. His shadows had now backed off in step with Feng’s approach, mimicking what Jin would have preferred to do, but couldn’t.

As Jin tried to catch himself and stand up to face Feng, she stomped her staff onto the ground, which rang loud and long. The sound hurt and disoriented Jin and he fell backwards against the tree, looking up and Feng who was now clearly looming over him with a look of dead cold murder on her face.

The deafening silence that followed the fading of the ringing in the air captivated Jin, giving Feng his full and undivided attention as she stared him down, with what he perceived as disgust in her eyes.

"I am giving you a single chance at redemption," Feng began with the quiet but authoritative voice that was suitable for her position as Saizo Taisen, “Don’t waste it.”

Even Jin wasn’t sure exactly where his reaction came from, it was most likely combination of the way Feng spoke to him, how she looked down upon him or through sheer fight-or-flight, but as soon as Feng was done speaking, every fibre of his being wanted to attack her.

"Screw you," Jin shouted through gritted teeth and he raised his hand and pointed aggressively at Feng, "This is my domain and I won't be talked down to by you."

Having regained some composure, a few shadows helped him stand back up, while another shadow off to the side threw something towards her.

Kaiko dashed in once more, blocking another black projectile from reaching Feng.

Jin let out a single satisfied sigh through his nose, with a devious smile that neither Feng nor Kaiko had spotted. He gathered a bit of shadow into his hand and flung it towards Feng and Kaiko. They both jumped back and dodged the shadow thrown towards them.

Jin began laughing. As he began laughing shadow started to surround him like an aura, starting at his feet, and growing along his body until it had entirely engulfed him.

His body began to float off the ground, only just barely at first, but eventually, as the dark aura consumed him silhouette entirely, only his luminous yellow eyes piercing through the veil, he kept rising higher.

Reaching several meter above the ground, now reaching the foliage of the trees behind him, he was looking down at Feng. Other than having dodged his attack, Feng had not budged at all, politely waiting for his response.

She shook her head in disappointment before she looked up at the hovering shadow, looking directly into his yellow eyes.

"I take it that redemption is beyond you, then?" Feng eventually asked him in as calm and authoritative way she could muster.

“Redemption?” Jin asked as he burst out in laughter, “You must be joking! This is my destiny!”

Jin then raised his hand and snapped his fingers a few times. Every time he snapped his fingers small sparks came from his fingers, until eventually the sparks ignited the air around his hand with black fire. He focused more energy into his hand and the deep within the flaming hand grew a small ball of blackness. It grew in size and as it did the distinct features of a face could be seen manifesting at the centre of the ball.

“You may have taken me by surprise before, but I’m afraid the time for fun is over,” Jin continued before aiming his flaming hand upward, “I will add you to my collection!”

The flame from his hand rose and dispersed quickly in all directions around him. The flames were travelling into the circle of shadows all around them, slowly making them bigger, more intimidating. The flame aura passed around the army like a contagion, transforming the once human-looking villagers into buffed up barely recognisable shadow monsters. Once the flame had infected every shadow in sight, they all took a single step forward in unison, the loud synchronous step sounding ripe with danger.

Feng looked around the now massive line of distorted once living human faces, turned back to look up at the floating shadow with glowing eyes, her heart filled with sadness and frustration and anger.

While he was distracted with his hand still above his head, the flame now reconstituting itself, Feng took the chance to thrust the tip of her staff at Jin, aiming to pierce his heart with the light of her staff.

She thrust her staff up towards him and a single beam of light ejected out of the tip of her staff, heading right for Jin.

He noticed that Feng had moved, then felt her intent and managed to fly himself out of the way enough to avoid getting pierced directly. The light brushed past his body, but cut effortlessly through the black aura around him, which caused him some sharp pain, causing his float to be unsteady. He was happy he had avoided taking serious injury as the light cast from Feng’s staff burned his very soul.

In his moment of pain and relief, being slightly distracted, Jin failed to notice that Kaiko had leapt and appeared above him, having found an opportunity to strike. Kaiko kicked Jin down to the ground with tremendous force.

Jin landed front first into the ground and once again let out a painful groan. In a moment dominated entirely by instinct, Jin slammed the ground with his fists in anger which not only raised him off the ground slightly, but also caused the black aura around him to dart towards Feng and Kaiko.

Kaiko was forced to awkwardly dash mid-air to avoid getting hit by the black darts, while Feng simply used her staff to block.

Both Feng and Kaiko took a step back, together, putting themselves in the middle of the market once more, safely out of range of the Jin and his army, still encroaching on them.

“This is my domain,” Jin shouted angrily, as he continued to hover higher and higher, out of reach of the exorcists now well below him, “I won't let you do as you like.”

Jin tightened his entire body and brought his hands together in front of him. The black flame from his hand found its way off his hand in in the empty space between the palms of his hands. Jin’s aura began to flutter like a flame awakened by a gust of wind, and the facial features became visible once more. The ball of darkness grew, but unlike previously, it seemed to be accumulating the air around him. The air all around Jin seemed to darken and flow towards Jin, into the smoke ball. It only took moments for the space between Jin’s hands to expand, forcing his hands outwards.

“Your souls will be mine,” Jin shouted as he lifted the now massive ball of spinning smoke high above his head, “One way or another!”

Jin swung his arms down with as much force as he could, launching the ball directly at Feng.

Feng held her staff out in front of her to block. Sensing the danger of what might come next, Kaiko stood behind her and cast a small barrier around the both of them to help bolster their defences.

The ball of darkness struck the barrier hard, cracking it and almost knocking Kaiko off his feet, but the barrier held. Feng then swung her staff and deflected the ball off them and into the ground just beside them.

As the ball hit the ground, it exploded into a thick smog that diffused across the market place instantly with such force that both Feng and Kaiko were swept off their feet.

The smog not only engulfed the entire market space, but the smog was also permeating around the trees and foliage and army.

Kaiko got up as quickly as he could, after which he helped Feng get up too.

“Are you alright?” He asked her as he kept an eye around them. The fog had thickened and settled so that the army that stood all around them were now obscured completely.

“I'm fine,” She responded without even looking at him, “Where’s the bastard?”

They looked around but could not see through the fog. They tried to sense him, but they couldn’t sense much through the fog.

It seemed that Jin had disappeared and no longer there.

In their vicinity, however, they both started noticing that bright piercing eyes were beginning to shine through the fog from all directions.

Though the fog was making it hard to see or sense, they could definitely sense the fog further empowering the shadows all around them. The shadows were getting closer, each next step coming quicker than the next, and sounding heavier and more threatening as all the shadows grew out of their slim human features, slowly developing into demonic giants.

Feng and Kaiko may not have been able to see much through the fog, but the now empowered shadows had become so full of rage and murderous intent granted by Jin, that they could feel the danger growing all around them.

They both looked at each other.

“You feel it too, right?” Feng asked Kaiko.

“Oh, Absolutely,!” Kaiko chuckled a little uneasily, “And there may be too many of them for us to deal with… At least like this.”

Feng gave him a concerned glance and hoping she was wrong about what he meant.

“You’re not thinking that we …” Feng hesitated.

“I’m afraid so.” Kaiko sighed without giving her the chance to finish.

“I don’t like it either,” He continued with a heavy look on his face, “But I don’t think we have a choice.”

Feng let out a deep sigh in agreement. Her expression turned stern when she reached into her robed and took out the amulet around her neck. She then looked over Kaiko, who immediately knew what she wanted from him. He, too, reached into his robes and undid his amulet from around his neck, before handing it to her.

She then sat down, put her staff down in front of her and held an amulet in the palm of each hand.

“I’m going to need a few minutes,” Feng said as she closed her eyes, “You better keep them away from me while I set up.”

The two amulets started glowing as Feng focussed her energy on them, and in turn both Kaiko and herself started glowing too.

“I will buy you as much time as you need.” Kaiko spoke as his animalistic features started showing.

Kaiko’s animal features were now dominating his appearance and he was forced down on all fours again.

He looked over to Feng. He saw that both amulets were not only glowing radiantly, but they were also hovering above the palms of her hands.

Kaiko felt a surge of energy suddenly hit him, and he grew larger, grew stronger, glowed blindingly.

His animal form was transforming again, larger paws and claws, greater fangs, his fur grew and thickened while it waved with wind that wasn’t there. He no longer looked like a fox, but more like a ferocious predatory beast.

He let out a terrifying howl that sent a shockwave throughout Wansen Tai, dissipated the smog revealing that it had knocked back the entirety of the monstrous army back into the trees.

The smog then quickly sucked itself back in, and Kaiko prepared himself as he could sense the shadows close in on them.

“Here they come!” He growled as the thumping of the shadows approached once more, reverberating through the thick fog.