"Thank you for such a detailed explanation," Stas nodded when Io finally finished. "What will the objective of my mission be?"

"Now about that," Io turned around and pulled a decorated scroll from behind his back. "The Shigero clan is suffering from attacks by magical beasts. They reside near the Gray Mountains, a long ridge touching the northeastern part of our country. For some reason, monsters are emerging from the forests and coming into contact with people more frequently. And while the clan of onmyoji can defend themselves, the peasant villages cannot."

Io handed the scroll to Stas.

"Here's some important information. Take a look. In short, your task is to figure out the cause of what's happening. And if you can resolve it, the payment will be higher. And one more thing," Io leaned forward slightly. "This part of the task is secret. Try to determine the mood and attitude of the onmyoji towards Sumada."

"Hai," Stas left Io and headed to his apartments.

Once there, he pulled out a small green scale hidden among spare clothes and snapped it in half.

Half an hour later, the door cracked open, and a joyful Kaede slipped in.

"Shiro! I thought you had forgotten about me," Stas found himself in the strong and unexpected embrace of the cheerful yokai. The embrace was so tight that Ordyntsev had to activate prana strengthening urgently to keep all his bones intact.

"Kaede, ugh, I've asked you to watch the strength you use!" Stas grumbled, but his lips still hinted at a smile. He found the girl's directness and energy amusing and somewhat fun.

"And who do we have here so plump?" The yokai cooed, looking at Leviathan, who had raised her head.

If the snake could have widened her eyes, she would have done so.

'Plump?! Woman, do you want to die?' Red points flashed in the depths of the snake's eyes, and rings of the gigantic body loomed over the seemingly fragile girl. A bloodthirst hung in the room.

'Master, was it you who told her that?'

'No,' Stas blatantly lied, carefully controlling his mind-speech, 'Kaede just noticed that you need to work out.'

'That's not true!'

"Shiro, should I call the sensei?" Kaede asked.

"Yes, her advice here will be welcome."

A few minutes later, they were all gathered. The first thing Minoru said when she learned the nature of the matter was:

"So that cursed clan is still alive! Why haven't they been destroyed yet?" The ancient lamia raged and stormed in her ghostly form.

Finally, she calmed down.

"So why did you call me and my student then?"

"As you've already guessed, I've been tasked with protecting their clan's land from the magical beasts," Stas explained thoughtfully. "Nevertheless, I don't want to approach the onmyoji completely defenseless. Tell me, is Kaede capable of fooling them with her illusions?"

Minoru pondered for a moment before shaking her head.

"No, she shouldn't even get close to those people yet. They're too dangerous for her. The onmyoji live to catch and defeat spirits. Kaede is too inexperienced for such a difficult battle."

"I see, but I'll still need Kaede, so I'll take her from you temporarily."

"I told you, she's not ready!" the lamia frowned. "So why the demon are you dragging her into the Shinigami's jaws?!"

"Don't worry," Ordyntsev reassured her. "I'm not planning to take her to their clan. I need her as a backup for another matter. After all, I doubt they'll give me an easy mission for the title of an advanced warmaster. So I must be prepared for all kinds of surprises."

Minoru said nothing, but she clearly didn't think highly of the whole idea.

"But that's not all," Stas continued. "I'm sure the onmyoji might have spirits under their control. Can you help me apply protective sigils to my armor and weapons?"

"They will be too noticeable and unstable. For good quality, they need to be woven into the item at the time of production."

"I suggest placing them on the inside of the armor. That should suffice for the mission. As for the weapons, don't worry. The onmyoji won't be surprised that a warmaster decided to prepare for a meeting with them. We are known for being protective about our secrets, after all."

"The effectiveness of such sigils will be weaker," the ancient yokai resolved. "But they will work. And if you get a chance, slap a Shigero across the face for me. That would be the best thanks for my efforts."

"Agreed."

*****

Shuji felt terrible all day. His experience and sense of danger told him one thing – something bad would happen today.

That's why he twitched at any loud sound and was ready to strike at any second.

Considering he was an advanced warmaster, this made his fellow travelers fidget nervously, eager to leave his company as quickly as possible.

Shuji was a renegade warmaster, and he had formed several rules for himself that had allowed him to survive for so long.

The first and most important of them was: "Never stay in one country for more than three tasks."

It might seem to an outsider that missions are only given to clans. But that's not the case. Many nobles or simply wealthy people do not want to share compromising information about themselves with the ubiquitous clans of warmasters.

That's why they use the services of various shadow informants, with whom the renegades then connect.

The problem with such work is that you never know when they will decide to "clean you up," as knowing too much.

Right now, Shuji was leaving the capital of Sumada and calmly walking towards the border. He wasn't running, conserving prana and strength. He would still need them.

When the number of passersby began to decrease and then disappeared altogether, Shuji felt that something was off.

He was left alone on an absolutely empty road.

Worse, some sensation on the edge of consciousness prevented him from concentrating.

'Illusions!' the terrible realization came.

"Disperse!" Shuji roared, driving prana through his body, wishing to forcibly strip off the enemy's influence.

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How surprised he was when his actions only made the surrounding illusion tremble, allowing him to see the actual reality, but not disperse it.

Somehow, he had been led onto a side country road. There was no one around, but that didn't mean he was alone.

And he was more right than ever.

The ground around him came to life, making him clench his teeth.

'Sumada! I knew I should have left after the second task. But no, I had to get greedy!'

He cleaved the first stone serpent in a single motion, barely slowing down. The second and third, he blew up with a tight stream of water from his mouth.

From the fourth to the eighth were torn apart by a series of water fists he was so proud of. After all, it was for them he had received his advanced rank. So few could use this technique with such finesse.

But to his horror, the earth-born serpents did not end. On the contrary, their number only increased.

The advanced warmaster spun like mad, but it was impossible to defend from all sides.

He waited for the attacker to show himself, but the latter prudently hid, attacking only with the technique.

Shuji's leg exploded with pain.

Where there seemed to be nothing, a serpent's head appeared, sinking its fangs directly into his flesh. A strange weakness instantly covered the man.

'There are two of them. One controls the earth technique, the other the illusion.' The man tried not to think that it could be one person. If so, it was someone of the supreme warmaster level.

He still managed to split the snake's head open, leaving its fangs deep in the wound, but it was the beginning of the end.

Two more serpents clung to his shoulder and thigh.

Shuji tried to resist, but new bites, sucking out his forces, made him fall to his knees.

He had just enough strength to keep his body in that position, but no more.

Mockingly, his enemy emerged from the trees, moving leisurely towards him.

Strange rustling sounded behind him, as if another giant serpent was crawling by.

But there are no such large snakes, are there?

"Despicable... Coward..." Shuji managed to spit out the words, burning the enemy standing near him with a hateful glare.

The man waited for at least some words, either mockery or contempt. But the reality was cruel.

Shuji blinked. His opponent had inhuman eyes. And the worst part was that there was nothing in them. Not even anger.

With these thoughts, darkness enveloped Shuji.

*****

Stas looked on with satisfaction at the wrapped body of a real advanced warmaster, who had been captured so easily. Before that, he had healed all the wounds from the serpent bites with his Healing Palm.

The warmaster's physical condition was not damaged, as the serpents, on command, only drained prana.

'Well done, Mari. She deserves praise for her good work. She informed me very timely that a suitable target was planning to leave the city in the next few days. All that was left was to wait for him at the exit and order Kaede to lead him away.'

"And what are you going to do with him?" the yokai asked with interest, leaning over and tugging the captive by the hair.

"For the future liberation of your teacher, we need someone who will pretend to be one of the attacking Deathbringers. And that requires more than just a dumb brute."

Stas slung the unconscious body over his shoulder and carried it deeper into the forest.

Ordyntsev did not want anyone to interfere with the upcoming ritual.

Finally, a suitable place was found. A dark clearing surrounded by thick tree trunks, whose branches grew so densely that they hid the surrounding reality in shadow.

Ordyntsev laid the captive's body in the center and took a deep breath.

He was gathering strength. Although he had conducted similar rituals over dead warmasters, he had never had to do it over a living one.

Here, much finer manipulations were required. Fortunately, even less ether was needed than usual.

Stanislav frankly did not understand how the Deathbringers of the past even thought of such a sequence of actions.

A hand glowing with black light touched the victim's forehead and heart. How many times had he repeated this sequence of actions?

Stanislav routinely dismissed the question of morality. He was not interested in why his subject had taken the path of a renegade. Maybe he wasn't to blame. It was no longer important.

The ether seeped into the warmaster's body in poisonous streams, causing him to grimace with unpleasant sensations and shudder even in his unconscious state.

Ordyntsev was also tense. Right now, he was facing a non-trivial task.

He needed to place the ether in the warmaster's body without letting the thirsty energy start devouring the subject.

In some ways, Ordyntsev was performing a process of forced vampirification right now. Under the influence of the ether, the cells of the man's heart transformed, evolving into something else.

Such a change sent the warmaster's body into turmoil, yet there was still time to complete the task successfully.

Ordyntsev also saw no point in processing the entire body.

If the ether had been created by Shuji himself, this process would have been natural, but since it was formed from Stas's spiritual energy, he had to make sure it didn't swallow all the prana at once.

This process was accompanied by terrible pain. The captive woke up several times, and only timely blows to the head from Kaede kept the situation under control.

In this place, Stas had nothing suitable to bind the subject securely enough.

'It's time.'

Following his mental signal, the prana-treated heart issued its first dead beat.

Shuji arched back. Now, his own heart produced streams of ether, turning him into a vampire.

The skin rapidly dried out and wrinkled. But from this, it did not become less strong. Rather, the opposite.

Soon, the newly converted vampire looked like one of the Deathbringers who had gone too far down the path of thirst.

Nevertheless, the process was not yet finished.

From the palm, which was pressed to the forehead, a dark blotch tore away, causing the subject to first jerk and then, relaxing, fall back.

Right now, Ordyntsev performed, in a way, a lobotomy, replacing a significant part of the vampire's mind with ether under his control.

Thus, Shuji's personality suffered practically irreparable damage, and Stas gained a loyal servant who not only could do without prana sustenance thanks to the functioning ether heart but also continued to possess some of the techniques and could carry out complex orders.

Stas waited for the end of the vampirification process, then spoke.

"Look at me."

The eyelids instantly opened, and the black eyes focused on the creator.

"What was your name before?"

"Shuji of the Koga clan," the voice was hoarse and sounded as if coming from a barrel.

"What kind of clan?"

"A small free clan." The answers were as short as possible.

"Why did you leave?"

"Killed a clansman during training."

"Why?"

"Wanted his girl."

"What a scumbag," Kaede grimaced, looking at the dead man with disdain. "Good that we took you down. Trash like you shouldn't live." Memories of her own death flickered in the yokai's mind.

Shuji didn't respond. The yokai's words didn't bother him. Now, very little concerned him at all.

Ordyntsev smirked. Minoru hadn't lied – the ritual worked, and how!

The ropes were removed from Shuji, and he stood up. He was just slightly shorter than Stas himself. Black, emotionless eyes looked straight ahead as the dead man awaited orders.

"Kaede," Stas looked at the yokai. "Take Shuji... No. Now you're called First. Nod if you understand."

A sharp nod followed.

"So, take First to the rest of the corpses. There's a small cave near the shelter under a fallen tree. Leave him there. He'll wait for our return. When you're done, head to this village." Ordyntsev pulled out a scroll with a map drawn on it and pointed to a small settlement between the mountains and the onmyoji's residence. "If I don't show up in five days, head back. That means I can't safely meet with you."

"You're so stern, Shiro-kun, when you give orders," Kaede laughed, shattering the serious atmosphere. "Come on, scumbag, I mean, First, let's go. We should hurry."

"And try not to be seen by anyone," Stas shouted after her, remembering that detail.

"Sometimes you're so boring, Shiro-kun!"

*****

Stas expected to be met before he reached the onmyoji's village. This point was specifically mentioned in the mission scroll.

And considering what the spirit enchanters were doing, Stas understood the reason for such caution.

The road wound habitually underfoot when a black dot appeared ahead.

Upon getting closer, it turned out to be a small green pagoda. According to peasant beliefs, small spirits of fields and forests lived in such places. More precisely, they visited here, receiving tasty tributes from people.

In return, they eased the people's lives, tending the soil and removing parasites and weeds.

But it wasn't the wooden structure that caught Stas's attention, but the person sitting next to it.

A long, black garment with disproportionately wide sleeves. A tall, tapering hat with the tip cut off.

In the hands of the stranger was an intricately carved staff with several holes at the top. A dozen copper rings were threaded through them.

The onmyoji, for it was he, bowed his head down and could not see the quietly approaching warmaster. However, when there were a couple dozen steps left, he quickly raised his face and looked directly at Ordyntsev.

The rings on the staff rang out as the onmyoji calmly stood up and stretched.

In front of Stas was a self-assured man in his forties. His eyes curiously scanned the warmaster's armor and especially his spear, on which one could easily see the burned sigils.

The onmyoji's eyes twitched and looked precisely in the direction where Leviathan had glided under the ground.

'So that's how he knew I was approaching.' Stas suspected that controlled spirits were circling around them right now.

But Ordyntsev, under no circumstances in the world, would activate his spiritual vision now.

The man had no doubt that the onmyoji who had captured Minoru still remembered what the ether was. A warmaster who can see the spiritual element is suspicious.

Fortunately, during the days of travel, the remnants of the ether from the ritual had dissipated, so he was not afraid to enter the lair of potential enemies.

Of course, Minoru insisted that finding ether was impossible if it wasn't being used, but Stas preferred to play it safe.