Yuya was inside her current family's house, sitting cross-legged while meditating. Her presence enveloped the whole village as, by now, she had a string attached to all who lived there. Without their realization, all their souls were marked, bound, and belonged to Yuya. She could manipulate their feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and memories with a single thought. Even if she walked up to one of them, beheading the person in front of everyone, nobody would bat an eye or register what she did. It would just look… normal. As the fragment she sent down to Meriath was only a minuscule part of her soul, doing this was already her limit. That is why she was glad her closest disciples were here with her.

Dolores, Kaspian and Freina. The trio of them served under Yuya for almost 500 years. They were handpicked by her, raised meticulously, and their souls were bound to her by a spell she designed. They were made loyal the moment she grabbed hold of their souls. The three disciples were now occupying similarly child-like bodies as Yuya, taking control of her poor friends, moving their souls over after they reunited with their master. They were her ideal tools... not for war, but for infiltration and corrupting others; that was her personal forte.

It was easier to control a more petite body, and most untouched people would lower their defenses around kids. It was the perfect advantage that Yuya learned to use in the Dark Ages. She was only an elder back then, tasked with controlling massive armies in the battles but insignificant enough to be not included in the personal fighting. Half of the ancient elders truly died back then, and the empty positions were open for everyone else. That is when she and her brother rose and gained a spot amongst the twelve.

It was also when she first came into a conflict with one of the remaining ancient Supreme Elders, Loonah. She was against filling their numbers with unproven people. Individuals who never traveled the Cosmos before the closure of the Realm. But… Their Sect Master's order was absolute. The ranks couldn't remain open and had to be filled immediately. Since then, Yuya had been working to eliminate her rival, especially when she learned that the hag started eyeing her brother. That was taboo; he only belonged to her and nobody else!

"Master." Dolores entered the house, now occupying an eight years old body with braided, white hair and glowing, green eyes. "We received a message. We have trouble incoming!"

"Explain," Yuya said, her eyes remaining closed, continuing the meditation and organizing her thoughts. She had to do this many times as the fragment of her soul needed to recharge by receiving energy from its primary source.

"Cabrao sent along a mental warning. He is being pursued by Amarins and needs assistance. He already lost his flesh-puppet, and his soul is unstable so-"

"Damn it!" Yuya's eyes snapped open, standing up at once. "That FOOL! Bringing Amarins here?! He should have just died! FUCK! We have to go! NOW!"

"Master…"

"None of you know what this means, do you?! Damn it! Fuck, fuck FUUUCK!"

Dolores was simply flabbergasted seeing her master lash out like this. She never saw the easy-going and fun-loving Yuya swear this much or look this distraught.

"Kaspian and Freina already went ahead to provide assistance-" She tried to explain.

"They are already dead," Yuya barked at her, walking out of the house, feeling so angry she almost grabbed Dolores by the throat and sucked out her soul to satiate her own wrath.

…

….

……

"I sense two incoming Undead. They feel firm." Solren said as they followed Cabrao like bloodhounds on the hunt. "Our prey went past them…"

"We can deal with them alone." Sion offered, and with a nod, it was already decided what they would do.

Not that far ahead, Kaspian and Freina were getting ready, their petite, young bodies surrounded by the sick, unnatural miasma. They specialized in infiltrating and corrupting, but fighting was part of every disciple's life. Without it, you were nothing but prey inside the Sect. When Cabrao's feeble soul whizzed by, they didn't even react, only focusing on the pursuing light beam. It was as if the morning had arrived early, and the sun had risen from nowhere, blinding the two.

"Dodge!" Kaspian ordered, speaking through the young boy's mouth, using his miasma to fly to the left while Freina did the same, going towards the right. "Shit!" Kaspian cursed suddenly.

Even though their human eyes were being blinded by the intense light, their senses were still working at maximum, and both felt the pursuing group rushing past them. What they perceived as an attack and dodged was nothing but a ruse, making them open up a path willingly so the Amarins could follow Cabrao. Yet before they could turn around, their instincts rang the warning bells again, forcing them to dodge once more, but this time they did escape from an attack aimed at their bodies.

"Both of you will die here." A cold voice said as Sion appeared while the bright light died down. His eyes were colder than ever before, and his blood was boiling since he laid eyes upon the young bodies. The fact that they occupied children was something that he had never considered before. But seeing it… he experienced something new… something horrible.

He was not the only one who remained back. Aurora stood next to him, just as coldly as him, her eyes more stoic than Sion's. It was her first time facing something like this, but she was already prepared. They were all taught that they use the dirtiest tricks when infiltrating the Realm, playing on people's feelings. That is how many families fell into ruin, being corrupted by their loved ones and through their children.

"Let's kill them quick." Simbad said as he was already flashing forward, attacking the 'young boy.'

"The girl is yours!" Keily shouted, being the last member of the four who remained back. He was following Simbad, ready to end the suffering of one of the two young bodies.

"You first, I'm better at adapting!" Simbad signaled to Keily while he made a feint as if he was about to attack, prompting Kaspian to raise a shield of miasma while facing him. Keily arrived from his right at the exact same moment, the medallion hanging from his neck glowing like a furnace, surrounded by flames, spreading everywhere around his slim body.

"Hah!" He shouted, aiming a strong and lightning-quick kick directly at the side of Kaspian. His leg was like a piston, surrounded by fire when it made contact, breaking the bones in the tiny body.

Kaspian made no sound, ignoring any pain that his new body felt, even as he was sent flying, stopped only by a thick tree. Its dark, brown bark cracked apart like glass when he landed, splinters flying everywhere when. As his body slipped to the ground, the tree gave another loud, mournful crack before falling to the side.

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"Hmph!" Kaspian snorted, standing back up, his broken body reforming in a flash, just in time to take up a fighting stance and welcome Keily's fast, rapidly moving fists that were covered in electricity this time. Yellow lightning was coursing through his veins before escaping from under his skin, jumping directly forward and latching themselves onto Kaspian's body, disrupting its nervous system and slowing him down.

"You monster…!" Keily growled, gritting his teeth as he pushed himself to the limits, his arms and legs moving so fast they were leaving afterimages behind, yet Kaspian still managed to keep up. He was never faster, but his green eyes were as if they stared directly into the future, predicting Keily's move before they landed, dodging or redirecting them. "Argh!"

With another shout, Keily switched as flames burst forth from the medallion on his neck as if an explosion went off between the two. The next moment they were surrounded by raging, golden flames consuming both of them. Kaspian was surprised to see such ferocity from someone so young. It caught him off-guard, and he couldn't adapt in time. He was trying to keep an eye on the other warrior hanging back… waiting for an opportunity. His senses constantly warned him, not about the young and ferocious bunny boy but about the second one. Something was simply off about him. He was… dangerous.

"..." Without saying a word, Kaspian surrounded himself with the black miasma, resisting the intensive flames that gobbled up both of them. "Dangerous…." He murmured, mostly because he lost all touch with his surroundings. He could only see the flames around him, slowly eating away and burning his otherworldly mana. "...!"

"Too late…" Arrived Simbad's voice, and he was right.

The flames departed as if being pushed away by a pair of hands, and Simbad appeared behind Kaspian. The Undead was still thinking about how to counter, yet Simbad's hand already touched his back, placing a palm gently onto the spine of the body he was occupying. It was something that most people would not dare to do. Touching the wicked miasma was a good way to get infected, hurt, or your mind getting eradicated.

Even Kaspian was surprised, but the horror finally struck him for the first time in their battle. The fact that the body he was using was dispensable, something that could be sacrificed and he could just get a new one later on, always made him confident…. But now he was panicking. From Simbad's palm, pure light-filled energy invaded his body, forming a reflective wall inside his vessel. His soul was trapped; he could not extricate himself from it anymore. If the body was destroyed now, that would mean… "NO!" He cried, but Keily was already upon him.

"Rest in pieces!" He roared as he summoned his most intense fire, bringing his hands down, held together like some kind of hammer, smashing directly at the head of Kaspian.

The moment it made contact, Keily switched between his elements, invading the fire with yellow lightning bolts, resulting in instability and a chain reaction; an ear-shattering explosion threw Keily out the next moment, but he landed on his feet, tearing up the earth while he skidded to a halt, watching the flashing, burning sphere before him. As it died off, what remained was Simbad, standing there, surrounded by light, looking like he was made out of pure energy before it slowly dimmed, revealing his smoking, somewhat ruffled but unhurt figure.

He was still touching the charred body of Kaspian, which was slowly falling to pieces. His green eyes were dull, losing their light by the second as his soul and borrowed body were scorched into nothingness. Without a chance to escape, the insides of the young boy's flesh were turned into a superheated oven by Simbad's spell, melting down the essence of the Undead. When he finally pulled his hand back, he watched unblinkingly as Kaspian fell into pieces becoming something that was finer than ash.

…

..at the same time.

……

Just as Freina dodged, she had to roll multiple times before she managed to stand up. Looking down, she was missing both hands by then as Aurora was like a shadow, following without respite, maiming her with the two curved, black blades in her hands. She was focused only on her prey, and before Freina could cast any spells, her neck was slashed apart so deeply that the young head on it tilted to the side, hanging on only by a thread.

"Release!" Freina shouted, her voice echoing from nowhere while needles were shooting out of the petite body as if a porcupine had learned to expel all his spikes simultaneously.

The moment that happened, Aurora kicked out with her legs, distancing herself, holding her weapons crisscrossed, blocking a few of the needles, while the rest never had a chance to hit her. From farther away, Sion opened fire with his pistols, precisely hitting all those who would have impaled Aurora's body without missing even once. All his light bullets flew past Aurora's skin; she could feel them passing by, hitting the Undead's spell and dispelling it with little pops as if popcorn was being made nearby.

Even though she remained unharmed, Freina had time to recollect her body, heal it, and go on the attack. She waved her hand, and black tendrils shot up from the ground where the rest of her needles fell, binding Aurora's legs as she jumped over her. She was going for Sion from the get-go. Freina's plan was simple: eliminate the support and then focus on the damage dealer. It should be easy, as he was clearly a ranged fighter. She just had to get close and-

"I see." Sion smiled, watching her coming in for the kill, and to Freina's surprise, he simply changed his stance, ready to accept her challenge. "Let's dance then!"

Freina did not expect a light blade to spring forward from under the barrels from Sion's artifacts, and he was quickly countering her close-quarter moves and even firing back at her. It was a complete and well-executed mix of two fighting styles; dagger and pistol. It was something that he had been training in since graduating from the Academy and being under Solren's leadership. Since reuniting with Aurora, he has been able to constantly perfect it as the two were on a similar level now, and their spars were like rituals. It was proving to be the best method for the two to raise their strengths.

"...!" Freina couldn't help but be shocked as she found the barrel of Sion's gun pressed directly against her left eye before it went off, blasting a hole into her skull. Yet before he would have been done, Sion just pressed forward. Pushing his weapon into the eyesocket, he used his superior weight to pin the small body to the ground before plunging his second gun into the chest of Freina, pulling the triggers on them repeatedly.

As he riddled her with holes, black miasma spread everywhere, starting to corrode Sion's body; he had to stop and fall back because it was starting to eat at his mana and consciousness. He felt that he was getting dizzy, losing focus, and even having an impulse to stop fighting altogether. All those injuries he inflicted on Freina were healing rapidly, and she was about to push herself up when Aurora finally arrived. She moved like a whirlwind, cutting her up like a piece of fish on the cutting board, severing flesh, tendons, and bones alike.

"Ready!" Sion shouted, and Aurora was already in a somersault to get away. Freina did not know what was coming next, but she felt that it was not something she should wait for. Her real soul slipped out of the maimed body, forgoing it completely. "Fool." Sion smiled as what came next was something Solren had taught him.

Pointing his guns to the air above the Freina, when he pulled the triggers, a formation materialized, shooting down a golden beam, hitting the soul of Freina at once. An otherworldly scream echoed around them as the energy bombarded the fragile soul, tearing it apart yet causing no damage to the body on the ground. It was a widely used spell by mages of light in the armies of the Six. It was the last brainchild of Erias, and it was made to do one thing. Kill Undead. By the end of the war, he learned that intelligent variants had a soul that they could send into No-Space and return later on, so he developed a countermeasure. It was only completed a few years before his death, but since then, anyone who was talented enough was taught it in the armies of any of the Six Houses.

The moment Freina decided that she was escaping was the point when her fate was sealed. Her soul was split into hundreds of tiny pieces, and they simply vanished into No-Space without a chance to coalesce again, sending her into reincarnation at once. When the light dissipated, Sion looked at the dissected corpse only once before nodding at Aurora, who gently smiled back at him. Glancing to the side, they managed to see the end of Kaspian and watched Keily as he hurried over, burning away the remaining parts of the girl's body.

"Poor souls…" He whispered.

"There is a village ahead." Simbad said, his tone calm yet icy, "Recover your strength and steel your mind!" He warned them, especially Keily. "If these lived amongst them… our duty is clear."

"We know," Sion said while Aurora signed at the same time with her hands. "We will be quick…."

"And merciful," Keily added before the four hurried forth, wanting to catch up with the rest of the team.