-Sigil-

[Beasts with no soul. Named after

the Sigil of The Soulless, which is found

on their bodies somewhere.]

“As you can see, they turn to ash and fade away,” Nadred said as we approached the clearing we paused in earlier. “Like many things surrounding the Sigils, we don’t know the actual cause or reason for it.” He sighed after saying that, then lamented “For how much we’ve learned there’s still so much we don’t know about our world. Maybe someday, we will find the answers.”

I could see why it bothered him that there’s so much we don’t know. If I’m honest, it bothered me a bit, but do we really need all the answers?

My thoughts were interrupted when Oroske spoke, echoing my thoughts, “Ah who cares? What really matters is they’re dangerous, and our Clan are a small part of a large group who fight against them. The other Clans fight them as well, but there’s lots of people who make their living hunting Sigils down and protecting people from them.”

“Fair enough,” Nadred said with a shrug, “But well put. That point doesn’t bother me nearly as much as how the Sigils can live without a soul.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, as we sat down in a small circle on the ground.

“Oh boy, here we go again,” Oroske groaned, earning him a stern look from Nadred.

“I’ll try to keep it short, since the full explanation is… really long. Basically, there is this series of books with… mysterious origins to say the least, called the U-Series. No one knows where they came from or who wrote them, but the Guardians themselves have attested to them being an accurate record of the past. What’s included in them anyway. I can’t remember how many volumes there are in the series, but I do know all of them at least mention a series of events called the ‘Advents.’

“The really short version is, there were these seventeen godly beings called the Ars’anum, who used their souls to give gifts to all of mortality. The most commonly mentioned is the Gift of the Soul, but there are several more. The gift that makes the Sigils so frustrating to understand is the Gift of Death. There are a lot of details that went into this gift, but essentially it says that there can be no life without a soul. As in, living bodies require souls to function at all.

“That said, Oroske has led me to a theory,” Nadred explained.

“Wait, how so?” I once again asked, unsure how Oroske would help create a theory for something like this.

“There’s another side of Affinities I didn’t mention yesterday. For both Elements and Aspects, you have an ‘active’ and a ‘passive’ effect. The ‘active’ for Elements is simply the amplification effect when casting spells, but the ‘passive’ changes for different people, and is typically very difficult to notice. For example, my Elemental Affinity is wind, and because of it there is a very slight breeze that surrounds me if I don’t suppress it at all. It’s usually next to impossible to notice, but it’s definitely there.

“On the Aspect side however, Jarou’s is easy to explain. His aspect is the other side of his name, strength. The ‘active’ side makes him able to augment his strength and defense, and that of the people around him. But for the ‘passive,’ he has a slight boost to his physical constitution at all times, including his strength. You’re pretty muscular already Kuro, and if it wasn’t for this passive effect, I’d say you could easily beat Jarou in a fight. Because of it however, I’d say he’d either be pretty even with you, or maybe even slightly stronger.”

I was nodding along to his explanation, long winded as it was, it was easy to understand.

“I don’t believe we touched upon Oroske’s Affinities much, if at all. As you may have noticed, names tend to have an effect on Affinities. Oroske’s parents, however, did not specify the meaning of the name when giving it to him. This caused his soul to take on two different routes for Element and Aspect. For his aspect, it would be more accurate to spell his name like this,” he paused and wrote “Or’os ke” on a paper he quickly pulled from his bag while speaking, “as it would be a combination of Orun and and Teleos, which we usually use to mean bitter. Or’os gets used a lot to refer primarily to the ocean, but is also used for saltwater in general. Hence, his Element is water.

“For Aspect, however, his soul treated it as though his name was written like this,” he once again took a moment and wrote “O’ros ke” beneath the first line, “with the apostrophe after the first ‘O.’ The ‘O’ becomes kinda dubious here, and we’re not really sure what it would mean since it doesn’t apply to his aspect, but the ‘ros’ part comes from Veros, which means soul, or spirit.”

“Uh huh…” I murmured, still nodding along, I had a question but before I could ask he continued on, and answered it anyway.

“I’m not sure if I mentioned it, or if Oroske mentioned it, but the Aether we use is actually the souls of the dead. The passive part of his aspect, Veros, is that he is extra sensitive to the Aether in the air.”

“Which is why I was able to sense a disturbance in the Aether earlier,” Oroske cut in, “Where Nadred’s going with this is that Sigils for some reason cause intense amounts of disturbance like that. Figured I’d save some time.”

Nadred sighed again, and continued, “Thank you Oroske, that’s exactly what I was gonna say, and in fewer words. But essentially, the theory is that they somehow use the Aether to fuel their bodies. Essentially, they’re ‘soulless’ because they don’t have their own soul, but use the souls in the air in their place. This would also explain how they are able to use magic, as you experienced yourself earlier,” he finished, gesturing to my side, caked in dirt and still aching.

“What would them not having souls have to do with being able to use magic?” I asked, unsure of why that would matter.

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“The soul acts as an adapter for the Aether, along with the passthroughs. Without a soul, the Aether would simply flow right through without any change since the Soul isn’t there to interface with it.”

“Still though, we’re lucky that one was still pretty young,” Oroske suddenly spoke up, “With it being able to use Gravia to that extent, and being as young as it was, it would’ve become a really scary threat very quickly.”

“What do you mean?” Jarou asked this time. “Go ahead Nadred, I’ll tend to Kuro while you explain,” Oroske said with a wave as he lifted up my shirt and began inspecting my side where I got hit. It stung when he touched it lightly, causing me to wince.

“Alright,” Nadred began, “First off, you can tell how old a Sigil is not by how large they are in terms of base size, but instead more about how muscular they are. This one was very skinny, so it was quite young still. Gravia, or ‘force’ magic, is one of if not the hardest element to use.”

“It wasn’t using Jarou?” I interrupted.

“Nope, lifting chunks of earth like that isn’t something you would do with Jarou,” He explained, “Due to the way Gravia works, many people think it means gravity, but it’s less specific than that, and is just any type of push-pull force. And the level of strength the Sigil used was impressive, even for people who’ve been practicing for ages. So if it was able to grow more and become stronger, it would’ve been incredibly strong. Probably would’ve taken a very large group in order to take it down.”

“Exactly,” Oroske said, his inspection of my injury complete, “Well, thankfully you didn’t get hurt too bad, Kuro. If you hadn’t raised your arms above your head they may have broken, but since it’s just your side you got off with some intense bruising but that’s it.”

I nodded, “That’s good.”

“Really though, you did a good job,” he continued, “I was surprised you pulled out that scythe, I was gonna tell you about it after you passed your Navy Cloak exam, so it was shocking to see you pull it out and use it.”

I summoned the scythe in question with a quick flick of my hand. Demon Sheath had become very easy to use and I could pull what I wanted out of it much faster than before. “Yeah,” I started, “I’m not really sure how I did it, my instincts kicked in big time during the fight, and they just kinda guided me to the weapon after I dropped my sword.” The scythe was very simple in design, with a long, wooden handle that curved inward toward the blade, which was slightly shorter and was a plain, metal design, with the Emblem of Balance engraved near where it joins the handle.

“Upon passing the Navy Cloak exam, Hunters are given their first scythe. Hence why I was going to wait to tell you about it,” Oroske explained, “The scythe is the iconic weapon of the Tsumi Clan, as it’s said that the original founding members used them when they killed the corrupt monarchs and their supporters from their home.

“In fact, the Clan still has one of the scythes. Or rather, Danfis has one of the scythes. A beautiful, elegant scythe, ivory white all over,” he said, looking up as though he was picturing it with a smile. Turns out, while Oroske wasn’t very smart when it came to magic and academics, he really knew his weapons and martial arts. Suddenly, that smile faded and he looked more serious, and looked me in the eye when he continued, “Now that I’m thinking about it… you summoned it yourself once. The night that you died.”

“Wait, really?” I asked. I noticed Nadred had a slightly concerned look on his face as Oroske mentioned it.

“Yeah, we have no idea how, might’ve been some crazy magic you pulled off instinctually. Of course, Danfis refuses to talk about it all,” he said with defeat in his voice. He shrugged and changed the topic, “How do you feel Kuro? Would you feel up to some more fighting practice?”

I touched my side with my hand, wincing at the pain, “Uh, probably not today…”

“I see, that’s okay,” Oroske said, “Was gonna have you spar with Jarou if you were feeling up to it, but if you’re not we can just have another small lecture, then head home for the night.” I nodded and we all sat down on the grass.

“Well, what should I teach about today?” Nadred asked. “Hm,” Oroske hummed while thinking, “I believe Kuro has all the knowledge he needs to pass the Navy test, so… what do you think, Kuro?”

“Umm…” I thought for a bit, when I remembered him mentioning the founding members of the Clan, “How about more about the founding of the Tsumi Clan?”

Oroske seemed to perk up, and Nadred tilted his head and lifted his hand as though to say “Go ahead.” As Oroske began his lesson, Nadred brought out some food from his bag and passed it around. Nothing fancy, just some sandwiches and water bottles.

“Alright,” Oroske started, clearing his throat, “Long ago, before the Grand War, there was another realm called Terrai, well across the ocean from where we are. We’re still learning more and more about its history, as most of it was lost to time until recently.”

“Wait, what happened to it?” I asked.

“Around the time the Old Demon Empire formed, a massive civil war broke out in the realm, and it basically collapsed on itself. It culminated in the leaders of five half-demon tribes killing the Terrai monarchy and all of their supporters, as well as the Gods of the realm.

“Terrai had five half-demon tribes, called the Ivory Plains, Crimson Hills, Azure Forest, Black Mountain, and the Green Caves. The leaders of these tribes are celebrated as the founding members of the Tsumi Clan. While they had different reasons and morality systems, the five tribes were commonly seen as barbarians and murderers. But in reality, they were similar to us, simply doing their job as sellswords for the most part.

“They used to be quite docile actually, and in good standing with the Terran Empire. Until one day, the new ruler was named, and they starting pushing discrimination against Half-Demons. There’s a pretty big gap in what we know from then till the end of the Empire’s days.

“But essentially, lots of war broke out all over the realm, and the leaders of these tribes for one reason or another decided to eliminate the royal family, and after that the two Gods that protected the realm. After which, the survivors made an exodus over to Alten, which is what the Human and Demon realms were called before they were split. At this point, the Grand War was only a couple years in, and the Demon Empire’s grip on the realm was firm, and ever expanding.

“The Half-Demon tribes stayed behind in Terrai, as the realm began to die, eventually becoming known as it is now; the Ashen Realm. Then, a hundred years later, as the Grand War was approaching its climax, the Guardians brought them across the ocean, and enlisted their help in ending the war. The descendants of the five leaders that killed the royals were brought together to form a Clan of Half-Demons, along with the members of the Ivory Plains, Black Mountain, and Crimson Hills. That Clan became the Tsumi Clan. The Green Caves became the Ishen Clan, and Azure Forest the Incol. There was a fair amount of crossover between them, and stating which tribes became which Clans is just a matter of formality.

“And so, the last leader of the Ivory Plains became the first Danfis. There’s a lot that’s happened between now and then, but that’s the story of our founding. The Guardians assigned the Clan’s roles at that time as well,” Oroske finished.

I definitely got the idea that there was a bit more to it, and I would’ve liked if he talked more about the Grand War, but before I could say anything, Nadred spoke up. “There’s a bit more to it, but as far as strictly the forming of the Clan goes that’s a pretty good summary. Everything else is stuff that was happening around the same time that had some effect on the whole situation,” he said, “but sadly, that will have to wait for another day, as it’s getting decently late.”

Oroske looked up toward the sky, “Ah, you’re right. We should probably head back then,” he said while standing up, looking at me, “Well Kuro, a little more combat and magic training, and I think you’ll be all set for your exam. When we get back, I’ll schedule it for two weeks from now, if that’s okay.”

I nodded enthusiastically, I was getting closer and closer to my Navy Cloak and being able to take on actual hunts. We gathered up everything we brought, and headed back to Tsumi’Din.