Miles away from the traces of Yafloria, in the ruins of the Akaminé castle, another brutal battle between man and demon was actively thriving with activity.

"There, that's the last of them!" a knight pointed at what appeared to be a shadow wraith. Unlike gaguns, their attacks seemed to land physical damage to anything they touched. "Roguro! Be careful, this one's faster and stronger than the rest!"

The knight was armored with volcanic plates – the strongest material known to mankind so far. Yet, he kept his distance from the vapid monster. His weapon was a giant sword as tall as himself, but he couldn't swing it given the small range in the corridor they stood in.

"Relax, Jion," Roguro Ganis batted the knight's advice away like a fly. "No demon ever frightened me. But your sense of fear certainly annoys me."

The ghastly appearance of the wraith accompanied by its reflexes was a formidably intimidating combination.

Roguro lacked the both heavy armor and the weapon of the knight Jion. Atop his head, a feathered fedora capped his mullet. His torso was elaborately dressed by a purple coat. He was an Akaminé, born and raised, but during the Year of Forthcoming (when the Alkynes stormed the castle) he cold-bloodedly chose to be a traitor to his own kind.

Jion and Roguro had been assigned by their master to scour the castle for any remaining untamed monsters or demons lurking around.

'My life is forfeit,' Roguro looked up at the wraith, smiling widely and spreading his arms wide like an albatross. 'All my life, I was supposed to be an Akamine member. What have I done? How can I be saved?'

"Roguro, don't get too close," Jion warned. "Are you out of your mind? That's a tagahun!"

'I know,' Roguro silently replied in his mind. 'Perhaps only death is the rightful way to pay for my crimes. I have no purpose to live without the Akamine. How could I betray them?'

The wraith whizzed across the air. Jion Dankorun had spent eleven years as a knight to the ruler of the Kingdom before being recruited by the Alkynes. His experience whispered in his ears that tagahuns were dangerously different from other monsters.

Tagahuns could possess people and stab their souls from within.

No bleeding, no pain. Just sudden death.

Jion assumed that Roguro knew it, too. But he wished he hadn't.

"No!" Jion wasted no time and instantly rushed forward to save the fellow Alkyne. "ROGURO! WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!"

Roguro threw a smile at Jion before allowing himself be possessed by the shadow wraith.

"Argh…Ugh…Aaaah…AAAAH!" The wraith seized control over Roguro's body more firmly than a marionette. But it was short-lived. He knew what was about to happen next. The final fragments of his consciousness braced for the actual death blow.

Jion swung his blade, regardless of the consequences; a dead Akamine was safer to live with than a possessed Akamine.

Blood spattered over the castle's poshly decorated walls. Unfortunately for the Alkynes' brand guidelines, blood wasn't purple.

"What have you done?!" a voice boomed from a staircase ahead. "Jion Dankorun, speak!"

The knight loomed over the corpse of his freshly-murdered victim. The wraith had perished along with Roguro's soul. He withdrew his greatsword, letting it land on the ground.

"I have done," Jion puffed from the effort, "what had to be done. A tagahun conquered Roguro's body. It was too late, I'm sorry, Master Thozor."

Casio Thozor, the current leader of the Alkynes stepped down the remaining stairs, halting right in front of Roguro's corpse. He noticed the dents in the walls generated by Jion swinging his weapon in shortage of space.

"You… you have just killed one of our best hunters, foolish knight!" he complained. His dimly glowing eyes shone brighter at what he said next. "But to the Alkynes, death is only a state of being."

Jion nodded.

"Now step aside," Casio ordered. "And let me resurrect this champion. Unlike you, he atleast had the courage to face the wraith!"

Jion parted his lips to argue about what he felt truly happened, but his words gave up before he could utter a sound. All he could do was obey quietly.

"Moron Ke Dao Chodon," the leader of the Alkynes cast Banglai's Spell of Resurrection. (Eren Banglai was one of the founders of Conjuration magic on Harthwa)

A blast of unstably white energy sprung out from Casio's hands, impaling Roguro's body before being absorbed by his materialistic form.

Roguro's eyes came back to life.

'Wha… What just…' he felt dizzy as the whole warped back into existence in front of him. 'Where… I am… I am alive?'

"Rise, my child," Casio knelt beside him, holding his hands now slowly warming up to normal temperature. "You have just tasted death. But know this… Death cannot stop Alkynes! With magic, anything is possible."

Jion jealously bit his lip and observed from a few feet away.

"Master Thozor!" Roguro identified. "Why are you here?"

'Blasted fate!' in his mind, Roguro cursed for his bad luck. 'Can't a person die in peace? What ridiculous ethics!'

"Ah, I just happened to be roaming our castle," Casio explained politely. "But my primary intention was to reward you."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Reward me?" Roguro was surprised. "For what reason, master?"

The mention of the word 'reward' pulled an even more dissatisfied expression on Jion's face.

"Yes, indeed. What must a proud master of the Alkynes do if not wishing to bestow gifts for the most potential member of our entire faction?"

"Ah, I see," Roguro was an expert in the crafts of lying and deceit. Pretending to be intrigued was merely cutting butter with a sharp knife. "What, when and where, if I may ask?"

"Patience, Roguro," Casio patted his shoulder. "Walk with me back to the courtyard."

Roguro stood back up. He shot an aggressive gaze at Jion and Thozor behind their backs.

'One of you will die tonight,' he planned.

*****

Back at the northern niche of Yafloria, Wan Dé and the Alkynes were locked in deep conflict. Wan peered into each of their eyes. And they all greeted him back with a promise of death.

"Surrender now, Akamine," the hooded Alkyne toted his hardened axe and Wan's glaive. "You have no weapons. You have no hope. Struggling will only make things worse. For your sake, just give up your lives."

Wan noticed the Alkynes were walking clockwise in a ring, with Wan and Takira situated at the center, back-on-back. Each of the violent villains took turns to taunt their prey. Worse, he realized they were decreasing their radius – inching closer and closer to where they stood their ground.

'Okay, this is bad,' Wan thought. 'Really bad. Plus, there's Takira. I cannot let her see me face defeat.'

'Oh no,' Takira thought, simultaneously. 'What do I do? Wan has lost his weapon. I could lend him mine. But I don't want him to see me cowering.'

The Alkynes marched in the circumference in synchrony, their footsteps acting like a clock's ticks. Each step followed the next one heartbeat later.

'This isn't a trap,' Wan realized. 'It's a TIMED trap.'

He felt their eyes pinning them down with the likeness of wolves rejoicing at the sight and scent of fresh prey. Soon, he couldn't bear it any further.

Wan charged straight for the Alkyne who hijacked his glaive.

"Shoumenshjkai!" a spell burst out of his mouth; his hand propelled an arc of darkness searing through the air and flying at lightspeed, aimed for the Alkyne's head. "Ah, let's see who you are, shall we? Let your hood drop off."

Without his weapons, Wan could only rely on his field of magic – shadowmancy, adept level proficiency.

The hooded Alkyne grunted in an attempt to parry the blow. His cloth hood danced to the tune of Wan's spell of the Shadow Sonic Blade. Wan's glaive still remained clutched by his buffalo muscles, rage and irritation flowing among blood in the bulging veins. The Alkyne was not pleased.

"You! If my face is revealed, I'll be stealing yours!" he thrust Wan's glaive in his direction.

"Deal," Wan sprang up from his position behind Takira, seizing opportunities in a frenzy of impatience. Petals of excitement crowned his mind as his eyes focused harder after a quick sip of adrenaline. "Only if you can grab mine first—"

"Don't get cocky, boy," the hooded Alkyne cautioned again. Something made Wan slow down in his actions for a fraction of a second. "This time, my brethren will not hold back."

A millisecond was all it took.

One of the other Alkynes immediately charged at Wan, grabbed his head midair and slammed him to the ground like a mad chef smashing an egg on a table with full strength.

'Wh-what?' Wan felt dizzy, let alone suffocated by his own unexpected failure. All around him, he heard laughter. Humiliating laughter. As if he was a frog being tortured by evil schoolchildren. 'Wh-what we-went wrong? I wonder… ugh…'

Takira gasped and held her hands over her mouth, open with horror and terror at the sight of what just happened to her friend.

Even in the dimly lit forest floor, she could see traces of blood on the damp grass where Wan lay lifelessly rigid.

'Oh no… Wan! Wan? What happened to you?! Are you okay?' Takira wanted to speak the words out directly, but she prayed that the monstrous Alkynes didn't pay attention to her yet. Even if they did, she was utterly helpless if someone like Wan Dé could be so easily defeated by them.

"Let's eliminate this one first," another Alkyne walked in with a suggestion, intended for the Alkyne who just struck Wan cruelly. "We can imprison the girl in our hold. Maybe she can even marry one of the princes," he swiftly looked at Takira from afar. "She does look very appealing. Worthy as a bride for a leader."

Takira exhaled heavily, her temper heated to a melting point. She couldn't tolerate being humiliated in front of a friend.

"What did you just say?" she began walking up to where the Alkynes stood, dragging her sword along the ground in the posture of a sassy heroine seeking revenge for her lover. "Make me a prisoner? Make me marry a— Aaaaah!"

The fourth Alkyne clasped her hair, enjoying her yells.

A fifth one promptly arrived chuckling. He punched her forehead with an impact that could've split a brick in half.

"Takira! NO!!!"

Wan semi-consciously watched in horror as Takira's limp body went flying away like a broken porcelain doll before crashing to the ground with a thump.

The six Alkynes basked in the glory of their ambush.

For ten unbearable seconds, the forest fell silent save for the hostile humans' footsteps and mockery.

'Is she… dead?'

Three words were what Wan's mind could summon.

"ENOUGH!" he jumped back to his feet, shedding some dirt off his robes with his dexterous hands. He spat out a blob of blood and rubbed some off his forehead. His eyebrows tightened to a serious mood. "Dead or fainted, atleast now I am safe to use my actual abilities. Good thing you shut her down."

Puzzled. That's the mood the Alkynes expressed on their visible faces, as they turned towards Wan. Naturally, they emptied more barrels of taunts and comments :

"Oh, so you still didn't learn your lesson, bug?"

"Ehh? Still not dead, boy?"

"Hey! This guy's not out cold yet. Hit him harder!"

"Die!"

Wan noticed their relative positions. In a hurry, they lost their initial formation and dropped their bag of discipline. Weapons wielded. Ready to attack in unison.

'Ah, this couldn't be a better chance!' Wan let an oncoming wind play with his hair for a moment. 'Finally, the odds are now in MY favor!'

Lifting his index finger at the Alkynes, he waited for one last adjustment.

Wan prayed that they were about to do what he had predicted they would do.

His grey irises sparkled with delight and his face morphed into a sinister smile deceptive enough to curdle rotten wine.

All six Alkynes rose to the air to land a finishing blow from above.

"ONE!" Wan shouted, keeping his finger aimed at his enemies.

This was his trump card. A power so terrible he tried to keep it a secret. A spell so dreadful and dangerous that he wanted to forget the fact he ever had such a skill.