The bombings that the mages had performed were largely unsuccessful. Luckily, Sei'O was a city built mainly of rock and metal. They didn't catch fire as easily and the fires that did start were put out very quickly.

The first step was recovering all the dead bodies. They needed time to mourn, but first and foremost, they needed to recover all of the dead.

Rel helped in moving the heavier boulders and fallen buildings. Everyone greatly appreciated his efforts and would often times bring him food and drinks as he was working. For whatever reason, children also really loved him. It made it hard to work. He was constantly tossing kids high into the air and catching them as they laughed.

“Rel, was it?” an older gentleman walked over to him. He placed a hand on his shoulder and shoo'd the kids away. Rel laughed and nervously thanked the man for helping with the kid situation.

“You're very strong, Rel. The powers of youth still flow much within you.”

“Eh? Thanks, old man.”

“But you have worked well enough. Please, do take a rest.”

“It's alright, really. I don't tire out easily. “

“No, no I insist. You have done quite enough for everyone.”

Rel nodded. “Eh, if you insist. I'll take a break”

Rel scratched his head and politely left. On his way there, a child flagged him down and ran to give him a gift

“Give this to the shadow man!”

“Eh? Shadow man...who in the world cou- ohhh”

He laughed “That's what we call the shadow guy!” He then ran off to play with the rest of his friends. Most of the children were kept away from any of the work zones and kept away from any of the carnage. Most of the damage was on the northern end of the city.

Rel looked at the box in his hand. He couldn't quite tell what was in it even if he had decided to shake it up. “Oi...I can't say I'm not jealous.” He went off back to the western side of the city, entering through the barracks.

On the way there, he realized it was quite eerily silent. Not a single other person had been resting thus far. The lanterns were all shut off. “Man...this place seems almost haunted when its this quiet.”

“Eh...did I hear something just now? Is someone there?”

crrrkkkk..... khreeekkk.....

A loud thud hollowed out through the halls. Now Rel was on the defensive. “Oi...don't tell me it actually is haunted.” He had heard of such things happening in instances where mass deaths occur. He clenched his fist. He had never fought a ghost before, but he was always willing to try.

If he can't hit them, he'll have to run. Now the voice started whistling. It was a familiar tune that the plague children often sang. Noone's really sure where they had heard the song from, but many of them found themselves humming it as they did their work.

The whistling was absolutely horrible though. It sounded quite ghostly. A bead of sweat began to appear on his head. “oi...now this isn't funny... show yourself.”

The whistling stopped. “Ihz that you... Rellll---”

The man was attempting to whistle and talk at the same time...or whatever he was doing. The words were hazy and slow. Rel quickly turned on the lanterns around him.

The figure of a morbid creature came into view. The shadows it cast on the wall were that of an octopus with drooping thick tentacles. They dragged on the ground and heavily caressed the walls. The man was going to come into view at any moment now...

Nope. He had seen enough. Rel had fled the scene long before the other creature had noticed him.

“Oiiii ALEL! ALEL!” He ran out to some sector of the city. Alel was working in the central district, recovering bodies. He was panting heavily by the time he had reached Alel.

“Oh, Rel. Did you need something?”

She had a mask on her face to prevent the disgusting smell from making her vomit. With that amount of blood on her hands, it looked as if she was an unsuccessful doctor. A truly horrifying sight.

He caught his breath and then whispered in her ear. “Oi... Oi... there's- In the walls. So I was walking to take a break and when-”

Alel flicked some blood onto the man's face. “Get to the point already.”

“There's a ghost!”

Alel's face gradually lost interest entirely. “Hm..ya know, I was actually expecting you to say something like that”

She continued working, picking up one of the bodies and dragging it over to a cart.

“Oi! I'm serious! I saw it!”

“and what did this ghost look like?”

Rel motioned with his hands, trying to portray the image of a tentacle monster.

“Yep. I'm not interested.”

“Oi! You gotta believe me check it out.”

“There's no such thing as ghosts, Rel. That's ridiculous. Anyways, I'm working. Go bother someone else.”

She waved him off.

One of the younger ladies that was there had overheard the conversation

“Actually, if you want you may take a break. You've helped quite a lot as it is today.”

Alel looked over to her. “Eh? It's alright, really.”

“No no, we can't possibly keep you away from your friends.”

“Mmk.”

Alel's hands heated to the point where it was molten, boiling the blood on her hands and evaporating it entirely.

“Now show me where this ghost is, I guess.”

Rel lead them back to the same place in the halls. “It should be right around here...somewhere.”

The entire place was empty. Rel scowled. “It has to be here, I know it!”

“You sure you weren't just seeing things?”

“No! It was whistling and everything!”

Rel continued down the long corridor. They continued to venture through the halls for a good 10 minutes without noticing out of the usual. Alel sighed and leaned against the wall. “Basically, you've just wasted my time.” she yawned. Well, I was getting pretty tired anyway.”

“Um...Alel..”

“hm?”

“Behind you...”

Rel took one of the lanterns off the wall and shined it on the wall behind her. There was a giant gash through the concrete of the wall itself stretching at least 10 feet horizontally.

“w..” she stopped for a second to observe the gash on the wall. “it could've been there beforehand.. its not indicative of a ghost.”

“And what would have caused that?!”

Alel's arms slowly began to heat up again. Though she tried her best to seem unperturbed, she was very slowly getting nervous about the whole situation.

“I don't know.. I've never observed these walls. Besides, this could have been done well before the Baerim's occupati-”

“....”

“What?”

Alel's eyes lit up in a horrified expression- An extremely rare look to see her have. Her arms instantly flared up and glowed like hot red tongs.

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Rel turned around to see what could have caused such a face and saw the shadows of several tentacle-like apparitions. “Reeellll.....”

Their faces turned blue both of them fled as fast as they could.

They stopped several rooms down, panting and hiding.

“What in the world was that?!”

“Huh....heh... I told you... Ghost.”

“I don't know what it wants, but we gotta think of something.” Rel slammed his fists into his hand. “We can't let that fucker terrorize the other kids. Who knows what it could start doing.”

Alel nodded in agreement.

“Alright- so I devised a plan!”

“we close the doors and barricade them. Make the walls inaccessible to the others!”

Alel bonked him over the head. “That's a terrible id-....”

“Huh? Are you okay, Alel?”

“What room was he just by again...”

“I... I think room 160"

"Shit, that's near Lin's room. He's in danger!"

Alel opened the door and began to run towards the direction where they saw the apparition. Rel followed closely behind her, trying to convince her to turn around.

"Oi! Alel, Lin can handle it himself!" Rel "let's turn back now. There's no need to anger the spirit!"

Just as Rel had blocked her from advancing any further, his back was caressed by an odd sensation. It almost felt slimy and made the hairs on his neck stand up.

He slowly turned around to see the apparition covered in tentacles. "Rellll.....I need yeu tou tr-..."

The sloppy shadows began to move frantically around his body.

"Oi. Don't come any closer, I'm a very dangerous Variant!"

Rel launched himself at the apparition and channeled his strongest punch. Several shadows intertwined with his fist and grabbed pulled him into the dark abyss. Within the center of all these shadows, he came face to face with the creature.

"Ehh... ORA?!"

Alel's hands began to heat up before she stopped and realized what was going on. "Jeez, don't scare us like that."

"Hii *hic* Rellz. Watch out..- there's an enemy nearby."

"Tch. Yeah, we know. It's you!"

"Nol..look.-"

Ora's focus slowly narrowed in on Alel. She was wearing a white apron, had her hair tied in a ponytail behind her. None of that made her look like an enemy.

Add blood to all of it, and a mask to top it off, and she looked like something straight out of a horror movie. Which was precisely what she had on.

The white apron was dyed red with blood and most of her shirt reeked. She had been carrying bodies the entire day and identifying any saving any injured people.

The half mask around her mouth didn't help at all either. Upon seeing her, the discombobulated Ora was entirely certain she was an enemy.

Shadows launched out at her and swiped for her head, which she narrowly dodged. The shadows were moving much too slow.

They looked rugged and could barely hold form.

"Oi! Ora, what do you think you're doing! That's Alel!"

No response. Ora's attacks continued and Alel had no choice but to keep dodging them.

"Ey, Ora! I'm on your side here!"

"Stay back Rel, we's got a strong onee here. Die Yorbian mage" He dashed towards her and fell face down right into the ground. He got himself up and stumbled yet again. "Sheazs very stronge-"

"Oi...Ora..- Are you Drunk???" Alel finally realized it. He had to have drunk something. In response, Ora's shadow lurched forward and collided with her, knocking her to the ground.

"Shit." Rel jumped from behind Ora's clutches and barred the next shadow attack from occurring.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but....-" His fist collided with Ora's face and sent him flying back several feet. He skidded in a similar fashion as a tumbleweed might in the wind.

"Heh." Rel helped Alel off the ground and "That could have gone so much wors-"

Just as he was about to finish his sentence, he felt an ominous presence behind him. His tentacles grabbed onto Rel from both sides.

"Ora!? No way! T-that should have knocked you clean out!" He tried to wiggle free of Ora's grasp, but no such luck.

"Impsopter...rElz pounches ar' way harder than that *Hic*"

"What a've you dun to Relz?"

"Oi! Ora! stop playing around, I am Rel!"

"Then, yus shud be familiar with this movee."

The shadows lifted Rel high off the ground. Ora jumped up and all the sudden, all the shadows brought Rel's body down to the ground. "LIIIIGGEEERRR BOMB!"

The entire floor shook and Rel was completely unconscious, upside down. His head might have well been right through the floor.

Alel took off her mask and gasped. "Ora! Hey, Be serious about this! You know it's me right? Alel?" She pulled off her mask only to just narrowly dodge impalement from the spikes.

"Fuck this." She got up and began to full sprint. Of course, when she turned around, Ora was right behind her. He couldn't run too well, but using the shadows, he was able to catch up to her with ease.

It was as if he was a spider. It looked absolutely horrifying.

"I won't fall for yer'm fake Alels and fake relz"

His shadows dug into the wall as he chased after her. "Tch. How about this one!" Rel had regained consciousness and came in with a flying kick from behind.

Ora instantly dodged the kick from behind and one of his shadows grabbed onto him, slamming him against the wall. "Oi...- I got a better idea Alel."

He activated his relic and both he and Alel became unperceivable to the naked eye.

Alel glared at Rel. "You're telling me you didn't think of this earlier?"

"Oi. you didn't either."

Alel held back the urge to slap him. Her hands were too hot for that at the moment.

"Now, back to the matter at hand...I say we lock him in here and flee."

"Fuck that, I can probably take him out using the invisibility and a choke hold of some sort."

"Do you even know any choke holds?"

"Tch. Watch this."

Rel dashed straight ahead towards Ora. For whatever Odd reason, Ora's attention turned exactly to where he was and Rel came to an immediate halt.

"He can see me?!"

Rel didn't realize yet, but he was bleeding quite a lot from bashing his head against the ground earlier. Everywhere he was moving, he was dripping little droplets around.

That minor detail was all it took for Ora to pinpoint Rel's location. When met with the shadows coming towards him, he lost all resolve, turned around and ran with Alel. "NOPE! RUNNN!! WE JUST GOTTA KEEP HIM INSIDE"

"Eh?? why inside?!"

"Would you want THAT out there?!"

He pointed to the giant spider-like being chasing behind him.

"erm, good point."

One of the doors to the right of them just opened up and Alel barely managed to avoid colliding with it. "Eh? Who's-"

"SELA!?"

She rubbed her eyes and looked around in her usual blank, airheaded expression. "Rel...Alel. Why are you guys running?"

"Don't have time, we gotta go!" He picked up Sela by the head and they all continued running.

"Rel, what's going on?" She asked.

"Well..." Rel turned her around to see the mass enigma of shadows chasing after them. "That!"

"Oh...Ora. - Did he get taller?"

"Taller?! He's like a giant spider right now!"

"Rel, let me down."

"Why would you want me to do that? you'd die!"

"He's adorable."

"I honestly...can't understand how your mind works."

"Let me down."

"Not a chance! We're almost at the exit."

Sela flailed for a couple minutes trying to escape Rel's grasp until suddenly -BZZZT! Rel was fried by Sela's lightning blast and crumpled to the ground.

"Oi, Sela, what are you doing?" They were now all plainly visible. Rel was out cold and couldn't maintain the invisibility.

"Oraaa~"

The shadow amalgamation halted before colliding with her. "Sela, get backk, therez some enemies behind you."

"First, pick me up. I want to be high too."

Ora descended down from his shadows and picked her up with both hands. Right then and there, Sela gave Alel a thumbs up. This was her plan all along!

BZZZTT. The lightning coursed through Ora and immediately rendered him unconscious. Insane... Rel couldn't put a stop to the rampaging Ora, but Sela does it all with one touch.

The relic she ate earlier must have given her the ability. At the very least, it looks like she can now control it better.

With that, the danger known as Ora was put to rest. Rel finally woke up 40 minutes later and helped them stuff the knocked out Ora back in his room. Even though he was unconscious, his shadows still stuck around.

Rel observed the bottle that was laying on the table beside him. "Hm...this must be what he was drinking. I don't suppose it would be wise to leave it with him." He casually stuffed the bottle into his pocket.

That night Sei'O was saved from yet another calamity....

____________________________

Outside of the small country, so much had begun to set in motion. One tiny tremor caused it all. With Sei'O at the center of it, the ripples that were set in motion continued to spread until all had heard of it.

Letter birds took to the skies by the hundreds. The change was ever so subtle. A whisper here, and a whisper there. Before long, everyone had heard of Baerim's failure.

Many had deserted the army once they realized they were losing. They fled as fast and as far as they could. With it, their stories were told. Many of the mages fled to the bordering country of Elirah, and Senmo.

While others who were bold enough, remained within the country of Sei'O, scattered throughout the rural areas.

The stories of Ora's cruelty and power struck fear into the hearts of those who heard about it.

However, to some...they were inspired. The tales varied between calling him both a demon and a god. But nonetheless, to those who heard it, many were skeptical.

"Hey..sis.."

"Hm?"

"Do you think what that man said was true?"

"What man?"

"The one at the fish market."

"Ohhh. Mhhm" she nodded her head. "His eyes gave it away. He was truly horrified."

Witnesses to a sky of a thousand stars, two siblings laid out in the cold night. The grass tickled their skin as the winds blew past. The young boy looked to be no older than 8 and the girl was even younger.

Despite that, they were wise beyond their years. They both had long, red, spiky hair that came down to their necks. They seemed almost feral. Beastmen?

Their ears were long and pointed as if they were elves, but their eyes were that of cats. The two wolf children, they were called. There's another continent far from East Goumei where they were in abundance.

However, several hundreds of years ago, they found themselves settling upon this country, Iremin.

When they settled in Iremin, their neighbors to the east, the elves were in high abundance. The elves welcomed them greatly and often taught them many things about magic.

They soon realized how war-hungry this continent of Goumei was, for wars occurred ever so frequently. Their neighbors in Elirah, the elves, were all but wiped out. Eventually, the humans came for them as well.

Unlike the elves, the beastmen were not too proficient in magic. They were at a huge disadvantage when it came to wars, and they too began to lose out to the humans. The only reason why there are still so many beastmen is that the cruelty of these humans saw it fit to shackle them in chains.

The brother spread his hands up to the sky. "It would be interesting...don't you think?"

"Ehhh? What would?

"Well...to meet this plague child. Ora was the name."

His sister nodded. "Mhm.

"Let's do it then. I can definitely escape if I use it...my power." He touched the chain around his neck and flicked the lock of it. "Let's go see this...Ora. Then we can finally get out of these chains.."

When he said we, he meant everyone. All the beastman that resided in Iremin. Their life was not an easy one. Though slavery was illegalized long before their arrival on the continent of Goumei, no one batted an eye when they were enslaved.

Even the country of Yorba, who knows of all the troubles and misdeeds occurring does not extend a hand out to the beastmen. This was probably for the same reason that the elves were eradicated. It was because no one viewed them as humans.

If there was one hope in change, it would be Ora. The one who had just stirred up recent events as badly as he did. The world was buzzing...