After it was over, I collapsed on the ground, too horrified to look at the destruction that I'd left behind. I know, even if it was Yazara who had flattened those people, it was still because I'd managed to summon him.

My stomach turned, whether it was by the smell of blood or the overwhelming guilt, I wasn't sure. And finally, I leaned ahead and threw up on the grass in front of me. When I sat back, wiping my mouth, my head was filled with whispers, similar to the ones that had led me to Yazara's grave. But that had been just one voice. This time I heard too many people whispering at once.

I whimpered and covered my ears, feeling even more nauseous of all the voices speaking so close at the same time. Even though I felt drained, I managed to calm myself down and push the voices away. I took off my hat and lay down on my back, looking up at the sky. After a second, Asmod, Lily, Smokewell and the man that we'd saved, came and stood over me.

I forced myself to meet their gazes. First I looked over at Smokewell, "I-I killed them. S-So many people at once," I stuttered.

The man of the Cornelius family looked at me hesitantly before saying, "No, you didn't kill anyone."

All eyes turned to him. "What you did, it seems, was summon an Abyssal being," he said, "Those are powerful but in this domain of reality, even they can't kill anyone."

Asmod cleared his throat, "Pardon me, but that mob that was about to lynch you seems very much dead."

"I know that's what it would seem like," the man said, "But their souls are still present in the vicinity." He looked down at me again, "I assume, you can hear them?"

I felt a conflicting sense of doom and relief as I nodded.

"A Soul Sage can return their souls back to their bodies and it'll be as if nothing happened to them," the man said.

I sat up with a jerk. "That's possible?!" I said.

The man's expression seemed to lighten with my reaction. "Indeed. It will still be quite an effort to explain what happened but those people can be brought back to consciousness."

Smokewell gave me one last weird look before turning to the man and saying, "Hey, listen, it's all well and good to know that my pupil technically didn't commit a mass murder here. But we are running on a tight schedule. I'm going to cut to the chase and ask, do you happen to belong to the Cornelius family?"

Lily raised the severed concrete head of the statue.

The man's eyes went wide. "That's my great grand father's head from the Temple!"

"Perfect," Smokewell said, "We need something called the Eyes of Cornelius. I'm sure you can lend it to us since we saved you from getting lynched and having your soul enslaved. Right?"

The man introduced himself to us as Cornelius the Second, named after his Great Grandfather.

To save the time, we rode back to the temple of St. Cornelius using Lily's familiars from her cards. Lily and I mounted a massive direwolf. Asmod and Cornelius rode an equally massive toad.

"My great grandfather left us because he wanted to ascend further, beyond the Soul Emperor stage. He left my father in charge of the village and the Temple. The village has been run by the past three generations of my family but my father had to go to the city for some work, so he left the village in my care. We were unaware of some villagers planning on a coup against my family. And well, you saw what led to in the graveyard."

"They have some gall to rebel like that against someone as strong as your family," Lily said.

"Actually, we aren't what we used to be back in great grandfather's time," Cornelius said.

"How can that be?" Smokewell asked.

We arrived at the temple and mounted off the familiars before Lily took them back into her cards. We made our way into the courtyard.

"You see, my great grandfather was an ascetic. That means he never took a wife or had any children. My grandfather was an adopted child that he trained in the art of Solistism. It is the study of soul manipulation that my great grandfather developed. He just wanted a successor for our house. And he couldn't break the sacred vows by marrying someone. Those vows are what allows my family to learn the art of Solistism," Cornelius said. "That's why no other can learn it, unless they are formally adopted into the Cornelius family. But that's also what makes the next generation weak. Since none of us is related to great grandfather, it takes us longer to adapt our body to the lessons of the art. If we were direct descendants, great grandfather's blood essence would've been passed down the line, making us genetically more capable. But that's not the case. And since we aren't as learned in the art as him, we are unable to train the successors to perfection.”

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Smokewell cocked her head. “Based on that logic, the villagers probably targeted you because–”

“Because I am the weakest, yes.” Cornelius nodded with a grim look. “The rebels were going to enslave my soul and use it as a leverage to extort power from my adopted father."

"This coup was quite a bad omen for the future then," Asmod said. "It probably means there are going to be more like them to come."

"I don't think so." Cornelius shook his head. "The lady's Abyssal servant flattened practically everyone. There might just be a handful of people left in the village now."

We all paused. My chest tightened at the thought. "But, you are going to revive them, aren't you?" I felt a mixture of apprehension as well as guilt.

Cornelius didn't answer for a long time. He just gestured us to follow him into the temple. The headless statute of his great grandfather stood by the far wall, a mural of a forest and mountains painted behind him. "The last time anyone ever saw Great Grandfather was three generations ago before he left the temple and the village in grandfather's care," Cornelius said, "The saint never even returned to see us or see how we were doing. He let us take his name, he let us live in his house and run the village in his stead but he never even showed his face to the man he called his son. Is this what it means to be in a family?"

None of my companions spoke. Lily's face was somber, Smokewell's face was unreadable, Asmod was watching the man with a gentle look. As far as I could remember of my old life, my parents never really cared what I did. My own father was drowning in booze every evening while mom left the house and returned at irregular times. No one asked her what she had done when she was out and she didn't care to give any explanations either. There were occasional bouts of yelling and altercations that I could hear from my room. And the next morning the cycle would begin all over again. So I didn't know what a family meant either.

We stood in the awkward silence of the temple behind Cornelius, not knowing of how to reassure the man in front of us. That's when Asmod spoke up, "You should leave."

Cornelius looked down at the short man, incredulous. "B-But, I have a duty. The responsibility that the Saint gave us to keep furthering his family."

Asmod gave a soft fatherly smile and shook his head. "That's not what a family is supposed to be, I can tell you that much. It's meant to be more than just a responsibility, more than just a duty and a title. It's about trust and being there when you need each other. You don't owe that statue anything, son. You should start over. Go somewhere you can rely on those around you."

Cornelius looked uncertain. "B-But those people at the graveyard--"

"The ones who were going to enslave your soul? What about them?" Lily said.

Cornelius sank to his knees. "I-I don't know...what I should do..." he said, voice trembling.

"That uncertainty that you are feeling, that's what freedom is," Asmod said, putting a hand on the man's shoulder. "You suddenly realized that anything is possible and that you are allowed to be happy. That thought scares you. But it is also the best thing that can happen to you. You deserve it, son."

Cornelius looked at the man with that same uncertain look, "R-Really?"

This time, it was the rest of us that nodded in approval.

Cornelius regained his composure and got back to his feet. "You wanted the Eyes of the saint, didn't you? Come with me." He led us deeper into the temple.

We followed the man down a series of hallways and up a single flight of stairs. He opened the door to a small room on the upper story. Inside the room was a single desk set upon a floor covered by red carpet. On the desk sat a small porcelain urn with floral pattern. He took the container and held it out towards us.

"Oh," Smokewell said, "So the urn didn't symbolize death. It was literally indicating towards another urn. I see. That's not subtle at all."

"I beg your pardon?" Cornelius said.

“Ignore her," I said, waving my hand dismissively and taking the urn from him. "So, are the Eyes inside this?"

Cornelius nodded. "Great Grandfather burnt them and turned it to ash so its power could be preserved. His body wasn't able to accommodate so much power at once, so he had to separate it from himself. That was the reason why he left the Temple. So he could strengthen himself enough to fuse the Eyes again at some point."

Before any of us could say anything, a portal opened in the wall behind us. On the other side of the portal, the Malcolms' basement was visible. I checked my hexonomicon. Time left before the door closed was just ten minutes.

"Seems like it is time for us to leave," Smokewell said.

"Wait," Asmod said and turned to Cornelius. "You said the Saint is going to return once he gets strong enough to take his Eyes back. If you give these to us–"

Cornelius smiled, "Don't worry, I won't be here to face the music."

Asmod returned his smile. "Be sure to keep yourself safe then."

The man nodded. "Thanks for encouraging me. I'm going to do what you told me. Freedom feels daunting. But it feels worth it."

"We wish you the best of luck then," Smokewell said, "And if fate is kind enough, maybe we'll meet again."

"I hope it is," Cornelius said.

We turned to enter the portal. Smokewell went in first. Asmod went next. I followed after him. Lily was about to come in after me when she stopped and turned to look at Cornelius. "Wait, I wanted to ask, are the Eyes of Cornelius his actual eyes or is that a code for something else?" she said.

Cornelius chuckled before saying, "Those aren't his actual eyes. The urn contains great grandfather's testicles."