"Did you find anything?" Che asked as the other two Supreme Elders, Kyaranin and Laupa, arrived at their marked meeting spot. They spent days searching the border territory without any success, getting frustrated.
"Nothing." Kyaranin sighed, shaking her head.
She was, like Che and Io, an elder from the old times, a woman who was born in the era of the Sects and belonged to the Eternals until death. That was when her soul lingered behind long enough because of an artifact to be discovered by a Soulbound Elder and brought back to life. Since that day, she was a zealous member of their sect, even rising to the Supreme Elder position before their fall. Her figure was ever-changing, never staying with a set appearance, sometimes looking like a child, a beauty, rivaling a succubus or an old, ugly witch, scaring the newcomers. Right now, she 'wore' her sensual appearance with wide hips and loose clothes around her heavy chest. Her flowing, white hair followed behind her as if it was an elegant cape.
"We should send out the newbies," Laupa suggested, somebody who came to his post after the Realm's closure. He was usually reserved, silent, and task-focused, always doing his job to the letter, following orders without deviating from them. His figure represented his stiff personality as he was stocky and straight as a rod, the epitome of inflexibility with short, well-cut hair. Even if someone would go and try to measure it, every strand of hair was at the same length, obsessively following uniformity.
"We may just do that. The area is chaotic here, and we can't penetrate too deep with our senses without it being lost." Che agreed after a brief thinking. "Group them up! As our best people are heading down, we must work with what we have! Send them in droves; where they start disappearing, that is where we will look!"
"I hope you are not setting us up to follow Loonah's path." Kyaranin jabbed at him, looking at Che with a seductively swaying hip while speaking.
"I am not Killieth nor his sister."
"Ahaha… sorry, I was just joking~! You were already an elder when I joined~! You just forgot how to smile, Che!"
"You also forgot we have no bodies, so stop trying to entice all of us at all times!" He answered with a snort while Laupa ignored them completely, wanting to go and gather the newly collected souls marked for showing enough potential to join their ranks.
"I can't help it! That is the only thing I miss! I can't wait to get back out to the Cosmos and reform my body!"
"Can we start?" Laupa raised his voice, already fed up with wasting time here.
"Yes." Che nodded, watching him immediately disappear, his gaze trying to peer into the energy clouds where his enemy was hiding. He was determined to find Erias and kill him. This time, he would not fail.
…
….
…..
"Good news!"
"Hm? What is it?" Lia asked, coming out of her meditative state and looking at Erias, who appeared from the orange clouds, looking like a golden, shining beacon, emitting raw energy from all his pores.
"They are looking for us and, just as I hoped, sent in the newbies!"
"Oh? Isn't that… bad? That they know we are here?"
"Hehehe… nope!" And with a wave of a hand, the golden light around him expanded, throwing out a body… a soul, to be exact, landing right before Lia's figure.
It was a woman bound by dark energy, making her immobile, and only her eyes were darting back and forth between the two of them. It was the first time Lia had ever seen those dreadful, green eyes so clearly… and so skittish. It was no longer an Undead that was before her; it was a person, deadly afraid of what was going to happen to her.
"I thought of starting slow and catching one that is not even an elder, probably at the inner disciple or core disciple status only. You need to get used to assimilating their souls and not letting their consciousness interfere with yours!"
Just by hearing him, the woman's core shuddered, panicking more than before, starting to plead with her eyes, trying to appeal to Lia. At first, she did feel pity, but before it could influence her, more memories flooded back to her. Images of what happened in the city. The fate of Cathalica. The faces of Quatlo and Rose. It immediately dispelled her thoughts, and she simply looked into her ancestor's blue eyes.
"How do I start?"
"First, you refine the soul!" Erias explained happily, glad to see Lia's resolve, getting increasingly proud of her, "I will do it now; try to follow it, and the next time, I will let you do it!"
Erias used his two elements of light and darkness, surrounding the soul and then breaking it down like submerging something organic into a strong acid. The woman was whining, or at least tried at first, but very soon, she no longer represented anything like a human but a soup of energy, swirling and bubbling in a cauldron formed of light and darkness. Inside, an intense fire was burning, and he continued purifying it while opening his mouth to explain the procedure.
"First, you trap it. Use your most proficient elements to devise a method to separate the soul from its surroundings. Then you begin to break it down with another element until it can no longer remain coherent and becomes pure energy!"
"I see." Lia nodded, having ideas to use her ice to form her own cauldron the next time while relying on her wind to cut the soul into tiny pieces. She even chuckled, making Erias raise an eyebrow inquisitively. "It's like cooking."
"True." He grinned, "Purifying is a must for us. For now, I am getting rid of most of her personality and memories, or you risk letting her invade yours and attempt to eat you! But we don't want everything to be gone... or how are we going to learn what is going on? Okay... this one probably knows nothing but an Elder? They are treasure troves of knowledge! So be careful!"
"I will be! They have been preying on us for so long… this feels like retribution!"
"Exactly how I felt when I did it the first time." Erias agreed vigorously as he reached into the cauldron, pulling out a giant, pill-sized clump of energy, all that remained of the now reformed and concentrated soul. "The next part will be easy! Just eat it, and your soul will start absorbing it! Try to focus and separate her experience from yours! Take it like reading a book or watching a play! Don't lose yourself in it!"
"Don't worry, I won't!" Lia snorted, taking it away without hesitation, plopping it into her mouth, sitting down, and starting to meditate.
Throughout the process, Erias never blinked, watching Lia, all his senses focused on her, ready to intervene if something went wrong. To his relief, everything was proceeding smoothly, and after only an hour, Lia reopened her eyes, smacking her lips.
"I feel… stronger!" She looked up, and Erias said nothing, only smiled, letting Lia examine her body, noticing that it was starting to look much more solid than ever before. "Elina was her name. She died in the previous Dark Ages and joined them because she hated Polymeia… I don't know who she was… but she thought she and her people abandoned them. She wanted revenge!"
"Polymeia Honu was a follower of mine, and later on, she became the first head of House Honu," Erias explained after thinking a little. "If this one thought she abandoned them, she was delusional. Polymeia was one of my disciples who many times argued with me. I dealt harshly with ours when we were stuck at Windswept Fields. I wasn't taking no for an answer and killed a good amount of rebellious people… She always wanted to give them a second chance. I think she grew to hate me in the end. She never betrayed me, but after peace was achieved, she never talked to me either. She loathed my approach… and I never blamed her for it."
"I didn't realize we would meet people here… who are from our home… yet joining up with them!" Lia murmured, feeling conflicted.
"Why not? Where do you think they get new blood from? They prey on the fear of death! Souls that don't want to disappear, people who don't want to die! They draw them to their side, promising survival! They fill their minds with the grandeur of eternal life! This is how they influence Necromancers. Fill their souls with false promises! Insidious… Never feel bad for killing a Soulbound wretch! We are going to remove them from existence!"
"After they are gone, we need to destroy all of their knowledge too." Lia agreed without hesitation. "We must swear never to teach this to anyone and take it to the grave! Everything about them and their techniques has to be erased!"
"When I first heard of you, I didn't expect this. I thought you would be a strong fighter at your end! Someone who would help me draw them away… Instead, you turn out to be just like me! I can't be happier~!"
"Well… I won't lie; I would be fine with still living and fighting with my people…" Lia mumbled, looking down at her feet.
"Of course! I didn't mean it that way!" He chuckled, rubbing her head affectionately. "But this is one advantage they created for us!"
"Is it possible because of them? Why?"
"You see, No-Space or, as it was called, the Sea of Souls is part of our world. It is something as basic as Meriath itself. When the Soulbound Sect modified it and established themselves here, they disturbed it, weakened it!"
"It still pulls out souls; I experienced it myself and multiple times!"
"Yes, yes, it does. But you can withstand it, no? Stronger and capable mages who have a soul strong enough to comprehend it can exist in No-Space without issues! This is because it is weakened! In the past, if you tried it, you would have been dead without warning! It would have swept you away and put you into reincarnation before you can comprehend what happened!"
"Then their Master truly is strong… to do something like this…"
"Yes. His powers are no joke. But that is why I am also planning on smashing their place! When it happens, and No-Space returns to its balance, I really hope it can affect his weakened form! Maybe kill him or at least weaken him further so the beast outside can kill him for good!"
"Wouldn't that mean we die too?" Lia gulped as they were in the middle of it all.
"We would have a slight chance of escaping, so… I am optimistic, ahaha!"
"Good enough for me… How far are you from completing it?"
"I placed the teleport markers down already, missing the last one only! It wasn't easy; this place is a mess, and finding my way around took me centuries to nail down! So never wonder about being alone! If you lose me, you could be lost for who knows how long!"
"Ugh, Roger! I won't!" Lia saluted, twitching her mouth before asking again, "What about the last marker?"
"That must be at the impact zone. The rest are simply guides and spatial boosters. I need to get in their base and palace it down; then it will automatically activate and bring the Institute in!"
"You… you did make sure that people will be evacuated from it, yes?" She gulped, feeling her ancestor was turning out to be… problematic. Maybe this was how Aurora felt all those years ago, coming to the Institute?
"Of course! Albert would know and feel the school activating! He would issue the evacuation order and also leave! Then, Somia likewise improved the system, and many would be teleported off from the floating island before it is drawn into No-Space!"
"I am a bit sad… I wanted to be the next Headmaster of it…" She shrugged, wearing a sad smile.
"Everything can be rebuilt!" Erias exclaimed with a powerful voice, clasping her shoulder and looking into his descendant's mismatched eyes, "After the Realm is cleansed of its rotting past, we can start rebuilding and finally welcome an actual future, one of true freedom!"
"Did you find anything?" Che asked as the other two Supreme Elders, Kyaranin and Laupa, arrived at their marked meeting spot. They spent days searching the border territory without any success, getting frustrated.
"Nothing." Kyaranin sighed, shaking her head.
She was, like Che and Io, an elder from the old times, a woman who was born in the era of the Sects and belonged to the Eternals until death. That was when her soul lingered behind long enough because of an artifact to be discovered by a Soulbound Elder and brought back to life. Since that day, she was a zealous member of their sect, even rising to the Supreme Elder position before their fall. Her figure was ever-changing, never staying with a set appearance, sometimes looking like a child, a beauty, rivaling a succubus or an old, ugly witch, scaring the newcomers. Right now, she 'wore' her sensual appearance with wide hips and loose clothes around her heavy chest. Her flowing, white hair followed behind her as if it was an elegant cape.
"We should send out the newbies," Laupa suggested, somebody who came to his post after the Realm's closure. He was usually reserved, silent, and task-focused, always doing his job to the letter, following orders without deviating from them. His figure represented his stiff personality as he was stocky and straight as a rod, the epitome of inflexibility with short, well-cut hair. Even if someone would go and try to measure it, every strand of hair was at the same length, obsessively following uniformity.
"We may just do that. The area is chaotic here, and we can't penetrate too deep with our senses without it being lost." Che agreed after a brief thinking. "Group them up! As our best people are heading down, we must work with what we have! Send them in droves; where they start disappearing, that is where we will look!"
"I hope you are not setting us up to follow Loonah's path." Kyaranin jabbed at him, looking at Che with a seductively swaying hip while speaking.
"I am not Killieth nor his sister."
"Ahaha… sorry, I was just joking~! You were already an elder when I joined~! You just forgot how to smile, Che!"
"You also forgot we have no bodies, so stop trying to entice all of us at all times!" He answered with a snort while Laupa ignored them completely, wanting to go and gather the newly collected souls marked for showing enough potential to join their ranks.
"I can't help it! That is the only thing I miss! I can't wait to get back out to the Cosmos and reform my body!"
"Can we start?" Laupa raised his voice, already fed up with wasting time here.
"Yes." Che nodded, watching him immediately disappear, his gaze trying to peer into the energy clouds where his enemy was hiding. He was determined to find Erias and kill him. This time, he would not fail.
…
….
…..
"Good news!"
"Hm? What is it?" Lia asked, coming out of her meditative state and looking at Erias, who appeared from the orange clouds, looking like a golden, shining beacon, emitting raw energy from all his pores.
"They are looking for us and, just as I hoped, sent in the newbies!"
"Oh? Isn't that… bad? That they know we are here?"
"Hehehe… nope!" And with a wave of a hand, the golden light around him expanded, throwing out a body… a soul, to be exact, landing right before Lia's figure.
It was a woman bound by dark energy, making her immobile, and only her eyes were darting back and forth between the two of them. It was the first time Lia had ever seen those dreadful, green eyes so clearly… and so skittish. It was no longer an Undead that was before her; it was a person, deadly afraid of what was going to happen to her.
"I thought of starting slow and catching one that is not even an elder, probably at the inner disciple or core disciple status only. You need to get used to assimilating their souls and not letting their consciousness interfere with yours!"
Just by hearing him, the woman's core shuddered, panicking more than before, starting to plead with her eyes, trying to appeal to Lia. At first, she did feel pity, but before it could influence her, more memories flooded back to her. Images of what happened in the city. The fate of Cathalica. The faces of Quatlo and Rose. It immediately dispelled her thoughts, and she simply looked into her ancestor's blue eyes.
"How do I start?"
"First, you refine the soul!" Erias explained happily, glad to see Lia's resolve, getting increasingly proud of her, "I will do it now; try to follow it, and the next time, I will let you do it!"
Erias used his two elements of light and darkness, surrounding the soul and then breaking it down like submerging something organic into a strong acid. The woman was whining, or at least tried at first, but very soon, she no longer represented anything like a human but a soup of energy, swirling and bubbling in a cauldron formed of light and darkness. Inside, an intense fire was burning, and he continued purifying it while opening his mouth to explain the procedure.
"First, you trap it. Use your most proficient elements to devise a method to separate the soul from its surroundings. Then you begin to break it down with another element until it can no longer remain coherent and becomes pure energy!"
"I see." Lia nodded, having ideas to use her ice to form her own cauldron the next time while relying on her wind to cut the soul into tiny pieces. She even chuckled, making Erias raise an eyebrow inquisitively. "It's like cooking."
"True." He grinned, "Purifying is a must for us. For now, I am getting rid of most of her personality and memories, or you risk letting her invade yours and attempt to eat you! But we don't want everything to be gone... or how are we going to learn what is going on? Okay... this one probably knows nothing but an Elder? They are treasure troves of knowledge! So be careful!"
"I will be! They have been preying on us for so long… this feels like retribution!"
"Exactly how I felt when I did it the first time." Erias agreed vigorously as he reached into the cauldron, pulling out a giant, pill-sized clump of energy, all that remained of the now reformed and concentrated soul. "The next part will be easy! Just eat it, and your soul will start absorbing it! Try to focus and separate her experience from yours! Take it like reading a book or watching a play! Don't lose yourself in it!"
"Don't worry, I won't!" Lia snorted, taking it away without hesitation, plopping it into her mouth, sitting down, and starting to meditate.
Throughout the process, Erias never blinked, watching Lia, all his senses focused on her, ready to intervene if something went wrong. To his relief, everything was proceeding smoothly, and after only an hour, Lia reopened her eyes, smacking her lips.
"I feel… stronger!" She looked up, and Erias said nothing, only smiled, letting Lia examine her body, noticing that it was starting to look much more solid than ever before. "Elina was her name. She died in the previous Dark Ages and joined them because she hated Polymeia… I don't know who she was… but she thought she and her people abandoned them. She wanted revenge!"
"Polymeia Honu was a follower of mine, and later on, she became the first head of House Honu," Erias explained after thinking a little. "If this one thought she abandoned them, she was delusional. Polymeia was one of my disciples who many times argued with me. I dealt harshly with ours when we were stuck at Windswept Fields. I wasn't taking no for an answer and killed a good amount of rebellious people… She always wanted to give them a second chance. I think she grew to hate me in the end. She never betrayed me, but after peace was achieved, she never talked to me either. She loathed my approach… and I never blamed her for it."
"I didn't realize we would meet people here… who are from our home… yet joining up with them!" Lia murmured, feeling conflicted.
"Why not? Where do you think they get new blood from? They prey on the fear of death! Souls that don't want to disappear, people who don't want to die! They draw them to their side, promising survival! They fill their minds with the grandeur of eternal life! This is how they influence Necromancers. Fill their souls with false promises! Insidious… Never feel bad for killing a Soulbound wretch! We are going to remove them from existence!"
"After they are gone, we need to destroy all of their knowledge too." Lia agreed without hesitation. "We must swear never to teach this to anyone and take it to the grave! Everything about them and their techniques has to be erased!"
"When I first heard of you, I didn't expect this. I thought you would be a strong fighter at your end! Someone who would help me draw them away… Instead, you turn out to be just like me! I can't be happier~!"
"Well… I won't lie; I would be fine with still living and fighting with my people…" Lia mumbled, looking down at her feet.
"Of course! I didn't mean it that way!" He chuckled, rubbing her head affectionately. "But this is one advantage they created for us!"
"Is it possible because of them? Why?"
"You see, No-Space or, as it was called, the Sea of Souls is part of our world. It is something as basic as Meriath itself. When the Soulbound Sect modified it and established themselves here, they disturbed it, weakened it!"
"It still pulls out souls; I experienced it myself and multiple times!"
"Yes, yes, it does. But you can withstand it, no? Stronger and capable mages who have a soul strong enough to comprehend it can exist in No-Space without issues! This is because it is weakened! In the past, if you tried it, you would have been dead without warning! It would have swept you away and put you into reincarnation before you can comprehend what happened!"
"Then their Master truly is strong… to do something like this…"
"Yes. His powers are no joke. But that is why I am also planning on smashing their place! When it happens, and No-Space returns to its balance, I really hope it can affect his weakened form! Maybe kill him or at least weaken him further so the beast outside can kill him for good!"
"Wouldn't that mean we die too?" Lia gulped as they were in the middle of it all.
"We would have a slight chance of escaping, so… I am optimistic, ahaha!"
"Good enough for me… How far are you from completing it?"
"I placed the teleport markers down already, missing the last one only! It wasn't easy; this place is a mess, and finding my way around took me centuries to nail down! So never wonder about being alone! If you lose me, you could be lost for who knows how long!"
"Ugh, Roger! I won't!" Lia saluted, twitching her mouth before asking again, "What about the last marker?"
"That must be at the impact zone. The rest are simply guides and spatial boosters. I need to get in their base and palace it down; then it will automatically activate and bring the Institute in!"
"You… you did make sure that people will be evacuated from it, yes?" She gulped, feeling her ancestor was turning out to be… problematic. Maybe this was how Aurora felt all those years ago, coming to the Institute?
"Of course! Albert would know and feel the school activating! He would issue the evacuation order and also leave! Then, Somia likewise improved the system, and many would be teleported off from the floating island before it is drawn into No-Space!"
"I am a bit sad… I wanted to be the next Headmaster of it…" She shrugged, wearing a sad smile.
"Everything can be rebuilt!" Erias exclaimed with a powerful voice, clasping her shoulder and looking into his descendant's mismatched eyes, "After the Realm is cleansed of its rotting past, we can start rebuilding and finally welcome an actual future, one of true freedom!"
