Ave Zombatory!

Book 2

Farskyer City Saga

Kaoseto

Website:

https://kaosfantasy.tuxfamily.org/index-en.html

Work under a Creative Commons By license.

2022, Marina Fernández de Retana alias “Kaoseto”.

mail: kaoseto AT bardinflor P perso P aquilenet P fr

Redaction achieved using frundis and Vim. Books of the saga: I was revived by my best friend (nº1), Ave Zombatory! (nº2) …

1 Undead can read encyclopedias too

« Straw Head? What do you call me that late for? »

“Erma! You didn’t tell me you were going to the training too!”

« … I didn’t? »

“No, you didn’t. I’m surprised they accepted fourteen-year-old candidates.”

« You…! do it on purpose, don’t you? I told you I’m almost sixteen. Well? Did you call me just to wake me up, Straw Head? »

“I want to ask you a favor.”

« … A favor, huh? That’s to be expected. Since you didn’t know I was a Sunclaw until recently, but now that you know… What is it? A debt? A grudge? »

“…? I don’t know why you say that, but it has nothing to do with you being a Sunclaw, Erma. Oh. Did you think I would take advantage of your position?”

« N-No, well… It just makes sense. »

“Is that so? Ah, but should I, then? Listen, in the name of our friendship, I want one million Corns in my account for tomorrow morning. Just wanna eat a good breakfast.”

« What kind of breakfast costs one million Corns?! If you’re gonna keep talking nonsense, I’m gonna hang up, I’m sleepy— »

“Wait! I heard pupils chosen by the Nyomin will get on a water train tomorrow morning to go to the training grounds. I won’t be there until two days later so… please protect Ray until I come.”

« … Ray, huh? Why should I? »

“He’s my friend.”

« Mm. I keep wondering. How did you meet the Doctor Styxer’s son? »

“We were in the same class in middle school.”

« Yeah, you said that, but how is it you two became friends? He’s nothing like you, after all. He’s a nerd, right? A shy and introverted one… The other day, when we ate ramen, he couldn’t look me in the eye at all. I even thought I had something weird on my face. »

“Well… Ray’s no good at handling looking people in the eyes.”

« For sure. He probably would have ended up without any friends if you weren’t there. »

“… Well, that’s not true. Anyway, he’s my friend. I just want you to look after him so your brothers don’t bother him too much.”

« Lei and Axel, you mean? I may be able to do something with Lei, but I can’t handle Axel. That guy… he’s scary. »

“I know.”

« … How do you know? Did he talk to you? »

“I just know.”

« … Well. I’ll need some kind of reward when you get to the island. »

“Anything you want.”

« … Are you serious? Anything? »

“Anything.”

« … What if I ask you to climb the Kilimanjaro? »

“I’d go, but I’d take you with me, of course. They say living through hardships together draws people closer.”

« …! You’re hopeless. What if I were to ask you to be my slave for two months? »

“Your slave?! … Oh, well, fine, I could try.”

« Holy Witches, Straw Head, to what lengths are you ready to go to protect your friend? »

“…”

« Humph. Okay then, I’ll keep an eye on him, since you like him so much. »

“Don’t tell me you’re jealous?”

« Hwara-hwara! … Can I punch you when I see you? »

“Heh… How rare of you to ask for permission. Anyway, thank you, Erma. I owe you one. Sorry for waking you up.”

« Nah, it’s okay. Oh, about that examination for the Independent trainees… It’s tomorrow, right? »

“Ah… Yes. Tomorrow morning.”

« … Heh, heh, heh. »

“What is it?”

« You’re feeling nervous, don’t you? »

“Ah, d-do I? Nah, really, it’s not like I’m always nervous before an exam or anything. I’ve been training my telekinetic powers, you know, and I’ve read an encyclopedia. I’m qu-quite confident.”

« … Glad to hear that. Wait, you’ve read an encyclopedia?! »

“Yep. Not had the time to finish it yet, but I’ve learned some incredible things, like, did you know people before the Big Blend had other means of communication, like ‘TVs’ and ‘man-made satellites’?”

« Eeeh? Satellite existence is only a theory, though. »

“What? Is that so?”

« Yeah. Some began spreading lies about what mankind was like before the Big Blend, and nowadays, we can’t take anything for granted. History is as tricky as mind-opening, that’s what my brother Daniel says. He’s a historian. »

“Eeeh? I didn’t know. So cool.”

« So, Straw Head, you learn about ancient theories and you think that will help you pass the test? »

“Sorry—”

« Don’t apologize to me, hwara-hwara-hwara! You better pass. The training will be funnier if you come. »

Something leaped inside me. That meant she would miss me if I didn’t, right? I grinned.

“Then I’ll do my best.”

« That’s the spirit. You can do it. »

“I can! Of course I can! Now I’m fired up.”

« Hwara-hwara, well, but you better go to sleep now, Straw Head, it’s late. I wish you good luck~ »

“Thanks. Sweet dreams, Lil Witch.”

She hung up.

Standing in the park in front of Ray’s house, I gazed at the stars.

“Sleep, you say. How can I sleep, oh muse,” I murmured, “after you inspired me so much?”

I smiled, laughing at my own dramatic words. The main problem there wasn’t Linah. Undead people just couldn’t sleep.

2 Unlucky with cats, lucky in life?

The best dice are the round ones; our fate will keep rolling without ever stopping.

* * *

When Ray’s alarm clock sounded at half-past seven, I was already at the entrance, checking my ID card and the exam notification I had received a few days ago. According to that document, the examination would take place at a gymnasium in the Nyomin College.

I heard footsteps and raised my eyes to Ray going down the stairs. Rainbows was following him like his shadow, and she gave me that look of hers that said ‘look, I spent the whole night with the master, but you didn’t, muahahameow’. I smirked at her, then smiled.

“Morning, Ray! I’ve left your breakfast ready, and your bento for the train.”

“Mornin’, Armen… You don’t have to cook for me all the time, you know, I was getting by just fine when I was living alone.”

“Just stop complaining and say ‘thanks’.”

“Thanks.” Ray rubbed his eyes, brightening up. “Where are you going?”

“Where, you ask? The examination starts at nine o’clock, and candidates have to arrive half an hour earlier.”

“Oh. Right.”

“… How about you go back to sleep and stop pretending you’re awake, Ray?”

“Eh? I am awake… Right! The examination! It’s today!”

“Took you long enough. Don’t forget you have to get on a water train at eleven o’clock. The other candidates chosen by the Nyomin will laugh at you if you miss it.”

“I might do that as well.”

“Don’t. You already packed everything you needed. Don’t forget to put Rainbows in your bag.”

“I’m still unsure of taking her to the training. But putting her to sleep can be dangerous too…”

That was something I had just recently known: apparently, a skilled necromancer would be able to put his familiars to sleep so their necro-bond wouldn’t die away too fast while he was away, but if the spell wasn’t correctly cast, they could still die.

Ray grimaced.

“We don’t even know where we’re going.”

“To Phoenix Island.”

“What?”

“We’re going to Phoenix Island. I read it on a confidential document a beautiful mermaid dropped when I was in Akiba. Ah, didn’t I tell you?”

“You didn’t!”

“Sorry, I forgot.”

“I knew it. Phoenix Island. My dad told me you must pass the examination because there was no other way to get you to the training with me. Now I get why he said that! But Armen, don’t you go telling anyone our destination.”

“Is it some kind of secret?”

“Well… I heard that the Nyomin was hiding information to protect the candidates from unwanted attacks, but to tell you the truth, I think they’re not protecting all the candidates but one in particular.”

“Oh? Some big-shot’s kid?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, you should go. We’ll meet at Phoenix Island in three days.”

“Ah… Yeah. Well then…” I patted Rainbows’s head, and the cat suddenly bit my hand.

“Rainbows, don’t bite!” Ray cried out, shocked.

Rainbows immediately stopped. She was pouting. Did she understand we wouldn’t see each other for a while? Was she telling me not to go? Or was I reading too much into it?

“Heh… It’s the first time I see her bite someone,” I noticed as I slipped my gloves on, one from Zeeta, one from Ray. “Could it be she remembers her past life?”

“Mm-mm.” Ray shook his head. “Since I couldn’t save her inner soul, I guess she just remembers some of her cat instincts. Well, there’s a saying I heard in Europe: lucky with cats, unlucky in life. So if we turn things around…”

He fell silent, maybe thinking that there was no way I could be lucky in life since I was dead… I laughed and teasingly nudged Ray’s head.

“Don’t let the Sunclaw twins taunt you.”

“I won’t,” Ray grumbled. I smiled as I recalled my phone conversation with Linah last night. He added: “I’m more worried about you, you know. Remember not to overeat.”

As far as I knew, overeating could turn me into a Fury, and if that happened, I wouldn’t be able to stop eating lifeforce until my core fried. I gave a nod.

“You know? I’d feel better if you made it a real order.”

“I won’t.”

Heh… Ray was as stubborn as usual. He would always avoid ordering me anything on purpose…

“But you just ordered Rainbows not to bite.”

“A cat is a cat. You’re a human. You’ve got brains to understand me, don’t you?”

“I guess.”

Ray rolled his eyes.

“If you can’t pass, don’t worry, I’ll be happy to resign and tell my mom I don’t like the training. So don’t push yourself too hard.”

“You just made it an order!” I protested under my breath.

“…! Oh, sorry,” he said as he erased the order. “Guess I thought about it too hard.”

Just how much did he want me to fail the examination? Geez…

“I’m off then. Take care!” I said as I opened the door.

I went to the subway station, got on a train crammed with people, then headed to Nyomin University.

It was a beautiful day, though quite cold according to the forecast—minus three degrees Celsius. Storms may be to come in the afternoon…

As I was reading the weather forecast on my phone, it buzzed.

‘Erma, 8:04: Morning, Armen! Break a leg!!!’

‘Armen, 8:04: Thx, I’ll do my best 😄 🎔’

I smiled, then switched my cellphone off as I walked through the outer gates of the University. Though it was my big sis’ workplace, I had never been there. It was huge. Green spaces with tall trees, large buildings, and bike parking stations all over the place… I glanced at my notification. I was supposed to go to the University’s gym called ‘Glenwood Gymnasium’, but I had no idea where it was. I was about to switch my cell on again to check the place when I heard voices behind me.

“It’s this way, I played a volleyball match last year at the gym. Don’t worry, we’ll make it in time.”

“O-Okay…”

The one answering was a girl with short and silver hair wearing a yellow schoolbag with a cute puppy pendant; the former was a hooded and masked guy who passed by my side without even glancing at me as he added in a loud voice:

“So, if you came for the examination for the EPHT, you must have some kind of power, right?”

I raised an eyebrow as a streak of wasted lifeforce reached me. The guy’s voice had given me suspicions, but now I was sure. Zeeta had told me he had work to do on this day… What was he doing here? Also, what was that about a volleyball match? He had never played volleyball in a team, much less competed in a gymnasium of the Nyomin District. Was he pretending to be someone else?

Anyway, he was clearly leading the way after seeing me wandering between buildings as a lost child. As expected from my stalker.

“Ah, yes,” the girl said, a bit shy. “I’ve been… very lucky since I was born.”

“Eeeh? What a cool power.” Zeeta was obviously not listening to her.

“Please wait!” I said suddenly. “You guys are going to the examination, right? I’m a candidate too. Can I join you?”

Zeeta snorted as he turned around.

“What? Did you get lost too? Excuse me, but I only help cute girls.”

Oh? So arrogant! Did he think I hadn’t recognized him? Well then… I played along.

“Ah, sorry for disturbing your flirting session, but can’t you see? I’m a cute girl too.” I fluttered my eyelashes at him, then turned smilingly to the ‘lucky’ silver-haired girl. “My name is Armenilda Moon.”

“Oh… I’m Nina Clover.”

“Nice to meet you, Nina. Hope we can get along.”

“N-Nice to meet you, Armenilda.” She said it so earnestly… Was she seriously thinking my name was Armenilda?

“I’m…” Zeeta hesitated, then cleared his throat. “I’m Leonardo Sakamoto.”

“…” Could I laugh at him? No, but he surely chose that name thinking it sounded cool. My smile broadened, but I managed to control myself. “Nice to meet you, Leon.”

“… Yeah.”

The three of us passed silently under an arc between two buildings, then walked down a long avenue.

“Th-the gym is that building over there,” Zeeta said. He was nervous.

“Oh, it’s huge. I overheard you played volleyball in there. Are you a pro?”

I couldn’t resist the temptation to put him in a pinch. As Nina and I were waiting for his answer, Zeeta shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Haha, that’s too embarrassing for me to say.”

“I understand,” I smiled. “What’s that hood and mask about, by the way?”

“That… It’s related to my power. You don’t need to know.”

“I understand! It looks cool on you.”

We were halfway to the gym when, suddenly, Nina stopped muttering:

“Oh. My shoelace’s come undone.”

As she squatted to make the knot, we waited for her and… soon realized she was taking a long time making the knot. I looked at her, puzzled.

“Nina? Do you perhaps not know how to tie a bow knot?”

The girl blinked, raised her eyes, then slightly shook her head.

“Oh, no, it’s not that.”

She finally tied the knot and stood up, her eyes fixed on a small hole on the avenue, two meters in front of us. She pointed at it.

“Something is wrong with that hole.”

Huh? I crouched alongside Zeeta to inspect it, but it was just a normal irregularity on the avenue, about three centimeters deep. It seemed that Nina Clover was a singular girl. I smiled at her.

“I know what you mean. Someone could trip on it, right. Let’s get around the crevasse.”

“Mm!” she nodded.

“I don’t know what’s going on but I’ll be passing over that ‘crevasse’,” Zeeta stated.

“No, don’t, Leonardo!” Nina said. I didn’t really know either what was going on but I echoed:

“Don’t, Leonardo!”

“Shut up, Armenilda, I’m a volleyball player, I can do that much-aaaaah!” he snorted as he stumbled on the hole. Surprised, I grabbed his left arm as Nina took his right arm.

“I told you,” she said. “There was a high probability you would trip. Fate is contagious.”

“Don’t give me that crap. What’s contagious?”

He grumbled as he freed himself and kept walking. I frowned. He had been unnecessarily rude to Nina. Not only that, he had drawn away from me as if we were strangers. Could it be that I was wrong and that he wasn’t Zeeta after all? His voice was muffled by the mask… Could it be that Leonardo Sakamoto’s lifeforce tasted coincidentally the same as Zeeta’s?

Aaah… Now I’m starting to doubt.

Come to think of it, his gait wasn’t the same as Zeeta’s. Had I just jumped to conclusions?

As we kept on, I realized Nina was a slow walker. Were we going to make it to the gym before half-past eight? Zeeta-Leon had left us behind.

“So… Nina, which high school are you studying at?”

“Falcon High.”

“Falcon High?”

“Ah… Yes. I’m not from Farskyer City. I’m from the countryside.”

“Oh, I see!”

“I traveled by train for ten hours. Luckily, nothing was wrong with that train, so I didn’t miss it.”

“That’s great.”

“Yes.”

Yet Nina’s logic was somewhat odd.

When we arrived at the gymnasium, I saw a lot of people gathered before the main entrance. Most of them were my age or older, but I saw younger candidates as well. They were all waiting for the doors to be opened. Thanks to Nina’s slow pacing, I didn’t have to wait too much: soon, a Nyomin employee let the candidates in, checking both our ID cards and our exam notifications.

I didn’t really know what to expect, but when I entered the gym and saw numerous rows of tables with an electronic device on each, I lost confidence. I knew the first exam would test our knowledge, but I had hoped they would do that in a funnier way…

The tables were assigned alphabetically by given name. I said:

“The ‘N’ rows are over there. Good luck, Nina.”

“Mm. Good luck to you. You need it more than I do.”

What was that supposed to mean? As I walked between two rows searching for ‘Armen Moon’, I was impressed by the number of candidates. They were hundreds of them in the gym, either chatting between them, sitting still, nervously fidgeting, or searching for their seats.

I finally found mine and sat down when the girl sitting behind me said:

“Well, well, now I understand why you were skipping school.”

I just glanced at her, thinking she was talking to someone else, but then I saw her long, black hair, her doll face, and her purple eyes, and I half stood up in astonishment.

“Arkifa?!”

As if it was too hard to believe, I took a look at the label on her table. ‘Arkifa Cythraul’. It was really her.

She laughed quietly.

“My presence here is not as surprising as yours, Armen. Taking an exam of your own initiative… it’s not like you.”

“Heh… I was thinking a test made for future Heroes would be fairer than school tests, but seeing how they set it all up, I may have got it all wrong,” I admitted, as I turned and sat astride on my chair, leaning my elbows on its back. “Didn’t think I would see you here, though. Since when do you want to work for the Nyomin?”

“Ah…” Her eyes darkened a bit. “Actually, I’ve been wanting to become an Explorer since long ago.”

“An explorer?”

Arkifa rolled her eyes.

“The Exploration Branch is one of the main branches of the World Hero Organization. The Explorers work on understanding the world flows of energy, they locate unstable areas susceptible to teleport, they draw maps, and give them to the Engineer Branch, who then are for example able to build the water trains on the water flows, maintain the communication infrastructures, and so on… Armen Moon, I’m quite surprised you want to become a Hero without knowing anything about the WHO.”

“Who’s who?”

She sighed.

“I mean the World Hero Organization.”

“Oh. Right. Well,” I grinned, “I don’t know exactly why I am here, but I’m gonna do my best.”

Arkifa’s lips curved.

“I know.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No, I’m not. I know you’re always doing your best. That’s something I like in people. I didn’t ask you out in middle school for no reason.”

I paused for a moment in front of her confession, then smiled.

“And I didn’t ask you out last year for no reason. But Ashooka is a better choice than I am, isn’t he?”

“Mm,” she said thoughtfully. “My boyfriend is about as funny as you, but he’s smarter than you, more level-headed, more mature, and sometimes he’s got a sense of humor that surpasses yours.”

“No way, a sense of humor that surpasses mine?”

“Like, telling jokes no one understands.”

“Oh, you mean that. But that happens to me as well.”

“Also, he can be awfully clumsy. That’s his cute side.”

“I can be clumsy too!”

“You think? But no one notice when you’re being clumsy because you make it seems as if you wanted the things to go that way, just like a cat would.”

“… So, it’s like in the old tale of the zodiac animals. In the end, the cat is cast away.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

I laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’m not jealous anymore. I’m fine with being your classmate.”

Arkifa straightened up a little.

“Classmate? I thought we were friends.”

She sounded a bit hurt. That moved me. I smiled from ear to ear.

“Yeah.”

At that moment, as a group of candidates was walking by our row, a crimson-haired guy in a green school uniform stepped aside to let them pass, saying politely:

“Go ahead, go ahead.”

He had stopped right by Arkifa’s seat, and with the excuse of letting the other candidates pass, he pressed his body against hers and whispered a shameless “excuse me” accompanied with a wink—What a cheek! I stood up, throwing a direct punch at his face… Suddenly a hand grabbed my wrist and diverted the blow. It was Arkifa’s.

“Don’t.”

Her voice was grating with anger. Under the bastard’s shameless smile, Arkifa let go of my hand… then smacked the pervert. The slapping sound was covered by the ruckus, but I could hear it well from where I was. It left a red mark on his cheek.

“Get lost.”

Arkifa’s expression was scary, but the crimson guy didn’t seem to be much impressed.

“I like wildcats the most,” he said, smirking. I would have really punched him if he hadn’t turned away at that moment and sauntered back to his seat, two rows away.

“That bastard…”

“Don’t let it distract you,” Arkifa said brusquely, joining her hands on her table. “The people in charge of the examination are about to speak.”

She was right. A Nyomin employee wearing the Nyomin Crown on his uniform stepped on the platform at the end of the gym and tested his micro. The room fell silent.

“Listen, everyone! All of you have come today in hopes of attending the first special training the Nyomin Union has been working on during this past year in collaboration with the Phoenix Academy and the North-Wing’s ministry of education. At the Independent Hero Association’s request, the Nyomin has organized an extra examination for those who didn’t have the chance to be admitted through our normal admission system. That is why all of you gathered here today. The first test will be assessing your knowledge. The practical test, in the afternoon, will be supervised by both the Nyomin and the IHA. Here are the three judges from the IHA. Iker the Mantis,” a long-faced old man waved a hand from the platform, “Gilda the Bloody Cook,” an eye-glassed, short-haired woman gave a curt nod, “and Tim the Clockwiser.”

A guy wearing a stylish, multicolor suit raised an open hand towards us.

“The judge from the Nyomin is not here at the moment, but will arrive in the afternoon,” the spokesperson said. “Now then, let me explain the first test. Each table is equipped with a touch screen and an electronic pen. Questions will appear on the screen, and you’ll have to check the right answer using the pen. Sometimes there can be several answers…”

I took off my red knit cap in discouragement. A quiz. I was so screwed up…

“Each question has a countdown. Once time’s up, it will automatically pass to the next question. There are several thousand questions in total, so keep in mind you won’t be able to finish. You can pass to the next question without answering, so you won’t get negative points. The rules for the exam are simple: it is forbidden to copy answers, use your power, leave your seat, or speak. All the phones must be turned off. We’ll be able to know if someone is cheating using electronic devices, so don’t do anything stupid. The exam, as you know, lasts two hours. Normally, those who have chosen the Sarwish Common Language should see the questions appear in Sarwish. If there is any technical issue, please notify me as soon as possible by raising your hand. If there are other questions, please ask them before the exam. That’s all. The Nyomin and the Independent Hero Association wish you good luck with this examination.”

Few people raised a hand, among them a certain Andrea sitting just in front of me, a girl in a wetsuit wearing green dreadlocks, who asked how she was supposed not to use her power since it was a passive power.

“Of course, in that case, it’s not forbidden,” the spokesperson answered.

“Okay.”

I looked at her curiously as I wondered what kind of power hers was, then scanned the large gym. I spotted Zeeta-Leon sitting in a middle row. So, in the end, his name was really Leon and not Zeeta… unless Zeeta was participating under a false name, but then he would have needed a false ID card. Could it be that he was indeed working for the Beholder and not only stalking me? That, if it was actually him…

A few rows away from Zeeta, Nina Clover was chewing something like a chocolate bar. Even when eating, she was slow-paced. She seemed overly relaxed, unlike most of the candidates, who kept glancing between the Nyomin employees, the big clock on the wall, and the screen on their tables…

Then, finally, we all heard an electronic bell strike. It was time.

I took my pen and fixed the question that had just popped up on my screen.

«Do you think you can be a Hero? A) Yes; B) No; C) I don’t know; E) Such a question is not fit to be in a test.»

I widened my eyes as the room was filled with snorts of disbelief. The hell was with that first question?

Then, for the first time in years, I smiled during a test. I felt suddenly calm. If it was like that, I could do it. I checked C.

The next questions were all asking about my likes or dislikes or putting me in a situation where I had to make a decision such as, “should I run after the thief or call the police?”, and things like that. I was starting to think optimistically that the whole test was about knowing ourselves better, when the nature of the questions brusquely changed as I reached the question eighty-one: «Was the Nyomin founded by: A) the World Government; B) the Hunter Association; C) the Independent Ministry of Shanghai?» Wasn’t it the World Government? I had always thought so, but… maybe it was a trap?

I spent three minutes on the question, then the screen displayed the next one without letting me answer anything. «How many Great Crystals exist on Earth? (Above sea level) A) 82; B) 85; C) 92; D) 95.» I didn’t know that either…

After spending half an hour struggling with every question, I realized my mind had gone blank the same way it did when I was passing school exams. And it dawned on me: at this rate, there was no way I could pass the test.

Dammit. I hit the screen with the pen as I closed my eyes, trying to calm down.

I had the impression that I should have known some of the answers, that I had learned things like that in middle school, but my mind just couldn’t grab the information. Was it because I was bad at studying and had a bad memory? It couldn’t possibly be related to my core memory, right? Ray had saved my inner soul, so I had kept my identity and my memories, but… could it be that I had forgotten things from middle school I didn’t really care about? The possibility was disturbing.

Anyway, what should I do? If I couldn’t do it right, should I just keep checking A’s and hope I would do better for the practical test? But if I couldn’t make it, that would be bad. I didn’t want to be put ‘out of order’ by the Lord for two entire months, but I didn’t want Ray to give up on the training for me either. He had told me not to push myself too hard, but did he honestly wish not to go to that training? I could understand he didn’t want to become a Hero, but he did want to learn how to control his power, didn’t he? Besides, he wouldn’t like it if he had to break the promise he had made to his mom, and… though he didn’t say it, he probably wanted to see her, right?

After some time, I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. Ten o’clock. One hour had already passed. Ray should be on his way to the water station in the Financial District. And I was stuck here, doing nothing while the other candidates were swiftly answering the questions…

Damn it all. Since when did I have the right to give up so easily?

I looked down to my screen, determined to do my best, only to notice it had gone crazy: the questions were going by, too fast to even lay eyes on them. Oh no, my pen… I had kept stabbing the screen with it, inadvertently pressing the ‘pass’ button. I put it away, but the questions kept passing before my eyes.

Aw, aw, aw, what had I done? Using the pen on the screen was no use. I was going to raise a hand to notify the problem when a sudden loud beep filled the gym. My neighbors’ screens went red while mine was lit with a strong, green light. A smiley appeared with a message:

«Congratulations, you have finished the test!»

All eyes were riveted on me.

3 A genius

Iker the Mantis stopped beside me, took a look at my screen, frowned, then said:

“Please follow me, young sir.”

I blinked. He was calling me “young sir”? I exchanged a puzzled look with Arkifa, then stood up, grabbed my knit cap, and followed the old man in silence. In front of their red screens, my fellow candidates were glaring at me as if I had murdered someone. Was I guilty of something?

The old Independent Hero led me outside, through a backdoor, then turned to me.

“Can you explain to me what happened?”

“That’s…” Shouldn’t I be the one asking that? I rubbed my neck, smiling. “It seemed that there weren’t enough questions for me.”

The old man’s thick, gray brows furrowed. Oddly enough, they reminded me of my grandpa. I bowed my head, confessing:

“I don’t know what happened, sir. I pressed ‘pass’ with my pen, and the program went crazy, passing the questions at full speed. There was nothing I could do, and when I was going to raise my hand to notify the problem, it just displayed that congratulations message.” I looked at him, worried.

“… So it was a bug from the program, you say.”

“I think so. I didn’t do anything weird, I swear.” Apart from pressing the ‘pass’ button for about ten minutes or so, but still, there was a bug anyway.

“Iker!” We turned to see a white-haired merfolk in a bikini running at us. I widened my eyes. That was the A-rank Independent Hero I had seen in Akiba Lake last month. If I recalled correctly, her name was… Cynsea the Hypnotist. She stopped, gasping for breath. “Iker, I heard there’s a hacker trying to disturb the test. Where is he?”

There was a hacker? Was he among the candidates? Iker pointed at me with his thumb.

“It’s him.”

“Eeeh?” I said, shocked. “Hey, I’m no hacker. I don’t know a thing about computers. I said it’s a bug—”

“You! You’re the cute blondie from Idol’s Lake!” Cynsea was suddenly cheerful. “So you came! How are you doing?”

“Aha… I’m fine, thank you. So you remember me.”

“Of course! Glad to see that you remember me too.”

“There’s no way I could forget you. You’re the only Hero in bikini I know. Aren’t you cold?”

The merfolk laughed.

“A bit, I’d say. Today’s really cold. But I brought my coat, here…”

It wasn’t a coat, it was a light blouse. Iker cleared his throat.

“Excuse me, Cynsea, but we’ve got work to do. Please take Armoon Men to the office.”

He totally mangled my name. Cynsea nodded.

“Okay, I’ll do that. But what do I do with him?”

“Make him fill in a form about what happened. And don’t treat him so familiarly. What happened is no trivial thing: all the candidates are waiting for the technicians to solve the problem.”

“All the screens were hacked?” Cynsea snorted in disbelief.

“Guys!” Tim the Clockwiser had left the gym and was walking towards us. “We have a big problem. It seems that the program the Nyomin made for us is a fork from a software initially made for racing quizzes. That is, in those racing quizzes, each answer must be correct, and the first competitor to finish causes the others’ screens to block. In the new software, the first feature was removed, but since no one would have normally been able to answer all the questions in our test, they forgot to remove the second feature. So now, everything’s blocked; we can reset the test but not save everyone’s status. Plus, there is a bug with the ‘pass’ button, apparently, but the technicians don’t know much about it yet. I heard they contracted out the development of the software to a private company.”

“Those idiots,” Iker hissed.

“Well, we’re at fault too, for not testing it enough,” Cynsea pointed out.

“Such a blunder for something so important,” the old man groaned. “If only they had let us more time, we would have used the traditional method with sheets and normal pens… What a disaster!”

“What should we say to the candidates?” Cynsea asked worriedly.

Tim shook his head.

“There is no way we can cover it up, can we?”

There was a silence. The three Independent Heroes were deeply upset. I felt out of place. I put my red knit cap on and forced a smile.

“Excuse me, but… how about you let everyone pass?”

The old man looked at me as if I was stupid. Cynsea sighed.

“I wish we could. But the Nyomin told us there can’t be more than one hundred twenty candidates in the second test.”

So few… I swallowed.

“But I have to pass that test,” I said. “I know it’s no use crying but… I really want to go to that training.”

“Every candidate does,” Tim the Clockwiser replied.

Iker the Mantis stated:

“All we can do is choose the candidates based on the test until the screens were blocked. Tim, everything should have been recorded. Take the results to the gym as soon as possible. Cynsea, take that boy to the office. I’ll try to buy time and calm the candidates.”

Bzz, bzz. Bzz, bzz. As Tim was making a run for it and Cynsea and I were heading to a facility next to the gym, three cellphones buzzed. The three Independent Heroes stopped, looked at their phones, then turned to each other at the same time and gathered again. What…?

“That Bloody Cook,” Tim breathed out. “What is she thinking?”

Was he talking about the other Independent judge, Gilda the Bloody Cook? Cynsea grimaced.

“We can’t do that, Iker. They’ll hate him.”

Iker’s eyes closed for a moment then looked at me intently.

“Boy. What’s your background?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Ah, if it’s about that, I have it here,” Cynsea said, searching in her phone. “Rita passed me all the info about the candidates. There he is: Armen Moon, born in Keelung Lighthouse, east of Taipei, Bird Island, on October 21, year 2005. His parents are lighthouse keepers. He has an elder sister that works in the Nyomin Research. He’s studying at Harvard High, no criminal record apart from an interrogation by the police last summer for the Old Docks shopping center incident and a recent minor infraction at school. Also, he is… er… not a very good student,” she concluded grimacing at her phone.

I was aghast. Did they do such a thorough searching for every candidate? I felt stripped of my privacy.

“Very well,” Iker the Mantis sighed. “Then, Armen Moon, you said you wanted to pass that test. Well, you passed.”

I stared at him. What?

“You passed,” he repeated, blushing. “You won the race. Actually, there was no bug.”

There was a silence.

“Am I supposed to buy that?”

“Ehehem,” Cynsea chimed in. “Iker is shamelessly asking you if you could be so kind as to not talk about this incident to anyone. As long as you don’t talk, we’ll let you pass.”

I couldn’t believe it. Were they bribing me? The Independent Heroes were bribing me?! And they were bribing an undead at that… But they were saying I would pass. I smiled.

“Then it’s okay. There was no bug. I’m just fast at clicking the ‘pass’ button.”

“Don’t say that. If you passed the test, it means that you got a lot of answers right,” Cynsea said.

“So, hehe… I’m a super-fast genius?”

“S-Something like that. But that means some candidates will blame you for messing with an exam that was really important for them. They will hate you for that. Are you still willing to pass?”

I frowned. Maybe some people wouldn’t be able to pass because of me… or, rather, because of that bug that screwed up the exam. But then again, there would only be one hundred twenty candidates that would be allowed to take the second test so…

“I’m willing,” I said. “I don’t mind if they hate me, since I did nothing wrong. But, now that we’re at it, may I ask for a favor? I know some of the candidates, and I’d want you to let them pass. There are only two of them. Well, maybe three. All of them very capable—”

“Don’t get full of yourself,” the old Iker cut me off.

What… My smile died on my lips as I frowned. Did I overstep my limits? The three of them glanced at each other. Then, Cynsea sighed.

“I’ll write down the names. If their scores are not too bad, we can take them in.”

“That’s going too far,” Iker growled. But he didn’t protest further.

Tim the Clockwiser stared at me.

“Boy, if you ever say anything about this,” his eyes gleamed, “you’ll regret it.”

I grinned.

“I’ll be as silent as a dead man, sir.”

And so the first test came to an end. When I returned to the gym, the other candidates were taking another test, most likely just to buy time for the Nyomin employees and the Independent Heroes to handle the situation. I only shrugged at Arkifa’s interrogative expression then just waited in my seat until, suddenly, the screen of a candidate went green and every other screen blocked… Geez. Were they doing a racing quiz to calm suspicions? Something like, ‘look, what happened was normal, it’s just that we didn’t expect to have a genius capable of answering so many questions in two hours’. Anyway, at noon, we got our results.

Out of one hundred twenty eligible candidates, I was made the top candidate.

The repeating guy who couldn’t get even a single grade above average at school became a genius.

Everyone was amazed, but I was probably the most amazed of all. Why was the Independent Hero Association so eager to cover for their blunder?

Holy Gods. I would have run away from there if Ray wasn’t waiting for me on Phoenix Island.

4 My first kiss

As I walked out of the gym under dozens, no, maybe hundreds of gazes, I took a deep breath and ate those people’s wasted lifeforce. It calmed me down.

Outside, the sun was shining.

“Armen!”

Arkifa waved at me. Ashooka was with her, as well as…

“Sis?” I snorted as I joined them.

Azritz was wearing a white lab coat. She cried out:

“Armen, is it true that you got first place?!”

“W-Well, yeah…” I was so embarrassed that I turned to Ashooka to greet him first. We bumped our fists twice, below, above, then hooked our little fingers, then made a direct bro fist. That was the dap greeting I had worked so hard to obtain from that nerd. “Ashooka, you’re getting better. We should turn up the difficulty.”

“No, thanks, Armen. It’s already embarrassing enough.”

Suddenly, Azritz grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Armen! Are you really you?”

“Eeh… I think so?”

“How many steps has our lighthouse?”

“One hundred eighty-four.”

“It’s one hundred eighty-five!”

“That’s because, as usual, you’re counting the last step twice.”

“Holy Gods, it’s really you! My lil bro really made it to the first place!”

“Sorry for giving you a shock, sis. Also, sorry, Arkifa. I didn’t know the screens would block if I won.”

“Oh… Well,” Arkifa slightly shook her head, “nobody knew, right?”

So true. Even the jury didn’t know. She hesitated, as if about to ask something, but then she just added:

“Well, I passed the test anyway and placed nine, so everything went well. We’ll see how it’ll go for the practical test. We were told to gather in two hours so… we’d better hurry and eat lunch. By the way, Ashooka brought me a bento. He made it himself!”

“Eeh. Skipping school to eat lunch with your girlfriend? How cute, Ashooka,” I teased him. Oh, but now that I thought about it, it was Wednesday, and we just had Physical Education in the morning, the sole subject Ashooka would gladly skip. I squinted my eyes. “Are you really that good at cooking?”

My classmate readjusted his eyeglasses with a smirk.

“Heh. Arkifa eats everything I cook.”

“That only means she’s a glutton.”

“Ha! You would too if you saw his bento,” Arkifa replied. “Tabbouleh, ramen, sushi, tiramisu, okroshka, polenta, broccoli slaw—”

“Wow, he feeds you even with broccolis?”

“Yeah… Wait, don’t say it as if I’m a pet he has to feed!”

“Argh… Maybe I should have eaten more of your cuisine, Ashooka, instead of those demon-fish brains my sis fed me with.”

“What did you say?!” Azritz threw an arm over my neck, making me bow as I laughed. “It’s because you ate those demon-fishes that you were able to pass this exam, you don’t know anything! Come here and stop bullying your friends!”

As I walked away with my big sis, I waved at Ashooka and Arkifa.

“Enjoy your meal!”

Azritz wanted to take me to her new lab. She kept saying how surprised she was to see me passing a test meant for people who were intending to become elite heroes. We were entering a building quite far from the gymnasium when she said after a silence:

“Well, I must confess, at first, when you told me you were going to that exam, I didn’t think you were serious about it. Now I realize I was wrong. I don’t know if I have to be proud of you, or worried, or ashamed of not believing enough in my little brother.”

I looked at her expression, not knowing what to say. She stopped before a door. You already worried too much about me, sis…

“You…”

Azritz was about to open the door, but when I spoke, she paused and turned to me interrogatively. I couldn’t tell her she shouldn’t be proud of me because the only thing I did was activate a bug. I shook my head.

“Don’t be ashamed, or I should be too. I… also didn’t think I would pass. Honestly. It was just a fluke.”

“Just a fluke you got first place? Don’t be modest, Armen. You worked hard.” Azritz grinned. “So let me brag a bit in front of my colleagues! Hey, guys, my lil bro is a genius!”

I tried to stop her, but it was too late: as she was opening the door, crying out the good news, I saw her team having lunch during their break. They were all impressed. Hira hugged me as if I had graduated from high school; Ashael, that blond leader of theirs, welcomed me into the lab as if he was some sort of godfather; the rest of them congratulated me, remembering me from New Year’s Eve. One of them said: “As to be expected of Azritz’s brother!” The hell. I was moved by their reaction, really, but… I was also starting to think that being successful was a real pain.

All the more so since it wasn’t well-deserved.

* * *

The practical test wouldn’t take place at Nyomin University. I found out about that when I arrived at the meeting point two hours later and saw the three buses parked on the avenue.

The candidates were already getting on. The ones still outside turned their faces to me as I approached. Some of them showed simple curiosity, others were scornful or defiant, but one of them was clearly full of admiration. That last one was from a boy who was holding in his hand a white full-face helmet with a black visor. He left the line he was in and came up to me. He was about fourteen years old, had black bowl-cut hair, and kept staring at me with a cheerful expression. I looked back at him, a bit puzzled.

“Yo. Do you need something from me?”

The boy’s eyes slowly widened, he shook his head, frowned at me with frustration as if he was trying to say something and couldn’t say it, then he clicked his tongue, put his helmet on, and went back to the line.

Well… since Heroes were said to be a bunch of weirdos, that boy had a high likelihood to become one someday, right?

An employee assigned me to the bus with the letter C, which was the farthest one. As I headed towards it, I wondered if Arkifa had been assigned to the same bus. If not, would that mean we would be separated for the test?

The girl in a wetsuit with green dreadlocks was getting on my bus. Andrea, was it? I was going to get on as well when someone took hold of my hoodie. I turned.

“Ashooka?”

He had run to me, and he was gasping for breath, his long black hair a bit disheveled. It was rare for him to run, since he suffered from severe asthma. I worried.

“Hey, Ashooka, breathe normally. What’s up? What’s the matter?”

He started wheezing, struggling for breath. Crap. He took out his asthma inhaler from his pocket, but he dropped it. I stopped it with my telekinesis before it touched the ground, grabbed it, and put it in his mouth, pressing the actuator. Ashooka took the device from me, and as his breathing began to calm down, he muttered:

“Sorry, I ran too fast.”

“Yeah… Don’t scare me like that. You could have just called out my name.”

Though Ashooka wouldn’t have dared yell in a place full of people. Sometimes, he was a bit shy like Ray. Both of them were smart, after all. Maybe it was related? Or maybe not.

“Arkifa,” he explained, “she’s on a different bus. I have a bad feeling about this.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Well… But we may be heading to the same place, so don’t worry, man, I’ll look after her for you.”

“… Thanks. But I still have a bad feeling about this test. They’re probably going to take you guys out of Farskyer City. I was told you won’t come back until the day after tomorrow. Well, it’s a test to attend an exceptional training meant for the future elite Heroes, after all. I know Arkifa is dead set on becoming an Explorer, and I don’t want to become a hindrance, but if it’s too risky…”

He was truly worried. That showed how much he cared for her. I put a hand on my chest.

“Don’t you believe in me? I said I’ll protect Arkifa. She will be all right. So take care of yourself too, and she will come back to you safely. Though I can’t promise she won’t fall for me again during the test.”

Ashooka had blushed a bit, but then he rolled his eyes on hearing my last sentence.

“There’s no way that could ever happen. Also… it’s not like I’m too much worried. She said she’s strong, and I believe her—”

“Oi, oi, your whining is boring me to death,” a voice suddenly said behind us. “Stop blocking the way, the blond superstar.”

Crimson hair, a green uniform, a smug face… It was the guy who had shamelessly touched Arkifa. Unaware, Ashooka stepped back, saying:

“Sorry, I was just talking to him. Armen, good luck.”

I smiled.

“Thanks! Take care!”

Aboard, I was given a badge by Gilda the Bloody Cook. The bus was almost full. If there were three buses for one hundred twenty people, that meant there were… forty people in each, I divided. There were two empty seats over the middle, one to the left, beside the green dreadlocked Andrea, one to the right, beside the silver-haired lucky girl. So, Nina had passed the first test. According to Cynsea the Hypnotist, they wouldn’t have let anyone pass only because I asked for it, so I guess Nina Clover wasn’t that bad of a student. I smiled.

“Hey, Nina, may I sit here?”

“No.”

My smile staled.

“Eeeh, why not?”

“You lied to me. You said your name was Armenilda, but it’s Armen, ain’t it? So I’m not sure what to think about you anymore.”

Ah, that…

“I’m sorry about that. I was just kidding, because Leonardo was being cold to me. I wasn’t making fun of you. I swear.”

Nina stared at me as if she was some kind of Goddess of Justice. I felt guilty.

“Let me—”

“Oi,” the crimson-haired guy grumbled behind me, cutting me off. “You’re always in the way, superstar.”

I ignored him.

“Let me introduce myself again, Nina Clover. I’m Armen Moon. Can I…?”

In a swift movement, the dreadlocked girl stood up, crossed the narrow hallway, and sat down beside Nina.

“Just sit down, you two!” Andrea snapped. “And stop harassing the girl.”

That was a huge blow. I was harassing Nina? I rolled my eyes.

“Okay… but please don’t put me in the same bag as that pervert behind me.”

I was going to sit down, but the crimson guy grabbed me from behind.

“Wait a moment! I want to sit by the window.”

I was losing my patience. Under the other candidates’ gazes, I turned and gave him a dark smile.

“Too bad, I want to sit by the window too.”

“Oho?” the crimson guy smirked. “Then we’ll have to fight it out. How about that, let’s squat one hundred times, the fastest one wins.”

Was he serious? That guy didn’t mind doing embarrassing things in front of everyone, huh. I burst out laughing.

“Fine with me!”

“On three. One, two, three!”

We began squatting. The bus was soon filled with joyful comments, encouragements, and whispered mockeries, but the crimson guy was still grinning fiercely as we kept going. I had done forty-six squats when the bus suddenly moved backwards. We lost our balance at the same time, I fell on the floor, and he fell on me. Worst, his mouth touched mine. We pulled away from each other, disgusted.

“You two, cut it out and sit down already, we’re going to set off!” Gilda the Bloody Cook snarled from the front of the vehicle.

We flinched under the Independent Hero’s remonstrance. Clicking his tongue, the crimson guy went to sit down by the window. That jerk. I wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand, then sat beside him reluctantly. The bus soon moved off, and I took a look at the windows, only to realize that what I had thought to be a black drape was, in fact, an opaque window. We couldn’t see a thing through it. What exactly were we fighting for then? I snorted with laughter.

“I never thought a guy would steal my first kiss. It felt awful. You’d better pay for it.”

His arms folded, the crimson guy looked daggers at me.

“You will pay for it, stupid superstar. Not that I’d count that as a kiss, but it was my first, too.”

“No way. I thought you were a pervert.”

“Tch. The girls I know are all vipers like this one.”

He was looking at Andrea. The girl with the green dreadlocks had put on her headphones, so he probably thought she wouldn’t hear him, but she still turned her reptilian eyes to him. He averted his, uneasy.

“You know her?” I whispered.

“… Yeah. We’re both from the Champion Institute.”

I widened my eyes. The Champion Institute? Wasn’t that the place made for people who had dangerous powers they couldn’t control? I was growing curious about that place. I held out my hand.

“I’m Armen.”

The crimson guy frowned.

“Noah.”

He didn’t shake my hand, but he at least introduced himself. I smiled.

“Nice to meet you, Noah.”

“Tsk. You’re a rich kid, aren’t you, stupid superstar? Don’t talk to me.”

My smile broadened.

“Okay, pervert.”

The bus took about two hours to arrived at its destination. Once out of the city, there were many turns in the road, and I knew it would have made me dizzy had I been alive.

As it stopped, Gilda the Bloody Cook stood in the hallway and called us out to put down any electronic device on our seats, cellphones included. When we got off, there was no sign of the other buses, only a vast jungle on the left side of the road, and a small red house on the right side. When the forty of us gathered, Gilda the Bloody Cook announced:

“You will take the practical test in this Nyomin reserve. The rules are simple. There are red, blue, and yellow-colored ribbons scattered in this jungle. Gather one of each and bring them to me, at this red base. You can’t bring just one ribbon: the ribbons must be three and of different colors. The faster you are, the better your rank. Bringing more sets of ribbons won’t get you extra points, so just come back when you have one. Don’t forget it’s an individual test. Also…”

She scanned our faces like a hawk.

“Fighting or stealing are not forbidden, but you’re still in a test: don’t overdo it. Your goal is to gather a red ribbon, a blue one, and a yellow one and come back here. One last thing: the badges I gave you on the bus are devices for the test. You are not to remove them until the test ends. In an emergency, you can press the middle button to ask for help, but then you’ll be out of the competition. That’s all. The test will begin in ten minutes. Any questions?”

Noah raised a nonchalant hand.

“What do you mean by ‘don’t overdo it’? Can I, for example, knock someone out?”

Gilda frowned behind her eyeglasses.

“When I say ‘don’t overdo it’, it means that you can’t cause any severe injury that will handicap a person for life. Of course, you can knock someone out. Let me remind you that all of you came here because you want to take part in that experimental training for young talents. The main job of common Heroes is to bring peace to mankind and protect it against violence, so it’s only natural that admitted candidates must be prepared to fend for themselves. Any other questions?”

“I heard there were wild animals in this Nyomin reserve,” a tall blond girl said. “Is that true?”

“It is.”

From Gilda’s concise answer, I guessed she didn’t want to give more precisions.

“But ma’am, won’t we be freezing to death if we have to spend the night in the jungle?” another candidate asked worriedly.

“No. The ground here is warm: there is a Nyomin Crystal’s root under this forest.”

That aroused whispering comments. A question came from behind:

“Why are you called the Bloody Cook?”

We all turned to see who asked that. It was a bald and skinny teenager in a tunic. Gilda’s lips stretched.

“Kaireagle is your friend.”

Kaireagle was a widely known search engine. Actually, I had already searched for the answer during lunch break. It was said that Gilda had been an independent Crime Hunter for many years; her power allowed her to control her blood temperature, and she apparently used to ‘cook’ the criminals she had caught with boiling blood. She was a scary A-rank Hero.

Next to me, Andrea raised a hand.

“Will the candidates on the other two buses be in this jungle as well?”

Gilda was checking her phone.

“You will know it soon,” she replied. “Come with me, all of you.”

We followed her until we reached the border of the forest. It looked dark, humid, and full of life… Gilda said:

“It’s time. Oh, if you leave the forest without the three colored ribbons, you will be disqualified. The test will end tomorrow afternoon. Now you can enter.”

There was a silence of hesitation, then:

“What are you waiting for?!” Gilda grunted. “The test has begun! Go!”

As if her voice had triggered a spring, most of the candidates broke into a run and entered the forest. Before doing the same, Noah threw at me a challenging:

“This time I’ll end this before you, stupid superstar.”

I was kind of honored that he didn’t doubt a second I would pass the test.

I stepped forward. Soon, I began struggling among plants and roots. Red ribbons, blue ribbons, yellow ribbons, huh. I scanned the high canopies. There was no telling where they had put those ribbons. On the ground? On high branches?

Now that I thought about it, I had never done a treasure hunt. The feeling of adventure made me grin.

5 I left The Sleeping Beauty on a tree

Night had fallen for some hours, and I was still empty-handed.

An owl hooted. I kept going forward.

How did the jury expect us to find anything in that pitch-black jungle? I would have brought a flashlight if I had known. Oh, but I wouldn’t have been allowed to keep it, since it was an electronic device. So bothersome.

Still, so funny.

I had never been in a jungle at night. That was thrilling. I bet Linah would have liked it as well.

As I kept going forward, avoiding roots, giant flowers, and thorny branches, I remembered what Azritz had told me once: ‘Trees in Farskyer grow absorbing particles from the yellow Nyomin Crystal: it’s said that, before the Big Blend, oaks weren’t that sticky, ashes weren’t spiky, coniferous didn’t use webs to catch their prey, maples weren’t furry as they are now, and flesh trees didn’t exist.’ Sometimes I wondered if Azritz was more of a botanist than a power-holder researcher. Wait, maybe trees also could experience quirks?

I was thinking about stopping my useless searching and wait until morning when I saw a blue, feeble glimmer between the leaves. I went closer. The thing that was emanating light was a crystal similar to the Nyomin Crystal, but much smaller: I think it was barely as tall as me—maybe a tip of one of the Nyomin Crystal’s roots? In the shadow of a tree, two silhouettes were facing each other.

“Fox, you bastard!” one of them said. “We agreed that, if we found an extra ribbon of the same color, we would give it to the other. Don’t start backpedaling! You have two red ribbons, give me one!”

“But now that you have a yellow one, I’d feel stupid if I didn’t snatch it from you, you know. Sorry, Harlow.”

I widened my eyes as I saw the guy called Fox brusquely brandishing a stick. He hit his companion, who let out a scream of pain and astonishment as he fell to his knees. Fox raised one of his boots and pushed Harlow’s head down on the ground with it. Harlow screamed.

“S-S-Stop,” he whined, “I thought we were friends!”

“You know you aren’t good enough, Harlow. You heard the Bloody Cook: if you can’t fend for yourself, just go home.” He pressed his boot as he went on: “When you said you wanted to become a Hero, I didn’t laugh at you out of pity. Give me your yellow ribbon, Harlow, and at least you will be able to say to our classmates: I was there with Fox, an elite trainee for the WHO. Or were you thinking you could surpass me? You’re a weakling. Stop crying already!”

I swallowed as a sobbing Harlow opened his clenched fist and let Fox have the yellow ribbon. Fox released the poor guy, saying:

“Don’t blame me for this. It’s a test. We were told to act like that. I’ll give you my extra ribbon, as promised.”

He took out his two red ribbons, gave Harlow one, and as he was tying the other two, the ribbons suddenly slipped from his hands and flew towards me. I grabbed them, deactivate my telekinesis, and stood up from behind the bush I had been hiding in.

“What the hell just happened?!” Fox shouted. “My ribbons!”

I was in the shadows, and they probably couldn’t see me clearly. I still yelled recklessly at them:

“Yo! The ribbons don’t like it when their owner is an evil scoundrel, so I’ll take over from now on. Good evening!”

I made a run for it.

* * *

As the morning was making its way into the forest, I found a tall blond girl lying on the ground, screaming uncontrollably. She was the one who had asked Gilda about the wild animals. I rushed toward her.

“What’s the matter?!”

“H-Help! Aaaargh! Help!”

I crouched by her side, trying to guess what was wrong with her, when suddenly the girl’s hand gagged me and I heard a fizzling sound. I drew away as the girl stood up just fine and ran away. A white gas had flown from her hand. I raised an eyebrow. That vixen. Was the gas supposed to knock me out? I had no idea. It had no smell at all. But considering she had run away, she was most certainly planning to return.

My telekinesis power sure was useful, but I had a way better power in my hands: I was dead. A sleeping gas didn’t affect me in the least.

After some inner deliberation, I staggered on my knees, then collapsed on my back.

I didn’t wait long. Soon, I heard footsteps approaching, then a giggle.

“Well, well, a blond like me, and he’s quite handsome at that, such a waste. Let’s see if you have something on you.”

I had left my eyes slightly opened on purpose and saw her kneel beside me. Was she gonna search my body? That didn’t look like something a Hero would do… Ashooka had guessed right. The nature of this test was wrong. First, it had forced two friends to fight over some ribbons, then that pretty blond to deceive people in such an underhanded manner. It was as though the Heroes wanted to make us do evil things.

“Oh! What a good catch! A red one, at last!”

Crap! Since I couldn’t sense her hands, I had forgotten she was searching my pockets. Pulling my two ribbons, she took out a small ring made out of stems. I almost gasped when I saw it. There were five yellow ribbons and two blue ones. How many people did she have to trick to get so many ribbons?

She tied the red one on the ring, took the yellow one, then put it back into my pocket. Was she feeling guilty or something? Anyway, she inadvertently touched my hand and paused. I directed my deathforce there. Ray had taught me how to do it. I had spent those last three weeks training both my telekinesis and my core, even skipping school for that. I could sense temperature if I concentrated enough. At this instant, I could feel the warmth on the girl’s hand.

“Cold,” she whispered. “Isn’t he… too cold?”

I remembered I had taken off my gloves during the night, trying to feel my way with my hands, with little success. I had forgotten to slip them on again.

Anyway, the sleeping-gas girl was panicking as she laid her head on my chest, thinking perhaps I was dead—which was true. Geez… Between Ray, Arkill, and the Lord, they had taught me how to fake a heartbeat, but I still couldn’t do it without absorbing a large amount of lifeforce. Well, I could eat the girl’s lifeforce but… I decided to solve the problem in a faster way.

I didn’t want to fight her. I grabbed her ring of ribbons with my power, taking advantage of her panic. I made it fly upwards: the sleeping-gas girl’s attention suddenly switched.

“Th-the ribbons! What’s going on?”

She stood up. Since she thought I was unconscious, she didn’t imagine I was the one controlling the ring. She tried to catch it, but it was too high now. I made it go up to a tree and lay it on a high branch.

Not knowing what was going on, the girl scanned the place, then began to climb up the tree. When she was about to reach the ring, I made it fall then drew it towards me. I stood up and snatched the ring full of ribbons with a grin.

“Thank you so much, Sleeping Beauty.”

Perched on the branch, the girl opened her eyes in amazement.

“No way! You were supposed to be unconscious!”

“Take care!”

I was going to leave when, suddenly, I heard a rustle in the bushes and a voice saying:

“Are you going to leave without even knowing if she can climb down the tree?”

A silver-haired girl calmly stepped forward. I widened my eyes.

“Nina!”

I was glad to see she was all right. She stopped before me.

“Trees are dangerous. If she falls from that height, she will die.”

Was she scolding me? I rubbed my neck.

“Ah… But I did it so I could avoid fighting her, you know. Plus, she’s quite agile.”

Well, I said that, but the Sleeping Beauty was still up the tree and was having trouble getting down. I grimaced.

“Sorry.” Good grief, it was the second time I apologized to Nina today. But what exactly was I apologizing for? I sighed. “That girl tricked me, so I guess I wanted to trick her back. Should we help her?”

“Mm,” Nina nodded.

But how? I looked up. The blond girl was hugging a thick branch.

“Curse you!” she yelled. “Just when I got the three ribbons! You won’t get away with that! Besides, how did you even manage to fool my sleeping gas?”

“I didn’t breathe, that’s why.” Because I didn’t need to.

“But you were supposed to be caught by surprise!”

I glanced at Nina, then said:

“Hey! Why don’t you try to get down? You climbed up so fast—”

“I’m trying to!”

“No, you’re clearly not.”

“Djiaaaaah!” she moaned. “It’s because I’m afraid of heights, you idiot!”

As she confessed that, she began swearing a blue streak. I stretched my lips into a painful smile—even I was embarrassed.

“Aah… She looked so refined at first.”

“Armen.”

I turned to Nina. The silver girl was holding out a hand.

“Give me a ribbon.”

I blinked.

“Okay.”

I gave her a yellow one. She approved with a nod and looked up at the rude blond sleeping-gas monkey on the branch.

“Now it’s all right!” she said. “You can get down.”

I didn’t quite get why, and it seemed that the girl up there didn’t either. Nina explained:

“Fate is contagious. If I’m lucky, then you should be lucky too. You won’t die.”

“How could I buy that?!” the blond girl shouted from the high branch.

Nina sighed.

“It can’t be helped.” She turned to me again. “Armen. Give me two ribbons.”

I looked her in the eye. Could a power that brought luck really exist? Anyway, I gave her the whole ring with the ribbons.

“There. If I give you that, that would mean that, even if she tripped and fell, she wouldn’t die, right?”

Nina was slow to take the ring. When she did, she looked up at the blond girl with even more determination.

“You can get down safely! But you’ll have to make a promise!”

“A promise? What promise?”

“That you won’t attack us with your power when you get to the ground.”

I heard the monkey-girl snort, but she agreed, and after many struggles, encouragements, screams, curses, and worries, she finally came down, her arms covered with grazes.

“I’m beat…” she grumbled, falling to her knees. “Anyway, you, the silver girl, shouldn’t you run away now that you tricked that guy?”

Tricked? Nina had tricked me? I turned to Nina. She looked as puzzled as me.

“I don’t trick people,” she replied. “If I do bad things, I’m unlucky.”

Eeh, that was how it worked? So weird. Anyway, it had never occurred to me that Nina could have been trying to snatch my ribbons. Fortunately, it wasn’t the case.

“Armen,” Nina added. “I was a bit rude to you on the bus. I’ll give you a ribbon so you can forgive me. Here.”

She gave me the red ribbon. I cleared my throat.

“Nina… Does that mean that you’re going to keep the whole ring?”

“Ah, no, I’ll only take the ribbons I need. I already have one.”

She took out a blue ribbon from her pocket. For some reason, I felt like something was off. Then it dawned on me.

“Nina. Why did you give me the only red ribbon we have then?”

The silver-haired girl frowned.

“Oh. That’s because… I wanted you to forgive me.”

What?! She was letting me have the three ribbons just like that? Was she an angel? So she was only going to take a yellow ribbon and let me win before her… I shook my head.

“I can’t do that. Let me help you get a red one, then we’ll head to the base together.”

She was surprised.

“Why would you help me?”

“Yeah, why would you help her?” the tall blond girl echoed, standing up. “It’s just doesn’t make sense. We’re competing. It’s not like I have anything against you guys, but I’ll be breaking my promise.”

She lunged at us with her palms wide open. She immediately released a curl of white gas. I cursed under my breath and yelled:

“Run, Nina!”

6 A secret

We ran. Nina surprised me: even though she was a slow walker, she was quite the fast runner. Our pursuer fell back soon as we entered a very shrubby area. She had probably stopped when she had seen the blue ribbon and the yellow ribbon I had thrown away. She must have given up on the red one for now.

Nina’s breathing was calming down. When she suddenly squatted, I stopped, wondering if it was her shoelace again, but no: she was watching a puddle, or rather the tadpoles that were swarming in it.

“I like tadpoles.”

“Ah… Yes?” I said, crouching myself to see the black little things swimming in the water.

“Tadpoles can’t breathe air when they’re born, they eat all day, and their tail disappears when they grow.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.” I smiled. “From now on, I will see tadpoles under a new light.”

“Mm. Also, watch out,” she pointed at something just between my feet. “It’s small, but it’s a paral spider. ‘Paral’ because its bite paralyzes.”

“The hell?!”

I stood up and hurried backwards before realizing that a spider bite would most likely not be able to affect undead people. My reaction seemed to surprise Nina.

“It paralyzes small preys, not humans.”

“Is that so?” I laughed, a bit annoyed. “I was not scared in the least.”

“Liar.” Suddenly her face darkened. Whoa, was she so susceptible to lies? Even joking lies?

“Anyway, you sure know a lot about nature. Since I was born in a lighthouse, I’m like a baby in the woods, never better said. Do you know what those flowers are?”

I was pointing at some big blue flowers I had never seen in my life.

“I… don’t know,” she said. And she stood up. “We’ve gotta find a red ribbon.”

As she started walking, her foot slipped on the mud, and she fell over. I hastily went to help her up.

“Nina! Are you all right?”

“Mm…”

“Maybe we should take a break? Did you even sleep at all last night?”

“Mm,” she nodded. She took a deep breath, then moved forward. “I think I know where to find one. Let’s go.”

She cautiously stepped on a root… Her foot slipped again, but this time I was behind her, and I caught her in time. Wait, wasn’t she supposed to be lucky?

We walked for some time until Nina stopped in a narrow corridor bordered with red spiky bushes. I scanned the surroundings. Did she see something?

“Sorry.” Surprised, I looked back to Nina. She turned to me as she confessed: “I thought I knew the way, but in fact, I’m lost.”

“…” No way, that was why she was looking so gloomy all this time? I laughed. “I’d be surprised if anyone knew the way in a jungle like that! Come on, cheer up. There’re two of us. We’ll find a red ribbon, then find our way to the base. No need to worry.”

“… You sure are confident for someone who’s not as lucky as I am.”

“Eeeh? I’m lucky too. Or rather, I already used up all my bad luck.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah!”

We got out of the spiky corridor and found a beautiful place covered with moss. It was so tempting that we decided to take a break, and we settled down, lying on that green, fragrant bed. We could hear the birds singing and the leaves rustling as the morning sunrays managed to brush past the canopies.

“Such a nice day.”

“Mm.”

I directed my deathforce on my fingertips and stroked the moss. It was soft. I grinned.

“Who would say we’re in the middle of a test. I think I could compose such a nice song here, about the green moss, the morning light shining on the leaves… It’s like in a bucolic painting. Heh.” I kind of felt cool using such a literary word.

“… It’s beautiful I guess.” She paused. “Gilda said we must go back before night falls. If at noon we didn’t find a red ribbon, you go back first, Armen.”

She was serious. I frowned at the luminous canopy, a bit upset.

“Nonsense. Do you think I deserve to pass this test more than you do?”

“… No. If I said that, it’s probably because I’ll find a red ribbon anyway, so you shouldn’t worry about me.”

“Because you think you’re lucky, huh?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know it’s not only in your head? That ‘luck’ power.”

There was a silence. Did I ask it too bluntly? Nina Clover sat up on the moss.

“Armen Moon. You’re not one to mince your words, are you?”

“Ah… I’m only asking.”

“I know. And I don’t know what to answer. My power… it’s definitely in my head, but it’s real.”

What was that supposed to mean? She went on:

“I told you I was from the countryside. Falcon High is in the Hawaii Valley and is quite far from my home, since my parents are forest keepers that live in the mountains. I have to walk one hour to get to school. First, I have to cross an old wooden bridge, then go around a long narrow path next to a cliff, then go down an endless worn-out stair of an abandoned temple.”

It sure was the countryside.

“So you say you were lucky to survive that.”

“Mm. It’s a dangerous path. Sometimes, when I go to school, I get this feeling that the bridge has collapsed, or that I have fallen over the cliff, or rolled down the stairs, but I don’t really experience my death. It’s as if all the bad things that could happen to me happen in parallel worlds. My power decides to choose the better option and makes me live in a world where I’m always safe. I’m not always aware of it, but sometimes I get that feeling,” she repeated. “Like when I’m about to cross a road and I stop for no reason, then see afterwards that a bus has just passed and that I would have been run over if I hadn’t stopped.”

“…”

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No. Actually, I don’t know what to think,” I confessed.

She glanced at me, then stood up.

“My classmates say I’m a goddess. Actually, I’m not.”

“You don’t say.”

Her lips went up a bit. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen her smile once since I had met her.

“But two years ago a transfer student came and said I was a fake. Maybe because of that we became best friends. However, over time, she came to believe in my power the most, saying I could become even a Ruler if I wanted. She was the one who told me about this examination. She said that, if I passed, it would mean she was right.”

I snorted as I sat up. Nina had agreed to take such an important examination just to test her luck? I couldn’t believe it. I chuckled.

“I see. If you pass, will you go to the training?”

“I don’t think so.”

“That’s too bad. It would be funnier if you came.”

The silver-haired girl looked at me, startled.

“Why?”

“Because I like you.”

Slowly, Nina’s eyes opened wide, her face went red… she crossed her arms as if to protect herself.

“Wh-What did you say? You like me?”

“Yeah. Let’s be friends.”

“Friends?” Nina swallowed hard and calmed down. “Oh. Okay.”

I grinned, embarrassed. My words may have been a bit misleading… but her reaction was so touching that I didn’t regret it.

“Great. For now, let’s go find the red ribbon!” I said.

She nodded.

“Let’s go.”

We kept going around in that dense jungle. Even though Nina said she was lucky, we still encountered a boar that we had to run away from, a snake that nearly hit her head when it fell from a tree, and a spiderweb that was as hard as steel… At one point, we found a tunnel under a tree and went there thinking it was a good place for the jury to hide a ribbon. We almost got caught by a giant mantis. As we were running away, Nina tripped on a root, I helped her get away from the tunnel hole, and we finally stopped next to a clear brook. I took a look at Nina. Her clothes were muddy all over. She was a mess.

“Look, Nina. I think you have the wrong idea about what good luck means.”

To my bewilderment, she gave a little chuckle.

“Oi, I’m serious,” I complained. “I spent the whole night with no problem at all, and now in just a few hours we’ve been through hell.”

Her face suddenly darkened.

“Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing for? It’s not like it’s your fault that the jury threw us in a jungle. Those bastards… What do they take us for? We’re teenagers. I even saw a middle schooler among the candidates. I didn’t know the Heroes were such bullies…”

I fell silent as Nina raised a hand.

“I heard a voice.”

I pricked up my ears. I could hear nothing more than the murmur of the water.

“You sure it wasn’t in your parallel world?”

“It was not.”

She stood up, frowning, then broke into a run. Snorting, I followed her.

Nina was right: soon, I heard voices too. They were coming from a small clearing in the woods. They were loud.

As I crouched in the bushes beside Nina, I took a look at the scene.

Three people were fighting over two ribbons that had been tied to a pole in the middle of the clearing. One of them was the bald guy in a tunic that had asked about Gilda’s nickname; the second adversary was a corpulent guy. I didn’t think I had seen him on our bus, so I concluded that the other two groups of candidates had been thrown in the same jungle, which made sense. I hoped Arkifa was doing well.

In the clearing, the corpulent guy was kneeling as if in pain. The baldy was raising his hands in a martial artist stance, facing the third adversary…

I looked at this one, fascinated.

The guy was on fire.

I had heard about fire manipulators. I had even seen some in Farskyer. But the best of them could at most ignite their own hand. I had never seen a guy surrounded by intense crimson flames all over his body. Was it real fire? Who knows, but neither of his two opponents was daring to get closer.

“Armen,” Nina whispered, “What do we do?”

“What do you mean?”

I couldn’t avert my eyes from the crimson fire guy. The grass, at his feet, wasn’t burning. So it wasn’t a real fire after all. But what was it then?

I heard him laugh.

“Are you frightened perhaps?” he asked the baldy, moving forward. “Let me warn you: if you touch me, you’ll end up just like the fatty no matter what you do. Now, do you still want my ribbons?”

There was a tense silence. Finally, the bald guy clicked his tongue and ran away.

“Hahaha! Run, run! You too, fatty, you fought well, you’ve still got a few hours before the test ends!” Stepping intimidatingly towards the corpulent guy, he chased him away.

That voice… was definitely familiar. As the crimson fire disappeared, absorbed by the user’s skin, I widened my eyes. No way.

“Noah?!”

The scream slipped out of my mouth. His eyes turned in our direction, and he held out his arm, igniting it.

“Who goes there?” I stood up, raising my hands. “What, if it isn’t the stupid superstar. I thought you would be dead by now. Oh, and the silver girl is here too. What do you want?”

“Nothing, really,” I said with sincerity. “As a matter of fact, we were leaving. Bye.”

“Haha, you saw my crimson fire and you freaked out, didn’t you?”

“I did. Good luck!”

“Wait! I’m coming with you!”

“What?! Why?”

“Just because.”

“Get lost.”

“Wanna try my fire?”

“… Lead the way.”

Noah laughed as he caught up with us in the woods.

“That’s the right thing to do, stupid superstar. We from the Champion Institute are overpowered bastards. Better be with than against one of us, don’t you think? I’ll protect you guys.”

Like hell he would protect us. If he found out I had a red ribbon, he would most likely snatch it and run away…

A sudden growl jerked me back.

“Wh-What was that?”

“A boar? No… A tiger?” Nina suggested. Couldn’t she be a bit more alarmed?

Noah stopped, glaring at us, then confessed:

“I’m hungry.”

I froze.

“What? You don’t mean you’re gonna hunt the tiger down to eat it?”

Noah showed his teeth, flushing.

“Idiot! I mean it was my stomach! Stomachs growl when they’re hungry!”

“Oh, so it wasn’t a tiger, thank goodness,” I said as I passed by Noah.

“I was surprised too,” Nina admitted, following me. “I mean, I’m supposed to be lucky.”

“Oi, you two,” Noah threw his right arm over my neck, the left one over Nina’s. “Do you want me to fall into cannibalism?”

For an instant, he gave me the goosebumps. Minutes later, we found some berries for Noah.

“How do you know they’re eatable?” he asked, sprawled against a tree trunk.

“Nina has eaten some, and she wouldn’t have picked them up if they were dangerous anyway.”

Surprisingly, my poor argument convinced him. Well, I was convinced myself. Noah devoured the berries, then handed the last one to me.

“You can have it.”

“No need.”

“I’m being generous: eat it.”

“No, thanks.”

He ground his teeth.

“Take it!”

“I said no need.”

He lost it. He grabbed the collar of my hoodie and half lifted me against the trunk of a tree.

“Are you picking a fight with me, stupid superstar? Do you think my hands are filthy because I’m from the Champion Institute? Huh? Huh?”

“What? No—”

“Then…!”

He suddenly tripped on a root and we fell. Again?! But this time, I was the one who fell on him. And, who knows why, his body was immediately set on fire. The crimson flames exploded under my eyes. I felt an odd surge of energy go through my whole being, and for a moment, all my muscles gave away.

“Crap,” I heard Noah gasp under my weight.

I couldn’t see well his face through the flames, but it appeared more and more neatly as he was absorbing the fire. He pushed me away, cursing louder and louder.

“I’m done for!” he finally grated.

I sat up. My muscles were working again just fine.

“What’s up with your weird power?”

Noah looked very upset, but when I spoke, he stared at me in amazement.

“Are you… okay?”

“I guess. I just lost control of my movements for a moment. Is that your power?”

“No! No, it’s not! You’re not supposed to act so calmly after my flames swallowed you up like that!”

“…” Could it be his power didn’t work on me as expected because I was an undead? “Then, how should I be acting?”

“Not like that!” Noah threw a fist on the ground.

I took a look around. I had left Nina eating berries, but it was strange that she hadn’t come back. I was caught by surprise when Noah grabbed me by the collar. Again.

“What now?” I sighed.

Noah’s eyes were blazing.

“Don’t say anything about this to anyone, you hear? If the Champion Institute finds out I used my whole power on someone, they will imprison me for three more years, that if they don’t beat me up to death, so… if you say anything… you’re dead.”

An evil glint glowed in his eyes. True, I’m dead since last year, I thought. Then I frowned. The Champion Institute, huh? From what Noah was saying, it was clear that he was afraid of it. What kind of place was it, really?

I gave a firm nod.

“You don’t need to worry. I won’t say anything. But you know, I have a bad feeling about those badges they gave us. If they’re recording our voices…”

Noah’s grip on my collar loosened. His hands were trembling. He was pale. Obviously, he hadn’t thought about that possibility. Truth to be told, I hadn’t either until that moment.

After a silence, I asked:

“What kind of power is it?”

Noah threw an intense gaze my way, and I thought he wouldn’t answer, but he did, in a tired tone.

“Normally, when people come into contact with so much fire, they lose all willpower and start following me like idiots. My fire is like a drug. I can use a bit of it to cause temporary submission, but if I overuse it, people become severely addicted and can’t come back to normal of their own will. Some people can’t come back to normal at all.”

A drug-addicting energy… That was one scary power. Even more so since he didn’t seem to control it well. Also, from what he said, it wasn’t the first time he overused it, not even the second time. So that was the reason he had wound up in the Champion Institute.

Noah stood up abruptly.

“Enough talking. Where’s the silver girl?”

“No idea.”

He scanned the surroundings, then shrugged.

“Maybe she ran off. Anyway, I’ve changed my mind: I’m leaving. See you, stupidstar.”

Now he abbreviated the nickname? I rolled my eyes.

“Take care, perv.”

When he left, I stood up and searched for Nina. Where did she go? I called out her name. I found her engrossed in a rectangular big leaf… No, it wasn’t a leaf. I widened my eyes as I knelt behind her, looking over her shoulder.

“A map?!”

It was a small map pinpointing the location of neighboring ribbons! Nina looked at me, and her eyes lit up.

“How about we start looking for those?”

She pointed vaguely at a location. I was stunned. Why would we be searching for those ribbons? According to the map, all of them were blue, and all we needed was a red ribbon now.

Then, something clicked into place, a possibility so unthinkable I was surprised it crossed my mind.

“Nina,” I said quietly. “Can you tell me… what color is my hoodie?”

Nina turned pale. She didn’t answer. Or rather, she couldn’t. My hoodie was unmistakably dark gray, but Nina couldn’t say it.

“Nina…” I was thunderstruck. “Could it be that you can’t distinguish colors?”

7 A True Hero

“Nina… Could it be that you can’t distinguish colors? … Nina?”

Her lips trembled a bit, then she nodded silently. Crap. Did I just hit a sore spot? It seemed so. For some reason, she had been trying to hide her problem all along. I recalled what I told her this morning. About the bucolic painting. And about the red ribbon… Did she even know she had given me the only red ribbon we had? Probably not.

In the awkward silence, I put my hands on my knees and cleared my throat.

“Er… Somehow, I feel like I should say sorry, but I don’t know exactly why. Was it some kind of secret?”

Nina shook her head. Did a tear just sparkle in her eyes?

“It’s not,” she said. “You don’t have to be sorry. Actually, I should be the one to be sorry. I lied to you and said I wanted you to forgive me, but in fact, I was frustrated because I gave you the red ribbon without knowing it was the red one. I was selfish. And I was feeling guilty. That’s why we had bad luck and came across the boar, the snake, and the mantis.”

“… I see.”

“I was blaming you on the bus, but I ended up being a bigger liar. That’s what frustrates me the most.”

Tears shone in her eyes as she sniffed. She really hated to lie, huh. I relaxed. I was starting to understand Nina Clover a bit more.

“It’s okay. The jury has just made another big blunder assuming that everyone could distinguish the ribbons.” I said that in a loud voice, just in case the badge was recording it, then took out the red ribbon and put it in Nina’s hand. “Take it.”

To my stupefaction, she took it and blew her nose with it. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Hahahahaha! Sorry, hahaha, but the thing you just used wasn’t a handkerchief, it was the red ribbon.”

“What?”

“Well, heh, don’t worry about trifles.”

“No, I mean, you should keep it!”

“No, thanks, it’s too humid.”

“It can be washed.”

“No, really,” I said, standing up. “You did say you’re lucky, didn’t you? Well, just think you’ve met a good guy who’s just too stupid to compete with a pretty girl.” As I was walking away, I turned to grin at her. “You should get going.”

“… Are you pitying me?”

“…! Why should I?”

“Well… I may be born with luck, but I can’t see colors. My world is white, gray, and black.” She hesitated. “I barely know you but… can I ask you a question? … Do you think being lucky is worth all the colors?”

Her face had recovered her calm expression, but I knew she was still anxious. Her question made me a bit nervous myself. What was I supposed to answer? Some kind of philosophic reply? A consolation? Or…

“Dunno,” I said. “I really don’t know. But since you were born like this, it’s worth it, I think? Wait, that doesn’t make any sense, right? Sorry.”

She smiled. It was an open smile. She stood up.

“Follow me. Now I’m sure we’ll find a red ribbon in no time.”

She still wanted to help me, huh? I grinned.

“Okay.”

* * *

‘I’m sure we’ll find a red ribbon in no time.’

That was what Nina had said about ten minutes ago. Now we were running from a cheetah with antlers and a heavy tail ended with a kind of flail. Well, that was a monster.

“Nina!” I shouted as I ran. “What’s that thing?!”

Nina was breathing hard.

“It’s a… cheebou. Where I live, there are packs of them, but… they normally don’t attack people. They are scavengers.”

“Then why…?!” I stopped dead.

I knew why. Cheebous ate dead things. That monster was after me, not after Nina.

But wasn’t my smell supposed to be fine? I wasn’t rotting, right? Did that cheebou have an overdeveloped sense of smell?

Anyway…

“Nina, let’s part ways!”

We didn’t have the time to argue. Soon, I was running alone among bushes, followed by a drooling cheebou. I stopped and turned around. Unlike cheetahs, the monster wasn’t a fast runner, mainly because of its tail dragging behind. I pulled myself up on a tree branch, then narrowed my eyes… and widened them as I suddenly noticed a detail. A big detail.

On the cheebou’s left antler, there was something red. It wasn’t blood. It was a ribbon.

I laughed. At last! Then my lips twisted into a grimace. What kind of idiot would wrap a ribbon around that beast? … And what kind of stupid prey would try to fetch a ribbon from its predator?

Anyway, I tried.

I gave a chance to my telekinesis, but the ribbon was well tied and couldn’t slide along the antler. When the cheebou was just under the branch, I grabbed its antler. It shook violently, and I fell from the branch. However, I didn’t loosen my grip and landed on the cheebou’s back. The beast was about one meter tall, but my sudden weight made him collapse. As I attempted to untie the ribbon, it kept moving its head and hitting me with its antlers. It was only when I finally grabbed my ribbon, all victorious, when I realized one of its antlers had jabbed my chest. I pulled backwards and was ejected by its brusque movement. As the beast managed to get up on its feet, I sat up, looked at my ribbon, then at my pierced chest. The wound wasn’t deep, but it was bad: my lifeforce had started to leak out.

A growl reminded me of the cheebou. It loomed over me, its chops drooling like I was some kind of luxurious plate. Its teeth were as sharp as Louise’s and bigger. In such a situation, I smiled.

“Hey. Don’t eat me, I’m not tasty.”

The cheebou frowned and sniffed me, as if wondering how a corpse was able to make sounds. Then it approached its head.

“GET LOST!” I screamed.

The cheebou jerked up, whined, then flew. I gaped at the rustling bushes it left behind. I couldn’t believe it. Did it really get scared by my scream?

I breathed out in relief, shoved my red ribbon in my pocket, and took out a small box of adhesive bandages. I had anticipated that I could end up injured, but the bandages were quite small. I had to put three of them on my wound. The lifeforce was still leaking from my body, but well… I had my three ribbons!

I stood up and scanned my surroundings. Bushes, branches, giant flowers, trees, trees, and more trees. The sky, through the canopies, was now covered with gray clouds, and it was growing dark inside the jungle. The only thing left for me to do was to get out of that place. But…

Which way?

The red base where Gilda the Bloody Cook was waiting for us… I had no idea where it was.

Anyway, as the saying goes, all roads lead to Singapore. I started running in one direction, hoping that Nina, Arkifa, Noah, and Leon were all doing fine.

I was running for a while now and was wondering how big was that Nyomin reserve when a sudden voice said on my chest:

« Candida…! Only one … left! Please start … to your bases. I repeat: only one hour left! … to your bases. »

The voice was coming out from my badge. I had feared the cheebou had broken it with its antler, but it seemed that the device was still working, though the voice was intermittent.

But that wasn’t my bigger concern. I was more worried about the fact that I had heard the same voice coming from my right. As I kept running, a bald, skinny guy appeared from the other side of a row of bushes. It was the martial artist that had run away from Noah’s crimson fire. He cut my path. I stopped in my tracks.

It had started raining. I could hear the raindrops on the high branches of the forest, but few of them reached the ground. Down there, it was almost as dark as night.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“You were running quite fast,” the baldy said. “That must mean you have three ribbons.”

Crap.

“Which color do you need?”

“… The yellow one, why? You give up so soon? You don’t wanna fight?”

“I’m a pacifist.”

A raindrop splashed on a nearby leaf. The baldy confessed:

“Me too.”

There was a silence. Then I chuckled.

“Then let’s do this. I know a friend that has three extra yellow ribbons. Let’s find her and settle this without any bloodshed, okay?”

“How about you give me your yellow ribbon, then you ask that friend of yours for help?”

“… What’s your name?”

“Huh? Jing. Why?”

“My name’s Armen.”

“I know, you’re the one who got first place in the quiz. What of it?”

I gave a slow nod.

“I’ll be honest-e. I’m-e an orphan from Bird Island, I have five younger siblings, and my little sister is very sick-e. I made a bet-e with the local mafia that I would pass this examination. If I pass, I’ll get five-e thousand Corns, and I’ll be able to pay for my lil sis’ medical treatment. If I fail… I don’t know-e what will happen to her.”

I covered my face with my hands and looked at Jing between my fingers. I overacted. I was well aware of that. There was no way Jing would fall for…

I heard a sob.

“S-Sorry. I didn’t know,” he said. “Five thousand Corns… It’s not a big amount of money either. Some families have it hard, huh? I’m so sorry, I—”

“It’s all right-e,” I said in my dad’s accent. Foreigner accent always sounded cooler. “You couldn’t know.”

I was amazed. Jing was falling for it so easily.

“I’ll lend it to you,” Jing suddenly said. “Those five thousand Corns. Let me win, and I’ll lend you the money. You can repay me later whenever you can.”

I was moved. Jing… He was really willing to help me. Was he from a rich family? Five thousand Corns was not a small amount… I shook my head.

“N-No way… I can’t get you involved in my business. Besides, I promised that, if I didn’t win the bet, I’d work for the mafia for ten years. Ah, I’m embarrassed, I don’t know why I’m telling you this, I’m sorry!” I said in a painful tone as I broke into a run.

I passed by him. The border of the forest shouldn’t be much far away by now. If I could just fool him a bit longer…

“Armen!”

Jing was calling out to me, following me. I tried to accelerate, but I was feeling weak. I hadn’t eaten lifeforce since yesterday afternoon, and I had lost a lot of energy running, then getting injured… and I think Noah’s fire had numbed my core as well. I wasn’t in a good condition. That was why, this time, Jing soon caught up with me. I was breathing hard. Crap. As things were, Jing would be able to knock me down with a single punch…

“Armen, you can’t keep on like that!” Jing cut my path again. “If some thugs are abusing you, you have to tell the police! Tell me who are these guys and I’ll become a Hero for you!”

I stared at him in astonishment. I was feeling increasingly guilty. Why did he have to believe such an obvious lie?

Suddenly, my knees buckled, and I fell to the ground. That wasn’t an act. Though I wasn’t injured as much as when I had fought with my killer, my core was still in shock. Noah’s fire. It must be the effects of his fire.

“Armen? Are you injured? Hey, let’s get out of this forest first.”

Jing seemed to have forgotten about the test. How could that be? I swallowed as Jing was trying to help me up to my feet, even though I was at the end of my rope. That was one of the most worrying things about undead people, or at least about undead newbies like me: they didn’t realize they were running out of energy until they didn’t have enough deathforce to move their bodies.

I had no options but to absorb Jing’s lifeforce and cling to him. Seeing I could barely move my body, he finally decided to carry me on his back. Despite being skinny, he was strong. We made it to the border of the forest, which was quite close in fact. Out there, the rain was pouring down.

In the growing darkness, we reached the muddy road.

“Armen… do you know in which direction the red base is?!” he screamed over the rain.

“I… don’t know,” I huffed.

“… Okay, don’t worry, we’ll make it!”

Was he thinking I was dying or something? Quite the contrary: Jing’s lifeforce was refreshing, and I was starting to breathe more normally.

I felt bad. First, I had told Jing a lie, then I had him carry me to the red base…

“Jing.”

“What is it?”

“Why do you want to become a Hero?”

A lightning lit the dark clouds on the road. Then a thunder filled the whole reserve.

“Why, you ask? To tell you the truth,” Jing said as he kept walking forward, “I am an orphan too, but I have the chance to have an aunt and an uncle that I see as my parents. They taught me it is important to be at peace with oneself. When I see people suffering, I suffer too, and I want to help them. Being a hero is not a title, you know. You become a hero when you do the things you want. And what I want is…” Another thunder muffled his words. He ended the sentence with: “Probably just like everyone.”

‘You become a hero when you do the things you want’, he said… I stopped absorbing his lifeforce.

There are people in the world that want to help others because they think they are doing something good. Those are kind but arrogant people. I had the impression that Jing wasn’t one of those. He was just doing what he wanted from the bottom of his heart. Victims were his priority. They were above his own interests. And… that’s why I knew he probably wouldn’t ask me for my yellow ribbon anymore. Jing wasn’t even thinking about that, just too concentrated on carrying me to the red base, believing I was but a poor and abused victim that was working hard to save his little sis…

Crap. What was I supposed to do? Let that guy fail the exam for my sake? Oh, that’s why I hated exams…

Soon we saw the lights of the red base appear. I had no idea how much time was left.

“Jing. I can walk now. I was just feeling a bit weak, but I’m better now.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

I slid to the ground and I broke into a run, yelling:

“Jing! Sorry, I lied to you!”

I stormed into the base with an angry martial artist at my heels. The room was something like a large cafeteria, and the candidates turned to us, their mouths full—almost everyone was already there, including Nina. Gilda the Bloody Cook raised an eyebrow as I brandished my ribbons.

“Here, ma’am! I pass, I guess?”

The Independent Hero looked at my ribbons.

“Where is your yellow ribbon?”

Right. I had only two of them now… I saw a bunch of muddy yellow ribbons on a desk, drew one with my power, then took it with a grin.

“Here it is. No one said I couldn’t return to the red base as many times as I wanted, right? So as long as I go back to the forest and come back quickly with the three ribbons—”

“Quiet,” the Bloody Cook interrupted me sharply. “I did say that the exam is over for you once you’re out of the forest, didn’t I?”

Aw, did she? Some candidates laughed quietly, and I heard someone say:

“That guy’s a crack up. To behave like that in front of the Bloody Cook…”

As I noticed Noah’s frowning expression, someone breathed out loudly behind me.

“Why?” Jing was holding three ribbons, a red one, a blue one, and a yellow one. He looked up at me in shock, as if to ask, “Is that your yellow ribbon?!”.

It was. And the worst thing was that I was already beginning to regret my rash decision. Why on earth did I give my ribbon to that guy I barely knew? Did I just condemned myself to a definitive death? No, but I had placed first in the previous test, and I had returned with two ribbons. I took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet flow of lifeforce floating in the air, then I grinned at Jing with confidence. There was no way I could fail to pass, right?

Right?

8 Accepted? Rejected?

“You two, put down your badges, go take a shower, then come down eat dinner,” Gilda the Bloody Cook ordered.

They had even prepared tidy clothes for us, with the mention “Nyomin EPHT candidate” written on the shirt.

Holding those, Jing and I headed to the second floor. The men’s public showers was to the right, and judging from the voices, there were still some guys in there. The women’s showers was empty, though. I rubbed my head.

“Then, I’ll see you later.”

I entered the women’s showers. I didn’t want anyone to see my injury on my chest. To my surprise, Jing followed me.

“What are you doing?” I said. “You can’t go to this bathroom.”

Was he so shocked by what happened earlier that he couldn’t think straight? He blinked.

“Oh, sorry. Armen, about what you did…” He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

He turned his back on me and went to the men’s showers. He really was out of it, to not even realize I wasn’t a girl either. I smiled, then took off my dirty clothes. I was already naked and taking the showerhead when a blushed Jing came in, scaring me to death.

“Armen! What are you doing here! You’re in the women’s showers!”

“Ah, yeah, you noticed? But since there are no girls, I thought I could use it. It’ll be quicker this way. You can stay too if you want,” I added reluctantly.

If I didn’t face him, it should be fine, right? I turned on the showerhead, then began to wipe off all the mud on my body. There was a lot of steam coming out. Was the water too hot? I used my deathforce to sense it… and jumped up. Hell, yeah, it was hot. I turned the handle and adjusted the temperature, then lowered my eyes to my injury. Ray said small injuries could be healed by my core but… I doubted this one would heal without a necromancer’s power. Energy was still leaking out from the wound. Well, as long as I stayed close to a group of people, I wouldn’t die, I guess.

My eyes paused on the silver pentagram Linah had given me for Christmas. I felt sad. If I couldn’t make it to the training, I wouldn’t be able to see Ray, nor Linah. And maybe even Zeeta, if he was really Leon and had passed the test. Yeah, that made me very sad. And all that sadness was all because, in the heat of the moment, I had thought that guy taking a shower on the other side of the room was worthier to become a Hero than I was. I was so stupid.

“Armen.” Jing was finally breaking the silence. “Don’t look at me, okay? But… can I ask you a question?”

I raised an eyebrow. Was he shy?

“Of course, what is it?”

“Was that story about your sister being sick a lie?”

“Yes, it was.”

“… And what you said about that mafia?”

“A lie too.”

“What about your injuries?”

“I never said I was injured. I did feel weak for a moment though.”

“… I see. You imitated well the Taipei accent.”

“Oh, but I am from Bird Island. That was true. My dad’s from Taipei.”

I heard him gasping.

“… Your dad? So you weren’t even an orphan.”

Was he still angry? I turned off the tap and took a towel.

“Yeah. I’m not an orphan. I lied to you. I kind of guessed I couldn’t beat you, so I used underhanded tricks. I wanted to win, like everyone else, you know.”

There was a silence during which I put on the tidy clothes the Nyomin had given us.

“Then why?” Jing insisted.

I glanced at him. He had finished his shower and had wrapped a towel around his body. His bald head was shining under the water drops. I put on my red knit cap as I confessed:

“No idea. I just did it.”

Jing stared at me, flabbergasted.

“What?!”

I smirked.

“But don’t think I’ve given up or anything. I will go to that training no matter what, you’ll see.”

Jing’s eyes glowed.

“How are you so confident? I mean… You weren’t supposed to help me. It’s unfair. I’ll go and tell the jury what happened—”

“Why bother? Didn’t you want to be a Hero?”

“I told you. Being a hero is not a title. If to become an official Hero I have to do things I don’t want to do, then I’d rather not. And I don’t want you to fail that exam.”

“Why, though? You don’t know me, and I lied to you.”

Jing shrugged.

“One action in a dire situation can tell you about a person’s nature more than a thousand greetings at the school’s gate. That’s what my aunt says.”

I stared at him. Then smiled. At least my yellow ribbon had fallen in good hands. Jing added, pondering:

“You’re just the kind of brazen guy who acts and thinks later.”

I jerked up.

“Eh?”

“I mean, the way you made up a story to keep me from attacking you, as if you already knew how sensitive I was to people bullied by hoodlums, then you gave up on your yellow ribbon, just like that, without even knowing why, and then you tried to retrieve the situation by cheating in front of the Bloody Cook. To be so impulsive by nature… it’s amazing.”

Huh… Why did it feel like I should feel insulted? I cleared my throat.

“Okay, well… Anyway, Jing, don’t say anything to the jury. I have an idea,” I declared raising my forefinger. “I’ll be sure to pass.”

“What are you gonna do?”

Already by the door, I grinned.

“Well, I may be impulsive, but I didn’t place first in the first test for nothing, right? I’m a genius, after all. Wait and see.”

* * *

As soon as I entered the room Gilda had led me into, Iker the Mantis’ statement was categorical:

“It’s a no, Armoon Men: we’re not the only ones deciding if you can pass or not. If you don’t fulfill the requirements, you won’t pass.”

Yet again, why was he mangling my name? I protested:

“I did fulfill the requirements to an extent. I left the forest with three ribbons. And I didn’t say anything about the first test to anyone.”

“That wasn’t a requirement, it was a deal we made to let you pass the first test, not the second one.”

“…” My lips went up innocently. “Well, but the bug still happened.”

“Blackmailing your examiners won’t help you, young man.”

My smile faded. Dammit. Had I been too optimistic? Iker sighed, putting down his cup of tea.

“I don’t have time for this now. Tim and Cynsea will soon arrive with the other candidates. Gilda, why did you bring this boy in here?”

The Bloody Cook glowered at me.

“He said he had something important to tell you about the examination. I guess he’s just wasting our time—”

“Wait!” I intervened. “I have something to say! Sir! Did you consider the possibility that there could be people among the candidates that can’t distinguish colors?”

There was a silence. Then Iker shook his head and stood up.

“No, I didn’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that a Hero has to overcome their disabilities the best they can. If I had considered color-blind people, I should have also considered people with spider phobia, germophobia, deaf people, and who knows how many other things… There is a boy among the candidates whose eyes can’t see anything but some kind of energy links, and he still was one of the first to come back to his base with the three ribbons. So, that’s how it is, Armoon Men.” He stopped before me, looking at me with his sage expression. “No more excuses, no more tricks.”

He was done talking. I felt down as I muttered:

“Yes, sir.” There was nothing more I could do, was there?

“Cynsea’s arrived,” Gilda said, glancing at the window.

The old man nodded, and as he walked out of the room, he added:

“Don’t give up until you get the results, boy.”

I managed a weak smile and gave a nod. Iker the Mantis wasn’t that bad of a man. Minutes later, the three groups of candidates had gathered in the large cafeteria of the red base, putting the tables and chairs away. Lifeforce was everywhere. I was feasting on it as I walked among the people, looking for Arkifa. I found her sitting at a table, in the company of two girls. Apart from some bruises she had already covered with bandages, she looked fine. She even seemed to have made friends. Phew. I wouldn’t have been able to ever look at Ashooka again if his girlfriend had suffered a major injury.

“Candidates!”

The sudden voice made me stop halfway and turn. I couldn’t see a thing over the heads of the other candidates. I may be tall compared to Ray, but a bunch of candidates there were just giants.

“Candidates!” It was Iker’s voice. “The second test of the examination is over! I’m glad to see that almost everyone came back on their own. Sadly, nine people had to be taken to the hospital of the reserve, three of them severely injured, but I was informed that they will be up and about soon…”

A movement on my left distracted me as Noah laid his elbow on my shoulder, whispering:

“Hey, stupidstar, I asked that baldy about what happened. Why did you do something so stupid?”

“Because I am stupid. You didn’t pick on him, did you?”

Noah raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Just a bit?” I glared at him. He slid his hand over my neck. “I just did this, then this.” I felt a surge of energy going through my body, and I think my muscles relaxed. “Normally, people just beg me for more when I do this, but Jing just told me to get lost. Some temper he has. The fatty from earlier too, he was putting a good fight. Guess the candidates are not that bad.” He released me as he confessed: “But you’re the one who interests me the most.”

Because I wasn’t that much affected by his crimson fire, huh?

“Sorry, you’re not my type,” I replied.

Noah gaped at me in shock, then snorted:

“You… I don’t mean it like that!”

Some candidates around us hushed us with exasperated glances. Iker the Mantis wasn’t the one speaking right now. The voice was feminine, quiet, but clear. It wasn’t Gilda’s: her voice was curt and hoarse; nor Cynsea’s: hers was loud and always cheerful. She was saying:

“… to forty-two candidates. Please sit down all of you. Come to the front when your name is called.”

Forty-two candidates? Weren’t they supposed to be sixty?

“Aaron Braveiro!” Cynsea called.

As we all sat down on the wooden floor, I was finally able to see our jury. Iker, Tim, Gilda, and on her side, a woman with two low, long black braids. I immediately fell for her hairdo. Maybe I was just a fan of pigtails. Who was she, anyway? The Nyomin judge? I had missed the introduction because of that crimson guy beside me…

Aaron Braveiro, a guy with a black hat, stopped before her.

“You were one of the first to find a ribbon, possesses good agility, and came somewhat prepared,” the woman said. “However, you saw a candidate that was in great danger and didn’t go help her, only thinking in winning and hence acting against the Heroes’ principles. In the end, you came 33rd to the blue base, without any ribbon. For all these reasons and after a long discussion, the jury has decided to give you a second chance next year.”

The black hat guy trembled a bit as he accepted a green badge. Bluntly put, he had been rejected. Then the next ones followed, one after the other.

“Aiden Beverley!”

… had tried to bribe two candidates into giving him the ribbons, using his position as a rich businessman’s son. Rejected.

“Aishah Suzuki!”

… had successfully brought the three ribbons to her base, fleeing the best she could from dangers. Admitted. Ranked 39th. That was the blondie of the sleeping gas, I realized. So her name was Aishah. She was grinning happily as she was holding her orange badge.

“Akito Smith!” … had accepted Aiden’s bribe, because his parents worked for Aiden’s father and he didn’t want them to lose their jobs. Rejected. Try again. “Amaia Vasilevsky!” had successfully brought the three ribbons to her base, but had stolen Crystal’s particles from the roots, intending to sell them in the black market. Rejected and sanctioned. “Ander Ibarra!” had pressed the help button of his badge when he was attacked by a giant spider during the night. Rejected. Try again. “Ariel Yamada!” had kept running away from danger, found four yellow ribbons, but then lost all of them to another candidate. Rejected. Try again. “Andrea Sisalik!”

The green dreadlocked girl from the Champion Institute stood up and stopped before the Nyomin judge.

“You didn’t try to find the ribbons, instead looking for other candidates who had them, but you controlled well your strength and succeeded in bringing the three ribbons three hours after the test had started. Admitted. Ranked third.”

Andrea took the orange badge with a curt nod. That reptilian-eyed girl was intriguing me more and more…

“Armen Moon!”

I jumped up. I knew my heart would have been pounding in my chest if I had been alive. I nervously came to the front as I heard some whispers:

“That guy’s the one who got first place in the quiz.”

“There were thousands of questions, how did he even answer to everything?”

“Some guys are so lucky.”

I stopped before the woman. She was prettier from up close. I smiled at her painfully, like saying: I’m rejected, right? She declared:

“You stole two ribbons from a candidate, tricked back another candidate, yet helped her, and finally found three ribbons, but lost one in the end and were one of the last candidates to go back to the base. For all these reasons and after a long discussion…” she paused, “the jury has decided to accept you.”

I froze. What?

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

The Nyomin judge raised her eyebrow, then handed me an orange badge.

“You are ranked last, the 42nd. Congratulations.”

Eh.

Eh?

Eeeeh?!

9 Roommates

“Over here, Armen!”

Noah was waving at me from one of the four bedrooms in the third-floor hallway. Maybe to avoid problems, the organizers had separated us between admitted candidates and rejected ones. Since only forty-two of us had “fulfilled” the requirements of the test, the bedrooms on the other wing of the base must be crammed full.

There was having quite a fuss in front of Noah’s bedroom, though.

“Let us pass, you bastard!” a brown-haired guy was complaining.

“Don’t wanna. I already let the colossus in, and he takes half of the room.”

“Nonsense! Sasha is not that big.”

“Sorry, crimson guy, but you’ve gotta let us in,” Leon said; his face was still masked. From what the Nyomin judge had said, he had evaluated his opponents’ strengths very accurately, and he had been ranked 24th. He went on: “We’re nineteen boys in total. The other room is full. And the third room has been squatted by the girls.”

There were twenty-three girls admitted as EPHT trainees, and I had wondered how they would fit in two bedrooms of ten people… So, in the end, they just stole one room from the boys. Noak tsked.

“So what of it? What do I get if I let you guys pass? Oh, but Armen, you’re different. I’ll let you pass if you crawl in.”

He grinned at me as I stopped by the group. I grinned back.

“Do I have to lick your feet while I’m at it, perv?”

“I’ll kick your face if you do.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Are you aware he’s bullying you, Forty-second?” Leon groaned.

“Haha. He’s totally not. He just fell for me and doesn’t want to admit it.”

They all snorted in disbelief as Noah’s jaw dropped in indignation. A tall black-skinned white-haired afro guy with sunglasses whistled, impressed.

“Whoa, the Forty-second’s really holding his ground against the Twenty-first.”

“You think so?” Noah replied. He put his arms on fire, and the seven of us flinched backwards.

“Hey, Forty-second,” the brown-haired guy grumbled to me, “if you’re smart, don’t tick the Twenty-first off. That guy’s from the Champion Institute. He’s crazy.”

“Oh? But I’m crazier than he is.” I made my way to Noah and stood before him. “Noah. I challenge you. The one who blinks last decides who can sleep in the bedroom. What do you say?”

Noah blinked, a bit fazed.

“Your challenge is lame.”

“Oh? Are you saying that because you think you will lose?”

“Let’s do it,” he replied.

I grinned, then turned to the others.

“You guys, you are the witnesses.”

“What if you win?” the afro guy asked. “Will you let us enter?”

“Of course, I’m not a bully like Noah…” The crimson guy nudged my head. “Ouch… Heh. I’ll just have you introduce yourselves. Don’t wanna sleep with strangers.”

They agreed. Then, on three, Noah and I looked at each other in the eye and began the challenge. I was sure to win. A strange silence filled the hallway. The other rooms were almost totally silent, proof that all the candidates were worn out. And there Noah and I were fooling around, staring at each other.

“It’s been a full minute already,” one of our witnesses whispered.

I smirked. Heh. Noah looked like a madman, his eyes bulging out like that. Suddenly, he puffed out his cheeks, tilted his head, pulled out his lips in a hilarious grimace. When the first witness burst out laughing, I couldn’t help it: I laughed too.

“You blinked, I win!” Noah snickered.

Did I blink? Well, even if I didn’t, I was still laughing, and I couldn’t protest.

“His way of laughing sure is odd…”

“Sure is…”

The door in front of us flew open, and Andrea Sisalik appeared, barking:

“Shut up, boys, and go to sleep! Noah, stop fooling around!”

Noah had turned a little pale.

“Don’t get mad, Andrea—” The door slammed shut. “Geez… Anyway, come in, all of you.”

The eight of us went into the bedroom. The “colossus” they had talked about before was already sound asleep despite the ruckus. Picking my idea, Noah ordered us to introduce ourselves. Did he proclaim himself our leader or something? Anyway, after everyone chose his bunk among the five bunk beds, he said:

“I go first: Noah Sarpong, from the Champion Institute, eighteen years old. I want to go to the training because I don’t want to be at the CI, that is, the Crapperific Institute.”

The brown-haired guy went next:

“Azwyne Liepa, from Nyomin High, seventeen. My father is an Independent Hero, and I want to become one too.”

“Oh? Is your dad famous?” the white-haired afro guy asked.

“W-Well… His Hero name is Liepa Dove.”

“Never heard of him,” a muscly hawk-nosed guy said as he sat down on his bunk. “Zacharias Karr, twenty, unemployed. I’m from Yokohama. I want to have a well-paid job.”

“Sounds familiar. Leon Sakamoto, eighteen, unemployed, looking for a job.” Was he, really?

“Sean Bensaïd, fifteen,” a freckled boy said. “I’m from Jianshan, my parents are Nyomin Heroes, and I’m actually a Nyomin candidate, but I chose to take this examination out of curiosity.”

What?! We all stared at the boy. Well, he didn’t steal someone else’s place, since the jury had only admitted forty-two out of the sixty candidates they should have normally accepted. Were the rejected candidates’ results so bad? Or was it that the cute Nyomin judge had been a bit too strict? Anyway, fortunately, Arkifa and Nina had passed, I had passed, as well as Leon…

“To be honest, I was quite disappointed,” Sean added. “Apart from some exceptions, you guys won’t be able to compete with the Nyomin trainees at all.”

There was a tense silence.

“He’s looking for trouble, isn’t he?” Noah commented.

“He is,” I approved.

“Totally,” Zacharias grunted, standing up.

“Calm down, guys-tachi, calm down,” the white-haired afro guy intervened. He was tall, skinny, and wore a stylish tight-fitting pajama, which reminded me I hadn’t even thought about bringing one for myself. “Let’s not fight tonight. I’m sure Sean-kun didn’t mean it this way. Now then, let me introduce myself. I am Ilija Guiomar Molinelli, twenty-three years old. It seems like I’m the oldest one here, so you can call me big bro! Shashashasha!”

Ilija’s way of laughing was weirder than mine, and even weirder than Linah’s. I smiled.

“I always wanted to have a big bro.”

“Shashasha! Is that so? Armen-kun, was it? Then call me big bro all you want.”

“Big bro. Why the kun?”

“Shashasha, it’s an affectionate honorific from my hometown. I am from Yokohama just like Zacharias, by-the-bye.”

That wasn’t surprising, considering Yokohama was just about two hundred kilometers away from here and was the most populous city in the peninsula.

“Guess it’s my turn!” The one who spoke was wearing a white helmet. I remembered him. He was the boy who had come up to me when we were about to get on the bus and leave Nyomin University. So he was able to speak, after all. “Oliver Picasso, thirteen. My power allows me to connect minds. I think some of you guys already know why I’m wearing this helmet: it’s because, when I’m not wearing it, you can hear my thoughts.”

He took off his helmet and grinned at us. There was a silence. I heard some snorts.

“Isn’t it a bit embarrassing, sometimes?” Azwyne asked. “When you see a girl you like or a guy you hate…”

Oliver grinned, and there was another silence.

“Shashasha! It is, it is!” Ilija then approved. “Wearing a helmet all the time must be tiring.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, kid, I’ll just knock you out if you annoy me,” Noah said.

I looked around, confused. Was I supposed to hear that kid’s thoughts? Finally, Oliver’s eyes turned to me.

“There’s only one person who seems not to hear my thoughts in this room, and that’s you, Armen Moon. I’d want to know why.”

I smiled, embarrassed under my roommates’ gazes.

“I don’t have a clue. Did you say something interesting just now?”

“Oliver is now thinking you must have some kind of protection around your mind,” Sean said.

“He just thought that you must have cheated during the first test,” Noah added. “Is that true?”

“What?” I froze.

“Shashashashasha, I don’t think Armen-kun would do something like that,” Ilija replied cheerfully. “He seems so innocent, does he not? Well, you didn’t introduce yourself yet.”

Why was he so optimistic about me? I cleared my throat.

“Armen Moon, seventeen, I’m a telekinetic, and… I’m a musician. Actually, I released an album with a friend last year—”

“It’s not the time to do your self-promotion, stupidstar.”

“I was just saying.”

They laughed. Then we all turned to the last one of us, the colossus.

“Sasha Devkota,” Azwyne snorted. “I heard he knocked out several candidates. Can’t believe he’s sleeping with all this noise.”

“A true hero,” I nodded, impressed.

“Shashasha! We’d better do the same!” Ilija said. “Nice to meet you, all of you! I hope we will have fun during those two months of training together!”

When he lay down on his own bunk, his feet were sticking out.

Sean, Leon, and Zacharias had chosen the top bunks; Azwyne, Oliver, Ilija, Sasha, and Noah were in the bottom bunks. I was going to go up to my own bunk when Noah grabbed me by the wrist.

“Stupidstar, where are you going? I beat you to your challenge, didn’t I?”

I narrowed one eye. What was he planning?

“You did. So what?”

“You said: the one who blinks last decides who can sleep in the bedroom.”

“I… did say that. So what?”

Noah smirked.

“You must be tired. I won’t prevent you from sleeping… if you promise something.”

I wasn’t tired at all, so why would I? I was a bit annoyed.

“What promise? Did you not have enough with one kiss?”

“Stupidstar, if you keep hitting on me, I’ll beat you up.”

“So scary. So? What do you want?”

“A free meal. No, wait, you’ll pay a meal to all our roommates who want to join. Tomorrow at noon, at Somerville, Coquelicot Square.” He loosened his grasp. “Don’t let us down.”

Did he seriously think I was rich? Someone turned off the lights as soon as I reached my bunk.

The silence fell in the bedroom. I soon heard snores and regular breathings. Everyone was worn out after the test. I switched on my phone, then checked my messages. There were only three of them. One was from Linah:

‘Yesterday, Linah, 12:31: How was the first test?!! Tell me!! Did you pass?’

Oh, right, I had forgotten to check my messages before getting on the bus yesterday. I answered:

‘Armen, 23:43: I passed! 😱😁😁😁’

‘23:43: I ranked last’

‘23:43: But I’m happy 😄’

She didn’t answer. She probably was tired from the train and already asleep on Phoenix Island. That was what I thought until I read Ray’s message:

‘Yesterday, Ray, 11:50: Oh, Armen, they just informed us that our phones won’t work on the Phoenix Academy’s grounds. So if I don’t answer your messages, you know why. I hope you are okay!’

I pouted. Did that mean I wouldn’t be able to use my phone either once I would get there?

The last message was from Zeeta.

‘Zeeta, 23:39: How are you doing?’

‘Armen, 23:46: I passed the test! 😁😁😁’

His answer came right away:

‘Zeeta, 23:46: As expected from my music partner 😎’

‘Armen, 23:47: You believed in me more than I did! As expected of you too! 🎔 🎔 🎔’

‘23:48: I’m last ranked though 😅’

‘Zeeta, 23:48: So many hearts are bad for my heart… 😳’

‘23:49: First ranked and last ranked... You sure like the extremes 😂’

‘23:49: Btw, I hope your fellow candidates aren’t bullying you. If you need help, let me know.’

I bit my lips, muffling a chuckle. If Leon was Zeeta, it only would make sense he would talk about bullies after seeing Noah’s behavior. Also, how did he know I had come first place in the quiz?

I cast a glance at Leon’s bunk. Even though he was covering himself with his blanket, I could guess the light of a phone passing through. I typed:

‘Armen, 23:51: Did you think of the possibility I could be the bully?’

‘Zeeta, 23:51: lol’

‘23:52: You should be back to Farskyer tomorrow morning, right?’

‘Armen, 23:53: Yes, at ten o’clock, normally. I have the water train at seven o’clock in the afternoon.’

It was at six o’clock, actually. I just lied to see if Zeeta would correct me, but he didn’t, surely thinking I would check again the schedule. I couldn’t think of a way to make him reveal his identity… I gave up. After all, he was the one who was hiding.

‘Zeeta, 23:55: How about we "eat" lunch together tomorrow? So you can tell me about the tests.’

He was clearly trying to break Noah’s plans. I rolled my eyes.

‘Armen, 23:56: I’m in! 😍 But what about your job?’

‘Zeeta, 23:57: Don’t worry, I’m done for now. Let’s meet at noon in the Old Docks, in front of your old house.’

What was he planning, really? I was intrigued.

‘Armen, 23:59: Works for me 😄 But if some bullies follow me, what should I do?’

He took some time to answer:

‘Zeeta, 00:02: If that happens, let’s invite them.’

So he did want to meet Noah as Zeeta. I smiled.

‘Armen, 00:03: Okay 👍😊’

‘00:06: Sleep well. I’m gonna spend a night meditating surrounded by weirdos. See u tomorrow!’

‘00:07: 👈 Or rather, today.’

‘Zeeta, 00:07: 😂 Sweet meditations.’

I breathed in a long streak of lifeforce, then looked back at the phone. Azritz hadn’t said anything, but just in case she couldn’t sleep, waiting for news, I wrote to her too.

‘Armen, 00:12: Big sis, I may be a genius after all. 😮 Is it contagious? 😷’

I laughed silently. I was well aware I was far from being one.

10 Undead hearts rock!

“Shashashasha! Wake up, everyone! Come on, wake up!”

I was planning on faking I was asleep to skip breakfast, and judging from the grumbles I heard cursing Ilija, it seemed that I wasn’t the only one.

I opened my eyes and only then noticed there wasn’t any window in the room. I had spent the whole night with my eyes shut, circulating my deathforce along with the path Ray’s cousin had created, listening to my roommates’ snores… And not only that. One of them talked in his sleep. It was Oliver, the kid who apparently shared his thoughts with everyone. He said, ‘water, Angelika, water…’, and much to my surprise, I heard the same words repeated by two other roommates. Maybe Azwyne and Zacharias? I couldn’t tell, but it seemed the kid was able to influence people even in their dreams… Fortunately, undead seemed to be out of his reach, and I was quite happy about that.

“Wake up, wake up!”

“Shut up,” I grumbled. I covered myself with the blanket again, but Ilija knocked on my bunk.

“Armen-kun, the bus will set off in twenty minutes!”

“That said, why are you wearing your red knit cap even when you’re sleeping?”

I sat up and lowered my eyes to my roommates. Only Oliver and Ilija were still there. I hadn’t even realized the others had already left. I may not be able to sleep at all, but sometimes my head—or more exactly my core—stopped analyzing my surroundings. Also, the fact that Ray hadn’t been nurturing my necro-bond for two days now probably didn’t help. I answered Oliver’s question:

“My mom knitted it.”

The kid snorted with laughter.

“And so you wear it all the time? You’re weird.”

“Shashasha, you must love your mom a lot!” Ilija said.

I smiled as I landed on the floor.

“Yus. But, kid, you’re weirder with your helmet.”

“Well, that’s true,” Oliver admitted. “But it’s necessary if I don’t want to drive everyone mad. Well, except you… Excuse my curiosity but do you have a mind power or an amulet that protects your mind? If it’s not too indiscreet…”

He sure was polite. I shrugged as we left the room to go down to the first floor.

“Nope. I said it yesterday: I’m a telekinetic.”

The cafeteria was noisy. Well, the admitted candidates were the loud ones, but those who had failed to pass were gloomy. Actually, most of them had already got on the buses. I waved at Nina and Jing, and passed by Arkifa saying quietly:

“Morning, Arkifa. When I heard you were in fourth place, I almost had a heart attack. Do you transform into a dragon or something?”

Arkifa chortled.

“Not quite.”

“…” It seemed that she didn’t want to talk about her power. I said cheerfully: “Anyway, congrats.”

“To you too!”

The girls sitting beside her were staring at me with a mix of curiosity and mistrust as if they were afraid I would steal their heroin. I sauntered to the exit.

“Armen-kun! What about your breakfast?” Ilija asked, surprised.

I raised a hand.

“I pass.”

It was drizzling outside. The Nyomin judge with the cute braids was answering to a little group of candidates and pointing at a bus while holding a black umbrella with her other hand. She sure liked the black color.

“This bus is for the admitted candidates,” she said as she saw me approaching. So the other two vehicles were for the rest.

I smiled.

“Thanks. Also, thanks for yesterday. I was almost sure I wouldn’t pass.”

“Mm… Armen Moon, right?” Heh. She remembered my name. “Let me ask you something. Did you already know Jing Ferrier and Nina Clover before the tests?”

“…? No. I first met them the day before yesterday.”

When her purple eyes pierced me, she reminded me of Arkifa.

“You do help others very easily, don’t you?”

I swallowed. Was it a compliment? Was it a reproach? I couldn’t tell. I rubbed my neck, forcing a smile.

“It’s not like that,” I assured. “I only help people I like, so you could say I fall for others pretty easily. Especially when it’s a cute and mysterious person. Like, I would have helped you if I had met you in that jungle too.”

For a moment, we only heard the distant voices of the candidates muffled by the rain. Did I say something weird? Well, I did: I had just called the Nyomin judge cute. If she got angry at me and decided to take back my badge, that would be bad.

“No offense intended!” I hastily added. “I was just saying I’d probably help you—”

“Thanks, but realistically your help wouldn’t be needed.”

“Haha, that’s so true.”

“Also, being nice to people is good, but being too gullible can be a fatal flaw.”

Was she referring to how Aishah Suzuki had deceived me and attacked me with her sleeping gas?

“Being too gullible,” she repeated quietly, “can ruin relationships too. You can see someone as a good friend, even as your best friend or your lover, only to realize later you have been deceived.”

I frowned, troubled and also annoyed by her words.

“That… I may be gullible sometimes, ma’am, but the people I call my best friends… they won’t ever betray me. I know that for sure.”

The Nyomin judge was looking at me as if weighing me up.

“Then it’s all good. You should get on. It’s raining.”

“Ah… Yeah.” Why the hell did I get so worked up? “Then…”

I headed to the bus. Geez, what was with that weird conversation just now? I was about to get on when I received a call. If I hadn’t been just checking the weather forecast on it, I wouldn’t have seen it, since I had turned off my ringer. I stopped dead as I saw who was calling.

Darkness12.

I took the call and hastily stepped away.

“My Lord? What’s up?”

« Mmph. Armen, right? »

“Yeah, since you called me, it should be me, right? Did something happen?”

« Mmph. »

Huh? Was he sulking for some reason? Then a thought crossed my mind, and I grinned.

“Could it be you’re worried about me? Hehe, my Lord, you are worried about me, I’m happy!”

« Shut up. I guess you passed. »

“Well, since I’m a genius. Heeheehee…”

« Geniuses don’t giggle like idiots. And… I didn’t call you for that. » Liar. « Did you see Lizzie? »

I frowned one eyebrow.

“Lizzie? You mean your wife? Should I have seen her somewhere?”

« She’s the Nyomin judge, idiot, you can’t possibly have missed her. »

I froze. That beauty with black braids that was holding an umbrella next to the red base was…

“Your wife?!”

I couldn’t help but blurt it out loudly then corrected:

“Ah, sorry, she’s not your wife, since you guys got divorced.”

« Armen… » The Lord’s voice sounded harsh on the other end. « I have to tell you something that could hurt your pride very badly. Are you ready? »

I swallowed hard upon hearing that.

“N-No… I’m not. What is it?”

« Yesterday, Lizzie came to my house. »

“…” Huh. “Are you saying I shouldn’t flirt with her because she’s your ex-wife?”

« What nonsense are you spouting? »

“Haha… Nothing. By the way, my pride’s still intact.”

« That’s because you are slow to catch on. Yesterday morning, Lizzie went to my house and saw the photo you gave me for Christmas, she noticed you, and recalled you were a good friend of Ray’s. That’s probably why she let you pass. » I gasped and heard a chuckle on the other end. « How’s your pride doing? »

“… It’ll survive, I think.” But I was a bit hurt and disappointed. Had my performance in the practical test not been good enough? My eyes looked hazily at the jungle through the silent drizzle. “Did you call just to tell me that? You’re so cruel, my Lord.”

« I told you I wouldn’t forgive you easily for messing with my son’s safety. Anyway, the truth hurts but is always enlightening. So? How’s Lizzie doing? »

I glanced around, looking for the Lightning Veil, but she was nowhere to be found. The remaining candidates were already leaving the red base, led by the Independent Heroes. My lips went up.

“Aha… Now I get why Ray is good-looking and kind-hearted. Thank goodness he doesn’t take after his father.”

« You insolent brat! I can be kind-hearted too! »

“Oh, sure. That’s why you gave Ray a freezer for Christmas. What a wonderful gift.”

« … I won’t argue with the likes of you. Anyway, drop by my house in the afternoon. I have something important to discuss. »

He hung up. Yet another appointment. When was I supposed to gather up my luggage? Annoyed but a bit curious, I shoved my cell in my pocket, then got on the bus with the others. There were still empty seats by the window, and I sat down. Shortly after, Noah settled down beside me without a word. There was a silence, then:

“How about we switch places?”

I snorted loudly in disbelief.

“Seriously…” We looked at each other. Why did he even sit down beside me? There were other empty seats by the window… Was he really bullying me? Or was he just bored without me? I managed to compose myself and smile at him. “Let’s rock-paper-scissors it. If you win, I’ll never sit by the window ever again; if I win, you give me your earphones.”

He smirked.

“Works for me, but don’t ever break your promise. And don’t say it like you’re going to win.”

“Then… Rock, paper, scissors!”

I played paper, he played rock. Phew. Without a word, I held out a hand. He put his earphones on it with a grimace. I connected them to my phone, and as the bus was setting off, I began to listen to one of my favorite music, hoping Noah would leave me be, and he did.

At the rear, the new Independent trainees were cheerfully chatting among them.

“And those berries turned my skin blue for at least five hours!” a guy was saying.

“Those were Aotama berries, didn’t you know?”

“I was so hungry…”

“Shishishishi!” That was Ilija laughing heartedly.

“BE QUIET!”

The Bloody Cook glared at the tall white-haired afro guy, who bowed his head saying earnestly:

“Sorry.”

Under Gilda’s surveillance, the voices turned into whispers. After maybe half an hour, Noah grumbled.

“Why do you keep looking at me sideways?”

I smiled.

“Ah, you noticed.”

“I’m not blind. What do you want, stupidstar? I’m poor, so I can’t rock-paper-scissors things as thoughtlessly as you do.”

I grinned.

“How about this, then: if you win, I’ll let you have the earphones back, if you lose, you’ll have to listen to the music I choose for you.”

Noah grimaced.

“Huh? Why should I listen to your music, stupidstar?”

“Are you saying you’re gonna lose?”

Noah looked bored, but I guessed deep down he was excited. He was fond of challenges. He sat straight on his seat and faced me.

“Okay, let’s do it. Rock-paper-scissors!”

My rock destroyed his scissors. I chuckled.

“You suck at this game, don’t you?”

“That can’t be. You’re cheating. Rock-paper-scissors!”

We did it seven times in a row before I lost. Noah let out a ‘ha!’ of victory.

“My kudos, perv. I only know one person who sucks at this game more than you.” And that was Louise.

“Curse you…”

He grabbed my neck and pushed me forward until my head hit the seat in front of me. I complained:

“Don’t be a sore loser, hey, are you a bully?”

“I am. Got a problem with that, stupidstar?”

“Yes. I don’t like bullies.”

“Oh? Now you show your true colors! I figured you had something against the Champion Institute’s students after all. Rich kid.”

“No, it’s not what I said.” That guy… Did he have some kind of Champion Institute complex? I breathed in his lifeforce. He was tasty. I reluctantly asked: “Can you let go of me?”

“…” He released me. Then, I put one of the earphones in his ear and he jerked up. “The hell is that music?”

“Heehee… Mad Archers’ new single: Dementia Love.”

“…” Noah stared at me then laughed. “You’re crazy, man. Is this really music?”

“It’s electronicore.”

“Electrowhat? Honestly, I just listen to the same old songs someone gave me when I was a kid. Don’t know if they’re good, but at least they are music.”

“Don’t dismiss things just because you don’t know them,” I replied. “I’ll have you listen to Kokoro Madness too. Oh, and Deberek, The Beaks, The Zarkingou, those are pop music. You don’t know them? Even the Diabolo Girls? The Crazy Dolls?”

“Ah, that last name rings a bell.”

“You see? Now, now, let me introduce you to the world of music,” I said excitedly.

Maybe because of his scary power and the harsh education he had received in the Champion Institute, Noah was bossy, easily offended, and a bit aggressive, but even so, I quite enjoyed making him listen to songs I loved. He kept saying “what is this garbage” again and again, but he didn’t take off his earphone, so I guess he wasn’t suffering that much. I even took advantage of the moment and slipped in a song Zeeta and I had made.

“How’s this one? It’s called ‘My World Is ODD’.”

“… Meh. They’re just barking and playing the violin, right?” That hurt. I saw it coming, though, since Noah was being negative even about the Crazy Dolls. He went on: “I can’t catch a single word… Wait, I just heard someone yell ‘stop the ruckus, brats’. Can they even sell that?”

I remembered that my former neighbor, Beethoven, had lost it in the middle of the recording. I laughed.

“No, I bet they can’t. Oh, but the group has a song much more relaxed. This one. The guitarist is singing solo. I like his voice a lot. What do you think?”

“It’s just music.”

So this one at least wasn’t scaring the bully, huh? I grinned.

“But the guitarist’s voice is good, isn’t it?”

Noah shrugged at my insistence.

“Not that bad.”

“Heh.”

I tried hard not to look at Leon sitting behind us.

* * *

“Stupidstar, I endured your music, you’d better buy something good now.”

“How about ramen?”

“On reflection, I’m gonna eat stupidstars for lunch.”

“Don’t, I’m toxic.”

“Toxic food is the best.”

Haha… Was he serious? I shook my head as I was walking with Noah along the docks. Behind us, Nina and Andrea were talking with Azritz about powers…

How did it turn out like that?

Well, it was pretty simple: when I arrived at the Nyomin University, Azritz excitedly invited me to lunch to celebrate my feat, then Noah meddled and said that I had promised him a free meal, which I hadn’t but well. Fortunately, all my roommates but Noah declined the invitation, since they had to prepare their luggage for the EPHT training.

As for Nina and Andrea… When I had seen the lucky girl looking at the city’s map, I had thought that, being from the countryside, she had nowhere to go, and I had happily made her come along, to which the girl with green dreadlocks had said immediately: “I won’t let you guys do anything to Nina. I’m coming too.” She didn’t even know her since the day before yesterday, and she was so overprotective? Well, I think she also was worried about Noah. After all, they knew each other from the Champion Institute.

“Luck power, so interesting!” Azritz was saying behind. “In all the years I worked for the Nyomin, I’d never heard of that. You see, not all the powers are flashy, some are even hard for the user to notice, but that doesn’t mean they are not powerful!”

She sure was excited.

“Oi, stupidstar,” Noah said glancing regularly over his shoulder. “Know what? Your sis is totally my type.”

I would have punched him if Azritz hadn’t been there.

“Too bad, she’s got a boyfriend,” I lied. I ignored Noah’s disappointment and turned to the left, entering Market Street.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Noah asked.

“Why did you choose the Coquelicot Square in Somerville, yesterday?” I replied, curious.

“Oh… I just heard someone say it was full of expensive restaurants. I’ve never been there. Actually, I barely know the city.”

“Is that so?” I asked. “But isn’t the Champion Institute in Farskyer City?”

Noah snorted.

“You really don’t know a thing. The Champion Institute is on a small island on Windchester District’s shore. Students can’t go out. Well, at least orphan students can’t.”

I frowned. So Noah was an orphan. Jing and Arkifa were too. How many more orphans were there among the Independent trainees? Noah added scrubbing his nose:

“I’ve been in the Champion Institute since I was seven, so I don’t know much about the outside world.”

I widened my eyes, gazing at the ground as I walked and thought: seven? And he had never been outside the Champion Institute since then? A kid surrounded by other kids like Andrea and him, always reminded by his teachers of his dangerous power… I shut my eyes, trying to choke back my tears.

“Huh? Stupidstar? What’s with you, all of a sudden?”

I opened my eyes, just in time to see a hooded man jump off my old house’s staircase and lunge at Noah. He punched him hard. Azritz screamed, Nina and Andrea stopped, Noah’s hair, eyes, and hands ignited in crimson fire… I gaped at the scene.

Zeeta?

11 A truth in a lie

“What did you do to the Straw Head?!”

Zeeta was out of control. I don’t know how I managed to grab him and stop him from punching Noah again. The passersby in the market were doing their best not to look at us too much. Small street fights like that were their everyday life.

“Straw Head, let me go, I’ll punch that bastard! You were about to cry, weren’t you? What did he do to you?”

“Who’s that madman?!” Noah roared, clenching his flaming fists. His nose was bleeding.

I tightened my grip around my friend’s chest.

“Zeeta. Calm down. Please.”

“Noah,” Andrea said, stepping forward. She turned her back on Zeeta and me and stared at her comrade. “Absorb your fire.”

“But that guy punched me out of the blue!”

“Absorb your fire,” Andrea repeated. “What if you touch a passerby by accident? Do you want to go back to the CI?”

“…! N-No, I—”

“Not that I would miss you,” she added, turning around. She stared at Zeeta then at me. “Who’s that violent person?”

The question was quite direct.

“You…”

We all turned our eyes to Azritz. I saw Zeeta flinch as my big sis stopped in front of us, her brows furrowed.

“You,” she repeated, “you’re the boy from last summer. Zeeta O’Bell. What are you doing here?”

If I hadn’t been holding Zeeta, I think he would have run away. Azritz’s eyes were looking at both of us, increasingly worried.

“Sis,” I said. “Zeeta’s the friend I told you about at the University. He invited me to lunch, since I’m going to be gone for two months. We’re really good friends. I… didn’t know you knew each other,” I lied. Actually, I already knew about their first meeting in the hospital: according to Zeeta, Azritz had told him to stay away from me, and he had pushed her angrily against a wall. It was only natural that they wouldn’t get along. Obviously, I knew they would clash if they were to see each other again. Yet I had led them into the same place not because I wanted it, but because I couldn’t say ‘no’ to either of them. I released Zeeta. “Sis—”

“It’s all right,” she cut me off. “I won’t make a scene now. Andrea, Nina… and you guys, let’s go grab some yakisoba at Rémy’s.”

She strode firmly in the street, heading to the stall that sold fried noodles. After a hesitation, Andrea pulled Noah’s arm, and Nina and both of them followed. Zeeta cursed under his breath. I patted his shoulder.

“Zeeta, aren’t you a bit overenergized today?”

“Why didn’t you tell me your sis would be with you?”

“… Sorry, she invited me, and I couldn’t say no. She’s my sis, after all.”

“You could have told me.”

I stared at him. He was pale.

“Is it that bad?”

“Well… Now she will get worried about you again, wondering if you’re still in a gang or something. Also, she might think I’m stalking you.”

Was he not? I shook my head, too much worried to even joke about it.

“Zeeta. Azritz won’t do anything. Let’s explain it to her. Come on.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. She hates me.”

“She doesn’t. She’s just… wary of you.”

“She thinks of me as a gangster who can’t control his temper… and well, that’s what I am. I attacked Noah because he was bullying you.”

“Oh, he wasn’t bullying me just now. I was just thinking about his life in the Champion Institute, and it made me sad.”

Zeeta widened his eyes.

“What?”

“CI’s life must be hard.”

“You’re too much sensitive!”

“Heh. By the way, just now, you made a blunder.”

“What?”

“You said ‘Noah’. You’re not supposed to know his name, right? Haha, it’s hard to be a spy, isn’t it?”

Zeeta froze. Then cupped his hands over his face.

“Oh, gods. Since when do you know?”

“Ever since I heard you talking with Nina at the university? No, but I wasn’t sure of it until we wrote to each other last night, because you were trying so hard to be Leonardo Sakamoto—”

“Aaaaaaah!” Zeeta suddenly crouched in the street. “I just want to dig a hole and crawl in!”

I smiled.

“Didn’t you promise on New Year’s Day you wouldn’t kill yourself? Also, you were working for your boss, weren’t you?”

“Well…” Zeeta looked up. “I was, for the first test. Ray told me about the examination, and I managed to enroll, then I told Loki, and that host of mine told his big brother he wanted to give it a try too, so I had been charged by Nick to look after his lil bro, but Loki didn’t make it to the second test… he kept saying it was all the fault of that obnoxious blondie that blocked all the screens…”

“Oh, my.”

“So, after that, I thought I could surprise you, but the right moment never came, and… Anyway!” he said, jumping to his feet. “If you knew I was Leon, then, when you said you were Armenilda, and when you asked me about the volleyball, and when you said I had a good voice, on the bus…” I laughed as he went on: “You even insisted on inviting me to lunch at the University just now, saying ‘Leon, it will be fun if you come too’!”

“Well, I thought it’d be funnier if Leon and Zeeta were to meet each other.”

“I can’t meet myself, Straw Head.”

“But two Zeetas must be even funnier than one.”

“I can’t split into two. Anyway, you were making fun of me.”

“Not at all. You hid your identity first.”

“That’s true, but—”

“Oi, oi, oi! Oi, oi, oi, young ones!”

We turned to the clear voice. It was the Seafud’s owner waving at us.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but there you have! One takoyaki each for free. I kind of miss hearing you two playing the violin and the guitar at your home, Armen. How’s the new house? Doing well?”

“Thanks, Mr. Tako!” I said, taking the takoyaki. I had nicknamed him this way ever since I had been in middle school and had got the habit of eating octopus balls at least once a week at his stall. I knew Mr. Tako wasn’t fond of giving away his food for free, so I put two Corns on the counter. “We’re doing fine! Has the house been already rented?”

“A young couple rented for two weeks, but now it’s empty again, I think. Oh, it’s a good thing you came, Armen. I have something for you. Leire!” he called out as I raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Can you fetch the envelope I put into the blue drawers the other day? Ah, here it is, here it is. It arrived in your old mailbox last Saturday. I didn’t know your new address, and the sender’s address doesn’t show either, so I was wondering what to do.”

I took the envelope. I didn’t need the sender’s address to guess who it was: I immediately recognized my grandpa’s handwriting. I smiled.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Tako.”

“You’re welcome. Come eat takoyaki whenever! Welcome, young ladies!” he then said to a group of customers. “What will it be?”

As I was swallowing one octopus ball, Zeeta pulled at me and led me onto my old house’s staircase.

“Armen, what are you doing?!” he whispered. As he took the spit of takoyaki from my hands, it dawned on me.

“…! Crap. I’ve eaten his takoyaki so many times, I just forgot I couldn’t eat anymore. His takoyaki were so good. What a shame I can’t taste them now… Aw.”

“Aw?” Zeeta echoed, surprised, with his mouth full.

“I think I just stained my Nyomin shirt with sauce. I’ve got a hole in my chest and it went through—”

“You what?!” Half of his takoyaki flew out of his mouth.

“By the way, weren’t you vegetarian, Zeeta?”

Or was seafood okay? Without answering, Zeeta glanced at Market Street then pulled at me. He took out a key, put it into the lock of my old house’s door, and opened it. I was astonished.

“Why do you have my old house’s key?”

“I made a copy last year, just in case. Didn’t think it would still work. Seems they didn’t change the lock.” He pushed the door shut.

The inside was smaller than I remembered. Even though I had left this apartment less than two months ago, it felt strange to see it again.

Zeeta suddenly placated me against a wall.

“Show me.”

He was devouring my covered chest with anxious eyes. Holy gods, what was with the awkward situation? I was a bit intimidated.

“Er, Zeeta, don’t be that panicked, I won’t die from that, you know… Okay, okay, I’ll show you.”

I put down my grandpa’s envelope and pulled up my hoodie and shirt to show him my injury. Zeeta’s lips trembled into a fierce grimace.

“Who did this to you?”

“A cheebou.”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s a creature, Zeeta. A scavenger from the jungle. It was drooling at me and all, and its antler pierced me when I was taking the ribbon wrapped on it.”

There was a silence, then:

“Who’s the idiot who put a ribbon on that cheebou? I’ll kill him.”

“Please don’t, Zeeta. And I have no idea who it was,” I added, letting go of my clothes.

He was trembling.

“I’m so worthl—” He paused. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect you. I tried to find you in the jungle, but I bumped into a very annoying pursuer and—”

“What are you apologizing for? My injury will heal if I eat well enough.”

“You should tell the Lord Necromancer.”

“That…” I averted my eyes. “I don’t want to.”

“Why? Ray’s not here. How do you know your body will hold until you meet him?”

“I know I can count on you if I’m running out of lifeforce.”

Zeeta breathed in, dumbstruck, then sighed and shook his head.

“Please, Armen. Go see him.”

He wouldn’t let it go, huh? I shrugged.

“He told me to drop by in the afternoon, so I guess I can tell him.” Maybe.

Zeeta’s relieved eyes turned back to my chest and darkened as he pulled up my clothes and took a look again. He was shocked. If he had seen the injuries I had gotten from my killer a month ago, what face would have he made? I was glad he didn’t see them…

“I failed as your stalker.”

His statement was so sudden I couldn’t help but snort with laughter. How could he say funny things like that with such a straight face? After some seconds, he smiled slightly.

“If you’re running low on energy, just tell me.”

He was saying that, in all honesty, when the door brusquely opened. Azritz appeared on the threshold, looked at us, saw Zeeta’s hands pulling up my clothes, widened her eyes, then totally froze, stricken by the scene.

My first reaction was to pull down my hoodie and hide my injury.

“Sis?”

“Wh-Wh-What…”

She was stuttering. She didn’t see the wound, did she? If she did, then what should I say? That she had imagined it? No, but what if she started to have suspicions while I was away at the training? She would keep wondering if her lil bro was injured, or worse, dead, then…

“What are you doing in there?” Azritz finally asked in a wobbly voice.

In the possibility that she hadn’t seen my chest wound well, what was the best thing to do to appease her suspicions?

“Ah, we’ve been found out.” I managed a smile. “It’s just like you think, sis. I love Zeeta. So please don’t hate him?”

* * *

Zeeta’s mind was a storm. His heart was pounding against his chest. His head was about to turn into a volcano.

He shakily locked the door then slid the key under it. Azritz and Armen were already downstairs, talking.

‘I love Zeeta.’

Zeeta covered his face with a hand. His cheeks were on fire. He knew Armen had been worried that his sister could have seen his injury. He knew his friend had just panicked and said the first thing that had crossed his mind, as usual. And yet…

His heart couldn’t help but pound like a hammer. The voices in the market were but vague sounds through a wave of boiling water.

He hadn’t thought about it, but dragging Armen into an empty apartment, then pulling his clothes up… The scene was so blatant that Armen’s sis couldn’t possibly imagine the truth.

‘I love Zeeta.’

Zeeta bent over as if he had received a punch.

“Oh my gods,” he gasped. “What’s wrong with me?”

It had been this way since long ago. Armen’s words could stir him up as nothing else could. Why? He had no idea. But could it be because…?

He started going down, step by step, his eyes stuck on Armen’s relieved smile. His sis didn’t seem to have seen his injury. Good.

Armen laughed:

“Heh, sis, don’t say that! It’s not like I didn’t want to tell you. Actually, I like girls too, but Zeeta and Ray are my top priorities.”

Badump. Zeeta’s heart leaped again. Top priorities… Azritz cleared her throat.

“But Ray’s not gay, Armen.”

“Haha, is that so? Well, I think Zeeta isn’t either, but it doesn’t matter! Actually, I’m not just gay, or just hetero, I’m everything, sis. Why should I close doors? I open them all!”

“That’s why you can’t focus, lil bro. It’s all right if you love a guy, but don’t cheat on him. People who cheat on their loved ones are the worst!”

Armen laughed again. Then, seeing Zeeta reach the street, he said cheerfully:

“Zeeta! Let’s go eat lunch!”

Armen’s face showed all his friendliness without restraint. Always so devil-may-care, yet so sensitive to others and so full of life despite being dead… At that moment, Zeeta was sure of it. He didn’t keep stalking Armen just because he was the first real friend he had made. He wasn’t obsessed with him just because he didn’t want to lose him. Yes, in fact, he also desired to be by his side every day, he also wanted to be part of his life… Was that love? Not the plain love he had been singing in his songs, but the real one, the love of someone who wanted everything from someone else… No, but that wasn’t love! That was just being possessive, that was just being a monster. So gross, so gross, so gross…

“Zeeta?” Armen asked, raising an eyebrow.

“So gross!” Zeeta suddenly burst out. And he broke into a desperate run moaning: “The heeeeeell’s wrong with meeee!”

“…”

“Did you guys just break up?” my big sis cleared her throat.

I blinked, confused.

“I… don’t know.”

12 Let’s go!

«Dear Armen,

I hope that you are doing better then your bald grandpa, which would not be a poor achievement, since I am as blissful as ever, apart from the fact that I miss your grandma, but the Holy Gods will make up for it one day, so let’s worry about the young generations!

I heard from your dad that you are going to take an examination to become a Hero. I could not stop laughing when I learned that! My grandson, you sure are a box of surprises :) (that is a smiley, you young ones write them like that, don’t you?) Anyway, I am cheering you up from my small cottage. Do not forget what I taught you about ‘not losing oneself to the world’. Being a Hero is not a simple job, but I am sure you will do well. And do not forget that a job is a job: don’t do more than you are paid for! My grandpa may have been a slave in the Farskyer Peninsula, but his children are not anymore! Also, have fun. You of to make up for spending your childhood in a lighthouse by having a lot of fun now. I am not saying that your parents didn’t do a good job bringing you two up, certainly not, they are two wonderful people with two wonderful children, and I am happy and proud to have you all as my dearest family.

The cucumbers are growing, and I ate a lot of oranges in December. The winter sun is very nice on Bird Island. I remember you said once it was cold in Farskyer City. You are as sensitive to cold as my daughter-in-law, so keep yourself warm. After all, health is the most important thing after food and a family’s love.

Lately, I have been doing a lot of things. I mended all my sockets, your grandma would probably say I did a sloppy job, lol (you write it like that, don’t you? If right now you are laughing at your poor grandpa, pull your ears for me). I also went to a convivial poetry contest the other day, in the neighborhood. I always liked poetry, rhymes and the like, and ever since you told me you started to play the violin again, I remembered I always had an artistic side too. Your grandma used to say so. She also used to say that, as long as you do something, it means you are alive! And it is so much fun to be alive, is it not, my dear grandson? So I’m keeping myself busy!

I could be writing for the whole night, but I guess that you would get bored reading the endless ravings of an old man, so, Armen, I wish you all the best, follow your ambitions to the end!

With love,

Your grandpa Kim.

PD: Let me add a little poem I just wrote, so you might remember your hometown and think of visiting your grandpa one of these days:

The sun rustles on the leaves,
The wind shines on feathered wings,
Quietly everyone weaves
Joyful smiles and happy dreams.»

My smile was as joyful as the ones in Grandpa’s poem.

I laughed quietly. Azritz said Grandpa’s writing was as chaotic as mine. Could be.

I folded the letter, put it into my bag, then looked around. Ray’s house was silent. I had cut the power and water, and unplugged the freezer and the fridge, even the console game. I had discreetly thrown away the lizard and the bird Louise had put into the freezer in the basement, as well as the mouse she had added to her collection a few days ago. I had also dropped by the Lord’s, received a very important special mission, said goodbye to Arkill, Sora, and Louise, accepted an additional drawing from the latter, then came back to Ray’s to check on everything again… I adjusted my bag on my shoulder.

Yosh. I was ready.

To go to that EPHT training. I grinned.

“Let’s go!”

13 Discipline on the water train

The Financial District was full of skyscrapers, offices, and people in suits. I had never been in its water train station, and as I walked through the main entrance of the ornate harbor, I admired the spacious platforms, the high glass windows, and the old paintings. On the wall was written: «Westminster Hall». Below, there was a notice for tourists that went like this: «Before the Big Blend, the Palace of Westminster was a place for politics meetings located in a country named the United Kingdom. In 825 ABB, during the Fifth Earth Spasm, the renowned tower nicknamed ‘Big Ben’ was separated from the palace and relocated to Cambridge, about 400 km away from Mumbai, Hydra Continent. In 1688, the place was remodeled and became the seventh water station in the world, completing the Big Triangle with Buenos Aires and London and using the streams as means of transportation of goods. Only later on, in the 18th century, water trains for people transportation would appear.»

“Oooh,” I whispered, impressed. So water trains didn’t exist before the seventeenth century?

“It’s good to act like a tourist sometimes, but shouldn’t you be getting on your train?”

I jerked up, turned around, and saw Cynsea the Hypnotist. The white-haired merfolk was, as usual, in bikini. She was holding a suitcase. I smiled.

“Hi, Cynsea. Are you going to come with us to Phoenix Island?”

“Yep. Good to see you passed the practical test. But I’m serious, we’re gonna be late. The train is going to depart in four minutes.”

“Haha, don’t scare me, I came one hour earlier to be sure not to miss it. There’s plenty of time.”

“… There’s not. Seriously, my dear, we should hurry, there are only four minutes left.”

I straightened up, worried.

“But I’m pretty sure the train departs at seven o’clock.”

“No, no, it’s at six o’clock… Well, I thought so, but you’re making me doubt now,” Cynsea admitted, checking her phone. Then she froze and looked up at me. “Hey, Armen Moon. How do you know we’re going to Phoenix Island?”

I widened my eyes, suddenly realizing. Last night, I had texted Zeeta that the train was at seven o’clock… Could it be that I had believed it myself?

“Sorry, you were right!” I yelled as I broke into a run.

She followed me as a voice began talking through a loudspeaker. The water train was about to set sail.

“Tell me how you know!” she insisted.

“It was written on the document you dropped in Akiba!” I explained.

“…! Oh!”

Her luggage was heavy, and she was having a hard time following me. Without any word, I took her suitcase and kept running.

“Thanks!” she said.

Why did she arrive late if she knew the schedule? I guessed Heroes had their flaws too. Anyway, if it hadn’t been for her, I would still be reading notices for tourists right now, so…

When we arrived at the right platform, the train doors were closing.

Noooo! After everything I had been through to pass the examination, there was no way I would miss the train!

I reached a door just when the train was put in motion, suddenly releasing a lot of steam and rising on the water. From the end of the platform, a worker was waving us away. Weren’t they going to wait for the latecomers?

“Don’t go!” I begged, yanking at the door.

“There’s no use crying over spilled milk!” Cynsea cried out behind me. “Can you jump?”

I looked at her, confused.

“Where to?”

“To the rear. There’s a small deck. As long as we can get on, someone will eventually open the door from the inside for us. Come!”

We arrived at the rear the moment the train was setting off. I jumped, grabbed the bars of the deck, then passed over them and fell over. I checked on my violin worriedly, but it was safe. Phew. Cynsea landed on the metallic boards with more elegance, and in the steamy air, she grinned.

“We got on!”

The train was gaining speed. I grumbled from the floor:

“What a funny way to get on a water train.”

She laughed as she crouched and began typing on her phone.

“It’s only my second time doing this. Don’t worry, I’ll text someone on the train and…”

She fell quiet when we left the harbor and a beaming sun welcomed us. I stood up and watched the train station draw away from us. Or rather, we were drawing away from it, from the skyscrapers of the Financial District, and from Farskyer.

That water train was faster than the ones I had taken so far in Odessa to go to Bird Island; it was wider too, about ten meters, I think.

Cynsea was still focused on her phone when I heard mine buzz. I checked it.

‘Sis, 18:01: I finished early today, I may be able to see you off! 😍’

‘Armen, 18:01: I’m already gone.’

‘18:02: I got the hour wrong. The train was at 18. I almost missed it 😅’

‘Sis, 18:03: Whaaaaaaat’

‘18:05: Seriously?’

‘Armen, 18:05: Seriously. 😅😅’

‘Sis, 18:05: lil broooo....’

“Sorry it’s taking so long,” Cynsea suddenly said.

I had sat down against the railing. I smiled at the merfolk.

“It’s all right. No rush.”

As long as I was on the train, I didn’t care. I stared at my big sis’ last message. She was obviously stunned by my blunder. Was she going to say I was a hopeless guy? She didn’t:

‘18:08: Have a safe trip! Don’t forget to eat and sleep well, be polite toward your teachers and classmates, and try not to get in trouble.’

‘18:08: Also don’t bully others.’

‘Armen, 18:09: I won’t 😅’

‘18:10: I only bully my best friends 😊’

‘Sis, 18:10: Jerk. 😁 Poor Ray.’

‘Armen, 18:11: 😁 Take care, sis, love you 🎔 🎔 🎔’

‘Sis, 18:11: Likewise. 😙’

Zeeta had written me as well, ten minutes before the train had set off, asking where the hell I was. I answered: ‘Don’t worry, I’m on the train.’ Then I turned to Cynsea. It had been almost one-quarter of an hour since we had landed on that metallic balcony on the rear, and nobody had come to open the door. The train was crossing the Blazing Sea at full blast, and the merfolk was shivering while frowning at her phone.

“What’s taking them so long?” she muttered.

“Shouldn’t you put on something warmer?”

“Grr… I should. But I didn’t bring any winter cloth. They say it’s warm on Phoenix Island.”

Did she put into her suitcase only bikinis or what? I took out a hoodie from my bag and handed it to her.

“It’d be bad if they were to find me alone with a Hero frozen to death.”

After some hesitation, she put it on.

“Thanks. It’s really warm. But gods, I should be the one helping trainees, but you are always the one helping me instead.”

“That’s what Heroes do.”

“So cool.”

“You’re a Hero too, you know.”

“So true!” she laughed.

We smiled at each other, then we heard the sound of keys and the rear door opened. I saw a man about sixty years old stare at us with an annoyed look. Cynsea jumped up to her feet.

“At last! What took you guys so long? We were freezing out here!”

“I am most sorry about that, but it seems the train is lacking staff, so I had to come instead. Come in.” His voice was polite, but something in his expression didn’t quite please me.

“Are you saying you’re not a member of the staff?” Cynsea asked as the man was locking the door behind us.

“No. I’m Darcy Huang. I’m working for the Champion Institute and am looking after two Independent trainees on this train.”

I widened my eyes. Was he talking about Noah and Andrea? Mr. Huang’s eyes pierced me.

“If I am not mistaken, you are Armen Moon, aren’t you?”

“…!” How did he know me? I gave a nod. “I am.”

“Did you perhaps invite my two protégés to lunch today?”

He sounded accusatory. I frowned, puzzled, as we were crossing a large storage room.

“I did. Why?”

“… Mm. So they weren’t lying. You shouldn’t have done that. They used you to run away from my surveillance.”

He pushed a door, and we walked into a small room poorly illuminated. Two people were lying on the ground. One, with crimson hair, was muttering incoherent words; the other one was a girl with green dreadlocks staring at the ceiling… I stopped dead. Something was off.

“Noah? Andrea? What are you doing in here?” I asked.

Cynsea’s eyes grew wide.

“They have been drugged? What’s the meaning of this?”

Mr. Huang locked the storage door behind us and stepped forward into the small room.

“Don’t worry about them, they can’t hear you right now. They just took their medication. As you probably know, Champion Institute’s students are all people with severe troubles and dangerous powers. We decided to give them the chance to take part in this training, but only under some conditions.”

Noah’s eyes were hazy and weren’t moving, as if he was in another world. A cold claw sank in my heart.

“Medication? What’s that bullshit?” I grunted. “What the hell did you do to Noah and Andrea?”

“This is not the way to talk to your elders, is it?” Mr. Huang stopped by the next door, unlocked it, and waved us forward. “Don’t try to understand our methods: they are not meant for young men like you, but for people with dreadful backgrounds. I advise you not to get close to those two.”

I was horror-struck. Cynsea tugged on my arm. Though she looked gloomy, she said nothing, perhaps realizing she had no authority over that man. I had no idea what Andrea’s power was, but Noah had indeed a fearful power. Still, to think he was being drugged by the Champion Institute the same way his power drugged others… That was madness. To think that he had to be under that horrible man’s supervision… That made me sick like hell.

“And the fact that you’re ruining their life, that doesn’t bother you, bastard?” I suddenly asked as Mr. Huang was locking the door behind. Cynsea jerked up beside me. We had walked into some sort of spacious living room luxuriously decorated.

The CI’s supervisor slightly smirked.

“Cynsea Rayava. You should punish this impudent brat, or is it that Independent trainees are allowed to denigrate people?”

“That’s… I’ll look into it,” Cynsea cleared her throat. “Then, if you excuse us.”

She pulled at me again, driving me away to the next train car. Mr. Huang sat down on a sofa, lighting a cigar. He commented:

“They have ruined people’s lives before they ended up in our Institute. Our citizens’ safety is more important than their freedom, isn’t it?”

Cynsea turned pale. Trying hard not to step back and punch that old geezer, I smiled at him and said:

“Asshole.”

When we walked out of the living room, Cynsea grumbled along the corridor.

“Don’t worry, Armen, I’ll do something about it. I’ll tell the instructors once we’ll get to Phoenix. That Mr. Huang may be their supervisor, but Noah and Andrea are also Independent trainees. He can’t do as he pleases.”

Her talking relaxed me a bit. There were doors along the corridor. Halfway, I heard a loud knock on one of them.

“Armen?! Did I just hear correctly? Is that you?”

I recognized the voice immediately.

“Zeeta?! I mean… Leon? Are you… Are you locked inside?”

“Ah, yes, that… But more importantly, I thought you weren’t on the train!”

“Sorry, I thought the train was one hour later, and I barely made it. I texted you just now.”

“They took my cell. I’m punished.”

Cynsea snorted.

“Holy Crystals! What’s wrong with this train? First the CI’s students, then this… Don’t move from here, I’ll be right back!”

“Who’s that girl, Straw Head?” Zeeta asked behind the door as Cynsea started running through the corridor.

“Oh, she’s Cynsea the Hypnotist. An Independent Hero and a nice person. She was late too. Say, why did they lock you up?”

“… Bah.”

“…” Bah? I stared at the locked door. “Zeeta. Could it be you tried to make them stop the train and wait for me?”

“…” I heard him sighed loudly. “Kinda. The one in charge said it was not possible, then Sean Bensaïd, that cheeky Nyomin trainee, said something like you faked your way through the tests and chickened out at the last minute, and I lashed out.”

So it was like that. I sat on the floor. After a silence, he added:

“They told me I won’t get a second chance, so… I’d better behave if I want to stay with Ray and you.”

“That will be hard.”

“Yeah… Wait, what? It’s not like I get in fights every day!”

He punched the door. I laughed.

“You’re so violent, Zeeta. I’m scared of you sometimes. Maybe we shouldn’t unlock that door.”

“… Are you serious?”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! How could I be scared of my boyfriend!”

“… You should.” Zeeta said after a silence. “Also you’re the one who scares me.”

I raised my eyebrows. Zeeta was acting strange.

“Do I?” I said hesitantly.

“I’m kidding.”

“You’re not.”

“Heh. Even when there’s a door between us, you can read my thoughts… No, but if you could, you would pity me right now.”

Zeeta was definitely acting strange. Was it because of what had happened today? Thinking about it, I had lied to Azritz, making her believe that Zeeta and I had a more intimate kind of relationship than we really had, and he had run away screaming ‘gross’. I laid a hand on the door, troubled.

“Are you perhaps… mad at me for what I said earlier to my sis?”

“…”

“I’m sorry. I was afraid that she could have seen my injury and—”

“I know.”

“… If she were to find out… I don’t even want to think about it.”

“I know. I’m not mad at you. It’s just…” He paused. “I was caught by surprise.”

I smiled.

“Oh, could it be that you want to be my real boyfriend? Then go ahead.”

“Wh-Wh-What the hell are you saying?!”

I laughed, then got more serious as I said:

“But I think you should find someone else, someone with a heart… a bit more livelier. How about Erma?”

I heard him grumble under his breath.

“Not my type. Besides, she likes you, not me.”

“Does she?” I chuckled. “And there I thought she had taken me for her punching bag—”

“And you like her as well.”

I froze. What?

“You even wear the witched necklace she gave you for Christmas.”

“Heh. True. But I’m also wearing the twin earring you and I bought together. And I don’t take off any of them, not even to sleep, since I can’t sleep,” I joked.

“Moron. Don’t say those things in a train full of Hero trainees.”

Ops. There was a silence. Then I confessed:

“Well, I do like her. But,” I smiled a bit sad, “I won’t ever tell her. Since I’m you know what. Yeah,” I added with a dramatic sigh, “Death’s not all sunshine and lollipops, but I still can have a lot of fun! … Ops, I just said it again. I’m alive, I’m alive,” I sang softly to anyone who would listen.

“Straw Head, I…” Zeeta paused, then grumbled: “Someone’s coming.”

As soon as he said that, the door at the end of the corridor opened. Cynsea was coming back, bringing along a middle-aged, energetic woman with blue, electrified hair. I stood up as the latter said with a curt voice:

“Armen Moon?”

“Yes, it’s me…”

She took out a key and opened the door. Was she going to free Zeeta?

“Get in.”

I blinked.

“Me?”

“Yes, you. For coming late and insulting Mr. Huang, you’ll stay in here with Leonardo Sakamoto until we reach our destination. Your cellphone, please.”

I sighed, switched off my phone before giving it to her, then got in. A masked Zeeta had stepped back in the small room. It was a normal compartment as the likes one would see on the land trains. I sat down, then to my surprise, saw Cynsea enter.

“I came late too, so I’m punished too!” she said cheerfully. “Am I welcomed here?”

An A-rank Hero was being punished by that blue electrified-haired woman? Who was she? I smiled at Cynsea.

“Make yourself at home.”

The door was locked, then the footsteps died away.

“She sure has a lot of presence,” I said. “Who is she?”

“You didn’t recognize her?” Cynsea grinned. “She does have a lot of presence indeed. She is Angela Lasri, the Soft Queen, one of the Nine Crowned Fairies working for Lovecryce.”

“Lovecryce?”

Cynsea widened her nostrils in disbelief.

“You don’t know who Lovecryce is?”

“Ah… Y-Yes, I… think I know?”

“The Nyomin’s director.”

“Oh, Lovecryce! Now I remember!” So the Soft Queen was working for the same person as Ray’s mom…

“Hahaha, I can’t believe you got first place in the quiz! Lovecryce has been the Nyomin’s director for about twenty years now. You were lucky to find that bug…” She suddenly paused, looked at Zeeta, sitting on the bench in front of us, then cleared her throat. “I mean, you being a genius and all…”

She had just made a blunder and didn’t know how to fix it, huh? I chuckled.

“Don’t worry. Leon and I are good friends. He won’t say anything.”

“Huh? You two are friends?”

“So it was a bug after all,” Zeeta said behind his mask. “I was afraid you had turned into another person for a moment, Armen. My mind is at ease now.”

“Hehe, being a genius is a dreadful experience. I don’t want to go down that path ever again,” I confessed. “Last night, I was thinking that, if I were to become smart all of a sudden, I wouldn’t know what to do with all the knowledge. I mean, knowledge is supposed to be gained little by little, ain’t it? If I were to receive that all at once, everything would pile up in a queue, and I’d become crazy. That’s what I thought.”

“You still think stupid things. My mind’s so at ease,” Zeeta reaffirmed.

“Mine is too.”

Cynsea laughed heartedly.

“I think I’m gonna have more fun with you guys than with that ruthless fairy! But if you two are friends, I hope I’m not intruding.”

I grinned.

“Not at all! The more the merrier.”

And also, the more people there were around me, the more wasted lifeforce there would be… The Lord had tried to patch me up, but I was still losing more lifeforce than usual. I wondered if I could hold on until we arrived at Phoenix Island. If not… Well, I always had Zeeta’s lifeforce. I felt a bit ashamed to always rely on him like that, but… I also knew he didn’t mind.

After all, he was my beloved stalker.

I saw his luggage and grinned at him. He had brought his guitar. Fortunately, apart from our phones, the Soft Queen hadn’t confiscated our belongings. I took out my violin.

“Do you want a concert, milady?” I asked like a gentleman.

Cynsea looked at us alternately, amazed.

“Whoa. Are you serious?”

“No, music’s not serious!” I laughed, taking my bow. “It is fun!”

Just like life was.

14 Freedom in the Blazing Sea

About three hours after setting off, the water train stopped at a station midway the route. Shortly after it set off again, a sudden thought pierced my mind.

“Was that the Tchartia station?!”

Zeeta gave me a curious look.

“No idea.”

“It was, I think,” Cynsea said. “Why?”

My forehead hit the compartment’s window as I gazed intently at the horizon. Zeeta snorted.

“Don’t break the window, Straw Head.”

“But, Zeeta! The Keelung Lighthouse is not far from here!”

My friend’s eyes opened wide.

“You mean… your parents’…?”

I nodded energetically.

“I didn’t know we would pass so close to my home!”

“Oh!” Cynsea exclaimed. “So the Keelung Lighthouse is around here? Do you think we’ll be able to see it?”

I grimaced, hesitant.

“Perhaps not. It depends on the currents. The Tchartia station floats and goes where the currents go, so sometimes it is visible from the lighthouse, sometimes it’s not.”

Anyhow, I was pretty sure the window was facing to the south, so if the tower was somewhere near, we would be able to see it. The mere thought filled me with excitation. Cynsea shook her head.

“Currents sure are difficult to predict in the Blazing Sea. The last time I took the water train to London, the currents were so strong that the train had to forcefully brake using a mechanism of balloons. Believe it or not, we had reached a speed of three hundred sixty kilometers per hour! We all survived,” she informed.

Thank goodness we weren’t going at such a crazy speed now, or else even if the lighthouse had been in sight, we would have left it behind in no time.

After a long moment searching for a lighthouse in the dark sea, I got bored and looked up at the distant stars. How many times had I laid on the lantern room’s floor with my parents and my big sis, gazing at the constellations…

“Oh!” Zeeta suddenly exclaimed. “Over there!” There was a bang. “I said don’t break the window, Armen…”

The first and only thing I could see in the night was the bright, distant light sweeping the waters. But it was enough for me to know it was indeed the Keelung Lighthouse.

A strong emotion, mix of joy and nostalgia, ran through my body.

“Such a shame you can’t tell them hello,” Cynsea said.

“… Mm,” I nodded.

I was indulging myself in past memories when Zeeta snorted with laughter. Cynsea and I looked at him, surprised. What was he laughing for?

“Ah, sorry, sorry,” he said. “It’s just… Well, your dad is on the top of the tower.”

Eeeeh?! Zeeta could see him from that crazy distance? Then I thought of his power. He could hear from far away, so obviously he…

“Did you hear him say something?!”

Zeeta let out a short chuckle and began singing with a deep, energetic voice:

“Freeedom, freeedom! We all came to say hi! All the fishes, crabs, and cherry clams are coming for you now!” He burst out laughing. “Your dad’s a great baritone! Also, nice song. Is it a traditional one from Bird Island? … Armen? Why do you look so shocked?”

I swallowed hard.

“Nah, it’s nothing. It’s just… I was the one who composed that song when I was a kid. Can’t believe he’s still singing that,” I added in a mutter. “It’s kinda embarrassing.” And moving too.

“Embarrassing? It’s a nice song!” Zeeta assured. “Better than some melodies you tried to make me play last year.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Heh—Wait, aren’t you just implying I didn’t get any better from when I was ten years old?!”

“I only said ‘better than some melodies’. Don’t be susceptible, Armen.”

“Well, I won’t then.”

Zeeta chortled at my fast consent.

“By the way, Straw Head, I wanna hear you sing the whole song.”

“No way.”

“I’m serious.”

“I said no way. You’ll laugh at me.”

“Maybe, but it’s a super cool song! How was it again? Freeedom, freeedom! We all came to say hi! All the fishes, crabs, and cherry clams are coming for you now! Freeedom, freeedom! Heh… It sounds so pure, I love it.”

“… You’re making me blush.”

Zeeta cast an eloquent look my way as if saying, ‘there’s no way an undead can blush’, then insisted:

“I want to hear it.”

So persistent… I guess he really liked the song? Despite myself, I was flattered.

“Then… huhu… I’ll sing my first single for you later.”

Zeeta’s eyes smiled.

“Looking forward to it.”

“You’re already laughing at me.”

“I’m not, I’m not.”

I turned a smiling face to the lighthouse that was falling in the distance and waved at it with my hand. Mom, Dad. Sorry I can’t stop the train to pay you a visit, but I’ll make sure to go see you soon. My dad had a magnifying vision. Maybe he would be able to see me from this distance?

15 The Nyomin trainees’ decision

The train finally stopped about two hours and a half later. I looked at the merfolk as she was brightening up after a short nap. She nodded.

“We’ve arrived.”

I had carefully put my violin back in its case. Cynsea gave my hoodie back.

“Thanks a bunch. I really should buy one of those one day.”

From her tone of voice, it wasn’t a priority at all. I smiled. Apparently, Cynsea had spent all her childhood underwater, in Tampa City, in the Wood Sea, and had since then grown used to wearing bathing suits everywhere she went.

I saw her take out a key and snorted.

“You had the key?”

She grinned.

“But of course. I’m in charge of taking care of you young trainees, after all, since I was selected as the IHA representative. Thanks for this wonderful evening, by the way.”

“You are most welcomed.”

“You’re totally sucking up at her now,” Zeeta sneered at me.

“I’m not! That’s rude, Zeeta!”

Cynsea laughed, stepped into the corridor, and turned around.

“You two sure are good friends. But I’m wondering, is Zeeta a nickname?”

I grimaced. I had accidentally called him by his real name a bunch of times in the evening. It wasn’t surprising that Cynsea had noticed. Zeeta didn’t seem to get nervous, though.

“It’s my name too,” he answered. “Zeeta O’Bell was the name my father gave me. The name Leonardo Sakamoto was given by my mother. I’m from a ‘di-namic’ family.”

“Oh! A di-namic family, I’ve heard of it!” Cynsea nodded, enthusiastic. “It is a common custom in Starland for each parent to give their child a different name and surname, it’s how it works, isn’t it?”

“Yep. That’s right.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I stared at Zeeta as if I was seeing a ghost.

“But then… who are you?”

Zeeta paused, then patted my head.

“It’s not amnesia, Armen, don’t worry—”

“I’m serious!” I complained. “Which one? Leonardo and Zeeta at once?”

“Actually, I’m neither of those. My real name is…” Zeeta averted his eyes, suddenly troubled. “Hilda Rocket.”

Cynsea burst out laughing. I rolled my eyes.

“Hilda Rocket? Stop kidding, man. Who’s that?”

“She’s a famous idol!” Cynsea said, laughing. “Anyway, stop fooling around. We’ll get off with the others. You don’t forget anything in your seats, right? Then let’s go.”

As we followed her through the corridor, I muttered:

“A dynamic family, huh? I thought ‘dynamic’ meant busy. I learned something today.”

“No. Di-namic is spelled with an ‘i’, and the ‘a’ is pronounced like in ‘name’,” Cynsea explained.

“Oh. I see. Guess that my family is free-namic, then. Actually, I’m Armen Moon, but my sister is Azritz Rizvi, and my dad is Jack Chen, and my mom’s Mirae Dewala, my granddad’s—”

Zeeta laughed, cutting me off.

“If you try to fool me, then find better names! Jack Chen? Isn’t that a famous actor?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not lying. My dad is really called Jack Chen.”

“Mm, now that I think about it, I’ve heard of such a naming system,” Cynsea said thoughtfully. “It’s a widespread custom in the Starwest… Belgrade, Qingdao… You’re from Bird Island, right? Then… could it be one of your ancestors was a slave from the Fisher Wars?”

“Whoa… How could you guess?”

Cynsea winked.

“Knowledge’s power, my dear.”

She reached one of the exit doors and opened it. Zeeta was growing more and more stunned.

“Your ancestors were slaves?!”

“Yep. My grandpa’s grandpa was a slave. Seems that his great-great-grandpa was a fisherman from Belgrade, he was caught by a corsair in the open sea with his dad and was sold on Bird Island to work in the field.”

“Oh… I thought your ancestors were all lighthouse keepers.”

“Not at all. Actually, my dad only thought of becoming a lighthouse keeper when he met my mom and they saw a notice in Taipei about the job. Actually, the only one to have passed the exam to be a lighthouse keeper is my mom. I never told you? Well, now you know,” I grinned.

Zeeta was lost in thought. Cynsea cleared her throat.

“How about we hurry up to join the others? The train is long, and we’re a bit far.”

I only then completely realized we had gotten off the train. Several doors away, the other Independent trainees were getting off as well. Some of them were carrying up to four suitcases or bags. Just for two months… Heh. They were so pumped up.

I looked around. It was pitch black almost in every direction. The ocean was complete darkness, the platform wasn’t lighted everywhere, and beyond, I could only see the distant lights of a road climbing the high hill.

I had read that Phoenix Island was like a turtle with long legs migrating around the Big Triangle Stream, pushed by the energy of its orange Crystal. The city was on the main island, in the middle, while the Phoenix Academy was on the head. So far, I couldn’t guess which island we were on.

“Oh, Armen, Zeeta,” Cynsea said halfway to the group. “About what we discussed earlier, about those CI’s students… Don’t tell anyone, okay? If the other trainees knew about that, some could have ill intentions and take advantage of their weaknesses. Those two kids… I know they are strong, but given their circumstances, they might need more psychological support than anything else.”

Zeeta and I looked at each other and nodded firmly.

“We understand.”

We finally reached the group. I was looking for Arkifa, when my eyes bumped into Noah and Andrea, not far away from Mr. Huang. I stiffened. Andrea had recovered her sharp gaze, while Noah, with his arms crossed, was making eyes at a group of girls. No one would have guessed that they had been flying higher than a kite five hours ago.

“Oh, stupidstar,” Noah said on seeing me. “I heard you had been punished for being late. You’re not much of a star anymore, are you?”

His hazy eyes, his expressionless face back then… I tried to forget all of it and managed a smile.

“That’s because I’m a moon, not a star.”

“So lame.”

“Haha.”

“Oh. I heard you play the guitar when I was walking through a corridor.” When he was going back from that dark room, that is…

“The violin, you mean,” I corrected him. “I’m the violin, Zeeta’s the guitar.”

“Zeeta? The one who punched me?”

I grimaced at his surly tone.

“Ah… No, forget that. I meant Leon.”

Behind his mask, Zeeta stayed silent. He didn’t want to interact much with the other trainees, did he?

“Everyone’s here?” a loud voice asked. “Then, follow me! We’re going to the training grounds.”

“That’s the Soft Queen! The Soft Queen!” were the whispers saying around me.

We were following the ones in charge, getting off the platform, when I saw Arkifa surrounded by four girls. I came up happily.

“Arkifa! Good evening! How are you doing?”

She was going to answer, when one girl of her entourage barked:

“Get off her back, you guys! You’ve been ogling her for so long already! You’re disgusting!”

I blinked.

“Eh?”

The other girls agreed with grumbles. Noah chimed in:

“What’s your name?”

“… Skylar Zhang. Why?”

“Actually, I was looking at you, since you’re the prettiest in the group.”

The girl gasped in shock. Noah guffawed.

“Hahaha, you fell for it!”

Skylar’s eyes suddenly gleamed with a red light.

“I’m gonna kill you!”

“Wow, what are those, laser eyes? You look like a lighthouse…” He jerked up, snorting. “Hey, that hurt! Relax!” I looked at him, intrigued. Did Skylar’s eyes just do something to him? He protested: “How can I look at anyone in this darkness, anyway? Now the only girl I can see is you.”

“Shashasha, Noah-kun, you’re a romantic, aren’t you,” Ilija commented cheerfully. The tall black guy with white afro hair was walking behind us.

“Oh, big bro,” I greeted him, while Noah was replying:

“What romantic, I was just stating the truth—”

“Cut the crap!”

Skylar’s scream was loud. The Soft Queen at the front spun around and shouted:

“Be quiet, trainees! Fights are forbidden for now!”

Silence fell on us. I had asked Cynsea the Hypnotist why the ‘Soft’ Queen. It seemed that that Crowned Fairy’s power was to transform temporarily almost any metallic solid or rock into aerogel. So it had nothing to do with her character.

We walked on a long dyke for a long moment. To our left, there was a field enshrouded in darkness and a high cliff; to our right, the waves were foaming against the wall.

Arkifa finally managed to reach me.

“Hello, latecomer.”

“Hello, goddess.”

“I’m no goddess.”

“Then why are they worshipping you so faithfully? Those girls over there.”

I made out Arkifa’s grimace in the dark.

“That’s… I think they just realized I’m strong and want me to protect them.”

She said that in a whisper. I smiled.

“I wonder how strong you are.” I paused. “How unbalanced is this world, isn’t it? You’re smart and strong. I’m stupid and weak.”

Arkifa snorted in laughter.

“That’s too pessimistic! It’s not like you.”

“Right,” I grinned. “But because I’m stupid and weak, challenges are more fun too. I promised Ashooka I’d protect you. So I’ll try my best.”

“… Thanks. I’ll try to protect you too.”

“Thanks. But no need, I’m immortal.”

“You wish!”

We arrived at a large beach next to a low building, a pontoon and a big boat. The organizers told us to form a line. We were all given flashlights attached to a headband. The Soft Queen started explaining with her curt voice:

“Let me introduce myself again: I am Angela Lasri, nicknamed the Soft Queen. I was charged with leading you to the training grounds and will be one of your instructors for this Experimental Program for the Heroes of Tomorrow organized by the Nyomin, and sponsored by the WHO. In case some of you do not know yet, we are in Phoenix, on the main island. In front of you, beyond the waters, you can distinguish the lights of the Phoenix Academy. That’s Yuutow Island. It will become your home for those two months of training. We were planning on making you cross to the island by boat, but the Nyomin trainees decided otherwise. Their first task was to choose the best way to welcome you, and they agreed on your first challenge.”

Her sharp eyes embraced us.

“You will have to cross to Yuutow Island and reach the Academy’s gates on your own.” That caused a bit of a commotion. “Be quiet!”

The silence came back almost immediately. The Crowned Fairy’s blue hair looked even spikier, her eyes even more piercing.

“All the luggage you won’t carry will be taken care of by the team. Once you reach the island, don’t try to relax, for you will have to deal with the Nyomin trainees. Their mission is to get your badges.”

Badges? I took out mine from my pocket. It was orange, with a ‘42’ written on it. So that’s why they had insisted on the bus for us to take our badges to the training…

“If a Nyomin trainee gets your badge and makes it to the gates with it, that will mean you will live in their house and will have to be loyal to them. They will become the leader of your party. So, consider this badge as if it was your heart, protect it, and give it only to the person you think you will be willing to work for. This will improve your teamwork and your appraisal capacities. This will also give you a chance to be integrated into the elites’ world and make contacts.”

Her talking made me frown. That gap she was drawing between Independent trainees and Nyomin trainees… I wasn’t expecting her to show it so blatantly. I felt uneasy.

“The training starts from this point onward. If you lose your badge in the sea or the woods, you won’t be able to get into the Academy, so don’t lose it. Also, if you cross the gates with your badge, you won’t need to swear loyalty to any Nyomin trainee, but you will also suffer the consequences of that choice. You choose your path. And remember: we, as instructors, will obviously use this first challenge to assess your capabilities and behavior, but this is also a way for you to meet the other trainees and get to know them. Keep in mind that you all will be living on the same island for two months. Everyone! I wish you an edifying training on Yuutow Phoenix Island.”

There was a tense silence, then Cynsea let out:

“Now please put away everything you think you won’t need during this first challenge, devices that are not water-proof, and the like. Please, this way! You may change into your swimsuits inside the building.”

“No need,” a black-haired guy just said as he headed toward the waters wearing clothes and carrying a small bag. “Just take care of my suitcase.”

I tilted my head. Wasn’t his face a bit familiar? In the darkness, we all saw him put a foot on the small waves. He didn’t sink. He kept walking some centimeters above the water. Was he a master telekinetic?

“Oh? Is that a hydrophobic power?” Ilija said with interest. I looked at him, curious.

“Hydrophobic?”

“It’s a dangerous power, because one can die from thirst, but I know of a person who can control it quite well and even use it to command streams of water. I’m talking about the Yokohama’s governor. I once saw him drive back an emperor seaworm from the shore. It was impressive to see.”

I widened my eyes. Seaworms were long, big marine creatures I would commonly see during my childhood, forming arcs in the deep sea. My mom called them blue dragons. As for emperor seaworms… I had only seen one once, and it had marked me for life. It was, like, ten times bigger than a normal seaworm.

“Your governor’s so cool,” I gasped.

“Shashasha, he is powerful, you can be sure of it, Armen-kun.”

“And who’s that guy?” I asked, pointing at the hydrophobic trainee with my chin.

“Ryu Buckbee,” someone answered behind me. I turned my eyes to the voice.

“Jing!”

The bald martial artist added:

“He’s sixteen despite his looks. He told me he was studying martial arts just like me.”

I looked back at Ryu Buckbee. He was walking on the dark waters without any fear. Where had I seen him again? Ryu Buckbee. Ryu…

Then it dawned on me.

“No way…” I snorted. Ryu, that teenager friend of the merfolk that I had traumatized last spring with my previous power… Ryu from the Black-Hearts. What was he doing here?

I frowned, lost in thought. Could it be the Sunclaw family had sent not only Lei, Axel, and Linah as Nyomin trainees, but also people from their gang as Independent trainees?

While I was daydreaming, the trainees were going one by one into the ocean as soon as they had checked everything they needed. I saw Andrea nod to something Mr. Huang was saying then head to the water. She was wearing her wetsuit, as usual, so she didn’t have to change clothes. As for me, I took off my hoodie, kept my shirt on, and put on my swimsuit. If I hadn’t known we were going to an island, I wouldn’t have brought it. With his flashlight, Noah lit my red, flowered boardshorts and said:

“Indianapolis.”

I rolled my eyes. Indianapolis was a famous and expensive island in the middle of the Frolic Ocean, where surf lovers from all over the world came to take the best waves.

I looked at his old-fashioned underpants and said:

“Perv.”

“I don’t have a swimsuit. By the way, if you get caught by a stupid elite, I’ll laugh at you, stupidstar. Well, I’m off!”

The crimson guy shamelessly headed to the water with nothing more than his badge fastened on his headband next to his flashlight.

“Sean Bensaïd.” The Soft Queen called out to the fifteen-year-old freckled boy. “As a Nyomin trainee, you will get on the boat and start the hunt with your peers at the same time.”

“Ah, can’t I start collecting badges now?” Sean asked, fiddling with a badge.

“You can once you put a foot on the island. Give that badge back.”

“Too bad,” he said, and he handed it back to Azwyne. Since the brown-haired guy didn’t look surprised, I guessed he had made a deal with Sean. Well, he most certainly wasn’t the only one to have already chosen his leader. Things weren’t as simple as they seemed. As such, it was to be expected that Ryu Buckbee would end up working under Lei or Axel, since he was a Black-Heart. As for me, I was obviously aiming for Ray.

Zeeta and I left our belongings beside Cynsea; the merfolk gave us a thumbs up.

“I will take care of your luggage and instruments. Don’t worry, and good luck.”

“Thanks!”

Without further delay, we walked on the sand and soon reached the waves. Water was already covering Ilija to his waist, and he turned to me, beaming.

“Armen-kun! It’s warmer than I thought! Shashasha!”

He began to back crawl leisurely like he was in a pool. When Nina passed by me, I asked:

“Nina! Will you be all right? Since you’re from the mountains…”

“Well…” The silver-haired girl smiled slightly. “I’m lucky, so if I’m going ahead, that means I won’t drown. I wish you good luck too!”

“Coming from you, that means a lot!” I smiled.

Almost everyone was already swimming toward Yuutow Island. Judging by the lights of the flashlights, some trainees were already halfway, and one of them had even caught up with Ryu. That must be the merfolk of the group. What was her name again? I remembered she had come after Zeeta when the Lightning Veil had given us our badges, and she had been scolded for being a bit too reckless during the practical test, but still passed and got twelfth ranked. Salazar. Yeah, I remembered: she was called Sasha Salazar.

The silence of the night was only interrupted by the ocean waves, the splashing of the swimmers, and a soft breeze.

As the water was slowly covering me, I thought about two things. First, I was a bit worried about the possibility that the patch the Lord had put on my injury would break in the water. Not only salt was bad for an undead, but if water were to fill my body, I would sink. And also… I noticed Zeeta wasn’t following. He had stopped a few meters behind.

“Zeeta? What’s wrong?”

“… Agh. Islands are such a pain.”

He paused, we looked at each other, and he finally confessed bluntly:

“Straw Head, I can’t swim. I never tried.”

I was astonished. He splashed the surface with a casual kick.

“It’s not like I’m afraid of water, it’s just that I’ve never tried. Oh well, but now I guess I don’t have much of a choice, I’ve got to learn. I’ll try to swim the doggy paddle. You go first. Sorry, your stalker won’t be able to follow you.”

I came back to him.

“No, no, no! Don’t try anything stupid. You could drown. As my dad says, the ocean is no joke. Can you even float?”

“… No idea.”

“Then don’t try. Also, Zeeta… I’ve heard stories about good swimmers who drowned because they tried to help others who couldn’t swim. So, if you want me to help, you will have to do as I say.”

“Er… Okay, but I didn’t ask for your help. And you can’t die from drowning, anyway,” he added in a whisper.

I widened my eyes then chuckled. So true. How could I forget I was dead? I clapped his shoulder.

“Come with me. I have a plan.”

We began to run along the water, toward the pontoon where the Soft Queen was embarking with her team, Sean Bensaïd, and all the luggage. I called her out:

“Soft Queen! My friend can’t swim. Can he get on board? Pretty please?”

The look she threw at me gave me goosebumps, at least internally.

“He can try to get on, but I won’t let him,” the Soft Queen said.

Cynsea had turned a bit pale. Zeeta snorted behind me.

“Straw Head… That was your plan?!”

I complained:

“Couldn’t you give him at least some floaties?”

“Floaties?”

“He means inflatable armbands, ma’am,” Sean said.

“I know what ‘floaties’ means.” The Soft Queen’s eyes scorned at him, then pierced me. “Then again, I won’t let any Independent trainee get on board. I’d advise you to think it over and find another way to help your friend. Is everything ready?” she added to the sailors. “Then, get going!”

My gentle approach didn’t work, huh. The boat soon drew away from the shore. It must be a crystal fuel ship, to go that fast… Zeeta laid a hand on my shoulder.

“Thanks for trying, man.”

I swallowed my disappointment, then smiled defiantly at the dark ocean and the lights.

“Find another way, huh, Your Majesty?” I turned to my friend, chortling. “Zeeta, I have a plan.”

“Again?! Give me a break!”

“No, no, this time…” I drew closer to him and breathed in his wasted lifeforce. “It will definitely work out.”

“…”

“By the way, your lifeforce is getting more delicious by the day. Did you change your diet?”

“… S-S-Straw Head. You will drive me crazy one day.”

His heart was racing, pounding against his chest. I smiled happily. Zeeta was living his life to the max, huh?

16 Zeeta’s past

Old Docks, year 2015 ABB (After the Big Blend)…

It was past midnight when Zeeta woke up to footsteps on the corridor.

He couldn’t possibly mistake his father’s footsteps. Not when he was coming back dead drunk.

His dad messed around with the keys, then cursed loudly, and banged at the door.

“Zeeta! ZEETA! Open the door!”

An inner voice was telling him: no, don’t open, Zeeta, don’t…

“ZEEEETA!”

Zeeta jumped up nervously to his feet, ran to the door, and opened it. His dad pushed him aside, grumbling with a gravelly, unsure voice:

“Worthless son. What took you so long?”

Zeeta silently glared at him through his lowered eyes. A strong smell of alcohol filled the room as his father stepped in. Zeeta turned to go back to sleep, but then his dad lost his balance and leaned on him. The boy couldn’t hold his weight, and both fell down.

“Zeeta… Damn you… Hic. Wait here. I got a call from your teacher. Said you’re skipping school because you were bullied by a girl.” Zeeta made an annoyed face. That girl he had seen as a friend had spread the rumor he was the son of a drunkard. His dad got wobblingly to his feet grunting: “Pathetic. My ten-year-old son, bullied by a schoolgirl? You’re more worthless than I am… Your grades were under average, hic, d’ya wanna stay a parasite all your life? Tomorrow you will go to school… And the homework… Do it now.”

“What?” Zeeta was amazed. Since when did his father care about his son’s school performance? Also, he was eleven years old, not ten.

His dad’s nervous hand pushed him.

“Do your homework now, you hear?! Do it or you’ll get a beating!”

It was way too late to be doing homework, but Zeeta still obeyed. He settled down at the low table and opened his maths textbook. While uncorking a bottle of liquor, his dad groaned:

“Whatcha doing, during the day, huh? Wandering the streets?”

“…”

“Hic. Gulp, gulp… Ah! Worthless brat! Such a worthless brat you lumbered me with, Adele you witch! If only he wasn’t mine! … What? What’s with that look? Focus on your homework! Or is it that ya too dumb to do it?”

His dad staggered closer. Zeeta flinched, his eyes fastened on his textbook.

“Do your homework!”

A jet of liquor spurted from the bottle his dad was holding while pointing at the table. It splashed all over his textbook and his clothes.

His dad didn’t even realize what he had just done… Zeeta couldn’t stand it anymore. He jumped to his feet, screaming to the top of his lungs:

“Stop drinking already, you damned drunkard!”

There was a brief silence, then his dad grabbed him by his shirt, his eyes shining with alcohol and anger.

“Ungrateful brat! I gave you a name, food, a roof, and you yell at your father like that!”

In the following minutes, neighbors only heard screams, insults, and blows as the father was beating his son the best he could despite being drunk.

* * *

The next morning, while his dad was snoring loudly, Zeeta left home with his school bag, but he didn’t go to school. Why should he? He just wandered in the streets, his mind stressed like hell. His body was hurting all over, but that was the least of his concerns. He could only think about one thing right now: he was scared. Scared to go back home. Scared to run away.

Fear, anger, and sadness were killing him.

Loneliness was killing him from within.

He stopped on the docks, in front of the deep water of the harbor.

Should he just dive in?

He had already tried once, some months ago, but a fisherman had stopped him back then.

He took a step forward.

Then, the sound of a guitar reached his ears.

His foot lingered over the space, some meters above the waters. What was he waiting for? Why did a simple melody make him stop? Such a pain… He turned away.

The music was coming from behind a pile of nets and casks. Zeeta stopped and stared at the musician. He wore an odd hat on his head. For a short moment, they looked at each other. The man said nothing and just kept playing. After a moment, Zeeta sat down and let the melody envelop him. The sun was high in the sky when the musician said:

“It’s calling you, isn’t it?”

Zeeta winced. Calling? Was he talking about school? About his father…?

“Music.”

Zeeta raised his eyes at him. The man with the hat was smiling in a deformed grimace. After a silence, he stood up and just walked away with his instrument.

* * *

The next day, he went to the docks, but the guitarist wasn’t there. He spent three whole days looking for him.

Then he found him.

He was playing the guitar in an alley, surrounded by cats. He didn’t seem to be bothered by his presence, as if Zeeta was nothing but another cat among his public. They spent the afternoon together, listening to his music. Then the man asked:

“Are you a stray cat too?”

Zeeta was stroking one of the cats. He froze. Then replied:

“I’m human.”

The guitarist gave him one of his deformed smiles.

“Then a stray human. Do you want to learn?”

After some seconds, Zeeta understood he was talking about the guitar. That guy… Wasn’t he going to tell him: ‘it’s dusk, go home, and don’t come tomorrow, go to school instead’?

“Can I?” he asked.

“I can teach you the basics.”

Zeeta stared at him with mistrust.

“I want to learn.”

The musician stroked his guitar and said:

“You can call me Ghost.”

“That’s a weird name. I’m Zeeta.”

For the first time in a while, Zeeta smiled without feeling that he had to force himself.

* * *

The melody died in the night pub, and some customers clapped lazily. Zeeta gathered the few Corns he had made, said goodbye to the barman, then broke into a run, holding the guitar. He found his friend in a nearby alley.

“Ghost! I made five Corns this time!”

“You’ve improved.”

Zeeta gave him a cheeky smile. Yeah, in six months, he had changed a lot.

The poor musician took the instrument back with the money, handed back two Corns, kept two Corns for himself, then stood up.

“What about the fifth Corn?” Zeeta asked.

“Money must be shared equally between partners. Thus, this fifth Corn will go somewhere else.”

“What do you mean?”

They kept walking until they reached a narrow street. Zeeta frowned.

“That’s the Work-Lair, Ghost.”

“It is.” As usual, Ghost was a man of few words.

They entered a small bar, and the barman greeted the musician as this one put down the Corn on the counter.

“Yo. One white beer in two glasses.”

Zeeta frowned at the glass the barman put in front of him. Ghost raised his eyebrows.

“What is it, son?”

Zeeta stepped back.

“You’re a drunkard too.”

“Too? What do you mean?”

“Drunkard!” Zeeta shouted. He was trembling, his world shattering again around him…

“I do enjoy a beer once in a while, but that’s not being a drunkard, son. I’m an ascetic.”

The barman and the other customers were laughing loudly.

“To think one day I would hear someone calling you a drunkard! Buabuabuabuah!”

Zeeta blushed, but he was still reluctant to let it go. He glared at Ghost. This one sighed.

“So that’s the problem.” He stood up saying to the customers: “The beer is for the fastest one to catch it. Let’s go, son.”

Both of them got out of there. Zeeta was astounded. Did Ghost just give up on the beer for his sake? His lips twisted stubbornly.

“You… wasted one Corn like an idiot.”

Ghost said nothing. He didn’t look like he cared. When they reached a small park, he sat on a bench, tuned his guitar up, then played a quick melody. He was skilled. Now that Zeeta knew a bit more about music, he could tell.

The sounds finally died.

“Why do you always wear a wristband on your left arm?”

The question came out of the blue. Zeeta’s relaxed heart suddenly squeezed. He looked angrily at Ghost.

“None of your business.”

“…” Ghost kept playing. Zeeta felt ashamed. He was losing his temper just like his father. “I’ve been born a Wanderer,” Ghost then said. “Wanderers are said to have purple crystal particles in their bodies. Generally, once they reach their teens, they teleport at least once a year. Most of us can’t control it. So, someday, I’ll disappear from this city and go somewhere else.”

Zeeta’s heart sank at the news. He tsked:

“Like I’d believe that.”

“It’s true.”

Zeeta clenched his teeth.

“So what?”

“Mm. As a traveler, I learned one thing. You can run away from thieves, from monsters, from a war, but you can’t run away from yourself. I mean,” he said, his hands dancing on the strings, “if your heart is aching, hurting yourself is not a way to solve it. Crying is better. And laughing is even better.”

Zeeta’s hands were shaking.

“You… don’t know anything.”

“Well, you’re right. I hate giving lectures anyway.”

The guitar’s melody speeded up. His fingers were running on the strings. Zeeta was always fascinated whenever Ghost started to play in earnest. It seemed as if the music notes were flowing out on their own, without effort. He said playing the guitar was like making love. ‘Love is the king of music’, he once said, ‘and music is love.’ What did he exactly mean by that? Zeeta had no idea.

* * *

One month later, he ran away from home. It wasn’t his first time, not even his longest. He slept through the first night on the nets of the docks and spent his second night roaming the streets. Near the Work-Lair, he met a group of drunkards picking on a girl. He normally wouldn’t have done anything, just passed by as he had been taught all his life… But if he was going to kill himself tonight, he would as well save someone before.

He did. The girl managed to escape, but in her stead, Zeeta ended up at the hospital.

He received a visit a few days later. It wasn’t his dad. It was Ghost.

“How are you doing?”

“My ribs still hurt. But I’m used to it.”

“I heard your lungs almost got pierced.” He sat down beside the bed, putting down his guitar. “Life is easily gone. Our bodies are so fragile, and violence is so blind. It would be a pity if you died so young, without even having experienced love.” He patted his guitar.

The sunrays bathed the hospital room. Zeeta swallowed hard.

“Is it worth it? Love.”

Ghost stayed silent for a long moment.

“If you want to know, then that means you still have hope.”

What kind of answer was that? Zeeta’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. He had a spasm and gasped for breath. His whole body hurt.

“Thanks.” He wanted to say it. “Ghost. Thanks for coming. My drunkard of a father didn’t come. But you did.” His lips stretched into a quivering smile. “Can you become my dad instead?”

Ghost smiled sadly.

“It would be nice, huh? You’re not a bad kid, Zeeta,” he said, standing up. “I didn’t do much for you, actually. I’m an ascetic who doesn’t know how to talk with people. But I’m glad I met you.”

“I’m glad too!” Zeeta sobbed. He cracked. “Ghost! I don’t know what to do! They will call my dad, and he will come to get me. I don’t want to go back with him. He beats me, he yells at me, I don’t like being with him.”

Ghost’s face darkened.

“Zeeta. I know I will soon teleport, so I can’t do much. But I’ll talk to your father. You’ll have to promise me one thing in exchange.”

Zeeta looked at the guitarist through his tears.

“Improve your life. Go back to school. Try to learn things. Try to make friends. Try hard to be happy. Some people have it easier. You don’t. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do better. Your life is as valuable as any other life. That’s a law of nature. You listen?”

“I do.”

“Then, smile and laugh. Like this.”

Without warning, the musician began to laugh like a madman. Zeeta gaped at him for a moment, then smiled, sniffed, wiped away his tears, and finally started laughing. It hurt. It damned hurt.

“Hahahahaha, it freaking hurts!” he laughed to tears. “It freaking damn hurts, Ghost! HAHAHAHA!”

Suddenly, the door opened, and the last person he wanted to see appeared. His dad. He was wearing a suit. Those looks just didn’t go with him. His reddened face was showing surprise. Right. He probably didn’t remember the last time he had seen his son smile, let alone laugh.

Ghost and he looked at each other. Then the musician turned to Zeeta and said:

“Ah. Guess it’s time for me to go. Zeeta. Don’t ever let your dad drag you down. A father is no dad if he doesn’t act like one. Also, if he tries to beat you again, just call me, and I’ll show up in no time with my gang. No one can mess with my dear apprentice, hear that?”

“No…” Zeeta was horror-struck. He knew Ghost was bluffing. He had no gang. He was a Wanderer. “No, Ghost, don’t go…”

The guitarist grinned.

“Take care of my guitar for me. Next time I see you, I want you to be a grown-up musician.”

Zeeta was trying to get up despite his injuries when he felt a swirl of energy in the air, and suddenly, Ghost disappeared. Just like magic. He teleported away, the Holy Gods knew where…

After a long silence, Zeeta took the guitar and sat down.

“Son. Wh-Who was that wizard?” his dad asked worriedly.

Ignoring him, Zeeta started to play. He wouldn’t let his dad do as he pleased ever again.

“Zeeta?”

He mustered all his courage, anger, strength… then his hands stopped stroking the strings. He looked up, his eyes cold as ice.

“You heard my friend. Don’t ever touch me again. Don’t drink in front of me ever again. Or you’re dead.”

For the first time, his dad didn’t get angry at his son. He got scared.

Zeeta sighed. Well, life wasn’t going to be much better just like that but… he promised himself to do as Ghost had said. He would improve his life. It shouldn’t be so hard, should it?

It took long for him, though, very long, to finally think: I don’t want to leave this world.

17 I just want to be normal

The Academy’s clock struck midnight. Ray was sitting on a sofa, stroking Rainbows’ fur. Even though the cat couldn’t sense his hand, she still seemed to enjoy it. He sighed. He had arrived barely one day ago, yet he already wanted to leave this place.

‘Hear me, Ray,’ his mom had told him back in Europe, ‘it will only last two months and you will meet with very interesting people, people with great futures coming from Amazonia, Starland, and the North-Wing, young people like you that will become the next generation of Heroes, maybe even the next generation who will protect our Rulers and protect the world. If you come, you will see that being among the elite is the best way to lead the life you want. If you close a door, you might regret it afterwards. I’m saying that for your own good, because I love you and want you to make friends and stop dreading your power. Just go see them train with your own eyes, and then you’ll decide what you want to do.’

His parents’ ways of thinking were so different yet both so far away from his son’s…

Very interesting people? There were just bossy, pampered, and lunatic people coming from great families from the three continents, nothing more.

Protect the world? Ray couldn’t care less and doubted that those brats would ever do anything good for the world anyway. Even though they tried hard to make people think they had authority all over the world, the Nyomin, the WHO, and the World Government weren’t that great at all. They were just an alliance, whose ties were probably way more unsteady than those of the Dark Alliance.

No, being with the elite meant nothing: they were people just like anyone. What was his mom even thinking?

“Close a door?” he muttered in the empty room. He smirked at Rainbows. “Ha.”

Life is full of doors we close and open. What is it to regret? What if I just want to be normal?

Make friends, she said? In two months? Did she think friends can be found under the pebbles, like worms? Also, wasn’t she the one who had practically forced him to get on a train and enroll at an experimental high school in Europe? She didn’t even seem to think that his son could have had friends in Farskyer City. Well, he had only one. But that was enough.

If his mom had hoped that his son would suddenly bloom and stop being shy… well, he wouldn’t. That was how he was. He had once read that, if everyone stayed true to themselves, then the world would be better and funnier. He believed in that. And he wouldn’t start doing things he didn’t want to just because others did them.

That was the theory. But it was hard not to go astray once in a while.

Sometimes, Ray envied Armen’s spontaneity. It seemed as if he didn’t need to think before making decisions, as if he didn’t fear the possibility that he might act out of character. His lips went up.

Introverted people think about things too much.

He left the sofa and went to open the window.

The Phoenix Academy was built directly on the orange Crystal supporting the whole Phoenix. It was said that Phoenix had been a continental city amidst the desert before the Big Blend. Now it had almost turned into a real phoenix crossing the Blazing Sea. Independent orange “wings” were flying on it, each of them supporting a house, or a classroom, or even gardens. Ray’s room was one of the highest, and he could even see the city’s lights on the main island. It was a huge city. The ‘phoenix turtle’, as they commonly called the Crystal under it, was moving on the ocean, its indestructible paws causing earthquakes every few hours as they touched the seabed and kept going around the Big Triangle Stream. Every year, it went towards London, then Buenos Aires, then Farskyer City, then started again. If anything, Phoenix Island was the most interesting thing he had seen since his arrival.

Well, the Academy’s architecture was impressive too, as well as the hanging stairs between the flying wings.

The regular students were on vacation for now, and all the classrooms were empty. As for the houses, they had been occupied by the Nyomin trainees. Their number was lower than he had expected. They were twenty-eight: one from Europe, two from Phoenix City, four from the North-Wing continent, twelve from Starland, and ten from Amazonia, of which eight were from the Farskyer Peninsula.

Well, it was an experimental program, after all. The Nyomin had likely kept the numbers low on purpose.

A fresh breeze swirled through the window into the room. Ray took a deep breath.

Six hundred meters. That was the maximum distance limit from which he could reach Armen through the necro-bond without any obstacle. He had checked it several times with Armen before departing—that was far from being as great as his dad’s capabilities, but it should be enough for now: although Yuutow Island was about six square kilometers, the Academy was built only about five hundred meters away from the main island. The necro-bond would only have to cross a steep slope covered with sponge-trees and three hundred meters of water… Ray couldn’t possibly reach the water station on the main island, but he knew that, as soon as Armen got to the beach in front of the Phoenix Turtle’s Neck, he would sense him.

That is, if Armen had successfully passed the examination, which was possible but not likely.

He looked up at the stars, twinkling in that vast and terrifying darkness vault. In comparison with Farskyer City, it wasn’t cold, due to some sort of mini climate that migrated with the island. Being so sensitive to cold, Armen would have liked it… if he had been still alive, that is.

Ray’s face darkened. He turned his eyes away from the stars and the crescent moon, shaking his head. That night, a fearful nightmare had haunted his dreams. He had had nightmares about darkness ever since he was young, but the ones he was having since the end of November were different. He dreaded his dreams…

Ever since he had seen Armen die before his very eyes.

He would always try not to think about it during the day, but just as he had no control over his power, he couldn’t do anything about his dreams. A throat cut in half, blood all over the place, and the inert body of his best friend devoid of any sign of life… Things like that would traumatize anyone.

He had realized a lot of things since then. How easily life could be destroyed. How valuable friendship was. How mortifying was not being able to control a power that could have saved his friend’s life. How frustrating it was not to master necromancy as he wanted to. Also, he had promised himself to find a way to free an undead from its master’s leash. Was it even possible? Makler Vod’s books seemed to insinuate it was, but according to his dad, no one had done it so far: ‘Giving your familiar its freedom is a nice idea, very revolutionary, as expected of my beloved son, but I’d advise you against researching about it, Ray: necromancy is dangerous and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Also, even if Armen would be able to survive without you, undeads can’t sense anything, they don’t have survival instincts. What if he were to become a Fury? You wouldn’t be able to do anything against it. He would be as good as dead, if not worse, for he would most likely become a murderer by draining people’s lifeforce. He would go crazy. Just accept it: a necromancer and a familiar are tied with sacred bonds, and the one in charge of them is the necromancer, Ray: you decided to revive him as an undead. Complete resurrection is not possible, and you know it. Your only way to free him is to teach him necromancy. And even with that, he won’t be totally free, just like Uncle Adrian. Remember there is a hierarchy in necromancy. Masters are masters; familiars are familiars. The law of nature cannot be altered.’

All his words made sense. They were rational. Ray was well aware of that. Yet…

How could he possibly teach Armen necromancy? His friend did show some interest in the books Ray was reading, but he would always say something like ‘whoa, and you understand all those scribbles? I don’t get a single thing! Haha, thank goodness I don’t have to learn anything of this or I would die… Wait, I’m already dead, hahaha!’.

Yeah, there was no way he could get Armen to learn advanced levels of necromancy. He would rather search for another method than make Armen struggle endlessly for something that didn’t even seem to bother him.

As a gust of wind entered the room, he suddenly felt a tingle in his mind, and he forgot everything he was thinking.

He fastened his eyes on a group of lights that had just appeared on the main island’s shore. He held his breath.

The necro-bond had been relinked. Armen was there! Should he try to speak to him despite the distance? But he didn’t want to startle him… He began nurturing the bond, wondering impatiently how Armen was doing. How did he even pass the theory test? No, but his hardships weren’t over yet. The Nyomin trainees had spent the whole afternoon discussing what sort of training they should do to welcome the ‘Independents’. They had decided by vote that they would have them cross the Phoenix Turtle’s Neck to reach Yuutow Island, then would divide them among the houses: Starland, North-Wing, Amazonia, Phoenix—the sole European trainee was excluded from the competition. At first, Amazonian trainees insisted that they should be the ones taking care of them, but then things got complicated, and they just agreed to let the Independent trainees go with whoever caught their badge and took it to the Academy.

That was just hazing. Ray had kept silent during the meeting, but internally he had been gaping at those ‘elite’ trainees who were speaking about the Independent trainees as if they were just some lackeys, some extra pawns.

Anyway, he could know where Armen exactly was thanks to their necro-bond, so he didn’t worry too much. He would just have to find him first and sneak back to the Academy with him.

Rainbows meowed.

“Yes, he’s here,” Ray said. “Your brother is here.”

He stopped as he was patting the cat’s head. Did he just call Armen a cat’s brother? Geez… The fact that he had to nurture both of them the same way was affecting his way of thinking… That was dangerous.

“Wait here, Rainbows.”

She looked at him intently, wagging her tail with slow movements. The cat could understand some of his orders, not really through words, but through their necro-bond. He shut the door behind and started going down those strange staircases that connected the flying wings like a spiderweb.

When he reached the main square, almost all the trainees were already here, waiting for their instructor Addison the Viral to give the start signal. Among them, the North-Wing trainees stood out: a tall and muscled four-armed human, a woman in a suit, and a twelve-year-old kid in a white lab coat were bodyguarding a blond girl. Ray had suspected her identity from the start, but after the meeting in the afternoon, now he was sure: that obese, whimsy, pampered girl was none other than the daughter of the Nyomin’s director Lovecryce. She was the reason why they had kept the location of the training secret until the last minute; not only that; she may be the biggest reason why that experimental training had been organized.

Mom could have told me about that…

“Oi, Ray!” Lei Sunclaw waved at him, sauntering closer. “Did you see Linah and Axel? No? Those guys… They will be late for the hunt. By the way,” he smiled, “I guess you’re after Armen’s badge, aren’t you? I’m not gonna let you have it.”

Ray stiffened.

“Why?”

“I want him.”

“You can’t have him. He’s not an object.”

“Mm. Anyway, if I get his badge, I’ll take good care of him. I’m curious about his body… Aaaaargh!”

“What did you say?!” Linah had just sent a punch at his brother. She menacingly passed her arms over his shoulders. “Curious about whose body? Did you finally hit that age already?”

“What do you mean, already? By the way, that hurt!”

“I told you to stop bothering Ray.”

“Aya-aya, I wasn’t.”

The two siblings were bickering at each other when, suddenly, Ray felt the necro-bond vanish.

He turned pale.

The hell? What does that mean? Armen is supposed to be getting closer, not farther! What’s going on?

Then, the instructor raised his hand.

“Trainees! The badges hunt…” he lowered his hand shouting: “STARTS!”

As some Nyomin trainees rushed to the exit, excited like children going to a treasure hunt, Ray stayed behind, puzzled.

Where on earth did Armen go?

18 Is the bearded old hag a scammer?

“Zeeta, run! That bastard’s catching up with us!”

“I’m doing what I can! Phew… I made it to the coral reef. Ah, but crap, I lost a tentacle. Can I make it grow again?”

“Yes, if you eat sea ants you will heal up,” Kimberly answered calmly.

“But I only saw one sea ant so far…”

“The deeper you go, the more sea ants you will see, but you will bump into more monsters as well. Listen, you two. Ocean is divided into five zones: the sunlight, the twilight, the bathyal, the abyssal, and the hadal. It’s real, I didn’t make it up. Also, believe it or not, in reality, the tentacles of blue-blooded jellyfishes can regrow just like sharks’ teeth if they eat sea ants from the abyssal zone. They need more than one to heal up, though. Isn’t nature wonderful?”

“It is!” I agreed as I was pressing the buttons on my gamepad. “Yay! I’ve found a comrade in a coral! Time to register him… By the way, I love your game, Kim!”

I laughed. Kimberly was sitting in the middle, in front of his game console. Kimberly was a lighthouse keeper. Even though he was around my parents’ age and had the same job, he led a totally different life than them, since his lighthouse wasn’t on an offshore isolated rock but just some minutes away by foot from the huge city of Phoenix. Kimberly had many hobbies. He was a game developer, a linguist, a hacker, a biologist, and a fisherman too. Since he wore flowered boardshorts like me, he wasn’t surprised in the least to see us knock at his door after midnight like we had just got out of the water. He didn’t even show much surprise to see me at all, and even though we had just met once when I was nine years old, he recognized me right away:

“Oh, Misae’s kid, come in, I was just about to look for beta players on the net. Wanna try my new game?”

That’s how we ended up playing with the cool lighthouse keeper without any further question. Kimberly sure was a funny man.

His games, all turn-based and amateurish, were funny too, by the way. In the one we were playing right now, we incarnated a jellyfish that had to take a census of its species population while running away from sea worms, sharks, and other big bad fishes.

“I’m glad you like the game,” Kimberly said after taking a sip of coffee. “But I’ve been wondering for a while, now. What exactly are you doing here, brat?”

A shark had just crashed into a coral reef while I was escaping through a hole.

“Haha! Serves you right!” I then processed Kimberly’s words, looked at Zeeta… and suddenly remembered. The training. “Ray! He must be wondering where I am.”

Zeeta snorted, covering his eyes.

“I knew I was forgetting something more important than the jellyfishes.”

“Who are you, by the way?” Kimberley added, looking at my friend.

“Shouldn’t you have asked that when you let us in?” I laughed. We had been playing together, like, for two hours already. He sure was a funny guy.

“I’m Zeeta O’Bell Leonardo Sakamoto. Thanks for the coffee, the beer, the popcorn, and the chocolates. You sure eat a lot, by the way.”

“That’s why he’s fat,” I said.

“Oi, brat! Don’t badmouth your host. I’m on a diet right now, you know.”

I could hardly believe it.

“Do you even go upstairs sometimes to check on the lightroom?” I asked.

Kimberly’s lighthouse was located on the cliff, just in front of Yuutow Island. To get there, Zeeta and I had to go around, walk all the way back to the water station, then take the road up to the main island’s ‘carapace’. As soon as I had seen the lighthouse’s light, I had been wondering who was working there… then it turned out it was Kim, an old apprentice of my mom.

“Upstairs? No need, I have an apprentice,” Kim answered without any shame. “Also, I have installed a sophisticated automated system to warn me if there is any problem.”

“Oh? As expected of you. So the old apprentice has become a teacher himself?”

“That’s right. Toya’s a good boy. I’ll let him have this lighthouse in some years, when I retire.” Suddenly, the whole house trembled, I gave a loud gasp, and Zeeta put his hands on his head… “Oh, don’t worry, don’t worry. That happens all the time. It’s the phoenix turtle, who’s advancing. By the way, how are Misae and Jack doing?”

“… Th-they were doing fine last week,” I answered, glancing worriedly at the ceiling. “Since they don’t have a phone, we still communicate by letter.”

“They live at their own pace, huh? That’s great. I’ll always remember the month I spent with them at Keelung Lighthouse. Both were really nice people and excellent teachers. Anyway, what’s their son doing in Phoenix? I thought you were studying in Farskyer City.”

“That’s…”

We explained our circumstances. After some minutes, Kim rubbed his furry belly thoughtfully.

“I see. I didn’t know the Nyomin was holding such a training event in Phoenix. Well, it’s pretty careless of them to let some brats cross the Neck at night. And you say your friend can’t swim? Then how are you supposed to cross?”

“That’s what we don’t know,” I admitted.

Kim put down his empty cup.

“Okay, I’ll ask for my apprentice to give you a ride to the island.”

“Seriously?!” Zeeta and I smiled at each other, hopeful.

“He will be here in the morning. For now, just relax and let’s play a bit more. Tell me if you find bugs. Do you really not want a coffee or a glass of water, Armen?”

“No, thanks, I’m all right… Agh! A bug, Kim, I just found one! The jellyfish turned into a carnivorous giant sponge!”

“It’s not a bug, it’s a mimic spell. Some porifera are mimetic.”

“Oh.”

Not much after, Zeeta and Kimberley went to sleep. As for me, I spent the whole night playing. I wasn’t in a hurry. As far as I knew, there was no time limit for this first challenge, so as long as we had our badges, we could enter the Academy any time. By the morning, the elite trainees would have most likely already stopped looking for us.

The one I worried the most about was Ray. If only phones worked in Yuutow Island, I would have been able to speak to him.

I had been feeling that the deathforce circulating in my body had been less and less effective. Perhaps my necro-bond was decaying or something. From what the Lord had said, a barely two-month-old undead like me wouldn’t last more than three days away from his master without starting to experience a severe loss of motion functionalities. Well, I would soon pass the limit with almost no consequences. I remembered Uncle Adrian saying that my unusual resistance could be related to my inner soul; I had also the impression that Kaspar’s electronic necromancy was helping me. In any case, I was feeling mostly well.

My jellyfish was running away from a shark… I got eaten up, and a big “YOU DIED” appeared on the screen. I was shocked. To think I would see one day such a truth displayed in front of me…

I put down my gamepad, and in the dim light of a lamp, I looked at Zeeta sleeping a few meters away. Kim had settled two futons for us before going to his own bedroom, and Zeeta was making the most of both beds, embracing my pillow and drooling over it. I smiled silently as I kept staring at him, as still as a rock.

I liked to see people sleeping, even more so when they were people I cared about a lot. Seeing them so defenseless and trustful while I was listening to their breathing, trying to imagine their dreams, looking shamelessly into their secret world… It was even better than contemplating the sea and listening to the waves.

After some time, however, I stood up and left the room. I went upstairs, to the lightroom, gazed at the stars, the crescent moon, then looked at the sea of lights on the main island. Phoenix City looked nearly as big as Farskyer City. To think that the turtle was able to carry them all and keep moving forward… It was amazing.

I turned to Yuutow Island. I could see the lights of the Academy, as well as its strange structure.

When my eyes fixed on the absolute darkness, beyond the island, I remembered a scene of my life, back at home, when my sister had just gone away to study. I had slipped under my parents’ covers without a word, the heart heavy…

“What is it, sweetheart?” my mom whispered. My dad was snoring on the other side. “You can’t sleep?”

“Mm,” I nodded.

“Why is that? A nightmare?”

“Mm,” I confirmed again. “A giant clam fell from the sky and destroyed the lighthouse. I woke up, but my big sis wasn’t there, and it’s dark at night. I was scared.”

“I see, a giant clam, huh?” she murmured, amused, in the silence of the lighthouse. “You miss your big sis?”

“I do.” I embraced her arm in the dark. It was warm. “When will she come back?”

“For Christmas, honey. Your big sis is studying far away. You will, too, someday, since Mom and Dad can’t teach you everything.”

“I won’t.”

She chuckled quietly.

“You will. You will experience the world, know people, make friends, learn new things, discover new places, and eventually find your own dream… That’s how life goes, honey. But always remember: if you miss us, you’ll just have to look at the sea and think about us, who’ll always love you.” She kissed my forehead. “You’re not scared anymore, are you?”

I smiled courageously.

“No.”

“Then sleep well and don’t dream about clams falling from the sky.”

“Clams falling-e from the sky?” Dad suddenly asked. He had stopped snoring. He turned and patted my head in the dark. “Oh! Sure is a clam. A big-e one, at that! Say, Misae, should I eat it for breakfast or should I eat it now? Should I fry it or make a delicious soup-e?”

“No, don’t! Mom, protect me!” I said laughing, as my dad tried to catch me under the covers…

Leaning on the stony ledge, in the lantern room of Kim’s Lighthouse, I smiled as I thought about my childhood. Yeah… My parents sure were wonderful people.

I had gazed at the sea for a long moment. I turned around.

“Well,” I said to myself in a whisper. “Undead have a lot of time to kill. Guess I’ll take a quick look at the Phoenix City.”

I left the building and went down the hill, soon reaching the first houses. From the light room, I had noticed there were few skyscrapers on the island, even though there were a lot of high buildings. On the outskirts, however, few residences had more than four stories. The streets were calm, but not empty. There were still some bars and restaurants open, and I saw a group of teenagers in a park. Gangsters? Drunkards? They didn’t look so. They were just talking and eating pistachios. The aura Phoenix City gave off seemed quite different than that of the Old Docks.

I was heading back when I heard a voice coming from a small park.

“Yungo-yungo! Dja wanna chandja futu?”

A very old woman with a long beard was talking to me. She was sitting cross-legged on a board and was wearing almost no clothes.

“Yungodi! Dja wanna chandja futu?”

I smiled at her, troubled. What language was that? Then my smile froze when I noticed that the board she was on was full of nails. I panicked.

“Let me help you!”

She was so skinny that I managed to lift her quite easily in my arms, then… her light green eyes met mine, and I realized I had put myself in a very awkward situation. She smiled, showing a perfect set of teeth.

“Yagadoy.” Her hand touched the necklace Linah had given to me, and it slipped the pendant out of my shirt. “Insing, antee. Use witchisti?”

“S-Sorry, I don’t understand, don’t touch that…” I tried to say something in Sarwish, the Common Language, but words weren’t coming. Language barriers were so troublesome… I added: “I’m putting you down, okay? Are you hurt? I mean…” I pointed at the board of nails, increasingly embarrassed. Dammit. I had got forty points in my last Common Language exam, how could it be that I couldn’t say a single thing? Then I remembered a sentence and said: “Er… meteo es hao… No…” Crap. I just said that the weather was nice, didn’t I? “I mean… Komo yu sta?”

“… You are from Farskyer, aren’t you?”

I blinked. Did the old woman just speak in my language? I smiled, relieved.

“So you can speak normally, thank goodness.”

“Yaha-yaha-yaha,” she laughed. “I was speaking the Phoenix dialect, since when I talk in a more standard Yanganese like now, the Phoenix people don’t always understand me.”

So she wasn’t from Phoenix herself? I jerked up when she sat down again on the board full of nails as she kept talking with a quavery voice:

“You must be a good boy if you worry about a stranger like me. Young people nowadays are so much better educated. May the darkness never cross your path.”

“Ah… Thanks. Everything’s fine, Grandma?”

“Mm?” She followed the direction of my gaze, and she smiled. “Yaha-yaha! A bed of nails is the best bed of all. At least for me. I’m a fakir-witch.”

“A fakir-witch?”

“Fakirs nurture their spirit from the Universe, witches wield the magic of the world, fakir-witches serve the spirit of magic. Magic is everywhere. I’m traveling around the world according to this universe’s whims, and I ask questions, to the people, to the wind, to the sea. Lately, I’m asking people this: do you want to change your future?”

A blanket of silence fell over the park. Suddenly, it struck me: an old woman with a beard sitting on a board of nails at night… That was not normal. I thought of how many times Zeeta had already warned me against scammers, and I stepped backwards.

“N-No, thanks, whatever will be will be. Sorry, I’ve gotta go…”

I ran away.

When I arrived at Phoenix Neck Lighthouse, the sky was clearing up. Zeeta was sound asleep. Kim’s snores could be heard from down there. A few minutes after I had started a new game on the console, the door got open.

“Kiiiim! I’m coming in!”

I turned my face at the shirtless and disheveled kid in shorts who had just come in. He gaped at me and repeated:

“Kim?! What happened to you?”

Did he take me for Kimberly? I smiled.

“I changed overnight. Some ungrateful brats were saying I was fat, so I went on a radical diet.”

The kid swallowed, then cried out:

“Kim! Kim! There’s a stranger in your house! No… There’re two of them!!” Oh, so he didn’t believe me. After all, he must already be twelve years old. Wait, but maybe he fell for it for a second? The kid ran up the stairs to Kim’s bedroom yelling: “Kiiiim!”

Lying on a futon, Zeeta grumbled, yawned, sat up, and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was me, crouching a few inches away from him with a smile. He jolted.

“Morning, Zeeta.”

He brusquely lay down again, covering himself with the blanket and gasping:

“Gods.”

“Heh… You sure are religious, praying so early in the morning.”

“Shut up.”

“Is your heart doing all right?”

“I said shut up!”

Minutes later, Kim was still laughing at his young apprentice while eating breakfast. Toya was pouting.

“So? Why do I have to carry those guys I don’t know across the Neck?”

“Because you’re a good sailor.”

Toya immediately blushed and showed more complacency. I bowed to him.

“Please, Toya, take us to Yuutow Island, you’re our last hope!”

That was the last straw. Toya struggled not to chortle as he said with a strong accent:

“Shoriaf! Guess I can help you guys, since you’re Kim’s friends and all…”

I grinned and thanked him. He blushed even more. Soon, we said goodbye to Kim.

“Give your mam and dad my best regards.”

“I will. Thanks for having us!”

“Well, that’s natural. Plus, I used you as beta players. Come back any time.”

“Sure thing!”

“Hurry up, you two!” Toya said impatiently, already far away.

Kim’s eyes smiled.

“He’s a good boy, isn’t he?”

“He is.”

“Well then, good luck with your training!”

We didn’t go down the same road as last night but down a staircase that ended on the left side of the turtle. There were small houses there, as well as lots of colored fishing vessels. Toya waved us towards a small boat.

“Get on board!”

The kid sure knew his thing. I was all respect. Although I had lived the first ten years of my life on a rock surrounded by water, I knew nothing about boats. Taipei’s Navy was always the one in charge of giving us rides when needed. I felt a bit useless, but didn’t offer my help: it was clear as water that Toya was enjoying himself helping us and rowing like a pro.

“I had a weird dream,” Zeeta said suddenly as we were sailing along the coast.

I looked at him curiously.

“What kind?”

“I was stalking you as usual when suddenly I felt as if I was followed, I looked behind, and you were there. You were in two places at the same time.”

“Oh.”

“Then, I thought: which way should I go? I stopped, and suddenly there were a lot of Armens around me, like, a whole crowd.”

“The hell? That was a nightmare.”

“It wasn’t.” I raised an eyebrow as Zeeta confessed, rubbing his neck: “I was quite happy. Am I weird?”

That guy… He was always asking himself things like: am I weird? am I gross? am I a monster? am I not good enough?

I shook my head.

“What if you are, Zeeta? You are you, that’s a fact. It’s like eight plus eight is fifteen.”

“… Sixteen.”

There was a silence, then Toya laughed heartedly.

“Man, you guys are weird! Is it true you’re the son of a lighthouse keeper?”

“It is. I’m curious, Toya. Why did you decide to become Kim’s apprentice?”

The kid shrugged.

“I like the ocean. I like video games too.” So Kim was making his apprentice play his games…

“Shouldn’t you be at school right now?”

“It’s Saturday.”

“Oh, right. I forgot about that.”

“By the way, are those people on the beach people you know?”

We were getting closer to Yuutow Island. I narrowed my eyes at the group, increasingly anxious. Didn’t they give up on us already? Then I frowned. Something felt off.

Five people were doing push-ups in line while a four-armed guy was watching and a kid in white was yelling at them. There was something like a big pile of clothes behind them.

From Zeeta’s expression, I could guess he was using his power to listen to their conversation. I asked:

“Is it bad?”

He gave a nod.

“Worse than you think. Toya, I know it’s asking too much of you but couldn’t you get around the island?”

“Shoriaf, I can’t. There’s a strong current on the sides. My boat can’t go there.”

“Is that so…”

“Yeah. Sorry for that. Those guys over there are trouble, right?”

“Well… Don’t worry, it can’t be helped. Armen? Listen.”

“Huh? I can’t hear them from that far, Zeet—”

“I mean listen to me! No matter what…” Zeeta’s eyes glared at the scene. “Don’t let those guys catch you.”

19 Eating too much is bad for your health

I jumped on the water. It covered me to my knees.

“Toya, thanks for the ride!”

“No prob, shoriaf!”

When I noticed Toya’s expression full of curiosity about the group of trainees on the beach, I made the boat turn and pushed it away, smiling.

“Have a safe trip back.”

As the kid began to row away, he yelled:

“My home teacher says bullies are nincompoopish nimrods!”

I laughed.

“Your home teacher must be a nice person!”

“She is!”

Zeeta grumbled under his breath.

“We’re doomed. They’re glaring at us now.”

“It’s alright,” I said as we were getting out of the water. “If they try to steal our badges, we just have to run, don’t we? Besides, I just got a brilliant idea.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about that.”

I grinned.

“Heehee. Just play along with me, Zeeta.” I raised a hand and yelled: “Good morning, everyone, shoriaf! We’ve been sent here by the Phoenix’s governor to talk with the Soft Queen. Please don’t stop your training activities, we’re just passing by! Shoriaf!”

Looking sideways, I saw Zeeta’s painful expression. Both he and I walked toward the weird colored wood and the stairs that led up to the Academy. When the group was about thirty meters away from us, I could see more neatly the faces of the five Independent trainees doing push-ups—I recognized one of them: Sasha Salazar, the merfolk. Zeeta snorted.

“Good try, shoriaf, but it won’t work. The four-armed guy just asked the Independent trainees if they know us.”

“They won’t betray us. Why would they?”

Zeeta glanced at the group and grimaced.

“They did. Run!”

The four-armed guy was chasing us. Shoriaf. He ran fast. He caught up with us before we could even reach the strange woods made of orange and black sponge cactuses. Suddenly, a rope fell around me and tied me tight. A rope? No, it was more like a tentacle or… an arm?

“Straw Head!”

“Zeeta! Don’t stop, keep running!”

I had barely shouted that when another arm stretched and curled like a tentacle, grabbing Zeeta, tightening around him, and making him moan out of pain.

“Zeeta!”

The four-armed guy made us face him. From up close, his appearance was… not what you would call normal. He was nothing like Woon: he was taller, more muscled, and his lips were green and swollen as if they had been stung by a swarm of bees.

“Both of you,” he chuckled, “Charles-Ping is most regretful, but he will have you give up on your badges and do some push-ups, pretty please.”

What was the polite tone for? Also, why was he talking in the third person? I used my telekinesis and shut his eyelids by force, but his arms didn’t release us. Rather, Zeeta let out a scream of pain. It seemed that our bones were about to break… Blinking at once to deactivate my power, I panicked.

“Stop that, my friend’s in pain!”

“Oh, sorry, you surprised Charles-Ping with your telekinetic power.” He had reopened his eyes. “Should Charles-Ping stop? Then say ‘pretty please’, pretty please.”

I smiled with anger.

“Pretty please, let us go.” You damn octopus…

“No can do. But Charles-Ping will be nicer, do not worry. He does not enjoy seeing polite people suffer. Now, there, there, let’s go back and do some push-ups, okay?”

I stared at the four-armed guy while he was heading back to the group, carrying us as if our weight wasn’t bothering him at all. I confessed:

“Armen is bad at doing push-ups.”

“Hoho. Is that so, che? Then all the more reason for you to come. The young mistress will be happy to do sports with you.”

The young mistress? What young mistress? Zeeta was struggling and cursing:

“Damn you, you’ve got five people already, how greedy are you guys?”

“There, there, don’t be scared. Will you two be so kind as to help the young mistress over there?”

He pointed. What I thought to be a pile of golden clothes suddenly moved as I heard it scream with joy:

“Five! Charles-Ping! Mackenzie! I did it! I did it!”

“Oh! Well done, young mistress! Let Charles-Ping praise you, pretty please!”

The boy in a white lab coat bowed with a hand on his chest.

“You did well, young mistress.”

What the hell was wrong with that weird duo, really? I raised an eyebrow as I landed on the sand, and I said:

“Charles-Ping. Armen is having a hard time distinguishing the young mistress among the big pile of clothes.”

Zeeta burst out laughing. The young boy, Mackenzie, was taking his badge. He threw a glare my way, then stepped towards me when Charles-Ping was answering:

“Actually, the whole pile is the young mistress, caballero.”

“Charles! Watch your tongue,” Mackenzie snorted, then barked: “And you, Indie trainees, keep doing push-ups! The young mistress needs to do five more.”

I heard a long moaning coming from the young mistress.

“Five moooore?! I can’t do that! I’m about to die!”

Then it struck me. The long golden dress I had seen was in fact the young mistress’s hair. Once I understood that, I could see her chubby feet, her fleshy thighs, her broad shoulders, her wide trunk, and even her fluffy and golden fox tail…

She was the fattest human I had ever seen. Compared to her, Kimberly was skin and bones. Well, she was big too. Maybe she would be over two meters tall if she stood up. She was also the first real fox girl I had seen in my life.

“Six!”

I gaped at her in admiration. Her push-ups consisted in moving slightly her upper body. Her skin was red from the effort. I felt bad for her.

“Where’s your badge?”

Mackenzie’s question made me remember he had been searching my boardshorts and shirt. I worried. My badge, he said? I didn’t lose it, did I?

“I put it on my headband, with the flashlight. It’s… not there?”

The boy in a lab coat shook his head. I swallowed. What was going on? Did I lose it? But where? During the night? How? Kim wouldn’t have touched it, and it couldn’t have dropped off the headband, then the only possibility was…

I cursed:

“That damned bearded old hag!”

There was a silence in which I could feel the tension level up ten times at least. The five ‘Indie’ trainees stopped doing push-ups and stared at me in fear; Charles-Ping’s expression darkened; Mackenzie looked daggers at me, then stood on tip-toe, and pierced me with his dark eyes.

“What did you just call our young mistress?”

He didn’t give me the time to explain the misunderstanding: his vision power activated, and I was suddenly surrounded by the emptiness. No sound, no color, no smell. I was as if dead.

No, it’s not ‘as if’: I’m dead, that’s a fact.

So that was Mackenzie’s power: he could isolate his victim from his human senses. Fortunately, besides my hearing, my eyesight, and my sense of smell, I had one more sense, specific to undead people: lifeforce’s taste. Hence, I could immediately tell when Charles-Ping—maybe not to be affected by his comrade’s power—loosened his grip on me: I rushed forward.

I was aiming for Mackenzie and the badge he had stolen from Zeeta. I felt a surge of lifeforce, lunged forth, grabbed something, and screamed:

“Let my friend go with his badge, or you’ll regret it!”

The spell broke into pieces, and I could see the beach again, the sun, and hear the waves… Just when I thought that my random threatening had borne fruit, a detached fist smashed my chest, and I was sent flying. I landed on something that made me bounce. That detached fist… I raised my head, hopeful.

“Erma!”

A group of people was heading toward us. Ray, Linah, and Lei Sunclaw were among them. Joy filled my heart. Then something else filled my body. It was yummy… no, it was delicious… no, it was out of this world. The lifeforce that I was absorbing through my hands was making my core and my heart beat like crazy.

“You heathen!” Mackenzie shouted. “Get away from her!”

“Charles-Ping won’t forgive you!” The four-armed guy stretched his hand to catch me…

“Stop!”

The voice came from under me. Then I finally understood what was going on: somehow, Linah’s fist, on freeing me from Mackenzie’s power, had also made me land on the young mistress. What I was absorbing was the young mistress’s lifeforce… How could someone’s lifeforce be so exhilarating? My mind was wavering, my senses were numb, and my excited core was asking for more and more…

Could I make it stop? I didn’t want to…

‘Armen. Stop eating.’

Ray’s order was absolute. I stopped right away, and crawled backwards, then looked up at the young mistress who had sat up on the sand and was staring at me, red like a tomato.

“Wh-Who are you?” she asked. Her voice was soft, beautiful, and a bit frightened.

I was breathing hard. My core was disrupted, asking for more lifeforce than it really needed. My movements, my hearing, my breathing, even my vision were being disturbed. I huffed:

“S-S-Sorry, miss, when I talked about the old hag, I didn’t mean you but an old fakir-witch I met last night. Also… I’ve been punched. I didn’t touch you on purpose… I swear.”

Though now I’m craving to touch you again…

“I-I saw that,” the young mistress stammered. “It’s not your fault. Did it hurt?”

I widened my eyes, surprised. Was she worried about me? Not only her lifeforce was incredibly delicious, but she didn’t seem to be a bad person. Although I was feeling like I was barely conscious of my surroundings, I smiled at the enormous girl.

“No. It didn’t. Thank you. Say… Are those guys forcing you to do push-ups?”

Her blue eyes trembled for a moment. Then she began to cry as she sobbed:

“I have to do sports, or I won’t ever lose weight! That’s what Daddy said! He sent me here for that. Charles-Ping and Mackenzie are only doing their best. But I’m a bad daughter. I can’t slim down! Because I’m always hungry! So, yes, please help me! I want to eat!”

Whether she wanted me to help her slim down or eat wasn’t clear. Charles-Ping had begun to shed tears of solidarity, while the kid, Mackenzie, was glaring at me. Erma, Lei, and Ray didn’t know how to intervene. As for me, I didn’t know how to console the girl, and not even daring to touch her despite Ray’s order, I just smiled at her, my mind going astray.

“Ah, yeah…” I mumbled. “Eating too much is bad for your health, ain’t it…”

I wasn’t sure if I was saying those last words for her sake or mine. Lei Sunclaw chimed in:

“Aya-aya, cheer up, milady! If Armen wants to help you, I’m sure others will. How about a competition of Indie trainees to see who can make you lose more weight? In exchange, you will give the winner any wish. How about that?”

I vaguely saw everyone turn at him as if he had gone crazy. Lei didn’t avert his cunning eyes from the young mistress.

“I-I like the idea, but any wish?” she echoed. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Then, put your limits. I’m sure that, given your status, nobody will complain about your reward.”

“What are you plotting, Sunclaw?” Mackenzie hissed.

“Th-Then… For someone who would help me and relieve my dad’s worries,” the young mistress said, her eyes lighting up with determination, “I would gladly give that person one of my flowers.”

Her fox tail thumped the sand with determination.

She just said “flowers”, didn’t she? Mackenzie’s eyes were wide open, but I couldn’t understand what he said. My vision was growing dimmer.

Flowers, I thought. That was… a beautiful reward…

My body fell on the sand like a rag. I blacked out. Or something very similar to it. I still could hear Ray’s voice yelling at me, both out loud and through our necro-bond, and I could feel his delightful lifeforce when he touched me, as well as Linah’s when she tried to slap me awake. But I couldn’t eat their lifeforce, because Ray had ordered me not to eat. I was, overall, unresponsive.

Was I going to die for good? My mind couldn’t even worry about it. All I could think was:

‘Stop eating, eating too much is bad for your health, stop eating…’

20 I’m crazier than you

“That shortie’s house sure is big. To have been chosen as a Nyomin trainee… He’s the son of some big-shot, isn’t he?”

“…”

“Well, all the elite trainees are. But is the shortie really the stupidstar’s friend? I know the stupidstar managed to climb all the way to the Academy, but he seemed more to me like a zombie than anything else. That Ray… He said the stupidstar only needs rest, but a true friend would have called for a doc after seeing the guy pass out, wouldn’t he?”

“…”

“You’re boring, Leon. You could say something. Also, what are you doing here? Wasn’t your badge taken away by the fatty and her henchmen?”

“Watch your tongue. It’s Lovecryce’s daughter you’re talking about.”

“And I can’t call a fatty a fatty? It’s like calling a masked guy, a masked guy, a shortie, a shortie, and a stupidstar, a stupidstar.”

“Do you even know who’s Lovecryce?”

“Pfaha… I know. That guy’s a big sponsor for the Champion Institute. I do know him. I’ve even seen him twice. I don’t like his guts. He’s just one of those Heroes who want to go down in the WHO’s history…” Noah raised his eyes towards the double stairs and the second floor of the house. “Are you going to wait for the shortie to come down?”

“No. I’m waiting for you to get out.”

“Huh? That was direct. Do you have something against me, Hoodie?”

“Yeah. You have Armen’s badge, don’t you?”

“Yep. As I said, I stole it from him when I was on the beach, before crossing the Neck, what of it?”

Zeeta looked daggers at him.

“Why do you keep bothering him?”

Noah smirked.

“I just thought he would become a great asset in my inventory—”

“You bastard!” Zeeta leaped up out of his seat.

The CI’s student stood up as well. They leaned forward, a few inches away from each other.

“Give the badge back,” Zeeta hissed.

“Don’t wanna. I’m gonna be the stupidstar’s captain, you’re gonna become the fatty’s dog. That’s all that silly first challenge was about.”

Zeeta didn’t care that he would have to serve Lovecryce’s daughter for two months. He even thought that he could take advantage of it and sell the information he would get to the Beholder. No, what worried him the most was Armen’s condition… and that damned crimson guy who kept getting in his way.

His blood was boiling with anger. His forehead hit Noah’s as he growled:

“Leave the badge and get out.”

“Or else?”

“I’ll beat you up.”

“Oho?”

Noah’s smile made Zeeta lose his temper even more. He grabbed the crimson guy by the collar of his uniform and pushed him against the staircase. Noah’s expression remained unfazed. Zeeta’s hand tried to reach one of his pockets, when Noah suddenly grasped his wrist.

A crimson flame set Zeeta’s hand ablaze, and a flash of energy ran through his body… He felt weak. Not only that: he felt as if Noah’s crimson fire flaming on the tip of his hand was the most marvelous thing he had seen in his life.

“You’ve got no manners of a Hero, do you?” Noah said, freeing himself with ease.

Zeeta clenched his teeth. What was that guy’s power? Thanks to the Beholder, he had been informed of almost every trainee’s power, but the students from the Champion Institute… He knew nothing about them. So it was like that. A weird, crimson fire with the ability to break someone’s will… No, perhaps even a drug fire? Anyway…

He was furious. The fire that had started on his wrist brusquely disappeared. He scowled at Noah.

“Give back Armen’s badge,” he repeated.

And he sent a punch flying. Noah failed to dodge it, breathed out all the air, then replied:

“In hell.”

He punched back. It was a light and clumsy hit, but this time, his fire was stronger. Zeeta’s knees buckled. He was breathing hard. Something was pushing him down, something was telling him he couldn’t fight, he had to give up, he was but a worm at the feet of that divine crimson god… A god? Bullshit.

“Give it back!” Zeeta roared.

He lunged at Noah’s legs, pulled, and managed to make him fall. As he kept fighting more and more pathetically on the ground, Noah grumbled.

“You’re annoying! Give up already! I don’t know what your power is, but mine’s way stronger than yours, you can’t win against me. Just give up.”

“I won’t,” Zeeta huffed. “I won’t let you have the Straw Head.”

Noah frowned.

“The Straw Head? You mean…?!” With a prompt movement, he pulled Zeeta’s mask off. He snorted as he sat up. “I can’t believe it! You’re that Zeeta from yesterday! The one who punched me in the Old Docks for no reason! Why are you trying to hide?”

Zeeta glared at him.

“I’m not hiding.” He had been wearing the mask because of the Straw Head, then when he had realized his identity had been seen through, he had been wanting to stop wearing the mask but hadn’t known how to explain his decision to the others. “I’m just more relaxed with it.”

That was also true. After all, Nick the Beholder did tell him that a good spy should not draw attention to himself… You’re not officially working as a spy right now, though, you useless stalker, he thought to himself.

There was a silence. Zeeta was trying to calm down and erase all Noah’s fire within himself. He didn’t really know how to do it, but if he kept thinking about freeing Armen from that jerk, he knew he wouldn’t falter.

“In comparison to the stupidstar, you can’t completely fight back my power,” Noah said. Zeeta’s heart missed a beat. Noah had used his power on the Straw Head? That cursed demon…! He added: “But your willpower sure is not to be laughed at. I like that.”

“…” Zeeta growled: “Your power is not to be laughed at either. I hate it, though.”

“Heh. I’m used to being hated. But if you want the stupidstar’s badge so badly, then that means you must be a good friend of his. I’ll tell you. I made a deal with the shortie. I gave him the badges. Armen’s and mine.”

Zeeta stared at him, stunned. What? Then why didn’t he tell so sooner? What kind of deal did they make? Also, why did he choose Ray as captain out of all the Nyomin trainees? Why did he have to cling to Armen like that? That damned CI’s bastard…

“Do you think you can beat me by glaring at me like I was some monster? Oh, but I am a monster.” Noah held out his ignited hand and chuckled as Zeeta drew backwards. “Scared of a CI’s madman? Cry all you want. Weaklings can only grouse at the stronger.”

Hadn’t Cynsea the Hypnotist said last night something like: ‘those two kids might need more psychological support than anything else’? Yeah, right. Zeeta couldn’t care less about Noah’s circumstances. As he heard footsteps outside, he stood up and said:

“I don’t care if you’re stronger: if you ever make Armen suffer, I’ll make you pay for it, because…” his eyes pierced Noah’s, “I’m crazier than you.”

There was a silence, then someone knocked at the door and said:

“Noah! Mr. Huang wants to talk to both of us in half an hour! We’ve gotta hurry and have lunch before at the cafeteria!”

That was Andrea Sisalik. Noah grimaced, then smirked as he got to his feet.

“Man… Looks like we won’t get along.”

“Yeah. Looks like we won’t,” Zeeta agreed.

“Noah!” Andrea knocked again.

“Tch…” Noah opened the door and left with the green dreadlocked girl as he mumbled: “What does he want now, that damned Huang? I swear, one day, I’ll drug him until he begs for his life—”

“Don’t say it out loud, you moron!” Andrea whispered. Thanks to his power, Zeeta could hear her as if he was right behind her. “If I can’t run away because of you, you’ll pay for it.”

“Whatcha saying, I’m running away too…”

“Then keep it down, or you’ll be the first to go back to the CI with the tail between your legs…”

Zeeta raised an eyebrow. So those two wanted to run away from the Champion Institute’s grasp…

Well, their call. I have other things to worry about.

He closed the door and turned his gaze to the second floor, towards the room where Ray had shut himself with the Straw Head. Everything had happened about three hours ago: the Straw Head had suddenly passed out on the beach for no apparent reason, Ray had recovered his composure in a blink, then helped Armen climb the colored stairs that led to the Academy, not even letting Zeeta lend him a hand. The necromancer had hidden his anxiety quite well until then. As soon as he had arrived at his room, however, he had lost his temper, told Noah, Erma, and him to get out, and locked the door behind. Seeing that had made Zeeta even more worried. Was Armen in real danger? But why? Why did he suddenly pass out? Would Ray be able to save him with his arts?

He walked forward, went upstairs, then wavered in front of the thick door. Even with his enhanced hearing, he couldn’t hear what was going on behind. He didn’t want to distract Ray at a crucial moment, but…

As discreetly as possible, he turned the handle.

21 Heavenly Storm

One hand on my chest, the other hand holding his phone, Ray was looming over me, a glint of worry trembling in his eyes.

“Armen? Now you can hear me, can’t you?”

My core felt strange. I heard a meowing. Was it Rainbows? I tried to sit up but only managed to move my mouth:

“Yes…”

“I’m almost done drawing Cesarine’s lifeforce from your body, but it had eaten away almost all your lifeforce, so you can barely move. Don’t worry. When I’m done, I’ll give you some and nurture your necro-bond. How are you feeling?”

“…” I was feeling weird. Very weird. And strangely unstable. To think an undead could faint just like that. Anyway, at least, my mind had begun to work again. I looked at the cozy room, the rounded walls illuminated by the sun, and the canopy bed, and roughly understood where I was and how I had been led to this place. “Ray… You moved my body up there using the necro-bond, didn’t you?”

The young necromancer turned a bit pale as he nodded.

“I… did.”

“Heh. I didn’t know you could do that as well.” I grinned. “You’re amazing.”

“I’m not.” He averted his eyes to his hand on my chest and kept working as he added: “You should be annoyed by it, you know. The fact that I can move you, hear through you, even talk through your body… Doesn’t it worry you at least a bit?”

“Naw. Not a bit.”

“…”

“Okay, if it’d been your dad, no way I’d be fine with it. But I told you: I trust you.”

“Well, anyway, you scared me to death today. What exactly happened between you and Cesarine?”

“Cesarine? Oh, you mean the girl that wants to lose weight. You see… Her lifeforce was…”

Just remembering its taste made my core beat faster, and I took deep breaths. Ray snorted and somehow forced it to calm down.

“Your core is disrupted because of it.”

“… Guessed as much. Sorry. Her lifeforce was insanely good. I lost sight of reality. If you hadn’t been there to tell me to stop, I think I would have drained her of all her energy.”

Ray frowned, and his hand holding his phone trembled slightly.

“You’re wrong,” he muttered. “You… would have died before.”

I stared at him in shock.

“What?”

Ray swallowed and gave a nod.

“If I hadn’t been there to treat you on the spot, your core would have shattered to pieces.”

Holy Gods. What kind of lifeforce did that crybaby girl have to manage to disrupt my core in such a way?

“I’ve done some research,” he continued, glancing nervously at his phone. “Luckily, Kaspar passed me a bunch of necromancy books in digital format, so I could use them and understand what was going on. Otherwise…” He was trying to hide it, but I knew he had been through hell to save me. When I was about to thank him, he said in a scientific tone: “If I’m not mistaken… Cesarine has a Heavenly Storm type lifeforce.”

Heavenly Storm? What a weird name. But now that I thought about it, what I had felt was pretty much that: a storm of pleasure coming straight away from the heavens. Ray went on:

“The thing is, even though Heavenly Storm lifeforce can’t be turned into deathforce, your core would have tried to transform it endlessly, damaging itself until blowing itself to bits. Makler Vod says that Heavenly Storm lifeforce is rare and that there are more common variants that are less troublesome for the undead, but… the way you said her lifeforce was insanely good…”

“Hella good,” I confirmed. Now I could move my head. Ray had started giving me his lifeforce, and my whole body trembled with pleasure.

Ray had told me that, to the undead, each person’s lifeforce had a different taste. For some reason, some tasted better, such as merfolks’ lifeforce, whereas others could smell really bad. But something Ray had not said, something I had naturally come to understand, was that the most appealing lifeforce of all was that of the undead’s master.

However, Ray’s lifeforce had never driven me crazy as it did now. My thirsty body instinctively started absorbing his energy. Before I knew it, I had regained control of my body, had clasped my hands on Ray’s arm, and started sucking in his lifeforce without restraint.

“Armen…” Ray’s voice was shaking. “I-I won’t move my hand away, and I won’t order you, so… if you continue like that, I will die.”

Horror filled my mind and finally made me stop. Still, my body was asking for more. Was it because of my disrupted core? Was it because I had lost almost all my lifeforce and I was starving? No, but when I had almost died on the South Dunes, I had been able to eat from Zeeta without losing control. So… why?

Ray sighed with relief, but his face was growing gloomier by the second. I tried to calm down my breathing, but my efforts were useless.

“S-Sorry… It’s just that… I’m… starving.” Dammit. I was acting so weird. Worse: I had put Ray at risk. Still in shock, I stood up restlessly. “I should go to the other trainees and eat their wasted lif—”

“No.” Ray didn’t budge from his chair. “Could you lie down again? I’m not done yet. And I’ve seen your injury on your chest. The patch my dad put on it is damaged. I’ll patch you up again.”

“…” He did realize I had been barely able to stop eating his lifeforce, right? Geez… His trust cheered me up. “Okey-dokey, master.” I lay down, then asked after a silence: “Would I distract you if I talk?”

“Nah. I’m almost finished… I think.”

“Then… Do you know why the Heavenly Storm energy feels so good?”

“About that… if I had to guess, Heavenly Storm energy is one of those energies categorized as holy energies. Some cause pain to the undead, others entice them like a flame to a moth, but both types are dangerous to them, even deadly. As I said, you would have died if I hadn’t intervened right away. But your core is still disrupted. Heavenly Storm lifeforce increases life-lust in the undead and intensifies the desire they get from eating. It makes them feel blissful. Since there’s no other way for them to feel anything alike, it’s hard for them to fight their life-lust.”

Life-lust… It was the first time I heard that word. I had spent those last two months adapting to my new life, training my deathforce and my telekinesis, and eating lifeforce regularly, knowing well that I was but an ignorant undead but… I now realized I wanted to know more about my nature. My body was no longer human. That was a fact.

“… Is it that bad?” I asked. “My condition right now.”

Ray grimaced as he kept working on my body.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve only found one text about the Heavenly Storm, and it seems the only way to save the undead intoxicated with it is by purging its core of every drop of lifeforce. To do this, the familiar must not eat anything for at least three days in a row, or else the remaining Heavenly Storm lifeforce that couldn’t be removed would never be eliminated, which can lead to… severe complications. Yet again, as I said, I lack information. It takes more than one source to sort out the truth. If only I had access to more studies about the subject… I don’t like generalizations, but necromancers are usually humans full of themselves like my dad, and a lot of them believe they are always right… which means their conclusions may be wrong. I hope I’m not making a mistake by following this text’s advice. More importantly, Armen, if you feel like you’re losing capacities, like memory loss or anything that you believe is not right, could you tell me as soon as possible?”

I knew that my friend was terribly worried, and still, he remained calm as he tried to understand what was happening to me and didn’t hide anything. Part of me would have wanted to know more about those ‘severe complications’, but I thought it wasn’t the best moment to ask. I nodded.

“I’ll let you know if something happens. But I’m sure it’ll be all right. All I’ll have to do is not eat anything for three days, right?” Would I be able to last that long? I doubted it, but if Ray said it was necessary, I should try. I muttered: “Though it would be easier if you could just order me not to—”

“I won’t.”

“…”

I smiled, pretty annoyed. Why was he so focused on not ordering me even in a critical situation like this? Why was it so painful for him? Ray looked me in the eye.

“I trust you too. You’re stronger than you think, Armen.”

His unwavering statement moved me to tears.

“Am I? Heh, then I should start trusting myself as well—”

“You should stop crying and wasting lifeforce first.”

“S-Sorry!”

“Also, Armen… I’d like it were possible for you to say you’re sick and stay here away of everyone, but then the trainers would want to send you a doctor and they would most probably find out you’re not a… a… you know…”

“Not a living being?” I helped him.

Ray grimaced and grumbled:

“Well, according to the official definition, yes. But aren’t all sentient creatures living beings even if they do not create lifeforce? I mean, that definition is all rubbish…”

I laughed at his muttered words.

“In any case, I didn’t come to this training to live as a shut-in. If I am careful and stay away from people, it should be okay, right? Since you trust me and all…”

“… Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Ray’s hand trembled on my injury as he was patching it up, multiplying dead cells the gods know how. He was working so hard for my sake… I gave him a beaming smile.

“You’re the best, Ray.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No. My dad would have guessed Cesarine’s type lifeforce at a glance and would have ordered you to stay away from her from the very beginning.”

That may be true but…

“But your dad has a special ability to see and control lifeforce. You’ve got no cheating power like that, still you saved me. For me, Ray, you’re the best necromancer in the world,” I said cheerfully, giving him a big thumbs up, “since you’re my master.”

He snorted and dismissed my gesture with a wave.

“Nonsense.”

“Then… Since you’re my best friend?”

He stared at my smiling face, then shook his head, brightening up a bit.

“Be still, I’m still working.”

There was a silence. I tried to relax, but it was hard when all I wanted was to suck on Ray’s lifeforce—or rather my core did. I kept smiling. Smiling always made me feel better.

I asked:

“Hey, guess how I got that injury?”

“Dunno. Knowing you… you crashed into a tree?”

“Wrong! It was a cheebou. Have you seen one once? … Wait, why a tree?”

Ray rolled his eyes.

“I’ve seen pictures of cheebous on Farskyerpedia. Anyhow… I can’t believe you made it through the tests.”

“Right? Haha, I got first place on the written test.”

Ray froze and stared at me in disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“I got first place. Guess how? There was a bug, so they let me pass as long as I didn’t say anything. And I finished in last place on the second test. Your kind-hearted dad called me to tell me it was probably because your mom knows I am a friend of yours.”

“Eeeh…”

“Also, he asked me to tell you something. What was it again? Ah: my beloved son, I’ve heard that Makler Vod’s third apprentice will be at the training too, you’re a Vod fan, aren’t you, so I’m sure you two will get along well, her name is Natasha. Phew,” I whistled, impressed. “I remembered it all.”

Ray’s eyes showed surprise, then just focused on my chest for a moment.

“You should breathe normally when you speak.”

“Oh, yeah.” I looked at his worried expression with curiosity. “What is it? Did you meet that Natasha already?”

“Well… We certainly met. She’s from London, I think. She talked to me this morning when we were having breakfast. She asked me if I had lost a bone somewhere. I thought she was crazy, so I just left.”

I laughed, not surprised even a bit by Ray’s reaction.

“A bone, huh? Was she talking about me? Anyway, sounds like a funny girl.”

“Humph. I wonder what a Makler Vod’s apprentice is doing at a Hero training.”

“Maybe her mom’s a Hero like yours?”

“Not likely. From what I’ve read, Makler Vod is rather wary of the WHO. He’s well-known by the Dark Arts Regulators. Well… I don’t know what my dad’s planning, but I won’t befriend that apprentice just because she’s a necromancer.”

“Huh? But aren’t you curious about her teacher?” I teased him. “You’re a big fan of his, aren’t you?”

Ray shrugged, pulled his hand away from my injury, and asked:

“Could you stay quiet now, please? I’m going to take a look at your core again.”

I noticed how he carefully avoided speaking with imperatives. Wasn’t he being even more cautious than usual? He wanted to preserve my free will, he said… But was that doing me a favor? Because of that, I had to fight that life-lust that was pushing my mind to its limits… Though, of course, it wasn’t Ray’s fault. It was because I had eaten something heavenly poisonous. I could be stabbed in the heart yet couldn’t stand a delightful meal… The undead could be so weak sometimes.

Ray finally straightened up on his chair, letting out a tired sigh.

“All right. For three days, I’ll administer lifeforce to you in little doses. Don’t…” He paused and rectified: “You shouldn’t eat anything more than that.”

He was taking real care not to give me orders, huh? Dammit…

“Don’t worry about that.” I sat up on the bed and offered my most radiant smile. “Thank you, Ray. Sorry I’m such a high-maintenance familiar.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not your fault. Accidents will happen.”

A low and grunting meow made us turn our heads to the tabby cat; as motionless as a statue, it looked like it had been observing us from the start.

“Oh, Rainbows!” I greeted her. “Long time no see. How are you doing?”

The cat meowed, then curled up in a cushion.

“Always as lazy as ever, huh?”

When I turned to Ray, my smile faded. Was he still brooding about my core? I tried to change the subject.

“Oh, about last night… I know you probably wondered where I was. Zeeta can’t swim, so we—”

“You guys spent the night at the lighthouse on the Neck, I know,” Ray cut me off, and under my astonished eyes, he added with a light tone: “Taking a census of the jellyfish population, that’s some funny game.”

I jerked up backwards as if I had been caught red-handed.

“No way! You could reach me from Yuutow?!”

He shook his head.

“Barely. I tried to send you a message, but guess it got lost on the way. I wasn’t trying to spy on you or anything. I was just worried.”

“No prob. I’m just amazed you could reach me. Didn’t you break your limits?”

“Not really. I just had to get a bit into the waters, and the lighthouse got within my range. Anyway…” A smile curved his lips. “Who could have thought you would totally ignore the first challenge and spend the night playing video games. You’re too much, Armen.”

“Heehee… I asked the Soft Queen to let us get on her ship, but she didn’t want to.”

“You don’t say.”

“Then I had to cross on someone else’s boat. I’m a civilized undead, ya know.”

“Pff… But it’s a miracle you passed the tests.”

I laughed.

“I know, right! I’ve met a girl with the power of good luck, so maybe it was thanks to her?”

“The power of good luck? Is that a thing?”

“Apparently. My big sis met her too, and she seemed to believe her. At first, the girl just wanted to pass the examination to test her power. She wasn’t interested in the training, at all, just like you. But in the end, she changed her mind. I’m glad she did! I wonder how the badge hunting went for her, and for the others. I’ve met quite a number of rather nice people during the examination!” I was grinning, happy to see that Ray’s face had lit up a bit. I looked around at the rounded room bathed in sunrays, the arched window, and Ray’s bag carefully put at the bottom of the bed… Was that Ray’s room? “Is this the dormitory building?”

“Ah… No. We Nyomin trainees have been given each a house. The Academy is empty, so there is plenty of room for everyone.” He saw me freeze all of a sudden, and he turned pale. “Armen? What—?”

“Damn!” I moaned, standing up. I had just remembered… “The badge! I lost mine, and Zeeta’s has been taken by that kid, Mackenzie! We’re so scr—”

I fell silent as I saw Ray take out a badge with the number forty-two written on it. I gaped at him.

“How?”

“Noah gave it to me. He said he wanted to stay at this house too, so I let him do so in exchange.”

“Noah did?” But when did he steal it from me? On the beach? That bully… Well, at least, the fakir-witch was innocent. Then I frowned. “And all he wanted was to stay with us?”

Ray shoved the badge in his pocket and nodded without a word, which made me frown even more.

“Is there something else?”

“… I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Is that so? But I want to know.”

We looked at each other. He was annoyed, but I didn’t avert my eyes.

“Armen…” Ray clicked his tongue. “It’s nothing important.”

“You will have me worried for two months if you don’t say it,” I dramatized. “What if you promised Noah you would give up on the dream of your life?”

“Gah… What nonsense are you spouting? What dream? He just asked for money.”

I blinked. Money? I sighed in relief.

“Oh, it was just money. Thank goodness. How much?”

“Two thousand Corns.”

“So little?”

“It’s… quite a sum, I’d say.”

Actually, it was, but… Heh.

“The money’s the Lord’s, isn’t it? Well, too bad Noah didn’t ask for more.” Ray stifled a laugh in disbelief. I added jokingly: “It’s not like I don’t like the Lord or anything, but since he keeps nagging at me, I’m feeling the urge to do the same.”

“He nags at you? He dares?”

I chuckled and playfully bent his baseball cap, saying:

“I dare too, you know, so don’t worry. Well, what about Zeeta? Did you buy his badge too?”

Ray grimaced.

“No… He said he didn’t mind serving Cesarine and her henchmen.”

I snorted. What? That was strange. Zeeta didn’t even know that girl. Well, he surely had his reasons. Maybe he was still working for the Beholder or something?

I suddenly caught a streak of Ray’s wasted lifeforce, and I stopped thinking. My core trembled with hunger. Under Ray’s and Rainbows’ eyes, I brusquely stepped to the window, opened it, and looked over the Neck and the main island. The sights sure were beautiful. A breeze ruffled my hair, though I couldn’t sense it, nor the hot air of Phoenix Island, nor could I find enticing the salty and familiar smell of the sea…

“Armen.”

Ray’s voice was stiff. I threw a quizzical look his way, then wondered what he was thinking about to make him hesitate so much.

“I have…” He stood up and faced me. “I have something to tell you.”

His expression reminded me of the one he had on the day I had woken up after my revival. He was stressed. Maybe stressed about what my reaction would be?

I gave him a smile. I was calm.

“Ray. You know you can tell me anything. Even if you say that I’m going to die from eating heavenly poison and that you can’t do anything. You tried your best—”

“It’s not that!” Ray was flustered. “I mean… You won’t die, Armen, you’re okay, your core won’t shatter anymore.” He gasped. “Did you… think you were going to die?”

“Ah, no, well, you were so gloomy just now, I just thought for a moment it was something like that.” I raised my hands. “I’m relieved.”

Ray sighed loudly. Another streak of wasted lifeforce reached me, and my thirsty body shuddered. He saw it. I instinctively took a deep breath. And he saw it too. My painful smile soon faded. I raised an arm to cover my mouth, trying not to inhale, but my heart was pounding, my breathing was heavy… Unwittingly and strangely embarrassed, I confessed:

“Ray… I’m… feeling like I’m alive. I… had almost… forgotten that feeling.”

Ray’s hands shivered. He seized the brim of his baseball cap, then suddenly got a grip of himself.

“Let me explain,” he said. “According to what I have read, almost all the undead exposed to the Heavenly Storm lifeforce lose control over their appetite and turn into a…” His voice quivered, and he drew a deep breath. “Well, right now you feel like you can’t control yourself, and that most likely means that you’re about to turn into… or more like that you already turned into… Well, I may be mistaken, but…”

“Come on, spit it out, man.”

Ray raised his head and stared at me.

“A Fury.”

22 A monster among Heroes?

A Fury. The word echoed in my mind. Its sound didn’t bode well.

Ray clenched his fists.

“As I say, I may be mistaken. And even if I’m not, you don’t need to be frightened or anything. My dad told me how to proceed if you were to become a Fury, so it’s all right. Things like that are not that uncommon.”

“… Sure.”

“Some necromancers advise against telling the familiar about those things, but I thought you would be more relaxed if you knew.”

Was I? I couldn’t tell. I smiled.

“Sure.”

“So you don’t need to worry.”

My smile stiffened.

“Keep saying that, and you’ll make me worry for real.”

“Ah… Yeah. Sorry.”

I leaned on the window sill with my arms folded.

“You did told me about the Fury thing but… I thought Furies couldn’t think straight. Arkill told me.”

“… What did he tell you?”

“Mm… If I recall correctly, he said a Fury’s core has no balance, Furies always want to eat more, and their mind stops working. But mine works just fine… well, as usual, at least. Could it be I am a special Fury?”

“… You’re not. You can think straight because I’ve put a barrier in your core. It’s just temporal, though. Once you start eating, it will crumble quickly, and I’ll have to build it again. It’s all I can do for now. A Fury state can last from two weeks up to several months. It varies a lot, the average being one month, so… we’ll have to bear it until it ends.”

“Yeah… So a Fury can come back to normal?”

“It… can’t. Not the way you were.”

“Then Arkill—”

“—Is not a Fury. Listen, actually, all undeads have to live through a ‘fury’ period before they become full-fledged, it’s like a transition to adulthood. Usually, you can see some signs before it happens; so, the necromancer can take it under control and ‘simulate’ the fury period.”

“Simulate?”

“To produce a similar Fury condition without actually doing it. Experienced necromancers usually succeed to do so. Out of all my dad’s life reapers, none has ever turned into a Fury. Their evolution into full-fledged undeads never got out of control.”

So he meant Arkill, Louise, Sora had evolved peacefully and in a controlled way while I was the only one who was going to become an “adult” the hard way? The Lord was gonna kill me…

“Because of Kaspar’s intervention, I was expecting your core to grow sooner than normal but… Cesarine’s lifeforce triggered a massive growth spurt way too soon, and it disrupted your core. And that’s really b… unfortunate.” He almost said ‘bad’, didn’t he? He cleared his throat. “That means I can’t simulate a ‘fury period’ for you anymore because you turned into a real Fury. Probably.”

“How probable?”

“Well… Forget the ‘probably’: I’m sure of it. But it’s not like that situation caught me completely off guard. It will be a bit more difficult and laborious than the controlled transformation, that’s all.”

Ray’s efforts not to make me worry were praiseworthy. I shook my head.

“But, Ray, there’s something I don’t understand. Undead people have a master. Then, all the master has to do is to order the familiar to eat the bare minimum, am I right?”

“You’re… dead wrong.” Ray sat down on his chair, laying a hand on each knee. “I had to learn so many things during those two months that… I guess I’ve neglected you a bit. I should explain to you a few things about the undead. Can you bear with it for a few minutes?”

I smiled, went to my knees like a good student, and said:

“I don’t promise that I’ll remember everything, my memory is full of holes, but I’m all ears.”

Ray gave a nod.

“Then… First, not all the undead have a human master. There are natural undead, created by other entities that are not human, like necro-trees, necro-mist, even necro-soil—”

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah. Most Heroes may deny it, but deathforce is a natural energy made of dark crystal. Necromancers didn’t invent it. They did invent techniques to use it, though, throughout the centuries, and that’s how artificial cores were created. However,” he went on, “undeads with natural masters and undeads with human masters have something in common. Their cores can’t work without a necro-bond. That is, the undead can’t live without a master. At least, it hasn’t been proven otherwise so far.”

I nodded. I had guessed as much.

“So? What about the Furies?” I asked. “Can natural undead become Furies?”

“Obviously, they can. Most Furies in the world are natural undead. Though natural Furies don’t live long, since their ‘masters’ are not even aware of their existence.”

“… That’s… sad.”

“Yeah. But think that those undeads normally are barely sentient too. They are mostly small creatures, worms, and the like.”

I wondered what a worm turned into a Fury looked like.

“Then?” I said. “What about Furies with a human master?”

“Well… The name speaks for itself. It’s said the necromancer has absolute control over his familiars… except when they become Furies.”

My eyes grew open.

“Then… you can’t order me right now?”

“I could. An undead has to obey its master’s orders, there’s no way out, but ordering a Fury is a bad idea. You see, an order always stirs up the core, and if that happens, your life-lust would increase. Worse, the master cannot erase an order given to a Fury. Giving a counter-order would only worsen your life-lust, so the only solution is to wait for the order to fade away on its own. So, this is the situation: if I ordered you to stop eating someone’s lifeforce, you would get mad and feed on someone else; if I ordered you to just stop eating, you would get mad at yourself; if I were to put you to sleep, your core would die from hunger… Are you listening, Armen?”

“Eeeh, I-I am…” No, I wasn’t: I had just caught another streak of Ray’s lifeforce and had lost concentration. It wasn’t entirely my fault. Ray was talking a lot, and his wasted lifeforce was filling the room.

Ray cleared his throat.

“Simply put, the more I order you, the more desperate you get.”

“Oh…” I forced a smile. That… sounded bad. “I think I got it. But how can you know I would react that way?”

“It’s how it works. Many necromancers had to deal with familiars who turned into Furies, and many made the same mistake, ordering them and thinking they were doing the right thing, when in fact they were just digging the grave for their familiars. The personality or will of the Fury hardly makes a difference when its life-lust is at its peak. They all react the same way. So… our main objective, for now, is to keep your life-lust in check.”

I nodded. There was a brief silence. Then I asked:

“Say, Ray… when you say that they all react the same way… what exactly does that mean?”

“It means you will eat lifeforce until you’re satiated. But the thing is, a Fury can’t be satiated with just a few thousand drops of lifeforce. Since Furies are growing creatures, they need an amount much greater than that.”

“How much?”

“About two million drops a day.”

I froze. Two million?

“That’s a lot, right?”

“You could say that. That’s about twice the amount contained in a grown-up human body. Also, Furies usually won’t stop even if they are satiated, because of the intense pleasure they take in feeding on living beings. So, listen—Crap, did I just make it an order?!”

“You didn’t,” I assured him.

Ray snorted in relief.

“So, what I was going to say is, once the Heavenly Storm lifeforce is completely eliminated in your deathforce veins and your core, about three days from now, you should start eating larger quantities of lifeforce, or else it would be pretty bad for your health. But you can’t be caught, and you’ll have to be by my side whenever you eat large quantities so I can rebuild the mental barrier that prevent you from losing control. You can’t eat just by breathing. You won’t have enough if you do. Also…” He hesitated. “No. It’s nothing.” He stood up. “I just remembered my dad gave me some equipment, just in case. I told him I’d never use it but…”

He searched his bag and took out a mask. It was black, with the picture of a big skeleton smile embroidered on it.

“Agh… Sorry my Dad chose such a creepy design…”

Ray stopped one meter away from me, wavered, and explained:

“This mask is impermeable to lifeforce. You won’t be able to renew the air in your lungs, but since you don’t need oxygen, it’s not a problem for you. You will be able to talk just fine. Ah, but of course, you don’t have to put it on if you think you won’t need it.”

As he said all that, a streak of lifeforce denser than the others reached me. My mouth opened instinctively… I shut it, then held out my hand with a tense smile.

“I’ll take it.”

I was grabbing the mask when I heard a squeaking, then a loud bang. I turned to the door, startled.

The panel had just knocked over the armchair that Ray had probably placed there to block the way during my treatment. The door was now ajar, and Zeeta was peeping into the room. His eyes lit up.

“Straw Head! You’re okay!”

To my bewilderment, Ray lunged forward, leaped over the armchair, pushed Zeeta out of the room, and disappeared with him in the corridor. I heard him growl:

“What’s the big idea! You can’t barge in like that!”

“I thought you had locked the door.”

“There’s no lock!”

“How’s the Straw Head?”

“He’s okay.”

“What happened to him?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“Oh, yeah? Want me to beat you up?”

“You’d better not try, Zeeta,” I said, more harshly than I intended. With the mask on, I peeped out of the room. Zeeta raised an eyebrow at my weird mask.

“Straw Head? Are you really okay?”

“Yeah.”

His face brightened up. He hurried to the door.

“Then—!”

Was he going to grab my arm or something? I panicked and slammed the door in his face. I couldn’t hear what he said until I reopened it a bit, just an inch to let the sound pass.

“… The hell was that for?” Zeeta complained.

“Ah… Sorry for that, Zeeta, I may be fine, but I’m starving right now, so it would be better if you don’t come near me.”

“… You’re… starving? I’ll give you my lifeforce! Open the door!” He tried to force it open, but my arms didn’t budge, nor did the door. “Crap, why won’t you open it?! Ray, you! What are you starving him for?! Are you even human?! Damn necromancer, I’m gonna crush you to pieces—!”

“Zeeta!!” I called out angrily. “If you hit Ray, I won’t play the violin with you ever again!”

There was a silence. Looks like my childish threat worked. Thank goodness. Zeeta could be such an impulsive friend sometimes… I added:

“Ray just saved my life again. He said I must not eat for three days to recover, and I believe in him. If you want to help me, then don’t touch me. It’s hard to control myself right now.”

I opened the door. Zeeta and I looked at each other. Then he snorted and turned to Ray.

“I want to know everything.”

Ray shook his head.

“You’re not a necromancer, nor an undead. You’re not supposed to know.”

As I saw both of them glare at each other, my lips stretched into an annoyed smile under my mask.

“Come on, Ray. We can at least tell him what you told me. About the food… N-No, about the undead who turn into Heavenly Storms… No, wait, what am I saying? The thing is, Zeeta, I’ve eaten something so damn good that my core’s been turned upside down, and because of that, I’m going to become an adult… I mean, a Fury. And now Ray is afraid of giving me orders because, if he does, I won’t be able to stop eating humans… I mean, food. I mean, it’s the same in that case, hahaha…”

“…” Zeeta looked at Ray for confirmation, then frowned. “And what if you don’t stop eating?”

“I’ll explode.”

Ray snorted.

“You won’t! Stop imagining horrible things, Armen!”

Ray’s order flew through our necro-bond and struck my core. A stream of delight overflowed my mind then disappeared. It was as though a thousand of Cesarines’ had offered me their finest lifeforce for some seconds, then had fled away.

Hunger grew inside me like a deep void desiring to be filled. Dammit. My core was suffocating, pushing me to go hunt for lifeforce. Lifeforce. Life. So hungry… My eyes vividly stared at the faces of my two friends, and what they saw was—

—Life.

As soon as that truth struck me, I fought it with all my might.

Stop it. Run. Holy Gods, help me.

Dead to the world, not even hearing my friends’ voices, I took one step backwards and pushed the door shut with all my might. It banged. Fortunately, it was a thick door.

Ray and Zeeta must not come in.

That was what the most reasonable part of me was thinking. As for the rest…

Life.

My body is craving for life.

Life. What I don’t have. What my body craves to get back. And what it won’t ever get back.

New instincts were awakening. My core was on fire. A fire that burned the life of the living and wanted to spread all around.

A low, endless growl reverberated in my throat. What was that unbearable feeling? Overcoming my confusion, I finally understood: I was in pain. So far, I had never experienced pain, even when I was lacking lifeforce. Normally, when I was out of energy, my body would just stop working without a warning. But now I was aching, body and mind, because of my unfulfilled desires.

Furies really were different, huh.

On the other side of the door, Ray was surely cursing himself. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to make a blunder so soon.

But, well, thinking positively—

I stopped growling and smiled under my impermeable mask.

—that habit of Ray to order me when he didn’t want to was a rather comical side of him. Comical yet problematic.

‘Armen! I’m sorry!’

My life-lust had calmed down, and Ray’s mental voice could finally reach my core. His sincere and panicked apology managed to placate my bad mood. I grinned.

“It’s all right. I expected no less from my honorable master.”

‘I’m truly terribly sorry. I can’t believe I blundered so soon…’

“Even the most sensible and prudent necromancer in the world makes mistakes.”

‘… Are you being ironic?’

I laughed nervously.

“No, I’m just trying to calm down. Also, I have to apologize too.”

‘Hah?! Why should you?!’

“Well…” I looked down at my mutilated hands. Had I been digging into the door all this time? It looked like it, since there were cracks left on it. Rainbows, which had been so peacefully resting on its cushion a moment ago, was now cautiously watching me from under the bed, its eyes gleaming intently. I took the handle and opened the door, then showed my injured hands under Zeeta’s and Ray’s shocked eyes. Since I was masked, I grinned with my eyes. “Thanks for taking care of me. Master.”

Ray took a deep breath, then replied very politely:

“Could you please stop calling me master whenever you get hurt?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. He was trying so hard not to order me that it was hilarious.

“Also, it’s my fault you got injured in the first place,” Ray added.

“Haha, that’s true. Zeeta, I hope you didn’t punch him?”

“I didn’t! … Though I wanted to.”

I whistled, impressed.

“You controlled yourself so well.”

Zeeta snorted.

“Look who’s talking about self-control…”

* * *

Two hours later, a loudspeaker announced to the whole Academy something like:

“TRAINEES! YOU ARE ALL TO *** IN THE *** SQUARE IN TEN MINUTES. LATE-COMERS *** A SANCTION. I REPEAT! YOU ARE ALL TO *** IN THE MAIN SQUARE IN TEN MINUTES.”

The message was in Common Language, but I had understood almost everything… Way to go, Armen Moon!

I looked down at my hands. After Ray had treated them, there was no sign of scar left, not even a mark. Necromancy sure was amazing.

I glanced at Rainbows, sitting under the window. I was going to stroke its fur, but its gaze deterred me from doing so. The cat was still wary of me even after Ray had told her to relax… Apparently, even undead cats had some survival instincts. I patted my anti-lifeforce muzzle on my face, cheered up, and turned to Zeeta and Ray.

“Ready, guys?”

Ray was tired as hell after spending so much energy taking care of my body’s issues, but he still nodded.

“I… guess,” he muttered.

Zeeta put his hood and his mask on.

“I was thinking of taking it off, but since you wear a mask as well, I’ll keep it. Though yours looks cooler with that skeleton smile.”

“Heh… Are you jealous? I have to say, Ray’s dad has good taste.” On hearing that, Ray snorted in disagreement. I added: “But if you were to wear mine, you would die from suffocation.”

“Mm… Then I’d just ask Ray to revive me.”

“Oh, that might work.”

“Are you two trying to kill me?!” Ray groaned. “I wouldn’t be able to revive even a fly right now! Also, Armen, please don’t… I mean, can you please remember you have to take our situation seriously? If someone touches you and you lose control, we’re done for.”

“I know.”

I stopped at the main door of the house, turned around, and fastened my eyes on Ray’s. If I exposed myself in a training intended for future Heroes, it would be no use to even hope for a miracle: I would be dead for good in a flash. Still, I couldn’t run away from the training now that I had decided to take part in it. I had come prepared to risk it all in order to follow Ray.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “So let’s go.”

At last, the training was starting.

23 The Lucky, the Pretty, and the Thug

The main square was crowded when we arrived. Altogether, we were seventy trainees. Sixty-nine living beings I had to be wary of, and I wasn’t counting the trainers.

Noah was the first to approach, holding his hand as if to clap my shoulder as he was saying:

“Stupidstar! Thought you were dead!”

I was about to move backwards, when Zeeta grabbed Noah’s wrist.

“Stay away from him.”

Noah snorted.

“What’s wrong with that loser? Hey, stupidstar, is that jerk really your friend?”

“He is.”

My voice was curt. I didn’t want to be disagreeable to anyone, but I couldn’t act too friendly either. It would have been asking for trouble. I felt bad, though, when I saw Noah click his tongue with contempt and walk away.

“He’s hurt.”

“Can’t be helped.” Zeeta didn’t look so discontent about it.

“By the way, Zeeta. Shouldn’t you be with Cesarine right now?” I asked.

“Ugh. That’s right. I’m going… but I’ll keep an eye on you.”

“As expected of my stalker, thanks.”

“Don’t touch me, you moron!”

Oh. I had almost nudged him on the arm with my fist to say goodbye. I should really be more careful…

My eyes followed Zeeta as he joined the group with the corpulent, heavenly girl, the kid in a lab coat, and the four-armed guy that talked about himself in the third person. They had quite a few Independent trainees under their wing. According to Ray, a group of Starlanders had spent the whole badge hunt hazing the newcomers, but few of them had wanted to let any of them into their houses, only picking the strongest. As for the Amazonian Nyomin trainees…

“Straw Head!”

When I heard Linah’s voice, I stiffened. Holy Gods… Linah was the person I dreaded the most to face right now. Thank goodness a trainer began to speak, asking for silence, and Erma didn’t have the time to get to us, at the rear of the group of trainees.

I was so focused on keeping in check my life-lust and controlling the movements around me, that I couldn’t really pay attention to the trainer’s words; something about the achievements, the goals of the EPHT training, and the values of the Nyomin Heroes. Also, he was speaking in the Common Language, so I would have had a hard time understanding him in the best situation possible anyway…

The trainers all introduced themselves. They were no less than nine—plus the assistants. Ray’s mom was among them, with her pretty black braids, and her relaxed and dignified face… I wondered how her lifeforce tasted like. According to Ray, lifeforce’s taste wasn’t related to blood at all, so I couldn’t guess…

No, no, but I shouldn’t think about food right now!

Beside me, Ray looked uneasy. Cynsea the Hypnotist’s voice attracted my attention for a moment. The merfolk wasn’t among the trainers but among the supervisors, just like Mr. Huang. She talked about some rules the Independent trainees had to follow according to the deal between the Nyomin and the Independent Hero Association and politely suggested that the Nyomin trainees should treat us equally. I caught some amused expressions among the elite trainees, as if they were thinking, ‘Equally? How are we supposed to imagine we are equal to some random guys picked by some Heroes that didn’t even pass the Nyomin Exam?’. They had thoughts like that written all over their faces.

I shut my eyes for a bit and listened to my core. It was beating faster. I guess the presence of so many people was arousing my instincts despite the mask. Still, that mask the Lord had given Ray was amazing. Not even a streak of lifeforce was passing through. I was relieved. But not so much as to completely relax. A simple contact could intensify my life-lust, and there was no telling how I would react if that happened.

“Armen? Armen?”

Ray’s voice made me snap back to reality. The trainees had started muttering among themselves while moving. I carefully stepped backwards and said in a whisper:

“I’m okay. I just suck at Sarwish language. Did I miss something?”

“How could I know. Did you understand the rules, at least?”

“Ah…” The rules? What rules? Did he mean the training rules?

“In short, we’ll have to complete an obstacle race to get a prize,” Ray explained. “The faster you go, the better the prize. What worries me is that they say they’ll put us in groups of two and decide them by drawing straws.”

Which meant I could end up with Noah. I could already imagine him causing me trouble, making me lose my mind, and dying before my frantic eyes… The sinister picture shattered to pieces as I shook my head.

“What kind of prize?”

“You really didn’t follow, huh? First, let’s get in line like the others to draw straws.”

“’Kay. So?” I asked when we got in line.

“So, once your team reaches the goal, you can choose one item among whatever there’s left. Addison said they will be mostly giving crystal pills.”

“Addison, the serious guy with the ponytail?”

“Yeah… You do know pills are being used by practitioners to improve their abilities. Like, the inner energy, that is qi, or their power. They’re very precious items for Heroes.”

“Oh, yeah,” I recalled. “My sister told me something like good crystal pills were difficult to make and difficult to get.”

I remembered how, one year ago, Azritz warned me against a new trend among some youths who believed they could transform a piece of “raw crystal” into a pill to forcefully awaken their power. ‘Armen, listen, don’t believe any of this: swallowing a raw crystal can be lethal. A co-worker of mine works on the matter, and she’s been seeing dozens of accidents lately because of that DYPY movement of “Do Your Pill Yourself”.’ She had been rambling on and on until she made sure I wouldn’t do anything stupid. Of course, she didn’t know I had already been taking a temporary pill at the Tiger Clan for months.

“Some pills are extremely expensive,” Ray nodded as we advanced in the line. “Anyway, I guess elite trainees will try getting the best pills, since most of them probably already get low-grade ones on a regular basis. As for you, don’t—I mean, you shouldn’t use your pill until I read everything about their effect on unde—er, what am I saying. At any rate, just be—I-I mean, I hope you will be careful.”

After his blunder, the young necromancer was being warier than ever not to give me orders. Being so tired, if he let his guard down even a bit, he would mess up for sure. I was fighting my life-lust, but his battle wasn’t easy either. I shouldn’t add to his worry. I gave a firm nod.

“I will.”

The line advanced quickly. Ray drew a three. I drew a seventeen. Luck wasn’t on our side.

That was what I thought until I learned who I had paired up with. When I cried out my number and saw Nina Clover raise her hand, I grinned under my mask. Speaking about luck…

I stepped forward to her.

“Hi, Nina! I’m glad to be with you again.”

The silver-haired girl tilted her head.

“And you are…?”

I was left puzzled.

“Huh? I’m Armen. Armen Moon. Armenilda, you remember?”

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t recognize you because of the mask.”

“Oh, right, I forgot about that. I’m allergic to sponge cactuses. That’s why… I totally can’t remove it.” Or at least that was the story Ray had come up with to justify my sudden blackout on the beach as well as the mask.

“Oh.” Nina nodded as if understanding. “Those cactuses sure are weird. There is nothing like that back in the Hawaii Mountains. I was surprised when we arrived at Phoenix Island. Did you bring the mask knowing you would need it?”

“Nah, a friend lent it to me.”

“I see. The skull smile is funny. Makes you look like a pirate.”

I laughed.

“Thanks. I may be one in reality.”

“Well… That would make you an outlaw.”

“I may be one as well!” I chuckled. I certainly was, defiling a Nyomin training with my dark nature.

“Trainees!” A trainer’s voice made us turn. He added in Common Language: “Follow me.”

The trainers led us around the Academy, past a magnificent tower and through a large courtyard. At the back of the latter, a small door was connected to the front part of the island, that is, the Turtle’s head. A sunny area full of cactuses, ravines, and rocks spread in front of us. Despite some ups and downs, the terrain ascended slowly but surely toward the highest point of the hill, which must be the “nose” of Phoenix Island. On the top, there was a pole. Were we supposed to reach that pole to get our prize?

As I was looking for Ray and Zeeta, my eyes were drawn by the new faces. Some trainees had real peculiar features. One of the elite trainees had a voluminous jaw in which incredibly razor-sharp teeth showed; next to him, there was a girl with a disturbing glowing skin that strangely made me feel dizzy just by looking at her. Geez… The way some powers were able to change the human body was amazing. My eyes set on Oliver, the telepathic boy with the helmet, then raised to a super tall gorgeous girl standing behind him. I was awestruck by her looks. Her hairs were like stems tipped with golden flowers, her eyebrows were green like moss, her livid skin, slightly greenish, was crazed like a wooden trunk. Her light gray eyes, stern and indifferent, were fastened on the woods ahead of us. Was she a human? Was she a tree?

I just looked down at her feet, maybe unconsciously expecting to see roots instead, when Addison gave the start signal with a simple word. Most of the trainees bounced forward at once. Lei and Axel Sunclaw glared at each other as they overtook everyone at astounding speed, and I heard Noah rushing after the former while protesting:

“Wait for your teammate, you damned bastard!”

Lei replied without slowing down:

“Ain’t got pussies in my team!”

As for Axel, he just cast a glare at his own teammate, saying:

“You better catch up or you’re gonna regret it.”

I could not make out the pairs of the others before we all entered the woods and scattered. I think that Ray had been paired up with a black-haired girl, and Zeeta had hastily followed Ryu Buckbee, the young hydrophobic Black-Heart.

The colored sponge-cactuses were not the only flora in the woods. There were all types of algae and even some stunted trees. The hot air rippled on the sandy, rocky soil.

Nina kept advancing calmly, and I followed her, admiring my surroundings. The cactuses weren’t just black and orange as I had thought on my arrival. There were also blue, pink, cyan cactuses, big as houses, or small as Rainbows…

Rainbows.

Was she really afraid of me? Was she angry? The thought kept bothering me. As soon as I would get back, I would try to make up with her… Wait, why was I thinking about the cat right now? I shook my head and hurried behind Nina.

My teammate didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get the best prizes, but honestly, neither was I. After all, Ray still hadn’t learned how the undead used crystal pills. Moreover, I was in no rush to compete with other trainees in my fragile state. I only hoped that Nina’s power would make her avoid touching me. She was a lucky girl, so there was a high probability that everything would be fine, right?

Anyway, worrying too much about what could happen wasn’t going to help.

For now… let’s just have fun.

As soon as I thought that, I heard a scream then a voice complaining:

“What’s the deal with that moss? It’s clinging to me! I can’t move!”

“Crap, I got caught too! The hell is that moss, I can’t cut it with my knife!”

Soon, we glimpsed two trainee girls caught in a zone covered with a sand-colored fuzzy plant. Nina stopped, turned around, and kept walking. I looked at her, surprised, as the trapped girls kept trying to free themselves unaware of our presence. After a while, the silver-haired girl stopped again.

“Oh. Maybe we should have helped them?”

I snorted with laughter. Did she only think about it now? I shrugged.

“Why should we? They seemed to be having fun.”

“Huh? Were they?”

“Haha, yes. Anyway, they didn’t look like they were in real danger—”

A scream rang in the woods. We jumped up at an outburst of voices coming from our right. As I heard something about cactuses and a “do not breathe, idiot, it’s poisonous!”, I grimaced.

“Guess there are more traps around here than expected.”

“Mm.” Nina hesitated then said: “Let’s get going.”

We resumed our walking among the sponge cactuses. I tried to watch my step, carefully looking for anything suspicious, but I saw nothing like a mimetic sandy plant or a miasma-emitting cactus.

“Oh, Armen,” Nina said, breaking the silence. “I was wondering, now that we’re in the forest… won’t sponge cactuses make you sick? Is the mask good enough?”

“Eeeh, are you worried about m—?” My head suddenly crashed into the branch of a cactus. Thank goodness that one had no thorns. I hurried to say: “I’m okay, I’m okay, don’t worry. About the allergy, my mask is of the highest quality, so there’s no danger at all.”

Geez… I should try to be more careful. I couldn’t always rely on Ray to patch me up. Nina bit her lower lip, slightly smiling.

“It reminds me, for the second test, I was the one being clumsy in the jungle,” she said as we kept walking. “It was because I was lying to you, though. My power still feels strange when I think about how it works. By the way, you’re a good friend of Arkifa’s, aren’t you?”

“Hah? Yes. We’re classmates.”

“Last night, I ended up being with her. She was most kind to me. She saved me from a Starlander who wanted to steal my badge, and then we made it smoothly to the gates. Some girls say she betrayed them for letting them down, but all they wanted was to take advantage of her. That’s sad. I think Arkifa is an amazing person.”

Nina’s way of judging people was amazing too. I grinned.

“But she is. I even fell for her last year.”

Nina blushed.

“Eh?”

“Ah, but she knows that already. So… last night you two passed the gates with your badges? Then you’re free from serving any snooty—I mean, you don’t have to follow any elite trainee. That’s great.”

“Well… I was planning on doing that, but this morning a girl with pink hair approached me, she tickled me and… w-well, I lost my badge to her. I guess that, since it happened, it was for the b—”

“A pink-haired girl?!” I cut her off, squinting my eyes. “Did she wear pigtails?”

“Pigtails? No. She has short hair.”

Then it couldn’t be Linah. I didn’t know whether I had to be relieved about it or not.

We spent the next hour ascending the hill, going up and down gullies, and hearing occasional screams from trainees. Were there so many traps? I had a hard time believing it, since we hadn’t found any trap so far. But… maybe it was related to Nina’s power? Now that I thought about it, she was regularly slowing down and changing routes for no reason.

Together, we examined a colony of purple ants, collected some beautiful stones, gazed with awe at the glowing carapace of a white beetle, and saw a strange creature with spongy-looking orange thorns.

“Ooh. It’s like a stick bug,” Nina said in a quiet voice, as if she didn’t want to frighten it. “It’s way bigger than normal stick bugs, but the principle is the same: they camouflage themselves by imitating the plants of their habitat.”

“Eeh… Nature sure is wonderful. At first, I thought it was a baby cactus.”

“Well, it could have been. I’ve heard that some plants and even trees can move and even migrate.”

“Are they really plants, then?”

“Mm… Are they? … Some people say dryads are plants, though saying that is considered to be racist. You did see that trainee, before, the tall girl you were staring at.”

The tall girl…? I looked at Nina, amazed.

“That girl’s a dryad?”

Nina nodded. Holy Crystals, it was my first time seeing one. As far as I knew, dryads were born in magical trees, far away from human agglomerations.

“Still… Dryads are humans,” I protested. “That’s what our teachers at school say. And that girl is definitely human.”

Nina cocked her head.

“Why? Because she can communicate with us and live like us?”

I was aghast by her questions. She added:

“Yet some dryads do not agree and prefer to be seen as tree fairies.”

“Huh? Really?”

While stroking a rounded rock with a spiral hole on it, just next to the stick bug, Nina calmly went on:

“At the foot of my mountain, there’s a quote written on a small shrine that goes: ‘Once you put things into boxes to settle your code of morality, you’ll end up seeing only the box and forgetting its contents.’ If Elves and Orcs existed, would you think of them as humans? If you didn’t, would you treat them differently? That would be sad. In the same way, moving trees do not need to be assessed by humans to be there. Well, some are even deities to humans. You know, back in my hometown, there is a holy tree that grows on emotions.”

“E-Emotions?” I echoed, not knowing if I had understood all of her words.

“Yes. Its flowers are blue when it’s happy and green when it’s frustrated.”

“Wow. Nature sure is full of miracles.”

Nina gave me one of her rare, broad smiles.

“It is.”

A gust of wind swept the dry soil, stirring up a cloud of dust. Somehow, talking with Nina soothed my soul. At that moment, I would have forgotten I had just turned into a Fury if only my core didn’t feel so empty.

“Nina. When someone feels like they cannot give up on trying no matter what… what color are the flowers of the tree?”

She kept silent for a moment, then answered:

“On rainy days, its flowers turn silver. I guess it’s because people think the rain will bring a good harvest. Silver may reflect their obstinacy. Or maybe it’s the color of hope.”

Hope… My eyes lingered on Nina’s silver hair. I smiled under my mask. Nina was still looking at the stick bug.

“Say…” She hesitated. “Which color is the bug?”

“Ah. It’s orange.”

“Orange,” she echoed. “Thanks.”

I glanced at her with curiosity. Why would she care about colors if she couldn’t see them or even remember them?

I leaned over the beast. It had eyes. And it didn’t seem to feel very comfortable right now. However, it probably wouldn’t care at all if a passing human called it a stick bug, an orange mini-mantis, or a mutant alien. Like Nina said, boxes weren’t that important, after all. Arriving to that conclusion, I stood up, chuckling.

“The obstacle race… doesn’t feel like a race at all.”

Nina blinked, startled, and got to her feet.

“Right. Sorry, I’m not used to doing things in a hurry. And everything is so new around here…”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, you already told me you weren’t that interested in this training,” I said cheerfully. “Still, you came. And I’m glad you did. You know, being with you feels a bit like being with my sister. Your love for nature matches hers. Oh, but the way of expressing it is different. Like, yours is much more peaceful. Well, you met her, so I bet you get what I mean.”

“Mm. Your sister looked to me like a very endearing person, so it’s an honor to hear you compare me to her—”

“Why the formal tone, all of a sudden?” I teased her. I gentlemanly waved toward the ascending hill. “Shall we go?”

As we continued our “race”, she took a chocolate bar out of her bag and gave me an inquisitive look.

“Ah… no thanks, if I took out my mask, there’d be trouble,” I said. She bit into her chocolate. “Say… I’ve been thinking… Given your power, does the fact that I teamed up with you mean I’m going to be lucky?”

Nina tilted her head, munching.

“Mm. I don’t know. My power focuses on my safety. But I guess that it can protect people around me if they care about my safety too?”

“Don’t ask me, I was asking you,” I snorted, amused. I rubbed my neck out of habit, thoughtfully. “Then, does that mean real friends around you are luckier?”

“That… may be. But I have no proof whatsoever—”

“Then what if I were to become your boyfriend? Or your lover?”

Nina’s face turned red. I had blurted out that out of curiosity, but I realized I may have gone a bit too far…

“BIRDBRAIN-DUMMY-FOOL!”

The sudden scream came from just ahead of us. I raised my eyes, just in time to see a fist fly at me. I wanted to dodge, but Nina was in the trajectory too… Could I move fast enough to protect her? The time I hesitated, Linah’s fist flew over our heads, punched a cactus, then came back at full speed like a returning boomerang… It knocked me over. I didn’t feel Linah’s lifeforce, either because of my knit cap or because Linah’s hand was strengthened with qi. As I fell over, I got scared that someone could try to help me up, and I rolled on the ground before jumping up to my feet and bursting out:

“Erma! Are you crazy?!”

“S-Sorry, I controlled the launching but messed up the returning! You’re too tall!”

“Is it my fault?! How can you assault us like that!”

“Assault? You birdbrain-dummy-fool, you were hitting on one of my subordinates! Of course I would intervene!”

“Wait, wait. First, I wasn’t hitting on anyone. Second, if I hadn’t been there, you would have punched Nina’s head and not mine!”

“If you hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have punched anyone, you dummy!”

“… You got a point. What I mean is, we’re not as resistant as your brothers, and I… I… Aaaaah!”

I screamed when, as my anger died down, my eyes actually looked at Linah, now standing before me. I lost my balance and fell, horror-struck, then pointed my forefinger in her direction. Erma threw a glance over her shoulder then looked back at me with an expression of mixed feelings on her face.

“I said I’m sorry, okay? And we’re not in a horror movie, Straw Head. Stop fooling around.”

I wasn’t fooling around. I was really shocked. Because…

“Erma, wh-wh-wh…”

“Whawhawhat, Straw Head?”

I blushed internally. I was so stupid but…

“Where is Erma?”

My question sounded childish and ridiculous to my ears. Linah’s eyes grew wider.

“N-No way… You don’t remember me? Holy Witches, could it be that my punch just now…? I’m so sorry, Straw Head! It’s me, Erma! The Lil Witch! Your muse! Is that for real? Maybe if I punch you again—?”

Did she think her punches had healing properties?! I backed hurriedly bolting:

“I’m fine! I’m fine! I know who you are! What I meant was…” I swallowed. “What happened to your pigtails?”

There was a terrible, brief silence, then:

“YOU! YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH, YOU BIRDBRAIN-DUMMY-FOOL!”

Her fist flew again, grazed my shoulder, made a pink cactus behind me crack and sway violently, then came back to its owner like a boomerang, tearing the air. This time, it came back safely, causing no further damage on its route. Still, the poor cactus had lost its prideful straightness and was shaking, just as my core was. Seriously, was she trying to kill me?!

“Er… Chill out?” I suggested.

Linah’s cheeks were puffed out and rosy. She snorted then muttered something.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“I said I cut them!”

Her hair hardly reached her shoulders now. I still was in shock. I did overreact, but I couldn’t help it. I had spent so much time last year playing with her pigtails, pulling at them to tease her or draw her attention, tying pieces of tinsel on them… I had even told her I found them cute and funny, and not just once.

A gust of wind whipped up the dust of the dry soil, dragging it among the sponge cactuses. I cleared my throat under Linah’s gaze.

“Well, I can understand why you cut your hair. That reminds me of when I first arrived at Farskyer City and got lice. A schoolmate shaved off my hair—”

“I had no lice!”

“Oh, then… Is it because long hair is a pain to comb? Though I quite enjoyed combing yours back then, but guess it’s not the same to have to take care of it every morn—”

“Oi, oi, stop raving, Straw Head! Why are you so shocked about some hair? It’s not like mine is alive like my big sis’! Know what? Let me punch you one more time in the head. Hope you don’t lose too many gray cells.”

“Haha, please don’t, Erma, I think I’ve already lost all of them.” I didn’t even need a head to think to begin with.

Then a surprised voice intervened:

“I didn’t know you two knew each other.”

It wasn’t Nina who had talked but Arkifa. The black-haired girl stepped away from a big blue cactus and approached. I grinned with my eyes.

“Oh, Arkifa. You teaming up with the Baldy?”

“Who’s bald?!” Linah feinted a punch at me.

I pointed a thumb at her.

“Actually, she’s my muse.”

“Your muse?” Arkifa repeated, surprised.

“Yep. She’s in my musical band.”

“I can’t play any instrument, though,” Linah replied. “Well, lately I’ve been taking lessons of flute, but…”

I stared at her in bewilderment.

“What?! You—”

“I’m not doing it for the musical band, though.”

“Eh? Why not?”

Linah looked embarrassed.

“’Cause I’m still bad at it.”

“…?” I grinned. “Who cares? I’m not a genius at violin either. What type of flute do you play?”

Linah pouted and shrugged.

“A pan flute.”

“I love pan flutes!” I laughed happily. “That’s amazing, Lil Witch! Now we can form the Cheetah Trio and—”

“I’m not ready yet, so please forget about it for now!”

Her tone of voice was a bit nervous. Heh. I raised my hands.

“Forgotten. For now.”

Linah turned to Arkifa to ask:

“Anyway… How do you two know each other?”

“We’re classmates,” Arkifa and I answered at once.

“Ooh?”

Linah’s eyes pierced mine. I cringed backwards.

“What?”

“Your mask is cool.”

She blurted it out just like that. I smiled slightly under my mask.

“Thanks.”

Linah glanced at Arkifa then cleared her throat.

“I’m a bit surprised you two got there so fast. We were just going to climb the cliff.”

She pointed her thumb towards the cliff ahead of us. It was a good twenty meters high. I winced.

“Seriously? There’s no other way?”

“There is if you go around it, but this is the fastest way. What?” Linah smirked. “Are you going to back away?”

“I’m not. Just wait and see.”

I walked forward. I was a bit hurt by Linah’s reception and wasn’t in the mood of talking with her. Not only that: I was scared to stay around her as a Fury.

I grabbed one rock and hoisted myself up. I was already several meters above the ground when I remembered my teammate and cast a glance below. To my surprise, Nina was climbing like a goat. Well, she was a mountain dweller, after all. Linah and Arkifa began ascending too. The three girls were so fast. Dammit, at this rate, they were going to catch up with me.

“So slow, so slow, Straw Head!” Linah teased me, just below me.

My hands didn’t hurt, neither did any of my tensed limbs. What worried me the most was my balance. Lack of balance was the undead’s number one weakness. I grumbled.

“If you’re so fast, go ahead, no need to stay right behind me, the cliff is spacious.”

“Hoho? Believe me or not, your grips feel so awkward that just looking at you makes me nervous,” Linah confessed.

“Then don’t look at me.”

“Well, well, you’re still angry because I lost my nerves.”

“I’m not.”

“Seriously? Well, then you should be able to concentrate better and find better grips. Look, that one, over your head, a bit to your right, that’s a good grip.”

It did feel like a rock firmly embedded in the cliff. I grabbed it. Linah helped me with the next grips, all good ones.

“Didn’t know you were a good climber, Lil Witch.”

“Heh. Well, I like climbing, that’s all. You’re doing better and better.”

“Thanks!” Then I looked down, my excitement faded, and I sighed. “I thought professional climbers used special equipment. Do the trainers want us all dead?”

“Hwara-hwara, you’re exaggerating. This cliff is not that steep. You probably wouldn’t die if you fell.”

The “probably” ruined all of her efforts to make it look like a safe training.

I looked at the white clouds scattered in the blue sky. Nina and Arkifa had already made it to the top of the cliff. Only two more meters and I would make it too. I could do it.

“By the way, Straw Head: congratulations,” Linah added. To my surprise, her voice wavered. “I knew you would pass the examination for the Independent trainees. Well, it was unexpected, too.”

Unexpected yet she knew? Why did I feel like she totally didn’t expect me to pass… I mumbled and kept going up. Right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot… I finally reached the top, crawled forward, looked at the strange wooden spiderweb of branches that spread ahead, then raised my eyes to Linah. She had just landed on the narrow path between the cliff and the wood.

“Thanks for your help, Lil Witch.”

“You’re welcome, Straw Head! Not everyone can climb that cliff without having received proper training. You did pretty well.”

I looked down at the cactuses below and only then realized how high we were now. Had I been alive, I would have probably thought twice before acting like a mountain goat, but in my current situation, I only felt amazed at my own prowess. I still complained:

“I knew it, the trainers just want us to die. I wouldn’t have ranked first in the Indie quiz if I had known.”

“Yeah, sure, like you could have ranked first in the first place.”

“Hah? But I did.”

“He did,” Arkifa confirmed.

“Sure he did,” Nina added.

Linah blinked, confused, crouched in disbelief, stared at my face, and burst out laughing.

“Hwara-hwara! There’s no way that’s true! We both used to be the two knuckleheads of the Cheetahs, we always stood out with our poor grades at school, stop telling obvious lies, hwara-hwara…” She fell silent then muttered: “Wait, it can’t be, right? I mean, if you’re not joking then… YOU RANKED FIRST?!”

“Sorry, I didn’t want to get ahead of you, Lil Witch,” I stood up and reached out a hand. “I won’t forget our title of knuckleheads. We’ll always be one in mind and spirit.”

Linah met my eyes then chortled and accepted my hand, saying:

“Congratulations, dummy! I’m glad you’re here!”

It was only then that I remembered I had become a Fury and was supposed not to touch anyone for three days so my damaged core could heal. As soon as she grabbed my hand, my core bolted. I reacted brusquely drawing backwards, landed on the branches of the weird wood, heard a loud cracking noise, and instinctively hugged Linah to protect her as we fell. Was there a hole behind the tangled branches? We rolled down as my life-lust rocketed. Dammit, dammit, dammit! Linah’s lifeforce had begun to flow into my core. How could I stop?! Ray!! I roared in my thoughts. But my scream didn’t reach him. I had no idea how to speak through our necro-bond. If only I had shown more interest in necromancy… No, but maybe even Ray wouldn’t be able to stop me at this point. Why the hell did I tell him that I would be fine by my own? Did I seriously choose to put my friends’ safety at risk?! Was I actually the worst bastard on earth? If only I had abandoned the training and just stayed hidden somewhere away from everyone…

“Armen?”

Linah rarely called me by my name, but whenever she did, it always felt as if she was closer than ever. My panic crumbled like a piece of parchment. As we stopped rolling, I opened my eyes and met hers. There were twinkling lights reflected on her blue iris. Unexpectedly, there was a wide, barren understory beneath the hanging wood, made of a weird-looking, wavy, and snowy gelatine. Slightly transparent, it was spotted with cold lights that feebly glinted all over the place. Did we just fall… into a large slimy pit?

For a moment, we said nothing. Then:

“Wow, we sure rolled down a good stretch. Straw Head, can you let me go?”

What was I even doing?! Wait, my life-lust… wasn’t increasing? In fact, my instincts were telling me to… let her go? My eyes opened wide. Linah’s lifeforce was…

“Er… Straw Head? Are you hurt?”

“Nah… I’m fine.” I let go of her and sat up on the jelly-like ground, shaking my head. I was angry at myself for having made such a blunder. Angry for having put Linah in danger. “What about you?”

“I’m fine, of course! Looks like we fell under that hanging wood. Such a weird place… It was so hot out there under the sun, but the ground down here is so soft and cool! Ah, if we weren’t in a race, I’d fall asleep here right away…”

She yawned and shut her eyes with a face of pure bliss. I swallowed hard and swiftly passed a hand over my eyes, muttering:

“… Thank goodness.”

Geez. Who could have imagined it?

Her lifeforce’s taste…

Her taste…

Linah’s taste…

—was bad.

24 Unromantic vs. necromantic

My life-lust’s levels had dropped dramatically. Even though part of me, stimulated by my undead instinct, felt very disappointed, it was unquestionably a good thing that I could stay by Linah’s side without worries. I still wondered why her lifeforce had such an awful taste. Maybe it was related to her character?

I snorted with laughter at that thought.

“…?” Linah opened one eye and sat up on the gelatinous ground, quizzical. “Straw Head? What are you laughing for?”

“Ah, no… Don’t mind me… I was just thinking in my head.”

“… That’s what people usually do. Congrats.”

“Haha, you’re congratulating me a lot, Lil Witch.”

I patted her head. Discovering that I could touch her without risk had made my heart lighter. But was her wasted lifeforce this bad when I had eaten it at the Christmas party? I didn’t think so. Maybe a Fury’s sense of taste was different?

“I should congratulate you too for protecting Ray in my absence,” I added.

Linah raised an eyebrow.

“No need. You promised me a reward, after all, remember? ‘Anything you want’ was what you said.”

“Ah… haha, yes, I guess I did say th—”

“Then do not forget about it. I’m still trying to decide what I want.”

“Fine. Don’t be too long or I’ll forget.”

“I said you’re not allowed to forget! You know,” she continued proudly, “I protected Ray like a professional bodyguard. I drove away some Starlanders who wanted to assess our powers. Ray didn’t even notice. As for my brothers, Axel wasn’t giving him much attention, but Lei kept pestering him. I put that fool in check. Oh right, I’m even staying at your friend’s house.”

“Eeeh? You’re staying at Ray’s house?! … He let you in?”

“Hah? I let him in, of course!”

“Then whose house is it? Anyway, does that mean we’re going to live under the same roof, you and I?”

She gave me a funny look.

“Got a problem with that?”

“No problem at all.” Like, not at all, I thought.

“By the way, why are you wearing a mask?”

“Allergic to cactuses.”

“For real?”

“For real. That’s why I passed out on the beach this morning and… Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

For lying to you… was what I wanted to say. But I just shrugged. Linah scanned our surroundings, the white, twinkling gelatinous ground, the branches far above, then sighed.

“We should try to get out of here.”

“Yeah. It’s a beautiful place, though.”

“A trap, you mean. Did you realize this ground is incredibly slippy? There’s no way we can climb our way up. Guess we were supposed to get through the woods without breaking the branches. But there should be a way out for those of us who fell, right?” she added under her breath.

I looked up to the sunrays that barely brushed past the branches. Was she worried that we could stay trapped down here until the instructors came to save us? I tilted my head.

“Well, we won’t know until we scout the area. This way may be easier… or not,” I corrected, thoughtful. “If that was the case, then Nina Clover would have come down too, since she’s a lucky girl.”

Linah frowned.

“Then…”

“Her power seems to prioritize her safety, which means this place is not safe.”

“Then…”

“Then,” I echoed. Then what? I didn’t exactly know, but it looked bad.

For an instant, we looked at each other with worried expressions. Then Linah burst out laughing.

“Hwara-hwara, come on, don’t be a scaredycat, Straw H—YIIIH!”

A sudden “crack!” made her turn and trip on the slimy ground with a scream of surprise. I helped her up, and after a tense scanning of our surroundings, said:

“Probably a branch that fell under a trainee.”

“Ah, yeah, probably…” Linah took a deep breath, then her brow furrowed. “If branches fall that easily… how come there are none on the ground?”

Her question aroused my fear again. Damn, she was right. The ground was squeaky clean. Staring at it intently as if she was trying to see through the gelatine, Linah added:

“Did you know? There is a dungeon down there.”

“… Dungeon?”

“Yeah, inside the head of the Phoenix Turtle.”

“Wait, what?!” I exclaimed suddenly. “There’s a dungeon under our feet? In Yuutow Island?! A real dungeon?!”

She grinned.

“Yeah. It’s not the most famous one in the world nor the largest at all, but it’s kind of exciting, don’t you think? There could be incredible treasures down there, and crystals of high quality. And rooms with high qi levels that can change your body, your mind, your life…” She looked me sideways completing: “And even kill you.”

“Creepy.”

“Hwara-hwara… Seriously, I’m sure this is one of the reasons the Nyomin chose this island for the training. If we got allowed to enter a dungeon, that would be pretty cool, right?”

Her eyes shone with anticipation. My gamer spirit woke up like a sudden flame.

“Holy Crystals, yes! Allowed or not, I’m not going back to Farskyer without entering that dungeon, dead or alive or whatever!”

“Hwara-hwara! You sure got fired up, Straw Head! I still think that, before getting into a dungeon, you should really learn how to avoid falling into a trap like this weird pit we’re in.”

Geez, she got a point, there. Wait, but that goes for her, too… I cleared my throat.

“Let’s search for an exit, okay?”

“Which direction?”

“Well… I’d say, this way?”

Linah pointed toward another direction.

“My witch blood tells me it’s this way, though. Let’s go.”

“Yes, captain.”

Barely had we advanced two meters that Linah slipped and fell again. Grumbling, she punched the ground, which swayed like a flan. As I helped her to her feet again and held her hand, a thin streak of her lifeforce made its way into my core. Ah… Its taste was so unique and… so awful. It was a bit depressing to think that the only person I knew with such a distasteful lifeforce was the girl I had fallen in love with. It felt as if the Holy Gods themselves wanted to punish me for avoiding my death. Not that it was going to change my feelings of course, but still, it was unfair… Wait, why was I so affected by something so meaningless like a taste? Were my undead instincts making me feel that way? So foolish…

I snapped out of it when a sudden tremor brutally shook the slimy ground and forced us to kneel down for a good solid minute. What was going on now?! I caught a fleeting glimpse of a branch falling straight on us, which Linah deflected by throwing one of her merciless punches.

“Holy Witches,” she groaned. “All we need now is an earthquake.”

“That was an earthquake?!”

“Oh, don’t you know it? Phoenix Island is actually a walking island. It has four legs, and with every step it takes, the island shakes. I’ve been told that, around this time of the year, it comes every six hours or so.”

I did know that the island had four long legs, but I hadn’t expected the earthquakes to be that strong. Linah added:

“Anyway, those earthquakes are quite troublesome. We’re lucky to be down here. The thing is, the cactuses regularly release blobs of smoke, but they do it even more when there’s an earthquake. Black and orange cactuses are unoffensive, but cyan ones are illusion-inducing, and some yellow ones have very nasty effects. I bet quite a number of trainees are struggling with those right now.”

“So that’s why you said you were surprised Nina and I got to the cliff so fast?” I asked, finally understanding.

Linah nodded.

“That’s right.”

“I see. So if Nina and I hadn’t run into you and we had continued our race, we would have been one of the fastest teams and we could have got super good quality pills—”

“Oi, are you telling me I dragged you down? You pushed us down into this place, birdbrain-dummy-fool.”

I laughed at her sullen expression.

“I’m sorry. I take it back. One smile of my muse is worth a bag of extra quality pills.”

Linah’s eyes widened then rolled upwards.

“Don’t ever become a businessman. You’d go bankrupt in a week.”

“Eeeh?!”

We fell silent as a sucking sound made us turn and witness with our own eyes how all the leaves and branches that had fallen after the earthquake were being grabbed by the ground and eaten up. Creepy. So that wobbly ground was clean because… it ate things. The main question was: did that giant slime-like monster consider humans edible? Tiny gelatinous waves were licking our shoes… As soon as Linah punched the ground, they backed away. For some reason, though, I grew more nervous and gently patted the slippy surface as if to prevent any possible retaliation. I scanned my surroundings. Wasn’t the place becoming darker? Where did we come from, anyway? I couldn’t tell…

“Oh, right,” Linah said, suddenly thoughtful. “I wanted to ask you something important.”

I looked up at the Lil Witch, quizzical. As her expression became more hesitant, a raft of possible questions passed through my mind. “Do you think we can convince Cesarine to let Zeeta come live with us?” “Do you think we can revive the Cheetahs here, in Phoenix Island?” “Do you think I shouldn’t have cut my pigtails?” “Why am I so happy to be with you~?” … I punched the poor ground to come back to reality.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“It’s about the bearded old hag you talked about on the beach.” Her words hit me like a hammer. The old hag? I breathed out as she continued: “You said she was a fakir-witch. Did you really meet someone like that?”

“Well, I did meet a strange old woman with a beard in Phoenix City—”

“Tell me more!”

I jerked up.

“O-Okay.” Why was she so worked up? “Let’s see… We had some trouble understanding each other at first, I was really troubled, but then she talked in Yanganese, very normally, and told me she was a fakir-witch, and asked me if I wanted to change my future… Oh, yeah: she was sitting on a bed of nails, so at first, I thought she was in danger, and I lifted her on my arms, but then, she sat back on her bed. Guess she was so light she didn’t feel pain.”

Or was she an undead? The thought crossed my mind while Linah’s expression was growing more astounded by the second. I added:

“Oh, she wore a black mark on her forehead, a lot of necklaces too, and looked very, very old.”

“It’s her!” she cried out.

“… Who?”

“The legendary fakir-witch! Anastasia! I can’t believe you met her for real!”

“Legendary? She was old but—”

Linah’s weird laughter cut me off.

“The witch Anastasia is old indeed! It’s said she’s immortal and was born before the Big Blend!”

“… Erma… That would mean she’s at least two-thousand-twenty-two years old. Are you kidding me?”

“I’m not! Anastasia is well known among the communities of witches. She’s nicknamed ‘The Wandering Immortal Witch’. She’s a witch and a Wanderer. That means, her body teleports regardless of her will. And she is an Immortal. Or so it’s said.”

I was amazed. Did I meet someone that incredible?

Linah’s cheeks had turned pink.

“It’s my… It’s my grandma’s dearest dream to meet Anastasia one day.”

Clearly, it was Linah’s as well. She grabbed my arm with a firm grip, her blue eyes sinking into mine.

“Tonight!”

My heart beat once.

“T-Tonight?”

“Tonight,” she repeated. “You’re going to lead me to her tonight.”

“Is that your reward for protecting Ray?”

“Hah? N-No. Yes?”

She was confused, weighing up the pros and cons… Heh.

“Forget that. I’ll show you where I met her. But… not tonight. Can you wait for three days?”

“No! What if she teleports away?!”

She shook me by the shoulders. Damn, she was so persistent…

“Okay then.”

“Yay!”

Linah was grinning from ear to ear. She must be really looking forward to meeting that legendary Anastasia. I muttered:

“Sorry, Ray—”

“Now let’s get out of here!” Linah grinned at me. “I just came up with a plan, and a good one! We came from there, right? Then, we’ll go straight to the opposite direction as fast as possible, to the edge of the wood, and the impulse will make us go up! Hopefully. Let’s do it!”

Let’s do what? She crawled behind me, and to my amazement, crossed her legs around my torso. Wait, what? Wringing my neck toward her to require further explanation, I saw her send her two hands flying backwards at full speed then returning, palm open, toward her back.

Huh?

Linah’s hands pushed us brutally forward. We set off sliding through the ground so fast that the twinkling lights around us looked like shooting stars.

“Hwara-hwara-hwara! Here we go!”

Regardless of Linah’s crazy plan, I had to admit that slipping through that slimy mass of gelatine was sort of exhilarating. I laughed. As expected from the Lil Witch.

Every time it looked like we were slowing down, Linah launched her hands to give us impulse. The only issue was, the more we advanced, the darker the place got. I kept scanning the darkness intently until I shouted:

“A wall! Erma, stop!”

“Isn’t it a slope?! Can’t we go up?”

I squinted my eyes for a second then widened them as I grew completely convinced that what awaited us ahead was indeed a wall made of rock. I yelled:

“We can’t!! It’s a wall! STOP!”

“O-Okay, but I’ve just thrown my hands! They’re coming back!”

That would only increase our speed and make us crash into the rocks even harder. I would probably not die from it, but what about Linah? Scratching, kicking, stamping… All my efforts to stop were useless. It was like trying to stop a fall in the air. My core beat frantically as it filled with panic and fear. From how Linah was trying to take a specific position, I understood she was planning on throwing her feet forward… But something told me that she wouldn’t make it in time.

Then I saw it. A ray of hope. I pointed at it as fast as I could.

“A tunnel!”

She reacted quickly, and we both managed to veer toward the entrance of the tunnel. It ascended. We lost speed, and Linah had to propel us upward before we flew off the slimy ground, got out of the tunnel, and landed at last on normal soil, several meters below. I breathed out.

“Erma… Are you still alive?”

I heard her grumble.

“Yeah… I hardened my skin with qi. And you?”

“As dead as always.”

“The Dead don’t talk. Look, everything went according to my plan: we’re almost there.”

According to her plan, my foot. I sat up, raising my eyes to see where we had landed. We had passed the tunnel and fallen outside at the foot of a long ascending bare slope covered with dry grass. On the top of the hill, I recognized the pole I had seen from the Academy. So that was the goal. I stood up, staring at it.

“Sure it’s high.”

“Mm. I can see a few trainees up there,” Linah looked intently at the hill then smirked. “I thought we would have fallen behind, but we’re pretty much among the first ones to arrive. All we’ve got to do now is choose which group we want to be in for the training. I’ve chosen the Peacemaker group. What about you?”

I glanced at her, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Huh? I mean, what are you going to choose?” she asked. “Explorer, Rescuer, Peacemaker, Keeper… You do know those are the four general paths a Hero can take…” While speaking, she indicated four white flags at the foot of the hill, each with different red symbols: a “Z”, a sun symbol, five curved lines widening like sound waves, then a flag divided into a red triangle and a white one. There was an instructor standing next to each flag. Linah cast me a funny glance. “You do know that, right?”

“Er… Those symbols ring a bell, I think.” I had the vague impression I had seen those more than once in my life. Maybe on the Heroes’ uniforms? Maybe on textbooks? Anyway, if I had known once what they meant, I had forgotten them after reviving. Each path marked by a flag looked different. “So these four flags indicate Hero departments?”

“That’s right. You really didn’t listen to Addison’s explanation, did you?”

“Oh, I did, I did, I… did not,” I confessed under her incredulous eyes. “More like, I tried, but it turned out that Sarwish is harder to understand than I expected.”

“Mm… Well, that makes sense. Some instructors do have a weird accent. They’re from all over the world, after all. I heard that Addison is from Belo Horizonte and that people from there overarticulate words, but Addison speaks pretty quickly.”

“Oh, he does, he does!” I exclaimed, relieved that I wasn’t the only one thinking that. “He looked so calm and composed, and yet…”

“Hwara-hwara, I know what you mean! His looks kind of remind me of those legendary warriors that spend their entire life meditating. He wears such a long ponytail and all. It’s kind of hypnotizing to look at it when he walks, isn’t it? Like it’s swinging in the wind, and you want to catch it with your paw—”

“Are you a cat?” I snorted. “Well, I could understand if he had pigtails,” I pondered out loud.

We looked at each other, and forming an image in our mind that completely destroyed the serene and serious instructor’s complexion, we burst out laughing. Calming down, Linah turned to the wood of branches that we had avoided and said:

“I wonder how Arkifa and Nina are doing. It will probably take them some time to go through all those tangled woods. Anyway, since from now onwards this is a path we have to take alone, I guess there’s no use waiting for them.”

She had a point but…

“If our teammate can’t make it, there will be no pill for us either.”

Linah grimaced.

“Are you suggesting that we should go get them? Gosh. Lei is gonna make fun of me if I’m not among the first ones to arrive… Not that I care but—”

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of branches rustling behind us. A giant appeared tumbling down the ravine with his partner, both with torn clothes and leaves stuck in their hair. The former was Charles-Ping, the latter was Aishah Suzuki, the blond Sleeping Beauty I had met in the Nyomin reserve. The four-armed North-Winger was holding the girl with his two lower arms while she was saying:

“I said you can put me down now!”

“Charles-Ping thinks politely that you’re too weak and too slow.”

“What polite, you’re being just plain rude! Put me down, you annoying octopus! People are watching. It’s embarrassing!”

“It’s okay. Charles-Ping is not embarrassed.”

Aishah roared insults, which faded away as they kept advancing towards the hill and the four flags.

“Some trainees sure are lively,” a lazy voice suddenly said.

Startled, I turned to see a guy with long, black hair and a pallid face pass by us with a calm gait. The tunic he wore—a gray one spotted with white triangles—was intact and tidy. A fuzzy aura floated around him. For a second, I met his gaze. His slit, dark eyes sent a shiver down my core.

“Dragan,” he added, some meters farther. He had a strange accent speaking Yanganese. Surely he wasn’t from Farskyer. So, that meant, he was probably a Nyomin trainee. “You did well making it to this point. Make sure you don’t let me down.”

His teammate, an Indie trainee, swallowed hard and nodded.

“I won’t, young master!”

The aura around the creepy guy became heavier, and Dragan winced. After a silence, the elite trainee echoed, annoyed:

“Young master? Am I your master? Did I recognize you as my subordinate?”

“…! N-No, th-that—”

“You gave your badge to Sean, not to me. You’re a hundred years too early to become my subordinate. You said you want to become a Rescuer, right? Then go and try not to disgrace yourself.”

“I… I’ll do my best!”

Dragan bowed deeply as if he had been given the most important task of his life. Well, it most certainly was a vital step for him. After all, most of the people there had come to work hard in order to be acknowledged by the Nyomin Hero community. They were supposed to become the next generation of the best Nyomin Heroes, and all… Somehow, the Heavenly Storm stuff along with my unexpected transformation into a Fury had made me forget about it.

As Dragan went to the path for those who wanted to become Rescuers, the elite trainee chose the flag with the ‘Z’ representing the Explorers. After the instructor said some words to him, he began walking up the hill, his hands behind his back, calmly looking around. What was exactly that Explorer race about? And why was that guy acting like nothing in the world could shake him? Linah grumbled.

“Gorka Soulberg. For some reason, that Starlander gives me the creeps.”

“Just what I was thinking,” I agreed.

“Not that I’m afraid of him,” Linah added. “I met him when he was twelve years old or so. Back then, he already acted all grown-up. His clan is a powerful supporter of the Nyomin, but they’re super cryptic and conservative. I remember I kind of felt sad for Gorka back then. As a son of the family head, he had no time to play and was always training and being supervised by adults from his clan.”

Linah’s words gave me a new perspective of that pallid-looking guy.

“So?” Linah said. “Have you chosen what path you’re gonna take?”

“Ah…” Which one should I choose? There was probably no use thinking about it too seriously.

“It’s not like we’re choosing the category for real,” Linah pointed out. “We are not even Heroes yet. Addison said some lessons would be a bit different depending on the groups. It’s just so we can have a taste. You can also change groups in the first two weeks of the training. That’s what he said.”

“Then…”

“WATCH OUT!”

The sudden scream made us spin around. Appearing from the same slippy tunnel we had come from, Arkifa and Nina fell upon us. Linah was fast enough to avoid them, but I reacted differently, trying to catch them, then remembered at the last second I shouldn’t touch them by any means or else I would start eating their lifeforce and lose my mind. I turned around and tried to escape. They hit my back, my terrified core stopped beating for an instant. The three of us ended up on the ground.

“Aaah… Sorry, Armen! Are you okay?” Arkifa asked.

I guess I was? Since I couldn’t feel pain. Then I remembered something Ginger, our religious Cheetah leader, had said once: “No one should ever set aside their feelings: ignore your pain, and you’ll end up ignoring your most fundamental values”. I couldn’t possibly ignore the mental pain I felt by having those two so close to me. I’m starving, you know! I ranted inwardly. And I told Ray I would control myself, so don’t tempt me, you damn humans! A Cheetah doesn’t go back on his word! I crawled away hastily and stood up.

“Hell, of course I’m not okay! You guys scared me to death!”

“But are you hurt?” she insisted, approaching.

I backed away and raised my hands forming a cross.

“Don’t get close to me! ”

Arkifa stopped dead, surprised; Nina looked at me, worried; Linah stared at me then chuckled.

“Hoho? Didn’t you enjoy rescuing two pretty girls? Why are you being so shy?” She bounced forward and nudged me in the ribs annoyingly. “You don’t run away from me, though.”

Because your lifeforce is awfully bad, Lil Witch.

My hand raised, about to pull one of her pigtails, then I remembered that they were sadly not there anymore, and I just said:

“You’re different, that’s all.”

Under Linah’s startled expression, I turned around and looked at the four paths. Gorka Soulberg was already almost at the top of the hill. On the Rescuer path, Dragan was climbing a wooden structure to retrieve something from the top, and he seemed to have a hard time despite his good agility. Aishah was struggling in the Peacemaker path. Charles-Ping was way ahead of her—surely the instructor had told him he couldn’t help his partner on the last leg. As for the Keeper path, there was a pavilion next to the flag, and I couldn’t see what was going on inside. At that instant, I saw a girl come out and sprint to the top. Considering all that… I took a step toward the hill and let out:

“Should I be an Explorer?”

“Don’t ask us,” Linah snorted.

“Don’t become an Explorer on a whim,” Arkifa said. “It’s insulting.”

Seeing her displeased gaze, it really seemed it was. Right, Arkifa’s dream was to become an Explorer. I glanced at the four flags, the Z, the sun, the sound waves, the two triangles, and I smiled under my mask.

“Okay, I’ve made up my mind, I’ll be a Rescuer.” I turned my head towards Linah, Arkifa, and Nina. “Rescuing people is kinda beautiful, isn’t it? Well, exploring things sounds fun too, and bringing peace is kinda amazing. As for the Keepers, well, I do like to keep things, like my red knit cap, my violin, and stuff, but if I had to keep something bigger like a vault full of treasures, I’d probably be in trouble—”

“Just admit you have no idea what a Keeper is,” Linah replied.

“Seriously, Armen, on what planet are you?” Arkifa intervened in disbelief.

Nina shamelessly raised her hand, saying:

“Sorry, I don’t know what a Keeper does either.”

“What? But Addison even explained it to us.”

“I’m not good at Sarwish. He talked too fast.”

Her words made my core beat with solidarity. I gave her a cheerful thumbs up.

“Welcome to the club, Nina.”

“Don’t brag about it,” Linah snorted. “You guys may be the only two trainees on this island who can’t speak the Common Language correctly.”

“So, what’s a Keeper?” I asked.

Arkifa grumbled.

“Geez, you do realize we’re in a race, right?”

“Yeah.”

“… Do you, really… Anyway, I guess I can tell you briefly,” she capitulated. “Keepers are archivists, regulators, diplomats, international lawyers, interrogators, and the like…”

“Definitely not for me,” I breathed out.

“Peacemakers are the guardian corps, Monster Hunters, criminal pursuers.”

Criminal? The image of my killer shot through my mind, and I winced.

“Amazing, but not for me either. What about Explorers?”

“Explorers are…” Arkifa paused, and her brow furrowed, “Nature explorers, crystal explorers, researchers of all kinds, Stabilizers.”

“Nature explorers,” Nina echoed, immediately hooked.

“As for Rescuers,” Arkifa continued, “they rescue people just as it says, in all possible ways. Well, not only people. They rescue items and animals too.”

“Animals,” Nina repeated.

“And that’s about it,” Arkifa concluded.

“Cool. Thanks, teacher.”

“You’re welcome, my pupil. Now I’ll be on my way.”

“Good luck! But my intuition was good, after all.” I grinned. “I’ll be a Rescuer.”

“At first, you wanted to be an Explorer, though,” Linah reminded me teasingly, then she raised a hand as she began to walk away. “Do your best, you guys! There must be quite a number of good pills left up there! Don’t slack off!”

“Slack off? You bet! I’ll beat you to the race!” I replied.

“Hwara-hwara-hwara! You wish, Straw Head! I bet one thousand Corns that Arkifa and I will be first.”

“Damn rich kid, what’s with those prohibitive bets?” I complained.

“Hwara-hwara, then if I win, you’ll tell me how you got first in the Indie quiz! And don’t tell me it was thanks to that encyclopedia you read.”

“Well, let’s do that. In exchange, you’ll owe me a favor if I get to the top before you.”

“A favor? Like what?”

“Are you scared to lose?”

Linah’s cheeks puffed out, and she replied “Deal!” before sprinting to the Peacemaker path. I grinned under my mask. Now, I couldn’t afford to lose. I glanced at my teammate. She was wavering, biting her lips.

“Nina? Are you hesitating between Explorers and Rescuers?”

“Mm,” she nodded. “But it’s okay.”

She took one of her hair tie, which—I realized just now—was a cube with digits chiselled on it, and she threw it on the ground. I was taken aback. Was she going to make such a decision based on a…?

“Explorer.”

“Seriously?” I snorted. “Is that okay? To let luck decide for you…”

“That’s what I want to find out.”

She looked oddly determined. So she wasn’t done trying to understand her own power, huh?

As Nina raced to the Explorer path after Arkifa, I ran towards the sun flag, excited and determined to win. Despite all our talking, few trainees had arrived on the last leg. Were the others stuck crossing the woods, or did they even reach them? I hoped Zeeta and Ray were doing okay.

* * *

“Do you believe in destiny, Ray Styxer?”

The wind was strong on the Beak of the phoenix turtle. Two silhouettes were standing on the top of the barren, rocky cliff that was splitting the seas. They were talking in the Common Language.

“Did you make me go all the way here to ask me that, Natasha?”

The skinny girl in dark purple clothes showed her teeth.

“Just now, you thought I kept you away from your minion on purpose, didn’t you?”

Ray’s eyes glowered.

“Do you have something against me?”

“I don’t.”

“… Then do you have something against my dad?”

“I don’t. Actually, my master and your dad are good friends. Why don’t you trust me?”

“…”

Natasha turned to the sea that spread ahead.

“You are way too stressed out, Ray Styxer. Relax. Why do you worry about your minion?”

“Stop calling him my minion. He’s Armen. He has a name.”

Natasha paused.

“Huhu… So it’s true. You’re not like your dad at all. Nor like my master. So? Is something wrong with Armen?”

“… You don’t have to be concerned about that. Why did you come to this training?”

“Ah. I hate it when people change the subject like that. But, well…” She turned around. “Let’s say that some Dark Art Regulator wanted to make a deal with my master, and I came here to hear him out. Well, it’s a bit more complicated, but you don’t have to be concerned about that,” she echoed playfully.

“…!! A… Dark Art Regulator?!”

“You turned even paler, huhuhu. Yes.” Her dark eyes glowed. “There is a Regulator on this very island. If you want the name, then tell me more about your minion… I mean, Armen.”

“…”

“Ray Styxer. You seem at the end of your tether. I can lend you a hand. Actually, I already have an idea about the situation. If Armen were to go wild, I could be in trouble too, you know.”

There was a long silence only interrupted by the gusts of the wind and the waves crashing against the cliffs.

Then Ray spoke.

25 The Luck of the Straw

“So, I have to take one of the pots to the top of the hill?”

“That is correct: first, you fetch the pot, then you must use the bars, the rope bridge, then the cyan stones to get to the goal without touching the grass.”

“And if I touch it…”

“You lose and you must go back and start again, or choose another path. Same if you spill the water and it goes below the line indicated on the pot. Any more questions?” The black-haired fox-man assistant for the Rescuer path, who was probably not more than thirty, stood before me, inquisitive. After a tough, brief conversation in Sarwish, it had turned out he spoke Yanganese too. Thankfully, Yanganese was kind of an international language too, though not officially recognized as such inside the Nyomin.

I looked at the wooden structure. Its appearance was unmistakable: it was a jungle gym, but way bigger than the likes anyone would see on the playgrounds of Farskyer City. Several pots were hanging from the highest pipes. I was supposed to take one and climb the hill with it as fast as I could. I gave a firm nod.

“None.”

The assistant smiled slightly.

“Then good luck.”

I rushed to the jungle gym. I climbed the bars as swiftly as I could and grabbed one of the pots—a simple bowl with two strips tied on the sides. I grinned. So easy! I started to go down, reached the wooden ground under the climbing frame, and was about to sprint uphill toward the bars and the rope bridge when the assistant cleared his throat.

“The water…”

I looked down at my pot. It was almost empty. S-Since when?! Then the echo of splashing water came to my mind, and I grimaced at the wet floor. Ah… Come to think of it, I had never been good at gymnastics. My lack of senses didn’t help, like, at all. And I couldn’t use my telekinesis to keep a bowl full of water in balance: it was too heavy. I ran a hand over my head. In a way, I may have chosen the most challenging path of the four. Still…

“Sorry! Can I try again?” I exclaimed.

The young assistant nodded.

“Of course!”

His positive attitude cheered me up. I couldn’t lose to Linah. I really wanted to win. After a short glance to my right, toward the Peacemaker path, I could see the Lil Witch start jumping on colored stones. She landed on a green one and hissed “hot!”, then on an orange one and almost fell on her knees, struggling to simply stand. Apparently, the color and effect of those stones were related to the different types of Crystals. Green for temperatures, orange for gravity… To think that even Linah would struggle with this last leg… I still had a good chance of winning!

“Okay, let’s go!”

I climbed the jungle gym again, and this time, I made sure not to spill the water. I landed on the wooden ground, carefully but triumphally.

“Well done,” the assistant said. “Now, wait for a second, I’ll fasten it on your head.”

Wait, what?! So that was what the strips were made for… I raised a panicked hand.

“I’ll do it myself! I mean, it’s a training race, so I want to do everything myself.”

The assistant didn’t insist and even looked impressed, wagging his black tail.

“Such a good spirit!”

“… Nnnnrmlf… Dammit, did I spill water?”

“A few droplets. Do you really not want me to help you?”

“Stay away.”

“…”

I felt ashamed for my rude comeback, but it was for his sake. After a silence, the assistant asked:

“Do you think this is a ridiculous exercise for a Rescuer?”

“Eh? Ah… No, well…” I was way too focused on lifting the bowl perfectly horizontally over my head.

“My master made me live with a bowl on my head for an entire month.” I stopped dead. The hell? He went on: “I needed four months to complete her challenge. Do you know what she said? ‘If you can’t keep a bowl safe, how can you keep anyone safe?’ A Rescuer must be able to focus on himself, his balance, his concentration, his every movement, before trying to save lives.” I frowned. Was he telling me one had to be able to do all that in order to even try to save one life? Nonsense. Although it made sense that one had to be well prepared in order to save lives for a living… “Ah, consider yourself fortunate that your bowl is filled with normal water and not with tickling water like mine was: you just spilled more of it.”

“Damn…”

“Not enough for the water to go under the line, though.” The assistant’s black tail slowly made a circle as he added: “Go with no rush and think of the bowl as a person that you’re trying to save.”

A person than I was trying to save… I had finally attached the bowl over my knit cap, making a knot around my chin, when the picture of myself carrying the Lord on my head came into my mind. Perched like a bird, he complained: “Not too fast or I’ll be spilled!” I couldn’t help it: I laughed. The water splashed all over.

Darn me.

* * *

This time, I took things most seriously: I grabbed a new pot, tied it on my head, thanked the assistant, and began ascending the hill. First, I had to go up a labyrinth of pipes without touching the ground, climbing until I reached the rope bridge. Then I began walking across the bridge. It oscillated. Damn. Too much.

I had no idea if I had spilled water—I wasn’t able to sense it—, but since I was advancing with extreme care, I could only hope everything was doing all right up there.

I was reaching the end of the bridge when it started moving even more. I reached the end as quickly as possible, wondering what idiot was crossing behind me. I didn’t wait long before I could see who it was: he soon caught up with me and got past me rather quickly, passing to the first cyan stone. It was Noah.

The crimson guy was so focused that he didn’t even seem to recognize me. He wavered, but then jumped to the next stone, then the next. How could he go so fast with a bowl of water on his head?!

I was tempted to accelerate, then remembered what the fox assistant had told me. No rush, no panic, no misstep, and I would be sure to get where I wanted in all safety.

Slowly, I took a long stride and reached the first cyan stone. From how Noah had reacted, I had expected it to have some kind of effect, as did the colored stones Linah had been stepping on on the Peacemaker path… yet, I felt nothing. Maybe they were just simple stones?

I continued and soon found myself advancing just behind Noah. Was it my imagination or his movements had become heavier than before? Nah, it was not my imagination: he was trudging. I raised an eyebrow, glanced at the dozens of stones that still awaited us uphill, and said:

“Perv, what are you doing?”

“…! Tch. Stupidstar? So it was you I got past earlier.” He stepped on the next stone. “What do you mean, what am I doing? Am I blocking your way?”

I stepped on a stone to my right then on the next, ahead of Noah, and answered:

“Nah, there’re plenty of stones. But you were going so fast on the bridge, yet you move like a turtle right now. How come?”

“Do you really have to ask? Or do the stones not—?” Noah grimaced as his bowl on the head staggered. He was sweating hard. Were the stones really affecting him? “Never mind. Get moving. I want to beat my damned teammate to this race. I hate fickle, spoiled kids.”

I raised an eyebrow. Cyan Crystals were usually related to mind powers and mind spells. Maybe those stones were meant to induce fear? In that case, it seemed that their spells weren’t able to reach an undead core. I smiled under my mask, rather proud of my nature, and passed to the next stone asking:

“You mean, Lei?”

“… I mean that happy-go-lucky stupid patronizing guy with the long black braid.”

“Lei,” I confirmed.

“Whatever. That bastard went ahead without even waiting for me. I know what you’re thinking: that he probably already beat me to this race, but,” he huffed, “he was so damn fast and stupid that he may have gone past the Beak of the island and dived into the ocean.”

I smiled as I kept advancing from stone to stone.

“Sure.”

“…”

“Say, perv.”

“What, stupidstar.”

“Those stones… What do they make people feel?”

“Hah… What’s with that weird question… You feel what you’re most likely to feel when in a chaotic situation. Panic. Fear. Desperation.”

“Oh. I see. Thanks.” I almost nodded, then remembered the bowl on my head, and thank goodness, stopped myself in time.

“… Say, stupidstar. ”

“What, perv.”

“Are your shoes special?”

“My shoes?” I was about to look down, then breathed in with a terrible thought in mind. “Are you trying to make me look down and spill my bowl?!”

“What? I’m not! Really. That would be a disgrace. I’m asking honestly. Or are you doubting me because I’m from the Champion Inst—”

“For pity’s sake, it’s not that, man! Sorry for doubting you. About my sneakers, they’re about three years old, I think, so they’re kinda special to me. Why?”

“You don’t get it. I wanted to know if they are impermeable to crystal capillarity.”

“Crystal what?”

“You know, that phenomenon that makes the energy flow on a surface by simple contact and—Whatever! How can you be fine on these damn stones?!”

Ah, that… I finally reached the last stone of the path.

“You wanna know?”

“Yeah.”

“Heh. You really wanna know?”

“… Nah, I couldn’t care less,” Noah snorted.

I chuckled, and turning my back on him, raised a hand.

“It’s ’cause I’m not afraid of death—No: it’s because I’m not afraid of living the way I am. That’s why.”

Feeling kinda cool, I kept walking through the grass towards the pole, the instructors, and the few trainees that were already there; meters behind me, Noah groaned under his breath:

“How does that make any sense… You’re simply a lucky idiot too dumb to be afraid, dammit.”

As I arrived next to the pole that stood on the hill, I caught a glimpse of Linah jumping off the last colored stone of the Peacemaker path. She ran towards me, desperate to win. She even threw her fist as fast as she could. Too late. I touched the pole and smiled. Heh. I certainly wasn’t a lucky idiot—I mean, lucky idiots did not die so young—, but all things considered, being an undead wasn’t all that bad…

I could still win a race against the Lil Witch.

CRACK.

Linah’s fist smashed the pole and split it into two. Aghast, I saw it collapse next to me. Angela Lasri, the Soft Queen, glared at the culprit.

“Where do you think you are!”

Linah blinked, as if surprised.

“Aw… Hwara-hwara… Sorry, ma’am, I got too excited.”

“Aya-aya.” Sitting on a bench with an orange pill in his hand, his brother Lei commented cheerfully: “My little sister, when you’re told to reach a goal, you don’t need to destroy it: it’s bad manners.”

“Shut up, brother. I just lost a race!”

“I lost to Axel, too, and I didn’t break the pole.”

“Good for you. But you always lose to Axel, anyway.”

Lei smiled.

“Ah, so true.”

That was mean, Lil Witch, I thought with a grimace of solidarity. When Linah finally came to me, I snorted:

“I can’t believe you got away with it so easily.”

“Why? It was just a pole!” she grinned.

Just a pole but the Soft Queen kept staring at her not very favorably—her eyes were even freezing. Being a Sunclaw sure was convenient sometimes, huh.

“So…” Linah hesitated. “Since you won by a nose… what do you want me to do?”

I raised my eyebrows. Was she worried about what I could ask from her? Heh. Well, since I had a sparrow memory, I might as well tell her something right now. After a brief reflection, I made up my mind, mustered up my courage, and bowed saying:

“Erma, please can I call you Linah!”

The water of the bowl flew off, soaking Linah’s surprised face.

26 The reward

My eyes wandered on the colored pills, vials, and varied items that lay on the table. The old instructor Claire Li had just beckoned us and waved to the rewards, inviting us to choose one.

“Congratulations! You two are among the first twenty trainees to finish the race,” she had said smilingly. “Please hurry up and make a good choice.”

I had no idea what to take. Since telekinesis used mostly orange crystal particles, an orange pill would be the normal choice. But, according to Azritz, my power also used a significant amount of purple crystal. Standing to my left, Noah was asking the assistant sitting at the table which pill was the most expensive one. That guy… Was he intending to sell it? To my right, Linah was hesitating between a white pill and a purple one. As I watched her bite her upper lip, I remembered her response and our conversation just now…

“Oh, sorry for the water, Lil Witch!” I had said.

“Nah, thanks, it cooled me off.” Her face was dripping. “But, Straw Head, I didn’t know you didn’t like my Cheetah nickname.”

“Eeeh? Don’t get me wrong. I do like Erma. But I like Linah, too. And I’m confused, because I can call you Erma and feel just fine, like it’s no big deal, yet I’m too embarrassed to call you Linah, and I wonder why.”

Before my honest confession, Linah’s lips slightly quivered upward.

“Huh… Embarrassed, you say? Isn’t it rather because it doesn’t feel natural for you to call me Linah?”

“Something like that, I guess.”

“… So you’re asking me to help you overcome your embarrassment, I see… You do realize you’re just making the whole thing more embarrassing, don’t you?”

“Am I?!”

At that moment, she did smile for a fraction of a second. She cleared her throat then shook her head.

“Forget it. I mean, your wish is not a wish, since what you’re asking for only depends on yourself. So ask something else. Also, ya know, I prefer that you keep calling me Erma or Lil Witch. We, Zeeta, you and I, are Cheetahs, after all, aren’t we?”

Her words blew my mind. It hadn’t occurred to me that she would think of her nickname as a way of strengthening our ties. And there I had been thinking since Christmas that I should call her by her true name but… exactly what was a true name? The one we felt more attachment to, perhaps? But Linah seemed to value her nicknames as much as her official name, if not more. Somehow, that made me happy.

“I’ll take the white pill,” Linah said, finally making up her mind before the table of rewards. “What about you, Straw Head?”

Snapping back to the present, I looked at her white pill with curiosity.

“Why white? What do you want it for?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“It’s not.”

“… O-Okay. White pills are full of qi. They’re usually less expensive than other kinds of pills but… I can’t really improve my warping any more than this, so I’ll just absorb this pill’s qi and make it circulate into my body. You know, to widen my meridians and make them more efficient. It’s a basic technique to improve hardening, balance, and the like. Essential to Peacemakers, but also to Rescuers,” she pointed out with a wink.

So the energy of the pills was meant to be absorbed, huh. I turned to the table. There was only one white pill left. I hesitated. White energy was the base of lifeforce. What if my core mistook it for lifeforce and absorbed it automatically? Would I lose control? Would my core be damaged? I’d rather not test it. As I interested myself in the vials, Linah added:

“Just so you know, those are crystal solutions. They’re of poorer quality.”

“Oh… Thanks for the warning.”

“No prob. Well, I’ll go absorb the pill like the others—Holy Witches,” she then gasped as she looked at the dozen trainees sitting on the grass. I recognized Dragan and Gorka Soulberg, deeply concentrated, as well as Lei and Axel, the dryad, Charles-Ping, Aishah, and… Arkifa? Linah snorted. “That girl finished before us? Hoho…? Not bad. Maybe I should try buying her badge, after all.” Her hands on her hips, she bent over my classmate insisting: “What do you want? Let me see… How about a position in the Sunclaw corps? I could talk to my father. What do you say?”

“Give it up,” Arkifa said quietly, opening her purple eyes. “I already gave my badge to someone else.”

What? Arkifa had given her badge to someone? Odd. I could hardly imagine her following orders, let alone orders given by a stranger. But then… had she been coerced into giving it? Gosh, what about my promise to Ashooka to protect his girlfriend? I clenched my fist. Who…?

“I can still bargain. Who might this profiteer be?” Linah asked.

Arkifa slowly moved a finger to the tall tree-like girl sitting next to her.

“Alysha Piaget from Amazonia.”

The dryad?! My gaze fastened on the greenish, beautiful face of Arkifa’s “captain”; I met her stony eyes and got entranced by them.

“I don’t sell my subordinates.” The dryad’s voice sounded weird, as if engulfed in the murmur of a babbling brook.

Linah held her gaze for a moment, then shrugged and smirked.

“Too bad.”

“Don’t look so alarmed, Armen,” Arkifa commented, amused. “Alysha is from a family of Explorers. And she wants to become one, too. That’s why I decided to follow her. I think it’ll be worth it.”

When she shut her eyes to focus again on absorbing the energy of her pill, I could read, on her face, the satisfaction she felt from her decision. After all, she had just met someone who shared her dream of becoming an Explorer. I grinned under my mask. When Arkifa was dead set on doing something, she wouldn’t let it go. That was a side of her I really liked and respected. I glanced at the dryad, whose attention had gone back to her pill, and wondered what kind of person she was. She’d better not cause trouble for her new subordinate.

Or you’ll arouse the wrath of Ashooka and mine.

After a thoughtful look at the two girls, Linah sat down and swallowed down her pill. I turned my attention back to the table full of rewards. Noah had chosen a cyan pill. Two other trainees passed and chose their pills, then Nina came, used her die, and took the only red pill that was left. She looked up at me with curiosity.

“Aren’t you going to take anything?”

The assistant sitting at the table drummed her fingers impatiently, as if my slowness was beginning to get on her nerves. Ah…

I glanced at the three pills that were left: a yellow one, a green one, and a blue one. Wait, what? They had already taken all the orange ones? Geez… What should I do? If there had been a black pill, I would have taken it for Ray, but there wasn’t any on the table. Maybe the first trainees had already taken them? Or maybe there weren’t any in the first place? As far as I knew, powers based on dark energy were rather uncommon. As for the pills left… They wouldn’t be of any use for Zeeta. I considered asking Nina to lend me her die, but letting luck decide for me so blatantly wasn’t exactly my style.

“Ah… Excuse me. What are those?” I asked the impatient girl in charge.

I waved at the three items at the end of the table. Instead of the assistant’s response, I got a sharp:

“You will never make a good Rescuer if you keep hesitating like that, young man.”

I winced and half turned as the Soft Queen stopped beside me. She was as tall as me, and her eyes looked so cold… She pointed briskly at each item, explaining:

“This is a map of a treasure hidden in this island.”

“What?!” Lei exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “A treasure! I want it!”

“Lei Sunclaw, you already chose a pill. Also, please remember those rewards are not as good as a pill or even a vial: they’re just cheap prices for Indie trainees that came last,” Angela Lasri replied. And she went on: “This is a book about special mushrooms.”

“Mushrooms?” Nina murmured, clearly intrigued.

As for Linah, she turned her head to us, vividly interested.

“Mushrooms! What kind of mushrooms, ma’am?”

“I obviously don’t waste my time reading such books.” The instructor pointed at the third and last item. “This is a compass whose needle is attracted by white energy—qi, for instance. Its reach is short, so it’s mainly used by beginners to help make sure they’re cultivating their qi the right way.”

The tone she used to detail it betrayed her utter contempt toward such a cheap junk meant for dumb students. I couldn’t help but feel a keen thrill of sympathy for the compass.

“The treasure…” someone whispered to my ear.

I bolted and turned to Lei.

“Woah, don’t creep up on me like that!”

The Sunclaw smiled innocently, repeating:

“The treasure map. The treasure map. The treasure map. The—”

“I heard you.”

“But you haven’t taken it yet. Repetition is an awesome weapon of tortur—I mean, persuasion. Do you even know how great treasures are? You’ll regret it if you don’t take it, Armwan Zun. Take the treasure map, come on… Take it or leave it, but make up your mind now. Don’t think about it more than you need, man. It’ll be the best adventure ever. And you’ll be able to impress your master,” he added in a whisper. His eyes glinted as he murmured: “The treasure map.”

Was he a demon?! I squinted my eyes in a smiling, annoyed expression.

“Isn’t that psychological abuse or something? I already have my personal bully, thanks,” I said, pointing a thumb toward Noah—the crimson-haired perv was admiring his cyan pill some meters away and didn’t look like he would swallow it any soon. I rolled my eyes. “Also, I know you don’t care, but my name’s Armen Moon,” I added.

Lei blinked then grinned.

“I knew it, but when I call you Armwan, I feel just fine, like it’s no big deal, yet I’m too embarrassed to call you Armen, I wonder why.”

His copycatting caught me off guard. Despite myself, I chuckled.

“You bastard.”

“Now that we’re friends, I’ll let you have fifty percent of the treasure.”

“Why would I even share with you? I’d rather take the compass… or the mushroom book.”

I said that looking at Linah and saw her face light up. I didn’t know she was fond of mushrooms. Well, being from a family of witches, such a hobby was only natural, right? Should I take the book for her, then? I was reaching out to it when I caught glimpse of Oliver Picasso, the boy with the helmet, lowering demoralized eyes to the ground. I stopped dead.

“Oliver? What’s the matter?”

The boy shook his head.

“I-It’s nothing. I just wish I had been faster. I wanted a red pill. My parents say only red pills will be able to help me control my telepathy. Red energy can be used to impose conditions, after all. But… red pills are rare and too expensive. I guess I’ll just have to try harder!”

His big smile quivered but showed determination. Not knowing what to say, I was going to simply encourage him, when, without a warning, Nina stepped forward, took the boy’s hand, and put her red pill in his palm; then she turned and took the mushroom book. Oliver’s jaw dropped.

“W-W-Why?! I can’t accept it! I don’t even know your name!”

Hugging the book, Nina turned her head with an imperceptible, satisfied smile.

“It’s Nina. Nina Clover. Your thoughts were too loud and honest, that’s all. Use it well.”

She walked away with a light step. Did her luck push her to act like that or did she empathize with the poor boy—or did she just prefer the book to the pill? Who knows. Anyway, I was shocked to see that all the pills had disappeared and that the vials were being taken away quickly by the trainees. Suddenly thinking that I would end up with nothing if I continued to space out, I grabbed the compass with my telekinesis and caught it with my hand in a hurry.

I peered at the object. It didn’t look exactly new. Maybe some instructor had used the training to get rid of his old things? There was an inscription around the disk, but I couldn’t read it. As for the needle, it was turning a bit randomly in every direction… except mine.

“Let me see,” Lei said, peeking. “Oh, oh, how interesting. The needle is pointing at me. Ma’am!” he cried out to the Soft Queen that was supervising the arrival of the trainees. “Shouldn’t this compass be pointing at the one who holds it? That’s weird! Is it broken?!” A mischievous gleam shone in Lei’s eyes as he added in a whisper: “That’s what you get for not taking the treasure map, little zombie.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was he trying to reveal I was an undead in front of everyone?!

Feigning innocence, Lei devoted his attention to a huge trainee who had just taken the treasure map. The Soft Queen seemed to be completely ignoring us. Nevertheless… my core was beating faster. I was panicked and seriously annoyed at Lei. Should I punch him? Should I do it? But I was supposed not to touch anyone. I had promised Ray I wouldn’t. Besides, the instructors wouldn’t appreciate.

Still, I was pissed off.

And afraid.

What if someone noticed the weird behavior of the compass? Would people think it was broken? Would it occur to them that I was the problem?

At that instant, I remembered the Cheetah leader’s words: ‘When you think you’ve got no chance to control a difficult situation: run away, my boys.’

Shoving my reward into one of my pockets, I ran away downhill toward a forest of cactuses.

I just wanted to be alone for a moment. Away from the humans. Away from their lifeforce. Away from my doom.

* * *

“Damned spongy trap,” Sergei Bassala groaned. “To think we’ve got stuck so early in the race. It’s been almost an hour now! How long are we supposed to wait until they help us out?”

“Will they even come,” Zeeta sighed.

His tall teammate grimaced.

“Don’t be like that. We’re trainees, after all.”

“You mean, Indie trainees.”

“Whatever. Indie trainees are not usually anybody either.”

“… Hmm, I am a nobody, though.” Zeeta gazed at the blue sky. It was so hot today… He looked around at the cactuses then down at their feet trapped in an earth-colored substance. He wondered how the Straw Head was doing. Linah had surely long reached the goal.

“… Huh…” Sergei scratched his head. “You are a nobody, you say? Really? Oh! Could it be you’re a nobodist ascetic?”

Zeeta cast his teammate a bored glance. What did a nobodist even mean? He shrugged. Sergei smiled.

“Ah! How interesting. I heard nobodists are really good at understanding the mysteries of the world. Their motto is something like ‘because I am Nobody, I am Everything’ or something like that? No, wait, I remember: ‘Nothing exists in the emptiness, so Nothing is the strongest’. Do I remember it right?”

“Huh…”

“Nice! I’ve always wanted to meet a nobodist! I’m a crystal psychist, by the way. I believe that everything we do, everything we think, is due to the crystals that compose us. We’re creatures created and ruled by Crystals, not by thinking gods, but by dead matter. Yeah, I’m a bit of a heretic. My family says I’m a weirdo, but am I really?”

You are, Zeeta thought, and let out casually:

“If everything is determined by the crystals that compose us, shouldn’t it be impossible to change our minds?”

“Crystals are chaotic. You may breathe in crystals and think in a particular way, then breathe in again and change your thoughts.”

“Bullshit. Why accuse the crystals when you can accuse the brain?”

Sergei laughed.

“But brains are made of crystals!”

Zeeta stared at him, amazed. Did he seriously believe that?

“… Ah, is that so. How wonderful.”

“RIGHT?!”

Why on earth did he end up pairing up with such a weirdo? Ah, well, but Armen did say it was fine to be a weirdo. Zeeta rubbed his neck. Maybe he should just tolerate that crystal psychist guy. His way of thinking was kind of fun, too.

“Anyway,” Sergei said. “I can’t believe there were so many traps in this forest. Were they set up or are they all natural ones? Such an odd place to have a race. Do they think we’ve all been trained like robowarriors? It’s crazy. You think so, too, Leon? Not all the Heroes need to bulk up and sprint like maniacs. Life would be boring if everyone did.”

He sure talked a lot. Zeeta yawned.

“My bet is that our crystal brains made us fall into the trap so we could say: if we losers didn’t lose the race, nobody could have won it either.”

Sergei huffed, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

“As expected of a nobodist! You’ll serve Cesarine too, won’t you? That’s nice! I think we’ll get along famously.”

He gave Zeeta a brotherly nudge on the shoulder. That guy…

“Sorry, I’m not interested in making new friends.”

It just slipped out. All things considered, he was not ready to act friendly around strangers. It was too much stress…

“Hahaha!” Zeeta twitched as his teammate burst out laughing. “I should have guessed! You’re really a nobodist, after all! I like you!”

“…!” Geez… Did that Crystal Brain just breathe in a puff of irrational energies or something?

So annoying.

27 Bow down to the Heavens!

I ran, ran between blue, pink, orange cactuses. I ran, fell into crevasses, got up, got lost, then finally realized one thing: running didn’t help me calm down at all. Probably because it didn’t make me tired in the least.

So, when I reached the cliffs that surrounded the island, I sat down and gazed at the blue sea for a long time. It was soothing. It was beautiful. It was…

Wait, was it me or was my core working slower than before? Was I running out of energy? In a way, maybe it was a good thing, since that would mean that the Heavenly Storm lifeforce had completely disappeared and that I wouldn’t have to refrain myself anymore. But…

A surge of energy went my way, and a voice whispered in my head:

‘Armen?’

I sprang to my feet.

“Ray! Where are you?”

‘On my way back to the Academy. What are you doing by yourself? Did something happen?’

“… Nah. Not really.”

‘You were running low on energy, so I recharged you.’

“Wow. Like a cellphone?”

‘N-No! That wasn’t the right word—’

“How did you do in the race?” I cut him off, amused, as I began to walk along the cliff.

‘Ah… Well. When I arrived with my teammate, there weren’t any rewards left. Not that I need them, anyway. I’m entering the Academy, just now. Say… You do know the way back to the Academy, right? You didn’t get lost?’

“I just have to follow the cliff, anyway, and I’ll go around the island.”

‘So you did get lost.’

“……… Er… Hello? Hello? I can’t hear you, master. Oh my, it seems that there’s a problem of telecommunication—”

‘There’s not. Our bond is working just fine.’

“I can’t hear ya. I’m gonna hang up.”

‘You’re not even using a cellphone. What are you playing at? Bah, do your bes—I mean, may you find your way back before dusk.’

His weird rephrasing to avoid imperatives made me snort with laughter.

“May you rest and replenish your energies, master. Yours faithfully. Armen Moon.”

‘Now it’s a letter?!’

I laughed.

* * *

It was dusk when I finally reached the Academy. As I passed the gates, the fox assistant with the black tail recognized me and greeted me.

“Sorry, what was your name again?”

“Oh, Armen Moon, and you?”

As I saw him check my name on a form, I noticed there was a good number of people that had still not made their way back. He answered:

“I’m Robert the Black Fox. People call me Rofox. Did you already get your things from the main building? If you didn’t, please do. Also, every trainee is allowed to go to the refectory, there, to eat diner or get the food and cook at your house, do as you wish. Good night.”

When I entered the main building of the Academy, I searched for someone susceptible to give me directions, but the interior seemed empty. There was a magnificent statue of a flying phoenix at the end of the great hall, and hanging against the walls, I saw a bunch of group photos of past promotions. From what I had read, there was a special branch in the Phoenix Academy where regular students studied to become engineers specialized in building earthquake-resistant structures. The ever-moving Phoenix Island was undeniably a good place to test their skills.

I looked up at the ceiling as I kept walking. It was as white as milk, as were the walls. Beyond the hall, the corridor was barely illuminated. I was hesitating to go further, wondering what I could do, when I heard footsteps and a harsh voice calling out to me in Common Language:

“Trainee! What are you doing in here?”

A brawny man in a monkish, clear tunic was striding along the great hall. He was… a trainer, right? I couldn’t remember his name.

“Er… Sinior. My bag?”

I managed to say all that in Common Language. My manners made the trainer frown, but he waved me to follow him. He led me into a room and switched on the lights. The inside was nearly empty. I saw my bag and my violin’s case in a corner. It would seem I was the last one to take back my belongings. As I went to retrieve them, the monk trainer said something that I couldn’t catch.

“Er…” I put my bag on my shoulders and passed the violin’s case across my chest. Under the trainer’s increasingly frowned brows, I confessed awkwardly: “Sorry, sir, I don’t understand.”

He shook his head with irritation and clicked his tongue, then put a sheet before my eyes. It had my name and picture on it. Oh, was it some document I had to sign to officially become a trainee? The instructor indicated his cheek without a word. Was he telling me to put away my mask to confirm I was really Armen Moon? Well… I doubted I would be at risk if it was just for a moment.

I took off my mask and put it back as soon as he nodded. Good. As I skimmed through the text in Common Language, I remembered Zeeta had once told me: ‘do not sign anything before you understand it all!’ Ray had told me the same thing on one occasion. But they both had probably signed their own document already, so… I borrowed the trainer’s pen, thanking him as I took care not to touch him, and I signed.

The trainer babbled something. I could only catch two or three words, but from his tone, I knew what he was thinking: that a guy who couldn’t even speak the Common Language had nothing to do at their elite training, that I would soon regret coming here. I caught the contemptible look he threw at my violin. That pissed me off even more. Was he thinking I had come here to relax and play music? Well, and what if I had? Couldn’t Heroes be musicians?

Despite my bad mood, I said nothing, made a curt nod, and left the main building.

Almost all the houses for the trainees were flying on the orange crystal wings around the main building. The stairs that led to them were all escalators. And they moved quite fast. I ascended on the main escalator and soon arrived at a covered circular platform about five meters wide. From there, five staircases went up in different directions… I looked at each of them and paused.

Which house was it again? Since I had gone into Ray’s house unconscious and left in a hurry to attend the gathering, I hadn’t paid attention to the building’s exterior. Crap. I should have asked Ray.

I randomly chose an escalator to climb, thinking: Well, I have no badge to lose, so it’s all right if I knock on the wrong door, right?

Or maybe not. I would rather not have to deal with strangers right now, especially with the elite trainees. I had seen that glint, in the eyes of some of them, that reminded me too vividly of the Tiger Clan gangsters. Like my mom used to say: ‘Be it big or small, a shark is always looking out for prey.’

I reached the next platform and stopped, frowning.

I knew human nature. I was used to dealing with gangsters. True, those trainees were supposed to become figures of Justice and Good in the future but… I only had to remember there were people like Axel Sunclaw among them to know that quite a few trainees wouldn’t hesitate to play dirty, not even for a second.

I couldn’t afford to fall in their grasp.

“Straw Head? What are you just standing there for?”

Startled but relieved, I turned to Zeeta, as he was going up the escalator accompanied by the heavenly girl, and maybe some other guys hidden behind her massive body. My friend leaped over the last step of the stairs and landed before me, quizzical.

“Zeeta! I don’t know how to go back home!”

Zeeta widened his eyes… then burst out laughing.

“You sounded like a lost child just now! Hahaha! Captain!” he added, turning to the heavenly girl that was heavily stepping out of the escalator. “Can I show this kid the way back home?”

“This kid…? Who is he?” Cesarine asked.

I couldn’t help but see her walk forward as if she was some kind of Angel of Death. Standing, she was huge, over two meters tall. I instinctively took some steps backwards on the circular platform as I pointed at my mask.

“Sorry, I’m allergic to sponges cactuses. I’m the one who landed on your back yesterday. You know, on the beach, when you were doing push-ups.”

Her golden tail stopped flapping the air as her fox ears rose.

“Oh! I remember. The blond who passed out! Are you feeling better?”

She was being so kind that I was having a hard time keeping in mind that she was a walking poison to me. I grinned under my mask.

“I am. Thanks.”

My smile disappeared when I noticed the presence of Mackenzie, the kid in the lab coat. The four-armed Charles-Ping wasn’t there, but a sun-glassed woman in a suit was bodyguarding the princess instead. Who was the heavenly girl, really? Not even the Sunclaw had brought along their bodyguards. And she had three of them, at that.

“A… A…”

I looked at her, puzzled. A?

“Aston, was it?”

“… Oh, let me introduce myself again. I’m Armen Moon.”

“Armen, right!” She smiled. “I’m Cesarine Lovecryce. Though you surely knew it already. Everyone knows me.”

I blinked. Lovecryce? It rang a bell. Then my eyes grew wide.

“The Nyomin’s director! Are you the Nyomin’s director?!”

Everyone stared at me in shock. Zeeta hit his own face with his palm. The woman in a suit suddenly lunged at me, grabbed me by the neck, and made me bow very deeply, hissing:

“Bow down to the young mistress, kid. I was wondering who you were, acting so uppity, but it turns out you are nothing but an ignorant nitwit. Indie trainees…” she spitted out. “What a let-down.”

I could hardly hear her. My core was racing, my whole body was shaking with life-lust. Some maybe thought I was afraid, but in truth, I was eating. And, Holy Gods, it was so good. Even a random person’s lifeforce could be so good…!

I had to stop. I had to stop or Ray would be worried sick. My body intoxicated with Heavenly Storm lifeforce wouldn’t be able to stand it. I had to stop in order to survive. However, my body wasn’t responding to my commands. The instincts of a Fury were so damn strong! All I could do was stop myself from grabbing the bodyguard to increase the incoming flow…

I heard a crack.

“Let go of him!”

The lifeforce suddenly stopped being absorbed. Why?

Zeeta. He had punched the bodyguard in a suit and made her fall back. I couldn’t believe it.

“Zeeta!” I panted. “W-Wait—!”

“No one can touch the Straw Head!” Zeeta roared. His eyes were glowering, his fists were trembling. “Straw Head, run!”

Staying there was a bad idea, but I couldn’t possibly let Zeeta alone, could I? The woman in a suit had lost her sunglasses. She wiped off the blood from her lips and grunted:

“Now you’ve done it, you fools…!”

She charged at Zeeta. Much faster than I expected. I had intended to make her eyes shut, but she was so fast that I couldn’t do anything with my power…

Then Cesarine Lovecryce shrieked.

“Katya, stop!”

The bodyguard stopped with her fist a few inches from Zeeta’s chin. Zeeta was covered in a cold sweat, but he didn’t budge.

I turned to Cesarine. She was upset.

“Katya. We are all trainees here. I don’t want people to bow their heads to me. So… let’s forgive and forget.”

“Forgive and forget?” Katya echoed. She straightened up, picked up her sunglasses, and wiped them with her sleeve, then put them on saying: “I can do that for you, young mistress. Let’s go back to the house.”

“Y-Yes.”

As Cesarine stepped on one of the escalators, I noticed that other trainees had gathered and were watching the scene. Katya glared at Zeeta.

“Get going,” she said.

Zeeta didn’t let his fear show as he followed Cesarine.

“Oh, Straw Head,” he said without looking back. “Your house’s on the top of those stairs. Those. You’ll see the symbol of the Wind painted on the front of one of the two escalators. That’s the one. You can’t miss it.”

I felt as if my core was being torn. No matter how kind Cesarine could be, Katya wasn’t going to forgive Zeeta so easily. She would make him pay, and Zeeta knew it. And despite that, he was following her captain. I was about to cry.

“No.”

The word came out from my mouth in a huff.

“Zeeta, don’t go, come back here! Cesarine, please, give me his badge, and I will give you—”

“Straw Head, shut up! Don’t get all worked up, and get the hell outta here, you hear? I didn’t punch that witch in a suit for nothing, did I?”

He was already drawing away upwards with Cesarine and her group. I gave a glance at the trainees that were still watching, and I whispered:

“Thanks.”

I knew he could hear me even from that distance, and I could make out his smile. Then he disappeared from my sight.

Dammit.

If only I had managed to fight back my life-lust, Zeeta wouldn’t have been forced to step in.

“I will give you…” a voice suddenly purred in my ear, “… what?”

I flinched, saw a bleak, pale-skinned guy with long, black hair tilting his head beside me, and let out a snort. It was Gorka Soulberg, the creepy guy Linah and I had met at the foot of the hill.

I didn’t wait for him to get any closer: I hurried backwards and flung myself onto the escalator, the one that Zeeta had pointed at.

“Wow, that’s what you call a coward,” someone chuckled behind me. That voice… I glanced back. It was Sean Bensaïd’s, the cocky Nyomin trainee that had passed the Independent exam for fun. “Gorka, aren’t you going to go after him?”

“Why would I?” the creepy guy yawned.

“He didn’t answer your question. Now I’m curious. What could he possibly have to tempt a Lovecryce?”

“Pff. He was just bluffing. Let’s go to our house. I’m tired and bored and sick of this training…”

“Already?!”

Their voices faded away as I ran up the moving stairs. I soon made it to the next platform. Nobody was pursuing me. Phew. I took a glance at one of the two escalators before me, nodded at the one with the “Wind” symbol, and stepped on it. As I ascended, I could see the small flying piece of land with the two-storey stone house. I nodded again. It must be it.

At last, I was home.

28 It’s good to be honest

Noah was hitting the table with his knife and fork.

“Is it not ready yet? I’m hungry! Aren’t you hungry, Styzz? We’re hungry, stupidstar!”

“Coming, coming!”

I stirred the soup a bit, was about to taste it, then the mask reminded me that I couldn’t taste human food. I put down the ladle, took the big, steaming cooking pot with both hands, and walked out of the kitchen.

As I approached the round table, I grinned under my mask. There were quite a number of people in Ray’s house. Much to my surprise, Styzz, the green-haired guy who dreamed to become a Hidden Wolf and was Ray’s classmate at Harvard High, was taking part in the training too. I still was in shock to see him here as a Nyomin trainee. I guess he wasn’t just anyone. Also, his electricity power was amazing. I could tell, when, on my arrival, I had asked Noah not to touch me because I had a very contagious allergy; I had made that up on the spot, and when Noah asked, “Eeeh? Can allergies be contagious?”, as he was about to poke my arm, Styzz had sent him an electrical shock that had left the CI’s student stammering for several minutes. They had made up pretty quick, though, upon realizing that both of them were fond of playing Go. They had been so focused on their game, a moment ago, but now all Noah could think about was food.

He served himself a generous portion saying:

“It’d better be yummy, stupidstar!”

“It is. The better poison I found.”

Noah had already put a spoonful into his mouth. He froze, raised an eyebrow at me, swallowed, then whistled.

“Not bad! Thanks for the poison, stupidstar.”

“You’re welcome, perv.”

“At least it’s better than the poison they give us at the Crapperific Institute.”

“…” That… wasn’t a compliment, was it?

“Thanks, Armen!” Styzz said. “We were so focused on our game, we completely ignored you.”

“I saw that! Is Go so interesting?”

“Best game ever!” Noah affirmed.

Huh? So the crimson guy could have fun patiently placing pieces on a game board. That was unexpected.

“Thank you for the food, Armen,” Jing intervened. The bald martial artist was sitting very formally. “Sorry I was taking a bath and couldn’t help.”

“It’s fine, I like cooking.”

“Shank you, Amen!” Nina said, her mouth full. “And I’m sowwy! I took the mushroom book wishout shinking that you might want to take it, too, and—”

“No worries. I didn’t want it.”

“Is that so?” She looked relieved. “Mm. But I still feel like I owe you one. Next time, I’ll cook a mushroom specialty from my hometown for you.”

“Really?! I’m looking forward to…!” Then I remembered I was an undead, and I froze. “Ah… I forgot. I don’t like mushrooms.”

Nina looked at me in shock as if I had said something unbelievable.

“You… don’t like mushrooms?”

“Well… I had a traumatic experience…” Death, more specifically. “So, yeah, I don’t like them. Not anymore. Tastes change as we get older, they say.”

“You say it like you’re an old man,” Jing snorted.

“I’m sorry to hear that you had a traumatic experience with a mushroom…” Nina sympathized.

Eeeh? Did I make it sound that way?

“I like mushrooms,” Noah interjected. “I like anything as long as it’s tasty. So it’s fine if you cook that mushroom specialty for me, Nina. Heh… A big house, tasty food, and a good view… All in all, this training is not too bad, hahaha!”

Boy, was he cheeky. Besides, “I like anything as long as it’s tasty”, he said? What was with that perv’s logic? Nina shrugged.

“I’ll think about it.”

Well said, Nina! Don’t say yes to that little greedy prince! My smile twisted when I saw her mix a chocolate bar with my soup.

“Ugh… Isn’t that mixing… a bit too experimental?” I asked.

Nina shook her head:

“Mm-mm. It’s yummy.”

She was clearly enjoying her meal. For me, who had more or less forgotten how human food tasted like, it was a feast to see her expression. My lips curved.

“I’m glad it is.”

Noah grumbled.

“Oi, you’re making me nervous, standing there. Aren’t you going to sit down? I’m no rich kid to be served by a waiter.”

He did wait for me to bring the food to the table and was asking Nina to cook for him, though? I rolled my eyes.

“I already ate. I’ll bring Ray his dinner.”

“Oh yeah, Ray. He shut himself in his room again, didn’t he? Say, is the shortie really your friend, or is he something like, you know, a rich kid you’re groveling to to get pocket money?”

“…” I paused on the foot of the stairs and cast a smiling look his way. “Nina, please tell me if you see any deadly mushroom in your book. Next time, I’ll put the poison for real. Just for you, perv.”

As I started to go upstairs, I heard him snort and mutter:

“What, so they really are friends. Wonder why.”

“Yes, wonder why you have been accepted into this house,” Jing replied.

“What was that for?”

“I’m just saying you don’t know how to read the room.”

“Why?”

I ignored them when I reached the second floor and knocked at Ray’s door. The sound couldn’t go through that thick panel, but we didn’t need sound.

‘You can come in,’ Ray said mentally.

He was sitting on the floor, stroking Rainbows’ fur. As soon as I walked in, the cat bolted and hid under the bed. I shut the door with a saddened expression.

“Ray… Does she hate me so much?”

“She doesn’t,” Ray assured. “She’s just being cautious. You didn’t have to go out of your way to bring me the dinner, you know?”

“Don’t complain, dig in, and recover your energies.”

“… Okay.”

As he took his spoon, I turned to gaze out of the window at the crescent moon and the stars. I enjoyed a lively house, but I also liked it when I was alone with Ray. The house was so big we weren’t even using all the rooms. I had borrowed the one next to Ray’s, but I wondered what I would do there alone during the nights, since I couldn’t sleep. Play the violin? That would bother everyone. Wander at night in the Academy like a haunting ghost, perhaps? Or maybe I should just…

“Are you planning on becoming a cook?”

Ray’s question came out of the blue. I laughed, looking back.

“Oh? Am I so good at it? Is it yummy?”

“It is. But I’m asking that because you seem to enjoy seeing people eat your meals. That’s a must if you want to be a good cook, isn’t it?”

“Mm, you think so? Well… I do enjoy seeing people enjoy themselves, but…”

“But?”

I sat down before him with a grin under my mask.

“I enjoy it most when it’s you who’s enjoying.”

Zeeta would have blushed at my words, but Ray didn’t. He raised an eyebrow.

“Mm. That may be because of the necro-bond.”

I was taken aback.

“What? The necro-bond? What does that have to do with—?”

“Aaah, forget that, forget that… Anyway, I’ve been thinking about what you told me.”

“…? About the compass?”

Ray had already examined it and concluded it was a great thing that I had chosen it. Although useless for me, it might have caused us trouble if it had ended up in someone else’s hands.

“The compass? Do you want it back?” Ray asked.

“What? No. Keep it, I don’t need it. Did you succeed in deciphering the text engraved on it?”

“No. I have no idea what language it is. Anyway, we have other matters to worry about.”

“That’s true. So? What is it?”

Under my inquisitive look, Ray clarified:

“It’s about Zeeta.”

I breathed in. I had told him how Zeeta had rescued me from my life-lust by pushing Katya away and getting himself in trouble, but at the moment, Ray had only been worried about my core and had me lie down for half an hour before declaring that he had removed almost all the lifeforce I hadn’t transformed yet into deathforce. Seeing him so exhausted, all I could think about was how I could thank Ray and give him back his strengths, and I obviously thought of making a very nutritious dinner for him. I had ended up cooking for the whole house, though…

I looked at him intently.

“How can we save him from Cesarine’s group?”

Ray had finished his plate. He took the brim of his baseball cap between two fingers.

“It’ll be a gamble but… I’ve heard there will be a badge exchange tomorrow night between the Starlanders and the North-Wingers.”

“The North-Wingers?”

“Lovecryce comes from Buenos Aires, remember? In the North-Wing continent. And the four trainees from North-Wing are his daughter and her three bodyguards.”

“His… daughter?” I snorted. “And there I thought for a moment that Cesarine was the Nyomin’s director. It feels so absurd now—”

“Pfff…” Ray’s shoulders trembled as he tried to keep from laughing. “Ahem, well… Not everyone knows Lovecryce has a daughter. She rarely appears on the news. I know her chiefly because my mom works for them.”

“Makes sense.”

“Anyhow, going back to the subject,” he added, “if I go to that meeting, tomorrow night, I can try to buy Zeeta’s badge. The only problem is… does Zeeta really want to leave their side?”

The question made me pause. If Zeeta’s intention was to spy on Lovecryce’s daughter, then buying his badge from Cesarine would mean interfering in his plans.

“I don’t care.” The words came straight from my heart. I looked up at Ray. “I don’t care if he doesn’t want to. Tomorrow, I’ll keep an eye on him. If Katya is making him suffer, let’s go buy his badge at that meeting.”

Even if we couldn’t reach an agreement, I guessed the badges would be shown by the participants, so, worst-case scenario, I could always try to steal it with my telekinesis and make a run for it. Once the badge was in my hands, Zeeta would be free. Or more like, according to the rules, he would belong to the house of the one owning his badge, thus having to ‘swear’ loyalty to his new captain. I’d just give it back to him, then, and let him decide of his own free will, and not while being coerced by Cesarine’s tyrannic bodyguard.

After a silence, Ray nodded.

“We’ll do that. But you’re not coming.”

“What?!”

“It’s a meeting for Nyomin trainees. You can’t go. So I—”

The door was suddenly flung open.

“I can’t believe it! Straw Head! That damned doll!”

Linah had barged into the room like a fury. Well, not like a real Fury, of course. I slowly raised my eyes to her frustrated face as she was catching her breath.

“Erma. Are you… Are you calling me a doll?”

“I’m not!” Linah shut the door and sat down uninvited, explaining sharply: “You see, I went to talk to the trainers to ask if we were allowed to leave Yuutow Island in our free time, and I had convinced professor Addison, because, after all, my dad’s a big sponsor of the Nyomin, but then! that damned woman showed up and said it was unacceptable to give permission to ones and not to others, we came to train, not to have fun, and blah blah blah… I’m furious! She turned the tables with a few words and told me that my dad wasn’t sponsoring the Nyomin to make her daughter laze around. So restrictive! Oh, I’m mad, I’m mad, I’m mad!”

She sure was. Her left hand had detached itself from her main body and was restlessly running circles around the room. Quite a while since I had seen her doing so. Rainbows peeped from under the bed to follow the venturous hand with intent eyes, as if ready to pounce on it.

“So… does that mean we won’t be able to go to Phoenix City to search for the Immortal?” I asked.

“The Immortal?” Ray echoed.

“Ah, yes, it’s an old witch I talked with in Phoenix City last night,” I explained as Rainbows just slowly crawled from under the bed, captivated. “She was supposedly born before the Big Blend, she’s like a Hero for the witches, and Erma wants to meet her.”

“I should cut her pretty braids and throw them to a fire!” Linah groaned.

“Didn’t you want to meet her because you’re a fan?!” I freaked out.

“Armen,” Ray cleared his throat. “I think she’s talking about the trainer.”

“Of course I am! That shrew! How dares she!” At that instant, we all saw the tabby cat pouncing on Linah’s hand. The Lil Witch’s expression changed as she lunged and caught the feline in the air enthusiastically. “Cute little Rainbows, so you were here! Did you come to say hello? Such a good cat!”

Cuddled in Linah’s arms, the cat looked anything but happy. Her frightened eyes turned to Ray and even to me, crying for help. So she was more scared of Linah than she was of me, huh. That selfishly made me feel good. I still wanted to help her, but well… getting used to a bit of physical closeness to the living was important—even though she wouldn’t feel anything no matter how much the Lil Witch petted her. She was a ghoul, after all.

“By the way…” Ray was quite embarrassed right now. I wondered why. He grabbed the brim of his baseball cap. “Linah. What is… the name of that trainer?”

“The name of that harpy?! It’s Lizzie Dvorak, the Lightning Veil. Why?”

I widened my eyes at Ray as he shrugged, coughing. Was he laughing? Linah looked at us alternately.

“What’s wrong, guys? Straw Head?”

“That’s… Heh… You see, Erma… the Lightning Veil is Ray’s mom.”

For a moment, none of us said anything. Linah stayed silent for one, two… to five seconds, then burst out:

“Whaaaaaaat?!”

Her left hand literally dropped out of astonishment and embarrassment, and Rainbows finally managed to slip out of her grip and took refuge in Ray’s lap. The Lil Witch covered her face with her right hand and murmured with her eyes shut:

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s good to be honest,” Ray approved gently.

I picked up Linah’s hand and offered it back, grinning.

“Would you like a bit of soup for dinner, Erma?”

29 Love trap

‘So… are you really going to go out even though we’re not allowed?’

Ray’s words echoed in my head, and I remembered his worried pout and me raising a hand to pat his shoulder and freezing just in time. I had nodded earnestly.

“Erma’s eyes were shining like stars. Now I’m kinda looking forward to seeing her meet that Immortal Witch. Don’t worry, I may be a Fury, but I can still ask Erma to beat me to a pulp if I do something wrong.”

“… That level of trust is incredible, yet somehow disturbing.”

Remembering our conversation, I smiled as I straightened up on the beach.

Our skin was dripping with water, our swimsuits were drenched. I wrung out my shirt, then put it on.

I had crossed the Neck at night. Without permission. Like a smuggler. And the reason was just before my eyes, though it was so dark that I could barely see her.

“Let’s go!” Linah said.

I followed her without a word. Just how much did she want to meet that Anastasia to break the rules on our first day of training?

We walked along the dyke, reached the water train station, then climbed the road to Phoenix City.

Instead of taking the path to the lighthouse, we went straight into the city. I tried to remember the way. The bar with a white whale on the front seemed familiar, as well as the blue scintillating fountain on a square. I recognized the park where I had seen that group of teenagers eating sunflower seeds, and finally found the small garden, a bit farther, where I had met the fakir-witch on her bed of nails.

“This is the place,” I said.

Linah looked around.

“She’s not here.”

“Yeah. She’s not.”

The glint of disappointment lingered in Linah’s eyes. I suggested:

“Let’s search for her.”

We spent about one hour wandering around the neighborhood. Phoenix City was huge, so we couldn’t really search for the Immortal Witch in the other districts. In the end, Linah started to lose her composure and began to ask people randomly. Some shrugged, some shook their heads without understanding a word, an old woman said:

“Ah, the ascetic, you mean? She’s been around for some weeks, now. I saw her the other day. I gave her a piece of bread.”

“She ate it?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah, she devoured it!”

So Anastasia wasn’t an undead, after all… Was she really immortal?

“Do you know where she is right now?” Linah insisted.

The old woman had no idea, but we still talked for a while. She was from the Farskyer Peninsula, suffered from insomnia, and was on her usual night walk. She grinned.

“Well, what a lovely couple I met. It was a pleasure to talk Farskyer Yanganese again!”

Farskyer Yanganese? Did she mean that the language spoken in Phoenix was also a Yanganese dialect? As Linah kept asking the few night owls walking down the streets, I realized that, with a bit of concentration, I could understand them. They just had a very strong accent, even stronger than Taipei people did.

“Ah, dawitchamean?” a guy answered to Linah at one point. “Dasawer o dacliff ne deneck.”

I jerked up.

“Is that so? Thanks a lot! Linah! Let’s go!”

“Eeeeh?!” She ran after me. “Did you understand what he said?”

“Yeah, he said he just saw her next to the Neck’s cliff.”

“…! You’re amazing, Straw Head!”

Her words went straight to my heart. I grinned under my mask.

“Heeheehee…”

“You creep me out when you laugh like that.”

Linah’s eyes had been darkening through the hours, but now they were shining with hope.

When we arrived at the grassy slope that led to Kimberley’s lighthouse, we scanned our surroundings. The lights of the city barely lit that place, and we spent some minutes advancing in the dark, piercing the shadows with intent gazes.

“She’s not here either.”

I frowned, looked up at the lighthouse, and began walking towards it.

“I know the keeper of this lighthouse. Let’s ask him.”

“You know him?!”

“Yeah, he came to my lighthouse as an apprentice when I was a child. Kim’s a really nice guy. He may even help us.”

“Won’t we wake him up? It’s half-past two in the morning.”

“Nah. Knowing him, right now he’s playing video games.”

“… Sorry, Straw Head,” she muttered. “You even lost consciousness yesterday morning because of that allergy, and you must be tired after the race, yet because of me, you can’t go to sleep. Am I a demon, after all?”

Her last question sounded clearly sincere. I couldn’t help but grin under my mask.

“As far as I know, demons never apologize like that, Lil Witch. But really, it’s okay. I’m doing this also because I want to see that Immortal Witch again. I want to apologize to her for mistaking her for a scammer.”

“You… thought she was a scammer?! The legendary Anastasia? Hwara-hwara-hwara!”

“Zeeta always warns me against scammers, so I’m trying to be on my guard, ya know.”

“Hwara-hwara-hwara! You’re unbelievable, Straw Head!”

Bah… Anyway, if Kim was sleeping, he had probably woken up to Linah’s guffaws.

I took a glance through the shutters, saw a light, and after exchanging a look with Linah, I knocked at the door.

* * *

“You will soon do your first ‘Hello World’, kid! Now add ‘return 0’… Ah, but don’t forget to add the semi-colon at the end of the previous line.”

“Oh, I see!”

We caught Kimberley not playing games but programming, and somehow, I ended up sitting on his chair before his computer and typing my first program ever. Not only that: it seemed that he had let the fakir-witch into the lantern room, because ‘that good old woman wanted to talk to the wind from up there’. Linah had rushed to the stairs, and I had planned to do the same but then I changed my mind. Linah surely wanted to talk alone with her. Plus, I couldn’t ignore Kimberley when he asked me if I wanted to print ‘Hello World’ on a terminal, since he had been so kind as to let us in this late.

“Why the ‘return 0’, though?” I asked. “We want it to return ‘Hello World’, not zero.”

“Don’t worry about that… You forgot the semi-colon again.”

“Oh… Where was it again?”

“You should learn how to type on a keyboard, Armen, it’s useful. Want a beer?”

“Er… No, thanks.”

“Mm,” He sipped on his. “Now add the curly bracket. It will tell the compiler that the function terminates here. Very good. You’re done. Now, all you have to do is run the program. Ah, just a moment.”

He leaned next to me to type something. Too close. I pulled away, standing up a bit too nervously. I tried to compose myself as I said:

“You can sit down, Kim.”

“Mm.”

The text disappeared, Kim went back to his console, and then waved at the keyboard.

“Type Enter, and the program will say ‘Hello World’. Go ahead.”

I held out a finger, then hesitated.

“What is it?” he asked, surprised.

“Er…” I rubbed my neck, a bit embarrassed. “Well, I may be bold sometimes, but actually, I’m a bit shy. Th-That program… It won’t say hello world to the whole world, will it, or…?”

Kimberley blinked, then burst out laughing.

“Holy Gods, you’re too much, kid! As expected from Misae’s son! Don’t worry, it will print ‘Hello World’ on this screen, here, nothing more. You won’t bother the world with it.”

“Ah, is that so? Then…”

I pressed the Enter key. It returned a ‘Hello World’ right away. I was fascinated for an instant, then I rubbed my forehead.

“I’m probably going to ask something stupid but… why bother to write a ‘Hello World’ with a lot of brackets and strange symbols, if all it does is say ‘Hello World’? I mean, it’s fun, but wouldn’t it be faster to write ‘Hello World’ directly?”

Kimberly put on that face that said: you’re a crack up, kid.

He was trying to give me an explanation when we both heard a weird laugh coming from up there. It seemed that Linah was having fun with the Immortal Witch. Kim raised an eyebrow.

“Is that your girlfriend?”

“Yeah… I mean, that’s her funny way of laughing, but… we’re… not really… going out.”

“Oh?” He paused, then pointed at the game console with his thumb. “Wanna play? I’ve bought a new game, Survival Dungeon 3, I’m sure you’ll like it.”

“Eeeh?! I’ve already played it with a friend. I love that game! Let’s play, let’s play!”

We settled on the floor. We were choosing our characters when I mustered up the courage to ask:

“Kim. Say. What is love?”

The lighthouse keeper gave me a curious look.

“You’re asking that to a loner who never got married, you know that?”

I smiled.

“Yeah, well… Being married doesn’t mean you know what love is, nor being a loner means you don’t know how to love, right?”

Kim’s lips stretched into a smile.

“Well. I may know a thing or two.” He looked at the screen and picked an orc as his player character. “I’ve read once that love is something you can’t put bounds to but that, at the same time, is all about bonds. Parents will love their child because they are bound to it, they gave him a life, they saw him grow, laugh, and cry, and they learn about the world through him. Yeah, I think love is about learning how life works through someone else.”

His words impacted me. Love was about learning life through someone else? I didn’t quite get what he meant… but I quite liked the idea. Thinking about that, I picked a Witch as my avatar. I saw Kim’s eyes smile.

“Also, one more thing,” he said as the game was loading. “They say love is like a plant that you have to water every day, but I don’t think it’s quite right. It’s more like… an endless cake you eat from because you want to.”

“Huh? What was that? A cake?” I laughed.

He shrugged.

“Just my opinion.”

“You sure like food.”

“Are you saying I’m fat? But sure, I love food.” Well, I did too. Lifeforce, that is. He added: “The thing is, love exists because we want to. But it’s not always so easy to realize you love something if you never question yourself about it. Let me prove it. I’ll say some words: raise your hand whenever you don’t like something, okay? Games.”

I didn’t budge.

“Music, cats, artichokes…”

He lingered on the word, which made me remember out loud:

“Oh, right, I couldn’t eat them when I was a kid, but I can now.” At least, I could before I died.

“Is that so? Then… Spiders.” I raised my hand in a hurry. “Snakes.” Hand up. “School.” Hand up. What was the point of all that? “Wasps. Scammers. Wars.” Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. “Mosquitoes.” Hand up. “Linah.” Hand…

I looked at my raising hand, then at Kim with the face of someone who has been betrayed. He chuckled.

“See?”

“See what?! You only wanted to make me raise the hand, didn’t you, you jerk?”

Kim was laughing heartedly.

“Young people are always the same, they never know what they want! Now get your witch moving. The orc is waiting.”

30 The meaning of a dream

When Linah came down, at around four o’clock in the morning, her cheeks were rosy, her hands were shaking a bit.

“She’s gone.”

Her words made me stop playing right away. I stood up, bewildered.

“Anastasia is gone?”

“She teleported. She said she had nothing to do here anymore. It seems like she can control her Wanderer Curse a bit. Oh, I told her you wanted to apologize. She said she won’t get offended for so little. She also said: ‘that youngster has already changed his future’. What did she mean?”

“… No idea.”

I knew Anastasia was talking about that question she had asked me the day before, about changing my future. But how on earth would I have changed my future in a day? I widened my eyes. That Immortal Witch hadn’t done anything to me, had she? I would have known if she had cursed me, right? Right?

And there I was thinking ill of the old witch again! I hit my cheeks with both fists. It didn’t hurt at all.

Linah and Kim looked at me, surprised.

“What are you doing, Straw Head?”

“Putting my thoughts straight.”

“Really? And it works? I can do it for you next time if you want.”

“No, thanks.”

“Hwara-hwara! Well, we can go back now, Straw Head.”

I nodded, thanked Kimberley for his edifying lessons, and we soon headed back. I asked Linah about her conversation with the Immortal Witch, but she was lost in thought and didn’t seem to hear me.

She kept silent all the way back to the beach. I was wondering what she was thinking, when she said:

“Straw Head. Thank you for accompanying me. I may have never met her if it weren’t for you.”

“I’m glad you did. It really seems that you enjoyed her conversation.”

“I… did.” The crescent moon barely lit her face, but her voice betrayed her joy. “I learned very important things about the witches.”

“Is that so? Are you going to become one? That would be cool.”

“… You think?”

“Yeah. Though I don’t really know what witches do. Something like making amulets with blessings and curses, right?”

She chortled.

“It’s not only that! The arts of the witches are really difficult to learn. You can’t learn them just by sitting on a chair and reading books. But that’s also why I’m so thrilled right now. Yeah. I think I’m gonna do it, Straw Head! I’m going to become a witch.”

She said it earnestly. I was a bit surprised, but I was glad she had found a dream that could make her even happier.

“Dreams are one of the most sacred things on earth,” I said. “That’s what my grandma used to say.”

“… Funny. My grandma said something very similar to that.”

“Really?! Wow. Grandmas are incredible, aren’t they?”

“… Mm,” she nodded.

I grinned under my mask. Kim was right: I sure was learning life through her.

We were walking past the water station when I felt her lifeforce against my skin. My core trembled. Did she just take my hand? I fought my life-lust with no problem: I had more trouble fighting the desire to squeeze her hand in return but…

“It’s dark.”

As far as I knew, she had never been afraid of the dark. I swallowed.

“Yeah. It’s because it’s night.”

Wait, isn’t that obvious, you stupid Straw Head? I hurt mentally at my own words. Why was I so nervous, all of a sudden? Lost in thought, Linah didn’t seem to notice. Maybe she was afraid of the dark? My eyes caught glimpse of two fireflies slowly twirling around a bush, and I was going to point at them when Linah broke the silence:

“Straw Head. What is a dream? I mean… I had decided long ago that I would never become a witch just because my grandmother, my aunts, and my cousins are witches. I don’t want to copy their dreams. I hate following the steps of others. Yet… what if it is my own dream? What if it isn’t? What if it’s just a whim? How can I know?”

Her voice was low yet troubled. I didn’t know she had been struggling with such deep interrogations.

A dream. Did I even know what a dream was? Well, there had been a time when I had been dead set on becoming one of the best violinists on the planet, but…

Could I give her a proper answer? It was rare for Linah to ask for advice, and to think she was asking me, of all people… I squeezed her hand just a little and strangely relaxed as I said:

“Whatever your dream is, you won’t find it if you don’t try. I mean, trying is what’s important. Whether you become a witch or change your mind along the way… it doesn’t really matter, does it? Either way, it’s your decision. Decisions and strife make the man. Or the woman. The human. Well, I guess it must apply to other species, too… Anyway, it wasn’t my grandma who told me that, I don’t remember who did, but it feels based. I don’t know much about dreams but… I do know that pursuing a dream is one of the coolest things there are in life, as long as you try hard with all you’ve got in here.” I patted my chest, only to remember my heart was not beating anymore. I chuckled nervously. “Anyway, to me, you are already a witch, Linah. My Lil Witch.”

“…” She let go of my hand and rest it on her own chest, thoughtful. “One of the coolest things… Then doing it half-heartedly would sure be a crying shame. Okay,” she said as if making a final decision. “Thanks, Armen. I’ll give it my all!”

She didn’t react to the ‘my Lil Witch’ part, huh… Whatever. Seeing that my awkward words could be of help was enough. I smiled, nodding.

“Mm. If you become a real witch, don’t forget to give me your first amulet.”

“Leave it to me, Straw Head! But even though Anastasia gave me some pointers… it takes years to become a full-fledged witch.”

“No worries. I’m patient. I’ll wait. Even after my death.”

There was a silence.

“No, no, if you die, I’ll bury you, Straw Head.”

“Will you?”

“Yeah. Because your corpse would stink.”

It doesn’t, though. You’re the one tasting bad. I chuckled.

“I prefer being with you than rotting in a grave.”

“Then don’t die, birdbrain-dummy-fool!”

“O-Okay!”

We reached the beach in front of the Phoenix Turtle’s Neck. Few lights could be seen in the Academy. In contrast, the Neck’s waters were gleaming warmly like a swarm of orange fireflies. Was there a source of light down there? It hadn’t been there on the night before. How curious.

“Beautiful,” Linah let out, impressed.

That it was. It seemed as if the waters had turned into a starry ripply sky.

“Oh, I wanted to ask you, Straw Head. What’s the deal with Ray? He looked overly worried when we said we were going out tonight. You don’t think he will tattle to his mother, do you?”

“…! Ray? Tattle?” I snorted with laughter. “No, he won’t. I guess he was just worried we could be caught by the instructors.” Among other things… “We’re a bit crazy, you know, breaking the rules just like that.”

“Stupid rules are made to be broken, aren’t they?”

“Well, if you put it like that—”

“Did we do anything wrong?”

“Certainly not.”

“Besides, since when does a Cheetah care about official rules? Cheetahs are proud creatures born to be free.”

“You’re so damn right. As expected of my muse.”

“Hwara-hwara! Your friend is such a worrywart!” Linah said, guffawing.

“… Ray’s mom will hear you from the Academy.”

She snorted and crouched on the sand, punching it.

“That witch! I mean, that harpy! To think that she wanted to stop me from meeting with the Wandering Immortal Witch! She almost crushed my dream! What if I really became a Peacemaker because of her?”

I tilted my head, confused.

“But didn’t you want to become a Peacemaker?”

“…” In the moonlight, she seemed to shrink as she shook her head. “It’s just my parents’ wish. My mom basically set her witch life aside when she married my dad, and she never really ‘graduated’ from witch apprenticeship.”

“You mean, she doesn’t want you to become a witch?”

“She doesn’t say it out loud, but it’s clear to me that she’d rather have me enter the WHO than become an outcast. Witches are not very welcome inside the WHO. I told you, didn’t I? That they have a bad reputation.”

“You… did.” I frowned, lost in thought. Logically, undeads weren’t the only ones being rejected by public opinion. Witches didn’t have it easy, either. I felt a surge of solidarity for Linah. My eyes squinted at her face. “But you still want to become a witch, don’t you?”

For a moment, only the regular ripple of waves caressing the sand could be heard. Then:

“I do. I really do.”

I grinned under my mask.

“Then, I’ll root for you, Lil Witch.”

“Th-Thanks! I’ll root for you, too. I’m sure you’ll become a great Rescuer.”

“…? Ah, sorry, didn’t I tell you? I don’t want to become a Hero either.”

“…! Whaaaat?! Then what are you doing here?”

Right back at you… I shrugged.

“Ray came because of his mom. I’m just tagging along.”

There was a silence. On the beach enshrouded in darkness, I heard Linah let out a grumble.

“He bought you from that CI’s student, Noah, didn’t he? Ray…”

“Ah, yeah, he did.”

“Mm. Doesn’t it bother you? That he bought a friend.”

“Why would it bother me? Heh. It’s not like he bought our friendship.”

“So you’re telling me you would be okay if I bought your badge?”

“…!!” Her question overwhelmed me.

“Yeah, it would be disgusting, right? Instead of fighting for the badge, fair and square. Ray Styxer’s way of solving things reminds me too much of my father’s. But you can’t protect your friends for long with just money. He should just go to college and keep studying maths and literature. Why bother entering the WHO—”

“Don’t slander my best friend, Linah.”

She fell silent, surprised at my severe rebuke. Despite my annoyance, my core was pounding. I had called her Linah! She stood up, protesting:

“Sorry, Ray seems like a nice guy, I don’t doubt it. I was just saying… the way he is now, he’s not even mentally prepared for this training. He has no charisma, no manipulation skills, and he can’t fight. Not even against an Indie trainee.”

“Noah is not just ‘an Indie trainee’,” I protested. “He’s a real monster. You might not win against him.”

“You serious?”

“Yeah. Anyway, you underestimate Ray. He has never been interested in showing off his skills during this training in the first place.”

“… Oh. Do you mean he’s hiding his strengths?”

I grimaced.

“Er… Yeah. Something like that.” He was hiding them so well that he still wasn’t able to control his power… I let out in a hurry: “Anyway, he’s a precious friend. I’d say he’s like a pillar in my life. Like the atmosphere.”

“…?! Hwara-hwara! The atmosphere? Ray? Are you trying to be a poet now?”

I had tried to put my feelings into words, but I couldn’t do better than that. What a lame comparison. Maybe with my violin, yeah, maybe with my violin I would be able to express them more accurately…

“Must be nice to be able to trust someone to that extent.”

Surprised, I turned my head to Linah. Was she jealous? I chuckled.

“What does that mean? All you have to do is trust me that way, too.”

“And think you’re like the atmosphere? Hwara-hwara… I’m not like that, Straw Head… I’m not as passionate as you are. Besides,” —The moonlight reflected on Linah’s eyes as she raised them— “they say female cheetahs are solitary souls.”

Her words went right to my core. Right. Erma had always been rather independent. Despite the appearances. She was level-headed and cautious with relationships. Despite the appearances. I turned to the moon saying:

“How do you know that’s true? Have you already seen a real cheetah?”

“No. But I’ve read about them on an encyclopedia.”

“Hoho? You, too, you read encyclopedias?”

“Of course I do.”

“Didn’t your big bro said that encyclopedias were as tricky as mind-opening?”

“Moron. He was talking about history not encyclopedias. At least remember it well.”

My argument fell through. Dammit. I was considering to tell her all genuinely that, just as Ray wasn’t the atmosphere, she wasn’t an actual cheetah, when I saw a light on the beach of Yuutow Island on the other side of the Neck, and my words died in my throat.

“Crap. Erma… Can you see what I see?”

Linah turned to the Academy and let out a “Aw”.

I had that feeling.

That the Lightning Veil was waiting for us on the other side.

31 I was rescued by a grandma

We couldn’t go around the island, since there was no way we could climb the cliffs, or even fight against the currents to reach the coast. We couldn’t wait for the sun to rise either. The only way left was the beach in front of us.

We had but started to swim across the Neck, trying not to make a sound, when I heard Ray say mentally:

‘Armen, is everything all right?’

Linah was swimming some meters behind. I whispered:

“Your mom’s on the beach. Shouldn’t you be sleeping at this hour?”

‘… I couldn’t sleep.’

“What…?”

‘I think I grasp the situation. I’m coming. I’ll distract my mother while you two sneak back home, okay?’

Dammit… I shouldn’t have told him anything. Oh, but I guess it wouldn’t have made much difference, since he could see through my eyes and understand the situation by himself.

We had crossed about two-thirds of the Neck when I saw the light on the beach twinkle and suddenly move, like, forty meters away in a blink.

I had read the Lightning Veil’s power was to teleport away. I had no more doubts about the identity of the silhouette that was now standing near a new, powerful torchlight. Ray’s, most likely. He had been fast. Two months ago, he would have done whatever it took not to go out in the dead of night, but now there he was…

I had stopped for a bit, and Linah caught up with me.

“You sure swim fast, Straw Head,” she commented under her breath. “Are you a merfolk?”

“I was a sardine in my past reincarnation.”

“Pfff… Don’t make me laugh, Straw Head!” she whispered. “More importantly, did you see? The Lightning Veil blinked. If my eyes are not mistaken, she’s talking with someone.”

“Yeah… Let’s try to get around them.”

We soon got out of the water, as smoothly as possible, and advanced on the sand. Should we enter the sponge cactus grove, or just go toward the stairs? Ray had made his mom walk while talking, and they were about fifty meters away from the stairs now. The moon wasn’t even full, and it was so dark I could barely see Linah in front of me. We could probably pass without being noticed.

We could make it.

Or so I thought until, suddenly, a light was flashed on us and a stern voice called out:

“Linah Sunclaw. Armen Moon. Stop right there.”

We froze. Crap… Lizzie Dvorak had recognized us. It was no use running away anymore. She was approaching without teleporting. Ray was following her, a bit upset.

‘Sorry, Armen… It seems that my mom saw right through my intentions from the start.’

The Lightning Veil stopped and looked at us, head to toe. I was smiling painfully under my drenched mask, wondering whether we would be expelled or punished or what, when Linah spoke.

“With all my respect, ma’am, I had to go to the main island. I had an extremely important appointment. So you know, I didn’t laze around nor cause any trouble to the local population. As for Armen, I’m the one who got him into this: he’s innocent. Now, if you let that pass, I can promise you I won’t go to the main island without permission anymore.”

Her tone was so arrogant! I had rarely seen her adopt such a princess-like behavior. That took me aback.

Lizzie frowned.

“I do not need your promises, young trainee. And I don’t care about your extremely important appointment either—”

“Mom, wait!” Ray protested. “They’re my friends. Can’t you—?”

“Be lenient?” she cut her son off. “Are you saying you know where they went, Ray?”

“I know, and it’s nothing shady.”

“Yeah, we only went to meet with an immortal witch!” I supported.

“Straw Head…”

Linah and Ray cleared their throats. What? Should I not have said that? Lizzie raised her eyebrows.

“A witch? Witches are not what I would call normal acquaintances. Where is that witch now?”

“She disappeared.” Linah’s voice was a bit curt. “She’s a Wanderer.”

As Lizzie gave me an inquisitive look, I nodded, then realized… Had she taken me for the honest type who couldn’t lie? I heard her sigh.

“I would like to say trainees are not allowed to leave the island, but actually, there is no such rule. We, trainers, are only here to train you, not to look after you. Every trainee is responsible for themself. So… if it’s true that you two didn’t cause any trouble, just get back to your quarters.”

She was letting us off the hook? I joined my hands in joy.

“Thanks, ma’am! Ray, your mom is so nice—RAY!”

My friend had staggered, almost falling on the sand. I reached out a hand, but he hurried backwards.

“Armen, don’t…!”

He shut his mouth before uttering the order but sent it anyway through our necro-bond. My core understood it immediately as a “don’t touch me”. I knew he had been frightened that I would lose my composure before Linah and Lizzie and eat his lifeforce as soon as I touched him, but as my core was suddenly convulsed by the order, I understood one more thing: Ray was exhausted. He couldn’t even think straight. He had been using his own energy in taking care of my injuries and my veins infected with Heavenly Storm lifeforce; he hadn’t even slept for two nights in a row…

Ray wasn’t an undead. He needed to sleep. He needed time to get some rest. And I had been the one preventing him from getting any.

I turned on my heel and broke into a run, entering the sponge cactus grove in a dash.

My core was racing, trying to circulate, through my body, a deathforce that was running lower and lower… I was wheezing through my mask.

Had I stayed with them for some seconds longer, I would have probably given in to my hunger. It was growing. I could feel it. It was like an immense void crying to be fed. I could hear it shriek and writhe in pain within me.

‘Armen!’ Ray yelled through our necro-bond. ‘Forgive m—Hell, I’m sorry. I’m so tired… I hate myself for being so weak…’

“Grrmlml…”

I panted. Where was I? I had no idea. I had stopped running and had fallen on what turned out to be a bed of small cactuses. Shaken by my weight, they had started releasing blue, scintillating spirals of smoke. Weren’t those the poisonous cactuses Nina’s luck had made me avoid during the race? So it seemed. Fortunately, they didn’t have any effect on me. At least, I had the impression they didn’t. It took all my will to roll down from the cactuses, sit down, and focus on what I wanted to say:

“Go to sleep, Ray. Right now. At once. I’m fine, so… Don’t worry about me and go to sleep, dammit. I won’t die. I won’t go berserk. Trust me. So now please take care of yourself, you hear me?!”

I got no answer. At least, I didn’t hear any. I grumbled in a stifled voice:

“You take too much on yourself, Ray.”

I took deep breaths to no avail. My eyes opened wide in the darkness as I muttered:

“Idiot.”

After some time sitting still on the dry sandy soil among cactuses, my body fell on the ground. It seemed that I had reached my limit. Despite having eaten a bit of Linah’s and Katya’s lifeforce, I had spent it all. I was out of energy. With a bit of luck, Ray had already got back to his room and was sleeping well. I was endlessly thankful for all that he was doing for me, but his worries were going too far. If he had to neglect himself to take care of me… There was no way in hell I could be thankful for that. I knew that I wouldn’t die so easily even if my body couldn’t move. Ray had told me that an undead without enough energy to move could last about two weeks before dying even if the necromancer had not put him to ‘sleep’. There was no rush. I could wait for him to sleep and recover. I would miss the first morning classes, but so would Ray. Whatever. His health was a priority.

My eyes could still gaze at the distant stars in the sky. I was calming down. It didn’t feel like I was completely relaxed, though. It was more as if I didn’t have enough energy left to even think actively. But my core was craving for food as it had never had. It was such a weird feeling.

The sun was rising when I heard some footsteps approach calmly then stop. I looked at the silhouette looming over me.

She was a skinny girl in dark purple clothes, about my age, with pale skin, black, short hair, and mauve eyes, lighter and smaller than Arkifa’s.

“I can’t believe I volunteered to babysit an undead cub.”

Her voice was quiet. She had a strange accent.

Our eyes met.

“You can’t move, huh? Can you talk?”

“… Yes. Who…?”

“Oh, right. I’m Natasha Shatana Limpetra, one of the elite trainees from Starland. Oh, from your eyes, I take it you know who I am.”

Yes. A necromancer. The third disciple of one of the best necromancers in the world, Makler Vod. She crouched and examined me with a glance.

“Your master explained the whole thing to me yesterday, during the race. I would have never thought Cesarine Lovecryce had a Heavenly Storm lifeforce type. That’s big news.”

She approached her hand then paused before my suspicious eyes.

“Don’t worry. I came to help you. Your master told me you are quite smart. He didn’t tell me your age, but if you can already talk, I bet around two or three years old? That would mean Ray created you when he was fourteen years old.” She gave me a friendly smile. “Your master must be quite a genius. As expected from the Styxer family.”

I was surprised. If Ray and Natasha had talked together during the race, that meant… that they had been paired up. Some strange coincidence.

“So, young one,” Natasha continued. “No need to be wary of me, you can be at ease.”

Could I? I looked at Natasha’s hand, a bit worried.

“You…” My voice was streaky. “You shouldn’t touch me. I am… starving right now.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow. Her hand hadn’t moved an inch.

“I know,” she said. “And you’re keeping your cool in spite of it. That’s quite a feat. But do not worry.”

Her hand finally touched my face. I was preparing myself to fight back my life-lust… but nothing came. I was confused. Why…?

Natasha pulled off my mask.

“As you can see,” she went on, “you can’t eat my lifeforce… because I don’t have any. I’m an undead just like you.”

She was telling the truth. So she was a necromancer and an undead? Just like Uncle Adrian. But then, that meant Makler Vod was her real master, not only her teacher. And that meant…

I had been left with nothing to eat.

“Huhuhu,” she tittered. “You’re quite disappointed, aren’t you? Fortunately for you, as I said, I came to help you. Let’s say I can make reserves of lifeforce. I ate a lot tonight, thinking of you. So I can give it all to you. But if you want it, you’ll have to stay calm. No violence allowed.”

I was staring at her, puzzled. What was she going on about? Wait! Did she want to feed me like a nestling or something?! Then she took out a juice bottle from her bag. I could read a message written on it, «The Master Cook!», before she put it back in her bag.

“Not that one. I put your meal in the biggest bottle, since you need a great amount of lifeforce right now. Here it is!”

She brandished the said bottle. It was opaque, so I couldn’t see the contents. Under my astonished eyes, she approached the spout of the bottle to my mouth. Despite myself, I sealed my lips.

“… Are you going to make things difficult? Why? Aren’t you hungry?”

Somehow, her tone gave the impression that she was talking to a little kid. Well, she did think I was a little kid. I grimaced.

“Ray told me I can’t eat until my veins are disinfected.”

Natasha nodded thoughtfully.

“Oh. Such self-control from a little kid like you. I’m impressed. But let me tell you something. If your body can’t move, that means your veins are almost empty of deathforce. Your master may have read in a book that you should fast for three days, but honestly, a good necromancer can’t rely on books for everything. A good practitioner would say that, as of now, you should start eating at once. In your state, you should eat as much as you can. In fact, it’s dangerous if you keep repressing your life-lust. It can only hinder your growth.”

I was shocked by her words. And annoyed.

“Are you saying Ray is not a good necromancer?” I grumbled.

“I’m just saying your master has a long way to go. But at least he’s aware of that, not like other foolish necromancers I’ve known. Now, kid, do you want to eat? Classes will start soon.”

I frowned.

“No.”

Even if Natasha was well-intentioned, if I listened to her, then that would mean I was accepting the fact that Ray had been in the wrong. I didn’t want that. Besides, that Starland necromancer irritated me quite a bit with her view of a good practitioner.

The girl’s face darkened.

“No?”

“No.”

“… You’re being stubborn. I’ve spent the whole night making reserves of lifeforce for you, you know? Yesterday, Ray accepted my help.”

“I have no proof of that.”

For once, I was being wary. After all, my health and my loyalty to Ray were at stake. Even so, I was so, so damn hungry…

“If you wonder why I want to help you, then I’ll tell you, wilful brat,” Natasha muttered. “I’m over sixty years old, you know, and I’ve been a necromancer for almost forty years now. I can’t bear the sight of some kids messing around with necromancy in a Nyomin training. My master is trying to come to an important agreement with the Ministry of Dark Arts Regulation… If an accident were to happen, their efforts would be ruined.”

I gasped inwardly. Sixty years old?! She gazed at me intently.

“As I thought, you don’t seem to be as young as you should be. Did you perhaps… keep some memories from your past life?”

“…!”

I just remembered a conversation I’d had with Ray some days after my revival. He had told me that his dad was one of the few necromancers in History to have overcome the barrier of the inner soul. That is, the fact that the Lord was able to not only give birth to an undead but also consciously keep the entire soul of the dead person was totally extraordinary. Well, strictly speaking, I did lose some of my memories, such as common knowledge about the world and the like, but those were trifles: the thing is, I was a rarity among the undead.

And if that were to be known, it would only mean trouble.

“Oh, sorry, kid! I know that speaking of those things is usually taboo for us undead. But it’s not that strange to remember one’s past.”

“It’s not?” I breathed out. “But Ray told me…”

I fell silent, realizing I had made a blunder. Natasha shrugged.

“Relax. It just confirms the rumors. The Styxer have improved their arts. But my master did too, you know. Way more than any other necromancer in the world, I’d say.” Her eyes sparkled with manifest pride.

I was pissed off. Even though every syllable was draining my dying energy reservoir, I protested with a wheezing and barely human voice:

“The Lord… is also… an amazing necromancer… His son is… even more.”

“Huhuhu, every familiar says that, but objectively speaking, my master is on a whole different level. Yours is but a newbie.”

“… Tch.”

“Don’t get mad. Your master may be a nice person, but he is a teenager who barely knows how to handle a Fury.”

“Does your… master teach you maths?”

“… Maths? Huhu, why would he teach me that?”

“Does he play… video games… with you?”

“Your talking is getting less and less understandable, young one. Anyway, the familiar serves the master, not the other way around. Now, will you eat?”

Was she implying I was a burden on Ray? I clicked my tongue, my body still stiff as a dead trunk. I was in a bad mood. Probably because I was hungry. Natasha grumbled:

“Geez… Maybe you are really a two-year-old kid, after all. Should I just leave you to starve?”

At her words, I did my utmost to swallow up my frustration. I should eat. I had already died in a pitiful manner once; was I going to do it twice? There was no way.

‘Eat, Armen.’

Ray’s mental message came out of the blue. I forgot all my resistance and moaned:

“I’m hungry.”

Natasha had stood up and was slowly walking away, obviously to make me react. She didn’t stop at my words, though. Oi…

“I’m hungry,” I repeated. “Please give me the bottle. Please don’t leave me alone…”

She stopped.

“You changed your mind? Why all of a sudden?”

“Ray just told me to eat.”

“…! Eeh… I see. But why should I help an insolent brat like you?”

When had I been insolent? I could hardly remember our conversation. My core was working slower and slower.

“Sorry, grandma…”

There was a silence, then…

“Grandma?”

Shoot, I just had to call her old at such a critical moment…

“Huhuhu. Well, Chef Grandma is not so cruel as to let a little kid starve like that…” Was she actually flattered? She came back and crouched beside me with an amused smile. “I swore to myself that I wouldn’t let any undead starve before my eyes no matter how impertinent they were, so… here it goes, brat.” She took the bottle and put its spout into my mouth saying: “Enjoy!”

She pressed a button on the bottle. As soon as I felt the lifeforce pour into my mouth, my core convulsed. Had I been able to move, I would have probably reacted grabbing the bottle myself… But I couldn’t move. My jaw opened as wide as it could, trying to inhale it all.

“Don’t eat the bottle, stupid brat! Geez, when you can move, press the button yourself. You can regulate the amount with this small roller here.”

I felt as if I was drinking soda, except it was ten thousand better than that.

The lifeforce had a mixed taste, proof that Natasha had made her reserve by absorbing energy from a wide range of people. But the overall taste wasn’t chaotic at all. In my mind, it felt like a well-balanced, energetic meal, way better than any human food I had tasted in my past life.

It was my first time eating such a huge amount of lifeforce.

My core was frantic. It was bravely keeping the pace, transforming the intake of lifeforce into deathforce like a fast-track machine. An avalanche of energy began circulating in my body, following the path that Kaspar had carved into me.

I felt as Zoleye the Rock becoming a superhuman after eating broccoli—well, Ray said that that old story had been made up by a broccoli seller but that broccoli was good anyway… In any case, I couldn’t even compare this experience to any other. I was reveling in each mouthful of lifeforce, even relishing the aftertaste of it. I wasn’t drunk, since an undead could only get drunk when its core was unable to keep the pace. Right now, my core was in a fury state, working nonstop.

Natasha observed me with a smirk.

“How long are you planning to keep eating air, boy?”

Only then did I realize that nothing was coming out of the bottle. I had emptied it completely. As I sat up, Natasha took it away snorting:

“I’m always amazed at how quick Furies can eat. Was it good?” I couldn’t help but laugh at her question. “Ah… I take it it was. By the way, I picked some merfolks’ lifeforce. It’s said their lifeforce is good for growing kids.”

She had even thought of that? I looked at her with admiration and finally said:

“Thanks. It was delicious. Though Ray’s lifeforce tastes more…” I paused. More what?

“More precious? More unique?”

“Exactly!” How could she know?

“That goes without saying. A familiar will always prefer its master’s lifeforce, even more so when you’re a Fury,” Natasha explained. Her eyes glinted as she added: “If your master agrees, I could make an even more delicious meal for you using his lifeforce. The thing is… I’m a lifeforce cook. I have a special body: I can collect lifeforce in a reservoir, mix different kinds of lifeforce, imitate a lifeforce’s taste, and even use seasoning. I can also forcefully protect a core from life-lust, so a Fury won’t lose its mind for some hours, but, huhu, that’s one of my most precious and difficult recipes. Just so you know, I would sell a bottle like the one you ate for at least eight hundred Corns.”

I stared at her in amazement. She was able to cook lifeforce meals in her body? And make them taste even better? That was…!

“Amazing!” I gasped in awe. “Grandma, that’s sooo cool!”

“You’re drooling.”

I realized some dark powder was coming out of my mouth. I wiped it away, insisting:

“So cool!”

“Huhuhu, so you can respect your seniors when you want, huh?”

Under my intent gaze, she agitated her hand, flattered.

“Ah, but I won’t cook for you every day, let alone for free. I fed you enough for you to get by for a day; next time, you’ll have to go eat by yourself. Cooking for a Fury is a waste: too much energy spent. Plus, Furies like literally anything. You’re just a glutton with no culinary preferences.”

“Eeeh,” I smiled painfully. “Am I?”

“Yeah.” Her eyes flitted at her watch, and she stood up. “Let’s get back to the Academy, or we’ll be late for the first lesson. You’re in the Rescuer group, aren’t you?”

“You too?! Ray is too. Could it be necromancers have a preference for rescuing people? Well, that makes sense, since they revive people—”

“Don’t talk too much, or you’ll lose the lifeforce your core didn’t transform into deathforce yet. And, by the way, I chose to be a Keeper. And Ray took the Keeper path with me but then chose to be a Rescuer to be in the same group as you are.”

“…! What? Ray—”

“He said he didn’t care about the training: he only wanted to be in your group to keep an eye on you, given your condition. Quite a serious master you’ve got, boy. Consider yourself lucky. Also, don’t fool yourself. Necromancers are not good to humans per se, quite the contrary. As a matter of fact, few necromancers show interest in human societies. Don’t forget that humans think of us undead as monsters and of necromancers as monster breeders. Even if we don’t kill anyone, even if we just recreate life using dark energy, they keep thinking we’re criminals, just because they fear us. Public opinion has been like that for centuries, and it will continue to be so for as long as humans exist. Such is life. So please be careful if you don’t want to cause trouble to your master. His reputation is at stake. I’d say that, in a place like that full of righteous future Heroes… even his life could be at stake.”

I swallowed hard. At her warning words, the satisfaction I had gotten from my meal completely faded away.

“Huhu, don’t stress, kiddo. It’s bad for your health. Ah, by the way, next time, I will accompany you to the main island for a meal, so no need to eat your fellow trainees’ lifeforce, just eat their wasted lifeforce… Understood?”

Why was she still treating me like I was a little kid? I smiled, embarrassed, and gave a nod.

“Yeah, I understand. Will you really accomp—”

I fell silent as she put a hand on my mouth.

“I said don’t talk too much. Don’t waste the food I worked so hard to obtain. And, yes, I said I would help you guys, so…” She looked up at me as I rose to my feet, and she squinted an eye. “Kids are so tall nowadays.”

I chuckled.

“I’m not that tall.”

“One meter eighty?”

“One meter seventy-eight. And you?”

The small necromancer snorted and started walking among the cactuses saying:

“Shut your mouth and don’t waste your lifeforce.”

I followed her, curious.

“One meter fifty?”

I saw her stiffen.

“One meter fifty-five! I’m not that short! Anyway, I never understood why the taller the better. I’d like to say that short people are smarter, but my master is quite tall.”

“Ho, ho… My master is short.”

“Why are you bragging about it?” Natasha picked up the pace. “Anyway, save your lifeforce, brat.”

I grinned. Natasha Shatana Limpetra seemed to be quite a nice grandma. I hurried to catch up with her.

“I’ve put my mask back,” I said. “It’s a special mask that doesn’t let lifeforce through, so I won’t waste lifeforce while talking. Can I ask you a question?”

“…” She sighed. “What is it?”

“You said you’re over sixty years old. Doesn’t that make your master, like, super old?” Natasha frowned. I suddenly felt uneasy. “Sorry, did I ask something I shouldn’t have?”

“He is. Old. Makler Vod will be one hundred ten years old this year.”

“…!!”

“He has a special power that allows him to extend his life under some conditions. Anyway, don’t ask about other people’s master. You lack manners.”

“Sorry. I was just curious to know more things about your master. Ray is a fan of his, so…”

Natasha’s expression brightened up.

“Is he?”

“Ah… Yeah, well, he likes his books.”

“Does he? Huhuhu… Well, no wonder. My master has a lot of fans.”

Was she shrugging off Ray’s fanhood? Natasha threw a sideways glance at me then added in a quiet voice:

“Actually, it’s not well-known, but my master stopped writing books long ago. He has a ghostwriter now. His fifth disciple. A wonderful necromancer, and a modern one.”

I looked at her in dismay. The heck? Makler Vod made use of a ghostwriter? What was he, a bestseller among necromancers? But that was kinda disappointing. I just hoped Ray had gone back to sleep and wasn’t listening to our conversation.

We finally got out of the cactuses woods, reached the stairs, and began climbing towards the Academy. The undead necromancer was ascending step by step, her hands calmly clutched behind her back. Her dark purple clothes reminded me of the Holy Gods believers that paraded in Farskyer City’s streets on the Holy Purple Crystal Day in June.

I broke the silence.

“Natasha. You said Furies has no culinary preferences… Is that true?”

“Well… you can see that for yourself. Lifeforce can be more or less delicious, but it’s always good from a Fury’s perspective. Even dryads’ lifeforce is good for Furies, while for most of us normal undead, it tastes so-so. Oh, but I get what you mean. Lifeforce of people you feel really connected with is tastier. You do know that, right?”

“Er… Somehow, I guessed as much.”

“Mm… I’m a bit concerned,” Natasha confessed. “Since you’re already capable of speaking and reasoning, your master shouldn’t neglect this part of your learning.”

Again, she was blaming Ray… Tch.

“He’s doing his best, grandma.”

“Grandma,” she echoed in a muffled whisper, pausing for a second on a step. Did she really like it when I called her grandma or was it my imagination? Then she kept climbing, nodding: “I’m sure of it, he’s a Styxer after all, but he’s so young… Anyway, lifeforce is an essential matter to us undead. As I say, the more emotionally bound you are to a person, the tastier their lifeforce becomes. It’s true for your master too. The more you trust, respect, and love your master, the sturdier your necro-bond will be, and the tastier your master’s lifeforce will get. The time of the Offering is a turning point.”

“The offering?”

“… You will know when it comes. Listen to this Chef Grandma’s counsel. The more pleasure you take in eating, the tastier; that is why slow-paced eating is a must for the undead that seek exquisiteness. What you did just now, gulping down lifeforce as if it’s just some cheap food, would have been seen as a sin by those people. You see, the undead’s way of eating is an art form in itself. But, practically speaking, a fury period is a perfect time to grow and expand your potential, so you can’t be too picky. You’ll just have to stuff yourself. No need to worry about the taste. But geez… every time I see a Fury eating up just anything, I start questioning my own cooking skills. Why are all kinds of human lifeforce always tasty for Furies and not for the rest of the undead? I worked for so many years trying to figure it out and come up with a perfect recipe, but then I put things into perspective. In a way, it’s because unsavory food exists that we can develop preferences, which give us some kind of individuality, don’t you think? Aaah… Sorry, I’ve started rambling like a grandma, huhuhu.”

She totally did like to be seen as a grandma. I smiled under my mask, then tried to remember what she had just said. I had already forgotten at least half of it, but it was clear as water that she enjoyed talking about tastes. As expected of a lifeforce cook. One sentence had caught my attention from the start, though. If it was true that the more emotionally bound I was to a person, the tastier their lifeforce would get, then…

Then what about Linah?

I liked her, her liveliness, her honesty, her smiles, her pigtails—ah, no, those were gone, dammit—her self-confidence, her moments when she was angry, her moments when she was happy, or bored, or thinking, or making decisions. I liked her, and she didn’t hate me, then… why?

We were already reaching the gates. I had to ask her.

“Say, grandma… Is it really true that all kinds of lifeforce taste good to Furies?”

The girl raised an eyebrow.

“Well, it is… There might be some exceptions, of course. Just like Heavenly kinds of lifeforce exist, there are some sorts of lifeforce that are not only bad to undead, but also very dangerous. Like… demonic energies, or gray energies.” She paused. “Anyway, if you find one of those, you shouldn’t have any problem avoiding them, since they won’t increase your life-lust. Just stay away from them. Well! Enough talking. I have to go back to my quarters before morning classes start. Behave and let your master get some rest, okay?”

Her last sentence felt as if she was giving me an order. Well, she was. But it felt like a caress, as if she was just strongly recommending that I should do as I was told. It didn’t arouse my necro-bond, though. Maybe because she wasn’t my master? Or maybe because it wasn’t a real order?

I nodded at her words, but my mind was elsewhere. The undead necromancer gave me a friendly smile.

“See you, brat!”

She hurried towards the main escalator. I followed her with my eyes. My core was still working at full tilt, absorbing, transforming, circulating…

According to Natasha, lifeforce that tasted bad to Furies were likely to be dangerous. That meant…

That Linah’s lifeforce was dangerous?

That I had to stay away from Linah?

“No way,” I murmured. “Not in a thousand years…”

I tried to calm myself, then shrugged and smiled, standing in the main square with a defying glint in my eyes.

“Like I care.”

32 Becoming a sage for the sake of a fan

When I entered the classroom for the Rescuer group, I was struck to see Lizzie Dvorak sitting cross-legged at the front. Before taking a seat on the cozy carpet that covered the floor, I saw two girls smiling and celebrating in whispers having the Lightning Veil as their teacher.

So, it seemed that Ray’s mom was not only well-known but was also a Rescuer? But wasn’t she working for Lovecryce as a personal agent?

Unlike Harvard High, there were no tables there, not even chairs, and as all the Rescuer trainees sat down, I couldn’t help but rejoice: we wouldn’t be taking notes. Besides, it reminded me of those warm and edifying teacher-and-disciples scenes in the stories. Somehow, I felt as if I was going to be taught by an immortal beautiful sage about the secrets of the world. As my excitement reached its peak, my eyes met Lizzie’s gaze, and I froze.

We were, in total, eighteen trainees there, yet the Lightning Veil was clearly glaring at me.

After a few seconds of shock, I blinked, looked to my left, looked to my right, then at her again, then at my hands with increasing nervousness.

Why were her eyes so hostile?

Was it because she hadn’t completely forgiven me and Linah for slipping out of the island at night? Nah, it felt more visceral and personal. I grimaced under my mask. Maybe it was due to what had happened to his son on the beach. Was she blaming me? A chill ran through my core. She couldn’t have found out I was his son’s familiar, could she? Because, in that case… I was in big trouble. In big, big trouble.

Lizzie Dvorak held necromancy practitioners in deep contempt. She had been “deceived” by one, after all, even though she didn’t seem to really loathe the Lord but… maybe she hated him a bit. As for her opinion about familiars… well, I had no idea what it was, and I would rather stay ignorant about it. Something told me she wouldn’t just be glaring at me if she knew. Yeah. There was no way she knew.

Comforting myself with that thought, I came back to the present just to realize the class had started for a while now. Lizzie’s voice was soft and serene. She was speaking in Sarwish, but I somehow understood almost every word.

“One of the most important abilities for us Rescuers is our capacity to evaluate risks and benefits,” she was saying. “A Rescuer, in whatever specialty, must assess the factors that intervene in the problem at hand so he can solve it in the best possible way. First, we have to embrace efficiently the context, take into account our employer’s motives, the local laws, the odds of success, and the Hero Code. Let’s see an example. A Rescuer is hired to recover an item lost in the Wood Sea. It turns out that the item has ended up in the depths of the sea, in the lands of Tampa. If it’s a box with jewelry, he will be able to take it to his employer; if it’s a weapon, he will have to bring it to Tampa’s authorities by law and inform his employer so this one can start the administrative procedures to get back the item. In that last case, the Rescuer must have taken the local laws into account beforehand and mentioned the conditions in the contract. Otherwise, he will not get any reward, nor will it be acceptable for him to demand anything under the Hero Code.”

Lizzie was talking so softly that I would have mistaken her speech for a lullaby if her words weren’t so… heavy. Talk about secrets of the world… Those were just professional guidelines. Sitting in front of me, Noah was nodding off. On my left, the kid, Oliver, was staring at the teacher with awe.

Among the eighteen Rescuers, I realized I already knew most of them. The Hydrophobic Ryu Buckbee looked captivated by Lizzie’s explanations; Sean Bensaïd the Smug was looking up at the ceiling with the expression of the one who knows everything already; next to him, his subordinate, Dragan MacNamara, was frowning at the teacher, listening so intently that he looked as if he was hearing some incredible revelation. In the front lines, Jing Ferrier’s bald head was straightened, nodding from time to time. The merfolk, Sasha Salazar, was sitting behind me and next to Katya the tyrant and Cesarine Lovecryce—Wait, Cesarine? I stared at the golden fox girl with surprise. I didn’t expect her to be in the Rescuer group. As I turned my gaze, I met Lei’s. From the other side of the room, he winked at me and made a sign I didn’t understand. He repeated. I shrugged with incomprehension. He sighed, wrote a small note, and after a hesitation, I activated my telekinesis on the paper, drew it closer, and caught it. I read:

«Sasha and I got the treasure map AND the treasure.»

By Sasha, he didn’t mean the merfolk girl of the same name but that giant guy I had seen take the treasure map after the race. Lei wrote another note. Yielding to my curiosity, I drew it to my hand.

«It was hidden under a pink cactus. You missed a great chance. The best item ever.»

I looked at him in disbelief. He added:

«That is, another treasure map.»

I rolled my eyes.

«So I spent part of the night with my new friendly big partner going from treasure map to treasure map. It was fun. And in the end… [suspense]»

What was that “suspense” doing there? Also, I couldn’t determine whether that treasure map was a reward or a punishment. Lei kept writing as Lizzie Dvorak was declaring:

“You will take part in a rescue mission in Phoenix City in a few weeks, and you will have to write an individual report by the end of February. As you probably know, those who perform well in this training will get a recommendation for the Hero Exams in summer to skip the entrance examination, so make sure you take advantage of this rare opportunity.”

What, a report? Then my mind shifted again as I read Lei’s next note:

«… I discovered something very interesting. Actually… [suspense]»

At least write complete sentences… I thought, casting a bored look his way. But what could he have discovered? A super item? A super pill? Or could it be the treasure map led to the dungeon and—?

I grabbed the next note.

«I found out that it is not the destination that matters but the adventure in itself.»

I huffed loudly, gawking at the Sunclaw. Did he write all those notes only to tell me that philosophic conclusion?! After a silence, I telekinetically stole his pencil and wrote: «What about the final treasure?» I delivered the message and the pencil. Lei looked thoughtful before writing his answer. It said:

«A treasure map.»

I couldn’t help it: I laughed. I was being rather quiet, but when I realized the class was even quieter, their eyes staring at me, I turned to Lizzie Dvorak and grimaced under her glare. Ah…

“First,” she said briskly in Yanganese, “using your powers during my class is forbidden. Second, those who don’t take this training seriously should just quit.” Was she telling me to get out of the Academy? “Armen Moon.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am?”

“Rescuers put their life at risk repeatedly. An earnest and strict learning can make them avoid fatal mistakes later on. Those lessons aren’t a laughing matter.”

The Lightning Veil’s gaze was hard to hold. It was almost as if she was accusing me of shortening my classmates’ life expectancy by laughing during the class. What a frightening teacher. Well, she was one of the Nine Crowned Fairies, after all. I rested my hands on my knees and formally apologized:

“I’m sorry, teacher. I understand.”

“I hope so. This afternoon you all will have to test your qi control at the Yuutow Tower. If anyone of you can’t make it to at least the two-hundredth step, I’ll have you take extra morning lessons with Instructor Choiri. Qi control is essential for us Heroes, whatever our specialty is. Then I wish you a good performance and hope this training will be edifying for us all. Now you can go to your next class.”

The class ended like that. Lei caught up with me in high spirits.

“I think she’s taken a liking to you!” Like hell she had. “Come to think of it, does she know about her son? You know, about what kind of person his best friend is…”

Annoyed, I frowned at him and shrugged. Lei smiled.

“Aya-aya, don’t wanna answer, huh? Well, whatever, but I shouldn’t tell you about the treasure map, then.”

“Why should I care?”

“It was a real one.”

“… Oh yeah?” I tried to conceal my curiosity and added: “Shouldn’t that map belong to Sasha?”

“I made him my subordinate, of course,” he grinned.

“…! I see.”

“Heheheh… Curiosity killed the cat, but lack of curiosity killed the human.”

I looked at him… and chuckled.

“You’re a pain.”

“Aya-aya, Linah often tells me that. By the way, beanie zombie, where’s your master?”

I winced and shot him a black look.

“Don’t say that out loud.”

“Eh? You don’t like your new nickname? But Beanie Zombie is super cool! Don’t you think that too, kid?”

I realized that Oliver was walking just behind us down the hallway—part of me was under the impression that the young teen had decided to follow me ever since I had ranked first on that bugged test. He took off his white helmet with a grin. Lei nodded firmly.

“I know, right? That guy’s pale like a zombie and wears a beanie. Maybe we should go with BeaZombie or Beaniezomb? Kinda reminds me of Beelzebub!” He laughed and raised an eyebrow at Oliver, whose thoughts I was the only one who couldn’t hear. “Seriously? You want to create a team of Heroes with the likes of Bonnie Zombie?”

At least get that new nickname right…

Before Oliver’s excited gaze, I grimaced under my mask. Was he expecting some kind of approval or promise? I cleared my throat and pronounced in a serious tone:

“You know, a sage told me one day that, in order to conquer our life, we must conquer our mind and become our own follower and our own guide.”

I had just made it up—and was rather proud of myself. But I didn’t expect Oliver to gasp at my words in awe.

“Have you really been taught by a sage?! So cool! So that’s why you can’t hear my thoughts: you protected your mind by lifting a high-level barrier, didn’t you? How did you do it?”

“Ah… Who knows—”

“Could you please tell me more about your master? I never met a sage! No personal secrets, of course, I know some sages are fond of them. Is it t-too much of a bother?”

The kid’s eyes were shining. I shook my head, overwhelmed. He let out a happy laugh, mistaking my gesture for a “Go ahead”.

“Yay! I’m looking forward to hearing more of your master’s teachings! Oh, yeah, I’ve gotta go to the bathroom! Please wait for me!”

“Hold on, I just told you to follow yourself, though—Whatever,” I sighed as the kid had already run off into the restroom at the end of the hallway.

There was a silence. The others trainees had already gone to the next class, with Julen Yamazaki, a Recorder of the Nyomin who, according to Lizzie, was specialized in Hero Psychology.

“Conquer our life,” Lei echoed; his eyes looked up at me sideways. “I wonder what that means to you.”

“…”

His apparently sincere interrogation made me think for a bit, then I shrugged with serenity.

“Like Ray says, even if a being has no white energy, it doesn’t mean it’s dead.”

At those words, Lei Sunclaw just smiled.

* * *

The white curtains beside the bed slowly waved in the gentle breeze that sneaked into the room.

Ray was in a deep sleep. He wasn’t stretching his arms and legs as Zeeta always did, but he was restlessly chewing. Was he hungry? Well, no wonder, since he had skipped breakfast and lunch.

Sitting tailorwise on the floor beside the bed, I was waiting for him to wake up, as still as a grave.

Rainbows had been observing me from under the bed for a long time now. I looked at her with a pout and removed my mask to whisper to her with a teasing grin:

“Scaredy-cat.”

She looked away for a bit as if to ignore me, then, suddenly, inched forward. Oh?! She stopped about fifty centimeters away from me, took another step, then paused again, squinting her eyes at me… Sometimes, I had the impression that Rainbows was a bit too human-like.

Finally, she reached me. I could feel her soft fur touching my knees, or was I imagining it? Maybe my sense of touch had improved since I had become a Fury, or maybe it was because I was full of deathforce… Or maybe I was just imagining it, I repeated myself. Anyway, I smiled at the cat without a word, moved my hand to stroke her… then stopped when she raised her eyes at me again. Her gaze was intent.

It took me a moment to realize an astonishing fact: as surprising as it may appear, Rainbows was trying to intimidate me.

The hell… I didn’t know if I had to be happy that she had decided to come up or be annoyed by her cockiness.

I furrowed my eyebrows without erasing my smile. The cat clicked its tongue. I heard it clearly enough to have no doubts about it: that cat really clicked its tongue at me. I was stunned.

I stretched my hands, took Rainbows by the torso, lifted it at eye level, and asked in a whisper:

“Are you an alien cat? Are you even a cat? Oi, Rainbows, I’m talking to you, don’t ever look down on me, I don’t want to be looked down on by a fellow familiar, you hear? Let’s be friends. So… please stop looking at me like you’re looking at a piece of trash. You’re cockier than the cockiest living cat, you know?”

We looked at each other without averting our eyes, Rainbows hanging in my arms with uncalled-for majesty. Seconds and minutes passed in perfect stillness. No idea how much time we would have stayed like this if Ray hadn’t said:

“What are you doing, Armen?”

Rainbows and I flinched at the same time. I made the cat turn round in my arms and said cheerfully:

“Good morning, Ray! Rainbows and I made up! How are you feeling?”

I put Rainbows down and my mask up, concentrating my attention on Ray’s expression. He was rubbing his eyes, his black hair disheveled.

“Gah… I have a headache.”

“That’s probably because you were chewing in your sleep.”

“Chewing?”

“Yeah. You must be hungry. I’ll bring you something to eat.”

“No need, Armen, I can get something myself in the kitchen. What time is it?” he asked, putting on his clothes.

“Two in the afternoon.”

He paused briefly.

“I see. So I totally skipped the first classes.”

“You did. Noah and the others are in the cafeteria,” I said. “The trainers gave us the schedule. I got a copy for you.”

“Thanks. Say… About tonight…” He cleared his throat. “My mom teleported me here, and I was so tired I couldn’t even contact you… Are you all right?”

“Yus! Natasha gave me a lot to eat, so I’m psyched up!”

Ray turned pale.

“She what?!”

“She’s a marvelous cook. I didn’t know lifeforce could be cooked!”

“But I told you not to eat lifeforce!” Ray’s voice trembled with anger and worry…

His outburst made me pause, utterly confused.

“O-Okay, Ray, first calm down. I know you just woke up, but try to remember. You told me to eat. When I was lying among the cactuses and Natasha was talking to me…”

I fell silent, increasingly anxious. Now that I thought about it, I had heard Ray’s voice in my mind telling me to eat, but I hadn’t felt as if I was receiving an order. My core had not even reacted to it. Then…

Did I hallucinate?

Was I so hungry that I deceived myself?

Ray was calming down.

“You were lying among the cactuses, you say? You couldn’t move?”

I swallowed.

“Yeah… Sorry, Ray, I messed up. But I really thought you were talking to me—”

“It’s okay,” Ray cut me off in a more serene tone. “Natasha is much more experienced than I am. I talked to her yesterday. She means us no harm. So… you did nothing wrong.”

“… Are you saying that that Heavenly thing is not affecting me anymore?”

“Yes, hopefully… Can I take a look?”

“You can, of course, but we’re going to be late for the afternoon classes. We’ve gotta be in front of the Yuutow Tower at two o’clock… Oh,” I suddenly realized, “that means we’re already late, haha…”

“…! You could have told me that sooner!”

“Don’t you know the saying: never wake up a sleepy soul—Wait, don’t leave without eating lunch!”

“There isn’t time for that!”

“Never consent to have your own pace of life being trampled on for no compelling reason.”

“… Are you a proverbialist, now?”

“I’ve got to practice. Oliver Picasso thinks I’ve been taught by a sage, so I’ll have to become a sage myself.”

Ray stared at me.

“I don’t know the whole story, but can’t you just tell him the truth?”

“No can do. The best liar is the one who makes his lie come true,” I improvised, and chuckled. “Anyway, get ready. I’ll bring you a glass of milk.”

“… Well, okay.”

I hurried to the kitchen and snatched some cookies and a small bottle of milk from the huge fridge. When I came back, Ray was putting on his shoes at the entrance. He gulped down the whole bottle before saying:

“Milk is miraculous. My headache is gone.”

“What is deadly to Death may be blissful to Life.” Since milk was one of the most dangerous things an undead could swallow…

Ray chuckled.

“You sure are inspired, today. But I’m glad you remember milk is bad for you.”

“Haha, I always remember important things.”

Leaning on the opened door, I contemplated the small court in front of the house, the flowers growing in the borders, the great tower of the imposing main building… then my eyes gazed at the blue, magnificent sky…

“The weather sure is better in Phoenix than in Farskyer,” I said joyfully.

“Sure is.”

“And it’s calmer too.”

“Mm.”

“It reminds me a bit of my home. Though the Keelung Lighthouse is just a rock. Ah, I would have thought there would be more birds around. I have yet to see one.”

“As far as I know, there are no birds on Phoenix Island.”

I stared at Ray in shock.

“No birds?! Why?”

“They can’t fly. We did learn at school that, before the Big Blend, humans were able to make machines fly and that now it’s technically impossible because of the crystal atmosphere. Well, I’ve read that areas with a high concentration of orange crystal particles alter the surrounding atmosphere even more. That’s why even small birds can’t fly on this island. And that’s why it’s always warm, even in winter. You can’t feel it, but I bet all the other trainees felt the change.”

“Oh… The world sure is filled with wonders.”

“Sure is.” There was another silence, then Ray snorted. “Wait, it’s not the time to be talking about birds! We’ve gotta go! Rainbows, watch the house. Armen, let’s go!”

We crossed the court, entered the long escalator that went down, and kept walking to go faster. Now that I was no longer hungry, I had realized how much my body’s capacities had declined yesterday. Right now, my body felt agile. I was feeling livelier than ever, and I was eager to know what new sensations a Fury could experience.

“So?” Ray said, after swallowing a cookie. “What did you learn during the classes?”

“Eeeh…” His question deflated me for a moment as I recalled the last class, Addison’s, during which I had hardly caught a word, then I breathed in: “Oh yeah! I didn’t know your mom was a Rescuer!”

“Ah, yes, she is. She’s an RSP.”

“A what?”

“A Rescuer of the Spirited-away People. She specializes in finding people that got teleported away because of purple crystal particles. She grew up in the Purple Country, where those cases are as common as weed, so she’s personally very committed to her job. As a matter of fact, she herself got teleported away when she was little, and she got her quirk through that experience.”

“Eeeh… It must have been terrifying. I know about that matter. I heard from my grandpa that one of my aunts always wore a talisman because she was afraid of being spirited away. Then she was the only aunt that decided to travel the world. She’s living in London now.”

Ray made an amused face.

“Your family sure is big.”

“Well, I don’t really know her. Anyway, your mom is amazing. A bit strict, too.”

“Just a bit? Heh. Well, she’s not the only Rescuer among the instructors. The guy with the top hat, Allen Zhou, is a Rescuer too, though he specializes in gravitism and other phenomenons caused by orange Crystals.”

We reached the first platform that linked the Wind House and the Music House, then continued downward. My friend was frowning.

“Crystals sure cause a lot of trouble, huh.”

“They do. Actually, the Yellow Crystal in Farskyer City is not harmless either, you know. The earthquakes are mostly caused by its roots.”

Now that he talked about it, I remembered I had learned something like that in middle school. Anyway, Crystals may be worshipped by a lot of people across the world, and they may bring prosperity and life to the surrounding lands, but they also were big troublemakers. No wonder the ‘Witch Union’ Linah had once told me about had attempted—and failed—to destroy the Great Crystals centuries ago.

“Ah, right…” I added. “Julen Yamazaki, the Recorder with the eyeglasses, explained about the classes, the challenges, and things like that… He talked about the dungeon. Apparently, we’ll explore it in groups during the training. Sounds like fun.”

“Yeah…”

“Think about it! Did Hero trainees ever have the opportunity of exploring a dungeon?”

“… You’re smiling like you’re going to discover a new game, Armen. But you’re right. Entering a dungeon is usually only allowed for people with a special license. Guess this training was also made for powerful families to make their children stronger. We did sign a paper agreeing that the organizers wouldn’t be blamed for accidental injuries or even an accidental death, so guess that’s why they call it experi—”

“We did?!” I snorted, flabbergasted. “I never signed something like that!”

“You did.”

I thought about the paper I had signed yesterday and said:

“Oh. Okay. I did.”

Ray chuckled. We reached the second platform that linked our house with the Sun House and the Spider House. Next was the last one. Ray broke the silence.

“Well, in our case, even if the training gets dangerous, we should be fine. We don’t need to push ourselves too hard.”

“Ah… yes. We don’t want to become Heroes.”

“Correct. Necromancers can’t become Heroes, anyway.”

“I know, right…” I paused. “Who says necromancers can’t become Heroes?”

“The WHO’s law. Neither can the undead, by the way. I told you that already.”

“You did?”

“I did.”

“…” I nodded, confused. “Never trust your memory, always trust your heart.”

Ray rolled his eyes.

“Isn’t our heart guided by memories? Anyway, it’s quite obvious. The WHO doesn’t hunt down dark arts users indiscriminately, but they don’t let them join them either. I told you, we’re here only because my mom ‘invited’ me. One thing is to avoid being registered in the Dark Arts Regulators’ record, and another thing is to become part of the WHO against their rules. Going to this training without them knowing who we really are is already pushing the limit.”

I glanced at him, an eyebrow raised.

“Natasha is not concealing herself, though. She said Makler Vod was trying to come to an agreement with the Dark Arts Regulators. So the trainers know who she is, don’t they?”

“Yeah, but we’re in a totally different situation. We’re not registered as dark arts users; she is. She’s been invited; we sneaked in. Anyway, she probably will get out of here as soon as the negotiations are settled. She’s not here to become a Hero either. I don’t know what Makler Vod is trying to do with the Dark Arts Regulators, but necromancers and undeads have never been supported by the WHO in five hundred years. Their ancient rules are not going to change now. Don’t forget that, Armen,” his dark eyes fixed on me, “we are not welcome here.”

I shook my head. There was no way I could forget something like that.

“So it’s a ‘eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die’, right? Don’t worry, I’ll be cautious like a hare. I’m a sage, after all. Which confirms that you can’t tell a cover by its book!”

“You got it backwards.”

“… Yeah, well. A sage often does things backwards. Besides, being a sage is more related to how you behave than how you speak.”

“Of course,” Ray laughed.

We reached the last platform and walked to the main escalator. Ray asked:

“So? What else happened this morning?”

“Ah, let’s see… After Yamazaki’s class, we went to see Aika Zarate, the blond in a lab coat. She gave us a short lesson about first aid. Luckily, she spoke in Yanganese, so I understood everything she said. She’s a physician from the Portopeace continent. I didn’t know that some instructors came from so far away.”

“Well, Aika Zarate travels a lot. She’s a well-known trans-continental medic, and the vice-president of the Hero Medical Corps.”

“Really? She didn’t tell us that.”

“She did yesterday, when she introduced herself. Our trainers are all well-known Heroes. It’s supposed to be a training program for elite youths, after all.”

“… You make it sound like you’re not one of those elite trainees,” I teased him.

“That’s because I’m not. I never liked meritocracies or hierarchies… And I can’t control my power, anyway.”

“Well, they say late-awakened geniuses are the best.” I paused. “Wait. Wouldn’t that make me the best of the bests? Ah, however, why would I want to be a genius, for it is said: vanity of vanities, all is vanity—?”

“Are all sages as theatrical as you?”

“Life is a giant theater.”

“You’re already speaking like a sage.”

I raised my head and pulled my mask down to show an arrogant smile.

“Death is the great leveler, they say. So I’ve leveled up.”

“Sure.”

“That reminds me. I’ve talked with Nina about her own class, and she says Addison is an Explorer and a Crystal Tracker. You know, Ponytail.”

“You already gave him a nickname?”

“Arkifa did. She’s in the Explorer group like Nina. Anyway, what’s a Crystal Tracker?”

“The Crystal Trackers?” the young necromancer echoed, thoughtful. “Well, they don’t get much attention from the media, but their job is one of the most essential ones within the WHO. They are scientists specialized in measuring Crystal particles in an area, tracking Crystal movements in the atmosphere or the soil, and assessing the dangerousness of a place. Addison Salas the Viral is also a well-known crystallographer, by the way.”

“I see…”

I could only guess what a crystallographer was, but I didn’t ask for further explanation. I had already enough food for thought like that.

We finally reached the central square and crossed it to turn around a corner of the main building, toward the entrance of the Great Yuutow Tower. Tens of trainees were sitting on the cobblestones, cross-legged, with their eyes shut. The gates of the tower were wide open. Sitting on a table next to them, the eye-glassed trainer, Yamazaki, was handing a small device to a trainee, who broke into a run up the wide spiral staircase.

“You two.”

A brawny man in a tunic walked to us. I remembered him. He was the disagreeable trainer that had made me sign that paper, the day before. Joyce Choiri. He added something, but for some reason, I couldn’t get his Sarwish. Ray nodded.

“Sorry we’re late. We were warming up our qi elsewhere. We’re ready to go.”

Warming up our qi elsewhere? I looked at the trainees sitting on the court. I had thought they were waiting for something, but were they actually meditating? Or rather “warming up their qi”?

Instructor Choiri raised an eyebrow at my direction but didn’t say anything more than:

“Go ahead, then.”

We reached the gates at the same time as Jing. The bald martial artist welcomed us with an excited nod.

“Did you know? Water Li built the Great Yuutow Tower in 1897. It’s huge from the outside, but… the inside seems to be magnificent too!”

The eyes of the baldy were shining. He added:

“It’s a masterpiece few get the right to enter. Li built those stairs essentially to help martial artists from the Phoenix Clan hone their skills. And there are several modes that can be activated besides the qi pressure mode, like a movement restriction mode or a mind perturbation mode… It’s also said that the qi pressure inside can reach terrifying levels!”

“Rest reassured,” Julen Yamazaki intervened. “We only activated Level 1. As for those ‘modes’, they were only a posthumous project led by Li’s disciples, and it never came to fruition.”

Jing turned to the instructor with vivid interest.

“I didn’t know. But the qi system do have three levels of pressure in total, then, right? Is it true that even the Solitary King of Saur couldn’t pass Level 3?”

“Ah…” The instructor readjusted his eyeglasses, smiling. “So it seems. But Level 3 has been blocked for more than fifty years, now. Too many martial artists ended up disabled when trying to break the record, some of them even died of exhaustion. Water Li would have never approved of that. He built this tower to help people improve themselves, not to arise conflict or create any kind of competition.”

“I suppose that tower was one of the main reasons they chose this place for the training,” Ray whispered to me thoughtfully.

I nodded. Yamazaki gave us an electronic device each.

“You weren’t there during the explanation, were you? This is a chronometer and a qi-sensor. The higher you go, the higher the qi pressure will get,” the instructor explained calmly. “If you get dizzy, go down. If you can’t, press the red button, there. It will warn us. Also, it’s not a competition, but a training: you’re testing your own capacities. So don’t concern yourselves about other people’s performances. Do not cheat: you’ll cheat yourselves. Good luck.”

We thanked him, and as we walked toward the first step, I remembered Lizzie Dvorak’s challenge: we had to get to at least the two-hundredth step to be allowed in her classes. Was qi control so essential to Heroes? I stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Each step was a good ten-meter wide. The outer wall was embellished with pictures of martial arts while, each ten steps or so, a big statue protruded out the inner wall. The first one represented a colossal man in a golden tunic.

“That’s Ashkabell, the Solitary King of Saur and Water Li’s sworn brother!” Jing said with admiration. “He was the one who piled up all the stones to build the tower. It’s said that, when he was alive, one gaze of his could paralyze a whole clan and crush the evil.” He bowed to the statue. “Please look after this humble apprentice, master Ashkabell. There I go!”

Jing started climbing the stairs with determination. I met Ashkabell’s gaze, and my core shrunk a bit. It was probably my imagination, but I think I thought a glint of hostility in its stony eyes. I bowed slightly with a defiant smile and cleared my throat.

“Say, Ray… How many steps do you think we’ll be able to go up?”

“All of them, I think.”

“…!” Was he joking? I looked at him. Well, it didn’t look like he was. I murmured: “Are we qi experts now? That’s news to me.”

A playful glint flickered in Ray’s dark eyes.

‘I’m the Lord Necromancer’s son, Armen. I learned qi control since I was a child. I think I can do as much. As for you, not only Kaspar’s electronic path strengthened your core’s barrier but the core of a Fury is naturally resistant to qi pressure so…’

“Are you saying we can do better than the Solitary King of Saur?!” I snorted in a whisper.

Ray rolled his eyes.

“Level 3 has nothing to do with Level 1, so no: we’re definitely not at that level. But yes, this is probably one of the few challenges we have a neat advantage over others. So let’s show off a bit,” he smiled.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Ray? Showing off? I laughed and put my left foot on the first step. Did I feel a change of pressure? I couldn’t tell. As to whether I would be able to get to the top as Ray believed… there was only one way to know.

“Onwards!” I said.

33 You won’t smile ever again

“Huff, huff… I… huff… I can’t go on anymore, guys…”

“If Charles-Ping could take the young mistress’s suffering away, he would gladly—”

“Don’t help her, Charles,” Katya’s voice snapped. “Didn’t you hear what the Director said? ‘Learning through suffering is the only way to perfection’.”

I grimaced at those questionable words as I kept hearing their voices coming from upstairs.

“Why do I suffer like this…” Cesarine was out of breath. “I’m sorry. Why am I the only one suffering…”

“No, you’re not the only one, young mistress.”

Oh. Zeeta was there, too? Ray and I finally sighted them. The first thing I saw was Cesarine Lovecryce’s beautiful golden tail. She was being supported by the four-armed Charles-Ping to her right and the bodyguard in a suit, Katya, to her left—Wait, didn’t that woman say just now, “Don’t help her”? How was that not helping her?

“Do your best… If even I can do it, you can do it, young mistress…”

Zeeta said that with effort as he moved a trembling foot on the next step, following a little behind. By the looks of it… he seemed to be having more trouble than anyone there. A tall companion by his side was sweating hard but hanging in. The qi sensor indicated «1187 Mz» —no idea what Mz was, but the number had gone up by ten since we had begun to climb. I unconsciously slowed down as they kept talking.

“You all right, Leon?”

“No, but I don’t care.”

“Of course, a nobodist would say that,” the tall guy laughed.

“You two! Aren’t you ashamed?” Katya growled at Zeeta and his companion. “A true subordinate does not make their young mistress wait. What did you learn all these years?”

“Ah, didn’t I tell you? I’m from a family of anthropologists,” the tall companion said with spirit. “But what interests me the most is the universe. I love the universe, mainly because there are soooo many things we still don’t know, about the crystals, the unreachable space where they came from, and the Big Blend—!”

“Shut up, Blabbermouth,” Katya snorted.

“It’s Sergei Bassala, miss.”

“Whatever. What about you, Delinquent? Did you even learn about qi control?”

Zeeta let out a long, exhausted sigh.

“Never. After all, I’m just a delinquent with the face of a delinquent as you say. Crap, what’s wrong with this tower?”

Katya cast him a look of disbelief as if thinking, “how did a loser like you even get here?”, then she sighted us, frowned, and said:

“We’ll be caught up by everyone else, at this rate. If you want to stay at the young mistress’s house, show it, work hard, and hurry up, or else you’re fired.”

As Zeeta nodded, his gaze followed hers and met mine. He looked startled.

So it was like that. Katya had not forced anyone to stay at Cesarine’s house: Zeeta wanted to stay of his own will. In that case…

Arriving near him, I clapped his shoulder with earnest.

“Do your best, Zeeta. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Zeeta blinked.

“Yeah?”

“Come see us sometimes at Wind House so we can play music together.”

“Sure…”

As I kept going upwards with Ray at a rapid pace, he huffed.

“Hold on a sec, how are you able to climb so easily?! Th-The qi pressure…”

His eyes widened, understanding something. I grinned at him.

“Into every death a little luck must fall. Also…” I turned my head ahead and raised a hand. “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”

After a silence during which we only heard our own footsteps, Ray commented:

“Your little show would have been cooler with only one proverb.”

“…”

I turned my eyes to the statue of a female warrior brandishing a spear, then nodded, a bit embarrassed.

“You speak truly, master.”

Ray grimaced mockingly.

“May you speak normally again one day, dear familiar.”

I laughed and replied:

“Variety is the spice of death, my friend.”

* * *

A little further, we met two trainees that looked stuck, struggling to get to the next step. One of them was Aishah, the Sleeping Beauty, and I greeted her, but the blondie barely managed to greet back, huffing an insult at the stairs.

Soon after, my attention was drawn by the majestic statue of an enormous bat spreading its wings as if ready to attack. Funny. Up until now, all of the statues represented humans, who, according to the written plaques, were renowned martial artists.

“A martial-artist bat?” I let out, confused.

Ray glanced at the plaque and read:

“Year 1903. The Fifth Nightsky Clan Master. He’s human.”

“Human?!” That gigantic bat?

“The Nightsky Clan,” Ray repeated, thoughtful. “I’ve heard of that clan. They were from Jiangshan, if I remember it well. They became famous because they managed to master a secret technique that allowed them not only to levitate but also fly quite fast. However, the family declined over the years. I heard that, when the last Clan Master died, the secret technique was lost with him.”

“So, the clan disappeared? Mm,” I meditated. “Secrets are easily lost, don’t they. But could they really transform into bats?”

“Well, I doubt they could. This statue is probably just a…” Ray suddenly fell silent and stopped. He raised his eyes upstairs, frowning. “Damn it.”

“What is it?”

The young necromancer stayed silent for a short moment before he kept climbing and answered:

“I smell trouble. That kid that took you for a sage’s disciple—”

“Oliver?”

“Mm. I’ve been hearing his thoughts for a while, and a moment ago, he was all excited and proud to go up one step, but just now…” He winced and hiccuped as if in disbelief: “That bastard.”

I soon understood what he meant when we arrived next to the statue of a standing woman wearing an extravagant robe: just behind, we saw two silhouettes, a black-haired guy with many earrings grabbing a kid’s neck and pushing his victim head-on against the wall with a wrathful hiss:

“You… You little monster. Shut up. Shut your filthy mind up. I can’t go up because of your damn thoughts, you monster—”

Axel Sunclaw fell silent when, stepping in, I grabbed his wrist and glared at him. I was boiling with rage.

“Let go of him.”

For a moment, we could only hear Oliver’s irregular breathing. He was quaking with terror. The fear Axel had instilled into me, back in Farskyer, was probably nothing compared to what the kid was feeling right now.

I kind of understood the situation. Due to his quirk, Axel had been suffering from Oliver’s optimistic thoughts, he had been unable to go up, and he had lost his patience—No, he had completely lost it.

Before I knew it, my core instinctively began to eat Axel’s lifeforce. The wave of pleasure I felt made Axel scream and pull backwards. He almost hit Ray, who dodged him, saw him recover his balance in a miraculous way, and said:

“I thought attacking fellow trainees was forbidden in this challenge.”

My master’s voice was full of disapproval. Axel glowered at us, suddenly cautious. His eyes were as dark as night. I ignored him and turned to the kid, worried.

“Oliver. Are you all right?”

He nodded, but at that moment, his legs gave in. Ray insisted:

“Axel. You should apologize.”

“Apologize?” The Sunclaw looked disgusted. “Your minds are so full of filth. That kid is a curse to me. Are you telling me to suffer in silence? I won’t.”

Ray seemed puzzled. Right, he probably didn’t know how insufferable other people’s happiness was to Axel Sunclaw. I knew, yet I couldn’t forgive him.

“Hey, crazy bastard,” I said as Oliver was still trying to calm down. “If you wanna take it out on someone, at least choose someone your age. Don’t be a coward.”

Axel’s eyes gleamed.

“Been a while since I’ve been called a coward.” His leveled voice gave me chills. He moved a foot onto the next step saying: “Kid. If you ever think positively when I’m around, I’ll make you know what real fear is. As for you, Armen Moon, if you get in my way again, I can assure you you won’t smile ever again.”

He cast a glance at Ray, strangely hesitated, then kept climbing without a word. Now that Oliver wasn’t hindering him, he went up quite fast and soon disappeared. I tsked:

“Damn lunatic.”

“Quite disturbing,” Ray admitted.

Oliver was still livid and covered in sweat, but he got up when we both turned our attention to him. His lips trembled. Ray said:

“Brother Bonnie Zombie. Thank you. I think I’m gonna throw up.” As I gave him a puzzled look, he explained: “I’m translating his thoughts. He’s making me feel a bit dizzy, actually…”

I grimaced at Ray, alarmed, as he covered his mouth with a hand, then I watched Oliver with rising concern. Several trainees passed by us, among them Andrea Sisalik, the green dreadlocked girl in a wetsuit who studied at the Champion Institute like Noah. Finally, Oliver said:

“Sorry, guys. I’m fine now. If I had taken my helmet, this would have never happened, but Yamazaki said I wasn’t allowed to wear it in here. I didn’t want to bother the other trainees—”

“Your power is not at fault,” I replied. Neither was Axel’s, strictly speaking, but that didn’t excuse his actions.

Suddenly, Oliver slapped himself on the cheeks.

“I’m fine now,” he repeated under our startled gazes. “Thank you, Armen! Thank you, er…”

“Ray,” the young necromancer helped him. “Ray Styxer.”

Oliver widened his eyes.

“You’re an elite trainee, aren’t you? Are you… Did you steal Armen’s badge?”

I smiled.

“We’re friends, actually.”

Oliver’s eyes glittered with excitement.

“I see! Did you share the same master? Are you sworn brothers like Ashkabell and Water Li?”

I snorted with laughter and ruffled his bowl-cut hair. A streak of lifeforce flew into my core, delicious and satisfying, but I had no trouble pulling my hand away—I was not really hungry anymore thanks to Natasha.

“Sorta,” I answered, and I pointed a finger toward Ray. “Well, actually, he’s the master.”

Oliver stood, his mouth agape. Ray shook his head and made a comeback:

“You honor me, master Moon. I am nothing but an ignorant disciple in front of your sageness.”

“That went straight to my heart, master Styxer,” I bowed. “But how could we compare this unworthy disciple’s sageness to your wisdom? I am but an ant that spends its time speaking foolishness.”

“Isn’t that quite remarkable, for an ant to even speak?”

“But I’ve been told my mind is full of filth.”

“Well, you see, negative minds often see others upside down,” Ray pointed out.

I grinned.

“Just listening to your wise words takes me down to size. Right, Oliver?”

The kid grimaced smilingly at us. Ray cleared his throat and translated out loud:

“The kid you just saved is thinking: the heck are those guys doing?”

“That’s not true!” Oliver protested. “I was just thinking… I’m glad I met so many nice people in this training. I wounded up in the Cactus House, and…”

He hesitated. I clenched my fists.

“Are they treating you badly?!”

“Eh? No, not at all. They’re good people. But also impressive people.” Unlike us, he meant? “We’re sixteen in there. Alysha, the dryad, rules the house. There’s a Shanghainese that’s an elite trainee too. She’s the scariest: this morning, at breakfast, she used her gravity power on Aishah because she was taking too long to get ready—Well, she was slacking off.” Aishah wasn’t the Sleeping Beauty for nothing, I nodded silently. Oliver added with a smile: “Arkifa Cythraul is like a goddess. I can only admire her from afar. Tingting is the youngest after me and… Actually, it’s super nice being there! Skylar Zang has some pretty blue eyes when she doesn’t use her power. The rice she cooks is delicious. And Konstantina even came into my room to tell me that I shouldn’t be afraid to take off my helmet… But, hey, sharing my thoughts around a group of girls is, like, well… You know, I’ve already had trouble, before, because of that.”

Ray had made an embarrassed face. I nodded with an understanding expression.

“Aah… That power of yours can be really troublesome, I see.”

“Too right. That’s why I want to control it. I’ll never get a girlfriend if she knows what I’m thinking—”

“You brat,” I gave him a knock on the head, “are you trying to make your own harem?”

The kid laughed.

“Are you jealous?”

That little demon… I smiled, a bit annoyed.

“I’ve passed that stage. But, beware, Oliver, for concealing your true thoughts to a loved one is betraying your own love.”

Oliver widened and lowered his eyes for a moment as if repenting. I patted his shoulder.

“You should retire your helmet in the Cactus House and let the girls know who you really are. If they kick you out, we’ll welcome you to the Wind House.”

“Really? Thank you! But… aren’t you just trying to get me out of my harem?” That brat was irritating… “Besides, I must get my power under control. According to Instructor Yamazaki, if I did, I could even make others think that what I am thinking is something I’m not actually thinking, isn’t that wonderful?”

I paused, dissected the sentence, then frowned.

“Fooling others is wrong, kid.”

“…? O-Obviously I would use that kind of technique only against criminals!” Oliver defended himself, and he showed an innocent grin. “I want to become a Hero, after all! And then, I want to retire into some secret place and make my own sect with my own disciples as your secret master did, then when I’m an old sage, I will set on a journey to seek the Holy Wisdom, just like your master!”

My master did all that, huh? I gave him a thumbs up.

“That’s some nice ambition you’ve got, Oliver.”

“Thanks!”

His grin was priceless. Ray cleared his throat.

“How about we get moving?”

“Right, everyone is catching up with us… So let’s go! Oliver, don’t fall behind…!”

I had climbed ten steps or so when I realized the kid was putting all his energy into getting to the next step. The qi was supposed to be getting heavier the higher we climbed, but my core was overflowing with deathforce, and I still couldn’t feel any weariness caused by the air pressure. But not everyone was naturally resistant to qi pressure. I looked at the qi sensor: «1214 Mz». It sure had gone up a lot. Heh…

“Oliver. If you get to the top of this tower, I’ll introduce you formally to Arkifa.”

The kid’s eyes lit up.

“The goddess? Seriously? Is she really a friend of yours?”

“Of course she is. Do your best.”

“I will!”

As we quickly left Oliver behind, Ray made an amused pout.

“That kid seems to be rather confused about his goals. More importantly,” he added, his face darkening, “I didn’t expect Axel Sunclaw to lose his temper like that. I remember that, in the past, he was a rather shy kid, way nicer than his twin. I wonder what happened for him to become such a nasty bastard.”

A shy and nice boy, Axel? For real? I doubted it. As we kept climbing at a fast pace, leaving other trainees behind, I suggested:

“Maybe the twins decided to change their names, and actually, Axel is Lei and Lei is Axel?”

Ray burst out laughing.

“That’s an interesting theory!”

“Ain’t it? The only problem is, Lei, the real Axel, is far from being shy, and I wonder whether he’s just a teaser or a real demon.”

“Maybe they’re the same person. Have you heard about bibodism? It’s a rare condition that links two souls at birth to the point that they become the same person in two bodies.”

I turned to him, amazed, and laughed:

“You’re kidding!”

“I’m not. It’s rare, but it’s real.”

“…” One person in two bodies? If I’d had a brain, it would be overheating. Just trying to imagine it… I burst out: “For real?!”

At that instant, I realized I had run into the stretched arm of a statue and lost my balance. I barely grabbed the stony hand, which must have been already damaged, because it cracked and…

I fell with the statue’s hand in mine. Ray tried to stop me, and he was dragged in the fall. I instinctively tried to protect him from the knocks and managed finally to block our fall by sticking a leg around the stone spear that the statue below was holding.

Ray’s lifeforce threatened to come in in droves.

No matter what Ray said about a Fury’s zero willpower, I reacted quickly, let go of him, and managed to get away—so impetuously that I heard something crack when, bouncing backwards, I hit a quasi-opaque glass door embedded into the inner wall…

“Hold on,” I murmured, perplexed, turning around to face the wall. “A door?”

What was a door doing there?

34 The secret chamber of the dark flame

“You okay, Ray?”

“I’m fine…” The young necromancer sat up, then bounced to his feet adding: “Armen, your head! You hit it on the statue! Are you okay?!”

There was a silence, then I whispered:

“Remember, Ray. I’m already dead.”

“…” My friend covered his face with his orange cap. “Sorry. Thank you… for protecting me.”

“You’re welcome. More importantly,” I said in a cheerful tone; I raised the stone hand I was still holding. “Those are… masterpieces, right?”

Ray made a painful face.

“It came off, huh…”

“Yeah, it came off.”

We looked at each other. I cleared my throat and pointed at the dark glass door with the stone hand.

“Do you think it’ll be discovered if I hide it over there?”

“Huh… You’re talking as if you’re gonna bury a corpse.”

I climbed the few steps to see the maimed statue, a man with fine traits and a serene expression—why on earth did the sculptor make him stretch his arm? On the plaque, I read, “Year 1926. Cornelius Sunclaw”. I stood rooted to the spot in shock. Sunclaw? Sunclaw?? To think I had crippled one of Linah’s ancestors… I pouted, looking at the poor hand.

“If only we had some glue.”

“Ahem. Wouldn’t that be blasphemy? Anyway, where do you want to hide it?”

“Behind that door.”

Ray arched an eyebrow.

“Behind…? What door?”

I cast him a worried look, then climbed down and fingered at the door, touching it.

“This one.”

Ray blinked.

“There’s nothing there, Armen. Only a wall.”

I stared at him, deeply troubled.

“Did you hit your head, Ray?”

“No, you did,” he snorted back.

“My brain’s not in my head,” I replied absent-mindedly. “I’m certain of it: there is a door here. I’m touching it. There’s even a button inside which says ‘Open’. I’m gonna open it, okay?”

“Are you saying you can see through the door?”

“It’s made of glass. I can barely see through it, though…” I paused. “You really can’t see it? That’s so weird.”

Ray looked at me, then at which apparently was just a wall to him; he asked:

“Can you lend me your eyes?”

“Sure, just a moment, I’m taking them out—”

“Idiot. You know what I mean.”

He took a breath and closed his eyes; the moment I thought I felt a gentle energy caress my core, he snorted.

“You’re right. It’s a door.” He had just seen it through my eyes.

Funny. Why wasn’t he able to see the door? Why was I able to see it?

“Probably an illusion,” Ray said.

“The door is an illusion?”

“No. The wall is. Generally, illusions are a simple alteration of images, so we both should perceive them more or less the same way. But this illusion seems to be different. It’s probably of a higher quality… but only against living beings.”

“Oh…” My curiosity was aroused. What could there be behind that secret door?

Luckily, the stairs were empty around here. Still, while the most skilled trainees were probably already reaching the top, others could catch up at any moment. With no further delay, I focused my gaze on the “Open” button on the other side, and activating my telekinesis, I pressed it. It worked: the glass door slid to one side, into the wall, revealing a room plunged in darkness. Ray approached and stopped in the doorway beside me. I soon understood his problem.

“It’s pretty dark in there,” I said. “Can you lend me that flashlight I gave you for Christmas? I’ll just take a look around and leave Cornelius’s hand—”

I fell silent when Ray, lighting his flashlight around his neck, walked into the room. I felt a wave of pride for my master, who was so courageously fighting his trauma… However, when I closed the door behind, I saw him shrink violently and stagger.

“Ray!”

“I’m fine,” he replied out of breath. He looked at his qi sensor and snorted. “It’s just… the qi pressure is incredibly higher in here.”

What…? I checked my qi sensor. «1485 Mz». Geez. He was right. It had gone up by more than two hundred. Apparently, that was a lot even for Ray.

“I… can’t feel a thing,” I murmured.

“That’s to be expected,” Ray replied as he moved his flashlight to inspect the room—It was small, circular, and basically empty if it weren’t for the many weird inscriptions carved in the wall and the floor. He clarified: “You can’t get tired. But qi pressure still makes your core use more energy than usual.”

“Does it?” I tried to focus on my core and the energy flowing through my body. Was the flow denser? It was, but that was because I had never had such a huge amount of deathforce in my body before. “I can’t feel a thing,” I repeated.

“It’s only natural,” Ray assured. “You’ll get used to your core with time. That’s not something you can learn in a few months.”

That made sense. Strictly speaking, as Natasha would have said, I was but a two-month-old undead cub. There were so many things I had yet to learn. In a way, I was happy my body knew how to circulate my deathforce like a pro without my conscious assistance.

Ray’s sudden gasp made me hurry to his side.

“Ray? What’s the matter?”

The young necromancer didn’t answer and just kept staring at the light of his flashlight. Or more like, at what the light of his flashlight was trying to illuminate, in vain: in the center of the room, a shadow trembling and ascending like a dark flame was twisting on the air, at my eye level, without any support. Glancing at Ray’s livid expression, I worried.

“What’s that thing, Ray? Is it dangerous?”

Ray didn’t seem to hear me. He took a step forward. I grabbed him by the elbow.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Ray stopped, frowning, and finally admitted:

“I don’t know. It’s as if I had already seen it before.”

“… You mean, that dark flame?”

“Yeah…”

There was a deep silence only interrupted by Ray’s breathing. He went around the dark flame at a fair distance, and after carefully putting down Cornelius’s hand on a small projection of the wall, I followed him. From every perspective, the shadow stayed there, wavering like a real flame, except it didn’t create any light.

“Weird.” Ray was whispering, even though our voices were probably unable to reach the trainees going upstairs behind the black glass door. “Those are braenic runes,” he added, looking at the inscriptions. “Most runists don’t use those anymore. Which could mean this room has been built long ago, along with the tower.”

“You mean, Water Li built this? But what for? They could have built an elevator instead, don’t you think?”

Without answering, Ray crouched and caressed one of the inscriptions. It shimmered under the flashlight with a red glint. I heard him suddenly grunt:

“A prison.”

I widened my eyes.

“A prison? This room is a prison?”

I was about to check the door to make sure the “Open” button was still there when I saw Ray step toward the dark flame. I had a bad premonition.

“Wait!” I growled. “Don’t touch that.”

Ray was already stretching a hand. I rushed and pulled it down, then saw him blink as if lost. He was acting strange. And was unusually careless. Was the dark flame affecting him in some way? Was it some ancient relic that could devour the living? In that case, I should extinguish it before he could touch it, maybe pushing it away with my telekinesis or…

“Be still.”

Ray’s order flew through our necro-bond, stronger than ever. My body became as still as a statue while my life-lust skyrocketed to the point my core could barely cope with it for a long moment.

I couldn’t believe it. As my mind was overwhelmed and blurred by my Fury instinct, I saw Ray raise his hand to the dark flame, as if hypnotized. I cursed internally, then remembered I hadn’t been ordered to be quiet, and I tried to open my mouth… in vain. Weren’t orders based on their interpretation? What kind of stupid interpretation did my core think of?

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ray touch the flame. It swirled around his hand. It didn’t seem to hurt him. Maybe I was worried for nothing? But Ray wasn’t being himself. Normally, he would have apologized straight away and cursed himself for giving me orders. Yet he did not. Instead, he kept playing with the black fire…

His breathing was getting heavier. Maybe the flame was dangerous, after all. But what could I do? I was stuck. No, wait, what if my telekinesis wasn’t affected by the order? I gave it a try, grabbed the shadow with my power, and pushed it away. Was it working? Well… How could my telekinesis work on a mass of dark energy, anyway…?

Then, suddenly, it budged. A wave of energy washed over me, and for an instant, all the braenic runes in the room shone dazzlingly. Then darkness fell again, and only Ray’s flashlight remained.

The young necromancer had fallen to his knees. Upon seeing it, my mind, which was still fighting my life-lust, shook in panic. What was wrong with Ray? Dammit. I couldn’t move an inch. Such a troublesome order…

“Why?”

Ray’s question broke the sepulchral silence. Holding his head in his hands, he panted:

“Free… who? Free what? Who…? What on earth is going on?”

Hell, that was what I wanted to know. Somehow, his interrogations calmed me down a bit. He didn’t seem to be hurt. Did he communicate with the dark flame or something? Anyway, he just looked confused.

After a moment, Ray turned around, still on his knees, and realizing what he had done to me, he punched the stone floor out of self-hatred and kowtowed under my astonished eyes.

“Forgive me!”

I forgave him.

And my life-lust soared.

Ray was such a dependable friend… and such a careless master. It took him some seconds to realize he had just ordered me to forgive him, he raised horrified eyes at me and screamed:

“I AM SORRY!”

Tears began to stream down his face. I had never seen him like that. Was it the flame’s effect, the confusion it had awakened in him, or the high qi pressure? Or maybe a combination of all that along with the stress he had been under since I had become a Fury? Whatever it was, just seeing his mortified face shook me to the core.

Maybe thanks to the second order I had received—unless it was due to the dense energy in the room—the first order slowly began to fade. After a while, I recovered enough to move my lips. When I noticed that, I drew a deep breath and was rewarded with a streak of Ray’s lifeforce. Strangely, that helped me get my thoughts together. I gave Ray a distraught look.

The young necromancer was now hiding his face under his orange cap, but I could still see his trembling lips. I managed to articulate:

“Ray—”

“No need to worry,” he quickly cut me off, choking on his words. Seriously, how could I not worry? He snuffled. “Dammit. I don’t know what’s happening to me all of a sudden. I feel as if I had just remembered something very sad and important, yet I cannot remember a thing. I should be very angry at myself for giving you an order, yet part of me is still celebrating something I don’t understand. I don’t understand,” he repeated. “What’s going on in my head? What on the world are the Spawns of Darkness?”

He… really looked lost.

As the first order was wearing off, I managed to crouch to be at his level and took off his cap to see his face. His eyes glinted with fear. He pulled away then stopped. Was he afraid of me? Or of something else? What was I supposed to do when I didn’t even know what that dark flame had done to him?

“Ray, we should get out of here at once. This dark flame—”

“It’s not its fault.”

“… Then whose is? The moment you touched it—No, the moment you approached it, you—”

“It’s not its fault,” Ray repeated.

He wiped off his tears with a wave of his hand, took a deep breath, and stood up, then turned his flashlight toward the flame. It had now left the center of the room and was freely wandering around. As if it was alive.

After a silence, Ray sighed.

“Sorry if I’ve said some weird things. My head was spinning like crazy.”

Thank goodness, he was recovering his composure.

“You scared me half to death, you know. Heh, well, I’m already dead, but still… It’s not good for my heart. Or my core, or whatever. I should have known a secret door in a legendary tower couldn’t be without danger. All for the sake of hiding Cornelius’s hand…” My gaze lingered on the statue’s hand, standing against the wall. I shook my head. “But you’re all right, now, right? Ray? Right?”

“Eh…? Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Really, maybe it’s only me losing my head for a moment. It might be the qi pressure. Or those strange runes.”

“… Sure. Anyway, don’t be so worried about that. It happens to me all the time to forget things I just did or things we’ve learned countless times in class, or things I should know about the world—”

“I know.”

“And it’s not that big of a deal, is it? As long as we don’t forget what’s really precious to us, everything’s fine,” I grinned, trying to comfort him, then took a look around. “By the way, you said something about a prison, before. Do you mean that shadow was a prisoner? Does it mean we’ve freed it? To say the least, it looks quite happy right now. Somehow, I can tell.”

As we followed the shadow’s dance with our eyes, Ray shrugged.

“I don’t remember doing anything to free it. Yet it’s free. So it must mean I freed it.” As he paused, I thought about telling him that maybe my telekinesis had something to do with it, but then dismissed it as unimportant. My friend turned to me with an apologetic grimace. “Sorry, I’m supposed to be the level-headed guy, here.”

“Since when a necromancer is level-headed?” I teased him.

He rolled his eyes and took back his baseball cap from me, asking:

“Are you able to move now?”

I nodded, tried to take a step… and failed. My feet were still rooted to the ground. We looked at each other, and I chuckled.

“What a stupid situation, huh? Well, it might take some time before I can move, so you go ahead and climb the tower. At this rate, if you wait any longer, you won’t be able to show off.”

Ray frowned.

“Don’t be—I mean, I’m not going to leave you behind, what’s the idea. Plus, we’ve gotta find a way to take that shadow with us without letting the others see it. I don’t know what exactly that creature is, nor how it ended up in here but… Dark beings are usually badly treated by the WHO. And it’s pretty clear the one that sealed it was using its energy to increase the qi pressure in this room. As for why… I have no idea. But I want to save that shadow.”

It was rare for him to make such a resolute decision for the sake of an unknown being. I pondered on his words, watched the shadow bouncing on the air like a happy kid, then gave a thoughtful nod.

“Okay. I’ve got an idea. I can hide that shadow. It’s made out of dark energy, right? It’s not food for me, so… how about I let it into my body, then I can let it out when we get back to the Wind House.”

Ray gaped at me.

“You mean it?”

“Isn’t it the perfect choice? As long as it’s harmless. But I have a favor to ask from you before.”

“…? A favor? Yes, what is it?”

My starving eyes pierced his. I breathed in and out before saying:

“Please remember I’m not human anymore.”

Ray straightened up, baffled.

“Is that the favor?”

I snorted with laughter without averting my eyes.

“No. That’s not it.”

Slowly, I held out my hand, palm up, and said:

“Please, give me your hand.”

He stiffened. It was the first time I asked him for permission to eat his lifeforce. Was he going to tell me: no, Armen, have you forgotten you’re a Fury, or… no, Armen, we’re best friends, I don’t want our relationship to be that of a master and his familiar, or…

My ravings sank into oblivion as soon as Ray took my hand. The contact felt like bliss. My mind wavered. I didn’t gulp down his lifeforce, though. Once I overcame my surprise, I gave him a happy smile.

“Thanks.”

I knelt and pulled at Ray’s hand until its palm touched my forehead. My own actions surprised me. Was it some kind of instinctive Fury ritual? Seemed so.

I began to absorb his lifeforce, drop by drop, very slowly. It was incredibly good but… something was missing.

‘The more you trust, respect, and love your master, the sturdier your necro-bond will be, and the tastier your master’s lifeforce will get.’

As Natasha’s words echoed in my mind, I tried to muster all my trust, respect, and love for Ray. I trusted him with all my heart, since he had given me so many reasons to do so throughout the years; I respected his life, his principles, his way of thinking, his knowledge and skills; I loved him, because… he was my best friend. And because I trusted, respected, and loved him, it was my greatest joy to live my second life serving him. Thinking about all of that, I absorbed a drop of his lifeforce.

Something burst out in my mind. The strong pleasure of eating Ray’s lifeforce got mixed with an overwhelming happiness that blinded me and even deafened me for a moment. My core jolted and became frantic, as if I had just eaten a million drops, and for the first time, I could feel how the necro-bond was growing. It had felt so small just a while ago, but now it spurted like a bud that blossoms under the most pleasant sunlight… Just with one drop, one little drop of Ray’s lifeforce, and I had been shaken to my roots.

I finally recovered my senses, let go of Ray’s hand, and looked up at him. His eyes were closed, his face serene. My core vibrated, still willing to convey my most positive feelings to its real owner. I realized the necro-bond wasn’t just a bond that sustained the life of the familiar. It was a bond much deeper than that. And I could barely fathom how deep and beautiful such a bond could become.

I sort of understood that such a growth spurt of the necro-bond must be a very special occasion. Could it be that “Offering” thing Natasha had mentioned this morning? But wasn’t it supposed to come at the end of the Fury period?

At last, Ray opened his eyes. They were shining with deep emotion.

“Thank you, Armen. I won’t ever forget your feelings.”

He was moved. However, I could guess the inner conflict my behavior had provoked in him. In the end, the master was having a harder time than the familiar accepting the reality: I was an undead, and nothing would change that fact. My soul had been put into a necro-core programmed to serve its owner. And my instincts weren’t those of a human anymore.

It was troubling and distressing to think I wasn’t exactly the same as I was before. I was pretty sure that my values and principles had remained the same… except for everything that was related to my master. To deny it by now would be ridiculous. I was finally beginning to understand that. And I knew Ray would not be able to stop me from becoming a full-fledged undead.

I stood up, raised my right foot, and confirmed that I could move again. Satisfied, I fastened my eyes on the dancing shadow and activated my telekinesis. Light as it was, it came flying at high speed. I gobbled it down and put my mask on so the shadow wouldn’t be able to escape. Then I walked to the door and opened it, saying cheerfully:

“Be good, Cornelius’s hand. Let’s go, master Styxer.”

I heard Ray sigh.

“… I follow you, master Moon.”

35 Heroic saboteurs

Ray cast me a funny look.

“Why are you bowing to the statue?”

“I’m apologizing to Cornelius Sunclaw, of course.”

“It’s only a statue, Armen. That man is long dead. He would be, like, one hundred thirty years if he were still alive.”

“Barely older than Makler Vod, then! … Ray?”

The young necromancer was looking at the door as if he could see it. Under my quizzical look, he said:

“Let’s stop thinking for now and keep climbing—Crap, did I just give you an order?”

I was already climbing the stairs. I turned, amused.

“You didn’t. Apparently, the ‘let’s’ don’t count. By the way, Ray, it’s rare for you to stop thinking. Congrats.”

“… Thanks. Say, that shadow you swallowed… You’re not digesting it, are you?”

I chuckled.

“I’m not! It was stirring a bit at first, but now it’s calm. I think it understands we want to help it. Who would have thought that I would be helping a weird creature locked up in a legendary tower? That sounds like a real adventure, doesn’t it!”

“Well… Glad to hear you two are getting along just fine.”

I wasn’t exactly “getting along”, since I couldn’t really speak with the shadow, but somehow, I had that feeling that the creature was grateful to us, and that it was craving freedom.

How long had it been imprisoned in Yuutow Tower? I had no idea… But maybe more than a century. Its urge to get away from this place was contagious. I picked up the pace.

I began counting the steps. Ten. Twenty. Fourty. Then I realized the number of each step had been carefully engraved on the outer wall. Three-hundred-sixty-one… Three-hundred-seventy… Three-hundred-ninety-seven…

“Four hundred!”

Ray had fallen behind. He was out of breath. Only then did I notice that my qi-sensor was broken. It was showing «1175 Mz», more than forty “Mz” less than when we had met Oliver and Axel, and it wouldn’t budge from there. When I talked to Ray about it, he checked his.

“One-thousand-one-hundred-seventy-six millizohns.”

“Millizohns? So you read it like this, I didn’t know. Anyway, yours shows almost the same pressure. Weird. Maybe the qi pressure in that room was too high for the sensors?”

“Maybe,” Ray replied with a huff.

“I bet the real qi pressure must be pretty high: you’re panting like a boar.”

“Not at all. Huff… It’s this damn staircase. There’s no end to it.”

A problem of stamina? Come to think of it, Ray had never been very sportive. I shrugged, smiling, and waited for him before going on at his pace.

“So, you said that circulation method Kaspar taught me is helping me waste less energy? How so?”

“Huh… He didn’t precisely teach you anything, Armen. He just carved the path into you.”

“Ah, right. Electronic necromancy is amazing!”

“It can be flawed, too,” Ray replied, panting. “I still resent my cousin for using his technology on you on a whim. But what’s done is done.”

He hadn’t forgiven Kaspar, huh? Well, I hadn’t really either. But since he had taught me how to resist orders given by other necromancers than my master, I still was grateful to him.

At a thought, I suddenly straightened up.

“Ray! If only the same method could work with maths and chemistry…! Imagine it, Ray! A world full of circulation methods that make us all so intelligent that we don’t need to think anymore!”

We looked at each other, then I realized my last sentence made no sense at all.

“You’re too intelligent to think, Armen.”

I burst out laughing, then admitted:

“All things considered, a world like that would be awfully boring. I’m secretly proud of being a knucklehead.”

“It’s not a secret anymore.”

“I mean, I’m relieved to see other people know things I don’t.”

“The world would be in trouble otherwise.”

I smiled patiently.

“Are you picking a fight with me, Ray? Anyway, think about it,” I continued, inspired. “It’s, like, at first you’re scared of things you don’t know, just like that horror vacui my cram teacher talked about, and you want to learn all of it, but then you realize you can’t learn everything in the world, and you conclude that, as long as you understand the most basic things in life, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to control your qi, or make a computer, or whether the number pi is four point two or four point three.”

“Three point fourteen, rounding it down, great sage—you’re falling behind from so much talking, you know—but yeah, I think I get what you mean. Those ‘most basic things’ can vary depending on the person, though.”

For some reason, that made me think of Axel Sunclaw.

“One person, one worldview,” I cited wisely. And I happily caught up with him, adding: “But isn’t it weird? We didn’t pass anybody yet.”

Even though, before, we had been passing so many trainees… Maybe we had stayed in that room for too long and everyone had already reached the top or given up? Ray was grimacing.

“We’ll know why for sure once we get to the top.”

On our way up, all we met were statues, wall paintings, and more steps. The tower was deserted and quiet. Like a ruin. Since it had no windows, I couldn’t help but imagine we had been teleported somewhere else, far away… Maybe that room was a teleporting portal? Or maybe Cornelius’ statue was more than a statue and…

I stopped raving when, at last, we reached the top.

On the last landing, I was welcomed by the watchful eye of a smiling statue clad in white and wearing a golden crown. Even before reading the plaque, I somehow knew who it was: Water Li, the founder of Yuutow Tower. Since his sworn brother Ashkabell opened the path, it was only natural that Water Li closed it.

I turned to the door. It had no handle. Worst, it was locked from the outside.

“The hell?”

I glanced around. There were no more steps going up. We had definitely arrived at the top. Did they forget about us?

I hit the door with my fist. Reaching the last step, Ray took a deep breath and looked around before commenting:

“Maybe we should just go down.”

“Go down?! No way!” I hammered the door. “I want to see the view from up there. There’s no way we have climbed all those steps for nothing! How could they forget about us?”

Ray’s face had darkened.

‘I just hope they didn’t find out about us,’ he whispered in my mind.

I gasped. About us? Did he mean the instructors could have found out that he was a necromancer? That I was an undead? I would have paled to death if that were possible.

“You mean, they know…”

Ray shook his head energetically.

‘No, I have no idea. I didn’t want you to hear that. Now that our necro-bond has grown, it’s harder for me not to share my thoughts with you. It’s kinda exhausting.’

“Then just share?” I suggested.

‘Like hell I will.’

My lips stretched into a mocking smile. The shadow had started stirring at my sudden nervousness and was pushing inside my mouth. I swallowed it back then stated:

“I’m gonna break down this door, wait and see.”

I took a running start, just beside Water Li’s kind statue, before dashing toward the door. I heard Ray’s thought clearly:

‘It’s made of iron, moron. It’ll be painful just watching you crash into the door…’

That only made me put in even more effort. I rushed to the door head-on and was about to crash… when it suddenly opened, and I saw the setting sun falling into the vast ocean. In my impulse, I hit the balustrade, several meters forward, bent over under the shock, and… Abruptly, Gorka Soulberg, who was standing by the banister, swiftly moved, held out an arm, and stopped me. Were it not for his quick reaction, I would probably be enjoying the weirdest and craziest view of all right now. As my savior withdrew his arm, he grazed mine, and a thin streak of his lifeforce ran through my body. Something weird happened in the space of a few seconds: a totally different landscape flashed across my mind. A green mountain, a sakura, a temple engulfed in mist… Meeting Gorka’s black, dead eyes, I snapped back to reality and stepped back, speechless. What…?

“Holy Sacred Blessed Gods!” At the exclamation of Addison Salas the Viral, I turned, startled. The crystallographer, who looked generally so composed, cursed in Yanganese and locked the door immediately after Ray walked out, glaring at him. “We told everyone in the tower to go back and climb down! You two! Didn’t you hear the message?”

I looked at Ponytail, amazed. Even in Yanganese, he spoke so quickly it was hard to catch his words. Except when he was invoking the gods, I thought, amused.

“You reckless brats! You could have died if the qi pressure system had started working again! The challenge was over the moment we announced we had a technical problem. Do you two think you can just do away with our instructions?!”

Under Addison’s scolding, Ray looked away, embarrassed. I cleared my throat, putting up a forefinger.

“But, instructor, how could we know? We didn’t hear the message.”

“It resonated in the whole staircase and was repeated several times,” he retorted. “There is no way you didn’t hear it.”

What could I reply to that? If we didn’t hear the message, that was probably because we had been in the room of the dark flame at the time. But I couldn’t tell him that. Actually… that system failure was a bit too much of a coincidence. As the realization slowly dawned on me, I turned to Ray in dismay.

My master joined his hands and slightly bowed, muttering:

“We’re sorry to have worried you, sir.”

He added mentally:

‘That just confirms my doubts. That shadow was being used as an energy core to maintain the qi pressure system in this tower.’

I twitched. So… by freeing the shadow, we had just destroyed one of the most famous locations on earth.

No big deal. Yeah, no big deal at all!

Maaan, I sighed inwardly. Our feat would probably be seen as a crime by the Nyomin. Still… I didn’t regret it. That poor shadow didn’t deserve such a horrible treatment.

Humans can be so cruel without even realizing it.

Ray nodded. Did he hear my thought or was he just nodding to himself?

Anyway, why did he keep to himself that our qi sensors were, in fact, working just fine? We had been climbing the last two hundred steps under a total normal qi pressure. Geez. Not only had we missed the chance to show off our skills in this challenge, but we had even disobeyed the Heroes’ instructions and sabotaged the training.

Luckily, Addison didn’t insist. He only said that our thoughtless behavior was unworthy of people wishing to enter the WHO, to which we obviously couldn’t reply that we had no intention to do so in the first place. We kept silent until he waved us away saying:

“Go down the outer escalator. Gorka Soulberg, thanks for your precious help. Your qi affinity is amazing, as usual. Unfortunately, from what you said, it seems the problem will be harder to fix than expected. Please go down and rest.”

Without a word, my creepy savior turned to calmly walk across the tiled floor. I followed him with Ray, glancing around at the beautiful dome and the adorned columns. Everything was shining with orange reflections under the setting sun. The view, beyond, was breathtaking. The ocean was sparkling in the distance, overwhelmingly vast. It felt as if I was standing in the lantern room of a gigantic lighthouse. To the northwest, I could see Phoenix City in its whole, a sea of sand-colored, small houses covering the large, hunchbacked island. To the east, the sky was growing dark. And far below, Yuutow Island was a mix of fire and night colors.

I would have wanted to stay longer to really enjoy such an inspiring view, but well… At least I had got to see it. I turned my attention to the young man with long, black hair that was walking at his own, slow pace.

“Er… Gorka?” I called him. “I would have fallen to my doom if you hadn’t been there. Thank you for saving me.”

I fell silent, surprised, as Gorka Soulberg kept walking toward the escalator. Was he half-deaf? I tried again.

“SORRY IF I’M BEING LOUD!” He winced. The shadow inside me gave a start and made me choke on the next words. “URGL, RSH, I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME!”

Under my mask, I coughed and swallowed back the shadow.

Gorka finally half turned his head to me, and a faint smile flickered on his lips before he nodded imperceptibly and turned his back to us again. I thought he was going to keep silent, but as he stepped on the escalator, he sighed:

“No worries. I’ve saved you as a reflex. By the way, I’m not deaf.”

“…! SORRY!”

His face said something like, “You already apologized beforehand, you know”. Or was it more like, “You’re still being too loud”? Raising tired eyes to me as the escalator started rolling down, he yawned:

“I don’t even know you, so let’s leave it at that.”

As we stepped on the escalator, Ray and I exchanged a glance. I smiled with my eyes and said:

“I’m Armen Moon. And he’s Ray Styxer. Nice to meet you.”

“…”

“So you were helping Ponytail with the qi pressure problem, weren’t you? You must be very skilled.”

“…”

“Did you figure out why the tower stopped working?” Ray asked.

“…”

“Maybe he’s just tired,” I whispered to Ray.

‘Let’s hope he’s tired enough not to suspect us,’ Ray replied mentally as we kept going down in silence. ‘Gorka Soulberg is from the Soul Clan, one of the most powerful clans in the Nyomin. They’re known for their excellent qi control and their deep knowledge of white energy in general. There was a time when my dad studied their research very closely, like, he got so interested that he did only that for months. After all, one of their most secret techniques is said to allow them to control souls.’

Control souls? I gasped. Wasn’t the purpose of necro-cores precisely to control the souls of the dead? Then…

‘They’re not necromancers, though,’ Ray added, maybe guessing my thoughts. ‘They control the souls of the living. Also, according to my dad, they cannot control the soul of someone who isn’t willing to be controlled. It’s like establishing a pact: the consent of both parties is needed. Unlike us, their pact can be undone, orders are not as absolute, and above all, the underling will not die if his master dies. Basically, that’s why the Soul Clan’s techniques are legal while necromancy is not.’

Gorka’s long, black hair slightly undulated under the wind. His skin was as pale as mine. Such a frail complexion… yet he gave off strange, powerful vibes.

“The Soul Clan…”

At my thoughtless whispering, he turned his head, raising his eyebrows. He held my gaze, and I ended up nervously looking away at the distant sky.

“Wh-What a beautiful sunrise, don’t you think?!”

Amusement flew through the necro-bond. I looked at Ray askance. Oh, come on… What was he laughing for? We had just arrived at the bottom, and to my surprise, Gorka walked away saying softly:

“A beautiful sunset indeed.”

After a silence, Ray burst out laughing. I pouted at him.

“What? Sunset, sunrise, what’s the difference.”

“Just about twelve hours? Hahaha!”

I rolled my eyes. Well, I was glad to see Ray in a good mood. He didn’t seem to feel very guilty about the tower. That only showed how much he cared for the shadow we were helping… But exactly what was that creature, anyway? A creature whose dark energy had been used to create high qi pressures for a century…

Not even Ray seemed to know.

36 Cactuses, bats, and curses

We intended to head to the Wind House and free the shadow as soon as possible. However, as we were walking across the main square, Lei and Linah waved at us from a bench. They were eating a snack, and as Linah offered me one and I refused, his brother smiled mischievously.

“Why, you’ve gotta eat well, Beanie Zombie, or you’ll end up being just a bag of bones.”

“Shut up, Lei,” Linah growled.

“Shut up, Lei,” I echoed, glowering at him with smiling eyes, and I added: “Thanks, Erma, but cactuses still affect me, and I’m not hungry.”

“Cactuses,” Linah repeated. She fiercely took a bite of the snack and chewed while grumbling: “So I bet you were sleeping like a Holy God in the Wind House while I was looking for you after you ran off last night, weren’t you?”

“…! What?”

She went on hastily:

“Well, obviously, you know nothing. Last night, I tried to follow you, because you were acting strange, and I bumped into a damned sleeping cactus full of stinky horns. I didn’t come to until just two hours ago! None of you, of course, none of you came to help me. I’m not expecting anything from you, brother. But you, Straw Head. Okay, you didn’t know I got lost in the forest, but you could have checked on me this morning or something. None of you even noticed I was absent. Only your mom, Ray, only the Lightning Veil realized I hadn’t come to her class, and she helped me go back to the Academy. I was stinking like a skunk, and she gave me a special soap and ointment for the horn stings—May the Earth bury me if I call her a harpy ever again! Still, you know… I’m feeling depressed. My back hurt all over. And I didn’t even get to climb the tower. Graah, it pisses me off!”

I was dumbfounded. Linah had fallen into a sleeping trap and spent the whole night outside? Actually, just like I had, but then she had also spent the whole morning and the beginning of the afternoon under the cactus’ sleeping gas… As Linah kept chewing energetically, obviously upset, I grimaced.

“Sorry I didn’t notice, Lil Witch.”

“Yeah, well, I could have died. You wouldn’t have noticed either.”

Ugh. Lei chuckled.

“How dramatic, little sister.”

“Call me sister when you act like a brother.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re particularly nice when you’re tired, sister.” He added, facing me: “Did you know? Even if those cactuses make you sleep, you can’t really sleep, and you get even more tired than if you didn’t sleep at all. I’ve experienced it myself on the first night here. Funny cactuses.”

“Yeah, funny like hell!” Linah hissed. “Those damn cactuses. How could they catch me so easily!”

She gulped down her last bite, stood up, and strode away, muttering under her breath. I straightened up, alarmed.

“Erma? Where are you going?!”

“I’m gonna punch them good! Especially that blue cactus. I remember where it was. I’ll crush it!”

What?! I hurried behind her while Lei was bursting out with laughter. I caught up with her at the gates.

“Hey, Lil Witch. You know, those cactuses are born like this. It’s nothing personal—”

“Are you siding with them?”

“What? Heh, no, I’m just feeling bad for them. I feel bad for you too,” I added at once. “And I’m sorry you didn’t get to climb the tower.”

“Yeah, well, Lei told me its system broke, anyway. So, I didn’t really miss anything.”

“Hahah… Now that you say it…”

“Also, I may have said stupid things to you. I’m just really, really upset with the cactuses, you know. When I woke up, I thought I had been eaten by a dragon.”

“A dragon?”

“It stank. That was because of the small yellow cactus that grows just under the blue cactus’ shadow,” she explained with a vengeful glint in her eyes. She was visibly picturing them in her mind…

I couldn’t help but snort with laughter. As she stopped in surprise, I raised my hands.

“I’m not laughing.”

“Liar.” Linah’s lips pouted, then stretched into a smile, then squeezed back into a pout. “Okay, I’m starting to cool down. Relax, I won’t crush them. I’ll just shake them and make them remember me!” she exclaimed, running off downhill.

I lost sight of her when she went into the grove of cactuses. Geez. What a vengeful witch.

“Cactuses don’t remember people, though,” I whispered to myself.

“Shashasha, who knows,” a sudden voice said to my left. “A girl in this training told me there is a plant capable of remembering every movement in its vicinity for centuries.”

Turning, I saw a big tuft of white hair surrounding a black face.

“Big bro!” I cried out.

Ilija was sitting on a stone edge against the outer walls of the Academy. A juice can in one hand, he invited me to sit down with his other hand.

“Good afternoon, Armen-kun. Did you also enter the tower?”

“I did, but then…”

He nodded.

“What a letdown, huh. I wonder if they will be able to fix it quickly.”

“Mm. Yeah. I wonder, too.” Like hell I did. I knew there was no way they would be able to fix it: the shadow that had been the core of the system was now inside me.

Ilija gave me a friendly smile.

“Energies are quite hard to grasp, and white energy is one of the trickiest.”

“Huh? Is it? I thought white energy was the energy of the living—I mean… Souls are made of white energy, aren’t they?”

“Of course they are. Most souls are, at least. But, sometimes, the closest a thing, the hardest it is to understand. The energy system of the tower is probably more simple than a soul’s. But that doesn’t mean the instructors will be able to repair it. After all, this tower has never been fully understood, except by its creators. That’s how mysterious the Yuutow Tower is.”

I cleared my throat.

“Water Li and Ashkabell must have been incredible peoplurgh…” My words got caught in my throat. The shadow had bounced. I somehow understood why. It was probably protesting and showing its hatred toward its prison warders, wasn’t it?

“You all right, Armen-kun?”

“Ahem, yeah. It must be the allergy. But, big bro, it seems that you really know a lot about energies. Or, actually, maybe it’s me who know almost nothing about them?” I said in a strangely apologetic tone.

“Shashasha, I don’t think so. Well, most participants here are well trained, that’s for sure, but as for me, it’s only natural I know a lot about energies. I’ve been trained to be a Chaos Fighter all my life.”

“Chaos Fighter?” I repeated. “It’s… not a sport, is it?”

Ilija burst out laughing.

“Shishishi! Sorry, Armen-kun, it’s the first time I’ve heard that profession being compared to a sport. Chaos Fighters are also known as Energy Regulators. Never heard of that name either, I suppose? Well, they work on securing and cleaning areas with dangerous compositions of crystal particles. It’s an extremely hazardous job. Actually, few people even remember we exist, but it’s a wonderful job, very essential.”

“Is that so…?” I breathed in, captivated. “But, big bro, doesn’t that mean you’re already some kind of hero?”

“Shashasha, you’re flattering me!”

I smiled, pondered, and confided to him:

“You know, big bro, talking with you is kind of soothing. Like, you’re always in a good mood and all… It’s kinda amazing.”

“Shashasha! I don’t know how to answer that, Armen-kun. I’m not as amazing as you think, I’m afraid.”

“Well…” I gazed at the sky, muttering: “I guess everyone has their own wall to overcome.”

“Mm. I guess so.”

There was a pleasant silence… then a crunching, distant sound of punches coming from the cactus grove—I tried to ignore that as I asked:

“Do you know that tale, big bro? The one about the little bat adopted by a pack of mice. One day, he finds out he’s actually a bat. His instincts push him to beat his wings and fly, but if he does, then he will have to say farewell to his ancient life of being a mouse. What do you think, big bro? Should he fly or should he stay as he has always been?”

In other words, should I move forward as a full-fledged undead, or should I chase after my past human life?

Ilija took a sip of his juice can. He mused:

“Mm. It’s a difficult choice indeed, but I think I would choose to fly… then come back to visit the mice from time to time? What does the bat choose in the end?”

“He keeps wavering until the mice throw him over a cliff,” I told. “Then he flies for his first time, he loves it, and he decides to keep flying. He doesn’t dare to go back home because he thinks the mice hate him. But, when he gets old, he overcomes his fears, and he goes back. A mouse recognizes him right away and tells him, ‘brother, thank goodness, you were alive!’. Then all the mouses come out to welcome him, and seeing them, the bat remembers how much he loves his home, and he flies, flies, over their heads, until the first lights of dawn.”

The image of my grandfather sitting by the small fireplace of his cottage while telling me the story flashed across my mind… Or was it actually my grandmother? I couldn’t remember.

Ilija was grinning.

“Shashasha, what a funny tale! I had never heard of it.”

“Really? Well, my grandparents told me this story, so maybe it’s a traditional one from my tribe.”

“Oh. Your tribe? You mean, your clan?”

I hesitated. I had never talked about it to anyone in Farskyer, not even to Ray—because, all in all, it didn’t really matter and because I had promised Azritz, but… I wondered why, right now, I felt like telling Ilija.

“I’m from the Taiho tribe. It’s not really a clan. It’s not organized. Some of us live in Bird Island, others in Starland.”

Ilija raised an eyebrow.

“The Taiho tribe. Sorry. Never heard of it.”

“Heh, well, I’m not surprised. The Taiho tribe are ‘Chorns’.”

Ilija widened his eyes and stared at me.

“Chorns? You mean…”

“Yeah.” I grinned with my eyes. “I’m a descendant of the Cursed People.”

There was a silence. I bet I didn’t need to explain to him what the Cursed People was. Nowadays, it was far from being as famous as it had been, but it still appeared as a side note in the history textbooks. The Cursed People was originally not even a tribe but a numerous group of scattered people with no connection with each other except for the fact that their powers had been deemed to be cursed. Most of them were said to “curse” people or things by touching. It goes without saying that, for centuries, the Cursed Ones had lived through hard times. So had their descendants, the Chorns. Even though, for the most part, they weren’t “cursed” anymore, they were said to be contagious. Or, at least, people in Bird Island traditionally believed that. Fortunately, most people outside the Chorn tribes had forgotten about it. That’s probably why Ilija looked more surprised than afraid.

From the Academy’s enclosure, Ray’s voice gasped in my mind:

‘You’re kidding, right, Armen? You never told me.’

I sent my apology through our necro-bond and grinned.

“I can’t change who my ancestors were, but well, it’s not like I am cursed or anything.”

Ilija’s golden eyes seemed as if they were seeing right through me as he smiled back.

“Shashasha, there is a saying in Yokohama, ‘the past is made of curses and blessings’. But who knows what a real curse is, anyway, don’t you think, Armen-kun?”

Heh. Ilija Guiomar Molinelli definitely wasn’t a bad guy. I peacefully gazed at the dusky sky for a moment, then frowned.

“Wait, big bro, you said you were an Energy Fighter—no, a Chaos Regulator—”

“A Chaos Fighter.”

“That’s it. But didn’t you say, back in Farskyer, that you were looking for a job?”

Ilija’s cheerful expression darkened.

“Ah… I did. I quit my job last year.”

Even though he seemed to particularly like that job? Why?

Although I didn’t mean to pry, I couldn’t help but look at him inquisitively. He hesitated, then shook his head.

“Since you told me about your origins, I don’t mind telling you about mine, but… it may be a bit boring.”

I raised an eyebrow. Did he want to tell me or not? I shrugged.

“Sorry, but I’m curious.”

Ilija’s smile recovered its cheerfulness.

“Shashasha… Then please bear with it until the end,” his golden eyes sparkled, “it’s a long story.”

The lights at the gates of the Academy were turned on as the sky grew darker. The shadow inside me seemed to get more and more lively as time passed. Was it because it was regaining its strength lost in that tower? Was it because of the falling night?

“You see,” Ilija told me calmly, “I’m from a family of Chaos Fighters that work for the Public Administration in Yokohama. I’ve begun working for them as a trainee student when I was fourteen. There was literally no Public Chaos Fighter of Yokohama I didn’t know. I worked in many teams, eight hours a day, cleaning unstable energies all over the city and the nearby region. Not wanting to brag, but my superiors often praised my good work. And yet, they all turned their back on me when I asked them for help. ”

He distractedly fiddled with his juice can, lost in memories.

“As I said, sometimes, the closest a thing, the hardest it is to understand. Last year, my team received a request to clean the Matsuri Plaza every week, and it got me thinking. Why did the Matsuri Plaza, in the middle of Yokohama, suddenly become so unstable? Thanks to my power, I found out that a new chemical laboratory had opened underground, carrying out dangerous experiments with materials with high contents of crystal particles. I denounced that, but they told me the laboratory was legal. That’s when I learned that legal things are not always meant to be good for the people. Isn’t it said that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Well, how true it is! I kept telling my acquaintances around me about what was going on with the Matsuri Plaza, and I created an association to denounce what was happening, but even the people that called themselves my friends ignored me. To top it all, my family told me to stop my protests, for fear of losing their job. I was in shock. Aren’t Chaos Fighters supposed to fight for people’s safety? As the saying goes: laugh and the world will laugh with you; weep and you will weep alone. I learned that the hard way. So, Armen-kun, that’s why I quit my job, not because I didn’t like it, but because I felt betrayed and disgusted by the kind of people I was living with. I left my hometown to broaden my view of the world and find a way of life that I could trust. I have high hopes about the future, shashasha! And that’s because hope springs eternal in the human breast!”

His story went straight to my heart. He had been fighting all alone and still never gave up and kept chasing after his dreams… To top it all, he was even proverbing like a sage.

“So, yeah, that’s about it,” Ilija said, shrugging. “I surprisingly managed to keep it rather short, right? People often tell me I’m bad at being concise—Wait, are you all right, Armen-kun?”

I had covered my eyes with my arm. Dammit. Zeeta was right: I was way too emotional. Black tears were welling into my eyes, which gave the shadow inside me the weird idea of trying to escape from there too. I hit my eyes and groaned.

“Crap, not now. Get back.” It finally calmed down.

“… Armen-kun?”

“S-Sorry! I wasn’t talking to you, big bro. I mean… I’m not crying.” What was I even saying?

“… You know, Armen-kun. Besides my early training, there is another reason why I had an advantage over others to be a Chaos Fighter. I’ve been seeing the energy flows since I was eleven years old.”

“…? The energy flows?” Was that Ilija’s power?

He gave a calm nod.

“When I got my power, I lost my normal sight. I can’t see people’s faces, colors or clouds as I used to. I’ve never seen a real smile again. And I’ve never seen a tear… until now. I wonder,” his glowing golden eyes stared at me, “why I can see yours.”

I felt like a fish caught by an iron fishing net. I inwardly cried for help. I opened my mouth, but the shadow was in the way, and I coughed and wheezed…

Ilija… could see my deathforce?!

37 A Hero Sold Out For A Curry Dish

If Ilija could see my deathforce then… did he know I was an undead?!

As I coughed and wheezed, Ilija tapped my shoulder.

“It’s all right, Armen-kun! You don’t need to tell me anything. It’s rare for people to cultivate dark energies, so I got curious, that’s all. I saw at least two other trainees who use them, so it’s not like you’re the only one. I was just wondering if it had something to do with your ancestors.”

My ancestors? Oh, the Cursed People. So even though he could see the energy flows, he couldn’t really tell that I was an undead. Thank goodness. I tried to regain my composure.

“Th-That’s some awesome power you’ve got, big bro! Being able to see the energies… Amazing.” I nervously coughed up and down the shadow. “Well, as you guessed, I’m using some special techniques. They’re like… clan techniques. Yeah. So, they’re secret.”

“Shashasha! I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about. My power has often revealed to me things that people thought were well hidden. I usually keep quiet. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t want to pry into your secret techniques.”

“No, no! It’s all right. Only… let’s talk about something else.”

“So I was rude.”

“No, you weren’t, but let’s stop talking about it. You’re in the Explorer group, aren’t you?”

“I am… I’m really sorry, Armen-kun.”

“You don’t need to be, really. For you, it’s like asking me why I’m wearing a red beanie all the time, right? It’s no big deal.”

“But it clearly upset you. And I don’t want to upset a younger brother.”

I widened my eyes. A younger brother?

“Big bro…” I grinned under my mask and stood up. “You’re forgiven. As long as you don’t talk about it with anyone else… maybe I’ll be able to tell you one day why I’m using dark energies.”

Ilija looked relieved.

“Shasha… You don’t need to tell me anything, Armen-kun.”

We were going to walk into the Academy when we heard a sudden heavy breath behind us accompanied by a voice from beyond the grave.

“Aaaah… Eeeeh…”

I shuddered inwardly. Were they ghosts on Yuutow Island?! I turned around. In the darkness, a silhouette was climbing the last steps with an unsteady gait. A drunk spirit? Then my fear was overcome by reality. I rushed, and just when Linah lost her balance, I reached her. She was half asleep.

I couldn’t believe it. Again, I had forgotten about Linah.

Wasn’t she a precious friend to me? She was. But ever since she had shown me her real power, I had somehow assumed she could fend for herself at any time. Well, obviously, her power was amazing. But she was still human.

“Armen?” She blinked, grabbed my shirt, and mumbled: “I was too weak. Those cactuses… I punched them hard… but they counterattacked. So I punched them even harder. A bit too hard, I think. Their neighbors began to attack me as well… I didn’t know they could think like a herd. I’m sooo weak, Armen.”

She was both satisfied with her revenge and disheartened at her own weakness. I tapped her back.

“You fought well, Lil Witch. But don’t fall asleep now…”

“ZZzzzzz…”

“Ugh. Erma? Linah? Lil Witch?”

“I’m hungryzzzz…”

Her eyes were closed, her breathing was regular… No doubt about it: she was talking in her sleep.

After a hesitation, I lifted her in my arms, and walking back to the Academy, I met Ilija’s amused gaze.

“She’s sound asleep, huh.”

“Must be the cactus’ smoke. Apparently, when you inhale it, you fall asleep without really resting.”

“I know. My teammate fell into that trap during the race, yesterday… that’s why I can tell that your friend is not in that state right now,” Ilija observed. “She’s clearly just sleeping.”

I lowered my eyes to Linah. Unaware of her weight, I could only feel her lifeforce lightly caress the skin of my hands. Her face was peaceful; her lips were even slightly stretched. Now that I thought about it, I had never seen her sleep let alone carried her in my arms like that. Somehow, it was not embarrassing at all. I smiled.

“It’s nice to see people dream so cheerfully.”

“Shashasha… Must be nice to dream like that indee…”

He fell abruptly silent, his golden eyes glowing with uneasiness. What…? For a moment, I thought that, after all, he knew I was an undead and realized it was rude to talk to me about dreams—Then I followed his gaze and reinterpreted it. Leaning on the wall of a small building by the gates, Ray cast me a quizzical look, which I gave back as he approached.

“Well, with this, I’ll take my leave,” Ilija said, slightly hastily. “Good evening, Armen-kun!”

“Big bro!” I exclaimed, surprised, as he strode away across the main square. Was it me or was he running from Ray? “Good evening and thanks for your time!”

The tall, slender man waved friendly.

“Thanks for yours!”

I saw him throw his juice can toward a trash can meters away, fail, then pick it up and safely put into it with that nobody-saw-me face. As Ray suppressed a laugh, I nodded with solidarity.

“Things like that happen to me all the time.” I was a bit disappointed, though: I was almost completely sure that Ilija wanted to avoid Ray.

My friend shrugged.

“I don’t really care.” ‘Well, actually, I’m worried about what he can see with his power.’

I grimaced. Did he just hear my thought? And did I just hear his own?

‘But I’m more worried about that busybody.’

“Busybody?” I repeated out loud.

Ray looked surprised, then I felt as if my necro-bond was blurred, which confirmed my suspicion: he had been unwittingly sharing his private thoughts again. He cleared his throat.

“I meant Lei.” He glanced at Linah, still asleep, and added mentally: ‘He’s almost as annoying as my dad. He’s a qi freak. And he took it into his head to learn necromancy.’

I was about to resume walking but stopped dead.

“Lei wants to learn necromancy?!”

Ray’s dark eyes were set ablaze. His gaze was so intense that I worried for a second that my core would interpret it as an order to shut up. Fortunately, Linah was still asleep and nobody was around. I shook my head.

“Sorry. I’m just shocked. If you’re going to teach him, then I want to learn too.”

Ray cast me a funny look.

‘Really? You want to learn?’

I kind of felt that I had fallen into his trap. His necromancy books had always seemed inscrutable to me. I knew I would only be torturing my head for nothing if I tried to understand them.

“Well, how do I put it… If it’s something like history or fun facts, then perhaps…”

Ray smiled, but as we started walking toward the escalator, his face darkened. I put a foot on the first step, and the moving stairs began going up.

“Ray?”

He was lost in thought and didn’t hear me. Was he worried about Lei? About the shadow? About me being a Fury?

“Now that I think about it,” I muttered. “From how you described it, I thought being a F—” I fell silent and went on: “being what I am would be more troublesome than it actually is. Like, you know, in the tower, I was able to stop eating your lifeforce—”

“You’re talking too much,” Ray snorted nervously, and he added mentally: ‘First, you ate quite a lot thanks to Natasha. Second, I told you, the transformation into a full-fledged Fury usually lasts several weeks. When it ends, your core will get even more stable than before, but until then, it can only get tougher, so don’t—I mean, you shouldn’t let your guard down. It’s a bit like a stealth game. You can’t fight creatures. If they surround you, you die. So let’s be cautious.’

“I see, a stealth game, huh. I think I get what you mean!”

‘… Does he? Does he, really? Well, he’ll probably make a blunder soon or later, but as long as I stay alert, we may avoid the worst situation.’

Ray’s thoughts leaked into my mind. I gasped in disbelief.

“Actually, you don’t trust me one bit, do you?!”

Ray flinched in surprise… then blocked our necro-bond again, abashed.

“Well, I do, Armen, I do, really, hum, it’s just… you’ve never been good at stealth games.”

Shoot. I couldn’t deny it. Patience was not my cup of tea. Still, I was a bit hurt. I knew Ray was the cautious type of person but… couldn’t he trust his best friend a bit more?

We were just stepping on the main platform when Ray suddenly blocked my way, panicked.

“A-Armen! Linah… It’s Linah…”

I lowered my eyes to her, alarmed then puzzled. She was still sleeping.

“What’s wrong with Linah?”

“You’re carrying her!”

“Er…” Was he just realizing it now? I flushed inwardly under Ray’s astonished eyes. “I am. What about it?”

Ray frowned.

‘Right now, aren’t you stealing her lifeforce?’

Oh, that…

“I’m not. Seriously. I’m not touching her skin, only her clothes.”

I moved my hand just a bit so as to not lie. Only her pink hair was caressing me with its energy. If Ray knew Linah’s lifeforce was potentially bad for me… Well, there was no point in worrying him even more.

However, Ray looked troubled. I didn’t need to hear his thought to understand he found me awfully reckless right now. Sometimes, I wished I could shake him like a pear tree to shake off his worries.

Then the young necromancer’s eyes shifted to something behind me… just right before a crimson-haired head peeped over my shoulder. Under my surprised look, Noah glanced at Linah and shook his head.

“And you call me a perv.”

“…! What’s that supposed to mean?!” I protested in a high-pitched hiccup. Wait, what?! The shadow in my throat had just altered my voice!

Caught by surprise, Noah burst out laughing, and Ray pulled on his baseball cap to futilely conceal his face as he progressively doubled up with laughter.

“What’s with that voice, stupidstahahaha!” Noah choked.

I tried to swallow the shadow and replied:

“Hoy, guys, it’s not funny.”

My voice sounded like that of a troll, now. In hilarity, Noah hit one of the columns of the platform. Ray was wiping off his tears, trying to calm down. Damn… Did the shadow get stuck somewhere in my vocal cords?

“The hell!” I squeaked and coughed, “Argh-argrahell!”

My voice quavered like a grandma’s and ended with a squawking noise that finally seemed to release the shadow from my vocal folds. As Ray and Noah looked a bit worried at last, I tested my voice and approved.

“Everything is fi…”

It happened very quickly: Linah stirred in her sleep, grumbled, and vigorously threw one of her fists. It went past Noah, flew over the platform, and crashed into a window of the main building with glass shattering noise. Ray, Noah, and I looked at the breakage, speechless.

After a silence during which Linah kept groaning in her sleep, I commented:

“Did something just happen?”

Noah shook his head and turned to the next escalator saying:

“Just your imagination. Oh, yeah, let’s race to the Wind House, stupidstar. The loser will have to make dinner—One, two, go!”

The crimson coward ran away upstairs. How could he make bets like that when I was carrying Linah? Ray looked embarrassed.

“I can’t believe she broke the window in her sleep.”

“Haha… No one saw it, no one saw it—”

“We did, Armen. And she left her hand behind.”

“…!” I hadn’t thought about that. But would I be able to jump and reach the window to retrieve it? It was a bit higher than the platform, maybe two meters away from it. If I were a real martial artist, perhaps… That gave me an idea. I called out: “Noah! I’ll make dinner for you!”

Noah stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around swiftly and ran back to us, openly excited.

“Really?! You’ll do it?”

“… Do they leave you to starve at the Champion Institute?”

Noah’s face and hands glowed with crimson fire.

“Now that I think about it, it’s fishy. Are you planning on putting poison on my plate, stupidstar?”

I chuckled and pointed at the broken window with my chin.

“Could you please go pick up the Lil Witch’s hand?”

“Whaaat?!”

“I promise I won’t poison you, never ever.”

Noah cast me a skeptical look.

“That’s hardly a reward.”

“Er… I’ll make something delicious?”

Noah pouted, then mused:

“Okay, if it’s like that…” He grinned at me. “I want to eat Losterness curry!”

“Deal!”

As he was getting ready to jump from the rail’s platform, I wondered what on earth Losterness curry was. Ray cleared his throat.

“Will you be okay?” he asked Noah.

The crimson guy smirked in the dim light.

“Are you worried about me, captain? It’s not for nothing that I have been chosen to take part in this training, you know.” His eyes sparkled like two rubies. “I may not be good at handling my power yet… but I’m good at sports.”

Under our expectant gazes, he threw himself forward in the air. Luckily, there was no one around. I saw Noah grab the edge of the window, hoist himself, then slip a hand into the broken window and open it.

“Whoa,” I said, impressed. “He’s like Jimmy the Monkey.”

“I hear you!” Noah grumbled.

“Careful with the broken glass!” I replied.

Groaning, he entered the room carefully and disappeared into the darkness. I made a face.

“Damn. He should have taken your flashlight.”

“I’ll throw it to him,” Ray said. Switching it on, he took off his necklace, held up his hand, whirled his arm, and threw his flashlight.

I saw it fly a few meters, almost hit the edge of the window, then descend into the darkness of the garden below.

“…” I looked at Ray. “You did your best.”

Ray averted his eyes, his embarrassment leaking through our necro-bond. He walked to the escalator to go down muttering:

“Be back right away.”

“Wait!” I lay Linah carefully on the ground and took a look below, over the rail. “The flashlight’s still on. I can see it. I’ll try to lift it with my telekinesis and have it go through the window… Okay, I caught it! Now it’s all a matter of patience…”

The farther the object was, the hardest it was to control, and the slowest it moved. Even so, this last month, my ability to catch objects at a greater distance had improved. The weight I could lift, however, could hardly go any higher than thirty grams, and according to Azritz, I would most likely never be able to lift much more weight no matter how much I trained. It was one of those “power limits” that many power-holders continually tried to overcome without success… Well, according to the Lord, some did succeed through dangerous or amoral techniques, but those people seldom ended well.

The flashlight was finally at hand’s reach when, suddenly, we heard a scream coming from inside the room.

Noah?

I had looked away. Fortunately, a hand had reached out quickly enough to grab the flashlight before it fell. It wasn’t Ray’s arm, though. It was…

I jerked up as I saw Linah standing beside me. It seemed that Ilija was right: the cactus’ smoke had not affected her as much as the first time.

“Who’s there?!” she asked, alarmed. “Straw Head, someone took my hand!”

Noah appeared before the window, groaning with pain.

“Hey, stop it! Stop squeezing, damn crazy witch, it’s me!”

Linah squinted at him.

“Who is he?”

I couldn’t help but grimace. I bet Linah’s grip must hurt quite a lot.

“I’m Noah Sarpong!”

“Noah? I don’t know you!”

“He’s living at the Wind House with us,” I chimed in. “Remember, he’s the one that sold my badge to Ray.”

Linah frowned.

“Oh. Him. You thief. Give me back my hand!”

“First stop squeezing mine with it!” Noah retorted. “It’s creepy and it hurts!”

“Okay, but why do you have it?”

Linah was getting seriously angry. I intervened again:

“How about we help him get back on the platform? I’ll explain everything to you…”

However, Linah’s expression made me understand that it would be easier for us all if I explained it now. I opened my mouth… and hastily stepped back when Noah landed on the rail. Linah’s hand had released him, and he was holding onto it by the wrist. He shook it.

“Losterness curry,” he said. His crimson eyes glimmered. “I hope for you that it’ll be worth my efforts, stupidstar. Now, I’ll take my leave. Gotta see that viper.”

He probably referred to Andrea Sisalik, his partner of the Champion Institute. As he left, throwing Linah’s hand like a piece of junk, the Lil Witch glowered at him dangerously. Holy Gods… Hastily stepping in between, I picked up her nervous, lonely hand and offered it to her with smiling eyes.

“It’s a good thing your family is rich, Erma. Even more so if you break windows every time you sleep.”

Linah blinked… then grimaced.

* * *

When Ray and I got back to the Wind House, there was no one else than Rainbows to welcome us. Noah had gone to see Andrea, Linah had gone to apologize for breaking the window… as for Nina, Jing, and Styzz, I had no idea.

Walking into Ray’s room, I closed the door behind and asked:

“So… can it get out now?”

Ray gave a nod. I took off my mask and opened my mouth. Slowly at first, the shadow went up my throat, put its “head” out, looked around… then began to get out. Rainbows stared at me agape. The three of us watched the shadow as it flew out. Was its body made only of energy? As it kept coming out, I felt that something was not quite right. When its tail finally left my mouth, I raised my eyes to the creature that was floating in the room, exchanged a glance with Ray, then asked:

“Isn’t your friend… bigger than before?”

It was actually way bigger. It was no longer a “dark flame” but a mass of dark matter as big as the lantern of a lighthouse. Huddled against Ray’s feet, Rainbows cast me an accusing look as if to say, “What did you do this time, First Familiar”?

38 Spawn of Darkness

“How?” I gasped.

We were sitting on the rug, a dark mass floating over our heads. Ray slightly shrugged, as confused as I was.

“Maybe… it’s regaining its strength?” he suggested.

In such a short period of time?

“Ray… Could it be we just unleashed some terrifying monster?”

“That…”

There was a nervous silence, then I heard Ray’s thought inadvertently leak into my mind like an endless wave:

‘It’d be perfect if I could remember what happened, both today, in the Yuutow Tower, and on that day. But all I remember on the day when my power awakened is the scary sight of people shrouded in darkness. Lei was at the Marvel Hotel too with his siblings. So it is only natural that he does remember something, as he implied, but that stubborn Sunclaw won’t spit it out unless I learn to control my power and fight him again—in other words, he’s toying with me, so I should just ignore him… That’s what I would like to do, but… I want to know. If my power is just a normal dark-energy-based power, why did Mom hide it from me? Why did the Sunclaw erase all the records of the incident? Why did Lei mention the Spawns of Darkness? And… why do I feel like it is related to that shadow we just set free? My damned head can’t remember a thing. Could it be voluntary amnesia? I thought I could just deal with it later, but I was wrong. I must find the truth. What if I lose myself again and give Armen another order? That could be catastrophic. The transformation into a Fury is such a chaotic and fragile phase—even his state of mind can alter it. So I need to get a grip. I can’t supervise Armen’s transformation while struggling with stupid hallucinations and fake memories. As Makler Vod writes, “there is no greater fear for a rational person than to lose control of his own mind.” Geez… I only hope that, whatever that shadow is, saving it won’t bring us more trouble.’

I had frozen at such a display of thoughts. So, that was what Ray’s mind was like.

Exhausting.

Hectic.

And somehow distressing.

Was he always like that? As for the meaning of all his inner monologue… it was confusing, to say the least. I cleared my throat.

“I could never be in your head, Ray. I could never sleep at night.”

Ray gasped and looked at me with consternation, then blocked our necro-bond, let out a long, uneasy sigh, and muttered:

“You never sleep, anyway.”

“Oh… You’re right, heh. So, sorry I heard your thoughts and all, but now that I did… What is a Spawn of Darkness?”

“… I’m not sure.”

I glanced at the shadow looming over our heads.

“Is that thing a Spawn of Darkness?”

Ray shook his head slowly.

“I don’t know.”

Seeing Ray’s reserved face, I pouted then shrugged:

“Okay, you don’t have to tell me. Hey, I never told you about my origins either. I wonder why, actually. I did promise my big sis I wouldn’t say anything about it… but I can’t remember why. Maybe I forgot after I died?” I gave Ray a mildly worried look. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told Ilija, after all.”

“Er… Well, how should I know,” Ray coughed embarrassedly. “I don’t know much about the Chorns, and even less about the Cursed People. I was just surprised you never mentioned it before… Well, I’m not one to talk. I hid a much worse secret from you, after all, like… the fact that my paternal family is full of necromancers.”

“…!” I laughed. “You’re right!”

Anyway, most likely, nothing would have changed if I had known. As for the Chorns… Well, even Chorns were most probably not looked down on as terribly as undeads were, so why worry?

My gaze followed the floating shadow as it rubbed itself against the ceiling and the walls, blindly feeling around. Was it trying to find its way out of the room? Was it worried we might not want to set it free after all? No, the more I looked at it the more it seemed that it was just sluggishly dawdling.

“So…” Ray said, uneasy. “How much did you hear?”

“You mean, about what you were thinking? Mm… Things about the incident at Marvel Hotel, about Lei being a jerk… oh, and you cited Makler Vod. You sure are a fan of that old necromancer, aren’t you? ”

Ray grimaced then sighed. As Rainbows walked on his lap, the young necromancer stroked her absent-mindedly.

“I told you earlier that Lei wants to learn necromancy,” he said. Was he going to tell me, after all? As I nodded with curiosity, he went on: “I don’t think he’s interested in power, nor afraid of death, and unless he’s trying to become an Immortal or whatever… my guess is he only got interested in necromancy because its applications have a lot to do with qi manipulation. I told you: he’s a qi freak. On the day of our duel, just after Christmas, he suggested that we make a bet. At first, that jerk wanted to buy you from me.”

“…!! He what?!”

“Yeah… Lei Sunclaw is basically a whimsical fool. He wants to see for himself whether familiars do have a soul, whether it is true that they transform white energy into dark energy, and stuff like that.”

Lei doubted that I had a soul?! The hell…

“How much did he offer?”

Ray rolled his eyes.

“Five hundred thousand Corns.”

I was aghast. A half-million Corns! Were undeads so expensive? To think that Lei had been seeing me as a rare monster all this time… I muttered:

“I don’t know if I should feel offended or creeped out. Anyway, what did he say when you turned him down?”

“When did I say I turned him down?”

“What?”

Ray snorted with laughter.

“Sorry, I’m kidding.”

“Don’t give me a scare like that.”

“Sorry, there’s just no way I could ever sell you, Armen. For starters, I don’t own you. His offer was ridiculous and based on stupid preconceptions.”

‘Besides, I may have become a necromancer, but necromancers have their dignity too,’ he thought with exasperation. ‘Only a messed-up necromancer would sell his own familiars. Those rich kids think they can buy anything with money. And martial artists think they can get anything with power—’

“You’re doing it again, Ray,” I pointed out calmly.

“…! Sorry.” He added mentally and perhaps unwittingly: ‘Controlling a necro-bond with a Fury sure is tough…’ His thought was blocked at this point. He cleared his throat and continued: “When I rejected his offer, Lei made another suggestion: if he won the spar, I would help him with learning the basics of necromancy. Since I lost, I lent him some books in digital format. I kept receiving messages from him this month, but I just ignored them. It turns out that, after all these weeks, he’s still trying to have me explain the very basics to him. There’s no way I’ll do it. As Makler Vod says in one of his books, ‘As long as you are not ready to die, you will not control the realm of Death but be infallibly drawn into it instead’.” He paused with a glint of severity in his dark eyes, then flushed slightly. “And, just to be clear, I’m not a fan of Vod.”

“Sure,” I grinned. Well, hopefully, Lei would soon give up on trying for his own good. I frowned. “But why did you accept the bet? I mean… What did he promise you if you were to win the duel?”

Ray didn’t answer right away. He smiled at Rainbows. And I felt a touch of jealousy. The hell was with that creepy feeling? Sometimes, I was under the impression that my undead instincts were affecting me more than I thought.

“Well,” Ray finally said, “I think you heard it when I shared my thoughts. If I had won, Lei would have told me the truth about what really happened back then, when I first used my power of shadows and lost control.”

The truth? Didn’t his shadows just go out of control and paralyzed the guests?

“Although I lost the duel, when we went to the infirmary, he still said to me, ‘Ever heard of the Spawns of Darkness?’, then he asked me for the necromancy books and left.”

There was a silence.

“Wasn’t he just toying with you?” I asked.

“… I think he was not.”

“Lei is a jester, though.”

Ray shrugged.

“I’ve looked into the term ‘Spawn of Darkness’, including some translations to other languages, and… it’s hard to distinguish between truth and falsehood. There are plenty of results on the Internet, usernames, music bands, and the like. It’s also a legendary creature apparently well-known in the Starland continent. It’s not always evil, but it’s invariably destructive. In Starland, it’s almost always a creature born under the blessing of the Black Great Crystals and thus a servant of the Dark Gods. I read a tale in which a creature like that possessed a greedy businessman, ruined him, then repelled the spell of an exorcist, and turned the whole village upside down as retaliation.”

“… Scary. But it’s just folklore, right?”

Ray cast me a curious look.

“Aren’t you a believer of the Holy Gods?”

“Well, I am. I do believe the Crystals are sacred, the Black Crystals included, but… The Holy Gods have no servants. They’re like oceans. Well, rivers do flow into oceans, but it’s more like, you know, I had a book, back at home. It said that the Blue Gods were oceans of water, the Dark Gods were oceans of night, the White Gods were oceans of light, and so on, and—Shoot, what was I trying to say, again? A-Anyhow, even if such a creature exists, what does it have to do with you? You’re not a Spawn of Darkness. Humans are not spawns of gods. Gods have no souls.”

Ray looked up at me in surprise.

“Gods have no souls?” he repeated.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah… Well, that’s what I’ve been taught by my family. Souls are a source of emotions and weaknesses, but gods have no emotions or weaknesses, hence gods have no souls,” I cited.

“… An overwhelming logic. I didn’t know there was such a belief.”

“Since you’re a non-believer,” I nodded, amused. “Anyway, since they have no souls, all the souls of the whole world become the Holy Gods’ souls.”

“So they do have a soul.”

“… Looks like it.”

Ray snorted with laughter.

“You should become a priest, Armen.”

“Huh… I’m just repeating what I learned, but I’m a bad student, so… Anyway! We digressed. We were talking about you figuring out what your power really is. I was thinking, if your mom hid the records, she should know everything, shouldn’t she?”

“Yeah… That would be the most logic thing to do.” Ray’s voice was muffled by uncertainty. There was a silence. “But there’s no way I can actually ask her.”

Ray flinched under my surprised look. Gently, he put Rainbows aside, stood up, walked to the window, and leaned his hands on the sill, turning his face to the darkness of the night.

“You can’t compare my parents to yours, Armen,” he finally said. “My dad is a necro-freak that lives by working as a ‘doctor’ for rich people to extend their lives. He makes a lot of money out of it… His philosophy is ‘I don’t care where my money comes from, as long as I can keep expanding my dear family of undeads’.” He paused. “I find it unfair, stupid, and awful.”

“When you put it that way, it does sound pretty bad…”

I saw him clench his fists.

“But the thing is,” he went on, “my mom is even more incomprehensible than my dad. She’s a Lovecryce fan. No, it’s worse than that. You know that she’s one of the Nine Crowned Fairies. Did you know they are also nicknamed the Nine Demons of Lovecryce? Every time she talks about his boss, it’s like she’s talking about a god. She sacrifices her vacations for him. She’s committed to her cause and thinks Lovecryce will make the Nyomin become the greatest branch of the WHO for people’s sake. She believes in the Greater Good in all seriousness. Sometimes I wonder if she has been brainwashed or what. Anyhow…” He turned to me. “All these years, she sacrificed her family for her job. I don’t blame her. It’s her life, her decision. She probably saved lives she wouldn’t have if she had been taking care of his son. And she still cared for me in her own way. But I can’t play her game forever. I accepted to go to this training, but that’s that. I won’t become a Nyomin Hero. I won’t waste my life for the sake of an ideal that’s not mine. That’s common sense. ”

‘But if I can’t bring myself to tell her that, would it be okay to ask her about my power? All those attempts to help me control my energies…’ he took his necklace, pensive, and contemplated the Black Gem that his mother had given him for Christmas. ‘Is it because she wants me to prove her suspicions wrong? But what suspicions?’

His thought, full of frustration and incomprehension, infiltrated my mind then faded away, leaving only a deep silence.

It was a shame that his parents were such freaks but… it couldn’t be helped. I knew all I could do, as a friend, was support him in whichever decision he would take.

Rainbow’s meowing broke the silence. Her eyes were fixed on its master. She was hungry.

“Ops, right, Rainbows, your meal!” Ray looked embarrassed as he hurried to his bag, took out a tin, and opened it. “It’s the last. I’ll have to buy more tomorrow.”

“I’ll buy some tonight,” I suggested. “Natasha told me we would go to the main island together, and it seems there are quite a lot of groceries shops open at night.”

“I see… Then… Crabmeat.”

“Crabmeat,” I affirmed.

We both looked at the cat chewing the meat in the tin with delight. Its eyes were darkening. According to Ray, a ghoul’s eyes always darkened when they were eating, because of the incoming deathforce. Life reapers’ didn’t, except when they had eaten too much lifeforce.

“She sure eats a lot.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Haha… True. Do you know when Rainbows will become a life reaper?”

Ray raised an eyebrow at my question.

“Not tomorrow, and probably not in one year. It took three years for Louise to become one. Ghouls don’t change easily. By the way, Armen…”

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a favor to ask of you.”

I straightened up. A favor? Ray glanced at the shadow, that was now floating like a big ethereal dark slime just by his side. Was it… following him, now? Ray held out a hand and gently touched the shadow under my alarmed eyes. It went through it. For a moment, I thought the shadow had devoured his hand; then Ray withdrew it and gave a firm nod.

“I’m going to accept Lei’s challenge.”

“…!”

He turned to me.

“I know I’m always saying that but… this time, I’ll learn how to control my power for real.”

So he had given up on asking his mom about the past, huh? Well, the determination shining in his eyes was kinda invigorating. I smiled and merrily bumped a fist in my palm.

“Okay! Do you want me to throw you into a black pit or make you go through some terrifying experience so you can practice?”

“Why am I beginning to feel like a guinea pig?” Ray protested with a snort. Rainbows stopped eating for a moment to observe us with curiosity. Well, it seemed that Ray had another plan to force his power to activate. I saw him take off his necklace, showing the Black Gem. “Do you know what this is?”

“A rare fragment of a Black Crystal. You told me.”

Ray detached the crescent moon pendant and weighed it up on his palm.

“My mom told me in her letter that absorbing its energy would help me control my power.”

Obviously curious, the shadow stretched into a snake and began slithering in the air around Ray’s palm. Wasn’t it getting thinner? I turned my attention back to the gem as I echoed:

“Absorb? You mean like a pill?”

“Kinda. But it’s not artificially made. It’s a black gem. That is, it’s a fragment of dark crystal with a core. The Great Crystals have a lot of cores that make the whole structure almost unbreakable and keep the Crystals ‘alive’. Take the Yellow Crystal in Farskyer: only its roots can be broken; the main body with the cores can’t.”

“I know that. My PE teacher told me.”

“What kind of PE teacher teaches that? Anyway, there is an exception to the rule. Great Crystals have never been broken by humans so far, but some did break during the Big Blend: they fell from space at an incredible speed, and the fall and impact caused big parts to disintegrate. It’s said that a rain of smaller Crystals completely crumbled into dust. That’s why now there are so many crystal particles in the atmosphere. We learned that in middle school.”

“Now I remember.”

“… Do you? Anyway, it’s still possible to find some rare crystal cores in small fragments. This black gem is one of them. Some acquaintances of my mom found it in the Hydra continent, and she bought it from them. A crystal core can store energy, but that’s not all: a black gem possesses a memory. Remember what Azritz told us, one day, about the researchers who specialize in understanding where Great Crystals come from? She told us crystal cores are actually alive. Some say they are part of a unique tremendous entity living in the Great Crystal, a god so to speak. Another theory is that those cores are living beings, or more exactly, spiritual fragments of them, aliens that somehow ended up imprisoned within the Crystals.”

“… Aliens?! You kidding, right? Weren’t the Crystals sent by the gods?”

“… Er… They say the Holy Gods come from space, remember? So your gods are aliens, Armen.” That shocked me, but what struck me even more was the fact that I had never made the connection. “Now let’s put the gods aside for a moment. Your sis told us about those cores when she was still in College. You were with me at the time.”

We weren’t even fourteen, then. Obviously, I wouldn’t remember. It’s not that Azritz’s lessons weren’t interesting, it’s just that my long-term memory left much to be desired.

“Oh, right. Maybe it’s natural that you don’t remember,” Ray said, his face darkened. “Just as you say you forgot past things you don’t care about, after your revival…”

“I would have probably forgotten about it anyway,” I assured. “I’m not a crystal fan. So? What about those cores?”

“Ah, right… You do know that every living being has a core, right?”

“Yeah. A white crystal core.”

“Exactly.” Ray lifted the gem between two fingers. “That’s a black core. The first necromancers used black cores to revive the Dead, but because undeads with those cores were unruly and didn’t last long, they did a lot of research and chose to create artificial cores, using plain black crystal.”

“So my core is made of black crystal?”

“It’s the base, but it’s not that simple. Cyan crystals are used to form the necro-bond and retain your soul, purple crystal allows the necro-bond to work through warping, and orange crystals protect your soul from shocks and allow you to circulate the deathforce throughout your body… Sorry I’m losing you, Armen.”

“No, no, I’m okay… for now. I was just wondering: if a core has to be made beforehand, then that means the Lord brought one with him when you two revived me.”

“That’s right. My dad has quite a collection of cores. He gave me a few of them, and I thought I wouldn’t use them, but then…”

His eyes looked down at Rainbows. I smiled.

“Then you did. And you gave me a little sister. Thank you, dad.”

“The hell? Don’t…” Suppressing his order just in time, he puffed out his cheeks and breathed out loudly as I laughed. He grumbled. “Anyway! Artificial cores are easier to control, fix, and understand than a gem core. Handling a gem core doesn’t go without risk.”

“Oi, you’re saying your mom gave you something dangerous?!”

“She gave me instructions to only absorb the energy of the core and do nothing more with it. That should help me get used to my power. I’ve been absorbing the gem’s energy, and there’s scarcely any left now. So… I think it’s about time I try to activate my power.”

His eyes sparkled. He really looked motivated. I laughed.

“That’s great news! Also, I’m glad to hear you don’t need the gem anymore, because…”

I pointed with my chin at Ray’s palm. The shadow had been continuously swirling around it, getting thinner and thinner, until it had become a mere worm. At this instant, it disappeared, as if absorbed by the Black Gem.

Ray let out an exclamation of surprise.

“What?!”

The young necromancer had been so engrossed in the conversation that he had not paid attention to the shadow. I chuckled.

“It looked so happy going around your hand that I actually didn’t realize what it was doing until it became really tiny.”

“You could have told me! Well… I don’t think it’ll be in danger in there. The gem does store energy, after all.”

“Damn, if I had known it could go in there, I wouldn’t have swallowed it,” I grumbled, then I leaned forward, staring at the gem with curiosity. “You said the gem was almost empty of energy, right? Since the shadow is made of dark energy too, is it absorbable?”

Barely had I said that when a fist made of shadows sprang out of the gem and punched my forehead. Although I was sitting on the floor, I lost my balance. I recovered it, astonished, and gasped:

“It hit me! But how?”

The vengeful, cowardly shadow had rushed back to its new home. Ray made a thoughtful pout.

“It’s made of energy. Even dark energies can create a force field when condensed. More importantly, it seems that it understands us perfectly. She must have learned Yanganese through the years, by listening to the martial artists climbing the tower.”

“She”? I repeated silently. Well, the shadow sure seemed to be intelligent. I joined my hands, smiling apologetically.

“Sorry to scare you, Hellfist.”

Ray snorted.

“Hellfist?”

“It’s her name.”

“You say it as if you didn’t just come up with it.”

“You don’t like it? Then… Hellblackfire? Helly? Infernalia? Tartarus? The Shelled Devil? Hell-punch-shade?”

“What’s with those scary names…”

Ray fell silent when a shady hand came out of the gem, holding up three fingers. I squinted an eye. Three fingers…?

“Oh! You prefer the third one, you mean? Helly?”

It gave a thumbs up. I grinned at Ray.

“Hah, I gave her a name. I feel like a new father.”

“She’s way older than you, though. ”

As Ray reattached the gem to his necklace, I pondered and came to the conclusion that Helly had no bad intentions towards her saviors and that she even wanted to stay with us. She seemed rather happy to have found a comfortable home within the black gem. I still was a bit worried that Ray kept her so close to him but… who knows, maybe Helly would help him figure out what the Spawns of Darkness were? Then I thought again about Ray’s intention to test his power out, and I grimaced, remembering something.

“Ray, I was thinking. Is it okay to activate your power here? The thing is, before I left Farskyer City, the Lord told me to… you know… to advise you against activating your power during the training. I’m personally not against it, of course! I think you can—”

“Did he order you?” Ray’s eyes glowered.

“Huh… I don’t remember—No, actually, he did order me, but by the time I left his mansion, my core had forgotten about the order, so… I think he must have ordered me unwittingly.”

And that had made me painfully confirm that, even if I could resist some specific orders issued by an average necromancer, I was still rather defenseless against necromancy experts.

Ray shook his head softly.

“I made up my mind. I won’t back down now so…” He paused and nodded. “If I activate my power and lose consciousness, I won’t be able to know what happens. The good thing is, it seems my power doesn’t work on undead people. Remember? You weren’t affected in the slightest when I used my power on Sally Sunclaw. I think it’s probably because the sort of energy my shadows are made of is very similar to deathforce. They’re both dark energies, after all.”

Oh… so that was the favor he wanted to ask from me.

“I just need to watch over you when you’re activating your power, right?”

“That’s right, plus evacuate the house if things go really wrong. The problem is, if I faint, I’ll be probably out cold for several days. But—”

“You won’t faint,” I interrupted him, and I smiled at his quizzical expression. “If you’re really determined to do it, then do it thinking you’ll do it right.”

Ray’s lips went up a bit.

“Without a doubt, I’ll do it right.”

“That’s the spirit! So? Are you gonna do it? Go for it.” I hit my chest. “I’m here to watch over you, master.”

“Ugh… I’ll do it after dinner,” he said. “The meeting for the badge exchange is at half-past six. In one hour.”

“You’re going? But Zeeta—”

“I know. I won’t buy his badge. I’ll just go take a look.”

I frowned thoughtfully. Ever since I had seen Axel Sunclaw call the young Oliver a monster, I was worried about his intentions, and I had been thinking of taking care of the matter myself, but if Ray was going to that meeting, could I just ask him to make sure the kid’s badge wouldn’t end up in Axel’s hands?

Nah. Ray had already a lot to deal with. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to rest if I wasn’t the one settling the matter with that damned crazy negativist.

“Where are you going?”

I had stood up and was walking to the door. My hand stopped on the doorknob.

“Ray. Could I ask you for a favor?”

“…? Of course. What is it?”

“Don’t see through my eyes or hear through my ears until we meet again.” Before his shocked expression, I insisted: “Please?”

“… I…” Ray swallowed his questions and nodded. “Okay.”

I smiled as I opened the door.

“Thanks.”

“So you won’t tell me where you’re going?”

My smile broadened as I raised a hand.

“Just taking a walk. Don’t worry. After that meeting, let’s eat that Losterness curry and test your power out. See ya! See ya, Rainbows. See ya, Helly.”

I closed the door behind me and went downstairs. No one had come back yet to the Wind House. I left, walked across the court, then down the escalator.

From what I had learned this morning, there were, in total, nine flying houses that were occupied by the trainees. Almost all the Starlanders were living in the Fire House, the biggest and lowest house of all. Zeeta lived in the Sun House with Cesarine and her underlings. The Cactus House, where Arkifa lived with the dryad, was the farthest house from the Wind House. The nearest was the Music House: it was occupied by Eder Irakoze, the European elite trainee, who was living there alone.

As for the other four houses… I tried to remember their names as well as their location. The Steel House, the Shaking House…

“Oh.”

At the sound of a voice, I came back to reality. I had arrived at the platform that connected the Wind House with the Music House. No one was in sight. I frowned, then I heard from behind:

“It’s true, you really can’t feel anything!”

I turned around to see a teen my age in a dark tunic. His long, dark braid, was laying on his shoulder, almost reaching its red belt.

“Lei. What are you doing?”

“Just testing your sense of touch.”

That jerk…

“I’m not completely insensible, you know.”

“Really?”

He put his forefinger on my chest. I glared at him… then paused, surprised. I grabbed his hand. I really couldn’t feel anything. Maybe I was running low on energy? The Yuutow Tower must have eaten away almost all my deathforce—and maybe Helly had stolen energy from me to grow that fast? I rolled my eyes inwardly and put things into perspective: in a way, if I lost my sense of touch whenever my body needed food, that would be a useful method to measure my energy levels.

Anyway, I only hoped I wouldn’t go berserk now. Lei’s lifeforce, unlike Linah’s, tasted good… With a mix of relief and disappointment, I saw him step away.

“So?” he asked.

I snorted.

“You read the books Ray lent you, didn’t you? Then you probably know more about undeads than I do.”

“Oh? Ray told you about our deal? Then you must know I tried to buy you for one million Corns.”

“Wasn’t it five hundred thousand?”

“That was the starting price. Well, but I would have been in trouble if I had to explain to my father that I spent all my savings on you, so I guess it was for the best that Ray turned me down. After reading the books, I also realized that you can’t switch masters just like that. That necro-bond thing… It’s common knowledge that necromancers have absolute control over their familiars, but is that true?”

“… Yeah. Technically.”

“So cool. Undeads are so cool,” he said excitedly.

“Thanks.”

“I quite like that necro-bond stuff, but I’m even more interested in how deathforce works. I still remember the first time we met, in the Work-Lair. I gave you a blow that should have knocked you out, but it didn’t, even though your fighting skills were absolutely awful. Undeads sure are sturdy.”

“Thanks for the compliment. Where are you going, anyway? This platform only leads to Ray’s house and the European’s.” I squinted at him. “You’re not gonna cause trouble for Ray, are you?”

Lei’s eyes curled up, smiling.

“What if I am?”

“…” Tch. Damn bastard. “Do you know where I’m going now?”

“Huh? Dunno. To suck someone’s lifeforce dry?”

“I don’t do that.” My jaws clenched, but my smile didn’t falter. “I’m going to challenge your twin brother to a duel.”

Lei widened his eyes, amazed. Bingo. He had taken the bait.

“Aya-aya, undeads sure are lively. Did you know? As far as martial arts are concerned, Axel is not as hardworking as I am, but after so many defeats, I have to admit it, he is stronger than me. Now, are you still willing to fight him?”

“Yeah.”

Lei stared at me, then chuckled.

“You picked my curiosity. I’ll leave Ray in peace for now. Let’s see how you plan on taking on my dear brother.”

“Good. Do you know where he lives?”

“Eeh… you don’t even know that? He lives alone. This way. I heard the house he chose is not even used by the regular students nowadays. There is a smoky bubble around the whole wing. A special bubble that distorts sounds.”

“What is the name of the house?”

As we were going down the escalator, Lei glanced at me.

“The Silent House.”

When we arrived and entered the bubble, I could see a court very similar to that of the Wind House illuminated by several lights, but there were no small cactuses and no flowers besides some rare wild daisies growing in the garden courtyards on both sides; the facade looked gloomy.

Lei cast me a quizzical look. Ray would have thought I was reckless. Well, I was. The only thing I had in mind to defeat Axel was to eat his lifeforce in the most pleasurable way so he would suffer the backlash and surrender. That was my plan. And it wasn’t a bad one, I think.

‘You won’t smile ever again’, he had said…

Yeah… His words, in the tower, had rubbed me the wrong way. However, before anything else, I had a question to ask him. Depending on his answer… I would leave or knock some sense into him.

My beliefs reaffirmed, I stepped forward, stopped in the middle of the court, took a deep breath, and shouted:

“AXEL, COME OUT!”

I was surprised at my own rasping voice. It echoed everywhere in the bubble, muffled, like a macabre and ghastly complaint.

For once, I sounded like a real revenant.

39 The Silent House is crying

It took at least two minutes for the scraping sound of my voice to die away.

“What a creepy house,” Lei chortled behind me. “As expected from my bro.”

For a moment, the silence was absolute. Then, the stifled creaky sound of an opening door could be heard. I saw Axel Sunclaw come out of the Silent House. I scrutinized him as he approached. From his punky looks, no one would think he was from one of the wealthiest families in the Farskyer Peninsula. His casual shirt displayed a distasteful ‘HATE’ in upper case with fake blood trickling down the letters. As he stopped before me, his eyes stabbed mine, then turned to his brother.

“What are you up to, Lei?” He whispered, probably so his voice wouldn’t reverberate inside the bubble.

“Aya-aya, don’t glare at me, dear brother. That guy seems to bear a grudge against you, and I just felt curious. After all, it’s sooo rare that someone wants to smash your face in.”

“Actually,” I intervened. “I’m here to ask you some questions first.”

“Aya-aya, are you backing down in front of the beast?” Lei mocked.

“Tsk. I’m not.” Wait, did he just call his brother a “beast”?

“Get out.”

Axel’s curt words were filled with venom. Why, even though he looked rather calm, did his aura exude only anger and disgust?

“I won’t unless you answer my questions,” I said. “In the tower, you used your power on Oliver. And you said you would leave him alone if he didn’t get near you. But I get the impression you won’t.”

“… That’s not a question, worthless worm. But, in any case, you’re right.” Axel’s eyes strayed on his twin brother, then went back to me. “I’m planning to get that monster telepath’s badge in the meeting and have him suffer and repent until he quits the training.”

“…!” He was… not kidding. Damn, so my instinct had been right… “But why?!”

“For my mental health, of course.”

… What? Behind me, Lei whispered lightly as if to give voice to his brother’s thoughts:

“Look here, my mind is too sensitive to bear a little kid, so it’s his life or my sanity—wait, whose sanity? Mine? Did I have something like that in the first place?”

“Shut up, Lei.”

Axel’s calmness was scary. As a former gangster, I had learned that letting people trample on you is rarely a solution, but… would I be able to beat that guy? I breathed in.

“Axel Sunclaw. Tell me…” I looked him in the eye. “Did you ever use your power on Linah?”

Axel raised an eyebrow.

“Depending on your answer,” I added, “I might actually challenge you to a duel… for my mental health.”

A twisted smirk appeared on his face.

“Plenty of times.” I froze as he muttered: “My little sis, and my stupid brother over there… they fear me like hell. That’s the only way to see them as my siblings. It’s a balance. Armen Moon. I accept your challenge. But I don’t guarantee your sanity will be unscathed after we fight. Hate me with all you’ve got, that will be heaven for me. Though you cannot hate me more than I hate you, nor more than I hate myself.”

His dark, blue eyes were glowering at me. I shuddered; a mix of fear, anger, and horror squeezed my heart.

That guy was insane. He even admitted to mistreating his siblings. And he said he hated himself. How negative could he be?

What a monster. What a freak. He may have ended up like this because of his power, true, but… pitying him was not a solution. Just imagining him using his power on Linah and planning on ruining a kid’s future while not even feeling an ounce of regret… made my anger blaze out.

“I ain’t got the whole day,” I said. “I’ve got a curry to put in the fire. So let’s fight. If I win, you’ll let Oliver be and won’t ever use your power on Linah, Ray, or Zeeta.”

“Hoho, such a greedy wish,” Lei teased. He had settled down on a low garden wall, sitting like a monkey. “What about me?”

“Mm. You won’t use your power on Lei either,” I added, for Axel.

“Buahaha, I can’t believe you said it!” Lei’s laughter echoed and distorted sinisterly in the bubble. “So? What about you, Axel? What will your condition be?”

“…” Axel looked really, really annoyed. “Since you are greedy, so will I. If you lose, you will quit the training, won’t ever enter the WHO, and will never talk to Linah again.”

So, in the end, it did bother him that Linah and I got along so well. We scowled at each other. I gave a firm nod.

“Okay.”

“I’m the referee!” Lei exclaimed. “By the way, Armen, I suppose you know how those things work, but a deal in a duel between martial artists is unbreakable. Once the fight begins, you can’t go back on your word, or your reputation will be ruined, and no trainee with a bit of pride will accept any challenge coming from you. That’s how honor works in the world of martial arts. Still fired up?”

I nodded.

“Still fired up. Let’s get started.”

“Aya-aya, you’re the impatient type, huh? Well, let me suggest the rules of this duel.” Lei indicated the garden courtyard on his left. “The combat field is that square. If you lie on the ground for more than ten seconds, your opponent wins. No weapons allowed. No shoes. No blows on the head. You trample on a flower, and you have a five seconds penalty during which you can’t move. The nature protector dixit.”

“What’s with that stupid rule?” Axel replied.

“Haha… The referee sets the rules, right? Could it be you’re scared of losing because of a daisy, dear brother?”

The negativist clicked his tongue. I nodded energetically. There weren’t that many flowers on the lawn, anyway.

“I’ll keep that in mind. No collateral damages allowed.”

“You said it, Beanie Zombie.”

“Then let’s start,” Axel grumbled. He had already entered the combat field. I followed him as Lei giggled.

“Aya-aya, bro. Are you looking forward to the fight? That’s so unusual!”

“Shut up and give the signal.”

“Just a moment.” Lei jumped down the wall, drew closer to me, and whispered to my ear: “Let’s make a bet. If by some miracle you win, I’ll stop bothering Ray and move to his house as a subordinate.”

“No need to move to our house, that would totally bother Ray,” I snorted. “What if I lose?”

Lei smiled.

“You will accept to be my disciple.”

“…!”

Again with that disciple stuff? The first time I had met him he had wanted to take me in as a disciple even though he didn’t know I was an undead at the time. Lei was a person I had trouble understanding; well, compared to his twin brother, he was sympathy itself. I shrugged.

“If I lose, I’ll have to quit the training, though.”

“But you’d still stay in Phoenix City. You can’t stay away from your master, can you?”

I grimaced. Was he already looking forward to having me as his disciple? I nodded.

“I’ll win, anyway.”

Lei grinned and pointed at me with his forefinger, acting cool.

“Good luck, Zombaby.”

“…” Ugh. I would definitely win. There was no way I’d become the disciple of that clown. Ever.

Lei returned to his sitting position on the low wall and said:

“Ready, guys? Then… Three. Two. One. Fight!”

I launched myself at Axel, avoided a daisy, fixed my eyes on my opponent’s, and activated my power.

My plan was simple: run at Axel, close his eyes on the way, grab him, and eat his lifeforce without letting him go. If I succeeded, I would probably win in a matter of minutes.

However, Axel was a martial artist. As soon as I entered his range, he spun around, making me lose contact with his eyes, and he threw a blow at my chest, kicking the back of my knee at the same time. I lost my balance and got knocked over.

“Daisy! Armen! Five-seconds penalty!” Lei cried out. “Five—four—three—two—one!”

“Those were at most half seconds,” Axel tsked, glowering at Lei.

“Aya-aya, sorry I’m bad at counting seconds, dear brother!” Lei laughed. “I’ll try to do better next time. Get up, Armen! Does it hurt?”

As I jumped to my feet, I sent him a fierce grin.

“You know it doesn’t. I’m still fired up.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Axel looked at me, annoyed.

“Come at me, worm.”

“Sure.”

I lunged at him again. This time, Axel moved forward, too, but without hurry. He waited until my hands almost touched him then kneed me in the stomach. Had I been alive, I would have probably doubled up in pain. But I didn’t. I tried to grab his leg, in vain: Axel had already bounced backwards. What was he, a squirrel? He repeated the same attack, alternating between kicks and palm strikes. On seeing me seemingly unscathed, he grew exasperated, grasped my shirt, and made me lose my balance…

That’s all I needed.

I grabbed his wrist and began to eat his lifeforce. With my other hand, I tried to grab Axel’s neck, or at least punch him, but he deflected all my attempts. Whatever. I kept aspirating his energy.

Tasty.

It would get even tastier if I managed to empathize with that negativist, wouldn’t it? And the more pleasure I felt, the more painful it would be for him, right? A good meal was always welcome, of course, but… all I wanted now was to win.

Surrender, Axel!

Axel began to tremble. He was striking me to free himself, but his blows didn’t make me budge in the least. I was like a cursed stone swallowing his lifeforce with delight.

Then, Lei cried out:

“Stop the attack! Get up both of you, or there will be no winner! Ten, nine…”

When did we fall to the ground? I couldn’t remember. Anyway, Lei’s intervention had me snap back to reality. I let go of Axel reluctantly, and we both pulled away. He was huffing and puffing. But his eyes glowed with hatred. It was not enough. I had to eat more to make him resign.

The problem was, Axel was now totally aware that he had better not let me touch him.

“Are you a telekinetic and an emotion manipulator?” he asked when he caught his breath.

I smiled.

“Are you scared?”

Axel threw a bored glance at me then dashed forward. He began landing blows so fast I could barely tell where he had struck me, but he most likely wasn’t choosing the least painful attacks. He was like a crazy boomerang, going back and forth, dodging my hands, moving to my blind spot, and striking. I was in awe. So that was how it felt to be fighting a martial artist. How many hours had he spent enhancing his skills?

Axel Sunclaw was incredible.

Still, he feared me. I could tell whenever I would lose my balance and fall to the ground: he didn’t try to approach and would always wait for me to get up.

The more he hit me, the more his eyes glowed with rage.

After a while, I could see his cheeks shining with sweat.

“Why?” he muttered, then shouted: “Why don’t you drop dead already!”

His voice distorted in the bubble of the Silent House, rattling like that of a ghost. Lei let out a guffaw.

“You’re losing it, dear brother, calm down! You are making enough noise to wake the dead! Though you may have woken one already, hahaha!”

Axel breathed in. His expression became icy as he whispered:

“Shut up. I’ll take him down in one attack.”

His determination worried me. One attack? What was he trying to do? I had no idea, but one thing was for sure: I had to take hold of him in one way or another. First, let’s increase the chances of contact. I took off my shirt, tossed it away, then glanced around at the daisies. If only there were more of them… What was with that Silent House, really? Everything seemed so gloomy!

“Armen, wake up! You’re in the middle of a fight! Why are you stripping anyway?”

Lei’s warning came too late. By the time I averted my eyes from the flowers, Axel was on me. I didn’t see his attack, so I couldn’t tell where I was hit: I fell over on my back. Axel loomed over me, and instead of jumping back, he drove a kneel into my torso, and thrust my elbows to the ground with his hands… his hands?

He was using his sleeves to cover them.

Axel smirked.

“So that’s your condition. You need to touch your opponent to activate your power, but it doesn’t work through clothes.”

I tried to free myself, to no avail. Axel barked:

“Lei! What are you doing? What about the ten-second countdown?”

“Oh, right. Ten. Nine. Eight.”

What should I do? Dammit, if only I could eat his lifeforce! His wasted lifeforce was not enough. His lifeforce. All I needed was his energy!

“Seven. Six. Fiiiive…”

“Why is he dragging the syllables?” Axel muttered under his breath.

Then something clicked in my mind.

“Fooour. Threeee.”

I fixed my eyes on a flower and activated my power.

“Twooo… Oooone… Daisy! Penalty, Axel! Five seconds, stop your attack!”

Axel widened his eyes in confusion, then saw the daisy I had plucked with my telekinesis and put under his knee.

It worked! Well, probably because Lei was expecting it. Was that daisy rule an advantage he had set for me, after all? As Axel let go of me, boiling with anger, I grinned at him, passed my hands under his shirt, pulled it up, and grabbed him with my arms, as tightly as possible. I had never used such a big contact area to eat lifeforce, and the incoming energy burst inside me. Lei was counting the seconds. Axel began to scream.

“… Three…! Oi, Axel, you can’t hit him during the penalty, stop it right now or you lose!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!”

Axel wasn’t listening. I myself was barely aware of my surroundings: I was giving myself up to Axel’s energy, body and mind. I had even forgotten I had to concentrate on making my meal pleasurable. It was tasty, anyway, and I was starving. The more I ate, the hungrier I got. A strange passion arose inside me, all directed to the incoming lifeforce. Admiration for the living. Love and respect for life. Respect for a life that was being destroyed by myself… Such a horrible contradiction. Such a nightmarish emotion.

Yet… I couldn’t stop.

My core was working like an infernal machine when I sensed another source of energy. With the renewed deathforce, I could feel how some hands were trying to make me lose my grip. One part of me wanted to let go of the food, because I knew all too well that what I was eating was a living being’s energy; even though he was a negativist, even though he had used his cursed power on Linah, I didn’t want Axel to die. I actually didn’t hate him…

So, please, let him go, please let him go…

I was telling that to the other part of me, which only wanted to keep eating. Keep eating and become livelier. Keep stuffing myself with the energy of the living so I could live and grow.

‘The personality or will of the Fury hardly makes a difference when its life-lust is at its peak.’

It was just as Ray had said: a Fury, regardless of its willpower, couldn’t fight its own instincts. That’s why an undead needed a master. That’s why I needed Ray.

But I had told him not to see through my eyes or hear through my ears. Ray probably felt through our necro-bond that something was going on. And if he learned I had given in to my life-lust…

I was ashamed. Ray had trusted me, and I was betraying that trust.

I didn’t want that. My soul was screaming inside. But, unlike in the tower, my will seemed to have no control over my body anymore. What a Fury didn’t want was of no importance: all that mattered was that there was still lifeforce left to absorb.

“Please,” I grumbled. “Please, Lei, help me let go of him, or he will die!”

My hearing was altered, and I couldn’t see Lei, since my forehead was pressing against Axel’s skin as if glued, but I still sensed his lifeforce as his hand touched my back. When he activated his magnetic power, my body was forcefully catapulted away, flew over the garden square, and hit the wall of the Silent House. The only problem was, I had dragged Axel along. Lei touched alternately the stony wall and my hands. My left lost grip of Axel as it crashed into the wall. Then my right hand, then my feet… Finally, Axel was freed. He collapsed to the ground.

My core was frantically transforming the absorbed lifeforce into deathforce, making me breathe hard as it was asking for more.

Nailed on the wall, I looked down at Lei. He had crouched beside his twin brother.

“Holy Crystals. He passed out. First time I’ve seen him defeated like that.”

“Is he okay?” I asked worriedly. My panting was calming down as my life-lust was decreasing.

“He’s breathing just fine. And his qi is still working, so, yeah, I think he will be okay. I can’t believe I pitied him, just now, when he was screaming like a harpy. But what did you do exactly?”

“I…” I swallowed. “I ate his lifeforce.”

“I guessed as much, but is it that painful? I mean, I know you ate a bit of my lifeforce just earlier, I’m a qi master after all, but it wasn’t painful.”

“Yeah… It’s not painful for you, but it is for him.” My gaze paused on his twin brother lying unconscious on the slabs. Seeing his relaxed face at that moment, with his systematic frowning gone, I realized Lei and he looked just like two peas in a pod. “Thank heavens he’s all right…”

Lei raised an eyebrow.

“It’s painful for him, you say? Does that mean you’re very happy when you steal lifeforce?”

I grimaced at the word “steal” but found myself incapable of correcting him. I nodded.

“Sorta. We undead need lifeforce to keep ourselves alive, and it’s even more true in my case, since I’m becoming a Fury, so—”

“So your instincts make you find it pleasurable. Makes sense,” Lei pondered. “I’d have thought that modern undeads with artificial cores would have no instincts based on pleasure or suffering, but it seems it’s not totally the case. How fascinating. By the way, you used a truly devilish strategy. I’m in awe.”

Was he praising me?

“… I lost control, though. I couldn’t let go of him, so… thanks for helping me, Lei.”

Lei looked at me, still glued to the wall thanks to his magnetic power, and gave an amused nod.

“You’re welcome. It’s true that I quite enjoyed my brother’s defeat, but I’m not a sadist, and of course, I don’t want him to die. He’s my bro, after all. I should thank you for telling me he was going to die if I did nothing. Anyway…” He clapped his fingers, just for show, when he deactivated his power, and my body suddenly detached from the wall, no longer attracted by it. I landed on my knees, then stood up as Lei added: “You’re not gonna attack, right?”

“Shouldn’t you have asked that before releasing me?” I replied. Anyway, it wasn’t like I was going to pounce on them like a hungry tiger. I may be a Fury, but I wasn’t a monster. Or rather, I would never allow myself to become one. Now that I knew firsthand what it was really like to lose control of my life-lust… I threw a glance at Axel, then added: “I won, right?”

“You knocked him out. I could say your fighting style was not fitting that of a martial artist, but… technically, even if I cheated a bit with the countdowns, in the end Axel was crushed by a guy who doesn’t know how to fight. He won’t deny that. Plus he broke a rule: he tried to fight back before the five-second penalty. I’ve rarely seen him panic like that. So, yeah, you won, dude, high five.”

I was going to bump my palm against his when I remembered about my life-lust and stopped in my tracks. Lei chuckled. Was he doing it on purpose? Anyhow, though I had won, I could hardly revel in my victory right now. After all, I had come to see Axel with the righteous intention of protecting my loved ones, and I had ended up behaving like a demonic glutton…

“Damn. I feel like the bad guy here,” I confessed.

“Hahaha, you are a dark being, after all!” Lei’s eyes pierced mine. “Your way of winning sure wasn’t artistic. As a martial artist, I’m disappointed. But apart from that, I think winning by eating is cool.”

“… Is it?”

“Since I say so! Anyway, you just got lucky because of that daisy rule. Hadn’t it been for that, you would have lost. It was a close call.”

He was right.

“Also, if you had been alive, your body would have collapsed under his first blows. It was so funny to see him strike your acupoints, and then see him all confused because you weren’t going down! Buahaha!”

Looks like Lei had enjoyed the fight more than anyone. Axel’s body slightly quivered. He was waking up. I walked away immediately, saying:

“I’m leaving. Tell him he’d better keep his promise.”

“Running away from the loser, huh?”

I picked up my shirt, shrugging. Axel must hate me from the bottom of his heart now. If I stayed, that would only make the situation more awkward. Lei nodded.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell him. By the way, don’t forget your shoes.”

Oh, right. I put them on. As I glanced back, I locked eyes with Axel and froze for an instant. He said nothing as he sat up. He looked fine. Relieved, without a word, I left the Silent House.

* * *

Sitting on the paved square before the house, Lei and Axel looked at each other.

“Your eyes say you’re in a pretty bad mood, brother.”

“… I can’t believe I lost.”

“Hahaha! I can’t believe it either. Underestimating your opponent led you to a thorough defeat—”

“I won’t accept you as a referee ever again, Lei.”

“Huh? Did I perform poorly?”

Axel glared at him.

“… Tsk. Who is that guy anyway?”

“…?! Aya-aya, you don’t remember his name?”

“I do. My head’s fine. What I mean is… what’s his social position?”

“Oh. I’d say, he’s a close friend of Ray’s.”

“Ray…” Axel’s eyebrows twitched. “What’s with his body?”

“What do you mean? Aya-aya, don’t look at me like that, you just promised you wouldn’t use your power on me, remember?”

“… Can’t control it. Damn you. I’ve heard you guys talking. You said: if you had been alive. What does that mean?”

“Ah… You heard that, huh. Well, you’re smarter than I am, aren’t you? So you must be able to understand what it means, dear brother.”

“… Who is he? No, what is he?”

“…?!” Lei raised an eyebrow. That glint in Axel’s eyes… Was it interest? “Hoho.”

“What?”

“Could it be one of those ‘countless worthless worms on Earth’ you despise so much has caught your interest, dear brother?”

“What nonsense are you spouting now?”

Lei flinched under his brother’s glare. His body had begun to tremble in fear. He shoved backwards. All the teasing tone had abandoned his voice when he said:

“Aya-aya, calm down, Axel. Are you seriously going to break your promise so early?”

Axel frowned at the ground.

“Can’t control it,” he repeated. His eyes glowed. “Never hated someone as much as I hate him right now.”

“I’m speechless. Wasn’t I the person you hated the most?”

Axel turned hazy eyes toward his brother before hissing:

“I want to make him miserable, torture his filthy mind, and throw it into hell.”

“Ah… Dear brother, remember our father told you not to strain yourself too much. Believe me, that undead is not worth your precious time. Leave him to me. I’ll keep an eye on him for you, how about that?”

Axel glowered at him. He already knew his stupid brother was interested in Linah’s friend and wanted to take him on as his disciple. Lei would rarely make the same offer to the same person twice, yet he was still sticking to that worm. Now Axel understood why. Armen Moon had picked Lei’s interest because he was an undead. So that was why he wouldn’t budge under his arm strikes. Axel had chosen some powerful attacks that should have had him crawl on the ground, writhing in pain for hours, but instead… he had lost to a walking corpse.

“Is it allowed for such a monster to wander around freely?”

Lei burst out laughing. He probably thought: who’s the monster here, Armen or you? His laughter reverberated in Axel’s heart, squeezing it, making it throb in pain and send a strong feeling of irritation all over his body. His curse wouldn’t allow him to even withstand a giggle without reacting. Lei knew that. And still, he kept grinning in front of him. Axel hated him for that. He hated all the people who ignored his pain and were trying to be happy around him. He had unwillingly used his power against his twin brother a lot of times, even making him curl up in fear at his feet sometimes and scream and tremble like a defenseless kitten… Axel had grown accustomed to it through the years. Lei had not. Although he would always try to make it look otherwise, he was actually terrified by him. There was a time he would even avoid him like the demonic plague. Axel could see right through him. They were twins, after all.

Still, Lei’s laughter was nothing compared to what he had just lived through.

That feeling of intense pressure against his chest, that sensation of having been cast into the deepest hell… What did Armen Moon do? Was it an undead’s skill? He had no idea, but one thing was for sure: positive and negative sensations were proportional in intensity. That meant, since Axel had suffered a torment, then Armen must have felt the opposite.

Exasperating worm. Insufferable monster. Obnoxious abomination. Loathsome beast. Demon.

Hatred kept growing within him.

“Er… Dear brother? Are you all right? You’re sweating rivers—”

“Leave.” The word tore the air in a muffled and hissing tone.

“…! Don’t tell me you’re gonna explode?! Didn’t the last explosion happen just before the training?”

By “explosion”, Lei meant the nervous breakdowns Axel underwent every now and then, when the negative feelings had piled up in him and reached the limit.

Axel slowly got to his feet and snarled:

“Leave!”

Lei was already running away. He wavered before crossing the bubble of the Silent House. Was it worry that gleamed in his eyes? No, it couldn’t be. Lei hated his twin brother. He had no choice but to hate him after all he had done to him.

Curry’s seal-like head was peering through a window at its master. Axel pierced it with an infuriated gaze.

“I told you not to get out, Curry.”

The kompa flinched back, shaking, and disappeared from the window.

Standing alone in the silencer bubble, Axel gazed at the night sky, then at the ground, then at his clenched fists. He hardened his body with qi. He didn’t want to injure himself more than necessary. Then, finally, he thrust a fist into the wall of the house with all his strength.

A dull pain ran through his body as he kept hitting the wall. A crack soon appeared on it. He began to scream like a madman:

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!”

His negativity swirled out into the air. Anyone standing around would have been overwhelmed by it. It was invisible, yet it was dark, it was blazing, it was hideous. Burning tears were flowing down his cheeks, releasing a deep, horrendous sadness.

But nor hatred, nor anger, nor sadness would ever completely leave his mind, always to be reborn like a cursed phoenix.

At those times, he hated himself the most. For what he had become, but also, for enduring alone like a dying rabbit in its hole. He could have gone to that meeting full of elite trainees and shared his torment with them, just to relieve part of his burden, yet for some reason, he didn’t. Was it shame? Was it because he still kept an ounce of kindness inside him? Or maybe it was selfishness? Or a survival instinct?

If he hadn’t been a Sunclaw, he would probably have been sent to the Champion Institute to be kept like a dangerous creature, away from the world…

Wrong. If he hadn’t been a Sunclaw, his mental power, which was originally a soothing and inoffensive one, would have never changed, because he would have never gone to that party nor met that monster…

His eyes bulged out as he remembered. The darkness everywhere, outside, and inside his body. People at the scene said afterwards that they had felt nothing more than a temporal yet complete loss of their senses. No one else but Axel had undergone a second quirk that day. No one else but Axel had been cursed for life after that day…

His fist relaxed as he turned away from the wall. His eyes fixed the Wind House, flying a bit farther and higher than the Silent House.

“Ray Styxer,” he whispered.

Father had told him Doctor Styxer’s son wasn’t the cause of his second quirk, but Axel never swallowed that. His power became distorted and cursed because of that darkness. Father said that wasn’t scientifically possible. But that was what happened.

There were many monsters at that training, but out of all of them, the Lightning Veil’s son was probably the worst. His power may turn out to be an even eviler curse than Axel’s.

Ray Styxer. His heart was calming down. Should I kill you one day? Should I make you my ally to fill the world with loathing and sadness? Or will you be able to undo my curse?

After a long silence of meditation, he murmured:

“Now that I think about it, if Armen Moon is an undead, then… who’s the necromancer?”

40 The Divine Necromancer

Since my life-lust had not completely disappeared, I couldn’t go back to the Wind House and risk meeting the others. I’d better take a walk outside first to calm down. Just how much of Axel’s lifeforce had I absorbed? I had no idea. But considering Ray had said there were about one million drops of lifeforce in a human body, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had been told I had eaten half of that. And that in a mere minute or two, maybe three… Could it be that Furies ate at a faster pace than normal undeads? Or had the intake increased because I had been eating from a wider area of contact?

Lost in thought, I reached the bottom of the escalator and headed to the main gates muttering:

“I’m such a glutton.”

Still…

My lips went up a bit.

I had won. Not in a conventional way but… conventions were all a matter of point of view.

I crossed the main square and passed the gates illuminated by two lamps.

Outside, Ray was sitting all alone on the stairs that led to the beach, his flashlight bathing the hill with its powerful light. I wasn’t surprised to see him there. Somehow, ever since our necro-bond had grown, I could instinctively tell if he was around. Did I subconsciously follow the link and go to where he was? Or did he subconsciously call me? I didn’t know.

Without a word, I sat on the first step, leaning my elbows on my knees. The cactuses on the slope had just ejected their regular steam of orange crystal particles into the air, and the smoke was glittering like clouds of tiny, amber stars in the dark.

Sitting a few steps below, Ray was as mute as the surrounding night. Somehow, I knew he had broken his promise of not spying on me, but I could hardly blame him for it. After a silence, I muttered:

“Furies are scary.”

Ray clenched his fist without turning. I added:

“You warned me, but I still thought I wouldn’t lose control of myself—No, that’s not true,” I admitted. “I didn’t think Axel would go down so easily once I grabbed him. But he was suffering so much he could do nothing. And I couldn’t let him go either. If Lei hadn’t been there, I would have killed…”

I couldn’t finish the sentence, and after a silence, I repeated:

“Furies are scary.”

I had freaked out. Only now was I slowly beginning to understand. I had lost control of my body and almost caused a disaster. But who could have imagined that I would actually be unable to even let go of Axel? A shiver ran through my core. My gaze contemplated the shining clouds dancing around the cactuses and the stairs. Apparently, they always came out in droves after an earthquake—Wait, had there been an earthquake just now? Maybe during my fight with Axel? I hadn’t even sensed it. Anyway, with the gleaming smoke floating everywhere, we could barely see the real stars in the sky; instead, the lights of Phoenix City were like a shining dome covering the main island, and from up the high cliffs, the light at Phoenix Neck Lighthouse flashed every few seconds through the turning lens of the lantern. The island looked like a turtle of fire. Or a phoenix. Even so, its lights couldn’t illuminate the endless, jet-black sea surrounding it.

Ray kept silent. Was he mad? He had a good reason to be angry at me. He was always working so hard to be a good necromancer, but instead of taking my delicate situation into account, I had asked him to stay away and give me some privacy. I had gone to fight Axel with the plan of using my undead skills, which Ray would have probably warned me against. Well, everything had turned out well, and I wasn’t regretting my actions. I had won. But, in exchange, it seemed that my master had been scared to death.

When I couldn’t take the silence anymore, I swiftly slipped three steps down to sit by his side and asked:

“You mad?”

“…”

His answer came through our necro-bond:

‘I told you earlier I wanted to use my power and challenge Lei, so who am I to tell you not to be reckless?’ I straightened up, surprised. He went on: ‘Also, I tried really hard not to break my promise, but the necro-bond is not a door I can just lock as I please. I couldn’t look the other way. Well, Lei helped in the end, so fortunately I didn’t have to intervene. I only rebuilt the barrier in your core.’

“You did?! From afar?”

‘Our necro-bond is steadier than before, so yeah, I can do as much. You seemingly forgot that the barrier would break if you ate such amounts of lifeforce.’

Dammit, I had completely forgotten about it. I shook my head, annoyed at myself. Wasn’t I causing Ray more trouble than usual lately? Well, actually, I had always been. To think I was even trying to become a sage today…

I remained quiet for a moment as I gazed at the night, then I chuckled. Under Ray’s surprised look, I said:

“All in all, what a wonderful day, isn’t it? We saved Helly from the tower, I won against the negativist, and you’re gonna activate your power.”

‘Er… We could also say we destroyed a legendary tower, you almost killed a Sunclaw, and I’m going to activate a power I know nothing about except that it may be connected with the Spawns of Darkness. Wonderful, indeed. Oh, and also, Axel Sunclaw most likely knows now that you are an undead. ’

I grimaced a smile. I hadn’t thought about that.

“Way to kill the mood, Ray. How’s Helly doing?”

“Well…” He touched his pendant, shrugging. “As soon as I sat down here, she went out and disappeared into the cactus grove.”

“Whaaat?!”

“She’s free, after all.”

“W-Well, that’s true, but… do you think she will come back?”

I scanned the cactuses around the staircase. The tiny lights that had been floating around the plants were fading one by one. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ray pout thoughtfully.

“I don’t know. Even if she does, she may not come back until several days. I think she has something important to do on this island.”

“… If only she could talk, we could have tried to help her. Wait!” I exclaimed. “Maybe she’s trying to get revenge on Water Li and Ashkabell for locking her up! We should have told her they’re long dead.”

“She already knows it, I think. Rather, in my opinion, it has something to do with her origins.”

I breathed in.

“You mean, the Spawn of Darkness thing?”

“No—well, yeah, but independently of that flashy title, where does Helly come from? Did Water Li bring her to Yuutow Island to activate the tower? Or has she always been on this island? I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Do you mean this island is her home?”

Ray nodded.

“Mm. Or more like, the dungeon is.”

“…!!! The dungeon? Helly’s from the dungeon?”

“Hundred-year-old creatures made of pure energy do not pop up out of thin air,” Ray reasoned. “Besides, the strangest creatures on Earth have always come from the dungeons.”

My core beat faster for a moment. To think Helly came from a dungeon. A dungeon! I looked down at my feet, wondering exactly how far below it was from us right now.

“They say dungeons were created by the Holy Gods. Does that make Helly a godly creature? Wait, but if she’s a Spawn of Darkness and Spawns of Darkness are born in a dungeon, if it’s true that you are a Spawn of Darkness, then doesn’t it make you a godly being, too?!”

I was flabbergasted at my reasoning. Surprised, Ray gaped at me then laughed.

“A godly being? Hahaha, seriously, how can you ask that with a straight face?”

“I’m just connecting the dots.”

He stared at me.

“Sometimes your way of thinking is scary.”

“…?” Was it?

He took a look at his cellphone and stood up.

“That ‘elite’ meeting is about to start. Let’s get back.”

“Ah, yeah… Wait, Ray,” I suddenly said, getting to my feet. “Dungeons have usually only one entry, right? In the games, at least. Will Helly be okay? I mean, the entry is probably locked, or sealed, or even guarded.”

What if she was caught again? Ray rolled his eyes.

“Let’s not worry about every little thing.”

His tone implied that we had our own problems. Well, I couldn’t deny it.

Ray had just reached the top of the stairs when he stopped and sighed.

‘Actually, I forgot. I wanted to ask for your opinion about an important matter,’ he said mentally.

He aimed his flashlight at me. My undead eyes didn’t blink and kept holding his gaze quizzically as he stated:

‘As you saw just earlier, the more lifeforce your core absorbs, the worse your life-lust gets and the riskier it is to stay around people, and that will remain so until you evolve into a full-fledged life reaper, which can take up to several months. So it’s about the choices we have.’

He withdrew the flashlight, and as I kept silent, waiting for him to go on, he explained:

‘First choice: we quit the training.’

I grimaced.

“You mean, we return to Farskyer?”

“My dad would most likely help you evolve in safety.”

I frowned. Truthfully, I didn’t want the Lord to be the one helping me evolve, and I was sure Ray didn’t either. However, if he still thought it was the best path to take…

Before my silence, Ray went on talking through our necro-bond:

‘So, yeah, that would solve our main problem, but then my mom would feel there’s something fishy going on, and… if she learns about our necro-bond, it can get really bad. Years ago, she swore that, if my dad ever taught me necromancy, she would send the whole Styxer family to its ruin, one way or another.’

“…!! Your mom?”

‘Knowing her, and given her influence, she definitely would.’

“It’s kind of her family too, though.”

‘Not anymore. She never forgave my dad. In a way, she was tricked into joining the Underworld unwittingly. My dad acted basically like a scatterbrained scoundrel in that regard.’

“… So we won’t quit the training?”

Ray shrugged.

‘I’m just talking about our choices. The second one is to rely on Natasha’s help, buy meals from her if needed, and try to follow the training normally. The problem is, if we blow our cover, we will face a trial, it would endanger my mom’s position inside the WHO, would probably get her fired, and… yeah, even if no one notices, it won’t be easy.’

On hearing his words, my core felt heavier by the second.

‘There is also a third way.’

A third way? Ray looked over his shoulder at the Academy’s deserted gates, hesitated, then explained:

‘Natasha can get some special pills made by Makler Vod’s second disciple. They have to be taken in pairs: the master takes one, and the familiar another one. They forcefully moderate the activity of the familiar’s core, thus its life-lust, and also allows the master to give orders without exciting the core.’

“Eeeh? For real? That’s amazing!”

“Of course it’s amazing,” he affirmed out loud. “All Makler Vod’s disciples do amazing things. Vod is a high-class necromancer, after all.”

“High-class?” I repeated with a pout. “So what. Aren’t you god-class?”

“The hell are you saying? Vod is on a totally different level! He reigns over a district of Singapore full of dark arts users, he’s way more powerful than my dad, and he’s been worshipped almost like a god for more than fifty years now. He’s a centenarian, and his skills are just incredible. His books are priceless treasures too.”

“Even the last ones?” was what I wanted to ask, remembering that, according to Natasha, Makler Vod’s fifth disciple was the real author of those. I kept that to myself as I smiled, touched to see Ray so worked up. It was rare to see him show admiration for someone. It piqued my interest. Singapore, he said? Some day, I should really go there to have a look.

“Okay,” I said calmly. “I won’t compare you to him, then. I wouldn’t dare compare you to a glorified, doddering relic—I’m just kidding, Ray. At any rate, are those pills safe?”

Recovering his composure, Ray nodded.

‘Apparently. Though they are still experimental pills, they’ve been proven effective, but using them doesn’t go without some big sacrifices. Furies that take those pills never grow to their fullest. When the necromancer nurtures the necro-bond, the familiar will waste it almost the same way a newborn undead does. That means, while a full-grown life reaper can live away from its master for up to four or five months, you probably won’t be able to be away from me for more than a few weeks at most without dying. For that reason, the pills are not as successful among necromancers with big families since they wouldn’t have enough energy to sustain all their familiars. And…’ He took the brim of his cap. ‘There’s another consequence. If we take those pills, we’ll have to join the Vod group. They don’t sell them to outsiders.’

“…” That was problematic. I remembered how his cousin had tried to get him to join the Vod group and how Ray had refused. He may admire that old necromancer’s work, but he wasn’t willing to work for him and even less worship him… and neither was I. After a moment, I asked: “Any more options?”

Ray shook his head.

‘I can’t think of anything else.’

I frowned, thought hard, then joined my hands.

“Okay. Then… how about we go for the second option? We keep things as they are for now. How do you like it?”

‘Works for me. I think it’s the best option, too. But we mustn’t let our guard down.’

He pierced me with his gaze. The message was all too clear. Whatever might happen, we had to be extremely careful. For our sake, for the Lord’s sake, for Lizzie’s sake. As a matter of fact, if Ray’s mom could lose her job for having a son involved in dark arts practices, then… wouldn’t it be also the case for my sister?

I nodded firmly.

“I swear to the Holy Gods that I’ll be as careful as a ninja walking on clamshells from now on.”

Ray raised an eyebrow, seemed relieved, then kept on walking and said:

‘You mean a cat walking on eggshells.’

“…! Yeah, that’s what I meant!” I smiled, following him, and whispered cheerfully: “About that, I’ve got an idea. When I was fighting Axel, I found out I can’t absorb lifeforce through clothes.”

‘You only realize that now?’

“Yeah. So how about I buy a coverall? Or at least some gloves… Such a pity I didn’t bring the ones you and Zeeta gave me for Christmas… I’ll have to buy a new pair—Wait, no need, just a couple of plastic bags would do, since my skin does not need to breathe,” I muttered, lost in thoughts.

Ray rolled his eyes.

‘If you think some gloves will help you, why not buy them? You’ll look like a weirdo among people wearing summer clothes, but that’s the least of our worries. Anyhow, the meeting must have already started.’

As we headed to the gates, I caught Ray’s skeptical glance and somehow guessed his thoughts with a hint of annoyance.

“Please don’t look at me like that: I’ll be good, I won’t fight any more duels. Besides, I must make that Losterness curry. Oh, right, I forgot to tell you,” I added as we passed the entrance. “Lei promised that he would become your subordinate if I won the duel against Axel.”

Ray stopped dead at the entrance.

“The hell?”

“Also, that he’d stop bothering you.”

‘Isn’t that, like, super contradictory?’ he growled mentally.

I grinned.

“I know, right? But maybe he just wants to make new friends. I think, deep down, he’s a nice guy.”

‘Very deep down, then. That guy is interested in deathforce, that’s all.’

“Haha… Yeah, he did say undeads were incredibly cool.”

‘And you fell for his flattery.’

“Heh… He also said that fighting by eating was a super inspiring strategy—something along those lines. Well, isn’t it said ‘control the food and you’ll control the war’? So I just applied the rule of that famous general—Reyn Vasilys, was it?”

“John Woon, eleventh century,” Ray corrected out loud. “Who on earth is Reyn Vasilys?”

“… No idea, his name just popped into my mind,” I admitted, then I grinned. “Anyway, Lei’s a freethinker and a good referee.”

‘Huh. He totally won you over, didn’t he?’

“Well, at least, he’s open-minded, is he not? I’m sure he thinks high of you too—”

‘No way. Self-interest has nothing to do with respect.’

“I get that, but the fact remains that…” I gave him a broad smile, “… undeads and necromancers are so damn cool!”

Ray straightened up, eyes wide, then, slowly, he took the brim of his cap to conceal a smile and snorted mentally:

‘Did you even listen to what I said? You can’t cry out things like “undeads” and “necromancers” like you’re selling fish at the market.’

Ops. I looked around at the main square we were crossing then cited:

“The most visible is a secret, the least attention it draws.”

‘I’m truly worried.’

“Don’t be!” I protested. Then I frowned. “Hey, Ray.”

‘Yeah?’

I twitched and stopped.

“Do you know what?”

‘…? What?’

I looked down at him with a concerned expression.

“If you keep talking with your mental voice, you’ll become too lazy to speak normally and go mute.”

He widened his eyes in surprise as if just realizing he had been mostly talking through our necro-bond all this time. Doing so was supposed to require a lot of concentration and skill, yet Ray was able to do it unwittingly? Damn. Was he a godly genius, after all?

“The Divine Necromancer,” I blurted out, and under Ray’s shocked expression, I chuckled, amused, and raised a hand: “Have fun in the meeting and please look forward to dinner!”

* * *

When I got home, Noah and Styzz were playing a game of Go. After putting on some kitchen gloves, and a long-sleeved shirt, I tried to consult the recipe for the Losterness curry, only to realize one thing.

“Chaaaamp,” I complained, walking out of the kitchen. “We don’t have Internet access on Yuutow, that sucks.”

“Mm.”

“I don’t know what Losterness curry is, so help me with that, will you?”

“Mm.”

“You’re totally not listening. Is Go so interesting?”

“Mm.”

“Seriously, what’s Losterness curry? Champ, champi, champ, I’m talking to you, yoohoo, come back to this world. Styzz, please, help me… Not here either? You guys, I swear,” I breathed out, astonished, “stop ignoring me.”

They were so focused it was annoying. I sat at the table, looked at the black and white stones on the checkerboard, then at the two contenders.

“Noah, that crimson color of yours is cool. Do you dye your hair?”

“Mm.”

“You do?! Then, Styzz, with those green hairs of yours… You too?! Isn’t that a pain to dye it? By the way, I thought you were an elite trainee, but you’re not going to the meeting? Are you bad at communicating like Ray? Come to think of it, you were trying to bully me the first time we met, and I’ve heard bullies are bad at socializing. Though that doesn’t happen with Noah, and he’s the best bully I’ve known so far, so… Nah, but what am I saying, he’s ignoring me like a speck of dust right now, so I guess he’s not only a bully and a weirdo but also has a personality disorder—”

“Who’s the bully?!” Noah snapped, finally reacting. “You’re messing with our concentration, stupidstar!”

I smiled.

“Then give me the recipe for the Losterness curry.”

“The hell if I know! I only heard it’s made with spices.”

“I guessed as much, thanks, champ.”

“Since when am I a champ, anyway?”

“Since you rescued Linah’s hand, obviously, champ.”

“Ugh… Why doesn’t it sound better than ‘perv’, I wonder.”

“’Cause you’re a perv.”

“Whatever. If the dinner’s not to my taste, you’ll have to make a Shanghai pie.”

“A Shanghai pie?! What’s that?”

“I don’t know, stupidstar, you’re the cook!”

“You’re the one ordering weird things! But, okay, if you win your game against Styzz, I’ll make a pie.”

“That’s only putting pressure on me,” Styzz said, his eyes still fixed on the board. “Lose and eat the pie, or win and stop Noah from bullying you?”

“That’s the question,” Noah chuckled.

“Ooh… Are you worried about me, Styzz?” I grinned. “If that’s the case, then why don’t you electrify him if he loses? Yeah, let’s do that. A pie if you win, a bolt of lightning if you lose, champ.”

“Don’t decide that on your own!” Noah snorted.

I laughed as I disappeared into the kitchen saying:

“The die is cast.”

“It’s not!! And, by the way, I don’t dye my hair!” So he was listening, after all. Shortly after, I heard him groan excitedly: “There’s no way I’m losing this, Styzz! Bring it on!”

* * *

Not there. Not there either.

She had to get back to where she came from, but she didn’t know the way. Time had passed and everything had changed. But she knew she had to go down.

What was that distant darkness above her head? The space?

What about those rounded figures coming out from the soil?

Her curiosity quickly faded as her main goal occupied her whole being.

She swirled in the shadows, searching around, shrunk back before the rumbling waves, rippled along a crevice, entered countless breaches inside the rocks, and finally found the barrier of the dungeon.

She shuddered, bitter memories coming back to her, then she rushed forward.

The hole was small, but her vaporous body was still able to go through. The dungeon did not block her advance at the barrier. After all, she was one of its creatures.

Once inside, she stopped for a moment and tried to overcome her fear. During the last century, she had grown to understand many things about how the world worked, and new emotions had begun to seep into her mind… but not fear. Fear had always been there with her, along with the desire of being free. Yet she had come back to the place that frightened her the most. Because she wanted to know. About this place, about her origins, about her brethren. So she proceeded.

A corridor. A staircase. She hated staircases.

She glided down the tunnel, almost glued to its ceiling. Two human voices could be heard, one fast, the other hoarse and feminine.

“And we’re back to square one again. This manual is good to throw in the trash. It must be a fake.”

“Now that’s insulting! It’s my ancestor’s original book.”

“Then Water Li wanted to play a prank on his descendants. That, or he lied and never reached the heart of this dungeon.”

“Enough of that, young man. Ah… This is the type of dungeon I hate the most. Restrictions, loops, enigmas that can’t be figured out with common sense… This is a real maze.”

“Weren’t you a high-ranking Explorer?”

“Don’t underestimate my experience, brat. My old bones are tired, that’s all. How about we call it a day? I don’t want to doze off in front of my pupils. We have two months to find that elixir, after all—”

“Considering no one else is searching for it, too, you mean, which is most likely not true, otherwise other influential families wouldn’t have recommended this island for the training even before we did. The Piaget Clan. The Kadestry Family. Plus Lovecryce. I bet they are all searching for it.”

“But they have no means of entering this place. As far as we know, anyway. We are not even sure that the item will appear in this dungeon.”

“If there is any possibility it does, then our duty is to take it. The young master already has a lot to carry on his shoulders.”

“Oh my, it’s only been six months since his older brother returned crippled. Poor boy.”

“One more hour. If it’s possible.”

“…”

“For the sake of the Soulberg Clan.”

“… Youth is so pure. Come on, let’s go to the next room. By the way, is it me or was there something moving in the shadows, just now?”

“…! Where?”

“Hmm… Maybe it was my imagination.”

The sound of the voices soon faded away as did their footsteps.

Humans.

What were they up to now?

Though clueless, Helly had a bad premonition. She just hoped that her two saviors wouldn’t be caught in the storm.

41 Deathforce melody

Styzz betrayed my trust and lost. I knew it when I heard a racket of voices in the great hall and Jing entered the kitchen asking:

“What’s that about a Shanghai pie, Armen?”

“…” I took my phone out and set the alarm to check the rice in twenty minutes, then answered: “No idea.”

“What, no idea?!” Noah’s head peeped into the kitchen. “I crushed Styzz by two moku!”

“Grats.” No idea what a moku was, though.

“Styzz was tired because of the Yuutow Tower, that’s why he lost, he says,” Nina intervened, walking in.

I had heard Nina and Jing return a while ago from a walk around the island, but it seemed Ray and Linah were still at the meeting.

In the great hall, Styzz was tidying the game board while yawning. Noah was relishing his victory.

“Hahaha, I want that Shanghai pie, stupidstar, make it now!”

His tone of voice irked me. I protested:

“But I have no idea what a Shanghai pie is, you dummy!”

“Like I care! Figure it out!”

“I’ve never been to Shanghai in the first place!”

“Me neither! But everyone knows a Shanghai pie is something sweet with fruits, stupid stupidstar!”

“Oh-oh, is that so! Pies are usually sweet and made with fruits, stupid champ!”

“You call me stupid?”

“You rile me!”

“Because I’m from the Champion Institute?”

“You mental?”

“Let’s fight it out!”

“Sure!”

Like an angel of peace, Nina passed between us, and we fell silent, glaring at each other, a bit surprised. How did we end up shouting at each other like that over a pie? Jing cleared his throat, raising a hand.

“Calm down, guys. As it happens, I know what a Shanghai pie is.”

“You do?!” We both turned to him so fast that he cringed.

I smiled.

“Teach me, chef.”

Jing glanced at the rice in the fire then shook his head.

“No. You two get out of the kitchen. Nina and I will make the pie. I said get out,” he insisted as I was about to complain.

Noah pulled me by my sleeve.

“Let’s go. I’ll teach you how to play Go.”

“Eeeh? You will? But it sounds difficult, and my rice—”

“I’ll take care of it,” Jing assured.

“Let’s go!” Noah said, dragging me out of the kitchen. “I’m sure Jing will make a tastier pie than you, stupidstar.”

“How can you be such a jerk, Noah,” I grumbled. I sat down at the table with a reluctant expression. “So? What are the rules?”

“The game is all about controlling territories,” he explained. “Pass the box with the black stones, Styzz, will you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the green-haired guy said as he stood up, blinking. “I think I’m gonna take a bath. I’m so sleepy I’m surprised you only won by two moku.”

“Don’t give me that line. You were totally focused during the game! Anyway, stupidstar, listen well, I won’t repeat myself. You win if you control a larger area of the board than your opponent. A group of connected stones must have a liberty, or else they can’t stay alive and they can’t remain on the board. You follow?”

“The dead stones are removed? Why?”

“Because if the group of stones doesn’t have one open point bordering it, that means your opponent has enclosed it and the territory is not yours anymore. Your stones have no liberty anymore. You got it?”

“…” My face darkened. “So dead stones have no freedom?”

Noah tsked.

“What are you even talking about? Forget the dead stones: what matters is staying alive.”

“Dead stones can’t come back on the board?”

“They can’t.”

They can’t. Dead stones can’t come back on the board. I shook my head slightly. But of course they can. Ray was the white stones that had brought me back to life in his own territory. I wasn’t technically free, but I was still on the board. I was still playing. I was still alive.

“Dead stones are not useless.”

“… Not useless? Oh, you mean you can sacrifice some stones as a decoy, depending on your strategy, right?”

“Sacrifice?” I repeated, growing gloomier.

“Yeah. Anyway, let’s see a basic example. I put those three white stones here, in those three intersections, surrounding a black stone. There you are. Black moves. Your turn. What will you do to save your stone? Diagonals don’t connect.”

Dead stones are useless. My hazy eyes looked down at the board, then I fixed the black stone and telekinetically moved it, making it jump over a white stone.

“The heck are you doing?!” Noah snorted.

I leaned on the table and wrapped my head in my hands.

“You depressed me. You’re such a bully.”

I heard Noah gasp in bemusement.

“What the…? Oi, what’s your problem, stupidstar? … You’re no fun. I was teaching you in my infinite kindness and—”

“Sorry, champ, I’m just overly sensitive to realistic games. Let me be.”

“… Go is a realistic game?” Noah muttered, confused.

I stubbornly kept my head down as I answered:

“It’s 3D, right?”

“… You for real? It’s a board game, weakstar.”

“Stop changing my nickname. I like stupidstar.”

“You like it?!”

“I got used to it.”

“So, you like things you get used to? If I were to give you a beating every morning, you would like it?”

“… I wouldn’t.”

“Guessed so.”

“Are you saying that from personal experience?”

“… You’re asking for a beating now.”

“I’m just asking. You seem to hate your institute so much.”

“They don’t beat us. It’s worse than that.”

“Worse than that?”

Noah didn’t answer immediately. He wouldn’t tell me about the drugs Mr. Huang gave him, would he? Then he grumbled:

“You must have a finger in every pie, huh.”

“Don’t talk to me about pies.”

“Anyway, stop sulking, raise your head, and let’s play.”

“No. I’m telling you, I’m depressed.”

“You don’t seem depressed at all.”

“Depressions are like truffles. They’re hard to see.”

“So much you can’t see yours, right? Are you searching for it on the table? Have you no shame, stupidstar?”

My face hidden in my arms, a smile irresistibly stretched my lips.

“I… don’t.”

“Oi, you’re not crying, are you? Is it because I didn’t explain the rules of Go clearly enough and you didn’t understand a thing? You’re sad to be so stupid, am I right?”

“Mmmmgrm…”

“… Geez. Such a pain… It’s okay to be stupid, you know? Stupid people are great. Being sad because you’re stupid is the stupidest thing to do. Besides, I can repeat the rules if you want—”

I was trying to suppress it, but I reached my limit: at that moment, I burst out laughing, raising my head backwards.

“How a bully tries to comfort someone! Hahahahaha, you’re too much, champ!”

I couldn’t stop laughing. After a while, I saw Noah wrap his head in his arms and mutter:

“I’m depressed.”

“Buahahahaha!”

“Aren’t you gonna comfort me? … Really,” he groaned, raising squinted eyes, “who’s the bully here?”

“Excuse-me…”

Surprised, we turned our faces to the guy who had just spoken. He was a huge, hefty, brown-haired man in a white bath towel that could barely hide his muscular, sunburned thighs. My laughter died in my throat at the sight. Noah recognized him before me.

“Sasha?”

He bowed his colossal body.

“Y-yeah. My name is Sasha Devkota. Nice to meet you.” Oh, right, he was the Independent trainee that had been already asleep in our dorm, after the examination.

We gazed at him in awe, then glanced at each other with the same question in mind: what was that guy doing in the Wind House, using our bathroom?

“Aaah, sorry, sorry.” A guy half the height of Sasha appeared from behind the colossus, his long, black hair cascading down his waist. He was in a towel too. A grin beamed on his face. “We wanted to say hello before making ourselves at home, but since Lizzie and Yoan were so focused on their game, we decided not to disturb them and just came in.”

I blinked at Lei Sunclaw. Lizzie and Yoan? Oh, he meant Styzz and Noah. Still bad with names, huh. I nodded.

“Welcome home.”

“Thanks.”

“Wait a moment,” Noah chimed in in a whisper. “He’s an elite trainee, right? Doesn’t he have a house already?”

“He’s Ray’s subordinate,” I explained.

Noah’s jaw hung open.

“Since when elite trainees can become another elite trainee’s subordinate?!”

“Since I decided it was possible,” Lei replied.

Noah’s gaze was fastened on him, his eyes shining with questions. I was surprised to see him hesitate to ask them. Was it because of Lei’s identity? However, he did ask in the end:

“It’s none of my business but… why would a Sunclaw want to submit to a guy who can’t look people in the eye, can’t eat dinner with everyone, can’t even finish the race in the top half, why submit to a sissy like th—?”

His mouth was shut by my gloved hand. Our eyes met, and his widened under my glare.

“Oho,” Lei said, stepping to us. “You’d better not badmouth Ray in front of Armen, Lwan. He’s scary when he loses his temper.”

Noah pulled away.

“The hell was that for? Are you Ray’s bodyguard or what?”

I gave him a warning smile.

“Something like that. I’m his best friend. So don’t call him a sissy, because he’s not. You don’t know anything about him. Besides, remember you’re his subordinate too.”

“Because he bought me with money.”

“I wouldn’t brag about that.”

“Why? I’m poor. Money is essential for poor guys who have nothing,” Noah retorted. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“… I will make you accept that my master is the best.”

Noah blinked.

“Your master?”

Lei chuckled quietly. Crap… I corrected:

“I mean, our captain, Ray. When you know him better, you’ll see that he’s an amazing guy with steady principles, who always thinks things over.”

“… That you don’t think things over doesn’t mean your friend is the only one who can, stupidstar.”

Lei snorted with laughter. I didn’t lose countenance and repeated:

“You will see.”

“…”

We kept staring stonily at each other as if determined not to avert our eyes before the other did. Lei muttered:

“Interesting pair. Sasha, you’re the placid type, aren’t you? Don’t get mixed up with those two lion cubs.”

“Er… Okay.”

“Boss,” Lei pointed out gently.

“Ah… Yes, boss,” the colossus said, flushing.

Did Lei tame that hulk? Impressive. Now that I thought about it, wasn’t Sasha the same person who had taken the treasure map and had to share it with Lei after becoming his subordinate for some reason?

I had unwittingly averted my eyes; Noah scoffed:

“Heh… I won.”

“You’re always winning everything, champ. Wonder why yer so poor.”

With a slap, he knocked my head forward, making my red knit cap fall to the ground.

“My beanie!”

“What are you doing with a beanie when it’s so hot on this island, anyway?” Noah teased.

I didn’t answer and frowned at Lei. He had picked up my knit cap and put it on.

“How does it look on me?”

I looked at him up and down. White bath towel. Red beanie.

“You look like a fly agaric.”

Noah snorted with laughter at my comeback.

“A toxic mushroom, huh… Do you think so too, Pasha?” Lei asked.

The colossus fidgeted as he answered softly:

“It’s Sasha. And no, boss. You look more like… one of those ghostly dwarves that help the souls of the deceased reach the Great Crystals. The ones in the fairy tales.”

Far from being offended, Lei looked surprised, and his eyes raised up towards my beanie on his head.

“Do I?”

“Hwara-hwara! That doesn’t suit you at all, Lei!”

We all turned to Linah as she walked into the house, followed by Ray. The young necromancer looked tired despite having woken up just a few hours ago. Linah considered her brother up and down, then gazed up at Sasha in awe as if thinking “Whoa, is he a real giant?”. Then she held up her fist.

“Lei! What are you doing with the Straw Head’s beanie? You’re not bullying him, are you?”

“Haha, not at all—”

“He is,” I said.

“What?!” Lei exclaimed. “Oi, oi, Linah, stop! I’m not. Yoan was.”

“Yoan? Who’s that?”

Noah raised his hand.

“I think it’s m—NOT me!” he rectified hurriedly when Linah directed her fist towards him. “I’m Noah! I’m not Yoan?”

Why did he make it sound like a question? Linah cocked her head to one side, confused.

“Then again, who’s Yoan? Is it that guy?”

Sasha shook energetically his head at Linah’s suspicious eyes. I smiled and straightened up.

“Forget it, Lil Witch. We were just strengthening our relationships.” I took back my red knit cap from Lei’s head and put it on as I said: “How was the meeting?”

“Mm…” She paused thoughtfully. “So-so. We were only seventeen. Cesarine and her underlings didn’t come, nor the European, nor Gorka Soulberg and his fiancée, that Kadestri girl… what was her name again?”

“Felicity,” Lei said.

“Aina,” Ray corrected. “Aina Kyoko Kadestri.”

“Yeah, that’s her name,” Linah nodded. “Gorka’s friend, Sean Bensaïd, didn’t show up either. Anyway, apart from the ones who weren’t present, everyone else was there.”

“Best summary ever,” I laughed. “What about the badge exchange?”

“Few exchanged badges in the end,” Ray answered at my quizzical expression. “They mainly talked about the training and boring stuff about their families and the Nyomin.”

“Well, we did talk about the Independent trainees, though,” Linah pointed out. “Some families are recruiting into their ranks, so they are looking for young talented martial artists and special power-holders.”

“They’ll give them jobs even if they don’t pass the Hero exam in summer?” I asked, surprised.

“Well, yeah, Straw Head, but being hired by a Nyomin family is way more difficult than passing an exam.”

“Is the Sunclaw Family hiring too?” We all turned to Noah. He made an indifferent pout. “I’m just asking. I’m not interested.”

“Aya-aya, if you’re not interested, why ask?” Lei chuckled. “Unfortunately, the Sunclaw are not short of staff at the moment. ‘Mud is full of cheap pebbles easy to pick’ is one of our family’s mottoes.”

Mud was… What? He had just called the Black-Hearts “cheap pebbles”, hadn’t he? That included Ryu, the hydrophobic guy at the training camp, and Jonnie the merfolk, and all Lei’s direct Black-Heart subordinates in Farskyer. I couldn’t help but give him a disappointed pout.

“Cheap pebbles? And there I thought you were a nice guy, Lei, but you’re actually a big jerk, aren’t you?”

Besides me, Noah nodded with an expression filled with contempt. Lei grinned innocently.

“Eh? It’s just how our family business works. Why pay for a hammer of diamond to make a hole if you can make it with an iron hammer? If the diamond hammer breaks, you’re screwed. If it’s the iron hammer, you can just fix it or buy another one. That’s how renewable energies work.”

The hell was he saying? Was that bastard comparing people to hammers?

“Stop repeating our father’s ramblings in a bath towel, Lei,” Linah tsked. “Business is the most boring thing on Earth. If you want to make a hole, use your own hands.”

Lei grinned.

“That’s what I’d personally do. Or not,” he added, sending a wondering glance to giant Sasha.

So, in the end, he didn’t share his father’s view… or did he? Lei was such an ambiguous person. Well, he was clearly the type of person who’d rely on others for the dirty work. But was it out of laziness? Or out of a superiority complex?

While I was trying to determine it, Linah growled at her brother:

“What?! You became Ray’s subordinate? How come?”

“Well, it just happened.”

Lei didn’t explain further. Was he trying to hide Axel’s defeat or my questionable way of winning? In any case, the news had upset Linah.

“What about the Sand House?”

“Empty. Aya-aya, dear sister, don’t glare at me like that. Aren’t you glad to have your older brother by your side?”

“I would have been if you had come to my rescue this morning when I was trapped by the cactuses, you fool! I can’t believe you became the subordinate of the guy you crushed last month!” She turned to Ray with a frustrated and incredulous expression. “What did you do?”

The young necromancer, who was discreetly walking away towards the stairs, stopped and looked very embarrassed.

“I… didn’t do anything. As far as I’m concerned, he can go back to the Sand House.”

“Come on, don’t throw me out, captain.”

“You’ll do as you please, anyway.”

“Haha, that’s true!” Lei laughed, and I tsked under my breath when he lay a friendly arm on Ray’s shoulder. “I’m not a cheap pebble by nature, after all. I’m bad at following orders. Particularly my dad’s. Isn’t it the same for you? We’re so much alike, aren’t we? Ah, but don’t worry, I am a man of my word. So, if I’m bothering you, just tell me, okay, captain?”

At his cheerful words, my mouth twisted into a murderous smile. I was beginning to regret having him at the Wind House… Ray glanced at the Sunclaw, unmoved, shrugged, and was about to move away when the bell of my phone rang and made me start.

“Oh! My rice! I have to watch my r…!”

Right at that instant, Nina and Jing came out of the kitchen with the cooking pot and the dishes. It was ready. Noah sniffed with shining, hungry eyes.

“Mm! It smells good. Oh, and it looks nice. Let’s sit down and dig in, guys! I’m going first! Thanks, Nina!”

“Thanks, Nina—Wait, why just Nina?” I asked. “Don’t discriminate guys, champ, and thank Jing and the initial cook, here.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the food!”

The champ sat at the round table, served himself, and took a spoon of steaming rice. His face beamed with joy as he began munching. Then he opened his eyes, swallowed, and beamed at me to my surprise.

“I don’t know if it’s Losterness curry, but IT’S DAMN GOOD, stupidstar!”

His explosive statement made me laugh. Had I ever reacted like that because of a meal? I couldn’t remember. Anyway, at least Noah was being sincere for once. I threw my arms akimbo, with my kitchen gloves and my apron, grinning.

“Call me chef.”

“In your dreams.”

“Oh, it does look tasty,” Lei approved, approaching the table with appetite.

“Go put on some clothes first!” Linah snapped at him, and she sat at the table, adding: “You’ll take care of washing the dishes.”

“For real?”

“For real! If you want to stay, you’ll have to work as hard as everyone else!”

Under his sister’s glare, Lei ran away with Sasha to get dressed. I noticed that Ray was heading towards the stairs, too, and I swiftly went to him to suggest quietly:

“Why don’t you have dinner with everyone, Ray?”

Ray’s face shuddered.

“Ah… No, I…”

I smiled at him with confidence.

“Pretty please?”

His shifty gaze was saying, “Why would I eat dinner with people I barely know?”. My smile didn’t falter.

Some minutes later, much to my satisfaction, the nine of us were sitting at the table. We first had to wake Styzz up in the bathroom because he had fallen asleep. Yuutow Tower had taken a toll on the Hidden Wolves fan, but as soon as he tasted the curry, his habitually unimpressed eyes lit up, and a spark of electricity ran through his green, spiked hair. Linah commented:

“Straw Head, there’s something you said earlier that caught my attention. You told Yoan—no, Noah, was it—anyway, you told him to thank the guys too for the cooking, that is, Jing and you.” She looked at me with quivering, smiling lips. “Did you seriously mean it?”

“…? Yeah. Why? I minced the sweet potato, the eggplant, and the broccoli and put it all into the steam cooker. And I made the spiced sauce. And the rice. Steamed food is healthy for humans. My grandpa told me so. And finally, Jing took care of the rest with Nina. So, yeah, I meant it. What kind of weird question is that?”

Wait… could it be the curry tasted bad? No, but Noah…

“Hwara-hwara-hwara!”

Linah burst out laughing and choked on the rice. Nina gently clapped her on the back. The Lil Witch finally calmed down and, under our funny looks, snorted in disbelief:

“Could it be the Straw Head is not the only one that…? No way. You’re hopeless, guys. I mean… She is not a guy. She’s a girl.”

For some cryptic reason, Styzz’s eyes paused on me when he asked:

“Who?”

I was confused. Was Linah trying to make a joke or something? I tried to play along and pushed aside one of my hairlocks.

“Hah… When did you realize I am a girl?”

Sasha gaped at me. Did he believe me? Noah spat out all the rice he had in his mouth, Lei let out a guffaw, Ray hid his face with his baseball cap, and Jing’s lips went up. Gasping, Linah covered her mouth with a hand and said:

“Oh my. You’re actually cute, too, as a girl. So you were a girl, after all!”

I raised a hand.

“I’m not anymore.”

“That was quick. Now, seriously, guys…” Linah shook her head. “There are three girls sitting at this table.”

I was taken aback. So she wasn’t making it up? Then… It could only mean that Jing… No, seriously? My eyes paused on Sasha and his huge complexion, on Linah’s brother, then on Jing again… The bald martial artist swallowed the curry in his—or her?—mouth and said:

“I’m a girl, guys.”

Noah’s lips twisted sideways.

“The way the stupidstar said it was funny, but it doesn’t work twice, Jing.”

“It’sh true, shough.”

There was a pause, then we all gaped at Jing. Eeeeh?! She swallowed and added calmly:

“I may not be very girly, and I’m bald, but everyone in the Sky Walker Clan is like that. We don’t have hair. So, I’m sorry I didn’t correct you guys sooner. I simply don’t attach that much importance to those things. Well, now you know.”

She kept eating with appetite under our surprised gazes. Jing Ferrier was a girl. Well, not that it changed anything.

“Actually,” the colossus intervened shyly as he suspended his spoon at mouth level, “I already knew Jing was a girl.”

Styzz, Noah, Lei, and I snorted. So, Sasha knew? Ray shrugged.

“So did I.”

Ray too?! Linah laughed at us. My plate still empty and with no intention to fill it, I thought back to when I’d first met Jing, in the jungle of the Nyomin reserve, four days ago. I had tried to deceive her, then had given her my yellow ribbon, and helped her pass the examination. Just after that, I…

I had taken a shower with her in the women’s showers. On recalling that, I covered my forehead with my hand. Gods… At least she had told me not to turn around, and I hadn’t—probably because, at that moment, I had been more worried about Jing finding out the ugly hole the cheebou had dug in my chest.

“Pleash, let’s leafe it a’ shat,” Jing insisted, her mouth full of rice. How many portions had she served herself already?! She swallowed. “By the way, Armen, the rice was delicious. Thank you.”

I grinned at her words.

“You’re welcome.”

“You’re not going to eat?”

“Ah… I’m not hungry right now. I’ll eat later.” I said that, but I was actually eating the wasted lifeforce of my eight companions. It tasted incredibly delicious too. Maybe partly because there were, among them, people I cared a lot about; also, seeing all of them eating together with me at the same table filled me with joy. I grinned. Noah looked funnily at me from the other side of the table.

“You on a diet, stupidstar? Don’t you know the saying? A Hero marches on its stomach. Look at Sasha.”

The giant was serving himself again; he was only taking small portions, as if he didn’t dare to take a big one, but in the end, it felt like he was eating more than anyone.

“He’s right, Straw Head,” Linah approved, raising her fork. “When I was a kid, my maternal great-grandma used to say, ‘Let a good meal go to waste and the devils of Asipatravana will take you away!’.”

Scary great-grandma. Nina looked at the Lil Witch in surprise.

“My mom says the exact same thing.”

Both were from the Hawaii Mountains, after all. I chuckled and stood up.

“Should I check if the pie is baked?”

“Oh, yeah, if you will, thanks!” Jing said.

“Pie!” Noah exulted. “I want to eat Shanghai pie!”

“Are you a kid?” Styzz replied calmly.

As I walked into the kitchen, I could hear their voices, but stopped listening to them. My core was beating fast. Was it life-lust? Maybe. But it wasn’t only that. My deathforce was vibrating. If I hadn’t been a musician, I would have probably not noticed that there was a rhythm in that vibration. My core… was playing music? Was I imagining it? What did that even mean? It was a sensation I had never felt before, but it reminded me of that physical reaction I had when I was alive and thought about happy things: that warm flow of energy that gently blooms in your heart and makes your ears resonate and all your mind tremble with a calm joy. I didn’t remember quite well the sensation, but the one I had right now must be the undead version of happiness. Or, more like, the Fury version of it. I felt alive and fortunate to be surrounded by good people and good food and to be able to share that bliss with my master. I was so happy that…

Humming a melody, I was putting the nice-looking Shanghai pie out of the oven when I stopped in my tracks.

Share happiness with my master?

Since when did I begin to think of Ray as my master and not as my best friend? Now that I thought about it, I had been calling him master more often since I had become a Fury.

‘A friend is way more precious than a master, don’t you think?’

That’s what I had told Arkill once. But now I was beginning to realize that the relationship between a necromancer and his familiar was way more complicated than that of a master and his slave. Even if I was Ray’s friend, I was also bound to him with a necro-bond. A necro-bond that allowed me to live but also changed my view of the world… and my view of Ray.

Should I ask him about it after dinner? Nah, but honestly, why would I worry about those sorts of things? Even if I were to become a familiar loyal to its master, why would that be wrong? Why would I refuse to see Ray as my master, when he actually was? As long as Ray kept being a loyal friend in return, I didn’t care about the rest.

“Oi, oi! Where’s that Shanghai pie?”

Noah’s scream from the great hall made me come back to the present.

“Stupidstar! Hurry up, we’re starving!”

So annoying. A smile faintly stretched my lips as I muttered:

“I’m the one starving, champ.”

The pie was delicious. Or so it seemed from my companions’ expressions. Before they could ask why I wasn’t even trying the pie, I stood up again.

“Guys! I just had an enlightenment!”

“Makes sense,” Noah commented. “It’s nighttime, so the stupidstar lights up.”

“Let me play the violin for you all! I actually have something I want to try.”

I had just found out my core was playing music, and I wanted to imitate it. I wanted my companions to listen to it. I was sure something good would come out of it.

“Oh, let’s hear it!” Linah said.

I ran upstairs to fetch my violin, then back downstairs, my core beating fast with anticipation.

“It’s something new,” I said, my voice quivering a bit. “But… I’m sure it will be something beautiful. Well, at least I think so.”

Everyone had finished eating, and they waited for me to play. They were actually looking at me expectantly. I smiled, took the violin, tuned it, then shut my eyes for a moment to listen to my undead heart… Its music was strong, loud, and poignant. I so wanted to let Ray and Linah hear it! And also Nina and Jing, and Noah, Styzz, Lei, and Sasha…

The bow grazed the strings, and I started playing. Music poured into the Wind House.

It was hard to follow the rhythm of my core, but I did my best. The bow danced on the strings, awakening notes of happiness, passion, and love. I soon realized my core was beating stronger. Was it because of the music?

When I finally stopped, I was so moved that I was having a hard time fighting back my tears. I had never played something so genuinely passionate. The music still reverberated through my whole being.

There was a deep silence among my public, then…

Clap, clap, clap, clap…

Lei was gentlemanly clapping his hands. Jing, Sasha, and Nina followed hesitantly; Noah stopped covering his ears.

“What did we do to you to deserve this, stupidstar?! Are you trying to kill us?”

Confusion filled my heart.

“Eeeh? No, I…”

“You’re being rude, Noah,” Jing scolded him.

“City music sure is different from that of my hometown,” Nina opined.

“It was as if a pack of mummies was having a party in their grave,” Lei chuckled. He sent me a thumbs up. “Dreadful technique. You could take down an Invernessian tiger with it, you know. Good work.” Was he complimenting me or…?

“Hwara-hwara-hwara!” Linah was massaging her temples. “For a moment, I thought you had gone crazy, Straw Head!”

I looked at them, at a loss. Didn’t they appreciate the music? It was the most beautiful melody I had composed until now, though? Or so I thought, but… did I just imagine it? It was said that some musicians corrected the notes in their heads and couldn’t listen to the music they actually produced. Did I just make an awful demonstration? If they hadn’t enjoyed the music, then…

‘You just tried to use qi in your music, Armen.’

From his seat, Ray was avoiding my gaze under his baseball cap as he added mentally:

‘Deathforce music can’t be easily heard. So what they just heard was really… er… hardcore? I know you put all your heart into it, or more like your core, but I’m the only one here who actually listened to the real thing. It was… beautiful.’

I didn’t understand what he said about deathforce music, but at his last words, my mood revived like a fire. I echoed excitedly:

“It was beautiful? Ray, you think it was beautiful?”

The others looked at both of us, startled. Ray got a bit flustered, met my expectant gaze, and cleared his throat.

“Yeah.”

“There’s no way it was!” Noah choked on his saliva out of disbelief. “Are you two really friends? Friends are supposed to be honest!”

Ray ignored him, and standing up, he asserted firmly, without a shadow of a doubt:

“It was beautiful.”

His tone defied anyone to say the contrary. The music of my core resonated even more marvelously to my ears.

42 For the sake of Fairyland

Zeeta’s eyes were fixed on the Wind House’s facade.

The Sun House was a bit lower than the Wind House, but from its tower, one could see almost all the houses occupied by the trainees.

It was a paradise for someone with a power like Zeeta’s.

With his power activated, he could perfectly hear Armen’s voice in the distance. He heard him laugh and say:

“The die is cast.”

“It’s not!!” Noah was protesting. “And, by the way, I don’t dye my hair!”

A cheerful smile stretched Zeeta’s lips. It looked like Armen was having fun at the Wind House. That was a worry off his shoulders.

It was a shame, though, that he couldn’t see the windows of the kitchen, nor the windows of most of the bedrooms. Well, it couldn’t be helped. Besides, he was supposed to be collecting information about elite trainees at other houses, too, and particularly about…

Hearing heavy footsteps on the stairs, he straightened up slightly. The tower was somewhat high, and he had bet that, after spending the afternoon climbing the Yuutow Tower, nobody in the Sun House would even think of coming here. Seemingly, he was wrong.

He waited for long minutes before he could see Cesarine’s golden head. So, it was her. He had recognized her footsteps, but it was hard to believe that she, of all people, would still be in the mood to climb stairs. In Yuutow Tower, the fox girl had suffered maybe even more than he had, though not because of the qi pressure but her weight.

The fox girl walked to the railing, her head almost touching the dome. As she put her lantern down, huffing and puffing, Zeeta looked at her, surprised to see her alone, away from Mackenzie, Charles-Ping, or Katya.

Sitting against the central column, he made a hesitating pout. She hadn’t seen him. Should he say something? This was the perfect occasion to have a conversation with Lovecryce’s daughter, and yet, he didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now, like, at all. As Ghost had told him once, ‘If you don’t know how to speak with the mouth, speak with music.’

Zeeta unconsciously took his guitar, abandoned by his side, and he was hesitating to play something when he noticed that Cesarine was shuddering. Was she cold? Even at night, it was hot on Phoenix Island, then… was she crying?

He then heard her mutter:

“It’s not right. It’s not right at all. I must stop him. But how? How can I stop him? I’m such a worthless daughter.”

She leaned forward. When Zeeta heard the balustrade crack, he jumped to his feet, leaving his guitar behind, and rushed towards Cesarine, alarmed.

“H-Hey, watch out!”

The exclamation made the fox girl start and heavily turn around, squinting at the shadows.

“Who…?”

Zeeta stopped, embarrassed. What was he thinking just now? There was no way Cesarine would have suicidal thoughts. Hell, she was the Nyomin director’s daughter. He bowed his head.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, captain.”

“… I thought I was alone,” she admitted, flushed.

Her whispering words had caught his attention. Whom did she want to stop? Why did she sound so desperate? Observing her from under his hood, Zeeta shrugged.

“Well, you weren’t.”

Then, he thought he could have found a better answer, something that would have allowed him to glean some sellable information. The Beholder Nick was right: he sucked at being an undercover agent. He was only good at eavesdropping and memorizing. Giving up, he turned and picked up his guitar, ready to leave.

“Well, er, bye then, capt—”

“Oh? Were you playing the guitar?” Cesarine asked. “Did I interrupt you?”

“Ah, no, I wasn’t playing,” Zeeta said.

“But you do play.”

“I do…”

Under the fox girl’s genuinely curious eyes, he played a short folkloric melody.

“Oooh!” She clapped excitedly. “I can’t play any instrument, but I love music. My mother was a pianist.”

“I know. She was famous.”

“Oh, heh, how stupid of me. Of course you know. Everyone knows my family.”

Zeeta was about to leave, but a melancholic touch in her voice made him stop. Cesarine was now gazing at the night. After a silence, he said:

“Is something the matter, captain?”

“W-What?”

“You were crying just earlier.”

“I-I wasn’t!” Cesarine’s golden tail wagged nervously.

“Well, it’s not my business. I’m leaving. Good night, captain.”

“Wait!”

Zeeta stopped at the top of the stairs, quizzical. Cesarine hesitated then said:

“You don’t need to call me captain.”

“Katya told us ‘subordinates’ that she will twist our heads off if we don’t.”

“Did she?!” Cesarine sighed loudly. “I’m so sorry. She’s been my bodyguard for a year now. She takes her job very seriously. Right,” she added. “When you introduced yourself, you said you came from Farskyer City and that you didn’t belong to any Nyomin clan. Your power is… mirrorism?”

“That’s Sergei’s power, the talkative guy. I only have good hearing.” It wasn’t a lie, just not the exact truth.

“Oh, so, that’s why you’re an artist!”

“… No, that’s not the reason.”

Cesarine blinked then smiled.

“Would you play a song for me?”

“…?” Didn’t she climb the tower to be alone?

“But if you don’t want to, of course—”

“Do you wanna hear something specific?” Zeeta cut her off. Under her surprised eyes, he leaned against the central column and looked up at her.

“Thanks!”

“I haven’t done anything yet.”

“Right. Then… play your favorite song.”

His favorite song, huh. It was hard to choose. But maybe… yeah, maybe that song Ghost used to play all the time…

He started to caress the strings gently and began to sing:

When the dark clouds drown the land,
when the storm of sins strikes down,
I will sing, laugh, and dance across the world,
to Fairyland.
To Fairyland, where I come from,
where Crystals rise from joy and light,
where my heart rests from birth to death.
To Fairyland.
When Earth is bleeding, when Nature screams,
when children cry to say, “I’m here”,
I’ll fly to them over the fire
and say, “goodbye, evil, goodbye,
open your eyes to life, my child,
and come to dance in Fairyland”.
Oh, Fairyland, oh Fairyland,
the land of Fairies and mankind.

As the last musical notes faded away in the night, he looked up. Cesarine had sat down, and her eyes were shining.

“Such a beautiful song!”

“Thanks. Well, I wasn’t the one who composed it.”

“You played it wonderfully! I can tell, you must have spent many hours playing.”

Zeeta’s lips went up slightly. Were all blond people as optimistic as the Straw Head or what? He rolled his eyes and repeated:

“Thanks.”

“But what’s Fairyland, I wonder?”

Zeeta shuddered under his hood.

“A place you build. A place you protect. Something an enemy cannot destroy without destroying your very soul. At least, that’s what the composer said it was.”

“… I see.”

Instead of looking confused as Armen would, Cesarine frowned, lost in thought.

“A place you protect,” she echoed. She raised blue, thoughtful eyes to Zeeta. “Say. Do you have a place you want to protect?”

In his mind, he saw a smiling Armen and Ray—what the hell was that guy doing in the background? He tsked mentally.

“I do.”

Cesarine wavered.

“And… would you do anything to protect it?”

What was with those personal questions? Zeeta frowned and thought, Yes, I would.

“Would you?” he replied.

“I wouldn’t.” Her answer came right away. She added nervously: “Imagine, for example, that some people want me to do something so I can continue protecting them, but doing so could be even more dangerous and even… unholy. I don’t want that. Am I being a bad daughter?”

“Eh… By ‘some people’, you mean your father, don’t you?”

“How did you know?!”

Like, you almost literally told me so… There was an awkward silence before she sighed, looking down at her hands.

“Well, yeah, I am talking about him.”

Wasn’t Lovecryce, as her father, supposed to protect her and not the other way around? Well, Zeeta knew from experience that that wasn’t always the case.

“Wanting to protect someone and being told to protect someone are two completely different things,” he then said. He hesitated. “Didn’t your father send you here simply to give recognition to the EPHT?” Cesarine’s expression showed trouble, and he added: “Well, you also said that you were supposed to lose weight and that you would give a ‘flower’ to anyone who would help you in that. Yesterday, when Katya told us to forget about your promise, I wondered if you really wanted us to forget about it. Is that flower so valuable?”

There was a silence. Zeeta cursed inwardly. He had talked too much, and Cesarine would probably cut the conversation off. He grimaced and was stepping back from the column, ready to bid her good night, when the fox girl asked:

“Can I trust you?”

Zeeta stared at her, amazed. Who on earth would ask that to a complete stranger? She smiled, wagging her tail embarrassedly.

“Maybe I can’t, right? But I get the feeling that you, at least, are not part of the Nyomin’s web of intrigue.”

Was he or was he not? Zeeta had no idea since he did not know for whom the Beholder worked. He shrugged.

“Well, I’m just an ordinary person. But maybe you shouldn’t trust me, just in case.”

She giggled.

“Only an honest person would say that!”

He felt uneasy. What if Cesarine told him something very big? Something that could put her in a bad situation? Then… should he report it to Nick? Some days ago, he would have, but now that he had talked with her and seen that, in the end, she wasn’t a monster even if she came from a family rotten with money, well… He didn’t feel right about it. However, if he tried to run away from the Underworld and the Dark Alliance, there was no telling what could happen to him. Not that he feared death but…

“You know,” Cesarine said, breaking a deep silence. “I didn’t get my power through normal means. It is a rare power, after all. When I wasn’t even born, my dad sent my mom to a village next to the Blue Great Crystal near Buenos Aires. I spent my childhood cultivating my qi in contact with the Crystal in order to inherit the blessing of the Blue Gods and have a power based on blue crystals. And when I got my power at ten, to everyone’s amazement, it was indeed a blue power, and a very powerful one. Four times a year, ” she raised one hand, palm up, “a special flower blooms on my hand. A flower that, if eaten, has the power of saving the information of the body and regenerating the cells if they suffer severe damage. The regeneration is not perfect, though. If you damage your brain, for instance, you will lose your recent memories. Besides, each flower has a useful life of just one year, so, well, my flowers are indeed valuable but they are not enough, that’s why… my dad sent me on this island to boost my power.”

Zeeta listened to her, eyes wide. Holy Crystals, why was she telling him all that? Obviously, the nature of her power had led her bodyguards to insist that everyone forgot about her promise. Because those flowers were something secret. Because the one who ate Cesarine’s flowers the most so far was probably Lovecryce himself. Zeeta sat down in front of Cesarine in silence and caressed the strings of his guitar, lost in thought. If he remembered well, six years ago, Lovecryce had survived the acid attack of a powerful madman in the streets and had walked away unscathed. Maybe his daughter’s power had saved him? That meant…

That meant that anyone who ate one of those heavenly flowers would be able to avoid death. Even if it was just once… Cesarine’s power was probably one in a hundred million if not less.

“Holy Gods,” he finally gasped. “You shouldn’t be telling me that, captain.”

“I know that,” Cesarine replied with evident restlessness. “But what should I do? Katya, Mackenzie, and Charles-Ping are good people, but they take orders from the Nyomin director, not from me. I want to stop my dad. But I’m all alone. So what should I do?” she repeated. “Let them use the elixir on me? They want to use a holy elixir that appears once every century in a dungeon, an item that can boost an energy phenomenon like someone’s power as long as you accept a restriction of equivalent value in return. That is, they want to use the elixir on me to alter my power so I can create one last flower that will grant my dad immortality.”

The more Zeeta heard the more he was convinced that, if Katya were to know of this conversation, she would bury him twenty feet under the ground where nobody could ever find him.

To think that Lovecryce, the Nyomin director, one of the most influential people in the World Government, was trying to achieve immortality and, what’s more, was ready to sacrifice the power of his own daughter for his own benefit…

Zeeta felt a wave of compassion for Cesarine. That surprised him. He rarely identified himself with other people. However, maybe because he, himself, had had a hard time dealing with his dad, he couldn’t help but feel angry at Lovecryce.

“That bastard,” he spat. “He wants to sacrifice your power?”

She shook her head.

“Honestly, maybe I’d be better off without my power. My body reacts as if it had eaten a flower, and it regenerates, so, I’m well protected, which is nice, but… my regeneration is so powerful that it messes with my body. My muscles are difficult to train. So is my brain. In a way, it’s more of a curse than a blessing. Well, I did save people’s lives with it, especially my dad’s. I’m grateful for this.” She paused. “In all honesty, I don’t want to lose my power. But that’s not the real problem.”

Her eyes pierced through Zeeta, as clear and blue as the Pearls of Yangzi.

“I’m more worried about my father’s true intentions. Why does he want to be immortal?”

Zeeta snorted.

“Not to die. That’s what it’s for, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes, of course I don’t want my dad to die, and I know many people strive for immortality, but… I find it wrong.”

“So wrong,” Zeeta agreed. Especially if one needed to use a rare elixir on their child to achieve it. “So? What are you gonna do?”

The expression Cesarine gave him was a mix of anxiety, confusion, and frustration.

“I don’t know. What should I do?”

“…” Was she asking for his help? Seriously? Zeeta distractedly played a melody, thoughtful, and suggested: “First of all, how about you tell your father you don’t want to do it?”

“I already did. But he says he’s doing it for my sake, too. He says that, in the future, people could try to kidnap me just for my power. In fact, people already tried to do so.”

For her sake, yeah, sure. Lovecryce was a scoundrel of the worst kind. Not that it was surprising, given how he had risen to power and held his management position for so many years despite the ruthless competition.

Cesarine folded her big arms over her chest.

“But I’ve reached the point when I’d rather get kidnapped than help my dad lose his integrity more than he already has.” Her lips trembled. “He’s not the same person I once knew. I’ve been trying to ignore it for years but… I can’t anymore. Not when he’s determined to become immortal by using me. It’s not right… is it?”

“It’s obviously not.”

“Then… will you help me?”

“Er… Will I?”

“Will you?”

Her eyes were so intense and desperate that Zeeta flinched under them, thinking, Why do I feel like I’d be forsaking a child in danger if I say I won’t?.

“Okay…” Zeeta almost choked on his saliva. What the hell was he saying? He nodded. “I will.”

“Seriously?! You will help me? That’s wonderful! I’ll give you one of my flowers as compensation.”

“…!” A flower, huh. Well, he had no use for it, but maybe he could give it to Ray. That way, the necromancer wouldn’t die, and so, Armen wouldn’t either. Zeeta smiled and nodded to himself saying: “Let’s do that. Plus five thousand Corns.”

“Ten thousand.”

“Deal.” After all, he was putting his life on the line, there. “So? What am I supposed to do?”

Cesarine’s tail was wagging happily, as if she was convinced that everything would be fine now. Couldn’t she have found a more suitable partner? Like, someone she could have trusted… Then he remembered her words, ‘I’m all alone’. Maybe she really was.

She began to explain:

“The dungeon is closed for now. No human can get past its barrier unless it is ‘open’, which happens only once a year for a few days. It’ll be fully open in two weeks. At that time, other people in the training will try to find the elixir. What you have to do is to stick to my bodyguards’ side and make sure they don’t find it.”

Her plan sounded a bit weak. Whatever. Zeeta nodded.

“What if they find it?”

“You should find it before they do,” she replied. “It’s said the elixir can talk. You have good hearing, don’t you? You’ll find it before anyone else.”

Her confidence was remarkable.

“Have you already been in that dungeon?”

“Never.”

Her confidence was getting even more remarkable. Zeeta sighed quietly. Compared to that, Nick’s jobs were rather precise, such as “the guy in this picture is probably a traitor, spy on him and report his every move to me in three days” or “On December 23 at night, spy on the Sunclaw family head at Marvel Hotel from booked room number 447 at Shell Hotel and report his conversation with the Necro-Haven leader on the next morning”. Well, as long as the elixir didn’t fall into the hands of Katya, Charles-Ping, or Mackenzie, mission accomplished, right?

As Cesarine opened her mouth to add something, Zeeta raised his hand to stop her and whispered:

“Someone is coming up.”

He stood up and, again, leaned against the central column, playing the guitar. Nervous, Cesarine got up to her feet heavily and stammered loudly:

“Th-Thanks for the music! It was really nice!”

Zeeta grimaced. What was she screaming for? She smiled at him eloquently and whispered:

“Thanks.” And she added loudly: “I’m going down!”

She began to go downstairs, slowly and carefully. Since no one came up there, Zeeta supposed they were looking for Cesarine. He drew a deep breath. The warm air was filled with the smell of salt and sponge cactuses. He breathed out and murmured:

“Thanks to you, captain.”

An elixir that granted a wish in exchange for a restriction, huh.

She had told him to find the item but not what to do with it. Should he take it? It sounded fun.

After a long time, his eyes turned to the Wind House and fixed on the great hall’s lit window. A strident sound of violin ripped his ears. What…?

The melody was nothing like anything Armen had played before. Was he trying to deafen his housemates?! No, but…

Zeeta felt his heart pound in his chest as his musician soul awakened.

It was awfully played, but there was a melody. A really weird one. But it was…

Beautiful.

Somehow, Zeeta could tell. But why? The Straw Head’s playing sounded as if the bow was going to break the strings and even the windows in the process.

Still… Still…

It felt as if Armen was putting all his heart into it. A heart that sang, “I love you, my friend, to the end of the Earth”.

Zeeta chuckled quietly, his eyes slightly moistened by a rising emotion.

He adjusted his guitar, sat down, and with his eyes fastened on the Wind House, he began playing, trying to keep up with Armen’s frantic playing. To think he almost missed such an epic musical awakening.

“Straw Head, you’re legend,” he laughed quietly, incredulous. His heart beating fast, he whispered: “I know you can’t hear me, but let’s play together. For the sake of Fairyland.”

43 The Old Grasshopper and my principles

I was sitting in Ray’s room, next to Rainbows, my eyes fastened on my best friend.

He was trying to activate his power. Around two hours had passed since he had sat down there. But I was sure he would succeed.

In the end, Ray sighed and opened his eyes.

“It’s useless. I definitely understand dark energy better than before, yet I can’t seem to activate my power at will.”

He looked strangely relieved. I frowned.

“Are you really trying?”

He glared at me.

“I am.”

“Okay, okay, relax, I believe you. Let’s call it a day.”

Ray pointed his chin at his cellphone, which I was holding.

“Did you read it?”

I looked down at the phone and the text of Iracheh Smith, Dark Manual For Dummies. Ray had not forgotten our conversation this afternoon nor my curiosity to learn a bit more about the undead, and he had given me this short manual to read. I smiled.

“About that, that text is wonderfully clear, Ray, thanks! I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve learned a lot!”

“For instance?”

“Er… Like, about the different categories of undead.” I raised one finger. “First, the way they are reincarnated will make them ghouls, wraiths, or life reapers. I didn’t get everything in the definitions but… anyway, during their evolution, either they turn into a Fury or they don’t. If they do… er…” I looked at the text where I had left it and read: “‘Their white-energy soul will blend with their dark-energy core.’ No way!” I gasped. I hadn’t read that part yet. I continued: “‘As a matter of fact, a Fury is one of the few creatures that have a gray soul in this world!’ Seriously?!” I continued out loud, engrossed: “‘What does that mean? It means their soul is not enclosed by the core anymore but has merged with it. Such a core is sturdier and cannot scatter. It cannot be removed from the body and transferred to another one.’ Does that mean I cannot be transferred into the body of an eagle? Such a pity,” I commented and went on, “‘However, on the other hand, it will transform lifeforce into deathforce way faster than that of a normal undead.’ Cool. ‘Besides, it will develop some kind of strong instincts, which is a double-edged sword: Furies are harder to control, even after their worst phases. They tend to be more rebellious than other undeads.’ …” I glanced at Ray, then agitated one hand like a rapper and sang: “I’m the Decibel Rebel! Hear me, Ray, I won’t obey; won’t comply just ’cause I died; no more orders, no more masters: banzai!”

A glint of hope shone in Ray’s eyes. Wait, what? What was he so happy about? He cleared his throat.

“Nice improvisation.”

“Right? I should become a rapper violinist,” I grinned, then I returned to the text, “So, I’m a deathforce super transformer Fury with a gray soul and a rebellious spirit. What else?” I kept reading. “‘You will say, ‘oh, but I am not sure I can handle that! Can I turn my Fury into a normal undead?’ You can’t! Undeads that become Furies will always be Furies no matter what. Once a soul merges with the core, it cannot be undone. But it is also what makes necromancy such a beautiful art: undeads are not robots, they are beings we brought to life, they are our precious children.’” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ray twitch. I continued: “‘We have to do our part of the job and take care of them the best we can, not until they grow up, but UNTIL YOU DIE. And that can happen earlier than you expect. If you’re reading this book and you’re already dealing with a Fury, then maybe that means you didn’t take things seriously enough. If that’s the case, as I said in the introduction, you should go ask for help right away or call the emergency telephone number. Why? Because, while evolving, Furies can kill their m—’”

Growing restless, Ray hurriedly took the phone back and let out with a growl:

“Damn it to hell. That wasn’t the one. I mean, it was the right manual, but I didn’t remember that part—”

I was frozen to the spot.

Furies could kill their masters.

Well, it wasn’t something new. Ray had already warned me about it. I shook my head and took the phone back.

“I want to read it all.”

“Now that I remember, it’s a super biased manual. Like, it’s as if my dad had written it in his youth.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Every book is biased, every person is. It’s still instructive, so I’m gonna finish it. And don’t worry, Ray, if I try to kill you…” Under his troubled expression, I pondered, my head began to overwork, then I just said: “If I kill you, I will die, too.”

We stared at each other. Ray’s lips went up. He stood up replying:

“That’s too obvious to be even worth mentioning. Well, I’m going to sleep. Could you wake me up when Natasha comes?”

“No prob. Good night, Ray.”

“Good night.”

As he covered himself with a blanket, I thought of switching off the light, then remembered he was still afraid of the dark, and I just sat against a wall. My eyes turned to the cellphone… then to Rainbows as the cat climbed on my lap and stared at the screen. I raised an eyebrow and whispered:

“You don’t know how to read, Rainbows, do you?”

The cat looked up to me, fell backwards, and ensconced herself shamelessly against my chest, then looked back at the screen with all seriousness. She knew it was Ray’s phone, and she also probably knew Ray wanted me to learn things through it, so she had decided to imitate my actions. I rolled my eyes and kept reading.

After the paragraph about Furies, Iracheh Smith talked about the general transformation all undeads underwent to become adults. There were four different ways to evolve depending on the nature of the necro-bond at the time of the transformation. There were even different names for each class: Guardians, Servants, Wolves, and Daevas.

Guardians were the most common type; they had one necro-bond tying them to only one master.

Servants had two masters or more and one necro-bond for each of them. Necromancers that created them did so usually to protect their whole family and to pass on some of their familiars to their children instead of having them die with them. I bet the Lord would have loved to gift a Servant to his son. As a matter of fact, hadn’t he tried to do so with me to spy on Ray?

Wolves were attached not only to their master but also to other familiars of their “pack”. I couldn’t help but glance at Rainbows, wondering what it would be like to be linked to the cat. Would I be able to understand her thoughts?

The last and least common class, Daevas, had two necro-bonds with one unique master—according to Iracheh, an undead could become a Daeva only if it shared, in its body, a crystal composition similar to its master’s.

«Once the undead had grown and advanced to one of those classes, it is almost impossible to change it,» I read.

To think there could be such a variety of bonds… It was confusing. I wondered what Arkill’s class was. And what about Louise and Uncle Adrian? Guardians, maybe? Or were they Wolves? As for Natasha… Well, who knows.

I shook my head, and Rainbows followed suit. I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“Did you learn something interesting?”

The cat stared at me, then pawed the phone, scrolling through the text.

“Oi, I haven’t finished y—The hell?” I whispered as a completely different book opened. The Magic World Of Necromancy, vol 4: How To Create A Core From Scratch. Nine hundred sixty-eight pages. I swallowed, scrolled down through the introduction, stumbled upon formulas and blueprints, and averted my eyes as if they were going to catch fire. Rainbows sent me a quizzical look, most surely asking back, “Did you learn something interesting?” Ha, what a humorous cat… I glanced at the clock before turning the phone off. “Enough of studying. There are still two hours until Natasha comes. Let’s rest, Rainbows. Our master says undeads need to rest, too.”

The cat let out something like a cackle, left my lap, and jumped onto the window sill, raising her tail like a queen. Silence fell. No sound could be heard aside from Ray’s breathing. His lifeforce was swirling in the room. Was it me or was I actually able to see it? Like thin, white mist floating and ascending with the air…

I don’t know for how much time I sat there without breathing, mesmerized by the mist, when I heard a knock followed by a loud hissing. Startled, I turned to see Rainbows bolt from the window into the room. I caught her on the fly and squinted at the window as she clutched at me, all claws out. The knock had come from there, not the door, which was so thick that I wouldn’t have been able to hear anything through it.

I glimpsed a figure behind the glass panes. Who the hell…?

Hurrying to the window, I opened it wide and whispered in dismay:

“Grandma?! I’m so sorry! You should have just used the door—it’s not locked—I mean, I wanted to wait for you outside, but then I lost track of time and—Anyway, how on earth did you climb—Holy Crystals, you’re flying!” I exclaimed.

“I’m not.”

The girl in purple clothes was standing on the air, about ten meters from the flying wing’s ground, and no less than a hundred meters from the Academy’s ground. I looked at her, amazed. She wasn’t flying, she said?

“You are.”

“No. I’m standing on a staircase. That’s my power.”

“A staircase, you say? Really? I can’t see it.”

“Want to check?”

“Oh, can I?”

Jumping from the window, with Rainbows in one arm, I landed on the invisible stairs. I heard no sound. It felt so strange… Natasha paused for a moment, then a glint of amusement flickered in her eyes.

“Well, that’s some trust you’ve got, kid. What if I was lying?”

I froze then grinned.

“Well, you weren’t. Hahaha… It feels so weird to be standing on air! Guess it’s even weirder for us undeads because we can’t feel the ground. How does it work?”

“Don’t move, or you’ll fall.” She grabbed my wrist. Was she worried about me? Rainbows had calmed down and was staying still, looking around without showing any fear. A normal cat would have been hissing and carving its nails into my shoulder. Undeads’ instincts sure were all messed up.

“Armen?”

Ops. Ray had woken up. I peeped into the room with a large smile.

“Ray! I’m flying!”

The young necromancer reached the window and glanced at our feet, which were standing on nothing more than the night air. He didn’t look surprised. So, he already knew about Natasha’s power. He turned to her.

“Good evening, Natasha.”

“Good evening, Ray Styxer. I came to take your little Fury. If our deal is still on.”

“It is. Thanks for your help.” Ray wavered. “We finally decided not to take the pills you talked about.”

“Okay. Will you still join our group?”

“I thank your master for the invitation, but I must decline.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised. If you only ask me to help Armen find people to feed on them, I’ll do it for free.”

I gasped. For free?! Ray looked troubled.

“You… don’t want money?”

Natasha’s eyes gleamed.

“My master told me not to be greedy and help you as best as I can. Of course, if you ask for personally prepared meals, I’ll charge you.”

“Which means I’d owe the Vod Group a big favor,” Ray replied with a sigh.

Natasha smiled.

“Huhuhu. Don’t look so dejected. Well, if you prefer to ask for your father’s help, please do.”

Ray hesitated for a moment then shook his head and bowed politely.

“Please look after Armen.”

“It will be my pleasure. Shall we go? Oh… By the way, I didn’t know you had another familiar.” She pointed her chin at the cat, now perched on my shoulder. “What’s its name?”

“It’s Rainbows,” I said. “She’s my little sis.”

Natasha’s eyes observed the brindled cat, and she echoed:

“Rainbows… Why?”

I smiled at Ray’s grimace. Louise had named the cat Rainbows even before she had been revived, and it had stuck. The young necromancer shrugged.

“No idea. I wasn’t the one who named her.”

Natasha frowned.

“It’s the master’s duty to name their familiars. Names color the soul.”

“What a stupid belief. ” I snorted with laughter at Ray’s comeback. He tried to fix his rudeness: “I mean, a name is just a group of sounds. The way you use it is more important.”

“Whatever. Is Rainbows coming with us, too? ”

“No,” Ray said.

“Why not?” I replied. The cat jumped from my shoulder into the room with a decided meow. I pouted. “See? She’s afraid of being away from you. But she can’t stay in that room forever, can she?”

“…” Ray hesitated, then shook his head. “Maybe some other time, but not tonight.” His dark eyes fixed on me. “Well, I hope you’ll have a good, er, a good dinner.”

I grinned.

“Thanks. I will.”

Natasha took my hand and began leading me down the invisible stairs. We then started climbing up, then down, then up again, moving away from the Academy, towards the main island. After a while, I got used to the steps, and an idea occurred to me.

“Why stairs? Wouldn’t making a flying corridor be faster?”

Natasha grumbled something under her breath and explained:

“That’s how my power works. Fifteen steps, up or down, with an angle of zero to ninety degrees to the left or right. Can’t do better than that.”

Her tone was slightly bitter. I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, it’s already amazing, grandma.”

“Some people in Singapore call me the Old Grasshopper because of that,” she grumbled, seemingly not hearing me.

I smiled and repeated:

“It’s already amazing, grandma. In a way, it’s better than flying. Birds can’t sit down in the air. Right, Ray told me birds can’t even fly on this island because of the odd gravity, but you can! And what’s even better, you can bring people with y—Whoa!”

I gasped suddenly, looking down at the submerged Neck of the turtle. When I had swum across it the day before, the twinkling algae was barely visible. Now, however, all the algae were shimmering like a sea of small fires. Could it be because of another earthquake? Whatever it may be, the view was beautiful.

“Fool,” Natasha snorted, pulling me back. Only then did I realize that I had almost fallen over. “Watch your step.”

“Okay!”

We continued. Up and down, up and down. We finally reached the cliffs and landed on the wild grass growing on the slope. Natasha kept walking without stopping. I glanced at Kim’s lighthouse before following the necromancer girl into the city.

As the last times, even at night, there were quite a few people in the streets. We walked down a long avenue and a lane full of nightclubs and restaurants before Natasha stopped, looking at a noisy bar.

“Okay. Now observe and learn.”

Curious, I followed her into the dark alley next to the bar. There was a drunk man in a suit snoozing there, among empty cardboard boxes. With a casual gesture, Natasha took his hand and raised it towards me.

“Enjoy.”

I gaped at her.

“So… it’s all about finding defenseless people who won’t remember anything the next morning? That’s a bit…”

“That’s how nature works. The tiger chases the wounded prey. Enjoy,” she repeated.

“…” I crouched, fidgeted, and muttered: “I’m no tiger.”

Natasha clicked her tongue and put the guy’s hand on mine… I drew back just in time, standing up.

“Wait, grandma. I can’t do this. I may be hungry, but my conscience, you know…”

She sighed loudly with surprise.

“You didn’t think about your conscience when you drank the meal I made for you this morning. Really, stop it. If you’re going to play the saint—”

“What saint?” I breathed out and crouched again. “I’m no saint either. I’m just trying to reason. Drinking alcohol is no crime.”

“Since when are we trying to find criminals now?”

“Not necessarily criminals, but… Well, I know we’re not killing them. Still, such an amount of lifeforce… I’m sure a human needs at least several days to recover from it, right? So, if they were at least people I don’t like… it would be easier for me.”

“… You’re getting on my nerves.” She paused. “So? What kind of people do you not like?”

“Hmwell… Murderers.”

“Okay. You might as well know it now: you’ll starve to death if you only choose murderers, kid.”

“Er… People who hurt others’ feelings. People that don’t respect others. Liars. Evil scammers.”

“Are there even good scammers? Well, your list is growing. But it’s still not enough. How are you going to find such specific personalities and then create a good opportunity to attack them in one night?”

I frowned, pondering. At this moment, the drunk man woke up, blinked at Natasha, and chuckled in his dialect:

“Aye, beautiful lady, did I go to heaven? Haha, there’s no way I did, huh. I’m still in this boring world, with my boring job, my boring life, my damn debt. Will you pay it for me, dear angel? Ah, but you people from the Sun always scorned money. Money is the evil. Money,” he hiccuped. “The Shining One hates it, too. But what can I do? All I do now is drink my life away. Such a worthless life… I should just die.”

He tried to get up to his feet, staggered, and I unconsciously took him by the arm. He grabbed my hand like a blind man. Before I knew it, I was eating his lifeforce in droves. I was so focused that I barely noticed when Natasha hit the man on the back of his neck to knock him out. I don’t know how long I fed on him. Fortunately, Natasha intervened to separate us before I could completely drain the guy. I stepped back, trembling, my core feasting on the meal.

“Thanks, grandma.” It was relieving to know that, thanks to Natasha being there, I wouldn’t kill anyone. Damn. So, in the end, I had ended up feeding on a drunk man who, from his words, was probably a pretty good fellow with bad luck. Well, what was done was done. I thanked him mentally for his energy and turned to the necromancer girl, straightening up. “You pulled me away more easily than I expected… You’re quite strong, aren’t you?”

“Generally, grown-up undeads are stronger than cubs. Anyhow, this is really bad.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“What is?”

Natasha looked at me with an incredulous expression on her face.

“Seriously, brat, how did you do it?”

“…? D-Don’t tell me I ate too much—?!”

“No, that’s not it. I mean, I was the one who targeted him, but… to think your first target would be a worshipper of the Shining One. It is just so unlikely.”

The Shining One? I frowned, trying to remember, in vain.

“Who’s the Shining One?”

“A god. Not a Holy God, but a pagan one. Shining One believers usually follow very strict regulations. Didn’t your master tell you?” She averted her eyes from the unconscious man and turned to me again, “The members of the Blazing Sun Corporation are all Shining One believers.”

I was getting more and more confused.

“Sorry, grandma… The Blazing Sun Corporation?”

Natasha’s eyes froze.

“One of the biggest group of Death Hunters in the world.”

My core leaped and shuddered.

Death Hunters.

Then… I turned to the drunk man with a chill. Natasha shrugged.

“Given his clothes, he’s probably just a clerk and not a Death Hunter. But if he remembers us and what happened, he will surely report it.”

We fell silent. I was stiff, wondering what Natasha was planning to do. Finally, she crouched, searched the man’s wallet, flicked on her lantern to read something—probably his name—shrugged again, stood up, and began walking out of the alley, saying:

“It’s too dark in there. He can’t have seen our faces clearly. Let’s go find the next one. A bad guy or whatever. You choose your target, brat.”

I sighed in relief, cast the Shining One believer a last glance, and whispered:

“I hope you cheer up, man. Life is not all suffering.”

I rushed after Natasha, adding inwardly: nor death is.

Long after we left, the man in a suit was lying face up, his eyes fixed on the stars. He was shaking in fear, covered in cold sweat.

“Oh my God, that was sobering,” he stammered. “Oh my God, I thought I was gonna die…”

44 Never trust a witch with good intentions

My eyes looked down at the four young men lying unconscious in the bushes of the park. Three of them had been ganging up on the fourth, and after Natasha had helped me knock them out, I’d had no qualms in feeding on them. Now I was brimming with energy. Although no longer really hungry, I still drooled at the fourth. Under Natasha’s attentive eyes, I wiped my lips, scolding myself.

“Let’s head back,” Natasha suggested.

I nodded and followed her, feeling strangely light-hearted and alive.

“Oh, right! I have to buy some things. Is it okay if I stop by some shops on our way? ”

“…? I’m not in a hurry. Do as you want.”

“Thanks! And thanks for all you did tonight, grandma.”

“Well, I can’t let you kill humans while I’m around.”

“Right… But how did you knock them out?” I imitated her palm strike with admiration. “You did something like that, just like in the movies—”

“It’s a combination of a martial technique and a shock of necro-qi.”

“Wow! A shock of…! Necro-qi? What’s that?”

“Your deathforce released into your meridians from your necro-heart is also called necro-qi or qi.”

“Oh. Wait, what’s my necro-heart? Do I have a heart?!”

Ray had never told me! Natasha gave me a curious glance.

“Necro-heart is another word for necro-core.”

“Oh. Necro-heart,” I repeated and smiled. I quite liked the sound of it.

I stopped by a convenience store and bought a big bag of crab meat cans for Rainbows, then I spotted a shabby shop in an alley and bought gloves and a coverall. I shook my wallet, couldn’t find any more coins, and began fidgeting before the old owner. With a sigh, Natasha put a twenty Corns bill on the counter. I looked at her as if she was my savior, which she was in more than one way actually.

“Now I’m ready to go, grandma!”

She looked at me up and down.

“Well, given how friendly you are with humans, a diving suit would have been even a better choice.”

“Now that you mention it…”

“Next time, perhaps, huhuhu…”

I frowned one eye. Was she making fun of me?

When we reached the hill of Kim’s lighthouse, Natasha raised a foot and activated her power. Soon, we were climbing her invisible stairs. I could feel her hand in mine. My necro-qi was vibrating inside my core. It felt as if my whole body was being altered at a fast pace.

“I’m changing.”

I blurted it out without thinking. Natasha looked back at me, but it was too dark for me to see her face when she answered:

“Of course you are. You are evolving. Your soul and your core are slowly fusing.”

Although I already knew about the fusion, her words troubled me deeply. I had just realized one thing: what if my soul changed with the fusion? Would I stop being myself? How would I know if I did? Maybe seeing through my silence, Natasha added:

“You can’t stop the fusion once it’s started. All you can do is keep going this way. Certainly, the evolution of a Fury is kind of… chaotic, but once you’ve evolved, your core won’t change any more.”

“You mean, my soul will change…?”

Natasha stopped on a step and turned.

“Are you worried about your soul?”

“Of course I am.”

“About forgetting your past?”

“Well, naturally, who wouldn’t?”

To my surprise, her hand clutched mine. Moonlight glimmered in her eyes.

“So it’s true,” she said with a trembling tone, “you remember your past life.”

Only then did I realize where she was coming from. I was supposed to be but a cub—a somewhat precocious one, but all in all just an undead that shouldn’t have been too much concerned about its very young soul. I had made a blunder. I tried to break free from her grip, in vain. I grumbled:

“What do you mean, my past life?”

“Were you revived with your whole soul?” she replied. “Tell me the truth.”

Her last words came out as a necro-order. Though astonished, I resisted with almost no effort and glared at her. The hell was she doing? She let go of my hand with surprise, and for a moment, we stood in silence above the Turtle’s Neck. I remembered something Ray had said about necromancers giving orders to someone else’s familiar: it was considered a serious offense. Natasha Shatana Limpetra knew it. And yet, she had gotten carried away. That’s how rare it was to keep one’s soul through a revival.

I heard her sigh.

“Please forgive this old grandma for her lack of manners.”

Was she chalking it up to her age? I rolled my eyes.

“Sure. Your order didn’t do anything, anyway.”

“… I saw that. For an undead who hasn’t even evolved, your resistance is pretty impressive. I wonder what kind of technique you used.”

Most likely, it was the same electronic technique used in the Vod group, since Kaspar was one of their members… Keeping that thought to myself, my lips curved in a hesitating smile.

“How about we get moving? It’s not that I have vertigo but, you know, we’re pretty high up…”

Amused, she took my hand again, and we kept going up and down the stairs, heading to Yuutow Island. In the darkness, I would have had a hard time determining which of the flying wings was that of the Wind House, but Natasha did not hesitate. She led me home, I landed in the garden, and bid her good night. After seeing her climb down the invisible stairs towards her own house and disappear in the night, I looked at the lights at the top of Yuutow Tower. Were some people trying to repair it this late at night? Not that they would succeed…

I turned away and went back to my own bedroom, satiated and in high spirits, having forgotten all my worries about my evolution. I close the door and folded my arms, pensive.

How should I spend the rest of the night? Iracheh Smith’s manual was in Ray’s room, but I didn’t want to wake him up, and I didn’t really feel like reading right now, anyway. In the quietness of my room, I started cleaning my violin, then a sudden thought about all the recent events woke my second stroke of inspiration tonight. I frantically searched for a sheet of paper in the dark, lit up a lamp, sat down at the desk, and wrote:

How is it so that I can feel your heart in mine?
My moon is shadow in your shining sun.
How can I write your sacred name online?
It’s flying high, it’s flying high, your life!
Is like a giant Crystal running wild.

My pen kept running through the paper like that of an inspired poet, trying to write down all my feelings. My desires. My ambitions. The growing necro-bond was making me feel as small as an ant in front of a god. But I still wanted to follow that god as myself, as the scatterbrained friend and the misunderstood poet I was. Instead of bending to that blinding sun and closing my eyes, I wanted it to shine on the whole world. And I wanted to stay with it, with everyone, for as long as I could.

I don’t know how much time had passed when my hand wrote:

Ray, don’t forget I’m no longer alive,
that I am here to protect what is mine.
I want to give my master all my life,
to merge in one and tell him my desire.
I want—

My pen stopped. I blinked. What was I writing? My last verses sent shivers through my spine. Merge in one? Tell him my desire? What desire? That of killing him, perhaps?

“Holy Gods,” I muttered.

The sun was rising. Well, with some luck, Ray was still sleeping. Swallowing my embarrassment, I contemplated my writing and shook my head in disbelief. One, two, three, four sheets. I had never written so much in one night. Well, some verses were pretty good. I read out loud:

“‘My moon is shadow in your shining sun’, heh, that was a good one. Oh, and that one, ‘My happy death is the present that makes my heart fly’. Hahaha… What did I mean by that again?”

I was enjoying and rereading my verses as if I had discovered them after ten years, when suddenly the door flew open.

“Straw Head! Wake up! Oh, you’re already up. Good morning! I have a surprise! What are you doing? Writing—?”

“N-Nothing!” I cried out. Fearing Linah would want to read my inspirations, I panicked, balled them up, put them into my mouth, and gulped them down under the young witch’s astonished gaze.

“…!! Straw Head?!”

“My verses were awful.”

“That’s not the point! You didn’t have to eat it! Just burn it if you don’t want anyone to read it!”

“… Oh. Next time, I’ll do that.”

Linah snorted.

“Holy Witches. And why are you dressed like that?”

Lowering my eyes to the orange coverall I had bought, I smiled.

“You like it? I am quite satisfied with the color. And it has a black hood. I’ve brought some gloves, too. See? With that, I’ll be completely protected!”

“… Protected from ridicule?”

“Eeeh? No, no, you know, it’s for the… cactus allergy.”

I averted my eyes, feeling bad under her surprised and compassionate look.

“Is it that bad?”

“Well…”

It was getting harder and harder to lie to her. Damn. It would be so much easier if she knew. But, for her to know, first I had to tell her. Logically. And if I did, then… how would she respond? I mean, how would I have reacted if, three months ago, she had come to me and told me, “Hey, Straw Head, actually, I’m a zombie, please let’s stay friends forever”? Or more like, “Hey, Straw Head, you know, I was thinking about confessing my love to you, then the Cheetahs fell apart, and I died, and I was revived into an undead, and now there are many things I can’t do, like, I can’t sense anything with my hands, and if I kissed you, all I’d feel would be your distasteful lifeforce. Will you love me anyway? “Of course I will, Lil Witch!”” I covered my eyes. Forget the theatrical tone, why was I turning everything upside-down?!

“Straw Head? Straw Head! Are you feeling unwell? Is it the allergy?! Those damn cactuses, I’ll uproot them all! ”

Her sincere worry went to my heart… She was so sincere that she was already walking out of the room to put her words into practice. I rushed after her.

“Lil Witch, don’t! I’m fine! I’m fine, you hear? Forget the cactuses.”

“Really? Then don’t make me worry needlessly! For crying out loud…” She breathed out sharply. “Anyway, come down. I have a surprise for you.”

A surprise? Then, I noticed that, over her loose white t-shirt and her black, tight pants, she was wearing an apron. I understood why when she explained as we walked down the stairs:

“It seems that Styzz and Noah ate the rest of the Shanghai pie during the night—those two are hopeless gluttons—and since you couldn’t even taste it, I thought: what if I make a cake? And so, I did.”

She turned to me with a grin as we reached the bottom of the stairs, and she pointed at the table.

“Ta-da!”

Linah had… cooked for me? My necro-core leaped, and my gaze lingered on her beaming face before turning toward the cake. It was oddly greenish and molded into a pot whose handles were…

“Well, yeah,” Linah grumbled, “the handles were made of plastic. I noticed it afterwards.”

Please, notice it before you burn it all.

“Anyway, now, we’ll be able to use this pot, too, for the oven.”

I coughed, stifling a laugh, and sat at the table, inspecting the cake. Putting my gloves on not to burn myself, I shook the pot upside-down to get the cake out, but it didn’t move an inch.

“Hold it tight,” Linah said impatiently. She climbed on the table, clenched her fist, and punched the base of the pot. She hit it so hard that the pot slipped from my hands and crashed loudly on the table. The cake, inside, was still well attached. Avoiding Linah’s eyes, I decided to take it seriously and cut a portion with a serrated knife. It came out as green as the crust and hard as stale bread.

At this point, I reached my limit and burst out laughing. To my stupefaction, Linah’s lips pouted, and her eyes filled with tears.

“I messed up, didn’t I?”

Her voice broke, and my necro-core with it. The next thing I knew, I was holding the piece of cake and putting it into my mouth. Linah gaped at me, with a mix of hope and guilt in her eyes. Alarmed by the noise, the others were coming out of their bedrooms. Noah turned up his nose.

“What happened in here? It stinks of burned plastic.”

I grabbed the pot with the cake rooted in it.

“The cake’s all mine!”

“You a kid?” Noah snorted.

“Wait!” Linah protested. “Straw Head, seriously, what if it’s inedible?”

I swallowed down what was in my mouth.

“It’s clearly inedible,” Noah said, looking over my shoulder. “And it’s clearly not a cake.”

I glared at him and climbed up the stairs saying:

“I’ll cherish your first witches’ concoction for the rest of my life.” Which could be shorter than expected if the cake had some ingredients that were deadly for undeads. As that thought crossed my mind, I turned and smiled at her a bit more emotionally than intended. “Thanks, Lil Witch.”

“…!”

While Linah turned livid, Lei chuckled, and Noah rolled his eyes, saying:

“Don’t thank someone who has just poisoned you, stupidstar.”

“I-I haven’t!” Linah gasped weakly.

“He is paler than usual,” Nina remarked. Was I?

They all stared at me as if they expected me to collapse at any moment. In the end, Linah cracked.

“It’s not fair! I just wanted to make a cake. I didn’t put any poison in it! You guys have to believe me! I didn’t! Give me that, Straw Head! Seriously, give it back!”

She was now pulling at the pot. I protested:

“But I want it!”

Linah glowered at me. I grimaced and confessed:

“I want to take a picture of it. As a souvenir.”

I heard stifled laughs in the hall. Linah’s eyes grew even more murderous as tears welled up in them again. She stole the pot from me through sheer brute force, ran outside through the courtyard, and threw it all over the railing of the flying Wind House, as far as she could. It turned out it went quite far.

We had followed her outside under the morning sun, and I knew Lei and Noah were dying to comment something, but the look she gave us silenced them. I cleared my throat.

“It’s the thought that counts, Lil Witch.”

Linah swallowed and snuffled. I insisted:

“I won’t forget—”

“Please do!” She breathed in and out and added shyly: “But thanks, Straw Head, for tasting it anywa—”

A sudden explosion below drowned her words. Startled, we all hurried to the edge to have a look, except Lei, who stared at her sister with curiosity.

“What kind of exploding cake was that, dear sister?”

“Hah?! Wh-What are you implying? That wasn’t the cake! Cakes do not explode!”

“Why was it green, anyway?” Noah replied.

“The hell if I know!”

“Now that’s worrying,” Nina said to herself, thoughtful.

“Aya-aya.” Lei’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “Now that I remember, didn’t your grandma bar you from the kitchen when you were four?”

“That has nothing to do with—! Really! I just forgot my hand in the oven once, that’s all!”

Holy Crystals, now I was worried that she might try to make a cake again. No, more importantly…

I looked below, towards the area where the pot with the cake had fallen. I saw people hurrying across the gardens of the Academy. A column of smoke was rising.

My necro-heart froze. Right now, all I could think was: What the hell did I just eat?!

I turned to Linah in dismay as the others were all watching the incident.

“I d-d-don’t understand,” she stuttered. “Why?”

That was what I wanted to ask her.

In the end, several instructors came to the Wind House to investigate, Linah confessed, and we learned that some rare species of plants in the garden had reacted with the cake and had been completely obliterated. The old Claire Li tried hard to get the recipe from the Lil Witch, but all her attempts were unfruitful. Maybe because Noah and Lei were openly laughing, we were all punished and told to help Linah repair the garden. And while the instructors talked and gave admonitions, I kept shaking inwardly, scared to death, waiting for the moment when I would explode.

No one seemed to remember that I had eaten a piece of that cake.

No one seemed to worry about me.

How depressing. In the end, we were all alone in this world.

Then I heard Ray’s voice through our necro-bond:

‘Your body’s fine: I don’t know exactly what happened, but you’re not going to explode.’

His words were like a warm, summer rain. I turned to see him walk out of the house, his sleepy eyes still barely open. I grinned, and before I could even think, I called out in relief:

“Master!”

All eyes turned to me. Glancing at the surprised faces of the instructors, I stood rooted to the spot. Crap. Why did I say that?! For a second, Ray’s eyes flashed with fear. Then we heard another:

“Oh, master! Good morning!”

It was Lei Sunclaw. The martial artist had just saved the day for us, making everyone think that Ray was a bossy captain that wanted his subordinates to call him master… Which was false! I growled inwardly with conflicted emotions, then I saw Noah open his mouth, surely about to ruin everything, and I elbowed him. The Champ frowned at me, then something clicked in his mind, and he exclaimed:

“Wait! Stupidstar! You… Haven’t you eaten some of the cake?!”

There followed a terrible situation where the instructors wanted to send me to a hospital to extract the destructive cake. I flatly refused and repeated endlessly that I was fine, all that under Linah’s horrified gaze. To think I had made her promise to give me her first amulet once she became a witch… I sighed inwardly. Being around those people was a lot of fun most of the time, but honestly… I wanted to live a long life. And I knew firsthand how easy it was to die.

Tense, I patted Linah’s pink hair and said:

“Nice try, Lil Witch.”

As she gaped at me, wondering what I meant, I added with a twitching smile:

“Don’t worry. I’m going to put a lock on the kitchen door. I’ll make all the cakes you want. SO STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN, OKAY? OKAY?”

Noah chuckled.

“He’s snapped.”

45 An actionphobe, a killjoy, Electromorpheus, Champ, Master, and I

When the snail eyed the lettuce,
the bird came to play.
When the bird eyed the snail,
the cat came to play.

Although it was a sunny day, the shade of the Academy’s building spread on the gardens in the morning.

Singing, Noah, Styzz, Jing, and I sidestepped to the right, a watering can in our hands.

In only five days, the garden had been cleaned, and new seeds had been planted. Linah had paid for the special ones while Nina had secretly sown some seeds she had brought from the mountains: when I had caught her planting them, she had pouted shyly and muttered, ‘They’re special blueberry bushes from my hometown… It’s a matter of conscience’. Was she just feeling pity for the poor exploded garden or was she feeling guilty for some reason? That troubled me for some time, but I decided it was better not to ask. In a way, I was glad about what had happened: spending so much time in the garden reminded me of the summers I used to spend with my grandparents. I also had fun seeing Lei with a pickaxe—the elite martial artist was still aching all over from gardening. Linah had worked hard, too—the first day, she ended up so tired that she almost mistakenly buried one of her feet.

When the storm eyed the giant,
the gods came to play.
When the gods eyed the world,
the world came to an end.
When the storm, the giant, the demon,
the shark, the dog, the cat, the bird, the snail… No!

The four of us shouted, raising our watering can at the same time, then finished:

When the lettuce came out of the earth,
the world came to an end!

We looked at the watered garden, and Noah gave an approving nod.

“The garden’s looking good. Wonder how much time it will need for the seeds to sprout.”

“It’ll probably take some time for the feathering amaranthus,” Nina estimated, standing to her feet a few meters away. “And I heard the piscis odorata is very hard to grow. It needs specific odors, at least during the first months. As for the famis rosea… I’ve read that it can grow faster and even evolve if you give it qi.”

I widened my eyes. Seriously? Wasn’t the famis rosea a bit like an undead, then? Except it probably didn’t transform the gifted qi into deathforce.

“It’s a pity we can’t stay more than two months to see the plants grow,” Jing commented.

“All we can do is keep watering them every day,” Styzz said.

I smiled under my mask.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the result…” Noah suddenly lay his hand on my hooded head, and I protested: “Why?!”

“I just realized,” Noah replied. “The rescue mission is today.”

“Ah. Yes.” Today, we were going to Phoenix City to work as Rescuers—well, actually, all the trainees were going to participate. I pulled his hand away. “I wonder what team we’ll be in.”

He snorted.

“Didn’t you listen to Addison? Our team is basically the Ghost, Electromorpheus, you, and me.”

That bastard had started calling Ray “the Ghost” after realizing that he kept forgetting about our captain’s existence for some “mysterious” reasons. Was he sincere or did he just do it to annoy me? Who knows.

As for Electromorpheus, it was the lame yet accurate nickname Noah had found for Styzz: while the green-haired guy was able to give impressive electric shocks, he was, however, completely unable to wake up on his own in the morning. So, we were only four on the team?

“Seriously? What about Jing and Nina?”

“They’re on the witch’s team. And the instructors don’t seem to accept Lei as Ghost’s subordinate, so he and Big Sasha went to another team to ‘balance’ the strengths. Pay attention when Ponytail talks, stupidstar. Anyway, it’s bad.”

“…? What is?”

“Use your brain. While we were watering plants and singing your silly folkloric songs, the others were training for this day!”

“… So what?”

Noah’s hand caught on fire when it grabbed my skull again.

“You piss me off.”

At this moment, we heard the loudspeaker say in Common Tongue:

“TRAINEES! A REMINDER: EVERYONE MUST BE IN THE MAIN SQUARE WITHIN TEN MINUTES. LATECOMERS WILL BE OUT OF TODAY’S EXCURSION. REMEMBER TO BRING THE NECESSARY FOR THE DAY.”

As we put our watering cans down and headed to the main square, I questioned:

“The necessary? What do they mean?”

“Money for our lunch, maybe,” Jing said.

“Or an umbrella, for the sun,” Styzz added.

We looked at the white and black umbrella he was holding. According to him, the sunrays charged his body with electricity, and although we were still in January, he still preferred to hide from direct light if he was going to be outside for a long time. Under the umbrella, with his green hair raising upward and his only apparent grouchy expression, he looked funny. Heh. Glancing at my orange coverall, my hood, my mask, and my gloves, Noah threw to me:

“You’re not one to talk.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“A stupidstar speaks louder than words.”

What was that supposed to mean?

The main square was soon crowded with trainees and instructors. Linah’s team had been put together with some of the dryad’s numerous subordinates. Arkifa was among them. I waved at her from afar while Nina and Jing left us to join them. Then I looked around for Natasha, but couldn’t see her. Instead, I sighted the green dreadlocked girl, Andrea, who was living under the same roof as Natasha—or rather, had been living. According to the necromancer, three days ago, Andrea had been provoked by some stupid elite trainee and had filled the Steel House with a thick, poison cloud, not a lethal one, but it had still affected her housemates—all except Natasha of course. The girl had since moved to an isolated house. As expected of Noah’s classmate from the Champion Institute: Andrea Sisalik’s power was not to be trifled with.

“It’s unfair,” I then said. “Every team has more than four members except ours.”

“Heh. That’s how strong we are, stupidstar.”

“I don’t think that’s the reason,” Ray suddenly said.

Caught by surprise, Noah jumped aside.

“Whoa! Since when are you here?”

Somehow, I wasn’t startled. Maybe because my core unconsciously knew where Ray was? My friend went on:

“I think we’re just not joining other big teams because they’ve put all the loners with us.”

Noah and I looked at him, quizzical. Ray pointed his chin at Styzz.

“Remember that Styzz is an elite trainee. He has no subordinate and no captain. So he’s been put with us.”

Noah ran a hand over his crimson hair.

“Now that you mention it, Electromorpheus is an elite trainee, so… Are you saying we’re taking in all the antisocial weirdos?!”

“C’mon, champ, don’t say it like you’re not one of us,” I replied, patting his shoulder.

“You won’t drag me into your sect, stupidstar.”

“I’m not antisocial,” Styzz interjected. “Antisocial people don’t play go.”

Whoa, makes sense, I thought. Noah nodded with connivance.

“Now we’re talking, Electromorpheus.”

“Call me that again and I’ll electroshock you.”

“Oh, oh, social people sure are scary.”

“Actually, I’m surprised, Styzz,” I intervened, thoughtful. “You changed a lot since I met you at school. Two months ago, you were a pesky bully, but now you act cool, like, you’re almost reliable.”

“Almost?” he echoed, and he cleared his throat, a bit embarrassed. “Well, I made some mistakes, but I’ve been training.”

Noah and I raised an eyebrow. Training? What kind of training? He specified with a stern expression:

“I realized I’m too easily influenced by others. Especially by flatterers. So I’ve been training mentally not to stoop low.”

“Oh, that’s awesome, Styzz, you’re incredible,” I said.

He flushed a bit and smiled pridefully.

“Well, I—Wait,” he snorted abruptly. “Don’t flatter me on purpose.”

Noah and I burst out laughing.

“Exc-c-cuse me,” someone stuttered with a soft voice and choked on his saliva.

Surprised, the four of us turned to a young man our age with a sallow complexion and a lime green hat on his straight, auburn hair. He coughed, cleared his throat, bowed, and introduced himself with sudden fluency:

“I’m Eder Irakoze from the Swanbell Clan of Vienna. I’ve been told to join your team.”

“The European!” I exclaimed, recognizing him. He was staying at the Music House, and he was our neighbor.

“Looking forward to working with you,” Styzz said politely.

“Hi,” Noah added.

“Welcome,” Ray and I said at once.

Eder straightened up and added very formally:

“Thank you very much. Who is the team captain?”

We looked at each other. Noah pointed at Styzz, Styzz pointed at Ray, and Ray at me, saying:

“He is.”

“I’m not!” I protested.

Eder turned to me with all seriousness.

“I am in the Keeper group. My power provides almost invulnerable protection to any object or person I touch as long as I hold my breath.”

I gaped at him, and Noah commented:

“With a power like that, shouldn’t you be in the Rescuer group instead?”

“You are wrong. Mine is indeed a rare power, but fate is cruel. In the face of action, I often run out of breath.”

“Asthma?” I asked.

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m just actionphobic.”

I smiled, confused. What kind of phobia was that? He added for me:

“With this, you know my strong and weak points. Please use them as you see fit, captain.”

“Who are you calling captain?” I coughed, annoyed.

Then I noticed that Julen Yamazaki had just stopped by our side. The psychologist and record keeper had been giving us lessons about morality, ethics, and psychology. Instead of learning about codes and laws like in the Lighting Veil’s class, he enjoyed telling us ancient stories and asking us what we would have done if we had been in the main character’s shoes. He liked to say, ‘Know yourself and you’ll be prepared’, which meant that, even though you could not foresee what you would do in a real situation, you could mentally prepare yourself for it. In short, Yamazaki was one of those people who knew how to make my mind go blank with just a couple of sentences. Still, he was one of the coolest instructors. Or so I would have thought if, during his first class, Ray hadn’t inadvertently blurted out through our necro-bond that Julen Yamazaki was a Dark Art Regulator. That meant he was the one negotiating with Makler Vod through Natasha. And that also meant he was well aware of what an undead was.

The instructor was as tall as Ray, and he looked up at Noah, Styzz, and me with a smile.

“Good morning, young ones. I’ll be your supervisor for today.”

‘Worst luck ever,’ Ray grumbled mentally.

He could say that again. Yamazaki glanced at Ray and Eder, at his eye level, and added:

“Aren’t we short one member?”

Were we? We shrugged. Who…? Then we heard a cold voice behind us:

“Sir.” Axel Sunclaw raised his gloomy eyes and glared at Yamazaki. “I don’t know who made the teams, but this is clearly a mistake.”

Holy Gods. Was Axel the missing teammate? He didn’t look at me, but his hatred was floating in the air. At his feet was advancing the small, white kompa that fed on positive feelings. The moment I saw the little creature, I forgot about Axel and crouched, grinning under my mask.

“Hello, Curry! How’ve ya been?”

Maybe remembering me, the kompa slowly approached on the tiled square as Yamazaki echoed:

“A mistake? Feel reassured, Axel Sunclaw. All members are here.”

“This is a mistake,” Axel repeated. My hand was petting Curry’s head when I felt him looking daggers at me. I stopped dead.

Yamazaki’s eyes were scanning our faces with interest, particularly that of Axel.

“I know teamwork is hard for you,” he finally said. “You don’t need to do anything special. Just follow us and act according to your conscience.”

“If I do that, I may shed blood.”

I shuddered inwardly, and I wasn’t the only one. No, wait, “blood”? So he wasn’t talking about me? Unless he still didn’t know I was an undead… Yamazaki raised an index.

“Don’t confuse your conscience with your impulses. I’m sure you don’t want your teammates to fail this mission… for you don’t want to lose to your brother.”

Axel kept silent. As expected of Yamazaki, he knew how to tame even dangerous specimens.

“And now let’s go,” our supervisor said.

As we followed him, I realized that all the teams were moving to the exit, too. As we started going down the stairs, toward the beach, I saw two boats that were already crossing the Neck, full of trainees. Though the sun was bright in the sky, thick, dark clouds were advancing from the north.

I looked over my shoulder at Axel. He had lifted the kompa and was carrying it now on his shoulders. What? Shocked by the odd sight, I lost my balance, and I would have rolled down the stairs, knocking everyone over, if two quick hands hadn’t firmly pushed me back to my step.

“Ah, thanks…”

I fell silent under Yamazaki’s kind gaze. So close… What if he sensed my deathforce somehow or…? I flinched with fear. His hands fell back.

“Oh, my. Are you guys stressed out over this mission?” He smiled. “How pure youth is. Look, if you fail, you more or less just lose one chance out of three to get a recommendation for taking the Hero exams in summer. That’s all.”

Was he trying to comfort us or just tease us? Personally, I couldn’t care more about the Hero exams, but that wasn’t the case for my teammates.

Once we reached the beach, we waited for our turn to cross by boat. I kept glancing at Curry, comfortably perched on Axel’s shoulders. Wasn’t the kompa a little heavy? It looked so to me, but maybe it was just its chubby appearance.

“Oh, instructor,” Styzz said. “You didn’t tell us yet. What kind of mission are we going to do?”

Yamazaki pinched his chin, thoughtful, as he turned to us.

“Hmm. Well, normally, we would go to a Hero Guild to choose the job, but…” He gave us a guilty smile, “I’ve already chosen an interesting request. It’s not an urgent one. Or, more like, no one up until now has been able to complete the job. So I’m counting on you guys. Oh. The boat is back. Let’s go!”

“I beg your pardon, sir,” Eder said, looking worried as we followed our supervisor, “but did you say that no one has been able to complete the job?”

“Yes. That’s what I said.”

“A difficult job, huh? I like the sound of it,” Noah smirked. “How much does it pay?”

Yamazaki cocked his head to one side, amused.

“It depends on your performance.”

As we got on board, I noticed that a team had fallen behind and was going down the stairs only now. It was Cesarine’s team.

“Is it okay if we wait for them?” the boat driver asked.

“Please do,” Yamazaki replied cheerfully.

I glanced at the psychologist, wondering what kind of job could have caught his attention. When Cesarine’s team went aboard accompanied by the Lightning Veil, I met Zeeta’s gaze and smiled at him with my eyes. He stopped beside me and asked shamelessly:

“Can I switch teams?”

“…! You can! Come!” I said, excited at the prospect.

From Cesarine’s side, Katya cast him a deadly look, and Zeeta grimaced.

“I get the impression that I’ll be ripped apart by a demon if I do.”

“Who is a demon, you insolent fool!” Katya replied murderously.

“Well, it’s rude to say that you want to abandon your team,” Yamazaki interjected. “That said, Lizzie, it’s true that your team has ten members, and mine only six.”

The Lightning Veil frowned slightly.

“True. However, Cesarine Lovecryce’s protection is a top priority.”

“I’m sure there are already competent bodyguards for that waiting in town. Leon Sakamoto has just good hearing, right?”

As the boat set off, Ray’s mom and the Dark Arts Regulator looked at each other in silence, both with calm expressions. Then Yamazaki’s lips went up.

“I just had a wonderful idea.”

46 Biking to the old temple of Mount Hua

Once we disembarked on the main island, instead of heading directly to the city, Yamazaki asked for us to wait and whispered something to the Lightning Veil, whose eyes glinted.

“Well, you’ve awakened my curiosity. Let’s do it.”

Under our confused gazes, she disappeared. She must have teleported, but… where? Then I saw her. She was at the foot of the cliffs, about a hundred meters away from us. What were they planning? By my side, Zeeta had turned pale. I was going to ask him if he was okay when Yamazaki turned to him.

“Leonardo Sakamoto. If you still want to change teams, how about this?” He glanced at the Lightning Veil. “At my signal, she will whisper some words. If you are able to hear and repeat them from here, you win.”

Zeeta looked upset. Why, though? He would have obviously been able to hear her whisper from much farther. I was still wondering, when Yamazaki raised a hand and Zeeta fastened his glaring eyes on Lizzie. Only then did I understand his reticence. Zeeta had lied to the instructors about his power. And Yamazaki knew. But how?

“Did you lie… about your power?” Zeeta said, repeating the Lightning Veil’s whispered words. Then he turned to the psychologist, adding: “So what if I lied?”

Yamazaki didn’t look victorious nor severe. Clasping his hands together behind his back, he commented:

“Some days ago, I heard the Independent Hero Association representative say great things about the Independent trainees. She mentioned that you were able to hear the song of a lighthouse keeper from the water train.” Damn. Cynsea the Hypnotist was probably just trying to brag about the Indies she was looking after… The instructor added: “Having good hearing is one thing, but being able to hear from such distances… Isn’t it too amazing to hide it, young man? Or are you playing spies?”

I grimaced under my mask, tense, as the other trainees looked at Zeeta with new eyes. Overreacting as always, Katya stepped between him and Cesarine. The situation got on my nerves, and I protested:

“Zeeta is not a—!”

“I hate spying on others,” Zeeta cut me off, his eyes fixed on Yamazaki. “My power is nothing special, and I don’t like it, that’s why,” he put an arm around my shoulder, adding brazenly, “I only use it for my friends.”

“Glad to hear it,” the Lightning Veil said. She had returned and was scanning intently his face, mine, and that of her son, probably wondering if such a suspicious, dishonest individual was a friend of Ray, too. She sighed imperceptibly. “I’ll have to report this later. Team One. Let’s go.”

Not even a word of good luck for her son…

As Cesarine’s team walked away along the path of the dyke, Yamazaki smiled at Zeeta.

“Welcome to our team, Leonardo—or is it Zeeta? Which is your real name, actually?”

“…!”

Zeeta and I looked at each other, clearing our throats. That instructor of ours didn’t let a single blunder slip, huh. As expected of a record keeper. After we explained to him about Zeeta’s di-namic family, he nodded.

“Zeeta O’Bell Leonardo Sakamoto. Zeeolesa, Zeebeellesa, Zeesabelle. Okay. Thanks for the explanation. I’ll call you Isabella, then.”

Isabella?! Was he joking? With the same serene expression, Yamazaki raised a finger, looked at the seven of us plus Curry, and said:

“Today, you guys will be showing me what you’re capable of in a mission. Supervisors are not supposed to intervene, but you won’t know how to solve this problem without my help, so let’s say I’ll let you do most of the work and see how you proceed. Okay?”

Noah protested:

“Aren’t you underestimating us? If you’re not supposed to intervene, then don’t intervene. Sir.”

Styzz agreed with a firm nod under his umbrella. Yamazaki’s lips went up.

“I knew you’d say that. Then I’ll leave it to you guys… until you beg for my help. Let’s go! To the haunted house.”

To the what?!

* * *

We encountered our first challenge way before we expected, when Yamazaki told us we would be renting some bikes at the cycle center to reach the house of our client.

“Holy Gods! Watch out, Electromorpheus, I’m coming through, it’s getting faster! The—The hell!”

“The brakes, champ!” I reminded him.

Noah went straight into a bush, shouting:

“Crap, I forgot!”

He didn’t react in time. It was the fifth time Noah had fallen off his bike. Well, he was doing impressively well considering he had never ridden a bike before.

“Are you hurt?” Styzz asked, still holding his umbrella with one hand. “I mean, more than you already are.”

Getting his bike out of the bush, Noah grumbled:

“I’m fine. More importantly, why is the stupidstar the only one on a tricycle? Hey, don’t look away, stupidstar, I’m talking to you.”

I looked down at my yellow tricycle then at Noah.

“You jealous?”

“That’s not it!”

“If you wanted a trike, you should have rented one, too, champ.”

“Yeah, that reminds me of the spiteful don’t-have-rice-then-eat-bacon kind of remark, you filthy rich kids.”

“Sorry, but it was a two-Corn difference. Besides, the instructor offered to pay for you, and you refused.”

“Tsk.” Noah glanced at Yamazaki, already climbing the next slope followed by Axel and Curry. Eder the European was, on the other hand, way behind us. “I don’t want money from a guy who acts all uppity saying we can’t complete a mission without his help. Besides,” he added, climbing back on his bike with dubious elegance. “I’m a fighter, unlike you. At Champion Institute, I didn’t get the chance to learn how to ride a bike. But I do now. Heh. I’m going ahead, cowardstar!”

Noah rode off a bit waveringly, but when he began to climb the slope, he recovered his balance. He was getting the hang of it at a surprising speed.

How nostalgic. I remembered I had learned how to bike in middle school. A classmate had been teasing Ray because he didn’t know how to ride one; I had stepped in and said in all honesty, ‘Oh, cool! Are you going to teach him, then? Can you teach me, too?’ And so, although it wasn’t his original intention, our classmate had taught us and become a good playmate… What was his name again? I shook my head. Anyway, cycling required a certain sense of balance, which I didn’t have anymore. Some weeks ago, Zeeta had already made me try to ride a bike, and I’d had to accept the obvious: I sucked at it. Arkill, on the other hand, had managed to ride quite far, so maybe with practice, I would be able to learn again. But we didn’t have time for that. Hence the tricycle.

“Whoa, he looks like a pro,” Ray said.

Noah was now standing on the bike as he kept climbing. Seriously?

“Did someone teach him how to use the gears?” Styzz asked.

No one had. The crimson-haired fighter was huffing and puffing. Zeeta snorted with laughter.

“What is he even doing?”

As Styzz speeded up to catch up with Noah and help him, I kept pedaling between Zeeta and Ray. We had left the houses behind, going up a road that ran alongside big, shady trees. According to Yamazaki, the hill was a sacred place founded centuries ago by Mount Hua, an ancestral sect of monks. The owner of the temple on the top was our client.

I listened to my friends’ breathing. Zeeta’s was steady while Ray’s was a bit fast.

“You should do sports more often, Ray.”

‘Ugh. I know. Well, I’m still sore all over.’

“Because you dug the garden on Wednesday?” I laughed. We were on Saturday now. “It’s so convenient to be dead sometimes.”

Ray and Zeeta abruptly looked at me, and the latter nodded:

“I understand you so well. It’s so much easier.”

“I didn’t mean it in that way, Zeeta.”

“I know, Straw Head. By the way, does Ray now only talk to you telepathically?”

Ray huffed:

“Ah. Sorry. I’m already… out of breath, so…”

“It’s okay, man,” Zeeta shrugged. “If you want to keep ignoring me, just do it. I’m not particularly interested in what you say, anyway.”

Ray glanced at him, and I heard his sulky thought:

‘Then I won’t bother to talk to you anymore, you stupid, tsundere stalker.’

My necro-heart sunk. I braked hard. They stopped, surprised.

“Ray, Zeeta,” I growled, pulling my mask down. “You piss me off when you don’t get along.”

They both widened their eyes, exchanged a look, then to my amazement, snorted with laughter. Oi. Were they making fun of me now? Ray wiped the sweat from his forehead, saying:

“Don’t worry, Armen. We’re getting along just fine.”

“Yeah!” Zeeta agreed.

“How come I can’t see it then?”

“Ah, well, you can’t make a crystal out of a clay pot, of course.”

Zeeta frowned at Ray.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You can’t ask the impossible,” Ray replied, pushing on a pedal of his bike.

We slowly resumed the climbing. Well, at least they didn’t hate each other. More like, for some reason, they didn’t want to get along more than they already did. Those two could be quite mysterious at times. I turned to Zeeta.

“How’s it going at the Sun House?”

“Eh? Oh. Not bad. What about you? How are your night hunts?”

Was he dodging my question? I still answered:

“At first, I felt like a hero in the shadows. I caught some bullies, and a thief, and also a rotten guy who was hitting his dog.”

“Whoa.”

“But I have the impression that I’m lowering my standards. Yesterday, I attacked a guy who threw a can in the street.”

“Well, it’s not just an impression…” Under my worried expression, Zeeta added: “Ah, but it’s bad to throw trash in the street, so you did well.”

“Did I?”

“Of course. And, remember, if you need my lifeforce—”

“Let’s not talk about that right now,” I cut him off. “So? How’s it going at the Sun House? Apart from the not bad. Don’t you know the story of Olympus the Bright? He kept saying, ‘it’s not bad’, to the poisoned gift he was given, to the cursed house he bought, to the wicked wife he married, to the nursing home he ended up in, then the residence was set on fire, and he kept saying, ‘it’s not bad, it’s not bad’—”

“Creepy!!”

“So, you’re not Olympus?”

“I’m not!”

“Right, haha, now you’re Isabella.”

“It’s not even funny, Straw Head.” He paused then answered thoughtfully: “What do you want me to tell you? It’s rather calm in the Sun House—Well, that if it weren’t for Sergei, the tall guy, you know, he’s the only guy among the Indies beside me. He’s a talking machine. And I have to share the room with him. At least he doesn’t talk when he’s asleep, but he does when he brushes his teeth, believe me: he almost choked on the toothpaste once because he was talking about crystals. He’s a real crystal freak. And a history freak, too. Yeah, he likes to tell me stories about the Big Blend. Some are interesting, actually. Like, he says that Phoenix City was in a deserted, continental area, and when everything swapped, it popped on this orange Great Crystal, and it was only in the second century that it became the moving turtle that we know nowadays, because of a matter of magnetic points or whatever. The good thing is, when I ask him to shut up, he doesn’t get offended. That bastard carries on, anyway, but he’s a nice guy, I must say. Unlike Katya. Well, she actually bosses the girls around more than Sergei and me—Hey, what are you laughing for? Don’t complain that I’m talking too much.”

“Haha, no, I’m glad you are. Please go on!”

“… Well, I’ve said pretty much everything.” He paused. “Right. I was given a special, secret job by Lovecryce’s daughter.”

“For real? A secret job?”

“Mm… That girl’s not that bad.”

“She does look kind to me.”

“Yeah… You know, you’d think she would be bossy and full of herself, but she’s actually not. I guess I was wrong for putting all rich people in the same bag. Well, Cesarine is disconnected from the world in a lot of ways, though.”

I stared at him, surprised. He rarely talked about other people with such a thoughtful expression. I grinned.

“Well, do your best.”

“Yeah—Eh? Eh?!” Astonished, Zeeta lost his balance and almost fell off his bike, exclaiming: “I’ll do my best for the job, but I’m not into her!”

“Ah, sorry—”

“Really, Straw Head!”

“I believe you. Anyway, I’m glad to know you’re enjoying yourself, too.”

“Of course I am. I’ve been listening to your music from the Sun House.”

“You listened to my improvisation on that night?! How was it?”

“Heh. Keep pedaling, Straw Head, you’re going down.”

“Oops, thanks for the warning. So, how was it? Ray said it had deathforce in it. Oh, he’s fallen behind, by the way. Sorry, Ray!”

As we stopped to wait for my struggling master, Zeeta answered:

“Well, I’ve heard about musicians using qi to strengthen their music, but to think you did it unintentionally… Is that even possible? Anyway, Straw Head, it was awesome. It felt as if, the more discordant the melody was, the more heart-warming it got. A hell godly concert. An oxymoron, in a way.”

“Moron?”

“Oxymoron. Like, a dark light or… a trustful liar.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“It’s a figure of speech, Straw Head. Poetry is full of figures of speech. Life is, too. Well, Cesarine said to me last night, ‘A soul is a butterfly between a hyperbole and a litotes’. She’s a poet, too.”

“…! Whoa. Cool phrasing.”

“Seems deep,” Ray huffed, catching up to us.

“Inspiring at least,” Zeeta replied, and we resumed pedaling.

There was a silence, then I couldn’t help but ask:

“Are you meeting with her every night?”

Zeeta shrugged.

“She likes to talk.”

“Heh.”

He looked annoyed.

“Geez… There’s no way I’d fall for her.”

“Why?” I frowned. “Don’t tell me it’s because of her appearance? Well, yeah, she’s impressively fat, but she’s beautif—”

“Straw Head, remember, she’s Lovecryce’s daughter. Someone like me would end up dead in a ditch if the Nyomin director had any suspicions.”

“…! Aw. It’s better if you don’t fall for her, then,” I said, worried. “Ray can’t revive you yet.”

Zeeta rolled his eyes.

“Right. And in any case…” His eyes fixed on the intricate, dark red roof of the temple that was slowly appearing at the end of the road.

“In any case?” I echoed, curious.

He pondered, looked at a red-leaf tree, then at me pedaling on the yellow tricycle with my orange coverall; in no time, he stopped, grabbed his phone, and took a picture of me with the tree. Eh? He gave me a thumbs up.

“Nice one. Can’t be more artistic. I’m happy to be such a good stalker.”

“Stalkers are supposed to do it on the sly.”

“Why should I hide it? Didn’t you tell me, last year, ‘it’s fine if you stalk me twenty-four hours a day, you’re not weird at all’?”

“Eeeh? D-Did I say that? I don’t remember!”

He laughed.

“I’m just teasing you, Straw Head. Don’t forget to pedal. Last one to the top is a slacker!”

“…?! W-Wait, wait! I’m on a tricycle!”

I did my best anyway, pedaling like a madman, and came in second. Then Ray arrived, going at his own pace. We looked back at the slope. Eder was still way behind. He did say he was actionphobic.

In front of the large, traditional, wooden temple, Yamazaki was kneeling before the big statue of a black, slender dog. As we soon realized, he wasn’t worshipping it, but instead, he was tending to Noah, applying a translucent cream on his bruises. He was saying:

“… called a Noipanua dog, and it’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.”

“The cream is?” I asked, crouching beside them.

“The statue is, stupidstar,” Noah replied.

Oh? I looked up at the dog, svelte, divine-looking, and somewhat scary. Styzz was leaning against it, yawning, when suddenly, we heard a rubbing noise, a thud, and a loud clash. A tile had just fallen on Styzz’s umbrella and shattered on the ground. If Styzz hadn’t had a sturdy umbrella…

We remained speechless for an instant. Then Styzz turned to us with his mean-looking eyes wide.

“I-I’m not an evil spirit, though.”

Yamazaki had frowned. He stood up with a dark expression.

“Ah… It’s pretty bad, I see.”

Was he talking about the roof? But, though old, it seemed in a pretty good state to me…

“What the hell, the Noipanua is clearly not working!” Noah snorted, jumping to his feet.

Cautious, we moved a few meters away from the temple. Our supervisor explained:

“The Noipanua has nothing to do with it. I told you… this is a haunted house.”

I could feel the tension in the air.

“A haunted house,” Axel repeated. “You mean, there’s a ghost? I thought ghosts were harmless.”

“Usually, they are. But the ghost in this house is not a real ghost. This old temple of Mount Hua is haunted by the vengeful soul of its former owner, who blended with the whole structure of this place. It is a damned soul.”

“That’s right,” a sudden hoarse voice said. We turned to see a tall, old woman go down the front steps of the temple. Her long, white hair was tied back with a red ribbon, and a simple, tidy tunic reached her ankles. For some reason, when I met her light eyes, I felt all the tension dissipate. She added, bowing: “Welcome to our temple, sir Yamazaki, and thank you very much for coming. It is an honor to meet an inner disciple of Mount Hua.”

Zeeta gasped by my side. Yamazaki was an inner disciple of Mount Hua… Wait, hadn’t the temple been founded by Mount Hua? I raised an eyebrow, intrigued. The psychologist smiled and bowed.

“Don’t be so formal, please. Today, I come as the supervisor of these youngsters. I hope we’ll be able to appease your husband’s soul. Please, could you explain what happened?”

“Yes… It’s been four years since my dear Yi died. Ever since, this place has been deserted by disciples, even by our own family. Nothing can seem to appease his soul. Yi attacks every human that doesn’t belong to the direct family.” For real?! Then the tile… We all looked up at the roof as she went on: “However, last month, he attacked his own three-year-old granddaughter and sent her to the hospital.” Holy Gods… She shook her head sadly. “This temple, which we proudly called a haven for martial and spiritual artists, has now become the Haunted Temple, a place of bad luck and misfortune. Not even exorcists or Chaos Fighters have been able to do anything about it.”

“No wonder, for exorcists do not exorcise places but people, often in cases with psychological issues,” Yamazaki commented, and he scanned the old temple. “This isn’t a job for a Chaos Fighter either. This temple has an energetic balance of its own.”

The old woman frowned worriedly.

“So, you think…”

Yamazaki raised a hand.

“I was planning to help those young trainees in this case, but…” He looked at Noah then swept his gaze over the six of us as he said with confidence, “they’re all skilled future Heroes and they want to have a try on their own. So, guys, please go in and appease Yi’s soul for the sake of this temple, this venerable lady, her family, and business.” He waved at the open door. “Good luck.”

We gaped at him. Good luck? He was asking us to enter a cursed place that had already almost killed Styzz, and all he said to us was “good luck”? Was he trying to kill us?

A sudden crack was heard, and we all jumped, startled. The venerable lady apologized:

“I’m worried to let young people in, but since you say they are skilled, I’ll accept your help, young ones. It’s an old temple, but please feel yourself at home while you work.”

Her words were so kind, but… feel ourselves at home? How?!

At that moment, we heard a scraping voice say:

“G-G-Guuuys… I’m f-f-finally here…”

Noah and I shrieked at the same time as a pale figure covered in sweat arrived on a bike. It was Eder. As the European got off, worn out, we sighed in relief, then we looked at him in horror as he asked for water like a zombie and followed the venerable lady into the temple.

Yamazaki smiled at us.

“Your comrade is most probably in danger right now. You won’t abandon him, will you?”

He wasn’t joking. That damn psychologist… After exchanging looks, Noah was the first one to advance, defiantly, and we followed.

Dark clouds were piling up in the sky, and the first drops began to fall.

47 A vengeful spirit in the meditation hall

The temple of the Holy Wind, as it was called, had lots of sliding doors decorated with leaves, birds, and misty mountains, as well as red, straw matted floors that muffled the sound of our footsteps.

We kept casting wary glances around, but so far so good: Yin’s soul hadn’t attempted anything since we had entered the place. To Yamazaki’s request, the old priestess was leading us to where, four years ago, she had found her husband dead.

“Yi was a creature of habit,” she said, crossing an empty room. “He loved his job and spent many hours teaching. For generations, our temple has been both a spiritual school and a therapeutic center, so we received many different kinds of customers, and Yi guided them with as many different methods.”

“Really? Did he teach the Mount Hua Sect’s learnings?” Yamazaki inquired.

“He did, but not only those. He used to say, ‘One living being, one path’. Besides, he had to adapt to his public. He gave spiritual lessons to lots of problematic kids in the neighbourhood. Also, students often came to improve their concentration by learning meditation and basic techniques to balance one’s qi. Quite a few times, he helped people figuring out how to handle a newly acquired power.”

“Sounds like a great job. Did you work with him or…?”

“From time to time, but I personally focused on helping people rehabilitate from all sorts of qi deviation. That’s my job. So, yes, sometimes, we worked together, but not often. In the afternoon, we used to take a long walk on the sacred hill, but… he stopped doing that about a year before his death.”

Yamazaki cast us an intent glance, making us understand we would have to ask the questions from now. Noah cleared his throat.

“How do you know for sure that your husband’s soul is haunting this place?”

“… I cannot prove it,” she admitted. “All I can say is that the accidents began about three months after my husband’s death. Also, since then, there has been no dust in the house, as if someone was sweeping it away for me. Sometimes, I have the impression he is still lying beside me at night, and I hear him whisper.” She paused and sent a stern look at us. “Call me senile if you want.”

Noah made a face and hissed under his breath:

“So this temple is really haunted?”

“Didn’t the instructor say it already?” Styzz replied calmly and turned to the old priestess. “Could you tell us how he died?”

“He killed himself.”

The old lady’s prompt answer didn’t make it less shocking. For a moment, we could only hear the rain pounding against the roof. No one dared to say anything. Then I blurted out:

“Holy Gods… I am very sorry for your loss.”

Her eagle eyes turned to me for an instant.

“Don’t be. Life and death are in the order of nature.”

“Nature, huh,” Zeeta interjected. “If he committed suicide, why is he haunting this place? I mean,” he commented like an expert, “people mostly kill themselves to end their suffering; they don’t do it to cause trouble.”

The old priestess hesitated and shook her head without stopping. As she didn’t say anything, I suggested:

“Maybe he realized, as he died, that he didn’t want to die?”

“If people’s souls stayed behind for a reason like that, the houses would be packed with damned souls,” Yamazaki replied.

“What if he didn’t kill himself?” Eder conjectured in a whisper, as if the old lady couldn’t hear him.

“You mean someone else killed him?” Styzz replied under his breath.

“So he stayed to take revenge,” Noah nodded.

“But he can’t leave the temple, and the killer never came back,” Eder concluded.

“That makes sense,” Noah and Styzz said at once.

Zeeta clicked his tongue.

“Stop it, guys. His own wife says he killed himself. Don’t play detective.”

I felt Ray’s nod of agreement as Noah, Styzz, and Eder fell silent, only now realizing they might have behaved rudely in front of the dead’s wife. She had stopped in a room, before a door. To our right, the sliding door was wide open on a veranda, and we could see the rain beating on the road and the old trees of the sacred hill. The old lady then said:

“Yi loved life. He loved learning, teaching, and meditating. He also loved the Mount Hua Sect’s philosophy, though he never adhered completely to its ideas. Despite all that, he still abandoned me behind in the last stretch of our lives.” A wind chime tinkled outside, on the veranda, and she turned her sharp eyes to it for an instant. “You must know… During the last two years of his life, Yi grew very distrustful of strangers, and not without reason. A property company was pressuring him to put the sacred hill on sale. Several months later, he was wrongly accused of improper behavior by an infiltrated female disciple. Yi has always been an upright man: he was framed, obviously. However, he went on trial and lost. He avoided prison, but to pay the fine, he had to take out a loan from a man who turned out to be banding together with the property company. In the end, he could not make up his mind to sell the land to pay back the money. So he poisoned himself. That fool only knew how to deal with heavenly matters and got caught by the roots of evil just like the Dreamy Disciple of the fable.” She said those last words with a voice filled with warmth. Her face darkened as she added: “Not that I am any better. I couldn’t protect the sacred hill, either, and even though I managed to keep the temple, only our most faithful disciples still drop by to pay their respects. My only consolation is that my daughter never wished to inherit our school.”

The story struck me to the core. To think even spiritual places were being vandalized by such greedy vultures! But still, to poison oneself for that…

“I am very sorry to hear the sacred hill was sold,” Yamazaki said. “Can I know the name of that property company?”

She nodded.

“Of course. The names of the devils should be known. After all, I can’t help but think my husband was killed by them. The Sunbrick Company. I’ve heard it is owned by a very wealthy businessman from the Sunclaw family.”

We froze. The Sunclaw…? At that moment, to our left, a sliding door that had been left ajar closed with a sharp cracking noise. Holy Gods… Was Yi’s soul listening to us?

We glanced at Axel Sunclaw as discreetly as possible. He remained unfazed, and I was thinking that maybe it was best for the old priestess not to find out she had just let the culprit’s son in when he said:

“My father sure knows how to ruin people’s lives.” The atmosphere became icy. Looking bored, he exchanged a glance with Curry and asked: “Should I leave, ma’am?”

Yamazaki coughed, very embarrassed.

“Axel is the fifth child of the head of the Sunclaw. Sorry, I couldn’t know it would turn out—”

“No worries,” the old priestess cut him off and stared sternly at Axel. “Young man. Children mustn’t pay for their parents’ mistakes. I’ll let you work with your companions. However, please be careful. If Yi has heard us just now… he won’t have mercy.”

Her warning sounded almost like a threat. Axel smirked.

“I can already feel his hatred.”

“…!!”

“Can you?!” I asked.

“Just vaguely. It’s refreshing. So, ma’am?” he added under our companions’ shocked eyes. “Weren’t you leading us to where Yi died?”

The old priestess frowned but said nothing and continued to walk, slid a door open, and went out to an inner courtyard with, in the center, a circular garden bed covered with small blue flowers. The rain was beating against the pavement, and we took the way around, under the verandas. Just as I looked behind me, I saw Axel make a quick step to one side as if to dodge something. However, I could see nothing.

“Was it Yi’s soul? ” I asked, both worried and curious.

The Sunclaw went by me without a word. Was he actually just freaking out because of what the old lady had said? He wasn’t the type that got easily frightened, though. On his shoulders, Curry squeaked happily:

“Kurikurikuri!”

I couldn’t help but smile at the kompa… Axel cast me a glare over his shoulder. He really couldn’t stand a smile, even behind his back; but then why was he fine with Curry? Was it because the kompa was a magical creature?

As we caught up with the others, I sighted a middle-aged man, bare-chested and wearing simple short pants. Leaning against one of the wooden columns of the veranda, he was gazing at the rainy sky, letting the wind dishevel his already messy, black hair.

“My nephew, Wisdom,” the old priestess said, barely slowing down. “He likes to spend his days in this garden.”

I stared at Wisdom, wondering if he was ignoring us on purpose or was just too engrossed in his contemplation. Then, as we were leaving him behind, I met his eyes, very briefly. They were gleaming with such serenity that I felt, for an instant, as if I was watching the ocean through him… Such a weird feeling.

The old priestess slid a door open.

“This is the meditation hall. This is where my husband died.”

As we entered, I couldn’t not notice the red stains on the corner of one of the painted walls. Was it blood? The drawing, in itself, was magnificent: it represented a big tree that spread its seven branches all over the space, one for every type of crystal in the world, except the black and white crystals. On the lower part of the wall, the tree’s roots embraced an empty ellipse—the Earth, maybe?

“This is Hao Dalton, the founder of Mount Hua Sect,” Yamazaki said. He was looking at the wall in front, at the drawing of a young man with long, black hair sitting cross-legged, a book in his left hand and a red flower in the other. The instructor added: “He is the Grandmaster of the sect and one of the Seven Immortals of Perfection.”

“An Immortal?” Noah whistled.

“That’s right. He was born before the Big Blend with a very frail body, and he is one of the few people on Earth to have become an Immortal under the famous Crystal Rain. He told me once that he got the idea of founding the Mount Hua Sect thanks to all the hours he spent during his youth in seclusion, reading comi—er… books.”

He had almost said comics, hadn’t he? I gazed intently at the Grandmaster of Mount Hua Sect and just realized:

“Whoa. He looks just like your brother, Axel.”

The Sunclaw didn’t seem to hear me. He was glaring at the empty ellipse.

“Ah,” Yamazaki said, turning. “This is the Unity Tree. Look. In the trunk, you can see the white energy, the energy of the soul, while, at the bottom, the Endless Wind Lake, the Holy Lake, nurtures everything. We, members of the Mount Hua Sect, strive for immortality, but not that of the body, not even that of our soul. We strive for the immortality of the world, for an everlasting existence, an endless connexion, an eternal knowledge… That means we don’t defeat time or death. Instead, we learn how to accept them.”

I raised an eyebrow. I doubted that such a worldview was something specific to Mount Hua Sect.

“Why is the dark energy not represented?”

I winced a bit at Axel’s question but waited for the answer with curiosity. Yamazaki gave a thoughtful nod.

“Good question. The Unity Tree was created in an era when people knew very little about crystals. Not that we understand them completely now, but back in the day, they wrongly compared the dark and white energy to the yin and yang concept. Originally, it was said that the ‘dark soul’ was on the other side of the tree, and that’s why we cannot see it. Well, following the yin and yang concept, all nine crystals are interconnected, but just as the eight other energies mix together or unravel each other as they meet, dark energy almost never mixes. Instead, it changes the very nature of the energies it encounters. It is known as the reverse energy, after all. The balance bringer for some, the chaos bringer for others. It is the only energy,” he raised his eyes at the ceiling, “that can profane a soul.”

I followed his gaze and saw nothing more than the beams crossing the high ceiling. The old priestess sighed.

“So it is true. I didn’t just imagine it. Yi’s soul…”

Yamazaki looked at her and nodded, completing:

“Is still here. After four years.”

The old priestess was stoically trying hard not to lose her composure, so we tried hard, too, not to get emotional. Yamazaki added:

“Venerable lady, thanks for leading us here. We’ve accepted this request, so I’ll see that my trainees do a good job saving your husband’s soul.”

He bowed, and the old priestess bowed in return, saying:

“It is I who should thank you. I am pleasantly surprised to see that the Mount Hua Sect would still help us after our family quit the sect.”

“…? Oh. The secession happened over one hundred fifty years ago, though, madam. I am sure even our Grandmaster, who lived through the events, doesn’t hold a grudge against your family anymore.”

The old priestess’ lips went up a bit for the first time since we had met her. She bowed even deeper.

“I am glad to hear that from such an honorable disciple of the Mount Hua Sect. Now that you came, my mind is at ease. Please take your time.”

She cast Axel a severe glance before she left. After a silence, Styzz asked:

“Can Yi’s soul be saved, instructor?”

“It can. But you have to catch it first.”

His hands clutched behind his back, Yamazaki had returned to the contemplation of Hao Dalton with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

“Catch it?” Noah repeated. “How do you catch a soul?”

“Ah, well, you did say I shouldn’t intervene, so…” We snorted. Was he for real? “Heh. Okay, I’ll just give you a piece of advice because you did so well riding a bike for your first time, Noah.” Our instructor coughed to stifle a laugh under Noah’s glare and said more seriously: “Every damned soul has a core. First, you must locate it. Do your best.”

“You bet I will,” Noah retorted. He hesitated. “So? How do you locate a core?”

“Ah… Should I help you, after all?”

Noah grumbled under his breath, squinted his eyes, and walked around the hall, searching. Yamazaki sighed.

“We won’t get the job done today at this rate. Is it so hard to beg for my help?”

“Please, help!” I said, raising a hand.

“I was talking to No—”

Suddenly, Yamazaki slightly moved, and something sunk into the matted floor at great speed. It was a big, rusted nail that had fallen off one of the beams. Or more like, it felt as if someone had thrown it with all their strength. If Yamazaki hadn’t dodged it…

Our instructor had turned a bit pale.

“W-Well, guys, good luck. I think I’ll wait for you outsi—”

“Whaaat?!”

“I’m just kidding.”

We breathed out loudly. He laughed softly.

“I was the one who chose this job, after all. How could I leave my dear trainees alone?”

“Oi, sir,” Noah snapped from the other side of the hall. “The fact that the ghost threw a nail at you must mean he is close, right?”

“Oh, he is,” Yamazaki replied, nodding, warily covering his head with one hand. “I don’t know how it happened, but remember, trainees: if a soul remains after death, it always means that a dark core has been formed. A living soul is in balance with the universe, but Yi’s soul is not. It would disappear if it weren’t for that core. Also, a dark core needs to be bound to something. And that something—be it an item or a runic formation—gives Yi enough energy to haunt the whole temple. That is why, as long as we stay in this building, Yi will be close to us at any moment. Scary, huh? So, tell me now, trainees: how will you locate his core?”

His words filled me with dread as, bit by bit, the whole situation dawned on me. I barely heard the others talk and the instructor answer:

“… Locate first what is binding the core, you say? Not a bad idea, Eder. If it’s an item, it should be a powerful one, yes, but it’ll be hard to tell from its appearance. The last time I saved a damned soul, it had been trapped in a tree… Oh? Use a runic formation to find the core? Can you do it, Styzz? No? Then try something else.”

A soul.

My core was trembling inside me.

We were supposed to catch a soul. A bound soul just like mine. How come I hadn’t realized it sooner?

I looked at Ray abruptly. The young necromancer slightly winced and cast me a glance. His words flew through our necro-bond:

‘So you realized. At first, I thought Yamazaki had accepted this job because of the relationship this temple might have with the Mount Hua Sect. But I was at least partly wrong. He is a Dark Arts Regulator, after all. So, basically,’ I felt his worry as he concluded, ‘we are dealing with an undead.’

An undead human soul whose body was a whole temple. But who was its master? Could it be really an item?

And what would we do with Yi’s soul once we caught it?

We wouldn’t have to destroy it, right?

Right?

“Sir,” I suddenly said, cutting the conversation off. “Is Yi’s soul really Yi’s soul?”

Yamazaki raised his eyebrows.

“Mm. It is and it is not. It is a damned soul. As such, Yi’s soul was profaned and only part of it remains in the core. His vengeful thoughts against the Sunbrick Company make him what we call commonly a vengeful spirit or a vengeful ghost.”

A vengeful spirit. He meant Yi wasn’t the spiritual monk anymore but just a vengeful spirit… Was that true?

‘He is probably right,’ Ray commented telepathically. ‘Inner souls are very hard to preserve. A spirit like the one haunting this place cannot possibly have one.’

That didn’t mean that the undead soul dwelling now in the temple wasn’t as intelligent as any other undead. Arkill, Louise, Sora, and Uncle Adrian had also lost their inner souls when they had been revived, yet they were all wonderful people. So, maybe, the temple’s soul, too, was…?

Without warning, Noah put a hand on my head, pushing it forward and saying:

“Wake up, stupidstar! We’ve gotta catch the ghost.” At that moment, there was a loud thud against the roof that had nothing to do with the rain. The crimson-haired champ grinned nervously. “Heheheheh… You afraid, cowardstar? Admit it!”

Staring at the rain falling outside in the inner yard, I replied in a quiet voice:

“No. I’m curious. I’d like to meet that ghost.” I turned my eyes to Noah and blinked. “Aren’t you a bit pale?”

“Hah?! I’m not! Why would I be afraid of a vengeful spirit?”

“Well, you should. Look.” I pointed at the bloodstain on the wall of the Unity Tree. “The old lady didn’t tell us everything.”

Noah widened his eyes then snorted.

“What—?”

“It’s just paint,” Zeeta pointed out. Oh, was it?

Noah gasped:

“Don’t make things creepier than they already are, stupidstar!”

I chuckled.

“Sorry, champ.”

“So,” Yamazaki interjected, “Axel, Armen, and the Peacock, come: we’ll go search for the core.”

“Who’s the Peacock,” Noah snorted.

Yamazaki ignored him.

“Isabella, Eder, Styzz, and Ray, you look for the binder item, starting from this room: if that’s where Yi died, there is a high probability that the item is around here. If you find it, tell me at once. Do not touch it. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

A bolt of lightning flashed in the sky, and the whole temple trembled. As I walked out of the meditation hall with Axel and the Champ, I heard Styzz mutter behind:

“I have a bad feeling about this…”

48 Pay with your soul and protect it all, or lose it all

“So… er… yoohoo, answer us, Yi! The instructor says we have to keep talking to you so we can know where you are, but, like, aren’t you everywhere, since your body is the whole temple… Ah, right, your core, please show us your core. I just hope you didn’t hide it on the top of the roof or, like, twenty meters underground, it’d be troublesome to get it… Geez, seriously, this is too ridiculous,” Noah snorted. “Do we have to keep talking, sir?”

Without answering, Yamazaki turned to Axel.

“How’s his reaction?”

“…” The Sunclaw swiftly dodged a big splinter that flew past him from the floor and sunk into the ceiling. “As you can see, the spirit is in a bad mood.”

Inexplicably, Axel seemed to be enjoying this. Well, as long as Yi kept attacking him, I supposed—or at least hoped—that he wouldn’t attack us, let alone Ray, Zeeta, Styzz, or Eder who had stayed behind in the meditation hall, searching for the binder item.

I had expected Yamazaki to teach us some complex technique to locate the spirit’s core, but it seemed that all we could do was draw his attention. The stronger the reaction, the closer the core… or so Yamazaki had told us. In other words, the closer we would get to it, the more likely it was for us to face some misfortune.

“How about saying something to provoke him?” Yamazaki suggested.

Provoke an already angered spirit? Did he want to kill us, after all? I sighed and looked around at the room we had entered. There were pillows and pallets piled up in one corner. What seemed to have been a bedroom for boarding disciples was visibly not being used anymore. However, just as the old lady had said, there was not even a speck of dust. Yi’s spirit was allegedly the one cleaning everything. Sure, all of it gave off scary vibes, even scary-eerie-spooky vibes like my big sis would say, but… Yi’s behavior also had me wonder. Wasn’t he just taking care of the temple? Wasn’t he just trying to live on in the temple… just like I was trying to live on?

“Sunbrick Company. Sunbrick Company. Sunbrick Company.”

As soon as Axel’s repeated the name of the company that had ruined Yi’s life, the wood of the walls emitted a cracking sound and no less than three pillows were thrown at us, with such speed that it sent Noah and me to the ground. Under our look of protest, the Sunclaw just pointed out:

“He reacted.”

“Er… Interesting,” Yamazaki said. “That confirms one thing: the spirit can not only hear us but also listen to our words. It means the damned soul has kept some memories from his past life. More often than not, damned souls lose all their memories so… This damned soul is not a simple one.” I straightened up at his words. Did he mean…?

‘It doesn’t mean Yi has kept his inner soul,’ Ray said through our necro-bond. ‘It just means he remembers a few things about his past life.’

Eh… Was Ray able to read my thoughts, now?

‘And, no, I can’t really read your thoughts.’

He had just done it, though?! Well, in a way, I was glad my master was so perceptive since I didn’t know how to talk through a necro-bond. He added:

‘We’re doing fine over here. We’ve found a room beside the meditation hall that’s full of junk, spiritual books, and the like, but we didn’t find anything that could be called an enchanted item yet. Zeeta says his good hearing is useless with all the racket made by the rain… I wonder how he planned to use it anyway. Styzz is fumbling along the walls but didn’t explain why… He seems very focused. As for Eder… Ahem. He is trying to come up with some logical reasoning that would justify that the wife is actually the murderer…’ What?! ‘I wouldn’t bet a Corn she is, though,’ he confessed with some exasperated amusement. ‘And he wouldn’t either, I think. Actually, I met him in Europe last year, just once, in the Swanbell Clan’s main castle. That guy is a born decipherer. A puzzle solver, in a way. But he’s got some serious iss—Ops, sorry, it’s not the time for that. Yamazaki is talking to you, Armen.’

I blinked as the instructor tilted his head and waved his hand before me.

“Armen? Armen Moon, come back from the Moon, please.”

“Aaah… Sorry, sir,” I said, getting to my feet. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I saw that.”

A thunderclap louder than the others made Noah flinch. Was he afraid of storms?

“You laughing at me, stupidstar?”

“Eh? No way. I just remembered a story my grandpa told me about a sailor who died after being struck by lightning. Apparently, the story was real and the sailor was one of my ancestors.”

Noah widened his eyes then frowned.

“You serious?”

“I’m serious.”

Yamazaki cleared his throat.

“Forget the storm, guys, we’ve got a spirit to take care of. Anyway, it’s good to stir Yi up, but let’s not go too far or the core’s emotions will be all over the place and Axel won’t know how to locate it. And by the way,” he paused then scowled at Noah and me, “you guys really have no imagination. When you want to get someone’s attention, do you keep talking about how ridiculous it is to keep talking? That would only bore your interlocutor! Talk as if you were a storyteller!” he exclaimed, waving. “Think about your public! Reawaken past memories! Beg, insult, recriminate, praise, and commend! Reach to his heart!”

Holy Gods, he was fired up. Our public, huh. I wished I had brought my violin with me. Maybe Yi’s soul would have appreciated my new melody.

We began to do as he said. Noah insulted Yi’s soul, calling him a coward for not dying properly and letting himself turn into an evil ghost—which kinda offended me more than it seemed to offend Yi—he also called Yi a damn spiritual snob, a cursed loser, a bad husband, a crappy teacher, and things that even seemed to shock Axel a bit. As for Yamazaki, he had turned pale under the stream of abuse.

Thanks to Noah, we were hit by a particularly strong punch of qi. Well, Yamazaki said it was qi, but when the energy touched my forehead, I didn’t absorb it automatically. Besides, I could see rather neatly the dark energy in the punch. Yi’s ghost was attacking us with necro-qi discharges.

Which meant deathforce was flowing through the walls.

Which meant that the temple worked indeed just like an undead body.

As it dawned on me, Axel walked away, saying:

“His bad mood is getting stronger over there.”

I followed the others through a dark corridor, and taking off one of my gloves, I let my hand graze along the wooden wall. I didn’t feel anything. Well, that made sense. I was far from being a necromancer. But what about Ray? Given his knowledge, wouldn’t he be able to not only feel the deathforce flow but also even locate the core and its “master”, be it a person or an item? Or maybe it was not so simple. Anyway, if Yi was an undead…

I froze for an instant.

What did he eat?

Obviously lifeforce. But whose? His wife’s? His nephew’s?

The question troubled me so deeply that I just put it aside for now.

We were arriving at the kitchen when a sudden cry of alarm flew through the necro-bond:

‘Armen, lie down!’

I had no time to process his words, but my core did: I threw myself to the ground, just when a deafening burst resonated in the whole temple. A wave of energy shook my entire body, and for a moment, I couldn’t feel anything at all: nor my core, nor the deathforce flowing within, nor could I even see or hear anything. Even so, nothing scared me more than feeling my necro-bond with Ray disappear in a flash.

As if it had never existed. As if my best friend, my master, my very life was gone.

Dread overwhelmed me. I opened my mouth to cry Ray’s name. He couldn’t have died, could he? My core was on fire, incapable of thinking straight.

I wanted to dash to Ray’s side, but something was preventing me from doing so. My hand was scratching the floor of the kitchen. Because of my life-lust awakened by Ray’s order, I was somehow absorbing the energy of the temple. Not lifeforce, but deathforce. And maybe because of it, images flashed across my mind.

First, I saw a cheerful child tiptoe up to his grandpa, who spun around and frightened him instead. The same child, as a teenager, was sitting cross-legged on one of the verandas, reading a book. I also saw him sneaking out of the temple at night, and then him as a newly married young man rather embarrassed as he faced the heated discussions between his wife and his mother. I could feel his happiness when her daughter laugh for the first time, the joy of a middle-aged man living a peaceful life by his beloved wife’s side, and his pride in his own achievements, in his disciples’ success… and his unconditional love for the temple and the sacred hill.

He protected it with all he had. But then his wife fell ill, he couldn’t pay for her treatment, and he found himself on the verge of losing everything.

‘PAY WITH YOUR SOUL AND PROTECT IT ALL. OR LOSE IT ALL.’

The image of a gray-faced woman with white, blind eyes popped into my mind.

In his desperation, he gave in to her offer and swallowed a white pill. He paid off his debt and helped his wife recover, but he never left the temple again: his life slowly began to leak out of his body and mix with the temple. He felt like he became a burden and poisoned himself, but the relief he felt upon dying was soon replaced by hell. A disciple was hit by a door. One of his closest friends almost lost a hand in the meditation hall. Even his own granddaughter got injured.

‘I am sorry for believing that devil. I was naive. I should have sold the temple instead of my soul. I left Yana behind. I defiled the temple. I destroyed everything I loved. So please, please make this hell stop. I regret. I just want to be punished for my deeds alone so… I beg of you, whoever you are, make this hell stop.’

‘As you wish.’

Suddenly, the deathforce flowing in the temple stopped. It took me a moment to understand that the one who had answered the spirit was none other than Ray.

I could feel the necro-bond again. I could hear again. I could barely move though. My core was pounding erratically.

What the hell had happened? I had just experienced some of Yi’s deepest memories, probably because I had been absorbing his deathforce. And despite the fact I had ceased to feel the necro-bond for an instant, Ray had still seen and heard the same as me… obviously because the necro-bond hadn’t really stopped working. So… what exactly happened?

‘Sorry I ordered you earlier, Armen,’ Ray then said. ‘I panicked. Lightning struck the temple, and the spirit apparently let it through to kill us all, but Styzz managed to control it with his power. He said he couldn’t hold so much electricity in his body, though, so he left the temple in a hurry.’

I was filled with horror. Kill us all… Didn’t that mean he would have killed his own wife, too? I was starting to understand what kind of hell he was referring to. The damned soul was really… a damned soul.

‘Everything should be fine, now,’ Ray added. ‘Yi helped me find the core, and I destroyed it.’ Already?! Wait, weren’t we supposed to catch it? ‘I also think I know what item was binding his soul to the temple. The only problem is… I did all this without thinking. Kind of a reflex… How am I going to explain that to Yamazaki?’

Ah. He had destroyed a damned soul haunting a temple “by reflex”. As expected from my master. If I had been able to move, I would have laughed.

‘Your core was shaken by the electric shock, but it’s not that you can’t move,’ Ray pointed out, embarrassed. ‘It’s that you cannot stand yet because of my order.’

He was reading my thoughts, wasn’t he? I sighed and finally listened to Noah’s alarmed voice calling me.

“Stupidstar! Stupidstar! You hurt? Hey, you hurt?!”

I turned my eyes to him and answered:

“I’m fine.”

Noah breathed out, sitting against the cooker.

“Geeez…”

There was a silence. I could hear the water flow in the gutters outside, but it seemed that the rain was letting up and the storm was blowing itself out. Well, not that it mattered anymore: the core had been destroyed.

But there was no way Ray could explain it without admitting he was a necromancer.

I tried to raise my eyes, but my body stubbornly kept glued to the ground. I asked:

“Where did the instructor go?”

“To see what happened. He looked pale. Maybe they really died. Hoodie, Ghost, Electromorpheus, and the actionphobic guy.” His voice was gloomy but wasn’t shaking. He cursed under his breath. “Mr. Huang is right. Wherever I go, people suffer. I must be a damned soul, too.”

The hell was with that defeatism all of a sudden? I had just put on the glove I had taken off earlier. Lying on my belly, I clicked my tongue, annoyed.

“Nonsense. That Mr. Huang is a damn demon.”

“Hah? Do you even know who he is?”

“Your supervisor from the Champion Institute. I know he doesn’t think twice before drugging innocent people just because they have dangerous powers. He’s a piece of trash. So don’t listen to him.”

I could hear Noah’s breathing speed up.

“How do you know…?”

“I saw you and Andrea on the train. Anyway, you have nothing to do with what just happened. There was a storm. And the temple’s spirit attacked us. That’s it—”

“Shut the hell up.”

His rudeness brought a grimace to my face. After an awkward silence, he added:

“If you pity me, I’ll beat you up.”

I snorted.

“You a five-year-old kid? I’m just sad to hear you compare yourself with a damned soul. Do you even know how much Yi’s soul has suffered? He couldn’t do anything to stop himself. Just now, he could have killed his wife.”

I fell silent as Noah shoved me to make me face up, drove a knee into my stomach, and punched me in the chest. I felt nothing, but I could guess he didn’t hit me with all his strength. His eyes, though, were glaring when he growled:

“Killed his wife? I killed my parents when I awakened my power. Isn’t that just as bad?”

His words shocked me, of course, but I couldn’t really feel surprised. I still remembered Mr. Huang’s inflexible retort: ‘Don’t try to understand our methods: they are not meant for young men like you, but for people with dreadful backgrounds.’ Dreadful backgrounds indeed. Dammit. I shouldn’t have said anything. I sighed, tried to find an answer, then confessed:

“I don’t know what to say.”

Noah snorted and stepped aside.

“I wouldn’t know what to say to a monster like me either, stupidstar. Anyway, what are we even doing? Maybe, right now, your friends are dead just like your ancestor, you know? Shouldn’t you be more worried?”

Still lying, I pulled my mask down and smiled.

“They’re alive. That’s how much I trust them, champ.”

“… To hell with your trust. I only believe what my eyes see. Let’s go. Get up—”

“I only believe what my heart tells me.”

“… Could it be you cannot get up?”

My smile broadened.

“No way. How could that be?”

“Then get up.”

“I’m fine here.”

A flash of worry passed through Noah’s eyes. He grabbed my two arms to pull me up.

“Don’t you know you shouldn’t be moving an injured person?” I protested.

“… Are you injured?”

I looked sideways.

“You never know.”

“You said you were fine. Are you hurting?”

“No. But dead men aren’t hurting, either.”

“Are you trying to drive me mad?”

“I’m saying it’s not good to act rashly.”

“I’m leaving.”

“Don’t! What if Yana walks into the kitchen and sees me like that?”

“Who’s Yana?!”

“The old lady.”

“Was that her name? Anyway, stop fooling around, stupidstar. I’m really getting the urge to punch you harder than before.”

“Relax, champ.”

“How can I relax when all you do is spout nonsense? Get up already. Did you hit your head?”

“Maybe it’s an effect of the lightning bolt. But I think I’ll be fine in some minutes.”

“Minutes?!”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“Let me strangle you. It’ll be over sooner.”

“If I may interrupt your useless talking…” We both turned our heads to Axel, who stopped near the door to the kitchen. “Unfortunately…” He paused and stared at us. My core squeezed with worry. Unfortunately what? He stated: “It seems everyone is okay.”

“Damn you,” Noah snorted. “Don’t say it in such a misleading way.”

“It also seems that the core has been destroyed or at least left inert by lightning.”

“What?” Noah exclaimed.

“I can’t feel its emotions now,” Axel went on, his eyes fixed on me. “Apparently, Styzz attracts lightning when he’s charged, so he was struck by lightning several times before he left the temple, which could explain why the core couldn’t resist… Oh, and Eder reacted in time to protect the other two with his energetic barrier. Happy ending.”

His tone was everything but happy. Well, all’s well that ends well, but… did Yamazaki really believe that the successive lightning bolts had destroyed the core? Even Axel didn’t seem to believe it…

Noah gasped.

“It’s over? Wait… doesn’t that mean Electromorpheus did all the work? Though he almost fried us in the process, but… wow.”

I rolled my eyes and said:

“Thanks for the info, Axel. Now I can rest in peace.”

The Sunclaw glared at me with a moody expression, paused, then asked:

“You can’t get up?”

Geez, why were they so worried about my position? Was I looking so weird lying in the middle of the kitchen? I smiled painfully and heard Ray whisper mentally:

‘Sorry.’

There was a hint of guilty amusement in his voice.

49 Like a dragon soaring in the skies

Fortunately, neither Yana nor her nephew seemed to have suffered from the lightning. The old lady had barely sensed the electricity from the living room; as for Wisdom… he was still as mute and irresponsive as before, and according to Yana, there was nothing wrong with him. Anyway, things could have gone really bad if Styzz hadn’t absorbed most of the electric shock, concentrating it within the meditation hall. I had still been shaken to the core—apparently, undeads were even more sensitive to electricity than humans—but I was fine now. Ray’s order had been more troublesome to deal with, but as a matter of fact, it had probably helped reduce the damages from the electric shock.

I pulled my mask down as I walked out of the Temple of the Holy Wind and took a deep, useless breath. The sky was almost completely blue, and the sun was beating down on the island again. As the others went to retrieve the bikes, I whispered to Ray:

“Did Yi’s soul really return to the gods?”

That was what Yamazaki had told the old lady. Ray frowned slightly.

“I bet Yamazaki, as a disciple of Mount Hua, thinks we did a terrible job and utterly destroyed Yi’s soul… so he hid it from Yana out of consideration or maybe shame. However…” He shrugged and added mentally: ‘Most serious studies about the matter, even a few made by non-necromancers, say that there is no proof whatsoever that there is a real difference between using the soul releasing technique of the dark arts regulators and the option of just destroying the core. With both methods, once out of its core, the soul loses its cohesiveness and its energy scatters. Who knows whether the soul is destroyed or returns to the Crystals in that new shape. That is a matter of beliefs.’

I looked at him, wondering if he had felt anything when he destroyed the temple’s core. It was an undead core, after all, just like mine, yet he hadn’t hesitated a second to put an end to Yi’s desperation. It was both upsetting and amazing, in a way.

As Ray raised an eyebrow, I lowered my eyes to the package I was carrying. Inside was a big stone we—or more like Yamazaki—had found in the inner courtyard, among other decorative stones enclosing the blue flowers. It looked like a perfectly ordinary stone, and yet, the instructor was positive that it contained the binder item, the “master” that had been maintaining the dark core alive…

Approaching with his bike and mine, Zeeta looked at the package, too, and commented:

“Yamazaki was making a funny face when he found it, don’t you think?”

“Actually, he was,” I agreed. “As if he had seen a ghost or something.”

“Maybe there is one in it,” Noah suggested, walking over. “Maybe it has already cursed your soul, stupidstar.”

The mere thought made me look at him in horror, then I thought that an undead soul couldn’t be cursed further, and I smirked.

“Heh. My soul’s too perfect for that.”

Noah laughed.

“They do say idiots cannot be cursed!”

“If that was true, curses wouldn’t exist in this world,” Axel threw at us casually. He got on his bike and helped Curry up before saying: “The instructor is taking too long to come out. I’m off.”

What? Where was he going? His foot was about to push the pedal, but then he stopped as if remembering something.

“Ah, right. I thought his hatred was genuine, but in the end, there was just that stupid, infuriating regret. I don’t know what exactly it was about, but I hate it when people use hatred to hide their shame. Hatred is a pure emotion that should not be defiled. So, Ray Styxer,” Axel turned his head to the young necromancer, “thanks for shortening this stupid farce. If you were as skillful at handling your power, I may not be hating you so much. Oh, also, if I were you, I wouldn’t lose sight of my pet.”

He began pedaling and soon disappeared down the slope under our astonished eyes. To think there was someone capable of thanking someone and then telling him in the next sentence that he hated him… I could feel Ray’s confusion through our necro-bond. That damn Axel… Not only was he unsettling my master but, despite my hopes, it seemed that he liked to be as annoyingly eloquent as his twin brother.

“Wait, was he threatening your cat?” Styzz growled. I smiled at his indignant face. Obviously, Axel had been talking about me. As for whether it was a threat or a warning… I had no idea.

“What a scary fellow,” Eder said, a bit pale. “As expected of the Sunclaw family. Do you know him well?”

Ray shrugged.

“Not really. We’re just acquaintances.”

“Your acquaintance hates you rather deeply,” Noah scoffed.

“… Hmm. So it seems.” It was obviously a one-sided hatred, though.

Noah pouted.

“Well, anyway, good riddance. That guy is way worse than his twin. But was it me or did he thank you captain for what Styzz did?”

Geez… Under Styzz’s, Eder’s, and Noah’s eyes, Ray was growing uneasy. I hastened to alter the subject with a burst of inspiration:

“Well, thanking people is good, anyway! I remember, back in middle school, I spent a week thanking people with some friends. At first, it was fun, people were smiling and all, but then… we began thanking people for being fat, ugly, stupid, and the like.”

“And he call me a bully…” Noah snorted.

“Kids are scary, it’s not my fault,” I protested. “Anyway, we completed our first job, and I’m the captain for today, so it’s my duty to thank you guys. Thank you, Styzz, for protecting us. And thank you, Eder, for protecting Ray and Zeeta with your power. You were like real Heros! I mean it.”

The European cringed a bit, as if startled by my thanks. Styzz smiled smugly under his umbrella and replied:

“Thanks. I still have a long way to go.”

“What about me?” Noah protested.

“… Er… You did well, Noah, you did well.”

“Why do I feel like a dog being praised?!” he snorted.

“It’s inherent, champ.”

He gave me a kick.

“While we’re at it, thanks for being even more useless than me, crawlingstar.”

“Heh. Leaders have the privilege to be useless.”

To my surprise, Noah’s crimson eyes gleamed with a mix of irony and defiance when he replied:

“Leaders can be overthrown.”

He moved his hand, probably to tease me and push my head down in a friendly manner. Faster than I was to pull back, Zeeta stepped in.

“You bastard. Don’t you even dare touch the Straw Hea—”

He had intended to push Noah back, but Noah’s crimson fire suddenly ignited, and not only did his shove lose all its effect but he collapsed. Instead of helping him, Noah stepped back with a pout.

“You flip out so easily, Hoodie.”

“Zeeta! You all right?” I worried.

Trembling on his knees, Zeeta hit the muddy ground with his fist, frustrated. I glared at Noah, who growled:

“What? He was the one who attacked me.”

I couldn’t deny that. Still… I smiled politely.

“If you don’t mind, next time, couldn’t you fight it out with your fists?”

Noah stared at me, bewildered.

“Hah? Why should I fight like a hooligan when I can get over with it in a second?”

“W-Well…”

“Besides, it’s kinda stupid of him, but that guy got pissed for your sake. Do you really want me to smash his face in?”

“Actually, no.”

“Straw Head, don’t think he’ll win so easily,” Zeeta protested. He got to his feet, his fists still clenched. “His power is nothing. I’ll get him for good this time.”

“…?! Wait, Zeeta! Why?!”

Too focused to listen to me, he lunged at Noah again. I had forgotten I was carrying the package with the stone: I miscalculated my center of gravity and recovered my balance at the very last moment. When I raised my eyes again, Noah had stopped Zeeta’s punches and was holding his both fists in his palms. It seemed he did so with ease. I was surprised. Even though Zeeta might have been less skilled, his experience as a street fighter was genuine. The Champ tsked.

“See? I don’t even need my power to stop you. It’s not your fault. You just didn’t undergo the training I did at the Champion Institute. I can strengthen my body with qi. You cannot. Come to think of it, how did you even get accepted into this training? Well, whatever. I don’t like people stronger than me so… be glad you’re weaker.”

“…”

What had gotten into Zeeta? He had always been short-tempered, but usually, when he met people stronger than him, he preferred to just walk away. Being humiliated like that wasn’t his style.

The Champ frowned.

“Getting angry for your friends is cool, but,” he let him go, “overdoing it is rather uncool. Don’t you think you’re embarrassing the stupidstar?”

Zeeta widened his eyes. Then we heard voices behind, and I turned to see Yamazaki come out of the temple accompanied by the old lady.

“Want to help your friend, Hoodie? Well, start helping him ride a bike!”

I looked back to see Noah ride off on my tricycle. My tricycle. No way. That bastard… Was he for real?

Zeeta snarled.

“I’ll kill him, I swear!” He rushed behind Noah down the slope on his bike. “Stop right there, you bastard!”

“Don’t wanna! Woohoo, so fast!”

“You’re gonna kill yourself if you don’t brake! Brake or I’ll kill you!”

“Like hell I’ll brake, hahaha!”

Styzz adjusted his umbrella and grumbled to himself:

“There are so many responsibilities on a person’s mind when they’re babysitting a pair of idiots.”

He set off on his bike rather fast. Somehow, at that moment, he looked a bit like a hero. At the end of the day, maybe he was the only one among us fit to be one.

“Oh,” Yamazaki commented. “I am happy to see that my trainees are so impatient to go write their report. In any case, venerable lady, I swear on my honor that the Grandmaster will get… er… your present.”

“Please convey my sincerest apologies to him. We even thought of selling it to solve our problems… but, in the end, my husband couldn’t bring himself to do that.”

“He was a righteous man indeed. The Mount Hua Sect will be eternally grateful for what he did.”

“On the contrary, I bet the elders of the sect will blame him for hiding a treasure that belongs to Mount Hua.”

A treasure? Yana had given Yamazaki a treasure of the Mount Hua Sect? The instructor glanced at Ray, Eder, and me and grimaced slightly.

“I am sure they won’t, venerable lady. After all… your husband was a descendant of the Grandmaster’s first disciple. As soon as I inform my superiors, they will most likely see that your family does not suffer ever again.”

The old lady gave him a dry look.

“You saved my husband’s soul, and I am thankful for that. I have paid you with the Immortal Plum Flower, which everyone but we thought lost forever. Now we’re even. Your sect has no obligation towards my family nor my family owes you anything. I am certain that Yi’s soul will rest in peace if we leave it at that.”

Yamazaki looked startled for an instant, but quickly recovered, and bowed to her.

“So be it, ma’am. We might meet again. We’ll be leaving now.”

Yana’s face softened.

“Please drop by any time. Be safe on your way back.”

Yamazaki went to take his bike, took a last glance at the Noipanua dog at the entrance, then turned to us:

“What are you doing, you three? Let’s go down. Ah, Armen, the binder item is most likely inside the stone you’re carrying. I’ll examine it carefully later, so don’t drop the stone. If it breaks, the item might break, too.”

“Ah… Yes, sir.”

“It might even explode.”

“What?!”

Yamazaki’s lips went up slightly. Ah. He was just kidding. Right?

“Relax, boy. It is just a possibility. Let’s go.”

I was still staring at my package with intent when the instructor left, followed by Eder. I grumbled.

“Not only I can’t bike but he’s asking me to ride with a stone on one arm? ”

“I’ll get you a bag, young man,” the old lady intervened.

She disappeared into the house and quickly returned with a simple shoulder bag. I was moved.

“Thank you, grandma Yana!”

She blinked, looking more than surprised.

“How do you know my name, boy?”

Oh. Now that I thought about it, I had only heard her name through Yi’s words. Which reminded me we had something to tell her. I exchanged a look with Ray, we nodded, and I answered:

“Actually… you lied to us, didn’t you, grandma Yana?”

Wisdom, her nephew, peeped out of the main door. The old lady’s eyes glared.

“I lied? What do you mean?”

Ray cleared his throat.

“Yi didn’t poison himself because of the Sunbrick Company. He did despise them for what they did, but his real despair was caused by someone else.”

Yana’s eyebrows furrowed and trembled.

“What… What are you implying? Are you saying I poisoned my husband? You insolent brats—”

“No. Sorry, but that’s not what I meant. Yi did poison himself, but he did because he was going to die anyway. He struck a deal with a powerful dark arts user who, for some reason, wanted a part of his soul. He let a stranger lethally wound his soul to pay for his debts and help you recover from your illness. When you discovered it, your shame most likely prevented you from saying the truth to anyone. Isn’t that right, ma’am?”

There was a long silence. Wisdom approached and laid a comforting hand on his aunt’s shoulder. His eyes were as serene as before. Finally, Yana let out a heavy sigh.

“How do you know all that?”

“Yi talked to us before the last remains of his soul departed. For some reason, it seems that only my friend and I heard him. He said he regretted what he did and… he said he trusted that you would take good care of yourself before you two are reunited in the Holy Lake.”

At Ray’s words, I raised an eyebrow, surprised. Did Yi say anything like that? Well, I had a bad memory, so…

Although Yana’s face was still stern, tears started flowing from her eyes. Wisdom, too, began crying silently. Ray and I looked at each other. It was a good thing to have let them know, right? Well, it seemed so to me. Those were tears of relief and sweet sadness, not despaired tears.

“Thank you.”

Ray and I bowed our heads at Yana’s words. After a respectful silence, my friend added:

“Of course, we won’t say anything about the mistake your husband made, but… I am curious about who that dark arts user was.”

Yana took a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped off her tears before answering:

“Believe me, I’d like to know, too. Who, or rather, what it was… All I know is what my husband told me. A devil came to the temple at night, when he was meditating alone. It was a woman in appearance, but her aura was not human, and her eyes were white like milk. She called herself Sad, but that’s obviously not her name. She told him she was seeking the shell of a eudaemonic soul to save her child.”

A eudaewhat? She glanced at his nephew before walking slowly to the Noipanua dog, saying:

“It took Yi several months to finally open up to me about it. His body was losing its strength, and I was desperate to call a specialized doctor, but he then confessed and forbid me to call for help. It was like seeing a lake of serenity turn into a tornado of horror. Despite his fortitude in a lot of aspects, he has always been a bit weak, within. I knew it, yet I wasn’t there to support him when he needed me most. Once he lost the shell of his soul… it felt like a fatal descent to hell.” She grazed the high pedestal of the statue. Her hand trembled a little as she remembered her past. “Though his body wasn’t suffering, his soul was. Oh, it was. He began losing memories. At one point, he became unable to talk, or walk, or even eat by himself. I still don’t know how he managed to poison himself in that state, but… he did.”

Wisdom nodded silently. Ray was lost in thought. I swallowed, uneasy, and muttered:

“To condemn someone to such a fate… That devil Sad must be one of the worst devils on Earth.”

The old lady of the temple looked at me, pensive.

“The Earth is wider than you seem to think it is, young man. I am sure there are bigger devils than that. Humans that don’t ask for deals before tearing your existence to pieces. Monsters full of ignorance that do not even try to understand anything about life. But the ugliest devils of all, young man, are those who dwell in the soul.”

Her light eyes gleamed with intensity while those of Wisdom smiled. As if hearing his thoughts, Yana brightened in turn and added:

“However simplistic it sounds, a soul is made of light and shadows. Life is the constant dance between both. Sometimes one loses sight of the shadows and gets caught in them. That is why…”

She pointed at the entrance of the temple. Above the door, there was a quotation carved on wood. I could read:

«Bath in the light, and keep an eye on the wolf behind.»

Oh. I smiled.

“It’s like the false-pharos. They’re mollusks that live in big shells and emit light to lure their prey.”

Ray, Yana, and even Wisdom let out a soft snort. Were they laughing? Ah…

“Sorry, grandma Yana, I didn’t want to compare your sentence to some mollusks! I just…”

I fell silent when Wisdom patted my head with unmistakable affection. That caught me by surprise. He raised the forefinger and walked into the temple. We were a bit confused.

“Well…” Ray glanced at our bikes. “Our instructor might be wondering what we are doing—”

“Please wait. I think Wisdom wants to give you something.”

Did he? We waited for some time in silence, not knowing what to say. Then:

“By any chance, are you looking for that devil that tricked my husband?”

I raised my eyebrows and turned to Ray. Were we? My master shook his head.

“I don’t know yet.”

He didn’t know? Why would Ray be interested in an evil necromancer? He certainly wasn’t the type to help others satisfy their own revenge.

“… My nephew is coming back.”

Wisdom calmly approached and handed me a leather-bound book. It was entitled «A Thousand Paths to Heaven, by Allen Dravnier».

“Allen Dravnier is one of Yi’s ancestors,” Yana explained, “and the man who first decided to break bonds with the Mount Hua Sect. This is a book he wrote for his disciples, apparently to help them reach enlightenment. It was Yi’s favorite book. And Wisdom’s.”

“…!”

“Oh, but don’t worry. We have quite a few copies left in the temple.”

I opened it. It was made of verses. The first verse was:

«I live like a dragon soaring in the skies.»

Somehow, those simple words resonated with me. I had expected a technique book of philosophy with intricate phrasing, but… it was actually poetry. I smiled. Big words like “enlightenment” had always turned me off a little bit, but if getting enlightened meant reading beautiful, simple verses then… it seemed like a good way to have fun.

Before closing the book, I couldn’t help but read at least the next verse:

«I am the wind that listens to the singing silence.»

I met Wisdom’s eyes and grinned happily.

“I think I’ll like it. Thanks.”

The broad smile he returned was one of the most memorable I had ever seen.

50 Undeads are like math teachers

After biding them farewell, without delay, we began riding down the hill on our bikes… or more like, I was walking, braking constantly, with my feet almost always touching the muddy ground. We were going faster than walking, though.

“Hmmm…”

Ray cast me a quizzical look. I commented:

“Yana didn’t ask us why we were the only ones who could hear Yi’s words. Don’t you think it’s weird?”

“She must have guessed we wouldn’t tell her anything. After all, we even kept it from our instructor.”

“… True.”

“I’m more concerned about that binder item you’re carrying.”

“You, too, think it can explode?!”

“I don’t know about that. I just wonder why that necromancer bothered to seal Yi’s soul to the temple and bind it with an item. She could have just left after paying for the shell of Yi’s soul. Then Yi would have likely died within a few days or even a few hours. And he wouldn’t have haunted the temple for four years.”

“… Well…” As I kept going downhill, braking both with the levers and my feet, I ventured: “Maybe she had to delay his death so no one would suspect her?”

“She sure delayed it a lot, then. Not only did she give Yi plenty of time to tell Yana everything but she also left clear evidence that a necromancer was involved. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Hmm. Now that you mention it… But why are you so interested in that necromancer?”

“… Well.” His eyes followed the swift movement of a lizard crossing the road. He talked through our necro-bond: ‘I’ve read that, sometimes, some souls, upon dying, can get attached to an item by accident, due to extreme feelings, energy instability, or other causes. Usually, it’s an item they hold dear. Those are what dark arts regulators call damned souls. However…’ He turned to me. ‘We know that wasn’t the case with Yi. And Yamazaki probably suspects it too. That the binder item hidden in that stone was crafted by a necromancer. I have never heard of such a thing,’ he confessed to my surprise. ‘So, obviously, I’d like to know who is that Sad.’

“…!” I breathed out, braked, and stopped completely my bike. “I didn’t expect that. Ray.”

“What?”

“Why would you be interested in a technique that binds souls to objects?”

“Ah… Well, just curiosity—”

“Master.”

“What?”

He looked annoyed. I was more than annoyed, though.

“I know what you’re up to. I’m not blind. From the very start, you’re searching for a way to ‘free’ me, aren’t you?”

Ray seemed to freeze.

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t like to give me orders, you can’t bear the idea I’ll die when you die, so you’re selfishly trying to throw me away. And just now… were you thinking about binding my soul to an indestructible pole?!”

“I wasn’t!” he protested, indignant. “What do you take me for?”

There was a silence, then I grimaced, ashamed.

“Sorry. The idea came to my mind, and it was just too awful to hold it in.” I smiled apologetically. “Sorry.”

“Geez.” Ray momentarily took off his cap to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “But you’re right. I was acting just like my dad. Let’s forget about Sad. Maybe it would have been better not to say anything to that woman.”

“To Yana, you mean? On the contrary, I’m glad we talked to her and her nephew,” I replied and smiled. “I even got a book. I live like a dragon soaring in the skies.”

Ray snorted.

“What does that even mean?”

At that moment, his phone rang. He frowned at the screen.

“Talk of the devil. Sorry, Armen. I’m gonna take the call… Dad? Did something happen?”

I tensed up. It was the Lord, huh. I saw Ray immediately pout at his dad’s response.

“Yes… We can’t use our phones on Yuutow—Yeah, I’m fine. What about you? … Glad to hear that. Mom’s fine, too. Well, barely. Oh, Natasha, yes, I’ve met her. Actually—Well. Mm. Hmm-hmm.”

He soon stopped answering. Seemingly, he couldn’t get a word in. He looked at me and turned up the volume so I could hear.

« … They better be letting you get enough sleep. Eight hours is the bare minimum! Don’t forget you have to take good care of yourself, for your sake but also for your familiars’. Is Armen feeding you well? »

“I’m not a dog, dad…”

I chuckled.

“He’s eating like a prince, my Lord.”

« Oh, Armen, you’re there too? Good, good. Louise says she’s put a hedgehog in the freezer this time— »

I could hear Louise’s cheerful voice saying something about a poor hedgehog she had found in Tiergarten District. Before leaving, I had secretly emptied the freezer of the lizard and the bird she had brought home in December… But now there was a hedgehog. Grimacing, I glanced at Ray, but surprisingly, my master didn’t look overly troubled. That gave me a bit of a shock and a strange feeling of expectation. I already imagined myself taking care of the hedgehog as if he was my little brother, brushing his spines to get rid of the fleas… I shook my head. No way, no way. Ray hadn’t even revived it yet, what was I getting excited for?

The Lord went on:

« Oh right, son, the other day, an old pal from Tunis was trying to brag about his twenty-seven-year-old daughter who just got her first familiar. His jaw dropped when I told him you already had two familiars, and both with high-quality cores! I know, I know, I shouldn’t show off, don’t be mad… So everything’s fine, huh. I’m glad to hear that. Armen is such a troublemaker that I was expecting him to make some problematic blunders, such as saying to an instructor, “ha-ha, I’m not tired, I’m dead”, or “ha-ha, a cheebou pierced my chest, but I’m fine, I can’t feel pain”. »

What was he adding that annoying “ha-ha” for?

“Actually, dad… there is something I should tell you,” Ray said before I could reply.

« You… You have something important to tell your daddy?! Holy Ghoul, Sora, Louise! Did you guys hear that? My son is finally relying on me— »

“After all, never mind,” Ray cut him off, his eyebrow twitching.

« You can tell me, son. I’m all ears, son. »

With a sigh, Ray said in a low, neutral voice:

“Last week, Armen absorbed Heavenly Storm lifeforce, I managed to detoxify his body, but he turned into a Fury, and now Natasha is helping him to get enough food at night. For now, everything seems to go smoothly. I am not asking for any help. I just wanted you to know.”

There was a silence. Was the Lord cursing me right now? Probably. Yeah. He didn’t like me, anyway…

« Sora, buy a train ticket to Phoenix at once. I’m coming, son. »

Whaaaat?!

The Lord’s voice vibrated with urgency. Ray had widened his eyes. He breathed out.

“Dad, do you even know what you’re saying? If you really want to help, send Uncle Adrian or Cysleen… It’s really not necessary for you to—”

« Those last two months, you did even better than I expected, son, » his father interrupted with a firm voice. « But a good necromancer knows there are things he cannot handle alone. Instead of having a Vod’s familiar help, wouldn’t it be easier to turn to your own family? »

The Lord sounded clearly worried. Well, no wonder: even though everything had worked out for the time being, it was as if we were walking on a thin rope above an abyss. I leaned on the phone.

“My Lord, don’t worry too much or you’ll go bald. I swear I’m being careful—”

« You don’t go close to my son. »

His voice was as icy and dark as a snow demon’s den. I stiffened and backed down, convinced for a moment that I had just received a necro-order. I hadn’t, obviously. Necro-orders couldn’t possibly travel such a long distance.

« I am coming, Ray, » the Lord repeated firmly. « If I don’t, I might regret it for the rest of my life. »

Ray frowned.

“Well, if you say so… do as you want.”

Despite his detached tone, I could sense his relief through our necro-bond, mixed with a hint of affection and unease. In a way, it was good news that the Lord Necromancer had decided to come, but… I couldn’t help but think that things could get complicated because of him, too.

* * *

When we arrived at the foot of the hill, only Zeeta was waiting there for us with his hands in his pockets; his bike was leaning on a light post. I approached on mine, kicking the ground and grinning.

“Zeeta! Long time no see!”

He rolled his eyes, but I found his expression a bit dark. I looked around and only saw a few people walking down the street.

“Did the champ give you the slip on the tricycle? Where are the others?”

“Well,” Zeeta said, “I was about to teach Noah a lesson when Eder began hyperventilating all of a sudden, so Styzz and that crimson demon accompanied him to the hospital.”

I was shocked.

“Eder? Isn’t that super bad? Could it be the lightning bolt…?”

“It has probably nothing to do with that,” Ray intervened, nodding thoughtfully. “Actually, the same happened to him the day I met him in Europe. Apparently, he loses control of his breathing whenever he’s put under too much pressure. Maybe it is a drawback of his power. Last time, the Swanbell Clan tried to hide the incident, and it was rumored they locked Eder up during all the festivities. Makes you wonder how they treat their kids if their powers are completely out of control. Some elite clans have zero mercy for the weak.”

“… Damn,” I breathed out. “Eder has to deal with some serious troubles, huh…”

“He’s not the only one,” Zeeta said then. “I have bad news. Very bad news.”

I looked at him worriedly. More bad news?

“Uh… let’s hear the good news first.”

Zeeta snorted with a dark smile before replying:

“There is none. This is serious, Straw Head. Yamazaki got a call from instructor Zhou. If I’m not mistaken, Allen Zhou is supervising the team with the Starlanders. I listened to the whole conversation, and apparently, his team was supposed to solve a simple case of night assault. They were unfortunately too diligent and discovered that at least fifteen people were attacked last week almost in the same way. Nothing was stolen, but all the victims said they were extremely fatigued the next couple of days.”

Ray’s face went white; my necro-heart was pounding.

“Also,” Zeeta added, “it seems that a man and a woman have been interrogating some of the victims before Zhou’s team did. They didn’t give any name, but apparently, the man was wearing a golden pendant with the shape of a sun. I don’t know why, but that’s what finally made Allen Zhou call Yamazaki for advice, and that’s what unsettled Yamazaki the most. Enough for him to leave us behind and head to the place Zhou indicated.”

He looked at us alternately, concluding:

“Last week, on almost the same day, the training started. The Styxer is a family known by the Dark Arts Regulators. Even if Ray is also the son of one of the Nine Crowned Fairies, I wouldn’t be surprised if Yamazaki ended up putting two and two together.”

A stormy silence followed Zeeta’s words. It wasn’t like I hadn’t imagined it could happen, but…

Zeeta cleared his throat.

“Shouldn’t you have at least picked people from different districts?”

“I did!” I retorted. “We were always wearing masks, too. Natasha even bet one thousand Corns that there would be no investigation even if someone reported the incident to the police. Besides, most of the victims were delinquents. There’s no way… There’s no way we can be so unlucky—”

“Calm down, Straw Head.”

“…! Mph. I’m calm.”

We looked at each other, then at Ray. The young necromancer was still livid. He was trying to block his emotions from going through our necro-bond, but I could still feel his deep agitation. Maybe some of it was mixing with my own. Gosh. I didn’t like the feeling growing inside me. It reminded me painfully of the one I’d had on that day when the Hell Hounds had attacked the shopping center last year. Fear that my big sis would discover how much of a stupid little brother she had. Shame of what I had done or not done. I could feel again that anxiety that overwhelmed me as if my life was on hold while time was continuing to flow…

“Enough!”

Ray and Zeeta raised their eyes, surprised at my cry. I clumsily got off my bike, saying:

“Zeeta. Ray. Tell me if I’m wrong but… don’t people naturally spend their lifeforce all day long? Jobs make them work, and they speak, and run, and get angry and laugh. They spend energy every damn minute. So what’s the difference, fundamentally, between being an employer, an examiner, a race organizer, or a Fury? Aren’t they all lifeforce eaters?”

Both gaped at me. I nodded.

“I knew it.”

“You knew what?” Zeeta snorted.

“Lifeforce is made to be used, just like life is made to be lived. Yet humans will blame an undead because it ate people’s energy to stay alive, but they won’t blame the math teacher for giving their pupils a piece of homework that will keep them in despair for several days!”

“… Your comparison just goes to show how much you were in despair doing homework, Straw Head.”

“Which makes me think,” I continued in earnest, “what if we could convince Yamazaki? Convince him at least not to intervene. Maybe also that I don’t deserve to be put to death—”

“No one’s gonna put you to death,” Zeeta huffed.

“Yamazaki certainly won’t,” I agreed. “But that woman and that man with the sun-shaped pendant are different. I bet they are from the Blazing Sun Corporation. I told Ray about it, but I didn’t tell you, did I, Zeeta? They’re Death Hunters.”

Zeeta widened his eyes.

“Death… Hunters? You don’t mean…”

“Yeah. In brief, they think undeads are monsters that shouldn’t exist. Natasha told me how they proceed. Basically, first, they dismember you to immobilize you, then they locate your core, and then they put you into a special little box and bring you to the headmaster of the Corporation, who offers your soul to the Shining One and… they dance all day long singing happy prayers. Well, I bet Natasha made the last part up. Anyway, it’s a tragedy.”

Zeeta’s eyes were glaring murderously.

“Those bastards,” he growled abruptly. “Where are those Blazing Sun bastards?”

He grabbed his bike, maybe intending to go set them all on fire. I kind of felt happy about his feelings and smiled.

“Calm down, Zeeta, I’m still alive—Well, except I’m dead but… ” I chuckled.

“That’s right.” We turned to Ray, startled. He looked much calmer than before. After breathing in and out, he went on: “I shouldn’t have panicked. For the moment, there is no proof of anything. Yamazaki doesn’t suspect us yet. And the Death Hunters won’t find you with so little information. The problem is how we’ll manage from now on. But since my dad is coming, maybe—”

“What?” Zeeta choked in a whisper. “The Lord Ne…? Actually, why didn’t you call him before?”

Ray frowned slightly.

“In part because he…”

“…? Because he pisses you off?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then because he’s the head of the Necro-Haven?” Zeeta ventured, lowering his voice.

“No, that’s not it either. It’s because leaving Farskyer City means he’ll have to abandon a lot of familiars that will die if not nurtured. Bats, birds, cats, the human ghouls… He will have to put them all to sleep if he wants to keep them alive.”

“…!!” Holy Crystals, I hadn’t thought about that.

“Your dad sure is a busy man,” Zeeta grimaced.

Ray sighed.

“I knew, and yet I couldn’t help but tell him in the end. I may be the most selfish person on Earth.”

“As expected of my master,” I teased him. “You’re the best at everything.”

“I wasn’t bragging, Armen.”

At that moment, a phone rang. It was Zeeta’s. Oh right, I had forgotten to switch mine on. I wanted to see if my big sis had sent me any messages. But my cell took so long to turn on…

“It’s Erma.”

I straightened up. Linah? Zeeta took the call.

“Erma? What’s the matter?”

I saw his face darken quickly.

“Who…? Okay, don’t worry. I’m with the Straw Head and Ray. We’ll be right there.”

He slid his phone into his pocket, grasped his bike, and got on in a bolt saying:

“Straw Head, get on my bike, or we’ll never make it. Ray, don’t fall behind. I’m gonna go full speed.”

I reacted at once, left my bike, and jumped on his. After making sure I wouldn’t lose my balance, I checked my phone with one hand and noticed two lost calls from Linah. Only when we were already speeding up the deserted street did I ask:

“Zeeta! What’s going on?”

Fortunately, at lunch hours, there weren’t many people in the streets, and Zeeta was pedaling as fast as he could without switching to a standing position. He answered:

“Cesarine Lovecryce has disappeared.”

For an instant, the meaning of his words seemed to be blown away by the wind. I blinked. What?

51 A Firefly Demon suspected to be a revolutionary

When Zeeta finally braked, we had come all the way to the island’s Neck. To Kimberley’s lighthouse.

The path that led uphill was crowded with bystanders. Three men wearing the white and golden cloaks of the Nyomin were blocking their way and frowning and shaking their heads at a couple of inquisitive journalists. So it was true that something had happened to Cesarine, despite their “security” and all…

Before we even tried to pass, I heard a voice:

“Shoriaf, it’s you guys!”

I turned and saw Kimberley’s apprentice stop beside us.

“Toya! Is Kim all right?”

The boy nodded, his brow furrowed.

“Yeah. But the Nyomin is still interrogating him. He sent me away, because he says those people are worse than snakes. I’m worried.”

Kimberly was being interrogated?!

“Why would they interrogate him?” I gasped.

“Oh… You don’t know?”

“We just got here,” Zeeta said.

“Well… Some trainees like you from Yuutow took shelter in the lighthouse, because of the storm. It kinda annoyed me to let them in, but Kim says hospitality is natural law, so I even gave them some tea, but then other trainees came uphill, pursuing a thief or something, and when the supervisors were talking… next thing we knew, she was gone. The daughter of the Nyomin director was gone.” Toya pouted, lowering his eyes. “It’s kinda bad for us, ya know. I mean… What if they accuse Kim because they can’t find the real culprit? I hate those white-cloaked guys. They were so rude towards Kim! And they even brought that monster in after it pounced on that girl…”

His hands trembled a bit. Monster? What monster? And what girl? Well, in any case, things were looking bad. How could Cesarine Lovecryce disappear just like that? I couldn’t imagine someone hiding her, let alone carrying her away. She couldn’t have fallen over the cliffs, right? From what Toya said, she had disappeared inside the lighthouse. But… how? And where was she now?

“Please make way!”

Voices rose, and I recognized Aika Zarate, the trans-continental physician. She was wending her way uphill, followed by the trainees she was supervising. I saw Sasha Devkota the Giant towering over his companions. Calm and silent, Gorka Soulberg glanced at us without stopping. Sean Bensaïd the Smug was walking just behind. Lei waved us on with a grin.

“Oh, guys! It seems something interesting happened!”

That twin had zero ability to read the mood. The Nyomin officers looked daggers at him. Well, we’d better follow Aika Zarate if we wanted to pass without problems. I patted Toya’s shoulder.

“Relax. I doubt they will accuse Kim of anything. He’s not even a power-holder. I’ll go take a look.”

“… Me too!”

The kid bravely followed us uphill to the lighthouse. Instead of entering the building, Aika Zarate turned and headed to the right, to an adjacent paved lookout by the cliffs. The trainees stood there, on one side, as if they didn’t dare to approach something or had been told to stay away from something… The old instructor Claire Li stepped aside and said to the physician:

“You got here faster than I expected. We tied her, but please be careful.”

Her? Craning my neck, I went around to try to see who it was… but all I saw was a mass of gray energy with green, purple, and yellow sparks. Was it really a person? I stared at it and made out some contours. It had gray wings of energy spotted with fluorescent green lights. They were shaking, folding and unfolding, sending strong waves of energy around. It couldn’t be Cesarine, could it? Her silhouette was too slim. Then who…?

“Straw Head.” Stopping beside me, Linah looked at me then at the gray mass of energy with a dark expression. “Did you know?”

Her question confused me. I didn’t reply immediately.

“Who… What is that creature?”

Linah, Zeeta, and Ray looked at me, startled.

“It’s obviously Arkifa, your friend!” Linah snorted.

“…!!” I stared at the mass of energy, astonished. Arkifa? No way. I couldn’t even make out her face. Aika Zarate had crouched by her side and opened her first aid kit. Was Arkifa injured? Wait a moment… How were they able to recognize her so easily?

“Did you know?” Linah repeated in a whisper. “Did you know Arkifa was a Firefly Demon?”

I blinked, dumbfounded. A… firefly demon? Leaning against the stone wall of the lighthouse, Lei commented in a casual voice:

“It is said firefly demons are excellent ingredients for making pills.”

My necro-heart shivered. Did he just call Arkifa an ingredient? Linah threatened her brother with her fist, growling:

“Damn your harpy mouth, Lei.”

“Oh, sorry. It was just for information. Anyway, who could have imagined there would be a firefly demon among us. They are so rare nowadays.”

I was in shock. Azritz had told me that living beings with a really high concentration of crystal particles were called demons. They could be of any species: demon dogs, demon fishes, demon birds, and also… demon humans. Apparently, their bodies were so unbalanced that they seldom survived childhood. Even if they reached adulthood, they were thought to be cursed and mentally and energetically unstable, but since they were incredibly powerful, they had been historically used in wars and carefully watched, often ostracized, and also sacrificed… Just like the Cursed People, or maybe even worse. But, unlike we Chorns, they had been revered by pagans as demi-gods, and they had almost overthrown the World Government. Was it about a hundred years ago? I couldn’t remember. In any case, it was said that even nowadays there were demons hiding in society and keeping a low profile. Were Linah and Lei saying that the Arkifa I had known for three years was one of those?

“Seems like the Straw Head didn’t know,” Zeeta commented after staring at me for a few seconds. “Anyway, Erma, how did she get injured?”

Linah sighed heavily.

“It’s because of one of those damn manticores the Nyomin uses for criminal tracking. They brought one to Phoenix to reinforce Cesarine’s security, and so they brought it here supposedly for our safety, but that beast began sniffing us, broke free from its owner, and attacked Arkifa. If she hadn’t transformed… the mere impact would have possibly killed her.” She cast a glance at the lighthouse. “Even I got really scared by it.”

Aghast, I looked at her, then at the smoky creature that was supposed to be Arkifa. I couldn’t even see how serious her injury was, but somehow, I could guess her suffering through the chaotic waves of energy she was emitting. I took a step forward without thinking. Claire Li raised a hand.

“Stay away, please. This could be dangerous.”

“What about Cesarine?” I heard Zeeta inquire behind me.

I lost Linah’s reply. All my attention was focused on Arkifa and the storm silently raging around her.

‘Armen,’ Ray said through our necro-bond. ‘Sorry for using your eyes for a sec, but I was wondering why you didn’t recognize Arkifa. Now I clearly understand why. You can literally see energies, even the wasted lifeforce of the trainees… But since when?’

Now that he mentioned it, since when did I start seeing energies as colored smoke instead of just sensing it through my skin? Since I had become a Fury, maybe? Or was it a bit later? The change had been gradual enough that I didn’t pay much attention to it.

‘Want to see what I see?’ Ray asked then.

I looked at him, surprised, and nodded. At once, I received in my mind the image of Arkifa shaking on the ground as Jing and a brown-haired teenager—Azwyne was it?—were trying to keep her down; her skin was pale blue, her purple eyes were glowing, and her fingers were bloody as if she had been clawing the ground before someone tied her hands. Aika was using her healing power on her right arm and leg, where the manticore had sunk its fangs and claws. Considering the size of the marks, it was a miracle that Arkifa was still able to move her limbs. As for the storm of chaotic energies… There wasn’t any. Two wings, way smaller than the ones I had seen, protruded from behind her back. They weren’t gray but almost transparent. In contrast, the bright green lights on them were clearly visible. I gasped inwardly.

‘If I had to guess, now that I’ve seen what you’ve seen,’ Ray added, ‘Arkifa’s not shaking so much because of her injury as because of a serious energetic instability inside her body. Maybe because she was in a rush, she could not perform her transformation correctly.’ The image faded, and my eyes saw the chaotic energy mass again. The young necromancer swallowed. ‘Damn… I don’t know much about demons, but it is obvious that her energy is out of control.’

Holy Gods…

“So it’s bad.”

‘For us, it’s not really dangerous, I think. For her? Obviously, it is. She’s throwing out too much qi. Plus, that energy is preventing her from stabilizing her inner energies, which could lead to her qi veins imploding and injuring her whole body. So yeah… No matter how you look at it, the situation looks pretty bad for her.’

From his tone, I understood he meant that he wouldn’t bet his hand that Arkifa would survive. What the hell…

Arkifa let out a sudden shriek of pain. Aika Zarate had finished bandaging her with swift, proficient hands, and she stepped back, startled.

“Her injury should be healing just fine,” she said, “but… I’m afraid her mind has completely been taken over by her demonic blood.”

Demonic… Dammit, so she knew there was something wrong with Arkifa, but she wasn’t trying to help her. Maybe because she didn’t know how to? As I watched in dismay Claire Li wave Jing and Azwyne back, I heard the trainees whisper:

“Are they going to be fine after touching the demon? I’ve heard they can pass on diseases.”

“I’ve heard that too.”

“Scary. Who is really that girl anyway?”

“Rather, how come the Nyomin accepted her?”

“The Independent Hero Association did, you mean.”

“Maybe they didn’t check out the info she gave.”

“How careless of them.”

“That manticore is still to blame for attacking her.”

“You said it. But without it, who knows, maybe we wouldn’t have known what that girl is—”

“Actually, maybe the manticore attacked her not because she’s a demon but because she’s a wanted criminal?”

“Pff… Do you think she’s involved in the capture of Lovecryce’s daughter? That’d be one of the biggest blunders made by the Nyomin in years.”

The thoughts of the trainees were beginning to fill me with deep—very deep—annoyance when Lei let out:

“Oh. That’s the manticore… Huge.”

Everyone fell silent and turned with evident wariness to the three Nyomin officers that had just come out from the lighthouse. They were followed by a pale-looking Kim. While two of them headed to where we were standing, the other one was pulling downhill a huge four-legged creature covered with a magnificent, dark red fur with bluish glints around the neck. Sure, it was scary just to look at it but… as I heard another harrowing scream coming from the lookout, I couldn’t help but forget about the beast, stop listening to the others, and stare at the chaotic energy swirling around Arkifa.

There was no way I would accept her death just like that. Arkifa had never told me she was a demon, and I couldn’t really process that new reality in my head, but… Firefly demon or not, she was still Arkifa. I knew her. I liked her level-headedness, her kindness, her honesty. I enjoyed her mere presence because she was my friend. And if there was anything I could do to save her… If there was anything…

Then it dawned on me. If the energy storm around Arkifa was hindering her recovery, then removing it would help her at least a bit, right? Hadn’t I used my telekinesis already to move Helly? If it had worked on the shadow of Yuutow Tower, why wouldn’t it work on other energy masses? As long as it was dense enough… Yeah. I would give it a shot.

I focused my eyes on the storm and activated my power. I applied all my strength to it and pulled. The current was too strong, and only a streak of energy spiraled up and flew to me. I absorbed it. Its taste puzzled me. It felt a bit like an exotic meal about which you couldn’t decide whether it was good or bad.

I could have gone on like this, bit by bit. Probably. But it wasn’t the time to be patient.

‘Armen?’

Before Ray even understood what I was up to, I had taken off my gloves and run to Arkifa, past the instructors. I entered the mass of energy and began absorbing as much as I could. As a stream of energy started to flow into my body, I felt Ray’s deep concern through our necro-bond. I crouched beside Arkifa and said to both:

“It’s okay.”

I didn’t reach out to Arkifa. I knew something bad would happen if a Fury like me touched her right now. But as long as I didn’t, I could keep absorbing the energy storming around her. That one didn’t seem to be affecting my life-lust. I wondered why. Maybe it was because it wasn’t white energy? Because it was gray energy? Just like the energy my newly fused core was made of…

Or maybe because she was a demon.

I recalled what Natasha had told me the day I met her. ‘Just like Heavenly kinds of lifeforce exist, there are some sorts of lifeforce that are not only bad to undead, but also very dangerous. Like… demonic energies, or gray energies.’

So that was why Ray was silently cursing me right now.

I grimaced slightly, but I still absorbed the remaining energy. I could finally see Arkifa’s face with my own eyes. Her breathing was calming down, but she was still struggling with her inner energies. Her eyes wide open, she turned her head to point to a black and red bracelet lying on the ground, some meters away. It was the bracelet Arkifa always wore. Claire Li must have removed it to treat her wound provisionally before Aika Zarate’s arrival. I didn’t really get why Arkifa was worrying about a bracelet in her state, but she must have had a reason for sure. I put on my gloves in a hurry, pulled the bracelet to me with telekinesis, and tried to free Arkifa’s hands.

“Stop that right now, trainee!” Claire Li snorted.

I frowned at the old woman.

“Why should I stop?”

“Are you blind, young man? This girl is a firefly demon. Look at her eyes.”

Arkifa’s eyes were glowing, yes, but what of it? I glared at Claire Li. Did she want to keep Arkifa tied just because she was a demon?

At that instant, one of the Nyomin officers hung up the phone, and with his companion, walked forward until he loomed over me. With broad shoulders, a large and muscled face, and a brown, bushy beard… he was huge and intimidating. However, I didn’t budge and held his piercing gaze.

“Boy. Get out of my way.”

His voice was calm but cold; somehow, I could guess that guy was dangerous. I still didn’t move.

“Shouldn’t you guys be looking for Cesarine?”

Why waste time on a firefly demon when they should be turning over every stone on the island to look for the daughter of their director?

“Commander Taiel,” a conciliatory voice intervened. Yamazaki’s? Since when did he get here? “Fortunately, for some reason, the demon girl seems to be doing better now. How about you let us instructors deal with her? So you can focus on saving Miss Lovecryce.”

Yamazaki fell silent as the huge officer leaned over me, grabbed Arkifa’s left arm, and pulled her to her feet. I jumped up. That bastard…! He immediately let her go, though, replying:

“It seems clear now that Miss Lovecryce has been teleported not by a runic formation but by a power-holder. Arkifa Cythraul, was it? Or should I call you otherwise? What is your power?”

The hell was with that question? Were they now suspecting Arkifa of kidnapping Cesarine? Besides, what was that about calling her otherwise? Wasn’t Arkifa Cythraul her real name? More and more confused, I looked at Arkifa. She was clenching her bracelet with her tied hands, frowning. Her wings had disappeared, and her eyes were gradually turning back to a normal purple. She looked pretty much recovered, which was good, but she also looked… scared? Not only. There was anger gleaming in her eyes.

“If you don’t answer I will,” Commander Taiel said. “In the application form, you wrote that your power was enhanced agility and strength, but it doesn’t match with the information I just received. Certainly, demons are stronger than humans, but that’s not what we call a power. A power is what you used about six years ago to send a social worker four kilometers away from your home, is it not?” Arkifa widened her eyes, and he added: “Nyomin informants are rarely mistaken.”

Arkifa remained mute. Well, given the circumstances, I could understand her shock. She had been hiding her true nature from everyone, me included, maybe from Ashooka too, but that manticore had forced her to transform so she could survive. Wasn’t her situation… a lot like mine, in a way?

I glowered at the commander.

“So what if she can teleport someone? That doesn’t mean she teleported Cesarine. So why are you all looking at her as if she was a dangerous criminal? Use your brain, you—”

“Th-Thanks, Armen!” Arkifa said in a hurry, barely muffling my insult. “It’s okay. I understand why they would suspect me. The power of teleporting people is not so common. I am innocent, though.”

I shut my mouth. Arkifa breathed out slowly, looking calmer than before. I glanced around. The expressions I saw were mixed. The dryad, Arkifa’s captain, was stony-faced; Gorka Soulberg looked pensive; Jing, sad; Nina, distressed; Oliver, confused; Sasha the merfolk was picking her ear; Ray was staring at me, probably still worried about the gray, demonic energy I had absorbed; and sitting on a stone edge against the lighthouse, Lei was relaxing and enjoying the view. Most of the others seemed to have already pronounced the verdict: for whatever reason, Arkifa had attacked the Nyomin director’s daughter and had abducted her and sent her who knows where, potentially provoking one of the biggest commotions since Lovecryce had been appointed director of the Nyomin Union. Tch. How ridiculous.

I saw the officer behind whisper something to the commander’s ear. They both turned to see the Lightning Veil approach with a brisk gait, followed by Charles-Ping, Katya, and Mackenzie. The three bodyguards of Cesarine looked very affected, and as they stopped beside the commander, Lizzie Dvorak said in a low voice:

“I’ve received your message, commander. It does sound plausible to assume that the firefly demon did it, but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions so soon. Do you think the Revolutionaries could be involv—?”

A sudden roar drowned her words and tore the air across the hill. We all froze. Holy Gods, it couldn’t be the manticore, right? I was sure I had seen it go down the slope, but…

Then we all saw Charles-Ping rush toward Arkifa in a rage, tears running down his cheeks as he activated his power and stretched his four powerful arms. He caught her before the Nyomin officers could even react, shook her, and threw her really high in the sky, screaming:

“WHERE IS THE YOUNG MISTRESS?! SPEAK, YOU DEMON! IF YOU DON’T SPEAK, CHARLES-PING WILL THROW YOU OVER THE CLIFFS!”

For a second, there was a deadly silence. Then we all heard Lei gasp:

“You’ve already thrown her, you idiot.”

As Charles-Ping realized, there was a huge commotion. People stepped back, not understanding what was going on; others, like Katya and Mackenzie, stood dumbstruck as I did, maybe just not as horrified as I was. The commander let out a short curse. Of all of us, only Linah reacted at once, dashed to the railing of the lookout, and leaped. As Arkifa started to fall screaming “I CURSE YOU ALL!”, Linah caught her in the air, activated her warping power, and threw a hand towards the railing. She grabbed it and was probably intending to draw the rest of her body towards the parapet, but her hand slipped on the wet stone… No! I dashed at the same time as Katya, Zeeta, Lei, the commander, the instructors, and probably other people, but it was too late. Her fingers slipped, and she fell. The Lil Witch shrieked:

“NO FREAKING Hell, my hand!”

Her scream faded as she continued to fall with Arkifa. I looked down, petrified. I saw her throw her other hand upward at great speed, but… not enough to reach the top of the cliff.

“ERMA!”

Even though I knew her hand was too far from the railing, I still stretched and tried to catch it. As Zeeta passed an arm to keep me from tumbling into the void, I unconsciously activated my power to try to lift Linah’s hand, thinking that, if we all grabbed it and pulled, maybe that would at least slow down the fall enough for them to… for them to…

But it didn’t work.

My necro-heart frozen with dread, I watched the two girls, my two friends, falling to their doom about one hundred meters below. Oh. That’s right. That was what Ray had surely felt when he had seen my killer cut my throat in front of him. Overwhelming powerlessness. Paralyzing disbelief. Suffocating horror…

I saw Linah’s hand go down too, hopelessly clenched into a fist… It suddenly disappeared under my eyes. I blinked, and despite my blurred vision, I could confirm: the hand was indeed gone. As if it had never existed.

“She disappeared!” Zeeta gasped. He shook me frantically by the shoulder. “Straw Head! I’m sure of it. Arkifa used her power to teleport Erma.”

“…!!” I turned to him slowly, dead to the world. Arkifa had saved Linah? So that was why Linah’s hand had also disappeared. So that meant Linah was alive somewhere. So… I tried to overcome the panic that was ravaging my core and my mind. “Th-That’s great but… what about Arkifa?”

Zeeta did not answer. So, in the end…

In a daze, I saw Lizzie Dvorak appear just to my right. I met her eyes for a second. They were showing a mix of stress and relief. I remembered that, unlike Arkifa, the Lightning Veil couldn’t teleport other people but could teleport herself. Then maybe she already knew… The officers and the instructors waited, inquisitive. She took a deep breath and said:

“Arkifa Cythraul transformed during the fall. One of her legs is broken, and she’s unconscious, but I don’t think it’s life-threatening. As for Linah Sunclaw, she must have been teleported somewhere near.”

Holy Crystals, was she for real? Arkifa had survived a one-hundred-meter fall?! Anyway, I didn’t care how that was possible: I only rejoiced and stepped back on the lookout with an arm on my eyes, trying not to cry of joy, repeating to myself: bloody hell, they are alive, they are alive…

I felt my movement stop as I bumped into someone, who reacted by laying a big, friendly hand on my shoulder. It was Kimberley.

He looked at the groups of trainees talking noisily around—Charles-Ping was being severely scolded—then he glanced at the blue sky, then at me, and he said:

“Armen. You’ve got some crazy friends.”

“Crazy as hell, shoriaf!” Toya laughed. “You normally die if you fall from those cliffs. We call them Deadly Neck Cliffs, you know. Firefly demons are so awesome! They’re like those uncrushable bugs we’ve got at home. And your girlfriend was… wow. I’ve never seen anyone jump so high over a cliff, hahaha! Are all the people in Yuutow as crazy as her?”

I looked at them, speechless for a moment, then a smile full of tenderness stretched my lips.

“No… She is a special case.”

Not anyone would have done something so reckless to save the friend of a friend. Okay, she hadn’t really saved Arkifa in the end and had been saved by her instead, but…

I shook my head.

“Kim. You said love was about learning life through someone else. I think I kind of get it now, but… it’s insanely unnerving.”

The lighthouse keeper stared at me, at a loss.

“No, kid. I think you don’t get it at all. I just think we’ve all lost at least one year of our lifespan today.”

I laughed nervously.

“Hell, yeah. At the bare minimum.”

52 Nowhere to be found

We waited in the lighthouse for half an hour, then took a look around the city, entered shops, courtyards, police stations… I lost track of the places we went to. When the Lightning Veil came and asked us to go back to Yuutow Island with the other trainees, we had yet to find any trace of Linah.

Zeeta and I were beginning to stress out for good. As we climbed the stairs to the Academy, I ventured:

“She could be on Yuutow Island. Who knows, maybe she has come back to the academy and we’re just doing this for nothing.”

For once, Zeeta was too focused on his own thoughts to pay any attention to me. I sent Ray a quizzical look. The young necromancer shrugged.

“It’s a possibility.”

Zeeta suddenly hissed and tapped his foot on a step with force.

“Firefly demons are used for making pills, Lei said… I swear, if something happened to her, I won’t mind if Arkifa is transformed into a pill.”

“Don’t say horrible things like that, Zeeta,” I grunted. “Arkifa saved her from the fall. Plus, you may not know her, but Arkifa is a good girl.”

“She never told you she was a demon, did she?”

“… She didn’t. So what?”

“So it’s not impossible that she actually—”

“Oi!” Noah hailed us from the top of the stairs. He began descending with Lei. “Did you find the Sunclaw girl?!”

My core trembled at the question. Linah hadn’t come back. Zeeta stopped in the middle of the stairs, looked at me sideways, and breathed out.

“Never mind. Let’s go search for Erma.”

“We’ve searched for her everywhere on this island!” Noah replied, stopping a few steps up. “Well, not everywhere, but like, we were about fifteen people searching for her, some with powers that helped us a lot, but still,” he shrugged, “nothing. I take you guys didn’t find anything on the other side either.”

I shook my head gloomily. Several hours had passed since Linah had been teleported, the sun would soon set, and yet she was nowhere to be found. Did that mean she had landed unconscious somewhere? Or… I frowned. Tch. I was beginning to think negatively. Lei clicked his tongue.

“How ridiculous. My sister would have survived the fall from that cliff if she had dismembered herself and let go of that firefly demon.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I’m not that worried. My dear sis is the kind of person that would be capable of punching the Devil’s nose and walking away unscathed. ”

I breathed in with hope, agreeing:

“I know, right?!”

“We’ll find out where she is when Arkifa wakes up,” Zeeta threw.

Surely. The problem was that, as far as we knew, Arkifa hadn’t woken up yet. According to Lizzie, it seemed that, aside from her broken leg, she was physically fine. However, her inner qi was in turmoil, and she would probably continue to sleep until she had stabilized it.

“She won’t wake any soon, if you ask me,” Lei grimaced. “That doctor, Aika Saladen or whatever, said there’s nothing we can do but wait.”

“We’ll see if that’s true,” Zeeta replied.

He climbed on, and I followed him with the others, wondering what he was intending to do. We were reaching the top of the stairs when I saw Nina sitting on the dry ground in front of the gates of the academy. By her side, Jing was muttering as if to comfort her. Nina was crying.

“Nina?!”

“Oh, she’s all right,” Noah said. “She’s just crying because she says that everything is her fault. She spouted some nonsense about forgetting a bag of green mushroom powder in the kitchen the other day, hence the explosive cake, hence her guilt and bad luck, and so that’s why the blond fat fox disappeared, Charles-Ping let go of Arkifa at the worst possible moment, and the Sunclaw girl is nowhere to be found. If the Sunclaw girl appeared inside a carnivorous cactus, Nina would be most likely also at fault.”

“At least, if the world ends, we’ll know who’s the culprit,” Lei said, amused. “Still, a carnivorous cactus, you say? Linah would definitely hate cactuses for the rest of her life if that were true. Not that a carnivorous cactus is any threat to her.”

Lei sure trusted his sister, but hey, wasn’t he a bit too relaxed? As for Nina… I shook my head, perplexed.

“…? What’s that nonsense?”

Noah shrugged.

“Don’t ask me, ask her.”

I turned to the silver-haired girl. She met my eyes. Hers were shining with tears. I sat down cross-legged, pondered for a few seconds, then said:

“Look. Bad days happen. Bad cakes happen, too. So, why still care about that accident now?”

She widened her tear-filled eyes.

“Why? You could have been blown up just like those plants in the garden, all because of those mushrooms I gathered.”

“But I’m still in one piece. Right! Maybe I am thanks to your good luck,” I added positively. “Well, I’m hard to kill, anyway. Now, if you want to apologize to someone, apologize to Linah when we find her.”

“When we…” she echoed and paused.

I just got an idea.

“Oh, Nina… do you think you could use your dice to find her?!”

“My dice? I told you my power is a selfish one that only cares about my safety.”

“Didn’t you say you came to this training because you didn’t understand how your power worked? Why not give it a try?” I insisted.

Nina blinked, took a deep breath, then wiped off her tears, sniffed, grasped the kind of dice she was using as hair ties, and stood up.

“You are right. It’s not the time to be crying. Let’s find her, guys. I’m gonna check the back of the island once more time while you guys try to speak to Arkifa!”

She was already rushing away. A startled Jing went after her. After a hesitation, Noah followed suit with a grumble:

“Why am I running to look for a rich girl I barely know?”

I smiled and answered inwardly: maybe because you’re a good guy deep down, champ? Even though you stole my tricycle…

Turning my back on the academy, I looked at the cliff under Phoenix Neck Lighthouse. Linah had disappeared while falling from there. Did Arkifa have the time to control where to send her? Or did she just send her away? In that case…

My gaze wandered toward the dark blue ocean. In my head, I saw the Lil Witch lost in the endless Blazing Sea, breaststroking with determination, then throwing her hands away with frustration as she realized there was still no land in sight. That is, if her hands had been teleported to the same place. No, no, what was I even imagining? Or maybe…? I looked up at the sky. Since Linah had been falling, wouldn’t it make sense for her to be teleported up in the air?

“Don’t tell me you’re looking for my sister in the sky? ” Lei mocked me with a hint of nervousness.

He and Zeeta couldn’t help but look up like me, scanning the evening sky.

“What if…” Zeeta murmured, “what if the teleportation went wrong?”

I stared at him, terrified. What did he mean by wrong?

“Let’s not lose our calm,” Ray intervened. “There is a natural law that says teleportation respects the unity of a living being. That means a body can’t split while teleporting. Those cases are extremely rare.”

“Rare, but they can happen,” Zeeta mumbled.

“The Big Blend teleported away over seven billion of people and only zero point zero one percent of the deaths were caused by the teleportation itself. Another natural law says that any spatial distortion will be attracted by orange crystals and gravity, making it difficult for people and things to be teleported in the air. So, Linah should be safe, wherever she went.”

He fell silent. His explanations put my necro-heart a bit at ease. Lei pouted.

“This world is full of exceptions, though. Isn’t it said that, during the Big Blend, the Kilimanjaro fell upside down, nearly crushing Singapore?”

A frozen silence followed his words. Lei shrugged and added:

“Anyway, good luck with Arkifa. I’m gonna see if I find Axel. I’m sure he doesn’t know anything yet. He must be out there scaring people for fun, or pitying himself, or whatever. See you later!”

Lei was one to talk about scaring people… The Sunclaw disappeared climbing down the stairs towards the beach. We heard him whistle a melody then call out to the boat driver. Zeeta kicked the wall of the academy and growled:

“No wonder Erma left that crazy family of hers last year. What a pair of useless brothers.”

“Maybe but…” I said. “He was whistling Erma’s favorite lullaby.”

“… Really?” Zeeta paused then strode past the gates. “Whatever. We won’t find Erma by whistling lullabies, nor by using some luck dice. I’m gonna wake that demon up and ask her.”

“Aika Zarate will not let you in,” a voice suddenly said to our left.

We turned to see Yamazaki. The instructor waved us forward.

“You three. I’d like to have a word with you.”

We didn’t have to look at each other to guess that we all were thinking the same: did Yamazaki suspect me to be the one that had been robbing people of their lifeforce? Dammit. It wasn’t the time for this.

“You don’t know where Arkifa is, do you?”

“…!” Come to think of it, we didn’t. We should have asked Lei before he left.

Yamazaki nodded calmly.

“I’ll tell you where, but before, please come on in.”

He was pointing to the building next to the gates. Wasn’t he just sort of blackmailing us? After a hesitation, we silently followed him in. Zeeta commented:

“Instructor. Shouldn’t you be joining the other Heroes in their efforts to find Cesarine’s whereabouts?”

The room was well lit, tidy, and rustic, with a clean desk that was probably used by the janitor of the place during the school year. Yamazaki ran a hand on the armchair, replying:

“Don’t you know, Isabella? That there are Heroes that work in the light and Heroes that work in the shadows. As a spy of your ‘friends’, you must know that, too.”

He sat. Zeeta frowned.

“Are you implying I was involved in Cesarine’s kidnapping?”

Yamazaki raised an eyebrow and looked him in the eye.

“Are you?”

“I’m not.”

For a moment, Yamazaki and Zeeta stared at each other in silence. The former sighed.

“Actually, I don’t think you are, though of course, I do not rule out the possibility.” He paused, observed Zeeta’s face, then looked at me from head to toe, at my red knit cap and my orange coverall, glanced at Ray, then finally stretched out his hand toward me: “Did you bring the stone of that necromancer?”

I widened my eyes. Could it be he just wanted the binder item back? I rapidly approached, took the stone out of the shoulder bag, and lay it on the desk.

“Thank you, young man.”

Yamazaki’s hand grazed mine, and I felt an electrical spark. I stepped back hurriedly. Devils! My gloves. Why wasn’t I wearing my gloves? Oh. I had forgotten them at the lighthouse. Then I realized two things. First, I hadn’t absorbed Yamazaki’s lifeforce, which was good, because my life-lust remained stable. Second, a red line had just appeared on Yamazaki’s hand. Blood? No. A tattoo? Not either. It was more like… a barrier. Was it made with runes? Or was it his power? Did it just activate as I touched him or did he activate it before I touched him? Though confused, I felt that I had been duped.

‘That sneaky Dark Arts Regulator and his damn underhanded tricks,’ Ray grumbled through our necro-bond. As the instructor patted the stone, apparently oblivious to what just happened, my friend cleared his throat.

“You said that stone is a necromancer’s, sir?”

“Ah. Yeah. I came to the conclusion that what happened at the Holy Wind Temple wasn’t the work of nature. It is better if his wife doesn’t know about it, though, for her tranquillity. So keep it a secret, will you?”

We nodded in silence. We didn’t tell him that Yana knew already. Yamazaki went on:

“Necromancy is such a cursed path. Some people become necromancers just for the thrill of playing with death, others seek power and money, others just cannot accept that humans do not live forever.” He caressed the stone with one finger, muttering: “I wonder what kind of person you are…”

My core was beating fast, making the energy I had absorbed from Arkifa run more quickly through my necro-veins.

Yamazaki looked up at Ray.

“I mean the necromancer that imprisoned Yi’s wretched soul for four years. Did he want just to play with his soul? What do you think, Ray Styxer?”

He knew. I had no more doubts about that. But, damn, why was he being so elusive? Shouldn’t he just have warned the instructors and asked the Nyomin Heroes to arrest us for desecrating their so righteous Experimental Program for the Heroes of Tomorrow? What was he up to?

Ray swallowed, pale.

“I don’t know. But if it was just to play… then it was a devil for sure.”

“… A devil indeed.” He searched his pocket and took out a transparent pouch. In it, there were transparent shards of… glass? He put it on the table. “Do you know what this is?”

He was looking at me, so I shook my head. I sincerely didn’t know.

“It is Yi’s broken necro-core.”

“…!!”

A necro-core… I couldn’t help but take a step forward to see it from up close. It looked just like shattered glass.

“Well,” Yamazaki rectified, “the external layer is all that’s left. It was made of a rather poor-quality steel nacre. That is why… it is not so impossible that a series of lightning bolts could destroy it, since Yi was voluntarily letting the electricity through his necro-veins. It is not impossible,” he repeated.

There was a silence. I kept gazing at the shattered core. Steel nacre? Was mine made of steel nacre too?

Zeeta broke the silence impatiently.

“We ain’t got the whole day, so let’s speak frankly, instructor. Cesarine Lovecryce disappeared. Linah Sunclaw maybe did too. And we found out there was a demon hiding among us. The Nyomin screwed up big time. So will you keep silent or will you let the Nyomin be discredited even more, you who invited a necromancer of Makler Vod?”

I breathed out. Well, Zeeta sure knew where to attack. If the public were to know that the Ministry of Dark Arts Regulation not only was negotiating with one of the most powerful and infamous necromancer in the world but had also let one of that necromancer’s disciples enter the training, things could really go bad for them, or at least, for Yamazaki.

Our instructor, however, didn’t look like he felt threatened. On the contrary, he even smiled.

“Thanks for speaking so frankly, Isabella. As I suspected, you know everything. Now it’s my turn. Will you keep silent or betray the very same person that is helping your friend, destroying at the same time the relationship between the Vod group and the Necro-Haven?”

We gasped quietly. He nodded with calm.

“What happened today, I mean Cesarine’s disappearance, has definitely become the turning point many people were waiting for. I can tell that many things will change for the Nyomin in the near future. But there are things that won’t change. Necromancy has been viewed as a dark art for almost two millennia, and even before the Big Blend, when necromancy only existed in the imagination, there were apocalyptic stories of hordes of zombies taking over the world. Well, reality is always more chaotic. Everyone has their morals, everyone has their motives. I have mine. You have yours. A part of me cannot say you are guilty nor can say you are innocent. However, that doesn’t really matter. You made a mistake coming here, Ray Styxer.”

His eyes were riveted on the young necromancer.

“I’d like for you three to quit the training at once.”

“…”

Huh? Why Zeeta too?

“Just say you no longer trust the Nyomin to veil for your safety or something, do not cause a ruckus, and I’ll forget about you. For the record, is he yours, or is he your father’s? Don’t worry, I won’t write down your name in the register. But I surely will next time we meet. So? Is it yours?”

It took me some time to understand he was talking about me. The question clearly annoyed Ray.

“Mind if I don’t answer? Anyway, I’m fine with leaving at once.”

“…! What about Erma?” I protested. “I won’t leave until we find her.”

“By Erma, you mean Linah Sunclaw, don’t you?” Yamazaki intervened. “Does she know? That you are not human.”

His statement was so brusque that I remained silent for an instant; Zeeta hissed; I cast him a pacifying glance before answering:

“She doesn’t.”

“Nobody else knows in this training,” Ray lied. Lei and Axel did. He cleared his throat. “To my knowledge, at least.”

“Well, that’s a good thing,” Yamazaki approved. “I must tell you, Ray Styxer, that I have lost count of the necromancers I have registered and then heard of their deaths. I trust that, given your family, you have more experience than other crazy fools, but even so, if Armen Moon is your familiar, you chose a very dark path. A path that I cannot approve of.”

“I do not expect your approval, sir,” Ray replied and added: “Some months ago, I would have probably agreed with you. But I’ve changed my point of view since then.”

“Hmm. People often change their points of view to live in accordance with their own actions. Anyway, this conversation is pointless. As I said: I have my motives, you have yours. Just make sure you leave Phoenix by tomorrow.”

Both looked at each other intently. I raised a finger.

“But, instructor, why does Zeeta have to leave too?”

“… A hunch.”

“A hunch?!”

“Well, now that he became suspicious after lying about his power, Cesarine’s bodyguards will make his life hell.” I huffed. Wasn’t he the one who had tricked Zeeta into using his real power in front of everyone? He went on: “In times of turmoil, not having a powerful family to support you means that you become an easy target. So why stay in the dartboard?”

So he was telling Zeeta to leave for his sake? I didn’t quite buy that.

“I’ll leave anyway if you leave, Straw Head,” Zeeta said. “But not before I’ve taken care of some matters. And talking to that demon comes first. So? Where is she?”

Yamazaki shook his head softly, looking thoughtful, then stood up.

“She was sent to the nurse’s office.”

Such an obvious place.

“Believe me, the other instructors won’t treat you with as much understanding, so stay out of trouble. Off you go.”

Zeeta cast Yamazaki a glare before turning on his heels and walking out of the small building. I followed him, but then stopped at the door, hesitated, and let out:

“Instructor. Why do you say I am not human? Is it because I am physically different than a human? Or is it because I am mentally different?”

Standing beside the desk, Yamazaki gave me a pensive look before answering:

“Both, obviously. Scientifically, you are not human. Your cells are necro-cells devoid of white energy, the quintessential energy of life. Your mind is limited by a core and not a brain. And you do not have an inner soul. In that, a lizard is closer to a human than you are. Nevertheless, everything has its reason for being. You have your own Unity Tree, as everything in this universe, and I value and respect your existence.” He smiled. “But I also value and respect my job, which is to keep you guys in check and fight dark arts abuse.”

I stared at him, bewildered at his detailed response, then grinned.

“It’s been a short week, but thanks for your lessons, instructor!”

Smiling back, he replied:

“I hope we won’t meet ever again.”

My grin broadened as I ran after Zeeta across the main square. Well, at least my feelings were reciprocated. The fox to its earth and the bear to its cave, as my grandpa would say.

“Ray,” I whispered as we entered the main building, “is my core also made of steel nacre?”

With a shiver, I had just remembered the glass-like shards of Yi’s core. Ray snorted, offended.

“Steel nacre? Yours is made of the finest nixflyder cobweb! One of those cores can cost up to half a million.”

“…!” I lowered my eyes to my body. No way… I was carrying half a million Corns in there?! “Hold on a minute. What’s a nixflyder?”

“A sort of big, green creature that lives in the swamps. It levitates super slowly, builds its cobwebs, and eats big bugs, birds, and the like. It basically can only be found in the Hydracian Continent, in the Mistland, around Mumbai. Sure, it is already hard to come by those cobwebs, but what makes the core so expensive is the making process. It takes up to five years to make one of high-quality…”

He fell silent then looked up at me with a shocked expression:

“Damn. I just started rambling like my dad.”

I chuckled.

“Don’t worry, Ray, I’ll warn you before you become a freak like your dad. Well. At least our negotiation with Yamazaki went better than we thought, didn’t it?”

“Mm. I still don’t know what I should tell my mother, but at this point, I don’t really care. She will discover the truth sooner or later, anyway.” He shook his head and pointed at Zeeta climbing some stairs. “Let’s worry about what we can do for now.”

I nodded and hurried upstairs with him, thinking: Please, Arkifa, wake up. Please, Erma, be safe…

53 A demon, a door, a dungeon

When we arrived at the nurse’s office, Arkifa was still sleeping soundly, and when Zeeta broke into the room and tried to shake her awake yelling, “Stop sleeping, you demon!”, Aika Zarate chased him out in a rage. Well, I got mad too. I knew Zeeta just wanted to find Linah as soon as possible, but hell, he had to pull himself together. After he left, I waited for some time, hoping Arkifa would wake up, but… she didn’t, and all I did was silently gaze at her. The image of her long, black hair glued to her sweaty face and her skin paler than usual didn’t leave me as I followed Ray to the Wind House to get our luggage. Arkifa was obviously still struggling to stabilize her inner energy.

“Geez,” I sighed. “Maybe she doesn’t even know where she sent Erma.”

“Probably,” Ray agreed. He stopped in front of the house. Oh. We were already there. “Armen? Armen?”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“You… wouldn’t happen to be affected by the demonic energy you ate, would you?”

Huh? He was still worried about that?

“I’m fine. I’m glad you worry about me, Ray, but finding Erma is more important right now.”

“… Hmm,” my master nodded sparingly, and he disappeared inside his room.

In a few minutes, I gathered all my things—my violin, my clothes, my notebooks, as well as the book Wisdom had gifted me. I paused for a while in the corridor, looking over the balustrade, at the hall, the stone walls, the big, round table my companions had been eating meals… and I shook my head. It was sad that I wouldn’t be able to see Nina, and Noah, and Styzz, Jing, Lei, and Giant Sasha again, but… I grinned. I was happy I had met them.

Walking into Ray’s room, I commented:

“I told you I won’t leave Phoenix until we’ve found Erma, didn’t I?”

Ray was putting his laptop into his bag while Rainbows was running around him happily, wondering what was going on. He glanced at me.

“You did.”

I gave a relieved nod and crouched by Rainbows, saying:

“You must be hungry, lil sister.”

I opened a crab meat can for her. By the time she finished, Ray had packed up everything. As we walked out of the room, he paused by the door, and I let out:

“You forgot your favorite book under the pillow. Makler Vod’s book.”

Ray snorted at my joke.

“You scared me for a moment. I didn’t bring it here.”

“Heh. So it’s true it’s your favorite book.”

“It’s not. Let’s go.”

We left the house, crossed the courtyard, and just reached the first escalator when we came across Styzz. The sky was almost completely dark by now, and Electromorpheus was holding his umbrella as a staff, walking with elegance.

“Oh, guys, are you still searching for…?” He fell silent as he saw our luggage and frowned at Rainbows. “Are you moving?”

“Er… That’s right,” I said. “But we won’t leave Phoenix until—”

“Moving?!” a voice repeated from the escalator. I saw Noah, Jing, and Nina pick up the pace and arrive at the top of the stairs. The crimson-haired guy was putting a face of disbelief. “You mean, you’re leaving the Wind House? Why now? Ha,” he scoffed, “don’t tell me you guys are gonna sleep in the instructors’ quarters because you got scared by the fatty’s kidnapping? Hahaha!”

“That’s not—”

“We quit the training,” Ray declared, cutting me off. A blanket of silence fell over everyone. Then he turned his back on them saying: “It’s been a pleasure. Good night.”

He began to go down the escalator just like that, Rainbows on his heels. Geez… Couldn’t he be a bit more tactful sometimes? I grimaced then turned to our astonished companions. To think I had to leave them for the mere reason I was an undead… But then again, I felt happy to have met them. Nina with her quiet yet passionate love for plants, Jing with her dream of becoming a true virtuous hero, Styzz with his easily swayed yet reliable personality, and Noah… Noah…

I put my fist on my chest.

“Nina. Jing. Styzz. Noah. I’m glad I met you guys.” I chuckled, remembering the dinners, the race, the lessons, my death melody, the gardening… “Heh. It was fun.”

None of them smiled, though.

“Ah… This isn’t goodbye, guys. Let’s exchange phone numbers. Or I’ll just give you mine. Yeah, let’s do that, but don’t forget to write, huh…”

As I quickly searched for a pen and a piece of paper, the four of them began to react. Noah loomed over me.

“Hey. Stupidstar. What’s the meaning of this? Quit the training? Because of what happened? What about the Sunclaw girl?”

“We’ll keep searching for her on our own.” I finished scribbling and put the note into his pocket saying: “Let’s meet again sometime, champ.”

I was already leaving, and he grabbed me by the arm.

“Hold on a sec. Why do you, too, have to…?” He fell silent, and I thought the situation was getting really awkward when he finally let go and growled: “It’s nice to be able to run away from the Nyomin just like that. Damn you.”

Yet another untactful guy who couldn’t just say goodbye in a friendly way. Well, whatever. I got on the escalator and began going down, a bit annoyed.

“Stupidstar!”

Despite myself, I turned and saw Noah hold up the piece of paper with my phone number. He tore it. How could he be such a bastard? Dammit. I should have given it to Nina. In the light of the escalator, I saw Noah’s grin.

“You scatterbrained fool, you already gave us your phone number back in Farskyer.”

I blinked. Really? I laughed.

“You almost got me angry, champ.”

Styzz held up his umbrella as if to bid farewell. Jing and Nina rushed to the top of the escalator. The former said:

“I don’t really get it, but take care, Armen!”

Nina hesitated, and I was already reaching the platform when I heard her yell:

“Thanks, Armen! I had fun, too!”

I grinned, waved, then walked to the next escalator with Ray and Rainbows. Then a thought came to my mind, and I sighed.

“Ray. Why are you so bad at saying goodbye?”

A feeling of uneasiness leaked through our necro-bond. My best friend shrugged.

“Who cares.”

I pondered. Who cared? Did I care?

We were already reaching the main square plunged in darkness when I said:

“Well, I do. So don’t say goodbye to me as if you’re taking your leave of an administrative officer.”

Ray raised an eyebrow and muffled a laugh.

“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Actually, don’t ever say goodbye to me, I rectified in my mind. I looked around and observed:

“Zeeta is not here yet. Do you think he came across Cesarine’s bodyguards?”

If Katya caught him packing up his things, given her stress right now, who knows what she was capable of. Ray suggested:

“Let’s see if Arkifa is awake.”

She was. When we entered the nurse’s office, she was answering some questions made by the Lightning Veil. She looked tired but in better condition than before. Lizzie nodded, straightening up.

“Thank you for your time, Arkifa Cythraul. I met your parents about ten years ago. They were famous Explorers among their peers.”

I raised my eyebrows as Arkifa gasped.

“You met them, ma’am?”

“Yes. Just once. We didn’t work in the same field. I think you have more visits. It’s time for me to leave. As a matter of fact,” she added as she walked to the door. “Ray. Please come. I have to talk with you.”

I grimaced as I felt his apprehension skyrocket. He swallowed and followed her into the corridor. I could only hear her dry tone when, surely seeing our bags in the hallway, she made her first question, “Son. Would you care to tell me where you are going with all this luggage?”, then Aika Zarate shut the door and squinted at me.

“Five minutes. And do not even dare raise your voice in here like the other friend of yours.”

Huh. Zeeta really got on her nerves. I smiled innocently.

“Thanks, ma’am.”

As I sat down on a chair by Arkifa’s bed, I opened my mouth, met Arkifa’s purple eyes, and kept silent. Come to think of it, there were so many things I didn’t know about her. After some seconds, I cleared my throat.

“Is your leg all right?”

Such a silly question. It was obviously not all right. Arkifa’s lips went up.

“It’s broken, but I will walk again in a month, according to the doc. Demons regenerate faster than normal humans.”

“Really? That’s great. So you are a real demon. To think the first girl I fell in love with was a demon. Heheh, as expected of a friend of mine. I can’t seem to make normal friends. Isn’t that amazing?”

“… Are you saying you are amazing because you can’t make normal friends?”

I laughed.

“The way you put it, I sound like a freak myself.”

There was a silence. Then…

“Thanks, Armen. And sorry. I should have told you I was a Firefly Demon.”

I shrugged.

“It doesn’t change a thing. Actually, there is also something important I haven’t told you either so…” I glanced at Aika Zarate sitting before her laptop and shook my head under Arkifa’s intrigued look. “But it’s not the time for that.”

“… True. I’m ashamed, but I totally misjudged Linah Sunclaw,” Arkifa admitted. “To think she threw herself to save me… I am pretty sure my unstable energies affected her when she touched me. That may be why her hand slipped. If not for me, everything would have worked out well.” She shook her head as I was about to protest. “Anyway, we fell. In the end, all I could do was teleport her away. The problem is, I cannot control the destination, let alone if I am in a hurry. So… I have no idea where she is. All I know is that she cannot have gone more than a few kilometers away. I’m sorry. The Lightning Veil told me they’ve been looking for her for more than four hours now. I’m sorry,” she repeated. “Compared to the powers of my parents, mine is just trash.”

I frowned. Arkifa didn’t know Linah’s whereabouts. Even though I had been prepared for the possibility, the reality hit me painfully. I sighed.

“You did your best, Arkifa. In a situation like that, it’s a miracle you could even react before hitting the ground. Anyway, thank Gods you are alive. Ashooka would have killed me if anything happened to you…” I looked at the plaster cast on her leg and rectified: “He may kill me anyway.”

Arkifa stifled a laugh and gave a growl of pain.

“Aaah… Ashooka can’t even kill a fly. Don’t worry. He’ll be angrier at me for keeping that demon thing a secret. It was a promise I made. I couldn’t break it.”

Not even for her boyfriend? She glanced at Aika Zarate and waved me forward before whispering to my ear:

“I actually told him part of it.”

Part of it? Which part, exactly? The truth was rather simple: she was a demon. Well whatever. It was clear that Arkifa hadn’t kept it a secret from Ashooka because of mistrust or fear of creeping him out but because of that “promise” she had made.

“So?” Arkifa added in a low, curious voice. “What is that important thing you didn’t tell me?”

“…!? Huh… It’s really not the time for that.”

Arkifa gave a calm nod.

“Okay. Whatever it may be, please know that just as you tried to protect me even though you just found out I was a demon, I will protect you, too.”

Under my wide-open eyes, she smiled and added:

“Like my mom used to say, a demon breaking a promise is not a true demon. I never told you about my parents, right. They worked for the WHO as Explorers, but because they were demons, they couldn’t be recognized as Heroes officially. When I was ten, they disappeared exploring one of the most dangerous dungeons on Earth. The Black Hole of Seattle. And that’s why I wanted to become an Explorer the official way to look for my parents and be also backed up by a real team. So I hid my identity, changed my name, all for that. But now that the instructors know… they definitely won’t let me become a Hero.”

“…!!” I think it was the first time I heard her talk about her parents. I was taken aback. “All because you are a demon they’ll prevent you from becoming a Hero?”

“It is not officially forbidden, but it’s as if.”

“Damn,” I snorted. “So… you think your parents might be still alive in that dungeon?”

Arkifa’s face darkened as her eyes glittered.

“I don’t think so. Most likely, they are dead. I just want to at least see that place with my own eyes. The WHO never sent any rescue team. Their disappearance wasn’t even officially reported by the organization. My grandma and I found out what happened only thanks to an old partner of my parents.”

“That’s…” I gasped, revolted.

I knew her grandmother had died a year before I had met her in middle school. That meant, ever since, Arkifa had been fighting with this alone, dreaming of becoming an Explorer to enter the Black Hole of Seattle, just as her parents did years ago.

“Thanks, Armen,” Arkifa added to my surprise. “I don’t know exactly how you did it, but you helped me stabilize my energy, didn’t you? Back on the lookout. How did you do it?”

She changed the subject so abruptly that I gave her a confused look. She misinterpreted it.

“Or maybe I’m mistaken,” she muttered.

At that moment, Aika Zarate rose to her feet, and I pouted as I felt her eagle eyes on me. I hesitated before I stood up.

“Arkifa. Say. What will you do if you can’t pass the Hero exam in summer?”

Her purple eyes gleamed.

“Don’t worry about that, Armen. You’ve got more urgent things to do, don’t you?”

I widened my eyes and nodded.

“The Lil Witch. You’re right. But before I go…” I took my red knit cap off and put it on her head, smiling. “Don’t you dare enter that Black Hole of Seattle before you give my beanie back.”

Arkifa looked at me in bewilderment.

“But it’s a gift from your mom, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I love it. So don’t lose it. It looks cute on you, by the way,” I laughed as I stepped backwards.

“Do you know Phoenix is called the Island of the Eternal Summer?” Arkifa replied with a snort. “Who on earth would wear a knit cap on this island?”

“It’s a promise!” I said, turning my back on her. I smiled gratefully at Aika Zarate and opened the door, adding: “Take care, Arkifa!”

“Who promised what?” I heard her sigh before the door closed behind me.

I found Ray at the end of the corridor, waiting for me. I sent him a quizzical look, saw his, and shook my head gloomily.

“Arkifa has no idea where she teleported Erma.”

Ray didn’t look surprised. As we began going down the stairs, he answered my silent question through our necro-bond:

‘I just found out I’m incredibly bad at conveying simple ideas to my parents even when trying. Or maybe it’s just my mom, who can’t understand I am not a child anymore. Anyway, we looked like a crow and a baboon trying to understand each other.’

“Pffheh… Such a pity I didn’t see it. But what did you tell her?”

‘Nothing in the end. Her attention is too focused on what happened today. So she just repeated to me three times I couldn’t leave just like that without giving a good reason. And I repeated my good reason three times, saying that I’ve had it with the training.’

That was his good reason? Well, it’d have worked for me, but I could imagine that one of the Nine Crowned Fairies wouldn’t accept it.

Well, in a way, it was a relief. I had been somewhat worried that, after finding out about my nature, Lizzie might take some cruel measures to definitively keep Ray from wanting to ever revive any corpse…

We were arriving at the hall when we saw Zeeta sitting on the first step of the stairs, his guitar bag on his shoulders. As we stopped beside him, I noticed his gaze. He was staring at a closed door on the other side of the hall. Who was he spying on? No, more importantly: what was he doing, spying on the people in there?

“Zeeta?”

Zeeta put a finger on his lips, and we waited in silence for a moment. Finally, he stood up quickly and waved at us hurriedly. A lecture hall was just to our right, and the three of us walked in followed by Rainbows. Shortly after, I could hear voices in the hall. Some footsteps were coming our way, and I recognized Addison’s serene voice and that, sharper, of Angela Lasri, the Soft Queen. They passed by the corridor at a fast pace, then the silence returned, only interrupted by Zeeta’s and Ray’s breathing. I looked at the former intently.

“Any news?”

“Bad ones.”

Before his dark expression, my necro-heart skipped a beat. For some inexplicable reason, I recalled Linah’s prideful face when she was presenting her explosive cake to me. ‘It seems that Styzz and Noah ate the rest of the Shanghai pie during the night—those two are hopeless gluttons—and since you couldn’t even taste it, I thought: what if I make a cake? And so, I did!’

“What are you crying for?!” Zeeta snorted. “Erma’s not dead yet, or so the instructors think. They sent Addison and the Soft Queen to rescue her.”

“…?!”

“Rescue her? So they know where she is?” Ray asked.

“They say she must have been teleported in the dungeon below.”

My jaw dropped. The dungeon! Why didn’t I think about it sooner? Zeeta added:

“The problem is, it seems the dungeon is quite big, and they have no idea where she might be. Well, they say that as long as she doesn’t touch anything and waits for help—”

“We’re talking about Linah here!”

“I know, Straw Head, I know! That’s why I’m gonna go after the instructors and follow them into the dungeon.”

“I’m going with you!”

“Aren’t you supposed to ‘leave by tomorrow’?”

“So are you. Who cares?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“I know that. Let’s go.”

We didn’t have much time to decide, anyway, if we didn’t want to lose track of the trainers.

Zeeta could still hear their footsteps, and he led us through the corridors, to some stairs, then more corridors, then more stairs. We stopped for a moment at Zeeta’s silent command, then descended as quietly as possible, aware that we weren’t supposed to be there. A shut metallic door in a dim-lit, empty circular room received us downstairs.

“Crap.” Zeeta restlessly inspected the huge door and the opening device with ten numbers. “Damn codes. Is that as far as we can go?”

Ray’s face darkened.

“We have no idea how many digits the code has. I’d say four would be the bare minimum for a place like this one. Best case scenario, there are ten thousand possible combinations.”

I gave him a frightened expression. Zeeta glared at him as if Ray was responsible for making the situation harder. I stepped forward, squinted at the code machine, and smiled.

“Never say die.” I indicated the device and said: “Four, seven, eight. They have rests of lifeforce on it.”

Zeeta and Ray gaped at me. I added:

“So… I don’t know how to calculate, but there must be fewer possible combinations, right?”

“Factorial three,” Ray murmured. “That makes six combinations. But maybe some of those digits are used more than once. If it’s a four-digit code, then that would make thirty-six combinations…” Ray grimaced. “But there’s probably a blocking system after a given number of failed attempts.”

“Let’s do it,” I replied, stepping aside. “I trust you, Ray.”

“Don’t put pressure on me.”

Ray made the first attempts for three digits: four-seven-eight, four-eight-seven, seven-four-eight… Each time, the screen displayed the message: «Sorry, try again». Luckily, the system didn’t freeze.

“Let’s go for a four-digit number now.”

The first failed. The second did as well. Zeeta groaned:

“It’s four-eight-eight-seven!”

Ray shrugged and typed the number. «Sorry, try again».

“Don’t play the lottery, Zeeta.”

“Shut up, Straw Head. At least I tried.”

While Ray was typing combination after combination, I took a meditation stance and then said:

“Eight-seven-four-eight.”

“Did the Holy Gods tell you?”

I nodded at Zeeta with an earnest face.

“They did.”

Ray grumbled.

“You almost made me type a combination I already used. Could you shut up, you two? I’m trying to concentrate.”

Zeeta’s left eyebrow twitched, but we fell silent. Oddly, my tension had dropped a bit. True, dungeons were dangerous, but this one wasn’t the Black Hole of Seattle. The instructors had even planned an expedition there as part of the training. So, yeah, maybe Linah was struggling somewhere, but at least the instructors thought she was still alive. Even so, since they didn’t know where to find her in the dungeon, I couldn’t just stay put. Zeeta seemed to be feeling the same way.

We then heard a metallic creak.

The door was opening! Beyond it, a tunnel was going down, its walls cracked by time, with embedded, tiny orange crystals. A dungeon. It was the first time in my life I was seeing one. The Dungeon of the Phoenix Turtle.

Ray turned to us with an excited glint in his eyes.

“Let’s go,”

As soon as we entered the tunnel though, Ray flinched, and Zeeta stopped, breathing hard. Rainbows and I looked at them, confused.

“The pressure,” Ray explained, frowning as he regained his composure. “It’s… just like in the Qi Staircase.”

So the dungeon’s pressure was stronger than outside. Well, that was to be expected.

“How much pressure?” I asked.

“About the same pressure there was in Helly’s room at Yuutow Tower, I’d say.”

That was a lot, wasn’t it?

“Hmm. Know what?” Ray muttered thoughtfully. Without adding a word, he looked at Rainbows. The tabby cat pouted but silently crossed the gates again, leaving the dungeon. He nodded satisfied and smiled as if he was praising her through their necro-bond. I swallowed, worried.

“Ray… We’re gonna leave her behind?!”

“Though she didn’t feel anything, she’s not as resistant as you are to qi pressure yet. Besides, we don’t know how much time we’ll be in here. Phones don’t work, but it seems the barrier just behind those gates doesn’t stop my necro-bond from working. With Rainbows outside, I’d still be able to talk to my dad if he comes. Just taking some precautions. As for him…”

I followed Ray’s gaze and looked at Zeeta worryingly. He was bending forward, his palms on his knees, trying not to collapse. At the same moment, the metallic door began to automatically close behind us. I could only grasp the fleeting image of Rainbows going upstairs with muffled steps before it was completely shut. There was no device to open it from the inside. Maybe there was a button somewhere? Ah, yes, there was. Not that it was our main concern right now, but…

Zeeta was gasping for air.

“You should lie on the ground,” Ray suggested. “Qi pressure tends to be lower around soil and rock.”

Zeeta’s knees buckled, and he landed on his four, but instead of following Ray’s advice, he got back to his feet, shaking like a leaf and smiling fiercely.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re totally not!” I snorted.

“Qi pressure can be dangerous for those who are not trained to resist it,” Ray stated. “You can even die if you stay here for too long, you know.”

Die?! My eyes opened wide.

“Zeeta, how about you—?”

“It’s okay,” Zeeta grunted loudly. He took a step forward, fighting against his own body. “Maybe because I tried to kill myself so many times, I somehow can tell if I’m gonna die or not. This is nothing. I’m gonna rescue the Lil Witch. Aren’t we, Straw Head?”

His eyes were flaring. Once Zeeta was determined to protect someone, there was no stopping him, even if it killed him. That was my stalker’s reckless yet amazing way of living. I knew he wouldn’t forgive himself if he gave up now. My mouth broke into maybe the most nervous smile I ever made as I uttered:

“Okay. Then… let’s go tame this dungeon and find Erma.”

54 Dungeon Loop

The tunnel was dark. Ray’s powerful flashlight lit our way through it. The soft flashes of light emitted by the small crystals embedded in the wall would have been enough for me to advance, but for Ray, such a place was just a nest of frightening shadows.

“So you carried a spare,” I said, lighting the glimmering crystals with the flashlight he had given me. “And you even have an extra battery. Did you anticipate we would end up roaming in a labyrinth and would get lost?”

“Don’t give me that admiring look: I anticipated nothing. It’s already a miracle that Zeeta has been able to follow us all the way here. Also, Armen… are you seriously lost? We only came across three intersections so far.”

Three intersections with at least four or five entries. That was enough for me to confirm I was lost. I had hoped that there would be some signs indicating at least the way back, but all the signs I had seen so far were saying, “DANGER!!”, “This is a DUNGEON. Please, TURN BACK if you don’t want to RISK YOUR LIFE”, and the last we had come across went, “WELCOME TO YOUR DEMISE, ADVENTURER”. Scary.

“I’ll leave the orientation part to you, Ray. In return, I’ll protect you and Zeeta if a Fire Orb shows up.”

“There are no Fire Orbs in this world, Armen.”

“Then, when we get to the final boss.”

“Are we in a game?!”

I chuckled.

“Well, maybe there aren’t monsters, then?”

Ray frowned contemplating the room we just walked in. Unlike the tunnel, it was spacious, better lit, and shimmered with red light; its walls were as if new. Three large, stool-like transparent cubes encircled a huge red sphere in which I could glimpse the variable shapes of some dark and purple clouds. The whole view gave off an unsettling vibe. What was with that weird room?

Then Ray whispered:

“Not only the living monsters are dangerous.”

I raised an eyebrow, quizzical, but Ray’s attention was caught by the red sphere in the center of the room. I turned to Zeeta and noticed in surprise that he was straightening up, catching his breath.

“Isn’t the qi pressure,” he huffed, “lower here? Or am I getting used to it?”

I shrugged, clueless. After a silence, Ray looked away from the sphere and answered:

“There’s no way an untrained person can get used to a qi pressure like that in a few minutes. But an untrained person wouldn’t have been able to get here. So I take it that you actually do know how to control your qi.”

“I don’t.”

“That’s not possible.”

Zeeta hesitated, smirked slightly, and said:

“Are you saying I’m lying?”

“Yeah. Unless your body is naturally resistant, but then that means you were acting when you were climbing the first steps at Yuutow Tower.”

“My body is as weak as any normal human’s.”

“Then you are a qi martial artist.”

Zeeta chuckled. I gaped at him. He was a qi martial artist? Zeeta was? Then… He had lied to me? Seriously? Could it be Ginger had taught him? The Cheetahs’ leader was a monk, after all, and he knew a little about qi controlling, although he had never taken the trouble to teach us, newbies. Or did Zeeta learn when he entered the Hidden Hall? Under my increasingly troubled gaze, Zeeta grimaced.

“Straw Head, don’t look at me like that. Actually…” From under his shirt, he pulled out a necklace with a blue, spiral pendant. “Cesarine lent this to me to help me complete the mission she gave me. It’s supposed to protect me from qi pressure and qi attacks to some extent. I thought it would be more effective, though.”

He cast Ray a scoffing glance as if saying, “You didn’t see that coming, huh, you were so quick to accuse me of lying.” Ray pouted quietly.

I examined Zeeta’s necklace with curiosity.

“Such a nice pendant,” I observed, then I looked up, a smile on my face. “Cesarine, huh. So you already exchanged gifts.”

Zeeta’s eyebrows twitched.

“Shut up, Straw Head. She lent it to me. Think about it. If I really cared about her, right now I would be searching for her and not for Erma, wouldn’t I?”

“… True. But, hey, who knows, Zeeta? Maybe Cesarine was teleported into the dungeon, too!”

Zeeta shook his head.

“No. I’ve been listening to the instructors, earlier. It seems Cesarine has been kidnapped by the Revolutionaries. She’s probably not even on this island anymore.”

“…!! The Revolutionaries?” I was aghast. “Who are the Revolutionaries?”

“A powerful group of revolutionaries.”

“… Ho.”

“Er… They supposedly want to dismantle the World Government, make a better world, you know, those sorts of things. Nick told me many of the leading members are former Heroes that have been wronged by authorities. Apparently, the DA has worked with them on some occasions. They’re famous criminals, because they’re righteous people.”

He meant Cesarine had been kidnapped by “righteous criminals” and former Heroes? Being the daughter of the Nyomin’s director was certainly more of a curse than a blessing.

“Anyway,” Zeeta added, “Cesarine is probably in a better situation than Erma right now.”

His words made me put aside my worries for Cesarine Lovecryce at once. Erma…

We looked around the room. Apart from the transparent cubes and the red sphere, there was nothing noteworthy. Was it a dead end?

“The qi pressure is definitely lower in the room,” Zeeta affirmed.

“But looks like we can’t go further,” I added.

After a silence, the three of us nodded and tacitly turned around. As we were about to leave the room, I saw Ray and Zeeta deviate their steps and strangely turn around. I stopped, confused.

“Aren’t we leaving?”

Both of them looked puzzled. Zeeta strode towards me, saying:

“We are. Of course… we are…”

His voice wavered as, again, his movements became sluggish as if in a slow-motion movie, and he began to turn his back on me. I glowered at him, panicked.

“It’s not funny!”

“I’m not doing it on purpose, dammit!”

“… Okay. Then, why?”

“It must be the sphere,” Ray answered thoughtfully as he tried again and failed to leave the room. “And the cubes. They’re probably the ones holding the runic formation.”

“A runic formation?”

I stepped into the room again. I didn’t feel anything, and my eyes couldn’t see the energy either. Anyway, it wasn’t affecting me, most likely because I was an undead. But how were Ray and Zeeta going to break the formation? Moving the cubes? Zeeta must have been thinking the same thing, because he walked to one and tried to push it, in vain. When I helped him, the cube didn’t budge. Were we going to stay here forever? The realization sent a shiver through my body.

“It’s so uncool but… should I go get some help?” I suggested.

Ray didn’t answer. He was frowning at the sphere.

“Say, Armen. What color is it to you?”

“The sphere? Red. With black and purple colors.”

“Black and purple?” Ray repeated.

“That’s right. But mostly red. Red energies impose rules, don’t they? Addison said red formations are basically impossible to break unless you fulfill a certain condition. That’s what makes Eder’s power so awesome, right…” I nodded to myself. And that was what made our current situation so worrisome. To think we had fallen into a trap so soon…

I went around the beautiful crystal sphere shimmering in scarlet light. It was perfectly shaped, as if artificially created, yet I was sure no human would have been able to create something like that. I contemplated it for a long moment in awe. I had been taught that dungeons had been created by the Holy Gods. Was that true? I raised a hand but refrained from touching the sphere. Something about that crystal frightened me. I didn’t quite know why, but the more I looked at it, the more it felt as if touching it would send me to a different world, a timeless, lifeless world without light, purpose, or fears… It felt as if looking at a void. Though frightening at first, it was also strangely soothing to just look at it. No doubt the Great Crystals had been worshipped by humans for two millennia. I smiled, joined my hands, and bowed.

“Huh? Straw Head? Did you see something?”

Ray and Zeeta stopped by my side, looking at the foot of the sphere. My smile broadened as I straightened up.

“I kind of felt like paying my respects. My grandma used to tell me this a lot, ‘Respect-e the wonders of nature: that will bring-e you a good fortune’.”

Ray was left speechless. Zeeta sighed, disappointed.

“I hope your good fortune will come soon, then.”

“It doesn’t work like th—”

“Quiet,” Zeeta cut me off. We turned to him, quizzical. “Someone’s coming.”

“…! Who?”

“Erma.”

“For real?!”

“No. Seriously, do you take me for a soothsayer or what?”

“It would have been too much good fortune,” I admitted with a sigh.

After a moment, I could make out the sound of footsteps. The three of us stepped back and hid behind the sphere but… shouldn’t we be warning the newcomer of the runic formation instead? I stepped away from the sphere, intending to do that, but when I saw Yamazaki, I froze in plain sight and couldn’t move an inch.

“Holy crap,” I whispered.

“Talk about good fortune,” Zeeta muttered.

Ray grumbled through my necro-bond:

‘What is that old fox doing here?’

The instructor had obviously already seen us. He walked into the room carrying a bulky bag. His piercing eyes glided on us and fastened on the sphere. I swallowed.

“S-Sir… We’ve packed up our things and are about to leave—I mean, we took the wrong way—I mean, it seems Erma’s in here so… we…”

Yamazaki stopped before the sphere, sighed, and nodded.

“Oh. So that’s one of this dungeon’s loops. Once you enter one, you cannot go back and can only keep going forward until you’ve reached the end of the loop. If some foolish youngsters were to end up here without any assistance, they would likely become crippled or even die. Some very foolish ones could even get stuck in the very first room of a loop. Luckily, no trainee would be so harebrained as to break the rules and enter this place without permission. But if there were such troublemakers, they would only need to follow the kind instructor who, going about his business, found out they not only did not leave the island but also ‘took the wrong way’, and he had to go to rescue them and throw them out of the island himself. Yeah,” he chuckled darkly, “luckily, nothing like that happened.”

He raised his hand, and as soon as it touched the crystal, I saw a whirl of purple energy inside the sphere stretch toward it, and Yamazaki disappeared.

We were left agape.

“What the hell?” I gasped.

“I admit I was wishing for him to disappear,” Zeeta confessed, “but I did nothing.”

“So that’s how it is,” Ray said. “The sphere is a teleportation portal. It will lead to the next room of the loop. The only problem is… now that Yamazaki has seen us, he won’t let us explore the dungeon further. If Linah is not in this loop… we won’t be able to search for her, unless…”

He fell silent, and Zeeta completed the sentence for him:

“Unless we convince Yamazaki.”

“Convince?” I repeated.

“With a good blow that’ll knock him out.”

“I was surprised you would try to negotiate.” I exchanged a look with Ray. Neither of us wanted to harm the instructor. Ray also wanted to avoid being registered in the record of the Ministry of Dark Arts Regulation, but that was becoming more and more unavoidable. I suggested: “If it comes to the point, let’s try to ditch him first.”

Zeeta laughed between his teeth.

“He acted so cool trying hard not to see us that I guess I’m okay with just giving him the slip.”

That settled, we turned to the red sphere. I gave Ray and Zeeta a quivering smile full of excitement.

“It’s a teleportation portal! Guys, we’re gonna teleport! I never got teleported before.”

“Me neither,” Zeeta admitted.

“I… did once when I was a kid,” Ray said. “In a teleporter. One thousand Corns per ticket.”

Zeeta and I stared at him and said at once:

“Rich kid.”

“How was it?” I asked curiously.

Ray grimaced, remembering.

“Disturbing.”

I turned again to the sphere, and a broad grin spread across my lips. Then remembering we had come not to have fun but to save Linah, I nodded firmly.

“Let’s go!”

As soon as I put my hand on the crystal, I felt a deep, twirling energy rush inside my body. In a matter of seconds, a somewhat massive amount of energy had been poured inside me. Was I teleporting? I… wasn’t. Instead, my hand had inexplicably begun to sink into the crystal. Yeah, I was being dragged by the sphere!

“What’s going on?!” I asked, panicking. I looked at Ray and Zeeta. “I can’t pull my hand away.”

While Zeeta hurried and grabbed my arm, struggling to help me withdraw the hand, Ray imitated him more slowly, trying to understand.

“I’m g-going deeper!” I stuttered.

Even with Ray’s and Zeeta’s help, my arm was being swallowed. Wasn’t the sphere supposed to be solid?

Holy Crystals, why? That didn’t happen to Yamazaki, then why was that happening to me?

Was it because I was an undead?

Maybe the Holy Gods understood I had already died and desired to absorb my soul, to give it peace within the Crystal…

The thought terrified me. I wanted to live, I didn’t want to die.

“Ray… Zeeta…”

Two trickles of black tears rolled down my cheeks, vaguely reflected on the sphere. My two friends’ faces were stiff with horror, but they kept trying to save me. Zeeta crouched and frantically searched for some miracle in his bag. I heard him repeat something about a knife. Was he intending to cut my arm? That wasn’t a bad idea but… my body was already being sucked into the crystal. Panicked, Zeeta grabbed me by the ankle and shouted “No! Stop!”. But I couldn’t stop. I stammered:

“What the hell’s wrong with that sphere?”

“I don’t know!” Ray shrieked in distress. “I don’t know!”

But I knew. I was going to disappear. The crystal was going to transform me into energy. To it, I was just an object, a dead soul that had been wandering for two months and should have already been collected by the Holy Gods, and yet…

“I don’t want to die.”

As my forehead grazed the surface of the crystal and some claws of energy grasped me, I whispered with growing conviction, then shouted with all my might:

“I WANT TO LIVE! ZEETA! RAY! I WANT TO LIVE! DAMNED GODS, I WANT TO LIVE!”

As if expressing my desire out loud triggered something inside me, my core began to react to the sphere that wanted to swallow me. It didn’t raise any barrier nor tried to chase the intruder away. It imitated the sphere… and tried to swallow it in return.

Yeah, as ridiculous as it gets, my core was trying to eat a crystal, a divine meteorite of chokingly dense energy that had come from space two thousand years ago. Was that even possible?

It probably wasn’t. I realized that when I understood my body was already inside the crystal. Or so it seemed, but when my core finally stopped devouring energies and I could start thinking again, there was nothing left for me to see, neither the sphere’s red energy nor the dark and purple volutes. Around me, everything was pitch-black, silent, and empty.

Was it the end? Was I going to disappear like that?

But somehow, it didn’t seem that my mind was being torn or anything. Maybe I was in the afterlife? Such a dark place to live in… Was it the Hell promised to bad people? But was I really that bad of a person for the Holy Gods to send me to such a place? Frustration grew inside me. Well, and what if I was an undead? What if I wasn’t perfect? What if I was selfish and wanted to live? What if I wanted to continue living with the people I loved?

I thrived on such feelings. They were what made me keep going on. They were what gave me a reason to live even after my death two months ago. Life is a nest of feelings, be they good or bad. And I loved life with all my heart. How could the Holy Gods expect me to let it go? How could they? Anger was taking over my mind.

Bullies, I thought. Holy Gods, you bullies. I respected you, I loved you, and you betray me like that?

Was I being sacrilegious? I didn’t care. At that moment, life appeared to me as a sloppy system. I was raging mad.

Then, in the frightening emptiness of Hell, I heard my master’s voice in my head.

‘Armen. Can you hear me? I just activated my power. Th-There’s no need to be scared, it’s all right, we’re still alive, so p-please don’t leave my side.’

Despite his quavering tone, his order, far from making me lose my mind, felt like a ray of hope.

* * *

In the next room, Julen Yamazaki was sitting cross-legged on a mossy clump, his eyes fixed on the small, shimmering crystal levitating on the pedestal in front of him. After a long silence, he adjusted his glasses and muttered to himself in puzzlement:

“What are those boys doing?”

His fingers drummed on his knees. One minute, two minutes, ten minutes, an hour passed.

He finally let out a deep sigh.

To fulfill his part of the bargain, he was supposed to enter the dungeon to recover a special item for Makler Vod: a vial filled with the essence of the heart of the dungeon. To say the least, it was a difficult mission, probably more difficult than that of getting the Elixir of Heavens other people were so fond of: dungeon hearts were well hidden. Some had not even a tangible body. Some were just unapproachable. But Natasha had said she couldn’t enter the dungeon. If he didn’t get it, everything would come to naught.

Julen Yamazaki leaned against the comfy ground of the room, making a grumbling complaint. Then he frowned. Wait. If Natasha couldn’t enter the dungeon because she was an undead, then what about the Styxer’s familiar, Armen Moon?

After a contemplative silence, Yamazaki hit his forehead.

“What have I done?”

55 The Soul Eaters and the Elixir of Heavens

Night had fallen, and strong lights were illuminating the main square outside the main building of Yuutow Academy. The wind had risen, and one could glimpse the shapes of some bushes shaking like a swarm of bugs.

“So… you’re telling me you lost them?”

His dark eyes lazily open, Gorka Soulberg looked away from the window, first to Sean Bensaïd, standing by a wall, then to Addison and Claire Li, both sitting on the sofa in an office. While the head trainer was visibly disturbed by what happened, the old woman was harboring an amused smile so much different from the motherly grin she usually showed.

“Julen Yamazaki and Lizzie Dvorak are still searching for them,” she said. “This training turned out to be more troublesome than I thought. We lost eight trainees. A Sunclaw, a Lovecryce… Plus the necromancer negotiating with Yamazaki went missing, plus the two traitors. And there’s a demon in the infirmary. Lovecryce must be in bliss right now, don’t you think?”

She was obviously being ironic. His arms folded, Sean Bensaïd nodded firmly.

“It’s bad.”

“Hmn,” Addison muttered. “If only we had found the Elixir of Heavens… I apologize, young master,” he said, bowing his head to Gorka Soulberg. “It seems we’re lacking.”

“You include me?” Claire Li asked, and she cleared her throat under his insisting look before sighing: “This dungeon is one of the less dangerous ones I’ve been in, unless… it is not really true. Without the manual we got, Addison and I would have probably been stuck after a few expeditions. And once you are stuck in a loop… you may stay in a room forever.”

Gorka was well aware of that. He had done his research about the dungeon. In the last decade, less than forty people had entered it, and less than ten had dared to go beyond the first loops—ten of which only five had come back alive. One had been found on the other side of Earth, another one had come out with a severe form of amnesia… None of them had reached the heart of the dungeon. No one had for probably a long, long time.

Claire Li went on:

“That means we may not find the Elixir of Heavens before the dungeon closes again in a few weeks. Which leads me to this suggestion, young master.” The old woman straightened up on the sofa. “If we cannot find the Elixir in time, allow me to stay in the dungeon after it closes. Instead of having to wait one year like the others, I will have a whole year to search for it. As you know, my power allows my body to create nutrients from crystals and water from the air. I won’t die from hunger. I’m the perfect person for this mission.”

“That’s reckless, Claire,” Addison protested. “You’re—”

“Old?” Claire Li replied. “That’s exactly why I’m more experienced than you are. Young master, I’ll do my best.”

The pale young man had turned again to the window, lost in thought. No answer from him was expected: Addison’s and Claire’s mission was to bring the elixir to him by all means. Sean Bensaïd pouted.

“But if that dungeon is so hard to explore, the Sunclaw and the other three that got lost may be stuck forever somewhere, too, right? If Linah Sunclaw dies, her father might block the funds to finance the Nyomin. And… however you look at it, this is bad for Lovecryce. But, hey, isn’t that kind of convenient for us?”

After a silence, Gorka Soulberg turned away from the window and said:

“I want you three to remember this. Our clan does not intend to stir up trouble within the Nyomin nor fight Lovecryce. As guardians of the clan, I hope you understand that.”

Gorka let his qi caress Sean Bensaïd’s soul, well-kept inside his own body. The freckled boy paled a bit then lowered his head muttering:

“Yes, young master.”

“As for the elixir,” Gorka added, “I appreciate your offer, Claire, but I’d say the barrier of the dungeon will be crossable for three more weeks. We have time. Let’s prepare a rescue mission in which only volunteers will participate.”

“You don’t mean…!” Addison gasped.

Gorka gave a nod.

“The more, the merrier, right?”

“What if we lose more trainees? Even if they volunteered, the Nyomin’s reputation—”

“Cesarine’s disappearance will cover up for all the scandals happening on this island right now, believe me.”

“But you entering the dungeon—”

“You won’t stop me. You know me: I am the antithesis of recklessness. I will go into the dungeon. So get that expedition ready for the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

“I know you are very capable, young master, but the elders—”

“Will blame me if I come back empty-handed.”

Besides, I feel like this mission is more mine than anyone else’s. Gorka didn’t express his thought out loud and sat at the desk, pensive. According to his father, the Elixir of Heavens appeared every two hundred years, almost every time in a dungeon. The main family had been fervently searching for it for five years now. That was because, if they were to combine the properties of the Elixir of Heavens with the Soul Eating techniques they had been passing down for generations… then their clan would become incredibly powerful, the same way they had been four hundred years ago. Or so his elders told him. Gorka didn’t know the details, since the elders were so secretive, but he knew it was crucial for him to find the item. Deep down, he kind of hated that Elixir. In his zeal to find it, his elder brother had lost his mind three years ago, coming back to the clan only to mutter nonsense about being a ghost on the verge of being eaten by a mysterious “they”; ever since, he spent his days locked in his room, suffering from who knows what.

Dungeons were hideous places full of incomprehensible phenomena. That was perhaps why his parents didn’t push him to go to that training. They were even scared to lose their child and only possible heir. However, the way that Lovecryce had chosen the Dungeon of Phoenix Island for the EPHT had made the elders become nervous and convinced that the Elixir of Heavens must be in there. Gorka accepted to go. No, rather, he asked for permission to go. He wanted to finish what his elder brother had not been able to. Maybe this way his brother would come to his senses? Even if his brother’s condition didn’t improve, Gorka had even more personal reasons to give his all for that mission. For the sake of his mentor. No. For the sake of the Soulberg clan. He wouldn’t lack the courage to protect it at all costs.

He joined his hands on the desk.

“About those two traitors among the trainees…”

“Ilija Guiomar Molinelli and Sasha Salazar,” Sean Bensaïd helped him.

“To think there were even Revolutionaries among the trainees,” Claire Li chuckled under her breath.

“I want to interrogate them.”

The three attendants looked at him, puzzled. Addison shook his head.

“I would like to interrogate them too, of course, but unfortunately, they haven’t been caught so far. We did interrogate quickly the Independent trainees, but not the others, since that could offend the Great Families of the Nyomin. That would be just showing to the world that Nyomin members are quarreling among themselves.”

Which wasn’t quite a lie. Lovecryce’s policies had been well received by most of the great families of the Nyomin until not so long. However, while supposedly working to strengthen the Nyomin and make it great again, its director had been actually ceding control to the World Government over the years. And that, though profitable in the short term, was unmistakably bad for most of the great families of the Nyomin.

“No need to bother the elite trainees,” Gorka affirmed. “It took me some time to realize, but Sasha Devkota, you know, the giant… He and Sasha Salazar have actually only one soul. One soul for two bodies.”

For an instant, none of them reacted. Then Sean Bensaïd let out an exclamation of astonishment.

“Y-You mean, they’re the same person?!”

Claire Li laughed.

“Yet another monster! A merfolk girl and a hulk! Those Revolutionaries sure are cunning.”

Addison had jumped to his feet.

“I’ll go interrogate him at once.”

“No. Bring him to me without alerting him if possible and without telling anyone about this.”

Addison grimaced, gave a slow nod, and walked out of the room silently.

Gorka followed the crystallographer with his gaze, then turned to scan the faces of the old explorer and the son of the Bensaïd family. The three of them were underlings of the Soulberg Clan. Upon arriving at the training, he only knew Sean, from their childhood. The other two were the “guardians” that the elders had talked to him about. Despite not knowing them, he trusted them. Because, as soon as they met, the two of them had willingly let him eat part of their soul. That meant they were fully committed to the Soulberg Clan. To Gorka, who knew the deep meaning of a soul contract, that was enough to trust them.

Sean asked:

“Why not interrogate the demon, too? Isn’t that Arkifa rather suspicious? She might not be connected with the Revolutionaries, but why would she infiltrate the training? Demons naturally hate the WHO. They’ve been prosecuted. If you ask me, her intentions—”

“Sean,” Gorka replied. “I can’t think about too many things at the same time. It’s just too tiring. So if you want to interrogate her, go ahead. I don’t care about that demon.”

Sean pouted, but shrugged and didn’t budge from his spot. Getting up to her feet, Claire Li sighed.

“When I think they all went to save that girl… As expected, the Styxer must be on good terms with the Sunclaw.”

“The Styxer?” Sean echoed. “Is that a famous family?”

“You don’t know?” Claire Li laughed softly. “Innocent child. The Styxer is a family of dark arts users. It’s said that the dad of that pale-looking boy sells rejuvenation and can prolong life. Well, it is only third or fourth-hand information.”

Sean Bensaïd looked very surprised.

“So you mean Ray Styxer is…? But isn’t his mother a…?”

“Mm,” the old woman nodded. “How mysterious, huh? I wonder, did the fairy bewitch the dark mage, or was it the dark mage who bewitched the fairy? Maybe both!”

Sean snorted quietly.

“But is the son also a necromancer?”

“…? Not a real necromancer, in any case,” Claire Li mocked. “He’s even younger than you, boy. But who knows what are his opinions on the matter. Well, if he got lost in one of those loops, we may never find out.”

“Yikes.”

The old woman passed by the freckled boy and patted his shoulder, amused.

“I was joking, boy. Anyway, young master, it’s late, so if it’s okay with you, I’m going to rest my old bones.”

Gorka was still sitting at the desk, lost in thought. Sean Bensaïd pointed out:

“Don’t mind him. When he’s thinking, he’s dead to the world. Good night, ma’am.”

The old woman’s smile reappeared as she said:

“Please continue to take care of the young master. I am sure he will accomplish great things in the future. Good night.”

After the explorer left, a deep silence engulfed the office. Gorka sighed.

Ray Styxer. Armen Moon. Leon Sakamoto. Something about those three guys bugged him. How did they disappear from a dungeon loop? Dungeon loops were supposed to be flawless. Yet, Julen Yamazaki had come out of the dungeon saying he had checked the loop twice and had not seen them. How?

Also, as far as he knew, the entrance of the dungeon was secured. How did they manage to enter? Gorka could conceive that they had cracked the code, but how did they pass the red veil at the door? The dungeon was barely open, and the barrier was still strong. Did Ray Styxer use dark arts? Or was it something else?

Gorka could still recall the chilling sensation when he had touched Armen Moon, on the top of the Yuutow Tower. He had always thought that the undead had no soul. And it had been very unsettling to confirm it. Indeed, although he was very sensible to white energy, he had not found any path to Armen’s soul under the skin. Dark Arts Regulators said undead souls were hidden inside a special, artificial core. What a horrible practice. What a monstrous art. That was what he had been taught to think and… that was what he was beginning to understand.

But if necromancers were such emotionless beings, why would Ray Styxer go into the dungeon to rescue Linah Sunclaw? Because she was the daughter of a big client of his father? Or was Linah just an excuse? Even if he entered the dungeon to genuinely save the girl, didn’t the fact that he could go in mean that he already intended to get in there for a personal purpose? Was he aiming for the elixir too or…?

Leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in a casual posture, Sean Bensaïd could clearly see the young master nod off, his head going down gradually until it hit the desk with a thud. Sean rolled his eyes and commented jokingly:

“Seems that simply thinking is too tiring for the young master.”

Gorka Soulberg yawned as he raised his sleepy eyes and muttered:

“Let’s go back to the Spider House.”

56 The Spawn of Darkness’s Awakening

Hell was a void of darkness and silence. Or so I thought before Ray’s voice broke into my mind through our necro-bond.

‘Armen. Can you hear me? I just activated my power. Th-There’s no need to be scared, it’s all right, we’re still alive, so p-please don’t leave my side. We just need to put our minds at work to figure out what’s going on. I don’t know why, but we’ve been dragged along with you, inside the crystal. Also, I don’t know why but… I get the feeling that, if I deactivate my power, the three of us will disintegrate into energy.’

In the nothingness, Ray’s voice soothed my anger. I was momentarily frozen by the fact that I had dragged Ray and Zeeta inside the sphere. Then shame and worry were replaced by a wave of joy and relief. I was not dead. I was still alive!

‘Armen? Are you all right? Ah… I guess I cannot hear you. It’s weird, but even if we’re supposed to be inside a crystal, I can breathe just fine. Maybe we’re not in the crystal anymore and we got teleported. It doesn’t seem like Julen Yamazaki is around, though. W-Well, I wouldn’t be able to see him even if he was. It’s so dark. My power is so damn terrifying… But I’m fine. Hell, I’m fine. As long as we’re alive, there’s still hope.’

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. I couldn’t see him, probably because his black shadows covered him entirely, but as soon as I breathed in, his wasted lifeforce revealed his location. Ray was talking so much that I even began to see it. He was panicking a bit, either because of the surrounding darkness or our incomprehensible situation. Probably both.

“Ray…”

‘Oh! Now I can hear you!’ His relief poured through our necro-bond.

“That’s because I didn’t say anything before,” I explained. “I’m a bit dizzy. I think I ate too much. My core suddenly got crazy… I thought Furies couldn’t get drunk…” I wasn’t sure about it, but inside the red sphere, I’d had the impression my core had eaten anything it could grab, red crystal, purple crystal, and more. But maybe I was wrong? If I wasn’t, then I could only hope that my body wasn’t going to explode or something. “Anyway, let’s leave that matter for later. Where is Zeeta?”

‘Just behind you, according to my shadows… But I can’t see him, of course. It’s t-t-too dark. He’s completely covered with my shadows, so he probably can’t even talk. I’d like to release him, but I don’t know how the energies around would react if I did, and I’m not even sure that I can control those shadows. It’s the first time I’m using them consciously. And the first time I don’t pass out. I just hope my power is not harming him. I’d like to check on him, but I can’t even move…’

I frowned, alarmed.

“Are you hurt?”

‘N-No… I’m fine, Armen. It’s just that I can’t move. Maybe because we’re inside a crystal.’

“That’s weird. I think I can move.” I turned around. My core was telling me that my body was moving. I couldn’t sense anything else than my own gestures, though. “You… really can’t move?”

The answer didn’t come right away. A mix of self-mockery, desperation, and shame went through our necro-bond. Then Ray confessed:

‘It may be a drawback for using my power. Or maybe I’m just too scared? It’s so frustrating.’

“Let’s not worry about that. If your shadows are really protecting us, that’s great, but you probably can’t last for too long. My big sis told me that the more incredible a technique is, the more energy it requires. So… how do we do to get out of here? Any idea?”

I had followed Zeeta’s wasted energy and crouched by his side. I didn’t dare to touch him, though. I wasn’t wearing my gloves.

As far as I knew, people paralyzed by Ray’s darkness didn’t really remember anything afterwards. At least, after that night when Sally Sunclaw had attacked Ray, triggering his power, Linah had told me, “At first, I thought I was going to suffocate, but I didn’t. It felt as if something cold was flooding through my body. I heard a chirp, a creepy one as if I had swallowed a raven alive, and I thought I was gonna die, but the next thing I knew, I was lying in my hideout and you two had already run away, leaving me alone with my sister. I won’t ever forget the face she had. She won’t admit it, but she got super scared, hwara-hwara!”

I shook my head. According to that, Zeeta should be fine. I got up, felt Ray’s fear increasing, and turned to him.

“Ray. Snap out of it. Darkness is not your enemy. It’s your power. So grab it, control it, and don’t let it go until we manage to get out of here.”

I heard Ray’s snort.

‘I know. I’m fine.’

To my surprise, the necro-bond calmed down. For an instant, I feared Ray had fallen unconscious. But then he repeated more firmly:

‘I’m fine. I don’t need light when… I already have one.’

I raised my eyebrows, then grinned as I recalled. Didn’t I tell him last year that his friends would be the light he needed? Just now, he had just forced himself to relax. As expected of Ray, he had a strong will, but… in fact, he was probably just trying to stop thinking about the darkness. I heard him take a deep breath.

‘Armen. Since you can move, how about you take a look outside? Without peeping out too much.’

I nodded good-humoredly.

“Okay!”

I didn’t know exactly in which direction I should walk, since I was completely blinded by darkness. Anyway, the sort of sphere Ray had created around us was small, and I soon made it out and passed my head through the dark veil. I saw a river of dazzling light. My undead eyes didn’t need to adjust to the sudden change. A huge shining white door as tall as a three-story house stood in front of me. Artistic patterns were engraved all over its panels. After some seconds of contemplation, I stepped back and said in a voice shaking with emotion:

“You were right. We are not in the red sphere anymore. We are…” I took a deep breath and concluded: “at the door of the final big boss.”

There was a silence. Then Ray muttered:

‘Give me a break. Does that mean I can deactivate my power?’

“You can. I think.”

There was a silence. Then Ray let out a groan.

“Ray? What is it?”

‘I… I can’t deactivate my power. I may not be controlling it right now.’

“Huh, you can’t tell if you are controlling it or not?”

‘Agh, it’s the first time I ever try to control it, so yeah, I can’t tell!’

Oh, my. He was annoyed.

“Take your time. Don’t you know that story about the super prudent young sailor who crossed the Ocean of Hell, and when he was about to land, he got impatient, sailed rashly, pricked his ankle with a splinter, and died of gangrene—No, wait, am I mixing the stories? What I mean is no need to rush, master. You get the hang of your shadows. I’ll drag Zeeta out of the darkness.”

The way to word it sounded pretty weird. Anyway, some minutes later, Zeeta was lying outside Ray’s shadows, and I was patting his cheek with the leather cover of A Thousand Paths to Heaven. I heard him grunt.

“It hurts…”

I smiled.

“No way. It’s supposed to help you reach enlightenment.”

“Aaaah,” he let out.

His odd, muffled scream made me frown, and I loomed over him. I bet he wasn’t reaching enlightenment so… was he injured? His eyelids fluttered open as he added:

“Aaaaah…”

“Holy Gods, Zeeta, are you all right? Are you hurt? Where?”

Zeeta stared at me, looked at the pitch-dark wobbly shape that was obstructing the tunnel, then again at me. Was he just too shaken by the events? I explained, pointing at the shadows:

“Ray’s in there. Right now, he’s trying to deactivate his power. He probably saved our lives inside the sphere that swallowed us. Looks like we’ve been teleported. And unless there’s something behind Ray in that tunnel, our only way out is… that one.”

I turned, indicating the magnificent gates. Zeeta huffed, impressed, though he probably didn’t see them the same way as I did. The white energy covering the panels was so dense that it made me even wonder if the door wasn’t exclusively made out of it. Was it lifeforce? Was it another kind of white energy? I had no idea. What I did know was that my core was reacting to it. It wanted to eat it. Furies really ate anything as long as it could be processed.

Zeeta had sat up with a painful grimace. He massaged his temples, his back, his shoulders… I smiled ruefully.

“Sorry. That must be me. I dragged you out of Ray’s shadows.”

Zeeta hesitated then took out his cellphone. After a while, he showed it to me. I could read:

«I basically get what happened but I can’t hear u. I’m currently deaf.»

“…!!” I stared at him, dumbstruck. “Deaf?”

He nodded, reading on my lips. I couldn’t believe it. Zeeta had become deaf? How?! Zeeta added, writing on his phone:

«Don’t worry. It may be just a temporary effect of the teleportation. Obviously, my power doesn’t work either.»

I was aghast. Was it really because of the teleportation? Or was Ray’s power…? No, wait, that couldn’t be!

With a sudden impulse, I tried to make different sounds, clapping my hands, roaring, grazing the strings of my violin—but Zeeta kept shaking his head. I played the worst and most disagreeable melody ever, in vain. I had to face the facts. Zeeta was currently deaf. Becoming deaf was the worst thing that could happen to a musician. If it was Ray’s power’s fault and Zeeta remained deaf for the rest of his life… Zeeta would never forgive him. Ever. In the end, he wrote:

«Calm down, Straw Head. Your tears are even creepier than usual.»

Tears? I passed my hand on my face and looked at my tears. They weren’t black tears, but a mix of shimmering dots of different colors: red, blue, purple, gray… So, in the end, I had eaten all kinds of energies back in the red sphere. My core still hadn’t finished processing it all. What crazy amount of energy did I eat for a Fury’s core like mine to have trouble digesting it?

Zeeta moaned and typed:

«My back hurts like I’ve been dragged by a madman up and down a street.»

Ow… I wiped the apologetic pout off my face along with my tears, took out my phone, and wrote:

«I thought you’d rather have back pain than damage your guitar, so I made a choice.» And I added: «Can I do something?»

«Not dragging me on a rocky ground perhaps? (Thanks for the guitar)»

«I mean, your hearing. 😓»

Zeeta shrugged, glanced at Ray’s shadows with his index, then at the white gates, and wrote:

«We’ve got more urgent problems right now, don’t you think?»

He was right.

Besides, maybe it was just a temporary effect, as he said. I typed:

«You just missed the best melody I will ever play. Can’t redo it.»

Zeeta rolled his eyes and replied:

«My intuition tells me I should be glad to be deaf.»

I chuckled, saw the book A Thousand Paths to Heaven lying on the floor, picked it up, and put it inside the case with the violin. My movements were getting more awkward by the minute. And that was because… of that door.

I finally turned to the gates. Such a beautiful and majestic view. It was as if I was staring at a spring of lifeforce, a volcano of life… Maybe the Holy Lake looked a bit like that? The more I looked at it, the more restless my core became. As a matter of fact…

“Straw Head?”

Though deaf, Zeeta called my name. As he did, I realized I had stood up and walked closer to the door. My core was now frantically asking me to continue. I glanced back. Zeeta was frowning. He wrote while approaching.

«You’re not planning on touching that door, are you?»

Why shouldn’t I? He added, putting his phone under my nose:

«You got swallowed by the sphere. The same could happen here.»

“…! True. Then I won’t touch it.” Despite what I said, my body was moving on its own, pushed by the core, drawn by the energy. “Crap… How am I supposed to stop?”

Zeeta panicked and typed in a hurry:

«Stop!»

Then:

«U DEAF?!»

He was one to talk.

Since I wasn’t stopping, he pulled me by the hood of my coverall. I’m sure he put everything he had into stopping me, just as I did, but my body kept walking forward. While my core was eating the leftovers wandering around the door, my breathing was getting heavier and deeper by the second. Furies did not know how to stop.

Zeeta ended up trampling on one of my feet and hitting the back of my knees with his other leg, trying to make me stumble. I should have fallen over, but I didn’t. I kept standing, as unshakeable as a rock. Hadn’t I gotten stronger? Was it because I had overeaten? Or maybe Zeeta was being affected by the qi pressure and was weakened?

He still was slowing me down, and I got annoyed.

“Zeeta! Just let go of me! This door is not a crystal, and it has no purple energy. I won’t teleport. I’ll probably be fine. And what if Erma is just behind this door…?”

That would be a helluva coincidence, yeah. I looked Zeeta in the eye. He didn’t hear a word of what I said, obviously. How frustrating. I didn’t have the time to write it down. I had to absorb that energy. My Fury instincts were just too strong. To ignore those gates was for me the same as if a starving man, being offered a loaf of bread, chose to die instead…

“I have to eat that door.”

Zeeta couldn’t hear me, but his face paled as he looked at me.

“NO!” he screamed deafly. “STRAW HEAD, I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?”

I couldn’t help but smile at his question. Die? That door was the epitome of life!

“Let go of him.” Ray’s sudden voice startled me. As I turned my head, Zeeta followed my gaze.

The young necromancer was standing in the middle of the tunnel, dark volutes of smoke flowing out of his hands. Did… Did he succeed in controlling his power? Under my keen expression, he grasped the brim of his cap and smiled slightly.

“This door is made of pure lifeforce. It’s a paradise for a Fury. With this, your core will not only recover its stability but also evolve more quickly… Incredibly more quickly. Also,” Ray pointed to the tunnel at his back, “we’re in a dead-end. That door is our only way out. The problem is, normal humans cannot get near it. It’s eating our lifeforce from there. If we were to even graze it… I don’t think we would survive even a minute. So… let go of him and let him eat, Zeeta.”

After a silence during which I could only hear the lifeforce sizzling around the door, I smiled. Excitement, pride, and joy filled my soul. Ray had managed to control the shadows! He feared them so much, yet… he had done it! Even though he was trying to downplay his achievement, he was undeniably thrilled. Not only that: he was now confidently telling me to do what my instincts urged me to. He was giving me free rein to devour that gigantic door of lifeforce. Somehow, it didn’t even occur to me that I couldn’t eat it all.

A cellphone’s screen eclipsed my view.

«What the hell is he saying?»

After I patiently transcribed what Ray had said almost word for word, Zeeta stared at my phone, frowned at Ray, then clicked his tongue, and let me go. My lips went up, showing my teeth.

“Zeeta. Ray. Trust me. I’ll destroy the door for you.”

I rolled up my sleeves. In a few more steps, I reached the door. Dense streaks of lifeforce emanating from it aroused my core. Without delay, I laid my hands and forehead on the panel.

A torrent of energy roared towards me. It felt as if Heavens had embraced me. As if I was devouring the Heavens.

The coverall I was wearing didn’t prevent the lifeforce from sneaking under it. The more I absorbed, the harder it became for me to keep my lucidity.

‘It’s all right,’ Ray told me through our necro-bond. ‘With my shadows, I can protect you at any time, so keep eating.’

Did he… order me to eat?! My core was stirred up and grew even wilder.

‘Eat.’

My core got even crazier. Wait, was that okay? Wasn’t Ray being more confident than he normally was?

‘Eat and become stronger.’

Through our necro-bond, I could feel his urge to get power. When did Ray ever want to become more powerful? When I turned my face to him, I was almost sure I saw black smoke gushing out of his eyes.

“Ray…?”

‘Don’t worry about me. Eat so we can stay alive. Devour the door and become stronger. DO NOT STOP UNTIL I TELL YOU SO.’

My worries were swept away by a voracious hunger.

The door was huge—absorbing all its energy was going to take a while—but the void inside me was even bigger. I could do it, oh I knew I could do it: right now, I felt as if I could eat the whole world if my master ordered me to.

57 The Birth of a Daeva

‘Stop.’

My mind was drifting aimlessly when the order reached me. I abruptly stopped eating the leftovers. The gates, which looked like those of a god a while ago, were now simple massive stone gates. Its panels were old and cracked. They no longer shone like a sun.

My body felt weird, saturated with energy. The deathforce concentration was so high that all my senses and capacities were altered. I could barely hear anything. Flashes of light and temporary blindness were intermittently affecting my vision. After a while, I realized I had lost control over my muscles and fallen to my knees in front of the door.

Where was I? What was that door? … Who was I? I was having trouble remembering. Did I eat too much? Was I drunk?

A soothing wave warmed me up. Surprised, I jerkily looked up and saw a dark-haired human surrounded by darkness, crouching beside me. His slanted eyes were entirely black. But he was a human. No, it was more than a human. It was…

My soul.

Something leaped inside me. I tried to stretch my hand and reach my soul, but my body was slowed down by the large quantities of lifeforce my core had to transform. The human took my hand and said something I didn’t catch. The contact sent shivers through my body. I gripped his hand and began to eat his lifeforce. It entered my qi veins and ran toward my core, coiling around the lifeforce I had absorbed from the door.

Part of me was bugged by the fact I couldn’t remember a thing. I knew there was something I should have known. For example, the identity of that human. Identity. Yeah, somehow I knew I was very close to that human. We shared something precious.

Our soul. Only that? No.

That human was also my…

“Mas-ter…”

I mumbled his name with difficulty, all my movements being distorted by a too-busy core.

‘You’ve expelled most of the crystals you absorbed in the sphere,’ my master told me. ‘They would have likely killed you in the long run. I saved your life, so you shouldn’t steal mine.’

His words slowly made sense to me. He wanted me to stop eating his lifeforce. He wanted me to give him my soul because he had saved me.

‘Oh, but guess you can’t stop. You’re at the last stage of your evolution, but you’re still a Fury. If I order you to stop, your core probably won’t stand the sudden pressure. It’s already cracking. Your soul is scattering. There is only but one way to save you.’

Save me? Didn’t he just say he had already saved me? While I was still holding his left hand, I realized his right hand was grabbing the back of my neck. If I had been in good condition, I would have jumped to my feet and run away. I was scared. I knew I used to trust my master, but I couldn’t remember why. What if I had been mistaken? What if that black-eyed human wanted to harm me? What was I supposed to do in a situation where I could understand nothing at all?

Then I felt it. His energy flowing into my core, guided and controlled by him. My cracked core was being wrapped in it, then my ripped meridians were being patched, and bit by bit, memories were coming back.

The name of my master was Ray Styxer. He had created me two months ago. He was a necromancer. And right now, he was gathering all the parts of my soul that had been leaking out through the cracks of my core.

As I remembered, the fear vanished. I was an undead that had been human before, but that was not important. What mattered was that I was by my master’s side.

The thought occupied my whole mind for a moment. As ordered, I had devoured the energy coating the gates so humans would be able to touch them without dying from the pressure. I had protected my master, and he was protecting me in return. A strong feeling spread throughout my body and then raced toward our necro-bond. It dashed through it like lightning and struck my master’s soul. He let out a growl of surprise. I could hear him clearly now, as well as Zeeta cursing:

“What the hell’s going on now?!”

Ray was panting, paler than usual, but he didn’t give up and kept fixing my core. Memories were still flooding back. I remembered I had been teleported with Zeeta and Ray, and that we were probably still in the Dungeon of Phoenix Island. The tunnel was a dead-end, maybe a destination adventurers could only reach by following a dungeon loop and teleporting. The door in front of us looked heavy. Even if it wasn’t deadly now, how were we going to open it?

Silly thoughts kept striking my mind and then leaving, being replaced by others.

I was Armen Moon, and Ray was one of the most important persons in my life. I was not only an undead following his orders: I was his friend.

As memories gave me my identity back, I was overwhelmed by realizing how close I had been to losing myself. My core had cracked because I had overeaten. But according to Ray, I’d had no choice but to eat to expel the purple, red, and whatever dangerous crystals I had accumulated in my body. So, in a way, that door had saved my life. And Ray was still working on mending the damage.

Looking at the black smoke snaking on Ray’s skin and blurring his eyes, I understood his power was still activated. His looks were kinda creepy.

“Straw Head? Are you all right now?”

Zeeta was standing several meters away, lighting us with our spare flashlight. Did Ray ask him not to get close? I nodded slightly.

“I’m fine.” I didn’t tell him I barely remembered even my name just a while ago. I smiled. “I devoured it.”

“Huh?”

“The door.”

“Ah… Yeah.” Zeeta looked up at the dull gray gates then back at me. “You’re a freaking monster.”

I chuckled.

“Yeah. Wait. You can hear me now?”

“Ah. Yeah… Looks like the culprit was that door and not Ray.”

“…” I half-closed my eyes as I smiled, deeply relieved. “Thank goodness.”

Zeeta sat down on the rocky ground with his flashlight.

“Mm. Say. What’s Ray doing now?”

“Fixing things.”

Zeeta swallowed.

“Oh.” He paused, then said: “You know, Ray’s been acting odd. I mean, he explained to me that he understood a lot of things, about you being infected by intruding crystals and about those gates. They were eating away our lifeforce, apparently, but as soon as you touched it, they stopped. He said we’d have died in a matter of an hour or so if he hadn’t told you to eat. So, by now, we’d be dead. Wonder how many adventurers were drained by these doors and kicked the bucket.”

I shuddered. Ray had mentioned it before. So those gates really ate lifeforce, but instead of turning it into deathforce as an undead would, they had just kept wrapping it around themselves… for who knows how long.

I stared at the patterns engraved on the gray gates. There were triangles, rectangles, random figures, and one big, bulgy disk on each panel.

“One hour, you said?” I repeated then. “What time is it, actually?”

“Past midnight. It’s been seven hours since we entered the dungeon. You spent five hours in front of that door. And Ray has been ‘fixing things’ for a while now.”

I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t remember a thing. Zeeta added:

“And Ray has kept using his power all this time. His shadows…” He glanced at Ray’s concentrated face. “It seems that he’s affected by them.”

I frowned, confused.

“What do you mean?”

Zeeta was pale. He got to his feet and took a few steps forward.

“He’s just not acting like he usually does. Maybe it’s just the situation—”

“Nonsense,” Ray cut him off briskly, his face growing darker.

The young necromancer stood up and broke contact, but I kept sensing his energy flowing through me. Was he giving me lifeforce willingly? No, it wasn’t lifeforce: it was dark energy. His shadows were spreading throughout my meridians, from head to toe. My core was already fixed so… what was that energy for? My master continued in a curt, smug tone:

“Zeeta. How dare you get closer when I told you to stay away? You reckless human. I told you it’s dangerous. Until Armen has not transformed all of the eaten lifeforce, he won’t stop trying to eat more. He’s evolving. He will attack you even if you’re his friend, you loggerhead. Which could be bad for him too, at this stage: the lifeforce refined by the gates is a thousand times better than yours to complete the evolution. So if you get any closer, I’ll have to discourage you. Just saying. And I am not acting weird.”

He totally was!! I looked up at him anxiously. Shadows were wriggling on his face, around his neck and hands… His eyes met mine.

“What?”

For a moment, I was so overwhelmed I could say nothing. Then:

“Ray. It’s a joke, right? Tell me it’s a joke.”

Ray kept staring down at me, then a smile even darker than his shadows spread on his face.

“A joke? Ha. The fact that I, a Spawn of Darkness, has saved your life three times in a row is a joke?”

I widened my eyes, instinctively flinching under his glare.

“I-I didn’t say that—”

“‘Life is no joke’. You said that once. I remind you we’re in a dungeon. Dungeons are extremely dangerous places for us. I’m supposed to be powerful, but I’m this weak! How am I to live in this world if a simple damned Djevel door can kill me? Anyway, what happened here was no joke at all. You made a second offering, so I took the liberty of creating a second necro-bond to help with your healing, but that means you became a Daeva. If you’ve read that book by Iracheh Smith, you know there’s no turning back: once an undead has evolved, it can’t change. Two necro-bonds mean I can make my qi circulate between us much more effectively—Why am I explaining all of this stuff when we should try to get the hell out of here, I wonder.”

Zeeta and I were gaping at him. Some very weird words and thoughts were mixed in Ray’s babbling.

“Ray. I have some questions. What’s Djevel?”

“You don’t know? Of course you wouldn’t know. Djevels are the damned creatures that built those vampiric doors. The people that cast us in this hell.”

What on earth was he talking about?

“What’s that about a second offering?”

“Ah, that. I didn’t tell you, huh? It’s how a Fury proceeds. It gives part of its soul to its master. Usually, Furies only do it once, but since you did it twice and you were so full of black energy, I was able to forge a second necro-bond. Oh, also, if the Fury can’t do at least one offering, it dies.”

That was a shock.

“I… just gave you part of my soul?”

“Yeah. You did it at Yuutow Tower too, remember?”

Oh, right… At that time, I had brought forward all my feelings of trust and affection toward him—I snorted.

“But don’t Furies precisely want to steal the part of their soul their master has?”

“Yeah. That’s why some Furies die. Some masters die too. But in your case, because we’re friends, you gave in pretty easily.”

I… gave in?!

“I didn’t give in,” I protested. “I offered you those feelings willingly, out of the bottom of my hea—”

“Well, whatever. The fact is you helped me get stronger.” He gave me one of his creepy black smiles. “The stronger I get, the higher the chances for me and you to survive.” Why was he obsessed with survival, all of a sudden? He glanced at the gates and added: “Did you finish with your questions? If we want to get out of here, we’d better try to push that door open—”

“One last question.”

I drew a deep breath then stood up in the dark tunnel and faced him.

“Master. Sorry for the weird question but… who the hell are you?”

“…” His face shrouded in shadows hardened. “What’s with that question? I’m your friend, thus you have to obey me and help me stay alive. Am I not good enough for you? I’m your creator! Are you rebelling?”

“Eeeh?!”

Why was he making it sound as if I was the one acting weird when he was totally the one not being himself?! I turned to Zeeta with a desperate face.

“Has he been like that for five hours?”

“Er… Well. He wrote down some explanations, since I was deaf, but then he kept ignoring my texts and just meditated with his dark qi or whatever. For hours. So… I’ve barely spoken with him. It’s… worse than I thought.”

Holy Gods, what had happened to Ray? Not only was he acting all confident and bossy, but he had also just said he was a Spawn of Darkness with absolute certainty… Why was he so sure of it all of a sudden? Did he figure out something after taking control of his shadows? Was his power really related to the Spawns of Darkness?

But why had his personality altered? Was he just… tired? I shook my head. He was saying weird stuff like he was being half another person. A person that wasn’t human and seemed to see the Djevels—who were maybe just the Crystals—as enemies. If the Crystals were sacred gifts given to us humans by the Holy Gods, then their enemies were… demons? No… devils? No… unholy gods? Wait a sec, was I thinking Ray had got possessed by an evil god? That was just ridiculous…

“It can’t be, is it just a nightmare or—?”

“Armen,” my master cut me off. “Shut up and push the door open.”

My body moved on its own. I laid both hands on the stone and pushed with all my might.

Ray would have never ordered me around like that. More than annoyed, however, I felt terribly worried. I could only hope Ray would come back to normal once he deactivated his power… Zeeta roared behind.

“RAAAY! How can you boss him around like that! Lift the order! Lift the order, you bast—!”

I couldn’t hear the rest because, at that moment, a deafening, prolonged bong tore the air in the tunnel. My eyes widened in astonishment. Was it the gates? No: they hadn’t moved one bit. Then… where was that sound coming from? Still pushing the door, I turned my head.

Ray had fallen backwards. Meters away, Zeeta was angrily glaring at him and screaming, but I barely could hear his voice. The bong was making an infernal racket. Then it finally stopped.

A heavy silence fell. Ray sat up, shaking all over.

“What the… What happened… A-Armen…”

The shadows on his face were gone. The orders had quickly faded. Had he lifted them knowingly? Yet hadn’t he said it was not possible to erase orders given to an evolving Fury? Anyway, it seemed that Ray had finally come to his senses. I stepped away from the door, hurrying to him.

“Ray! Are you all right?”

Ray’s face was troubled.

“A… dream? … Armen? Did I black out? As expected… I couldn’t control the shadows, could I?”

Black out? If he thought so, then… did that mean he didn’t remember what just happened? Zeeta and I looked at each other. I shook my head imperceptibly. It wasn’t the best moment to tell Ray the truth. I sighed with relief.

“Thank goodness you came to. You got us worried. Ah, there,” I said, and I crouched by his side and switched on the flashlight that was hanging on his necklace. He relaxed a bit, and I smiled. “We’re lucky that those flashlights last long. What will we do if we end up in the dark? Haha, now that would be troublesome.”

Ray blinked then cast a nervous look at the gates.

“So I did pass out.”

“Yeah. For five hours. Your power must have exhausted you.” I wasn’t exactly lying, right?

Ray nodded, froze, then looked back at me as if he had seen a ghost.

“Wait. Armen… Was it really a dream? Our necro-bond… It became a double bond.”

“Oh? How could that happen? Haha, maybe I ate so much that it grew on its own?”

“Impossible. Necro-bonds can’t be created by a familiar.”

“Then maybe you did it unconsciously in your… er… dream?”

I knew I was digging myself into a deeper hole, but I just didn’t want Ray to know what he was like when his power was activated and “under control”. What if he decided not to try to activate it anymore? What if his trauma worsened? I had no idea what a Spawn of Darkness really was, but I was determined to crush it. I didn’t want to see that evil smile on Ray’s face ever again.

Zeeta grumbled.

“He’s not buying it, Straw Head.”

I jerked up and glowered at him.

“Zeeta!”

“Just look at his face. He’s remembering everything. He knows he did something bad to you—”

“Shut up!” I stood up, shaking with frustration. “Ray did nothing bad. It was just a dream.”

“Tell me another one. Is it that hard to face the truth? Your ‘master’ is—”

“Shut up.”

“Mentally unstable.”

“SHUT UP!”

My fist hit the gates with all its might. There was a loud crack, and a fissure appeared in the stone. My anger faded as I saw my hand mangled by the blow. Immediately, a flood of dark energy covered it. I was stunned. Was my hand going to heal just like that?

In the deep silence that fell in the tunnel, I muttered:

“Sorry, Zeeta. I’m not mad at you.”

“Glad to hear that. Wonder how my face would be right now if you had hit me. Well, guess I’m not one to talk about being level-headed and stuff.”

“…” I turned my head to him. “So true.”

“Ahem. Still, you really cracked that door, you monster… Take better care of your body, mate.”

My eyes followed silently the black matter as it wrapped around my hand and healed it like a miraculous remedy. I was sure that, right now, Ray was processing the “dream” and trying to digest the reality. Finally, he breathed in and got up to his feet. He stepped closer, took a look at my hand, and nodded to himself.

“You should restrain your strength. You are stronger than before. Also, Daevas have good regenerative capabilities. The dark energy I instilled into your meridians is helping too. I think I wouldn’t have been able to do all of this if my power hadn’t been activated, so… Yeah, let’s say it was just a dream for now. Does it work for you?”

Zeeta snorted. Was it my imagination or could I hear some faraway drums break the silence? But where were they coming from? Could it be… Zeeta’s cellphone? Nah, but a phone could have never made such a realistic bong. Then what?

After contemplating my hand completely healed, I straightened up and gave a firm nod.

“Works for me. Also, if we get in trouble again, don’t hesitate to activate your power, Zeeta will wake you up with his bong.”

“What bong?” Zeeta protested. “Hold on, Straw Head, don’t encourage him to change into that shady jerk! Ray’s clearly being possessed by a ghost!”

“A ghost,” Ray repeated, holding his flashlight, thoughtful. “Is it really a ghost, or is it the real me?”

I stared at him, shocked.

“What do you mean?”

My master looked at the huge gates in the darkness of the tunnel and added:

“Now I understand. I know it sounds weird, but somehow I feel as if I am finally complete. It’s an odd and terrifying feeling but it’s also a relief. Part of me doesn’t want to change, yet I’m also frustrated at myself for being so weak, for lacking confidence, for never giving it my all…” He lowered his cap as he continued awkwardly: “In that… dream, I was sure of what I was doing, I could use all my knowledge without hesitation and reach what I desired…” His hand clenched into a fist. “Now I understand better what a Spawn of Darkness is. After Lei told me about them, I only managed to learn that a Spawn of Darkness is an evil parasite made of black energy that has taken over the body of a human or animal. So I thought that maybe that parasite had taken over my body that day, when I was eight. But it’s not like that. It’s not like we are two people in the same body. It’s not like I have to fight against any parasite inside me. My soul is unified and cannot be split. I was probably born like that. That means…” A defying glint gleamed in his eyes as he raised them. “Be my power activated or not, I am the same evil creature.”

“…!!” I gazed at him, speechless. My mind was crying: Evil? Ray? My master? My best friend? Never!

“So, in the end,” Ray went on, glancing at Zeeta, “that ‘shady jerk’ you’ve just met in that ‘dream’ was no other than myself. But now I remember everything, and believe me, my transformed self never thought about harming you two, not even for a second. And I wasn’t ordering you around for no reason, Armen. My instincts just urged me to get out of this dungeon at once. It seems dungeons are really dangerous places for… the likes of me. I was just trying to save our lives in the most effective way. However,” his lips stretched into a quivering smile as he confessed, “I may be a bit too bossy and greedy when I transform. Sorry. But as long as I use my power only to save your lives… it’s okay, isn’t it?”

He was trying to justify his actions. He really thought he had done nothing wrong this time. And, strictly speaking, he hadn’t. Even in his transformed form, he had only been thinking about our safety, yet I had been feeding negative feelings about him, wanting to destroy that part of him I didn’t know, wanting to hide the truth from Ray and accusing him unknowingly in the process… How foolish of me. Even if there were parts about Ray I didn’t know, why should I crush them? If Ray was accepting them, I should try too. True friendship wasn’t a stagnant kind of relationship. It evolved and changed, it adjusted to new turns of events. As long as Ray was Ray, I shouldn’t be afraid of seeing him change. It was even exciting to think that my master had saved me three times in a row, just like a hero would.

I paced forward and stopped before him. As his baseball cap raised, I met his dark eyes and stared at them. He was quizzical, waiting for my verdict. I grinned.

“Yeah. It’s okay. And it’s okay to be greedy. As long as you stay true to yourself, that is. So, thank you, Ray, for saving us.”

“Is it really okay?” Zeeta grumbled, his hands shoved in his hoodie’s pockets.

I chuckled.

“It is. Because, in his shoes, I’d have done the same.”

Zeeta stared at me, then breathed out.

“Well, as long as he saves us, I guess he can be a jerk. All things considered, the transformed version looks more reliable and honest.”

Ray smiled painfully.

“Thanks for giving your opinion, Zeeta.”

“See? Your transformed version would have said something like, ‘shut up, you lowly human’. Anyway,” his lips went up slightly, “I’d like to thank you for saving our lives, but I’ll prudently save those words for when we get out of this dungeon alive with Erma.”

“For a ‘lowly human’, you’re rather prudent indeed.”

“Get lost.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d say Zeeta and Ray were kind of good friends now, but they liked to bug each other way too often. Both of them.

“Oi, Zeeta,” I chimed in. “How about you thank me too for clearing the way?”

“Huh… You mean I should thank you for stuffing yourself?”

“Hahaha, how rude of you! It was so good I can still remember its taste…”

“For pity’s sake, Straw Head, I haven’t had dinner, you know. I’m hungry.”

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t we have some crab meat cans left?”

Ray immediately looked into his suitcase and… grimaced.

“You took the plastic bag to give one to Rainbows just before we left, didn’t you? And you forgot to put it back.”

“Now that you mention it,” I admitted. “So… no food?”

“No food,” Ray confirmed.

In the silence that followed, I heard a stomach growl. Ray blushed slightly. I pouted apologetically.

“Sorry I forgot. But, hey, isn’t it said that a bit of fasting is healthy? Not that I am the best example right now, but fasting is good to detoxify the body and stuff… Yeah. At least, my big sis says so.”

Ray and Zeeta looked at each other, and the former sighed.

“If your big sis says so…”

“Yeah, if your big sis says so… Wandering in a dungeon must be as healthy as going to a hot spring.”

Ray snorted at Zeeta’s remark.

“Yeah… Anyway, there’s no helping it.”

“Yeah, all we can do is go on and push that door open,” Zeeta agreed.

I realized that the more they thought about their hunger, the more they would feel hungry, and I nodded, affirming:

“Okay! Let’s go on and open that damn door.”

Just as I put my hands on a panel to push it, Ray’s flashlight flickered then died. After a silence, Zeeta and I said at once:

“Crap.”

“We’re counting on you to light the way, Zeeta,” Ray said, putting his hands on the panel.

I pushed. Previously, I had been shoving the panel on the right, and it hadn’t budged. The left panel, however, pivoted right away. It creaked against the ground, but it opened. A flow of light illuminated us through the cracked door.

“We opened it!” I huffed, amazed. “Ray… Could it be you got stronger too?”

Ray raised an eyebrow, peeped into the room, and commented:

“Looks like there’s a ton of junk behind the panel on the right. That’s why you couldn’t open it.”

“Really?!”

He was right. There was a mountain of crates inside, blocking the panel.

“Wonder what is inside—”

“Don’t touch them,” Ray immediately said, alarmed.

The order warmly pierced my core, but oddly enough, my life-lust didn’t increase. Did that mean I was no longer an uncontrollable Fury? I laughed. At last!

“Ray! I have evolved!”

The young necromancer shrugged and nodded, amused.

“So it seems.”

“So that’s why you give me orders so casually! I evolved! Hahaha! We did it, Ray!”

I was naturally happy: I had thought I would have to bear with that wild life-lust for two more months at the bare minimum. But since I had eaten such an enormous amount of lifeforce from the gates… Damn. I had to feel doubly grateful to that door. Without it, I would have long lost my mind and attacked my friends…

“But I wonder why that door was so full of lifeforce,” I let out, thoughtful.

Ray’s face had darkened; he sighed deeply and spoke through our necro-bond.

‘I bet it was the lifeforce of the people that came here before us. Likely, most of them got completely absorbed by that “door”. You ate what was probably the result of hundreds of years of work.’

“…!!” I turned to the gates and pouted guiltily. “Sorry.”

‘Huh… Shouldn’t you feel more sorry for the people that were killed by it?’ He was damn right: strictly speaking, that door was just a killing machine. ‘Also, I don’t give you orders in a casual manner, Armen. I’m just… very uncomfortable in this dungeon, so I’m on survival mode, you know—er—Anyway, about your evolution, it’s not completely over yet. It takes time to become a Daeva—’

“Wow.”

Zeeta’s interjection made us come back to the present and turn our heads. He had sauntered into the room, a big, quiet hall filled with steam, of which some curls ascended to the high ceiling. The walls were glowing and translucent, and water trickled down them. It smelled of lavender. Wait, really?

I sniffed the air as the three of us advanced in the seemingly spacious gallery, scanning our surroundings with curiosity.

There were shallow pools on the sides and cylindrical platforms that stood between each of them. Was that… a sauna? Some thermal baths? The water was transparent and looked clear, but Zeeta and Ray decided not to drink from it unless they got more than just thirsty—which would happen rather quick as it was very hot in the hall according to them. I was a bit worried about my friends: I was brimming with energy, but they were exhausted, thirsty, and hungry. Well, if that water was safe, they wouldn’t die so easily.

Through the steamy air, I gazed at the walls and the tiled floor in admiration. There were elegant strokes sculpted all over the place.

“A type of writing?” I asked.

“I’ve never seen that alphabet,” Ray confessed. “Or rather, I’ve never seen it in those last seventeen years, but in my past, I think I did.”

He fell silent, realizing how strange his words sounded. I asked curiously:

“So you remember your past?”

I caught Zeeta’s incredulous grimace. Ray shook his head.

“My memories of the time I was out of this body are hazy. I remember some things but… I don’t know to which point some memories changed over time. What I do remember is that I was imprisoned in one of these dungeons, just as Helly was. But not in this dungeon. A bigger one. I was confined and asleep as if frozen in a small place for many, many years before and after the Big Blend. I was not alone. And… from what I think I heard during my escape, all the creatures I was with were sent by the same people that launched the Great Crystals into space to conquer other planets. I think they were called the Djevels. But… I’m pretty sure something went wrong along the way. My guess is a whole fleet was dragged away from our target and landed on the wrong planet, farther, much farther than what the pilots expected. That means… Well, according to what humans knew before the Big Blend, distances in space are crazy so… maybe millions of years have passed since then. Maybe the Djevels don’t even exist anymore.”

There was a bewildered silence. The dungeon was a prison? Then why Helly would want to go back to…? I glared at the enigmatic signs carved into the cylinder. Damn Djevels. The mere thought of Ray locked in some tiny box in the shape of a black mass of energy outraged me…

“Is he for real?” Zeeta groaned at last. “You an alien, Ray?”

“I think I am.”

Zeeta chuckled nervously and looked at us alternately, astonished.

“You can’t possibly believe him, Straw Head.”

“I do, though.”

“Why?!”

“…?” I rubbed my temple and repeated: “Why, you ask? Well… I just believe him.”

“Really? … You two lost your minds.”

“That may also be true,” Ray admitted. “But then why do I have memories of places I have never been to and never seen in pictures? Why do those signs on the sculptures feel familiar? Why did I understand immediately how that Djevel door worked? How do I know the word ‘Djevel’ to begin with? And why does my life before I was born in this body feel so real now even if I barely remember anything?”

“Ever heard of split personality disorder?”

“You don’t answer my questions.”

“You do realize your questions are full of holes. Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one here? Some mysterious people launched the Crystals and the dungeons to conquer other planets, and after millions of years, here you are, still alive? Argh. We’re trying to save Erma, guys, stop wasting time spouting bullshit. It’s not funny.”

Annoyed, Zeeta kept walking down the huge, misty hall; I noticed yet again that drumming sound. Was it coming from the room or from Zeeta’s phone or… directly from Zeeta? No, that didn’t make sense. As we followed him, Ray furrowed his brow.

“Maybe you’re right. I can’t prove it yet. However…”

He gazed intently at the tidy room. Even after two thousand years, even after the many more years since this room had been built, nothing seemed to have been touched, not even by time.

I turned to Ray, curious.

“However?”

“Well… Did the forced colonists use this room? Or were they Djevels? If some Djevels were part of the expedition, then… some of them should be on Earth too.”

A shiver ran down my spine. Then I confessed:

“I don’t really get it.”

“Who would,” Zeeta snorted without turning his head.

Ray confessed:

“I don’t get it either. I don’t especially like spacial stuff. I just know that… part of me is scared of being spotted by the Djevels.”

“Why should you be?” Zeeta replied. “If what you say is true, which I doubt but well, those Jewels or whatever wanted you to conquer a planet, not kill you. So those Spawns of Darkness were actually just pawns of them, weren’t they?” He paused and huffed. “That sounds just so ridiculous. And there I thought that you were a guy with common sense. The only good point you had, and you spoiled it.”

“You don’t need to believe me,” Ray retorted grumbling.

“Mmph. Of course I don’t. Oh, but as long as you save our lives, you can spout all the nonsense you want.”

“Well, as long as you don’t get in my way, you can hate me all you want.”

And there they go again… They started to get on my nerves. I commented:

“Guys, putting aside the planets, the aliens, and your silly quarrels, can you see what I am seeing?”

The steam had become less dense, and I indicated, at the end of the long gallery, the high pedestal and the wide golden altar laying on it in front of a… throne?

Wait a sec, what was a throne doing in a bathroom? Maybe it wasn’t a bathroom after all?

Finally stopping at the foot of the white stairs, I lifted my eyes to the throne. It was majestic and… sinister. It seemed that the chair was made out of bones.

Bones? Not those of the adventurers that had died in front of the gates, right? Right?

Then I saw it.

Sat on the throne of bones, there was a spectral silhouette of white energy with the shape of a woman. Was it real? Since Ray and Zeeta didn’t seem to see it, I was trying to convince myself I was just imagining it when it raised a hand, very slowly, and said in a lingering voice:

“I’ve been waiting for so long… for someone… to come…”

58 The tenacity of a meowing familiar and a teleported witch

‘Wait outside, Rainbows.’

Those had been Master’s last words. Rainbows had walked away from the door that had separated her from her family, she had sniffed around, glared at her whiskers in the mirror of a wall, then gazed at the dusky sky for a long time. She had also climbed on a plant, pricked herself with the thorns, realized afterwards her mistake, and stared at a little hole on her paw. Reckless. But not as much reckless as First Brother.

A sudden voice made the cat jolt. A human with a black tail was approaching, meowing at her with a tone of voice that Rainbows knew well. It meant the human wanted to stroke her fur. The cat smirked at the tailed human. Well, too bad, only Master can touch me. And she scampered away.

‘Wait… side, Rainbows.’

The order was fading. Human voices from a nearby building were purring in her ears. Rainbows couldn’t understand them as well as she could understand Master, but she recognized two important words: “Ray” and “Armen”. Perched on the roof of the moving stairs, the cat opened its eyes.

The bond was wavering. That was no good. Something was happening to Master.

Rainbows got up to her feet and jumped down the roof to a window ledge, then to the stony, vast square. She passed by the nearby building where the humans were talking and having dinner; she glanced at the light inside and then walked away.

‘Wait…’

Wait by my side, she thought.

She wandered around the garden, sniffed at a thorny plant, then stopped in front of the moving stair again. She put a paw on it and leaped back as she felt herself being drawn up. The house was up but Master was down. As she turned, Rainbows heard her own name being called by a human, behind—the silver-haired girl. Not important. Ignore. She went forward. Downward. Where Master was.

She crossed the vast square. The humans that were talking inside the building a few moments ago had come out and were still talking. Humans talked a lot.

The cat moved faster and ended up going in circles. What was Master doing? Where was he?

Something similar had happened a long time ago. Master had disappeared for days and only First Brother and the Nosy had come to take care of Rainbows. Was Master going to be gone for so many days like last time?

Rainbows ferreted about, passed a threshold, got out through an open window, and turned around a tall human. Suddenly, a scent woke up her senses, and she pounced on a bush, baring her teeth. A mouse dashed out, but Rainbows didn’t let it go: she sprung with all she got to catch it. Blood dripped from her prey. Rainbows gave the final blow and began to devour the mouse. According to Master, humans were too big to be her prey. But mice were okay.

Rainbows gloated over her food, devoured it in a matter of minutes, then remembered her Master. She meowed annoyingly.

Master, Master! Where did you go?

He was with First Brother, so she shouldn’t be too worried, right? Except she was. It was First Brother that was making Master feel so tired and stressed lately, after all. Well, honestly, even if First Brother was a bit scary sometimes, Rainbows liked him quite much. Not as much as she liked Master, though.

Rainbows met a second mouse before she suddenly heard Master’s voice.

‘Rainbows. Good cat. Remember the black-haired human that makes invisible stairs in the air? Natasha. Find her.’

Rainbows purred but walked hesitantly, confused. The human that makes invisible stairs? Oh, did he mean the one that had been taking First Brother away every night? Was it really okay to find her?

Rainbows began to look for the human. She was crossing the big square when she stopped, surprised, recognizing a familiar scent. The Nosy? She approached the group curiously. The Nosy was there, a calm girl and a wary boy by his side. What was he doing there? Rainbows heard Master snort in her head.

‘Dad?!’

Yeah, it was the Nosy.

‘Forget Natasha. Go to my dad.’

Rainbows paced carefully and sat in front of him. The Nosy stopped talking with the humans in the group, looked down, blinked, then grinned. He crouched, grabbed Rainbows’ neck, concentrated, and after glimpsing through the necro-bond, his smile widened as he said with a giggle:

‘Son. Well done. Not only are you okay but you’ve found it. The Elixir of Heavens.’

* * *

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming…”

The weird shadow was indicating a hole on a wall. Unsurprisingly, that one was too small for a person to pass, just like the other ones. Linah sighed. She was starting to get tired of punching rocks to open her path. The most worrying thing was that she had decided to follow that shadow without knowing if it wanted to help her or if it was leading her to her doom. Maybe it was bringing her to its starving Shadow Mother hidden within Phoenix Island or… Who cared. Anyway, the shadow had been quite expressive so far, kindly waving at her when it caught her angrily punching randomly the big rocks that had been surrounding her for hours—and what rocks! As sturdy as metal rocks. She was about to accept the fact that she would never find out where Arkifa had teleported her and she had already given up on ever getting out of there when the shadow had come to her rescue pinpointing the weakness of one of those damn unbreakable rocks.

So, yeah, that shadow was, for now, her only mean of salvation.

She positioned herself in front of the hole, held out her fist, and began concentrating qi around it.

“Step back, shadow.”

She let go of her fist as fast as she could. The wall cracked around the hole. She kept punching it, enlarging the hole. Finally, the rock crumbled along with a myriad of scintillating tiny orange crystals embedded in the ruined wall. Linah drew back, coughing and cursing. Thanks to the orange crystal, the cloud of dust was strongly attracted to the ground and fell quite quickly. The air was nonetheless rather scarce, and Linah was starting to huff and puff. The shadow floated in front of her, gave her a thumbs up, and drew a question mark. Linah wiped the sweat from her forehead and gave a nod.

“Of course I’m okay. Let’s keep going.”

The shadow got through the hole, and Linah followed it into a room covered with rubble. Strange half-faded signs were carved in the ground.

“Yet another room, huh?”

It was the third one, and it was almost identical to the others. Wherever they were, it was clear that the place had been unoccupied for a long time. She didn’t want to think badly of Arkifa: the demon had only wanted to save her from crashing into the ground, and she was a good friend of the Straw Head’s, so she could not have possibly sent her to this place on purpose. However, it was disturbing to think that, if it had been Armen, or Zeeta, and not her… they would have most likely died in here. She clutched her fists. Even a martial artist like her was having trouble opening a path. She was thirsty and sleepy. And, despite strengthening her fists with qi, her knuckles were beginning to hurt quite a bit.

The shadow swirled under her eyes to catch her attention. Linah shook her head to snap out of it.

“What rock do I have to destroy now?”

She followed the shadow towards a part of the room that was hardly lit. She walked behind her guide so trustfully that, suddenly, she wondered if the Straw Head hadn’t rubbed off on her a bit. She hit something hot. The Shadow Mother?!

“I knew it! You…!”

Before accusing the shadow, she shut her mouth as she realized she had just hit a door. A door? Why was it so hot? It was a metallic door. So… what was behind that door for it to be hot? A mountain of lava. A dragon. A hungry dragon.

Her stomach growled.

What did a dragon taste?

No, no, no, but if it was a parent of the shadow’s, she couldn’t kill it. Besides, she was too tired to fight a dragon.

At each Linah’s silent gesture, the shadow drew a question mark.

“Er…” Linah smiled at the shadow, a bit embarrassed. “So… You led me to your home, right?”

The shadow looked surprised, but then it confirmed and added with gestures something like, “Thanks for your hard work, without you, I wouldn’t have made it here”. Linah chuckled.

“Hwara-hwara, the same goes for me! Then, let’s go! … It’s either blocked or locked from the inside. Should I just knock on it for your family to go open?”

The shadow looked surprised again. It drew a punch. Linah grinned.

“Got it.”

Her fist crashed into the metallic door’s hinges. After a few more punches, the panel finally banged to the ground.

A ground made of pure orange crystal.

Linah walked in and scanned what looked more like a vast cave than a room. The perfect place for a dragon. Except there was no dragon. The uneven ground was desert aside from some heaps of rubble.

As she lowered her eyes to the glimmering orange ground, she could see beyond it a pack of shimmering jellyfishes leisurely swimming in the ocean.

The ocean?!

Wait a sec… She crouched and confirmed after a moment.

“Jellyfishes. They’re jellyfishes, shadow! As I thought, we’re still on Phoenix Island.”

Or should she say inside the island? Was it part of the dungeon? She was clearly on the lower part of the Phoenix Turtle. Its throat, maybe, or its belly. In any case, only a few centimeters of crystal separated her from drowning in the depths of the Blazing Sea.

After a moment of amazement, she looked around for the shadow. Above her, in the dim light of the orange crystal, hanging from some sort of long ropes that disappeared in the darkness, there were about hundreds of yellow eggs. Eggs? They did look like eggs, but they were just so big they couldn’t possibly be eggs, right? Some had shattered to the ground, and as Linah examined the broken, thick shells, she grimaced. Maybe there were dragons, after all? She shook her head.

What was with that surreal view?

Fear of the unknown squeezed her pounding heart. Her right hand detached itself from her body. She recovered it and mustered some courage, then tried and failed to imagine she wasn’t alone… Something her grandma had told her once came to her mind:

‘Just as witches have a lot of secrets, so do the World, the Awqi, and the Crystals. Do not fear what you don’t know. Be wary of what you think you know.’

Okay, since she had absolutely no idea about her current location, she needed not to fear—Wait, what was with that absurd logic?

“Hwara-hwara-hwara,” she chuckled quietly. “I’m not alone, anyway. I’m with a quiet shadow friend…” She fell silent and turned around on the slippy surface of the orange crystal and rectified: “I was.”

Where did the shadow go?

* * *

My gaze was fastened on the spectral woman sitting on the throne of bones as she slowly said again:

“I’ve been waiting… for so long… for someone… to come…”

“…”

“I’ve been waiting… for so long… for someone… to come…”

“She goes on like a broken record,” I commented.

“She?” Ray and Zeeta turned to me, surprised.

“Oh, can’t you see her? She looks like a woman, but she’s just white energy, so guess I should call her… a ghost? It’s funny, but even though she’s a ghost, I’m not really scared of her.”

Suddenly, Ray flinched. I got worried.

“Ray? Are you all right?”

He raised a hand as if asking for silence. For a while, only the sound of drums could be heard in the throne room. I glanced at Zeeta funnily. He… really was the one making that noise, huh. Then Ray snorted and explained:

“I was talking with Rainbows.”

“Huh? Rainb…” I blinked, then exclaimed: “But of course! You can communicate with Rainbows and tell her where we are! Ah, but… How can a cat possibly save us?” I muttered.

“Let me rephrase it. I was talking with my dad through Rainbows.”

“…!! The Lord? How?”

“Hah… He did say he would come. Anyway, I let him see through your eyes, Armen, and he says that that ghost is warding an Exilir. Sorry, an Elixir. I’m doing… a lot of things… at the same time… Dad’s being annoying… like, super annoying…”

“Another broken record,” I teased.

We waited patiently for Ray to finish his conversation with his dad. Finally, he explained:

“The ghost in the throne is the soul of the former owner of the Elixir of Heavens, or more like what remained of it. From what my dad says, the Elixir only appears every two hundred years and can grant tremendous power. It’s obviously a dangerous item.”

Tremendous power, huh? I would have gotten excited if that was a game, but honestly, right now, I only wanted to find Erma and get the hell out of here. I shook my head.

“So, you’re telling us that that ghost I’m the only one able to see is a super powerful Elixir?”

Ray sighed.

“No. The ghost is the guardian. The Elixir must be in there.” He pointed at the golden receptacle in front of the throne of bones. “But, Armen, you’d better avoid going near that ghost: she’s made of a heavenly type of lifeforce. Just like Cesarine. If you touch it, you die.”

“…!” For the Crystals’ sake… Another heavenly girl? And there I was thinking we had reached some kind of ancient goddess who would give us an extraordinary reward… But guess a goddess would only want to kill me, an undead, just like that red sphere just earlier had taken me for a dying soul to be reset. I swallowed hard. “I see. As expected, ghosts are scary without exception. I won’t go near that guardian. Looks like she doesn’t want to leave her throne, anyway. Oh, come to think of it, she stopped repeating her sentence. Maybe she got bored? In any case, does your dad want you to do something with that Elixir? Steal it?”

Ray grimaced, looking warily at the throne from downstairs.

“Well… Something like that. Damn… Back in Farskyer, my dad told me, ‘be careful not to show you’re a necromancer, or your mom will strangle me’. And now he shows up on Phoenix with all his familiars—”

“All of them?!”

Ray looked weary as he nodded.

“All of them, aside from Uncle Adrian and some ghouls he put to sleep. A quite joyful trip in the water train, he said…” I burst out laughing just picturing the scene in my mind… Ray puffed out his cheeks with a painful expression. “Bah, I don’t want to even think about it. Anyway, he told me he will try to help us find a way out. I just hope he doesn’t talk too much with the trainers, or my mom won’t be long to catch on to why he’s been able to figure out my location so easily. If she finds out that Rainbows is an undead cat bound to me…”

As if a burden had just fallen on his shoulders, he crouched on the tiled floor, clutching at his head. He had just confirmed he was an “evil” alien prisoner sent who knows how many thousands of years ago to conquer a planet, but now all he was afraid of was that his mom might discover he was a necromancer? I couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“Haha… Sorry. I mean, your mom is your mom. She knows you are a Spawn of Darkness since you were eight, right? Yet she tried to protect you—”

“She doesn’t know.” Ray’s lips twisted into a sardonic grimace. “She convinced herself his son couldn’t possibly be a real Spawn of Darkness. That’s why she wanted me to awaken to my power so eagerly. To prove to everyone I had just an ordinary dark energy-based power and nothing more. But seems I’m a really ungrateful son…”

His smile grew creepier. I got worried. He wasn’t going to transform again into the Bossy Master, was he?

“Guys,” Zeeta intervened, on the first steps of the stairs in front of the throne. “Be quiet for a sec, will you? There’s something I want to hear.”

Oh? There was a silence, only broken by a faint sound of drums.

“I knew it,” Zeeta whispered.

“Do you mean the drums?”

Zeeta gave me a surprised look.

“You can hear it?”

“Of course I can, since we entered this place, you’ve been playing drums.”

“… Did you hit your head, Straw Head?”

“I didn’t. I’m telling you you’ve been making strange noises since I ate the door and we got in here—”

“What I’m hearing is as if someone is knocking against that trunk over there from the inside,” he cut me off, exasperated, as he pointed at the golden receptacle in front of the throne of bones. “Who knows, it could be the Elixir of Heavens trying to get out of the sarcophagus… But, Straw Head, I can barely hear it. Are you telling me your hearing is better than mine?”

The drums around Zeeta got louder.

“It’s not that, calm down,” I said. Could he really not hear those drums?

“I can hear it just like you, Armen,” Ray chimed in. “Zeeta’s being noisy. Since when are you able to emit sound, by the way?”

Zeeta was getting more irritated and loud by the second.

“What are you talking about, you two?”

“You are making sounds,” I explained. “Back at the door, when you got mad at Ray, there was a super loud bong that made Ray come back to normal.”

“Then there’ve been drums all the way,” Ray added. “Maybe because you are nervous. As I see it, either it’s a temporary phenomenon caused by this dungeon, or your power mutated in the red sphere—”

“Oi.” Zeeta looked at us, half-incredulous half-anxious. “Is it some kind of joke?”

“…” I drew closer and put a comforting hand on his arm. “Looks like you make sounds whenever you’re angry or nervous. The power’s kinda cool, so you don’t have to worry—”

“That’s not funny at all, Straw Head!”

“I’m not lying.”

“There’s no way I’m making a sound I can’t hear!”

“But you do. The drums are louder now. That must mean you’re very nervous.”

Zeeta abruptly grabbed me by my orange coverall. The glint of distress in his eyes was getting more intense. The drums sounded more like frantic heartbeats now. They were thrumming in my ears. An old memory surfaced in my mind. Oh, so… that was how a living heart beat. I had almost forgotten about it. A smile crossed my face.

“Zeeta. I wouldn’t lie to you like that. I know it’s hard to believe, but your emotions make noises. No, they play music. A wonderful music.”

Zeeta breathed out without releasing me:

“A wonderful music?”

“Mm.” My eyes smiled and almost closed as I said: “It’s as if I’m listening to the music of your heart.”

In a matter of seconds, the heartbeats around him turned into a rabid string of electric guitar notes. He was flushed. My smile broadened. So anger and nervousness weren’t the only feelings his new power could express. What I could read in that new music struck me to the core. Was that qi music? Was that the same technique I had used subconsciously when I had played the violin the other day and wrapped my deathforce around the melody? Anyhow, it was such a beautiful sound. Such a shame Zeeta couldn’t hear it. But that sound…

“Zeeta, you…” I said, moved to tears. “You’re such a nice guy. I’m so glad we’re besties.”

A dissonant sound of confused flutes came to blend into the concert.

“Wha—?” Zeeta let go of my coverall and cleared his throat. “Wasn’t Ray your best friend?”

Arching my eyebrows, I turned to the concentrated young necromancer that was seemingly talking again with his dad through Rainbows’ necro-bond.

“He is. A best friend. And a nice monster.”

Zeeta couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

“Look who’s talking. Well, he better be nice to you or I’ll turn into a monster myself. Anyway, if it’s true that I’m making music and am the only one who cannot hear it, that must mean something prevents me from hearing it, right? Do you think a cellphone can record it? It’s not like I don’t believe you at this point, but since it’s said some adventurers can go crazy inside a dungeon—”

“I’m in my right mind,” I assured, taking out my cell. “But your idea is not bad.”

“Then let’s give it a try while the monster talks with his dad and finds a way to save us.”

I looked at my cell. The battery was low, but I still could use it. Just as Zeeta’s and Ray’s cell, though, mine was out of range, so we couldn’t use them to communicate with the outside. I opened the audio recorder application, but it was taking so long that I pressed it again, only with a bit more energy… Suddenly, my cellphone cracked and split into two.

“Wh-Wh-Wha…?!”

Zeeta gaped at me.

“Seriously? You broke your cell?”

“It broke on its own!”

“Yeah, sure, you monster.” Shrugging, Zeeta took care of the recording with his own phone, waited for a moment, then concluded: “I hear nothing.”

I shoved my dead cell into my bag with a last sad goodbye and shook my head.

“That’s because you’re not feeling enough things right now. Let me do it.”

“Like hell I’ll let you break my phone!”

“I’ll be careful… Okay, if you don’t trust me—”

“Nothing to do with trust.”

“Haha… Start recording.” When his finger pressed the record button, I looked him in the eye. “Zeeta.”

He pouted, annoyed.

“What?”

I smiled sincerely.

“I love you.”

An explosion of sounds washed over me, just when the receptacle made a bang—but I barely noticed that last detail. I was so overwhelmed by Zeeta’s chaotic melody that I fell to my knees and exclaimed, amazed:

“Is that… LOVE!?”

But Zeeta was no longer looking at me. As I followed his gaze to the sarcophagus, I noticed that the golden lid had been knocked over and had shattered into the floor. Arising from the box like a vampire, a piece of broken stone in her hand, Linah Sunclaw stood with a bewildered face. Erma! She was safe and sound. A wave of relief struck me closely followed by confusion as a dark mass of energy arose from behind her.

“Lil Witch… You… You’re not an illusion, are you?”

Why was Linah’s hair so pale? Why was her skin so gray? Erma put a foot on the border of the receptacle, as gray as her face, and huffed.

“Tell me it’s not an illusion that you three are here, Straw Head, and I’ll tell you I’m not an illusion myself.”

I stared at her, baffled, then understood she was just covered in dust from head to toe. That meant… she was real!

“Stay away!” Linah warned, holding up a fist. “Dungeons are full of illusions.”

“What are you talking about? I’m the Straw Head! I’m Armen Moon!”

“So why were you confessing to Zeeta?”

“…!! W-Wait, what? I wasn’t confessing. I love him as a friend!”

“What’s my favorite plate?”

“Pork cutlet!”

“Wrong. It’s Kushari.”

“Eeeeh? What’s that?”

“Where’s your red cap?”

“I lent it to Arkifa. W-Wait, don’t attack-e us! Lil Witch-e, believe me, I’m the real deal-e!”

“… It’s really you.”

As she lowered her fist, finally convinced by my Taipei accent, a din of joyful cymbals filled the throne room as Zeeta burst out laughing, in front of a dusty witch, a concentrated Spawn of Darkness, a smiling Daeva, and a deadly ghost that trembled and muttered from her throne:

“I’ve been waiting… for so long… for someone… to come…” She suddenly lifted her head toward the high ceiling and thundered sluggishly: “Ye opened… the nest. Angry. It’s angry. Take the elixir. Save me. Angry. It is… GOING TO KILL YE ALL.”

It? What did she mean by “it”?

Suddenly, something burst out of the walls.

Everything brutally quaked.

I had no idea that, at that very instant, on the island, the dispute between a nosy necromancer and an adamant fairy came to an end when, propelled by the sudden contraction of the Phoenix Turtle, both of them brusquely tumbled and unwittingly clung to each other; a silver-haired girl in search of a tabby cat fell safely on a squishy plant; a crimson guy beside her, less lucky, crashed into a spiky cactus and began cursing loud; in the infirmary, an injured firefly demon was ejected from her bed and barely managed to keep her red knit cap; in the whole city, one million two hundred thousand Phoenicians were shaken. Children heard a long high-pitched scream coming from under their feet. A prophet in a night pub warned his public that the end of the world had come. Massaging his aching forehead after hitting the bedside table, Gorka Soulberg sat up, mumbling. A gloomy Sunclaw studying an old plan of the Phoenix Dungeon raised his eyes as he felt a wave of wrath. A chill ran down his spine. Who could get so angry that he himself would get intimidated? He frowned and muttered in the Silent House:

“Little sister, what kind of monster did you wake up now?” He ran a hand through Curry’s short fur to calm it down and stood up with an unusually excited smile on his face. “Or was it you, Ray Styxer?”

* * *

Author’s note: End of book 2. I hope you enjoyed the reading! To keep yourself up-to-date about new books, follow my blog, or see the maps, please visit my website. Have a nice day!