Jack huddled in a corner of a burnt down house, covered with an anti-surveillance mesh net. He tried to get some sleep, but every time his eyes closed he feared that he wouldn't open them ever again.

His platoon shifted all around him, stuck in their own private nightmares. The Lieutenant scattered them in a few nearby houses overnight. Jack felt sympathy for the poor bastards that had to stand guard duty on this cold night.

Just as he felt that sleep might take him he heard through his ear comms device "Rise and shine, men! We've got hostiles incoming!" from the Lieutenant's voice.

Jack sprang up to his feet and ran to the position the officers directed him to. He leaned on a short perimeter wall and peaked through a small bullet hole in it. He could only see shapes of burnt down buildings, cars, and trees in the starlit darkness.

The platoon took up their positions and waited for over 15 minutes. As soldiers began to squirm in their boots, the Lieutenant's voice came once more "Missiles incoming, take cover!"

The men scattered like frightened rats towards the few houses that still had roofs.

Jack just squeezed himself into a hole in the ground when the bombs started falling.

When he expected to feel the first missile fall on his head he heard a *SNAP* that overshadowed any noise that the outside world made.

Jack's entire being shook as the world fell apart around him. The sound felt like a hook that lodged firmly into his gut and dragged him into reality.

'What the…' the return of his consciousness left him in a blur for a few seconds. Once he managed to pull himself together enough to take a look around he started cursing mentally.

He still floated in his dark-grey ball form, but the rest of his floating companions were gone. The only other living being was a young-looking man in weird clothes, who kept walking around Jack and mumbling to himself in a weird clipped language Jack had never heard.

The place looked somewhat normal to Jack, a stone floor, four stone walls, and a ceiling. He couldn't see any windows or doors, and the only light in the room came from beneath Jack.

He looked down and saw a weird circle, filled with strange script and shapes. That would be weird on its own, but wherever the strange shapes passed the floor shone like someone implanted LED lamps in it.

Jack tried to figure out how the circle worked, but couldn't come up with anything.

'There's nothing, only pictures and scribbles on rock.' he thought as he unconsciously floated down towards the circle.

*SNAP*

Another world-shaking noise ran through Jack and he stopped doing everything. He even forgot to think for a moment.

"Do not move, spirit. Do not think that just because you have regained some awareness that I cannot snuff you out like a candle. If you try to touch the formation once more I will erase your being." the raspy voice from The River rang out in Jack's consciousness once more.

Jack focused all of his attention on the young man that stood in front of him. He didn't look older than thirty, but the voice and the feeling he gave off made Jack sure that he was much, much older.

The young man's face stretched into a ghastly smile as his voice rang out "Yes, good spirit. It would be a shame to lose a strong one. Now, do not fight, or this will be painful."

Jack watched as the man started to mumble something in his clipped language. He considered trying to run but, even if he could make himself move faster than a millimeter per second, he didn't dare. Instinctually he felt certain that the young man didn't bluff him.

After around 15 minutes, by Jack's estimate, the mumbling started to rise in volume. The man shifted his hand towards a small pouch tied to his waist and, to Jack's surprise, dragged out an almost 2 meters tall and over 3 meters long statue of a beast that looked like a cross between a bull and a tiger. Its head hung directly above the circle which trapped Jack's gaseous body.

Jack couldn't stop staring at the statue as the young man's voice kept getting louder and louder in his consciousness. Slowly, as if drawn by the force of the man's voice, Jack floated towards the statue's head.

The rational part of himself screamed and tore at the walls of his consciousness in an attempt to stop, but he couldn't make himself do it. His body floated to the beast's head and, after an initial resistance, somehow seeped into it.

The next time Jack had control of his mind he found himself looking at the smiling young man.

He could feel strength like he never felt before and, even stranger, he felt a body once more. He tried to move, but couldn't do more than shiver a little.

"Good, only took you the time to eat a meal. You will become a great spirit puppet." the man said, in a tone one uses for little children and pets, as he extended his hand and patted the head of the statue, Jack, a few times.

"Go and learn how to use your new body." he added, and with a strange movement of his arm directed the statue to enter the pouch on his waist.

Jack felt nauseous as a kaleidoscope of colors slammed into his eyes. He thought he saw a giant whirlpool for a moment, and then everything turned black.

He could still feel his new body, but couldn't see or feel anything else. Jack thought he could somehow sense other things with him in the darkness, but he had no way to check for sure. He only had his thoughts and time for company while he tried to figure out how to move this new body.

'OK, time for a sitrep, soldier.' Jack told himself as he looked back at the bleakness of his situation.

'I went fishing, got a heart attack or something – I wonder how my family's dealing with that – NO, no time for sentiment, got a heart attack, ended in that River of Souls? Spirits? Whatever. Got caught by that huge darkness thing, prime suspect of being the darkness is the young old man. He brought me here, where here is I don't know yet, and stuffed me into this Buger? Tigull? Thing. Now I'm in the thing and my first priority is figuring how to move around, then figuring out where I am, and how to get away from that guy.'

Jack sorted out his thoughts and focused all of his willpower on trying to move the statue.

In the outside world.

Bai Xiatuo touched the sigils on the wall and imbued them with a bit of his spirit energy. The next moment the wall in front of him slid down into the earth, allowing the bright rays of the morning sun to shine down on him and the room.

He basked in the sunlight for a moment and then stepped out into the fresh mountain air. In front of him clouds drifted around mountain peaks, and from time to time a rainbow flickered in and out of existence between a couple of them.

He walked to the exit of his estate where two guards stood.

Both of them bowed down low when they saw him, and shouted at the same time "Greetings, Elder Bai!"

Bai Xiatuo waited for a second and then waved his hand in dismissal. The two guards straightened up and looked at him expectantly. They knew that he wouldn't stand there if he didn't have a task for them.

Bai Xiatuo pointed at the guard on the left "You, go and inform the Sect Leader that I have gone out for some personal business and that I am not sure on my return date, but it should not take longer than ten years or so."

The guard bowed deeply once again and walked out in a quick pace towards the tallest peak in the mountain range.

Bai Xiatuo turned to the other guard "You, go inform my Senior Sister that I am going out to get rid of the demon in her heart once for all. Tell her that it should not take long and that she is to wait for my triumphant return."

The other guard bowed deeply too and took off towards another mountain peak.

Bai Xiatuo gave that peak a fond look for a couple of seconds, and then took out a black flag from his pouch on which he shot up into the sky.

Fortune seemed to smile on him and in one of the first stops of his journey he found a lead on his quarry. A few months later he found him sitting in meditation in a cave in a deserted canyon, in one of the less advanced countries of the world.

"Bai Shetai!" he yelled, and the earth rumbled with the strength of his voice, tearing the cave and its mountain apart.

The rubble of the mountain blasted outwards as a person enveloped in brown flames slowly floated up into the sky.

"Hello, brother." Bai Shetai said with a smirk. "Took you long enough." he added as the flames on his body grew out to cover half the sky.

"If you had not ran and hid like the rat that you are, Senior Sister and I would have gotten rid of you decades ago!" Bai Xiatuo yelled as he released his spirit energy and the other half of the sky got covered by midnight darkness.

"Hmph. You and your Senior Sister obsession. Tell me, brother. Have you asked her once if she resisted my advances? Have you asked her if she said no? Have you asked her why she came to me every night? Have you asked her if she liked it?" Bai Shetai sneered at his brother.

"Enough of your foul slander! This time you will not get away." Bai Xiatuo growled and waved a hand.

In front of him hundreds of the same model of the statue that Jack was sealed in appeared. They all focused their attention on the person in front of them and started letting out deep rumbling growls.

Bai Shetai's face turned serious "Not a bad number of high-quality spirit puppets. Too bad I found a rich vein of earth fire in this desolate land. If you came before that you might have given me a decent fight." he said and started focusing his energy to his body.

"You are not the only one that has grown stronger, Bai Shetai." Bai Xiatuo said and waved his hand towards his brother "Attack!" he yelled as he started to build up his own power.

The spirit puppets roared in unison and charged at Bai Shetai with abandon, with Jack charging right alongside everyone else.