As Kyle opened his eyes he found himself still lying on the ground as if no time had passed at all.

“I ain’t carrying him!” exclaimed Soren.

“Well I’m the leader so I damn sure ain’t!” replied Birse.

“He’s getting up anyway” Death sighed as he pointed out Kyle moving to stand.

Kyle groaned as he stood up, his head still spun from having been rudely forced into the spirit realm.

“The fuck happened?” Asked Death, Soren, Birse and Skill in almost-unison.

He took a deep breath and briefly waited for his head to clear before looking at them all, the ice on the ground was still present and judging by their expressions no time had passed at all. Kyle was about to open his mouth to explain but then found himself asking a question (“Should I tell them? About Lilliana’s whole plan? About Ymir’s? That we need to go back…No…I need to go back…If I tell them they’ll just want to come along.”) he decided not to (“I can’t do that to them, this is my cross to bear. Until then I’ll do what I can here…”)

“Ymir locked away the being that was corrupting me” Kyle began to explain “I’m…fine now”.

Death raised a brow and asked with an incredulous tone “A blob of blue fire engulfs you and is then smite down by a blast of cold air…and you’re just fine?”

Kyle nodded as he looked down at his open palms “Yeah, I’m fine Death. It may have been moments for you but it was minutes of Ymir explaining things to me. I understand what was going on with me now, I also know that it’s over.” He explained with as believable a tone he could muster to fake.

But Birse didn’t seem to buy it as he studied him with an attentive glare “Are you sure Kyll?”

Kyle simply nodded.

Birse briefly continued to stare before nodding back “Then he’s fine. Reform! We’re moving!” he then ordered the whole group. “Sly I’m disconnecting, we’re almost at Kaledd.” Birse spoke into the VCD.

“Sure, yeah. Don’t explain jack shit to me, you know I’ll just be here. See ya.” Sly declared with a chuckle before the connection dropped.

Serenity reformed around their three customers, the exact same formation they held minutes ago. Most continued to pay attention to their surroundings but some gave worried glances at Kyle as he stared detached, he was staring at his new title and it’s skill.

{Title [{Holder of the Frostfire}]: Ymir the God of winter has unlocked your natural powers, allowing you to use them according to your potential.

Ice resistance: +40%

Fire resistance: +40%

Active skill [{Tails}]

{Title [{Holder of the Frostfire}] Active skill [{Tails}] (Set Skill Stats): Call upon your given name summoning your tails of power.

First tail: (Devouring Frostfire); An all devouring flame of cold bendable by your will;

Spirit cost: 20 per 1cm squared

Second tail: (Frostfire Blade); A blade of pure flame, colder than cold itself this blade inflicts no direct physical damage but shall freeze any and all it touches.

Spirit cost: 240

(“My tails…”) He still couldn’t get over the fact that he wasn’t human, instead being some fox based elemental spirit as in ancient folklore. (“Spirit…what is this resource? I still only have mana and stamina…Maybe if I use it? But doesn’t spirit mean soul? Will I be using my soul as a resource?”) he grimaced at his line of thought, he didn’t want to risk his soul just for more power. In the end, he just sighed, closed the windows and turned to look at Darkness.

“Hey Darkness, what is spirit as a resource?” he asked hoping to be proved wrong, he then noticed she was already looking at him. Not that she had stopped gazing since the fire and ice blasted each other around him but left him without a single scratch.

“Spirit is a type of mana, it is purely gained through concentration. Your bar will start out empty and as you concentrate on your surroundings and block your own emotions you can glimpse at other’s gaining spirit depending on your type and the surroundings. Since you are a Yako, negative emotions will fuel your bar. You can replace the cost for mana but it will end up costing you much more than spirit would.” She thoroughly explained.

“So…I won’t be draining my own soul or anything?...” He asked with a tinge of worry in his voice.

Darkness shook her head “No, spirit is referring to emotional standing not spiritual existence.”

Kyle raised his right hand in front of himself “Guess I’ll give it a go…”, he focused on the feeling the flames brought to him. As any elemental magic each had a specific feeling to summoning it, [Ooze] was no different but Kyle had grown quickly accustomed to it. This felt entirely new to him so he still required brief moments of concentration, the memories of him summoning this flame in the past all but distant.

The white-blue flames flickered to life around his hand. Kyle felt his mind recoil, a sudden wave of information burst into his head as if a completely new sense of feeling was dumped into him.

Hidden passive skill [Spirit detection] has been unlocked!

It felt exactly the same as when his memories were cleared of the Nogitsune’s tempering, as if something long lost was suddenly gained back. This time though it came with extra weight being the punch, he was almost overwhelmed by the information his mind suddenly received. The emotional state of every single person around him was delivered into his mind as a constant changing process, a constant flow of detail.

The range was also enormous; he could sense travellers almost to the gates of Kaledd, he knew if this happened within the city he would have blacked out again. He focused on blocking it and within moments it disappeared, as if he had done it many times before. He briefly wobbled as nausea assaulted him, the moment it disappeared he opened his skill book and read over the skill with an agitated expression.

[Spirit Detection] ((EXP MAX) Level 5 – Tier 5): The ability to sense the constantly changing emotions of beings close to your intellectual level.

Mastery effect: (Pinpoint); Detection, range and location are pinpoint accurate.

He grimaced fully understanding what had happened, the Nogitsune’s influence left some scars on his mind that still required healing. He understood what Ymir meant by his soul being damaged, even his memories hadn’t fully recovered yet. The level of the skill itself was enough to make him understand just what he had gone through.

Frostfire began to cover his whole body, (“How dare it…) a seating rage began to overcome him as he fully recognised just how badly the Nogitsune had him in it’s grasp. (“Just what of my memories are real anymore…”) he momentarily questioned everything but immediately stopped himself (“No, this isn’t right. I cannot lose myself in anger, what’s done is done. I need to focus on the future, I won’t get stuck in the past.”)

Kyle took a series of deep breaths to calm himself, he refocused on what he was doing and then realised something about his UI had changed.

Spirit [90/X]

A light green bordered bar with white filling it, the bar indicated as ‘Spirit’ was entirely full even though the number slowly increased.

Spirit [170/X]

Kyle understood this as what Darkness meant about emotions, the closer they got to Kaledd the more people got inside his range of absorption. It also seemed that the resource had no limit of storage, Kyle found this odd as it shouldn’t be possible for him to hold unlimited amounts. “Why does it say ‘/X’ and not a set limit?” he asked Darkness again.

“Spirit is only absorbed into the body as it is about to be used, until then it continues to flow around it’s owner. Emotions are a powerful existence, you cannot simply contain them.” She explained while gazing at the small flame around his hand in deep thought.

Kyle looked back at his hand (“This is what I was looking for…this power…it is entirely mine. If only…”) briefly he thought if he only had it back at the dungeon but he quickly dissipated such a thought. He opened his skillbook and instead of closing the prompt to upgrade [Core Overload] he quickly made a decision and chose (Limbs(T2)). He’ll need all the time he can get for what was to come.

He looked around Death and saw the town of Kaledd in the distance, still a fair bit away. Looking down at his flame he came up with a plan, he raised his left hand to the same height and summoned forth the slime. (“Fear is our best choice for a distraction and fear is entirely subjective. Singularly I am not as strong as the others, I am not as tactical as Birse nor as creative as Death or as sly as…well Sly. But there is one thing we all share that cannot surpass the other’s.”)

Kyle grinned wickedly as his hands clasped together (“We sure know how to scare the shit outa someone.”)

---

Esfeltian Dominion Capital city, Eslet, Cathedral of night and day

Six hours later

Nolin walked through the grandiose cathedral, larger than the royal residence itself the building was built from the donations of their most devote followers. The kingdom of Esfelt restricted religious following but people simply looked for it on their own anyway, limiting it only made it more sought after going as far as making it a must for noble families to take part in.

Made of a mixture of marble and a magical material called pearlstone the walls, floor and ceiling gleamed with their own light. Where ever you went inside the building the floor was white pavement made of circles cleverly designed into a day and night cycle while the walls and ceiling were clear white with no design.

The priest strode through the long corridors of the fifth floor, the highest floor of the cathedral restricted to their highest ranking members. Paintings of their two Gods lined the walls as banners of their most faithful noble families lay in between each. Nolin always made it a must to appreciate the view as he walked through, what they had managed to create under the constant stress the royal family pressed on them.

Not your everyday clergymen, the members of the churches were trained mages in both holy magic and a type of martial art. Their numbers spread into all kinds, be it clerics, paladins, arclights or pathfinders they covered it all. Their level averaged around 70 while their highest members ranged between 100-120, compared to the royal military the churches had an overall lower average level but had more numbers.

Today was a glorious day for Nolin, he had not only caught the royal in the same room as a devil albeit a slumbering child he also had adventurer witnesses! The news were already being spread by the same adventurers, it was simply safer to let them do so as to not arouse suspicion on the churches’ behalf. He grinned wickedly as he approached the far end of the third floor, his favourite lunch spot.

Ahead of him was the exit onto a wide balcony with multiple white wooden chairs and tables, a tray of herbal tea and snacks above one of the tables waiting for him. The balcony oversaw the entirety of the noble’s district, beautiful mansions with fair stretches of grass land in between them. The Cathedral itself was separate from the rest of the city where the slums district, housing district and merchant district lay surrounding the noble’s district yet still separated by tall walls of enchanted stone.

The city of Eslet took over the whole island, the far walls a mere dozen meters away from the beaches and coast. Two sets of walls surrounded the city as more cut the inside into five districts. The outer south district was the merchant’s district, the outer northern east the slums and outer north west the housing district for those that weren’t of name or value to living as nobles but not so broke as to live in the slums.

Those three districts formed a circle around the inner walls while being broken down like a pie, the largest piece being the slums, the common housing district the second and smallest being the merchant’s district. Moving further inside one would find themselves in the noble’s district, a large stretch of land forming another circle around the final district. The royal district, the smallest district inside the city forming the final circle.

Outside the city there was a sixth district, the military district. It was a large stretch of land to the south east of the city surrounded by walls built out of the outer circle, where the royal military was located.

---

Author: This just felt right….

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_28OLWtSK0

---

Nolin gazed off into the fields of grass as he stepped out onto the balcony, the relaxing odour of herbal tea reached him before it was swiftly blasted away…along with the cup…snacks…tray…chairs…table and his blonde wig.

Several explosions went off in the distance almost in unison, the blast wave they caused travelled far and wide.

“What in his name is going on!?” Nolin exclaimed as he leaned out of the balcony and enhanced his vision to search the horizon but no smoke or signs of damage could be seen. He went to caress his hair only to notice it had also been blasted away, he groaned in annoyance as he looked up at the sky for guidance. He squinted briefly.

High above Eslet was the slightly smaller city Sky Top Haven, the city where only the strongest of adventurers could request entry. It is said the city is completely empty, buildings and all exist for people to inhabit but nobody seems to live there. Nolin knew better than the theories the common folk came up with, up there lived the heroes of old. Immortalized after bringing victory to their gods as chosen and took residence up there.

The barrier that surrounded Sky Top Haven was completely indestructible and only those above level 340 could pass through yet somehow the Hero of the Blade had entered once or twice before even though Draxxer hadn’t even passed 200. The city itself is said to be a hundred times more beautiful than it’s completely golden underside which was visible to anybody below, the same underside which was currently…moving closer by the second.

Nolin’s eyes opened wide as did his mouth go agape while he stared at the falling city speechless, the only thought going through his mind ‘What happens if an indestructible barrier falls on a destructible city?’. Briefly he snapped out of his daze and tried to think of what to do but found that his mind quickly went blank, (“how could you stop it? It is impossible!”) was all he could come up with.

He shook his head then leaned back into the sole chair that stood upright and stared up at the sky with a defeated smile “We’re doomed, we’re all doomed”. He continued to stare at it as it slowly approached (“Four? Five hours at most?”) he started estimating how much time the city of Eslet had left. “Kaledd isn’t that bad this time of year…” he thought while standing up, fully intending on getting the hell out of the city.

He infused his voice with mana “J!-Ah…w..w-a…” his voice was completely cut off as the slushing of blood, tearing of flesh and breaking of bone filled his ears alongside his own gurgling. Nolin raised his right hand to feel his throat only to find a metallic blade had stabbed right through, he began to panic as his lungs started to beg for air and fill with blood. Suddenly he felt someone leaning over his right shoulder.

“My condolences for your loss of a life and greetings from the federation.” The voice whispered into his ear.

The dagger was immediately pulled out of Nolin’s throat letting him fall to the ground, he gurgled and crawled uselessly before looking up at his assailant. Wearing pitch black leather armour, cloak, hood and mask. The mask was a rather simple smooth black with nothing on it at all, no design or even eyeholes giving the whole getup the impression of a demonic wraith.

The masked assassin briefly stared down at the dying man before flicking his right hand, the dagger flew true and pierced Nolin’s chest.

Nolin cursed in his mind at the black cloaked figure, how could he be so careless? (“At least I won’t be alone…”) he thought selfishly while turning to look up at the sky to embrace his death, his eyes widened in further shock. Sky Top Haven was no longer falling; it was as if it never started to fall in the first place.

Nolin died with an expression of utter bafflement, momentarily later his body slowly began to dissipate into mana.

---

Eslet, Slums district, sewers.

Kyle tried to breath as little as possible as the stench of shit, piss and worse engulfed his senses, the bandana around his mouth doing little to block it out. Even worse he had tried his best not to think of what his hands and legs where currently deep into, not a plan he wished to remember.

His through process was fairly simple. After testing around with his new illusion inducing slime with Woody he found out the slime did not require contact to take effect but instead only required proximity to the gas it constantly emitted. The slime itself could be condensed very little making it extremely weak but as long as it was in range Kyle could make those under it’s effects see anything he wanted them to see.

When he entered the city of Eslet he spent a good five minutes staring up at the flying golden city above it, himself along with Woody simply wanted to blow the thing up and make it fall down onto Eslet but later found out the flying city wasn’t accessible to noobs such as themselves. Instead with the help of Woody and Steph’s insane genius alongside his own they came up with this plan they were currently progressing through.

The sewers ran through the whole city be it the slums, noble’s or even military. Although there were thousands of intersections blocked off with enchanted metal bars there was more than enough space in between for something…something say slime to pass through.

Kyle currently lay crouching down inside the sewage with his hands open wide underneath the sticky, gooey, chunky liquid which slowly flowed through. Woody and Steph stood behind him with their palms wide open on his back to provide mana assistance, not that he currently needed it.

At first he used his whole mana bar alongside Steph’s [Mana assist] skill which she quickly taught to Woody to create a large amount of [illusionary] red slime and flow it through the whole slums district as thinly as possible. He had tested beforehand so he knew the next step would work wonderfully…except the intense mental strain it brought with it.

Spirit [9000+/X]

He was using his Spirit to fuel the creation of slime which took over three times as more resource but with his current income of Spirit it was negligible at best. The cause of this insane amount of Spirit income? The millions of slum residents running, screaming, crying and pissing themselves as the sky quite literally fell…from their perspective at least. It took everything he had to keep the slime under control, any part that disconnected from him would dissipate into mana within a few of minutes.

A notification also constantly flashed in the middle of his vision;

Spirit collection is overloaded! Release your spell or endure the consequences over your body!

And just as the notification explained, Kyle’s body wasn’t in the best shape. His skin was cracked in multiple places as some patches of it started to simply shatter to dust and join the sludge beneath, the sheer constant flow of mana in the shape of spirit flowing through his body was too much for it to bear. His mind wasn’t doing very well either, his eyes were slightly uncentered as he stared off into nothing. His thoughts were completely blank as the sole thing he was concentrating on flowed out from his hands, his very consciousness forced into the slime.

Woody and Steph dared not to speak or move less they break his concentration, they had been going at it for two and a half hours now. Having taken two hours to reach the city by gryphon carriage and one and a half to figure out where the sewers even were, they hoped they could last a couple hours more but if Kyle was any kind of conscious he’d doubt it. Then again he wasn’t conscious except for muscle memory that kept the slime going, his consciousness fully integrated into the slime moving it while his body’s condition was unbeknownst to him.

He hadn’t considered telling his clan mates to stop him at some point, he couldn’t stop himself at this rate. He just figured his body would collapse dead and that’d be the end of it, he’d then walk back to the sewers and just start over again. That’s exactly what he did.

The first time he died his body simply burst into blue dust scaring the crap outa Woody and Steph, at first he freaked out as his consciousness was suddenly forced out of the slime making it all start it’s dissipation timer. A couple minutes later when he respawned Kyle found himself running through the crazed crowds. He ran through the road that lay between the inner and outer road, the gates to the inner walls lay straight in between the slums and merchant’s district.

People ran left and right in the slums kicking, pushing, shoving and biting to get the hell out of the city. The only way out being the two large gates, both overrun with civilians in chaos and guards trying to bring it under control.

Kyle leaped into the air and used surge to progress through the stampede gaining himself a couple bruises and somehow a bitemark along the way. It took him another four minutes to get back to the closest sewage entrance, a manhole covered with a simple metal trapdoor which he had easily broken open. The moment he reached it with one more surge he stopped a middle-aged citizen from dropping straight down into it, Woody had to laser to death a couple of them over the last two hours.

Kyle dropped down into the sewers and rushed over to the both of them, immediately he dropped down to his knees “Bind their senses to my will! We shall show them terror of the likeness never seen before! Ooze! Illusionary!” he chanted his skill decreasing the mana cost and increasing the speed at which it was created in turn. The red slime burst out of his hands and shot down to the left where the sludge flowed towards, after a couple moments of agitation he found what he was looking for.

The slime had begun to dissipate but luckily he was capable of reconnecting a large chunk of it before it did completely. Slowly he flowed his consciousness into the slime noticing that the entirety of the military district had been lost “Fucking h-” his cursing was cut short as his consciousness fully flowed into the slime. Unbeknownst to Kyle this ability had become a skill which he had completely ignored to see the notification for due to the rush, a skill he had accidentally discovered through almost fainting from the rush of Spirit energy within the first hour.

This process continued for several hours, three hours being the longest his body could last before falling apart. He had died twice more and twice more he had to run back, the third having met the most resistance as the guard finally began to mobilize in full.

“Halt!” a guard shouted at him as Kyle crashed into him after surging through the air “You’re running the wrong fucking way!”

“Bitch I ain’t got time for this!” Kyle quickly responded before disappearing into the crowd.

He grabbed the guard by the shoulder as he had done to many others and pulled himself over the guard, he leaped up and used surge.

“Fucking lunatic” exclaimed the guard as he arranged his helmet.

---

Kyle jumped down into the manhole and was about to dash back into the sewage when he noticed team Bravo alongside Woody and Steph. Death, Skill, Jacky and CH stood by waiting for him.

“Yo, the fuck did you do?” Death immediately asked, being in Kyle’s raid party made them immune to the effects of the slime.

“Showed them the flying city falling. You done?” Kyle quickly asked hoping he doesn’t have to flow slime all over the city’s sewage system again.

Jacky responded instead “18 out of 24 targets eliminated, two targets escaped to Kaledd and four captured.”

“Only four? Seriously?” Kyle asked baffled at the small number of captures.

Ch shrugged alongside a sigh “Too many of them were too high level to capture, in a fair fight? We might have even lost against half of them. Three detected us before we could ambush them forcing us to destroy the whole building to kill them, one of those three almost got away even then!”

“Comms people!” Death ordered getting everyone’s attention again “Stage two! We’re to continue this chaotic environment while giving alpha something to fight.”

“What’s the plan?” Kyle asked with curiosity and relief he didn’t have to go comatose again.

Death gave them a wicked grin “The noble’s district is quite vast making it the perfect terrain for a final battle sort. We will disguise ourselves as demons with that illusion spell of yours Kyll, we will fight our own disguised as such. Inspect is altered by simple masks so I’m guessing illusions work even better. Fight hard and kill as many as possible but remember to lose in the end, after all we win even when we lose!” he joked with a chuckle.

“Make sure not to reveal your main abilities either, we cannot be recognised.” Jacky added solemnly.

“Soo…can we PLEASE get the hell out of the sewers now?” Steph begged with annoyance.