Leaping and chasing after Al, Corrupter is around a 50 meter away from the gates right now, and behind him, right after pile of sleeping soldiers, villagers can be seen trying to close the gates, carrying three women. It doesn't look like soldiers were too rough with them, probably they still have some mental damage after being a slave and all this situation with an army and taking them away made them remember the past again. There are some soldiers, who are trying to hinder villagers efforts.

After sparing a glance behind, to see the situation around the gates, Corrupter finally steels himself and decisively waves his sword with a huge vertical swing from overhead. Although there is no one in sword's immediate path, I see the results before I can doubt Corrupter's actions. A wave of 3-4 meters in height and a meter in length washes right through the soldiers and hits Al, who were standing behind the rows of the soldiers protecting him. But this time it's different, instead of just an invisible wave, that sends everyone unconscious in contact, it has an frightening black color to it. Just by a looking at it, even I, who have no knowledge of magic can tell that whoever gets hit by it won't go off lightly. The wave after washing through the couple of unfortunate soldiers in its path, engulfs Al's whole body, and without even a shriek all the soldiers and Al himself, who were hit by the black wave fell to the ground at the same time with one *thud*. I can see, that bracelet is still intact in Al's wrist. After sending one more invisible wave with his sword, this time horizontal, a dozen more soldiers hit the ground unconscious, frightening already shocked soldiers, who just lost their commander even more.

"Take your fallen comrades and leave this place, or follow your commander to his demise". Corrupter's deep, powerful voice resounds from everywhere. I can't help but feel chill running down my spine, after the brutal demonstration of power. He is done playing around.

And the effect must felt even more frightening for the soldiers themselves, because before he even could finish his short speech, some of the soldier already fled. Some of them dropping their weapons to run as fast as they can. And after more and more wake up from their shock, seeing their fallen commander, and their comrades running behind them, they start to flee too. Corrupter doesn't wait, to see them leave, instead turning around and walking towards the gates. And before the stunned villagers can open it, he leaps high from the ground, jumping right above the wall and landing behind it. Some of the villagers starts cheering, realizing their victory. But before more of the villagers can join the celebration, Corrupter's serious voice sounds again.

"No time for Celebrations, now that they know about us, they will send someone stronger, and I can't guarantee your safety, while I will be fighting them, you have to pack your possession and leave the village as soon as possible." (Corrupter)

Villagers look like a bucket of cold water were poured on them, everyone starts to hastily make their ways to their homes, making preparations. Only village chief, leaving of his own orders, makes his way towards Corrupter. Being sure, that no one can hear them, he starts the conversation after a quick bow.

"Thank you for saving our lives again." After a slight hesitation, he continues "Sir, I find the timing of their investigation too coincidental, right after you left the village, I fear to imagine what could have happened if you haven't returned Sir." Says the head taller bear-man bowing towards Corrupter.

After a nod of acknowledgement, Corrupter answers "Most likely someone from the village told them, but right now we don't have the time to find out who. It will have to wait. And I'm sure after my arrival, imperials already sent a reinforcements. You will leave as soon as possible, go through the mountains to the east. It should be saver in Nikephoros."

"Does that mean that you are not coming with us Sir?" (Uthyr)

"No, I have the unfinished business in the empire, and I'll have to take care of whatever they send for reinforcement, or they will catch up to you before you can make your way out of the empire." (Corrupter)

"Thank you sir, I'll make sure that everyone make it out of the empire safely, and I'll catch the rat before we leave the empire."(Uthyr)

"Mhm, leave as soon as possible." (Corrupter)

Finishing their conversation, Corrupter makes his way towards now empty walls, sitting atop of them, gazing to the horizon. It looks like unconscious soldiers were left behind, some of them are waking up and after seeing the pile of bodies laying and Corrupter sitting on the wall, calmly watching their every move, they manage to put 2 and 2 together, and flee as fast as they can.

While waiting there on the top of the wall I keep pondering about the things I've just witnessed. I was sure that Corrupter is a strong mage, but to kill their general so effortlessly. And it seems like Al believed, that he had more than enough chances to kill Corrupter. It's impressive in how he actually managed to defeat an army with so little blood. Technically speaking there were literally no blood on Corrupter's victims, only some on the little clash that took place around the gates, when villagers were trying to close it. I don't think it was possible to make it with less deaths. But although seeing all this, and feeling Corrupter's emotions, I still can't help but feel about this world like a game. Especially right now, that the world seemed to enter a fast-forward mode, the villagers are moving so fast I can't even see all of them, and sun is setting a lot faster than it should. In what should be a minute, around couple of hours went by. At some point villagers exited from the north-east gates, and made their way to the east. Now it's only me and Corrupter, sitting inside of the desolate village.

”Oh, sir Kastor, you were waiting for me, so kind of you, freeing me from the headache of finding you. My apologies for keeping you waiting so long, I was a bit busy with all those criminals running around the village" Appearing out of nowhere with a sudden gush of wind, what looks like a middle-aged man, clad in a golden armor. I don't see anything resembling a weapon on him. And I didn't even notice his sudden appearance. But Corrupter, or is Kastor his name, seems unimpressed by it. But it seems like he didn't like the tone and meaning of middle-aged man's words. I can feel a frown creeping up on his face. It seems that he is cautious towards this man. The man has a white aura, all the villagers and the soldiers so far had only 3 colors: Green, Orange and Red, but this man has white aura, but if I concentrate more on his aura, I can feel my head spinning, and in the depths of the white I can see the darkest shade of red I can imagine. It's so dark that can be called black.

"You mean your imperial army's soldiers, Zenon?" (Kastor?)

"Oh so you recognized me? I shouldn't expect less from Kastor the corrupter, after all" Oh, so it was his title. "And those criminals don't deserve to be called soldiers after fleeing from the battle, abandoning their duty". (Zenon)

"What did you do to them?" Asks Kastor with clenched teetch.

"I just delivered the divine punishment for their crimes" (Zenon)

Rage and hatred swelling inside Kastor's chest he no longer holding back jumps straight from the top of the 4 meter high walls towards golden armored middle aged man.

A deafening sound of clashing weapons sounds out, after they both pull their weapons out of nowhere. Trading a blow after blow, utilizing swordsmanship on a level I have never seen before, they keep fighting with a speed I can't keep up with. It seems, that Kastor is holding an upper hand, he manages to inflict and injury after injury, a cut after cut, but as soon as they appear, they close and disappear like their very existence was an illusion. I am trying to comprehend as much from their intense battle as possible. Their movements, the unfathomable invisible waves washing in the air, trying to overwhelm one another. And it seems, that Kastor is holding an upper hand in those invisible wave crushes as well. So far the battle seems to flow in his favor, but that smug look and that arrogant grin on Zenon's face is unnerving. It looks like he doesn't care about his own injuries and his only objective is to inflict some injuries to Kastor.

Kastor in turn, seems angrier and angrier, and it's not only because of how frustrating is the fight, when you are fighting against immortal lunatic.

*Swish*

Zenon's grin widens, when he trades a pierce into his heart against a cut into Kaster's shoulder. It looks like his left arm isn't functioning anymore and Kaster's shoulder isn't regenerating like Zenon did with his heart. Kaster jumps back waving the other hand and 5 bodies rise from the ground, encircling Zenon within. So that's what he was trying to do with the trade of blows, he was trying to bait Zenon into his trap. And his title's makes a lot more sense now. So he is a necromancer. Those 4 bodies are the soldiers that were killed by him when he killed Al, and 5-th is Al himself. Still wearing that bracelet on his wrist.

Zenon don't look impressed at all, giving a cold snort, he waves his hand, and after the wave of invisible energy washes through them 4 of the soldiers stop in their tracks, and fall back to the ground. Before Zenon could open his mouth to make an arrogant remark, he notices that one of the bodies haven't fallen, and is still making his way towards him. From the very start the bodies were lying very close to him, because of how Kaster baited him in the best position, sacrificing his left arm. After the initial surprise he doesn't have any time to react, and all he can do is twist his body, to face the last zombie, emitting a stronger, but still invisible wave again. After all he didn't have to realize why the last zombie is still standing, how could he have guessed, that Kaster is using their own tricks against them.

It seems bracelet's charge finally diminished and it shattered with a *crack*, and zombie hits the ground before being able to do anything to Zenon, but the moment of distraction was all Kaster needed. Already on the hand's reach distance, Kaster swings with his fully enveloped in black shadows sword towards his opponent's neck. Zenon in turn tries to defend himself frantically creating a white barrier around his head. But half-created barrier proves to be weaker, and sword losing tiny bit of its power punctures into his neck. I have a feeling, that whatever Kaster used, must be something ignoring his enemy's regeneration, because he seems relieved, that his plan worked.

Suddenly a huge amount of white energy bursts forth from Zenon's whole body, slowly concentrating into his hands. Kaster, still his sword inside Zenon's neck, pales, as realization strikes him. Zenon grabs Kaster with both of his hands and channels the whole white energy into him through his hands, which intensity in dark night is like a sun, illuminating all the surroundings. Then they both hit the ground, light dimming , as Kaster's scream echoes in the desolate place. I can feel his unwillingness, his sadness and his despair.

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POV change: Kaster the corrupter.

Is this it? Am I going to die because of this carelessness? Pain engulfs all my body as I feel slowly losing consciousness. After all this years, fighting, protecting, this is how it all ends? Being known as the corrupter? The number one criminal of the empire? After what my family gave to this world, we will forever be known to the whole world as the family of demons?

My grandfather was born with a innate talent, a mutated soul. It took him some time until he realized what that talent was for. He could see people's karma. The purest soul, when baby is just born has the most pure, white color. And after our every action, it changes. There is no adult with a white color, the purest, most honest and kind people have the lightest green color. Those who have done some intentional harm to others, either scheming or sometimes even just harboring bad thoughts have orange color. And the worst criminals, murderers, rapists and even some thieves have the red color. But no matter how dark or evil a man is, there is no pure evil, even that lunatic Zenon with his royal family is only a very dark shade of red, they aren't black. My grandfather, was a great man, he was trying to establish a peace in the whole world. In his time there were always wars between demihumans, elves and humans. He was trying to share his vision with everyone, to create a better world. And he succeeded, after long years of research and adventures he managed to find friends from dwarven kingdom, and he even managed to befriend a Spirit. With their help and knowledge on their respective fields, he created an artifact, and spread it throughout the whole world. At first it was really tough, especially considering that the kings and nobles were all red themselves. After a long war, which took years, the church of truth was established. Rulers were chosen only from the green people. And here is where everyone should live long and happy, but they came.

Pankratius family, all of them had white statuses, and although they are most evil man I ever knew, they somehow seems to be the only ones being able to hide their real status color from my grandpa's artifacts. But although they managed to deceive everyone, only my family, who were original wielders of the soul mutation, were able to see their true face. After the war which took years, my grandpa's status were orange as well, he killed a lot of people after all, and when he tried to convince people, that their newfound angels with white wings are imposters, no one believed him, saying, that he was trying to use his own artifacts to become a king himself. Well, of course everything wasn't as easy as that, I'm sure there were a lot of fights and schemes behind the scenes, but the results were that we lost.

I would never lose to these lunatic Zenon Pankratius in the fare fight, in the way to the village he executed and absorbed all of the soldiers life energy. He is a life mage after all.

Life and death magic are the rarest and most powerful of magic, in the Spirit category. The mages who practice in them, have incomparably strong souls, compared to the other mages. I was practicing death magic all my life, researching the way to get resurrect a death's soul, my grandpa's and my family's souls, trying to clear my family's name in the process. But after years of research, my results weren't as successful as my grandpa's. Although I managed to succeed in my research, there were restrictions. I found out, that every soul, after dying goes to the soul-abyss, the place where nothing exists, they are deemed to stay there as long as it takes to erase their all memories, and be reborn anew. And depending on the soul's strength or the amount of memories, the time can vary, which at first gave me hope, hope, that even if my grandpa would lose a lot of his memories, considering how much time has passed, I still had a chance, I don't know anyone else who had stronger soul than him after all, except spirits and Gods themselves. But it turns out, that the flow of time in the soul-abyss, is different. There time flows a lot faster, and the second my grandfather have died, even with his powerful soul, in the next second he was already lost, his soul already reincarnated.

Now, I myself am dying, the last of my family. Without being able to clean my name.

Then, it hit me, the realization, that I still have a chance, no matter how miniscule, but there still is a chance. Even if I can't reincarnate souls that were killed years ago, I can still bring someone, who died recently, the very second I died. I only need to find someone and convince him to help me, I refuse to believe that in the whole soul-abyss, where million souls appears every second I won't be able to find someone suitable.

Still inside my dying body, I used every ounce of mana left inside my mana pool, to cast my final and greatest spell. The final restriction, which is why I still haven't resurrected anyone till this day, was to create a soul-container, a core, which any living being with soul posses. But only Gods can create cores, so the only solution for this problem that I could find is to use existing core. But if someone doesn't give their core willingly, there is no way to take it forceful, if you are not a God. But now that I'm dying, there is no problem in finding a willing subject. My consciousness leaves my body, entering the soul-abyss. Using the last drops of mana left, I try to find a suitable soul.

My first tries were futile, I tried to talk to them, but they either wished to die, or were trying to deceive, just to get reincarnated. Then I tried to show them my memories, my life, my final battle, to see their reactions, to see their emotions, to judge their character. Most of were easy to judge from the very start, their thoughts showed their intentions immediately. The longest someone managed to last was a guy from some weird world, with good morals, but I found out that their species seems to be all cowards. In my, which was that again? 57-th?, whatever... In my 60-th attempt I stumbled into a soul, which was repeating the same words in what seems to be a futile attempt to not forget his life.

"I didn't have a girlfriend. I loved reading novels and mangas, I loved watching anime and of course I loved playing games. Especially strategic games. I am -who..." (60th soul)

"Oh? You noticed my presence? It seems you have quite powerful soul." (me)

"Hello?" (60th soul)

"It seems, like you can't hear me, well, maybe not as powerful as I thought" (me)

"Hello? Can someone hear me?" (60th soul)

Ok, let's start then, I hope you won't disappoint me. I willed him to be engulfed inside my memories, while I can watch his every emotion. I am death mage after all, and the death God's champion at that, my soul power is a lot more powerful, I can make him see and feel whatever I want to, while watching his reaction. Although time here flows differently, my mana still gets consumed in astonishing speed, I have to find someone fast, or my mana pool will end faster and the spell will be interrupted.