"Mercenaries! Here we go." Rey said while walking into another luxurious room. He took a couple of looks around, and noticed that the people in the room were all rugged and aged, giving them a sense of fierceness. He then quickly spotted the clerk and waited in line.

"NEXT!" The clerk shouted as it was Rey's turn. "What do you need done?" She said in an uninterested voice.

"I need to destroy a soul, but keep the body intact. Is there any mercenary that can do that?" Rey asked.

"Haha," she laughed, "Anything is possible, for a price. How strong is this person's willpower? What law do they cultivate? What race are they? Do they have any protections against soul attacks? When..." the woman kept asking more questions as Rey answered each one, albeit changing a few details such as his race. As time grew on, the woman's face began to turn more and more depressed.

"From what you are saying, this 'Soma' seems very powerful, and with strong willpower...there is only one person I can think of who could annihilate his soul without harming the body that you can get in contact with. Gray Kioko is your best bet, he is a novice stage 12 in the soul law. He is a little hefty priced though. You'll need at least 10,000 points, and he still may decline the request." She said.

"10,000 points?!?! That's so much!" He blurted out. "Okay, I'll come back when I have the points." He said while waving goodbye. That was another custom within Sanctuary, instead of throwing ones fist to the ground, they waved with an open hand.

Rey did the math in his head. "If each hour of work awarded about 5 credits, and there are 24 hours in a day, then it will take me...78 days of continuous to be able to hire Gray Kioko." He thought. "With some sleep in between, I'll do it in three months!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Keep your eyes alert! For his Highness!" A commander shouted in a high-pitched voice.

"For his Highness!" A surge of voices responded in the same pitch.

"Hmph!" Riza said in disdain, "A pack of Lychni dogs." She whispered as she was crouched behind a wall, staying away from their field of vision. "It's time to get some retribution, you damn bastards!" She said. As she was thinking of her family and having to leave them behind, fury began to boil and erupt within her.

She headed for her first destination: Home.

Creeping alongside the edge of the town wall, Riza snuck around and cast an illusion ability that she had learned through the light fruit. She could create perceived invisibility that would forcefully block the user's ability to see that she was there. The problem was that if the subject was too keen, or if there was more than one person, then the ability would ultimately fail to keep her hidden; it could only fool one person's sense of sight at a time. Luckily, after a long time of observing the guards, she finally learned their routines, and that there is only ever one guard on the eastern gate of the town of Lorea during the evening.

"Hmmph, seems that they're a lot of Lychni around Lorea after the Princess's death. I'll have to be more careful." Riza thought.

The guard on shift was a tiny woman in comparison to Riza. She cast the ability and walked out in front of the guard. She waited a few moments to confirm that it was working. Seeing the guard unfazed by her presence, she heaved a heavy sigh of relief and walked into the shrubbery.

Sticking to various walls, plants, and other structures, Riza was able to remain mostly unseen. The closer she had gotten to her house, the more guards she ran into. It was not long before she had been seen. She turned the corner and was startled to see a guard, who was similarly startled. The guard was not as strong though, and Riza was able to quickly jab them in the throat and puncture their lungs, preventing the guard from calling out and ending his life.

"For the humans," Riza said to herself with determination.

She arrived at her house and found it empty. Then she too felt empty. "M-maybe they're just outside??" Riza thought, her mind struggling to come to that conclusion. But no matter how long she waited and paced around, she didn't find them. 5 minutes. 20 minutes. 1 hour. 2 hours. After 3 hours of waiting, her anxiety took over as she covered her face and put on clean clothes. She went out the back of her home and blended in with other people walking on the dirt pathways.

She walked to one of her parent's friend's house and found them.

"Riza?!? Where have you been?? Nevermind that, I don't want to know." A man said. He had darkish skin, brown hair, and gave off the perception of life and vitality.

She disregarded his comment and got straight to the point. "Sonalius, where are my parents? Have you seen them at all?"

"I...Riza, they were..." He paused, "They were executed right after you left..." Sonalius said solemnly. "King Sig'car killed them."

Tears streamed down Riza eyes as she dropped to her knees. She found hope in the darkest situation and drew strength from the chance that they were still alive. Now that she knew they were gone, that hope and strength were shattered.

"Where are their bodies?" Riza quietly said as she slowly got back to her feet. "I need to see them."

"Riza, you don't need to see them like that. Your parents were good people, and they cared so much about you. That's why...you need to leave." Sonalius said with haste. "If any of these Lychnus soldiers learn you're here, king Sig'car will rush over, and that's bad for everyone here."

"No, I need to see them, Sonalius!!" She almost shouted, "I...I want to bury them." She said.

Sonalius paused for a moment. An awkward silence formed before he eventually sighed and said, "Okay, but if we're doing this," He said while moving his finger in a circular motion on Riza's forehead. He then pressed his finger into that circle on Riza's forehead. "You won't be implicated" Sonalius gave a weird smile.

"W-what did you...do?" Riza mustered out. She felt something invade her body before falling to the ground.

Plop!

With Riza's vision waning and tranquility flooding her mind, her consciousness faded.

"This is not your battleground, Riza." He said as he hoisted her up and set her down on a bed made of straw. "To tell you the truth, I wanted to stop the abuse done to your parent's bodies before, but I was too scared..." He said aloud, despite knowing that she could not hear him.

"Johnathon and Teresa were some of my best friends," Sonalius realized, "No, they were more like family. When king Sig'car killed them, I held the grief and pain that death brings. But when he then decided to string their broken bodies up for all of Lorea to see...he went too far." He spoke with ferocity, "Nobody deserves that treatment, especially your parents." Sonalius concluded. "Having you come here and express your own sorrow and anger helped me recognize this."

- - - - - - - - - - -

ROOOAAARRR

A lofty beast with wings crashed down into the ground. It was a hulking 6 meters tall, with a body length of 20 meters long. Its scaled underbelly and body were black, with gold patterns around its head, wings, and tail. It carried immense power with every movement, and destruction was its right hand.

The beast caught sight of many cultivators appearing and starting to surround it. Humans, Excardes Inber, Spirits, Demons, and many other creatures started to shout in one voice.

"Kill it!!"

"Don't let it escape!!"

The beast became infuriated at these races and started to well up power of its own. A golden radiance started to shine down. Everyone else looked aghast, they had seen this ability before, and it took many of their comrades lives. The golden light started to crystallize and teleport around in a seemingly random order, slicing and killing anyone in a 25-meter radius.

"Fight on!!!" Each races commanders shouted and urged on. Fire, Water, Ice, Soul, Life, Death, Light, Darkness, Lightning, Space, and Corrosive attacks were all hurled towards the beast. The amount of energy expended became an absurd amount, but none of the races could afford not using everything they could.

The creature, under the barrage of constant attacks, became bloodied and bruised. Even though each person wasn't extremely strong, the number of people made up for their lack of strength and cultivation.

ROAR!!

The beast quickly became scared and tried to fly away.

"Quick!! After it!!" The united races became excited and all went towards it.

Despite taking so much damage, the beast continued to fly for 2 hours. Its vitality and lifeforce were proven to be immense. The united races continued to follow it into a valley with no other exit. When there was nowhere else to go, it finally stopped and turned around. But when it did turn around, the beast looked like it was smiling at them shrewdly. Sweat drenched their backs as they realized that they weren't chasing after it, but it was leading them into a trap. The beast's wounds started to heal, and it looked like it was in perfect health.

"R-run!!!"

"Monster!!!"

Chaos followed as every race disbanded and protected their own. The beast, however, vanished and reappeared behind them to trap everyone.

Wuuuuu!

The beast made a strange noise and another, smaller beast, appeared at his side. It jumped up and down, flapping its tiny wings in excitement. The beast, once again, shined out a golden light and crystalized it. But this time, the shards of golden crystals split even further and efficiently killed almost everything there. No matter how many shields the united races put up, they were all destroyed in a matter of seconds. Even those who were proficient in reflexes and movement were barely able to keep up. A few of the exceptional beings escaped, barely fleeing with their life.

The beast, along with its child, howled towards the sun and began to feast.

- - - - - - - - - - -

A beautiful landscape with mountain ranges, trees that were as tall as the sky, and a myriad of colors were portrayed around a single person. Complex engravings entwined with each other as they formed full images. Purple light swiveled around as a smile formed on the youth's face. "Found another!" He said with excitement plastered on his face, before furrowing his brows.

"Oink?" Ozzy sounded curious. He had never seen anything able to provoke such a reaction to his master before, even with the countless battles he's been through.

"Hmm, I didn't expect to find a common enemy to Ouranos here." Soma stated before smiling again, "All the better though!"

- - - - - - - - - - -

Searing light woke Riza up as she struggled to see. Her head rung inconsistently and throbbed as she sat up on a makeshift bed. After a few minutes of staring blankly at a wooden wall, clarity started to fill her mind again. The last words she heard from Sonalius replayed in her head. Seething anger filled her as she recognized that her parents were used to display Sig'car's cruelty. But the thing that touched her most - Sonalius going to bring their bodies back - was also the thing that made her worry.

'Please be safe, Sonalius!' She prayed while anxiously waiting.

Half an hour later Riza, who was crouched inside Sonalius' home near an open window, saw guards rushing to the center of town. Feeling nervous and not wanting to sit around, she took off in that direction.

After two minutes of traveling, with the help of the light law, Riza arrived very quickly. She observed the town square which had normally been bustling with people and found that no commoner was around. Only the Lychni soldiers and Sonalius were there.

There were 14 Lychni surrounding Sonalius, who was bloodied and sweating profusely. She looked at five different pikes that centered for all to see the atrocity painted there. The pikes were covered in the thick stench of blood. Their bodies seemed to have already been pulled down by Sonalius before the fight started.

Riza's gaze was hyper-focused as she stared coldly at more incoming lychni soldiers. A bright radiance started to form around Riza as she started using the law of light.