An irate voice was trying to persuade Lineir to see reason,

"Disciple, look here! The White Horizon Sect is still on high alert. Trying to sneak back into the city is folly. You would do well to leave and take the road! Give me a few years and you can come back and make this city yours for all I care! Just don't waste all the energy I have spent reshaping your meridians on something so trivial as a family trip!"

However, Lineir was not convinced,

"I'm sorry Master, but I need to at least show my sister that I am alive. She must be worried sick, and she'll no doubt cause quite a ruckus looking for me. The White Horizon Sect may even catch wind of this and suspect that she may be related to me! I must tell her what has happened before I can leave this city. I beg of you, help me enter the city!" He whined.

The owner of the voice in the sword, who had told Lineir her named was Mei, grudgingly agreed, realizing that this youth who had often disobeyed her would not bend in the slightest on this matter.

"Fine, I'll help you get in! However, you absolutely must go straight in and back out. No matter what your sister says, we must leave immediately after telling her! Word of this will not stay contained in this little city, no matter how the elders of the White Horizon Sect might try to conceal it. The Greater Sects of this continent should have ears and eyes willingly reporting to them everywhere. Tell your sister some semblance of what happened, leave out most of it. She doesn't need to know and it will only endanger her. Then let us be on our way!"

Like a creeping panther, Lineir crawled on his belly out the old city, back to the gates of Brackenrock.

"I have to keep following the wall until I get to the Eastern Gate, if I come in from the Western Gate, questions will be asked and they might realize that I'm the one from the Deadzone. Master, do you have any idea how I can get in without my face being recognized by the guards? I might be presumed dead, but I'm sure after all I've done, that a young man such as myself, will be regarded suspiciously by any guard, no matter which gate I come in from."

"Kiddo, your master may have lost a lot of precious energy...no wait...as a matter of fact, a FORTUNE OF ENERGY FOR YOUR SAKE...but some uncultivated guards are less than nothing to me. Small fry will be small fry. Just approach the gate quietly without raising suspicion, and then relax and let me do the rest." Mei's voice suddenly got extremely wicked pricking Lineir's suspicions.

"Mei Mei... you weren't planning on doing anything...fatal to those guards were you? They're just drafted to serve the White Horizon Sect. They have no choice in the matter. They might even be somebody I know!" Lineir quickly inquired. After all that had happened, he was still just a youth and didn't want to see anyone hurt.

"Of course I was planning on killing them! How else are we supposed to get in! If you have a problem with your master's methods, get in yourself then!" Mei had not a trace of guilt in her voice. Lineir sighed, this was going to be tricky. His clothes were covered in filth and smelled wretched. Furthermore, he dared not cover his face with his shirt, which would expose the wicked black scar across his chest. Finally, he settled on a plan.

"There's no other way. Seeing my sister is more important than my dignity!" He quickly stripped off his pants and covered his face. With that, he was ready and headed to the gates clad in only his underwear. Lineir found himself slowly walking by the guards looking for all the world like some poor sop who had had far too much to drink. The amount of dirt on him made it seem like he had fallen many times like drunks do. The guards, as well as the voice in his head, were snickering endlessly.

"Kiddo, I have to admit. Your ingenuity knows no bounds. But your master questions your taste. Perhaps I shouldn't be empowering somebody of such a vulgar nature at such a young age. I fear what might happen when you grow up."

The guards were also holding their sides in laughter.

"Drink a little too much last night and get on the wrong side of someone? Perhaps you ran afoul of some robbers? You're quite bold to come waltzing in here with your pants on your head. Be careful, in the city, some old man might take a liking to you in that attire!" With that, Lineir almost made it into the city. Of course, just as he thought he was going to get away with it, things had to go wrong.

"Wait, young man, you look a little young to be drinking. Come here and let me see your face for a second." Lineir's heart began to beat faster. He had been so close.

Badump.

Badump.

"Look, do you want to humiliate me when I'm down on my luck? Just let me go home and change, my wife will be looking for me." Lineir hoped the casual mention of a wife would help him appear older. Mei, despite the dangerous situation, was still laughing endlessly in his head.

"My, my, don't get caught for underage drinking! That would be terrible, your family will be so ashamed!" She stopped laughing, however, when suddenly the guard whipped out his sword from its sheath and leveled it at Lineir's throat.

"No, I don't think you're quite old enough to have a wife yet. As a matter of fact, you look remarkably similar to another youth I saw a few days ago. Somebody who brought the dead hammering on the city gates and caused quite a bit of trouble. There's even a reward out for this person. You wouldn't happen to have come from the Deadzone would you?"

With that, he took a slow step closer. Lineir's heart began to beat even faster, each thump feeling like it would hammer right out of his chest. He had never had this sort of feeling before the events of last night. In the past he had always kept his cool but right now he couldn't seem to calm himself.

"Master, you're controlling this undead heart of mine right? Could you slow it down a little? I'm getting a little shaky here, it's kind of hard to lie like this." Mei however was stumped.

"It's not me kiddo, this heart is reacting to your fear. I can't slow it down without stopping it completely, and you don't want that. You'll just have to bear it! Hold strong and find a way out or let me take over like you should have from the beginning. You're still too soft! At your age I killed without hesitation."

Badump, Badump, BADA, BADA, BADA, BADA

His heart was completely out of control. As the guard reached him, his sword was only a few feet from Lineir's throat. Terrified, the boy turned to face him.

"Pull your pants from your face kid. If you're innocent, you can be on your way after I get a good look. What the hell is that crap on you anyway, it almost looks like...blood..." The pants slipped off of Lineir's face at the worst possible moment and the guard's eyes widened as his sword came ever closer.

BADA, BADA, BADA, BADUMP, BADUMP

His heart going crazy Lineir shouted,

"Mei-Mei, don't kill them!"

At that moment, however, something strange happened. When the guard's sword came up to his throat, Lineir's eyes followed the wicked steel's arcing path. The world seemed to slow down. He leaned backwards and the sword passed over his head by mere centimeters, yet at the crawling speed the sword appeared to be moving before Lineir's eyes, those centimeters might as well have been kilometers. A huge wrenching pain came from his chest, and then his arms felt like they were being ripped out of their sockets. An enormous curving sickle of bone shot out from his right elbow, following his forearm, before ending a good half meter past his fingertips. His hands stretched out and waved in the wind while dodging the guard's attack. Then the bizaire bony attachment followed and sliced through the guard's throat.

Another guard behind the two of them yelled out in astonishment and rushed at Lineir. To the boy in his current state, this guard might as well have been walking. He seemed to be moving so slow. As the guard's sword came towards him, a second bone sickle erupted from Lineir's left elbow and his arm stretched out automatically towards the rapidly approaching man's chest. It caused the guard to impale himself on the strange appendange. The dying man's face twisted in shock.

"You... you....!"

Lineir was speechless. He immediately ran off into the city, terrified of what had just occurred.

"Master! I told you not to kill them!" He shouted in fear. However, what Mei said next scared him even more.

"Foolish kid, I was going to...but you killed them before I could do anything..."