On their way back, Evelyn turned to Adam and asked: “So, what's next?”

Adam gave a slight sigh: “As with anything, I need to practice a bit before trying something big. I was too embarrassed to mention it after you all started clapping, but that was all just warm up! I was just trying to find all the combinations of sounds the flute could make... I still have yet to compose any of that into a song and it is the result of that that will tell me if my plan will work!”

Evelyn was a little astonished at this revelation. Adam's 'warm up' sounded so nice. If it was anyone else, she wouldn't believe them if they told her they were just warming up and not acutally playing a song! Evelyn asked with expectation: “So, do you think you will really be able to control spirits with it?”

“It's too early to tell, but I have hope!”

Adam began practice deep in the forest and away from the village. The effects of the flute easily attracted others and Adam did not wish to be disturbed in the middle of his work. The first thing Adam did was to continue going through the warm up process he had started back at Malero's workshop. This time, though, he was paying more attention to how the spirit essence around him was reacting to the flute.

The results were miraculous! The process was similar in how he controlled spirit essence, but instead of guiding the spirit essence in ways they liked, they truly followed his commands issued through the flute! They were captive dancers to the Thunder Flute's music! Even though they were captive to his music, Adam actually found it harder to make the spirit essence do anything useful compared to his normal methods. He had to expend ten times as much effort simply because he now had to command everything that the spirit essence did, where as normally they would move on their own accord but to his own rhythm.

While experimenting with his control over spirit essence, Adam quickly came to control all of the spirit essence he could see with his elemental sight! And yet, he felt like that wasn't the limit he could reach! It was rather easy to enthrall spirit essence to his music and the difficulty of controlling the spirit essence was more or less the same, no matter how much or how little he controlled!

Since he had reached the limit with his elemental sight, Adam opened his eyes and continued to control the spirit essence as best as he could without his elemental sight. Adam tested his reach out further and further, causing patches of ice to accumulate in the air to visualize where his control currently was. Even then... Adam's control reached beyond the horizon he could see! Though, it took him the better part of a whole day to spread his control that far.

Adam was simply dumbfounded at this: “How am I able to control this much spirit essence!?”

It was great that Adam was able to control so much spirit essence, but he wanted to understand why. If he could understand it, maybe he would be able to use it more effectively

Adam once again started controlling only a small amount of spirit essence around himself and paid more attention to how the spirit essence shifted as it came under his control, rather than trying to control it.

Slowly, Adam learned more about how he was controlling the spirit essence. The spirit essence immediately around Adam was directly enthralled by the music he played. The more beautifully he played, the faster his control would spread. Nearby, his music was still the primary reason why he gained control over spirit essence. Further away, however, was a different story. Rather than being controlled by his music, it felt more like the spirit essence was being infected by the mood of those that were enthralled. The spirit essence he controlled quivered about as though they enjoyed his music and dancing along to it, so much so that more spirit essence readily joined in! It was a form of mob mentality! As long as Adam continued playing... there was a potential that he could enthrall all the spirit essence in the world to his music! It would take a long time to do that, though. Adam did think of something that could potentially help him spread his music out faster, but put it to the back of his mind. That would be part of the last step, not somewhere in between.

Before too long, Adam felt he had discovered everything he could about playing the Thunder Flute. There was only one thing left to test, and that couldn't be done in the village. Adam spoke with Evelyn: “The last thing I need to do is to test whether or not I can actually control spirits. The closest spirit is in Vilmar!”

Evelyn gasped in surprise: “You don't mean to directly confront the Church of Spirits, do you?”

An attack on the Church of Spirits would be seen as unjust by the people who followed them and would definitely sour relations with the spirits of life. Adam tried to alleviate Evelyn's thoughts: “I'm not going to confront them with battle. All I'm going to do is play a song and see how it goes.”

It was a quick flight of around ten days to Vilmar. They had to land pretty far away, though, as Vilmar had sentries looking to the sky. They must have been worried for a possible dragon assault. Being the heart of the Church of Spirits, Vilmar was definitely a place that the southern flock of dragons would want to attack and conquer.

Adam and Evelyn entered Vilmar with a brilliant ruse. Adam came as a musician, to play his flute on the street and earn coin in a simple manner. They would have to cover up their vibrant clothing, though, as it would be doubtful that any musician that could afford clothes such as theirs would be playing on the streets.

For the citizens of Vilmar, the day started like any other. Even as Adam occupied a spot on a street near the church, nobody detected anything different. Evelyn stood by Adam with a simple coffer box in hand for donations. Adam pulled out the resplendent Thunder Flute, the only thing that couldn't be hidden, and played his first note. The timbre of it rolled across the street and all the noise and hubbub of a city suddenly died down! Only Adam's music proliferated in the air. All the spirit essence floating around was instantly captivated. Even the spirit essence within the souls of those hearing the music was effected! No one assumed anything else besides the fact that Adam's music was simply marvelous!

It was the first time Adam truly performed before an audience with the Thunder Flute. Until this moment, he had been unaware of the effect his flute truly had on others. Adam didn't pay it too much attention, however, as he was concentrating his elemental sight over to the church. That was where his true target laid.

His music drifted about the church, faint and melodious. No one could quite pick it out, but all new there was something drifting about the air. The parishioners found themselves more at peace, with the faint drifting music, and their worries eased. If felt as though they were being blessed and their prayers were being answered!

Adam couldn't see the spirit anywhere. All he could do was continue playing and wait for the spirit to emerge. Hopefully, it would not be a long wait.

The music continued to permeate through the air, approaching the chamber sealed by formations below the cathedral. As the music brushed against the formations, they miraculously started peeling away! The music seemed to be acting as a liberating force on the spirit essence that had been enslaved and forced to work in the formations. With their binds undone, they were now free to dance along with the music!

The spirit residing within suddenly burst out! It sent its voice about: “What is-”

But then its words stopped! Caught by the music, the spirit lulled and drifted along with the spirit essence around it! Adam's music nearly faltered in his utter surprise: 'Is it really this easy to control spirits!?'

Then, before Adam knew it, the spirit actually dispersed into spirit essence! It was the same as when he was stripping the formation apart with his music, the spirit essence that made up the spirit happily separated apart to joyously dance to the music! This time, Adam's music did falter as he came to an abrupt stop from this startling development.

Despite his abrupt halt, everyone around Adam started clapping and complimenting his playing. Plenty of people started throwing coins into the coffer Evelyn held. Evelyn cast a concerned glance over to Adam. She was the only one who seemed to notice the sudden abruptness of the music's end. She asked: “Is everything okay?”

Adam nodded as he quickly put his flute away. “It worked far better than I had dared hope! Let's leave, before somebody figures out that something's wrong with their local spirit!”

Adam and Evelyn quickly excused themselves from the crowd and made to leave the city. Once they were mostly away from the crowd, Evelyn asked: “What did you do? It seems like more happened than just controlling the spirit.”

Adam nodded: “In short, I killed the spirit!”

Evelyn became alarmed: “Weren't you just going to control it!?”

Adam gave a depreciating sigh: “Yes, and that somehow led to its death! I wasn't expecting that! If the pope has a way to initiate a conversation with the spirit and the spirit doesn't show up, the Church of Spirits will begin to suspect something!”

Adam and Evelyn quickly fled the city and started their journey back north. Two days later, they encountered another one of those wars that had become so common. Already at the height of the battle, hordes of ghouls were creating chaos, summoned from portals created by the opposing armies, while dragons fought in the skies! At least they weren't using portal stones and were instead using man made portals. With that, it seemed unlikely that spirits would be joining the fray.

Looking down from high up, Adam thought of something. He sent to Evelyn: “Let's land, I have an idea.”

Evelyn followed Adam on a descent close to the war and asked: “What's your idea?”

Adam hesitated for a moment to find the correct phrasing: “I might be able to dispel all the ghouls on the battle ground!”

Adam landed and resumed his Human-Form. He then pulled the Thunder Flute out and started to play once more. As his music spread out once more, it again enthralled spirit essence while captivating man. As it washed over them, the ghouls suddenly found the spirit essence that ran through their bodies escaping to dance wildly with the music! The ghouls slowed in their attacks until they stopped all together. One by one, they collapsed to the ground as their bodies no longer had enough spirit essence to sustain them! In the span of but a few short minutes, large hordes of ghouls had been completely wiped out! Not only that, their corrupted blood was rendered inert! Those infected by the corrupted blood were also purified of it! Such a scene was utterly mystical! It was as though a miracle had fallen from the skies. Not only had none of the men on the ground ever heard of such a thing, neither had the dragons fighting in the sky.

Both stunned by the mystical scene and lulled by the beautiful music they could hear, all activity of the war stopped! No man nor dragon continued the fight! As Adam let the last sound of his song roll out, silence filled the battlefield. The echoes of the song remained in the minds of the men and dragons. None of them felt the desire to fight. Quietly, both sides retreated from the field. Perhaps they would fight another day, but none desired to continue on that day.

Evelyn was also stunned, like the others. However, she felt more pride than surprise! She beamed a brilliant smile at Adam: “So, do you think you've finally found the end of this war?”

Adam gave a small nod. “There is one more thing I need to test. If it works, my song will be able to cover the entire world! If the spirits decide to try and fight their war here, well... they will all find themselves on the loosing side!”

Adam and Evelyn continued north to the northern village of dragons. In the remaining part of their journey, the encountered two fighting spirits that Adam quickly dealt with using the Thunder flute! With this, Adam's confidence only grew.

As they approached the village, Adam and Evelyn quickly discovered something wrong! There were many dragons standing in the forest or flying in the air! They were placed as though to separate the village from the mountain. With the direction they were facing, it seemed they were guarding against something from the mountain!

Adam and Evelyn shared a concerned glance before speeding their flight up. They landed at Evelyn's house. After Human-Forming, Evelyn quickly ran inside. With concern, she called out: “Mom, are you home?”

Samantha quickly came out: “Evelyn, thank goodness you're home!”

Evelyn quickly asked: “What's going on? Why are there so many dragons in the forest?”

Samantha shook her head: “Spirits are occupying the mountain! The chieftain met with them and it seems the spirits have noticed that we have started pulling back our dragons to the village. Every time there is a call to war, we have been sending less and less. Lately, it also seems a spirit that acted as some form of communication for the Church of Spirits was killed! The spirits want to increase the war efforts and are demanding our assistance!”

Adam gave a deep sigh: “That's my fault. I accidentally killed that spirit.”

Samantha blinked a few times, unsure if she heard what Adam said correctly. Adam then asked: “That still doesn't quite explain why the dragons are guarding against an attack. Did the spirits threaten the village?”

Samantha nodded: “When the chieftain tried to refuse, they started throwing threats out. The chieftain hasn't yet decided how to respond. It seems like we will be forced to either fight the southern dragons or fight the spirits! Everyone is on edge and has no idea what's going to happen.”

Adam frowned. He then said: “Evelyn, I will need you to take me to the top of the mountain! I need to be free to use my flute.”

Samantha became alarmed at this. Approaching the mountain without agreeing to the spirit's demands might spark a conflict! “What are you planning to do!?” she asked.

Evelyn spoke first with confidence: “Don't worry mom, Adam can put an end to all of this!”

Adam nodded: “If my plan works, any spirit or ghoul that dares to step into our world to create conflict will die!”

The confidence in Adam's voice surprised Samantha. Such an audacious statement and yet... it almost seemed possible if it came from Adam.

Evelyn took off with Adam on her back. Hardly a moment after she took off, Adam had already started playing the Thunder Flute once more. Without the flute's music, perhaps the dragons guarding the village would have intercepted Evelyn and prevented her from getting close to the mountain. With the music, however, they just watched Evelyn fly over head as the music wafted down to them to captivate their interest.

Before anyone truly knew what was happening, Evelyn had already reached the mountain. Adam's music penetrated deep within and the five spirits there couldn't resist the urge to dance to the fatal music's tune.

Evelyn flew to the top of the mountain. It was here that spirit essence cycling through the world passed before dispersing back out to be collected down south once more. Without missing a beat, Adam alighted from Evelyn's back and sat down on the peak, concentrating on the music.

With the assistance of the spirit essence passing through the mountain, Adam's music took off and into the sky! Where ever it went, more spirit essence joined with the music in dance, spreading it out ever further. From the skies where the spirit essence carried the music, it started to drift down here and there. It was only slowly spreading, but soon enough the music would spread out into the warring kingdoms!

A white dragon gently flew and landed on the top of the mountain. It was the chieftain, come to figure out what was going on. He asked Evelyn to explain what was happening

Evelyn shook her head before sending: “I don't know the exact details. Adam finds it hard to explain himself. His music can control spirits! Somehow, this causes them to die as he controls them. The music also kills ghouls! Right now, Adam is trying to spread his music out through the world, blocking the spirits from continuing their war here! If ever they try to, they will only find their own death!”

The chieftain could only look at Adam in surprise as he continued with his song. It was actually getting harder and harder for Adam to continue! As the song spread so far and wide, it began to echo back to him from afar. He found himself suddenly needing to play a musical note that matched the one he had played several beats ago, that would also match the one to come several beats later. To cause the music to play with itself to create a multitude of melodies created by the echoing of one lone flute playing.

Such a task sounds daunting and Adam began to falter from the steep difficulty! However, it soon started to flow naturally. There was a hidden cadence Adam started to detect behind his own music. Between the way the notes echoed and the rhythms of his song, there was something underlying that everything just seemed it could fit into. The longer Adam played like this, the easier it became to reveal that hidden underlying cadence, even as things became more difficult with his song going further and further out into the world. For as complex as the song was becoming, it was actually becoming simpler and simpler for Adam to play!

While falling into the cadence of the music, Adam began to loose track of time. Minutes turned into hours which turned into days! Three days passed. Over this time, Adam's music had fallen all across the world. Wars stopped in their tracks as ghouls died and spirits were silenced. Men and dragon alike momentarily lost the desire for war. The world managed to enter a small moment of peace.

Having followed the flow of spirit essence across the world, Adam's music passed through the southern mountain and then through the center of the world. Finally, Adam's song passed back through the mountain he was sitting upon and back to him!

Adam was about to finish up the song he had started playing three days ago. He had already made his point with the song and he was already exhausted and would not be able to continue playing for much longer. However, as his song passed up through the mountain and reconnected with him, his elemental sight suddenly expanded outward! Adam could barely comprehend what he was seeing. Within his elemental sight, he could now see the entire world!

Having continuously played his flute over the last three days, he subconsciously continued even as his mind was shocked into silence by this sudden development. Adam didn't dare look into the details he was seeing with his elemental sight, as there was too much to see! Looking at everything as a whole, he could see how spirit essence was cycling through the world and tendrils reaching up from the cycle into six distinct spots surrounding the world. 'Those must be the spirit planes!' Adam thought.

Continuing to look at the overall image, Adam came to realize something. The direction of spirit essence through the tendrils wasn't coming down from the spirit planes. Rather, it was going up to the spirit planes... At the heart of the world, Adam could see that it's core was actually the driving force for the cycle of spirit essence! The implications of this thundered through Adam's mind: 'Our world isn't created from spirit essence bleeding off from spirits in the spirit planes! Instead, spirit essence comes from the heart of our world and forms spirits and their planes!'

The most basic theory that all spiritualists knew by heart was wrong! It also made more sense when you consider how spirit essence can so effortlessly interact with even their opposite types in the world, while spirits cannot. Spirits are a byproduct of the world and, like human's, fight among themselves due to differences between them. Adam's thoughts then turned dour: 'I could take the spirit's disregard for our lives as due course, if our existence was only an accident of their own. But it is actually the other way around! They are not the creators of our world! They are the same as humans or even animals! They were created by our world, yet they seek to destroy it in their rage against one another!'

Adam chose not to stop his song. He continued playing until his song spread through the tendrils reaching out from the world into the spirit planes! For days his song slowly spread out across the plains breaking spirits apart and killing ghouls! All but the strongest of demonic beasts also fell! As his music finished encompassing the spirit planes, Adam could only see dragons and a few of the strongest demonic beasts remaining. Looking at the demonic beasts, Adam's heart palpitated with sudden realization: 'What about the guardian beasts!?'

With his elemental sight encompassing the world, it was easy to pick out places full of spirit essence and creatures that also contained a dense amount of spirit essence. Most demonic and guardian beasts were formed from spirit essence imbuing their bodies, like ghouls. Only the strongest of these also had their souls transformed by spirit essence, like dragons were. Souls were only influence by his song and not destroyed. As Adam scoured the world, he discovered only a few guardian beasts remaining. Just like the demonic beasts, only the strongest had survived. Adam's heart plummeted at what he had done! Guardian beasts were just that, protectors. 'How many did I kill!?' Adam thought to himself.

This sudden realization threw Adam's exhaustion of playing for nearly a week straight over the edge. His song came to a sudden stop as he fainted atop the mountain.