Twenty knights rode into a forest, in their midst was a single mage, the newly appointed right-hand man of their lord. Their goal was a clearing, where and immense explosion occurred the preceding night, and the fact there was no such clearing two days ago spoke for how powerful it had been.

Bits of burnt armors and flesh could still be seen, but nothing was known of its origin nor why the knights had been there in the first place when they should have been quarantining a village: there was no survivors amongst the two parties.

The mage descended from his horse the examine the clearing.

“Sir Maximilian, are you sure it’s safe?”

“What the hell?” Murmured the mage perplexed.

“Did you find something, sir.”

No, and that was the problem. The damages couldn’t have been caused by anything but magic, yet there was no trace of a spell being used. Even stranger was the fact the earth element was weaker here than a few meters away.

“Send a courier to the church asking for their help, if whatever did that is still around, we’ll need it!

Some time later, not so far from there in Oto, also known as the jewel of the orient and the stronghold of the church of the Elements, the necromancer entered the great cathedral, a structure as massive as it was graceful. He smiled wryly at the sight of an acolyte rushing to greet him respectfully.

“Welcome back sir, I’m glad to see you’ve returned unharmed from your last mission.”

The common priest and believers didn’t know much about him and the numbers, only that they were an elite force dealing with magic related problems, ghosts and monsters. His sneering came from the fact he had little doubt the young man would run in terror or turn against him if he knew of his affinity with death… as for being an elite force, the job he did for the most part were minor and theoretically illegal according to the country and the church’s current doctrine.

“I am very sorry to trouble you so soon after your return,” Pleaded the young mean. “but his excellency cardinal Venati instructed us to bring you to him right away.”

‘No rest for the wicked... I wish I were born with the life or earth element as my main. Easy job, plenty of money, and everyone likes you.’

“Lead the way, please.” There wasn’t much else he could say, despite its creed, the church was without a doubt the safest for people like him and he owed them a lot. The cardinal was his boss and the person he had the most contact with, and yet he knew almost nothing of him… apart from the bullshit his master fed him.

He was ushered into a beautifully room, decorated with fresco of the six elements. Unlike the ones outside, the element of death was displayed without obfuscation. The cardinal was a middle-aged man, which was very young for holding such an important position… almost unheard of in fact.

‘There’s no way he’s really a vampire.” As far he knew, there was no such creature, but with his teacher polluting his mind, he couldn’t help but think about it every time they met.

“Ah, young Ignis. I’m so glad you could make it. We’ve received a request of the lord concerning an incident west from here. It has the smell of a violent awakening…”

The necromancer interrupted the clergyman. “West from here? Did a bunch of knight and villagers disappeared from a village north of the road?”

“I gather the destruction described in the letter was sign of you dealing with the situation?”

“The usual, a kid sees his family get killed by the knight and awaken to new power to deal with the attackers. There wasn’t much I could do; he was dying from sickness and didn’t know how to free the soul of his family and friend.”

“I see, good job erasing the evidences.”

“I had to sacrifice a familiar for that.” Needless to say, he hadn’t done it on purpose, he just thought it’d be easier to destroy the spells binding the souls and the bodies in one go.

“I suppose it couldn’t be helped in a situation where time was of the essence.”

“Speaking of familiar, there wasn’t a single person amongst my clients this time, and I have a bagful of souls to prove it. I’m starting to feel like I’m a demon, tricking others into signing a soul binding contract.”

“If think that’s natural, decent would go through the proper channels rather than skulk around to recruit a shady necromancer from who know where.”

“First, the proper channel suck, nine out of ten spirit channelers are hack, with the tenth being wack! Second, sorry for being shady, I’ll change my way and do some law-abiding job from now on.”

“I’d like to see you try, I’m sure you’d come back crying the next day.”

“I take offense of that, I’m different from my master, I’m sure I could last at least one week.”

“Coming back to our western problem, did you see a life mage amongst the victim?”

“Can’t say I did. I didn’t get a good look because I found the kid pretty fast.”

“It can’t be helped I suppose. I’ll write something about one of our inquisitors dealing with the violent awakening of a twin mage. Fire and air, there’s already enough unjustified fear toward the death element.”

“I often feel we should stop dealing with ghosts and curses, you know? Just to see how they like it without us around.”

“I can’t be helped, the fear of the wight kings is still vivid in the heart of the populace.”

“Even though the kings and lords all have death mages in their employ secretly dealing with their curses and angry spirit problem.”

“Not so secretly in many cases. Take a few days off and relax a little, I’m think about sending you north next time.”

Ignis grimaced, the north was the theatre of major peasant revolt twelve years ago, and the subsequent repression the cause of his own awakening.

“If it’s still too hard for you, I can send someone else.”

“Do you even have someone else?”

“A few, but not many have death as their prime element.”

Ignis thought for a long time before conceding. “I’ll go, just give me some time to prepare.”

“Thank you.”