While Cynthia was running from her pursuers after being separated from the group, another battle was taking place inside the court hall of the castle of Eiseinheim.

Facing three assassins at once surrounding her, Morrigan closed her eyes and controlled her breathing. In this darkness where nothing was seen, small flames in humanoid shape began to manifest themselves, recreating her field of vision. Only this time it was no longer limited to what she could see with her eyes but rather her entire surrounding. This special vision called Soul Sense was basically a higher form of Mana Sense, allowing one self to detect not only the presence of anyone nearby but also even their slightest motions, granting a complete vision of everything that was happening around her.

The sword she was holding since earlier started to illuminate a pale cobalt luminescence, the color of the soul as one would see. Then with a single slash from her sword, as if time has stopped itself, the three assassins fell like the bugs they were. An unsurprising result as it would be unthinkable to consider this unfortunate trio to be anywhere near her level. Being an arcane swordsman, a special class reserved only for the elite warriors of Zagon, Morrigan had access to a full arsenal of magic and sword skills unmatched by any other. In addition, her ability to use soul magic just like her sister, the Hero Lakyus, granted her an even phenomenal dominance in the battlefield.

But Morrigan was not the only one that stood out in this chaotic combat zone. Among the combatants, one individual was quite conspicuous not because of her fighting skill but also because of her appearance. Skillfully slithering around the arena in a graceful manner, Martel fought with both magic and her monstrous strength to smash her enemies into oblivion. Her crimson tail, adorned with a pointy blade at the end, was capable of moving at incredible speed and sought the assassins like a living weapon before impaling them from behind while they were distracted with the main body. Furthermore, her favorite weapon, a golden trident, allowed her to fight in close combat and served also a catalyst for magic incantation.

The young couple Viviana and Lucas was also quite proficient with their skills, especially the cat girl with her spirit staff Yggdrasil. Needless to say, the assassins picked the wrong group to mess with as they were being slaughtered one by one like flies.

"Snipers on the opposite building!" shouted Morrigan just after she sensed the presences of intruders from afar. With such a large hole in the room, the archers would be able to target them with ease.

"" Viviana invoked trees branches rising from the ground and covered the hole, stopping the incoming arrows. But the snipers were no fools either. They quickly changed their tactics, this time imbuing their arrows with fire magic and lightning to pierce through the timber barrier.

Under the volley of projectiles, the group could only stay down and cover themselves as they waited for the archers to run out of arrows. The walls and floor were now coated with arrows as the onslaught went on. Then it stopped, strangely. The timing was simply too soon. For such a carefully prepared assault, it was weird that they would run out of projectiles this quick. Or was it their strategy to lure out their targets and then resumed the attack?

Using her Soul Sense, Morrigan tried to figure out their intention. Yet, to her surprise, something strange was going on over there. One by one, the souls of the apparently attackers began to vanish. Something or someone was killing them. That must be why they stopped their attack. But who could be doing that? Surely her troops could not have arrived at the place in time to interrupt the snipers as it was just a moment ago. And the experienced fighters and Martel and the others were still here. So who? What was even weirder was the disappearance of the souls. Unlike Mana Sense, even if a foe was killed, their soul would still linger around for a little while, although such a difference would be easily noticed compared to a 'living soul'. In this case however, the soul disappeared the moment the individual died, as if it just vanished into thin air like it was never there.

"What is happening over there?" Morrigan uttered in confusion.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield where the archers were shooting from, what could only be described as a massacre, a complete annihilation, a one-side slaughter, was taking place. The snipers did not expect to be interrupted this quickly. They have just gone there themselves so it would be unthinkable for anyone to get here in time to stop them. Furthermore, the enemy was only one and clearly not human.

"What the hell are you?" shouted the only survivor in horror at the thing that has been killing them.

A dark shadow wielding a large shiny obsidian scythe with only the two red dot eyes as the only thing visible of its body was looming over the roof on top of the corpses of all the people it just killed. Its mere presence sent shivers to its opponents in both mental and physical ways as the dread combined with the coldness of the area turned these poor souls completely frozen, paralyzed in place.

"I am a simple farmer. And you, mortals, are my crops." the shadow answered in an eerie voice, a mixture of an old man's, a woman's and a child's. Raising its scythe behind its back, the shadow prepared to take the last remaining victim. The archer could not do anything. His legs have been covered in a layer of ice, sticking him to the ground below and making him unable to run away. He pled for his life while he sobbed like a baby but none of that was of any use. His fate was sealed. In a flash, the dark figure lunged his scythe and cut down the man. Although the weapon has touched him and even cut right through him, no wound was seen on the now lifeless corpse. But something did happen the moment the scythe touched him: a tiny blue flame that was residing inside the archer was absorbed into the blade. That tiny flame was the soul of the archer, that was now gone.

"Hum...bad quality. Guess I should not have expected much from this bunch. But it's not like I am allowed to go after the ones in the palace..." The shadow spoke as it inspected the blade of his weapon. For a moment, something could be seen from the reflection of the blade: the faces and figures of the archers killed on this roof along with many other souls were burning in a blue conflagration.

Suddenly, a large explosion was heard, illuminating the night sky the Eiseinheim. The zeppelin, or rather the balloon was set on fire, leading to the airship to plunge down toward the palace. The attack was simply a diversion to keep Morrigan and the rest occupied while the real attack, this airship filled with explosive barrels, would make sure to kill everyone caught in the blast, including both their targets and the attackers, erasing all witnesses.

Watching the airship falling down from the clouds and a few seconds away from crushing down onto the palace, the shadow heard a voice inside its head giving it a new instruction. Immediately, it teleported itself to the highest point of the castle, right between the falling zeppelin and the building where the negotiation was taking place.

"Alastor, you own us this time." It raised its dark arms toward the sky. ""

In an instant, the wind stopped as the temperature dropped intensively. The flaming airship that was falling down at incredible speed suddenly froze into a huge block of ice and slowed down like a feather haltingly dropping down slowly but smoothly. As the giant glacier slowly decreased its altitude, down toward the shadow like a snail, within a few foots away from him, the figure raised a finger and tipped the looming iceberg.

""

A small crack appeared from the tip of the block of ice as it continued to expand to the rest of its enormous body before shattering and disintegrating into a rain of snowflakes. For the inhabitants of the city who were so oblivious of what was happening, it was snowing in the midst of summer.

"*sigh*That was tiring...!!!" the shadow muttered. Unexpectedly, it sensed someone coming toward it and was now right behind it. A lady in white with a sun-like headpiece was floating on air as she lunged a pale snake to ensnare the shadow, taking it by surprise.

"Who are you? Or what are you?" asked Cynthia in a threatening voice. Although she has seen the shadow saving her own skin and everybody else in this castle, the fact that this unknown individual was sneaking around did not please her one bit. Furthermore, she could feel something strange from this thing, something dangerous.

"Hum...." The figure inspected the woman intensively with its shining eyes. "Cynthia Deacone. Born under the reversal star of the Priestess. Abandoned by her true parents and adopted by Litia Kil. Raped by her adopted father Martin Tora at the age of ten. Sold to slavers and forced to prostitution for the next three years before being bought by Owen Norman...Become the next Priestess of Luna at the age of eighteen...Conspired against the crown of Malatas and killed the elder princess Elena of the royal family at the age of twenty... Killed Martin Tora after stumbling across him during the evacuation of Galahad...You trapped him inside his house for the miasma to do the killing for you...You wanted to watch as he begged for his life while you stood there, delighting on every moment of his agony...And now you have found a new toy...Luvik Centura...Such an interesting life you have led so far! I can't wait to see how this seed will bloom at your final moment."

"..ho...how...how do you know that?" Cynthia questioned with a trembling voice. Her whole life was somehow being read like a book by this thing.

"The deads know all, Cynthia...Do you remember how you killed me?" the figure changed its frightening voice to a very familiar voice to Cynthia. It was Owen's, the fat noble pig that Cynthia has used Luvik to kill. "Or perhaps me?" A new voice spoke. This time....her adopted father Martin.

"Stop it...STOP IT!" the girl shouted in despair as the snake ensnaring the shadow stiffened its grasp. But to her surprise, the shadow vanished into a black smoke, leaving behind only the echo of an inhuman manic laughter.

"Hahahaha! I look forward for the day of your harvest!"

* * *

The next morning after the attack, news of foreign intruders has spread across the entire country, including the far provinces like Caelum. Prayers for the capital have been given by the new order of the Church under Father Maxime while investigations were underway. Based on the testimonies of the captured assassins, it was believed that this cowardly attack was condone by Ceadric together with the Trading Company of Dor. Unfortunately, there was no physical evidence of such agreement. One could argue that such tactic was understandable and Valhalla should have anticipated this during a war time.

Thankfully, no major damage was done aside from a few crumbling buildings and minor losses in term of people. Although, things would have been very different if that airship managed to hit the ground. It was still unknown what exactly happened to the airship as nobody knew the origin of that snowstorm they experienced last night. But this event has demonstrated that Ceadric was serious about the war and Valhalla could not stay idle any further. There was a time for peace negotiation and clearly now it was not once of those times. That was not to say all attempts of keeping peace should be overlooked but the Empress of Valhalla must be ready for the incoming waves of troubles ahead. The declaration of war was previously made by Ceadric but no military action has been taken so far, leading the people of the two countries to believe that the war was still avoidable. However, that was until last night. After this event, that tiny hope has been completely shattered. The situation has changed. It was time for Valhalla, for Morrigan to act.

After a careful meeting and assessment with the other main figures, the High Empress of Valhalla has declared the state of war and began to mobilize her troops toward Ceadric's borders, tighten security in both land and sky while calling for her allies to join her. That included the beastmen of the Whispering Forest and the demons of Ragna.

Meanwhile, a day before the attack at Eiseinhem, oblivious to what was going to happen in the main continent of Mara until much later, our young demon lord has been tracking down the dragon hunters who have stolen the moonstone of the sea dragon Abalone. After a certainly unique way to meet someone by fishing them out of the sea, Alastor has proposed a deal to the dragoness: in exchange for retrieving her precious stone, she would help him getting to Oros.

But how did they intend to find that tiny stone in this huge continent? While it was true that with Alastor's power he could easily defeat those thieves, the boy still needed to find where they went first. The problem was he had no idea where they could go and they already had almost a day in advance compared to him. Fortunately, there was a way to find that stone. Because each moonstone was unique and a treasure to all sea dragons, they could easily detect its presence as long as the stone was somewhere nearby. However, Abalone could not stay on land for too long and it was not evident to find a large water source everywhere on Ragna, making the search quite difficult. But this was Alastor we were talking about. Surely he had a way around this. And indeed he had. With a very simple reasoning, the boy has thought of a solution to the problem.

"Abalone basically needs the sea to stay alive. We need Abalone to go on land to find the stone. So the solution is obvious: we will bring the sea with us!"

Well, he didn't really bring the actual sea with him or else Ragna would be underwater by now. Still, his idea raised the question whether Alastor could actually sink the entire continent just to find one freaking stone. Of course, no one intended to ask him to do that nor did they want to find out. Therefore, the question remained unanswered, for good reasons.

Something strange has been moving around the continent of Ragna. A giant ball of water was rolling through the landscape, accompanied by the figure of a young boy. If the path was not large enough for Abalone to slip through, Alastor would keep the ball floating on air until the next clear area. If only he was able to maintain this kind of spell for days and knew the exact location of Oros, he would not have needed of Abalone's help in the first place. Alas, he has agreed to help her and Alastor would not go back on his promises, at least not intentionally.

After a few hours of rolling and flying, luck was finally on their side.

"Alastor, it's up ahead where that smoke rises from." Abalone pointed toward the column of smoke rising high in the middle of the area dense of trees. That would be where the dragon hunters were making their camp. The reason they were so open about it was because they thought Abalone would not be able to go find them here in the middle of the land with no water source connected to the sea for her to come after them. And they were right to think that, only who would have thought that the demon lord, master of this continent, was on her side? Bad luck some might say but perhaps more than luck, it was fate that guided them to meet each other. Who knew?

"Alright, you stay here. I will go deal with them." Alastor spoke to the dragon.

"You sure? They are quite strong you know. There are even S-rank adventurers among them." Abalone asked worriedly. She was a bit surprised when Alastor was able to cast this bubble of water and capable of maintain it for so long. Certainly, he was no normal boy. However, the dragon hunters, as their name suggested, were proud of their dragon hunting abilities and often regarded as the strongest for being able to slay a dragon, a feat not many could claim. In short, they were not to be underestimated and would prove to be a formidable foe. It would be tragic if something happened to Alastor. Never has she seen a human willing to lend her a hand and she would not rather have him die for her stone.

"Please, I will be fine! If you want to worry about someone, worry about them. Depending on their attitude, I cannot guarantee their survival if I decide to go all out." The boy grinned.

"Don't get cocky! I know you are strong but you have to know your limits. You are a mere mortal after all."

"I am not so sure about that..."

"What? You want to tell me that you are a God? Since you are certainly not a celestial nor a dragon." Abalone jested.

"Uhmmm no?"

"Of course not!"

"Enough about that. I am going in." Alastor walked forward.

"I can't stop you but remember to run at the first sign of danger!"

"Alright, alright. Just stay there and be quiet!" said Alastor.

"Well I am definitely not budging from this spot anyway." Abalone grunted. The bubble moving was Alastor's doing so without him, she could not do anything but sit there and wait.

"No worry! I am the best negotiator you can find."

.....

Back at the dragon hunters' camp, the group was discussing about their latest trophy and their next course of action. All wearing black uniform whether it was heavy armour for warriors or light suit for sorcerers and rogues, they wore a red cape with the image of a dragon's head printed in amber as their emblem. For years, the dragon hunters have been quite successful with their business as dragon hide was famous for their magic resistance properties, used for the most expensive protective clothing as both a sign of power and wealth. Travelling across the world looking for dragons wandering outside of Oros, they have gained quite a reputation among the adventurers and was said to be one of the strongest battalions of the Guild.

"This trip is truly worth it. It has been a while since we found a moonstone, and one of the highest quality at that." Said a knight holding a necklace in his hand attached to a small peculiar stone. Of ivory colour and opaque with a tint of azure luminescence shimmering from inside, this oval stone was the precious treasure Abalone was so desperate to take back.

"But we lost our ship, all because of the newbie failing to kill that sea dragon." Said a woman in black robe, staring angrily at one of her comrades who shied away upon coming across her sight.

"Bah no worry about that! We can always find a boat somewhere else."

"How? Last time I heard, the demons have exiled all the human settlements and have now all controls over the entire continent. We can just buy a boat like last time we did at that slave coast village. We were there yesterday and it has been already destroyed. From the traces left, it looked like quite a long time ago."

"Then we find a demon village and take their boat. Don't tell me you are afraid of some demons!"

"Of course not!"