"BROTHER!"
Kion could vaguely hear Kai's cries in his desperate attempt to reach through to him.
But for some reason, the fantasy that floated before his eyes mesmerized him even more.
Could it be some illusion?
Some cruel trick of the light played by Mouse and her goons?
What was a Soul-Stealer System?
Kion heard a chime.
{Welcome, Host. It's been eons}
{Would you like to know more about your progress?}
The system asked like it was tracking something about him. Kion had to know what it was. He needed to know if it was real.
He thought within himself.
Yes, this is what I want.
The system responded.
{Excellent! Here are your Stats!}
{Name: Everglade Kion}
{Ancestry: Everglade}
{Divine Emblem: Dormant}
{Domain: Fire-Mancy}
{Sub-domain: Lightning-Mancy}
{Vanquised Soul Count: 2}
{Vanquished Soul Essence: 1/1000}
{Domain(s) Unlocked: Fire, Lightning}
{Collect more quality souls to unlock more domains}
Kion didn't know what to make of it.
But he was sure that there was no trickery involved in this.
This was all real. Too real, in fact.
He had unlocked some kind of newfound power. He wasn't even sure that Shaman himself knew much about this, as he hadn't seen or heard of it in any books or scrolls.
A system that bonded with him, with a mechanism that tracked some parameters he had never heard of.
What even was this?
His eyes wandered to the last line on the screen, the one that talked about unlocking more domains.
Was that even possible?
Even the fabled gods didn't wield the power to host more than one domain.
Doing that would've meant wielding more than one soul, like having a fire soul and water soul for an elemental-type domain, at the same time. Or even worse, having different souls from different domain categories.
If this is what this so-called system was suggesting…
"Kion!"
Kion felt a surge of energy brush past him.
"How…?"
It was then he recalled that he was still in a fight.
The system screen had hypnotised him in some sort of way, putting him in a trance.
He had to resume control.
Just like he had done before, he willed the screen to disappear. It obeyed him, melting before his very eyes to reveal what was supposed to be reality.
Kion saw a dagger thrust towards his face, the wielder none other than one of Mouse's Sacrilax killers.
Suddenly, a beam of light rushed out to meet the dagger, melting the weapon as well as the hands of the wielder, who screamed in agony.
In a moment, Kai rushed past, driving the tip of his broadsword through the mercenary's gut.
The man dropped dead.
"Are you crazy?" Kai asked after promptly pulling his weapon from the dead man's gut.
"What were you thinking? Do you want to get yourself killed?" Kai looked his brother in the eye, silently demanding an answer. He'd endangered the both of them with his actions, afterall.
But Kion's reaction made him even angrier.
"Let's just get back to the fight, shall we?"
Kai fumed, feeling a sudden urge to punch his brother in the gut, but he knew he had to be reasonable.
"Well…"
They both entered fighting stance, as the last of the mercenaries took their stand.
"Let's do it."
The two princes reunited, fighting side by side to finish off the remaining mercenaries that stood in their way.
They both knew the cost of failing, a firm resolve written on their faces as they pushed the remainder of Mouse's forces back.
Together, they were a force to be reckoned with. But in that moment, they were fighting out of their own personal intent, not necessarily because they were watching each other's backs.
Kion fighting with a new bloodlust that had settled within his gut, and Kai fighting with the weight of his failure clinging to his like a bad stench.
They massacred what was left of Mouse's forces, until no one was left.
"How dare you?!" Mouse's voice echoed all around them.
"Why don't you show your face and fight us?!" Kai prodded, but was met with a laugh.
"You think you've achieved something, slaughtering my men like your little playthings. But those are just the dispensable ones. Let me show you what real power is."
Two more mercenaries dropped from the trees. One a menacingly large brute wielding a giant axe, the other a slender woman with twin daggers, her body armour black and her red gaze sharp.
A tank and an assassin.
The two princes recognised the raw power these soldiers possessed. Unlike the mercenaries they had just faced, these two were akin to trained soldiers. Defeating them would not be so easy, if even possible.
"Begin!" Mouse boomed.
The tank leapt in the air, his axe poised to strike down on the royal duo.
"Don't try to deflect him. He's far too strong for that." Kion ordered, and Kai nodded. The two princes dived in opposite directions, narrowly avoiding the tank's blade.
Or so they thought.
They clearly hadn't expected an Earth-Mancer.
Just as the tank's axe impacted the earth, the ground cracked, caving in and burying the the princes where they stood as a huge trench formed in the forest.
Kion and Kai began to fall.
But the mercenary duo weren't done yet.
The assassin leapt off the back of the tank, slicing her palm in one fluid motion to draw bright red blood.
The princes watched in horror as the assassin bent the blood to her will, coating her weapon with it to make its edge ten times more lethal.
Kion was stunned for a moment.
The only thing rarer than a blood-mancer was a blood-mancer assassin.
He remembered that their kind was banned in Stormholt, so he could only wonder how Mouse had come to be in possession of one so skilled.
The assassin dove in after them, her fresh blood covering her weapon like glue.
Kion knew that a single slash from that dagger would cut true and clean, not just through flesh but even through bone.
He had to avoid her, and thankfully, he had a skill that could do just that. But he needed a target as [Smoke Form] would only last him about five seconds. Flying back up to the trench's edge would've been a bad idea since that lumbering brute was waiting for him at the edge.
Fighting them would only have been futile, especially in the sort of position that they were in.
They needed to go for a target. Their true target.
Kion sniffed at the air for a moment, focusing his senses with his tracking skill: [Smoke Trail].
The Sacrilax leader had been playing cat-and mouse with them ever since. She had, however, not realised that Kion's burn mark was still plastered to her wrist, albeit fading.
That was their advantage.
"Up there, in the trees". Kion pointed Kai to a space within the thick tree canopy, just where the branches lagged as if some invisible force was pressed on it.
Not an invisible force, an invisible person.
"Now!" Kion gave the signal just as the blood assassin's twin blades were into their throats.
[Smoke Form]
[Light Speed]
Both princess activated their skills, Kion dissipating to a smoky mass and Kai rushing past their assailants with a burst of light.
Mouse hadn't seen it coming.
Naturally, Kai got to her first, smashing her through the trees with his right arm wrapped around her throat.
They both crashed onto the ground, Mouse's head trapped in a headlock as they both wrestled to their feet.
The powered mercenaries had noticed by then, and began to close in on Kai.
But a smoky mass took the form of a red-haired boy right in front of them, stopping them from getting to their leader
"Move one step further, and her head rolls across the ground." Kion said with a menacing glare, his flame-coated longsword pointed menacingly at her throat.
The mercenaries stopped in their tracks, seemingly contemplating their next move.
Meanwhile, Kion pressed the tip of his blade further into Mouse's chest, making them take a few steps back.
"Stay back. We're warning you!" Kai added, as he forcefully wrenched down her hood, exposing her face.
"Not so tough now, are ya?" He teased. "Hey, brother. Take a look at the oh-so-fearless leader."
Although Kion had gotten a glimpse before, his curiousity got the better of him as he turned to get a proper look at the new leader of Sacrilax.
Suddenly, His blood turned ice cold. His eyes widened in shock as he beheld the very face of the girl who he'd loved so dearly, the girl who was the first-in-line for Kuvira's murder spree.
"Lila?"