Director Tim Ayr stood before Neumann Province and allowed his domain to spread, covering the entire province. He began to see strange things.
"Many spirits vanish and then appear out of nowhere, and many of them turn into ordinary spirits, only to become malevolent again, repeating the same cycle. What is inside the palace?"
His domain extended to examine the palace.
"Sol Hart is present, and I sense a fragment of Solan Neumann's soul. I also see many magic circles for summoning this malevolent spirit, but what—"
Before the director could finish, he felt a sudden disturbance in his mind and staggered back several steps.
"What in the world is happening?!"
He tried to sense it again, but this time he was struck by a severe headache. Still, the director did not give up and decided to force his way in. The moment his feet touched the land of the province, darkness swallowed him.
"Where am I?!"
The director felt as though he had lost his mind. He could sense nothing at all, and whenever he tried to impose his domain, he found nothing. Then a voice that did not belong to the living spoke:
"A mere ninth-level like you comes to this place and dares to impose his domain on me! Such audacity!"
The voice mocked him and struck the old director's mind, freezing him in place.
'Just a ninth level?! What is that thing talking about?!'
The voice returned.
"Yes, just a ninth level. I can crush you with a single move. Do you want to try?"
"Can you hear my thoughts?!"
Suddenly, from the darkness emerged two eyes with pupils darker, blacker, and more terrifying than the surrounding void in which Tim Ayr stood. The voice said,
"I have turned this land into a land of the dead. So living beings like you, old man, must leave—or you may die without ever knowing how."
The director could not steady himself before this overwhelming sense of tyranny and power beyond human limits, and he asked in a firm voice,
"What about my disciples?!"
"They are fine. I am merely offering a bit of help."
The director was startled and asked,
"Do you know any of them?"
"No. I do this purely for amusement. I even lowered the power of the malevolent spirit to the seventh level so I could enjoy the spectacle later."
The director felt shock and terror at this being as it spoke.
'What kind of power does it possess?!'
"Do not ask—you may regret it."
The environment returned to normal. The battle between spirits was at its fiercest, but the director did not intervene further and remained outside.
"Who was that person, truly?! I cannot believe there is someone stronger than the ninth level living in this world!"
…
The children were training with spirits to sense spiritual power. Solan Neumann was sitting beside Shion Lan as they watched the training. Shion thought to himself:
"Solan Neumann is now ten years old, and she has reached the second level as well. With our combined efforts, we have purified many spirits, and only third- and fourth-level spirits remain. But things will become dangerous, because Solan must reach the third level for our plan, and the fourth level for us to defeat the malevolent spirit.Ahhhh! What a headache!"
Solan, who grew more beautiful each time she matured, looked at him and said,
"Master Guardian! Why don't you train your spiritual power? Do you need my help?"
Shion shook his sword in refusal.
"The problem began when I reached the third level in my techniques. My progress became extremely slow. Now I can only produce seven threads and blades—meaning that in two years I have extracted only a single part of the power. Training my spirit no longer benefits me either; it has reached the Stellar Body stage, and both are at the second level, which suits the elements I possess. Any further increase is useless, so I decided to focus solely on my own training. Still, I feel frustrated."
Then Shion went to observe Imat Neumann and said,
"When I first arrived, I was spying on that man to learn what should be done in the future. But this recorded past was so precise that it revealed Imat Neumann's cautious nature. Naturally, in a place filled with spirits, he dared not act recklessly. It seems his secrets are buried outside the palace, yet the recorded past is limited to the palace alone. Recently, however, he brought in some items from outside. I asked Solan about them, by pointing the sword at things, and she told me they were materials used to summon spirits—but they were supposed to be ordinary spirits. Still, I feel this is merely a smokescreen."
Shion continued to follow Imat while thinking,
"Solan has reached the second level, which gives me some freedom to roam the place. If anything happens, I can sense it and save her. Yet that man went to the towers in the palace and did nothing. When I examined the place with my spiritual power, I found nothing. I also sent Solan's spirits to check, but they found nothing."
Shion followed Imat as he descended into the basement. These visits repeated several times: Imat would go to the basement, wait for thirty minutes, then return. Shion decided to be patient and not act rashly.
The next time, Imat changed his destination to two statues standing proudly on either side of the palace.
"It seems they were badly damaged when the family was destroyed. Solan told me the first statue belongs to the family founder, and the second to the greatest spiritual swordsman of that era. He was famous throughout the Five Kingdoms, despite being only at the eighth level—and though he was nothing compared to the ninth level, he never lost to any of them. He did not match them in raw power, but he could handle their attacks through his spirits and his ancient sword, which contained an eighth-level spirit."
These visits continued for some time, after which Imat changed his destination to the office where Shion had awakened for the first time.
"Sora! I want to come in."
"Go ahead, cousin."
Imat entered and sat with the man, a seventh-level spirit duelist—Sora Neumann. His physical strength was negligible, but his swordsmanship and mastery of spirits had made him a well-known figure at the time. Sora looked at him and said calmly,
"Is there something I can help you with?"
Shion scoffed inwardly.
"Although he shows respect, Imat made things difficult for him over the years because of family matters. Still, Sora managed to endure his harassment and secure a seat on the family council."
Imat looked at him warmly and said,
"As expected of the Phantom Duelist! You managed to reach a high position and even received an honor from the king."
"What?!"
Shion was stunned, because this event had taken place outside the palace, and he had known nothing about it. Neither Sol Hart nor Jina Joul had told him. Sora raised his sword and placed it against Imat's neck.
"No one in the kingdom knows about this. How did you find out?"
"I'm not the only one who can use spirits, my friend."
Imat sat on the couch, stroking his beard, and said,
"I heard about this honor, but I don't know the details. May I know what you did so I can receive such an honor as well?"
"Why didn't you expect the king not to announce this?"
Imat pretended to think deeply, to the point that Shion wanted to strike him and wished the malevolent spirit would appear so he could hit this irritating man.
"Yes! I figured out the reason! So outsiders wouldn't know!"
"Well done. Now get out of my office!"
"What? I'm your relative! Won't you tell me?"
"Use your spirits better next time!"
Imat pretended to be depressed and said sadly,
"Fine, I know I went too far in what I did. So I have an idea!"
His eyes shone foolishly as he said,
"What do you think if I come every day to drink coffee and chat with you? Wouldn't that strengthen our bond as members of the same family?"
"Get out!"
Sora roared, releasing his domain and drawing his sword. Imat quickly nodded and left. After stepping out the door, he smiled cruelly, which Shion noticed.
...
That annoying meeting repeated for several days. Each time, the guards tried to calm Sora down; otherwise, he would have cut off Imat's head. After the last time, Imat went straight to his own office. Shion paused to see what would happen.
"Jori!"
Imat called lightly, and a bloody form emerged from the ground. Shion stared in shock.
"Isn't that the malevolent spirit?!"
The malevolent spirit also looked toward Shion and let out an angry roar. The scene repeated as it emerged from the ground again. When Shion saw this, he laughed at it.
"This was annoying for me, but it's actually hilarious!"
The spirit raged and tried to attack, repeating its emergence from the ground, its expression miserable. Shion enjoyed the moment but restrained himself and decided to listen carefully. This was a meeting between the summoner and the summoned spirit that had destroyed an entire family—he could not miss a single word. As the conversation continued, Shion grew more shocked and furious with every word.
"So that despicable man loved the first queen and was supposed to lead the family. But because the king married that woman and his brother took over the family leadership, he became despondent and wanted to prove his power to everyone. Instead of training, he decided to rely on a malevolent spirit."
Shion's silver gaze turned cold as he continued,
"His brother was a spearman who found a weapon among some ruins and managed to subdue it, which helped him reach the seventh level. But Imat is still at the fifth level with six circles, unable to increase his power. So he took that insane step. He too traveled across the Five Kingdoms and found an ancient tomb—but it contained no blessing, only a catastrophe. The terrifying part was that the spirit was a fusion of a vengeful soul and its owner's blood. It was at the seventh level back then, yet that bastard decided to sacrifice his brother after giving him a paralysis-inducing drug bought from a kingdom hostile to us, making a deal with a noble there."
Shion clenched his fist and glared fiercely at that despicable man, continuing,
"After benefiting from the brother's sacrifice, the spirit decided to help that bastard. In exchange for making him a sixth-level mage, it washed his mind and made him the servant rather than the master. For that to happen, he had to destroy everything that made him human. His love for that queen still remained, and he would be loyal to her, since he would no longer be bound by human emotions—and it might even use his body and control it! That damned—!"
Imat spoke then.
"Jori, I've completed all the preparations for you to reach the ninth level."
"What?!"
Shion shouted in fear as Imat continued,
"There is one circle here in my room, the second in Sora's room, the third and fourth at the statues, the fifth in the basement, and the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth at the towers. Is there any other step?"
Shion's mind froze for a moment.
"Here is where Sol went, and Sora's place where I went, and the dome where the malevolent spirit was sealed… What in the world is happening?!"
"I must tell Solan about all of this so we can decide what to do!"