~Skwee~

The bore shrew's cry was heard again as Lucius and Kiana could feel the slight vibrations in the ground.

~thud~thud~thud~

One by one, all of the bore shrews popped up from the ground around Lucius. 

"There we go, now stay there in silence," Lucius said and sent out a string of hell energy.

Doyle too watched the hell energy move with interest and desire but did not act or do anything. The hell energy entered the bore shrews, and they got their new command.

Lucius needed them to see who they were supposed to attack. He knew that a fully complex command, such as just telling them to find a priest and attack him after such a distance, would be impossible for the bore shrews to follow.

This for that reason, he thought that letting them see the priest and then instructing them to attack after a certain time would be better. Of course, this was just a simple explanation and he could add some finer nuances with the hell energy later.

The three of them hid in the trees and waited till the man they were looking for arrived. Priest Lyle still had a grumpy expression on his face and seemed to be muttering something to himself.

Seeing him, Lucius's eyes lit up. He pointed his hand towards the bore shrews and sent a few strings of hell energy into them. 

'Kill that man, after six hours.' Lucius ordered thought the hell of energy and added a few more commands.

In the next second, the ten bore shrews burrowed into the ground and disappeared.

Kiana watched everything happen but kept her silence. The three of them waited till the Priest was gone from the area.

"Is that all?" Kiana questioned, finding it to be a bit underwhelming.

"Yes, that's all. The bore shrews will take care of the rest. If everything goes well, we should get confirmation by tomorrow morning." Lucius answered.

Kiana was a bit doubtful at first, but then nodded her head, deciding to wait and see for herself. The two of them then got back onto Doyle's back and returned to the city before going back to the reeducation center where they dropped off Doyle.

~yawn~

"Are you tired?" Kiana asked.

"Yeah, I should go and rest for now. Most of our work is done now." Lucius replied.

"Very well. Do you want to rest here or at the mansion?" Kiana questioned.

"Here will be fine. No use going back, besides if anything happens, we will have the three of them to help us out." Lucius said while gesturing to the three Lost.

Kiana nodded her head and set up the bed for Lucius before taking her leave. With her gone, Lucius laid down on the bed and fell asleep rather quickly. Even for him, doing so many tasks was a tiring thing and today was hectic overall as well.

The night passed rather quickly and Lucius didn't even wake up for a second, sleeping soundly. When the morning finally arrived, Lucius woke up on his own. This time due to hunger.

'This is a bit strange… I don't feel this hungry usually…' Lucius thought to himself.

But then he narrowed his eyes as a thought appeared in his mind. He quickly entered his Soul space and saw that five smaller doors had been added there. 

"No wonder… those bore shrews also reached that level. But how…" It was then that Lucius noticed that there were less connections that he was feeling.

"There are only five of them alive, huh… well, that's a better number than I had adoringly expected." Lucius said to himself.

He could also see the glowing hell imprint, which was slowly releasing the hell energy from it. Lucius knew that his hell energy was growing once more and it might be the reason his body was feeling hungry.

"Asher," Suddenly Kiana's voice was heard by Lucius and he woke up from the meditative state.

Opening his eyes, he could see Kiana standing in the doorway.

"Are you okay?" Kiana questioned.

"Yeah, I was just seeing if our little helpers are close by." Lucius replied.

"Helpers? You mean the bore shrews?" Kiana questioned.

"Yes them. They are on their way back now." Lucius answered.

"That means… they succeeded?!" Kiana said with a slight hint of excrement.

"Of course they succeeded." Lucius stated. 

Kiana nodded her head and didn't know how Lucius knew this for sure. But she just trusted him for now and decided to wait and see the bore shrews herself.

"How will you know that the priest is dead for sure?" Kiana asked.

"Oh, I asked them to get some proof for that," Lucius replied causally.

"Proof of death?" Kiana wondered.

"You'll see…" Lucius replied.

The two of them waited for about ten minutes before the cry of a bore shrew was heard.

~SKREEE~

Lucius stood up from his bead and looked towards the ventilation window at the corner of the hall. 

~Creak~

The window was a push window and thus when the bore shrews entered, they easily opened it by just pushing on the glass pane. 

~scrit~scrit~scrit~

The five bore shrews crawled down the wall easily and came to stand in front of Lucius in a single file. Lucius finally got to see the five bore shrews and saw which ones were now alive.

Of the three big ones, only two were now alive and of the seven smaller ones, only three were alive. They were all covered with blood and guts, but the most eye catching thing was the thing the biggest bore shrew was carrying in its mouth.

~gasp~

Kiana also saw the object and gasped in surprise.

"Is that… is that really…" Kiana stuttered.

"Indeed… that's the heart of the priest." Lucius said as he kneeled in front of the bore shrew and took the bloody, red heart from its teeth.

The heart had several marks on it and had been thoroughly punctured.

"There we have it… our first stepping stone."