Charles knocked falling blades out of the sky with a wave of his gloved right hand while holding onto Asela with his left. Like Kyrion, they didn’t encounter any golems. Nor did they find any spirit masters. Quickly moving through the forest, set to collide with Kyrion in a few minutes.

“Agg!” They heard in the near distance.

“That’s Kyrion! We should….” Asela began.

Charles motioned for her to get quiet as they continued forward. Slowing instead of speeding up to keep hidden for a bit longer.

Eventually, they came across a woman made of black flames pulling swords from her body one by one.

“I’m going to rip that brat to pieces!” She seethed.

“Be careful not to make promises you can’t keep.” Charles said as he left Asela in the brush and approached the woman.

“Who are you?” Lisa asked in fear.

“Just a butler. Possibly the strongest butler you’ll ever meet. But that’s not why I’m talking to you. I’m here to let you go so long as you promise not to harm my young mistress Asela. This is Kyrion’s problem after all. He decided to spare your life so if you go and throw it away in an attempt at petty vengeance. Its your choice as well.” Charles mended Lisa’s wounds after pouring a drop of viscous green liquid.

“And If I don’t?” Lisa asked with suspicion as she prepared to strike.

Charles enveloped the practitioner with his presence which began to burn the woman from the inside. Slowly he brought his head next to the woman’s ear.

“I’ll kill you in a way that makes you wish you’d done it yourself.” Charles whispered before pinching the woman on her ear.

The pinch stung, but it didn’t hurt. Lisa watched as Charles walked away and then left to go further ahead. She stayed trapped, still feeling the pain of the pinch and unable to move as she had been paralyzed.

Nicole and Leon had entered the small town.

“Where are we going?” Leon asked.

“I need to apologize to one of my friends.” Nicole said.

“You apologize? How unlike you.” The wolf scoffed.

“Yeah, yeah. Smell this to get his scent.” Nicole pulled out an ornate box and removed a lock of red hair.

“...No offense but that’s kind of creepy. Borderline obsessive even.” Leon said.

“He has a habit of disappearing. Everest gave it to me.” Nicole said, not looking the wolf in its eyes.

“Emmmhhmmm. Well you’re right about disappearing. He’s currently chasing after my possessed spirit. Apparently he convinced some mindless wolves to assist in the kidnaping of some girl.”

“Is that so? Let’s catch up to them as quickly as we can then.”

“We could help here, you know.” Leon pointed to the town covered in blades.

“Yeah, even I know not to challenge an expert at that level.”

“Yet you think you can defeat an expert at my level.” Leon laughed.

“The person who swapped bodies with your spirit clearly doesn’t know how to use its abilities. I can swoop in and save the day if that’s the case.” Nicole’s eyes glazed over.

“Milady…” Leon shook his head as he followed the scent.

Kyrion was having trouble of the mental, persuasion. A long sword with a primarily flat blade and single edge was sticking out of the ground. Had this been a different time, then he would have stuffed the sword in his space and given it to Gamodren to deal with.

“Young man. Thou hast been chosen to be my wielder.” The sword said.

“Not this again.” Kyrion thought and kept walking.

“Young man?”

Kyrion didn’t respond and made it ten feet away. He noticed that his target had stopped moving, so a break didn’t matter.

“Young man! Please Kid!”

Kyrion stopped. “Kid?”

“I mean young man.” The sword corrected itself.

Kyrion scoffed and kept going.

“Oh how mature. Kid please, I’ve been looking for a real wielder for so long please.”

“So long as you call me kid. None of this young man’s business. I’m nine. I’m not old and I don’t like people calling me old.”

“Kid, no offense but only old people don’t want to be called old.”

“Well, I just don’t want people expecting me to act like I’m some old man of twenty-five or eighteen. Two whole digits of age is old. My height is not my age.” Kyrion crossed his arms.

“Kid. You may be having what some would call an early life crisis. To think that becoming ten is crossing the gate into old.”

“You don’t get it. I don’t want people thinking I’m that old yet.” Kyrion explained.

“Got it you Kid. So Kid can you please pull me out of the dirt?”

“Of course.” Kyrion pulled the sword out of the earth and immediately put it in his space, along with a few other quiet weapons.

Glersora’s hands were bleeding by this point, and it was clear that the Eyeless man hadn’t even broken a sweat. It had been decades since she’d been in a situation that forced her to grow this much. Yet it clearly wasn’t enough. If she couldn’t beat him with just swordplay, then she’d need to go all out.

Glersora charged forward, stopping just outside the sword’s reach as she slashed toward the man.

“Flowers paint the canvas.” A sword slash cut at the man’s chest drew blood as sharp mana cut into him.

“Didn’t expect that. Oww. Well, I can’t keep playing forever after all.” The Eyeless man adjusted his stance and stepped forward, placing his right leg across his left. He flexed his hand, but nothing happened.

“Something wrong?” Glersora asked.

“Someone just stole Fujin! My favorite wind sword! Oh when I find them, they’ll pray for mercy!” The Eyeless man turned and flew away.

Ceres watched as the Eyeless man flew above her and sighed, trudging on. She wasn’t sure why Kyrion hadn’t called her yet. It would be easier to protect him had she done that.

Stone and the remaining spirit masters got to work gathering quite a few people who didn’t belong. A small brown-haired man with large goggles was chained up and unconscious next to a child with hawk-like features taller than the small man but obviously a child. He, too, was unconscious. Two tiny holes in the side of his neck made sure of that. Outside of the village, two fledgling rank spirit masters had found themselves captured and beaten quite badly. They were not unconscious, but it was clear that they had lost their will to fight.

“Pigeon, I’ll yet you handle the questioning, somewhere private. Don’t need you traumatizing the kiddos afterall.” Said the small girl who claimed to be Everest’s teacher.

The other man observed the four prisoners, and with a burst of feathers, the group was gone.

Everest pulled out his Teleflower, and decided to make a call to his friend.

“Kyrion?” Everest said into the plant.

“Yes. yes?” Kyrion replied.

“Did you pick up a sword named Fujin.”

“Not sure. I picked up quite a few actually. Someone just left them lying around after all.” Kyrion replied.

“Well, some eyeless hydra is out for blood because someone took one of his swords.”

“Is that so?” Kyrion’s voice said in a strangely excited tone.

“Kyrion, you’re up to something aren’t you. This is going to be dangerous.”

“Everything will work out fine, just trust me.” Kyion said, hanging up the plant.

Everest sighed.

“Your friend really went and kicked the beehive huh.” The small girl said.

“Kyrion is always up to something. Yet he manages to prosper from things that would break a normal man.”

“I got a good look at his core while I was here. His mana pool extends past his body. Every single cell has been saturated with mana and it seems to bleed through to the world around him. Which explains your rapid growth during your time at that preschool of yours.”

“That big huh, and he compressed it that much. Sounds like something you’d find in a legend.” Everest muttered.

“If he lives long enough, I suspect it’s a possibility.” The girl observed a blue butterfly that had landed on her finger.

"We'v been betrayed it seems."

A white-haired man surrounded by wolves sat on a log. An unconscious Tiffany lay tied up in front of him. A long white straight sword sat at his side. His face held a maddened smile that could scare the bark off a tree.

“You’re here Kyrion. Now come with me and I’ll let your friends go.”

“Friend. You just have Tiffany.” Kyrion said matter of factly.

“No I have Tiffany, you forgot about the other one already?”

“What are you going on about, not Leon?” Kyrion asked.

“What do you mean? I am Leon.” The impersonator said.

Kyrion smiled as his intuition told him that was a lie. “No you aren’t, had I been facing the real Leon then you wouldn’t need to do all this. He was strong, sly, and controlled.”

“What are you going on about?” The man hissed.

“I met him before. Which makes me curious. He didn’t go out of his way to avoid me before the switch. What makes it obvious is the way you move, carry yourself and how you use those wolves. How’s Blitz by the way?” Kyrion asked.

“He’s doing great.?” The fake asked.

“Who’s doing great?”

“My friend Blitz of course.” He chuckled.

“Was he your friend or best friend?” Kyrion stalled for time. He could feel a group of two approaching. Followed by Ceres and another pair much later. He had to stay still for at least two more minutes.

The fake took a minute. To answer much to Kyrion’s glee.

“Best friend. Now will you sacrifice your freedom for your friend?”

“Sure. Let me heal her first. I’m only a fledgling after all, it wouldn’t even cost you anything.”

“Fine, fine. Get it over with.” The man motioned for him to go.

Kyrion placed one hand on his friend and a second one on her backpack. He started by using his space affinity to slip a Jala into her bag and some bandages, the ping fog masking his movements.

“What was that?” The man raised his hand to strike.

“J-just some bandages! I-i didn’t mean to offend. I need to clean the wounds before healing, I don’t want to risk her getting an infection.” Kyrion said a half-truth.

“Uh huh. I’ll just get closer then.” The man said.

“That is fine. I’ll be done in a second.” Kyrion finished cleansing the wounds, wrapping the bandages, and healed her with mana. His first set of reinforcements had stopped just outside of the clearing.

Tiffany got up groggy and looked around.

“Tiffany, I need you to run in that direction. Leave me behind. Tell my friends that I’ve been captured.” Kyrion said.

“Bold of you to assume that they’re alive.’ The white-haired man said as he raised his hand.

Kyrion was encased in a block of ice, his head left free to breathe. A mistake that should not have been made. Kyrion decided to summon Ceres to a position adjacent to where Charles and Asela were hiding. She’d be a distraction but not a sacrifice.

Tiffany ran into the brush holding the man’s attention.

Kyrion began to melt the ice encasing his right arm to give Jala some room to summon the supposed awesome sword. The ice, however, proved to be more resilient than he thought. He’d have to be very slow or need his opponent to be distracted.

“Jala. Are you ready?” Kyrion asked the fox spirit he sent with Tiffany.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Jala sighed.

Ceres found herself right next to Kyrion, who was encased in ice. Behind a man with white hair wielding a sword. It appears her master finally summoned her though it was apparent that he didn’t intend for her to be right here.

“Master, are you ok?” Ceres asked as she looked for a way to free her master.

“How did you get behind me!” The white-haired man whirled and raised his hands and sent a spear of ice to pierce the human-looking dragon.

Ceres summoned a wall of earth to shield herself.

The spear shot through the wall and hit Ceres in her chest, sending her and the flying spear far into the distance.

Then, green bubbles floated around the area, popping whenever they made contact with something to no noticeable effect. The pops, however, were pretty loud.

“What’s! Going on here.” The body snatcher yelled.

Charles slowly passed wolf after wolf like a tool of death and destruction with an apathetic look on his face. Popping the opposing creatures on the nose with his hand, while rather mundane when he did it, made the wolves stop moving.

“Young master Kyrion, shame on you for letting yourself get captured without so much as resistance shame on you.” Charles shook his head at Kyrion.

The white-haired man drew his sword and charged at the butler.

Charles retaliated by pulling out the bow to a violin. Much to everyone’s confusion.

Asela stayed hidden in that exact spot watching the encounter. She wouldn’t interfere in their fight as it was meant to be a lesson. Kyrion may be trapped, but she could see that look on his face and a long blade in his hands that wasn’t there before.

The blade had just appeared in his hands which meant it was time to put his plan into action.

“So you wish to use me now?” The sword asked.

Kyrion didn’t answer with his mouth and tried to convey the message like he did with his spirits. It only seemed to work because he was holding it, however.

“I need your help.” Kyrion communicated.

“Great! What can I do for you?” The sword asked.

“I need something that can cause you to break. Like a super attack.” Kyrion stated.

“What is a super attack?”

“It’s like a normal attack but a lot cooler and more destructive. I think it’s supposed to use all my mana. I used it on a few weapons of mine before, knives shattered, sticks snapped ect.” Kyrion answered.

“I can turn mana into lightning. The more you give the stronger the attack. Though I’m not sure if it could hurt an expert. And it would take a lot of mana to break me. Though it will lower my durability.”

“How long will it take?” Kyrion asked.

“Somewhere between five and ten minuets. Or until you run out of mana.”

“What if I force all my mana into you at once, can you do it faster if I do that.”

“That could hurt you. Forcing out tons of your mana at once causes damage to you mental faculties along with your body. It would take you out of the fight to come. Though, it has a better chance of destroying the vessel and freeing my spirit.” The sword told him.

“Don’t you want to be free?” Kyrion asked.

“You’d be releasing a dark power onto the world by freeing me.” The sword said in a deep voice.

“Who are you anyway?” Kyrion seemed disinterested.

“I am the dark wind spirit Fujin.” The sword said with gravitas.

Kyrion started immediately pumping the sword with mana.

“Kid. Are you ok? This is alot of mana all at once and your speeding up.”

Kyrion didn’t respond as he continued to pour every last drop of his available mana into the sword.