Artabanus Voss, the last knight of the Voss family and the protector of the Voss Keep, looked at me with frightened eyes. His cheek twitched, and I could feel his lips tremble under my palms. I didn’t know why he was so afraid. I was offering him freedom from the chains that had bound him. But then he saw what I couldn’t.

  I didn’t know it, but my body had started emanating death mana into the air around me. Thin threads trickled out of my mana veins, obscuring my body. And my eyes had started to gleam with a silver glow while looking down at the angry old knight.

  Artabanus finally nodded his assent.

  “Good. The younglings need you,” I muttered and dove back into the dark waters.

  I gathered the water all around me. It was easy now. The waters had always been my domain, but ever since I had started walking on these lands, something had always felt a bit off. Now, though, I could move them with my will. I covered the old, broken knight with my soul shield. With a mental flick, I opened a hole in it. Dark water shot out and hit the knight’s spirit.

  The soul shook under the numbing waters and tried to escape the pressure. I opened up another hole, pushing him back. And then I began opening more and more holes.

  The red doom-bringer poison was stubborn. It stuck to the soul. But there was no escaping death. Not for anything living. I hit the toughest parts, closing and opening holes with a gesture. Washed the soul clean with deathly cold waters. The taint of the doom-bringers couldn’t fight back without a will guiding it. It came off like blood in the rain.

  “Rekindle your hope and pass it on to them.” I wasn't speaking to the man on the bed but to the soul in the waters.

  The old man in the world above convulsed and thrashed in my hands. The spirit in the dark waters shrivelled into itself, trying to protect itself from the cold embrace of death.

  “That's foolishness, soul. You cannot hide from death. Death was everywhere. Death was ever approaching. Death was freedom. And death was here.” I didn’t know what compelled me to say those words, but they felt right.

  It wasn’t unusual for me. It happened when I performed my duty to the souls. It was as if I was a part of something bigger. And that bigger something compelled me to utter those words.

  I shook my head to clear those nonsensical thoughts and watched as the demonic red taint flowed out into the dark abyss. I closed the holes in my shield and looked down. There were two other breaches in my shield. A blue thread wound down from me into the distance—the one that tied me to Saha’s soul. The other was a cable tying me to the emperor.

  I made sure to direct the flow of the waters away from those breaches and looked back at the soul. It was tired, but it was fighting back. A dull light pulsed and began to glow inside it. It still needed help. I took in a deep breath and exhaled a breath of essence toward it. The soul’s spluttering light sparked and began consuming the essence. I watched for a few more seconds.

  It was still not enough. The old knight’s soul would have to digest the essence and make my essence its own. It would cost me, but I could help him some more. I breathed out another shallow breath of essence.

  I didn’t direct this breath toward the soul but outwards. I used the waters to guide the essence. I spun it round and round and erected a rudimentary soul shield. It was not perfect. The shield was thin and jagged in places. I also knew it would break with a slight hit. But that wasn’t the purpose of this shield. It was to give Artabanus a chance to heal. And as the old knight’s soul healed, so would his shield.

  I stumbled out of the dark waters with shaking legs and took in a deep breath. The dark death mana surrounding me shot back into my mouth with the breath. My back hit a wall, and I fell onto my rear. The sudden bout of weakness had hit me out of nowhere.

  I wiped my sweaty brow and blinked my hazy eyes. The crippled knight in front of me looked much better. He had fainted, but his skin was free of the red demonic taint. I found a chair and lowered myself into it.

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  The Master Inquisitor rushed to the knight and checked his breath. It was steady. He opened Artabanus’s chest plate to check his skin and then looked at the bearded man’s wound. The pulsing red veins were nowhere to be seen. He looked down at the healed man and turned to me, taking a step back.

  “How?” the Master Inquisitor asked in a quivering voice.

  “Death,” I answered.

  “Man and wonder. You did it?” Ilya asked from the door.

  I turned around and saw Ilya and Grek looking at me with surprise etched on their faces.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  Ilya raised an eyebrow. “You seriously don’t know?”

  I shook my head.

  “You shook the walls,” Ilya accused.

  I gave her a skeptical look.

  “With your voice,” Ilya stressed.

  I frowned.

  “And then you were a being of dark smoke with glowing silver eyes.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?” Ilya asked.

  I didn’t know what else to say. I was not a regular soul. Normal people pictured themselves with two arms and two legs. That transferred to their soul’s image of itself. I didn’t. For as long as I could remember, I had thought of myself as an amorphous being in the waters. Apparently, using death and dark waters together had turned me into whatever she saw.

  Ilya cleared her throat to get my attention. “Well, brother, you frightened the children.”

  “Did I?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Ilya glared.

  “What?”

  “Do that to our enemies next time, and not in front of children.”

  I frowned. “Why would I save our enemies?”

  Ilya rolled her eyes and looked at Grek.

  Grek gulped and bowed. “Your Grace, I am His Highness’s mouthpiece. Not his minder.”

  “Coward,” Ilya accused.

  I frowned and got up from the chair. “Grek, leave three of your people here to protect the children.” I turned to the Master Inquisitor. “Master Asaki, please take care of Artabanus Voss. He will need to be protected against any spiritual attacks.”

  The old inquisitor looked at me for a long moment. “Your Highness... you just saved a man with death magic.”

  “Yes.”

  “I want to assist you with the spirits,” the old warrior-priest said softly.

  “Master Inquisitor, you are needed here. I can’t afford to leave the old knight’s spirit unprotected.”

  “Not what I meant.” The Master Inquisitor shook his head and handed me a knowledge stone. “This has two variations of the death bolt spell. I was going to destroy this stone, but… You are the divine progeny of death. This will help you.”

  I blinked.

  “Oh, great,” Ilya muttered. She took me by my shoulder and guided me out of the room, whispering in my ear, “Come with me, brother, before the old man starts bowing.”

  Outside the room, she looked at Grek. “Punisher, find us a way through that gate.”

  “Already did, Your Grace,” Grek smiled and brandished a set of keys. He explained, “I grew up in and around this keep. I know where Lord Artabanus hid his keys.”

  “Good. Then let’s go.” Ilya began to walk out.

  I looked around and saw the children were missing from the room.

  “Did you have to do that?” Ilya asked with a grimace.

  “Do what?”

  “Become a dark lord of death?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Voss, when you started doing magic, you were bathed in darkness with glowing silver eyes. It scared the children. They were screaming. And then there was the cold. I have never felt cold like that.”

  “Hmm…”

  “Hmm? I said all that, and your response was a hmm?” Ilya asked.

  I shrugged.

  Ilya gave me a look and added, “And you used death to save a man?”

  “Yes,” I stressed.

  “Who saves people using death magic?”

  “Ilya.” I was getting annoyed with the constant questioning.

  “Fine. Just promise me you will tell me whenever you are going to do something like that again.”

  “Why?”

  Ilya glared at me. “So that I can at least protect the children. Those poor things are going to be scarred for life.”

  “I just saved their protector.” I frowned and asked, “Isn’t that what they wanted? Where are they, anyway?”

  “Hiding from you in the other rooms,” Ilya said, glaring.

  “Me?” I was shocked.

  “Yes… Divine progeny of death,” Ilya said mockingly.

  I frowned. “Don’t call me that.”

  Ilya chuckled. “Now you know what I feel like.”

  “I don’t hear anyone call you that.”

  “That’s because these people haven’t seen me bring down a storm yet,” Ilya grumbled and muttered, “You’ll see when we battle the Thorgs. I just hope I don’t blow away this keep when I do.”

  I blinked and stopped in my tracks. “Ilya, don’t blow away the keep.”

  “Why?” Ilya asked and continued, “You want to hog all the attention.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Saha grew up in this place, and she won’t like it.”

  “That sounds like a you problem, brother.”

  I thought for a second and grinned. “The children won’t like it either. You don’t want to scare that little Dodger boy, do you?”

  Ilya stumbled mid-step and looked back at me with narrowed eyes.

  I smiled.

  “That was low.”

  I shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”

  “Your Grace, Your Highness. We are here,” Grek called to us.

  I had been so distracted by the conversation that I hadn’t noticed we had reached the gate. Ilya looked at the gate and saw a soul slash at the bars with its long nails. Golden sparks flew outwards, and the three Punishers scrambled back.

  “Voss. Use that stone,” Ilya said, pointing at the stone in my hand.

  I clenched it in my palm and trickled some of my death mana into it. The stone crumbled to dust. I blinked rapidly as my mind absorbed the knowledge stored within.

  “So, was it worth it?” Ilya asked.

  I grimaced. “No.”

  “Good.” Ilya grinned and cracked her knuckles. “Because I really want to punch something after talking to you.”