Suddenly a foul smell hit Sora "What's that gods awful smell?"
"What smell?" Kain asked.
Sora looked between Z and Kain. They didn't seem affected by the smell.
"It's dirty."
"Is it blood?"
Sora shook his head. "No, this is foul."
"Soul eaters…" Z affirmed "…makes sense that you'd smell them. Shadow mages privilege. Be alert."
"That means they're here." Kain noted.
"We're going in." Slowly, Z pushed back on the door and they made their way in. They walked into the lair and didn't walk for too long before a strong grating voice came from within.
"Welcome to the party, Hunters."
Sora assessed the Soul eater as it emerged from the shadows. In appearance, it had a few things in common with the soul eater that had attacked him and Ryo. It had the gaunt skull-like head
"You took him on a mission without my permission. Why?"Z shrugged, seeming uninterested. "He wanted to go."Z stood across from Tydinn, who sat at his table. Tydinn was stiff. The muscles around his forehead tightened and from the way his office was rearranged, she could tell he was mad. Must have taken him all morning to sort it out, which meant his anger was pent up."What if he wanted to burn down the Academy? Would you help him?""You're exaggerating Tydinn. It was an irrelevant mission.""One you took him on, without my permission." Tydinn's tone was firm.Z could tell he was trying his best to keep up his anger from how he avoided her eyes. "Are we really going to dwell on this? Won't you ask me how I'm doing?""If you didn't return fine from dealing with Gargos, then I would have questioned your status as my daughter."<
His sudden movement startled Z. "What?" she asked completely confused."Were you going to hit me?""I wasn't.""Ohh… sorry." Sora relaxed."Why would you think I would?""No offense but… it's you."Z nodded, "Fair enough… welcome back. Took you long enough, you've been out all morning.""Where am I?""The infirmary… Kain and I brought you here. He sends his regards by the way, he wanted to stay but Tydinn is out to get him so… yeah. You get it?"Sora nodded gently and sighed, and he sat up in bed."Do you remember anything?"Sora was quiet for a while, recollecting events from the night before and then it dawned on him. "I'm a soul eater.""You are a mage." Z countered."But I too
Dressed in their uniforms, Sora and Z walked through the Academy's hallway, taking turn after turn before finally arriving at Vorak's door."I will wait here till you're done. You'll be fine." Z reassured him, then made two knocks on the door before opening and giving way to Sora.Sora sighed and walked into the room to find Master Vorak already seated at his table. Vorak looked serious, but calm. He was always meticulous about his appearance, but today he was dressed more officially than the last time they met and not a single grey hair on his head was out of place."Welcome Sora, please take a seat."Sora took the seat across from Vorak."How did your training go?""Great, my teacher was exceptional." Sora replied."And you've progressed quickly, I heard."Was Vorak stalling?"I guess... my teac
Vorak nodded to Anaise beside him, and he took over."It has come to our attention that you are quite an unusual mage. We have questions and we would appreciate honest and very precise answers. Is that okay?"Sora nodded;"Please use your words, young mage, for the sake of clarity."Sora cleared his throat. "Yes, it is okay.""Before a month ago, how would you describe your life as a mage?""Ordinary, useless and painful.""And why was that?""I couldn't harness energy and I was useless to everyone and myself.""Any particular reason why you couldn't harness your energy?""I have no idea. No one had an idea, not even the best mages knew why."His comment made the mages a bit uneasy and he could tell from the way their eyes shifted between each other.<
"Do you see anything?" Z whispered as low as possible from behind."I can't see anything from this angle," Sora replied in the same low tone.Crouched behind the trees, with Z behind him. Sora scanned through the building across from them. The fog made it difficult for him to see as clearly as he would normally, so he tried relying on his sense of smell, but that didn't work either. It wouldn't be easy this far away and the fog made it worse.His senses had gotten stronger in the last month since they started going on these missions—always with Tydinn's permission. On missions, Z was to be his guardian, as decided by the Academy, to watch him, make sure he stays in line, and make sure to kill him if he ever breached their agreement.But he hadn't tried to take any more souls, not even soul eaters', and every encounter they had had with soul eaters nearly drove him to the edge. After taking Garg
The coven leader charged at them too, sending his own charges at them. Sora's blue energy against the Coven leader's red filled the room as the fights continued.The number of soul eaters reduced but the coven leader remained strong. Swinging its claws in all directions, Sora was unable to find a direct opening to hit the coven leader."Distract him," Sora yelled to no one in particular.Z was still busy slicing through the soul eaters and definitely couldn't hear a word Sora said but Kain ran towards the coven leader fully charged and swung his weapon at it from a close range, his blow landed but not before it could slash its claws at Kain's neck. He scratched Kain's neck, but it gave Sora enough time to hit the Soul eater with a full blast in the chest and it immediately burst into flames.With the soul eaters dead, they walked around the coven, entering each compartment for traces of the usual evidence they had
Deki sighed and began, "They came to our home at night yesterday. We thought they wanted to take our souls when they came and we were ready to die, but they didn't. They took us i-instead and brought us here. There were humans with the-the soul eat-ters, they were the ones that ca-captured us.""Humans and Soul eaters? Is that even possible?" Kain asked, looking between Sora and Z."That's outrageous." Z retorted;"It would make sense how they were captured. Soul eaters can't touch humans without killing them or taking their souls. The humans probably captured them to ensure they didn't get hurt." Kain replied.Sora was bothered by Deki's words. "Do you know what this even means? An alliance of that sort.""This is probably bigger than we imagined. If humans are working with soul eaters and vice versa, then there's a motive." Z replied"But what could be the
Z, who was ahead finally stopped on a building, and the rest stopped too. "My home is that way." Kain said pointing left with Deki still on his back." "Be careful especially with her around and be safe," Z warned staring daggers at Deki who remained quiet with her head bent behind Kain. Kain smiled softly at Z "I will be. Thanks." Kain bent again allowing Deki mount his back and they left. Z stood watching till they were out of sight before pulling her eyes away. "We have to go." Sora and Z got back to the Academy a little past midnight. They took the usual route through the woods. A walk that Sora had gotten accustomed to. "We have to see Tydinn first," Z noted. Sora wanted to pass on the meeting but he didn't complain. Instead, he followed Z to Tydinn's office.