House of Amarin

"What's your next plan?" Lucian asked, watching the two unconscious young men lying in the basement of Lia's tower.

"I sent word, so Erias is coming back, but before he arrives, I will try and talk with them."

"What should I do?" Asked Cael, watching his comrades, but he felt nothing towards them. He couldn't even recognize them as both looked young and barely 16. Did he know them from before? Maybe... but he no longer cared.

"Just back me up when necessary. You can try to reason with them, but I want you here to be the voice of reason as to why it is stupid to cling to the past! Numerous people would love to get another chance at life... I know many who I would gladly bring back in exchange for these two."

"I understand." He nodded, not questioning it anymore, gently bowing his head.

With Lia's little nudge, her aura tickled their souls, and the two assassins immediately woke up. A quick scan of their surroundings told them everything they needed and that pretending was futile.

"Traitor."

"Okay, boys!" Lia laughed while Lucian brought over a chair, letting her sit down while he stood behind her, crossing his arms with a stoic face.

"Boys?" They asked, looking at Lia with their young faces but ancient, black eyes. "We are older than you and your puppy combined."

"He is not a puppy; he is a Manly Fox!"

"...." Although Lucian wanted to say something, he felt it best to let Lia deal with the situation and keep his face unchanging.

"Plus, you are kids. Your bodies are still young, and your powers are what... 3rd Tier? At best? Geez, what do you say, my Sexy Foxy? Are they kids or not?"

"Kids that had been spanked." He nodded, smirking at the two, "Their strength wasn't even that overwhelming to bring down Cael! Or... such is the ancient ways and their might? So laughable? Maybe they are rusty after sleeping for so long!"

"Hmph!" One of them snorted while the other looked at Cael, who stood respectfully beside Lia.

"Cael? Is that what you call yourself? Do you even remember who you are?"

"I do... and I chose not to return to that life. I had a chance to be reborn, but I chose my new life instead. It isn't too late for you two to do the same, either."

"You were only allowed to do it because of our Sect! Of our leaders! You maggot! You weak-willed scum!"

"Woah, woah, language!" Lia snorted, "I think it is the reverse in Cael's case. At least he thinks for himself! Maybe it was a blessing to be reborn like that."

"With a defect? Sure..." They laughed sarcastically, but Lia ignored that part.

"Maybe... but I see it as simply shaking off a shackle. You see... I visited your realm. I know how you operate and how you can block someone from voicing their thoughts! In my eyes, whatever happened to him was a blessing. Yet here you are... in the same boat as him, still clinging to your masters. In my eyes, your Golden Claw is the same as the Soulbound bastards."

"As if! Like you would know that, you barbarian!"

"She is right." A deep, malicious voice seeped into the chamber, and from the darkness behind the two captives, Erias materialized, emerging from it.

"How long have you been here?" Lia giggled while Cael gulped a little, as he never even noticed his presence. He was old, yes... but Erias's eyes were now colder than what he had ever seen before.

"Since they woke up. I didn't want to interrupt them, so I silently watched them. Don't even bother trying to reason with these two. They are just as brainwashed as those idiots!"

"Yeah, I was getting that feeling too... Ahhh... too bad! I hoped they would be reasonable, like Cael."

"Not everyone can be born with a brain." Lucian chuckled, respectfully nodding towards Erias.

"I already know what you want me to do." He returned the greeting to the ex-headmaster and looked at his descendant.

"Hehehe~!" Lia grinned, rubbing the ridge of her nose, "We got two, so... both of us can learn what they know!"

"Only two... hm?" Erias asked, his blue eyes skimming over Cael.

"Yep. He is good! For now."

"I made my decision." Cael answered firmly, cupping his hands, "I may be weak, but at least I have my pride. If I decide something, I will do it to the best of my abilities!"

"We will see..." He whispered while maintaining eye contact with him as he put his palm on the head of one of the captives.

To Cael's horror, he saw him force the man's soul out, pulling the old-looking fellow straight from the young body. As the head popped out, distorted in pain, his comrade next to him began to try and fight back, but Lucian simply stepped forward, pushing him down to the ground, making him watch it.

"That is a..." Cael gulped, recognizing it as a Soulbound technique.

"We were there, within their Sect, so yes." Lia nodded nonchalantly.

"Only the basis!" Erias grinned as he continued extracting the soul, slowly and painfully. "I am much more crude with it, you see. I didn't bother with class or make it quick and efficient. So it is quite painful! For him, at least..."

"Elder... Kochek?" Cael asked after a brief pause, finally recognizing the soul that Erias was extracting from the young body.

"Who is he?" Lia asked, glancing at him, watching his reactions that were all readable from his expression.

"He was an Elder already when I became a disciple. He was part of the Disciplinary Hall, responsible for policing the Inner and Core Disciples."

"Heh! Nice!" Erias laughed hearing it and increased the intensity with which he was pulling Kochek out of his body.

"It wasn't that high of a spot to be excited about!" Cael added hurriedly, not wanting to disappoint them.

"He has knowledge of people." Lucian answered him instead of Erias, "A disciplinary member will know a lot about the others, so it is a good source of information!"

"Not to mention," Erias agreed, holding the separated soul of Kochek, now in the process of shrinking it down to the size of a pill, "They ought to know some little secrets about your home! Even if not, I will learn more about the Claws, which is already worth it!" With that, he popped the 'soul pill' into his mouth, sat down, and started to meditate, consuming and sorting through the flooding in memories.

"My turn! Keep a watch~!" Lia winked at Lucian, who let go of the second reincarnator. The moment his body was free and he was able to speak again, he began pleading, desperately trying to get out of his dire predicament.

"Please! I will tell you everything! My name is Desi; I am worthless as I was nothing but a simple Guardian!" While hearing him, Lia merely turned towards Cael, who was thinking, opening his mouth a few seconds later.

"I don't recall his name, but a Guardian was someone who was responsible for keeping vigil at one of the entrances to our sub-realm. They were martial-focused disciples, so I don't know if he knows anything useful."

"I do not!" He pleaded with true terror within his voice, but Lia didn't stop and put his hand on the top of his head.

"Isn't that perfect?" To Desi's horror, she grinned and began the extraction, "I would love to find a new entrance to it... I feel homesick, you see..."

"Those probably had been changed," Cael added softly, but Lia wasn't bothered by the possibility.

"Worth a try!"

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When Cael returned to his dormitory, he looked a bit pale and tired. The moment he opened the door, his roommates looked at him, jumping to their feet, surrounding him.

"Cael! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah... I am... W-why?" He asked, surprised at their reaction.

"There was a school-wide announcement! It came from our bracelets, ordering everyone to return to the dormitories and stay there until further notice! Then you were not here!"

"Worse, we received another one an hour later that two students had been found to be Undead Remnants who attacked a student when they were unmasked!"

"What...?" Cael asked, almost yelling out but quickly realizing what it was about.

"Were you the one who was attacked? We did hear a crash very close by, but we weren't allowed to go and check it out! Some others said they did see someone like you fighting there, but it was hard to see!"

"Well... something like that, yes."

"Daaaaamn!" They exclaimed in pairs, pulling him to his bed, bombarding him with questions, wanting to know everything.

"Well... it... I... I can't tell you everything!" He stuttered, trying to come up with some appropriate lies, "It's the order of Lia and Erias Amarin!"

"You met with THEM?!" The rest screamed like little girls, starting to shake Cael, who felt even more troubled now. What was even worse was that others began flooding their room after the news spread, making him retell his lie over and over again, becoming a kind of celebrity within the Institute overnight.

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.....

"Was it a mistake?" Hajna asked after finishing his report to Lia, who returned to her office two days later, taking time to sort out the wealth of memories she just put her hands on.

"No, it is fine. Good job! It is the best cover for our story! Did you look up their backgrounds?"

"Yes." She bowed, and Lia's bracelet displayed the two 'students' documents. "I made inquiries at once; their parents are non-existent. All their backgrounds were fabricated. By the time the Misfits I sent out arrived, all those people were gone. Asking around, they said the families moved or just left in one night."

"So they were also reincarnators." Lia hummed, crossing her arms, "Bastards."

"Most likely. Going by what Cael said, they are born with memories that are intact from the get-go. They quickly dismiss their current families either violently or simply leave when they are able to take care of themselves. He is truly an anomaly."

"Or just the only sane person."

"I can't tell." Hajna hummed, tilting her head, making Lia chuckle.

"I have another mission for the Misfits! Send word to their groups to go to these four locations!"

"Let me reference them with the latest map that was updated by the Six." She nodded, disappearing momentarily, returning when Lia was pouring out the finished tea for herself. "Found their locations. One is right atop a splitting point. It won't be easy to find it."

"I see. Send that coordinate to Arcus and Erias instead! Let them deal with it! The other three will go to the Misfits! Tell them to just go, take a look, and do not try to get in! Just find an entrance if they can and report back!"

"Yes! What about Cael?"

"Keep monitoring him, as we still have spies. I want to see what happens next. Will they try again or not? They will know it wasn't the undead that we killed but their kin... Let them seethe a little and make a mistake. Or, come forward in hopes of forgiveness! I'm fine with both!"

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.....

"It was a failure..." Camyu murmured, existing between real and unreal, stuck in a kind of limbo.

For her, living was a strange word as she barely remembered how it felt. What it meant. When not interacting with someone, her world was black and white, and even with people filling up the Golden Claw's realm, it didn't change. Walking amongst them, without anyone realizing her presence, was like before. She was invisible, doing what her mother, the master of everybody present, ordained.

She tried rebelling once, and its cost was her life. Her soul was ripped out from the jaws of Lumamon, quite literally. To save her, Paman bound her soul to their sub-realm, forever imprisoning her in it but also making her its core. In essence, Camyu became the Golden Claw Sect.

"The Sect above all..." She murmured their motto inaudibly as she sent out the new order to the remaining spies inside the Institute of Eight Elements. "The Sect is me... and I am the Sect..."