"I never thought I would be here again!" Sarah told her two friends.
"Me neither," Dominic said with a calm voice glancing at Declan from time to time. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Declan looked into Dominic's eyes and reassured him.
"Anyway, let's enter," Sarah said after standing in the same place for an hour.
The trio was standing in front of a mountain that seemed to stretch to the endless void. Disciples wearing greenish-black clothes holding weapons were in front of them with emotionless faces.
When the trio neared, the two guarding disciples shifted their weapons towards them without looking.
"Halt!" One of the guards said, looking into the distance.
"If you want to enter the great sanctuary of Dark Art, an identification card or a disciple token is needed," the other one said with a stoic expression while looking in the distance.
The trio exchanged glances before taking out a green token. The token shined with dark light once it neared the guards' one.
Withdrawing their crossed weapons, the guards commented, still looking far away, "you may enter," Guard one said. "Welcome back, fellow disciples. May the Dark Arts illuminate your Cultivation!" Guard two said this time, looking at them with a warm smile.
The trio nodded before entering, allowing the guards to return to their previous positions. As soon as the trio were entirely out of sight, Guard one took out a communication Array, "three suspicious people with varying Cultivations entered the Sect. They had genuine tokens, but I never met them before."
"They also had the aura of a Dark Arts disciple," Guard two added.
"Forget everything that happened," the voice of a woman replied through the Array. "No one entered today!"
"Roger!" The two guards replied before returning to their positions.
"Same as ever I see," Dominic commented, checking his surroundings.
Tall buildings with various uses and striking spires entered their view, countless grand pagodas for Cultivation spread across the Sect in the shape of a circle. Four Majestic structures stood out from the rest: The Pyramid Pavilion, Dark Arts Scripture hall, Enlightenment and Mission, Sect Master's home. This was the Dark Arts Sect behind the illusion of a mountain.
The buildings dispersed throughout the Sect, holding important positions. In the shape of a triangle, the three buildings scattered, leaving the Sect Master's home center around everything on top of a mountain.
To unknowing people, seeing the Sect Master living in a mountain in the middle of the Sect might be confusing, but the ones who know could tell that the Sect Master's building is the most important as it protects the Sect.
"Let's review what Master ordered," Sarah said, looking around to make sure no one suspected them.
"We are newcomers discovered by elder Freya and brought in here. If anyone asks, we are her disciples," Dominic said through the mental transmission item that Hesroth gave them. "These new looks and identity are really well made! Elder Hesroth is especially thorough. He even gave us new tokens." He added unnecessarily.
Sarah and Declan glanced at him boredly. "Anyway," Sarah continued, "our mission is to mingle and observe. If we find anyone who seems like a spy, we must report back."
Declan nodded without saying anything. Dominic and Sarah traded glances before Dominic voiced with slight worry, "Dec, if it's too hard on you, we can ask Master to send you back."
"No need," he replied dryly. "What's hard is failing Master after he put his trust in me!"
With Declan's determined words, the two got convinced and dropped the subject, 'I hope no old scars open,' Dominic thought before moving.
***
After the weapons resonated with each other, Xue Mo and Lu Yao, who had parts of their souls merged, started feeling intense waves of pain coming through their connection.
As the light intensified, the pain increased before turning unbearable. They felt as if their very existence was ripping apart and was countless times incomparable to creating Arcane energy.
They hadn't gone unconscious from the pain because every time they did, the pain became worse. Their states looked pitiful.
Suddenly, images appeared in the two's minds and concentrated in the center of their connected souls. The two materialized shapes that looked like them and watched the images. The pain felt more endurable in that space.
In a white space stood two men conversing alone. When abruptly, a third person shouted while nearing them. The voice individual's voice traveled kilometers and reached the conversing two grabbing their attention.
"Big Brother Kul, Brother Proud!" A voice with an unclear shape called two men. One had the appearance of a monkey, while the other looked like a little child.
"Layla!" The monkey said with a happy smile.
The image disappeared before they could see more, this time in what seemed to be a planet sat two men. One had a vague shape, while the other had brilliant golden hair and sunken aquatic eyes. They drank wine while looking at three pink moons quietly.
"Anthony," the man called, before sipping some wine, "you are my best friend!"
"What was that for?" the golden-haired man raised his brow before laughing. "I am not your best friend, Arak! I am your only friend."
The two laughed at the blue-eyed man's words, but before Xue Mo and Lu Yao could see more, the image shifted again.
In front of a white piece of stars stood two people. The void around them trembled by their very presence as if bowing while they stared at each other holding hands. The two didn't look it, but they were getting married. This time the shapes were apparent.
"In the presence of this Soul bound vow, I, Arak Vrec, will only ever look at one woman," a man who looked like Xue Mo wearing a weird veil of shadowy black miasma said while looking at the woman whose hand he was holding. "Upon this Soul vow, I will marry, love, and cherish you in all my life and any next one. I will be with you and only you forever!"
The woman had black and white hair with grey strands at the end. She squeezed the man's hand and, with a beautiful voice, swore, "and I, Layla Vrec, swear upon this bound Soul vow that only Arak Vrec will be my man. In all my eternity and beyond him and only him!"
Dropping on one knee, Layla smiled and said, wearing the most beautiful smile Arak saw, "will you Arak fuse with me?"
"Yes!" Arak screamed in a majestic tone. "Upon this Soul Vow, let us fuse and become connected forever!"
When the two finished, their pledges, grey, and dim lights came out of them. The lights condensed into spheres before rotating around the other, slowly coming closer and fusing.
"No!!" a scream sounded in the quiet void where the marriage was happening. "Die, you two!" A golden-haired man traversed the void and appeared in front of the two weakened couple.
As soon as the spheres fused and became one, a hand struck both Arak and Layla's chests, destroying them.
"Anthony?" Arak's soul said with incredulous and pained eyes as he saw his body turning to Ash. Layla had similar expressions before the spheres that just fused disappeared.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Both Xue Mo and Lu Yao screamed inside their souls. The pain reduced but they felt even more torn after seeing the last vision.
Not long after, their pain subsided, making them lose consciousness.
They hugged each other while their eyes bled. Even in their sleep, the two kept muttering the names, "Arak!!!! Layla!!!" They screamed them while tightly holding on to the other.