The night had been quiet, the slums wrapped in a fragile sense of peace. Kai had planned to leave unnoticed, slipping away before the first light of the rising sun could touch Ylthara's walls.
But they were waiting for him.
Merri, Joran, Rhea, and Finn stood in his way, their expressions a mix of hurt and determination.
"You were just going to leave?" Rhea asked, arms crossed. "Without saying anything?"
Kai exhaled sharply. He didn't have time for this. "It's for your own good. They're looking for me. If I stay-"
Finn stepped forward and placed a hand on Kai's shoulder.
He didn't say anything.
He didn't need to.
Because the next moment, blood gushed from his mouth, splattering hot and wet across Kai's face.
Time seemed to slow as Finn's body convulsed, his fingers tightening before going limp. His weight sagged, and Kai caught him, eyes widening in horror at the large knife buried deep in Finn's back.
A magical film coated the knife. A small thread of mana connected to something else in the darkness.
'Eagle's Sight!'
Kai focused his strengthening magic into his eyes and peered into the darkness.
For a second, there was nothing but stunned silence.
Then the knife moved.
"Run!" Kai pleaded to his friends.
It twisted itself free, sliding from Finn's flesh as if an invisible hand guided it. Kai barely had time to react before it spun in midair, flashing like a streak of silver. It took Rhea's head clean off.
Her body remained standing for a moment, blood spraying in an arc before she crumpled beside Finn.
Kai's mind screamed, but his instincts took over. He reached inside himself, grasping at the mass of stolen life essence.
'Ice Wall.'
A massive barrier of ice erupted between them and the unseen assailant, thick enough to obscure sight. But even as it formed, he heard Joran's frantic breath behind him.
Then the sound of metal striking metal.
He turned just in time to see Joran fending off the floating knife with a rusted pipe, sparks flying with each impact. His face was twisted in concentration, muscles straining as he blocked the relentless blows.
'Good. Keep our enemy busy while I find him. If anyone can survive this, it's you.'
Kai moved through the darkness, trying to seek out the source of the mana. He followed the thread, as he counted the sound of Joran blocking the knife's blows.
A small figure sat in the centre of the nearby courtyard. A mannequin made of clay.
Sixteen times.
Sixteen desperate, defiant blocks.
Kai gasped. One thread of mana connected itself to the knife, one from the attacker, and another lead out towards Joran and the other knife.
Another knife flew in from nowhere.
A flash of steel glinted in the rays of the rising sun.
Joran's right arm hit the ground with a sickening thump.
He let out a strangled gasp, stumbling backward, his mind catching up with the pain too slowly.
And the first knife buried itself in his chest.
Joran's lips moved, trying to say something—maybe a plea, maybe a curse—but no sound came. He collapsed, body twitching once before falling still.
Kai couldn't breathe.
He couldn't think.
Merri whimpered behind him, her small frame trembling.
Kai grabbed her, and Shade moved.
Darkness engulfed them both as Shade wrapped its formless body around them. Kai forced every ounce of mana into Concealment, willing them to disappear from sight, from sense, from everything.
But it didn't matter.
Merri was ripped from his grasp.
The shadows parted like mist in the wind.
And the Hunter stood before them.
No footsteps. No sound. They had simply appeared.
Kai barely had time to see their face—if they even had one. A deep hood concealed their features, their form wrapped in layers of dark, enchanted fabric that seemed to shift in the dim light.
Merri screamed.
The Hunter gripped her arms and snapped them at the elbows.
She shrieked in agony, her cries raw and piercing.
Kai lunged forward, but an invisible force slammed into his chest, crushing him to the ground.
Merri sobbed, choking on the pain, barely able to breathe through the torment.
Then, with merciless efficiency, the Hunter reached forward—
And snapped her neck.
The sound echoed through the slums.
A quiet, final crack.
Her body slumped forward.
Kai couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
The Hunter tilted their head slightly, as if assessing him. Then, without a word, they vanished, leaving only the corpses behind.
For the first time since awakening to his power, Kai felt helpless.
'He's not gone, though. I can feel it.'
The faint presence of the hunter's mana remained, even if all of Kai's senses told him he'd retreated.
Then, from the nearby buildings, Kai heard the rest of the children screaming. True terror set in as he felt the density of the nearby mana deplete as the children were slaughtered.
'They're... They're all dead. Rhea, Joran, Finn, and Merri...'
Kai looked at their corpses and something in him broke.
'I... do need companions.'
Two inquisitors rushed to the scene from the direction of the previous screaming and glanced over the corpses before focusing their attention on Kai.
"Ah, so that was the two of you?" Kai tilted his head, his words devoid of emotion.
Faced with two inquisitors and an unseen hunter, Kai had no choice.
'Let's do this. Mass raise undead!'
Kai spread his arms out and felt around for the souls and bodies of the children. He remembered back to the time that he raised Bert, and partially raised a bird from the dead, and focused his mind desperately.
Rhea's body twitched first. Her head was pulled back onto her body via tendrils of darkness, intertwined with green light. The same happened to Joran's arm. One by one, his four friends shuffled to their feet.
'Welcome back, everyone. I'm sorry, but I will be sure to make good use of your bodies.'
The rest of the children, the few dozen of them, twitched back to life, or unlife in this case, and marched over to Kai.
[Life Essence is empty. Further spell-casting will be impossible without draining your body's stores.]
'I've done it before, and I don't care. They're all dying here. Or worse.'