"N-Ngh…" I groaned, my eyes slowly opening.
I appeared to be lying on some kind of warm, soft surface - Hina-nee's lap. I looked up and saw that she seemed to be crying as she held me gently.
"Hina-nee…?"
Her eyes widened in surprise. "Kaze-kun…?!"
Then, immediately, she pulled me into a tight hug, so tight that I could barely even breathe.
"Wuwu… Kaze-kun… I thought you died or something…"
I laughed softly and embraced her back gently. "Ha… I'm not that easy to kill."
"It seems Brother Kaze is awake," Ming Hong said, walking over with a smile on his face.
"Uh, yeah… sorry about that… how long was I out for?"
"Half an hour," Hina-nee replied, wiping her tears away. "Mou… you scared me to death, just suddenly collapsing like that."
"…" I glanced down at my two hands.
How many lives had they taken now? How many more would they take in the future? In order to achieve my goal… how much more blood would have to be shed?
I tightened my hands into fists as I gritted my teeth.
"Kaze-kun…? Are you okay?" Hina-nee asked, tilting her head cutely.
I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine… sorry, once again. I made you all wait for me. Let's keep searching for that leader."
Ming Hong nodded as Hina-nee and I stood up. "Alright. In that case… let's go in this direction."
He began walking away from us as we followed behind closely. Hina-nee held my hand in comfort, since she could tell something was clearly wrong with me. Having known me for all her life, it could be said she knew me better than I did myself. If she sensed something was wrong with me, then there certainly was something wrong with me.
And that was indeed the case here.
A part of me… felt missing. I don't mean literally - I had no visible wounds or injuries, and got through that fight without a scratch. It's more like… part of my soul. My humanity. What makes me human. A part of that felt missing.
I had been so afraid and hesitant to kill that sickleboar when I first arrived in this world. I had wanted to just leave it be, since it wasn't bothering me anymore. But A.R.X.A. intervened. She told me to kill it. No… she FORCED me to kill it, cleanly and thoroughly.
… Was she the cause of all this? But a few words shouldn't be enough to make me like this.
No… was I secretly being brainwashed without me even realizing it? She certainly had the powers to do that - every living being across all the reality planes in existence were nothing more but her pawns. Her test subjects - independent variables to be altered however she liked. Controlling one's mind should be as easy as breathing for her… not that she needed to breathe, anyway.
But if that was the case, just how far had she manipulated my mind? It was certainly no small amount.
In fact… back there… I even got lost in my killing spree against the snowolves. I remember it very clearly - every slash, every cut… every kill. At the end, I even lifted the poor beast up high into the air, just to admire the deep wound I had inflicted on its fragile body.
I felt the urge to vomit. Just thinking about it made me sick. And yet… at the time, I had felt nothing of the sort. Instead, it had felt exhilarating.
Killing, had felt exhilarating.
Undoubtedly, this was wrong. My morals and humanity said so. Even though the snowolves were beasts, mere animals, they were still lives. If A.R.X.A.'s influence on my mind went on, I would eventually move on to fellow humans as well - possibly even to the point where I would harm those closest to me… even Hina-nee.
I could not let that happen. I needed to confront A.R.X.A. about this matter as soon as possible, before it was too late.
"…" Hina-nee looked at me in worry as we walked, but refrained from saying anything.
I had a bargain ready in mind… but it was a gamble. Whether or not A.R.X.A. would accept it was an entirely different matter altogether.
*****
"Brother Kaze, you seem quite proficient in your martial arts as well," Ming Hong pointed out as we walked. "Could it be, you are cultivating both martial arts and hidden arts?"
"Martial arts…?" I frowned in confusion.
"Ah, sorry, I forgot the place Brother Kaze came from does not use such terms…" he cleared his throat and continued. "Arts, the 'power' in this world, can generally be split into three major categories: martial arts, hidden arts, and soul arts."
Soul arts…? That was something new to me… I wanted to know more.
"Martial arts refer to your physical strength, while hidden arts refer to ranged attacks that fall into one of the ten elements," he explained.
Ten elements… wasn't there eleven on the Skills tab of my System? Pyromancy, Hydromancy, Geomancy, Aeromancy, Biomancy, Cryomancy, Luxomancy, Umbromancy, Astromancy, Chronomancy, and Chaosmancy. That was eleven… did Ming Hong just not know about Chaosmancy, or…
Ah, never mind. If I asked him about it here, I would have to reveal that I know about the various elements. So, instead, I chose to ask him about something else:
"What about soul arts?"
"Soul arts are slightly different. I don't know much about them myself, but apparently they attack someone's spiritual body rather than their physical one."
"Spiritual body, huh… so like, an attack from the inside?"
"Somewhat. I am not an expert on this, but Guildmaster Feng is. He is the most proficient soul arts user in all of Qilian."
"I see… I'll have to go talk to him then," I muttered quietly.
Suddenly, we heard a series of loud explosions go off to our right, in the southwest direction.
"W-What was that?" Ming An asked, slightly scared.
"It seems… a major fight is going on over there," Ming Hong murmured. "Brother Kaze, do we join?"
I nodded immediately. "The fight seems pretty intense. Hina-nee hasn't been picking up on any enemies around us, so we might as well go investigate."
Hina-nee winked. "Kaze-kun is right. There is a good chance the leader we're looking for is there, if the explosions were that loud."
As if on cue, another series of booms echoed across the silent night sky, accompanied by battle cries and roars of anger.
*****
We quickly made our way over to the fight. About ten people had gathered there, with Guildmaster Feng and the two scouts among them. Hiaki Leo, the guy I had beat up earlier today, was also here. He noticed our arrival and his eyes widened a bit upon seeing me. There was fear in his eyes, but I didn't pay it any mind - for there were more important matters.
Directly in front of the group was an army of Phantoms, stretching for as far as the eye could see. And hovering above the army, was a charming lady with long white hair and demonic yellow eyes.
Was she… the leader?
I could see corpses from our side laying limply on the battle field, but it was certain they took down many Phantoms with them. Monsters didn't leave corpses behind after being killed, after all.
Still, casualties were casualties.
The Phantoms stopped advancing, and we stopped blasting them with hidden arts. Looks like that woman was the one controlling them after all.
For now, it seemed that both sides were taking a temporary truce to talk.
"… What have we ever done to you?" Guildmaster Feng asked dangerously. He wielded a sword of ice - I could feel the cold energy from here. But I thought physical attacks couldn't harm Phantoms… wait, could it be… the sword itself could use unique hidden arts of its own?
"My intentions are not for you to know," the woman said with a short laugh. "If you get out of the way now… it'll save us both a lot of trouble, no?"
"And let you wreak havoc on our city?" the Guildmaster tightened his grip on his sword.
"I do not care who you are or why you are here… but if you are trying to destroy Qilian, then you will have to do so over my dead body."
The woman smiled sadistically. "Good, good… then that is exactly while I will do. Since you are so eager to get turned into a corpse, then it would be rude of me not to comply."
Guildmaster Feng closed his eyes for a brief moment, then suddenly looked up and dashed towards the levitating woman in an instant, eyes filled with killing intent.
"Die, demon!"
He leaped higher than where the woman was floating, then began to rapidly spin himself around in a circle, both body and sword.
"Art of the Frozen Blade - Form Eight: Whirlwind."
But as he unleashed a curved 360 degree sword technique filled with ice and frost energy so cold and murderous that it threatened to freeze reality itself…
… His target, the woman, smiled.