Years ago, the Frost Empire Borealis, on the Frost Continent, around 8,000 kilometers southwest of the Great Empire.
Heavy snow falls outside. Inside a dimly lit bunker, smoke coils through air thick with silence.
Emilia (around 15), clad in a dark tactical coat, crouches at a map table. Her eyes are focused but tired. Across from her stands The Boss.
The Boss (gravelly): "Your new partners arrived. Don't let their masks fool you. They work in silence, but they see everything."
The heavy steel door creaks open. Three Schatten Syndicate agents enter—faces hidden behind bone-white half-masks, their presence chilling. One of them, smaller and seemingly younger than the rest, locks eyes with Emilia. His aura is suffocating—calm, exact, and surgical. This is Varik von Shadow.
Syndicate Leader (disguised voice): "Mission parameters uploaded. Infiltrate the Vault of Ice. Smuggle the schema. Eliminate resistance. Leave no traces."
Emilia (quietly): "Understood."
As the group disperses, The Boss grabs Emilia's arm. His grip is firm.
The Boss: "You're not like them. You still breathe like a child. If you slip, they won't hesitate to make you disappear. Remember—to them, you're just a borrowed tool."
Emilia (hardening): "Then I'll be sharper than all of them."
Later that night, Vault of Ice, Northern facility.
Emilia moves through the corridors—her Mist Awakening cloaking her steps. She phases through cracks, disables a thermal sensor, and retrieves the sealed crystal case. Behind her, Varik appears without sound.
Varik (whispers): "You're efficient. The Boss was right."
Emilia: "I'm just here for the job."
Varik: "No. You're here because we let you be. But the shadows always collect what they own.
She flinches—not from fear, but from a chill in her soul she can't explain.
Back at the bunker.
Mission success. But Emilia doesn't feel victorious. She stares at herself in a cracked mirror. Black smudges under her eyes. A hollow in her chest.
Emilia (thinking): "I'm getting too good at this… that scares me."
Two years later, Abandoned Catacombs beneath Sumerki.
The mission was meant to be simple: retrieve a corrupted Soul Core smuggled out of the Kagetsu Kingdom. But nothing about this place felt right. The catacombs pulsed with residual Soul Energy—twisted, raw, unstable.
Emilia, now 17, moves silently along the stone corridors. Mist trails her steps, her senses alert. Behind her, Varik von Shadow leads two other Syndicate agents.
Varik (muttering, focused): "These catacombs weren't made for the living… Don't breathe too loud."
They find the relic. A Soul Core—blackened, cracked, humming with agony. Varik reaches for it—
Emilia (warning): "Don't touch it directly—"
But it's too late.
From the shadows, ethereal shapes erupt—malformed remnants of Soul Energy, corrupted into something dark. The relic pulses, and the entire catacomb reacts.
One of the agents is ripped apart. The second turns to flee—only to be consumed by the very walls of the catacomb as they twist and reshape.
Emilia pulls Varik back, but the core's energy lashes out, cracking his mask and tearing deep into his chest. He stumbles, falling to one knee.
Varik (strained): "Leave me. That's an order."
Emilia (angrily): "Shut up."
She envelops the corridor in dense mist, dragging Varik through blind escape routes only she can navigate. But he's fading. Blood soaks her gloves. His heartbeat slows. Then…silence.
A month later, Vault of Remnants, hidden Schatten Syndicate Sanctuary.
Emilia watches in horror from a hidden vent above the ceremonial chamber.
The Schatten-Ritualists are clad in black, faces hidden behind smiling white masks. In the center: Varik's lifeless body, laid out, eyes sewn shut. Around him swirl tendrils of pitch-black Soul Energy—unnaturally manipulated. Made to be something evil. Cursed Energy.
The Voice (Echoes): "The body remembers its purpose. The soul remembers the hunt."
They inject a vial of glowing purple-black Cursed Energy into Varik's heart. A silence. Then—
A piercing scream rips through the chamber—not Varik's, but something older. His eyes snap open—empty, almost glowing. His aura now twisted, as if shattered and reassembled incorrectly.
Emilia flinches. That voice wasn't his anymore.
She flees.
Emilia (thinking): "They brought him back. The Syndicate learned to twist soul energy—something sacred—and made it a tool of evil. I ran missions with those monsters… And now they're hunting me… because I left. Because I know too much. Because I survived what Varik couldn't. They made him a puppet that day. That…thing that tried to kill Ichiro wasn't human; it was a tool, only created to serve its given purpose."
Lenny (pensive): "Then attacking his body won't help us much. We'd have to target his soul or sever whatever's controlling him."
Henry (thoughtful, looking at Ichiro): "You faced him directly. Did you sense anything unusual?"
Ichiro pauses, his eyes narrowing in thought. A memory sparks clearly.
Ichiro (slowly): "Varik… He sensed me instantly, no matter how quietly I moved. But Keal—he couldn't detect him at all. It was like Keal was invisible to him."
Jack (raising an eyebrow): "The kid? How's that possible?"
Ichiro (growing excited): "Keal isn't just sensitive to aura; he listens to the aura of the forest. He found Varik by reading the trees. Varik can't sense what isn't obvious. He's blind to subtle auras because he's focused only on specific targets."
Lenny (realizing): "So we need Keal. He's our best weapon."
Emilia (nodding carefully): "If Varik relies on sound and direct sensing, then Keal's subtlety and aura reading are exactly the counter we need."
Henry nods, determined.
Henry (resolutely): "Then our next step is clear."
Jack (grimly): "Now we hunt the puppet."
Emilia looks around at the faces of her friends—faces determined to face her past alongside her.
Emilia (softly, thankful): "Thank you… all of you."
Silently watching from the trees, the shadow's marionette observes his prey from the distance.
From behind—another shadow approaches.
The Voice: "The Syndicate has brought you new targets, Varik. Her companions must be erased. No traces of their existence."
Not a single sound did Varik make, not even the sound of a single breath.
The Voice: "The Syndicate awaits great results."
Into the darkness of the night the shadowy figure disappears.