'Thank you.'

"Okay . . . okay . . ." She muttered to herself. "Freaky, freaky."

"So theses skeletons aren't part of the demon list?" Genevieve asked, eyes widening at the sight of what Valeriana did.

"One becomes a demon when the soul becomes corrupted." Rowe told them. "In this case, only their bodies are being controlled, but their souls are not affected in anyway. My guess is that this is a mix of necromancy and puppetry—the partial resurrection in order to animate the movements of a body which no longer have a soul, making it much easier for it to fall under control. They're dolls."

"Puppetry?" She swung for the next skeleton.

"The strings you talk about." He answered. "There are other ways, but this is the most unusual. In order to animate dead bodies, you have to put a part of yourself into their own—that means sacrificing a part of your soul." Rowe kicked a skeleton away that came at him. "It serves as a connection." He grunted when another clung at his shoulders and attempted to pull him back. "But cutting the strings cut that connection."

"What in the world is this—" Tamara was able to evade the slash of a sword in time. "Now they're wielding weapons!" She exclaimed before blocking the next swing with her own blade.

"Troublesome." Brindon commented.

"Enough chitchat and explaining already!" Courtney hissed. "I'm not interested in the mechanics of how these things work! What I want to know is how to put an end to them! This isn't a class!" Whirlwinds appeared on her palm. With a swift shot of her hand, she blew all the skeletons away—literally.

"They just . . . keep on coming! Is there no end to this?" Zevlin inquired as he took on three at once.

Corvan frowned. "I'm done. What should we do? How do we cut the strings?" He asked.

They all turned to Valeriana, looking at her from the corner of their eyes while they continued combat. The girl was frantically throwing random strikes in the air that they doubted if she was even thinking about she was moving.

"Well . . ." Another skeleton crumbled at her feet. "I . . . cut the strings!"

"How reliable." Courtney huffed.

A few sighed. The others groaned.

"The strings resemble the appearance of a thread. But this thread is not normally seen at all." Rowe flipped through the air. "It cannot be touched, it cannot be seen. Because it is made up of a person's soul."

"So Valeriana's the only one who can do this?" Corvan looked annoyed.

"It isn't exactly impossible." Rowe answered. "I've suspected the presence of these strings since I myself did not sense any malice I normally sense from a demon."

"Then how?"

"It will take a great deal of power to momentarily be able to tap into the realm of the spirits. For even though those strings existed right here, right now, they are someplace else which is out of our reach. For me to accomplish it, I'll have to leave my body."

"That's not good. Agh." Genevieve said, kicking away the weapons that the skeletons carried before grabbing the skulls of the two that attempted to attack her. With a cry, she smashed their heads together. "I don't think it's advisable."

"You aren't the only one who's getting tired!" Keelan shouted, hearing her statement. "I'm hungry . . ."

"Mind your food later, you idiot!" Elfre screamed at him. "Can't you see we're in a situation here? These guys may be weak, but we can't go to the city if we don't go through them first!"

"Can't you just . . ." Aneeka whirled around with a spinning kick. "Focus?!"

"Grraarrgghh . . ." The growling continued, seeming to reach higher notes the longer they went.

"If we all spend our power here at once, then we wouldn't stand a chance in surviving within the city." Charles said, his deft hands handling his weapon skillfully.

"A few of us will suffice." Corvan commented. "We're fourteen, are we not? Three or four will be able to handle the job, minus two for Rowe and Valeriana."

"So who else has sufficient power? And has done this 'tap into the spirit realm' matter?" Courtney asked the others.

"Maybe I can do it!" Zion raised his hands up.

"Are you kidding? What do you know about the tapping . . . blah?" Genevieve inquired. "Your element is fire, not the spirit."

"You're not even sure." Brindon quipped.

"But I wanted to."

"Aneeka." Tamara turned. "You're from Aetheria. You should know a thing or two, right?"

"Maybe." Aneeka answered, shrugging briefly before catching the blade aimed at her. With a brief brush of her fingers, she had the skeleton's arm pulled and flying to the other side. The continuous popping and cracking within the room seemed to never get old.

"Oh, come on. I don't think it'll be wise to bet me, Charles, or someone else. I don't know a thing about this." She argued. "We'll hold out the rest while you're at it. Can you handle them all? We'll cover your backs, anyway."

"Aneeka is the family warrior." Rowe chuckled. "If there's someone who's much better skilled in than me, it'll be her—aside from Lord Corvan, of course."

"Oh, please. Says the second-ranker?" Aneeka spat back.

"I'm the second-ranker by name only." He laughed.

"Well, whatever."

"Just do it already!" Courtney yelled at them.

"Ah, as impatient as ever."

Aneeka and Rowe backed away from battling simultaneously. The group enclosed them within a protective circle and started to fight off the wave of enemies that attempted to break their formation. Within the next few seconds, they all suddenly turned more violent and wild—bloodthirsty.

"Hold on, everyone!" Charles planted his feet to the ground.

"Keeeep hooooldiiiiiing oooonn! 'Cause you know we'll make it through! We'll make it through!" Valeriana sang.

"Holy dragon above!" Zion eyed her from the corner of his eyes.

"Oh, god." Genevieve turned away.

"My ears just went blank." Brindon muttered.

The skeletons themselves looked shaken a bit for a moment that they stopped. Corvan swore that if they had faces, they would look shocked.

The air went still for a moment.

"You know, if I knew your voice had this kind of effect, I'll ask you to sing in the battlefield. You'll probably kill a lot more enemies than I would my entire life." Corvan stated, shaking his head.

"No one asked you people to listen!" Valeriana hissed.

"Never mind that! Aneeka, Rowe, NOW!" Corvan yelled.

"Graarrrgghhh!"

Aneeka and Rowe sat on the ground, their backs against each other. With a big intake of breath, they closed their eyes and started focusing.

"I haven't done this in a while." Aneeka said.

Rowe smiled, but didn't respond.

"Jaenar dohn lilum et farus dohn." Both of them continued to mutter words Valeriana didn't understand. This must be the Ancient Language.

Rowe's soul visibly left his body. He seemed almost lightweight and easily carried by the wind, not to mention the see-through appearance as well. Aneeka came a little bit later, stumbling clumsily while she did. Having not done it for quite a while, she seemed to be trying to adapt herself into . . . a change of form.

"So, how do we do this?" Aneeka inquired.

Valeriana stared at Aneeka. "You look different."

"Rowe!" The tenth shouted. "How are we supposed to touch our weapons?"

"Calm down. I'll call my familiar." He then sighed. "Come out, Cheveyo."

"You can't. You've already drained enough power. You can't strain yourself any further."

"Do not worry about me." Rowe said.

Despite Aneeka's protests, Rowe chose to call upon his familiar anyway. He was overexerting himself doing this, but he had his own reasons.

Cheveyo, a beautiful white owl, appeared on Rowe's shoulder. His eyes were a big, round, and wise-looking and his feathers looked silky. He automatically turned to his contractor and began inquiring about the situation.

'What dost thou need of me?' It asked.

"I need weapons, Cheveyo. I cannot handle material things right now." He told it. "Give me two, preferably."

'That is not a very hard request . . . I'll transform myself into a weapon, twin swords in particular. Is that fine with thee?'

"It's more than enough."

Cheveyo flapped his large wings before a bright white light encased his form and he fell into Rowe's palms as the weapons he requested. The guy quickly gave the other to Aneeka, and they quickly slipped through the protective circle that enclosed their physical bodies in two, opposite directions.

"Do you see it?" Rowe asked.

"I do." Aneeka answered. "Dark threads."

"Valeriana!" The second-ranker exclaimed. "Help us out."

"A-alright." She reluctantly came running forward.

"That's where you cut them, right?" He pointed to the strings Valeriana was eyeing.

When a skeleton headed straight for her, Valeriana shrieked and instantaneously swung for the strings above. There were five actually. Four were attached to the hands and feet—two on the wrists, and two on the ankles. The last one was connected to the nape of the neck.

The skeleton tumbled right after and fell apart, crumbling like its other friends.

Rowe copied Valeriana's actions, but he made it more graceful and much more sophisticated than how she did it. Without even a minute passing by, he already managed to take down five or six. He was surely nothing like Valeriana. He was on a whole other level. Not to mention his sword looked cool.

Rowe integrated his moves with some kick and elbowing while he swung at the strings, making him look like a stuntman on TV than a warrior.

Taking a brief glance at the others, they were wholeheartedly protecting the two's 'earthly bodies'. The look of exhaustion was evident across their faces, but they continued to persevere nonetheless. Very admirable people, really.

The groaning of the spirits around her seemed to echo. Their words were already mixed up for her to understand, but she managed to make out some 'thank you' and 'help'. Even so, she decided to focus on 'putting' as many skeletons as she could 'to rest'.

Some skeleton zombies in particular wielded a weapon, so they were much harder to put down than the others. Valeriana had had her experience in swordsmanship and weapon wielding though, so she managed to overcome the attacks despite the odds.

After a while, she grew tired of swinging her weapon. But it paid off, as their numbers became less and less. It came to the point where they only had to focus on eliminating the ones bothering the group.

"At last . . ."

She really should consider working out.

When everything else grew quiet and there seemed to no longer be any other left, Valeriana's feet wobbled. She collapsed on the floor while breathing heavily, dropping her weapon. She was soaked in sweat despite the cold temperature and that didn't prove to be comfortable.

"I'm dead tired." She muttered. "God, taking a wave of zombies was harder than I thought in real life."

Everyone seemed to be in the same condition as well, just not as worse.

"That was tiring." Rowe muttered.

"I'm beat." Aneeka whispered. She handed the weapon she held over to Rowe and started walking back towards her body.

"Thank you, Cheveyo." He told his familiar. The twin swords transformed back into a large bird, flapping its big wings.

'Thou art welcome.'

"So you guys get tired even though you're spirits?!" Valeriana was dubious. "I didn't know that."

"There's still a strain to our body." Rowe answered as he started to 'go back' as well.

Valeriana watched Aneeka's soul slip back into its shell simultaneously with Rowe's. Having their spirits going in and out of their body looked strange to Valeriana.

"Alright, everyone! Gather up and prepare." Corvan placed a hand on his waist while the other massaged the back of his neck. He didn't sweat much due to the temperature, but the tiredness was clear on his expression.

Charles came forward and started talking to him. Everyone else was either sheathing their weapons or talking to one another regarding what just occurred. Valeriana, however, was too busy trying to catch her breath.

The tenth and second-ranker slowly gained consciousness. Rowe visibly wobbled on his feet as he tried to stand, but Aneeka readily supported him. The job he had done might've been too much for him. Having to leave his body and summon his familiar altogether.

"Hey," Genevieve panted. "Are you sure there aren't any left of those things?"

"There's one behind you." Zevlin told her.

She shrieked and turned, but saw nothing. "How dare you!"

The eight-ranker snickered at her reaction.

"So, since we're over and done here . . ." Keelan whined. "Can we move on? I really want to find something to eat already. Perhaps a steakhouse on the way." He licked his lips as he salivated at the thought.

"Yeah, yeah, like there'll be any. Let's go."

"Valeriana." Charles called.

"What?" The girl asked, struggling to stand up.

The eyes of Charles seemed to be piercing, looking straight to her soul. "We have to talk."

The whole group turned towards her, questioning and all curious.

"Oh, god." She muttered. "Not again."