A person spoke from a distance, staring both Ren and Hana down. They happened to be just a few meters away from them. Ren stood up, getting in a defensive stance.

  .:. How did I not sense them? .:. Ren asked himself.

  Hana stood up too, realizing a different voice spoke to them. "Who goes there!?" She asked.

  The person had short, messy black hair. Their attire consisted of a black and white formal suit with a red tie. They had pale skin but not pale that's more commonly known with Testharians.

  They were rocking a 2 meter black spear. It could mean two things.

  They are a Non-Soul-Wielder with a Soul Artifact... or a Weapon-Type Soul-Wielder.

  "There won't be a second warning." Ren's cyan fire blazed around his hands.

  The person didn't even flinch at Ren's display of power. They just sat on their spear that was lodged on the ground, like a stool. They had a bored, almost faint expression on their face.

  "You're a long way from home," the stranger said, their voice devoid of any emotion. "Stolen a ship, assaulted a royal, and now you're floating in the middle of an ice field with an empty tank. Not the best day, is it?"

  Hana's head snapped toward the sound of the voice, her blind eyes trying to focus on the impossible figure. "I could turn your head into a football, make my day better that way."

  "You, football?" The stranger chuckled. "If you're going to be a comedian, at least be able to look at the crowd, no?"

  That remark from the stranger made Ren more angry, but he held it in. They looked like Royal and if they were to die. They're going to have a bigger target on their back.

  "You like cracking jokes, huh?" Ren smirked.

  "Only when the situation is funny." The stranger stood up, pulling their spear from the ice before walking to the right. "You two right now are the strongest in the planet, only after the Great Kamisword. Yet, you're both stuck here. I find that funny."

  "Yeah? Wel-" Ren wanted to square up but was stopped by Hana. She tugged on his shirt.

  :: They don't fear us at the slightest, be careful. :: Hana whispered to Ren.

  "You sound so sure of yourself, talking about strength from a distance." Ren taunted, displaying the sheer amount of Soul-Energy he was with his aura. However, the stranger didn't.

  They had Soul-Energy, but it felt faint. Even with their Signature Weapon fully materialized without showing any signs of decay, it felt faint.

  This only means that the stranger was suppressing their Soul-Energy, making themselves come across as a weakling.

  But Ren didn't sense their Soul-Energy until they spoke.

  "The distance is only there because it wouldn't be a fair match if I were to step closer." The stranger said, a smug grin growing on their face. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Seeing just how delicate your partner is right now, I don't think you want a tragedy to happen right now, do you?"

  "You'd die before you take even one step." Ren chuckled.

  "Is that a bluff?" They continued staring with a devilish smirk.

  "Ren. Let's hear what they have to say." Hana told him.

  "What, why?"

  "Just shut up."

  The stranger watched the exchange, their head tilting slightly. "Hana Zurgen. Blind. No Soul. Moves at incredible speeds. Learns to fight through sound and vibrations. Fights like a ghost."

  Hana's eyes widened in shock. There's seriously no one other than Kaioshun and Ren that knows about her. Not even the Great Kamisword got the information that she was blind, yet the stranger did.

  "And you only go by Ren. Your Soul-Spec is incredibly rare that one would designate it as a Fundamental-Grade Soul. Your cyan fire... That is your special ability. Jetzure... It's so potent that if you don't keep it in check, it's a one-way ticket to death."

  The stranger paused. They knew too much.

  "... I'm supposed to be scared of that?" Hana asked.

  "I'm not a threat," they said, shrugging. "If I was, you'd be dead already."

  "Big talk for someone who's all......." Ren looked at Hana, realizing that she wasn't smiling like Ren did at that absurdity. "I'm getting tired of this. Who are you if you know all about us?"

  The stranger spun the spear elegantly before throwing it up into the sky, dematerializing it. What was left of the spear rained down like glitter, but it wasn't normal glitter. It was the faint light of Soul-Energy.

  "I'm Daphne Zeroshi, one of the daughters of the late Xhandar Zagashida. Everyone I've slain call me Angel before they die bleeding... I've come to make an alliance with you."

  Daphne walked closer to the duo. Her steps were silent. It was as if she floated above the ice rather than walked on it. She stopped a few meters away.

  "An alliance that you can't refu-"

  But since Daphne took a step closer, Ren absolutely obliterated Daphne with just a single volatile incendiary punch. He used all of his might in it, a one-hit kill. But even with all that power and destruction in that punch, Daphne emerged from the red, bloody smoke and stood behind Ren.

  "It's specifically for you, Hana Zurgen. We both have a common-"

  Another punch obliterated Daphne again. This one was a Soul-Blast that was meant to incinerate anything that came in its way. But Daphne still emerged from the smoke, now a few meters to the right.

  "-enemy."

  "..."

  Hana was shocked. The amount of power Ren used in those attacks was enough to kill her. But Daphne walked through them like a summer breeze.

  "How? AGH-" Ren asked, turning around to face her but fell down onto the snow. His legs were stabbed and he lost all feeling in them.

  "Dark Intrinium is planning an invasion on Testharia real soon. Everything you know about your homeland will soon be erased by the son of the tyrant that once ruled the galaxy with an iron fist."

  "And your point is?"

  "My father was killed by Kytron Veyron. He was the only person who openly defied a feared tyrant. Now Kytron's son is trying to do what he couldn't achieve. But I can't kill him on my own, which is why I need your help."

  "... Go kill him yourself and die. I have no time to fulfill your pathetic vengeance." Hana grunted.

  "And just how are you going to kill Sachiel Eria when he threw you around like a little ba-" Daphne's sentence was cut short with a punch through the cranium. A whole arm through the cranium. Nobody could survive that kind of punch.

  You may be a Soul-Wielder, but if your brain is damaged beyond repair, even you would die. But even beneath Hana's arm, she grinned. Hana was scared for the first time in such a long time.

  "...That's... that is just not possible."

  "Nobody has an answer to deformities. View your own deformity as a curse, but I see mine as a blessing."

  "RAH!" Hana went for another punch that decapitated her instead. She even kicked the head away.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  But Daphne's body stayed upright with no sign of a dying life. The head rolled in the snow and stared at Hana. The body, still standing, regenerated the head in an instant.

  "H-how..."

  As she was regenerating, her voice sounded glitchy. Like a broken audio file.

  "IF YO U AG REE TO HE LP ME K ILL KYTA N VEYR ON, I WI LL HEL P YO U I N KI LLI NG SA CHIE L ER IA AN D JOI N KAI OSH UN. TH AT IS IF YO U ST AY TRUE T O OU R LITT LE ALLIA NCE."

  Upon completing the regeneration, she smiled again.

  "If you disagree... then I will kill you right here, right now." Daphne declared.

  "..."

  Hana was frozen in place. She could see with her ears that Ren was lying helplessly on the ground, her own body was riddled with injuries that would take days to heal. Daphne was an unknown entity that could survive decapitation and having her brain pierced. She knew that fighting her now would be suicide.

  She had no choice. She had to agree...

  No, I bow to no one.

  Hana swiftly moved in the blink of an eye, standing behind Daphne now. She still wanted to try her hand at killing Daphne. There has to be a weakness to this phenomena.

  As Hana tried hammer-punching the side of Daphne's head, she was met with her spear.

  "So that's what you choose? Death?"

  "I bow to no one."

  "Death bows to no one either." Daphne's grin widened as she sidestepped another punch, countering with a swift kick to Hana's stomach that sent her skidding back across the ice.

  .:. Those kicks are weak... .:. Hana knew. She was behind Daphne once again. She went for a strong kick that obliterated through the spear and her face.

  Daphne's head was cut in half. But again, her body remained.

  "I DO NT W AN T TO K ILL YO U , HAN A."

  Her body regenerated again.

  Every punch and kick that Hana connected with Daphne were enough to 'kill'. Daphne's only weakness was her weak durability, but even that was overshadowed by her instant regeneration.

  There is no point in increasing your durability if you could instantly heal. This was the pinnacle of regeneration. It was almost like she couldn't be killed.

  But Hana was not going to die, not here.

  "Daphne Zeroshi," Ren spoke from the ground, "Your regeneration ability... is it your Soul-Spec?"

  Daphne turned towards Ren, her spear back in her hands. "No."

  "But there's a limit, isn't there?" Ren continued, trying to buy Hana some time. "You can't keep regenerating forever. You must have a weakness."

  "A weakness?" Daphne laughed.

  "Everyone has a weakness, Ren. Even you." She gestured towards Ren's paralyzed legs.

  "... You think you're so funny, huh?" Ren tried to stand up.

  "HM!" Daphne's spear successfully blocked Hana's punch but Daphne's waist was through clean by Hana's kick. Daphne's upper body was flying through the sky while her legs remained standing on the ground.

  Hana looked at her own leg, realizing a cut on her leg. Daphne had cut her while Hana wasn't paying attention. The cut was shallow, but it was enough to draw blood.

  "YOUR ATTACKS ARE GETTING WEAKER, HANA. THOSE INJURIES YOU'VE SUSTAINED ARE SLOWING YOU DOWN MORE THAN YOU CAN THINK."

  Daphne's legs regenerated her entire stomach, torso, arms and head. She was whole again.

  Ren watched in horror as Hana fought a losing battle. He knew that he had to do something, but his legs were useless.

  .:. Fuck. .:.

  "... You can't regenerate everytim- GU-" Hana was dealt with the strongest backhanded gut punch ever. How was Daphne's body so delicate yet could punch just as hard as Hana? It wasn't strong enough to kill her though, but enough to throw her away a few hundred meters away, coughing blood in the process.

  Ren tackled Daphne, setting her spear on a blazing cyan fire while spewing a Soul-Beam to incinerate her.

  Daphne's spear was now useless as it was being incinerated. But Daphne did not flinch. Her Signature Weapon did not possess the same regeneration perk as she did. The weapon is still a weapon, no matter how special it is.

  Daphne punched Ren's chest, sending him flying back and crashing onto the ground. But this punch was different. Ren coughed blood. His Soul-Energy was weakening.

  It felt like Daphne's attack had sapped some of it.

  "What was that?!" Ren asked, clutching his chest.

  Daphne was consistently on fire. With how volatile Ren's fire is, it would incinerate anyone in the span of a second. Her regenerative abilities were so strong that her body remained intact from head to toe, even in Ren's fire.

  A beacon of fire, that's what Daphne was now.

  It just walked toward Ren with no haste. That scared Ren. Her spear was gone but her presence alone was enough to make him feel uneasy.

  Hana stood up from the other side, looking at Daphne.

  .:. A Soul-Spec wouldn't contain any other special gimmick, especially a Weapon-Type Soul. Regenerative abilities isn't something a lot of people can do. A Soul-Regeneration absorbs an absurd amount of Soul-Energy that if you're not being careful with it, you could die from your own Soul-Spec. .:.

  Hana sighed.

  .:. Her regenerative abilities has nothing to do with her Soul. It isn't a perfected Soul-Regeneration like I saw with Kaioshun... Nope... It's- .:.

  "You've clocked on, haven't you?"

  Daphne vanish-stepped, appearing in front of Hana with a dragged Ren. She held a dagger against his throat, ready to finish him off if Hana continued defying her.

  Hana was gritting her teeth. Her hands were clenched into a fist so hard her knuckles turned white. She didn't realize that she was also biting her tongue at the same time, blood drawing from her lips. Just another reason to hate her lack of senses.

  "You want an alliance so I can help you kill Kytan Veyron and you help me kill Sachiel Eria?" Hana asked, her voice trembling with rage.

  "Correct."

  "... There is no catch?"

  Daphne smiled and shook her head. The fire around her body died down. "No catch. Just a simple alliance. We help each other out. I provide you with information and resources, and you provide me with your strength."

  "..."

  Hana remained silent.

  "I gathered information about you, about your friend here and about Kaioshun. It's all written somewhere."

  "The Library of the Souls?"

  Daphne grinned even more now, nodding.

  .:. I should've known. .:.

  "If the answer to everything is in the Library of the Souls... then you will finally understand what you are." Daphne let go of Ren, who fell to the ground with a thud.

  Hana's head tilted, as if she was listening to a distant song.

  "That's how you knew what you possess, huh?"

  Daphne nodded again. "I can die an infinite number of times and still come back with a fully regenerated body and conscience. I don't comprehend Death, yet I die everytime. You could call this immortality, but I really do die. I slip in the afterlife."

  Hana's mind raced. She knew about the Library of the Souls, but she had never been there herself. Kaioshun had told her about it while he read the nature of some key Souls, including Sachiel's.

  There were now 2 people who confirmed the existence of something like an Akashic Records. Kaioshun and Daphne.

  But there was something else that Kaioshun didn't tell her. He was scared to even go near a certain section of the Library. The section that Daphne might have visited.

  The Magna Historia. A collection of history so extensive that it held the past, present and future. A collection of the history of the entire galaxy.

  If that was the case, then Daphne's abilities would make sense. A perfect regeneration. Immortality.

  "I read that what I possess is a Heavenly Attribute. An attribute so powerful that you could call it divine intervention. Hence the name. I can't die by conventional means. The only way I can die..."

  Daphne went silent, which was then broken by laughter.

  "I won't tell you!"

  "..." Hana sighed.

  "You have to make a choice, Hana. Either you join me and find out what you are, or you die here, not knowing who you are." Daphne said. "I'm sure you want to know what you are, right? A person without a Soul, yet still alive. There must be a reason for that."

  "..."

  .:. "Our existence, what we are, it means nothing." .:.

  .:. "Why do you seek so deep for an answer? Do you not wish for freedom? Abandon any future you think there is, any purpose you may have – you matter to none and that will be your freedom… You will die either way, so die free, Hana." .:.

  .:. But if the answer is right there... why stop? Why live in darkness when there is a light shining right in front of me? I can finally know who the hell I am, what the fuck I am! Maybe that's the freedom I was searching for. Not an empty one, but one with meaning. .:.

  Ren, still on the ground, watched Hana. He could see the conflict in her posture, the slight tremor in her clenched fists. This was the first time Ren saw Hana so hesitant.

  "... She's hesitating." Daphne smirked. "She's not the fearless warrior you think she is."

  .:. Serith. You are wrong. I know you are wrong. I know you're right about some aspects, but your entire life is based on a wrong assumption. A lie. You can't try and render my entire life meaningless by telling me we are all meaningless when you, yourself... moved for something. You hypocritical... fucking piece of shit. You contradict yourself with everything you say. You think you are what you think you are, but you are not when you're with me. You lie. You lie to yourself, to me. Why am I so blind? Why can't I feel? I cannot see the truth if it's being told by a liar. .:.

  The reality around her turned into a deep void. It was now her and her own thoughts. Her mind was playing tricks on her. Or was it the truth? A void of truth?

  "What will it be, Hana Zurgen?" Daphne asked again.

  The question echoed around a thousand times in this little twisted world she created in her mind, the world that seemed to be the reality. It was Hana versus herself. Hana versus Serith. Hana versus the world. The words of the liar against her own will.

  A war inside her own mind.

  .:. I realize it now... Serith... You believed freedom is meaninglessness, yet you found meaning in trying to guide me toward meaninglessness. By training me and trying to paint the world into a black canvas... you understood that all you wanted was to not be alone. You wanted to believe that you meant to something, that you amounted to something, but that you just couldn't grasp that concept at all. No... you refused to accept you had meaning. .:.

  The void started to become whiter.

  .:. Your definition of freedom wasn't the absence of meaning, or the unmaking of a meaning... It was acceptance. Acceptance from me or from someone else. You wanted your twisted views of freedom to be accepted by someone that was far from nihilistic. Me. You wanted acceptance from me. .:.

  Then, the void turned a full white.

  .:. Freedom requires a reason to go. To be free is to get rid of your own prison, or what makes you trap yourself in that prison. My prison was you keeping me from knowing what I am. My prison was you being the only person to talk to when I was younger. My prison was your influence. You were my prison, and I achieved freedom when I left you. But a new prison came after that. My ignorance. My own wilful ignorance and not wanting to know what I am because I was scared of being wrong. But now I am not. My freedom is what keeps me going... and that is to find out what I am. .:.

  The reality broke down and the world she stood on washed over her.

  But now she was facing a different world.

  Not the world of her past.

  But what was happening right now.

  "What will it be, Hana Zurgen?"

  .:. You failed to accept who you truly were and instead trapped it in a facade that you were meaningless. .:.

  .:. You failed to accept that you were just alone. But perhaps... if you truly believe that to be Made Free is to Die Free... then I hope you achieved that freedom. .:.

  .:. I feel sorry for you. .:.

  Sorry, Serith.

  "Fine, I accept."