“What are you doing again now, Karn?” Ashara asked curiously from behind me. We had just finished hunting, and were claiming our spoils. Lately, I had been asking to do the looting myself, because there was something I wanted to test out secretly.

Pushing mana into my eyes, I saw an almost milky white fog gently rolling up from the body of the large wolf that we had killed. Lately, I had come to understand that this was the soul. No, maybe I knew ever since our home had been destroyed a year ago.

Since then, I had begun to experiment, seeing what happened to the souls of the dead under various circumstances. For instance, I learned that when a creature was first absorbed into a card after death, its soul was shredded. If a single piece remained large enough, it would form the card.

My theory was that if I could identify which parts of the soul contained which elements, then maybe I could harvest the entire soul. Maybe it would be possible to get as many as five cards from a single kill. Of course… it was just a theory.

So far, I had only been able to take the first step. As I reached my hand out towards the mystical fog, I clenched my fist, and gathered the soul to ‘capture’ it. I knew by now that I had to do this before harvesting the corpse, otherwise the soul would be caught up in the process.

Just as I was about to pocket the card that had been created in my hand, I felt it slip from my fingers. “And, let’s see here…” Ashara said with a triumphant smile, turning the card over. “Soul essence of a greyback wolf?” She asked curiously. The image on the card looked much like the monster we had just killed, but more… ghostly.

I let out a groan as I realized that the secret was out. “I was trying to surprise you.” I admitted. “Your birthnight is only a couple weeks away, right?”

“Uh huh…” She nodded, still not completely sure what I was getting at. “And what’s that have to do with you collecting souls?”

“Where do you think that magic cards come from?” I asked, a wry smile on my face. “I’ve been trying to learn how to basically manufacture them. If it worked… I’d be able to get you something nice.”

Ashara blinked her eyes in surprise at that, and her expression began to soften. She handed me back the card, before reaching up and gently patting my shoulder. “You don’t have to get me anything, Karn. Except maybe a nice meal every now and then.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her request, making a small nod as I pocketed the card. I still planned to go through with my research, if only because selling the knowledge of how to do so could earn enough money to guarantee our comfort for the rest of our lives.

“Anyways, we should get heading back.” Ashara spoke up, leaning over to collect the actual body of the wolf. “Night classes will be starting soon, and we can’t exactly afford to be late, can we?”

I shook my head, kicking off the ground to launch myself into the air. Things had changed so much in the last year. With the destruction of the compound, we were suddenly among the most senior members of the Legion. Everyone else that was left had only survived because they were out on a mission somewhere.

Thanks to that, we got drafted to help prepare the next batch of students, though we had been promised that this was a temporary assignment. Our first assignment as proper Legionnaires… and knights of the Kirolan Queen. That’s right, real and proper knights.

Apparently, the information we brought back, as well as the services we offered after the compound was destroyed had earned us the favor of the queen. It even made up for the fact that we had trespassed into her chambers while she slept. Though the fact that it was a goddess who took us there did help.

For the next six months after that incident, we lived in the palace, performing odd jobs that were within our power while we gradually trained our skills. After three months of this, she made the offer to make us proper knights, so that we could further strengthen ourselves and fight for the kingdom.

We were admittedly apprehensive about assigning ourselves to an alien kingdom, but she had done a lot for us. More importantly, the gate was in her territory, and she vowed not to restrict our freedom should we choose to go home. Only after all of that did we finally agree.

“So, what ever happened to Silver?” Ashara asked curiously as we flew, our stats having grown enough that we needed to use ki to help us fly. “I haven’t seen you call him out lately.”

Silver was the name Ashara had given my first summons. “I planned to use him mostly for demonstrations. He’s really not all that good in a hunt.”

As it turned out, the mutation offered by the moon card hadn’t quite been a beneficial one. His originally sharp wings were dulled, and instead he gained an ability to build up strength during a dive, making him into a living meteor. But, that ability on a bird the size of your palm… not all that helpful.

“Yeah, but it’s funny to watch him try to headbutt everything!” Ashara retorted with a laugh, shaking her head. “When do you plan to get a replacement?”

I hadn’t honestly thought about that too much… I had enough money by now that I could afford to buy a new summon and fusion combo to create a new companion. I might even be able to just trade for them with some of the other cards that I had acquired over the months. “I’ll think about it. I want to find something that would actually be useful before I make a decision.”

Ashara gave a gentle nod as she heard that, and we soon came across the Legionnaire Academy, a tall structure in the Kirolan capital. Shortly after the deathfog serpent came through the gate, several large cannons had been summoned by one of the foreign gods. Their sole purpose was to prevent another massacre, but we couldn’t be sure of their response time after how quickly the last creature wiped out the compound.

Thankfully, it seemed like our worst fears were not true. The origin of the deathfog serpent was actually not one of the worlds that the Keeper was preparing us for. Rather, it was just another world outside of his control that happened to have a gate without a key, so the serpent was sent to a random gate, which happened to be ours.

From what Ashley had told Ashara, this had actually happened before, the goddesses just weren’t paying close enough attention to the gate of the third world to notice that nothing had activated it. Although some creatures had indeed come from there, a few of the more terrifying ones came from the ‘unknown worlds’.

Since that day, there had been several more incursions, but they had been swiftly dealt with by the installed cannons. Still, the area was deemed too dangerous to recreate the Legion base, which ultimately caused it to be moved to the local country’s capital. It took a bit longer for them to be transported, but everyone believed it was for the best.

The goddesses both even made another appearance when the tower was opened, hoping to encourage the new students and let everyone move past the events that destroyed the first base. Everyone seemed to love that, as we had students from both the kitsune and the demons this year.

Of course… my class was still empty. It turns out that monster taming is a rare talent indeed, and a rare one to be pursued. While Ashara had been assigned as a teaching assistant for the divine classes, I was left alone in an empty room.

I wasn’t going to complain, though. The two of us landed at the top of the tower, exchanging a brief kiss before parting to tend to our classes. Well, for her to tend to hers. For me, I had other activities that I conducted while classes were in session.

As I reached the room, I pulled out the ten soul cards that I had been saving up for the last few days. Each one represented a complete soul, and I was trying to learn how to manipulate them. This was the direction my research had taken, and in the process it had unlocked an entirely new class for me, the Spirit Hunter.

From what I could tell, the Spirit Hunter class involved taking the spirits of the deceased and shaping them. The difficulty was… quite high, though, which is why I typically didn’t attempt these experiments unless I had plenty of backups.

So far, I had managed to turn a bear into a single arrow, which surprisingly became real when I was done. I tested the arrow and it seemed to function as a normal one, aside from the fact that it faded into mist when it broke. Today, however, I was going to try something else entirely.

I split the ten cards into two groups of five, according to their typical attributes. Then, I released the souls of the first five cards, extending my mana and my will to restrain them. Five bestial forms appeared in the empty room, visible only to my mana-infused eyes.

More than once when I was doing this, I felt the souls calling to me, wanting to merge with me. I firmly resisted that call, however, as I was afraid that there would be a risk of possession, of my own soul being consumed. I would control these souls, but I would not allow them to control me.

The five forms struggled under my grasp, but ultimately they stilled, unable to resist. At this point, there would be no point in trying to turn them back into a card. They had gained a new life, of a sort, or at least a new will. Unless their essence was killed again, they could never form into a new card. The only reason that I could successfully capture them in the first place seemed to be that it took time for their spirits to come to life.

However… “Die.” I muttered, filling my voice with mana. I had learned that this was an effective way to destroy spirits, as the mana appeared to disrupt their own spiritual energies. The only sad thing was that I could still not differentiate between the individual elements of the soul. To my eyes, it all appeared as a single mass.

The five forms gave inaudible cries as they shattered, a grey fog filling the room. Exerting my will again, I gathered this new energy and condensed it into another card. There was no special meaning in doing this, aside from seeing how much their souls were ‘worth’. In some cases, the cards contained an inherent value, such as if you stored a pile of coins or a stack of papers.

The same seemed true for these spiritual energies, as once they were stored in their raw form, a value appeared on the card. “Two hundred and fourteen, huh..?” I muttered, glancing at the card. I should have enough mana for two attempts, according to some quick calculations.

Once again, I called out the spiritual energy and began to go to work. What I was making this time was much larger than a single arrow, hence the need for so many spirits. At the same time, I was trying something new.

When the spiritual energy appeared in front of me, I held it in place with my mana, keeping it condensed enough that it was tangible. A grey blob that floated in the air in front of me. Stretching out my hands, I went to work shaping it like clay, focusing on the image in my mind.

The entire molding process took maybe twenty minutes, at which point I was feeling the drain to my mana. It didn’t take much to hold the energy in place, but the constant expenditure was still taking its toll. However, once I saw the finished product, I felt it was worth it.

What I had created was a suit of armor. Or, armor as far as demons were concerned. It covered the chest, the head, the thighs, and most importantly… the wings. I had spent the longest time molding out a thin film that could stretch from the back to cover the wings.

I knew that the kitsune typically donned armor that covered much more of their bodies, but that wasn’t the case with us. Too much armor only made us vulnerable, unable to fly. Only the most important body parts could afford protection, and even then there were limits… Technology had never allowed us to shield our most vulnerable area, our wings.

As I stared at this armor, I felt like there was something missing. It had no clasps to don it, no complicated straps that would enable one to put it on. I nearly pulled my horns out in frustration when I realized that, before an idea struck me. I could bind the armor! Not in a card, as that would not equip it to the user. No, I had to bind it another way, a way that could be called upon at will.

I searched through my pockets, my desk, looking for anything that I could use. What I eventually chose was a simple silver necklace in the shape of a pair of crossed horns. This was my backup gift that I had planned for Ashara, if my research ended up failing. And now… this would work perfectly.

Grabbing the necklace, I placed it on my desk and focused. My mana was still wrapped around the armor. Every piece and every curve, letting me pull it in. “Get in…” I muttered, under my breath, trying to will the armor into the necklace.

I had no basis for why I thought this would work. No evidence that it was possible. But, I had a hunch. Souls could be stored in cards, so why couldn’t something made from souls be stored in something else?

In the back of my mind, I felt a small link begin to form. A doorway opening up between the necklace and the armor. Gradually, the armor began to shrink, as if it were being drawn into the necklace through the path I had somehow created.

I felt ecstatic that my idea had worked, and on the first attempt that I had made that day. However, as my control began to slacken, I felt the armor trying to leave the path. It was being pulled out of the doorway, as though it wasn’t properly anchored. Or… as if it needed a lock to hold it in place.

Wracking my brain, I held the armor in with my will, trying to think of something that could form the lock. Glancing towards the second set of cards, I hurriedly grabbed one at random, calling it out and shattering its spirit with a breath. Then, I gathered it to me, to the necklace. This was the only thing that I could think of to hold it in place, a lock formed from another spirit.

And as I envisioned that lock, I saw a small symbol begin to draw itself on the necklace. To my surprise, the symbol that appeared was also one of a lock, just as I had imagined it. And when the lock was complete… the armor stopped resisting, seeming content to reside in the necklace.

I stared, dumbfounded at the screen that appeared before me. I had never heard of a summoner class… and for that matter, I had never heard of an advanced class either. However, the final message was clear, and something that I knew immediately. “Ashara’s Armor.”