Third Person POV:

  Within a dark pne, the God of Death Aaos was busy making modifications to the cycle of reincarnation. He had immediately gotten to work on it as soon as he had dropped off that soul that he had picked up from another world. Soon, he became engrossed with his work, fixing it while redirecting souls to ensure that the flow of the cycle of reincarnation wasn't interrupted.

  Every once in a while, he needed to stop in order to communicate with the occasional gods who wanted to talk to him, but otherwise he never really left his domain.

  It was during one of these days that he found a rather interesting surprise.

  "These souls....they have the mark of Destined Death," the Death God remarked as he analyzed the composition of the soul. The mark was still there, and from the way it was practically pulling itself towards the cycle of reincarnation. There was no doubt that his theory had proved to be true.

  Observing the soul's memory, he could tell that this soul hadn't been killed by the Bck Bde, but rather fell victim to the soul marks that he had programmed the rune to perform to every unmarked soul.

  "That's good to see...now the only thing left is to observe whether or not the bde will perform the same mechanisms as the mark..." The Death God released the spirit as he turned to a small neon orb that was the pnet he held dominion over.

  'I hope you continue to meet my expectations.'

  Ryad POV:

  The other assassins, upon looking at two of their fallen comrades, immediately stopped to reassess the situation. Even the leader took a leap back and nded a safe distance away from me.

  I readied myself once more, anticipating for a long and hard battle.

  The leader, now slowly beginning to be wary of me, started walking towards me. His face was still covered with a mask, but I could sense the bloodlust and determination within his eyes. He was intending to end this battle once and for all.

  "Come boy, I will be your opponent, and executioner," the leader decred as he slowly summoned a double edged bde of ice.

  I didn't say anything in reply, instead, kicking the ground and lunging at him at break-neck speed. The assassin easily stepped to the side to dodge my attack, and I could sense that he had already raised his bde with the intention of cutting my exposed back. However, I twisted my body and swiped upwards to meet the icy bde.

  The bde cut through the ice like a hot knife through butter, but the leader had already stepped backwards to avoid getting nicked by the bde.

  I crashed into a tree before immediately standing right back up.

  My body was sore, but the adrenaline had numbed away the pain, making my body feel lighter than before. Staring at the colossal bck bde in my grasp, I could feel its mana continue to spill outwards, withering my surroundings once more.

  The leader summoned another Ice sword in his grasp before flexing his arm casually.

  "I don't know what the hell you are, but you better believe that I'm taking you back to headquarters," the leader remarked, "your strange abilities can compensate for failing this mission."

  Again, I refused to say anything, I intended to let my bde do all the talking.

  "Feeling cocky, eh? Allow me to knock you down a peg first!" The leader stabbed his Ice sword down to the ground.

  Icy Burst

  Suddenly, ice immediately emerged from him as countless shards raced at me at breakneck speed.

  I growled before mustering my strength and channeling mana into the bde. I twisted my body before I swung the bde horizontally in his direction.

  Destined Death Wave

  A bck wave immediately followed my swipe.

  It burned through the ice shards that it collided with and went on to almost hit the leader of the assassins.

  He leaped backwards and avoided the impact, the bck wave immediately exploded into bck fmes that withered everything it consumed. He nded on a tree and used it as a unchpad to lunge at me. I raised my sword and prepared myself for the impact. The Icy bde broke the moment it tried to csh with my sword, but the leader kicked the bde with so much force it blew me away, making me crash into another tree as a result.

  "Do you really think that this'll be enough to stop me? You gotta be dreaming, boy!" The leader scorned as he summoned another bde, "I'm beginning to get tired of this, let's end this and get moving."

  He raised his bde to the sky.

  Frost Spears

  A countless number of spears made of ice formed above and around him, ready to move at a moments notice.

  Looking at him, I couldn't help but let a bead of sweat roll down my temple. The leader was way stronger than I was, and more experienced to boot, I had just learned how to manifest the bck bde. This man was way more accustomed to his magic and movements than I was.

  'What should I do?'

  My mind raced as I tried to find a resolution to my crisis.

  'Run?'

  Ideologically, this would be the best way to move forward, but the number of assassins that accompanied the leader was going to make that idea next to impossible.

  'Keep fighting?'

  This idea could only work if I could get rid of the leader first. He was more of a danger to me compared to the rest of the assassins that had been watching.

  Once again, I was back to the drawing board.

  The leader immediately flung all those ice spears that he had formed right at me; napping me from my train of thought. I lifted the bde vertically before channeling even more mana into it. The bde pouring out bck and red mana, the spears were getting closer and closer. I was running out of time.

  Destined Death Wave

  I stabbed the sword down to the ground and forced all the mana that I had channeled into the ground. Immediately after, a wave of bck and red fmes surrounded me in an instant, melting all the spears that crossed the boundary. The leader didn't look too fazed and only kept conjuring more spears to throw at me; it was clear that his goal was to burn me out.

  However, things weren't going to work out the way he envisioned.

  I increased the range of the wave, making it get as close to him as possible. The moment I had felt that I had reached my limit, I stomped on the ground and dashed right at him.

  The leader, anticipating my attack again, was about to get ready to step aside to dodge the bde. However, he was soon in for a rude awakening.

  Instead of going for a piercing attack like I had done previously, I reached to where he was before I sank my feet to the ground. The bde, which was still riding the momentum of the initial burst of speed, slowly made its way towards the leader.

  The leader didn't stand idly by, however, he had already began strengthening his leg muscles to ready himself for immediate escape. Before he did that though, I saw an icy bde quickly make its way to my side, Immediately followed by a sharp pain to my side.

  I gritted my teeth and continued to follow through with my swing. The leader by then was trying to escape from my swing, and he was almost about to as well.

  Suddenly, a figure nded behind the leader of assassins before knocking him away; crashing into several trees.

  Third Person POV:

  In order to monitor the movements of possible reincarnates, Headmaster Eastwood had sent a teacher to the Stoneshire Academy in Halloway to send and receive instructions on how the first years were to be coordinated. This was under the cover of sharing the first year's css list with Stoneshire Academy, for this mission, Headmaster Eastwood had sent one of the first year's teachers.

  Professor Houghton was a professor who long understood the importance of the mission he had been assigned to. After all, he had been able to detect the presence of a few reincarnates beforehand and reported them to the headmaster a year ago. He was a human born of a commoner family who had short red hair that he tended to keep as neat as he could, and hazel nut eyes that gleamed with warmth. However, contrary to his neat personality, he was a rather extroverted soul who wouldn't miss a chance at making new friends. He had reached the Expert Adept stage, the st stage of the Expert phase, and was a small path away from breaking into the Novus Master stage of the Mastery Realm. His expertise in fire magic had earned him the title, Igneous.

  He had been flying to Halloway using Fire Magic when he noticed a fre up of magic coming from the East of his current position. He concluded that a battle had been occurring, and him wanting to help, he immediately made a beeline towards the area. In the distance, he had already began to see residues of Wind and Ice magic around the area. The closer he got, the more he began to hear more and more sounds of battle.

  When the professor had arrived at the scene, he saw a carriage already entering the Halloway barrier and making a beeline to the capital city. The remaining assassins were all left dead, or injured; and the others were wiping out any evidence of the battle. The professor summoned a ball full of fme and was about to eradicate the assassins when he suddenly felt a chill presence begin to emanate from one of the victims who was supposedly dead.

  From the sudden awakening to the way the bck haired beast-human teenager summoned his weapon. Houghton watched all of this occurring with a sudden renewed interest, moreover, he couldn't help but note the fluidity of the boy's movements. The way he was able to maneuver mid air with no base to set his foundations upon was remarkable. It was clear to the professor that the boy had experience: A lot of experience.

  'This boy....can he be one?'