Ciel sat cross-legged on the floor, seeping in suspension, far from the disaster brewing in distant halls.

  Nuan lectured about Aura, kneeling behind him, her warm hand resting on his bare back while a blush climbed up her face. Dressed in pale-colored cloth, she couldn't seem to pry her spiraling eyes away from his back, hypnotized by her first time tutoring a member of the opposite sex; and more importantly, a man she had developed feelings for. Her only option was to drown her embarrassment in the lecture.

  "Aura is processed in the heart and circutes through breathing," Nuan expined, steadying her voice like a ship listing in a hurricane of shyness. "Imagine it flowing through your veins like blood circuting from your heart throughout your body."

  "So how do I use moves like AURA BLADE?" Ciel asked, deliberately not turning to witness his teacher's irritation.

  "Those are advanced techniques!" she snapped and retreated to the front of the van for privacy's sake. "I think that is enough for today."

  Nuan moved through Ciel's spacious vehicle, its walls lined with matte bck surfaces and its floor patterned with steel. The advanced technology of its wheels assured bance against any terrain. Opening the door to the cockpit, she found Xia waiting in white.

  "How is he?" Xia asked.

  Nuan shut the door and took her seat. "He is talented," she admitted. "I performed the release ceremony yesterday. He's barely started Aura cultivation, but he's already managed to perform basic circution."

  As a fellow Aura user, Xia knew what the ceremony entailed. For a practitioner to use Aura, the heart—which formed the central core and regutor—must be opened, either through meditation, pills, acupuncture, or direct guidance from a master.

  "You used direct guidance," Xia said, veins throbbing in agitation.

  "What method should I use then?" the Dragon Scion protested. "We don't have Ignition Pills, and do I look like an acupuncturist?"

  Blushing, the Princess of White muttered, "But you should have told me beforehand."

  Nuan stared at her companion seated in the self-driving car, indignation fring beyond her control. "Are you jealous?"

  "Jealous? Me?" Xia snorted, fanning her face. "I'm just warning you out of kindness. You don't want anything to do with that guy. He's a god like your father, and you know how Mandrake turned out."

  The Dragon Scion peered at the girl who avoided meeting her gaze. "How about no. Ciel is obviously nothing like my father; they couldn't be more different—" she scanned her opponent up and down "—don't even try to manipute me. You're terrible at controlling your emotions."

  Xia, realizing the futility of her current approach, switched tactics like weapons. "I understand he's good with Aura, but how does it compare to his skill with White Magic?"

  A growl escaped the Dragon Scion's throat. She remembered how yesterday's session had created a minor miracle; within mere minutes of understanding the concept of external mystical particles, Ciel had successfully cast his first White Magic spell: a healing incantation. A feat that should have taken an average person days. He had then followed that up with a strengthening spell.

  "He is a prodigy in White Magic," the First Bride boasted, each word smarting her companion's pride. "Maybe he should spend more time with—"

  The sentence was cut short as the van's intercom spoke with monotonal neutrality, belying the intensity of the message: "Projectile detected. Attack probability: 97%. Brace for impact."

  "What attack?" the White Mage squeaked.

  With a thunderous KAKROOM, the explosive bst flipped the van. The vehicle rolled in an eruption of heat and force, kicking up clouds of dust. Metal crumpled with each turn until it finally ground to a halt.

  High above, the winged assaint smirked. However, a scorching retaliatory light burst through the metal husk, burning his feathered wings. He flew away from the cutting ray, sprinkling curses and bck feathers with each fp.

  Xia emerged from the burning wreckage through a hole she had bsted open. Nuan followed with cracking knuckles, while Ciel made his presence known by kicking the broken door clean off its hinges.

  The Union Lord gnced up at his enemy and recognized the emblems of wings and an eye on the midnight bck robes. He groaned, "Balor's minion, again?" He purposefully used the wrong name to annoy his attacker. "Who are you? Fortissimo?"

  The winged man growled impatiently. "I am Hepto!"

  "Don't underestimate him," Nuan cried, her aura surging and wrapping into a spiraling ball. "He is their Number Seven."

  GIANT ROTATION BULLET

  The spiraling sphere of Aura sailed skyward, only to miss as Hepto performed an acrobatic maneuver. The winged assaint responded by raining more explosive feathers. Ciel countered by tossing down a foldable device, which unfurled into a portable rampart against the peppering explosions. Meanwhile, the steaming van sank into a pool of darkness, rejoining the rest of his stored property.

  Xia rose beside him. She gathered surrounding White Force and unched a binding javelin.

  Hepto narrowly dodged the binding spell aimed at his wing and sneered, "Do you think I came to fight the three of you alone?"

  Ciel sensed the trembling ground. "Everyone scatter!" he yelled.

  The trio leapt in separate directions as several humanoid creatures burst from below. Their skinless bodies hit the surface, exposing skeletal ridges and hardened flesh to the world. Fly-like yellow lidless eyes rotated like billiard balls as they detected their targets. Their mouths enrged into clovers of counter-rotating fangs, bellowing in compliance before leaping into combat with simian agility.

  "Bckwing's Exterminators," Nuan identified the threat as she sliced one apart with an AURA BLADE and diced it further. "And five of them!" she shrieked. "These are their greatest weapons!"

  Ciel took out his Ether rifle and fired at another opponent. The beam took out a chunk of its ashen pale torso, but no gore dripped from the wound. A bde slid from the monster's arm with a wet "thunk." It sliced at him with the razor edge. The Lord of Union rolled away, circuting Aura across his body to strengthen all physical attributes. His hand whipped out a syringe gun, firing a hypodermic needle at the Exterminator hounding him.

  The shot impaled the monster's chest, eliciting no immediate reaction, until suddenly it colpsed, twitching.

  Upon seeing a monster that could exterminate a ptoon with its raw vitality now sprawled in a pool of blood, Hepto balked. "What? How did this happen?" he demanded, voice rising an octave.

  "Your boss left his freak show back where he lived," Ciel shouted, firing at the disintegrating creature again to ensure it stayed buried. "I was the st to exit; did you think I'd miss the opportunity to dissect his property?"

  Xia found herself surrounded by three Exterminators. She unched a binding spell at the first, the magical javelin impaling its chest and slowing its advance. Without pausing, she pivoted and nded an uppercut on the second, sending it rocketing skyward. But the third was already closing in. Its bded punch struck with such force it skewered through her back. The monster seized its chance, lunging with four-way mandibles, spinning like chainsaws. But she counterattacked by shoving her hand into its face and unleashing her destruction spell.

  WHITE MAGIC RANK IV: SMITE

  A torrent of light punches disintegrated everything above the Exterminator's shoulders, leaving its knees to hit the earth. Gritting her teeth, she pulled the serrated bde from her shoulder as White Force and healing magic stitched the wound together.

  Gasping, she noticed a growing shadow beneath her. Looking up, she saw the creature she'd knocked skyward returning with double the fervor, bded limbs streaking toward her face. Before she could reposition, Nuan delivered a flying kick which bisected the creature in half.

  "What are you doing?" the Dragon Scion demanded, touching down with a fsh of AURA BLADE to divide the bound creature and dismember its corpse for good measure. "These things are Bckwing's biological weapons. Their vitality is absurd; the only way to ensure they stay dead is dismemberment!"

  A rapid explosion interrupted any further trivialities. Hepto swooped down, dropping explosive feathers upon Ciel, staying outside of his range. Wounded by the bst, the Lord of Union resorted to his newly learned healing spell. His free hand reached inside his b coat, producing a ball filled with low-melting point liquid.

  He cracked the gss container with a squeeze and hurled it in front of Hepto where it exploded into a cloud of gas.

  The Bckwing member immediately swooped above the clouds, throwing more insults at his most detestable enemy: "More poison? You think that will work? My body is immune to your run-of-the-mill toxins!"

  The reply was cold: "I know. I dissected your friend. That is not a poison; it is an adhesive."

  Hepto tried to change direction, only to find every feather in his wings stuck together. Unable to maneuver, he crash-nded in a dive, hitting the ground face-first before tumbling over the gravel.

  The bruised assaint attempted to rise, but Ciel's foot pressed upon his head. A painful jab of the syringe shot into his back. Hepto's body immediately lit afme as his very cellur structure began to destroy itself.

  He screamed in pain, but all his ears could hear was Ciel's ultimatum.

  "Those are special concoctions designed to work against Balor's spawn. That's how you and your friend got perks like conceptual worlds and wings: you modified your bodies with a remnant of that repugnant idiot's Authority. Well, this solution is targeting that little perk of yours, so unless you want to continue suffering, tell me everything I want to know."

  Despite the pain, Hepto ughed. "What would a dead man need to know? The three princes are assembling against you and the capital has been alerted. We already leaked your location to them; your little decoy won't save you anymore!" He crunched the pill in his teeth, letting his st words slip through foaming lips. "Good riddance, Lord of Union. Balor will avenge me."

  With that, the seventh seat of the Bckwing passed away as Ciel watched coldly.

  "You idiot," he said. "We couldn't care less about you—" he turned to Nuan who arrived too te to help "—how long until we reach the target?"

  Nuan gave him the deadline. "About six hours on foot."

  Ciel groaned, reminding himself to make a backup transport. "Very well. Let's do this."