House of Amarin

The surrounding area was chaotic, to say the least. After descending far enough, the splitting of the continents turned from rampaging earth and fire energies into that of the wild winds of No-Space. No wonder the world was being separated; from slowly healing tears below the surface, the otherworldy energy was pushing reality apart.

"Did you find it yet?" Arcus asked, doing his best to withstand the powers of No-Space and the destructive currents around them.

"Yes!" Erias called back, his body shrouded by dark light, fusing his powers with his brother's, amplifying themselves. "I am stabilizing the hole so we can enter it! The coordinates are right; there is a tendril on the other side, but entering that hidden sub-realm won't be easy!"

"Nobody can come down this far if they are not at the 8th or 9th Tier!" Arcus answered, looking up, but they were so far down he couldn't see the sky, only the waves of energy clashing above him. It was as if they were submerged in a rampaging ocean.

"That can be dealt with; don't worry about it! First, we need to get to the other side! Be ready; it will be like pulling out a cork from a shaken-up champagne bottle!"

Erias wasn't lying. The moment he cleared a way, it was as if they were hit with a high-pressure washer, blasting them with the flooding in energies of No-Space, almost knocking both of their souls out of their bodies. Luckily for Arcus, it was Erias who took the brunt of it, and his body was reinforced way beyond any natural-born being within Meriath. After their surroundings finally 'calmed' down and Arcus refocused his eyes, he could see a somewhat circular hole, its edges glowing in milky-white energy, held open by Erias's magic.

"Come!" He flew forward without hesitation, followed by his dragon brother.

"I still dislike this place..." Arcus mumbled, shivering as he was capable of withstanding No-Space, but with how it was now, it was hard to do so. "The explosion really fucked things up, eh? Albert shouldn't have gone over the calculated limit!"

"Nah, it was fine. I am glad he did!" Erias laughed as they flew forward, cutting through the thick clouds.

"How will the souls in here survive?"

"I wouldn't worry about that! It speeds up their refinement; it may produce purer souls next time. Who knows!"

"Are we talking about souls or soup?"

"Is there a difference?" He grinned, but then both of their mouths fell open as the clouds cleared away, and they could see a giant, blue tentacle with millions of suction cups sticking to the fabric of Meriath from the side of No-Space.

"What the hell is that?!" Arcus cried out, watching the unnatural thing. He tried to follow it with his eyes, but it disappeared into the clouds.

"No wonder their home is untraceable... it can move around, and who knows how many other tentacles they have. Have one move away and attach to a different section, and bang! You can no longer enter it!"

"What should we do now?"

"Whatever we do, do not alert them!" Erias cried out before Arcus could touch the otherworldy 'creature.' "We don't know how sensitive it is! We will explore it, maybe find its base and their little hidy-hole! We must not make that wolf know we are outside of their doorstep!"

"Roger!" Arcus saluted, holding his hands back from poking at it.

"How are you holding up?"

"No worries! Around this thing, it is much calmer! I can resist its pull!"

"Tell me if you cannot, and we will head back!" Erias nodded, flying further into No-Space, Arcus following him closely.

The tentacle seemed to go on for dozens of kilometers, and all of its surfaces looked to be filled with suction cups; sometimes, they even trembled and moved a little, sucking in energy from their surroundings.

"Is it... eating?" Arcus asked, feeling his scales reappear on his human body, being creeped out by what he was seeing.

"No, it doesn't feel like it." Erias answered, looking at it, "But it does draw in energy from the Sea of Souls. It has to, or else the world within would wither and die. Most sub-realms are still connected to Meriath. This one is completely cut off! It needs energy sustenance, and I guess they are converting it from unborn souls!"

"Wicked!"

"Wait!" Erias raised a hand, closing his eyes, letting his consciousness spread out. Even his soul appeared, but instead of being tugged at it, it was a voluntary move so he could narrow down his search.

"What is it?" Arcus asked, feeling nervous.

"I felt something... familiar. I... I can't believe it!"

"What?!" Arcus shouted, speeding after him, hurtling along the tentacle, clearly picking up on something exciting.

"Babe!" Erias shouted, making Arcus almost crash into one of the suction cups, avoiding it at the last moment as he watched him speed towards a sitting figure.

"Mhm?" The one they just found was none other than Somia herself, sitting there, naked and slightly transparent. "Hi."

"Don't just 'Hi' to me! Come here!" He laughed, wanting to hug her, realizing at the last moment that she was no longer flesh and bones but only a soul. "Did you leave your body somewhere else?"

"No." She answered calmly as if they had never separated and just met up after a day of absence, "It was destroyed by Lumamon when he escaped."

"Shit..." Erias cursed, as that was one of the worst possible possibilities. "I was searching for you! I didn't think I would find you alive, but don't worry! We will think of something."

"It's fine." She answered, shaking her head, "I was lucky; around the tentacles, it is calm, so I wasn't shredded by the currents. I have been exploring it since then... It took longer than expected for you to find it."

"You were waiting for me?"

"It was in my calculations, yes. I knew that after the death of the Soulbound Sect, you would go after the Claws. So I was waiting. Before going into reincarnation, I thought-"

"Woah, woah, my love, you are not going to reincarnate!" Erias interrupted, waving his hand around. "Not after I found you again!"

"I will. It is inevitable. I have no body to inhabit, and we can no longer access primordial energy. No-Space will swallow me up when this place is also destroyed."

"Fuck it will! I will knock No-Space out if it tries it!"

"The only thing No-Space can swallow is my dick!"

"Yeah!" Arcus repeated, feeling left out of the conversation, but both of them ignored him, so he repeated it again. "Yeah!" But once again, there was no response from the two.

"You are stubborn." Somia shrugged as if she was arguing with a child, "You will accept it in time. What we need to work towards is deciding how to infiltrate their space."

"Hmph! I am successful because I am stubborn! You will see my love! Your Daddy here can solve all the problems, be it physical or soul-related!"

"Yeah!" Arcus tried to interject himself for a third time, and finally, it turned out to be working.

"Fuck yeah!" Erias repeated with much more force.

"One of you was enough of a headache. Two is too much. Let's get to work instead." She whispered, rolling her blue eyes and turning towards the tentacle. "I already mapped a good percentage of it. Follow me!"

...
....
.....

Returning to the regular days, overseeing the mid-semester competitions and exams, Lia's life was pretty much tranquil. Besides her open lessons, she announced officially that she has taken Cael as her personal disciple, tutoring him beyond her standard lessons. Of course, it immediately created a storm within the Institute, which was followed up by Cael demonstrating his perfectly mixed opposing elements, making everyone realize his position was not unwarranted.

He did expect some pushback, people looking at him differently and envying him, but instead, they began copying his actions. Soon, there were no remaining duplicates of Lia's personal recollections in the library. Everyone wanted to read it from the paper she penned onto, not from their bracelet's archives.

"You have a cult of personality forming in here, Master."

"Huh? Really?" Lia flinched, looking up, but she could only see stacks of papers and had to stand up to gaze at her student. "What do you mean?"

"They are looking at you as the leader of the Six Houses."

"Why?"

"Um... Well, what I gathered by watching the others is that they think you are reforming things. With you openly sharing all you know, they believe it is a sign that the Undead are truly gone, and we can finally relax. That there is ultimately no more reason to hide the knowledge as a secret weapon."

"That's stupid! The old Institute also taught it to anyone who looked hard enough!"

"I don't know about that, Master, but I do know that before you, there was nobody who could teach it. Not like you do."

"Oh... That... is true." She hummed, scratching her cheeks.

"It is how the public sees you, Master. You can't steer that sentiment, not directly."

"Well, as long as I am not required to stand still until someone makes a statue of me... that would be extremely boring."

"Err... I see." Cael murmured, not knowing what to say to that, especially after hearing his Master was not finished.

"But, I could pose with Rinzen and Lucian! Hugged by the two, fufufu~! I would be the ham in their sandwich!"

"Master..."

"We would have clothes on, of course; it can't be an indecent statue! I am not Koa!" No matter how Cael tried to stop Lia from rambling, it seemed a switch was flipped, and it was a futile endeavor.

After the students' exams finished, they had a little time to either go home, have a break, or spend it in the Academy. It happened on those days when the news broke that Reyra Amarin called up the Leaders of Meriath, including not just the current Six but every prominent ruler on the continent. As the leader of the new Institute of Eight Elements, Lia also attended the summit, sitting beside Rinzen and Lucian, listening not to her Mother but to Paman.

Reyra's suggestion sent waves throughout Meriath. For many, the event confirmed that the continent was breaking apart and would begin drifting in different directions in a few hundred years. Seemingly, the rule of the Six Houses was ending, and a new Era was upon them. From the Houses, only two were against the notion, namely the Berisons and the Nerifits, while the rest agreed to pull back their influence and stop demanding resources from their subordinate kingdoms.

The summit itself went on for a week, and by the end of it, the decision was made that in the coming decades, the Houses would slowly stop interfering with any of the kingdoms and empires' politics and would only step in with force if a conflict gets out of hand. It was agreed by everyone present that only the evil should be erased, preventing another Soulbound Sect from appearing.

"The only problem is," Lia sighed, sitting in a room with Rinzen, Lucian, Lakhmu, and Albert, a day after the end of the summit, "That it will be us who point out who is evil."

"It was nicely worded by your Mother and easily pushed through the rest. If I didn't pay attention, I would have missed the underlying message, too." Lakhmu hummed, thinking about Paman's speech.

"That was not my Mother." Lia harrumphed, making Lakhmu raise his hands with an apologetic smile.

"I know, I know! I am curious, though, if she can use some subtle effects that make us glaze over things like this."

"Would Cael know about it?" Lucian asked, but Lia shook her head.

"I doubt it, but I bet Paman has some secrets, so it can't be ruled out. Still! It must be a weak spell as it doesn't affect us if we know the underlying plans. My guess is that it simply makes it easier for her to play around!"

"How many did we turn to our cause already?" Came the question from Albert's lips, making Lia raise her hand, and Hajna's voice answered him from her bracelet.

"We secured six others. From that, four have chosen Camyu, and two decided to cut ties with their Sect. Of course, I am monitoring them constantly, but they seem to be telling the truth. It seems that close family ties are what push them to our side. All who decided to work with us grew up with caring parents; many even have their own families by now."

"They just had to marry into our side, eh?" Lucian joked, making Lia grin, winking at him.

"Marriage sounds nice! I want one!"

"You always want anything you hear and fancy." He countered, maintaining his smile before turning serious once again. "We still need to monitor people... many of them."

"I have an idea!" Lakhmu interjected, leaning forward, looking at Lia, "We can manufacture a lot of bracelets, but others don't know that. We should introduce them to the public but in a way that they go to the leading figures who can afford it. Make it 'rare' and 'expensive,' and through them, we can monitor the spies."

"Can Hajna handle it?" Albert asked, and she replied with confidence.

"I was made for it! Of course, I can! Unlike you all, I am used to dealing with splitting my attention. While I speak to you, I keep monitoring and dealing with tons of data, including the students in the Academy!"

"Then it is decided!" Lia clapped, looking around the rest, "Let them come forward themselves! We will catch them all!"