Allen initiated several fast attacks with his curved sword, leaving behind afterimages and somewhat making 'James' retreat back; however, at some point the latter sidestepped and managed to stop the former's momentum with his lance!

-whoosh-

Several fireb.a.l.l.s were launched by Anna and distracted 'James', creating a flaw in his defense.

In an instant after the fireb.a.l.l.s all landed, Allen swiftly closed in and made follow-up attacks. Slightly wounding 'James', but wounds healed all at once.

"How fast.", 'James' commented.

Allen didn't pay attention to the unclear or unconscious praise of 'James' and just shortened their distance between them.

"Get lost!", 'James' shouted. He knew that if this continues, he would soon be at a total disadvantage. Just the first exchanges between him and Allen made him figure out that the latter wasn't to be underestimated, specially if the former was still getting used and still fusing to the new body.

After narrowly dodging one of Allen's slash over his head, 'James' used his own weapon to jump up into the air and left his weapon on the ground.

Then the lance on the ground disappeared and reappeared again on his hands up on the sky.

Anna chanted out a spell and pillars of fire burst from the ground below 'James', but all of them missed.

"Hollow Dark Crus.h.!.+", 'James' charged his lance with some sort of power relating to darkness. It wasn't the 'Bane' of the necromancers, because even if gave off the feeling of death, the feeling that one would feel when confronting this darkness-related power was like both death and blackness.

Sensing the changes, Allen immediately activated Shadow Steps.

Afterwards, 'James' stabbed the lance forward on the air.

-boom-

A trail of darkness followed behind the invisible force made by the lance and the force crashed to the ground, making a short intense quake.

"So powerful!", Anna said while holding tightly on her staff to prevent herself from tripping to the ground; meanwhile, Edwin steadied himself by activating Shadow Steps while constantly moving.

'James' landed back on the ground; and at the same time, the quake stopped.

Following which, Allen charged towards him coming from the thick smoke and dust that rose onto the air after the earlier attack.

He then continued suppressing 'James'.

"Not even affected... eh?", 'James' noticed something after blocking several strikes of Allen.

"Darkcloud Screen!", 'James' planted the tip of his lance to the ground. Then dark fog immediately rose up near them even up to Edwin and Anna's location.

However, Edwin managed to get Anna and himself out of the radius of the fog in time.

"I can't sense anything inside the fog.", Edwin said.

"Neither can I. I hope Alchemist Morgan will be safe.", Anna added.

"Can you decrease the volume of the fog with your fire?", Edwin asked.

"No, the spellcaster is too powerful for me for it to be even slightly affected.", Anna shook her head. Rembering something important, she took out a satchel from her magician's robe and consumed a pill from it.

"What's that?", Edwin asked.

"A pill that Allen made to counter the Magic Frostbite. Wait... aren't you affected by the frostbite?", the adept asked worriedly.

"No I'm not.", Edwin replied.

On the other hand, in the dark fog, Allen was using Energy External Sense and cautiously moving around while finding his way out, but it was as if he was walking in circles; in the end, he deactived the said technique to conserve his internal energy.

'My sense of direction in here is confused and suppressed, but...', he suddenly stopped walking and turned to his right; after that he sidestepped, dodging something and then viciously reached out his hand in the fog.

'...I still have my instincts.'

The fog around him dispersed. Edwin and Anna saw what was happening and spotted Allen, who was holding 'James' by his neck.

Wasting no time, Allen disarmed 'James' of his lance and stabbed his curved sword to ground to the ground.

Taking out the Soul Shard, the former tried to feed to the latter but he kept his mouth shut.

"Let me go!", 'James' angrily blurted out then immediately closed his mouth again to prevent Allen from feeding him the Soul Shard.

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With a tight grip, he attempted to injure Allen's arm that was holding him, but Allen's hand was thoroughly latched onto the other's head, making him unable to do anything.

"Let me go." The kid said it again, but this time with a distorted voice. His eyes were still the same, but it was as if there's somebody else looking through it.

Unexpectedly, Allen threw the kid away.

This action took Edwin and Anna by surprise.

"Didn't Allen say we shouldn't have any second thoughts, why did he do that?" Edwin was baffled.

"No, I think there's another reason why he did that." Anna replied.

Afterwards, 'James' grasped his head and shouted, "This body is mine now! Get lost you weak soul!" His aura became more and more powerful.

"I already said that I will never let you get out of here!", the distorted voice shouted back through the same mouth, which was none other than real James; in an instant, his whole body immobilized.

"Do it, before it's too late.", James calmly said while tears tricked down his face from his eyes.

'I told you already kid, nothing can kill me even if you try to crush all of your body into a pulp! I'm a soul, not a weak human like you! Your actions are futile against me!', the sinister voice sounded out within his mind.

Suddenly, a dagger with engravings materialized in Allen's right hand.

It was none other than the Erchian Dagger!

In a split second, he charged towards James at an even faster speed.

'Wait, that dagger... a weak mortal has that weapon!?', the evil soul noticed the Erchian Dagger and said within the kid's mind; this time, its voice contained fear.

The voice within the kid's head shrieked to its highest tone. The scream weakened James' will due to its intensity, but he still held on.

Allen pierced the dagger right through James' heart; the former then injected more internal energy to the dagger which spread throughout the latter's insides!

'No!!!'

A powerful rnergy then gripped every soft organs inside James' body, then it pulverized all of them.

Now, time seemed to slow down, as James fell to the ground; Allen kneeled with one knee and caught him on time, then he let the kid hug him.

James used the last bit of power coming from the evil soul and tightly held onto Allen's robes. With shaking hands, he clenched them to the other's robes.

Clinging to the last bit of strength left, James muttered, "I-I-I..."

"I-van?"

Some time later, the kid closed his eyes and lost the grip of his hug on Allen.

After everything was over, Anna and Edwin approached the two of them; the former breathe in deeply and resisted the urge to bawl, it has been about three months since she arrived here.

In the whole city, the one she was closest to was only James. Anna said, "It was his birthday today."

Edwin held back his tears as he angrily asked, "Why did you kill him?!"

"He asked for it.", Allen replied and he laid James' body on the ground. He recalled the moment when James said to him to let him go, there was a different message behind those words, and it was to kill him.

Edwin couldn't believe what Allen told him, he wished that he was stronger so that he could've personally battled James and probably prevent him getting killed as the only option.

"If only, if only..." Edwin clenched his hands due to anger. Even though he had only stayed at the shop for a month or less with James, he was still somewhat fond of the cheerful kid.

"You can come out.", Allen looked to a particular direction.

A kid stood up from the snow and approached the group. Edwin and Anna were astonished when they saw who it was.

Obviously, it was none other than Ivan.

Ivan kneeled in front of James' body. He held his friend's cold hands; eventually, his emotions erupted and bawled on his James' body.

...

Following which, when Ivan calmed down and slightly stopped weeping, Allen asked, "How did you know that he wouls come here?"

Earlier in the city, Anna and Allen separated in order to find James much faster; that's when Allen recognized Ivan who seemed to be finding somebody.

At that moment, he asked to the kid if he knew where James was. That's where Allen found out that Ivan was almost killed by James; nevertheless, he still tried to search for his best friend.

Next, Allen regrouped with Anna; unknown to the latter, Ivan followed the both of them with the help of the former. The rest of the happenings followed.

"This was where we always go to before you arrived in the city.", Ivan wiped off the tears off his face; yet, he broke into wailing again as he stuttered. "I remember one day, several years ago, James told me that he's been hearing voices in his sleep; sometimes, he sees a shadow at the corner of his eyes. I joked that there's monster following him, I never thought that there was really a monster!"

Allen then looked towards to the direction of the Horizon Mountain and said, "The people from the church is coming. They already noticed the battle."

After a pause, he added, "They might do other things with James' body, we need to bury it some distance away where they won't expect where it is."

He then looked at Edwin, "Go to the Monarch Stone Patch with James' body and Anna; wait for me there. As soon as you enter it, Avram, the winter wolf that you saw, will notice your presence."

"Where are you going, Sir Alchemist Morgan?", Anna asked.

"I need to take Ivan back to the city and permanently cover our tracks.", Allen answered back. "Then we will leave."

"We are going to leave the city?", Edwin asked quietly.

"Yes, the church may trace what happen back to us. Anna will be safe as the ecclesiastical forces won't dare interfere with the kingdom's magicians even if she was found out, but not with us loose people and commoners.", Allen replied.

Edwin carefully carried James' body up and said, "Then I'll see you later, Allen." And left with Anna towards the direction of the Monarch Stone Patch.

"Come on, I'll take you back to your home.", Allen said to Ivan.

Ivan let out an unwilling look, prompting Allen to say, "Don't worry, you will be able to visit his body."

When the kid heard the sentence, he only nodded and let himself be carried by Allen.