Ever since I discovered that Yami was still alive, I began to actively look for him. After all, he was the only person I knew of who could kill me completely in one go.
I couldn’t allow someone as cunning, smart, and powerful as Yami to walk around freely... especially given how greedy he was. He was a threat I needed to get rid of as soon as possible.
...I figured that if Yami was currently inhabiting the body of another person due to his bonded ability and the person’s soul was kicked out, that person’s stats would inevitably change to his. Even if the physical body was different, the stats and abilities would belong to Yami.
So, I asked my gamer privileges to search the entire grove for the character Yami Natsogu.
That was when I discovered that the body Yami was currently inhabiting was not in the Puppeteer’s Grove or anywhere near it. Instead, he was far away in a Grade Two territory.
My hypothesis was that he might have had a puppet in that Grade Two territory already. After Aika destroyed his previous vessel and he failed to take over mine, he must have transferred into that puppet.
But then, why was he staying there?
The blue dot on my map showed that he hadn’t moved at all. He just remained in that one spot all this time. At first, a part of me was relieved he wasn’t moving. If he wasn’t moving, I thought he wouldn’t be a bother to me.
But then I remembered that the guy didn’t really need to move his main body. Even though his real self was in a faraway place, he could be anywhere he wanted by using his puppets.
So, I immediately began to search for those puppets within the grove.
I pulled up my map, which displayed the thousand cadets currently in the grove as blue dots. Then, using my ravens that were always hovering above, I began to count the cadets manually while verifying them against my map.
It took a while to count every single person, but in the end, I discovered there were six extra people in the grove who didn’t reflect as blue dots on my map.
That was how I concluded that those guys were Yami’s puppets.
Something about the situation struck me as odd, though. Despite the various bastions in the area, Yami only seemed to use people from my own bastion. I wasn’t sure why, but I decided to put that thought aside for now.
I watched the six puppets for a while. I could see that each of them had been spying on the members of my party, but mostly, they had been spying on me.
Today, when I went into the barracks with Aika and Richard, I noticed one of the puppets, Samantha Frederick, watching us from a distance. Aika and I were the only ones who noticed it, as we were observing her through the eyes of a raven hovering above.
I decided to get rid of them as soon as possible.
But I needed to do it at the same time, and I needed to do it discreetly before they could have a chance to react. If I took them out one by one, not only was there a possibility of them fleeing, but if we ended up in a prolonged confrontation, their party members or friends might intervene before I had a chance to explain anything.
Which was why I had to partner with Leon.
When he used his eye, he could tell that those people were gone and were now puppets for Yami.
His exclusive skill, Judgment Time, was perfect for this situation because it allowed him to strike targets remotely when paired with the All Seeing Eye. As long as he wasn’t too far away from the target and the target had evil intentions, he could bypass all forms of physical and magic barriers to eliminate them instantly from the comfort of our shelter. The only drawback was that it cost a lot of mana, especially when used remotely.
So I only gave him four targets, while Aika and I went for the remaining two.
***
The ashen campground where we struck the boys erupted into chaos. Some cadets scrambled back in terror, while others summoned their weapons, looking back and forth between the two boys and us in total shock.
Both puppets of Yami stared at Aika and I with chilling, vacant grins that didn’t match the blood pooling around them. Then, they spoke at the same time: "You are one scary dominant, you know that? I can’t seem to figure out anything about you both. So, tell me... Just who are you?"
They narrowed their eyes. "And how do you know me?"
Ignoring his questions, I replied coldly, "I do not yet know what your deal is with the dominants from the bastion of crimson and silver. But I will find out."
"Oh?" Their grins grew wider until I spoke again.
"In the meantime, heed my warning, Yami Natsogu. If you do not stay away from me and my party, I will come for you in the Orc’s Graveyard."
When Yami heard the name of the Grade Two territory that he was in, the grin on both boys suddenly vanished. For the first time, the vacant look in their eyes was replaced by a flicker of genuine alarm.
At that moment, black flames erupted from mine and Aika’s hands, engulfing both bodies before they could utter another word. In the next few seconds, nothing remained of them but smoke and green dust.
The silence that followed was heavy.
The surrounding cadets stayed frozen with their weapons still half-raised, staring at the spot where two people had just been erased from existence.
Aika and I stood up.
"Who are you guys? Why were those guys talking like that? What’s happening?" one of the cadets nearby asked in a trembling voice. He tried to peer beneath our hoods to see our faces, but he couldn’t, and we didn’t bother to give him an answer.
Ignoring them, we walked away. Surprisingly, no one stopped us. They just stood there in the silence of the ashen campground, watching the smoke from the black flames drift into the air.