Faris's sneak into the village was uneventful, except maybe the screaming in his head.

How dare you human! You talking to me about not betraying me! And yet here you are! Abandoning your friends! Didn't you notice the strain they were in?! I ca-

Shut the fuck up… Faris interrupted as he dove into a building. I'm trying to concentrate… He closed his eyes, and slowed his breathing, allowing his mind to slowly wander, fading into the surroundings behind him, he expanded his consciousness, and began to search, eventually, he found it. Ah… there it is.

I'm not done talking! Wait… huh?! Tartarus was shocked as Faris approached a single intact building in the center of the town. But how?! I don't think they even realized.

Faris didn't smile as he answered, There's a spell, it's putting them in a deep stupor, their minds are hidden but they're alive. To any magician simply reaching out? They're dead, or comatose, and especially in such a stressful situation unseeable. Remember… Faris allowed himself a small smile, looking at the human shaped clusters of light behind the hidden door. Even if someone is asleep their cells are very much awake and alive, the mitochondria don't sleep.

Truly worthy of being known as the cell's powerhouse.

… Faris frowned.

What?!

You ruined it… He snuck in through a hidey hole detected through the excess level of bacteria. After slipping inside he noticed an immediate change in temperature, it was extremely cold and damp. Made worse was the feeling of several strong individuals, about twenty in total. Not at the level of shades, but…

One's coming quickly! We need to hide!

Yes, I know. Faris began, tightening his grip on his sword. He looked around for something to hide in, finding nothing he turned inwards. Tartarus, you should be able to detect changes in my physiology, such as the release of adrenaline, dopamine, and endorphins, correct?

Yes, what about it?

Can you forcibly activate it?

You mean instead of tapping into the magic to boost your physical abilities?

No I mean in tandem with that.

...That's insane, you can't beat all of them!

I don't need to. Faris readied his blade, lunging out without warning just as the false-shade rounded the corner. It collapsed wordlessly, but the sound of its body rupturing alerted the 19 other false shades in the underground chambers. They extended their minds to find the intruder, and feeling nothing, one of them ventured into the hallway Faris remained in, only to have it's decapitated corpse spill out of the room. The false shades rushed into the room, spells at the ready, and found the secret entrance wide open. Half rushed out whilst the other half drifted towards the entrance, at the ready for anything. Steady…

5 false shades fell as bullets tore straight through their hearts. The rest immediately gave chase to the short youth, who sprinted away at superhuman speeds.

"An elf?!" One of them shouted. This roused the rest, who sprinted out after the boy. Minutes went by, the entrance left silent, followed quietly by fluttering, as Ventus flew into the vacant opening…

"Arrrg!" Venka dodged to the side, barely missing the shade's sword swing. As he launched his second strike Bartholomew shouted, interrupting him as 100 lbs of rock and mud shaped into the form of a snake tackled the shade from behind. His wards took the blow and the rock snake was blown back, new cracks joining the ever increasing cobwebs of damage. Nonetheless the shade was distracted enough for Venka to dodge once more, just in time for Morgan to thrust forward with a spear. It grazed the shade's cheek, drawing just a hairline cut. The shade widened his eyes, enraged. Morgan could only scowl, angry he wasted his opportunity, he threw a small metal orb, which exploded into blinding light in the shade's face. Despite that the shade still moved forward, only to be stopped by an invisible wall, bouncing his hand away.

Morgan turned gratefully to Katya, only to be worried as she looked much worse for wear than even he. He looked around, everyone was in bad shape. Nya and Seya were barely fending off the 2 shades that bore down on them, Bartholomew was quickly running out of his vast manner reserves in his several crystals and his best golems were too costly to utilize anymore. But the worst off was Venka, behind her were the cowering villagers, protected behind an extremely powerful barrier set up to keep the shades from harming them. Venka looked pale as she stood up, parrying the shades blows barely each time. The only reason they could continue to keep fighting was because of her providing energy.

"Dammit look out!" Bartholomew's shout caused Morgan to flinch out of his stupor as the shade came, baring his sharp teeth in viscous delight.

I can't dodge! Morgan kept his eyes wide open, swinging his spear vainly in retaliation. Bartholomew's Rock Snake leapt in, taking the blow for Morgan, Bartholomew winced as his last decent golem was destroyed. The shade began to laugh as he observed the crumbling of thing, lifting it up to toss away. The cracks only widened as rocks began to fall from its body, striking Morgan and the shade. Morgan couldn't help but catch as a single stray rock, the size of his palm, struck the shade on the foot, causing a slightly purple bruise that just as quickly healed.

Maybe!?

"Stenr reisa!" The stones around him and the shade shot up, some as small as coins, others as large as his torso, his magical energy drained quickly even while being replenished as quickly by Venka. The strain was massive causing his eyes to strain and his nose and mouth to bleed, it felt like he couldn't breath, and eventually almost 10 tons of stone was lifted above the ground. Morgan released the spell, letting the stones fall.

The shade, his name being Umber, smirked, he lifted his hands to stop the rocks, prepared to drop them instead on the enemy he faced before him, only to be assaulted by a two pronged mental attack, destroying his concentration, the first stone, a bolder the size of his arm, crushed his hand. Followed by several larger and smaller rocks and holders that slowly broke him apart piece by piece. He couldn't even scream as he was held down by the mental strength of whoever struck at him, before a rock crushed his skull he turned to see a knife hurtling into his chest, thrown by a white haired girl just before she blocked an attack from one of his allies. The blade hit first.

His body broke apart, the remains crushed by the boulders. Morgan closed his eyes, exhausted as the stones fell around him, he was blanketed by what looked like a snake, though made purely of mud, it coiled over him protectively, its wards breaking apart and its body being destroyed. Morgan was pulled back by a spell, shouting "They're wards don't stop things that don't aim for them literally!" Venka thought meaningfully as she turned to Nya and Seya.

By far their best melee fighters, Nya and Seya fought the two shades before them. Thanks to Katya's efforts, they didn't need to worry about warding the occasional spell the shades shot forward, allowing them to skillfully bob and weave past each blow and retaliate. Even then, one of the two shades was stronger than the one that Venka Morgan and Bartholomew had to contend with, and it was likely going to be a drawn out fight.

"Thrysta Vindr!" Venka shouted as the shades got too close, the air spiraled around a five foot square in front of her, compressing into a miniature vortex and exploding forward. She watched in surprise as the shades were blown back, slamming into trees. Nya took cue, taking out a few un-enchanted arrows, she began to shoot them towards rocks, angling them in such a way they struck the shades in recoil, the damage wasn't as lasting, but it worked. They would be able to defeat them. Then Seya yelled out in pain as thirteen shades burst out of the forest…

Faris took a while to lead the false-shades as far away as possible. All to buy Ventus time.

Are you certain you can trust that bird with such a task?

His name is Ventus… Faris replied as he ducked under a wide haymaker, after two short hops behind a tree he kicked off it, bounding forward just as two more of the false shades charged forward, breaking it apart. And it's important he or I get in there.

Pfft… so he's intelligent? He's just a-

Ventus ways about 6 and a half pounds, his fastest dive time is 87 miles per hour, accelerating at about that speed, the amount of force projected is enough to knock down a grown man and give him a concussion, maybe even death in the right angle, but not much else. In no way should he have been able to harm that false shade except by-

By magic?! But he's a bird?!

Every creature has the capacity to use magic, Angela once slew a shade rabbit. Fanghurs project their minds to attack their prey, mind projection is the simplest form of magic, Ventus can utilize that with ease, and he's decent to boot. Samara wasn't the only one who awakened their talents. Faris sucked in his gut as a blade cut across his armor. He swung hard, catching the false shade square in the jaw. Besides, he continued. How many of these…. you know what? I'll call them Shadelings, how many of these Shadelings are there?

Well if we include the ones you fought first… oh… they're running towards your friends.

"CRAP!" Faris swore, sprinting to catch up.

The cellar was dark, cracks of light spilling from the nearly ruined ceiling, a comfortable light for Ventus as he fluttered forward. Ventus eventually reached the main foyer, where he spotted several people trapped in chains or held in cages. The air smelled of decay and disease, he turned his head slowly, focusing on the two figures at the furthest end. One was leaning over a basin, wrapped in conversation, the other was in several glowing l green chains, and was badly beaten. He glided closer to hear better.

"Yes my Lady, the shades you sent me will capture them soon. Don't worry about the false copies, they will return with the interloper." The masked man sighed, "Just give me more time, these villagers are all terribly inept, only a few of them could become false copies. Made worse by," He struck the chained fellow hard, "This bastard here, he struggled way too fiercely for each spirit within him."

Tartarus… Ventus thought, that was the name of the red-evil-death-but-friend that helped his friend-brother-master-Faris. And the one they were looking for. Heal Faris. He waited until the skull-mask-death-two-leg walked off before gliding closer. He extended his mind towards the Shade, who did not defend in the slightest.

Who…?

Ventus, Faris friend.

Faris?! Tartarus slightly twitched, but caught himself. How is he? I wished to speak with him but I can't enter the city.

Here help, red-death-fakes giving chase.

I would love to help, but I'm a little tied up at the moment… Tartarus turned to the masked man. He has a pair of keys hanging off his side, but be car-

The masked man screamed in shock, indignation, and fear as something struck him from behind, he launched forward into a wall. Tartarus hung his mouth open as Ventus got back up and flew towards the man, pecking off the string cord that held the keys in place, he was halfway done when the masked man began stirring, getting up violently.

"Aaargh!" He swung wildly, missing Ventus who hovered out of the way. "Who dares!" He looked around angrily, turning left and right, he heard tapping at his feat and looked down to see a barn owl. "Huh?!" He asked bemused, chuckling he took his staff to crush the bird, only to be bowled over as the bird flew and tackled through his feet. Ventus finally ripped off the keys, flying over to Atlas, he rapidly unlocked the first chain, second, third, and finally the fourth, as soon as the fourth was no longer in contact six dark red orbs of light seemingly coming out of no where entered Tartarus, as they did, his hair and eyes, which had seemed nearly lifeless, returned just a half shade of red.

"Twelve down… thirteen left." Atlas turned towards Ventus, what he knew of the bird before this moment was that it belonged to Faris, and that it had circled the area he was captured, likely being the reason a rescue could even be attempted. It came then as only a small surprise that it could somehow speak mentally.

Tartarus thought for a moment, putting the masked man in the same green chains before turning to the villagers and unlocking their chains, most looked at him in fear and shock, others were indifferent, a few even thankful as they bowed their heads in a quick nod and began gathering the other villagers. Tartarus paid them little heed, their thanks and gratitude meant little. "We don't need any more fake fuel." He muttered as he stormed out the basement door and into the sunlight. He sniffed the air deeply, and followed the scent of his fakes, rushing to catch up to the fight.

"These shades are a little weird!" Nya shouted as she struck one directly in the face, fell back quickly, getting up before its face healed. Seya could barely scoff as she blocked a shade's attack.

"Yeah, well they're still pretty strong." At their skill levels, Nya, Seya, and even Venka despite her needing to concentrate on energy providing could handle two or even three of these newcomers each, Morgan could take on one with relative ease or two if he struggled, and Bartholomew's few golems left could handle the last one. Unfortunately there were still the first two shades to deal with. They laughed as they simply launched spell after spell, slowly recuperating from their wounds, any second and they'd leap into the fray and enact destruction. Before that happened they needed to defeat the somewhat weaker shades.

A particularly powerful blast of energy launched towards Bartholomew, only to dissipate as Katya counterspelled it. She sighed, exhausted. They had attacked without any rest, attempting to destroy at least one of them, but a combination of Venka's shields and Katya acting at the last moment to stop any attacks that would bypass those shields kept them going. She couldn't allow her concentration to slip even in the slightest. She grit her teeth as she felt the shades gathering magic as they began to soundlessly mouth words in the ancient language, reading it as best she could she began preparing to counter, block, or dissipate the spell.

Morgan gripped his glaive and swung left and right, attacking the two shades as best he could. They were much slower than the first that he and Venka fought, but they were still faster than him it any grown man, if not for all the training they did he would be dead right now. Then again I'm not doing so hot either. He ran forward, flicking his finger and muttering a short phrase in the ancient language, one of the shades tripped over the recently raised stone he turned over. As it fell he rapidly shoved his spear head in a downward thrust, only to be knocked back by a shade's kick, sliding back he charged forward, blade swinging and spell slinging.

Bartholomew was surrounded by a massive writhing mass of tendrils, in close inspection the tendrils revealed themselves to simply be string, try as it wished, the shade simply couldn't cut through all of the string at once, it layered around itself and gripped the blade. Once caught in the stringy embrace Bartholomew's mud snake could attempt to strangle the shade. The shade was still too fast for his eyes, or the golem to fully catch, but they were in a relatively stable impasse. Bartholomew gripped his last crystal, he just needed the right opportunity to release his last golem.

Nya tacked the shade in front of her and plunged her dagger down hard into its chest, caught by surprise the shade could only shout once before exploding into wisps if dark energy that travelled out. The shades all screamed at that moment and rushed towards her, ignoring everyone else. Nya, instead of retreating or freezing up, charged towards the closest one. Fist raised she equipped the magic tool she got, and punched the shade hard, watching in shock as it's face seemed to crumple inwards from the secondary blow, it was launched yards back into a tree, and before the rest could attack her friends rushed forward to her defense. "Thanks guys!" Nya smiled as she readied her gauntlet and dagger.

"Don't mention it." A shade turned too late as Seya seemed to almost materialize behind it, taking advantage of the confusion to stab and another companion straight through the chest. "That's ten left now, see! We got this." Her hair flowed freely glowing white while her eyes gleamed gold, in this state she was more than a match for any of the single shades.

Venka smirked as she strained under the renewed intensity in which they spewed magic to harm her and her friends. "Yeah, too easy!" She glanced over at the two shades, they were the ones to worry about. The second they re-entered the battle things would go very wrong. They began to stalk over, veins bulging as they prepared to attack. 10 loud bangs echoed through the woods as one of the shades fell forward, back exploding in blood, the other turned just in time to see a bullet lodged into its forehead, before it could scream as quick as a diving falcon a man in a suit of armor charged forward, stabbing the shade in the chest. The shade gripped the blade, and attempted to strike down the knight, but seemed to hesitate, it's eyes losing color. It crumpled, and exploded, launching the knight backwards. Venka turned in surprise and relief at their new ally, who sheathed his sword and took out a longbow, launching it towards the shade, in a crackle of light followed by the sound of shattered glass the arrow pierced the shade's back, missing its heart by a hair's breadth, the shade dissipated into a cloud of smoke.

Sword in hand, Faris turned towards Venka and the rest, charging forward.

Afterword:

It's been a while hasn't it? Expect the next chaoter in about 8 hours.

Extra bit: I accidentally said "Tartarus" instead of "Atlas" when I typed "twelve down, thirteen to go." Tartarus is the shade inside Faris, Atlas is the one Ventus helped rescue. Shout out to robocoaster and his quick eye! Thanks for reading!