Alaster tightly closed his eyes as his senses were overloaded.

His eyes burned.

His ears bled.

The breeze felt like daggers and even his clothes felt like sandpaper.

Everything felt a thousand times…more.

Every Class change brought with it enhanced senses as the User gained a large number of stats. Alaster was ready for that. He had already gone through it several times. But this was different.

It was not just what was happening that he felt and heard, but everything before.

Alaster felt, heard, and tasted everything that was happening, not just as it was, but as it had been.

Alaster was sensing the shadows of everything. The before. And the during.

Every living thing, he felt their lifespan. Every dead thing, he saw their shadow. Their last moments. From the smallest weed that was eaten by a hare. To the earthworms digging beneath the roots. To the mighty trees that lived for centuries. And even to the Monsters living, loving, and fighting.

He felt them all, for miles.

It was overwhelming. It was powerful. It was nauseating. But above all, it was godlike.

"What is this?" Alaster groaned through gritted teeth.

A voice came to him, whispering so only he could hear it.

"This is your potential. This is the power you are capable of controlling. A level of potential that you built yourself through your blood and sweat.

But all power comes at a cost.

And this power's cost, is also its asset.

The few who have held even a grain of sand of this power called it Death Sight. But they never truly understood its purpose. They saw only a millionth of its capabilities and thought they knew it in its entirety. But you know it all, or, you will.

Did you know, that when your species still inhabited their own world, called Terra, they had multiple legends and myths about death and the afterlife?

You Humans are not unique in that matter. Almost all species capable of complex thought have their own opinions about death.

Some choose to believe that there is a great afterlife for those worthy and a torturous afterlife for those unworthy. Others believe that they will be reborn to life again. While others believe that there is merely nothing, that after life, they simply cease to be.

But very few wonder how one's soul goes from this life, to the next. How does it get there? What guides them? Is it dangerous?

Humans are unique in this. For they have, or at least had, multiple legends about beings who transported the souls of the deceased to their next life, whether it be Heaven, Hell, or Reincarnation.

These beings have as many names as there are legends, but a few remained constant or similar. By the time the Human world of Terra died, the most prominent name was Grim Reaper. An Undead Being who reaped the souls of the living and guided them to the afterlife.

This is who you have become.

Or, at least, this is who you have become most similar to. Such a being does not actually exist, but its capabilities do. This power you have gained is one that transcends that of the System. It transcends that of your Human Gods.

The power to see the remaining life force of the living, and to see the recent memories of the dead."

"Sounds like a power to be feared." Alaster said through gritted teeth and clenched eyes.

"Death should never be feared, never sought, but never shied away from. Perhaps you already know this, but every Ability, Skill, or Bloodline, came from another being who created it. Nothing comes from nothing.

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This particular power, this Death Sight as it has so cruelly been called, was created by a mother. A mother who wished to see the last memories of her dead child so that she could best honor them.

There is beauty in life, because it ends, because it is uncertain.

Death is what makes life beautiful. It is what gives life meaning. As such, there is beauty in all ends. One just has to find it.

That is what this power is.

Not some tool to abuse and manipulate, but to find the beauty in life and honor it."

"What good does that do me?" Alaster groaned.

The voice was silent for a moment, "…More than you would think."

"What the hell does that mean?" Alaster growled.

But no response came.

* * * * *

The carriage continued to roll along the winding trail through the sparse forest.

Evelyn wrapped the blanket around herself as she watched Liam and a few of the others play cards. Felix always made sure to carry a deck, and he finally found a use for it.

At first, everyone had played, it started quiet and muted but soon grew into loud shouting and playful shoving. But after the seventh hour of playing various card games, people began to grow bored and slowly filtered off. Emma was the first, deciding to sleep instead.

Felix was next, despite the cards being his. He managed to convince Illa to teach him some basic magic. That had been yesterday, and without anything else to distract them, they had been at it since then. Unfortunately, Felix was not the most Magically sensitive boy. He had only managed to conjure a small Mage Light the size of a coin that produced less light than a match.

The rest of the children passed the time by napping or talking to each other. But after the sun rose on the second day, Evelyn poked her head out to ask her brother if he had any books. He merely nodded and conjured a few stacks from his Ring of Holding before looking out in the distance once more.

Evelyn didn't mind. That's a lie. She did mind, but she understood. They both needed time to wrap their heads around things, and the Demonic Invasion was not helping.

So she instead took the books and distributed them around, at least to the ones that wanted them.

Despite having nearly thirty children aged from fifteen to twenty, the carriage was so large that it did not feel cramped, certainly not spacious, but they weren't sitting in each other's laps.

Except for Ulex and Harper.

They were in each other's laps, just cuddling and occasionally making out. Only Emma complained about it, but they weren't doing anything else, nor were they making a racket, so even her complaints fell silent after a few minutes.

Despite being the 'Leader' of this band of misfit children, Evelyn simply read one of the many books her brother had given her. During one of the times he opened the side door to give them a meal, she had asked if they could step out to stretch their legs maybe even hunt a Monster or two, but he had firmly said no.

Again, Evelyn understood, they did not have a lot of time. The continent of Man was under attack, and from what little she had seen of the enemy's power, it would be a hard fight.

But it was also that reason that Evelyn wanted to strengthen her group as much as she could. At this point, only two of the children were still Novices, but both could become Adepts after just a few more battles. Evelyn needed to become stronger.

For that purpose, she had been spending every moment recovering her Soul before splitting it again. Unfortunately, there was only so much she could actively do, so she was still reading a lot.

However, she was making a lot of progress. Before the Ball, and the subsequent Invasion, Evelyn had two Soul Seeds waiting in her Soul, just waiting for Evelyn to find someone to use them on. Now, after two days of focused Splitting, she had seven, about to be eight.

"Hey Evelyn," Liam said without looking away from his cards, "When was the last time your brother gave us grub?"

Felix rolled his eyes as he usually did when Liam asked a similar question. Liam was almost always hungry, it was not rare for him to ask when the next meal was right after he cleaned his plate with his tongue. But Liam was right. It had been a while.

Even David was rubbing his stomach, despite being capable of going several weeks without any form of sustenance.

Evelyn looked up from her book in thought, "Huh, maybe he got caught up in this own thoughts, let me ask."

Evelyn stood up, brushing off the beautiful but now filthy and slightly torn Ball Room gown she still wore. None of the other children had any extra clothes and Alaster had never needed any as one of his Abilities could form armor around him in an instant. So, she was stuck until they got to Onigas.

The Independent City of Onigas. None of the children had been there, and ordinarily would be excited to go someplace new, but the current reason for their trip muted their excitement.

Evelyn lifted her foot to step over the sleeping Emma when the carriage hit a large rock and jostled. But before she could even stumble, David was there, hanging from the ceiling like a spider and placing a single hand against her bare back to stabilize her.

"Thank you, David." Evelyn nodded to the blind boy, who merely turned back around and crawled across the roof until he curled up into himself and closed his eyes, all completely upside down.

Ulex and Harper stopped their cuddling for a moment to stare at the strange boy. They weren't the only ones. Since David ate the raw legs of a Giant Spider, he had taken to sleeping on the ceiling and even occasionally on the wall. Everyone was still getting used to it.

Though it did give more room for everyone else in the carriage.

Evelyn wrapped the blanket around herself and opened the small door. A strong gust of wind brought cold and snow blowing into the carriage. Emma grumbled in her sleep and rolled over. Liam huffed in annoyance as the unexpected breeze blew one of his cards out of his grip.

Evelyn looked up from her hunkered position towards Nightmare. In the dim and sparse moonlight as it filtered through the tree cover, Evelyn saw the hunkered frame of Alaster.

"Alaster? Are you awake?"

A high pitched wheeze was her response.

Evelyn jumped out of the Carriage, her blanket forgotten, "Liam!"

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