Death... and me

Back at the Soul Rulers' headquarters, there was a building separated from the area Rean and Roan destroyed. The security there was almost as tight as the one kept for the Soul Stone and Bloodline Trial Control Formations. Inside, however, one wouldn't even find more than three or four Zasfins working at once.

Well, there wouldn't be much of a reason to have many Zasfins there to start with. All one would find inside were several shelves with some glass jars on each of them. Each of those jars had several inscriptions on their bottom and top, though. Inside, one would see a small wisp of blue flame. On top of that, there was a name under them.

Sevinia;

Latife;

Guile;

Palares;

Vance...

Each and every important member of the Soul Rulers' headquarters who was at least in the Elemental Transformation Realm had their names under a jar. Obviously, Fikin just so happened to have one as well. It was placed at the very center of the building, in full display for anyone to see.

Those jars were connected to the souls of each of their owners. They couldn't be used against them, though. It was simply a way of determining whether someone was dead or not. If the jar's owner died, the blue flame would disappear, making the jar shatter apart in the process.

During this war, many Elemental Transformation Realm Zasfins died, and even a few Transition Realm ones passed away. That being said, the few workers in this place had been quite busy during the past few weeks.

*Crack, crack, crack...*

Suddenly, the sound of another jar breaking echoed in the building. The workers there could only sigh in response, knowing that another Zasfin had died in the war.

*Shatter!*

With that, the jar broke apart as the blue flame disappeared. However, when one of the workers went there to see who had passed away this time, his body froze in place, muttering in shock, "It can't be..."

However, he only stayed still for a moment before rushing at Fikin's jar at the center as he shouted, "Ancestor Fikin is dead!"

Without hesitation, the Zasfin worker spread his Spiritual Sense and spread the news to others. One Transition Realm Zasfin, someone who stayed to guard the fort, arrived at the room not too long after as he hastily asked, "Where is it?!"

The worker quickly pointed at the center of the room, showing the place where Fikin's jar was located. All he could see was the broken pieces of it as the blue flame was long gone. "How can that be? Fikin is our strongest member! The report said he escaped the demon beasts!"

The ancestor looked at the Zasfins behind him and asked, "How long has it been?"

"Just a few minutes ago. As soon as we saw it happening, we contacted you and the others outside," the Zasfin responsible for the building answered in response.

"What?! You told the others as well?!" The ancestor almost exploded in rage, feeling like killing the guy right now. This kind of information was supposed to stay hidden until they could deal with the situation. However, it would now go out of control.

Well, the guy did it on purpose for the sake of his group. He and his companions understood the severity of this issue, after all. That being said, they knew that the Zasfin Ancestors would try to keep it hidden for as long as possible, which meant that they might be killed to prevent news from spreading. As loyal as they might be to the Soul Rulers, they weren't willing to die just to because they did their job.

Sure enough, the news had already reached most of the clans in the Soul Rulers organization. After all, many of them had members of their families working as protectors of the building with the jars in it. Once they heard about Fikin's jars breaking apart, they immediately used their Thoughts Transmission Talismans to tell their clan leaders.

Back on the battlefield, Vance and the other Transition Realm Ancestors were recovering from their injuries. However, the air in the area was quite gloomy as they knew that they already lost this war. The best thing they could do now was secure the places they had control of. Their army had fewer regions to defend, so they've become a lot more concentrated. On top of that, they had to wait for Fikin to come back so that they could talk about it.

Well, Vance and the other two Transition Realm Zasfins of the Hafel Clan were gloomy for another reason, the fact that Fikin escaped. As the highest members of the Hafel Clan, they obviously knew about the real plan to get rid of him. Of course, they wouldn't tell anyone about it. Little did the others notice, but the injuries they sustained were one of the most superficial as the demon beasts who fought them were warned to not make things difficult for the Hafel Clan.

Suddenly, a Zasfin subordinate arrived in the resting area with a pale expression. Naturally, all the Zasfins understood that something bad happened.

"What is it? Are the demon beasts attacking the Aite and Wesdin Regions as well?" Vance asked straight away, trying to keep up his act.

"N-No, the Demon Beast Army is still consolidating their position in the Humk, Freten, and Gargoc Regions." The Zasfin then paused for a moment, gathering the courage to deliver the real message, stammering, "We just received a Thoughts Transmission Talisman Message from the headquarters. Ancestor Fikin's Soul Jar...bro-broke apart!"

Immediately, all the Ancestors, be it from the Soul Rulers or the other organizations throughout the world, were left appalled! "What the hell did you just say?!"

The subordinated sweated cold as he repeated the message. "Ancestor Fikin...is dead."

"Impossible!"

"We have an eye on the demon beasts' side. Phex and the others haven't left at all."

"Who could kill Fikin?"

"First of all, no one knows where Fikin went, so how did anyone find him?"

Vance's group, however, was doing their best to hide their joy. All three of them thought about the same person. 'It's Ancestor Duran! It must be him! He did tell us that this was his chance to get revenge, and he really did it!'

And just like that, the Zasfin World, or at least the world that knew of Fikin and the Soul Rulers, was turned upside down.