The Soul Shifs

The night is accompanied with rain hammering down in the streets. A woman dressed in a thin veil evades a rabble of guards as she walks through town.

Slipping down the back alleys, she makes her way to a poor family

'You poor thing, child take this and eat' the woman said, caressing the child's head.

The little dirty boy in rags sat up with the help of his mother

"Child, go on," his mother said while feeding him.

"I will bring more meals for you, eat slowly" the woman dressed in a thin veil said. She moved out of the room and slowly raised her eyes to look at

the strange devilish man in a caged room while shutting the door behind her.

The strange devilish man arrives, with blue-grey skin and charges at the poor woman and her child in rags. Thankfully, a demon slayer called Jang Gang appears, the both exchange fists and Hang Gang throws him across the room. Somehow conjuring up water powers, he confines it to a prison.

The door slams open in a hurry "Jeon" the woman screamed while running in.

"I told you to reach out to me if anything were to happen to him,how could you let things come to this?" Gang Jang said.

"He will be fine once he consumes human energy, he will return to normal" the woman said anxiously.

"Your son has run wild, I will retrieve his soul". Jang said firmly.

"No,no, you were the one who turned my son into a soul shifter, either get him another body or feed him the energy of human souls. Bring back my son! Bring back my son!" The woman said screaming and in the pull of tears.

It turns out this creature is the woman's son who has lost control.

"If word gets out that I used the forbidden sorcery, we will both be doomed". Jang said.

"No… please.. no!.. please Geon, stay with me for a bit longer my son..." The woman says running towards the creature and crying non stop.

The creature tried to exchange his soul with that of the woman, but Gang Jang drew out his magic sword and threw it towards him, cutting through his stomach and stopping him immediately.

Jang eventually plunges this wild soul into the watery depths below. It turns to rock after losing its power.

********************

"Why do soul shifters turn to rock after they've gone wild?" One of the servants asked Jang Gang after throwing the stoned body of the creature into a lake.

"A crack forms when the bodies clash with the souls they carry which causes them to lose their energy." Gang Jang replied.

" This is making the eighth soul shifter that has turned to a rock after going wild" the servant said.

"I guess I should stop shifting souls," Said Jang Gang.

Jang is afterwards summoned to the Royal Palace.

"His majesty has been asking about the new spell you've been trying to master, he demands to see you." Said the servant by the lake.

However, Gang is working on a new spell that allows one's soul to be transported into another.

The ancient lightening of the old Chinese and some marbles of water with a sick man, looking feeble and coughing profusely while seated on the throne shows the king's palace as Jang Gang walks in.

"Ough, ough,Ough," the sick king coughed painfully.

"I heard… you have been trying to master a new kind of spell" the king said.

"It's nothing grand, it's just a trick I tried out for fun" Gang Jang lied.

" I know I cannot ask to live forever. However, it's a thing of worry to me that I don't have an heir" the king feeble voice came through.

"I wish you quick recovery, your majesty". Gang added almost immediately.

"I can't do anything with this weak body, but I might have a chance if I get to live in a younger and healthier body," the king continued.

"There's no way for humans to switch bodies" Gang was wary.

"But you can do it Gang" he insisted.

'The ancient wizardry of souls'.

There was silent for a few minutes, then Gang broke it.

"That's an ancient sorcery that has been forbidden, if the soul clashes with the body it could even turn to an evil spirit and besides how could I change the body of a king to another person"?

The King is aware of this and wants to transport inside Jang's soul and have them switch places – just for 7 days. He pointed out how Gang had transformed a dead man's soul to another body and the man lived for half a year, how much more he the king, who is protected by the skies.

Jang was wary,but the will of the King was hard to fight against. Begrudgingly, he agrees to do this. He throws the crystal in his palm into the flood of water in the palace and enacts the magic of the water, smoke and earth. The incants rolled in circles like a burning house and immediately they switched places.

Gang woke up with the King's body, went right away to the mirror "The king and I have switched bodies" he said and afterwards saw the write-up on the king's table inscribed 'I shall make La-Hoa mine, and when she bears a child it shall be mine'.

The King's target was La-Hoa, Jang's beloved. He intends to have her bear a child and hurries off to make love with her, unbeknownst to the poor woman that the real Jang Gang is stuck in the wrong body.

Gang in the weak King's body got furious and in a scream, "no, no, it can't be La-Hoa, no!" He screamed unable to move with the weak and feeble body of the King.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

20 years later and the child conceived has grown into Gang Youkay who happens to be at the royal palace overseen by Farky Jin.

On the frozen lake in the outskirts of the village, Minjae, a female Shadow Assassin is seen having a tense argument with some soldier who came to capture her.

"So you're Minjae, the Shadow Assassin who has been going around killing all the mages in the City."

"They call me Minjae, for wherever I go, heads fall on the ground, a beautiful name isn't it? '' she replied boastfully with a cheek up smile.

"Kill her," the head soldier ordered.

Immediately arrows were raised by the soldiers and fired towards Minjae who loosen her hat ropes, throw it off and draw out her sword to resist the arrows into the frozen ice.

A magic arrow fired towards Minjae by Javern the head soldier almost threw her off her feet, the enchanting forces of the air held her firm.

The trop and Minjae kept fighting across this frozen lake.

The head soldier fired a second frozen magical arrow towards Minjae and just like a shadow, it pierced through her body.

Despite taking an arrow through the chest and bleeding out, Minjae disappeared into a broken potion of the lake and made it into the nearby town. The soldiers chased her to the town on their master's order. Minjae used her magical powers to fight the soldiers and retain their arrows. She was determined to stay alive no matter what.

"I will not die like this, I cannot". Minjae said hiding in one of the thatch houses. She ran into a bar still bleeding heavily.

Minjae approaches a woman in the back of a bar, holds her by the neck and throws her on the floor.

"What do you want?" The woman said scared. As folks began to run out of the bar due to the chaos,

Minjae brings forth a strange orb from her bloody palm and begins to make enchantments, the orb in her palm begins to float in the air and colourful smoke surrounds it. As smoke protrudes out from the roof, Minjae is found dead on the ground by Javern and his men. Javern strips open her cloth to check the blue mark when they suddenly hear a noise from one of the drums, the little girl runs out of her hiding place to the gaze of one of the soldiers' swords placed on her throat.

"She doesn't have the blue marks," one of the soldiers said after examining the little girl's shoulder.

"The blue mark shows that her soul has left this body, does this mean she failed to transform into another body?" Javern looked at the dead body on the floor again.