The Code

"Josiah, calm down. What are you saying?" Lord Osiris knelt in front of Jody to look him in the eye. He had now noticed how pale and anxious this son of his appeared. This was his first time seeing such an expression on Jody's little face. Clearly, something terrible had happened.

"In the wilderness, we were ambushed by a bunch of assassins dressed in black leather armor. They called them dark elves. I called my mom, and she told me to find you immediately and warn you that there was a siege and that a white demon had found us and was about to attack! She said the plan had to start now or something," Jody rushed and explained everything he knew, urging his father to take action immediately.

What was this guy doing still?

However, Jody noticed that when the words 'white demon' escaped his mouth, his father's face and aura instantly changed. Suddenly, the Osiris in front of Jody was as fierce and aggressive as a wild beast. He stood imposingly as he spoke to the crowd.

"Attention! This is not a drill! We are under attack. Everyone to your posts immediately, prepare the defensive formations! I need my Curse Masters in front of me in three seconds.

"Honored Pack brothers and sisters, I need you to depart and recover the First Lady immediately. Go right now!!" Lord Osiris wasted no time and gave out orders to the surrounding officials. The officials were startled for a moment, but then the lord's atmosphere exploded outward as the star phenomenon formed above him, "I SAID MOVE NOW! LET'S GO, LET'S GO!"

As Osiris and the elders moved, Jody temporarily dismissed his guardian but first whispered something in Sek's ear. He then immediately sat down and pulled a mid-grade mana stone out of his space ring, restoring his energy. After checking the time, Jody confirmed that he could only have Sylvester summoned for less than another two hours, and then he would be without him until tomorrow!

Even though Jody could still summon Xavier today, Sylvester had been discouraging him from revealing this little brother for some reason he was unwilling to elaborate on. So Jody had decided only to summon Xavier if there was no other option. For now, he would let Sylvester return to the grimoire willingly. That way, he could still use these two hours for later.

Sensing Jody's thought, Sylvester defied gravity before turning into a purple light that shot into Jody's glabella.

Dozens of minutes later, Jody had fully restored his origin forces using the mana stone. Although converting mana into rukh was difficult for most, Jody had twilight veins and didn't find it challenging at all.

He started rebuilding his astral forces next. This was far more difficult to do, as he didn't have anything external to help him do so. All Jody could do was absorb the astral light in the atmosphere or extract it from the spiritual energies in the stalks of saint force grass. Thus, he burned an astral star from his twilight matrix to replenish it quickly.

"Summon me without using the source artifact. I can help you recover," Xavier's voice suddenly rang in Jody's mind via telepathy.

Jody had never done this before, but he somehow knew how to do so. Jody focused on his combat soul, and behind him, an astral projection of Xavier in his infant form appeared floating.

With mind's lamp active, he immediately noticed that all the spiritual powers of the heavens started surrounding Xavier's astral projection as if he was eating it all. However, what came out of the little mutt's butt was real astral light. Jody quickly absorbed it into his astralis, swiftly recovering the energy he had used before.

"So, this is how you use a combat soul without a grimoire. How boring," observed Jody.

Though this was a useful ability, Jody wouldn't value it very much on its own. The grimoire gave him far more versatility, and he believed he had made the correct choice.

"It's good that you know," said the astral werepup before fading back into the ether.

With his body returned to its peak condition, Jody put up his things and pulled out the serene mirror to contact his mother again. However, there was no response after a few minutes.

"Sek Si!" shouted Jody, his anxiety quietly transforming itself into rage through a magical process. The next second, Sek emerged from his shadow directly in front of Jody again. He quickly asked, "Did you find them?"

Sek nodded.

"Take me there."

"…" Sek Si frowned.

"This is not a request! It's a command!" Jody spoke through gritted teeth.

Sek Si just closed her eyes as she grabbed Jody's hand and disappeared into the shadows. 

Jody's heart was pounding in his chest as Sek Si led him through the shadows. He had never felt so helpless before, and the thought of something happening to his mother and sister made him feel sick to his stomach.

After what felt like an eternity, they emerged from the shadows into an unfamiliar place. Jody immediately recognized it as the abandoned warehouse district on the city's outskirts. He had been there before but never under these circumstances. There were buildings burning, women and men screaming so miserably that the boy didn't dare imagine the why, and a black haze blanketed the streets. Moving through the haze and terrorizing the public were countless abominations that looked so obscene to Jody that he almost gagged.

Having such a wide-reaching spiritual awareness came with drawbacks. The things he saw were so graphic that any child his age would be reduced to an anxious wreck if they saw it. Giant naked women seemingly made of black marble draining masculine force from captured men like they were milking cows. Their assets were shaped perfectly as if a disturbed but precise sculptor had carved them. A sick-looking yellow liquid dripped from the purple protrusions on their chests, making peoples' flesh darken annd cauterize in ways he didn't care to explore.

Giant black-marble cavemen wielding the most terrifying clubs as they chased after women with horrid noises akin to laughter escaping their twisted maws. Jody's face darkened, and his stomach lurched at the vile scenes he sensed within the 50-meter radius. He wanted to help these people, but he had no idea what these dreadful and perverted demons were and how strong they were. There were far more menacing presences lurking in the shadows, seeming uninterested in the pillaging of their brethren.

They looked not goofy and perverted like the other creatures but menacing and devilish, like humanoid raptors with horns on their heads. Jody felt like this was what the biblical demons of his last life probably looked like. He didn't know how powerful those things were, but he felt dread just by sensing them.

"Fiends." Sylvester and Xavier said in unison.

The foreign solemnity in their voices only made Jody frown further.

"This is definitely what one would call fiendish," he replied, already searching the area.

"No," said Sylvester coldly. "These are actual fiends. The things that were raining earlier. Horrid abominations born from darkness. Jody, when intelligent lifeforms die in tragedies related to voodoo forces, the resentment of their spirits can prevent the soul from dispersing. The remnant dark laws fuel the corruption of fiends. These resentful spirits become monsters that feed on negative emotions to survive and carnal life energies to grow."

This was the most disgusting explanation Jody had ever endured. Something like this actually existed? And in such mass?

"The low-level ones are called goons," while speaking, Sylvester guided Jody's perception to the hundreds of creepy crawling humanoid darkspawn with grotesque movements and eerily glowing green eyes. "Their main ability is corruption. Any substance from a fiend contains the corrosive properties of voodoo force and a more harrowing property that corrupts things into fiends. There were probably no goons at the start of this event."

Sylvester's explanation brought Jody understanding but made keeping the contents of his stomach ten times harder. The implications were dreadful.

"The stone giants are called Bullies. As you can see, they are mindlessly lustful and deranged," Sylvester explained at the speed of thought. "For a mundane mortal, bullies are the most horrible abomination one could encounter, the stuff of nightmares. But they actually aren't that tough. This is why they prey on the weak. I also sense wraiths, shades, balors, abominations, and hags. This place is incredibly dangerous for the current you. Luckily, there are no high-level fiends. But there is one thing you must beware of among these monsters..."

Jody wanted to respond when he suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation.

AWOOOOO~~

Dozens of echoing howls suddenly encapsulated the entire capital. The force accompanying them actually dispersed much of the black haze, causing the fiends to screech and retreat into the remaining dark fog. Jody could understand the varied howls as if they were speaking the common tongue. They all said the same thing.

"Hail the Alpha." Jody's face became dignified as a mysterious strength infiltrated his body.

So he was the new alpha recognized by the Trillwolf Pack? Jody's father had once tried to explain this, but spreading out his perception and sensing the nearly 100 desolate wolves forming a perimeter around his location, Jody suddenly understood. There was a certain principle in his heart that he knew hadn't been there prior to arriving in the capital.

The Code.

Through the code, he could control the pack. It was something he couldn't explain but naturally comprehended. He also felt two immense yet familiar auras lock onto himself at this moment. Jody recognized their spiritual imprints as these were his deathsworn, the enchanted stone jackals that served as his bodyguards by command of Saint Anubis. Jody suddenly calmed down a lot.

Even in this terrorized city, he wasn't alone. In fact, he had more protection within the capital than outside of it just by way of the trillwolves.

"Alpha Trill has a nice ring to it..." but Jody had no time to enjoy this revelation. He sent his first command as an alpha, assigning the mission of liberating the city from fiends to the trillwolves. Immediately after using the code to assign this task, he heard howls and menacing forces erupt all over.

Then he sent his thoughts directly to Sylvester, "What's the thing to beware?"

"Maniacs," replied Sylvester solemnly, secretly impressed with Jody's behavior tonight. "Regular low level fiends have no intelligence. Maniacs, on the other hand, are far, far smarter. Any fiend can become a maniac, and I'm not sure how it happens."

"Yeah, because that's totally not terrifying," Jody's voice dripped sarcasm, but it wouldn't help him.

Sek Si then emerged from his shadow.

"Come with me," She said simply.