The screeching and clashing of metal drew Seth's attention back to the figures occupying the courtyard. Multiple blurs were shooting around inside a marked off section, what they had designated as their training area.

There were the occasional flashes of lightning, but not the one's set would usually expect from Astra. He had grown used to her blasting it out constantly, like a living thunderstorm, but these flashes were too contained to be lightning blasts.

From the brief flashes he saw, they seemed to be contained by some kind of sword that she was wielding. He watched as she flipped backwards, lashing out with the intricate weapon in her hand, a whip of glistening metal shards held together by contained lightning.

The whip lashed against a figure in regal, shining white armour and wrapped around the towering great sword he was holding. The figure planted his feet, yanking hard on the lightning whip to pull Astra off guard, as another figure lunged at her from behind.

This new figure was clad in similar, knightly armour to the previous one. But while the first had gleaming white armour and generally resembled a valiant paladin of justice, this one was clad in pitch black armour as if he was made of pure shadows.

Instead of a great sword, he held a pair of hand axes and moved like some kind of feral animal. He swung with little consideration for proper form or decorum, behaving like a berserker warrior. When he would throw his axes, they would come circling back to him, taking an unnatural curve through the air.

As he lunged forward and swung at Astra recklessly, screaming like a madman as he did so, Seth couldn't help but be reminded of his blood rage against the Hellhounds.

Quite literally, he couldn't help it. Although he didn't remember much of that time, witnessing this figure seemed for force his mind back into those uncomfortable and previously repressed memories. Forcing him to relive the moments of tearing into those beasts, with blade, claw and teeth.

He shivered slightly, pulling himself from those memories and studied the practice session.

He let out a slight chuckle of appreciation as Astra effortlessly dodged the wild, feral swings. She wasn't wearing her usual armour, simply civilian clothes and a pair of metallic bracers that reflected in the sun with her arm movements.

But despite that, she was still perfectly mobile. Sliding and dragging herself across the battlefield with her magnetism, using her own weapon, her bracers and even the enemies own armour as leverage points.

The more he watched, the more Seth imagined himself in the place of each of the combatants, how he would deal with the twin attacks as well as how he would deal with Astra. He had to admit, her power was a tricky one.

Wearing any kind of metallic armour against her was practically asking to be thrown around like a ragdoll. She could control it, even f it was only in limited ways. Dragging parts of your body out of position, repelling your weapon before it could properly strike.

Even without full control of your armour, due to your own mana presence interfering, she could make one hell of an irritating opponent.

Her moves were incredible too. Deep, leaning dodges that relied on her ability to keep her from falling instead of her body, making swings in the air while using simple magnetic force as leverage instead of the ground and redirecting herself mid jump.

It was quite the enchanting spectacle that he found himself enraptured by for quite some time. They only stopped when Astra finally noticed him watching and called an end to their overly intense sparring match.

Hobbling over with Bob still supporting him, Seth smiled warmly at Astra as she towelled herself down, her sparring partners standing either side of her and towering over her with their enormous size.

Definitely not having to prevent himself from staring at her sweat glistening body, Seth chuckled softly.

"He's not even an hour old and you're already putting him to work as your new sparring partner. I mean take some pity on the poor boy. You don't ever just rest or relax, do you?"

She wiped her face dry and hung the towel around her neck. Instead of replying, she simply put her hand on her hip and raised a very accusatory eyebrow at him. Seth sighed softly and relented,

"Okay, fine. Point taken. I guess neither of us knows what R&R feels like. Now, Who do we have here?"

"May I introduce you to Carnifex Yin, and Carnifex Yang."

"Carnifex huh... I assume you are responsible for their names? Isn't it a bit confusing to give them the same first name?"

She tilted her head up, a smug smile painting her lips.

"Oh, You'll see~"

Seth frowned slightly before turning his attention towards the Carnifex's. It wasn't that difficult to figure out which was which, considering their names. Carnifex Yin was the one in black armour and yang was in the white. Or was it the other way around? No, No it was definitely that way.

Damn this girl for not calling them Mr. Black and Mr. White, although he had a feeling if she did that she would reverse it for fun.

Regardless, Seth decided to simply refer to them by his original conclusion. On further inspected, Yin's black armour wasn't composed of shadows, but was made of black goo. It was solid in places, but undulated and shifted in others, mainly around the pauldrons, helmet and gauntlets of his armoured body.

It shifted like waves of a black ocean. In fact... Was that his blood? It definitely looked like it. If so that would make sense why he was feeling so dreadful, since he had been practically sucked try to make this behemoth.

Yang was more simplistic, his pure white armour polished to such a degree that it practically glowed with light, giving him an angelic look to contrast his confusingly named counterpart. His armour was much more solid too.

Before Seth could say more, Yin's undulating black form lost what solidity it possessed as he melted like a snowman in summer, turning into nothing more than a black puddle on the ground. This puddle crept and slithered its way around Astra before latching onto Yang's glimmering boot.

The black puddle lifted itself from the ground, engulfing the white knight until every inch of him was covered in black goo, before it absorbed itself into the armour and turned it to a dull, metallic grey.

The new figure in grey knelt on one knee, summoning a double sided axe from no where and laying it in front of him.

"Greetings Father, We are your warrior. Your blade. Before us, your enemies will be no more than victims on the executioners block, ready to lose their heads.

We are Carnifex Statera. A name gifted to us by Mother."

"Mother huh..."

Seth gave a glance towards Astra, who had suddenly lost her confidence and was now doing her best to avoid eye contact. It was his turn to raise an inquisitive eyebrow, which made her cough nervously, before he chuckled and turned back to Carnifex.

"It's good to meet you, both of you. This is your brother Bob, and you already met Titus and Julius. Welcome to the family Carnifex."

Bob bobbed his head in greeting, before shuffling in his hold of Seth.

"It is very nice to meet you Brother. We will have to connect more soon, I have a task I must attend to. We need to head out before it gets dark."

"Right right, sorry Bob. Go ahead, I'll be fine."

Bob nodded again before slipping out from under Seth's arm, leaving him to support himself on his spear once again.

Before he left, Seth slipped a ring off of his finger and handed it to Bob, who absorbed it into his body then promptly turned into a swirling sandstorm and flew off.

Watching him go, Astra turned to Seth with a concerned look.

"Are you sure this is going to work? He won't get hurt, will he?"

"He'll be fine. I promise. It's not like I'm sending him alone anyways. Although im surprised you care so much.

Hey, maybe its those maternal instincts kicking in, Mother"

He cackled wickedly, and no matter how much she hit him and zapped him from embarrassment, she couldn't get him to stop.

***

Tiff stood by the gates of Ravenkeep, sighing in boredom. She glanced towards the castle, and deep sense of longing tugging at her heart.

Every fibre of her being was instructing her to go there, finish what she started with that sparky bitch and claim what was rightfully hers.

It was just a fluke that she lost last time. She hadn't played to her element. She would definitely be able to beat her next time, no doubt about it.

But instead of claiming her man and being with him, here she was being sent away.

She consoled herself, idly tugging at the metal collar she wore, telling herself that so long as it made him happy that it was her duty. Plus, maybe if he saw her cooperating, he'd take this silly thing off and give her some proper jewellery instead. Like a shiny engagement ring~

She giggled softly to herself, before yelping out in pain as the collar gave her a short, gentle shock as a sandstorm descended infront of her and coalesced into a man's figure.

"Ow! What was that for!"

"Just testing it works, that's all. Help ensure you know not to run off."

"I already knew that! You just wait, soon I'll have you grovelling for forgiveness and calling me Step-Mom. Maybe if you're good, I'll let you call me mommy~"

She giggled again, losing herself in her fantasies once more.

Bob sighed, internally rolling his eyes as he looked over the team that had gathered and their mounts. Everything was prepared, so it was finally time to head out on his first proper mission for Father.