Dakota casually played with her lantern between her fingertips.

In the background, her brother and sister beat each other into the dirt while she inspected the glowing amulet that she understood little about.

"You seem very invested."

Dakota looked up at Solomon. He and Yari were both staring at her, looking positively in love.

She almost felt just a little bit envious. It must’ve been nice to have someone like that.

"There are around 78,000 souls in here. I didn’t count them, I just... know. Somehow." Dakota shrugged.

Solomon sat beside her and looked over the amulet with his own eyes.

"I meant to ask why you suddenly started collecting souls out of the blue, but there was a fair deal more going on at the time..."

"Mmh." Dakota’s gaze became slightly complicated the longer she stared at her lantern.

"I don’t know why I decided to start gathering them up... I just felt the armor speak to me and tell me that I could do it. That I could use it to make all of us stronger... somehow."

Yari suddenly looked worried. "This sounds close to necromancy, honey... Does your family have any experience in the field?"

Dakota shook her head. "Not that I’m aware of... I think my father would usually contract people to do that kind of thing for him. Our family never really placed much of a focus on anything outside of assassination."

Solomon watched his sister with a subtle awe.

It would be impossible for anyone not to notice just how much Dakota had grown ever since they had left school. Or rather, since she had begun learning will.

Everything she said, she said with confidence. She no longer spoke like a sheepish young girl or kept her head down when in a room.

But the most surprising thing of all was how she could talk about her father now.

For her, who was nothing short of traumatized by her family in the past, it truly was no small feat.

His sister was growing up.

"Mmhm...?"

Dakota looked up when a hand suddenly landed on her head. "What’s this for..?"

"You’re just... A pretty cute kid."

"....I was just discussing the possibility of using the souls of slain enemies to boost our own strength. What part of that is cute...?"

Solomon didn’t know how to admit that he wasn’t listening, but was instead considering giving his sister cheek pinches.

But apparently, Raizel had.

"Is that true...? You really think you can do that?"

"En." Dakota nodded.

"I-I mean, how sure are you...? Could you do that with anyone, or just your brothers and sister??"

"Well, I think..."

Yari gave Solomon a subtle nudge on his side.

"You weren’t listening, were you...?" She whispered.

Solomon’s cheeks warmed. "Of course I was..."

"Then what are they talking about right now, mon roi?"

"..."

"Adorable." Yari couldn’t resist giving her flustered fool a kiss on the cheek.

"Don’t tease and just tell me..."

Yari released a soft little giggle.

"Your sister thinks that she can use her amulet to augment the strength of others and herself, as other necromancers do. But she’s second-guessing it a bit." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Solomon’s eyes widened slightly.

He began paying attention to the conversation with greater focus than before. Raizel was kneeling in front of his sister, his expression tight and worried.

"S-So then... Do you think that...it would work on others outside of your mother’s bloodline...?"

The way the horseman of Torment looked at her amulet suddenly changed. It was as if she had only just now realized the real weight of what she was holding.

"I... think it may actually be like the Yaksha. I could use them to enhance anyone, so long as I had enough inside."

That comparison made Raizel greatly uncomfortable. He wasn’t one who had a soft heart toward enemies, but the battle was already over.

There was no need to further torture the losers just because he could. Not even to further strengthen himself.

"But also.... I think it might be different somehow too..?"

Renewed hope shone in Raizel’s eyes. "Different how??"

Dakota couldn’t answer. There was so little that she knew about her new powers, and she knew even less about her armor.

Thinking too much about it made her head hurt so badly that she could barely stand it.

’Fuck it... I’m just going to mess with the damned thing!’

Dakota proceeded to open the latch on her lantern. Once the cage was open, a single soul floated out.

She held the fragile thing in the palm of her hand as if it were a simple cottonball.

Dakota channeled much of the will in her body all the way toward her brain.

Her vision changed spontaneously, turning the entire world white and gray.

Well, almost. In the chests of others, she could see little blue flames glowing brightly at different degrees.

The longer she stared, the more she could begin to make out a slight difference between the souls and what comprised them.

"That’s.. interesting."

Slowly, Dakota pulled apart the wisp with both of her hands.

Floating in one palm was a mass of orange flecks, and a slightly less blue soul.

Dakota looked back and forth between the two for a moment before chucking the soul over her shoulder.

"What did you just-"

Dakota placed her palm over Raizel’s open mouth and pushed something inside.

Because he wasn’t expecting the invasion, Raizel ended up swallowing the substance while making an expression of surprise.

"What the hell did you just... Uck!"

Raizel covered his mouth before tumbling into the dirt.

Solomon was immediately alarmed. "Dakota, what did you do??"

The young girl blinked innocently.

As she began to explain to her brother what she had done, the faces of Solomon and Yari became clouded by sheer shock.

When Raizel stood up once more, his skin had a faint blue glow, and he was pouring sweat from nearly every pore on his body.

He gasped raggedly as he struggled to speak. "If I pissed you off by asking too many questions... I promise there were easier ways to tell me to fuck off...!"