The Sorcerer's Handbook

The Mist Spirit Clan... what a bizarre name. And why is Senheiser ranked tenth? At the very least, we should have been in the top three.

Despite the bitter complaints churning in her mind, Quinna kept a radiant, joyful smile pinned to her face. Whatever the rank, Senheiser had made the list. The Woven Festival had acknowledged them, which also meant that their family possessed the power to endure into the future. For the Six-Emblem, no ranking reward mattered more than the guarantee of survival.

But when they looked more closely at the projection, the color drained from their faces.

The image's background vaguely resembled their home city of Vanmura, but it was a far cry from the steel jungle of the present. This version was fresher, reclaimed by nature. Overgrown ruins, crumbling walls, and cracked streets teemed with stubborn, vibrant flora. A dense white mist flowed along the ground like a lazy river. Under the gentle touch of radiant sunlight, the entire metropolis cast a dreamlike vision of paradise.

And in paradise, there were naturally angels.

Floating at the center of the image was a great host of beings, pure and beautiful beyond measure. They had no wings, yet they walked through the sky with elegant grace, as if attending a grand ball. They wore garments of green and white, which happened to be the Senheisers' signature colors.

Their appearances defied description. Even the finest mortal craftsmanship could not capture a fraction of their beauty. They seemed so sublime, so detached from gross materiality, that it was impossible to imagine them performing crude bodily functions. Even the binary division of gender lost all meaning in their presence.

From the visual alone, anyone would assume these angels, these Senheiser, protected Vanmura as its heavenly guardians, until they read the description below.

[Family Ranking No. 10: Mist Spirit Clan · Senheiser]

Mist Spirit Clan: A new type of undead unit, converted from the remnants of the Senheiser family. They possess the following innate traits:

1. Vanmura Pasturing: While within the Vanmura region, Mist Spirits can manipulate the white mist into any form to capture any intelligent being that enters the city.

2. Mist Healing: While enveloped by the white mist, Mist Spirits gain functional immortality, continuously regenerating their spiritual bodies through the vapor.

3. The Longest Dream: Allows Mist Spirits to drag living targets into a cyclic reincarnation dream. If a soul loses itself to the illusion, they are permanently converted into a new Mist Spirit.

Family Leader: Quinna Senheiser / Nona Senheiser

"A new type of undead unit?" Quinna murmured. "Senheiser... everyone became undead?"

Light let out a mocking laugh. "That’s what happens when you insist on getting involved with Ashe—"

A sharp gust cut through the air, lashing against the outer wall of Cliose’s hastily formed Sacred Realm with ripples of malice. In a foul mood, Quinna shot Light a cold glare. He immediately made a zipping motion across his lips, signaling he would keep his mouth shut.

"Look carefully at the plants in the background," the bespectacled man suddenly said.

Cliose and Light focused, but saw nothing unusual. Cliose tilted her head. "Huh? The grass on that bench... when you piece it together, it looks like a human woman."

Outsiders could not see the truth, but the leaders of the Six-Emblem understood exactly what this scene meant.

The Mermaid Weed had spread onto the city streets.

The Mermaid Weed Farm was a facility that a legendary necromancer had established to conduct Miracle rites. The plant should never have grown outside its boundaries. Yet in the projection, it had invaded countless homes. Judging by its sheer density, with vegetation nearly carpeting the ground, at least tens, if not hundreds, of thousands must have died to sustain such growth.

Combined with the fact that all Senheiser family members had transformed into evil spirits, the leaders quickly reached a chilling conclusion that, in the future, the entire city of Vanmura would fall into total ruin. Every living citizen would be transformed into Mermaid Weed, while the only survivors, the Senheiser, would be unable to maintain their human forms and would instead become Mist Spirits. They would barely cling to existence, relying entirely on the home-field advantage of the Mermaid Weed.

Yet one glaring question remained. It was one thing for hundreds of thousands to die in a catastrophe, but for all of them to transform into Mermaid Weed was anything but normal.

The leaders of the Six-Emblem were no mere ornaments. If the Miracle-based ritual of the Mermaid Weed Farm had failed, or if someone had attempted to sacrifice Vanmura, they would have intervened. They would never have stood by and watched their people turn into flora. And this was hundreds of thousands of lives. Even a Legendary sorcerer would grow weary of slaughtering millions of pigs, let alone humans.

Soon, a terrifying yet undeniable answer surfaced in their minds.

The ones who had transformed the citizenry into Mermaid Weed... were none other than the Six-Emblem leaders themselves.

Only they possessed such absolute authority. Only they could convince millions of Vanmura’s people to willingly become flowers and grass.

If there had been even a sliver of hope for survival, they would never have made such a choice. But if the extinction of their entire race was inevitable, then to spare their people from suffering, Mermaid Weed became the ultimate act of mercy. Rather than drowning in agony in reality, it was better to pass away smiling within a dream. That was the core philosophy of the Six-Emblem.

Within their societal system, elders whose "progress bar" had reached its limit entered the farm to transform into flowers and grass. This practice did not exist solely for economic reasons, nor did it lack kindness. Past family leaders, upon reaching that same threshold, would willingly enter the farm to become nourishment for the next generation. In the minds of Vanmura's people, escaping a cruel reality carried no shame. Living each remaining second in happiness defined the best possible life.

However, what horror could await them in the future that would drive the leaders to choose a merciful extinction for millions of Vanmura’s people?

[Quinna Senheiser / Nona Senheiser receives the reward Mist Spirit Ring.]

Mist Spirit Ring

- Allows the wearer to freely switch between Mist Spirit and human form. The wearer can remotely command the power of Vanmura’s white mist from anywhere.

A dark silver ring, rippling with a faint luster, materialized on Quinna’s finger. Yet, rather than a reward, it felt more like a sentence of death.

Strangely, this was not meant for Quinna, but for Nona. Quinna’s true body still lay in a deep slumber. She was merely piloting her younger sister's flesh. That detail alone was baffling. The Senheiser family had only ever permitted a single leader. If tragedy struck, Quinna would have gladly passed her authority directly to Nona. Under normal circumstances, two family leaders would never exist at the same time. No one knew what anomaly had caused the system to glitch.

Compared to the entire clan turning into undead, however, Nona being recognized as a second leader by the Woven Festival seemed insignificant. Quinna pushed the thought aside.

The ranking process should have concluded there. Instead, the Family Ranking flared to life once more, displaying an additional segment of footage tied directly to the Mist Spirit Ring.

In the projection, two mysterious figures stood atop the Senheiser Building, overlooking a ruined Vanmura that had been reshaped into a paradise of invasive flora. White fog snaked across the ground like rivers of milk.

They stood with their backs to the viewer. One wore a dark red coat, dancing along the very edge of the rooftop, tapping out precise steps as if only this flirtation with death could unleash the joy in his heart. The other wore a dark green cloak, with his arms and legs bound in chains. Even beneath the bright sunlight, a freezing aura of death clung to him, as though warmth itself actively avoided his presence.

"That’s it? So soon?"

"Thanks to the necromantic reincarnation ritual already woven into Vanmura, my own ritual concluded ahead of schedule. I may despise Ponbo Edifil’s methods, but as a legendary necromancer, he truly left behind a magnificent canvas."

No one recognized the chained man, but the figure in the dark red coat was infamous throughout the Gospel Kingdom.

The Book of Gospel didn't keep them guessing. Suddenly, the man at the edge slipped and fell from the building, drawing a wave of satisfaction from many of the onlookers. However, that satisfaction was cut short when two streams of white mist surged from the vaporous river below.

The fog coalesced into two female elves dressed in green and white. They soared upward, caught the falling man, and carefully carried him back to the safety of the rooftop. They were spitting images of one another. One carried a mature, alluring grace, while the other appeared lively and delicate. Both gazed at the man with a fervent, desperate devotion, like cats starved for affection.

Everyone watching the ranking froze, their eyes widening in sheer disbelief. Even the seasoned leaders of the Six-Emblem lost their composure. They thought they had witnessed the worst of the future, only to realize they had merely glimpsed the tip of the iceberg.

Those two elves were the high command of the Senheiser family—Quinna and Nona.

"I only wanted to experience the thrill of the fall. It’s not as if I lack wings. Why the rush to catch me?"

"But Master, it's our duty to protect you..."

"Enough. I was just looking for you two. Kneel, and hold out your hands."

The two elves obediently dropped to one knee before him. The man took out two rings and personally slid them onto their fingers.

"From this day forward, you shall command the Mist Spirit Legion. These rings are the Miracle Tokens I bestow upon you. When I sound the horn and declare war against eternity, Senheiser will be my vanguard."

The elves raised their heads, the slight trembling of their pointed ears betraying their profound anticipation. "Yes, Master!"

The man leaned down, his profile catching the light as he gently stroked their faces. The sisters leaned into his palm with fanatical affection, swearing in unison, "We will follow Ashe Heath to the death!"

The footage cut to black.

A suffocating silence descended upon the 72nd floor of the Senheiser Building. The Six-Emblem leaders hesitated, the words dying in their throats. Cliose cast a deeply uncomfortable glance at her fellow elf. Light opened his mouth, but swallowed his words. A primal instinct warned him that if he uttered a single word, he would not leave Vanmura alive.

Quinna, the very center of the storm, remained terrifyingly calm. She stared at the Mist Spirit Ring on her finger and tugged at it. It wouldn't budge.

Without a word, she drew a dagger from her thigh strap and aimed the blade directly at her own finger.

The surrounding leaders immediately lunged to restrain her.

"Senheiser, calm down!"

"That is your sister’s body!"

Wrenching her composure back by a thread, Quinna tossed the dagger aside, bolted toward the open window, and leapt straight into the night sky. She did not summon her wings, nor did she open her Book of Gospel. Instead, she tapped into the newly bound Mist Spirit Ring, dissolving her physical form into a slipstream of predatory fog that rocketed across the city.

"Senheiser, where are you going?!" a voice echoed behind her.

Quinna gritted her teeth, her face burning with a volatile mix of humiliation and rage. "To find our 'Master!'"

The memory of Ashe looking down on her, and worse, her own submissive, adoring expression in the vision, set her blood on fire. Her breaths came in sharp, ragged gasps.

A pet. I treated him like a pet! How dare a servant dream of becoming the master? He made me kneel. He dared to touch my face. He took my sister; he took me... Just wait. Once I lock you in a cage, I’ll show you who the real master is!