*Back at the non-descript location*

Reaper barged through the doors that stood between him and King. He had felt the sudden surge of magical power originating from the central city area and the lack of movement from King infuriated him. “You continue to sit there as if nothing has happened!! You felt that, just as I did!!” Reaper screamed.

“Dare I remind you who you’re talking to Reaper?” King asked calmly.

“Your threats begin to weaken each waken moment when I watch you sit there twiddling your thumbs while the rest of your enemies grow stronger. Why do you continue to sit here and do absolutely nothing!?” Reaper shouted.

“How about we calm down?” King summoned a bright emerald green chair and forced Reaper to sit onto it.

“There, now that you’re comfortable, what seems to be of concern for you Reaper?” King asked.

“That power, it could only be a King artifact.” Reaper began.

“I know, I’m not a fool. I clearly could tell it was a King artifact, but I could sense it wasn’t even within Ms. Kim’s level, so I have nothing to be concerned about.”

“I don’t understand you, King, you claim that you’ll be able to stop ‘them’ from completing their plan, then why are we sitting here waiting for Ms. Kim. What relevance does she have to my end of the bargain?” Reaper questioned.

“As you know, in my current state, I am not strong enough to deal with such powerful threats single handed. And since you choose not to fight them yourself, there really is only one option for me. A soul stone’s pinnacle strength is learning a King Conjuration, only a King artifact can produce such a powerful conjuration and only soul stone user can only accomplish this if the previous owner of the stone is deceased. I am at the strongest point any single soul stone can provide me, however, if I were to possess a second that would be a whole new story…”

“Then why wait here for Ms. Kim to strengthen her forces? Why not strip the stone from her right now? Or even easier steal the weaker power that had just appeared?” Reaper wondered.

“I take no satisfaction in preying on the weak Reaper. I fight only if I deem it a challenge, I could have killed Ms. Kim a year ago, but chose to let her strengthen her abilities. There is no honor in defeating helpless opponents.” King explained.

“Honor? You’re a murder just like me. Neither of us has any honor left.”

“Honor of war is very different from the moral honor you speak of, mate. I may have no morality, but I'm damn sure I will not take my rightful place on the throne above all mages by defeating a weak child!” King retorted with anger.

“The longer we wait here, the less likely your odds of winning become. I still need you to defeat…”

“I already told you, mate, whether I lose or not to Ms. Kim will not affect your end of the bargain, so do not concern yourself with my plan to let her come to me when she's ready. The threat that approaches for you will be dealt with one way or another.” King reasoned.

“I was a fool to trust you, King, what fool questions his own victory?”

“No, the real question is Reaper, how foolish can a man be to guarantee a victory for a battle that has yet to begin? Only a fool would promise a preemptive triumph.” King replied.

“Trust me, mate, I have everything under control. If I fail to beat Ms. Kim, I know she will take your problem into her own hands. How long until the last few stones are ready?”

“At this rate, impossible to tell. Their group grows in power, any day now our last few factories will be destroyed and with no enchanted pills out there do drain their souls, I cannot create the last three needed.”

“No matter, in the end. The real showdown will only be between myself and Ms. Kim.” King assured.

“Your arrogance and stupid desire for a fair fight will get you killed one day King.”

“May be, but at least I know all my prior victories had been through actual skill and power. Not through dominating with my King artifact.”

*Back at the underground bunker*

Taeyeon was about to begin training Tiffany but realized she didn’t really know where to begin. Unlocking her King Conjure could take years or hours and it all depended on her stone. Each stone, actually, each King artifact had a different set of trails that must be completed in order to be deemed worthy enough to possess such ultimate power. For Taeyeon’s case, they were majority physical trails, like defeating herself in hand to hand combat, surviving the unfathomable heat from the dessert and finally becoming strong enough to lift twenty times her body weight. It was indeed a struggle, but once she had gained mastery of her soul stone realm, she was granted the ultimate gift, the wings of an eternal Phoenix. Impossible to be destroyed, can fly her as endlessly as she can sustain it and exert devastating heat waves. Her King Conjure was truly something special, but once she had attained it, it wasn’t simply given to her with a reading manual that told her what she could do. She had to learn it all herself, particularly as Hyoyeon had never had wings before so she had no possible way of helping. Most of the discovery of wings abilities were completely by trial and error which by itself is also very time consuming, but the greatest stealer of time she encountered in her year and a half of training, was maintaining the conjuration. She had only spent four months