"Weapons of war are instruments of disaster.

They are rejected by all beings.

Thus a person of Tao will not dwell upon them.

According to the ancient custom of Yin and Yang, a man of virtue values the left which is represented by Yang.

And a man of war values the right which is represented by Yin.

Weapons are instruments of evil, and are not valued by a man of virtue.

They are only used as the last resort to attain peace when all else have failed.

If their use is necessary, it is best to employ with calmness and tranquility.

Even it if means victory, it is not something pleasant.

Those who rejoice over the victory, enjoy killing.

He who delights in killing will not be favored by the people and shall not bring harmony to the world.

It is the ancient custom to favor happy events to the left as represented by yang.

While on sad occasions, it is favored to the right as represented by Yin.

When this rite is applied in the army,

The lieutenant general takes the place of the left,

And the commander-in-chief takes the place of the right.

This indicates that war is treated as if it is a funeral service;

For many lives had been killed and hence should be mourned with sorrow.

Therefore, although a victory was won,

It is treated like funeral rite." -Tao Te Ching Chapter 31

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MamMon DæMon: *exhales* "Besides, who said anything about her being in danger?"

Tristan and Stephanie both turn in surprise to their new Scandinavian ally’s acquiesce response to Tristan’s concerned rejection.

MamMon locks eyes with Stephanie and the woman of the house swallows her spit.

MamMon DæMon: "You might not be a 2nd Generation, my dear Stephanie, but with this discovery, along with Per Se Phōne and the ’prize’ of our Holmgang in a couple days, it’s possible I could have 3 sources of PsychoSeiõr, as well as someone else other than myself with a SanguineSoulSeiõrShield."

Peyton is rubbing his temples trying to understand and comprehend all this new information.

Peyton(thinking): *What in the world did I get myself into?

I knew these aliens eyes used some form of magic, but I didn’t know it went deeper than that!

I better just stay quiet and keep a low profile while I’m here.*

While looking at his purpose, Tristan repeats the new terminology to the already unnecessary overkill of alliteration.

Tristan: "... SanguineSoulSeiõrShield’?"

MamMon DæMon: "Precisely.

Other than those of us in our group, the only individuals as of right now who have this divine honor are the sisters of my clan, and Skalmönd.

That’s not to say someone else couldn’t gain Seiõr’s most honored protection after today."

Bethany walks back into the dining room with 3 glasses of whiskey on a plate and the bottle for refills.

Each glass has an ice ball chilling the golden alcohol and the cork is snug tight at the top of the bottle neck.

Peyton: "Oh shit, you guys have liquor?! Than-"

Bethany quickly approaches the table, ignoring the man’s interest and she puts one glass of whiskey in front of a raised eyebrow Ichythis and the other in front of intimidated Isfet.

Sticking her head in between the two beautiful smoking women to put the bottle down on the table, Bethany’s eyes shift back and forth between the two girls.

Bethany: "Drink up!

Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from, ladies."

The lusty lady looks down Ichythis’ cleavage poking out from her half unbuttoned bloody Roronora officer uniform.

Bethany: "Mmmmmmaybe after we loosen up a little bit, I can show you two my room and we can pretend it’s like one of those girly sleepover movies.

We can talk about our experiences, where are sensitive spots are, compare are bare measurements and if we have any energy left, we can explore each other’s bodies..."

Tristan’s hand grabs the lewd woman’s ear and pulls her away from the two female guests.

Bethany: "Ah-ah-ow-ow!"

Tristan: "We’re in the middle of something important you freaking lecher.

Sit down and leave them alone."

Ashing her cigarette, the badass ex-lobster hunter looks at her given alcoholic beverage.

Ichythis: "You know, my intuition is telling me I shouldn’t take a single sip of this..."

But she does anyway, in one swig.

Isfet is still blushing while watching her smoking buddy trust the drink.

Isfet: "Thank you, Ms. Bethany but I don’t drink. I only smoke."

The one eyed woman carefully pushes her untouched glass to Peyton.

Isfet: "You can have mine if you want, Mr. Peyton."

The man’s eyes tear up looking at the high quality of liquor.

Peyton: "Thank you... Thank you.

He quickly chugs the glass and releases a satisfied breath. Then the buzzed man reaches over, grabbing the bottle and filling his cup to the brim while the new information he’s half checked out on is continued to be explained.

Stephanie: "If you don’t mind me asking, Madame MamMon, what is the difference between a SoulSeiõrShield and a SanguineSoulSeiõrShield?

And why all the alliteration?"

MamMon answers while fixing her blonde hair’s cowlick, one of the few dominant hereditary traits of women with Valkyrie blood.

(Both Shelly and Laban also have this distinct cowlick but with their respective hair colors.)

MamMon DæMon: "As a matter of fact, I am more than glad that you asked, co-star.

It is ’hope’."

Ichythis raises an eyebrow in skepticism as she exhales a breath of smoke.

Ichythis: *exhales* "...’Hope’?

Like someone has to hope they get chosen?"

MamMon DæMon: "You see, my Little Fish, hope and fear do nothing in this reality.

Hope and fear are forms of our imagination. Like all other ideas, hope and fear are useless when there is nobody who can traverse the Aether to extract those hopes and fears.

The people who hope for others to succeed for them, and the individuals who have fears keeping them from succeeding, clearly don’t have the strength to find happiness themselves.

If someone has unlocked their SoulSeiõrShield, there is a chance for their SanguineSoulSeiõrShield to bloom if they’ve been repeatedly trusted by others and rarely disappoint those who have put that mental Seiõr energy out for them."

Ichythis and Isfet smoke while listening to the DæMon explain the new iteration to the Seiõr alliteration.

MamMon DæMon: "Depending on whether or not the individual is capable of fulfilling such hopeful prayers is all up to Seiõr to decide.

It’s a more exclusive prestige, awarded to those of us who Seiõr views as the most deserving of our abilities being proselytized to a ’higher power’.

Ichythis: "What does that mean?"

MamMon DæMon: "What? ’Proselytize’?

To most scholars, it more or less means to promote or convert another person spiritually.

However, in the world of Seiõr, if an individual, lets say the Yang Vessel, can convert enough of the population into using their mental energy into putting their ’hope’ and ’faith’ into Skalmönd, or ’Shelly’, Seiõr takes that invisible mental energy released into the universe and then converts it to the SoulSeiõr of the promoted savior of sanguinty."

Ichythis: "I remember Laban telling city officers to ask anyone who got arrested if they knew what ’Seiõr’ was and if they had ever heard of it, to let her know as soon as possible.

But when I asked why and what it was, she told me ’Nunya’ and left."

She takes a drag from her fag and exhales.

Ichythis: "So this ’Seiõr’ stuff. That’s basically the energy these Eyeliens are using to grant us individual powers?"

MamMon DæMon(nods): "That is correct. Those alien organic processors have not just learned from what you’ve done while it has been attached to you, but from the memories, emotions, and reactions to it’s host’s unique life situations before and after the interspecies pairing."

She looks at everyone at the table who has an IceEye/Eyelien, stopping at a tipsy blushing Peyton. Her beautiful gaze and quick intimidating upper lip lick makes the man in his late-20s blush and look away.

MamMon DæMon: "From what I’ve been able to deduce with my own Nye-omnipotency, almost in the same way as my sisters and I, all of those alien eye symbiotes were created only for the purpose of their life giver’s immoral intentions.

All of them, except the two lefties within the respective Yin and Yang Vessels."

Tristan(thinking): *Katsu.

And that Saku kid...

There was usually one person missing whenever Steph and I had combat training with the Katsu and Shelly.

It must have been him...

He didn’t show up to the academy until about a year ago, and he entered with the only lefty known to the research within the Sister Mountains.

That is, until we got intel Katsu also had received a lefty.

Our scheduled times for combat training only crossed once or twice a week, but from just the few times that Saku guy did show up, I could tell from his enjoyment of beating everyone who stepped up, before the apocalypse, he was either someone who instigated a lot of fights or he had a lot of fights brought to him.

If the rumors about him being an introverted asshole are true, it makes sense why he only showed up to the sparring sessions on the days Katsu and Shelly didn’t have it that period.

If the three of them were infiltrating with plans of destroying a sanctuary for humanity, they probably didn’t want to risk getting caught in the same room together.

He must have stayed away to make sure there was someone on the outside in case Katsu and Shelly got found out.

No that doesn’t make sense, that would only increase suspicion...*