"Ha…… ha…… ha……" Panting heavily, the two girls continued to run without looking back.

  Shiro tried to cover up their tracks as much as possible but it was a little hard since they were on the run.

  "Let’s go to the cave." Shiro suggested while vaulting over a large tree branch. Looking down at her hand, she furrowed her brows since her wounds had opened up once more and with no bandage absorbing the blood, marks of red could be seen on some of the leaves.

  "Sure but what if it becomes a dead end for us?" Kuromi asked as she too had a frown on her face.

  "If it becomes a dead end then I suppose we can only fight it out till we die then." Shiro chuckled.

  "Fair point. Even if this is a trial, there are chances that some sick f*cks are mixed in and might want to try to force us do something quite unpleasant. A trial is not worth sullying ourselves." Kuromi shrugged.

  Just as they were about to reach the cave, both girls suddenly felt danger overwhelm their senses.

  Quickly rolling off to the side, they managed to dodge what seemed to be a semi-transparent rope.

  "You dodged it. No, this isn’t right. What have you done to the two misses? If you two are truly the daughters of our master, then you would not be able to dodge that trap." The captain said with a scowl.

  "I don’t know, maybe I woke the f*ck up?" Shiro grinned since she could tell that the person in front of them was dangerous. Not only that, they were also surrounded by quite a few presences so escape was going to be quite difficult.

  "Regardless of what you’ve done, I will find out once I’m done with the both of you. Men! Formation 3!" The captain commanded.

  Suddenly, a giant magic circle erupted out from under their feet as Shiro widened her eyes from the pain that suddenly assaulted her mind.

  "ARGGG!!!" She cried out in pain before kneeling heavily against the ground.

  A similar situation was happening with Kuromi as she collapsed on the ground. Her body spasmed from the pain as a black illusionary strand seemed to float out from her body while Shiro had a white illusionary strand.

  Looking at this phenomenon, the captain was confused as this was something that should be impossible. The black strand represented Yin while the white strand represented Yang. Normally when a person is inside Soul Strand Formation, their soul will be displayed for one to judge. Both white and black strands would be twisted together and an aura would be formed around the strand.

  This would usually be used to judge criminals but it was also a good tool to see through one’s disguise since there were variations to each individuals strand such as a pattern or the aura.

  However, a few years ago, a strange phenomenon occurred when the two misses of the family accidently stepped into their training ground. It was revealed that the younger twin sister had no Yin strand while the older twin sister had no Yang strand.

  It was strange since it meant that they were both incomplete and shouldn’t even be alive. However, by some miracle, they were. This could also mean that should one of them die, the other may suffer the same fate since one could not live without the other.

  Naturally, this also meant that training with Celestial Energy was much harder as both the Yin and the Yang was needed.

  But the master of the household had other plans-

  Since it’s a miracle for them to be alive, I want my daughters to enjoy life as much as possible. I don’t know how long they have left to live but as long as I am around, they shall live freely-

  Of course, it wasn’t as if he had done nothing. In the years that the two daughters played around, the father had continuously looked for ways where they could only use half of their strand to use the energy but all he found were taboo spells that would send one spiralling into craziness.

  However, a few weeks ago, he had finally created the spell that both daughters can use despite their strange nature. It was also due to this that their enemies had made a move since a spy in the family leaked this information to the outside world, placing a target on their backs.

  Should a ’normal’ person learn of this manual, they’ll be twice as strong as other people.

  With this single rumour that flowed through the streets, the family was destroyed quickly for the spell.

  As Shiro was still trying to resist the pain that she was feeling, the magic circle disappeared as all of the men around them kneeled down and bowed their heads.

  "I’m sorry young miss! While I do not know what has happened to force you to gain this much combat experience, I do know that you are truly our master’s daughter. There is no one else in this world that is like you two who are two halves of the same soul!" The captain said as he quickly helped Shiro up.

  "Eh?" Widening her eyes, Shiro looked over at Kuromi in shock.

  "Kuro…… did he just say that we’re two halves of the same soul?" She asked slowly.

  "Yeah, I had my suspicions before but it seems like this has told me my answer. You’re me and I’m you." Kuromi replied with a small smile.

  Taking a moment to digest this information, Shiro looked over at the people who claimed to be their allies.

  For now, she wanted a private chat with Kuromi about all of this.

  "Who are you?" Shiro asked.

  "I am the captain of the secondary guard unit. During the invasion of the family mansion, I was tasked to look after your mother and father while the primary guard unit escorted you and Miss Kuromi out of the area. Due to some unforeseen circ.u.mstances, the lord had ordered us to come find you instead." The captain replied since he didn’t exactly want to tell the two misses about the death of their lord. Their main priority would be to find a safe place to stay for now.

  ". . .So you’re our allies then?"

  "That is correct."

  "What shall I call you?" Shiro asked since she couldn’t see his name tag at all.

  "I…… I don’t have a name, only code." The captain shook his head.

  "Well in that case then I’ll call you Phillip or Phill for short I guess. For now, leave me and Kuromi in private for now. I need to talk to her." Shiro said as Phillip nodded.

  Watching the men make some distance from them so that they won’t intrude, Kuromi turned towards Shiro.

  "That’s a rather western name for this setting." Kuromi chuckled.

  "Yeah because my mind is focused on something else right now. What the hell do you mean by I’m you and you’re me." Shiro asked with a frown.

  "It’s just as it says, we’re the same soul split into pieces. You’re just from a different time and world. Your life as Nytri is my old life that I had no memories of and my life as Kuromi is your ’past’ life that you have no memories of either. Though I’m not exactly sure as to why you ’reincarnated’ into my body as a snow girl." Kuromi shrugged.

  "So that’s why there can be two souls in the same body. Because we’re technically one soul but split from different times."

  "Bingo." Kuromi nodded.

  "You’re f*cking joking right?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.

  "First of all, language haha. Second, I’m not. But seems like we have an affinity to pretentious a**holes huh? In both first and second, we were betrayed and killed in roughly the same way. We should REALLY be a better judge of who we’re friends with." Kuromi chuckled.

  "Urg, how is that even logical??? God I need to sit down and rest. Hell even alcohol would be good around now, not that I can get drunk to begin with." Shiro sighed.

  "Oh it’s fine though lil sis~, let’s just focus on completing this trial first."

  "Ha? When the hell did I become the lil sis? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?" Shiro frowned.

  "Well you’re in my body so technically I’m the big sis since I came first then you followed along no?" Kuromi replied.

  "But I’m first since I came from Aria though."

  "Regardless you’re my lil sis since you’re quite reckless. It’s hardly like a big sis at all. Plus, you don’t have that Ara Ara charm." Kuromi giggled.

  "The f*ck does Ara Ara mean?" Shiro furrowed her brows.

  "Exactly my point lil sis. Anyways, enough about this, let’s think about what we can do for now. We’ve met up with our allies and that’s given us a chance of understanding exactly what’s going on here. Once we’ve sorted that out, we can try to find the ’corruption’ and finish this quest." Kuromi smiled.

  ". . . Fine whatever. But seriously, what does Ara Ara mean?" Shiro pouted lightly in annoyance.

  "You can research all about it when we get back."

  Calling out to the guards to come back, they made their way to the cave so that they could discuss what they should do next.