Soul Spark

15 - Petals and Shadows

On a sunny autumn day, at a time where most children were at school, and most adults were at work, two soulfuls faced each other. Autumn leaves were slowly falling from the surrounding trees, and the wind gently blew them in their direction. They fell by Jackal, and their vibrant colors contrasted well with his fully black outfit.

And as Jackal took a stance, Sakuto took one himself.

“Understand you?”

“You’re like Ichika.”

“You’re just as high as me on this mountain range...”

Sakuto summoned his blade.

“Maybe in another life...”

Sakuto made the opening move! He charged in, swinging his blade. Jackal summoned his own pair of sables and blocked the attack. The two tried to overpower each other with force, but ultimately reached a stalemate.

Jackal quickly hopped into his shadow and popped out of Sakuto’s, but that move was predicted by Sakuto. He slashed around, and Jackal narrowly avoided the impact. Sakuto closed the distance, and their blades clashed again, a number of times.

Eventually, Jackal jumped back. He channeled his shadows into his clasped hands, from which a powerful stream emerged. Sakuto dodged it in time, but it seemed like the attack was...intentionally misdirected?

The attack’s shadows fell on the ground, and Jackal popped out of them. He landed a nasty right kick, knocking Sakuto back, and followed it with a one-two that hurt him. Sakuto slipped the third punch, hitting Jackal hard in the stomach and finishing the combo with an uppercut. Jackal, on the other hand, was adamant on staying at close range.

“He’s not using his shadows at all...because he doesn’t want me to adapt to them.” Sakuto thought, swinging his blade and sending a flying slash at Jackal. The latter blocked it.

“My already existing adaptation reduces the damage that the shadows deal quite a bit. But it’s not enough to completely nullify them. I need two more sparks.”

“He wants to catch me off guard.”

Jackal, at the same time, tried to mend the damage he sustained in their brief exchanges.

“Damn Sakuto Hitori...you hit like a fucking truck.”

“I guess I just have to capitalize on setting up a killshot.”

Sakuto slammed his blade into the ground, and blasts of soul prowess emerged, knocking cobblestone into the air. One such chunk of debris was knocked right at Jackal. The latter dismantled it with ease using his shadows, but he failed to notice Sakuto sneaking in and attacking him.

Sakuto resorted to hand-to-hand combat once more. He paid special attention to whatever Jackal may have up his sleeve, but ultimately, he decided that if he just beats him up hard enough he won’t have any openings to strike. He landed a clean jab, and leaned back to dodge Jackal’s counter. Sakuto then feinted and went in for a backfist, not once, but twice, landing both spinning strikes and finishing it off with a shove-kick.

Whilst travelling in the air, Jackal unleashed a cascade of shadow spears that were aimed at Sakuto. The adaptive soulful, instead of trying to dodge them, stood completely still, paying attention to his senses.

“He won’t attack me directly. This is just a trick...”

“...to close the distance!”

Sure enough, Jackal popped out of one of the spears. Sakuto immediately summoned his blade and swung, but Jackal wasn’t one to advance without a trick. He popped out of the spear that was behind him and landed a powerful kick to Sakuto’s stomach. What made it so dangerous was the fact that a shadowy blade extended out of his foot.

Sakuto was in pain, and the damage he received was, in fact, dangerous. But instead of opening distance, he grabbed onto Jackal’s leg - pushing him forwards and landing a takedown. He quickly got the top position.

Sakuto swung his fist and struck at Jackal’s head, but his target moved last second, and the punch ended up damaging the ground instead. He struck a few more times but to no avail. Eventually, he decided to go for elbow strikes - which proved quite effective. After two strikes landed, he sensed Jackal’s shadows creeping up his body, as if trying to strangle or decapitate him.

He quickly grabbed Jackal by his clothes and threw him away with all his might. He did so at the perfect time, as Sakuto felt that something was starting to squeeze and pierce various parts of his torso. Jackal landed outside the park, and patiently waited for Sakuto to advance.

“It’s going fine so far.” Sakuto thought, preparing to close the distance. “But I need to come into contact with his shadows more.”

“Wait, his hand!”

“He’s using the same trick as back then, so either I’ll progress my adaptation, or he’ll be forced to lose quite a bit of blood.”

Sakuto broke the distance. Jackal fired a few shadowy arrows at him, but they were all dodged. This time, Jackal prepared to stand his ground instead of hopping away, but unfortunately for him, Sakuto was prepared for just that.

He landed a heavy overhand and summoned his sword, shooting for a decapitation. Jackal avoided it and dashed back. He conjured his shadowy hand into a giant arm that attempted to crush Sakuto, but the attack failed. The attack was dodged, and Sakuto closed the distance just fast enough to grab him. He tripped Jackal and slammed him into the ground back first, before picking him up and throwing him into the upper side of a wall of a nearby building.

“What...am I doing?”

“I’m playing it safe for what?”

Jackal used his shadowy tentacles to dismantle the building's top floors, revealing himself beneath the sunshine. At the same time, he questioned his morals.

“Am I too scared to even trust myself?”

“Hah...”

Sakuto watched from beneath, preparing to attack at any moment. He felt Jackal’s soul presence start to shift. A large amount of shadows in the environment were harvested and put under Jackal’s direct orders.

“A man that can hear my soul perfectly is in front of me, and I’m choosing to stay silent?” Jackal thought.

“That’s not what Jackal wants.”

In front of Jackal’s own eyes, a vision of him as a little kid emerged. It was the one person that he swore to be next to for the rest of his life. It was the kid that he never wanted to leave alone. He looked at him, upset, as if in distress over something.

“Then let’s kick it up a notch!”

Jackal threw a pair of spinning and slicing disks at Sakuto. Sakuto blocked them with his blade, but upon contact, the shadows transformed into a rope-like object which grabbed Sakuto and pulled him towards Jackal.

Sakuto managed to slice his way out of the restrains and regain his footing, he swung his blade but ultimately missed. Jackal used his shadows to strike and collapse the floor beneath them, launching them both down. On the new level, Jackal instantly started his overwhelming offensive. Dozens of sharpened tentacles threw themselves at Sakuto, who fought them off and attempted to flee.

One of the said tentacles even knocked him against the wall, breaking him outside with a follow-up strike. In the air, Sakuto released a powerful pair of slashes that both hit their main target - Jackal. However, Jackal didn’t intend on letting Sakuto go. He latched onto him with a rope-like shadow and dragged him back into the building, slamming him into the outside wall and breaking him into the floor below.

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Sakuto quickly tried to stand back up, but received a pretty bad slashing wound from a shadowy figure that wielded a sword. A moment later, just as Sakuto got up to fight it off, Jackal himself popped out of his shadow and kicked him in the back.

The figure, or more specifically, the shadow puppet kicked Sakuto again, and the two enjoyed a brief but fun game of football with Sakuto acting as the ball. Soon, Jackal used his shadows to dismantle the rest of the building, leaving Sakuto suspended in the air.

During free fall, however, Sakuto’s ability activated. A spark appeared on his chest.

“Just one more.”

“Not only will his shadows become useless...”

“But I’ll get access to Perfect Counter.”

Jackal, instead of being concerned, widened his smirk.

“I only have a little bit of time before I become a useless punching bag. In that case...”

“I’ll go all out!”

Jackal reconfigured his shadows and formed a cluster of tendrils with them, launching them at Sakuto who failed to respond in time. He wrapped them around Sakuto and threw him up in the air, reforming the tendrils into a hand and slapping him down onto the roof of another, much taller building.

Jackal climbed up to the roof as well.

“I stay true to myself, huh?” Jackal said, focusing his shadows into a singular point. “Is that really what it looks like? Is that who I am?”

“It is.” Sakuto replied, holding his sword up. “That’s the Jackal I know.”

“What’s he planning to-”

An enormously powerful beam of shadows was fired from Jackal’s hands. Sakuto held his ground against it by blocking it with his sword, but even then, small bits of the shadows managed to land, scarring his face and picking at his arms and clothes. The beam soon stopped, and instead, a smaller shadow dagger struck him.

To his surprise and to Jackal’s amusement, it almost did nothing.

Jackal unleashed a hellish rain of such daggers upon Sakuto, who walked right through it. The smaller daggers transformed into a bigger set of tentacles which threw themselves at Sakuto, repeatedly trying to strike him down.

“Focus.” Sakuto told himself, fighting off the attacks.

“Just focus. Think about how much you want to be done with this and see Ichika.”

“Think about your promise.”

The shadows transformed and started to form a cube around Sakuto, attempting to trap him inside. Sakuto, however, broke right through, and sliced the rest of the shadows apart. Their remnants tried to form a rope and capture Sakuto, but Sakuto used the rope to pull Jackal closer instead.

Parts of the rope grew into spikes and ripped through Sakuto’s hands, but the latter didn’t care. With enough force, Jackal was launched at Sakuto, who greeted him with a devastating right overhand. Sakuto continued his assault, landing a jab and a right hook. At last, he drew his sword out, and managed to actually pierce Jackal in the liver.

He quickly retreated, sensing the build-up of shadows next to him. No matter his toughness, he couldn’t risk anything. Jackal stood back, taking a few moments to recover his injury, while simultaneously using his shadows to block off the incoming barrage of flying slashes.

“He doesn’t know it.” Sakuto thought. His slashes were starting to break through Jackal’s defensive barriers, and some of them even struck him directly. “My adaptation extends to Withering Strelitzia!”

“I understand it.” Jackal thought to himself. Despite looking butchered, he remained as excited as ever. Blood was starting to drip from his wounds.

Jackal used his shadows to propel himself. Instead of using the shadows as assistance, he covered his own body with them, acting as a layer of protective armor. He rushed at Sakuto with great speed, landing a slashing attack and using the hilt of his sable to knock him back.

“What’s he doing?!” Sakuto thought. “Does he not realize I’ll simply hit him and adapt?!”

Unfortunately for Sakuto, Jackal borrowed his own strategy of beating your opponent up so badly that he had no time to respond. He used the concentrated shadows to form a variety of weapons - batons, a baseball bat, even a pair of daggers. They all did their work and carved wounds on Sakuto’s body.

“This feels...”

“Exhilarating.”

Jackal mustered up his shadows into a giant fist, punching Sakuto away while the latter tried to fight back. Sakuto was ragdolled onto the empty street below. Still on the roof, Jackal started to conjure a massive shadowy arrow.

“There isn’t another Jackal Kagerr.”

“My determination to act as I want is what keeps this heart beating.”

“All this time...”

Jackal released the arrow. Sakuto blocked it with his blade, but the arrow still kept pushing him down, even cracking the ground beneath him. Right before Sakuto was about to get overpowered by the arrow’s force, it erupted into a powerful shadowy explosion that sent him back. The detonation managed to hurt him quite badly, his gray clothes were partly covered in blood and his body was scarred quite badly.

Worst of all, one of the shrapnel went right into his stomach, and he was forced to take a moment to treat the dangerous wound.

“You didn’t just understand me."

“You helped me understand myself.”

The remnants of the explosion served as a perfect way for Jackal to get down. He hopped out of the shadows. The sun stared right down the road, and the two soulfuls entered a standoff.

“I can see the mountain range too, you know?”

The fight was heavily favoring Sakuto. Just a little more, and his adaptation would be complete. However, something felt...off. Jackal’s shadows were beneath his feet instead of following him or reinforcing his body. And his soul presence was different.

“And here we are, Sakuto Hitori.” Jackal said, taking a step forward.

“Dancing on the edge of life and death.”

“Should either of us live, there will be a selfish soulful standing regardless...”

“What’s up with him?” Sakuto thought, taking a stance again.

He raised one of his sables into the sky, and touched the ground with the other one. The pool of shadows beneath his feet extended, even causing Sakuto to step back out of caution. The crimson in Jackal’s eyes shone brighter than anything else.

“Thank you, Sakuto Hitori. It’s a shame you’re standing in front of me, not next to me...”

“But I’d never realize this if it weren’t for this.”

“I would never awaken.”

The shadows slowly began to devour Jackal’s body. The shadows further on the ground now imprinted themselves on the asphalt. And most importantly, Jackal’s soul presence was elevated to a level which he could never achieve before.

And at last, he released it.

“ ✦ O, benevolent shadows... ✦ ”

“ ✦ Impeach the light that cursed me ✦ ”

“ ✦ Shine your darkness at my soul, ✦ ”

“ ✦ And give me the answer! ✦ ”

His presence reached its apex.

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation ✦ ”

It started to grow darker. It had gotten unexpectedly dark, unpredictably fast. Sakuto, shocked and even horrified, looked up to see the trick behind the darkness. He glanced up, up into the sky, where the playful sun used to be.

And now, the warm and golden sunlight was replaced by a rough and crystal clear light, and the sun itself was eclipsed. The darkness descended completely, enveloping not just them, but the entire continent in its terrifying grasp. Across many households, screams of confusion and chatter filled with panic ensued. Some thought their gods had descended, others believed that it was a rare scientific phenomena.

“No...no, what the hell is that?!” Ichika asked, as she and her travel mates were all terrified at the sight. They felt the chilling soul presence too. “Is that Sakuto?! Or is he the target of whatever this is?!” ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by NoveI(F)ire.net

“Stay on high alert.” Jian said, making sure that all of her comrades are underneath her watch. “If this is Jackal’s doing...we might be in trouble.”

“A divine acclamation that causes an eclipse?” Kaito, who was eagerly watching the fight, said to himself. “I have no idea how this even functions, but just this show-off alone is enough to draw a conclusion about its strength. Sakuto Hitori...please tell me you have a response to this...”

“ ✦ Song of the Shadow Purgatory ✦ ”

Jackal retained his pose, completely engulfed in the shadows. His blades melted into the ground too, as everything around him was engulfed in a cruel play of bright and dark. A small shockwave was felt in the area, something marked the ground.

“A divine acclamation?! How the hell...did he awaken while fighting me?! Shit...this is bad...I still need a little more to adapt, then I can maybe-”

Sakuto’s chest was pierced by a shadow arm that emerged from the ground. It didn’t hurt at all. It grabbed Sakuto and slammed him into the ground, his body seemingly fading into the shadowy patterns below him. Jackal followed suit, leaving the battlefield of D.C. to chase his prey. The gentle wind howled in the empty area...