Soul Spark

16 - Godkill

[...]

At last, Kaito arrived.

He descended from the sky, his flaming wings burning with wrath. Mukawa was a little separated from the group. He knew he would be approached, but he also knew that he wouldn’t get hurt. It was a bluff, he was meant to be the bait that Kaito would be too scared to attack.

And surprisingly enough, considering he wasn’t bombarded with flaming arrows, it worked. Kaito, upon descending, immediately locked eyes with Mukawa. Mukawa concealed the dagger for now. He was confronting Kaito from the North. He was stressed out, anxious...even scared. But that did not mean he wouldn’t act.

“And there you are, you pathetic soulless rat.” Kaito said, his presence blindingly high. His fists were clenched with white flame dripping down his fingers, setting parts of the ground on fire. “I can sense quite a few presence here.”

“He has the same abilities. He is the same rat that I decided to recruit back then. Except he looks strangely hopeful...”

“Remember. There’s people watching us.” Mukawa said. His voice was a little shaky at first, but his hatred for Kaito allowed him to surpass his hesitation and go all in. “Attack me once and your son will be beheaded.”

“Is that so?” Kaito asked.

“The person swinging his blade doesn’t value human life as much as I do.” Mukawa said.

“Where. Is. Hiroshi.” Kaito asked, each of those words being pronounced slowly, with power behind him.

“You will never see him again.” Zervos said, approaching the scene from the South. “You are not someone who deserves to be his father, let alone, a father of anyone.”

“And who are you to decide?” Kaito asked. “Ex-captain Zervos. You sacrificed your peaceful and careless life in exchange for seeing me here?” He looked at Mukawa. “I see. You two have done some talking.”

“I’d never expect a coward like you to actually show yourself in battle.” Rin said, approaching from the West. “Because of your absence, there were heavy casualties.”

“I see. She’s here too.” Kaito said, staring at Mukawa. “You’ve planned this through and through. She was the one whom you convinced to help abduct my son.”

“I did plan for this a lot.” Mukawa said.

“But if you think that you can put me down with this much manpower...you are horribly mistaken.” Kaito said, the divine white on his chest area glowing more and more. It was reacting to Zervos’ presence, telling Kaito that he was the next objective.

“We have manpower.” Ichigo said, approaching the scene from the East.

“I see. Your pleas, the old captain's presence...the Heisei has betrayed me. My most prized combat unit has utterly betrayed me.”

“The unit you abused because you were too scared to deal with your problems yourself.” Mukawa said.

“And what do you know about me?” Kaito asked, now in a more threatening tone. He flared up his presence high enough for the desert to feel like an ocean. But the participants refused to drown. In fact, they would soon disperse that ocean with an onslaught of their own...

“By the orders of the Global Soulful Coalition-”

“Shut the fuck up.” Mukawa said, clenching his fist. “You’re in no position to say that.”

He took a step forward.

“Kaito Kamiki, by the order of the Heisei, the Adler Group and the Stronghold Operation, you are declared a traitor against humanity.”

All four of them heard a click from their radios, and a simple message. ‘Operation start.’

None of them held back.

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation. ✦ ”

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation! ✦ ”

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation... ✦ ”

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation!!! ✦ ”

The simultaneous activation of four acclamations...shocked even Kaito Kamiki himself.

“ ✦ Spectral Requiem ✦ // ✦ Soul Particle Experimentation Sequence ✦ // ✦ Inverse Soul Radiance ✦ // ✦ Vivid Daydream Cemetery ✦ !!!!!!”

Zervos’ head was decorated with a very thin white halo, as his blade gained a special white glow. Rin’s presence skyrocketed, and prepared to kickstart the lessons and achieve the final phase as fast as possible - a purple halo emerged above her. Ichigo’s wings appeared, illuminating the battlefield with their blinding lights, alongside a bright white halo hovering above him. And Mukawa, acquiring his halo, sparked his presence to the maximum.

But this wasn’t simply a show of force. Each acclamation had a key function in the offensive. Mukawa’s acclamation couldn’t put Kaito to sleep obviously, but what it could do is focus all of its power into utilizing the dimming effect - keeping Kaito busy, forcing him to dedicate a section of his soul prowess into protecting his soul. Zervos’ acclamation heavily destabilized Kaito’s soul expression, to the point where...

“My flames...and my devoured abilities...I can’t...conjure them?!” Kaito thought.

“Poisons are often used to exterminate vermin. I will proceed to demonstrate.” Rin said, declaring the first lesson open. “Do you have any questions?”

“No questions, everything is understood.” Ichigo quickly said.

Rin’s acclamation, Soul Particle Experimentation Sequence, applied the ‘beta’ particle to poison Kaito and significantly weaken his body. It started to rot and pierce his skin, cutting it apart like he was thrown into a miniature and merciful blender. But the effect was strong enough to somewhat restrain his movements.

Ichigo’s acclamation, however...

“Ready!” Asami said, crouching behind Ichigo. A small light blue aura manifested around Ichigo’s feet. The skies were blessed by golden, almost holy light, and the target was made clear.

...was to be combined with Asami’s ability enhancement, and fired off...

...at maximum output.

“ ✦ DIVINE RING OF EXORCISM ✦ !!!!!”

The light fell onto the battlefield, completely enveloping Kaito in it. It burned him badly, it started destroying parts of his body and ripping holes in them. Blessed with a light blue hue, the light was painful to look at, even by the allied combatants. It applied such force on Kaito that it shattered parts of the ground beneath him, sending shockwaves across the place.

But despite being weakened from three different sources and torched alive, Kaito was still standing.

He swung his blade and released a gust of soul prowess strong enough to cut Ichigo’s body in half. Thankfully Asami was crouched behind him, she didn’t get struck by it, but she did get traumatized from seeing the upper half of Ichigo’s corpse fall down. Ichigo, losing one of its wings, quickly rejoined the fight.

“Shit...dying like this canceled my attack. I’ll have to wait for a little bit before I can fire it again, especially if it’s also going to be with enhanced output.”

“Asami, take the distant position!” Ichigo yelled.

“G-got it!” Asami nodded, quickly running away. Soon, the radios of almost everyone present would play another message by Sofia. “Phase one over, start assault!”

Kana and Haruki quickly entered the brawl, and paired with Mukawa and Ichigo, charged at the strongest soulful alive.

“Come at me then!” Kaito yelled.

Haruki was the first one to charge at him, alongside Kana. He quickly closed the distance and swung his blade at Kaito, who blocked it with ease using his own weapon. Haruki tried to take a step back and swing again, but Kaito quickly grabbed him and punched him in the gut hard enough to throw him away a few dozen meters. Haruki coughed up some blood.

“Claw!”

But while he was in the air, Haruki launched a slash at Kaito. At the same time, Kana’s claws barely reached their target, as Kaito moved away at the last second. He took one good look at Kana’s eyes, and, immediately realizing what her soul expression was, took a step back to avoid the next attack. As Kana missed, he delivered an almost lethal overhand left to her face, the impact cracking the ground beneath her. He went for the beheading, but was quickly tackled...

Ichigo grabbed him and dragged him further and further away from Kana. Once he let go, he stepped to the side, trying to land whatever strikes he could come up with on the fly. Kaito, getting reasonably upset, unsummed on his blade and went at it with his fists. They exchanged strikes before Kaito threw a nasty leg kick - strong enough to crush Ichigo’s leg. He summoned his blade again and stuck it in his skull.

“All of your wings, I’ll rip them off of you one by one you failure-”

He felt a series of piercing sensations in his chest and parts of his neck. He looked in the distance, seeing that the culprit of the gunfire was Alby Jr. himself. He tightly held onto his soul-bound weapon, a hand-held machine gun, and sprayed at Kaito with reinforced bullets that were dangerously strong.

In that moment of distraction, Ichigo clasped his hands and fired off a beam of light, piercing Kaito’s throat. When Kaito faced the freshly revived Ichigo again, he felt an awful burning sensation in his throat, body, and even parts of his face.

“Alpha, a burning and explosive compound, combined with beta, a deadly poison, will result in a catastrophically destructive pairing of elements.” Rin said. “Do you have any questions...?”

“You...” Kaito said, gritting his teeth through the pain. He quickly jumped back.

“No questions. Everything is c-clear...” Junior said, continuing to rain hellfire on Kaito.

“Then that will do for the second lesson.” Rin said. Entire chunks of Kaito’s body were set ablaze, some of them even detonating. Kaito also felt a rather powerful slash of soul prowess hit him in the back. Once he turned around, he saw that Zervos was preparing to strike.

“Shit, I’m gonna have to protect him.” Ichigo said, quickly activating his invisibility. “Both him and Rin are probably his primary targets.”

“Come on...even though this is going fine so far, we need to put him down right fucking now.”

Kaito charged at Zervos, their blades clashing with great force. Kaito pushed Zervos abc more and more, as the two exchanged strikes, both of them aiming for a decisive attack. Kaito tried to throw another low kick, but Zervos sharply intercepted the movement and closed the distance even more, managing to successfully stab Kaito in the stomach. He tried to drag his blade out of him and cut his body apart, but Kaito grabbed him by the throat.

Thankfully, Ichigo cloaked out of his invisibility just in time. Kaito quickly threw Zervos away and delivered a strong slashing attack to Ichigo, heavily scarring his body. But instead of pursuing him further, he rushed at Zervos.

“Need protection, stat!” Ichigo radioed, flying towards Zervos, but he wasn’t fast enough.

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Thankfully, Haruki rejoined the fight, and now, Mukawa was close too. Mukawa tried to as little as touch Kaito with the dagger, but Kaito quickly countered and punched him away. Haruki managed to land a slashing attack on Kaito, scarring both his body and parts of his cheek. Ichigo, sensing the inevitable, quickly swooped Haruki up into the air, saving him from a terrifyingly powerful release of soul prowess. Another such release landed at the flying soulful, chopping his neck clean. Yet another wing was lost.

“Take care of him.” Ichigo quickly told Rin, dropping Haruki off next to her.

“No, I’m going in.” Rin said, rushing at Kaito. It was the best decision, as Mukawa was dangerously alone, and Zervos wouldn’t make it in time.

Mukawa stared at the monster in front of him. Kaito, already having had enough of the constant gunfire grazing him, threw a tremendously powerful release of soul prowess at Junior’s direction. He would’ve been dead, had it not been for one of the Heisei’s most unusual soulfuls quickly intervening...

“Just one...attack...” Mukawa said, his hands a little shaky but his face dead confident. “I just need to land...one...single...attack.”

He looked at Kaito, who was starting to appear more and more blurred. Despite his resolve, Kaito’s presence was almost something else.

Kaito rushed at Mukawa, and Mukawa managed to successfully dodge the attack. Kaito swung his blade around trying to catch him, but Rin intervened quickly enough. She and Kaito exchanged blade strikes before Kaito felt another presence rapidly approach him from behind.

“Claw!” Kana yelled, with half of her face broken and scarred. The attack, thanks to Zervos’ additional intervention and a slash launched by him, landed clean. Kaito, who blocked on reflex, forgot about the information he had seen regarding Kana’s soul expression. He lost his left hand.

But despite that, he kept on fighting. He circled the ground with the tip of his blade, creating a powerful slash that struck the ground head first and knocked the other combatants away. He quickly regenerated his hand and charged at Zervos.

“Once I kill this waste of life, not only will his destabilization cease halting my devoured technique’s activation, but I will get to devour his soul too...”

Kaito was punched away by Ichigo, who charged in without a hint of fear in his eyes. Kaito, however, didn’t get too distracted. He launched a set of soul prowess releases aimed at Rin’s direction, forcing her to retreat and take significant damage. While Ichigo was trying his hardest to hurt him as much as he could, Kaito focused on not only evading his attacks, but also getting closer to Zervos.

Zervos swung his blade and Kaito countered it - stepping to the side and landing a rather deep slashing attack. Ichigo tried to pull Zervos out, but Kaito intercepted him and kicked him away, following it up with a release of soul prowess strong enough to cut him legs off. One more wing down.

“Now I can finally talk to you.” Kaito said, rapidly approaching Zervos, who was on the backfoot. “You’ve served your purpose.”

Kaito began charging up a powerful release of soul prowess, and Zervos was out of options. No matter how much he debuffed him, it wouldn’t be enough to defang these types of attack. Mukawa was too far behind them, but even then, what could he do? Just as the slash was launched...

It was as if it never happened.

“Get outta here.” Zawadski told Zervos. “Please, go get yourself checked.”

“N-no...” Zervos said, coughing up blood. “I’ll-”

“Just relax, will ya?” Zawadski said, jumping up on his feet, lightening up his stance. “I can handle this.”

“Yeah...”

He looked at Kaito’s almost demonic wrath emanating from his eyes, he looked at his intent to kill. It was someone that he was told to never, ever fight. He was beyond just a ‘soulful’.

“I can handle this.” Zawadski thought with a smirk. For the first time in a while, he was sweating a little while thinking about it. “He can probably kill me with any of his strikes. But that doesn’t matter.”

“I’ll just go for a no-hit run.”

“Mukawa! Search for an opening!” Zawadski radioed, before charging at Kaito. And what he pulled off was nothing short of a miracle...something only he could do.

Almost every instant, he got killed one way or another. And after every such death, he loaded back in like nothing ever happened, and avoided the strikes he knew were going to take place. Kaito wasn’t clueless, he knew exactly what Savestate was. The two of them entered a mind game - with Kaito trying to mess up Zawadski’s predictions with throwing unusual and unpredictable strikes and blade attacks, and Zawadski trying to find the optimal solution.

But Zawadski pulled through it. He powered through the many attacks, dying countless times and proving why he’s one of the most unnatural soulfuls alive. Kaito was growing more and more furious at this stalemate, but most importantly, he was growing more and more concentrated. Zawadski was, after all, advancing, closing the distance more and more...

Until he was close enough to slap Kaito across his face.

“You counted, didn’t you?!” Zawadski said, with an almost unhinged smile decorating his face. “One hundred and ninety three saves and loads. You wasted all that time and still couldn’t do shit to me.”

“Haah...talking shit to Kaito Kamiki...I doubt it’ll ever get as exciting as this...”

“But most importantly...”

Kaito was beyond furious. He swung his blade at Zawadski, subconsciously knowing that it was a fruitless effort. And at that moment, he left his back open. Mukawa, at that moment, rushed in. He managed to accomplish what Otto Richter never got the chance to do.

He stabbed Kaito in the back with the dagger.

“Hit confirmed!!!” He yelled into the radio. Once Kaito felt the impact, he turned around, trying to counter - only to see Ichigo already carrying Mukawa away. Zawadski, using the moment, took a few steps back. Kaito thought it was a regular attack, but his sight allowed him to see a strangely familiar divine white shining on the dagger’s carving.

His heart sank to his soles.

“Impossible...”

“Otto Richter...was killed off!!!”

The completion of the objective sparked a burning flame of resolve in everyone. Sofia sighed in relief, before radioing again.

“Primary objective complete! Begin phase two!!!”

At that moment, Kaito’s body was destroyed, ripped apart into two.

All this time, Jian had been observing the fight. She was positioned quite far away. All this time, she had been establishing a strong enough axis on Kaito’s body to ensure complete devastation. And with Asami’s enhancement, who, thankfully, got there in time, it was enough to pull this off.

She stood with her hand out, with the wind blowing against her...

The combatants watched in awe. Kaito had only split seconds to think. All of the punches, slashes, poison, gunfire and weakening effects, now paired with the entirety of his chest and torso missing, and his technique being replicated...he had nothing left.

Nothing but his wrathful hatred, that allowed his determination to surge. With his last breath and strength, he uttered two words...

“ ✦ ...limited... ✦ ”

“ ✦ ...manifestation. ✦ ”

His soul presence spiked, everyone present was taken aback, fearful and concerned. This should not have happened. The fatally beautiful white sparks calmed down, revealing Kaito’s form, which was...dysfunctional?

Limited Manifestation granted Kaito an indescribably strong regeneration. But in this case, thanks to Zervos’ destabilization, it couldn’t properly work. It couldn’t grant him the ungodly physical properties, but it did glue his body back together and mend most of his major wounds.

“We are joining the fight.” Jian said, looking concerned. “This should not have happened.”

“I...I barely made it here...” Asami heaved.

“Get on my back.”

“Fuck...Mukawa! Quick!” Sofia radioed to him.

“On it!” Mukawa said. He tried to gain control of the dagger, he tried to channel it with something, he tried to swing it around...but nothing worked.

“Shit...shit shit shit shit shit! Why is it misfiring now?! Come on, it’s...it’s right there, we have it right here!!!”

Mukawa looked at the freshly awakened Kaito.

“Maybe I need to hit him with this...?”

“...”

“I’m his top priority target, aren’t I?”

“Zawadski, I need another opening.” Mukawa quickly said. He watched Kaito engage in combat with Ichigo, Zervos and Rin, as the three tried their best to contain the threat...and failed. Despite all the disasters that struck him, he still had the upper hand.

“You have less than a minute. We’re deploying our next victory condition.” Zawadski said. “Get that dagger of yours to work, we’re this close to killing him!”

“Alpha, Beta and Gamma...weakening, poison, combustion...” Rin said. “They create a sequence of particles that will systematically torment its target with all three of its ailments until it ceases to exist. Do you have any questions?”

“Everything’s clear.” Haruki said, having just recovered from his injuries with epsilon.

“Then we will proceed with the third lesson.” Rin said. “The final experiment will be after a break.”

“And that’s our third victory condition.” Mukawa said. He looked at Mukawa, who was undergoing exactly what was described. Haruki and Kana joined the fight too, but Kaito was still keeping up. In fact, his Limited Manifestation was starting to push back against the destabilization.

Just as he was about to catch Zervos again, his hand was shot and destroyed. Jian arrived on the battlefield, with Asami holding onto her. Junior sprayed more and more gunfire, and Kaito's regeneration started to struggle to keep up.

“No...” Mukawa shook his head. “I...I don’t have to hit him.” The essence on the dagger started wavering a little. Once Mukawa inspected his hand, he noticed light burn marks on his palm. “Haruki! Get back here!”

“On it!” Haruki yelled. Zawadski quickly rushed in and distracted Kaito for a bit, while Haruki made his escape. The battle was getting more and more fierce, Kaito was truly being pushed to his limits.

“What’s going on? Why aren’t you?!” Haruki asked.

“Something’s fucking wrong with it. It’s like...” Mukawa quickly fell into a brief panic, before taking a deep breath. The terrific combat in the background didn’t lose its voltage. Now that the threat of Jian pulling off yet another killing shot was on the board, Kaito knew he needed to act fast.

“What do you mean something is wrong?! It’s right here! It’s in your hands!” Haruki yelled.

“Something’s fucking wrong with it!!!” Mukawa said. A droplet of blood dripped down his eye. The dagger reacted to it, releasing small tendrils of energy that grabbed onto Mukawa’s hand. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs Nove1Fire.net

“I need time. I think it needs time.” Mukawa said.

“Time? How much?!”

“As much as needed. Just keep him away from me.” Mukawa said. “Or better yet, just fucking kill him.”

“Deploy the victory condition!” He yelled into his radio.

“Got it!” Zawadski radio’d back. Sofia wasn’t alone in her outpost, there was someone else with her. Sofia gave that someone a quick signal, and received a smirk in exchange.

“Everyone! Out!!!” Zawadski yelled at the top of his lungs.

Everyone quickly jumped back, disengaging from combat. Ichigo clasped his hands at a distance, and the skies were blessed again...

“ ✦ Divine Ring Of Exorcism!!! ✦ ”

The light fell upon Kaito and, for the second time, engulfed him in its fury. Kaito, already at his limit, couldn’t simply walk out of it, he had to take the full brunt of the attack while trying to regenerate. But all of that would last seconds.

This wasn’t an effort to kill him, this was a ‘smokescreen’. While Kaito was blinded by the light, the combatants quickly started opening up the distance. Those physically strong enough quickly ran off, those who needed assistance were lifted by Ichigo and carried.

All of the members of the Heisei, including even the two barely alive bodies far away, started making a noise. An alarm had gone off. Kaito heard it too, and once the light faded away, he could only feel one soul presence close to him. He turned around, and his worst concern came to fruition.

“Shame on you, boss.” Yuuka said, approaching him with a smirk. “How dare you threaten to take away so many of my kittens? This type of behaviour...needs to be corrected at once!”

Her soul presence flared up to the maximum.

“Do you even know how long it took me to build such an amazing community? Do you know what it was like in the trenches of the algorithm, desperately refreshing my statistics every few seconds to see if any of the numbers went up? Screw that, how dare you take my kittens away from me?!?!?!”

“Everyone, it’s time for a special announcement!!!”

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation... ✦ ”

“ ✦ DIGITAL OVERDOSE!!!!!! ✦ ”

The combatants covered up their eyes. Thankfully, everyone was far away enough to not get affected. Most importantly, Yuuka had learned to better contain the range of her acclamation. The flashbang faded away, and Kaito was struck by the acclamation...

“So that’s what it looks like...?” Mukawa asked himself.

“Fucking monsters...”

Kaito felt a pain more excruciating than he’d ever felt before in his life. The sheer amount of information about to overload his brain would be lethal to soulfuls of any caliber. At that moment, all of the combatants rushed to the scene again...

But Kaito had a countermeasure.

“W-what...? He’s still standing?!” Zawadski was utterly shocked. From a distance, he could see blood spurting out of his eyes and nose.

“Huuuuh?! Hey, that’s cheating!!!” Yuuka yelled. In her fury, she couldn’t notice the power in Kaito’s eyes.

“Yuuka!” Zervos yelled.

Thankfully, Yuuka was pretty strong on her own. Otherwise, the punch that Kaito threw at her would’ve killed her instantly. It was strong enough to send Yuuka flying in the direction of the approaching combatants. They all watched from a safe distance, because something felt...off.

“Fuck...it’s an information based ability, isn’t it?!” Mukawa asked. “His regeneration...”

He noticed that Kaito’s body was no longer fully supported by Limited Manifestation. In fact, most of it was horribly butchered...

“He used his natural regeneration in order to make his Limited Manifestation ability grant him more physical strength. But right now, he’s allocating every single bit of regeneration to heal his brain! He knew how to defend himself against this thing!”

“Digital Overdose’s lethality is the brain’s physical corrosion, his regeneration is apparently strong enough to withstand it.” Zawadski said. “But look! His body!”

Jian shot him again. This time, she destroyed his chest, completely destroying his heart. Kaito, aside from his many injuries, was left with an empty hole for a heart. All the weakness, dimming...it was getting too much.

Blood leaked out of his mouth and eyes, and he started to slowly lose his balance. His presence was fluctuating. The combatants approached him more, ready to end it all...

An ominous sequence of ringing bells was heard from the sky.