Chapter 11-18 - I Still Have Faith
OPERATION ‘GODKILL’ HAS FAILED.
ONLY ONE COMBATANT REMAINS STANDING AGAINST KAITO KAMIKI.
THE FATE OF HUMANITY NOW LIES IN THE HANDS...
...OF AN EMPATH.
18 - I Still Have Faith
The blindingly bright spark following the ability’s activation slowly faded away. Mukawa was barely recognizable. His body was completely covered and a mixture of glowing, radiant black and white colors. His presence was at an all-time high, able to go toe to toe with Kaito’s own.
Meanwhile, Kaito was amazed.
“So this is the result...” Kaito said, carefully observing Mukawa, using Soul Sight to attain every bit of information about his unnatural state.
Mukawa rushed at Kaito and swiped with his right arm.
“Claw!!!”
Kaito had no option but to dodge. This iteration of the attack wasn’t as weak as the one used by its original wielder, in fact, it caused a massive crevasse in the ground to form, causing a small quake in the process. He turned around, noticing Kaito’s counter-attack, and managed to block with his arms and protect himself. A moment later, he landed a powerful kick that knocked Kaito back.
Mukawa was impressed by these feats, amazed at the extent of his power. He did what Otto wanted to do.
“This...”
“I feel like I have everything. I can keep up with him.”
“No. Keeping up isn’t enough.”
“I want to have enough to put him down for good. I want...a pair of wings. And more strength in my hands, right, I want more power.”
A pair of pure white wings emerged from Mukawa’s back.
“Despite your failure, you’re still here.” Kaito said, taking a step forward. “How does it feel knowing that your last hope of survival and victory...is directly bound to my own power, the usage of my own soldiers...you couldn’t even get Sakuto Hitori to fight.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Mukawa yelled, swinging his arm. He released a pair of energy tendrils that looked to be made out of raw soul prowess. They struck Kaito and did a surprising amount of damage.
“The template requires six devoured souls, each of them representing a figure in charge of a fraction of the world.” Kaito said. “However, the template also requires the presence of the Central Element.”
“I don’t care!” Mukawa yelled, releasing more such tendrils. This time, however, Kaito replied with his own, and the two sides clashed against one another before Kaito ultimately came out victorious. He charged in and closed the distance, landing a devastating right uppercut that knocked Mukawa away. "If this is enough to rip your head off, then so be it!"
“This is not ‘Absolute Manifestation’. This is a cheap copy at best.” Kaito said. “You went as far as to devour the souls of your very own comrades to give yourself a power boost, is that the lengths to which your despair extends to?!”
Mukawa tried to attack again, but he felt small parts of his body crack open and break away. He felt his soul get dimmed more and more.
“Your body will not handle it. You’ll be a corpse even if I do nothing!” Kaito said. “Just what kind of purpose do you want to accomplish, you fucking rat?!”
“Even if I die afterwards...just knowing that you're dead will be enough." Mukawa said.
Mukawa dashed at Kaito, surprising him a little with his speed. Kaito fought back, the two traded heavy blows. Kaito refused to use his blade, he was adamant of ripping Mukawa apart with his own bare hands. Countless exchanges later, a few mistimed punches and kicks from Mukawa resulted in him receiving a harsh hook to the body and an overhand left to throw him away. He plummeted onto the ground, the sand around him being swept away by the slowly raging wind.
“Just what the hell is your obsession with the soulless?!” Kaito asked. Even asking that question angered him.
“It’s...it’s not about the soulless...or the soulfuls...” Mukawa said, slowly standing up. Before he could get up properly, Kaito closed the distance and grabbed him. He flew up into the air, and Mukawa, using his own wings, tried to break free.
After trading more strikes, Kaito, who was relatively more experienced at aerial combat, had the upper hand. He constantly landed the bigger strikes, and eventually, got a hold of Mukawa again and dove straight into the ground - slamming Mukawa head first, with enough power to form a small crater when they crashed. He kicked Mukawa away and chased after him. Mukawa stood back up...
“Claw!!!”
Kaito was caught by surprise. He closed the distance too fast. He received the brutally powerful attack head first - a large part of his body being destroyed on the spot. Nothing he couldn’t regenerate given enough time.
He quickly used his wings to propel himself back. As Mukawa tried to chase him down in the air, Kaito, now capable of using the white flames again, launched a sequence of them at Mukawa, scarring him badly. Once he was done regenerating, Kaito conjured an arrow and fired it at Mukawa, who had no option but to simply brace for impact...
As the dust settled, Kaito saw that Mukawa was barely standing. He approached him.
“Then who is it about?” Kaito asked, releasing a smaller piece of flame at him. It reached him, knocking him back with explosive force.
“It’s about...people...” Mukawa said. He was crawling, his body was dangerously close to giving up.
“And what about them?” Kaito asked, his rage slowly fading away, impeached by an expression of utter calm and concentration, as if someone was there, telling him to focus, supporting him with soothing words. He prepared another flaming arrow, but a moment later, it was dispersed. Mukawa utilized Zervos’ soul expression.
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“Because unlike you, I’m not a delusional hellbent piece of shit who’s willing to kill billions of people because he just wants to.” Mukawa said.
"A whim?" Kaito took a deep breath.
He blitzed Mukawa. Mukawa took the full force of the initial strike, but tried to regain his posture a moment later. Kaito kept the offensive as relentless as can be, even the lack of his flames was a negligible variable. Mukawa tried to fight back, he swiped and punched trying to predict Kaito's movements, but Kaito always appeared to be one step ahead. So far ahead, in fact, that he caught Mukawa with an immaculately powerful right uppercut, sending him flying into the air. Instead of conjuring a flaming arrow, he dashed in after him - taking off from the ground. Mukawa tried to maximize the utility of his own wings, but Kaito caught up to him and kicked him down, only then unleashing a gigantic flaming arrow at him. The impact was devastating, but still, Mukawa stood.
“I do want to.” Kaito continued. "The soulless do not deserve to live, and I'll see to that."
"No..."
"There is no hope in them. Neither is there hope in you to stop me from fulfilling my purpose." Kaito said, conjuring a white flaming spear. He threw it at Mukawa at insurmountable speeds, it pierced the latter's chest and erupted in flames. But Mukawa healed himself.
“You’re...wrong...”
“What...?” Kaito asked.
“You’re...as wrong as one can be, you fucking prick...”
“Just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“It’s always there. People aren’t a lost cause as you describe them to be. Maybe some of them are, but they’re not everyone. People are kind.”
“People deserve to live. Soulful, soulless, it doesn’t matter...”
“No matter how much you tell me that humanity is awful, I’ll never believe you. Because...”
“I still have faith...” Mukawa said.
As he uttered those words, a golden light blessed the skies. It was faint, it wasn't blinding, but it served its purpose of letting every soulful and soulless, albeit clueless and even afraid of it, to know that there still is hope. The cry of hope emboldened the world, as the last guardian of humanity prepared for his last stand.
“I still have faith in mankind...” Mukawa said. “I still have faith in people. I still care about them, no matter how much they might hurt me, no matter how problematic that care is, no matter how hard it is to care in the first place.” Mukawa continued. “Because humanity isn’t as hollow as you think.”
“Because there’s a reason words like ‘kindness’ or ‘empathy’ exist!” Mukawa yelled, slowly approaching him. “And until I turn into a corpse, for the sake of everything that lives and breathes, I’ll have that faith!”
“Even if it’s blind...”
“Even if it drowns my soul...”
“I’ll try my hardest to care.”
“Then so be it." Kaito said, his own presence flaring up even more. "It will be the faith you die with."
“Kaito...”
He heard the voice again. He rushed at Mukawa with full murderous intent. Their fists clashed, and Kaito’s fist broke through Mukawa’s and delivered a devastating punch to his face. Mukawa swung back in fury, but Kaito retaliated and landed a left hook followed by a right uppercut. He fired off a flaming arrow which Mukawa quickly dodged, and thankfully so. It destroyed quite a large area in the distance.
“Hah, I guess. Hehe, I don’t mind going out.”
He chased Mukawa down more and more aggressively, with the latter, despite having solid strength, slowly getting overwhelmed. Kaito, combining various strikes and kicks, managed to maintain the advantage for a while. Mukawa dashed back in order to use ‘Claw’, but Kaito was faster and not only stopped him from doing so, but also landed a body kick strong enough to break a few of Mukawa’s ribs. He landed two more hooks to the body before landing a third straight and knocking Mukawa. He quickly leapt into the air and charged at Mukawa, destroying chunks of the ground and knocking him back with an almost lethal haymaker.
“Oh...? The essay? Yeah, I did read it. I think it’s pretty cool.”
Kaito chased him down more and more, the relentless onslaught of strikes never giving Mukawa the opportunity to move. The pressure was too much. Heavy strikes to the body destroyed his torso, well-timed head shots concussed and hurt him. Mukawa tried to conjure more energy bolts but Kaito didn’t let him breathe, let alone use any abilities.
“Let’s take the vanilla one! Please please please pretty please!”
With one of the strikes, Kaito managed to successfully knock Mukawa down. Instead of creating more distance, he started beating him down. Each strike was far stronger than Mukawa would anticipate. Mukawa conjured a bolt of energy, destroying Kaito's arm, but the arm was regenerated extremely fast. To return the gesture, Kaito ripped off both of Mukawa's arms, tossing them aside.
“I enjoyed this moment, though. Thank you for understanding me.”
Mukawa tried to recover his limbs and land another claw, but the incoming damage was too much. Kaito continuously landed shots on Mukawa’s head. The impact, despite Mukawa’s incredibly enhanced defenses, was very powerful. The reason for the battle taking such a turn wasn’t Mukawa’s weakness, no, he had an extremely strong ability in his hands. But his body couldn’t maintain it. The template wasn't properly followed, and only a copy of Kaito's soul expression was used. It started decomposing mid fight, slowly fading away..
And the light in the environment became bleaker and bleaker...
“You’re...the only one who’s ever said something like that to me, you know that?”
Kaito broke his face more and more. Each hammer fist disfigured his face, each elbow strike broke parts of it. One of the elbows even cracked his skull open.
“I want myself and you to be the only people who will remember this.”
He placed his hands on Mukawa's throat and started strangling him. Despite his best efforts to resist, despite his last-second activation of soul destabilization to try and weaken and maybe stun Kaito, he couldn't resist anymore. Kaito, with his abyssal eyes wide open, applied more and more pressure, until eventually not only did Mukawa's consciousness fade, but also his throat collapsed entirely.
“I really do love you, Kaito.”
The spark in Mukawa's eyes disappeared.
“Thank you for everything.”
He was dead.
Kaito slowly stood up. He watched the corpse without changing his expression one bit. The hope disappeared, the sky felt like it could shatter at any moment. He slowly raised his hand.
An essence slowly rose from his corpse. Zervos’ soul, which was consumed by Mukawa, was now available for Kaito to utilize. He slowly grabbed it and devoured it.
Immediately, his soul presence surpassed itself, but not loudly - it did so quietly, subtly.
“The copied soul expressions in my possession seemed to have been altered...”
He noticed that the flames now had a more solid shape, the essence now felt a little easier to control. The shape was filled, there was only one thing left.
“The central element.” Kaito said to himself, gazing into the sky.
“All that is left is to locate the central element.”
“I’ll stay true to my purpose.”
A small pulse was felt across the world. And suddenly, the sky faded into darkness. It was pitch black, and yet, seeing things was still possible. The sun was replaced by the hollow sun - it was a slightly thick white ring, with long, sharp and thin beams coming out of its left and right, slightly shorter ones from its up and down, and short ones from its diagonal directions. It was purely white, and it was possible to see in that environment only because of the hollow white light that fell upon the ground. The desert sand lost its color...
Kaito gazed at the hollow sun, admiring its colors, its shape, the way it contrasted with the pitch black sky...
“And so, it has begun.”
“The Eternal Soulful Night.”
THE END OF PART 11