Soul Spark

SEGMENT II: "DAWN OF SALVATION"

9 - Eternal Soulful Night

[2024]

“At last...”

Kaito gazed into the pitch black sky. The hollow sun shone upon the world with its hateful light, and the chilling wind blew past him, lightly caressing his almost divine appearance. His presence alone trumped that of any other soulful in existence combined, at that point, just the thought of comparing them was a foolish fantasy.

“The Adler Group, the Stronghold Operation, even the treacherous Heisei...all defeated and destroyed.”

“The central element might take a while to find, but even with the presence of Sakuto Hitori around, it should not be an issue.”

“Yume, it’s almost here.”

“It’s time...”

“...for the forging of a soulful world.”

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“ ✦I call upon thee... ✦ ”

Night and day no longer made sense, there was only night, or whatever was left of it. The hollow sun reigned supreme in every starless sky that could be observed from this hopeless world.

And across the world, rain began. But not an ordinary rain, not a simple, everyday occurrence that can at most act as an inconvenience. The source of this rain, or, as it gained more and more voltage over time, stormfall, was the hollow sun itself. From its empty center, bits of Kaito’s divine, white flames bombarded the ground. The destruction they caused upon impact was notable, but those weren’t simply mindless bombs.

Upon making contact with the ground, the flames sparked up, reshaping themselves into the appearance of a human. Completely white, with only two specs of darkness for their eyes and a black line for a mouth, they began wandering around - most of them armed with some type of weapon, be it a blade, a spear or even an assault rifle, or composed of the same flames that made up their existence.

“What...are these...?” The crowds asked themselves in fear. Already terrified at the sight of the hollow sun, they looked at the beings as if they were the harbingers of calamity. Only a few dared approach them.

But the beings retaliated. As if offended by the fact that what isn’t like them can live, they lunged at anything and anyone they saw, attacking them with no remorse. Only minutes after the creatures entered the domain of the ending world, horrible bloodshed began. They moved either alone or in groups, like a military, determined to wreak havoc on any living being. Especially the soulless.

People tried fighting back. Those with weapons, such as officers of the law or active soldiers in the area, turned the massacre into a war. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t impossible to get rid of the creatures. They took a few more bullets to kill, but were killable nonetheless. In half an hour, streets were transformed into active warzones, as the storm reached the heights of its intensity. Retired soldiers, members of the population that had fighting equipment, or simply those who wanted to take a stance against the unfolding madness, all gathered in unison to try and push back against the disasters.

An hour after the storm began, larger pieces of equipment were brought out of their storage units and bases. Tanks started roaming the streets, mortar shots were heard from the distance, even fighter jets took to the skies to strike the harbingers of the end. All of that was thanks to people starting to get into contact with each other. Owners of private military corporations and local militias established communication lines, and started to coordinate their defenses more properly. The more the strings were woven, the more important and powerful people became involved in the process. Until eventually, a group of such people came together and decided to act as the representatives of humanity's resistance.

An hour later, the world was addressed by an announcement from them.

“Attention. To all the citizens of the world.” One of them spoke. The message was transmitted to multitudes of radio stations, which took it upon themselves to spread it as much as possible.

“As it stands right now, we are being attacked by an unidentified soulful disaster. We do not know how and why the sky has changed, nor can we explain the ongoing war with creatures we know nothing about.” The man spoke into the microphone, his breaths heavy and terrified.

“We are fighting a calamity the scale of which we cannot comprehend.” He said, almost forcing himself to say the line. “Kaito Kamiki, the man who was supposed to take care of such events and assure that soulfuls and non-soulfuls live in peace, has betrayed us, and is the supposed harbinger of these events.”

“We ask you, people, to set aside any differences you might have. Soulful or non-soulful, politically aligned or opposing, there is no more room for us to argue. Please, focus on protecting yourselves and as many people as possible. Follow instructions from military officials. Pay attention to your food and utility consumption, and keep in mind that most resources may turn to be scarce and services - dysfunctional.”

“The creatures, which we will identify as ‘voidflames’, despite their intimidating appearances, can be killed with conventional ammunition or weaponry.” The man finished. “In almost every municipality, we will try our hardest to open as many control stations as possible. If you are a capable soulful combatant, please visit one of them and get into contact with us.”

“Dear people, please, do not let your hearts waver. Fight for the sake of survival, for yourselves and those you love. Do not lose hope in mankind.”

The transmission ended. It played on repeat for the following two hours, alerting everyone who was somehow yet aware of the disasters. The fighting on the streets continued, intensifying by the minute. The soulful weapons are becoming a serious problem, they had much greater attack potency and were generally more lethal. With the scale of the destruction rising as time went by, casualties began stacking up.

Kaito made his way towards a village not too far away from the battlefield. Some of the voidflames were already there, but the village’s resilient population was holding them off quite well. They wrongly assumed that Kaito was another such case too.

With dead calm in his eyes, he walked around, tossing slashes with his blade at whoever tried to approach him. He cut down the villagers one by one, the latter soon understood that instead of trying to fight him, their only chance at survival would be to escape. Some of them accepted that not even escape was an option anymore.

Kaito looked with almost disgust at the radio setup that kept repeating the worldwide announcement until eventually breaking it too. He raised his finger. Small pulses of soul prowess akin to electric currents appeared next to it, before a lethal wave of destruction devoured the village in its deadly grasp.

“So that’s how it is...”

“Once again, grouping up to cover for each other...like insects...”

“There is no point in concerning myself with dismantling their operations. They’ll fall as soon as the event takes place.”

“On the other hand...”

He looked at the sky and the hollow sun.

“Hiroshi.”

“Wherever you are, I’ll find you.”

Traces of pure white flames lingered on the ground before slowly fading away.

The rain of terror slowly stopped, enough voidflames had emerged to guarantee torment and war for the soulless. But aside from simple distractions, they had another purpose. They were to search for Hiroshi, even as little as observing Hiroshi somewhere would cause them to instantly tell Kaito the location.

“Yume...”

“I’ll stay true to my purpose.”

“Only the flowers deserve to live.”

His body was almost completely devoured by his divine appearance. A pair of crows circled in the sky...

...

The wind howled in the colorless desert, the hollow sun illuminated it with its bleak light. Outside of the settlement that acted as the base of operations for Mukawa’s swan song, two graves were dug. The gravestones weren’t fancy, they were made up of sharpened bits of colorless wood, tied together with rope to resemble crosses.

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Two soulfuls were buried inside. And two soulfuls were standing over them, wishing they were able to talk to the bodies they had to bury.

The powerful ripples of soul presences caused by the many divine acclamations used during Godkill, most importantly, Kaito’s divine acclamation and the subsequent activation of the Eternal Soulful Night were strong enough to shake up their bodies and effectively wake them up from their half-dead state. Sakuto wasn’t new to such phenomena, he had awakened similarly thanks to Kouta’s divine acclamation after his near-death encounter with Diego. Their regeneration went into full overdrive, and their exhaustion, following the long state of idleness, disappeared.

They slowly got up and cried a lot. They looked at the sky, realizing that the last effort to halt the catastrophe had failed. Mukawa even told Sakuto that there would be no point in leaving anything to him since if Godkill failed, so would everything else. But at that point, they were too desensitized to care. They put on their Heisei uniforms which were patched back up together by Rin, and borrowed some spare combat footwear from the storage units around the place. They rewatched the recordings of the planning meetings, they were undisturbed. Most of the locals had abandoned the place.

But the two soulfuls had another task, something which no one should have to do.

They had to bury their best friends. With their own arms, they had to dig up pits in the ground, dump their cold corpses inside, cover them up and install gravestones where they were. Even they were shocked as to how they managed to do it, despite them being fully functional and aware of their surroundings. Everything felt so surreal they’d guess that they were in nothing but a dream.

Sakuto Hitori and Ichika Hanasaki had to make a difficult decision.

“Ichika, they’re dead.” Sakuto said, coldly staring at the grave. Despite having just woken up, he looked dead tired. His mouth was slightly open, his eye - motionless.

“I know.” Ichika replied.

“And judging by what’s happening, Mukawa is dead too. Since he is dead, it’s safe to assume that everyone involved in the operation is dead too.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And if we were there...”

“We probably would’ve died too.” Ichika said. “Instead, we’re forced to be alive.”

“You’re right.” Sakuto said, slightly raising his right hand and pointing at the grave. His mind was in the deepest, darkest ends of the abyss, where even the mental fog was scared. “And they...”

“They killed each other.” Ichika said.

“How does that...even happen to us...” Sakuto said. “Oskar was the only person in this world that genuinely deserved to live. He died, and...how am I supposed to live now? I...don’t know how to live without knowing that he’s here.”

“And all Ausra did was devote her life to trying to help me.” Ichika said. “And she finally found someone who could help her back. And...”

“They’re dead.” Sakuto said. “And the world is a hopeless mess now...”

They shared a difficult silence.

“Ichika...”

“What is it?”

“Should we just kill ourselves?” Sakuto asked with the same tired voice.

“You...think that’s what we should do?”

“Well, is there even anything else we can do?”

“I...don’t know anymore.” Ichika slowly exhaled. “Maybe if it means we get to see them again...”

“True. We’ll all at least end up together in hell.” Sakuto said. “We do have each other, but...I just can’t imagine being without them. I know I’m not lonely anymore, since I have you, but it’s kind of different.”

“Yeah, I understand.” Ichika said. “There’s a difference. Do you really think we will all end up in the same place in hell though?”

“You think we won’t end up there? After all we’ve done?”

“No, I mean...what if we just never find them?” Ichika asked. “Besides, hell seems like a scary place. Although, at least you know what it is...”

“True. It’s just a pit of lava or something.” Sakuto said. “There’s nothing that can make you attached to it, or care about it, and then disappear forever.”

“God punishes people who take their own lives, right?”

“He should instead focus on making sure the world is possible to live in.” Sakuto bitterly answered. “It’s completely justified for someone to not want to be in pain anymore.”

“What if it’s different, though? I mean, if we’re willing to actually go over to the other side, what if it’s different? What if we...I don’t know, get reincarnated or something? Or what if there’s nothing at all?”

“If it’s darkness, at least we’d be numb. We wouldn’t feel this way anymore.”

“What if we just lose ourselves and everything else, and become someone completely new? Our memories, each other...what if it doesn’t work out?”

“Well, that would be pretty scary.” Sakuto said. “That’s probably the only genuinely scary thing about all of this. But to be honest...I don’t think anything can be scarier or worse than the real world.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Ichika said. “You’re right. This...”

“I was told that life could still get worse, but it didn’t just get worse. It got unbearable.” Sakuto said. “To be honest, I don’t even know if I’m alive anymore.”

They were silent for a little bit.

“How...should we do it?” Ichika asked.

“We could probably just dig up holes for ourselves, grab something sharp and...” Sakuto said, his hand twitching a little. “And do it.”

“And what about Yumichi? And Hiroshi?”

“Well...” Sakuto said, feeling a little disgusted by the fact he’d even utter those words. “I wouldn’t want them to see this. And...I don’t think they have anything to live for either, especially if the world is headed in the direction it’s headed...”

“You’re right, they don’t deserve to live.” Ichika said. “They don’t deserve to suffer.”

“So we can...k-kill them...” Sakuto’s hand twitched a little more. “For mercy’s sake. And if we kill Hiroshi, we will stop whatever’s happening in the world too...”

“You’re right...” Ichika said, her voice more and more shakier by the millisecond.

Sakuto, for a brief moment, was ready to carry out both the executions and following actions himself. He saw a glimpse of the two kids in front of him and even smiled a little, despite the images being but fleeting visuals, akin more to hallucinations.

He clenched his fists a little, he was about to tell her that he was ready to go, but Ichika herself...she broke down crying.

“Ichika...” Sakuto said, too detached to even come up to her.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this...” She said through the heavy sobs. “K-kill...Yumichi...are we fucking....insane...”

Sakuto looked back at the grave.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this...” she continued. “We were never supposed to think about...these things...never...”

“I know.” Sakuto thought, his eye watering a little. “I don’t know what else am I supposed to think about though. The only thing on my mind is the desire to just...not feel this anymore.”

“And I can’t even talk to Oskar about this. All I can do is pretend to talk to him and imagine what he would say.”

“...”

“So what would you say to me, Oskar?” Sakuto asked himself. He recalled many conversations they had in the past, especially considering Sakuto’s shaky mental state. Oskar was a better listener than a talker, it allowed Sakuto to get things off his shoulders, reflect on them and help himself, all while Oskar gave him pushes here and there.

“Every time I felt bad you were there to tell me that it’s worth it to try and to not give into the bad thoughts. It probably made you worried sick...”

“You stopped me from doing bad things and saved me, and yet, here I am, on the verge of taking the leap again. And this time, you aren’t even here anymore. Not in person, and not in my phone either.”

“It’s like all your efforts...”

“...are going to waste.”

He slowly shook his head, almost as if now, he was feeling frustrated.

“No, I’d never do that to you.” He thought, taking a step back. Ichika was taken by surprise, her puffy eyes a little concerned and locked onto her soulmate.

“I wouldn’t let you down like that, even if you’re not here to feel bad about it. Even if nothing I do can affect you anymore...I wouldn’t insult you like that.”

“You wanted me to live.”

“For me to give up, as...” Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveIＦire.net

He had to wipe a rather painful tear off of his eye.

“As easy as it sounds, and as much as I really want to just...let go of everything...”

“I can’t just waste all your efforts like that, man.”

“Ichika...” Sakuto said. “They’d want us to live, wouldn’t they?”

Ichika slowly nodded in agreement.

“Then let’s just...try.” Sakuto said. “We’re probably going to die anyways, but...at least it won’t just be us giving up.”

“I can’t give up, Sakuto. Not while Yumichi is still here.” Ichika said, wiping her tears away. “And not after all Ausra’s done for me. I just...can’t.”

“In that case...” Sakuto reached out and held Ichika’s hand. “Let’s die proper deaths.”

“I bet if I told you that I came to this conclusion...”

“You’d be proud of me, Oskar.”

“What do we do though?” Ichika asked. “As far as we’re aware, it’s just the two of us left.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Sakuto said. “We just focus on moving around as much as possible, and making sure Hiroshi is safe. Since he is Kaito’s main target, we’ll have some sort of leverage.”

“I doubt we can try another full-scale operation.” Ichika said.

“You’re right, we’ll be limited to at most one or two encounters with him. No planning, just...us against him.” Sakuto said. “We need to figure out a way to kill Kaito Kamiki by ourselves.”

He wanted to continue, but something sharply caught his attention. He turned to the side, from where he could sense a presence approaching his location. Ichika felt it too, immediately getting on high alert.

“Could this be-”

“I don’t think so. It’s too weak for someone like Kaito.” Sakuto said. Upon taking a closer look, instead of concern, he was filled with relief.

“Maybe we’re not alone after all.”