Soul Spark

12 - Core Infiltration

They had no choice but to enter.

They dug into the upper part of a hallway, one of the many in the underground area, the catacombs of soulful records. They carefully jumped down, observing their surroundings like lost tourists.

“I can already feel soul presences.” Sakuto said. “Feels the same as the other voidflames we fought on the surface.”

“That’s not the problem.” Ichika said.

“Hm?”

“We don’t even know where we’re going.” Ichika explained. “This has thousands, if not millions of papers stocked inside, and that’s not accounting for digital archives.”

“Whatever we’re looking for, I doubt it’s in a digital archive.” Sakuto said. “The fact that people like Yuuka exist who can hack through virtually anything means Kaito wouldn’t risk it.” He turned to face Hiroshi. “Hiroshi, do you know the layout of this place.”

“K-kind of...” Hiroshi hesitantly replied. “There’s a lot of tunnels, but it’s not too confusing. There’s an elevator that can travel between the layers, but there’s some areas that can be accessed only through special entrances.”

“Woah...how do you know that much?” Yumichi asked, fascinated.

“I...used to sneak around here sometimes. I was curious what my dad was up to.” Hiroshi bitterly replied.

“And you didn’t find any of the stuff that suggests he’d do something like this?” Sakuto asked, as the four of them walked deeper into the hallway. Shelves upon shelves of documents surrounded them, paired with various sealed boxes and even firearms. “What kind of material did you even find?”

“Combat records...” Hiroshi replied. “Not even I could enter the lowest floors.”

“Then lead us towards the elevator.” Sakuto told him. Hiroshi begrudgingly nodded and walked along, the other three followed him.

The lightning was bleak, barely enough to properly illuminate the area. For the supposed most important organization in the world, the design reminded them more of an abandoned bunker system.

“Hold it.” Sakuto said, signaling the rest to stop. He quickly dipped into the shadows, popping out around the corner and stabbing a voidflame in its neck with a shadow knife. Two other voidflames, further across that hallway, took aim at him, but he quickly summoned his blade and released a deadly slash their way.

“Shit...”

“If their detection works based on sensing soul presences, they pretty much found out that three of them died.”

“Then again, being completely stealthy is borderline impossible.”

“We move out. Fast.” Sakuto ordered, rushing back to the group. “Where’s the elevator?”

“It’s there. This one’s the closest to us.” Hiroshi pointed at a faraway entrance. They quickly ran towards it.

“It’s locked behind a pad. Should’ve seen this coming.” Sakuto said. “We can always just drill our way down, I guess-”

The elevator access was unlocked. A few seconds later, it swiftly arrived and opened its unsettlingly old doors.

“I have the access card on me.” Hiroshi said, putting the small chip back into his pocket. They went inside. Sakuto pressed the button that indicated the lowest possible floor, the doors shut, and the slow descent began.

“Something’s off.” Sakuto thought.

“I killed the voidflames that I sensed, but the presence is still just as strong. As a matter of fact, it’s growing even stronger.”

The elevator shook a little.

“Something’s definitely off.”

“Hey, Hiroshi...you said that this one was the closest elevator to us, right?” Sakuto asked, looking at its ceiling. “Does that mean there’s more than one?”

“There is.”

The ceiling was broken apart, revealing a voidflame. Sakuto instantly cast a veil of shadows around Hiroshi, trying his hardest to not expose his identity. Despite his many covers, he didn’t want to take any risks. He quickly made a shadow arrow in his palms and launched it at the voidflame’s head. Another one dropped down, this time, the elevator trembled much more. It pointed its rifle at the group. The elevator arrived at its destination.

Sakuto killed the voidflame above them, but as the elevator doors slowly opened, he was subject to a much more brutal surprise. Around eight voidflames, all aiming their weapons at the entrance, looking almost like a firing squad.

“Fuck...I was right! Something’s fucking off!!!”

Thankfully, Ichika’s reflexes were fast enough. She quickly conjured a thick wall of ice, blocking the flood of gunfire. Sakuto summoned a pair of shadow tentacles which launched themselves at the group, manically swinging around in hopes of decapitating the enemies.

“Hiroshi, where’s that entrance to the lowest floor?” Sakuto asked, remotely butchering the enemies.

“I...I don’t remember...” Hiroshi replied. “I never went there...”

“Maybe this is for the better. If we don’t get there...”

“All clear.” Ichika said, destroying the ice barricade. They anxiously left the elevator. “If we don’t know where it is, our only option is to just drill down again.”

“And where exactly are we gonna drill? Too much surface, that thing could be anywhere.” Sakuto said.

“Then we better drill a lot.” Ichika said.

“Soul Interpretation: Flash Freeze!”

Parts of the floor were destroyed, unfortunately revealing more concrete. More voidflames dropped down into the elevator, preparing to attack. On the opposing end, a pair of voidflames emerged. The group was surrounded.

“Ichika! Cover them!” Sakuto called out. His shadows formed a shield in front of him, while Ichika quickly created an ice barricade on the other side. Sakuto with small shadow daggers, and Ichika with icicles, started fighting them off.

“We’re only gonna get a little bit of time. There’s gonna be waves of them.” Ichika said.

“So then what’s the strategy?” Sakuto asked, trying to hold the voidflames off.

“We break the whole floor open if we have to.” Ichika said. “But we’re gonna find it.”

And while the deafening gunfire was playing in the background...

“Damn it...” Hiroshi thought. “This will take so long...”

“And everything’s so loud...”

“Dad...”

“Maybe you had something there that can help me understand you better?”

“Right. The answer. Something that will help everything make sense.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I need to get there.”

They did so multiple times. They covered up, fought off the voidflame, and moved to a different position to try and pry the floor open, seeing little success in the last part.

“Come on, thing...I...”

“I think I did go somewhere around there this one time. I think...it was...”

“This way!” Hiroshi yelled, running out of the cover, dangerously close to catching a bullet in his head.

“Huh-Hiroshi!!!” Sakuto yelled, quickly letting go of the cover. “What the fuck is he doing?!”

Hiroshi had already reached the end of the hallway and taken the left turn.

“Ichika, protect Yumichi! I’ll deal with this shit!” Sakuto said, running off behind him. He took the left turn, but not before quickly decapitating the voidflames waiting for him on the right turn. “Hiroshi! Get back here!”

“I know where it is...” Hiroshi said, running through the hallways, avoiding the confrontations. Sakuto attempted to shadow step to him and grab him, but when he popped out in front of him, Hiroshi managed to slip to the side and keep running.

“It should be...here...”

“No...”

“Was it...? No, it has to be-”

He took the left turn and was met with a dead end. In front of it - a voidflame, pointing its gun at him. Suddenly, everything felt much colder. Before, he at least knew that either his father would protect him, or the people threatening to kill him wouldn’t actually carry the execution out.

But now, he was face to face with a creature that, from his perspective, couldn’t even comprehend what a human or a feeling was. He had no choice but to stare at the barrel of the voidflame’s rifle. Instinctively, he wanted to run, but his body froze up badly.

“...”

“Dad...?”

Sakuto popped out of the voidflame’s shadow and sliced its arms off, disarming it. The voidflame swung at Sakuto, but the latter weaved to the side and landed a strong knee to its body before stepping back and cutting its head off.

“Did he get you?!” Sakuto quickly asked, approaching Hiroshi and checking his body for any wounds.

“No...”

“Where’s the entrance?” Sakuto asked him, putting his hands on Hiroshi’s shoulders. “You know where it is, right?”

“If Oskar were here, we would’ve found this already.”

“It’s...”

“...”

“Hiroshi, focus!” Sakuto lightly shook him. “Don’t worry about that, you’re alive, that’s what matters. Just, focus!” New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NoveIꜰire.net

Hiroshi slowly turned around and faced a rather narrow pathway down. A narrow, gray flight of stairs leading to a heavily reinforced door.

“But...”

“Dad, you...”

“Ichika! Over here!” Sakuto yelled out, approaching the door. Hiroshi remained in place.

Sakuto went back and dragged Hiroshi down. He grabbed the chip out of his pocket and tried to scan it, but to no avail. The, aside from the chip’s presence, relied on a physical key. Ichika and Yumichi approached them.

“What is it?” Ichika asked.

“Locked. Might have to just break in.” Sakuto said. He charged up another drill in his hand, but Ichika quickly stopped him.

“Don’t. High chance there’s an alarm system attached to it.” Ichika said. “Go through the wall instead.”

“Right.” Sakuto nodded. He took a deep breath, focused his shadows and strength around his foot and, a moment later, kicked a hole in the wall. The chunk of reinforced concrete flew forwards, landing on the wooden floor of the area.

The room was strange. It was dimly lit, surrounded by multitudes of whiteboards, bookshelves and a lone desk in the middle.

“So this is where he spent his free time?” Sakuto asked himself. “Usually they have some secret laboratories or weapon hubs in movies...not a messy office.”

“And besides...”

“He’s obsessed with the GSC’s symbol.”

The hexagon with a cross in the middle was sketched on most surfaces and whiteboards, as well as the many papers scattered around. Sakuto began snooping around, picking up document after document, trying to find anything useful.

“Take a look at this. A fucking roadmap.” Sakuto said, looking at one of the whiteboards. “He’s been planning to wage war on the strongholds for a while.”

He approached it.

“Six souls...in charge of fractions of the world...?” Sakuto asked himself.

“It’s all been a roadmap for him.” Ichika said, scouting through the notebooks on the desk. “He’s also got an obsession with holy books...”

“Hey, what’s this?” Yumichi asked, picking up a sheet of paper with figures drawn on it. “Is he, like, an artist too?”

“What’s that?” Ichika asked, approaching him. A second later, her eyes lit up. “Wait...is this...a self-portrait? Sakuto, look!”

Sakuto quickly rushed over.

“He sketched his own appearance...quite awfully, actually.” Sakuto thought out loud. “But then this, he’s got wings, a white appearance...it’s exactly like what Zawadski described.”

“That means...” Ichika turned her gaze to the third gaze. It had a generally similar form, but much more profound wings, and two pairs instead of one. It was almost completely white, with the GSC’s symbol carved on its chest. Only some parts of it were a sick, twisted black.

“That means whatever roadmap he’s following now, this will be the end result.” Sakuto said. “Turn the paper over.”

Ichika did just that.

“Right...there it is.” Sakuto said, pointing at the scrambled texts on it. “Six souls, and the central element...that’s what he needs to evolve.”

“The central element?”

“Look, the GSC symbol...his obsession with it is connected to that roadmap. The six edges of the hexagon, and the thing in the middle is that ‘central element’. Something which, considering all things...”

“...he doesn’t have.” Ichika said. She slowly turned to face Hiroshi, who was awkwardly pacing around the room, listening into the conversation. “Could it be that...”

“Hiroshi is it? The central element?” Sakuto asked.

“That’s the most likely case.” Ichika said. “But then again...if he apparently devoured the souls of the other six soulfuls, this means that-”

“Hey, it’s...not guaranteed, okay?” Sakuto haphazardly replied. “Whatever is the case...it won’t matter if we don’t let them come into contact in the first place.”

“Nah. No way the kid’s gonna die.”

“I’m not letting-”

His thoughts were interrupted by a screech of pain from Hiroshi. He, when exploring the desk, came across an interesting sight - a framed picture of a young woman. It made his heart ache, with intensity that he’s never felt before.

“Hiroshi! What the hell is going on?” Sakuto rushed to him, trying to hold him.

“Ugh, it’s...it’s going away...” Hiroshi said.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know, my heart just started hurting like hell.” Hiroshi said.

“Yeah, I don’t have a good feeling about this, Ichika.” Sakuto said. “Let’s get outta here. We got the information we needed.”

“Wait, did we?”

“Yes. We learnt what we needed to learn.” Sakuto said. “One, is that Hiroshi doesn’t just need to be kept safe. He needs to be locked away for the time being so that Kaito doesn’t somehow reach an even stronger state. Two, the soul crystal will definitely work against him. Especially if there’s not just his own soul there, but also other peoples’ souls...either he gets trapped, or at the very least he gets destabilized to the point of being incapacitated.”

“Then let’s go get the crystal.” Ichika said. “We pick it up, we drop off Hiroshi somewhere, and we deal with Kaito.”

[ON THE SURFACE]

“Delta division six, reporting to HQ. All units in position.”

“What is your combat readiness?”

“We’ve taken some gunfire on the way, but managed to make our way through the voidflames. It seems that there is something attracting them in the old GSC headquarters.” The soldier said into his radio. Roughly a hundred of them were positioned in the area, all having their crosshairs on the building, some from up-close, some from afar through the lenses of sniper rifles and artillery cannons.

“Then it was the right choice. How is the Heisei unit activity?”

“We cannot verify their positions right now.”

“Then whatever is inside of that building might hold an answer to all of this.” The general said with his slightly raspy yet stern voice. “Delta division six, positioned in Tokyo, you are free to begin all operations.”

“Understood.” The soldier relayed. He took a deep breath, before switching to a different communications channel.

“Operation is live.”

The general, on the other hand, was deep in thought. Appointed to effectively lead humanity’s resistance, or, more specifically, whatever was left of it, he was upset that he didn’t possess great soul prowess like the Heisei’s hounds did. Though a soulful, he, like Mukawa, saw no difference between the soulfuls and the soulless.

He sat at his desk, in the large parliamentary complex in Berlin that was transformed into a wartime HQ, pondering over the hundreds of strategic nuances involved in the conflict. He heard gunfire outside, the voidflames were running rampant, especially in this part of the world.

“The most concerning factor is the Heisei.”

“Considering how their loyalty to Kaito Kamiki extends to the point of waging war against not only Otto Richter, but also the cursed stronghold...”

“They must not be treated as allies. But...they can be of use.”

He connected to the groups.

“Halt the Heisei’s advances in Southern Europe. At the same time, assure that the agents in Tokyo are captured.”