Soul Spark

16 - Fleeting Despair

“Damn it, wake him up!”

As the metro train accelerated and rushed towards its next destination, the Heisei, supposed to be celebrating their escape, were faced with a much more complex predicament.

“Shit, he should make it though, shouldn’t he?” Ichigo asked, quickly running through the wagons until he found the emergency medkit attached to one of the walls. He grabbed it and rushed back to his friend.

Carefully taking the bandages out, he began wrapping them around Zawadski’s increasingly unresponsive body.

“Come on, you can’t die.” Ichigo said, shaking him a little, trying to get any type of response out of him. “You...literally can’t die. Your automatic save will kick in.”

“That would only complicate our situation further.” Jian said, biting on her lip. “If he does die, his auto-save will load him just moments before he was shot. Meaning that Kaito might be able to detect and recognize his flaring presence.”

“But still, that means he’ll live.” Ichigo said. “Come on, man. You know better than anyone you gotta wake up right now.”

But the worst reaction was Yuuka’s, she blankly stared at Zawadski, unable to find the right words. She slowly approached him and put her hand on the bandages.

“Kouhai...?”

“Come on, the pulse is relatively stable...” Ichigo said, shaking Zawadski’s head a little more. After losing his patience, he slapped him across his face as hard as he could.

“Ugh...” Zawadski finally grunted.

Everyone took a step back.

“Damn it, it’s really shit without soul prowess...” Zawadski said, running his hands through the bandages, feeling the painful wounds. “Are we far enough? Can I use regeneration?”

“The more we wait just in case, the better.” Jian said, relieved, helping Zawadski stand up.

“Kouhai!!!” Yuuka cheered, jumping at him and embracing him. “You idiot, the hell am I gonna do without you?!”

“Hah, I’m glad I’m not worthless to you...” Zawadski said, slowly breaking away from the embrace. He took a deep breath, and the group remembered that despite an escape that deserved its own celebrations, they had a job to do, and they likely failed it.

“Fucking hell...” Zawadski said. “I’m guessing the old fart’s gonna get his teeth kicked in. Hoping for soulful support is a lost cause.”

“Maybe he gets a few words across?” Ichigo asked.

“Highly unlikely. I suspect Kaito Kamiki will dispose of him.” Jian said. “It was a good attempt.”

“Hey, maybe we can try something better...?” Yuuka thought out loud. “If Kaito isn’t on our tail anymore, I can try hacking through radio channels or billboards or stuff...”

“That implies we have enough time to get to a station like that, make a full stop, wait for however long it takes you to hack into the system and then safely leave...without having to redo this crap.” Zawadski said. “You think the odds of that happening aren’t one in a billion?”

“Still better than zero.” Ichigo said. “We’ll go South and make a stop at Stuttgart. Yuuka, can you do your magic from there?”

“I’ll try.” Yuuka said.

At the same time, on the surface...

Kaito kept walking Heidrich down, sending slashes at him and almost effortlessly outspeeding him and catching up to him. It felt more like a chore to him than an actual battle. The slashes released destroyed buildings that crumbled down, and the flaming arrows amplified the destruction’s scale even more. Until eventually, Kaito got sick of playing chase.

“If I can just...”

“Get back to the HQ, and get to the bunker...”

“I thought the Heisei would fight him off for at least a little bit...”

Kaito dashed in at unexpected speeds and grabbed Heidrich by his uniform again.

“Where is he?” Kaito asked, holding him up in the air again, a white flame slowly burning through his uniform.

“W-where is...who?” Heidrich asked, trying to break free.

“My son. Where is he?” Kaito asked in a much more stern tone. “Considering that your vermin are everywhere, at least one or two of them must have seen something. Where is he?!”

“Your...son?” Heidrich asked, coughing up some blood.

“If you tell me right now, I’ll let you live.” Kaito said. But in response to the promise, Heidrich simply laughed.

“How’d a psychopath like you even manage to find someone to love you, let alone bear your child-”

Those were his last words. A gust of flame destroyed his body, ripping it in half from the middle. The lifeless remnants scattered...

“No...”

“Not good enough.”

“None of this...is good enough.” He looked around him, and the mass destruction around him caused by his presence and the many voidflames storming the area. Despite the fortress falling, he felt that he had achieved nothing.

“And the Heisei’s escape...something’s off.”

“Something that I can handle with a simple upgrade.”

He raised his arm. The center of the hollow sun sparked for a moment, a faint presence pulsed throughout the world.

“You’re gonna have to try a little harder, vengeful soldiers of the soulful world...”

Following the event, the voidflames evolved.

Many voidflames acquired small linear markings under their eyes, grew a few centimeters in size, and their strength, dexterity and endurance were all increased. And their weaponry, which was limited to relatively simple weapons, was now expanded and involved many modern weapons too. Those ‘special agents’ posed a far greater danger to the soulless opposition, and to soulfuls, they evolved from an inconvenience to a potential obstacle.

...

The metro decelerated.

And as soon as the doors opened, they were stormed by a group of voidflames spraying gunfire into the wagon. Waiting the purgatory out, the Heisei exited and began retaliating. Except now, they were far enough from the calamity to use at least basic soul prowess...

Fearlessly absorbing the gunfire and regenerating the shallow, at times even non-existent wounds was Jian - she blasted the voidflames away with precise shots. Ichigo, utilizing his invisibility, undetectably approached the voidlfames and slashed to pieces with his blade. Zawadski and Yuuka pushed forwards too, breaking through the crowd of voidflames.

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Until they came across the enhanced voidflame, that is.

One such specimen wasn’t exactly as easy to take down. In this case, Zawadski, who was, through careful and meticulous savescumming, breaking through the enemy forces, was stopped and had to load a few times to avoid heavy damage and take the target down.

Ichigo, lurking out of his invisibility, swung his blade at an enhanced voidflame, but instead of cutting it down in one fell swoop he faced resistance. The voidflame, using its assault rifle as a club, blocked the blade swing and even swung at Ichigo. Struck in the body by the weapon, Ichigo, confused, took a better look at the target.

“Huh...these ones are different.”

“What the hell?”

Ichigo took a few steps back, dodging more swings. Once he was a meter or so away, the voidflames took aim again and tried to gun him down, but Ichigo quickly sent a flying slash at him that cut its head in half.

“There’s different variants of voidflames now.” Ichigo said. Fresh chapters posted on n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net

“I know. They’re tough assholes.” Zawadski complained, after having to kill yet another one. “Kaito’s getting more and more serious.”

“Come on. Upwards.” Jian said, pointing at the escalator up. They quickly moved in, and, after a series of brutal fights with more and more enhanced voidflames, they left the metro station.

“How do we get to Stuttgart?” Ichigo asked.

“We can take a train, I think...” Yuuka pondered. “Or, we can...nah, a train is our best option. The most reliable as well.”

“Then let’s get to the train station.” Ichigo said. “The only issue is, I can’t fly you there unless I use my divine acclamation, which is as good as calling Kaito directly and telling him where we are.”

“It would be too inefficient to move by foot as well.” Jian commented. “And too exhausting. I suppose-”

“It’s fine guys, I already found us a little something.” Zawadski said, cracking the window of a military truck and getting inside. “Come on, get in.”

“Do you even know how to drive that thing?” Ichigo asked.

“Hey, if there’s one thing I’m the best at, it’s driving these types of things. I’ve got thousands of hours on truck simulators.” Zawadski said.

“And real trucks?”

“Looks, something is better than nothing, alright?” Zawadski complained. “Yuuka, you’ll be with me. Pick the best route.”

They got on board. Ichigo and Jian were in the cargo, and Zawadski took the wheel.

“Yuuka, tell me some good news.”

“Good news is, we can take the highway from here, and get there in less than three hours -^-”

“The better news is, I don’t sense Kaito’s presence close to us.” Ichigo said. “So let’s get there fast while we have the privilege of doing so.” He tapped on the cargo compartment’s wall.

They took off...

...

Ichigo was starting to grow tired of the long drive. Zawadski and Yuuka were trying to stay cheerful, singing along whatever they could listen to on the radio that wasn’t an emergency broadcast, or tirelessly arguing over nothing.

And yet, Ichigo and Jian sat in almost complete silence. The only thing they had to entertain themselves was the sight of the road that they passed behind them, and the limited view they had on the scenery of the vast emerald pastures illuminated by the hollow sunlight.

“Captain...”

“What is it?” Jian suddenly asked back.

“Ah, n-nothing.” Ichigo said. He sighed. “I was just thinking of how our Captain Zervos would’ve been like if he was with us right now.”

Jian was quiet. She briefly saw Zervos’ silhouette sitting right next to them, maybe even telling a story or two from his days in the military or on his many workplaces as he usually did.

She even thought to herself whether or not he’d be proud of them. Or, more specifically, her.

“Thankfully...”

“They do not seem like they dislike me being their leader.”

She glanced at Ichigo, who was also lost in thought.

“Especially-”

“Entering the city!” Zawadski yelled. “Stay careful now, never know what type of bullshit is gonna-”

The truck was completely destroyed, caught in a powerful explosion.

Zawadski floored the truck, avoiding such a fate. Yuuka kissed the windshield because of it, and Ichigo and Jian rolled forward.

“Out!” He yelled.

“Damn it...” Ichigo complained, reasonably upset. ”Should’ve known you can’t drive-”

“Out! Now!!!” Zawadski repeated, hurriedly getting out of the explosion. Just as he did so, he caught a bullet in his head. So he made sure to dive down as soon as he got out. He quickly took cover. The rest of the team also abandoned the vehicle, and for a good reason - a few seconds ago, it was destroyed again.

“Damn voidflames have grenade launchers now...” Zawadski said. “Looks like we’re gonna have to fight our way through this.”

“Yuuka, where’s the radio hub?” Jian asked.

“Should be further up North...” Yuuka said. “Not too far away, actually. We can run there!”

“Then let’s go. We’ll find another truck somewhere.”

They moved through the city.

Countless voidflames tried attacking them, now, they were being noticeably slowed down. The diverse weaponry allowed the voidflames to cover many aspects of warfare - they held sniper positions, utilized explosive weaponry, rushed up close with specially tailored weapons and even melee weapons. The Heisei persevered through.

At the same time, the active soldiers in the area were completely outclassed. They were being not just defeated, but massacred. So much so that they reached the height of despair, and thought that if they’d perish, they might as well take down whatever they can with them and finally escape this hell of a life...

A loud explosion made its presence clear in the distance.

“The hell was that? A missile?” Zawadski asked, looking over at the site. “Wait, isn’t that...”

“The comms tower was also used as a military outpost, wasn’t it?!” Yuuka realized, shocked. “Aw geez, there goes our access...”

“Not yet. Most of the building is still intact.” Ichigo said.

They rushed at the area even fast.

Eventually, they reached their destination. They started carefully clearing the area, fighting off voidflame after voidflame. Getting to the control room, they saw a rather disappointing sight.

“Shit...” Ichigo said, observing the room.

“Ugh, most of the equipment is destroyed. Might take a while to bring everything back together... o\ ~ /o why did they have to make it this complicated???”

“Is it...fixable, at least?” Jian asked.

“Kind of. I have a general idea of how this stuff works.” Ichigo said, walking over to a computer in the room. “If this thing has access to the whole system, our lives will be much easier.”

“Who...are you...”

They all turned to face the source of the voice. It was a soulless soldier, bleeding heavily and barely holding onto his rifle.

“You...killed the voidflames? You’re the reinforcements?” He asked, raising his head.

“Yes, we are.” Ichigo said, approaching him and helping stand straight. “And we need your help. You see that computer over there-”

“No...” The soldier pushed Ichigo’s hand back. “I know that uniform. You’re...fucking...soulfuls!” He aimed his rifle. Jian instinctively took aim at him too, but Ichigo, with a hand signal, told her to halt.

“Hey! Relax, okay?” Ichigo raised his hands. “Don’t shoot now. I know you might not think of us as your allies, but we really need your help.”

“I...I don’t know anymore!” The soldier yelled. “I don’t care! It’s all you...you fucking soulfuls!”

“Hey, no need to-”

“It’s all you!” He said, pulling the trigger and unloading almost an entire magazine on Ichigo. Ichigo stood there, taking the punishment, almost nothing happening to him. “H-huh?”

“Now, will you help us?” Ichigo asked.

“What do you...want from us? All of this...this is all your...fault...” The soldier said, desperately pulling the trigger despite no rounds coming out. He eventually took a deep breath and dropped his weapon.

“Come on, talk to me.” Ichigo said. “Will you help us? All we need is to get access to that computer over there-”

“It’s all your fault!” The soldier yelled, getting a grenade out of his pocket. Before he could pull the pin, Jian shot him in the head and killed him.

“Oh come on!” Zawadski was angered. “This guy could’ve been our best chance, why’d he have to play the hero and take that fucking thing out?”

“Captain, I...could’ve...” Ichigo said, a little taken aback.

“The grenade might have damaged the computer, considering that he was about to rush forwards or throw it.” Jian said. “Besides, we have Yuuka with us. If the hardware was destroyed, we would be left hopeless, but this way, at least Yuuka will have a chance of overcoming its digital protection.”

“Fair point.” Ichigo sighed. He tapped on his earpiece.

“What’s your status?” Sakuto asked from the other end.

“Negotiations with the soulless failed, Kaito got to us and we barely managed to escape.” Ichigo replied. “We’re working towards hacking into a comms system and relaying the plea for help through it. What about you?”

“We’ve just arrived in Moscow.”

The shadow dragon approached the city...