Soul Spark

23 - Proximity

“Yumichi, this is where you have to leave us, okay?” Ichika asked, leaning over and gently holding her little brother’s face. “It’ll be too dangerous. Run away as far as you can, don’t worry. I gave you the earpiece, we’ll try to find each other once we’re done.”

“We’ll have to fight him soon.”

“He won’t be able to keep up...”

“No way, big sis, I’m gonna fight alongside you!” Yumichi objected.

“Yumichi, listen to what your big sis is saying.” Ichika said, in a much more stern voice. “You wouldn’t want to make her sad, would you?”

“No...”

“Then do as I say.” Ichika said. It hurt her to shoo him away like that, but that was the only option left. Yumichi, a bit hesitant, looked at her with sadness in his eyes, and ran away.

“Yumichi...!” Ichika’s sudden call got him to stop and turn around for a bit. Ichika smiled. “It’ll all be okay. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah. I trust you, big sis.” Yumichi said, before running off.

And Ichika, saddened by the necessary parting, embarked on her own journey. She hopped up on the rooftop of a nearby building, and traversed the city, trying to assist her soulmate in the grueling task of finding Hiroshi.

Sakuto himself, tearing through the skies with a pair of shadowy wings, had his sights set on Hiroshi. The kid was on the ground, his wings that got him to the city had dissipated. He had to travel the rest by foot, by himself. But his heart was still aiding him, the heart that almost gravitated towards the soulful who needed him the most.

“Damn it, why the fuck is he making everything so complicated...” Sakuto thought, chasing after him. He fired off a shadow tendril at Hiroshi, it grabbed him by his arm and quickly dragged him towards him.

But once Hiroshi was almost in his face, he fought back. He manifested a small sword made out of pure soul prowess and attacked Sakuto the instant the weapon was crafted. Sakuto, surprised, quickly summoned his own blade and blocked the attack, which felt surprisingly heavy. The left part of Hiroshi’s chest began glowing more and more, and his strength increased with it.

Sakuto descended to the ground, still trying to hold the kid that kept trying to cut him down. Hiroshi quickly changed his target and sliced the tendrils, pushing himself further away, before trying to run again.

“Hiroshi, what the fuck are you doing?!” Sakuto yelled, trying to get at least some sort of context behind his actions. But Hiroshi didn’t reply, he just kept running while occasionally looking back.

“Haah...soon, soon...I can feel dad’s presence, I just have to...”

“Keep running...” He thought, slowly growing short of breath.

Sakuto looked in his direction. Precisely shadow stepping right in front of him, he tried to grab him, but Hiroshi held him off. His arms were, for a second, enhanced with enough soul prowess to hold his ground.

“Do you have a death wish?” Sakuto yelled at him. “We’re trying to do anything so you don’t meet your dad, do you even know what he might do to you?!”

“Let...go!” Hiroshi yelled. A sudden, burst-like release of soul prowess around him knocked Sakuto away, and he was able to attempt escaping again.

“No, no one’s dying anymore.” Sakuto thought, conjuring a small shadow knife in his hand. “It might hurt a little, but if that’s what it takes, so be it.”

He threw the knife at Hiroshi. It would land perfectly on his leg, with enough force behind it to pierce it and preferably immobilize him. However, something got in the way. The attack had struck not the kid, but the voidflame angel that had made its appearance on the battlefield just in the nick of time.

“Huh...the hell is that thing? A voidflame?” Sakuto asked himself, mustering a small pool of shadows beneath him.

“It looks even more enhanced.”

“Whatever, I’ll just-”

He felt something pierce him in the back. Soon, two more piercing sensations would be felt, those being on the side of his stomach and his foot. In shock, he turned around, failing to see anything flanking him.

That’s where he looked up. He saw all the eleven other angels, swarming above him. They flew like vultures, circling the sky and preparing to rip their prey apart one by one. A series of spears flew at him, but now that he was aware of the threat, he shadow stepped - appearing behind one of them.

With a powerful swing of his blade, he decapitated one of them instantly. Two more flew towards him and tried to take him down, but Sakuto sent a sequence of shadow tendrils and tentacles at them. To his surprise, they fought them off for quite some time. Another spear pierced him in the back, another voidflame angel flanked him and got up close to him.

“Shit, these things are like actual soulfuls...”

“Shadow regeneration will heal the damage, but their quantity...they’re taking way too long to deal with.”

A pair of sharpened shards of ice pierced the angel that had him on its spear, and two more sharp icicles flew at the two angels rushing him.

“Sakuto, where’s Hiroshi?!” Ichika yelled from below. “Get to him, I’ll deal with these-”

She was attacked by an angel that was supposed to be dead. She blocked the spear attack, evading more and more swings until she got the opportunity to properly fight back. An ice blast knocked it back, and Ichika’s rush takedown got her close enough to slash its face open with her kunai. The angel swung its fist at her, but she masterfully dodged the blow, hitting it with a sweeping kick. Once it was on the ground, Ichika leaned and pressed her palm on its head.

“Soul Interpretation: Flash Freeze!”

The angel’s body was destroyed completely. She turned her attention to the skies again, Sakuto was throwing dozens of shadow weapons at the swarm of angels trying to rush at him. And once she looked to her side, the angel that was supposed to be frozen and shattered apiece, starting sticking itself back together.

“Damn it, are they...”

“Ichika...” Sakuto called out from above. “We have to deal with these things, fast...” His presence started suddenly flaring up.

“You mean...?”

“Everyone knows where everyone is already.” Sakuto said. He caressed his uniform, feeling the crystal’s presence in it. He took a deep breath. So did Ichika, watching as roughly half of the angels busy in the sky descended and faced her from a distance.

“Alright then...” Sakuto thought. “I don’t have to worry too much about exhaustion. I know how to handle it this time.”

“I’ll follow your call, Sakuto.” Ichika thought, her own presence flaring up. “I guess the operation, as improvised as it is, has indirectly already started...”

They unleashed the full monstrous power of their presences...and souls.

“ ✦ DIVINE // ACCLAMATION ✦ ”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“ ✦ REGRETLESS SOULSCAPE // ABYSSAL FROSTBITE ✦ ”

A paralyzingly dense and terrifying presence was spread throughout the city. The two most powerful soulfuls alive, with the exception of the white crow himself, released the full extent of their power. Hiroshi, sensing the destructive presences, quickly remembered Ichigo’s advice when he was escaping from him. He took a few seconds to properly protect his soul against the heavy dimming in the area.

Kaito took a moment to acknowledge them, they took him by surprise.

“So this was their declaration of war...?”

“I’m disappointed in you, Sakuto Hitori. I thought you’d side with me.”

“But who am I to judge the fate you’ve chosen for yourself?” Kaito said, his own presence rising even more. He began flying towards the center of the city, where he predicted Hiroshi would go. “It will all be a pointless effort anyways.”

“Nothing will stop me.”

The Heisei’s squad was shocked by the development too.

“Sakuto, status report!” Jian said, as Ichigo decided to land for a few seconds. Zawadski immediately rushed to Yuuka, to try and help her with her almost fatal wounds. She was still hanging in there.

“They have some next level fucking voidflames here.” Sakuto said. “You said Kaito’s after you, right?”

“He was.”

“Hiroshi’s running towards his presence.” Sakuto said. “We’ll chase after him, but you’ll have to intercept him.”

“You used your fucking divine acclamation, you better tell me you have that crystal in your hand as we speak and you’re ready to shove it up Kaito’s ass!” Zawadski interrupted the comms, ripping off parts of his uniform to use them as bandages and patch Yuuka up.

“Come on, move out now!” Jian yelled, holding onto the wound at the base of her missing arm, still bleeding a little from it. “Top priority on reuniting with them!”

“Intercept the kid, get him...anywhere not near Kaito, and join us. I have it on me right now.” Sakuto said. “I have to somehow deal with these things...”

“I don’t want to use soul breaker, I need to keep it available against Kaito and avoid unnecessary exhaustion...” Sakuto thought, up in the sky, with the colorful gray surrounding him, especially around his eye.

“I don’t want to use abyssal frostbite, I need to keep it available against Kaito and avoid unnecessary exhaustion...” Ichika thought, down on the ground, taking the ice fox form.

Sakuto unleashed a powerful gust of raw destruction - in the form of the destructive factor of his acclamation. All of the angels were shredded to pieces, and the city landscape behind them was torn to dust. On the ground, Ichika unleashed a strong enough ice blast to knock all six angels back, later on dashing at them at incredible speeds, tearing them down one by one with claw strikes and flash freezes. The two soulfuls looked at each other, signaling to move forwards.

And as they started to push towards where they thought Hiroshi would be, they were resurrected once more. Sakuto, with well-timed maneuvers, was able to evade most of the spears they threw at him while going after him. And Ichika, on the ground, replicated the same feat by skating around.

Sakuto saw Hiroshi again, running deeper and deeper into the city.

“It’s not just Hiroshi causing problems...” Sakuto thought, firing off multiple tendrils in Hiroshi’s direction. The latter, noticing him behind him, mustered up his soul prowess into a shield behind him. “Kaito’s coming closer to him himself, and he’s much faster than his son.”

“And Hiroshi’s soul expression, what is it? Manipulation of soul prowess itself?”

“It’s...similar to shadow manipulation. I’ve fought this matchup before. This...”

“This would’ve been unbelievably easier if my task was to kill him, not to catch him!”

He shadow stepped in front of Hiroshi again. He swung at him, and Hiroshi, reflexively, blocked the attack. He was much more scared now that he saw Sakuto actually try and take a swing at him.

“All I need is one connection to his jaw, maybe I can knock him unconscious...” Sakuto thought, bouncing back and forth, dipping into the shadow, popping out of Hiroshi’s own shadow once more and swinging again.

He felt something incredibly sharp pierce his stomach. It was a spike of soul prowess coming from Hiroshi’s chest.

“My ability, it’s like...it’s helping me when I’m not even focused on it...”Hiroshi thought, this time, it was his turn to try and swing. He landed a clean hook on Sakuto’s torso, it did almost no damage.

“Damn it, I still can’t fight him...”

Sakuto grabbed him by his hair. Hiroshi shrieked a little in pain, and while Sakuto felt bad for him, he persevered on using that method.

“Let go! Let me talk to my dad!” Hiroshi yelled, starting to sound like he was pleading in despair. “I...I can fix everything! Just trust me!”

“No, you’ll leave it to us. We’ll take care of it.” Sakuto sternly replied. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

“No!” Hiroshi yelled in frustration. “You’ll kill my dad!”

Sakuto recoiled a little hearing those words, on the verge of zoning out. He quickly recollected himself and cast a formation of shadows to form around Hiroshi, aiming to wrap around and imprison Hiroshi. But once the shadows started forming, they were broken apart.

Two pure white spears broke them from the side, and the third one pierced Sakuto and broke it from the front. Hiroshi was amazed, in his eyes, something was finally able to damage Sakuto. Sakuto turned around to quickly ward them off, but another angel quickly snatched Hiroshi from in front of him, breaking his hold on him. In the distance, he saw Ichika trying to chase after the other four, constantly destroying their bodies with her soul expression.

“Sakuto, there’s eight here!” Ichika yelled, continuing his relentless assault against the four that were trying to fight her. In reality, they were trying to hold her off.

“It’s these...creatures again.” Hiroshi thought, caught by shock for a few seconds, observing them.

“They’re...attacking them? They look like the voidflames from before, but...why aren’t these attacking me? Is it because they can see my face? Or...”

Sakuto turned around, shadow stepping behind the angel standing in between him and Hiroshi. He broke its legs with a shadow-imbued low kick, and split its body in half by slamming his blade on the ground and firing a tremendous release of soul prowess point blank. He pointed to the sky, where the other three angels were preparing to rush him.

Following one simple ability activation from Sakuto, the colorful gray essence surrounding them was powered by the destructive factor, shredding their bodies to pieces with little to no effort.

The angel he killed just a few seconds ago was resurrected. So were the ones Ichika discarded earlier. And the one close to Sakuto, on the ground, quickly stood before Hiroshi, like a parent protecting their child.

The other angels swarmed him too, almost forming a wall in front of him.

Instinctively, Sakuto raised his arm. Just one release of the destructive factor would crack them all into pieces. But Hiroshi was also there.

“Sakuto, your adaptation...” Ichika asked, approaching him. “Can’t you adapt to their immortality?”

“They’re not immortal. There’s nothing inside them keeping them immortal.” Sakuto said, stressed out. He needed to think of a plan, fast. “Something external is. They die, they just keep getting...revived from the outside.”

“If I trap everything into an orb of shadows, they’ll just break out.”

“If I get Ichika to surround them with thick enough ice...they’ll still manage to. There’s eight of them here. And we won’t be able to get inside properly. If we’re there from the start, we won’t be able to fight them properly without keeping Hiroshi harmless. Fuck...”

“Wait...wasn’t there twelve?”

The realization shocked him. He quickly tapped on his earpiece.

“Captain! Watch out, four unkillable voidflames are headed towards you!”

“Direction and speed?!” Jian quickly asked. However, her question was answered rather quickly. One of the spears pierced her.

“Captain!” Ichigo called out, before turning his attention to the four angels hovering in the sky.

“The captain has already suffered enough...”

“ ✦ DIVINE RING OF EXORCISM!!! ✦ ”

The pillar of light burnt the angels down. However, it stayed active in the area, consistently scorching them as soon as they tried to awaken. He held the attack active for quite some time, before Zawadski tapped him on his shoulder. Yuuka now walked beside him, albeit with some difficulty.

“We’re close to the interception point, lightbulb.” Yuuka spoke up. “We have to move.”

“Then let’s go, fast, before they chase us again.” Ichigo said. Zawadski and Yuuka rushed forward, and Ichigo waited for Jian to properly regenerate her piercing wound. Her arm was still missing.

“Captain, you should-”

“We are falling behind.” Jian said with command and power behind her voice. She tried to walk properly, but her blood loss started causing her to feel dizzy.

“Here, it’s fine. Take some time to heal up.” Ichigo said, approaching her and turning around.

“Thank you...” Jian sighed in slight relief, grabbing onto him, before tightening the grip a few seconds later. They took off.

At the same time, Sakuto kept trying to assassinate the angels with rapid, remote shadow attacks. Ichika rushed up close, trying to grab a hold of Hiroshi. They both had to limit themselves in order not to hurt the child.

However, amidst her exchanges, they noticed that Hiroshi too acquired a pair of wings of his own...