Soul Spark

24 - Divine Soulful Purpose

The Heisei rushed towards their allies as fast as they could.

Ichigo, carefully evading incoming spears through the skies, not willing to waste any of his other wings. The two angels chasing them down kept trying to strike them, however, the response they received was harsher than they could anticipate. Jian, thanks to a gust of determination caressing her soul, started regrowing her lost limb.

Now holding onto Ichigo with her freshly reforged left arm, she could use her right arm to target and shoot down the angels.

Zawadski and Yuuka made their way too, running through the often narrow city terrain. The two angels kept piercing Zawadski with their spear tosses, but every time, Zawadski loaded back in and dodged.

“Kouhai...” Yuuka said, starting to slow down. A spear pierced her in the head, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Thanks to Zawadski, he rushed to her in time and pushed her away. The spear ended up piercing him in the leg instead, but that was a much more favorable outcome. While Yuuka tried to regenerate more, Zawadski came face to face with two of the angels.

“Come on then!” He exclaimed, as the spear in his leg disappeared and reappeared in one of the angels’ hands.

He charged at them, dying a few times in the process, but trying persistently and eventually reaching his destination. He struck one of them hard enough to push them away a significant distance, and the other one, which went in for a heavy spear swing, was grabbed by Zawadski up close. Zawadski circled around it, eventually grabbing its head and ripping it off.

“Yuuka, get on my back, now!” Zawadski said, with the latter quickly hopping on. Zawadski was pierced a few more times, with Yuuka dying too, but every death was loaded and avoided. And as the angels got closer...

“What the hell...who do you think...you are?!” Yuuka growled, a large amount of the pink mass manifesting around her hand. As one of the angels lunged towards her, she struck it with all of her might, pulverizing it completely alongside a row of buildings behind it.

“Sakuto, situation report on the fucking interception point, now!” Zawadski yelled into his earpiece, jumping up on one of the rooftops, carrying his comrade alongside him.

He saw an exceptionally powerful gust of destruction in the distance.

“Well, no need to ask now...”

He turned around to see the two angels still chasing them down, but they were quickly shot down by Jian from above. And at last, they arrived at the scene, and so did the angels.

Except now, the angels all grouped up in one spot - all around Hiroshi. While he did seem confused, he started to feel more in control of the situation.

“These things...dad, did you send them after me?”

All of the angels covered Hiroshi, forming a type of wall around them. A large area of the city was already destroyed, and Hiroshi, looking ahead of him, saw two, and now six soulfuls, all trying to capture him.

“These creatures, dad...they can help me, right?”

“They can help me get to you...”

His heart beat faster and faster, feeling like it was about to burst out of his chest. He felt a surge of soul prowess, but aside from that, he also felt the presence of the angels slowly climbing.

“Zawadski, you’re the only one who can snatch him out of here.” Sakuto immediately said, seeing his ally arrive.

“Fuck...I’ll try.” Zawadski said, taking a deep breath and starting to close the distance.

“It’ll take a few hundred attempts at least to find the perfect strategy for this, but...”

“I’m the only one capable of this.”

“The task is to safely extract him.” Jian said, taking aim. “Sakuto, go in with Zawadski. Use shadow manipulation. I’ll provide cover fire.”

And at the same time, Ichigo entered his invisibility...

“Dad, I think...I have an idea. If you saw me doing this, you’d be proud.”

“You...how do I...call you?” Hiroshi asked the voidflame angels, who were busy standing their ground against him. To Zawadski’s dismay, they weren’t attacking him at all. Sakuto couldn’t risk shadow stepping too deep into them, Jian’s gunfire wouldn’t kill everything fast enough, and Ichigo couldn’t get close either.

“They’re...not attacking?” Ichika asked herself, surprised. “I have an idea. If they’re going to remain idle for so long...”

“They stand the same way, but in the air, they’ll be separated.”

“Sakuto! Catch him!” Ichika yelled. She touched the ground, and a few seconds later a large ice formation emerged from beneath all of them. It threw them up into the air.

Sakuto, catching onto the plan, quickly fired off a shadow tendril at Hiroshi. One of the angels tried grabbing onto Hiroshi, but its head was quickly blasted off by Jian. Ichigo climbed out of his invisibility, attacking the angels that tried to get too close to the kid. The tendril was close to connecting, but...

“It’s okay...”

“I know you’re protecting me, dad.”

On the other side of the equation was Kaito himself. He was destroying everything he flew over with rapid releases of destructive white flame. He was flying closer and closer to the very center of the city - the Vatican itself. He was automatically resurrecting the angels, but he could not directly see what they saw. He only gave them a simple command, to fetch the central element.

But now, sensing the Heisei’s incredible presences, especially the two of his most dangerous fighters, he decided to employ a slightly different plan.

“Their presences are drowning that of the central element, I cannot identify it correctly. But they’re being held off quite well...”

“In that case...”

A pulse was felt throughout the city. It was a direct command, from the white crow to its subordinates.

The angels all had their presences jump up in their intensity. They shattered apart, melting into one another, around Hiroshi himself. They all formed a much larger, almost gigantic voidflame - the grand voidflame archangel, the final agent of Kaito’s purpose.

“What is this...?” Hiroshi wondered, but it felt strangely safe inside it. Almost as if it was trying to embrace him.

Hiroshi’s presence in the archangel’s body was visible by a distinct area of black on its otherwise pure white body, in the region where the heart is in a human. The archangel had not one pair of wings, but six different pairs - with an enormous halo above it. Most importantly - its weapon changed too, it now wielded a tremendous pure white sword.

It swung the sword at the ground, the strike strong enough to shatter it and cause a small quake.

But instead of continuing to fight, it turned around and began to head towards the center of the city, where Kaito was waiting for him.

“I...I see...” Hiroshi thought, summoning a small blade out of soul prowess. He held onto it tightly.

“Makes sense...”

“Kill that thing now! Don’t target the heart!” Sakuto yelled. He focused the power of his acclamation all into multiple points. The destructive factor of his divine acclamation completely destroyed its entire lower body. The figure fell down on the ground, but seconds later, it was regenerated.

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Ichika was the next one to rush in. The creature growled as it stood back up, now, turning around and trying to fight. It tried to stomp on Ichika, but she quickly dodged out of the way and leapt up, touching its leg.

A flash freeze destroyed a large chunk of it, and it came tumbling down. Jian’s well-aimed shot destroyed its head completely. Finally, Sakuto, by carefully wrapping shadow wires around the rest of its limbs and parts of its body, managed to dismantle it into pieces.

And yet, it still wouldn’t bulge. They tried breaking it apart multiple times, but every effort was fruitless.

“No fucking point in it, it’s just gonna keep getting up.” Zawadski complained.

“Lightbulb, you’ve fought something like this before, right? How did you get it?” Yuuka asked.

“It was different, back then we had to-” He had an enlightenment. “Sakuto, tear its heart open, we’ll extract Hiroshi out of it!”

Sakuto looked back and nodded. For more chapters visıt novel⚑fire.net

He soared into the sky, summoning two massive shadow tentacles to deliver hard blows to the archangel. Enraged, it tried to swing its sword, which was effectively an extension of its own body, right at Sakuto. Sakuto concentrated, summoned his blade and released a slash powerful enough to break the sword into pieces.

Another such slash was thrown at the deity’s legs, severing them completely.

“Ichika!!!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Got it!” Ichika said. She summoned her kunai and struck the ground. And a moment later, large ice spikes emerged, piercing the archangel’s body, and spreading the frostbite effect onwards. The archangel wasn’t destroyed yet, nor did it have the privilege of regeneration thanks to Ichika’s ice.

Sakuto, with two more slashes, cut off its two giant arms. He flew towards the heart, and hovered next to it. The archangel tried to move around, almost as if trying to hit Sakuto with its body movements, but Ichika was taking care of the issue.

The ice climbed higher and higher on its body, freezing it in place. Soon enough, it was completely defanged.

“Fucking finally...”

“You have a lot of things to explain to us, Hiroshi.” Sakuto said, approaching the heart area. Large shadow claws emerged from his hands, and he stabbed the archangel with them.

“We’ll put you in a fucking prison cell if we have to, and we’ll kill your dad.”

He pried the heart area open.

There was nothing.

“Huh...?”

Sakuto panicked.

“Sakuto? What’s his condition?” Ichika asked from below.

“He’s...not here...”

He carefully looked around, scooping every bit of the inner body with his claws. Soon, he didn’t even know if he was seeing things right. Things started looking dimmer and dimmer.

“He’s...where the fuck is he?!” Sakuto yelled. He climbed out of the archangel’s body, as Ichika finished completely covering it in ice.

“What do you-” Ichigo tried to clarify, but the answer, as dire as it was, came to him. “This whole thing...it was a distraction, wasn’t it?”

“You’re telling me that Hiroshi...was in control of those things?” Sakuto asked in disbelief. “No, nonononono, not another death.”

“Not another casualty.”

“Please.”

“He wasn’t.” Jian answered. “But someone else was.”

In shock, they all charged forwards, rushing towards the center. The fastest was Sakuto, hopping through shadows all over the place.

Hiroshi’s plan was brilliant. He was running through the city, almost at its heart.

“I don’t know if dad could hear me through these things, and...I don’t know why that thing decided to put me inside of it, but...”

“It was easy to cut my way out of it and just run away.”

“I knew how soul presences worked, they’d be too distracted to sense me.”

“Dad...”

He kept running.

“Are you proud of me? You can tell me that after we talk, but...look, I’m almost here.”

He ran faster than he’s ever ran before.

“I’m almost here...”

He saw the light.

“Dad!”

“...”

Kaito looked at him like he was his most prized possession in the world.

The central square was destroyed, with only the flattened remnants of the ground remaining. Once Kaito saw Hiroshi, his eyes opened up. His arm weakened, it looked like his knees were about to give up too. He slowly walked forwards. He had a smile on his face, his mouth was slightly opened. A bit of saliva dripped out of it.

“Dad, I...made it.” Hiroshi said, catching his breath, quickly making his way over to him. “I kept my promise. I...made it.”

“Hiroshi...” Kaito said in response. He slightly extended his arms, as if going over to embrace him. Hiroshi, seeing the gesture, smiled. He even teared up a little.

“There you are...finally...”

“I missed you so much...”

“Dad, they captured me, they put a gun to my head too, they were making all these plans to try and kill you...I’m sorry that I argued with you, I had no idea what you were going through, and...all of this...I’m sorry if you did all of this for me, but...”

He suddenly stopped. But Kaito kept walking forwards, with a dear smile on his face.

“Dad, we have to talk.”

“Talk...?” Kaito asked. “What is there to talk about? Everything’s okay now. Everything is the way it’s supposed to be.”

“No, n-nothing is okay!” Hiroshi said. “I need you to stop this...all of this...” He briefly looked up at the sky and back at his father. “I saw a lot of things, many people died.”

“I see.” Kaito nodded. It looked like his jaw was slightly dislocated.

“You have to stop all of this. Because...too many people died. And they didn’t try to hurt me either...” Hiroshi said. “They also died to make sure I talked to you. So please...and, I know the Heisei tried to keep me with them, but don’t hurt them, okay? You should...talk to each other. I have a friend there, and I think if you just talk to them, you’ll understand them.”

Kaito remained silent, he spread his arms open more. His presence was skyrocketing.

“Dad, if...if you want me to, I don’t have to live a normal life...I’m a soulful now, and I’m...taking action, and I want to make the world a better place...that’s what you also do, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, let’s...let’s end all of this.” Hiroshi said. ‘I love you, dad. I don’t want the world to be like this anymore.“

Kaito came closer and embraced him. He held him tightly and with gentle care.

“Hiroshi...”

“Dad...?”

“Grant me my purpose.”

Kaito’s arm pierced through Hiroshi’s chest.

The latter, unable to perceive or even accept the fact, stared blankly. It was as if his body rejected that truth. As if it blocked the pain to protect his mind from ever thinking of accepting this as the reality. But eventually, the natural mechanisms of the body overpowered that blockade, and Hiroshi felt pain that he’d never felt before.

Completely engulfed in shock, instinctually, he tried to walk back. Kaito tripped him, dropping him on the ground. It was cold, so cold. And yet, his body, blazing hot and oozing blood.

Kaito crouched down placed his hands in the wound in his chest and started ripping the boy’s body open. As Hiroshi screamed to the point where his throat gave up, and his hands spasmed in agony, Kaito successfully pried his ribcage open - crushing whatever got in the way, breaking some of the ribs as well. Hiroshi tried to call for his dad, but the tears, the anger, they were all suppressed by the shock from the pain. Strangely enough, Hiroshi’s soul prowess wasn’t enough to protect himself against an event like that. He was defenseless, and the shock from the pain, paired with the catastrophic injuries, eventually put him out of his misery. He lost consciousness while feeling so much at the same time that he didn’t feel anything.

Kaito carefully grabbed the single item that he believed to be the most valuable in the world, transcending the meaning of the word ‘value’ itself. Handling it like the most fragile, delicate flower in a field that had nothing but blades of dull grass, he extracted it from Hiroshi’s body.

The central element, the heart of the one he considered his soulmate, imbued with the soul of the one who inherited it. It looked like a regular heart, except it was almost completely black and white, oozing soul prowess, and had a certain luminescence around it that only the flowers could see.

Sakuto got to one of the rooftops that was still miraculously standing in the area. He looked over it, Hiroshi’s primordial screams a few seconds prior already being a bad omen. He saw Hiroshi’s corpse, and Kaito holding his heart. He felt like he failed, like whatever was left in the world kicked him in his gut. Someone died again.

While his own aggregation of disbelief and despair overtook his mind, almost making him scared enough to blankly stare at the sight to the point where his eyes teared up not because of sadness, but because they were open for so long...

Kaito felt nothing but fulfillment.

“At last, we’re together again.”

“We’ll do it.”

He brought the heart closer to him. His mouth opened wide, tearing through his face in order to open up even more than was possible. His jaw dropped lower than anticipated, extending, and the oozing soul prowess surrounding his teeth dripped down.

“We’ll do it.”

“ ✦✦✦ Absolute Manifestation. ✦✦✦ ”

Kaito devoured Yume’s heart.

The end of Segment II