"Different spirit?" Bazuka asked, coughing out smoke.
"Nope," Pinky shook her head, scared for the first time in their fight. "Last time it was a child. Now it's developed into a teenager. The problematic kind!"
"Mind it!" The weapon shot an energy projectile at everyone, while sending two at Pinky. "Die already!"
"Interesting!" The old woman almost snickered, losing her composure. She checked herself for any threads of Karma and sighed in relief as the energy blast consumed her. "Ha!" She reformed her body. "Just let it consume your body." She suggested, and the monster struggling against the energy ball gave in, exploding into splinters. "I swear! As we get stronger, we get dumber." She looked at Lux with pity, his hulking form no match for a simple energy blast.
The monster reformed its body, its face hanging limp, still shocked by the outcome. "Well, energy trumps all!" It tried to counter the old woman and its inner insecurities, yet shied away when it spotted Lux struggling.
"I'll believe you once someone actually proves that statement!" The old woman brushed off the counter statement, severing the thread of Karma between them. "And don't bring the King into this. See the kid." She pointed at Zack. "Stronger than all of us put together, yet daydreaming on the side. There's always a way one hasn't tried yet. Nothing else."
"I was actually wondering why you came to help me?" The monster chuckled nervously. "Now we are both doomed. I wish I could help you escape... But—"
"—nah!" The old woman interjected. "These self-righteous brats," she glared at Pinky. "And old farts need to be taught a lesson. We all benefit from the mortals... or maybe they don't. That's the only reason they keep targeting us, isn't it?" She snickered at Lux as if she'd figured out their hidden agenda. "Friendship and justice, my ass. I'm gonna turn them into proper toilet rolls if nothing else. You with me?" She asked the monster.
The monster looked at Lux, raging with fury and proving the old woman's point. "Let's fuck them up!" It grinned, joining hands. "We—"
—The old woman tore the monster's entire mouth free with a wet, snapping rip. "You talk too much," she said, her cheerful smile draining from her face as the performance fell away.
She dropped the mangled jaw with a dull, fleshy thud. "Don't you know?" Her voice warped, cracking as something older seeped through her words. "You have to keep the rot inside your soul." Her throat rattled as she slipped into a guttural, ancient tongue—a dead language dragged down into the grave alongside the demons who once spoke it. "Hide it. Bury it. Shove it down," she hissed, her voice splitting into layered tones. "If you want to stay beautifully, perfectly broken."
"Why!?" The monster was barely able to conjure a single thought before it perished.
"Told you before, haven't I. I'm more broken than you." She said, turning her stoic gaze at everyone. "Than any of you!"
"If you think I'll let this change anything between us, you're sorely mistaken," Lux said, finally suppressing his anger without losing his strength.
"Oh, please. Attack me at your will. That's what I want too." She provoked Lux by stirring up his anger. "Break your code of honor. Show the world you're no better than any of us. Show them all." She gestured at the many eyes viewing their fight. "That you've created a system that makes you always the ones in the right, riding the cocktails of the Soul King."
"Who are they?" Lux asked Pinky through a secure link.
"Other souls? Duh!"
"We've never had viewers before." Psycho created another veil, hiding from everyone's sight.
"This one is troublesome," Lux said with gritted teeth. "My entire being is telling me to kill it here and now."
"Oh, that's my bad!" Pinky giggled. "Or rather, the side effect of anger. Yup. It's definitely one of the two. Or..." she kept listing side effects of using the power of emotions.
"I've locked the emotion away. It's not that." Lux declared, ignoring Pinky's ramble. "Are you guys with me?"
"Why ask?" Psycho tilted her head—imagining the old lady's first move. "Eh! How did she go through with that!"
"Because it had set a stage," Bazuka said.
"Domain?" Pinky looked around. "Nope. Can't find any!"
"Not a concept a Broken-Soul is familiar with." Lux clenched his fist, slowly making his way toward his latest prey; his simple stroll creating manhole-size craters. "A mortal one." He counted the number of eyes watching them—both visible and hidden. "A narrative." He glared down at the old woman. "Where we become the unstable souls that have to be hunted down."
"Should we include the future boss in this epic decision?" Psycho said, frowning at Zack… and was startled as Zack returned the frown.
"How long!?"
Pinky checked her watch. "Ten mortal seconds." She told Zack. "With most of it being a dic—I mean... domain measuring contest. I never had a D, and shall never get one." She convinced herself, stopping her thoughts and their implications from rewriting her personality.
Zack ignored Pinky's rambling and looked inward, at his own incompetence. "Why do I always get frozen first?"
"Because you're weak?" Psycho sneered. "Because if we got pinned down first, then we all die..." he went on, listing various scenarios.
"One reason is plenty." Zack stopped Psycho, finally noticing their prey. "And that is one stone, two birds. Not a freaking dragon herd. Or a bunch of them!" He looked around furiously. "There isn't a word for a group of dragons in the knowledge stream." He complained. "Look who am I talking to... Goddamn Gods are freaking annoying."
"I'm gonna kill this thing," Lux said, his eyes never leaving the old woman. "Even if you join me or not."
"Smart." The old woman smirked, looking up. "Not smart enough." She caught the uppercut with little effort and shredded Lux's arm into ribbons.
"You can't do Jack's 'S' on your own!" Pinky said, molding Lux's arm back into place. "If you fight, we will have to join!"
Bazuka had reclaimed and erased her weapon's spirituality once Zack got up, and now fired at the old woman, swapping the cannonball's position with Zack at the point of impact—thanks to Psycho's 'Slot'. Meanwhile, the old woman ignored the cannonball, relying on her shield to deflect any similar attacks used thus far.
She aimed for Lux's head, but her attack abruptly stopped when it encountered an impenetrable shield. "What kind of artifact is this!" She said wide-eyed, gaping at Zack.
"Long story." Zack shrugged, turning to Bazuka with a frown. "I thought we agreed on not using me—your future leader—as a mere shield!"
"There's nothing else you're good at!" Bazuka ignored the stare.
"A frozen leader, ten seconds ago." Pinky giggled.
"You can always hand it over to me," Psycho suggested.
"How did you keep this group together!?" Zack kept ignoring the old woman, his focus now on Lux.
"Coincidence—" Lux said, deflating. "—that's spanned for eons!? We'll discuss that later, let's kill this thing for now?"
"To be honest. I don't mind. I mean, it would take me a single strike." Zack looked at the old woman with indifference, as if a God were looking down on an ant. "But can you get behind the line? Behind your truths? Can you ever trust yourself again, if you cross yourself now?"
Instead of deflating, Lux kept growing larger, as Pinky misread the situation and added more muscle mass to Lux's doll.
"You're right," Lux said, his voice hollowed out, shoulders sagging. "We're leaving," he murmured, eyes losing their fire. Then, without looking back, he gave the command like a death sentence: "Reset the seventh layer."
"Misread the situation again." Bazuka taunted a pouting Pinky.
"Don't give us a reason to hunt you down." Zack cautioned before parting ways, his words more of a warning. "That goes for all of you." He smiled and waved at the many eyes glaring at him.
"The Soul King might be busy, but his lackeys aren't," DJ added by mimicking Zack's voice, before the Broken-Souls took Zack's words to their broken little, insane hearts.
"Nice save!" Pinky mentally high-fived DJ. "Not bad, future shield captain." She twirled around and high-fived Zack.
Thanks to the limiters placed on the old woman's emotions, her anger stayed hidden from the prying eyes of her future prey.
"Time," she murmured, steadying her roaring heart. "These are but simple stepping stones on our path…" She lifted her gaze to the brightest star in the sky. "…to reach the one true god. And snatch what's rightfully ours." She whispered the last words, her voice blending with the countless mortals quietly cursing their fates.
———————
Zack wanted to keep fighting, move on to their next prey. Soul King knows many Broken-Souls are wandering about and causing trouble, while the rest are just a push away from joining their ranks or surpassing theirs. Yet, Lux dragged him back to their layout, telling him to heed Pinky's words, hiding the fact that he had to recuperate and build back his missing Sub-Space.
Zack and his team had been in many fights since he had officially joined the gang. Since then, they had won a few—the numbers a forgotten memory—lost many, ran from many more, and required the sisters' interference to restore their lost souls from the Artifact once.
A board hung in the middle of their hideout, marking the date and the number of restorations done on their souls. Of course, none of them believed the sisters' proclamations, for the only memory they had of the board reminded them of the silly prank in which the sisters lied about the revives.
"Did someone change the numbers again?" Zack asked, looking at the crude 'zero' added beside the thousand. "See... if no one is laughing, it's not funny."
"Not to mention downright confusing." DJ hummed, his soothing tone lifting the imaginary weight off everyone's shoulders.
"Ah...!" Pinky moaned. "Thanks. What's this again?"
"Rəø—or 'Resentment' energy." Lux shrugged.
"Some low-level thing!" Everyone ignored the energy source, except for Zack, who made a simple note in his diary: 'Caution required. Not as strong as Sani, but it is quite nefarious.' "Meant for the Devil—or created by one!?"
"I get your domain abilities, I think!" Zack said, scratching his head and approaching Pinky. "No domain for no one. First of all—weird name!" He frowned as Pinky bowed like a showman filled with delight, taking it as a compliment. "Secondly, your commandment requires you to understand and dismantle the first domain on your own, right?" He waited for a nod—which took forever when it had to come from a distracted Pinky—before continuing. "That's a yes—yes?... okay, how in seven hells did you dismantle the first domain so fast? And why didn't you free me like the rest? I could've helped much sooner."
"I'll answer only one," Pinky said, smiling deviously.
"You don't remember the second one, do you!" Zack sighed.
Pinky puffed up into a ball and rolled away. "You needed an unemotional and illogical soul to step into that domain. Only then would the creature remain unaware. And there is no one better suited than yours truly for such a mindset." She shrugged as if the concept behind the domain was simplicity itself.
"Monsters!" Zack clicked his tongue, frustrated.
"I tapped into everyone's core, played them like a Puppeteer. But your mom's shield got in the way, so you were the one left behind—like a dog waiting for slaughter."
"Pig," Zack corrected weakly, only to be shut down by the rest of the gang.
"In her era, everything was food. And guess what they had plenty of?" Psycho giggled.
Lux shuddered, disgusted yet unable, unwilling to erase the memory that now served as a warning. "No wonder they started taming mortals into becoming their best friend."
The group activated the Soul-Restoring Artifact together, reclaiming their former selves at a cost. One memory removed. One memory gained. The kind of choice that could spark growth—or carve a path straight into the soul prison.
Zack, of course, took longer. He wasted time chronicling everyone's lessons, documenting his own battles, cross-checking them against his old memories, then rebuilding his personality as if he were customizing a game character.
"The greater the Sub-Space, the dumber they get," Psycho snorted.
"Let him go wild. We can always reset him later," Bazuka said, ignoring the rest as she looked to Lux for approval.
"You seriously don't see the evil behind that… Whatever that is?"
"Hey!" Zack protested, frowning at the Artifact in his hand. "How many times have you guys used me as bait?"
Lux lost control over his emotions, a nervous laugh breaking through before he could stop it. "See? His bizarre, unique way works just fine."
———<>||<>——— End of Chapter Twenty-Eight. ———<>||<>———