Zone K

Retrieving a soul key was no easy task. First, they could only be found in structures known as vaults. These keys were used to awaken a spirit within fragments that humans started to collect. In each fragment that humanity has found so far, information on how to beat the divine and their army was given to them.

To open these gates, usually, the members of a single soul team would take the roles of defender, seeker, and mage. The defender protected the mage as the mage kept the vault open for the seeker until he or she found the key and escaped. In this scenario, Jester was the defender, Elise was the mage, and Loki was their seeker.

Loki punched a shade directly in its helmet and killed it. Another took a swing at him, but he jumped back to dodge it.

“Hey, where’s your third member?” He asked.

“A few days ago, we had fought against some cultist and their rampager. She lost a lot of her aura and was incubating when we left,” Aleyos replied as he stabbed a shade in the chest. As the shade’s body fell to the ground and disappeared, another came out of the fog and swung at Aleyos.

He pulled his spear up to block the oncoming attack. After they clashed, he forced its sword away and sliced it in the throat. Afterward, Aleyos pulled back and retreated to Yuto.

“There’s too many of them!”

“Have you ever done this before kid?” Jester asked.

“No, never. Neither of us has ever faced against shades before.”

“Well, congratulations…” Jester grabbed a shade and lifted it in the air. “You both are now full fledge soul witches!” He yelled and tossed the shade’s body at a group of them. Jester pulled back his fist and his gauntlets started to charge.

“Fissure Soul, Shattering Cannon!” Jester thrusted his fist forward and a beam of red light shot out of his fist killing multiple shades in front of him. He then relaxed his shoulders and a trail of smoke lifted off his body. Aleyos and Yuto stood there in awe.

“Elise, how are you holding up over there?!” Jester cried.

Her book was still glowing, and the gate was still open. “It’s hard. I can feel my aura fading rapidly. I’m surprised I’m able to keep the vault open for as long as I have so far.”

“Crap!”

He turned around to Yuto and Aleyos, “Hey, either of you wouldn’t happen to know how to keep vaults open would you?”

Aleyos looked at Yuto, “Yuto, you studied vaults and relics before, right? Can you assist her somehow?”

“I’ve never done that before, but I’ll give it a shot!” Yuto ran over to Elise.

“Grab my shoulder and focus all your aura into the vault,” she said.

“I can do that?” Yuto placed his hand on Elise’s shoulder and felt the aura within him transfer into her.

“There are many things Mythic users can do. Say this word, ‘decode’.”

Yuto repeated the word and the symbols below them grew brighter. He smiled and closed eyes his eyes to keep his focus. When Aleyos was sure that Yuto and Elise would be fine, he went to help Jester fight against the shades coming in from the front.

Jester punched a shade in the chest and smashed it against the wall. He then elbowed one behind him and left-hooked it in its helmet. Two more shades ran to him and he blocked his body with his gauntlets. They swung their swords and pushed him back a bit.

Aleyos threw his spear and it went through the two shades that attacked Jester. He then reached for the spear and it flew into his hands. After catching it, he jabbed his spear backward and stabbed a shade below him.

“Come here!”

He pulled the shade in front of him and took his spear out of its body. He then twirled it over his head and started to slice the shade over and over until the shade backed up a few feet. The shade’s chest piece, all broken apart, had an opening in the center. There was a white glow coming out of it.

Jester looked at the glow from the chest.

“Kid, that shade has a soul! Take it so you can boost your aura.” He advised him.

Aleyos stuck his hand into the shade’s chest and grabbed the soul within it, “Seal thy soul with the insight of Eclipse, Consume!”

The shade’s body cracked and with each tear, a green light appeared. Its’ body busted and within Aleyos’ hand was the soul, covered with eclipse aura. He felt the surge or power rushing into him. The soul of a shade, extremely a rare thing to find, held a tremendous amount of power since they were made by Gods.

“Champion Soul, Daybreak Arena!” He cried out and smashed the soul onto the ground. There was an explosion of snow and green dust. When it cleared; Aleyos, Jester, Yuto, and Elise were surrounded with a green orb above their head.

“This will give us a boost to our aura. We can exert more than normal now.” He explained.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Jester shouted.

His gauntlets started to spark up. He leaped in the air and balled his hands together. “Fissure Soul, Shattered Earth!”

Many shades died, but they kept coming. Neither Grim nor Trinity knew that they were in the center of a feeding ground for the divine army, but they kept on fighting. Yuto and Elise held the vault open, but even with Aleyos’ boost in aura, they struggled to keep it open.

“Your leader should’ve left by now, right?” Yuto asked her.

“You’re right…something seems off,” she replied.

Yuto called for Aleyos and told him that something was wrong. Loki should have been out of the vault by now with the key, but that was not the case.

“Their leader hasn’t come back yet. We think there might be a problem within the vault,” he told him.

“What kind of problem?”

“We don’t know, but we might need someone to head inside.” Yuto looked at the snow on the ground. “If Aleyah was here, she would’ve been a big help.”

He knew Yuto was right, but they could not depend on Aleyah for everything. They had to continue helping as best as they could no matter how life-threatening their situation seemed. With or without Aleyah, they were still Team Trinity, a soul strike team from Sentinel.

Aleyos ran in front of Jester and stabbed his spear in the ground. As he reached out his arms, he said, “Champion Soul, Titan’s Wall!” A gigantic green plasma wall separated them from the shades and the fog.

“What’s going on?” Jester asked.

“We have a situation.”

They headed back to Elise and Yuto. Aleyos told them that his shield won’t hold for much longer, so they needed a plan.

“Loki hasn’t returned. We need someone to go inside and find him,” Elise told Jester.

“And to do it fast, I don’t think we can last much longer either,” Yuto added.

Aleyos tapped Jester on his shoulder, “Do you think you can go? If I leave, the shield will go down.”

Jester grunted, “I would, but I don’t have enough aura to last me while inside and it seems like none of us do for that matter.”

Brief silence overtook them. All they could hear was the army of shades banging against the eclipse wall. They failed to know what to do and things worsen. Aleyos’ shield shattered, and waves of shades came rushing at them. As Elise and Yuto poured all their aura into the gate, Jester and Aleyos prepared to fight once more.

“We just need to fight it out. That’s the only option we have,” Jester said.

“No…”

Jester turned to Aleyos and saw him looking up into the sky.

“It isn’t.” He continued.

Aleyos turned to Yuto and Elise, “Brace yourself!”

“What?”

Jester looked up at what Aleyos was looking at and saw a figure in the sky. He quickly lifted his gauntlets to protect himself.

“Searing Soul, Scorching Impact!” Aleyah’s body glowed red and shot down from the sky. She looked like a meteor crashing from space. When she landed on the ground, a wave of heat killed all the shades out of the fog. It even managed to push the fog back a bit.

“Who the hell is that?” Jester asked.

Aleyos walked beside him, “That’s my sister and our team leader.”

She stood up with grace. Jester and Aleyos ran over to her to tell her about their situation.

“I’ll go inside. I have the most aura. You two will just have to fight it out a bit longer if that’s okay.”

“That’s what I do best,” Jester replied.

“We got this, Aleyah,” Aleyos added.

She nodded and ran to Yuto and Elise.

“Boy am I glad to see you, Aleyah,” Yuto said.

“It’s good to see you too.”

“Are you sure you want to head inside? You’ve never been in one of these, have you?” Elise questioned.

“I haven’t, no. I don’t know much about them, but judging by the looks of things, I say we’re out of time.”

Elise closes her eyes tightly and takes a deep breath. She opened them and turned her head to look at Aleyah.

“Please find him,” she begged.

“I will.”

Aleyah walked in front of the vault, but Yuto called out her name. She stopped and looked at him. He thanked her for coming when she did, and she gave him a comforting smile. Aleyah turned back around and placed her blades on her back. She entered the vault giving the members of Team Trinity their roles.

Aleyos, calm and collective, was their defender. Yuto, focused and faithful, was their mage. Aleyah, determined and driven, was their seeker. The fate of humanity now rested on the shoulders of Team Trinity.

Sanctum Vault

Aleyah was standing on the sands of a beach. The ocean waves brushed up against her feet, but there was no breeze. As she glanced at the water flowing back, she noticed that there was no sun, no stars, and yet there was light in the sky. It reminded her of when she saw her reflection at the lake where she met Sinclair.

She turned around and saw a figure standing behind her. It walked away, and she ran after it. Once her feet left the sands of the beach, she found herself on top of a building. The person was on the edge of it.

“Hey, if you’re the leader of the team outside, they need you to return. I’m here to save you!” She yelled out, but she received no response.

Although Aleyah could not see the person’s face, she realized that the figure had a skirt on and had long red hair. This person was not who she thought it was. It was not the leader of Team Grim.

“Who are you?”

The figure turned around and opened her hands. Two blades appeared and Aleyah took one step back. When she did, she was teleported on a giant rock that floated in an empty space. Stairs that led to a giant gate was in front of her and at the top was the figure.

A part of her knew the answer, but she was too afraid to come to that conclusion without proof. “Who are you?!” Aleyah asked.

The figure walked down the steps. Hair was hiding her face, but after the last step, the first gust of wind blew by. With no surprise, Aleyah saw what she expected and took her blades from her back. Aleyah had to fight Aleyah.