“The sky’s a ritual.” Sika repeats my thoughts. I look at him, “You can see that?”

“Dude, yeah! The clouds form a rune in the sky!”

My eyes follow the bird closely, “This is supposed to be a Life Trial.”

“Yeah. Why’s there a ritual goin’ on here?”

“Something isn’t right.”

“Don’t you dare try kiddo.”

A ringing sound pierces my ears as I crash shoulder-first into the soil. Ray rolls a few feet away from me with a thud. A loud crunch in my shoulder unleashes a scream I’ve been holding in.

“Yin!”

Sika’s voice is drowned out by the crushing weight of a body pressing itself onto my back. The cold blade of a knife presses up against my jaw.

“Girly, you can’t run forever. You seen too much, you know our faces.”

“Let him go!” Ray’s hoarse voice yells from behind Sika. He stands in a protective stance in front of her. “Don’t move!”

I squint and see a their auras faintly glowing through the rain. His golden soul flickers in front of them protectively, forming a shield. The Soulless above smell it immediately. “Sika wait–!”

The knife pushes into my skin ever so slightly, drawing blood.

“Get away from him!”

A flash of green light like an arrow strikes the man’s wrist, severing his hand cleanly. The knife drops to the side as his body flings back and collapses, unmoving.

“Carl no!” The bald man rushes to him, “No! You’ve killed him!!”

I stagger to my feet in a daze, trying to figure out what just happened. Red smoke billows from my fingertips, tangled with hints of green.

“You just used Soul Arts!” Sika’s voice excitedly rings behind me. I look back and see Ray’s hands glowing with green light. Her eyes are narrowed, still pointing a finger gun in my direction. Did she use me as an amplifier? I look at my palms and then at the man on the ground and notice a palm-shaped hole in his chest, still smoking with the colour of my power.  I stagger backwards, Sika runs up to me and supports my shoulder. I flinch. “Dude, you too! You know about Soul Arts?!”

I feel the magic dancing on my fingertips. “What happened?”

“Dude! You just blasted him with pure energy! And the kid, she ripped his hand right off!”

“You….you bitch!”

“Watch out!” I push Sika away and dodge the blow, somehow blocking the next hit to my stomach. My shoulder throbs, I can feel the force of the thug’s punches against my palms as I block.

“Robert!” Ray frantically runs to my side and slashes at the thug with her palm.

“Nuh-uh-uh kiddo!”

“Agh!” My body involuntarily moves to block her, and a flash of light rips through my skin, blood ripples out and turns to red smoke.

“Yin!”

“Yin Rivers, ah Yin Rivers. Destiny does not lemme let you off scot-free.”

The voice of god impedes my consciousness, my vision fades as I sense my body moving on its own. A blow lands to my side and I hear a loud shout before the silence. Sika is saying something but I can’t hear him clearly. There is blood, I can smell it.

“Whadya do to ‘em?!”

“Don’t touch him!”

Something snaps in half and a body drops to the floor.

“Oops lookie lookie, your soul is slipping away! You’re losing control! I wonder what would happen if they got a sniff.”

I grip my head and smack it against the ground. “Stop this madness!”

“Yin! Yin wake up!”

 “Oh, and yeah you probably killed those men. A new bounty to your name! How exciting!”

“Mr Yin! Mr Yin snap out of it!”

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!”

“Look out!”

A shrill pain seethes from my chest, a rotting hand has entangled itself in the Soul Bind. Sika and I only have a second to look at each other before we’re yanked off the ground and into the sky.

Below, the bodies of the thugs have been brutally dismembered, smoke gathering beneath each of them. Ray holds her shaking hands as she looks up at me, worry drenching her eyes. Clouds roll around us, snaking itself into inhuman shapes shrieking with laugher as flashes of azure from the bird dart between them, trying to disperse the Soulless. Its wail, like an almost-human cry distorts the sky around us. I catch a glimpse of something. The sky is not made of clouds, no. The clouds swirling, the eye of the storm, that black mass is entirely made of the Soulless. And we’re right in the middle of it, swinging from the claws of one.

“Rob–Mr Yin!” Ray’s voice shouts from below, “Use your powers!”

I instinctively hold out my palm and feel the energy within me gather. A bolt of red light zips from my fingertips and a small explosion ripples across the clouds like lighting, screeches reverberate through the rain. The pain at my chest makes me swallow some blood.

“Dude! Shoot this thing!” Sika shouts.

I fire a red bolt but it misses, hitting another one behind. I’m losing strength. I need to act quickly. Sika’s soul is also unconsciously drawing power from me to form a shield around him. I have an idea.

I aim at Sika.

“Dude, what are you doing! That’ll fry me!”

“Exactly.”

Red light bursts from my fingers, he screams, the golden shield springs forth into action, smacking the Soulless and me several feet away.

“It worked!”

“Yin!” Sika yanks the Soul Bind pulling on my chest and grabs me into a hug before we smash into the ground and bounce back into the air with his shield like a rubber ball, before bouncing a couple more times to safety. I rub my chest and look at Sika beneath me. “Thanks.”

He nods and points at the sky. “I’ll take care of ‘em! You, take care of–”

He pushes us apart as a boulder smashes the ground we were just on. A giant Soulless has amalgamated together in the form of a headless beast. A beam of red light erupts from my fingertips, scorching a hole into its arm. “Sika, go!”

He springs to his feet and jumps up and down, “Ya fat blob! I’m here! Come ‘n get me!” The giant Soulless groans and looks vaguely in his direction, momentarily distracted. I struggle to get up, I’ve lost a lot of blood, no, my soul has leaked out of my body far too much. A hand grabs my arm and hoists me up. “…Ray.”

Her eyes are glazed over as she sits me down by a gravestone. “I won’t let them hurt you ever.”

“I’m not Robert.”

She pauses briefly, cogs turning in her head. “Yes. You’re not him, are you? But…You have his memories. And,” She hovers her hand over mine. The wounds on her body have completely disappeared. She pulls a thin thread of green and my hand lifts itself like a puppet. “You’re pretty useful for getting this little girl’s revenge.”

A low growl sounds from behind. “Dude I need some help here!”

Ray stands up and looks at the sky. She mumbles, “We have a contract.” The bird’s call screeches through the sky in response, blue light billowing from her eyes. “Hands off!” She shouts, her voice crackling like thunder.

The giant headless creature turns, Sika rushes to her side, shield at the ready. Ray pulls back her hands, as if drawing a slingshot. A blue arrow forms from the wisps of her soul and she takes the shot.

“Aa@%%&^&^AAAAA@AA^AAaaaA!”

“!!”

My hands burn, the light is pure, piercing into my skin. I find myself standing in place of the Soulless, the arrow embedded in my palm, jammed into my shoulder. The noise it makes as it dissipates into dust is like static in my ears. I feel faint. The call of the bird above draws my attention. The rune above is distorting further, it’s changing its script.

“Oopsie~”

I fall to the ground, the Soulless behind me dissipates into fragments of red. Ray rushes to me. “No–No how?! I–you–!”

“Dude why did you–”

“Sika…” 

He holds my hand. It does not help. He’s only drawing away more of my power.

“We gotta get outta here now.”

“…About damn time you said something sensible.”

“Why did you get in the way?! I didn’t will you to!” Ray pushes her hands on the wound, trying to stop the leaking soul.

“Don’t touch him!” Sika snarls, pulling me into his arms. I wince. “Y-Your god–hnng!”

“Shushhh! Shhhh! Secrets! Secrets that aren’t supposed to be told YIN RIVERS!”

“Get out!!”

“Yin!”

“Mr Yin!”

“Dude! Yin, what’s wrong?!”

“I AM YOUR GOD! THIS IS MY TRIAL!”

Stop. 

Make it stop.

Death.