HOME | DD

Description
Keep running, keep running, keep going. Each minute glass bottle adorning the belt around my waist shivers in protest, but they don't weigh me down. Human souls are breathlessly light; if anything their infinitely pure illumination helps dissolve the nets of darkness draped over my path. Even in such a state, they're still the most powerful things I've ever come across. Even soaked in darkness, even corroded by despair, they radiate with potential. And it's up to me to return them to their proper homes.
At one point it wasn't just me. There was still light. But the Decay changed all of that. Overtook everything. Tainted everybody with misery, let their souls fade black until we held no more power. Our souls weren't souls to them, they were bargaining tools. We weren't people. We were currency. The Decay plucked souls from the powerless people, one by one, leaving the streets roving with mindless, dead-eyed dolls. No matter to the Decay, it left it easier for them to take control. Holding the dull souls in one clawed hand and the reins to the planet in the other, the world sank beneath an inky sea foaming with despair. Souls, and their suppressed strength, sat high out of reach, traded between creatures of the Decay like cash. As if they saw some as worth more than others. Humans couldn't fight back because they didn't care. There was no more light, no more reason to reclaim what had been taken.
They were selling out souls. But I cared about mine. I still care; the darkness dissolves like smoke as it creeps toward me, it bleeds across streets in rushing rivulets yet stops dead in its tracks should I cross its path. I held the torch, I was the light. And that's why it's my responsibility now to take back what has been stolen from us. Because there is no one left.
The shimmering lights in the jars begin to flicker as if in fear and I risk a look behind me, still running at full speed. Two, only two this time. The twin monsters glide effortlessly towards me, their faces skinless husks with void-colored, blood-encrusted holes shredded into the front to serve as eyes. Skeletal hands burst from taut, shriveled torsos, but they're nothing like human arms – hundreds and hundreds of dusky bones are knotted into one another, twisting around, paling at the stress points, splinters and fractured edges simply grown around in new pathways to the wicked, clawed fingers. The mouths take up most of their faces, brimming with long, ragged teeth that warp towards an endless, ribbed throat, ending in a vicious point. Long, slender tongues thrash around the forest of fangs like worms thriving in a corpse's ribcage. Both beasts, while hunched over, stand about seven or eight feet tall. And they're fast. Almost as fast as I am.
That speed match isn't a good thing. Especially when, head turned backwards, I trip over a bent, discarded hunk of pipe in the debris-scattered streets. I skid across the tattered concreted, feeling the skin grind off my palms as I thrust them out to catch myself. Of course this kind of thing would happen. My entire life is just some big, dumb horror movie, right? The Decay is closing in, fast. There's no more options of losing them; I have to fight.
“Sorry guys. I need your power for a mo',” I mutter to the souls in their clear bottles. My belt loosens, then begins to whirl in a ring around me, whistling with speed as the souls gleam with white-hot energy. The light expands into a solid golden bubble around me, then swiftly shrinks, the force sending a shock wave out around me and knocking back the Decay.
I am standing in a pristine pool of light, shadows unraveling into limp coils of string upon contact. The Decay quickly continue their advance, sharing a raw, toneless howl that tears a gaping hole through the air. A clawed hand swings in my direction and I leap into the air above it, leaving a sun-shaped splash in the spot where I once stood. The swirling beam of souls around me halts its rotation, and converges into a disk beneath my feet. I crouch, and launch myself up from it as the monstrous hand swipes across empty space. The disk changes form again, this time into a long, narrow staff which I grab from the air, brace against the ground, and use to propel myself into a flying kick into the side of one creature's skull. It falls as the other lunges for me, the staff now morphing into a solid, curved wall in front of me. The being of Decay impacts the wall, tossing loose granules of the already-smashed street into the air as the earth rumbles.
I fling one hand straight in front of me, palm out, and the wall rushes forward, shoving the monster with it and away from me. But the other one has risen, darting from the side in my direction. With my one defense still holding off its partner, the beast takes its chance. It is upon me almost instantly, deathly cold fingers coiling around my body and lifting me from the ground like a rag doll. The dull gray scraps of skin that once hung from its arms in lifeless strips now wind around my own arms, pinning them to my sides. Its barbed, skeletal fingers puncture my sides and I feel warm trails of blood streak down, dripping sluggishly to the ground.
The golden-white wall dissolves into glowing beads that rest suspended in the air for a moment, then come rushing towards me, assembling once again into a spinning ring that loops itself over my head. Its spinning motion grinding away at the tangle of bones holding me in place, forcing the monster to recede its hand. I hit the ground, land crouched and take a precious second to catch my breath. The ring parts, stops its spin once again and reconstructs itself into a new weapon: a thin pole with a long, flat blade on either end, each curving in opposite directions. In the center is a handle I catch with both hands as the weapon materializes before me, and I off in the direction of the monster that had picked me up. I use my forward motion to propel the first powerful slice, then spin the weapon with both hands for multiple quicker strikes.
Another hollow wail lets me know the other beast is after me as well now, and with a final swing at my current target I whirl around to face my next. He's closer than I expected, and with a bony fist to my shoulder sends me flying over the cracked pavement. I twist myself in mid-air, landing on both feet and using the double-sided glaive to steady myself.
Both monsters approach me from either side and I swing the glaive in a wide arc in front of myself before twisting it around and repeating the action in the other direction, with the other blade. The creature on my left snatches the weapon from one side and uses it to reel me towards it. But the souls are quicker; the glaive shrinks into a glowing ball. Knowing better, I fling myself backwards as far as I can as the sphere expands with the force of a grenade blast and launches both monsters yards away, flat on their backs. Tossed into mid-air, the congregation of souls shifts back into the double-sided glaive and I dive to catch it. It lands in one hand and I give it a twirl, starting towards the downed monsters to finish the fight. I have the advantage now.
But, evidently, this isn't true. Something collides with me from behind, the brute impact forcing the breath from my lungs as my vision momentarily flashes black. I land hard, even farther away than the two creatures had just been thrown. The glaive has been ripped from my hands and I straggle desperately for the weapon – or anything to hold onto – as my body tumbles helplessly over the decomposing concrete. I just had to assume I had that advantage, I think bitterly as I skid to a halt and pull myself shakily to my feet.
They must have only engaged me to distract me until their third friend showed up. And it sure worked. I could retreat now, but there's no guarantee the Decay wouldn't track me wherever I went. No guarantee I even could make it away from them at all. No, I won't give up the fight. I have to get these souls out of here.
The other two monsters rise as the third, the one that rammed into me, comes towards for another charge. Where are the souls? Surely the Decay can't have them, or they'd call it quits with me and run off with their prize reclaimed. I have to go get them if I want any chance of winning this.
As the beast barrels towards me I roll out of the way and head at full speed towards where I had gotten hit. Unfortunately, one of the first monsters stands in my way. I don't stop, I can't stop, momentum is pulling me forward more than my own numb legs ever could. In an act of desperation I duck to the side in hopes of avoiding the enemy in front of me. But I don't have that kind of luck. Its skinny fingers wind around my throat, the jagged ends causing pearly beads of red to surface as my breath is constricted. I'm lifted above the creature's head, my legs thrashing violently in an effort to get myself out of this one. Where are the souls, what happened? The question runs through my mind again, my thoughts shivering as my vision starts to deteriorate at the edges, flickering in and out. I have to get air.
My legs are still flailing about, albeit more weakly, and this time luck finally decides it has my back as one kick connects with the monster's throat, its vise-like grip loosening slightly. But it's just enough for me to get a single gulp of air to fuel another kick, a more brutal one. This time its hand releases me and I hit the ground, coughing and gagging, my vision bleary. Instinctively I put one hand to my neck, and pull it away to see smears of blood across my fingers. Still trying to drag heaps of air into my system at once, I pull myself to my feet, focusing only on getting up, on getting some oxygen – and not on the three Decay still trying to take me down.
That's not a good thing. The tightly clenched fist of another of the creatures barrels into the back of my head and hurls me into the air, spinning wildly before crashing into the pavement with a harsh thud. My vision instantly dissolves into shadowy static as I fall unconscious.
There's no pain. No heat or cold, no dark or light, just a vague wisp of thought, and a sort of pressure pressure buzzing about the air to let me know there's still something to feel. A voice rockets through the void, echoes shearing off of it to reflect off a ground that isn't there. It comes again.
I can't speak, my mouth is dry and metallic-tasting, not at all substantial enough to make a sound. But the other voice is there once more. This time I see a face. A face I had hoped every single day of my life to see again, but never like this. A face I've been fighting for this whole time, a face that kept me going through it all, through all the darkness and the despair, a face that fended off the Decay and kept my soul untarnished.
She's exactly as I last saw her, a good three inches taller than me, the somewhat harsh features of her heart-shaped face easily revealing what she was thinking – or, what she wanted people to assume she was thinking. Her hair is bright blue, cropped close to frame her face, slightly longer in the back, and tied up with a narrow white string.
My parents were some of the first to fall when the Decay took over. But my older sister and I made it out of the house. We lived on the run, fought off what we could, took back what souls we managed to get our hands on. We were a team, fighting for each other, living for each other – and the rest of humanity. She taught me everything I know, she always looked out for me.
Her face could conceal what she was thinking, though I didn't know that until it was too late. It took a couple of battles. It took a couple of wrong moves, a couple of my mistakes that got me hurt, nearly killed, for her to suddenly understand we weren't invincible. That she couldn't always protect me. That fear, it ate her from the inside out. I couldn't tell until after she was taken by despair one night; I woke up to find my best friend and only family nothing more than a mindless husk, her soul long-gone. And that was when I made myself a promise. The protector would become the protected. I would travel the world returning souls to their bodies in hopes that I would eventually find my sister's soul. The prospect that I would be able to bring her back was what kept me going the entire time. She is the reason I am able to resist the Decay, and why my soul is still intact.
And now she is standing in front of me, and in this formless void at the end of times, I'm really and truly getting to see her again.
“You think there's no one left to protect you, don't you? You think you're on your own?” She gives me a sorrowful sort of smile, bittersweet, and while there's nothing to say she's not putting it on as another act, I can feel in my heart that she's being honest this time.
“You are the only one left. You're the only one who can resist despair and bring light back to the world. But that doesn't mean you're all alone. My soul isn't with my body any more. But it's always with you, however far away, however many nasty Decay hands it travels through. And you're gonna get it back. You're gonna get back all the souls that have been taken from us. I know that as an absolutely true fact. And not just because of what I taught you. It isn't me. It's you. You're the one who kept fighting through all this. So you better keep going. We're counting on you to get back up. We're counting on you to bring back light.”
I still can't speak. But she smiles, a genuine, reassuring smile that lets me know that she knows what I'm feeling. I have to get up. There has to be somebody to carry on, and it's going to be me. I will bring back light. I'll bring back the souls, everybody's.
“I know you will,” she says, and with that my eyes shoot open. That's when the pain comes. A thin trail of blood has dripped from my mouth onto the street where I lie, and bruises and scrapes pulse with dull pain all over my body. My throat stings and sizzles where claws have entered my skin, and my sides are raw and red-hot from when I was first picked up. I give a ragged cough and a spray of hot blood spatters the concrete. When I pull myself up onto torn elbows I see the three figures of the Decay in the distance, a thin glowing band wrapped around the one in the center. They'd gotten the souls while I was down.
Not if I could help it. “Hey, what makes you think I'm finished with you?” I call out to them, the sentence cut off by another cough as I work to clamber to my feet. I manage it, my legs shaking but still holding me up all the same. This time I know what I have to do. My soul isn't affected by the Decay. If ordinary souls aren't enough to help me win this, I'll just have to use my own.
The ground around me forms a gleaming barrier in a circle around me, beams of light blasting from out of nowhere. I can draw light from anything. My soul will overtake the darkness. The rays of glow spin around me the same way my belt of souls did, but the glow is much brighter, leaving scorch marks on the concrete and a humming noise hanging in the air before it splits into two curved shafts on my left and right. I grab each as they materialize into two shimmering swords, one fiery gold and one bright blue. For me and my sister. I'll fight for both of us. The glow washes over me as scrapes heal and bruises fade, and the unending pain in my body is replaced with a warm feeling of total energy and control, my heartbeat flooding me with pure light. “Let's do this,” I say to myself, bolting off towards the three Decay, swords at the ready.
They obviously weren't expecting me to get back up. As I catch up to them, the ground rips open into another disc of light I use to launch myself into the air, like last time. I soar towards the ground between two of the monsters. As I hit the earth my swords slash into their upper shoulders, and like a hot knife through butter, nearly sever the arms. I land on my feet and pivot to face them.
“Give me back the souls.” I command. The unharmed beast makes a sound that probably was supposed to be a laugh, but that sounded to me like a corpse finally experiencing the pain of its unending, rotting existence. The two monsters I did hit are writhing in pain, clutching their wounded arms, and I can see the harsh spindles of bone attempting to knit themselves back together as fast as possible. But I wasn't going to give them that change.
I lunge for the creatures again, digging both swords into the belly of one and wrenching them in opposite directions. As the other injured one dives towards me, I flip my swords in my hands so that they are facing backwards, angle them slightly inward, and thrust both hands backwards. I hear the wet shifting noise of both swords entering the monster's torso, and pull one of them out, flipping it forwards once again to slit the throat of the creature in front of me. In the same smooth motion, I turn myself to the side and dig the freed sword into the face of the monster behind me, then pulling both swords out as I kick it in the chest, its body falling to the ground.
There's one left, the one with the belt of souls. The one that rammed into me, that punched me in the back of the head. I've got a bone to pick with this one.
I turn towards it and get into a fighting stance. “I won't say it again. Give them to me.” Again it laughs as the souls start whirling around it the way they did for me. Only this time their glow is fading, fading to a tarnished, ashy black like the void where I found my sister.
I charge towards the beast with both swords, but the smoky soul collection morphs into a shield like it once did when I wielded them, and I am met with an impact that sets my ears ringing and my teeth chattering. The wall twists back into a ring, then straightens out and flattens into a thick blade. The beast of Decay sweeps it towards me menacingly, causing me to step back. I ready my swords again. Its sword is larger than mine, which means I'll have to be faster.
It lifts the sword high above my head, obviously intending to bring it down in an earth-shattering vertical strike, but I take the opportunity to move closer and slice at its chest. But the creature is ready for that too, and sinks its gaunt fist, hilt and all, into the side of my head.
The blow throws me off balance, and I stand for a few precious seconds wobbling on one foot, before I turn my body 360 degrees, plant the other firmly on the ground, lunge towards the monster's back, and slash one sword at its now-exposed side.
It swings its own black blade around in my direction and I duck beneath its radius before it can do any damage. Now crouched, I dive and roll back towards the front of the monster's body, my dual swords carving a gash out of its stomach.
As I move towards its other side, the creature flings one bony elbow at me, catching me in the back, but I turn the momentum into another roll, turning around immediately to face my opponent again.
It lifts the onyx blade again, but this time I'm too far away to move in for a closer strike. The huge weapon crashes into the ground immediately to my right, the unstable concrete trembling as the shock wave lifts my feet off the ground for a split second. I actually do lose my balance this time, my traitorous feet skidding out from under me, and I hit the street as the beast closes in on me. Its speed surprises me at first, but then again, the first time it hit me I was sent flying at least ten yards away.
The midnight sword is over my head in an instant, looming upon me like the constant prospect of inevitable death. It drops towards me, a nuclear bomb tearing through the short distance between us, cleaving the heavy air, never faltering, always there, unending darkness.
My hands instinctively come up to block it, the two light swords crossing in an X to fend off the larger force. The gleam spreads from my blades, splashes onto the monster's. The blade of tainted souls begins to whiten as I force the beast's hands back. Light twists and turns and dances off every curve and angle as it seeps into the core of the black sword. The souls are being reverted. Contact with my blades is enough for them to repel the darkness they were once soaked with.
There's no way the creature of Decay can keep control on the power of one single human soul not weighed down by despair, let alone the several I had been carrying with me. There's no way it can even hold it in sword form. The massive weapon dissolves into many small white globes, luminous specters of energy drifting about in the air.
With the monster now powerless, I dive towards it, my crossed swords carving it to pieces with one fluid, unified stroke. I pick up my belt from its body, dust it off, and wrap it back around myself, the levitating souls slowly floating into their places in the glass bottles hanging from it. “Thank you very much,” I say, breathing heavily. My blazing swords have dispersed as well, but I know the power still resides in my soul. Should I need to call it up again, it will be there.
I need to find the rightful possessors of the souls I have now, and return them. I need to keep fighting, reclaim more souls, make sure that every single one makes it back to its home. Somewhere along that line, I'm going to come across my sister's soul. I'll bring it back to her. I'll bring everyone's back. But the most important thing I'll be bringing back is light to our barren world. The Decay won't stand a chance; light will always be there to sweep away the darkness. I'm not alone. I'll take back what was stolen from us and rebuild the world around me with hope.

Description
Keep running, keep running, keep going. Each minute glass bottle adorning the belt around my waist shivers in protest, but they don't weigh me down. Human souls are breathlessly light; if anything their infinitely pure illumination helps dissolve the nets of darkness draped over my path. Even in such a state, they're still the most powerful things I've ever come across. Even soaked in darkness, even corroded by despair, they radiate with potential. And it's up to me to return them to their proper homes.
At one point it wasn't just me. There was still light. But the Decay changed all of that. Overtook everything. Tainted everybody with misery, let their souls fade black until we held no more power. Our souls weren't souls to them, they were bargaining tools. We weren't people. We were currency. The Decay plucked souls from the powerless people, one by one, leaving the streets roving with mindless, dead-eyed dolls. No matter to the Decay, it left it easier for them to take control. Holding the dull souls in one clawed hand and the reins to the planet in the other, the world sank beneath an inky sea foaming with despair. Souls, and their suppressed strength, sat high out of reach, traded between creatures of the Decay like cash. As if they saw some as worth more than others. Humans couldn't fight back because they didn't care. There was no more light, no more reason to reclaim what had been taken.
They were selling out souls. But I cared about mine. I still care; the darkness dissolves like smoke as it creeps toward me, it bleeds across streets in rushing rivulets yet stops dead in its tracks should I cross its path. I held the torch, I was the light. And that's why it's my responsibility now to take back what has been stolen from us. Because there is no one left.
The shimmering lights in the jars begin to flicker as if in fear and I risk a look behind me, still running at full speed. Two, only two this time. The twin monsters glide effortlessly towards me, their faces skinless husks with void-colored, blood-encrusted holes shredded into the front to serve as eyes. Skeletal hands burst from taut, shriveled torsos, but they're nothing like human arms – hundreds and hundreds of dusky bones are knotted into one another, twisting around, paling at the stress points, splinters and fractured edges simply grown around in new pathways to the wicked, clawed fingers. The mouths take up most of their faces, brimming with long, ragged teeth that warp towards an endless, ribbed throat, ending in a vicious point. Long, slender tongues thrash around the forest of fangs like worms thriving in a corpse's ribcage. Both beasts, while hunched over, stand about seven or eight feet tall. And they're fast. Almost as fast as I am.
That speed match isn't a good thing. Especially when, head turned backwards, I trip over a bent, discarded hunk of pipe in the debris-scattered streets. I skid across the tattered concreted, feeling the skin grind off my palms as I thrust them out to catch myself. Of course this kind of thing would happen. My entire life is just some big, dumb horror movie, right? The Decay is closing in, fast. There's no more options of losing them; I have to fight.
“Sorry guys. I need your power for a mo',” I mutter to the souls in their clear bottles. My belt loosens, then begins to whirl in a ring around me, whistling with speed as the souls gleam with white-hot energy. The light expands into a solid golden bubble around me, then swiftly shrinks, the force sending a shock wave out around me and knocking back the Decay.
I am standing in a pristine pool of light, shadows unraveling into limp coils of string upon contact. The Decay quickly continue their advance, sharing a raw, toneless howl that tears a gaping hole through the air. A clawed hand swings in my direction and I leap into the air above it, leaving a sun-shaped splash in the spot where I once stood. The swirling beam of souls around me halts its rotation, and converges into a disk beneath my feet. I crouch, and launch myself up from it as the monstrous hand swipes across empty space. The disk changes form again, this time into a long, narrow staff which I grab from the air, brace against the ground, and use to propel myself into a flying kick into the side of one creature's skull. It falls as the other lunges for me, the staff now morphing into a solid, curved wall in front of me. The being of Decay impacts the wall, tossing loose granules of the already-smashed street into the air as the earth rumbles.
I fling one hand straight in front of me, palm out, and the wall rushes forward, shoving the monster with it and away from me. But the other one has risen, darting from the side in my direction. With my one defense still holding off its partner, the beast takes its chance. It is upon me almost instantly, deathly cold fingers coiling around my body and lifting me from the ground like a rag doll. The dull gray scraps of skin that once hung from its arms in lifeless strips now wind around my own arms, pinning them to my sides. Its barbed, skeletal fingers puncture my sides and I feel warm trails of blood streak down, dripping sluggishly to the ground.
The golden-white wall dissolves into glowing beads that rest suspended in the air for a moment, then come rushing towards me, assembling once again into a spinning ring that loops itself over my head. Its spinning motion grinding away at the tangle of bones holding me in place, forcing the monster to recede its hand. I hit the ground, land crouched and take a precious second to catch my breath. The ring parts, stops its spin once again and reconstructs itself into a new weapon: a thin pole with a long, flat blade on either end, each curving in opposite directions. In the center is a handle I catch with both hands as the weapon materializes before me, and I off in the direction of the monster that had picked me up. I use my forward motion to propel the first powerful slice, then spin the weapon with both hands for multiple quicker strikes.
Another hollow wail lets me know the other beast is after me as well now, and with a final swing at my current target I whirl around to face my next. He's closer than I expected, and with a bony fist to my shoulder sends me flying over the cracked pavement. I twist myself in mid-air, landing on both feet and using the double-sided glaive to steady myself.
Both monsters approach me from either side and I swing the glaive in a wide arc in front of myself before twisting it around and repeating the action in the other direction, with the other blade. The creature on my left snatches the weapon from one side and uses it to reel me towards it. But the souls are quicker; the glaive shrinks into a glowing ball. Knowing better, I fling myself backwards as far as I can as the sphere expands with the force of a grenade blast and launches both monsters yards away, flat on their backs. Tossed into mid-air, the congregation of souls shifts back into the double-sided glaive and I dive to catch it. It lands in one hand and I give it a twirl, starting towards the downed monsters to finish the fight. I have the advantage now.
But, evidently, this isn't true. Something collides with me from behind, the brute impact forcing the breath from my lungs as my vision momentarily flashes black. I land hard, even farther away than the two creatures had just been thrown. The glaive has been ripped from my hands and I straggle desperately for the weapon – or anything to hold onto – as my body tumbles helplessly over the decomposing concrete. I just had to assume I had that advantage, I think bitterly as I skid to a halt and pull myself shakily to my feet.
They must have only engaged me to distract me until their third friend showed up. And it sure worked. I could retreat now, but there's no guarantee the Decay wouldn't track me wherever I went. No guarantee I even could make it away from them at all. No, I won't give up the fight. I have to get these souls out of here.
The other two monsters rise as the third, the one that rammed into me, comes towards for another charge. Where are the souls? Surely the Decay can't have them, or they'd call it quits with me and run off with their prize reclaimed. I have to go get them if I want any chance of winning this.
As the beast barrels towards me I roll out of the way and head at full speed towards where I had gotten hit. Unfortunately, one of the first monsters stands in my way. I don't stop, I can't stop, momentum is pulling me forward more than my own numb legs ever could. In an act of desperation I duck to the side in hopes of avoiding the enemy in front of me. But I don't have that kind of luck. Its skinny fingers wind around my throat, the jagged ends causing pearly beads of red to surface as my breath is constricted. I'm lifted above the creature's head, my legs thrashing violently in an effort to get myself out of this one. Where are the souls, what happened? The question runs through my mind again, my thoughts shivering as my vision starts to deteriorate at the edges, flickering in and out. I have to get air.
My legs are still flailing about, albeit more weakly, and this time luck finally decides it has my back as one kick connects with the monster's throat, its vise-like grip loosening slightly. But it's just enough for me to get a single gulp of air to fuel another kick, a more brutal one. This time its hand releases me and I hit the ground, coughing and gagging, my vision bleary. Instinctively I put one hand to my neck, and pull it away to see smears of blood across my fingers. Still trying to drag heaps of air into my system at once, I pull myself to my feet, focusing only on getting up, on getting some oxygen – and not on the three Decay still trying to take me down.
That's not a good thing. The tightly clenched fist of another of the creatures barrels into the back of my head and hurls me into the air, spinning wildly before crashing into the pavement with a harsh thud. My vision instantly dissolves into shadowy static as I fall unconscious.
There's no pain. No heat or cold, no dark or light, just a vague wisp of thought, and a sort of pressure pressure buzzing about the air to let me know there's still something to feel. A voice rockets through the void, echoes shearing off of it to reflect off a ground that isn't there. It comes again.
I can't speak, my mouth is dry and metallic-tasting, not at all substantial enough to make a sound. But the other voice is there once more. This time I see a face. A face I had hoped every single day of my life to see again, but never like this. A face I've been fighting for this whole time, a face that kept me going through it all, through all the darkness and the despair, a face that fended off the Decay and kept my soul untarnished.
She's exactly as I last saw her, a good three inches taller than me, the somewhat harsh features of her heart-shaped face easily revealing what she was thinking – or, what she wanted people to assume she was thinking. Her hair is bright blue, cropped close to frame her face, slightly longer in the back, and tied up with a narrow white string.
My parents were some of the first to fall when the Decay took over. But my older sister and I made it out of the house. We lived on the run, fought off what we could, took back what souls we managed to get our hands on. We were a team, fighting for each other, living for each other – and the rest of humanity. She taught me everything I know, she always looked out for me.
Her face could conceal what she was thinking, though I didn't know that until it was too late. It took a couple of battles. It took a couple of wrong moves, a couple of my mistakes that got me hurt, nearly killed, for her to suddenly understand we weren't invincible. That she couldn't always protect me. That fear, it ate her from the inside out. I couldn't tell until after she was taken by despair one night; I woke up to find my best friend and only family nothing more than a mindless husk, her soul long-gone. And that was when I made myself a promise. The protector would become the protected. I would travel the world returning souls to their bodies in hopes that I would eventually find my sister's soul. The prospect that I would be able to bring her back was what kept me going the entire time. She is the reason I am able to resist the Decay, and why my soul is still intact.
And now she is standing in front of me, and in this formless void at the end of times, I'm really and truly getting to see her again.
“You think there's no one left to protect you, don't you? You think you're on your own?” She gives me a sorrowful sort of smile, bittersweet, and while there's nothing to say she's not putting it on as another act, I can feel in my heart that she's being honest this time.
“You are the only one left. You're the only one who can resist despair and bring light back to the world. But that doesn't mean you're all alone. My soul isn't with my body any more. But it's always with you, however far away, however many nasty Decay hands it travels through. And you're gonna get it back. You're gonna get back all the souls that have been taken from us. I know that as an absolutely true fact. And not just because of what I taught you. It isn't me. It's you. You're the one who kept fighting through all this. So you better keep going. We're counting on you to get back up. We're counting on you to bring back light.”
I still can't speak. But she smiles, a genuine, reassuring smile that lets me know that she knows what I'm feeling. I have to get up. There has to be somebody to carry on, and it's going to be me. I will bring back light. I'll bring back the souls, everybody's.
“I know you will,” she says, and with that my eyes shoot open. That's when the pain comes. A thin trail of blood has dripped from my mouth onto the street where I lie, and bruises and scrapes pulse with dull pain all over my body. My throat stings and sizzles where claws have entered my skin, and my sides are raw and red-hot from when I was first picked up. I give a ragged cough and a spray of hot blood spatters the concrete. When I pull myself up onto torn elbows I see the three figures of the Decay in the distance, a thin glowing band wrapped around the one in the center. They'd gotten the souls while I was down.
Not if I could help it. “Hey, what makes you think I'm finished with you?” I call out to them, the sentence cut off by another cough as I work to clamber to my feet. I manage it, my legs shaking but still holding me up all the same. This time I know what I have to do. My soul isn't affected by the Decay. If ordinary souls aren't enough to help me win this, I'll just have to use my own.
The ground around me forms a gleaming barrier in a circle around me, beams of light blasting from out of nowhere. I can draw light from anything. My soul will overtake the darkness. The rays of glow spin around me the same way my belt of souls did, but the glow is much brighter, leaving scorch marks on the concrete and a humming noise hanging in the air before it splits into two curved shafts on my left and right. I grab each as they materialize into two shimmering swords, one fiery gold and one bright blue. For me and my sister. I'll fight for both of us. The glow washes over me as scrapes heal and bruises fade, and the unending pain in my body is replaced with a warm feeling of total energy and control, my heartbeat flooding me with pure light. “Let's do this,” I say to myself, bolting off towards the three Decay, swords at the ready.
They obviously weren't expecting me to get back up. As I catch up to them, the ground rips open into another disc of light I use to launch myself into the air, like last time. I soar towards the ground between two of the monsters. As I hit the earth my swords slash into their upper shoulders, and like a hot knife through butter, nearly sever the arms. I land on my feet and pivot to face them.
“Give me back the souls.” I command. The unharmed beast makes a sound that probably was supposed to be a laugh, but that sounded to me like a corpse finally experiencing the pain of its unending, rotting existence. The two monsters I did hit are writhing in pain, clutching their wounded arms, and I can see the harsh spindles of bone attempting to knit themselves back together as fast as possible. But I wasn't going to give them that change.
I lunge for the creatures again, digging both swords into the belly of one and wrenching them in opposite directions. As the other injured one dives towards me, I flip my swords in my hands so that they are facing backwards, angle them slightly inward, and thrust both hands backwards. I hear the wet shifting noise of both swords entering the monster's torso, and pull one of them out, flipping it forwards once again to slit the throat of the creature in front of me. In the same smooth motion, I turn myself to the side and dig the freed sword into the face of the monster behind me, then pulling both swords out as I kick it in the chest, its body falling to the ground.
There's one left, the one with the belt of souls. The one that rammed into me, that punched me in the back of the head. I've got a bone to pick with this one.
I turn towards it and get into a fighting stance. “I won't say it again. Give them to me.” Again it laughs as the souls start whirling around it the way they did for me. Only this time their glow is fading, fading to a tarnished, ashy black like the void where I found my sister.
I charge towards the beast with both swords, but the smoky soul collection morphs into a shield like it once did when I wielded them, and I am met with an impact that sets my ears ringing and my teeth chattering. The wall twists back into a ring, then straightens out and flattens into a thick blade. The beast of Decay sweeps it towards me menacingly, causing me to step back. I ready my swords again. Its sword is larger than mine, which means I'll have to be faster.
It lifts the sword high above my head, obviously intending to bring it down in an earth-shattering vertical strike, but I take the opportunity to move closer and slice at its chest. But the creature is ready for that too, and sinks its gaunt fist, hilt and all, into the side of my head.
The blow throws me off balance, and I stand for a few precious seconds wobbling on one foot, before I turn my body 360 degrees, plant the other firmly on the ground, lunge towards the monster's back, and slash one sword at its now-exposed side.
It swings its own black blade around in my direction and I duck beneath its radius before it can do any damage. Now crouched, I dive and roll back towards the front of the monster's body, my dual swords carving a gash out of its stomach.
As I move towards its other side, the creature flings one bony elbow at me, catching me in the back, but I turn the momentum into another roll, turning around immediately to face my opponent again.
It lifts the onyx blade again, but this time I'm too far away to move in for a closer strike. The huge weapon crashes into the ground immediately to my right, the unstable concrete trembling as the shock wave lifts my feet off the ground for a split second. I actually do lose my balance this time, my traitorous feet skidding out from under me, and I hit the street as the beast closes in on me. Its speed surprises me at first, but then again, the first time it hit me I was sent flying at least ten yards away.
The midnight sword is over my head in an instant, looming upon me like the constant prospect of inevitable death. It drops towards me, a nuclear bomb tearing through the short distance between us, cleaving the heavy air, never faltering, always there, unending darkness.
My hands instinctively come up to block it, the two light swords crossing in an X to fend off the larger force. The gleam spreads from my blades, splashes onto the monster's. The blade of tainted souls begins to whiten as I force the beast's hands back. Light twists and turns and dances off every curve and angle as it seeps into the core of the black sword. The souls are being reverted. Contact with my blades is enough for them to repel the darkness they were once soaked with.
There's no way the creature of Decay can keep control on the power of one single human soul not weighed down by despair, let alone the several I had been carrying with me. There's no way it can even hold it in sword form. The massive weapon dissolves into many small white globes, luminous specters of energy drifting about in the air.
With the monster now powerless, I dive towards it, my crossed swords carving it to pieces with one fluid, unified stroke. I pick up my belt from its body, dust it off, and wrap it back around myself, the levitating souls slowly floating into their places in the glass bottles hanging from it. “Thank you very much,” I say, breathing heavily. My blazing swords have dispersed as well, but I know the power still resides in my soul. Should I need to call it up again, it will be there.
I need to find the rightful possessors of the souls I have now, and return them. I need to keep fighting, reclaim more souls, make sure that every single one makes it back to its home. Somewhere along that line, I'm going to come across my sister's soul. I'll bring it back to her. I'll bring everyone's back. But the most important thing I'll be bringing back is light to our barren world. The Decay won't stand a chance; light will always be there to sweep away the darkness. I'm not alone. I'll take back what was stolen from us and rebuild the world around me with hope.