Chapter Twenty-Three: Spiritual Heartbeat (I1B0C23)

             Chapter Twenty-Three: Spiritual Heartbeat

 

            As white lightning flickered in the clouds, the golden eyes of the Interfecti blazed brighter than ever. The lightning illuminated every falling raindrop. The howling wind transformed the raindrops into tiny liquid daggers that pelted every inch of Hatasuko’s skin. His long hair flew behind him as he glared at the Interfectus on the south side of the city. With her back pressed against his, Vaida stared northward at the second Interfectus. Both shadow demons levitated over the rooftops, unaffected by the piercing rain and crashing thunder. Their shadow armor refused to glisten from the lightning’s glow. The city of Occasa stood silent and motionless. Aside from Vaida’s fast breathing, Hatasuko sensed no life in any direction.

            “The tempest is anguished like never before. Their voices are all just whispered screams and stifled cries. They’re crying for us, Vaida; they think we’re destined to die. They think this is the end of their shot at justice. They think this is the end of hope. Are they right?” Hatasuko asked, holding his sword close.

            “I won’t let you die. I won’t… let them take anything else away from me. Never again. Never again,” she answered.

            The silence broke when the north Interfectus summoned a scattershot of shadow spheres. Though Hatasuko glared in the opposite direction, he knew what had happened when Vaida separated her back from his. As quickly as she could, Vaida tossed a rock lightly in the air and spun around. At the same time, Hatasuko swerved, jumped up, pulled back his sword, and activated his Astrodeus power. He swung his sword with so much speed that a vaporization ring erupted around him; a deafening shockwave shook the muddy street. When his sword struck the large rock, it crumbled into gravel; every small rock shot into the sky with supersonic speed.

When the north Interfectus launched its bombs, several rock shards struck the cluster. The shadow spheres detonated in a massive eruption of blue fire. The fiery shockwaves barely touched the Interfectus, and then the south Interfectus counterattacked by extending its shadow claw.

            Since Hatasuko was in the air and facing the wrong direction, he had no way to intercept this attack; the shadow claw would strike him before he hit the ground. For that reason, Vaida slammed her feet on the ground, jumped into the air, and pulled her shield up to block the shadow claw. It crashed against her shield, slammed the shield into Vaida, which caused her to fly into Hatasuko, and then they both hit the wall of a short building. The dagger-fingers of the shadow claw enwrapped and grabbed her shield, but Hatasuko prepared to fight back. He drew back his sword and threatened to activate his power, so the south Interfectus retracted its arm.

Vaida and Hatasuko ran into the middle of the wet dirt street, but the darkness of the howling storm had hidden the fact that they were under attack. When they swerved to the see the southern sky, they saw the faint glow of shadow spheres, all charging toward them with perilous speed.

“Guard my back!” Vaida exclaimed as she jumped and threw a rock with all her strength.

The rock sailed into the sky, struck a shadow sphere in the middle of the cluster, and forced them all to detonate prematurely. Since the scattershot had already flown close to the rooftops, the fiery shockwave engulfed many homes and buildings. Hatasuko glared through the flickering sky at the north Interfectus. The monster hovered ominously over the rooftops without moving, watching him guard Vaida.

After the ground stopped shaking, Hatasuko and Vaida both dashed westward, hoping to close the distance to the Interfecti. As they tore through the pelting rain, Hatasuko warned, “They know I’ve only got one activation left. Once I use it, I’ll be vulnerable, and they’ll probably do everything they can to kill me.”

A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck a few blocks away. A deafening crack of thunder startled them both, but the Interfecti were unaffected. Even though the bolt had pierced the transparent layer in the sky, the monsters paid no mind.

“I have an idea! Can you hold off one Interfectus on your own? Even if you don’t get to refuel?” Vaida asked.

“Not for too long, but I guess for a little. Why do you ask?” Hatasuko answered.

“I have a plan! One that could destroy them. All you need to do is attack first,” Vaida explained, slowing to a stop in the street.

Hatasuko also stopped running, though he continued to glare at the north Interfectus with his right eye. At the same time, Vaida watched the south Interfectus with her left eye. But when they both stopped running, Vaida unsheathed a sword from her back and handed it to him. Hatasuko holstered his own sword, grabbed the handle of Vaida’s sword, and activated his power.

With a cataclysmic rush of glowing energy, Hatasuko launched the sword into the sky with supersonic speed. It tore through the pouring rain, sliced through the howling wind, struck the north Interfectus’ chest, and shattered its shadow armor. The sword became lodged inside the Interfectus, and the monster unleashed a pained roar that shook the city. The south Interfectus retaliated with a sudden lunge from its shadow spear, but Hatasuko swerved and intercepted the blade with his black shield. Vaida swerved, glared at the north Interfectus, closed her eyes, and activated her power.

            In a burst of fiery energy, Vaida ignited and unleashed a blinding scarlet light. As Hatasuko blocked a nearby slash of the shadow spear, he watched through the corner of his golden eye; he watched Vaida unfold and transcend her Astrodeus body. She evolved, transformed into a star of energetic flames, and lifted over the rooftops. The air temperature skyrocketed instantly. Every tiny raindrop evaporated long before it could strike the burning star; the nearby moisture evaporated to create a cloud of swirling steam. The fiery star grew larger and hotter by the second. Tiny serpents of fire appeared on the surface of Vaida’s star, and then they grew into solar flares. Raging solar flares surged across her while illuminating the mist cloud.

The south Interfectus retracted its shadow spear so that it would not be struck; this let Hatasuko drop his guard. As he took a deep breath and watched Vaida ascend, an array of black fire appeared beneath his feet. It illuminated, engulfed him with a pulse of black flames, and gave him a gift of quintessence from the tempest.

Several solar flares simultaneously shot out from the surface of the burning star. The blindingly bright flares intertwined to create a spiral of searing fire. It shot across the stormy sky, evaporated every raindrop in its path, and crashed against the north Interfectus. It unleashed so much heat that the monster’s black armor turned red; the shadow demon used its second weapon and summoned its shield just to block the solar strike.

To overcome this, Vaida catapulted herself into motion; the burning star shot over the rooftops and barreled toward the north Interfectus with meteoric speed. The Interfectus tried to strike her down with its scattershot. The shadow spheres all hit the burning star and erupted with bursts of blue fire, but Vaida absorbed every explosion into herself. The blue infernos wrapped around the star to create a second set of solar flares.

            “She’s lasting much longer than last time. Does that mean she can switch it off whenever she wants?” Hatasuko wondered aloud.

            Realizing that Vaida was unstoppable in her burning star state, the north Interfectus created a swirling shadow shield again to defend itself. It was only seconds away from colliding with the blazing star. Hatasuko watched from far away, since the brightness of the star overwhelmed the rain and mist.

            When the burning star struck the center of the shadow shield, it compressed, nearly flattened, and exploded with a fiery burst. Through this explosion, Vaida diverged her burning star around the shield, and then she steered all the fiery energy against the Interfectus itself. This attack struck its shoulders, neck, torso, and arms; she struck like a giant ring of white-hot fire. The impact knocked the monster backward as it levitated over the city, and then Vaida triggered the final stage of this transformation. The ring of fiery energy blasted together, converging toward its center like the gravity of a fallen star. The searing flames charged across the Interfectus all along the way. Its armor shattered in countless places; the demon’s shadow skin crumbled in the explosive energy.

In an attempt to escape her, the north Interfectus stopped levitating. It fell from the sky and crash-landed on its feet in the heart of the city. The impact flattened the nearest eight houses; the shockwaves shook the city.

            A massive cloud of smoke and debris engulfed the legs of the north Interfectus. Through the smoke and rain, Hatasuko saw a red glow on the demon’s chest; it had been severely damaged by Vaida’s attack. Just a short distance away, the fiery energy converged back into Vaida, though she slowly fell to the ground during this convergence. By the time she had transformed back into an Astrodeus, she stood safely upon the wet street in a distant part of the city.

            Hatasuko ran north toward Vaida, but then the city shook so much that he lost balance. He heard the windows shattering and objects breaking inside houses. As he struggled to run northward through the shaking streets, he looked over his shoulder and saw that the south Interfectus had landed. It pushed itself after him, running through the city. Every time its giant foot struck the ground, another building crumbled with a burst of smoke and sparks. The shadow demon’s stride was tremendous. With every step, the south Interfectus flew past another block.

When Hatasuko realized that the Interfecti would corner Vaida between them, he felt a rush of horror. As the street shook beneath him, he stopped in the middle of an intersection, pulled a large rock from his bag, and waited for the south Interfectus to run past him.

            In just seconds, Hatasuko had a clear shot at the running monster; there were just a few blocks between them. He activated his Astrodeus power, forced his body to glow, and launched his big rock through the howling wind. The rock struck the demon’s right hip, instantly exploding with a burst of gravel and armor. The massive impact made the monster stumble; its right foot smashed through several small buildings.

            As dust and debris flew up around the Interfectus’ legs, it regained its balance and then ran toward Vaida. Hatasuko chased after it as quickly as he could, and as he ran, he pulled another rock from the bag on his shoulder. He triggered his power again, infused his muscles with an immense burst of energy, and used his glowing arm to launch the rock again. It shot through the rain and struck the lower back of the Interfectus, shattering its armor. However, Hatasuko then tripped on the trembling road.

            Though both Interfecti were injured, they quickly cornered Vaida. While breathing heavily, she clung onto a wagon and glared at the south Interfectus. She was uninjured, but she struggled for breath due to the time she spent as the burning star. The north Interfectus had lost the armor which covered its chest; it had already crumbled and fallen. Slimy, rubbery skin remained beneath its armor. Rain poured upon the Interfectus and into the dirt streets. When a lightning strike lit up the sky, Vaida saw black blood in the rainwater that surrounded the shadow demon. Its chest bled profusely in the place where Hatasuko had pierced it with a sword throw. This was the first time she had ever seen it bleed.

            But when the flashing light faded, Vaida heard the whoosh of a blade flying toward the back of her head. She ducked, barely dodged the shadow spear, and then kicked off the wagon to throw herself aside. As she moved, she ripped the black shield off her back and then pulled it upright, blocking a shadow sword slash from the other Interfectus. The impact hurled her backward so quickly that she tripped and almost fell. As the north Interfectus retracted its shadow sword, the south one attacked from behind with a shadow spear lunge. Vaida did not have time to turn, and so she unleashed her only defense; she activated her power and transformed again into a burning star.

            The shadow blade tore harmlessly into the flaming entity, though the south Interfectus then retracted this weapon. Both Interfecti stood motionlessly, almost like they were prepared to run or cast their shields. Therefore, Vaida chose not to follow through with her attack. It took a tremendous cost of quintessence to keep the form of the burning star, so she switched off her power and reverted to her regular form as steam lifted over the street. However, the north Interfectus then launched a scattershot of shadow spheres diagonally downward.

Exhausted and dazed as she returned to her normal body, Vaida forgot to throw a rock. Instead, she simply ducked and clung onto her shield with both hands. When the spheres struck the street and the buildings on both sides, every shadow ball erupted with a blast of blue fire. The flames diverged around her shield, but the shockwaves sent her flying backward. Her feet struck the street first, the impact spun her into a backward flying roll, and then she crash-landed in a muddy puddle with a series of painful smacks.

            When she stopped rolling, Vaida lay on her back in the mud while clinging to her black shield. With her one good eye, she saw that the south Interfectus stood right over her. Its giant black foot hung in the air, but it descended quickly from above; she was about to get flattened by a mighty stomp. Right before she would have been crushed, a golden glow shot by the falling foot; Hatasuko crashed his sword through the Interfectus at the very last moment.

His sword destroyed the monster’s leg; the shockwave shattered it all the way up to its giant knee. Since the shadow demon had lost its balance, it separated its other foot from the ground and levitated over the rooftops instead of falling.

            “Vaida, look out!” Hatasuko yelled.

            Though still on the ground, Vaida swerved as the north Interfectus launched its shadow claw. Vaida kicked off the wet ground, landed on her lower back, and executed a backward somersault onto her feet. But instead of aiming for her shield, the shadow claw lunged at Hatasuko. With a sudden jolt, he guarded the bulk of his body with his shield. However, the giant claws raked his left side, tore through his flesh, and left four bloody gashes on his body. In angered desperation, he slammed his sword against the shadow claw with all his strength, but this did nothing. The north Interfectus retracted its weapon, and then Hatasuko dropped to his knees.

            “Are you okay?” Vaida yelled as she dashed over to his side.

            His shirt was torn with four deep gashes on his left side. His blood mixed with the rainwater and stained the puddles in the street. His mouth was open, but he clenched his teeth; he fiercely fought to hide his blinding pain.

            “If you want to run, I’ll run with you. I’ll make sure we get out alive,” Vaida whispered, though she glared at the Interfecti with her good eye as she spoke.

            Still seething from the pain, Hatasuko said, “I feel like I’m walking a fine line, or that I’m stuck on the fence between destiny and apathy. I want to run away from this, I want to run away with you, but then I’m no better than Caelicola. I’d be happy, but I was never meant for happiness. I gave up on that a long time ago. When I was given this curse, do you know what the first voice said? Of all the countless whispers and hopeless screams, the first voice in the tempest spoke to me as a promise, ‘You will never be happy.’”

            “But then the tempest was wrong! You’re happy when you’re with me. I know you are!” she said as the rain crashed around them.

            “You’re right, Vaida. I am happy. But I don’t think the lost souls said it as a prophecy. I think it’s my destiny—an announcement of my priorities. I can be happy, but I cannot chase it. Our first priority is to save this world from the Interfecti. We’re the only ones strong enough to make it happen! Everyone is counting on us. Everything is riding on this,” Hatasuko explained, wincing as he stood back up.

            “Then I will fight with you,” Vaida said with a shy smile.

            As it levitated over the rooftops, the south Interfectus summoned a scattershot of shadow spheres. Without hesitating or aiming, the monster unleashed this scattershot with incredible speed, but Vaida was ready; she blocked the attack with a swift rock throw. As the spheres erupted in the sky with a deafening burst, the north Interfectus swung its shadow sword. The blade approached quickly, so Hatasuko threw himself in the way and activated his power. When he clashed swords with the Interfectus, an immense surge of strength shattered the shadow sword. However, the impact’s recoil caused every gash on his side to spew blood.

            “I’m out of quintessence,” Hatasuko warned.

            Without delay, the north Interfectus retracted its broken right arm and then swung its left blade-arm. Vaida pushed herself in the way and lifted her shield, flexing her muscles and bracing herself. And though she successfully blocked the blade with her shield, the impact slammed her against the muddy street.

Meanwhile, the south Interfectus unleashed a cluster of black spheres. Hatasuko could hardly see them through the smoke and rain. After he threw a rock into the sky, a bolt of lightning lit the city and illuminated every raindrop.

            In the flash of bright white light, Hatasuko’s rock struck one of the middle shadow spheres. It detonated and struck the nearest shadow spheres. In a split-second, the chain reaction caused another massive inferno. It was so close to the ground that fiery shockwaves shook the city. When the smoke cleared and the shaking stopped, Hatasuko realized that Vaida had her back pressed against a wall. The north Interfectus continuously hacked at her shield with a shadow blade.

            “I can hold it off! Just recharge!” Vaida screamed through the storm.

            But the Interfectus would not give him the chance. The north Interfectus retracted its shadow sword from Vaida, spun swiftly, and then lunged the weapon at Hatasuko. Instead of blocking or ducking, he jumped up, kicked off the wall behind him, and barely flew over the slashing blade. While he was in midair, the weapon destroyed the building behind him. When he landed on the muddy street, he ran to Vaida with his shield held high.

The south Interfectus attacked again with a swift lunge of its shadow spear. Hatasuko slammed his shield against, but the impact knocked him backward; his back crashed into the wall of another home.

            As lightning flashed in the sky and the rain fell around them, Vaida closed her eyes and said, “This is the revenge of the little burned girl that you created.”

            In a flash of blinding light, Vaida transcended her physical body and transformed into a fiery entity. As the burning star grew larger, more powerful, and lifted into the air, both Interfecti stopped attacking. They watched silently and without movement, glaring at the blazing force with their golden eyes. In a burst of fiery energy, several solar flares ascended and charged across her blazing sphere. These solar flares spiraled around each other and danced between shades of red and blue, showcasing her extraordinary heat.

As the glowing array appeared on the ground beneath his feet, Hatasuko shielded his eyes but strived to watch Vaida. The sweltering heat evaporated the sweat and rainwater on his skin. Even as the black fire engulfed him, the strongest glow was that of Vaida’s star. Lightning flickered in the clouds, but its light was insignificant in comparison. A cloud of firelit steam surrounded this section of the city, and flashing and flickering due to the solar flares. In this glowing cloud of firelight, Hatasuko could barely see the two Interfecti.

            Vaida thrust herself into motion; the burning star flung toward the south Interfectus. But as she expected, the monster used its second weapon to make a giant shield of swirling shadows. Therefore, in the three seconds before impact, Vaida changed her trajectory and instead hit the right edge of its shadow shield. Just like last time, the star partially broke open, but the impact sent the fiery sphere into a high-speed spin. As the burning star accelerated with an earthshaking explosion, the blaze spun fiercely, and then it engulfed the upper half of the south Interfectus.

Through a cloud of steam and pelting rain, the giant spiral of fire devoured the top of the shadow demon. In the form of a solar vortex, Vaida ruthlessly unleashed the full force of the burning star. She spent the last of her quintessence tearing apart the Interfectus with her blazing spiral.

            A deafening crack sounded from the monster’s armor as it shattered; Vaida had left the Interfectus exposed. Like the gravitational collapse of a supernova, Vaida then converged her fiery energy. Every solar flare and fiery draft violently converged, continuously bombarding the Interfectus’ head. She bore down upon it with the force of a star collapsing in on itself; the pressure overwhelmed the shadow demon’s exposed skull. Its head crumbled in the fiery pressure of the burning star. With this one final strike, Vaida left the monster twisted and deformed. A second loud crack echoed through the stormy sky, and then the Interfectus’ body fractured. Its head fell from its body, its limbs went limp as it floated, and then it began fading.

As the fiery energy converged and recreated Vaida in the space where the monster’s head had been, the Interfectus fade out of existence.

            “Vaida! You did it! I can’t believe it; you killed the Interfectus!” Hatasuko yelled with all his might.

            Though he could not see her face through the steam and pouring rain, Hatasuko knew that Vaida was smiling. As she reconvened in the sky and slowly floated back down to the city, a small wave of tears dampened her eyes—both tears of happiness and tears of change. For the first time since the monsters first appeared, someone had killed an Interfectus. Vaida killed an Interfectus. It was righteous justice for those who had been lost to the monster, and it was a fiery vengeance for the scars that stained her.

            “Hatasuko! It’s amazing! It’s, it’s the most wonderful—”

            The shadow claw of the north Interfectus tore straight through her body. Before Vaida could return to the streets of Occasa, five finger-daggers pierced her torso with a series of bloody bursts. The five shadow blades made a straight line from her right shoulder to her left hip, and every blade poked out through her back. Her heterochromatic eyes widened, but her open mouth fell silent. She was stuck in the sky, dangling in the rain over the rooftops, hanging from the shadow claw.

Hatasuko stared in a state of shock. His mind rapidly processed countless solutions, but nothing seemed to work. Even if he were to shatter the monster’s arm, the blades would still be in her, and then she would simply fall to her death.

            “No, this can’t be…! There’s no way that, you wouldn’t, that I wouldn’t… this can’t happen! I won’t let you die without me! I’m begging you. Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me. Oh, Vaida,” Hatasuko whispered as a paralyzing wave of fear seized him.

            A bolt of lightning shot through the western sky and lit the world with a flash of light. As Hatasuko stared through the pouring rain, Vaida weakly clung to the five finger-blades of the Interfectus. He could not help but remember when he saw the same happen to his mother. And just like on that day, the Interfectus opened its shadow claw; its finger-daggers separated and cut her in five different places. One dagger tore through her left hip; another severed her right shoulder.

Too heavy to be held up by just three blades, Vaida fell from the rainy sky. As the flash of lightning faded, Hatasuko knew that her pain had left her catatonic. He shook himself free from his paralysis, used his Astrodeus power, and slammed his feet on the ground. This super-jump sent a shockwave across the street as a big wave of mud. He felt the recoil overwhelm his joints; his ankles and knees had compressed too far. He shot through the pelting rain at a faster speed than ever, but he was too horrified to feel the exhilaration.

            Hatasuko caught Vaida in midair, though he had no plan for landing. He clenched her bloody body in his giant arms and glared at the north Interfectus, but the monster did not seem poised to attack; it had also been tremendously injured. As Vaida trembled in his arms, he fell toward the muddy streets at a high speed. He twirled himself in midair so that she would not strike the ground.

When Hatasuko crash-landed on his shield with his giant left arm, his shoulder snapped out of its socket and his left arm broke. The blinding pain paralyzed him, but he hoisted Vaida over the mud. When they stopped sliding, he pulled her bloody hair out of her face and looked into her eyes. To his surprise, she was not catatonic. Giant wounds scattered her body, but the life had not faded from her eyes. However, she could not hide the enormity of her pain.

            Through his connection with the screaming tempest, Hatasuko sensed that the Interfectus had stopped attacking. The one remaining Interfectus began to fade; it retreated from reality due to the extent of its wounds. Despite his aching legs and broken arm, Hatasuko climbed to his feet and carried Vaida with him. Desperate to get her out of the rain, he ripped through a door with his sword and then kicked it down. The room was illuminated by a few candles, but it was otherwise empty. He set Vaida down on the nearest bed and pulled a candle closer.

            Vaida kept her eyes tightly closed and took heavy breaths. Her left breast lifted and fell with each breath, but her right breast stayed motionless. Her scarred right arm hung on by a thread. There were three other incisions in her torso. Though she had only been in the bed for seconds, she had already left a disheartening bloodstain. Vaida tried to open her good eye, but she kept her lips open and clenched her teeth. She lifted her scarred right hand like she was reaching for him, so he dropped his weapons and held her hand with his.

            “Hatasuko… can you please… can you tell me a lie? I just want… can you tell me… can you tell me I’ll live?” Vaida whispered while wincing.

            He said to her, “It doesn’t have to be a lie. You’ll survive this! We’re going to get out of here, I know it. We’ve beaten the Interfecti! You killed an Interfectus. It’s not a lie. You’re going to live. You’re going to live! We can still reach it. Our dream will become reality.”

            Despite her trembling, Vaida forced her face to form a slight smile. She lightly squeezed his hand with her soft fingers. Hatasuko sighed with relief when he saw her smile, but then he realized that she thought he was playing along.

            “I love you so much, Hatasuko. I have… I have trouble showing… how much you mean… how much all this… has always meant to me… but I love you… more than anything. More than dreams. More than hope. You are… the greatest thing that ever happened for me. The scariest part… in dying, the scariest part of dying… is I’m afraid I’ll never ever hold you again. I fear… what if I never kiss you? What if I—”

            “Then stay alive, Vaida. Please, please, stay with me! This doesn’t have to end. I won’t let you bleed out! I know I said I was willing to sacrifice, but I never imagined I’d have to give you up. The world has no right to take you from me,” Hatasuko said, fighting back tears.

            Vaida’s cold fingertips clung lightly to his hands, but her grip grew weaker by the second. Her shaking started to slowly subside. Her look of pained discontent started to fade. Though her scars had been enflamed by the irritation, the color of her damaged skin reverted to normal.

            “I brought in the sail-rana… I mean, I hid… under the hatch in the back… I brought water. The special water… it’s from the Fons Vitae. I want you to heal… heal yourself with it,” Vaida whispered with a pained smile.

            “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! There’s still time! Come on, Vaida, we’re going. I’m gonna bring you there, and then I’ll—”

            “We both know there isn’t time. This is… going to happen. Please don’t be sad! Hatasuko… please don’t hate me for leaving. Please don’t… ever regret me.”

            “Vaida, I could never.”

            “Good,” she whispered with a smile.

            The candles flickered quietly around them. Hatasuko failed to fight back the tears that arose in his eyes, but he wiped them with his broken arm as soon as they escaped. Vaida, on the other hand, smiled a peaceful smile. He lifted her off the bed and held her closely in his heavy arms. Her eyes were closed. Though he had never noticed it before, and he did not understand it when she held him on the islet in the middle of the ocean, he now felt a spiritual heartbeat. It was a pulse coming from her soul, or the way that her soul entangled with his, and he felt it in a way that transcended his physical form. It was her spiritual heartbeat.

            “I want to stay… locked in your head… so we can meet there again. Thank you… Hatasuko, thank you for finding this little burned girl. I was… nothing before you. I was… just a puddle of self-hatred. A shrine to misery. Because of you… I don’t regret my life. Even at the end… I want to cling on, and it’s all because of you. So goodbye, Hatasuko, until we meet again.”