“Humans do some crazy things, don’t they?” He chuckled. “You know, this place was once used to imprison and torture those who were seen as untouched by the light. Which in layman’s terms meant those who were seen as evil. Those wicked, impish creatures! We must capture them and damn them all to hell! Pretentious, isn’t it? As if their god came down and instructed them to purge their land for the sake of purity and sanctity. Hypocrisy at its best!” A dark laughter broke out of him, its echo bouncing off the walls and cueing a newcomer into the ring. From the depths of the room came a tall towering statue suit of armor–fully animated. I took a step back, creating more distance between us, but then the guy who looked like he got run over by a truck closed the gap with a step, his creepy face still smiling at me…

This was going to be a 2v1 match, wasn’t it?

I spaced out my footing and balled up my fist, ready to fight. Luckily for me, this asshole looked like he was in a monologue giving mood, which gave me time to think about how I was going to deal with this.

With arms splayed out again, he spun around in a circle, reveling in his underground chamber of corpses. “Tis the circle of life—hate breeds more hate, and hate breeds more evil. You see, I was once like you, but then they threw me down here, left me to rot. They thought they could purge evil by banishing it underground, throwing their sins into deep dark graves where no one could see them. Countless lives lost to self-entitlement! But the joke is on them. While they thought they were doing this world some good, what they created was this….” He gestured at himself. “Their hubris has built something far more sinister than sin, and I’m here to reap justice that’s been long overdue!”

I glared at him. “So this is payback? Killing innocent people who have no business being in your vendetta?”

Finally, with a frown on his face, he looked at me disappointingly. “Didn’t you hear a word I said? HUMANS ARE SAVAGES!” he shouted. “Living in their fairytale lives where every villain is evil and every hero is pure. But life isn’t so black and white, now, is it?” I’d heard this ideology before. This twisted understanding of the world, where humanity was corrupt, and everyone deserved to be punished for it. And here it was again, in this underground prison house, being preached by Mr. Vengeance and Despair.

“I believe that there is good in people,” I retorted, my fists clenching even tighter. “You can’t generalize everyone based on your shitty experiences.”

“I can, and I will. Because let’s face it, these people you’re protecting out there aren’t as innocent as you want to believe. These simple humans who wanted to prove their devotion are just as bad as the people they condemn. Those cheaters, liars, thieves, and killers. They are the true monsters. Pretending to be better than everyone else, when they are no different than the ‘evils’ they sought to banish!” He grinned ear to ear. “Prime example over here,” he said, gesturing his hand to introduce his friend. “You remember him, don’t you?”

I tightened my face. “I have no idea who the hell that is.”

“Come on, think about it long and hard. You know him. This isn’t a trick. He’s been on every channel on television. Everyone loved this handsome hunter icon.”

My chest dropped. “R-Ramus?” As in the meta who could embody stone, Ramus?

“Give the man a prize!” he beamed. “My associate used to be a star, known worldwide. A top ranked hunter doing what he did best. And he did it well, until, well… you know his story, don’t you? Corruption always wins. Sooner or later, humans give into it all.”

“Ramus, what the hell are you doing?!” I barked at him. “Siding with a fucking monster?!”

“Oh he can’t hear you,” the flesh eater said. “I’ve turned him into my slave. Funny story, he sent me to kill some jackass named Max, and I did. But then he started going off on me about involving the kids and the whiny bitch. They were my souvenirs, so I couldn’t let them go. But like Ramus, he kept going on and on about doing shit right. I don’t like being bitched at, so I fixed his soul into the dead guy’s body, and turned Ramus into a shell.”

“What?”

“You heard me right. I can turn his soul on at any time, but it wouldn’t matter, anyway. With all of the blood Max lost, he’s going to stay dead. Right where he belongs.”

“You son of a bitch!” I growled. “You’re going to burn in hell for this!”

He laughed, mocking me. “I’m already in hell, my friend.” He cackled. “And you’re standing right in the heart of it with me. In my domain, souls are stashed, transported, and reconditioned. I’m a natural at the craft, a divine architect. I can break down a spirit, rip away its individual threads of consciousness and weave them all anew. And you… my dear hunter… are my next project.” His vicious sneer stretched wider with each word, until he placed a hand over his chest and bowed to me. “My apologies. I just realized that I didn’t introduce myself. The name is Sevv. And I’m known as the Soul Welding Walker.”

Ramus picked up the large stone double axe he was holding and swung it over his shoulder with his attention locked on me. He fixed himself to strike as a twisted sense of pride shot from Sevv’s eyes. “All these lives lost were not sacrifices to my cause but to humanity’s arrogance, its greed, and its disregard for life! They are the masters of their demise!”

“You get off on this, don’t you?!” I growled. “Manipulation and control. These lives are like putty in your hands!”

“You have no idea how many I’ve taken! You just caught me in a seasonal drought where my cages are empty!” He straightened his icy gaze back on me, “And now here you are, stepping into the heart of their hypocrisy! Will you become a monster too?” He snickered. “Only time will tell! Have at him, Ramus!”

Ramus roared, the depth of his voice the sound of a behemoth. It shook the floor and the walls before he charged right at me. Before I could blink, I caught myself step-dodging an attack. The stone axe whistled through the air as it fell half an inch away from me, Ramus fast on his feet. I almost forgot that he had a speed boost, but I remembered that it was contingent on the number of strikes he landed consecutively.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Not giving him an opportunity to hit me would save me in this fight. As long as I avoided his weapon, I should be able to bring him down. I followed up with a counter punch just underneath his rib, Ramus absorbing the blow. Stunned he didn’t budge, Ramus countered my counter, dropping his blade on my head again.

I was forced to block it with my arm, the force of the impact sending a shockwave through my body. He was top-ranked for a reason, his stone materialization saving him from my strength.

“Ramus, don’t do this!” I begged, my voice desperate. “I know you went through shit, but this isn’t you!”

“Ah, sweet desperation,” Sevv commented from the side-lines, sitting on his ass to watch the fight. “I could bottle that and savor it later. I bet it tastes as delicious as it sounds!”

I ignored him, focusing instead on Ramus who peeled his axe back and tossed another swing. When I dodged it, the blade sliced through the floor I’d just been on, bits of stone debris flying in the air. Again, another near miss. He’d landed the previous strike, which granted him another agility boost.

Ramus is strong, far stronger than I gave him credit for. I need to play this smart before he lands another hit on me.

I paced myself and took the time to analyze where he’d target next. Taking a deep breath allowed me to steady my nerves and focus on budgeting my stamina. Ramus was fast and incredibly strong, but he also relied too much on brute force. If I could avoid his strikes and wear him down, I might stand a chance.

As Ramus heaved his axe upward for another swing, I darted forward inside his range. Before he could react, I slammed my fist into his gut. He grunted as the blow landed, but the rocky plates he had for a body absorbed it. I added a little more force into that one, I was getting closer to bringing him down. The idea wasn’t to kill him, no matter how many times Sevv reminded me that he was already dead. When I put Ramus down, that jackass was next, and I was going to make him transfer his soul back!

Ramus answered back to my punch with a backhand across my face that barely missed. No more boosts for you. When I swung my head from his punch, I reeled back and snatched his arm and tossed him over my shoulder. He didn’t move for a good two seconds down there, before he did the unexpected, transforming his double axe into a lance that extended, the head of it pushing me back.

The switch caught me off guard, the head of the lance drilling my chest. The lance began to spin and it continued to grow, pushing me so far back that I struck the other end of the dungeon, several feet in the air. Pinned against the stone wall, I looked down at the pointed tip tearing through my new uniform. Pissed, I grabbed the spinning lance, forcing it to lock in place. And then, I dug my fingers into it and shattered it, allowing myself to free fall back inside the ring.

Down there, Ramus was waiting for me. The guy didn’t allow me to study his moves anymore, he was changing weapons frequently now. For someone who was soulless, he was sure playing smart as he shuffled through a flail, a spiked mallet, and then a sword. I thought about Reina as he swapped weapons, and then thought about the cheap ways she won her evaluation fights. She was good at talking flack and getting under someone’s nerves, so I tried that.

“Hey Ramus, you’d gotten real soft over the years, haven’t you?” I insulted as he continued to swing at me. “Was that why you went off the deep end? Because you were getting older and your meta game was trash?”

“What is the point of talking to a vessel?” Sevv commentated. “Are you still fixated on the idea that he’s in there somewhere?”

Again, I ignored him and kept my eyes on Ramus. “You let all of that money, fame, drugs, and sex get into your head! Now look at you, some demon’s pet!”

“Enough talk, spill his guts!” Sevv hissed. “Hurry up and waste him already!”

“You’ve really fallen off your throne! I used to look up to you before you started to tank. You were the best, someone I aspired to be. But now? You’re just a shell of your former self. Even worse, you’re a fucking lackey. The real Ramus would never let himself be controlled like this. He was too proud, too stubborn to let anyone use him as a puppet. What happened to the real Ramus? The one who stood for justice and protected the innocent?”

Ramus roared and came at me again, even more enraged. His swings became wilder and less accurate. I was getting to him. Or at least, getting to whatever shred of himself I knew was still lingering in that stone body.

“Don’t listen to him!” Sevv shouted. “Focus on your command and put him down!”

I smirked, the asshole confirming my suspicions.

“You lied to me,” I said to Sevv. “Ramus isn’t just a shell. If he were, he wouldn’t care about me flinging insults about his terrible life choices at him. Not only that, he wouldn’t be able to use his meta at all. Life force and souls are one in the same. And in order to tap into a meta ability, you need a soul extension. And there is no soul extension without the base requirement—a soul.”

Sevv clapped his hands together and smirked back at me. “Well, well, well… seems like you’ve figured it out. But, I didn’t lie, not entirely, at least. He does have remnants of his soul inside of him, just enough for him to use his talent. Unfortunately, I cannot separate his life force extension from his memories. This was the risk I took in using his body. His soul may be diminished, but traces still remain. Enough for basic function, but also enough for moments of lucidity.” He shrugged. “An unfortunate side effect, but a necessary sacrifice. The body serves its purpose, even if shreds of the original host poke through from time to time. The only way I make controlling every soul I relocate and weld possible is by giving a piece of my own into the vessel as well. More sacrifices must be made, because I am vulnerable in a body that has a shred of soul left intact. I can become overpowered in a plane that’s not mine.

I clenched my fists, anger boiling up inside me. “You bastard! You didn’t just take his body, you took his mind too. He’s still in there, trying to break free.”

“He can still have a resemblance of what he once was, but it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I still control him, so he can put you out of your misery!”

I watched as Ramus summoned a stone bow and arrow. Immediately, I took cover and dove behind a pillar just as I heard the arrow whizzing. The pillar exploded, shards of rock raining down as I ducked. After I scrambled back to my feet, I made a run for it, Ramus’ arrows following me everywhere I went. When he realized he was getting nowhere with the arrows, he pulled out a war hammer and chased me down, lunging at me relentlessly. It was easier to avoid him now– his movement was getting sluggish. Now was the time to trap him, so I managed to lead him to one of the prison cells. He tossed a punch into the bars, denting them. With my back toward the cage, I waited for him to take a shot at me again, and when I ducked it, I rolled between his legs and tossed the bars shut.

With my flames, I heated the metal against the latch and welded it together. His first instinct was to charge right into the bars, but I scared him away when I used the bar to snake in a whip of fire along the ground. Down the bar a rope of fire went, until I traced a circle around his feet, the flames now towering as tall as him.

“You might be made out of stone, but you still need to breathe, don’t you?” I could tell that he was already exhausted, and the flame cage was the final nail in the coffin. He dropped to his knees as he clenched his throat, his body begging for air. Ramus collapsed to the stone floor, gasping for air as the flames ate the oxygen around him. I watched as his stony body convulsed, the firelight flickering over his stone skin. After a few agonizing seconds, his struggles grew weaker, until finally he lay still, the fire burning low around his motionless, now fleshy body.

He’d turned back to normal, which meant that his stamina had run dry.

“Think fast!” I heard Sevv say, and when I pivoted my head around, my eyes grew twice as big. He came lunging at me with his hands reaching over me and a manic expression on his twisted face. “All I need is one touch! And then, your soul is mine to weld!”