The sun was just over the horizon to the west. Clouds were starting to roll in. "So it's going to be one of those days, huh? The gods blessed me with an opportunity to go toe to toe with a celestial level undead soul... Sounds like I get to finally see if I'm ready to take that last step. HEY ASSHOLE, WHY DON'T YOU PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE?!"
His prismatic eyes watched as rocks tumbled toward him, slowly mounding in front of him. The rocks seemed to mold into a giant humanoid figure, turning from rock, to mud, to an adobe-textured looking man with 6 eyes, 6 arms, and 4 legs.
A truly disgusting figure before him, "Man, 300 years has not been kind to you, has it? Rotting away in that cave with no one to talk to but a four-year-old version of your own failure. That's kind of tough, how do you manage?" He didn't seem bothered in the least, almost intentionally trying to piss him off.
"Who the hell are you to say that to me? Project your soul so I can lay you into the ground and get out of this hell hole." It should be noted, the only way for a soul to escape its binding is to absorb a similar level soul.
"My name is Kokuenboshi." Almost as the words left his body, a black aura started to take the form of a sphere.
Pushing through his fear, almost as if death was looking back at him, "What kind of dumb trick is this? FIGHT ME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" As he said this, he clasped all of his hands, and threw them straight down with all of his power.
"WHAT?", his hands went straight through it and to the ground, "What dumb shit is this?!", not realizing until he stood up, that his hands were caught with abyssal fire around them, slowly eating at the hands that went through the orb.
The pale one in the distance, panting, "It won't kill you, but let me know how you get it off of you." He chuckled and kept running. Kokuen knew the Father's soul could only go so far. So he would pull him there, giving Achelous needed time to make it out with his brother.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH", the massive 4-legged figure bellowed in pain, quickly seeing that Kokuen was running away. "I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL EVEN IF IT KILLS ME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT."
"Wow, 300 years with a child dulls the vocabulary, huh?" Running away and leaving smaller black spheres throughout the tree brush they were running through. He knew the beast was chasing him from the blasts the spheres were making. "200 feet left, 2 minutes, man I was not built for running, but he doesn't know I can just fly so running it is."
Finally at the two-hundred mark, "Okay, here I am, COME AND GET ME!!". Standing just outside the 500-meter mark, despite not being a martial pursuer, his soul strength gave his body some benefits so traversing it really wasn't that bad. Just taxing on his frail body.
The father, galloping at full speed with abyssal flames around his whole body, came upon a Vanta black, identical figure to himself. He couldn't see past it, not realizing he couldn't see the world around him. He thought it was another trick, so he threw a single straight punch at his dark twin and felt the full force upon his own chest where he had thrown. Angered, he started throwing a barrage of kicks, punches, headbutts, bites, and each time he got more and more painful than the last. Eventually passing out, or at least to him, it seemed that way.
Only 10 seconds had passed from the time the father ran into his twin.
"LITTLE TERRO!!", Kokuenboshi spotted Achelous sprinting out of the cave with a sphere next to him, quickly realizing that was his little brother.
"How'd it go Kokuen?"
The pale figure gestured towards his dad.
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Little Terro looked over his shoulder, slowly turning his entire body. "What in the fuck? I've seen your ability before but, this is... Disturbing almost."
What Achelous saw was deep abyssal flames around his father's body, slowly disintegrating the massive structure until his eyes saw a beautiful explosion of black dust burst into the air and trickle down, disappearing before their very eyes.
"Self-inflicted pain, no confusion. Your dad can finally rest now. His soul is there, what do you want to do with it? You got your brother, and your soul shard. Even if I did that to you, I am not confident I could even harm you, Little Terro."
"I think I'll keep it in here." Achelous took out a dull gray sphere, common for keeping souls in purgatory, prison, call it what you may. Even souls who are tied down by extreme emotion are still alive, their souls simply remain now since the celestials descended. There was only one way to truly destroy a soul, but no one on their plane was capable, only Archangels could, but at a large cost. Instead, keeping them in a state of prison was the safest bet.
***
As the echoes of the past and the resolution of the present intertwined, the narrative shifted back to where it all began. This journey, marked by trials and revelations, had its roots in an earlier time, under a different sky, where two friends sat, contemplating the paths that lay before them.
A dark world around them, two friends sitting on a grassy mountain, in the middle of monsoon. They can see the lightning over the grass plains surrounding them, and faint drums of thunder could be heard overhead.
"So this is it, huh?"
"What do you mean?" his slender friend, pale in the face, looked over to him confused.
"We met years ago, not knowing anything about life, determined to figure out the way to the top, or out of our hole rather, of that backwater town. And now, I'm going back, and you're going to an entirely different plane of existence altogether now that you've found your last soul fragment. What the hell happened to us."
The slender one simply looked at the ground, knowing once he found the soul fragment, he would ascend to the new level of existence, some called it Nirvana, some called it dying and going to Heaven. Not long ago, it was revealed to the people of this world that everyone has 10 soul fragments, and once they were found, strength, intelligence, general human capabilities were enhanced and refined. Aging stopped, sickness went away, the need for sustenance ended. Powers rose and fell, it wasn't uncommon for people with 9 fragments to be content ruling the general population and handling them from reaching their strength, making it easy to control the masses.
The pale one looked over at his rugged friend, only 6 shards in, lucky to have found each other when they did, deciding whether to laugh or to cry. "You know this isn't the end, right? Once I ascend, with my general karma, it shouldn't be hard for me to settle a foundation and save room for you."
"THAT WILL TAKE A MILLENNIUM, MAN, I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR 301 YEARS FOR MY 7TH SHARD ALONE!" he let out a bottled-up sigh, "Look, I'm happy for you and I'm not going to hold you back. But don't wait up; you constantly give yourself an excuse to hold back and wait to take others with you. I will probably be a long time, the other immortals that have visited us after Ascension talk about dreams and songs being had once you get there, but you're going to have a harder time than what they are selling, nothing is ever that easy or laid out."
"My tenth shard. It's insane, we've been wandering these lands for some time now. Why don't you just come with me and see me off?"
The rugged one went tense and let out a breath before saying what he was about to say. "Because you will be gone, and no one will be here, what am I to do? Long for you until I can pull it together? No, my soul shard has to be where we started, once I hit my 7th shard, I'll be among the ranks of the rest of the power cells."
Power cells were 7th and 8th rank souls, the peak before 9, many who get their 7th, find it simple to get the remaining 3, plundering towards ascension.
The tense one suddenly got excited, "Why don't you just come with me? With you around and your pull in the ranks, it shouldn't be anything for me to find mine and we can ascend at the same time!"
His friend grew silent. They both knew once the 9th shard was found, the recruitment would start, most of the other 9th rank souls sought power over this meek world, why not sit at the top before starting over? One of them, a Warrior, the other a magician, waiting for his time, he had accepted his recruitment long ago, his time was coming up, he was given the location of his 10th soul shard and 305 years to help his friend find the other. The only reason they agreed, was once the 6th rank soul found his 7th, he would unlock his lineage and ascend at the 8th. But telling people something like this, only made them more frantic and less likely to find it.
"I wish you well, good luck in the next, and let's find each other, and share our stories." The rugged and the pale, a long silence, and a farewell were had.