How do I answer such a question. Do I even understand the question, I felt just like I did when I first woke up and couldn't reconcile who I was before I lost my memories, to who I had become after. I felt suffocated by responsibilities Jason had taken on, and to be honest, I did not want it, just as much as I didn't want Hero Kael's responsibilities.
But this was path in front of me, that just like my identity I had to accept. The very existence was one big giant conundrum, and the fact that someone else had just told me that, proved it to me. Everything seemed so unreal, like it was fate, or some sort t of mysterious force that keep pushing me to path of conflict. This was like a destiny.
But was his my destiny, to be a savior in every sense of the word. To be honest I felt as if I had no choice about how I want to live my life, there was no way I could say no. Like there was too much at stake.
"You're wrong you know?" Earth suddenly spoke up behind me.
"what?" I asked back confused by what he meant.
"You do have a choice, you can just as well turn your back away from this. The others might answer their own calls, or they might refuse just like you. Regardless life goes on, and with the profoundness of humans and them wills, new champions will arise. The future is not set in stone, and while I do know that there's a danger heading right for me, there's no telling that something won't happen and I'll be saved.
But it still doesn't change the fact that I'm asking you to help me, to save me, and every life that's been fostered on my body. Which includes not just yourself, but also the people you love. This is not fate or your destiny, the latter is up to you to discover. This is just a request from a world in danger of existential erasure."
I couldn't say no, even with the fear in my heart. And to be honest I wanted to say no more than anything, from the look of things, my life and what I had to do was a million times bigger than the dancing caves of Noxis Nyx and the pit. Even Shearath seemed so small in the grand scheme and scope of things.
"I can't make any promises, but I'll try my best."
"hehe, I guess that's all I'm getting from you at the moment. Well I've to go, I still have to see how almost 8 billion people are fucking up my smooth skin this fine morning...oh! And I would be running if I were you, getting torn to pieces by soul beasts is definitely not a pleasant experience."
Then he, Earth, The WAY, the system, or Terra what ever the bloody fuck is his name disappeared, and it was just as sudden as he appeared. However I wondered what he meant by running, unfortunately I got my answer when I heard the sounds of snarls and growls behind me.
When someone mentioned the word soul beasts, you would expect to see maybe a dog sized monster made of mist like soul energy. Well for starters I. was right about them being dog sized, though some of them were as big as bull. What I was wrong about however was that they were made of soul energy...….well they were, but there was no this mist like about them. Behind me I could see an endless flow of living, breathing, and very angry white skinned and runed beasts. I did not even linger for one extra second, I just turned around and ran.
Seriously? Why and how do I keep finding myself in this kind of situation. Everything I try doing, always end up with some sort of strange complication that more often than not will see me injured or hurt. I could hear the beasts drawing closer, and with an endless corridor ahead of me, it just made me extremely depressed. I was not armed, so how the hell am I supposed to kill a bunch of soul beasts. It was not as if I could just wish for a sword to appear out of the freaking air.
"Whoosh!"
Well it seems I can really wish for a sword to appear out of thing air. It was a long sword made from a gleaming silver metal, and it glowed dilly under the white light of the corridor. I did not slow down my speed even though I was quite surprised by the sudden appearance of the sword, with those soul beasts nipping at my heels, the very idea of slowing down or being surprised was not a luxury I could have at the moment.
As I ran, I tried to weave the rune for [BREAK] on the sword. However I discovered I couldn't do it. My weaving was gone, all that came out of my hands was sputtering blue sparks. This was seriously shaping out to be a bad day, and the fact that Earth did not think it was important enough to warn me that I could nit weave in this place pissed me off to no end. I was stuck, and my greater strength was denied me. And to make matters worse I am to kill about two hundred soul beasts, with the smallest being the size of a golden retriever, and the largest the size of a baby elephant. Oh! What could go wrong, it was just another day in the life of Kael Cor, Lion of Shearath.
Note to self, I really should stop jinxing myself. I was in a rune circle, which meant that no matter how far I run I will still end up in my starting position, and apparently flanking some really fearsome beasts, watching them chase me as I now sort of chased them? Shit. There was nothing left to do but to fight, hopefully this doe's not turn out as bad as my previous attempts.
But in other to keep myself I had the very good idea to wish for a shield, and I wished it had a sharp edge, like a sword. It was a sort of idea that came to me, and almost immediately a silver shield was in my hand with the symbol of a roaring lion surrounded by four different colored dragons.
"The crest of house Cor." I whispered in surprise.
My experiences here were getting weirder, but I couldn't stop the smile on my face as I threw the shield like a discuss, it's gleaming silver edge spinning rapidly as sliced through an entire line of soul beasts for a distance of ten meters. Then it was just a simple matter of wishing for it to come back, and it did. By now I think I understood something, I was not wishing for this weapons, I was exercising my will and intent on the rune circle.
I obviously could not weave any runes, but I realized that's because I was literally 'in' another rune. The idea of making a rune inside a rune might be possible in some form or another, but not in the manner in which I have tried. I could not weave, but just like nature I could go against the very laws that govern this rune circle. And with that realization, the startled soul beasts ahead, turned and made a beeline straight for me.
There was no going back for me, so the only option was to charge forward with all my strength.
I put the shield in front of me and crouched a bit, making sure the round shield covered all of my upper body, neck and some part of my thighs. I pointed the sword at the beasts and closed my eye for the impact that was about to happen.
"Crash!!!"
I was unshakable, though my shield was raised up a bit as a soul beast had pounced on it, and was trying to get past the shield to get at my face. I heaved with my shield, pushing it's surprisingly light body into the air, then I cleaved down through it's body, cutting through it and through the two extra beasts at me feet. I took a step back as I swung the shield in my hand sideways and a pouncing soul beast was smacked out of the air, I swung my hand down and cut through another approaching soul beast.
The previous group of beast that were chasing me were still a little ways behind, so I had a little time to focus on the soul beasts in front of me.
I angled the shield so that its edge was horizontal instead of vertical, then I thrust it edge into the mouth of another pouncing soul beast, tearing it in half from mouth to tail. But contrary to their fleshy body, there was biological system within their bodies. The moment I killed them, they turned into wisps of energy that actually flowed into me. And as the energy flowed inside me, I could feel myself getting stronger and faster.
A bull sized soul beasts was heading straight for me, in fact it should be considered a bull since it had the horns to go with it. It pushed it's head to the ground as it charged straight at me, letting out a terrible baying sound that really shook me. I don't matching this beast bull strength for strength was a good idea, and with the way it was heading straight for me, that monster would gore me straight to death or something else since I'm not so sure of what might happen if I get killed in a soul seal. When I drew closer, I quickly jumped to the right, and angled my shield so that its edge sliced a deep gash in it's side.
As my shield cut through it's side, I felt a lot of resistance, almost as if there were layers upon layers of muscles in this beasts. But when I turned to look at it, all I could see was a deep wound leaking white soul energy. The bull swayed a bit obviously affected by it's injury, which made me shoot forward with a speed three times as fast as I was used to. The bull snapped out of it's daze a little faster than I expected and bent its horns at me, coming straight at me an awkward charge.
I put my shield in front of me, and closed my eyes in preparation for a tackle that I was so sure would either break every bone in my body, or outright kill me. The impact happened, but I opened my eyes just in time to see a different scenario than I envisioned. The bull was thrown six feet into the air in an arc that carried it fifteen meters back to crash into the front lines of the soul beasts that were chasing me. I was shocked by my strength, but only momentarily as I heard, the sound of wind being displaced behind me.
I turned really fast whipping my sword behind me as I did so, a soul beast looked suspiciously like kangaroo had it's shoulders relived of it's head. And just as it was dying, I swung my shield like a battering ram at another Kangaroo like soul beast with a horn on its head.
There was a sharp crack as it's horns were broken to pieces, going down all the wag to it's skull, before impacting on it's had with a big crack, exploding it's head and sending wisps of soul energy everywhere before it flew into my body.
Without looking I threw my sword backwards, letting it fly through the air and through the bodies of about a dozen soul beasts that were getting too close.
Then I spun on my heels and threw the shield at the other side of approaching soul beasts, making sure it rotated like a Frisbee as it tore apart more soul beasts than I could care to count. I willed the sword back into my hand, and it flew back, with it's pommel crushing the skull of another soul beast on it's way back into my hands.
As the sword entered my hand, I swung it upwards in arc with my right hand, when it got to the top of my head my left hand reached up to clasp the sword with my two hands, then I reached deep down inside me for the soul energy that I've been absorbing with my slaughter of the soul beasts.
I pulled it out of my body, and let it flow into the sword, then swung the sword with all of my power, releasing a massive wave of soul power that completely decimated every soul beasts in it's path for a distance of thirty meters, leaving behind a sight of mangled soul beasts and white soul power ripe for the taking. I willed the shield back into my hand just in time for me to swing it behind me and into the face of another bull like soul beasts. The ensuing crack that followed let me know it's entire forehead was entirely in pieces.
I really didn't know how everything changed from being chased, to be being the one responsible for the destruction of all this soul beasts. This was not a fight no matter how you looked at it. This........was a massacre.