(Spirit Realm - Great Eye City, Mainland)
"Well then!", Edem clapped. "Before we begin, I'd have to introduce Ati here to you, Zanetor."
Ati, Leticia, Edem and Zanetor were currently in the shop's break room. All of them sat at a table with Ati sitting next to Leticia and Edem sitting next to Zanetor. The break room was quite a simple place; There were a few tables around and a vintage mini bar in the centre of the room.
Zanetor folded his arms, "I'm okay with that as long as it's short."
Ati's nerves pulsated in a rage. Who did this stuck up shadow soul think he was? To have someone like Circle Edem take such an interest in him was something to consider extremely bizarre in the first place.
He probably didn't even understand the situation he was in at that moment!
"Don't worry about that", Edem smirked. "Ati here's old man Bob's assistant and they retired from spirit warrior work to just spend the rest of eternity living as normally as possible."
"Retired from spirit warrior work?", Zanetor raised an eyebrow.
*Slam!*
Ati's palm made impact with the wooden table as she stood up and glared deeply into Zanetor's eyes.
"Exactly", she growled. "And do you want to know why we did that?"
There was a brief silence in the room.
"It's because of you cursed shadow souls", she uttered with a glint of pain in her eyes.
"Ati", Edem's stern voice interrupted. "Now is not the time."
"Tch", Ati sat back, folded her arms and crossed her legs. "What exactly do you need to know?."
Edem smiled lightly and stood up, "The Great Eye is an extremely dynamic city that changes its personnel in weekly intervals. All we need to know are those currently in charge of the Inter-realm transit and the rating of the city's defence as I speak."
"Woah Woah", the red-eyed girl sat up. "Are you all planning an assault or something?"
"Pfft no", Edem replied. "We need to move to the plane above us and to do that, we'll need to use the inter-realm transit."
"Oh", she turned to face Zanetor. "I understand now."
Zanetor avoided eye contact and kept his eyes fixed on Edem.
"Well", Ati began. "You're lucky cuz no rank 3 and up have been assigned to the city this week. It's not like they normally do that anyways. Still, rank 2 and lower may have those souls with insane strength. That's for the general defence."
Leticia hunched over the table, "And the transit?"
Ati hesitated for a bit, "They changed the frequency of personnel swap for the transit."
Edem's facial expression turned serious.
"How often do they change now?", he asked.
"It's now on a daily basis", she bit the tip of her thumbnail.
"Heh", a wry smile appeared on the cloaked man's face. "They acted fast. We'll be forced to either move extremely slow and carefully or charge in blindly."
Zanetor suddenly stood up and then walked a small distance away from the table.
"If we delay, they'll fish us out", he said with all seriousness. "I know for a fact that my spirit energy has been leaking. I can feel it more or less. It won't be long until Edem's cloaking spell wears off."
"Ho?", Edem held his waist. "You noticed?"
The shadow soul nodded, "It was back during our training. When you extended your golden circle to block out the bursts of spirit energy, I felt 'something', my energy, slightly diminish. The same thing happens whenever I put on the cloak you gave me."
"Well, your energy didn't really diminish", the cloaked man briefly closed his eyes. "It just wouldn't let my spell do that. Hence, the only thing I could do was to slow down the leak rate."
Leticia began to fidget with the ends of her dress as she stared intently at the table top. Ati noticed the little girl's sudden worry and immediately got closer.
"What's wrong little Leti?", she gently asked.
The little girl raised her head and then hesitated for a bit. She looked at the direction of Edem and Zanetor and it seemed like they were already lost in a serious discussion. She then looked back at Ati and then finally spoke.
"It's my hair", she muttered.
"Huh?", Ati raised an eyebrow. "Your hair? I don't see anything wrong with it"
"No, that's not it", Leticia's facial expression turned stern. "My hair responds to the spirit energy around me. Something… Something hue just entered the city. The fluctuations are going haywire."
"What?", the red-eyed girl felt a cold chill run down her spine.
Just then, the door to the restroom opened and a man entered. He wore a black apron over a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of black trousers. In his hands was a bag which contained a few groceries. The sides of his hair were dyed white and an intimidating aura spawned from around him.
"Old man Bob", Ati's eyes displayed slight surprise.
The man looked in her direction and then to Leticia and Edem; he didn't seem to react too much to their unexpected visit. However, once he set his eyes on Zanetor, he quickly made his way over to him.
Zanetor staggered as he was taken aback by the strange man's sudden action.
'W- What's he doing?', the shadow soul thought.
"Hmm", the man's voice coarsely echoed throughout the dead silent room. "That explains many of the spirit warrior corps' strange movements."
Edem walked before the man and smiled, "It's been a while! How are you doing?"
Old man Bob turned to the cloaked man and then scoffed.
"You don't have to keep that fake expression always printed on your face, Edem", the man walked over to the nearest table. "You do know very well that we want nothing to do with you or whatever you bring with you."
A fleetingly sinister smirk flashed across Edem's face as his voice grew dark, "Well, I'll get straight to the point then."
"Don't waste your breath", Old man Bob sat down. "There was a personnel change a while ago. This time, the Spirit warriors they brought in are all having an incredible amount of spirit energy."
Ati stood up and then gulped, "Leticia noticed an insane energy fluctuation as well."
"It's… still surging actually", the little blonde-haired girl voiced out.
"In addition to that", Old man Bob began. "They have all been assembled at the inter-realm transit."
The old man passed his fingers through his neatly cut moustache as he kept inspecting the boy donned in the blue black trench coat. He then looked at Edem.
"If you're heading for the transit, I suggest you forfeit that idea and return to your hiding place", he uttered.
Edem then turned to Zanetor, "Well, that's not for me to decide."
Everyone's attention shifted to Zanetor who had an impressively pressurising aura that emanated from him. His eyes displayed pure determination as he confidently spoke up.
"You must be joking if you think we're going to listen to you", he darkly muttered. "There's no way we're doing that. Not when we've come so far."
Edem smirked in response to the shadow soul's words. Leticia felt uncomfortable in the rising tensions and began to increase the frequency of her fidgeting.
"There are solutions to everything", Zanetor turned to the old man. "And I have one in mind."
Old man Bob stared intently into the young boy's eyes and then scoffed.
"What is the proof that your 'solution' is going to work?", he carefully asked. "Mind you, this is the Spirit realm and it works far more differently as compared to the material realm."
"I wasn't just standing here for nothing", Zanetor began. "I've thought it through and it should work"
Ati interjected, standing extremely close to the shadow soul, her head barely reaching his shoulders.
"You think that's enough?", she raised an eyebrow.
"It's more than enough", he nonchalantly replied.
Ati stepped back, quite shocked as she thought of how insane this person was. Just, what was he aiming for?
"Well! I guess we've heard everything we need to hear!", Edem clapped. "Zanetor, Leticia, seems like we're moving out with everything we've got."
Old man Bob slightly turned to Ati and gave her a knowing look. The red-eyed girl hesitantly nodded and then stood in the way of their visitors.
Specs of light began to surround her right arm as her spirit energy revolved in an awkward pattern. Soon, a menacing cannon engulfed her arm and whirring sounds could be heard coming from its bore.
"I'm sorry about this Circle Edem, Little Leti", a hostile aura surrounded Ati. "But, we definitely cannot let that shadow soul leave while he still exists."
Edem smirked, "Should've left earlier."
Phenomenal amounts of spirit energy began to gather within Ati's cannon and she immediately aimed it at her opponents.
*BOOM!*
An extremely violent explosion rang throughout the city as a particular area was reduced to rubble.
Thick smoke and debris began to rise high up into the air and three figures could be seen leaping out of the fumes. They seemed to be held in mid-air by the golden circles that hovered beneath their feet.
"Tch! They blew our cover", Zanetor cursed.
The three landed safely on a nearby rooftop.
"Don't worry about that", Edem walked over to the edge and looked down. "At this point, we have no choice but to run wild."
"But…", Leticia began. "Are we really going to have to fight Ati and old man Bob? I mean, our battle could end up destroying the place. Also, the spirit warriors at the transit are probably heading here in response to the explosion earlier."
The cloaked man turned to Leticia and then patted her on the head.
"Now Now, you have to calm down", he smiled warmly. "The Spirit Warrior corps have already put all of that into place."
"Huh?", Leticia raised an eyebrow.
Zanetor walked to the edge and looked down. There was a confused look on his face as he motioned to the other sides and checked the streets and buildings thoroughly.
"There's… no one here", he muttered.
Leticia turned to him, "What do you mean?"
She immediately moved to Zanetor's side and was equally as shocked as he was.
"This is insane", she said to herself. "All those people couldn't have possibly been moved. Using the transit would take weeks and there isn't any other city close to this one."
Just then, a figure landed on that same rooftop. Everyone's attention shifted to the all-too familiar person and one could easily discern the look of discomfort that emerged on Leticia's face.
"Ati", she slightly frowned.
The ground right next to Ati began to shift and contort as something seemed to emerge from it. That part of the ground was cemented but for some reason, it changed into more of a clayey form.
The clay began to mould itself and soon a humanoid entity spawned from it.
"Everything has been set up right from the moment the shadow soul landed into the spirit realm"
The clay human spoke as its form became even more detailed.
Zanetor coldly glared at his opponents, "It's the old man."
Edem boldly walked forward and golden circles began to appear all around the rooftop. They all began to rotate at an increasing speed, vibrating at insane frequencies and causing the air to shimmer.
"I knew Zanetor's entry into the Spirit realm was going to put the spirit warrior corps into high alert", he began. "Though, I did put that at the back of my mind since I figured you all wouldn't notice until it was too late."
A sinister smirk appeared on the cloaked man's face, "I mean, he did enter through the back door afterall."
Old man Bob watched in silence as Edem grabbed hold of his cloak.
The air grew even more intense as all but Zanetor unconsciously held their breaths. Zanetor felt as if something big was coming and could notice the sense of dread that infiltrated the scene. The expression that revealed itself on Ati and Leticia's faces had one thing in common;
'What's this? What's about to happen?', sweat slowly ran down the sides of his face.
Edem took off his cloak for the first time in Zanetor's presence. The Shadow soul's eyes widened as they fell upon his teacher's skin. It was covered with extremely complex swirling black symbols that made little sense except for the weird star-shaped one at his lower back. He also wore a simple piece of cloth that covered his lower torso.
Zanetor took a step back as the spirit energy in the area began to thicken. That was the first time he had felt such an intense wave of pressure and it was not even close to the one he had felt when he stood before that huge spirit snake from way back.
Was he hiding such power?
Did he have even more of it?
If he was truly hiding it then did it mean that he was somehow wanted as well?
"Zanetor, Leticia, head to the transit", Edem began.
"I'm sorry, but it won't be that easy circle Edem", Ati suddenly interrupted.
At that instant, several entities began to emerge from the shadows. Every single one of those humanoid entities were donned in black uniforms with a clear distinction between particular groups of them.
Each and every one of them glared down at the three with eyes that glowed with killing intent and more and more of them kept emerging from within the city until there were a near-uncountable number.
Yet, Edem simply scoffed and kept his sinister smirk going.
Things were only getting better for him.