7 First Soul Creature

[3 days later]

On a sunny day, Greg was soundlessly sleeping, while Alice was lying on top of his chest.

*Ding~Dong*

Hearing the doorbell, Greg opened his eyes and looked at the clock beside him.

'7:30'

"Who in their right mind ring the bell at this time?", murmured Greg, while putting Alice to the side and walked sleepily towards the door.

*Ding~Dong*

"Coming! Just don't hit that poor bell so many times, for God's sake!"

Greg unlocked the door and opened it while yawning.

"Morning Greg, I hope you are ready to g-"

The one who started to talk was Joe, but before he could finish his words he stopped in midway. It was because Greg was wearing pajama while yawning.

Greg stopped yawning after hearing the familiar sound and opened his eyes. In an instant, seeing Joe's figure, his body stopped moving.

A while later he looked down and saw his appearance and looked back up.

"Just a sec.", said Greg and shut the door. Seeing this, Joe could just shake his head helplessly.

Not long after he went back inside, Greg opened the door again with normal clothes on him and looked at Joe like nothing happened before.

"Hi there. Can we get going then?", asked Greg happily.

With a sigh, Joe nodded, turned around, and walked toward a limousin, while Greg followed him from behind as he watched the vehicle before him with awe.

A butler appeared next to the door and after opening it, he gently pointed inside.

"Please, have a seat, Master Joseph and...", the butler looked up, not knowing how to call Greg.

"It's Greg Hyde, but I prefer Greg.", said Greg with a smile.

"Then please, have a seat, Mr.Greg."

Joe and Greg climbed into the limousine and sat down. As soon the vehicle started to move, Joe put his hand out and a dim light hovered above his hand.

"Take your Soul Stone out.", said Joe, while looking at Greg.

Greg, after a hesitation, raised his hand and a black Soul Stone appeared above his palm.

Joe seeing the stone's black color showed a surprised expression, but only for a second. In the next, his expression turned back to normal and the dim light started to fly toward Greg's stone and disappeared in it.

"It's an Awakened Ranked, weapon type, Soul Creature. It could be for your help even if something bad happens in the dimensional zone or in the future."

Hearing this, Greg looked surprised and with a shocked expression, he said, "You shouldn't have given this to me. I didn't do anything to deserve this."

"Don't worry. Take it as a gift from my family"

Greg closed his mouth and a while later nodded. He looked at his Soul Stone and concentrated on it.

In the next second, pieces of information appeared in his head.

'Soul Creature: Ice Python'

'Rank: Awakened'

'Weapon Type: Twin Daggers'

After reading the information, Greg summoned the Soul Creature as a weapon.

As he did, two ice blue daggers appeared in his hands. The hilt was crystal-like and the side of the blade was made out of ice, making it look both beautiful and deadly dangerous.

Greg looked at it from this side and that and a while later looked at Joe. He wanted to thank him so much, but he couldn't give him anything.

Watching Greg's expression Joe smiled and said, "I told you. It's a gift."

"Thanks, I will repay you, I promise.", said Greg as he put away his Soul Weapon.

As the two talked, two-man in black coats were following them from above the sky. They had hoodies on their head, so their appearance couldn't be seen at all.

The one with a bigger figure opened his mouth and asked the other one, "So? What's the plan? He will be guarded with a lot of people, so it won't be an easy job."

"We will use your powers to get in safely and unnoticed and I will make a little fuss inside. As the guard's attention is on the monsters, we will take him away and return to the base safely."

Hearing this the bigger guy sighed and said, "It's easy to say, but hard to do. Let's hope nothing will happen."

After the conversation ended, the two stayed quiet and followed the limousin in silence.

***

Outside Nexus city, on a huge green field, a big white crack was floating above the ground about a few inches.

People were all around it and they were talking with each other as the crack next to them was nothing else just a hallucination.

A while later a black limousine arrived not far from it and stopped its engine.

First, the butler came out of it from the driver's seat and walked around to open the door. As he did so, Joe and Greg climbed out of it.

People stopped talking in an instant after noticing Joe. They ran before him, bowed, and started to shout in unison.

"Welcome, Young Master!"

Joe just waved his hand and asked, while looking at the white crack, "So what about the dimensional zone?"

Hearing the question, a man with huge muscles and a big beard stepped forward and with a salute started to talk.

"It seems the dimensional zone's energy level is between the Awakened and Manifester Rank. Inside, there are a lot of skeleton monsters, however, with this much manpower, it shouldn't be any threat for us."

Joe nodded and said, "Then let's get going. Let's not waste any more time."

With a shout, the Dia family's guards, which were about 20 people, started following Joe inside the dimensional zone.

Greg watching this scene, looked at Joe in admiration.

"He is a whole other person. So cool!!", thought Greg and started to follow them also.

Arriving before the crack, Greg stopped and looked up.

The white crack looked huge from that up close, making people feel like ants before an elephant. After taking a big breath he wanted to step forward, but stopped in midway and looked back.

Seeing as no one was behind him, Greg looked confused.

"Strange... I would bet that I felt something a second ago."

A while later, Greg shook his head and stepped forward, while saying, "Maybe I didn't sleep enough."

After he stepped inside the crack and opened his eyes, the whole scene changed before him. The beautiful green field changed into a flat, ash black earth, where skeletons were walking slowly all around.

Trees were burnt without any leaves on them, the ground was full of ash and bones and the sky was blood red.

"Took you a while to come through."

Hearing the voice, Greg looked to his side, only to see Joe's smiling face with three huge looking men behind him. One of them was the bearded man from before.

"Well, I was excited. You know, this is my first time here.", said Greg as he was scratching his neck.

Listening to this, Joe just laughed and said, "Well okay, now that you are here listen. You, I, and they will go and find the dimensional core. The others have already gone to clear the field up."

Listening to Joe's explanation, Greg just nodded.

"Okay, that's all. Let's go.", said Joe and started to walk. Greg and the three men followed him.

A while later, five skeletons appeared before them. However, before Greg could summon his twin daggers and attack, the three men already moved.

One used a firebomb, bombing the skeletons. The other one used a spear made out of ice and the bearded man used a huge hammer to strike them.

In less than a second, the five skeletons turned into ash and pieces of bones.

After it, they walked back behind Joe as nothing happened.

And thus scene repeated itself every time, when skeletons appeared. They turned into nothing in less than a second, leaving just bone debris on the ground.

"Amazing. As Joe said, they are really defending us. They should be in the Manifester Rank as I can see.", thought Greg while walking beside Joe.

A while later, Joe stopped and pointed before him.

"There it is. The dimensional zone's core."

Greg and the three men looked in the direction where Joe pointed and they saw a fist-sized, white orb floating in the air.

However, it wasn't alone. There were five skeletons with different weapons just like the ones before.

But one of them was a strange one with a golden armor without a weapon. It didn't walk but just stood there motionlessly.

Seeing this, the bearded man stepped forward and said, "Be careful. That one is in the Manifester Rank. He won't be easy to deal with."

As he said this, the four skeletons noticed them and started to run in their direction. However, the golden armored one didn't. It simply stood there where it was.

"Nice! It will be easier like this.", said the one with the ice spear and charged forward.

The other two did the same and attacked the four skeletons too.

The man with the fire ability fired firebombs, making the four monsters to stagger backward. Seeing this, in an instant, the two men with the spear and the hammer jumped forward smashing the four skeletons into debris.

*Boom!*

After the huge hit with the hammer and spear, the skeletons turned into broken bone pieces.

"Eeeaaasyy! Too easy! Give me a challenge please.", said the guy with the spear with a smile as he looked around.

"It's not over yet.", said the bearded man, looking at the one with the golden armor.

As the group looked at the monster with golden armor, behind them in the distance, two figures appeared out of nowhere and looked in their way.

"Let's start a little fuss, shall we?", started to talk the smaller looking one in a devilish voice, as he raised his hand above his head.

As the bearded man wanted to attack, suddenly a black light hit the skeleton.

"!!?"

Watching this strange scene, Joe and Greg felt something was amiss.

"Stay behind and don't come closer. Something is not ri-", the bearded man started to talk, but before he could finish his warning, the skeleton disappeared and appeared before the guy with the ice spear.

"What the h-?"

Just as he wanted to defend himself, the skeleton's fingers cut through the man's chest like tofu...