6 Soul Armos

In Dream Kingdom, the biggest festival of the year was the Wokla Festival or the Festival of Souls. celebrated in the seventh month, on the seventh day and lasted for seven days. Even in a town as small as Coast Town, Wokla Festival was celebrated in grand style.

The first four days of the festival was a period of endless feasting and merry-making. The entire town was decorated with colourful lanterns symbolizing the various soul essence and in the evenings, these lanterns were illuminated. This gave Coast Town a breathtaking feeling. Moreover, people dressed in the colours of their soul essence, while children who had not yet manifested wore white. But perhaps, the most anticipated part of the festival were the last three days which were dedicated to a tournament to find the strongest people in the town. Like most people, this was Fani's favourite part of the festival.

When Fani was five years old, a few weeks after his essence manifested, his father took him to see the tournament for the first time. His brother, Saah, was nine by then and used to brag about how exciting the tournament was. Indeed, after his first experience, Fani vowed to take part as soon as he awakened his soul armos.

Today, several years later, Fani wanted to give his children the same gift of awe and wonder his father gave him. In a few days, Savyrran and Ovandarrak would be five years old. Which meant that their essence manifestation was not too far off. Because of this, he thought that this year's Wokla Festival was a perfect time to get the twins to watch the tournaments. Fani himself used to participate in the tournaments since he was sixteen years and had held the title Orange Master for five consecutive years until he retired at twenty-six years.

Fani knew that Savyrran was, in truth, two months older than Ovandarrak and had thus been surprised that Savyrran had not yet manifested. But he reasoned that she was probably a late bloomer and did not worry too much about it. Besides, looking how at how extraordinarily strong his daughter was, Fani believed that Savyrran might end up manifesting the strongest essence in the town

"Tomorrow I'll be taking you children to the Town Square." Fani said one afternoon to his children. During the entire week of the Wokla Festival, schools were not in session. Hence, Savyrran and her brother had been at home for the past four days.

This was somehow both a blessing and a curse to Savyrran. On one hand, she did not have to go to school to learn about things she had no interest in. On the other hand, she missed her friends terribly. To Ovandarrak, however, this made no difference to him. His father had bought him so many books to keep him busy. He did not need friends to keep him company. As far as company was concerned, Savyrran was enough. But even now, hearing his father talk about the Town Square had piqued his interest.

But Savyrran seemed to be the most interested. Her beautiful eyes looked up expectantly at her father. Almost at the age of five years, Savyrran had the frame of a handsome young boy. Her unusual physical training from such a young age had given her a strong body that did not belong on a little girl. In spite of her boyish appearance, Savyrran could be described as incredibly beautiful. People could not decide if she was a beautiful boy or a handsome girl.

"What is happening at the Town Square?" Savyrran asked while running her hand through her beautiful dreadlocks flowing to her shoulder. Wikka had made sure that both children grew those locks ever since they were two years old. With both of them having similar hairstyle and being almost of the same height, they both looked like the twins they were purported to be.

"Tomorrow marks the first day of the soul tournament. It is used to determine the strongest people under each essence in Coast Town." Fani explained.

As far as Savyrran could remember, she had never heard about this so-called tournament. All she knew was that during the Wokla Festival, they ate a lot of good food while in the evenings, the town dazzled in beautiful lights. Also she and Ovan had to wear white all the time.

"You know, your father first participated in the tournament when he was sixteen." Wikka suddenly appeared in the living room. She had just finished arranging dishes in the kitchen when she overhead Fani talking about the soul tournament. "For six years he held the title of orange master. The strongest person with the orange essence." Wikka smiled sweetly upon the fond memory of young Fani partaking in the tournament. At that time, Fani was so young and inexperienced, and hence, had still not learned how to control his soul armos properly. Thus, his first try in the tournament was met with failure.

Consequently, Fani went on a four year hiatus to train his soul armos until he had completely mastered it. He made his second appearance at the soul tournament when he was twenty. And until he retired at twenty-six, he had been the undefeated orange master for six years.

"Really? Father was that strong?" Savyrran asked, her small curious eyes filled with disbelief. Well, in her own young mind, she knew her father was a strong man. She did not know he was actually that strong to go against other people with the orange essence.

"Oh, yes." Wikka chuckled. "He still is. Just because he no longer takes part in the tournament these days does not mean he has grown weak."

The main reason Fani retired from this competition was because it took him a great deal of time to train all year round. In the early years that followed their marriage when no child was coming, and Wikka felt so helpless and miserable, Fani had to put all those ridiculous training aside so he could spend more time with his wife. It was already hard that they were childless and the fact that he was not often home was even more unbearable. Fani knew this, and thus, quit.

"Can I take part in the tournament too if my essence manifests?" Savyrran asked.

"Well, not entirely." Fani explained. "You need to awaken your soul armos first. And that will only happen when you're fifteen years old."

"Huh? There's another thing to awaken apart from the essence? Why is this so hard?"

Fani and Wikka laughed upon hearing Savyrran's sincere bafflement.

"After the soul essence manifestation, it will take another ten years for a person's soul armos to awaken. The soul armos is a practical way to use the essence. We harness the essence to wield the soul armos, which is either a weapon type or a beast type."

As he explained, Fani got on his feet to demonstrate properly. "Watch closely." Suddenly, Fani's pupils turned deep orange and streaks of orange light hovered around his body as though his body was emitting the light. "This is my essence. The orange essence. Before one awakens the soul armos, there are other things you can do that someone who has no essence can. It gives you speed." An orange streak of light instantly surged across the room. Fani was no longer standing at his original position, but instead, was standing from across the room. In another second, he was back to his original position.

"That was so fast." Savyrran said.

"Indeed. But the higher the essence, the faster and stronger one becomes. This is why during the tournament, only people of the same essence level are allowed to compete against each other, else there is no way most of the reds can beat the oranges."

"What about the soul armos?" Ovandarrak asked. He had seen this word somewhere in one of the many books on Soul Art that his father had bought him. However, he had never truly grasped what it meant. Besides, even though he had seen his parents' essence, he had never seen their soul armos. Hence, he was curious about what this whole thing meant.

Fani's strong brown arms began to turn into a shiny silvery colour. His hands looked like they had been replaced by silver metallic arms. Savyrran's eyes widened with wonder. Even Ovandarrak who barely showed any form of emotion raised his brows in shock. In school, he always heard about how amazing the essence was. There were some students who would always brag about how strong their parents' soul armos were. However, he had never really seen anything like it before.

Besides, the older students who had awakened theirs did not really show it around. This was his first time witnessing it.

"I call it Vibration. Well, that is what it literally is. I can make vibrations around objects and space to either attack or defend. Give me that cup."

Savyrran quickly took a ceramic cup on the table and handed it to her father. On Fani's palm, the cup suddenly began to tremble violently, as though there was an invisible force within. Then, the cup broke apart into a fine powder. It was like the cup never existed in the first place.

"Wow, this is dangerous." Ovandarrak blurted. No wonder his mother said Fani was an orange master when he was younger.

"It is. But the thing is that soul armos is only as strong as one's essence. Which means that as an orange essence user, my soul armos is dangerous to other oranges and fatal to reds. People of higher levels may not be affected because they are too strong. This is why it is unwise to pick a fight with someone with a higher essence than you. They could kill you easily."

"What about you, mother? What's your soul armos like?" Savyrran asked.

"It's a weapon type like your father. But it's not as impressive." Wikka's pupils turned blood red as red lights came out of her body. Then a sleek black object materialized in her hand.

"Whoa, this is so amazing. But what is it?" Savyrran asked.

"It's a boomerang. It's a weapon that comes back to you when you throw it. But it is ten times more powerful and destructive than a normal boomerang."

"Can you throw it? I want to see how destructive it is."

Wikka laughed. " No, Savy. I'm not going to show you how destructive it can be. Lesson number one, Savy, the soul armos is not a toy. Unless you have a good reason to destroy using your soul armos, don't use it at all. "

Here in Coast Town, it was relatively peaceful and had almost no serious crimes. However, she had heard of stories where powerful people went on a rampage in the big cities using their dangerous soul armos. Thankfully, the Soul Guardians were around to keep them safe.

…....

Around the same time, about several kilometers east of Coast Town was Dureen. Dureen was a small uninhabited island populated with many rare soul beasts. Due to this, not many people dared to venture towards this small island. Soul beasts under the rare class were usually too powerful for people with the common class essence to handle. Hence, these people usually stayed as far away as possible.

The fact that no one was brave enough to approach this paradise of an island was the perfect reason why Ayoro Basam had chosen this place as his lair. Ten years ago, when he first came to this island, he built a huge fortress as part of his great plan.

Standing in the stone cold tower overlooking the sea, Ayoro had a stern look plastered on his hairy face. However, the seriousness on his face turned into a chilling smile once he heard the footsteps approaching his room. The steel door was pushed opened and a tall lanky man in his early twenties walked in.

"Rovirrak." Ayoro said in a calm voice. Yet, one could sense the coldness in the voice. Hearing his deep voice was like been drowned in a freezing lake. Rovirrak's eyes twitched in fear. He wondered if he had done anything to garner this man's displeasure. He had known Ayoro for about two years, therefore, he knew exactly what kind of maniac this person was.

The first time he learned that Ayoro resided in the soul beast infested island, he did not really believe it. In a place full of rare soul beasts, which weakling would dare to even think about going there? He later learned the hard way that Ayoro was no weakling. The man had a trump card that discouraged the soul beasts from attacking his fortress. This same trump card also instilled a great sense of fear into Rovirrak.

"Master." Rovirrak said, his voice almost trembling.

"Where is he? I don't sense him around." Ayoro said, still not turning to look at his subordinate.

"Gonza is in Coast Town. He is making preparations so everything goes according to plan tomorrow."

"Why aren't you with him?" This time Ayoro turned to look at Rovirrak for the first time. His calm collected voice betrayed the intense look of fury in his eyes.

Rovirrak gulped. How did he even get himself entangled with these two dangerous people? Gonza and Ayoro had gigantic egos and Rovirrak seemed to be the one caught up between both of them. He had to admit, he was lured in by the promise of endless power. He had already had a taste, and he could not go back. "He.. he didn't want me to come, Master."

Just then, a normal-sized black door appeared right in the middle of the room. The door opened silently and in walked a man almost as old as Ayoro. However, he had a cleanly shaved face and a bald head. There was a long scar across half of his face; from above his left eye to the right corner of his mouth. This scar gave his young innocent face a more terrifying look.

"Gonza. What did you find?" Ayoro directed his attention towards their new companion.

The breath Rovirrak did not know he had been holding for a long time finally escaped from his lungs. He sighed in relief when Ayoro's attention was diverted to something else. This man truly terrified him in ways he could not explain. Sometimes he did not understand why Gonza was not as intimidated by Ayoro as he was. Also, it seemed Ayoro did not mind it either. Rovirrak did not understand the relationship between the two. When he was first recruited by Ayoro, Gonza was already there. Even though Gonza did not seem to fear Ayoro, there was something about his behaviour that made it seem as though Ayoro was the one in charge.

"Everything has been put in place for tomorrow. I scouted Alhari Temple, and the stone is there. Just like you said, there is no security. Not even Danjo and Bufan will suspect anything."

A mirthless laugh escaped from Ayoro's mouth. "Don't be too sure about that. Those two are like hawks when it comes to the welfare of their town. But no matter. The Great Council have been in the dark for a decade now. What could a small town possibly do?"

"You know, I'm curious. You have resisted from targeting Coast Town for a long time. It is not a particularly powerful town. The majority of them are reds, and there are a few oranges here and there. Also, only two people are yellows. With our power together, doing whatever we want should not be a problem. Why did you stay away for a long time?"

Ayoro glared at Gonza however the latter was unfazed. Rovirrak could feel the tension in the air growing, and he wondered if he should leave. But he knew he could not possibly leave without been permitted to. Reluctantly, he stayed behind. If anything happened, as a red, there was no way he could survive.

Ayoro knew Gonza's assessment was spot on. He had deliberately left out Coast Town for a long time. But now, he did not have to do so anymore. He had enough power to take on that smug bastard called Bufan. He was this close to a breakthrough, if things went as planned, he would finally advance to the green essence after two decades of painstaking preparations.

"Just worry about what you need to do. Everything begins tomorrow evening."

avataravatar
Next chapter