16 Zagidi Awakens

Earlier on, Kasko had whispered to the girl that on his signal, she should get to the green stone and put her blood on it. Kasko did not have the time to explain why, but Ayani figured it must be important. At first she had wondered how she could get blood out of her body, but it had become a lot more easier after she started bleeding from that attack.

Once Kasko started distracting the man by talking so much, Ayani knew it was time for her to get to her task. But the man had caught her, and his rage had directed the dummies towards her.

Upon seeing that the dummies were coming for Ayani, Kasko lunged towards one of them with such speed and strength that the dummy was momentarily knocked a few steps back. It continuously traded blows after blows on Kasko's back, but the boy continued to hold the dummy firmly in place, not even budging in spite of all the pain coursing through his body from all those blows.

Then the dummy jumped high until they were both suspending at the incredibly high ceiling. Then they both came tumbling down with ferocious speed. The dummy had re-positioned itself such that Kasko's back was facing directly to the ground. If they both crashed on the floor, it was Kasko's back that will have the most impact, and a fall from such height would cripple him even if he did not die.

Kasko realised that he could no longer escape from the dummy's clutch. He was helpless. But at least, now, Ayani had enough power to stop the man. He closed his eyes, expecting death to come knocking on his door. No he could not possibly die now. He had to save Jari at all cost. He had to save Jari. "Jari." He said to himself and then opened his orange eyes. Kasko began to feel a warm tingling sensation spreading through his entire body. He could feel his body getting lighter and lighter, as though something heavy all this while was suddenly being lifted out of him. A loud sound boomed from his body like an explosion and then suddenly, the dummy was eviscerated from his grasp and torn apart from limb to limb. Since it was a lifeless shell, it was like tearing apart a rug doll.

At first, Kasko thought that the sudden explosion from within him was what had caused the destruction of the dummy. But when he saw a girl encircled by a string of intertwined orange and green light lunging towards him, with the head of the faceless dummy in her hand, he immediately knew that she had done this. The girl's bountiful curly hair was flowing in all direction and her green and orange eyes gave her the appearance of a powerful warrior deity. A small smile graced Kasko's lips when he saw her. Ayani had succeeded in connecting with the power stone.

Ayani caught Kasko in mid air and then safely brought him down while holding him in her arms like a bride. Once they were safely on the ground, Kasko looked around him only to realize that the two dummies had been torn apart into nothingness. Rovirrak was watching the two children with a mixture of shock and fear at what was happening.

He had not anticipated that this would happen. Weren't they only children? How did they know one could connect with a power stone by blood? Besides, the girl was a true orange user, thus, gaining the power of a green would make her more powerful than Rovirrak who was a true red user. Moreover, that explosion that came out of the boy could only mean one thing. The boy had finally awakened his soul armos. A crippling feeling he knew all too well as fear overtook his senses. He had to use his trump card.

However, before Rovirrak could even act, flashes of orange and green light sped towards him. He did not have the time to play another music, thus, he began to run from the enraged girl speeding towards him. But Ayani caught up with him in no time and grabbed him by the neck throwing him straight into the wall. With Ayani's upgrade, this felt like a one sided fight. All she needed to do was beat the man into oblivion to finally break the spell.

Meanwhile, now that Kasko was no longer at the brink of death, he could feel joy warming his heart. In fact, he almost cried from so much euphoria. His soul armos had finally awakened. After a whole month, his soul armos was finally here. It had to take him a near-death experience for this to happen. But it had still happened. He wondered what his soul armos was. Instantly, he closed his eyes in concentrated for a while.

The soul armos was an extension of one's soul, thus the moment it awoke within him, he instantly felt it. When he summoned the soul armos, a long black lasso materialized in his hands. What? He thought in disappointment. "A lasso?" He could not believe it. With all his expectations, all he got was an ordinary black rope? If he all he wanted was a rope, he could have easily got one without worrying about a soul armos. Why were the higher celestials playing such tricks on him? Putting his disappointment aside, Kasko began to rotate the lasso over his head like a cow-boy. This is so disappointing, he thought. But then an idea popped in his head. As he kept rotating the lasso, he revealed his essence, and suddenly, the rope started changing colour from deep black to light orange. The faster he rotated the rope, the deeper and more sparkling it became until the entire lasso transformed into pure orange energy. Kasko grinned with pride, all his earlier disappointment completely forgotten.

The sound the lasso made above Kasko's head even resembled that of rumbling thunder. Even Ayani had to turn to the boy to see what was going on. Her mouth hang wide open when he saw Kasko holding a thick string of lightning in his hand.

Rovirrak was kneeling weakly in front of Ayani as his tired eyes watched the boy and his soul armos. Was he just bested by a group of children who a few minutes ago did not even have any soul armos? He suddenly wished Gonza was here even though he really despised the man. Rovirrak watched helplessly as the boy threw the lasso towards him and then captured him in the loop. The moment the lasso of lightning touched his body, Rovirrak felt a painful jolt spread through his entire body, threatening to tear him apart from the inside out. Rovirrak screamed in pain, his face a bloodied mess from all the beatings he had experienced from the tiny girl. After a few seconds, he passed out. The flute he had been holding all that while vanished into tiny red sparks the moment he fell unconscious.

For a moment, Kasko was taken aback by the effects of the lasso. He had not expected things to turn out this way. What had just happened to the man? His aim was to just bind the man so that he would have no way to escape. Instead, this happened. Well, he could not complain. Kasko looked at the rope in his hand with a mixture of shock, disbelieve and pure awe. He felt remorseful at how disappointed he had been the first time he saw his soul armos. This lasso was more powerful than he had thought. It was like lightning had struck the man senseless. Maybe he should name it the Lasso of lightning, he thought. It was after all a fitting name. Everyone named their soul armos, from what he knew.

'Zagidi.' The voice of a woman rang clearly in his head. The voice spoke so harshly that one would think it was rebuking the boy for making up such an atrocious name for his soul armos. For a moment, Kasko was confused. Where had this voice come from? And what was Zagidi?

"Zagidi?" He said out loud. The moment he said that, the lasso flew out of his hand and then sped towards the unconscious man. It then wrapped itself around the man to securely bind him so that even if he was awake, he could not possibly escape.

"What just happened?" Ayani asked. Kasko only shook his head and shrugged, clearly as confused as Ayani. Why was that lasso acting as though it had a mind of its own? But this was not the time to be worrying about things like this. They had to take the man and go back to the town. After a while, Ayani's power upgrade would wear out, and her body would collapse from exhausting after using the power stone. They had to be back home safely before all that happened. Hopefully, everyone back home would be awake.