Performance of a thousand words

Dark clouds began to overshadow the sunny appearance of the Great Eye city as fluctuations of energy caused severe disturbances in the atmosphere. It was as if an incredibly tumultuous storm was about to strike the floating settlement as the winds began to move about in a rage.

Leticia placed her left fist on her chest and moved back, visible fear painted in her eyes.

"S- So many spirit warriors", she whispered.

"Tch", Zanetor clenched his fists.

Somewhere in his mind he was beginning to hate his lack of efficiency. Having to put certain things together to solve a problem was one thing, but actually executing them was another.

Fear

He felt it

And no matter how hard he tried to deny it, it was simply futile. He wasn't going to let that stop him though, he had to overcome it at once.

But, what about his plan? He hadn't told Edem about it yet

"Leticia, Zanetor", Edem raised his right hand.

Just then, a golden circle appeared around his wrist for a brief moment. Following that were two circles that surrounded both Zanetor and Leticia.

The Shadow soul's teacher glanced back, "Don't stop advancing, no matter what."

"A transport spell", Leticia muttered to Zanetor. "Uncle's planning on getting us away from here and a bit closer to the transit."

Zanetor wasn't feeling right with that decision for some reason. However, he had no choice but to accept.

"Right", he nodded.

Edem turned his gaze to the enemies before him and then proceeded to snap his fingers. The circles that surrounded Leticia and Zanetor were activated and immediately, they disappeared from the spot and reappeared at a location closer to the transit.

The point at which they found themselves was closer to the summit of the city yet they could barely see the lands outside its boundaries due to the thick clouds.

"Leticia", Zanetor swooped in and carried her into his arms. "I'll be moving without stopping now."

The little girl was caught off guard by his sudden action, but she quickly got over it.

"Strange, I thought you'd be the type to leave me here or something", she smirked wryly.

"That wouldn't make much sense. I am the enemy's main target afterall", he replied as he began to circulate his spirit energy in a familiar pattern.

He felt a single drop of water fall into an immense sea and soon his world was transformed into that of black and white colours. Water droplets began to glow as they gathered at his feet.

[Serene Swift]

Zanetor's body began to blur as he sped through the rooftops and headed towards the large spiral-like building that sat a few metres away from them.

The Shadow soul's speed slowly increased with each step and it felt like he was getting closer and closer until he spotted something at the corner of his eye. Immediately, a few water droplets went into action and his body was able to successfully evade the attack that came from behind.

*BOOM!!*

The rooftop on which he stood seconds ago was completely crushed as something crashed into it.

Leticia looked back, "Huh? What the heck was that?"

Zanetor ignored the attack and kept running.

At that moment, a male voice raged out of nowhere.

"THERE'S NO WAY FOR YOU TO ESCAPE!"

The voice seemed to be coming from above, somewhere ahead of them. Zanetor still ignored and kept his eyes fixed on the building.

Leticia noticed this and thought to herself, 'I'm probably going to have to be his battle eyes at this point else there's gonna be nothing left of him.'

"There's a spirit warrior coming in at high speeds, the air around him seems to be freezing, probably an elemental", she began. "I'll help you avoid them."

"Took you a while to notice your role", Zanetor smirked.

*SLAM!*

The ground was shattered into a million pieces as a spirit warrior punched into it with full force. He had his eyes set on the shadow soul, however his opponent had evaded seconds before impact, hanging right over his body.

Leticia's spirit energy began to act up, gathering within her hair.

[Fibre spell: Heavy Impact!]

Her hair immediately grew and hardened, slamming the spirit warrior deeper into the fracturing ground.

Zanetor leapt onto the nearest rooftop, tightening his hold on her. Leticia's hair slowly returned to normal and soon both of them could feel the transit within their grasp.

"We're close", the shadow soul's pace quickened. "You know exactly what we'll be looking for once we get in there, right?"

The blonde-haired girl nodded, "Yup"

A thin red line suddenly appeared a few metres away from them, glowing with a harsh and ominous light. IT wasn't stagnant as it seemed to approach them at an insane speed.

"Zanetor, watch out!", Leticia pointed to the incoming projectile.

"I know", he muttered and then sprung high up into the air.

"No wait!", the blonde-haired girl exclaimed as the hairs on her skin stood on end. "It was a trap!"

Just then, a figure phased into existence right above them and the red line they evaded had disappeared and reappeared into the figure's hands. Leticia acted quickly, commanding her hair to form a cocoon around them.

The next thing they felt was an extremely powerful force which sent them plummeting and crashing into the ground.

Leticia's hairs returned to their normal size, revealing the shadow soul and his accomplice.

Zanetor slightly shook his head, "Leticia, are you okay?"

The little staggered a bit as she tried to stand, but she did manage to give a nod which signalled that she was okay.

Good

Zanetor couldn't afford to let her get hurt, else he was going to have trouble having to deal with all his pursuers alone.

The shadow soul began to contemplate the decision of leaving all the enemies to her, however he knew nothing about the transit or how they were exactly going to use it to get to the next plane.

To put it blankly, he wasn't in a situation that favoured him at all.

If only he had more information and data to work with.

Zanetor preferred to accomplish things on his own and by his own effort, a trait he carried with him from the material realm. He was a loner and was a bit too used to being one at that.

"A lot of them are gathering", Leticia suddenly uttered.

The shadow soul looked up and then noticed the number of spirit warriors surrounding them begin to increase.

'Wasn't Edem dealing with them!?', he thought.

He cursed inwardly and then began to circulate large amounts of his spirit energy. He could feel a cool substance stir up within his chest as his eyes began to slightly glow.

A steady stream of water appeared and circulated around his palm and soon, it began to coagulate into an object of some sort.

"I'm about to launch a large-scale offensive. From there, I'll Serene swift in your direction", he began.

The blonde-haired little girl glanced at his direction, "You're going to use that water spell?"

Zanetor nodded with a stern expression on his face, "Torrent Blazer."

The water around his palm transformed into a pistol that had blue streaks covering its surface.

Every single one of the spirit warriors immediately put themselves on the defensive the moment they noticed the shadow soul's attempt for battle, however, he had disappeared from the spot before they could even notice it.

"HE'S RIGHT THERE!", a female warrior pointed to a spot right before her.

Everyone else turned to her direction but saw no one.

"Huh?", a confused expression appeared on her face. "Did he just- pass through me?"

"What?", a fellow comrade raised an eyebrow. "What the heck are you talking about."

At that moment, screams of terror could be heard coming from all over the place as their bodies had bullet wounds appearing all over them from supposedly nowhere.

"Tch!", the comrade raised his guard. "That cursed shadow soul is toying with us. We should keep our eyes open, understood?"

…

There was no response.

An ominous feeling took hold of the spirit warrior and it urged him to turn to the direction of his partner, but as he turned to do exactly that, he felt a sudden shock overwhelm his body as several holes appeared all over.

Blood spewed out from his mouth as he fell to the ground with a dull thud, facing his comrade who had lost consciousness from multiple bullet wounds.

Zanetor instantly activated the Serene swift and headed for Leticia's direction. She made herself ready and without wasting a second, the shadow soul carried her in his arms and headed for their intended direction.

"Their bodies will regenerate in due time you know?", the little girl said as she let out her left palm in the direction of the spiral building. "The transit is built from energy-bearing materials. I'll warp the walls with my spirit energy and create an opening."

"Understood", Zanetor began to move faster.

Soon, everything around him appeared to blur out of existence as Leticia's spirit energy began to interrupt with the spiral building's stable structure. A hold then tore open through the wall.

Zanetor powerfully gathered energy at his feet and then flung himself towards the opening with so much force that he punched a crater into the ground the instant he jumped.

Both souls fell through the opening and landed on the glossy ground with a dull thud; they made it in!

The shadow soul slowly stood up and helped Leticia up while doing so.

She nodded in appreciation and then pointed to an awkward structure in the centre of the immense hall.

"That thing is what's going to take us to the plane above us", she turned to Zanetor. "That's the Inter-planar train."

"A train?", Zanetor raised an eyebrow.

This 'train' looked more like a stack of thick black blocks than an actual train. Zanetor honestly didn't know what to feel. But then, he found himself in a completely different world and came to understand that there were vast differences between it and home, even though there were some similarities.

"So then", he closed his eyes for a brief moment. "What do we do now?"

Leticia looked down, "Uncle Edem and I had actually planned up to this point way back. There were two cases. One, we would have to split up if there were any enemies and by the time we got here, he would've taken care of them and two, once we get away from our enemies and get here earlier, we wait."

"We're waiting", Zanetor placed his right hand on his waist. "We could still be attacked."

"Well", the blonde-haired girl began. "We'll have to hold our own until he comes around, I guess."

Zanetor sighed inwardly and then began to explore the place. The material that was used for the interior seemed to be of a very high quality. Not to mention, the walls and the floors were highly polished to the point where he could clearly see his face.

This transit was somehow like a train station; there were seats placed at certain points for passengers as well as ticket booths and certain writings on large boards which he concluded were various destinations in the spirit realm.

A random thought then entered his mind at that point.

Everything was probably normal a few days ago.

That is, of course, until he came around.

That was some attention and he was greatly unfamiliar with it

He did crave attention at one point in his life, but never did he imagine it would be like this.

Then again, this was the afterlife so maybe it didn't count? He did imagine the afterlife in a completely different light though.

"Don't think too much of what I'm about to ask", he began. "But, the spirit realm doesn't really seem to be that much of a paradise to me. Or, is it because of the kind of soul I turned out to be?"

Zanetor paused for a bit and quite eagerly waited for a response. However, there was no response for what felt like minutes. Normally, he would've discarded it, assuming that his question was intentionally ignored.

But then, something didn't feel right about the silence. It was silence alright, yet he couldn't help but hear what he understood to be whispers of some sort.

The shadow soul began to count in his head

Three, two, one…

He then leapt back and turned around, aiming his torrent blazer at exactly nothing. She wasn't there, where was she?

A strange feeling then grabbed hold of Zanetor. It was an incredibly pressurising feeling and it was as if someone was greatly staring down at him. Such situations naturally brought rage to his heart.

He looked up at the ceiling and was shocked as to what he saw. Leticia had been tied up by a thin transparent thread and was hanging from a silver steel beam. Around her neck seemed to be a rotating wind sphere. She tried to utter a word, but nothing would come out.

Just then, a cold chill ran down the shadow soul's spine. Immediately, he turned back and felt his heart stop at the sight of the person before him.

The person seemed to be female, a bit shorter than him, but definitely taller than Leticia in comparison. She had short silver white braids and her face was concealed beneath a mask that bore strange runic symbols.

"A spirit warrior", Zanetor whispered to himself. "But, why didn't I notice anything?"

A small gust of wind suddenly blew in, raising the small cloak that hung over her bust and revealing a tattoo on her right shoulder. The tattoo especially got the shadow soul's attention as it reminded him of something that Edem had told him some time ago.

Zanetor's grip on the torrent blazer tightened, "I see, that's no ordinary spirit warrior."

The spirit warrior slightly raised her head and the wind stirred in response.

Things… only seem to have gotten complicated.