Shadows form the past

Once Erin and Ten left the scene, Asato felt as if he could breathe better all of a sudden. The oppressing feeling that he was faced with was almost gone in an instant and in its place, it was a certain calm.

The smoke was no problem for him at all, and unlike others gave him no feeling or indication at all about what was going on. It felt liberating in a sense.

However, it was only his fourth clash with this entity and Asato felt it was better to not test its patience. In a sense, the smoke felt much more alive than anything he had felt before.

It felt like its own entity with its own set of rules and balance. It was fascinating to his senses, a whole new dimension to explore and categorize about. But only if he had time and it was not such a big deal with the outside world.

The reality was that this should not exist here and even now it was corroding the system as a whole which sparked a lot of problems. Most of all, his powers clashed a great deal with the other which was a big overall problem for him.

The smoke was the same as ever and yet somehow it felt much different from before. It pulsed with excitement, a possible chatter inside its tendrils which was a new sensation. Or perhaps not one he had taken notice of in earlier clashes.

The source of the smoke burned brighter to his senses, a clear indication of the direction he needed to move toward. However, the most remarkable thing was the absence of the smoky creatures they had faced before.

The deeper he entered the smoke, the less he saw them. And none of the ones he saw ever attacked him at all, too content to float around in the smoke.

It felt like a calm routine they followed, not the creatures that had cursed a body so bad that it had leaked out and caused a lot of problems for everyone else.

Then there was the giggling. The much too familiar giggling which his mind remembered from somewhere long ago.

It was similar to the voices he heard before his master took over his mind as a defence. He used to hear them all the time didn’t he? Not that he understood the difference at that time at all.

The smoke was not that hot, a barely-there crass on his skin which made him shiver a little as he travelled even deeper.

It felt tickly to touch, not a sensation he would have associated with smoke at all.

Asato pries and dodges a few smokey apparitions that made their way too close to him, but none actively tried to grab him which made it a lot easier to accomplish. It felt as if they were following a set path, a play even which he was not a part of and could as easily dodge out of.

It was a weird thing to feel, to be so out of touch with a place that it didn’t even consider you a part of its overall escape.

When he reached near enough toward the centre of the place, it was almost a shock to his system. For such a huge amount of smoke, you would either think that the fire source was enormous or that it burned for a long time.

Both seemed not to be the case here though. The thing that was burning in front of him was small, maybe a little bigger than a marble.

But it felt too hot to his senses, a mass of pure energy was concentrated inside is filled to the brim. There was no doubt inside Asato’s mind. It was the source of the problem here all along.

He raised his scythe which had been useless till now and brought it down on the small marble in hopes of damaging it. But before it made any contact, the scythe was stopped by another metal clashing right into its blade and diverting its course toward the side.

“Now what are you doing? I won’t recommend doing it at all” the voice held so much amusement inside it that it felt as if there was space for no other emotion inside it at all.

Asato took a quick look around but much to his surprise, there was no one in his line of sight. While the smoke contributed a lot in that aspect, the actual sense of life could also not be felt in his surroundings at all.

Suddenly, things seemed to have taken a turn for the worst.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Asato asked, his hands tightening his grip on the scythe in his hand. His hands made quick work of deflecting the incoming sword aimed at his midsection.

The more attacks he fought against, the more he understood that using a scythe with his limited range of moment was a mistake. However, he needed a moment to change his scythe with his swords which were near impossible to find in the tempo of attack and dodging they had going on right at that moment.

It felt far too dangerous right at that moment to cause any extra moment.

“I’m just a helper. Why are you running away?” the voice asked and the attacks just got even heavier in retaliation. It was difficult to find any opening naturally and if this went on then Asato was not sure he would be able to handle it for much longer.

That meant that he had to take the initiative himself to create the opening.

The next slower attack came at the right time. Asato made use of his height disadvantage which most of his opponents forgot about and dodged below the blade.

At the same time, his hands dropped the scythe which dissolved into a puddle of black-blue mesh. Asato reached toward the puddle, his hands looking around for the katana that should be there.

His hands grasped the handle just in time for his torso to meet with afoot. His body flew away with the Katana handle tightly grasped in his hand.

“This toy won’t save you at all. It’s better you give up and let me destroy that source” the voice called out, still amused but now it held Asato’s attention in one go.

“I want to destroy that thing too. How about we stop attacking each other and have a talk out with each other” Asato proposed, but he still didn’t drop his weapon, keeping it at ready.

“Looks like we have similar goals here. If you are here to destroy this source too then why are you travelling with that thing in your group. Even going as far as to protect it” the voice was closer now, almost a whisper in his ear which seemed far too invasive to Asato.

The shadows in front of him took shape firming a figure he could not match at all. The smoke made it impossible to see their face or even form any real features.

It was just a mass of smoke held together by power, not something which could be even called living. And yet its power was something which felt tremendous to Asato. It felt consuming to his senses like it would devour its surroundings.

“I don’t understand your meaning? But I feel we have similar goals to each other” Asato proposed, his tone polite. If this entity was willing to help then he was not taking any chances at all.

The smoke turned their head toward one side and regarded him closely.

“You’re different from the rest of your people. I don’t know what you were doing with that thing with you but I’ll trust you for now. Come, time is of the essence” the entity was clearly mistaken, a horrible misunderstanding on its part which Asato was not going to correct at all.

It was advantageous for him after all and provided him with ample opportunities to work through. Besides, he felt as if the entity would be a good help in the overall process of the things going on around him.

“You defend the area and I’ll destroy the source. The smoke will protest for it does not want to be vanquished. All it wants to do is conquer but we cannot allow that to happen” the entity spoke the voice echoing in the surroundings.

For a second Asaao wondered if the creatures around them would attack due to the voice but nothing happened which relaxed him a lot.

“Don’t worry, they won’t attack at all. They can’t hear us without us using our powers. Now, pay attention as it will explode as soon as I’m done. You need to keep the power in check so that the fire doesn’t spread far away” Asato nodded his agreement.

He dropped his sword which dissolved into a black pool and spread into a ring around the entity and the marble.

Asato concentrated as the walls extended in the shape of the dome held together by hexagonal energy plated which were semi-transparent to one’s look.

Inside, the entity seemed to concentrate on its own power, the smoke flickering to show something human in nature and yet something so otherworldly that it was mesmerising.

Asato needed to pay attention to it and yet he could not for the barrier require all his attention to maintain it.

Be careful of whom you trust child for danger is already in your midst, the words of the entity were all but a whisper in his ears as he allowed the power to take him over.

The flash of fire burned at his senses, the shield hardly dealing with the fire to keep it at bay. With gritted teeth, Asato concentrated on suppressing the fire till it was no more.

Slowly it began dwindling with the lack of oxygen till it was no more than a reminder of the past. The fire was out.

And then the shrieking started, loud piercing noise rose all around him.