Soul Storm

"What did I do?"

Gazing far into the distance at the green tornado still ripping through the city. It moved strangely never damaging any buildings or doing anything a natural tornado would do. Everywhere it went if there was life nothing would happen but where there was death, the howling didn't come from the winds. The dead either came to life with the storm or at the very least added to the howling.

"You created a... hmm I can't fully reca-... Ah, yes a Soul Storm. You used the Language of Concepts to create a Soul Storm. Which is interesting I don't understand or know which Concept this is exactly."

"That isn't what I meant. I mean how could I, I-I killed them, I killed so many people. H-How do I stop it, please tell me how to stop it, I didn't want this, I-I was angry but I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"Technically, you haven't killed anyone. What you did was summon what looks like the souls of the vengeful dead. Anyone in this city that died 'wrongly' is riding that storm back to life so long as they find a body and they're chasing down the people that killed them. Either way, you do not know how you started this or how to stop it and I have no idea what Concept this is supposed to be so even I cannot help you now. We should be leaving anyway I felt something not far from here."

Wynter's gaze lingered on the soul storm, the howling still ringing in her ears. Gazing deep into that storm she could hear a different kind of screaming and shouting. Orders were being barked along with the fearful screams of people. Before Cassius could turn his attention to her, she had already taken off to those shouts.

'How didn't I sense her leaving? What is happening to me, something is very wrong.'

Cassius stood in awe sinking deeper into his musings. He couldn't understand what it was that was wrong, his mind was a fortress. He wasn't, or should not have been susceptible to any kind of degradation of his mind. However, he was suffering from something.

"You two get behind it, attack from behind. You keep its eyes on you."

Cassius arrived to see a woman shouting orders and fighting something that resembled a tiger if only taking the stripes into account, otherwise it was completely alien. It had seemingly metallic tendrils extending from its back, it was entirely silver with four glowing blue eyes. It seemed more robotic than organic. He watched as the group fought the beast and scanned the area for Wynter. The beast was swiping and biting furiously at her but its claws and fangs passed through every time.

The beast promptly turned around whipping its tendrils at its other attackers. With everyone so quickly put out of the fight Wynter jumped in front of the beast and punched it. A strike that was quickly ignored by the beast, as its tendrils moved to whip its downed opponents. The woman who was shouting orders bounced up and the beast attacked, its claws cutting through her like a hot knife through butter. Her figure dissipated like it was never there, the creature reared releasing a pained roar. It lashed out violently behind itself striking the woman once again with the same results. Learning from its previous mistake it lashed out behind itself with a tendril immediately, yet still, a pained roar escaped it. The beast vaulted away and stared at the woman. She had disappeared from its sights twice and wounded it.

Cassius watched the battle play out lazily. He was still wandering deep in his mind assessing the problems he'd encountered. His attention was drawn a bit more when the woman created the mirage or after images of herself. Watching her movements and quickly assessing the damage of her attacks he deduced that she wouldn't be able to defeat the beast and Wynter was physically far too weak to assist. She continued to draw the beast in with the false images of herself and create shallow wounds. While she didn't cause any substantial damage to the beast, she did immensely wound its pride. Seemingly having been insulted enough the beast lashed out indiscriminately, it whipped the survivors on the ground, Wynter who it still could not touch, and the woman who had attacked it.

During its attack the beast seemed to express joy hearing the agonizing screams of its victims, it raised its head high. But then the screams stopped, the beast brought its head down to examine its fallen prey. However, the sight that greeted it was the opposite of its expectations, its prey were crawling away. Seemingly insulted once again it lashed at them again with a tendril to no effect. It had suddenly realized it felt lighter, its connection to its tendrils was painlessly cutoff. Surveying its surroundings the surrounding ground formed a large puddle, it then noticed new prey had arrived at the scene.

'Simple transmutation took so much energy. Why? What has happened to me since arriving here?'

Cassius stood opposite the beast and wondered. Seeing its new prey not attacking the beast charged ahead, that prey never moved to cause a strange attempt at a smile to form on the beasts' mouth. It swiped a massive claw at Cassius seemingly assured of its victory. Wynter who had not contributed much to the fight tried to rush to Cassius before the beast could. As far as she knew Cassius used a strange power when he spoke but he wasn't speaking now he stood with a dumbfounded expression. As the beast claw nearly reached him, she watched as he rose a hand to meet it. The beast claw met Cassius' hand but the outcome was unlike anything anyone there had seen before. The claw morphed and transformed into what looked like a trident, which was quickly brandished against the beast creating its deepest wound yet. The beast quickly escaped from the tridents impalement, its escape short-lived as it toppled a result of its missing leg. It stared horrified at its new predator. Cassius approached the beast and drove the trident through its head, quickly ending its life.

"Excuse me miss, I'm Katelyn thank you for saving me and my squad."

"Actually, he's a he, don't worry about it I made the same mistake and we're family."

Cassius ignored the two women and reached out to the beast. Much to the amazement of the survivors gathered there it transformed into what looked like a suit of armor. When he finished a giant green object flew into the new armor.

"I see I know what I need now." Cassius voiced his thoughts aloud, confusing the others.