The Symphony of Dark souls

And so it began.

Not the war, but the music.

All thirty of them raised their arms, and instruments appeared from thin air, directly in their hands. And there were many - guitars, a piano, a few violins, two drum sets and I dunno what. One-by-one, they ascended to the sky and created a circular formation (very wide though). One with the violin placed the bow on the strings, and began with a low note, finishing it at a perfect pitch, perfect vibrato.

The moment he ended, both drummers began with the closed hi-hat, starting up what would later be known as the greatest musical gift to mankind. Within a few seconds they had started to create a tune that one could only call a 'Musical Symphony", yet they would still be overwhelmed by how much more complex it is.

And as the others started to join, multiple small craters opened up and out came fully armed, the Souls of Darkness. Everybody staggered back a little, since the souls emitted some kind of energy, which could make us all unstable and unable to move.

And that's when it hit me.

"Yes Jester, that's right," said the swanky tall guy. "This is Ryok; or as you may have heard - The All Consumer, which won't physically consume you, but make you permanently go to sleep without even a chance of reincarnation. Best case scenario? You could become a shareholder of the power I hold."

I did not have much of a problem with facing them with their Ryok as my Mach lets me be untouchable, but taking this big of a risk isn't what I was gonna do.

I held Iwarzoǭ and told him to cast a shield on everyone and have the buffers buff those shields.

"We aren't here to die. Not yet, " I said.

By now, one thing was clear. This guy was definitely Ciaran.

Lowering his head, he snapped his fingers. The souls started to move towards us and raised their weapons.

.

A sudden change in their postures as well as ours. Pushing my feet back into the ground, I put my hand on my sword's handle, and thought, "Mach 1, Push."

All it took was a second, to cut down fifteen of them.

"Oh, this should be easy, " I thought.

Unfortunately for me, things don't go the easy way. A new fifteen souls appeared in front of me, some with swords and some with a weapon I'd never seen before - chains attached to a ring. [Music becomes a little intense]. Not giving it much thought, I went once again with the same plan and finished 8 of them. On trying to cut down the chain user, he moved out of the way with incredible speed; almost as high as my Mach 1, and using the ring threw a chain at my foot. The moment it stuck, I came to a standstill, my zarcs cancelling which caused a big air wave to blow from below towards the souls and some of my comrades.

"Doesn't matter, I will use my own strengths to break through," I spoke, annoyed. With a jerk, I pulled forward the one who held the ring and then kicked him into the air. The force was somehow so much that he lost grip on the ring and spluttered.....uh let's not talk about the colour, but it looked like blood. For the time he was in the air, I jumped up and did a front-roll kick, sending him into the ground with force that created a big crack, destabilising the others.

I took a risky glance at the others to see if anyone needed help. To my surprise, most were faring really well against these souls. Iwarzoǭ himself was like a savage beast, destroying anything and everything in his path. Though some of my other comrades were not fighting as well as the others, the healers and buffers would help them out. If not technique, then just plow through.

And taking a look at Ciaran, it was clear that he was indeed shocked at this overwhelming amount of kills piling up. I kept slashing - an uppercut, a lowcut, a thrust - it kept going (pus, I wasn't using my blessed sword, but the other katana).

Yet, what was this sensation? What was this feeling that was warning me to be alert and not get ahead of myself?

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Some time had passed, but the war looked nothing close to being over. Let alone look over, there wasn't even the feeling of progress. One soul killed, two coming back. It was as if there was an infinite supply of them.

Ciaran had not moved from his place even once since the war started. He even held the same pose as well. But something was wrong. Or rather, two things were wrong. Firstly, none of us were dead; only very few were injured. Secondly, the souls were never ending. It was like-

~Hmmm...hm..hm..hmmmm~

Ciaran had started humming again, swaying ever so slightly at his place. The orchestra had abruptly stopped within a second.

Everything came to a halt the moment he began. It was almost like time had stopped just for this moment to be suspended in air forever.

.

Finishing on a different note from the supposed tune, he put his hands behind his back and then released them above his head in a circular motion.

"It's been a very long time," he said amusingly. "All of you are very.....interesting. Allow me the honour, to fight you."

.

His eyes....I could swear he was grinning like a madman.

.

And so it began - a war whose impact could shatter the entire world.

The band erupted. Literally.

The entire mood of the souls changed. Their shapes changed a little and they became slimmer and a little bigger. Some even had a weapon upgrade.

But the biggest change was in Ciaran himself. His outfit changed from a dark one to a....better but still darker one. That wasn't even the best part. His faceless face, was now an actual face. And finally the best part?

He had a double sided scythe. And it resembled the hilt of my border sword before its rotation. The realisations just never stop.

He started to move. I wasn't very close to him, but I could feel his power from here. His movements were astonishing. Slash, stop, dodge, repeat. And each slash of him was getting someone, instantly killing them.

A tough battle is fun, but seeing your comrades die in front of you is not. But then, that was exactly what we were doing with the Lord's guys.

Some of these souls ganged up on the bow users, so our third-in command (the general) helped them out. He was almost the level of Iwar, but Iwar was a little more fierce in battle.

Those who were dead would not come back unlike these dead souls, which while saddened me, did not leave me the choice of remembering them right now.

"Look forward. They're gonna be fine," I told myself and put my katana back in the sheath, my hand over it and took a single step stance, wanting to blast through at once. The temperature around me rose. The souls tried to take advantage of my pause and started gaining up on me. I decided to obliterate them using a combination attack.

~Mach 3, Push - Gateway~

Thankfully, none of my comrades were near me. Mach 3 was already unfathomable speed and combined with Push as a gateway, it cut down anything within a radius of any distance I liked. And for that, I had to concentrate for a specific amount of time which in this case, was three-quarters of a minute. The radius amounted to twenty-five metres. Nothing remained; not even the burnt grass on the ground.

The Ryok slightly got to me, but one of the physical healers rushed over and helped. It took just a second and I was all well.

Raising my katana to eye level, I yelled, "The battle is yet to begin, CIARAN."