Soul's Requiem: B1 - 1.5 Falling Angels (Patreon)

8/11/21 Note:  I might not be able to post a chapter next week in SR, depending on the time I have to write it.  We'll play it by ear.

PoV:

1:  Melissa (Our Golden-Haird Medic!)

Soul's Requiem Index

Previous Chapter

-------------

“We may be lost in this wasteland between spaces, but so long as our group of survivors stick together and defend one another, we can make it through this nightmare!” - Melissa P. Kenella, The Lost Diaries, Vol. I.

-------------

Melissa sighed as she looked around Hollow Veil Main Street; the town was the furthest southwest populated area of the West Skydream province. It had seen better days, though, considering the number of groups scurrying to their destinations.

She couldn’t blame them, not after the ordinarily peaceful town had suffered so many attacks within a month—the writing was on the wall—and, while some wanted to believe it couldn’t continue to get worse, others couldn’t leave fast enough.

Still, her only fear was that she’d fail another kid, that they’d lose their father or mother, forcing them to grow up as an orphan, with all the processing that went with it.

Older citizens bustled around the streets, the threat of death on their minds while hurrying to their destinations; Gen-V was all too familiar with the concept. Casual throngs of teens could be seen in their cliques, going about their business before dark, trying to spend as much time outside before the town’s gates locked and the sun descended below the lavender-stained sky.

The threat of Castro’s presence had passed five days ago; however, there was a constant reminder with the leftover clown balloons filled with a deadly toxin. Much of the hazardous material had already been prudently disposed of; unfortunately, dozens of citizens hadn’t been so patient with their caution, causing further strain on their medical staff.

Her somber, blue irises drifted between the scars left on several citizens that passed, who gave her forced smiles and silent waves. The damage to their flesh wasn’t the only thing that was new, and her heart went out to them; even after a week, few were brave enough to enter the former bustling shopping area of the town, and she could understand the trauma they felt.

Hollow Veil was wary; from what she knew, they should be.

Melissa’s lips tightened as her focus lifted to the violet heavens; it didn’t help that a perpetual reminder of the lurking danger hung in the sky as a warning—the Great Void—never telling what could come.

The tinted sun peered through the firmament as twilight chased it beyond sight; blue skies hadn’t touched this mountainous town in over ten years—she hadn’t seen them since she’d fled Bloom City five years ago.

Ominous winds raged from the sphere in the west, pulling her blonde hair back—the void shifts hadn’t been this bad for a while, which made her believe something would exit soon. A storm of events was lining up so perfectly that even kids could see the signs—an encroaching calamity was moving across the countryside toward this dually blessed and cursed town. 

The Great Void towered in the distance, looming over the ruined skyscrapers of the formerly great city that once thrived in Western Skydream ten years ago—Sunny City—and yet the place had been one of the only bastions for humanity’s hope in the first five years of the Void invasions.

Melissa couldn’t help but feel sorrow for the lost haven; from everything she’d heard, it had been a magical place of refuge. Now, one of the greatest mysteries and threats hovered above the ruined metropolis; the spiraling deep-purple and black vortex cast an eternal tint upon the heavens, bathing Hollow Veil in a permanent shadow.

For fifteen years, this town had escaped the majority of humanity’s war against the monsters that had exited the spheres, somehow surviving the end of the world. Although the Great Void’s sporadic growth was its own looming curse, even if it hadn’t released anything dangerous, it still made the former metropolis unlivable.

Of course, Melissa had her own theory on it, which everyone she told called ‘conjecture.’ It made too much sense, though, and she couldn’t deny the pattern. The Great Void grew in the fifth and tenth Void Years… Today marked the beginning of Void Year Fifteen.

Her lips tightened; she stood on the wide sidewalks, gut-churning with the hope for at least one blessing from whatever was going to happen this night—just one silver cloud in the mass of depression that was their existence.

Melissa’s gaze returned to the tent of injured people, many still receiving care after Castro’s puppet attacks. As a Class-2 Heal Support spirit user, she tended to those she could, yet it was never enough.

Due to living in a nearly collapsed world with practically no recreational infrastructure, everything went to the war effort. There was a bright side, she supposed: in the past fifteen years, out of necessity, phenomenal technological breakthroughs had come; although, it was also only in specific fields while others still suffered due to a lack of resources.

Her heart was heavy. She wanted to go back into the urgent care tents to help the Class-1 Healers—she was, after all, the most potent medical spirit user in Western Skydream, but she had to keep a certain amount of energy for possible emergencies, and something told her one was about to happen.

The ordinary people of Hollow Veil found solace in seeing her presence, happy to have the Medical Core in Hollow Veil—it came from a somewhat inflated perception of Class-1 and Class-2 spirit user’s abilities, though.

Skydream had been an unmatched City-State, the sole superpower before the invasions; now, most of its metropolises were destroyed, and it was a shell of its former glory, yet still, it stood.

Before the Voids, she was an innocent young woman, a simple nurse in training after school, living among the small population of Firefly City-State’s eastern province…her birthplace. Firefly had fallen two years after that first invasion.

Of course, Melissa hadn’t been there to witness her home’s destruction. In fact, she still wasn’t sure what happened to her family and friends—almost nothing was left for her to salvage when she’d had the chance to return. Reports were conflicted on who caused the devastation—some said it was the transevil en masse, others blamed the rassi factions, and still more, the human warlords that cropped up at the time.

Melissa had been among the first taken on the initial Void incursion that hit Firefly; it had encompassed the hospital where she had been undergoing training. She still remembered the horror on a few patients’ faces as the waves of purple and black energy expanded across their whole city block, too swift to outrun.

She couldn’t recall a single moment of her time within its fathomless depths—though neither did anyone else that the vortex spat out. Melissa lost six years before being expelled into Skydream’s Western Province, near Talon City, where she learned about the ongoing conflict that engulfed their world.

Two types of creatures came out of the Voids fifteen years ago: rassi and transevil. At first, it seemed the transevil were their greatest threat, yet the true danger lay in the pure power and seeming invulnerability of the rassi.

The instant change had hit her chest like a ton of bricks; it was such a traumatic and surreal feeling, losing six years in the blink of an eye and coming back to an alien world.

Firefly—once her home—was now a wasteland for some distant rassi faction to rule—worthless to everyone else and leaving her with no options but to get through the nightmare she’d stepped into.

Still, when she had returned, it had been during a brief golden period, which had helped; she got goosebumps and warm feelings every time she recalled those blissful years when peace and security had filled her heart. Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever.

The rassi were as intelligent as humans, though they suffered from terrible in-fighting, and given their emotional disposition, humanity would have easily prevailed if it weren’t for their supernatural powers. Yet, even with the sharp push for technological advancements to overcome the threat, most of society was wiped out across the globe; they were on a sharp decline, and birth rates were surprisingly stagnant.

Worse, from what they could tell, hundreds of various rassi factions now populated their world, all at war with what remained of humanity—as far as she knew, Skydream was the only significant human civilization left. The external conditions were so bad that it was practically impossible for anyone else, though she’d heard stories about other small settlements hoping to make it to Skydream.

It was insane. The rassi were bloodthirsty and warlike, each clan following a specific emotional creed. They fought on all fronts yet somehow thrived. Despite being locked into conflict with humanity, transevil, and their own people, nothing seemed to stop their cancerous growth.

To their north was the Gallant Cadre, which all dressed like they lived in the Middle Ages—knights, jesters, and nobles—having some bizarre attachment to honor and the monarchy. It was ruled by a king and was among the most frightening because of how closely they could resemble humans, apart from their incredible powers.

The Great Inferno Tribe was their primary enemy in Western Skydream. Unlike their northern kind, Inferno rassi were more mutated humanoid monsters, with multiple arms and impossible muscles, captivated by raw power; the tribe’s red skin color, tattoos, and horns resembled old demonic depictions.

Though their females came in all shapes and sizes, Melissa had seen more feminine figures among them; she never understood how their males could be so massive and robust while the females remained just as powerful, despite relatively smaller frames. Then again, spirit users defied logic, so she shouldn’t be surprised. 

Rassi factions were collective in thought, never deviating from the primary culture, be it Inferno’s strength-fueled society or Gallant’s honor-based lifestyle. If they differed from the norm, it was a guaranteed exile or execution.

It would have been bad enough with just the rassi as their enemy; however, in a way, the transevil were even worse. Unlike the rassi, transevil had no internal conflicts in their hierarchy; their primary purpose was to consume, evolve, spread, and repeat. If they had gained intelligence instead of acting like mindless drones, she had no doubt humanity and the rassi would be long extinct.

The horrifying part about transevil was their ability to absorb technology, animals, and any inanimate object—such as soil—to grow and become stronger; humans seemed to have some natural resistance to being taken in, yet that didn’t stop them from trying.

Yet, the heartbreaking truth was that humanity needed the transevil; without them, they would have all died before any help could arrive.

After a transevil’s death, their otherworldly energy remained, which humanity had learned to craft into weapons that could damage the shields the higher-class rassi and transevil possessed. It aided humans in advancing specific fields of technology far beyond what they could dream—however, that also gave rise to the transevil absorbing those parts and becoming even stronger, creating a vicious cycle.

The older weapons were useless against anything but the weakest transevil and rassi—Class-0—and, at first, they had managed for a few months until the Class-1s appeared.

Humanity was doomed, and even Skydream—the world’s strongest superpower—was on the verge of destruction by the end of the second year, or so she’d been told.

It was when they were at the point of destruction when their salvation came: McArthur—the first of only two spirit emperors, Class-7—former humans on an entirely different level than any of their enemies, and he wasn’t alone.

McArthur brought stability, and after him came more spirit users to shine as a beacon in the hearts of humanity’s failing hope. Of course, she wasn’t there for all of that, and McArthur hadn’t been around when she’d exited the Voids; Shane was her hope.

Six years after the invasion, she was brought into the Skydream Peace Union’s—the SPU—Medical Core, rising through the ranks over the past nine years to captain a Medical Unit: Starry Squadron—four incredible years, five horrific.

Now, she found herself in Hollow Veil, staring into the Great Void for answers.

Melissa released a depressing puff of air, awaiting the next calamity—she expected it at this point. She nervously rubbed her left arm, shivering as she gazed once again into those fathomless depths that overshadowed the ruined city.

How are we going to deal with the next crisis… Shane’s not here anymore.

Erin, a Support Class-2 spirit user who could manipulate the earth, lifted an eyebrow upon seeing her alone on the sidewalk, jogging over to meet her. They’d just gotten back from a mission two hours ago, and most of her unit was probably getting ready to hit the pubs to drink their memories away with the special spirit user alcohol.

“Captain… Something wrong?”

She forced herself to smile, pulling her blonde locks behind her ear as she turned. “Oh, Erin… No, no… Just reflecting.”

Her gaze shifted to the citizens, going about their end-of-day business—people who might have been dead a week ago had their unit not shown up. Pausing, she thought of how to broach her next subject.

“Haaa…” she sighed, exhausted not only in body but mind. “Have you heard more news from any of the Recon Units—is Isngneal still between Talon City and us?” 

Erin’s eyes hardened, cracking his neck before straightening his 2nd lieutenant pin on his long-sleeved shirt. “You should hear about it before me, Captain.”

“Ugh… Don’t hold out on me; spirit user companies are left out due to prejudices in some of the Recon Platoons,” she grumbled, crossing her arms and internally cursing at the lieutenant colonels, who were all smiles in person but purposefully withheld critical information. “I know you’ve got buddies in the unit monitoring his movements.”

“Yeah, but… Okay, well, we shouldn’t talk about this in public,” he said, motioning her toward one of the dirty alleyways. “This town’s been through enough over the past month.”

“True,” she whispered, following him across the sidewalk.

Her eyes followed the old trolley system the town still used for its primary means of transportation; cars were few, and, usually, those with trucks owned it as some kind of business license or a part of the SPU.

Erin paused as a group of girls crossed their path, noticing their outfits and armbands—local school kids, no older than fourteen, smiling cheerily while stopping to wave. The younger generation had no clue how bad this world was compared to the golden era Melissa had lived in only fifteen years ago.

“Look, it’s Captain Melissa!”

“Hey!”

“Aren’t spirit users awesome?!” one of them mumbled excitedly.

Another eyed Erin with a small smile. “Yeah…”

“Thanks for protecting us from the puppets! Oh, and if you ever see General Wilfred, please thank him for us, too!”

“Please do!”

One of the brown-haired girls groaned, shivering before fidgeting with her shirt, “Yeah, thank him a ton for getting rid of that weirdo clown rassi…”

Erin forced a chuckle, trying to remain calm after the girls mentioned the Class-5 Gallant Cadre rassi that spontaneously showed up in Hollow Veil from Northern Skydream without being detected. “Sure will! Thanks, girls, and stay safe—don’t leave town!”

“Oh! After all those scary puppet attacks? No, thank you!”

“Yeah! I’m not going outside for a long, long time,” another laughed, moving on to gossip amongst themselves while heading out of earshot; they were obviously trying to make the most of their last hour of free time before they likely needed to be home.

Erin was a handsome young man. Almost everyone who gained the ability to use Spirit obtained some kind of extended youth, and although it didn’t do much for one's overall looks, not aging drew eyes among the average population.

Although, the number of spirit users that would live to see how old they could actually get due to the effects of time was probably slim, given their new world. In truth, Erin was about twenty-nine years old while she was getting close to thirty-three—if she counted the years in the void; if not, twenty-seven. She liked that number a lot better.

Melissa puffed out a long stream of air. “Yeah…this town’s seen a lot over a month. Okay, so what about your contact in the Recon Unit?”

The man’s brow furrowed, making sure no one was in earshot while scratching the back of his neck. “First, Captain, the other unit members are getting antsy… Has General Laurence told you if any spirit rulers are coming to handle Isngneal—the SPU doesn’t expect us to take care of a Class-3 transevil ourselves, right—heh, the Medical Core?”

Melissa glanced back toward Main Street with its small packs of townsfolk, pushing her lips to the side and folding her arms. “He hasn’t mentioned anything to me yet… Humph. Right after the rassi attack, Hollow Veil has a Class-3 transevil to deal with…”

Erin mirrored her action, watching the markets turn on their nighttime lights; only a few stores were open in Hollow Veil when it reached dusk, specifically those that could afford to hire students, which mainly meant MASS Corp, the largest business in their shrinking world.

“I mean, the SPU has to send Daniella or Spencer from the North, right? Maybe relocate Bella from the East to the north to support one of them, so they can quickly get here?” he reasoned, fingers nervously tapping his arm.

“No. No,” he laughed. “That’s stupid. Bella has to be ready to be ready to fly in any direction for emergencies, and in the grand scheme of things, Isngneal isn’t that big of a deal overall…not compared to the bigger picture. Haha. Imagine that. No, uh, Wallace, hold down the south for a bit for Jimmy to snipe the wolf with his bow!”

“Erin…” Malissa sighed as he cycled through the eight spirit users left that could handle a Class-3 transevil.

“Wait, hear me out,” he defended, trying to look for any hope, which hit her in the chest. “General Wilfred, or, more likely, Ivan. Yeah, Ivan could easily handle Isngneal, right? Heh, I mean, he only left back to the East a week ago. Unless… Eh, are they planning on pulling Stefan away from Bloom City? No, I don’t see that happening with Inferno’s probing attacks and the rumors about Kassra’s return. It’s gotta be The General or Ivan.”

Melissa slowly shook her head as he rambled, waiting to speak. “…While I’d love to agree with you, Erin, really, I would, and I’m sure the other guys are hoping the same thing, but the general hasn’t told me anything about reinforcements.

“You know Wilfred and Ivan left the moment Castro was dealt with. Mmh… It hasn’t quite been a week yet—five days—but you know traveling back to Eastern Skydream on the fastest route has black spots for communication. They won’t even hear about it if they’re in the Abyssal Zone for another two days.”

Erin spat as she mentioned the Class-5 rassi clown—known as Castro, the Blithe Butcher—who murdered over sixty SPU vanguard soldiers, four Class-1, and two Class-2 spirit users, one of whom Melissa knew very well: Tina, a Lightning User. One hundred and eighty-six Hollow Veil citizens had also died before the spirit master and spirit ruler showed up from the East to deal with him.

“Flamin’ rassi—why did they have to copy so many human images and customs—I mean, really, a clown?! What’s next… No, wait, I don’t want to think about it!”

She tucked her lip under, worrying about the crowds of happy people walking around the streets, glad the threat was gone. It had been terrible when the Medical Core first arrived; the aftermath of the rassi’s carnage was everywhere.

Yet, she and Laurence were apprehensive about his motives. It didn’t make any sense for a Gallant Cadre Class-5 rassi to be this far south unless he was an exile, and even then, what was his motive for being in Hollow Veil?

A Class-5 was so powerful that it required Wilfred, the SPU Deputy Commander and current strongest spirit master, to personally come with a Class-4 spirit ruler as support for insurance purposes. It was already out of the ordinary, and to think, he had been a clown on top of that.

From the reports MASS sent them from their northern information networks, the Blithe Butcher was the solo type of rassi who had goals—plans—which at least gave them time to call for help and stabilize the situation, but it also left a lot of unanswered questions, and no one had dared enter the central shopping district yet in the entire five days out of fear.

However, a Class-5 rassi was still preferred to a Class-3 transevil, who would simply run into town and ravage everything it saw, spreading more of its kind and consuming everything before help could arrive.

Melissa shook her head. “I don’t know, Erin… What are we going to do—the people don’t even know about Isngneal or that he could be heading this way. If we tried to evacuate to Talon City, then it could cause an even bigger mess—draw him in, and we’d have grouped everyone up for his pack. Lure him away; he sees an easy target in the town and ignores us.”

“We can handle the fodder,” Erin commented, his voice becoming bitter. “The Class-2’s could be dealt with, and we could have even bought plenty of time if MASS hadn’t pulled back their private military to defend Talon City. Why did they need their full enhanced battalion for some Class-1s? No, you know why, Melissa.”

Combing back her blonde hair while looking away, a rumble shook in her throat. “We have no evidence they’re leaving Hollow Veil to burn to push more people to move into their city and abandon the area so they can execute their proposed project for Sunny City.”

“How is this not corporate greed?” he returned. “Isngneal is a serious threat to Talon after Hollow Veil is destroyed because they’re next on the menu. We could have done something with their SF technology. Rassi, I hate all the politics… Even with preparation and as our full unit, we couldn’t last a minute against Isngneal.” He glanced away, arms trembling. “My, uh…my guy said he’s heading toward us—not the Steel Box or Talon.”

She closed her eyes, breathing out a heavy sigh. “No wonder the general hasn’t been returning my messages this last hour. At least Castro was handled, but the general’s probably pleading with Bloom City…they’re the only ones close enough.”

The West’s capital, Bloom City, had one of the two only spirit masters humanity had left, but he was always in the mega city to counter the Inferno Tribe since they were the most serious current threat to all of Skydream. It was horrible to say, but Hollow Veil’s population was dwarfed by Bloom City’s. It was a miracle enough that Wilfred had made the trip from the East to handle Hollow Veil’s problem, and only because it was a Class-5 rassi.

If that wasn’t enough, rumors said that Kassra, the dreaded Class-7 rassi warlord, might even be returning; that was probably why Stefan Duke never left Bloom. He was there to act as fodder in case that scenario happened, allowing an evacuation to the East. The warlord hadn’t been seen since being severely injured by Shane when they last fought six years ago, and if that Kassar returned, as weak as humanity was now, they were as good as extinct.

Her unit was rightly nervous; the board was stacked against them. In all likelihood, their group of Class-1 and Class-2 spirit users would need to defend Hollow Veil for as long as it took for one of the only eight spirit users humanity had left to make it from the North, East, or South. It was possible their Medical Core general had gotten the order to abandon the area already, and he was pleading with the higher-ups to reconsider.

Besides Bloom and the Inferno Tribe, West Skydream was generally a peaceful zone. Things had taken a rapid turn for the worst, and Melissa had seen the signs. If they stayed, it was practically suicide…less than a fraction of a percent that they’d succeed, and the SPU would prioritize her unit over the citizens of Hollow Veil, who were always on generally rough terms with the government to begin with.

Would Shane have disagreed with them? Not younger Shane…her Shane… But the Shane before the Golden Tragedy? He might, and that weighed heavily on her heart.

“If that’s the case—”

She paused, both of their heads darting to the right as a sharp, haunting gust of dark energy exploded across the heavens, whistling through the town, and dozens of screams were heard from the plaza.

“No… Already?” Erin gasped, rushing out of the alley with Melissa.

The darkening sky went pitch black as Melissa slowed to a stop on the sidewalk, eyes wide and mouth open. Shivers ran up her spine, mouth frozen in horror—it wasn’t Isngneal—the Great Void was expanding, just as she’d feared.

“No… No, no, no… Why now?” Melissa moaned.

This can’t be happening—it’s expanding, again?! Castro, Isngneal, and now this?! Will it reach…

“Captain?!” Erin shouted, voice uncharacteristically high. “Should we start evacuating—save who we can?”

The violent wind increased, whipping back her blonde hair, and three small meteors of light shot out of the black abyss, icy-blue, coral-orange, and vibrant green, all dropping to various parts of the ruined city below the pulsating sphere.

General Laurence’s serious tone spoke from the radios attached to their ears. “Captain Melissa—I’m hearing conflicting reports! What’s happening in Hollow Veil?”

Melissa’s trembling fingers reached up to press the small transponder in her ear, her dread converting to apprehension in an instant; it was too much to hope for. “Sir… I think—I think the Great Void just released spirit masters—three, or maybe…”

Erin’s expression furrowed. “Are you sure? It released a few lights—they would have fallen over a mile! And if it has returned three people, it just as well could be Class-0s for all we know!”

Melissa’s smile couldn’t be contained, unphased by her comrade’s doubt. “No—No! You know the stories, Eric! Shane told me only stronger users exit Voids like that—no one’s exited like that from the Great Void itself…ever!”

She pressed the button again. “It has to be spirit rulers, General—at least! Our orders? Over.”

It was too good to be true… The Voids had only given them Class-0 to Class-2 spirit users over the past five years—ever since the Great War of Tears that ended in a Golden Void swallowing all but eight high spirit users; humanity still felt the heavy effects of that cursed day. At least her idol, Bella O’Connor, a Class-4 and the strongest Healer spirit, had escaped that tragedy.

Not a single spirit ruler—much less master or emperor—had come to their aid since. “General—It could be…”

“Melissa,” Laurence warned. “If it is Shane, then we’d be in an entirely different mess… Still, we could definitely use a spirit master—even a strong spirit ruler would be Rosa’s blessing to the West… Take your unit and recover whoever you can. Out.”

“Sir! Out.”

Erin rubbed his shoulders; recently, he’d been unusually on edge for his cool attitude. “Here we go… Let’s hope it is a master—Isngneal,” he cursed. “Please, please, Rosa…just give us this one…just this…”

His jaw snapped shut with a forced laugh as a message came in from the Recon Unit.

“Urgent Report! Isngneal has been sighted heading for the Great Void! Three lights just exited it and are falling from the anomaly and—and it’s spitting out massive objects; all units in the area, be warned of falling buildings!”

“It’s worth it, Erin,” Melissa urged.

“I hope you’re right…” he whispered, scratching his neck and getting on coms to gather their unit for the emergency deployment.

Melissa’s heart filled with hope; everything could be made right—everything.

-----------------

Next Chapter