Drowned Souls (Complete) (Patreon)

 PART 1

The Ryusoulgers thought that the Druidon Tribe were the ultimate evil on earth, but the ancient world hid its darker secrets in the deep.

In a parallel world, the Ryusoul knights were the gender-bend-version of themselves. The beautiful and fierce female warrior, Kiyo, let the team as Ryusoulred. Her teammates included Azuma the Ryusoulviolet and Meta the Ryusoulblue who joined her battle right from the start when their hidden village was destroyed by the first Minusaur attack. The trio then joined by the outcast knights of Touen the Ryusoulgreen and Bara the Ryusoulblack. Throughout their journey in fighting the Druidons, the Ryusoulgers got a reluctant ally, Chana the Ryusoulgold, who eventually joined the team as the challenges became too much even for a five-Ranger team.

It was a sad day for the Ryusoulgers. The previous monster attack cost them their friend. Nadira, a troubled character who spent much of her life being possessed by the Gaisorg armor, sacrificed her life to save the Ryusoulgers from the clutches of the Druidon assassin Uden. Kiyo was freed from the demonic pocket dimension of the monster and was able to use Nadira’s remnant power to upgrade her powers. Talon weapons were enough to rip the foul creature’s body and destroy it in an explosion that saved the rest of the team.

But one dead monster means more will come. The Ryusoulgers couldn’t lower their guards and must be vigilant. That’s why when reports of missing children from nearby apartment complexes were heard in their headquarters cafe, the knight immediately went to the crime scene.

The air there felt heavy. The apartment complex was unusually empty even for a high-end living place. There isn’t any security personnel in the posts, something that triggered a sense of alarm for the Ryusoulgers. Transformed, the dino knights drew their sword weapons and went out to explore. All around, they saw the floors were wet. Not just the floor around the community pool, but everywhere. Even the steps to the lobby and in the lobby itself was filled with water. Touen touched the liquid and smelled.

“Any weird things?” asked Kiyo to the Ryusoulgreen, as if the emptiness of the place was not strange enough.

“It smells... salty. Like seawater,” answered Touen with a conclusion.

“Seawater? But we’re far away from the ocean!” said Ryusoulviolet while swinging his sword. Resonance sound filled the empty air.

“Chana, any thoughts?” asked Ryusoulred to the sixth ranger.

Ryusoulgold walked around while tapping fingers on the cheek of her helmet. “I remember some demons mentioned in the old records of the Sea Ryusoul Tribe temple. I’d need more information on what we’re dealing with here.”

“Agreed. Everyone’s up for a split-up?” asked Kiyo to her teammates. “Azuma will go with Touen and Bara. I’ll go with Meta and Chana. Find any clue about the disappearing children or what took them. Let’s go!” 

The two teams of Ryusoulgers went out to separate ways from the watery lobby. Ryusoulviolet, green, and black rushed to the playground area in the back while blue, red, and gold were gone to the upper floors to check the inhabitants.

Kiyo found the upper apartment hallway was as wet as the lower ones. In the corridor, the three knights found suitcases and personal items laying on the floor. As if the inhabitants tried to get out in a hurry. Some doors were swinging open.

“Meta, were there any reports of how people here got out?” asked Kiyo who picked into one of the apartment flats. Inside, she found the television was still on, albeit showing static.

“Nope, we got here just after the reports of missing children. There’s no way that all these people got out before us.”

“Then, they must be somewhere.” Kiyo frowned at a strange shadow on the TV screen. She lanted her eyes to focus. Her eyes then went wide.

Ryusoulred readied her weapon just in time before an amphibious creature stormed out from the door. The wood shattered into a million pieces that distracted the Ryusoulgers. Kiyo was pushed on the hallway wall by claws that held her neck tightly. She slashed her weapons and a spray of black liquid spread out from the monster’s wound.

The creature counterattacked by slashing her chest with sharp claws. Kiyo screamed as the pain went out with sparks of armor damage. The monster couldn’t hurt her further because Ryusoulblue and Gold rammed it like American football players.

“Guys!” shouted Kiyo as she struggled to get up. She saw her two teammates desperately trying to pin the creature on the floor.

“Red, now’s your chance!”

“Right!” shouted Kiyo while reaching for her buckle. She inserted a Ryusoul into the dino-shaped handle of her sword.

Kagayaki Soul! Announced the spirit sound from the sword. A flash of blinding light appeared in a second before solidifying into a white armor that protected Kiyo’s Ryusoulred suit. Her sword also changed, most prominently the blade that is now shining pure.

The two Ryusoulgers duck away just in time before Kiyo’s finisher attack utterly obliterated the monster. The team leader struck a pose for a while before approaching her friends. She helps Chana get up. “Looks like our problem is now solved,” said her with a chuckle.

“Not quite, Kiyo,” replied Chana who kneeled to touch a strange symbol that was somehow engraved on the floor by the monster’s explosion.

Meta tilted helmet since she didn’t understand. “What’s wrong? What is that symbol?”

“It is the worst symbol. It proves my theory.”

“What theory? I don’t get it?”

Chana swallowed. “It is the worst. This is the symbol of the Namourei, the demons of the deep mentioned in the Sea Ryusoul Tribe’s manuscript. I had my doubts before, but it is clear now. We’re in for something bigger than we can handle, Kiyo.”

Kiyo put her hand on Chana’s shoulder. “We’re Ryusoulgers, nothing is bigger than us. No matter how dangerous or evil this thing is, we can beat them.”

“You don’t get it, Kiyo. There’s a reason why there are no Ryusoulknights from the Sky, Light, Dark, and Ice Tribes. The Namourei destroyed those tribes and did something worse to the Ryusoulgers. The demons took them, dragged them into the abyss to be slaves for eternity. My ancestral team sacrificed themselves so that the Sea Ryusoul Tribe could have enough time to hide. The only reason why our tribes survived was the asteroid impact sixty-five million years ago put the Namourei into a chaotic deep sleep, even with that we needed to hide our places from the rest of the world.” Chana took a step away from her friends. She crossed her hands on her breasts. “Looks like the Namourei are ready to wake up.”

“Do you know their weaknesses?”

Chana shook her head. “The only thing that we know is that they attack through water portals. If there is a big enough body of water around, you can be sure that these hellish enslavers would come through.”

“We still have an advantage, then!” said Meta with a snap of her finger that made both her friends turned around. “If they need water to come and go, we can make a chokepoint. What is the biggest body of water around here?”

Kiyo pointed her index finger at the end of the apartment hallway. “It would be―”

They all heard screams.

“The swimming pool!” exclaimed Chana. Ryusoulred, Blue, and Gold immediately darted out to the nearest window. They didn’t need any stairs. Window glass shattered as the three knights leaped into the air and landed unscathed on the floor of the community pool area.

Kiyo saw three objects laying on the wet floor. Her worst suspicion was proven true. Those were the Ryusoul Ken swords of Violet, Green, and Black. Meta felt disgusted when she touched slime-like substances when trying to pick those weapons up.

“What the... What’s happening here?” asked Kiyo who saw that the slime was actually coated the whole area around the swimming pool. Some even dangling from the ceiling or between the metal monkey bars of the playground area. It was a repulsive view.

“No, no, no... They took them,” muttered Chana.

“Calm down, Chana. If they took our friends, we’ll get them back.”

“How?” Meta looked into the swimming pool. Nothing out of the ordinary. She could see how crystal-clear the water was.

“Through there,” answered Kiyo by pointing at another pool next to the first one.

The three knights approached it. It shaped like a perfect copy of the first one, even had a smaller circular pool for kids. Meta looked to her left where there is a schematics map of the apartment complex. It only showed one pool and a smaller circular pool. The second one shouldn’t be there.

“We’re gonna go in and beat the monsters to save our friends. How’s that for a plan?” asked Kiyo while clenching her fist.

“You don’t understand, Kiyo. We’re dealing with evil from millions of years ago. Unlike the Druidons, they are not weakened. They are instead emboldened by our ancestral teams.”

“I know that you’re scared, but if we don’t save our friends, we will not be strong enough to stop Earth from falling into the hands of Druidons or someone worse. You’d do the same to save your younger brother, right?”

There was a long pause before Chana nodded. She reached out to her blaster to insert a Ryusoul item. A flash of light and the sea dino knight was enforced by the BiriBiri Spinosaurus Armor. The carnivorous dinosaur’s head ornament emblazoned Ryusoulgold’s shoulder. Gold on gold was never too much.

“Right on!” Meta gave her thumbs up. She also inserted a Ryusoul item into her sword. A jade-colored armor protected her suit, along with boxing glove-like gauntlet for a melee attack.

Kiyo nodded. She was the last one. She threw her Ryusoul item into the air before catching it and inserting it into her sword. Fire shot out from the sharp blade and fan out to burn her whole suit. She didn’t feel any pain. She instead felt more powerful than ever as the energy concentrated itself into the bright-red MeraMera Armor.

Ryusoulred then reached out with her sword. The other knights did the same to form a circle of warriors. “No matter what will happen, we will protect each other’s back. Got it?”

Ryusoulblue and Ryusoulgold acknowledged the plan. Meta even gave a salute before the three of them turned around to face the duplicate pool. “Here goes nothing. Let’s save our friends!”

The team jumped high into the air. Water splashed as they dived even deeper into the blue water. The surface then calmed for a while before a rumble could be heard.

All around the copy swimming pool, the tiles and concrete cracked. The pool was somehow getting smaller and shrinking on itself. Before long, it was gone, leaving nothing as a trace of its existence but the demonic symbol of the Namourei.

*****

PART 2

The three Ryusoulgers leaped into the swimming pool.

A huge splash of water burst high and spread far and wide. Ripples formed later, expanding and resonating with itself.

Then something happened with the pool. As if the universe is closing on itself. Cracks widened while the pool itself shrunk. Before long, there was nothing left of the fake swimming pool other than the demonic symbol of the Namourei.

Ryusoulger didn’t realize this trap. For them, the watery environment inside the pool was normal, albeit larger than what they saw before. Kiyo’s first guess was that they had entered a pocket dimension. “Heads up, monsters usually mess with us in this kind of place.”

“Chana, do you know about this place?”

“No, my people’s knowledge ended in the portal. No one who got in survived.”

“Then it’s our time to make history.” Kiyo drew her sword forward, preparing to confront anything that awaited them in the darker depth.

Then, Ryusoulblue, red, and gold here it. Those were screams from afar. They were mumbled, but distinct. “Azuma?!” called Meta.

Suddenly, there were darting dark forms all around the three knights. Those forms swoop and fled in a blink of an eye. Kiyo thought that she saw fins, but couldn’t be sure. The three heroines went into battle position. Bubbles formed around their suit and armor.

“What should we do?” whispered Kiyo as if didn’t want whatever that stalked them to hear.

“We can combine our energy attack to form a shockwave,” suggested Chana.

“We can do that?”

“It usually leaves the user in a weakened state, but our combined strength should be enough to hold it.”

Meta caught a glimpse of the creatures who were around them. To her surprise, it shaped like a human female complete with long reddish hair and full-blown breasts. There was only one word to describe them. “Mermaid...,” mumbled Ryusoulblue.

Kiyo was still in a defensive posture. “What?”

“They are mermaids,” Meta said again as the three Ryusoul knights saw more and more of the creatures around them. Dozens of them were floating while swooping their whale-like fins. Their eyes glowed, their long hair flowed. All of them were female.

Then, the mermaids started to sing a beautiful tune. Like a song sung by a lonely lover who waited for her companion to come back. Kiyo lowered her guard. She never felt so peaceful.

The mermaids’ eyes glowed brighter.

Before they knew it, Meta instinctively swam ever closer to the mermaids. The female creatures immediately swarmed around her. With little resistance, Ryusoulblue surrendered her sword to them and was being led into a waiting large cage that shaped like an upside-down pear. Jade-colored shackles welcomed her by locking onto her ankles, wrists, and even neck. The tightening sensation only made Meta moaned for awhile. The mermaids around her giggled as their tongue licked the blue warrior’s suit. Slime smeared on whatever surface they touched.

Then the cage door shut. By then, the hypnotic hold on Meta’s mind dissipated. In an instant, she tried to scream for help. She called for her paralyzed friends outside, but no sound came out. Only bubbles that just rose. She tried to free herself in panic, but the jade shackles locked her good. Her arms were bound behind her back, her head was forced to face up into the glowing orb. The chain that held the cage started to pull, sinking Ryusoulblue deeper into the abyss. She kept on calling her teammates, but none of them even realized she was gone.

Ryusoulred and Gold were still hypnotized. Mermaids approached them with one of the demons kissed Kiyo’s helmet. Inside, the female warrior’s mind was filled with ecstasy. Eyes became almost white as uncontrolled arousal flooded her brain. She was a slave.

Another mermaid also got close to Ryusoulgold. The creature held the knight between her legs to make Chana moaned. She shrieked for a moment before receiving the same corrupting kiss. Chana was gasping for air as her mind slowly became the servant of those creatures. She knew that her soul was never good enough to save the world.

Ryusoulgold’s arm flowed while still holding the sword. The blade’s glow accidentally pierced her visor and eyes, stunning her out of the hypnotic spell. Panicking, Chana struck the mermaid who was getting intimate with her. The demon screamed as the black liquid poured from its dying body.

After kicking the dead mermaid from her sword, Chana saw her teammate being corrupted next to her. She immediately swung her sword.

Chana failed to kill the mermaid, but she was successful in driving it away. Ryusoulgold immediately approached Kiyo. She shook the team leader back into the real world. “Kiyo, wake up! Kiyo!”

“Wha... Huh?!” Kiyo shook her head. “What happened?”

“The Namourei hypnotized us, but we escape.”

“Wait, where’s Meta?”

The two Ryusoulknights went out to all directions to find their teammate. But Ryusoulblue was nowhere to be found.

All of a sudden, they heard another scream. This time, Kiyo could be sure that those voices were from Bara, Touen, Azuma, and even Meta. They came from deeper water where there was almost no sunlight. “Wait up!”

The two Ryusoulknights darted into the abyss.

After some time of diving in pitch-black waters, their helmet visor slowly reflecting a strange glow from the distance. An aurora-like energy signature was emanating from whatever awaited them. Then the whole world became bright again.

No sun or other sources of light. It was just like the water itself was glowing. In the middle of it all, Kiyo and Chana found a planet.

Or at least that was what Kiyo thought when she saw it the first time. A huge boulder in the shape of a perfect sphere like a miniature version of Mercury or The Moon. Its surface was reddish-brown with cracks.

Chana saw blinking light of different colors in the distance. She tapped Kiyo’s shoulder to notify her. The team leader acknowledged and the two warriors went that way.

Ryusoulred was shocked to find out that those glows were coming from their teammates. The four Ryusoulknights were doing something on the ground of this forsaken planet. They used their weapons not to fight evil or help each other, but to dig. Bara and Touen stab their sword into the rocky surface so that pebbles and debris flew out. They did it without stopping, even when Kiyo and Chana were so close to them.

Meta was also there. Kiyo immediately shook Ryusoulblue. “Meta, what are you doing?”

“Huh? Ki... Kiyo? Help... Help me... I am a slave....” After this, Meta resisted Kiyo’s hold on her shoulder to continue digging.

“What?! Stop! Meta!” Kiyo then got a glimpse of jade-colored shackles that had assimilated itself into the neck of Meta’s suit. Her gauntlet and battle boots were replaced by the same material, trapping her in her own suit. She turned to Touen, Bara, and Azuma. All were enslaved in the same way. “No....”

“This can’t be... They’re gone....”

“Not quite. We can still use our weapons to free them. Get ready!” Kiyo swung her sword, but Meta’s shackles glowed green before forcing her away from Ryusoulred’s attack.

Before Kiyo could understand what just happened, she was grabbed by figures from behind. Chana too, making both Ryusoulgers kneel on the rocky surface.

Kiyo looked up and was stunned. The two Ryusoulgers were held down by Ryusoulgers. All of them had their necks, gauntlets, and boots in jade. “What... is this?!” demanded Kiyo.

Chana looked further up. Another bunch of Ryusoulgers arrived. Some of them had their legs replaced by mermaid fins. Some had their arms melded into the side of their suits. All of them jade-infested. There must a hundred of them.

“This can’t be... If these are our ancestors, there should be only five of them!”

Red Ryusoulslave answered after gagging sound from her throat. Her legs were replaced by a fish fin like the mermaids. “The reason is simple. After the Namourei enslaved the first team, the demons drained their powers to make fake Ryusoul Changers. Hundreds of teenagers and young adults were deceived into thinking that they have been selected as world saviors only to fall as slaves. All of us now serve the Namourei Horde, just like you will!”

“No... NEVER!” shouted Kiyo. She released an energy shockwave that sent the enslaved warriors away. “Chana, let’s go! You release our friends, I’ll hold these jerks away.”

“But we can’t―”

“I AM NOT LEAVING OUR FRIENDS BEHIND!” shouted Kiyo with the strongest emotion. Chana was silenced. Chana nodded and went to work.

But the swarm of mermaids got to them first. Like a wave of darkness, dozens of monsters struck Ryousoulred and Gold. The Namourei didn’t even have to fight them. They only touched Chana and Kiyo’s suit and the two female warriors felt a burst of uncontrolled arousal. The mermaid’s giggle sounded so appealing, their swooping gestures of fins so dominating.

Chana swallowed and gasped for fresh air. She felt so hot and tight in her own suit. Her grip desperately trying to hold her sword. She stammered to continue approaching her teammates as areas between her legs felt strange. “Kiyo, I... can’t.....” She moaned.

Kiyo sighed heavily while the mermaid continued their attack on her sensation. Her legs closed together to hold whatever she feared that would escape from between them. Inside the Ryusoulred’s suit, she was sweating badly. She could smell her own body odor and be aroused by it. Everything made her excited. She couldn’t fight anymore.

Then, when the two Ryusoulgers were at their weakest situation, shackles struck them. Jade restraints locked their legs and bound their hands behind their backs. It didn’t matter to fight anymore anyway since the Ryusoul Ken swords already snatched by the mermaids. Kiyo screamed to hold the sensation in her crotch. Desperation seeped into the female warrior’s mind.

They were defeated. The two most powerful Ryusoulgers would join their teammates as servants of the Namourei Horde. The mermaids violated them, teasing and fingering their body until Kiyo and Chana begged for mercy. But where the chains were pulling them was something much worse.

There, inside one of the gaping cracks on the abysmal planet, where a colony of coral-like structures. Inside, mucus and slime were hungry for prey. This time, prey came in the form of two Ryusoulgers. Kiyo and Chana screamed until their voices were muffled by the slimy coffins inside each tube structure. They kept on struggling in desperation, but that would end abruptly as the spiky interior suddenly closed on them.

Ryusoulred and Ryusoulgold howled like dying animals. The spikes easily pierced their suits and broke their armor to inject a neurotoxin into their bloodstream. Not lethal, but perilous enough to destroy their sanity. The slime membrane slowly covered their suits and assimilated it, mimicking the patterns of power while their owners already lost their powers.

Kiyo and Chana gagged with their last of sanity. Her eyes became almost white once more. This one was for eternity. The golden ornaments of their suits slowly glowed for the last time before dimming.

All around the abysmal planet, gigantic figures of Ryusoulger’s mechas teleported and drowned in panicked mode. Millions of jade chains and slime immediately grabbed each one of them and dragged them into different enormous cracks. Before long, none of them existed anymore.