Shadows of Humanity

by J. Armand

  The two backed away to compose themselves after seeing that humiliating Noah through skill wasn’t an option this time. I felt a sense of pride watching him best them at their own game. It was bothering me that the last member of their group had yet to show her face, but our goal wasn’t to fight them head on.

  Noah took cover as a slew of lightning bolts struck from the sky. A tornado ripped through the street, exposing his hiding spot. The wind spirit was unaffected by his buddy’s electricity as incorporeal air, but when he turned back to physical form to strike Noah he could be hit. Noah used this by purposely getting sucked into the vortex as mist, then baiting the wind spirit to attack him by changing back. He threw a wakizashi into the wind with enough force to throw the spirit out of the tornado. The sword stuck in the wind spirit attracted the lightning, which fried him.

  A rumbling in the distance didn’t stop the fight. My question about the geisha’s whereabouts was answered. The river at the edge of town overflowed and flooded the streets, toppling everything in its path. The geisha herself was nowhere in sight, but I was sure it was her influence over water causing this. I levitated Noah over the water with me as the rapids tore apart the village.

  We had nowhere to go and our luck was getting worse. The spirit of lightning called down more bolts that electrified the rushing waters and threatened to zap us out of the sky. I lost my telekinetic grip on Noah as he turned to mist to avoid being electrocuted. The wind spirit was nowhere to be found now, but a powerful gust sent soaked wreckage at me to try and knock me out of the air. There was no one I could attack to stop the chaos. The only one around was the lightning spirit, but he would zip across the water using pieces of debris before I could get him.

  The combination of wind and lightning was too much at once. I tried to fly away, but was struck by lightning and caught in another twister that threw me into the water. I struggled helplessly against the electrified current, which slammed me against every stone and jagged piece of wood along the way. The nightmare ended with a tremendous pain in my chest as a splintered wooden plank got me right in the heart.

  The water turned red from my blood as I kept trying to heal. It was too painful and disorienting to free myself from the fierce winds above and the electrified rapids battering me from below. Noah appeared and tried to help dislodge me, but he was fighting against the tide and his muscles seized up from the constant shocks of lightning. He endured everything he could to unsheathe the Muramasa and sliced through the wood. Once freed, he grabbed hold of me and the two of us sailed downstream.

  “You have to throw us out of the water!” he yelled. I launched us up and out, trying to aim for anywhere dry. We fell through the roof of a house that hadn’t been submerged yet. Neither of us moved.

  “I don’t think we can do this.” I wasn’t just being doubtful. There was no way we could combat these spirits, especially on their own territory.

  “We have to get… to the shrine.” Noah barely managed to get up. “Then hope… the seal… Vance gave me still works… when wet.”

  He gave me his hand to help me out of the rubble just as the waves came crashing through and destroyed the house. We were sent reeling again as lightning surged through our bodies and razor-sharp wind cut us any chance we got to lift our heads above water.

  “Give me the seal and stay in mist form,” I shouted. “I can’t die. I’ll get it there eventually.”

  Noah didn’t answer. He looked like he was about to go unconscious, but fighting it. I held on to him, more for his sake than mine.

  “I can do this,” he argued. “I only need to eliminate one of them and this will be easy.”

  I tried to fly us out again, but was shot out of the sky by more lightning. The glimpse I got of the town made it seem as though we hadn’t traveled anywhere at all. We were in a perpetual loop without a clue of how to escape. I actually welcomed the tornado that skimmed the surface of the water and hurled us hundreds of feet into the air. At least it was something different for a few seconds, a new type of excruciating pain. Had Noah not toughened me up over the years I would never have taken such perverse optimism in a situation like this, but that was what kept me going.

  Noah didn’t let go as we whipped around the swirling vortex. I expected him to turn to mist; he was still conscious and could have. As everything went dark, I wondered if these were our last moments together. As much trouble as he’s put me through, it’s still hard to swallow.

  I opened my eyes to see the water gone and Noah on his back beside me. All three spirits were present in the remains of the village. They had been joined by the peasant girl from the tavern.

  “What happened?” I asked. “I didn’t feel us land.”

  “I don’t fucking know,” he groaned. “But I lost the Muramasa and Vance’s seal was destroyed by all the water.”

  Soot-black clouds gathered around a central point in the sky. None of the spirits were responsible; they were watching just as I was, and the girl had stopped singing. Her skin was luminescent when she was near the other spirits and together all four of them shone like beacons in the encroaching darkness. She had been one of them all along, stealing the last of these poor souls’ life energy with her song as they tried to rest in peace. Our Eastern enemies’ acts of malevolence weren’t limited to outsiders after all.

  Rozalin’s laughter ripped through the air as she descended on the ruins, accompanied by crackling plumes of unholy fire and lightning. If she had made it here then maybe Gianluca could, too. In the meantime, Rozalin could provide the perfect distraction, allowing Noah and me to regroup.

  “Fools! You challenge death herself to battle in the Underworld? I will claim this land and all its souls as my own.” Rozalin’s mad ranting wasn’t getting through, but it was enough for Noah and I to make our escape. I could hear the peasant girl’s song over the sound of Rozalin’s shrieks and the elements clashing in a trial of magic. It grew louder by the second as she belted out the same tune as earlier. The song drowned out Rozalin’s banshee wail as she fought to remain the star attraction. Soon the land itself pulsed to the songstress’s beat, creating background music with claps of thunder and trembling earth.

  “That little bitch is drawing energy from the whole Underworld and infusing her buddies with it.” Noah was digging through the wreckage for the Muramasa, only stopping to glance up at the fight once.

  That mousey barefoot girl wasn’t so timid anymore. She had a big smile on her face as she raised her hands to the sky. Fire sparked from her fingertips, then traveled down her arms like a fuse. The girl burst into flames on a high note and was transformed into sentient fire.

  “Why did it have to be fire?” I asked myself out loud as I helped Noah search. “It’s always fire.”

  The other three spirits followed suit and transformed into living humanoid versions of their corresponding elements. Rozalin’s dark magic didn’t work against their new forms and her aggravation was clearly visible. She flew up and turned her attention to the souls that remained in the untouched portion of the village. By conjuring a miasma of corruption, she turned the inhabitants into reapers similar to those she had used against the spirits before.

  “What a wonderful thing the soul is! Such unlimited potential and so readily available. To think the demons waste souls as meals. All it takes is a creative enough mind and a little magic to mold them to your will.” Rozalin stayed out of range as she mused to herself and observed her thralls fight. “How I will writhe in sweet bliss at the joy of claiming this untapped land for my own! What would you simple constructs of aether have a need for in such a lovely place as this? Or was it them that created you with their prayers for salvation?”

  “It isn’t here.” Noah slammed his fist through a fallen wooden support beam. “All of this is for nothing without that sword.”

  We were both running out of gas and the situation was hopeless enough to begin with. It was no consolation that Rozalin was our best and only line of defense, seeing as she w
ould turn on us in a heartbeat. If we defeat the spirits, Rozalin will take over Yomi and most likely become more powerful than we could hope to deal with. If the spirits win, we have no way to stop their rampage, I thought.

  “Noah, we have to leave. We’re going to die here if we don’t. We can come back with help we trust.” I tried to pull him away and still be gentle about it. I knew how he must have felt with his plan crumbling around him.

  “Then go, but I’m not leaving here without it.”

  “I’m not leaving you here.”

  “We’ll get out of here and go back to Vance once I get the sword.” He looked up at me with an expression I had never seen on him before. He appeared thankful that I wouldn’t leave him behind.

  “There it is!” I spotted the Muramasa sticking out of the debris. Of course it was in the worst possible location, right at the spirits’ feet. They were busy fighting with Rozalin, but there was no way they wouldn’t see us take it.

  “Get ready to run,” I told Noah, and willed the sword to me. Before it reached us the wind spirit took notice and used his gale-force winds to assault us with large chunks of debris, which the fire spirit then ignited.

  “You’re playing catch with the wrong person,” I shouted at them. I suspended the flaming wreckage in midair and sent it back at them rolled into a giant ball. I knew it wasn’t enough to do any actual damage, but it bought us a few seconds as they dispersed, along with the girl’s singing. Noah grabbed me and the sword and raced for the exit. It felt like we were moving at his usual breakneck speed, but when I checked we weren’t making any better progress than a lazy stroll.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Rozalin laughed. She tried hitting us with dark lightning, but Noah evaded it just in time. “No one leaves. Your souls are mine, like all the rest.”

  The spirits joined in the pursuit and it seemed like we were the only ones bound by the strange time warp. They had no trouble catching up.

  “We have to split up.” Noah put me down. “I’ll lure them away so you can get to the exit.”

  “No! We leave together,” I insisted. He maintained his position on the subject and threw me out of the way before running off in the other direction. The spirits chased him and no matter how fast I went I couldn’t keep up. I saw their attacks ahead as they tried to thwart Noah’s escape. I knew he was already in bad shape and my heart stopped every time I saw another attack go off, sure it would be the one to do him in.

  “Don’t run.” Rozalin rose from the shadows to block my way. “I’m sure we can work something out. I owe you for reuniting me with my dear sister, you know. I can travel anywhere in the Underworld, but on Earth-”

  A cluster of loud explosions went off and Noah’s body was thrown into the air. He was struck from the sky by lightning and disappeared in the black smoke of another explosion.

  “NO!” I won’t lose someone else. I can’t.

  I flew right through Rozalin and headed toward the spirits in a rage.

  “Gaius isn’t here to help you. He has abandoned you to prove yourself to him!” she screamed. “Prove yourself to the darkness! And when they are done with your body, your soul will be mine!”

  I tore the land up from under us, meeting them head-on with a tsunami of earth. I looked everywhere for Noah’s body, not wanting to admit to myself that I should probably be searching for ashes instead. The spirits burst through the ground and converged on me. Their immaterial bodies weren’t directly affected by my powers, and neither was Rozalin, who watched from a safe distance. I would have to be more creative.

  I raised two slabs of earth beside the fire spirit and smashed her between them. The other three leaped into action, but I was no stranger to pain. The earthen coffin began to melt around the intense heat, but with enough pressure…

  My body endured the wind and lightning, and even when the water focused into a narrow laser and cut into my skin I didn’t give up. I was stronger than I had ever thought. The slabs of earth had turned to molten rock, coating the fire spirit and hardening with her trapped inside as I applied more pressure.

  They didn’t expect me to roll out of the way in time for the beam of water to hit super-heated rock. I had been getting them used to attacking me without thinking about a moving target. Trick them into learning your pattern and then switch it up unexpectedly, just like Noah had done that night at Castile’s.

  The water let off an incredible amount of steam as it cooled the pressurized liquid rock. The spirit inside was trapped, fused to the core in what was now a tangible statue of herself. I smashed it to pieces in the blanket of steam. That was one down, at least for now.

  The other three spirits reverted to their normal forms, unable to remain pure energy without their fourth companion. I knew I had to take care of the geisha next before she disappeared and summoned the same flood. She hid behind the prismatic shield that I had yet to be able to break on my own. What’s built can be destroyed.

  Rozalin decided now was her chance to be helpful again and began riddling the area with her power. The flames of her dark pyre hit me more than once. I knew our uneasy alliance was over. This fire burned differently and once it touched my skin it wouldn’t extinguish. There was no way to put the flames out and it felt like I was burning from the inside.

  The sky darkened as Rozalin defeated the lightning spirit. Soon the whole village was shaded by an unsettling eclipse. Something even darker than the blackness above was descending rapidly upon us. Rozalin cackled in glee and the flames on my arm went out.

  The black mass caused a seismic quake when it landed on top of me, but it didn’t hurt. I couldn’t see anything, and then I felt the cool sensation of metal against my skin as I was cradled by someone’s arms in the dark.

  “Gianluca?”

  “Yes, little one. I am here now.” His voice had an unusual echo to it. Still unable to see, I felt around in the dark and could make out the shape of the helm he was talking through. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’ll manage, but Noah…” I didn’t want to finish that thought. “Rozalin turned on us.”

  “I know. I hear everything when I come to find you.” The shadows cleared around us so I could get a good look at him. I wished I could see his face. There wasn’t an inch of skin showing anywhere. His armor was imposing and nothing like him as a person. There were no horns, or skulls, or anything demonic about it, but it made him look even larger and the way the shadows bent and swirled around him was unnerving. The armor looked impossibly heavy to move in, and from the cracks in the ground he left it was amazing he could move at all. But the design was sleek and contoured to his muscles in all the right places. There was even a chainmail underlay of matching obsidian texture and a short waistcloth that moved like real fabric.

  The last two spirits turned on him after he set me down and walked up to face them. His footsteps shook the ground as he advanced.

  “Gaius! You are just in time! Break their bodies and let us claim this land in the name of the new Nether Lords!” Rozalin cheered.

  “Surrender to the dark.” Gianluca held out his hand and opened a tear in space that began sucking everything in around it, including light itself. The spirits’ attacks were repelled by his armor without effort until they were dragged away by the vacuum. I felt my shadow anchor me as Gianluca maintained the black hole. Yomi began collapsing in on itself and soon Rozalin’s laughter turned to screams for him to stop as she struggled to get away.

  As more debris cleared I saw the glint of a blade. It was the Muramasa, and next to it Noah’s scorched body was stuck against the foundation of a building.

  “Gianluca! Stop!” I shouted. He didn’t hear over the noise of the world imploding and I couldn’t move from my shadow. I reached out and summoned Noah to me, along with the sword. It was hundreds of times more difficult with the pull of the vacuum working against me, but Gianluca stopped as soon as he noticed.

  “And to think I was almost starting to believe you had gone soft, G
aius.” Rozalin flew back in to join us.

  “That is not my name and this was not our deal.” Gianluca spoke from behind the mask of his helm. Her pendant appeared in his hand. He crushed it to dust with his grip and bound her in abyssal chains that dragged her down through the shadows. “She will not bother us again.”

  “I told you she was evil.” I opened Noah’s mouth and cut my wrist on his fangs to let the blood run down his throat.

  “I know this. I only need her to find this place. I plan to come alone, but this does not happen.” His armor dissolved back into his normal clothes and he took a seat beside me.

  Noah moaned and opened his eyes. I realized his bite didn’t have the same pleasing sensation when he was unconscious. He dislodged his fangs from my arm and climbed to his feet.

  “Thanks, Blood Bag,” he said. “Didn’t think you cared.”

  “Of course I care, you idiot! You’re the one who says we’re not friends.”

  “Because we’re not.” His skin and broken bones healed up slowly as he smirked at himself in the reflection of the Muramasa’s blade.

  “I swear… I hate you so much sometimes.”

  Four shining balls of light streaked across the sky from the direction of the mountain and landed around us. The lights turned into the spirits in their full elemental forms.

  “They came from the temple. That must be where it is,” Noah said.

  “Go.” Gianluca stood and donned his armor. “I will hold them here.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked as Noah dragged me off. Gianluca formed a sword and shield to combat the spirits, but his blade passed right through them. Their powers were just as ineffective against him, however. He walked right through the explosions and storms without pause like he was on a scenic trip through the park. It must be terrifying to be the enemy of someone so immune. I could only hope these spirits were capable of feeling fear.

  Chapter Twenty

  “It looks just like the temple back on Earth, except for all the stone samurai patrolling it.” I stood at the gates to the temple next to Noah after we had finally reached it.