~Notes~
I apologize, because there was an error in the last chapter. The preview for the previous chapter titled Episode 29 as ‘The Opening of the Underworld and the Awakening of the Beast,’ when actually the correct title should’ve been ‘The Return of the Soul Eaters.’ This error has been rectified.

Episode 29 The Return of the Soul Eaters

“I’m afraid you misunderstand me,” Lord Kimura replies, causing Ryuu’s grip to grow a degree weaker, “I mean to say that they have arrived.”

“They?” Ryuu grunts, confused.

He glances up, and sees a deathly sight in the sky. Three malevolent, black figures circle high in the sky, flying overhead and screeching loudly the sound of death.

“Soul Eaters!” Sasha gasps hoarsely, watching as the plumes of black cloaks scatter in the air. Like shooting stars, they fall from the sky, landing at the head of the valley.

Ignoring Ryuu, Lord Kimura turns his attention to the three new arrivals: Ezekiel, Noel, and Azuria. A thin smirk appears on his thin lips, as he measures the strength of the Soul Eaters.

“The criminals!” Bishop Calburn cries in amazement, “The SE!” He turns to the two Church Guards standing on either side of him. “Arrest them!”

“No!” Sasha cries, stepping in front of Calburn and the guards. “Don’t! They’re not just ordinary criminals. These three are highly dangerous, you’ll get yourselves killed!”

From the floor, Kunai dimly opens his eyes, barely registering the presence of the Soul Eaters. He groans and struggles to rise, but Ivy pushes him back down into her lap, and continues relaying the steady stream of green light into him.

At this motion, the Soul Eater standing on the farthest right turns, noticing for the first time Kunai lying on the floor, dying. “Interesting…” he mutters.

With a flash, Azuria teleports up to Kunai, both of his dual daggers poised for attack. Ivy screams in alarm as Azuria approaches with a mad gleam in his eye. However, at the last second Ayame dashes in between Kunai and Azuria, blocking Azuria’s failed attack with her Geta.

“He’s not your opponent tonight, Azuria,” Ayame growls lowly.

“Interesting.”

Meanwhile, on Ezekiel’s right, Noel turns to him for orders. Ezekiel nods, muttering, “Finish them.” At these words, Noel hops down from the cliff and draws his Metus, firing streams of golden arrows rapidly into the darkness, like long, glowing bullets.

“Arayu!” Lord Kimura cries, a sense of urgency suddenly in his voice, “Take out the archer! Do not allow them to open the seal!”

“Understood,” Arayu mumbles in reply, and hurries off to counter the attacks of Noel.

Instinctively, Noel pauses at the approach of Arayu. Instead, a long sneer dawns on his face at the sight of the Ranger in his way. “You wish to fight, eh?”

Ezekiel remains standing still at the very top of the valley, watching the battle break out below. Behind him the bright glow of a full moon gives him a heavenly light, contrasting highly with the demonic gleams of light protruding from his own aura.

With a flick of his arm, Ezekiel draws his mysteriously misshapen sword, and as the cold night air surrounds its drawn blade, it reveals the bulky form of a Berzerker.

Ryuu’s eyes widen at the unexpected sight. “Wait a minute! Didn’t you wield a Devil’s Sunrise the last time we met?”

Ezekiel laughs at Ryuu’s stunned expression. With an agile hop, he leaps down from the top of the valley to join Ryuu and Lord Kimura on the valley floor. “The form of my sword adjusts to my whim. Thanks to the souls I’ve absorbed through the years, I may choose to use either this form or the form of a Devil’s Sunrise.”

Ezekiel’s eyes suddenly flick over to Sasha, whose own Berzerker lays weakly on the floor in Sasha’s limp grip. A smirk dances about his lips. “I see, so that girl bears a Berzerker as well? How very strange. I seem to recall absorbing a soul long ago that was in very much similar appearance to this girl. In fact, it was the very soul that allowed me to use this blade.”

At Ezekiel’s every word, Sasha’s eyes begin to widen. Suddenly, she drops to both knees, her Berzerker falling to the floor with a crash. Sasha paws at the dusty floor, tears welling up in her eyes. “My…my mother used a Berzerker…”

A satisfied smile appears on Ezekiel’s face. “Very well then. I see now, I absorbed your mother’s soul!”

“That’s not true!” Sasha protests, “She was killed by a Paradox! Both my parents were!”

“Was your father a Dragon Knight?” Ezekiel taunts.

Sasha’s mouth opens wide, gaping for several moments, unable to string together a reply. “I…he…well…”

“I see,” Ezekiel cackles, “then he was.”

“Liar!” Sasha continues to scream from the floor, “My parents were killed by Paradoxes! That’s what I was told! Why would the Hunter Academy lie to me?!”

“Have you ever met those Paradoxes that killed your parents?” Ezekiel leers.

“N-No…” Sasha admits.

“That is because I killed them. Those souls were collected by me!” Ezekiel cries, “I am afraid your father’s soul expired long ago. I am sure you would’ve liked to have seen a shadow of him.”

“Just…just die!” Sasha screams, shaking her head blindly. She grabs her own Berzerker, and running frantically towards Ezekiel, she swings her sword.

Ezekiel easily parries the blow with a heavy clunk of stone on stone. With a strong push, he sends Sasha flying backwards. She lands on the ground heavily, and loses consciousness, unable to get up again.

“Bastards!” Ryuu screams, gesturing at Sasha, “I won’t let you get away with that!” His sword flashes angrily in a flare of red, blue, and yellow, as he angrily bears down on Ezekiel.

A dazzling flash of blue suddenly startles Ryuu, blinding him in the eyes. As he regains his sight, Ryuu spots Lord Kimura standing in between he and Ezekiel, Blue Screamer drawn. “I jest at your resolve, Ryuu. You are no match for this man.”

“What?!” Ryuu cries angrily. “Get out of the way, Kimura!”

“That’s Lord Kimura to you,” Lord Kimura replies tartly, waving Ryuu off, “and do not bother me.”

Ryuu steps back with a growl as Lord Kimura and Ezekiel engage in their fight. Ryuu’s jade green eyes hurriedly scan the scene, as the fighting begins to intensify.

Sasha lies on the floor knocked out, while nearby, Ivy is still holding Kunai in her arms, desperately trying to cling on to him as his life slips away. In front of the two of them, Ayame is battling Azuria in a one-on-one fight; however, due to Azuria’s speed, Ayame is only allowed to parry each blow, unable to produce her own attacks.

On the other side of the valley, Noel is single-handedly fighting Shuriken, Arayu, and Zack at the same time. Though all three continue to time their attacks persistently, Noel easily dodges each blow, retaliating with an even more devastating attack.

Meanwhile Lord Kimura and Ezekiel continue their devastating attacks on each other, each countering the other’s attacks with ease. However, as their battle continues, each successive attack of the sword becomes more powerful, and more damaging.

Lastly, Iris has taken on the task of resuming her attempt to capture Lily. With no one else by her side, Lily is countering each of Iris’s blows, with the two Church Guards hesitantly standing on the boundaries of the fierce battle, unsure of what to do.

As the toll of her physical damage takes effect, Ayame suddenly sways, and stumbles in her attacks, allowing Azuria to easily swipe a blow across her shoulder. A thin cut opens on her left shoulder immediately, and a narrow channel of blood drips out from it.

“Allow me to make that cut a bit wider,” Azuria smirks.

“You’ll have to get past me first!” Ryuu cries, suddenly appearing in front of Ayame. With a charged attack, Ryuu lands a heavy blast of fire, ice, and lightning on Azuria.

“Foolish attacks like those do not work on me!” Azuria cries, flying into the air and making an impossible flip, easily dodging the elemental blast. From the force of his landing, Azuria pounds Ryuu with successive stabs on his sword.

Drawing a wide arc in the air with his sword, a bright blue light barrier forms in front of Ryuu, blocking each of Azuria’s six stabs. “Joukai Guardian Seal!” Ryuu cries.

“Not fast enough!” Azuria cries, taking a flashing leap past Ryuu and slicing him twice across the chest. Ryuu coughs out blood, dropping to the floor like a stone.

Clutching his chest, Ryuu glares up at Azuria. “Damn…you…” he stutters, his body convulsing from the pain.

With both Ryuu and Ayame struck down, Azuria pounces on Ivy and Kunai. At the last second, Ivy realizes the presence of Azuria. She quickly scrambles to attempt an escape, but Azuria grabs her arm, pulling her back.

From across the valley floor, Zack turns and notices the scene. With a flash, he opens up a glowing blue door next to himself and next to Ivy. He leaps through it, pulling Ivy into the portal and exiting with her on the other side of the valley.

Ivy glances up in surprise at Zack’s sudden action, Kunai’s head lolling about lifelessly in her lap. “Why…?”

“Gotta save pretty girls with pretty faces,” Zack replies with a strange smile, saluting her. Without another word, he hurriedly returns to join Shuriken and Arayu in their battle with Noel.

“Kunai…” Ivy mumbles sadly, peering into the pale face of the Hermit. “Please, please be okay…”

As if reacting to her words, Kunai suddenly appears to stir, though he doesn’t open his eyes. He merely grabs Ivy’s wrist, clutching onto it weakly. Then as another spasm of darkness sweeps over him, his grip slackens, and his arm drops back to his side, useless.

A bright red sun shines in a sea of reddened, purplish clouds, creating a bloody haze overhead. The heavily tinted sky glares down on a small village below, tucked in the far corner of a valley under the shadow of a large castle—the Castle of Kyreim.

Below, in front of a small stone building, a woman stands, garbed all in solemn black, a hood drawn over her darkened face. By her side she clutches an Asianic Bow, connected to her wrist by a tinkling metal chain.

All of a sudden, a brown-haired youth runs up to her, breathless. He pauses in front of the woman, saluting her. “L-Lady!” he cries in a clear voice.

“What is it?” the woman replies in a low, soft voice.

“The army is nearly completely assembled. We’ve sent scouts ahead into the Maple World; they declare that Lord Gilford of the Myougun had already begun his movements in that world long ago. The situation in the Maple World is grave.”

“Very well,” the woman replies in that same low voice. “Notify the generals that their time to lead this army is upon them. In one week we shall depart for the Maple World.”

“And you, Lady?” the youth asks.

“I shall begin my own preparations to leave. There are also some things I must take care of first.”

“What kinds of things?” the youth wonders.

“The library is closed,” the Lady replies, waving the youth off. “I must depart for the moment.”

The youth blinks as the Lady leaves, her footsteps a light shuffle upon the dirt roads of the slums. “The…library?” he voices his wonder out loud.

The dark doorway opens, widening the rift of darkness in the world of bright lights. All of a sudden, the world is drowned in darkness, as a pair of bright yellow eyes peers out from the opened doorway.

The yellow eyes focus in on a single speck of light in the dark abyss. It peers wonderingly at this lone speck, a beacon, a lighthouse in the dark ocean of lost time.

“What are you?” the speck asks the yellow eyes.

“What am I? I have always been here. Have you never noticed my presence? I have lent you power in your times of need. However, your body is now shutting down. Do you want to die? I need you in order to remain alive.”

“You…have always been here?” the speck of light asks. “Why have I never noticed you before?”

“Take a look at this chamber we are inside,” the yellow eyes reply, “up until now, they have always been filled with light. How are you supposed to see the darkness in such light? I can live only in the darkness.”

“Then why is there no darkness in this place? If there was, I might have noticed you earlier.”

“I do not know why,” the yellow eyes answer, “this chamber belongs to you alone. How am I supposed to know the ways of your furnishing of this chamber? As long as I have existed in this chamber, I have not seen any darkness. However, now this chamber fills with dark light. Why is that?”

“Is it because I am dying?”

“It seems so. And if you die, I will die as well, for I have become fused as a part of your soul. I have noticed that your soul is not complete, and that I have only existed thus far to fill up that empty space.”

“My soul is not complete? What is this empty space?”

“This door that opens up unto nothing but darkness. It is unsettling, and there is nothing in it but an abyss of emptiness. Why is that?”

“I do not know.”

“Do you wish to continue living?”

“Of course!”

“Then I shall lend you my power once more. However, very soon you must learn to draw my power out for yourself, for I cannot unconsciously supply you with my power. From this point on, if I cannot give you my power, you will die. For, you see, your body is already dead.”

“I understand. I will learn to tap into your power. But first, please allow me to ask one question.”

“What is it?”

“What is your name?”

“My name? You shall call me Myou, and I have always existed within you…”

Next Time: Episode 30 The Opening of the Underworld and the Awakening of the Beast

Ivy: Quick! The Underworld has opened!

Ryuu: Let’s get out of here!

Ryuu/Ivy: Whooaaaa!

Episode 30 The Opening of the Underworld and the Awakening of the Beast coming soon!