Chapter 27: Chapter 27. Soul Embodiment Part 1
[Brown Trench Coat: Images & GIFs]
Observing from the sidelines while planning to engage, the world's elite held a brief conversation.
"How many 'people' do you see?" Inquired a man in a brown coat and a shaggy, rarely shaved, beard.
Their eyes were glued to the broken pieces of Earth below them. To some, it looked as though the Earth kept moving by itself, but why so violently? But to others, they saw the real deal.
"Only one, standing." Clad in his usual red suit with pointed bolts near his ears, the Flash replied. "But there are so many others on the ground. We should help them," he urged, his voice resonating with urgency and a sense of responsibility.
"Only one bloke standing, eh?" The man in the brown coat mused, placing a cigarette in his mouth and igniting it. "Must be our man."
"Enough talk. Let's crash him before he crashes us." Grunted a muscular man in a dark suit with pointed ear tops, his voice low and determined. In the shadowy recesses of his cowl, the glint of focused determination flashed across his stern expression. Poised to strike first, the Dark Knight stood at the forefront, leading the charge for the rest of the Justice League members.
"You might want to look at this first." A female in the group in a sleek costume urged while producing an ancient artifact. Her long ebony locks framed a face of confidence as she locked her eyes to the three distinct figures she could make out on the ground below.
"Tell me you see them too," the bloke with a cigarette drawled, his gaze fixed on the two beasts and a man locked in premonition of a legendary battle.
"You're not that special, Constantine," the woman retorted with a calm demeanor as Batman received the artifact.
Constantine chuckled in response, a wry grin playing on his lips. "Love it when you understate the obvious, darling," he quipped, the smoke from his cigarette swirling around him.
"What is it?" Standing closest to the Batman and slightly in front of him, Superman regarded the artifact that the woman had passed.
"A prophecy," the woman replied, her voice laced with dramatic effect, filling the air with an aura of mystique.
"It doesn't change what must be done," Batman declared, his deep voice unwavering and resolute.
"It does, actually," Constantine contradicted with a sly grin. "You folks might have to sit this one out. You don't know what you're fighting against."
"Can't fight what you can't see." the woman claimed.
Constantine took a contemplative drag from his cigarette, exhaling a plume of smoke before fixing his gaze on the woman. A serious expression escaped him as he nonchalantly remarked, "Well, Zatanna, it seems I'll be needing a bit of your magic to unravel the pesky seal on him." His tone carried the usual blend of casual charm and underlying confidence, as if breaking ancient seals were just another item on his daily to-do list.
Zatanna nodded back in agreement and understanding as she received the artifact back from Batman.
---
"Domain Expansion," the Oracle declared with unwavering resolve, "Soul Embodiment."
Purple streaks of light scattered on random parts of her body as the sound of a thousand coins ringing filled the air all around the island.
A purple light glided to the air and right in front of her, just as she had finished declaring the words. Her shape morphed to follow the flying, miniscule but radiant, purple light in the air. "Catching" it, she threw it up a bit higher and mumbled something to herself, audible enough for me to hear.
"Coin Toss!"
The purple light came back from the air and she caught it, allowing herself to adjust her shape to resume her normal-ish nature. The coin landed gracefully on the Oracle's palm as her beast form dissipated, leaving a smaller person for Mahoraga to easily crash.
With the choice made, the purple light on her hand streaked into her already radiant body and a soul covered her body, completing her Domain Expansion. She now resembled a smaller form of the Curse, with the average human height. But with her was a jujutsu technique that dared to change the game, considerably.
I observed with utmost curiosity as my own experience with the Coin Toss replayed in my mind. Did it mean that she had also gotten a technique like me? But which one, and how?
Before I could think through what had happened, Mahoraga was already moving at a considerable speed. Having noticed me, its eyes had resumed their radiant blue glow and its Sword of Extermination was on its hand as he dashed to plunge it into me. Its focus had totally shifted as though it had forgotten about the Oracle completely.
Eager to revive myself after having lost most of my power, a smile played on my face as I watched it approach with zeal and anticipation. Considerably, the glow on its eyes was filled with a murderous intent.
<X/2400>
<Strength: 1800>
<Speed: 1600>
<Agility: 1200>
<HP: 2000>
He jumped off a broken landmass, and so did I. As the air anticipated our clash, the ground beneath us started to finally give up and began to crumble into the ocean beneath.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted streaks of red moving through the terrain, picking up bodies from the ground and then running off. But my gaze focused on Mahoraga as he lunged his sword forward to my chest.
Confidence brewed in me and filled my veins as I warded off the possibility that the blade stood a chance at hurting me. If anything, it would only make me stronger, just like before. Especially, if his wheel rotated again in adaptation.
Unfettered, I aimed my attack at punching his ugly face, narrowly escaping the sword by twisting my body. It went by with a graze just as I landed my hit. I sudden, strange, feeling clutched me but I dismissed it to swerve out of the way as he switched the direction of his sword to cut me into two. Another graze made me feel as if my soul was escaping from my body.
Relentless, Mahoraga swayed his sword one more time, putting me in a difficult position. Difficult because it felt as though energy was being drained from my body with the widest hose pipe.
But this time, fate came to the rescue as a powerful slash landed on both of us, sending us to get swallowed by submerging landmass. Both of us found a way to navigate falling into a large hole while resisting the urge to give up.
The Oracle had intervened, unleashing her newfound power before Mahoraga could finish me up. Looking at my stats board, I instantly understood why that was a close call.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
<More positive energy in your system undoes the effects of your cursed energy at a faster rate. Your attributes will now be declining at a rate of 2 per second. You have 17 minutes before your health reverts to normal>
<X/2400>
<Strength: 1600>
<Speed: 1400>
<Agility: 1000>
<HP: 1800>
My sorcerer instincts kicked in, and for the first time in a month, I felt afraid. I was used to being super strong, but just one graze from Mahoraga's Sword of Extermination had limited that to 34 minutes. A second graze had further limited it to 17 minutes. What if it had been an actual cut?
My uneasiness increased as I viewed Mahoraga hopping fast from the sinking hole and heading towards me. The wheel on its back was rotating to adapt to the Oracle's attack, but it payed no heed to her. It instead chose to stay focused on me, despite the increased slashes cutting through its way and body, but hardly doing anything to slow it down.
I felt like the protagonist of a horror moving with ever fiber of my being telling me to run before Mahoraga caught up to me. My imagination went wild as I made it more grotesque in my mind's eye, thinking of the many things it would do to me once it got close enough. I even visioned it to be running on all fours, just so it could catch up faster.
If I had learnt anything while fighting with it, Mahoraga wasn't easy to put down, and I had only enjoyed having its around because its adaptation was my adaptation. But now, it had adapted, differently, and I stood no chance.
"Pull yourself together Wan!" I challenged myself to look behind and stand up to Mahoraga. "You can do this!"
Seeing the blue on its eyes, my heart skipped a bit and gave into my fear. "Oh hell no! I ain't fighting that!"
"I'd rather die from a pact than from being torn apart." I said as I picked up my pace to jump through the falling earth to get to higher grounds and run.
"Cleave!" The Oracle's voice resonated as a sharp pain cut through my left side. "Just where are you going to? The fun is just beginning."
What fun? Two monsters trying to kill one man who has already been through enough?!
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