Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* Feint - My Sunset *

"Command, this is Force Axe, do you copy?" A figure muttered in a deep voice to his radio earpiece.

"Force Axe, this is command, zero alpha. Loud and clear. Locking channel, over." A feminine voice replied at the other end.

"Command, two targets have been destroyed in the designated area. Please send the janitor team for further inspection." the figure said. "Also, send an updated target list."

"Force Axe, copy." the feminine voice replied. "Sending Bravo to clean out the stragglers. Also, updated target list has been sent to your RAG. Please move out with caution, we have been receiving continuous SOS signals from those areas, many rankers have been lost in Area 6D2 in particular.

"Force Axe... no, Ranker Axth, please be careful." the woman on the other end continued. "Run away and regroup if you deem the area too dangerous. Do you copy?"

"Command zero alpha... *sigh* I do copy, loud and clear," ranker Axth said with a sigh. "I will be careful. Will report back in a few minutes. Over and out." he said as he tapped his earpiece, closing the channel.

"I always tell her to be more professional..." he muttered to himself while inspecting his Ranker's Arm Guard.

RAG was a device that is especially produced by the EDA for rankers to act as an in-combat laptop of sorts.

It was basically an arm guard that has a computer screen that is able to connect to the various EDA satellites. It mostly functions as the main means of communication and sharing information.

Inspecting his RAG one last time, Axth decided to head for the easier areas first.

Leaving the most dangerous for last would increase the probability of him saving more lives.

"I should seriously ask for a raise..." Axth muttered as he flickered across the skies. He's been working for the past two weeks, even more, with little to almost no breaks.

In reality, he didn't complain much as he knew that people were dying, and his help was much needed.

Axth, just like his name, was by no means human. He had pale blue skin, bright silver hair, and matching eyes.

Aside from his skin tone which made it clear he wasn't human, he had two black horns coming out of his forehead. In a way, they looked more cute that threatening.

He was from a planet called Malaian. The same planet Axane and baby Rituxi came from.

"Alright, this shouldn't take long," he muttered as he flickered away in the air.

Reaching an area where a couple of monsters spawned, he ended them swiftly while ensuring minimum collateral damage.

Targeting the areas in his list didn't take much time as he was always efficient. Axth believed in the saying "don't play with your food", and so he would always end his enemies quickly.

"Alright, now onto the last area," he sighed as he flickered out of sight. All he knew about this area was that it's dangerous and many rankers have been injured there.

***

In an area to the south of the main city, a huge portal had opened in the middle of the street.

Although the appearance of portals wasn't a strange phenomena by now, this particular one was. Unlike the other portals, it had only spawned one monster, and that one monster was one of the strongest around.

The threat wasn't completely understood before a handful of rankers and a larger bunch of civilians had already fell victims for it.

Currently, some of Jakol's soldiers, along with some rankers, were holding the monster back in hopes of giving those who sustained injuries just enough time to recover.

The alien soldiers were waiting for their assault team to recuperate while the rankers had already requested a backup team.

However, even though the plan was simple on paper, the soldiers and the rankers haven't accounted for the appearance of the new patch of monsters.

They were smaller ones, yet still vicious and bloodthirsty.

"Retreat!" one of the rankers yelled as soon as he saw the small monsters envelope their ranks as a plague.

"Hold your grounds!" one of Jakol's soldiers yelled in reply. "We have to hold them down or they'll harm civilians!"

The rankers were taken aback by the fact that the aliens were more willing to prevent the death of humans than themselves. Even if they got harmed themselves.

In reality however, they were mostly following their leader's orders and dare not run away from battle.

"Officers, well done holding your own. Now step back!" a voice called as the sky suddenly turned brighter.

Looking up, everyone could see a silver haired young man floating midair. Silver feathery wings were beating behind him in the grace of an angel.

Doing as ordered, everyone retreated quickly to the safer side, behind the silver haired youth.

Looking down at the monsters, Jakol only sighed before swiping his hand downward. A deadly pressure instantly pushed the monsters to the ground, cracking most of their boned in the process.

Another horizontal swipe with his gloved fingers generated countless feathery needles that shot out of his wings and penetrated each and every one of the monsters.

With him killing a bunch, more started to come out of the smaller portal.

Seeing that, Jakol clicked his tongue while more needles were shot down, forming a barrier around the monsters. "This should hold them for a moment," he thought while shifting his attention to the larger monster.

The monster seemed like a hellish hybrid of different animals and aliens that it wasn't clear what it was. Its body was alien yet it resembled that of a rodent. Instead of normal limbs, it had multiple tentacles supporting its weight while ugly leaf-like wings penetrated its back.

Even though it had wings, it couldn't fly for how massive in size it was. Overall, it was more disgusting than scary. Yet, Jakol couldn't bring himself to underestimate it.

Deciding to finish it quickly, Jakol took a deep breath while aiming his hand at the monster. Mana seemed to flicker in his eyes as his previously human hand started to transform into what seemed like an arm cannon.

Mana started to gather at the cannon's end forming a dense ball if silver, while the air seemed brighter around it. The energy ball kept increasing in size until it was the size of a small room.

The monster, suddenly feeling danger, tried to run away. But alas, Jakol was prepared.

Gathering some more mana, he amplified the size of his wings substantially. "This should be enough," he muttered to himself while shooting four massive feathers that hit the ground around the monster, creating a a square ring around it.

Seeing how white electricity flickered between each feather forming a barrier around it, the monster was hesitant to break through, but then decided to do it anyway because the danger it felt was way more dangerous.

"Not so fast," Jakol said as the energy ball was instantly shot from his arm cannon.

BOOOOMMMM!!!

Little did the monster know, the barrier wasn't meant for it. Jakol simply put that in place in order to contain the damage caused by his cannon.

"Well, that was easy..." Jakol muttered to himself while deciding what punishment he should administer to his weak soldiers. Sure they were loyal, but they were too weak for that to count.

Whistle~

Hearing a whistling sound, Jakol turned his head to see someone flying next to him. That someone was none other than Axth, the EDA ranker.

"You just finished my job for me," Axth said with a smile.

"Uhm, no worries I guess," Jakol shrugged casually as he didn't feel any bad intentions from the person next to him. Descending to the ground in order to check on the injured soldiers, he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"Please wait," Axth said, "I'd like to know who you are, if you don't mind of course," he smiled again.

"Enough with your creepy smiles," Jakol narrowed his eyes in annoyance, "for a Malaian to be within the EDA ranks, I'm assuming you either have the connections or the skills to back you up, huh?"

"Hm, what does that imply exactly?" Axth asked.

*sigh*

"I thought the EDA would tell their rankers about their allies," Jakol sighed, "but anyway, we're working with the S ranker Ms. Camilla Rogers, I'm assuming you heard of her?"

"Oh, the ranker with the title of Battle Mage, interesting," Axth muttered with a hand under his chin.

"I don't particularly care," Jakol replied with clear indifference, "anyhow, I'll be taking my leave now."

"Ah, sure," Axth said with another smile as Jakol cringed.

Leaving the Akash to his business, Axth flickered away and to the top of the closest skyscraper he could find.

"Command, this is Force Axe, do you copy?" he muttered after gently tapping his earpiece.

"Axth, this is command, zero alpha. Loud and clear." the same woman from earlier muttered as she locked the channel. "Are you finished already?"

"Positive," Axth said with a sigh as he liked to keep things professional, yet things weren't going his way. "Can you please do a small background check on Ranker Camilla Rogers? I'd like to know who are her registered allies and any notes about her."

"On it," the woman said efficiently, "are you suspecting something, Axth?"

"Negative, just the general procedure," he said back, "After all, I want to make sure I know my allies...."