Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* Jim Yosef & Anna Yvette - Linked [NCS Release] *

"Tch, I'm here to offer you some help and that's how you repay me?" She clicked her tongue, annoyed.

"Please let her help," Kayla said in a soft voice. "She's a soul weaver just like you and your sister. You don't have to go through this on your own."

Widening his eyes at the mention of his race, he realized that he had completely ignored the little girl. But this didn't mean his mood got any better.

"Now what?" He asked as his aura seemed to get more volatile and unstable. "Did you think that knowing my race would earn you more points? How much did you ask from the old man in exchange for having a failed attempt at healing my sister?" He seemed furious.

"Do you think I'm new to this game?" He continued. "Every now and then, some idiot comes here and pretends to be able to heal my sister, and let me tell you that one loses hope after a while. Now f*cking scram!" At that, his aura seemed to shake the air around him.

"Tch, I asked for no payment, I'm merely doing what is best for my people," Raven said while gritting her teeth. His aura was anything but pleasant after all. "You might want to chill out for a bit, don't you think? The old man can't stand your aura, nor can your sister."

Realising that his aura was subconsciously getting more violent, he clenched his fists really hard and tried his best to suppress his aura. Before he did that, he had obviously noticed the fact that a thin mana barrier was formed around the mayor and his own house where his sister was resting.

'Why is she acting like this?' Zeru wondered. Normally, people would have left by now, but this girl insisted on helping him and his sister even though he was almost certain she would not be able to do anything. 

Realising that he had calmed down, Raven activated her True Sight once more. "I understand that this may feel uncomfortable, but please bear with me."

Watching her eyes shine even brighter while rings of crimson materialised around her pupils made Zeru almost flench. "It is uncomfortable, and I haven't given you permission to do so!" He was almost too angry at her disrespect since she has ignored his wishes. 

As of now, she was the only person that has ever disregarded his orders as if he was a nobody.

"Shush! Don't be a little weakling!" She said while gritting her teeth. After Kayla's evolution, her body seemed to be stronger than before, but the feeling of mana swirling in her eyes was still as unpleasant as it was before.

Noticing the veins on the sides of her eyes pulse harshly while a stressed expression washed over her, Zeru seemed to subconsciously hold his aura from running amok. He felt that she was sincere…

After what seemed like an eternity of a staring contest, Raven allowed her eyes to relax while massaging them softly. 

"I should not have kept it active for this long," she muttered while slowly landing down from the top of the tree, with Kayla helping her stand straight.

"Are you alright?" Zeru found his mouth moving on its own. He had never cared about others, yet he felt the need to make sure the girl was doing ok.

"Uhm, thank you, I'm doing just fine," Raven sighed. "But let me say this, you're one strong idiot, huh?"

"Eh?" Zeru seemed confused since he didn't understand what she meant.

"So it is what we expected it to be…" Kayla nodded her head as soon as Raven shared her readings with her.

"Uhm," Raven nodded. "Much similar to me when I had my urges, but for them to hold on for so long it means that they didn't need souls in the same amounts I did, and/ or they are strong enough to last this long."

"What are you talking about?" Zeru felt uncomfortable with two people talking about him as if he was nothing but an insignificant gust of wind.

"Here, try this," Raven completely ignored him again and said, while passing him a tiny soul orb. 

In a sense, it was a couple of souls that were condensed together to form a "healthy" substance for soul weavers.

'They seem to be suffering from whatever I was suffering from, but in a substantially lower intensity. Otherwise, they would have already feasted upon the city, if not the whole province.' she sighed as Kayla nodded her head.

'Are you sure it's wise to give them souls though? What if that encourages the development of whatever they have? Didn't that happen to you?' Kayla asked.

'No, you could say I'm a special case I guess. Unlike them, my body requested souls and as a matter of fact, my mana core seems to be built around consuming souls. 

'For example, did you ever think back as to why I have evolved from a D ranker to a C+ ranker during the portal incident, which would have normally taken people ages to do?

'What had actually happened was that my mana core was exposed to souls for the first time, which then consumed all of them and evolved quickly. It wasn't the only reason for sure, but it was a necessary condition.

'After all, I have destroyed and absorbed the power of ten thousand souls at the time.' Raven sighed while Kayla tried to remember the incident from Raven and her own memories.

While that incident explained her evolution, it didn't explain the strangely high amount of souls she had. 'But that's a problem for another day…'

'The siblings' mana cores, on the other hand, or at least Zeru's since I haven't checked his sister's yet, did not seem to be affected when presented with souls.

'It is akin to them not knowing what their bodies require. I'm not sure how that works but we'll figure it out.' she finished and looked at Zeru who was still holding the purple orb in his hand without consuming it.

"Dude, eat it!" Raven said while massaging her nose bridge. "You've been staring at it for a while now, don't you think?"

"Actually, ahem, Raven, when we talk together," Kayla was hinting at their talk through their mind link. "Time in the real world slows down substantially. After the recent evolution, the ratio is so great that you could say we can stop time now."

"Oh, well isn't that convenient, haha," she laughed while Zeru seemed to get only more confused by every passing second.

"What is this?" He asked while looking at the soft orb in his hand. 

"It is food… eat it!" Raven said again. "I'll explain later, you won't be hurt I promise- um, I hope… I want to believe so?"

Raven wasn't in fact sure since she wasn't an expert. But she had a plan B anyway so she didn't care much.

"You don't sound confident much in-"

""EAT IT!!!"" Both Raven and Kayla yelled at the same time that Zeru, with his fatigue and the stress clouding his mind, obeyed almost instantly, swallowing the orb quickly.

Activating her True Sight again, Raven watched as his mana core absorbed the bundle of souls while distributing the energy collected into the whole body, balancing the mana fluctuations. 

Zeru was confused but, for the first time in a long while, he felt a little bit better. His headaches seemed to become slightly less painful and his aura seemed a little bit more stable.

It was easier to relax now that he didn't need to actively suppress his aura all the time. Normally, he wouldn't even be able to sleep fully without keeping part of his consciousness awake to make sure he doesn't destroy the city.

"What did you do?" He asked confused and thankful at the same time.

"Hehe, so it did work!" Raven said excitedly. "How do you feel?"

"I feel… better?" He asked, almost confused himself. He hadn't expected that a random girl would come and offer him a strange orb that worked as a medication for his incurable disease.

"Not that, I am aware you're feeling better," Raven face-palmed. "What I meant is that do you feel that you need more of these orbs? Um, say like any kind of addiction?"

'You are just so subtle, aren't you?' Tu asked, not even trying to hide his laugh.

'Shush you! You're not even helping.' 

'I mean, young Kay is helping you, no?'

'Hm, fair enough… you could give us some insight though.'

'Well, what I can say is that the sister will require a bit more than that, plus, her case is more sensitive, so be careful.' Tu warned and Raven nodded.

"No," Zeru shook his head. "I don't need any more, I'm ok! But please, can you please help my sister? She has been getting exponentially worse lately. Please, I beg of you, I'll do whatever you want me to…" the previously strong, edgy, and collected Zeru seemed to be on the verge of breaking down. "My sister needs you, please!"

Recovering from her shock, Raven shook her head and helped Zeru to stand up, not realising when he had fallen to his knees in the first place. "Of course, I'm here to help her too," she smiled.

Zeru could not help but let go of some of the tears he's been holding for an awfully long time.

Going into the house, Raven found an unconscious girl laying in bed with sweat rolling down her forehead.

"Aella!" Zeru yelled while checking on his sister. It wasn't weird that she had fever, but it was weird that her skin was so pale the way it was.. In a way, she almost resembled a ghost.