Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* Neffex - Closer to Heaven *

"Mom? Please answer me…" Raven begged, her voice shaking. "Is it because I left you and went alone to the festival? Is it because I didn't take you with me? 

"Please tell me where Maya is, I promise I'll take her with me! Tell her to stop, I don't like hide-and-seek!

"They're still having the festival there! Everyone is happy, they're all having fun. I promise she'll be so happy too… mom, please..." 

As Maria hugged Raven's trembling body, tears ran down both their cheeks.

The view of them hugging in the apocalyptic situation they were in would have given anyone goosebumps, however, unfortunately for them, their audience was anything but patient.

Clenching her fists in frustration as the pair ignored her, the girl in the dark dress flared her dark energy to assert her presence.

A small shockwave was launched towards the hugging duo, however, before it could reach them, it was broken apart by another wave of white radiance.

"What are you waiting for? Kill them!" The girl ordered the man in the white suit. Even though she didn't particularly care about her life before, something now was pushing her to be more cautious.

The crimson-purple haired girl was an anomaly that could easily defy her. And what made it worse was that she knew for a fact that she had a hand in Liam's death.

'But… how can she have more than one aura type?' she wondered as from what she could see, the girl had the mana signature that had killed Liam all over her, and the amount of resemblance was just too great for her not to be the culprit. 

Yet, she was using another type of aura right now. 'I can sense at least three mana types radiating from her…'

Heeding by his mistress's orders, the man flickered in space towards Raven. With a flex of his hand, the five swords all slashed at the same time.

Seeing that the crimson-purple haired girl didn't move, he was sure he'd finish her in one strike. 

However, just before the dark swords were able to get in range, a huge dark cyan spear intercepted them and prevented them from inflicting any harm on the two girls.

Surprised as he was, the man forgot to check his surroundings. Before he could even realize, a bright green sword cut through his body vertically, splitting it in half.

Dark matter erupted out of his wounds and glued the body back together. Smiling cruelly at his attackers, he wanted to take them by surprise and strike back.

Usually, the person would have been confused at his sudden regeneration and would let their guard down. However, unfortunately for him, his opponents were rather experienced.

Noticing that his five swords were all blocked, he looked up and realized he was staring up at a pink haired girl that had a terrifyingly cold expression on her face.

Before he could even retreat, she flickered next to him as pink lightning ran through her body.

Clutching his shoulder with her empty hand, the other had the bright green sword clenched tightly. 

"You can regenerate your body? Good," the girl muttered. "Then holding back won't be a problem. But please, do me a favour and last long enough for Raven to slice you down herself…"

Trying to move his body as fear took a hold of him, the man in the white suit found the task nigh impossible. Under her gaze, he knew he was the prey.

Suddenly, the sword was infused in violent pink lightning that cut through his body multiple times in an instant.

Trying to regenerate his body, he realised that electricity was applying a repulsive force through the dark matter forming his body, making the process far slower than normal.

"Pathetic," the pink haired girl said with a merciless look on her face. Gritting her teeth, she was about to deliver another strong blow that aimed to permanently lock him out his regeneration powers.

But before she could do that, a spear of dark cyan energy embedded itself in the man's still regenerating head.

Cyan energy seemed to apply an attractive force that glued the man to the spear.

"Don't tire yourself, Aella." Zeru landed near Aella softly. "Remember what Raven had told you? You still need to recover."

"But can't you see what they've done?!" She said coldly, pink lightning flickering through violently in her eyes.

Raven has become Aella's idol and best friend in the past few hours. When she had seen her disappear in a sonic explosion, she knew something had went terribly wrong. 

The look she had on her face made it rather clear.

Seeing now that someone had massacred Raven's loved ones, Aella was beyond mad.

Even though they didn't look the part when they first met Raven, the siblings were rather strong.

While Zeru was an S ranker, and a special one at that. His sister was a special SS ranker.

The word "special" in a rank usually meant that they were somewhat like Raven. Although their bodies and mana cores had the capacity to withstand and store the power of their respective ranks, each could use their own mana to their fullest. 

This gave them the ability to challenge higher ranks, such as what Raven had demonstrated a couple of times now.

"I am aware," Zeru said with a similarly cold expression. "However, he isn't the one we should focus on. She is…" he said, pointing towards the girl in the dark dress who was fuming, seeing her subordinate being so useless.

"Disgusting," she said while gritting her teeth. "All of you are utterly disgusting!" She yelled, her dark aura erupted out of her body, pushing the siblings away.

While they were strong, the siblings chose to avoid being directly exposed to the sinister aura as it gave them a sense of dread 

"Raven!!" Kayla suddenly materialised near Raven and shook her awake of her trance. "I'll go help Axane, go deal with that black haired b*tch ok?" It was her first time swearing yet Raven didn't even realize.

While her body was made up of mana, Kayla wasn't good at hiding her emotions. As such, she could not help but let her tears run down her eyes. But more than anything, she was mad, and it showed.

Suddenly, as if realising for the first time where she was, Raven looked around and observed what was going on. 

Locking her hollow eyes on the girl unleashing her aura, she flickered in the air and condensed the brilliantly white aura in her fist while punching with all her might.

The girl in the dress condensed her own aura and created a small shield to protect herself. 

However, that simply wasn't enough. The punch was strong enough to shatter her shield and send a shockwave that broke through her face.

Retreating as far as she could, the girl quickly regenerated her face, her heart racing. "Dangerous!" She said while adopting a serious expression. "You must die now!" 

"You…" Raven's shaky voice muttered, feeling helpless. "Where did you take Maya to? Can I please have her back? I really can't live without her… please…"

Seeing her as helpless as she was, the girl smiled coldly. "Oh Maya? I'm assuming you mean the girl that has white wings on her back?" She asked, faking her smile.

Remembering back to the time Maya had saved her from a near death situation by teleporting in front of her, she remembered that two wings were plastered across her back.

"Yes!" Raven almost smiled, yet her eyes were still as hollow as before. "Please tell me you saw her!" Her entire body was shaking as tears didn't stop pouring down.

"Ah yes I saw her!" The girl in the black dress said, "see right there?" She pointed at the ground.

"See those wings marks carved into the ground?" She asked, "I killed her there." She smiled sadistically.

Hearing that, Raven's pupils instantly widened in shock. The world suddenly seemed to get darker and darker until she wasn't able to see anything but dark blood.

"I created this sword you see, it contains a concentrated portion of my energy. I held it like this," the girl demonstrated. 

"And I plunged it down into her heart! I made sure she suffered as much as possible!"

Being as broken as she was, everyone gritted their teeth and expected Raven to murder her. 

Even Zeru and Aella had flared their aura violently, unable to hold their emotions.

However, poor Raven's legs gave up. Falling down to her knees, her entire body was shaking like crazy. 

'Please kind lady, don't joke like that… I want my Maya… please!' Raven wanted to say but her mouth won't move. 

Broken and shocked as she was, her mind blacked out as she fell on the ground unconscious.

"Oh you're out already?" The girl asked. "I haven't told you how I'm going to torture your friends one by one yet." She said while approaching her unmoving body.

"See? Now I have to actually kill the girl you just hugged. She wanted to die first, I can't let her live any longer?" With each step she took towards Raven, her aura became more violent. "However, you must know that everything I'm doing here is to make you feel what I've felt before.

"You must feel the despair Lizzy felt. You must hate life. You.... you must kill yourself as you watch the world you once loved getting burnt down to ashes."