11 - Hunger

...

“Mama, is dinner ready?”

“Yes, dear.”

“Is big brother going to eat with us?”

“If he wants to, he can.”

The big brother in question, a boy no older than twelve, ran into the small household. He looked a little troubled.

“Mama, mama, there is something outside!” He exclaimed. “It had bright white wings!”

“What are you talking about?” The mother asked, pouring some of her stew into a little clay bowl and putting it by the fireplace to heat up a little. “Are you sure your hunger isn’t making you see things?”

“No, I swear...” The boy said. “It looked really dangerous, and...the wings! They looked really bright! I’m not lying!” He said a little louder.

“Please, don’t talk so loud.” The mother said. “Your father needs to sleep after his meals. You know how tired he gets from working.”

“It is too late to be concerned about my slumber.” The father said, entering the room and scratching his bearded face. “What is the problem? Why are you so excited?”

“Papa, come, outside!” The boy pleaded.

The two of them went outside. They couldn’t locate the figure at first, the boy had trouble pinpointing the exact direction of the sighting. But eventually, as the desert winds calmed down a little, they saw something white. Something not just white, but divinely so in the distance. They couldn’t make out what it was and what exactly it was doing, but they saw it.

“Is that what troubled you?” The father asked, he looked a little scared now himself. “Have you checked it? Are you sure it is not merely some vehicle or light?”

“I...don’t know...” The boy shyly replied. But a second later, he screamed in excitement. “Look, it’s moving!”

And the white did indeed move. It opened up its wings, and judging by how its wings were moved a little upward, the figure that they belonged to stood up. And it started walking towards the village.

“No, this cannot be...” The father said. He quickly grabbed his son by the clothes and dragged him back home. He rushed towards one of the bookshelves.

“Papa, what happened?” The younger sibling asked. He didn’t get a response. The mother seemed very concerned, and thought of asking her husband a question, but realized that he was too focused to answer it anyways.

A few moments later, the father got a black book with a scratched cover and a golden cross on it. He opened it and aggressively started flipping through the pages, trying to find an answer. He hadn’t the slightest clue what was going on, he skimmed through the words he knew by heart but he looked like there was something he still didn’t know, and yet, if he kept staying clueless, it might punish him dearly.

“Dear, what is going on?” The mother asked.

“The river has been treacherous towards us these few months.” The father explained. “And some of the children who visited the city earlier this month fell terribly ill. There is a creature of high significance outside, and it is here either to judge us, or to save us.”

“What? What do you mean?!”

“The small earthquakes earlier were alerting us of its arrival.” The father closed the book after finally reading the lines he was hunting for.

The boy went outside again. He saw a different type of spectacle unfold, and perhaps his perception of the figure would change.

Kaito fired off a sequence of arrows at Sannan, who had a hard time protecting himself. He tried to dodge to the side, but the tremendous explosive impact knocked him back. Kaito took off into the air, bombarding the terrain with heaps of flaming arrows, not just to kill Sannan, but to also destroy as much as he could.

“What in the world...”

“Mansa was right... we never stood a chance...” Sannan thought, catching his breath. He looked at his arm which was heavily scarred and burnt. And he looked at Kaito, who circled around him like a vulture, launching arrows and flame weapons at him.

“He’s...not even trying...”

Ripping through the curtains of flames, Kaito blitzed Sannan and grabbed him by his clothes. He shoved his hand right through his abdomen. Blood poured out of the wound, and it seemed that Sannan was out of options, not like he had any options in the first way either.

“Soul Interpretation:”

“Smoke Step!”

Sannan faded into nothingness, at least that’s what it looked like to Kaito. Kaito looked around, finding Sannan behind him - rushing at him from a cloud of smoke. The cloud wrapped itself around his hand and struck Kaito alongside his fist, entering his mouth. Kaito coughed a little, and Sannan tried to finish the job with his blade. He aimed at Kaito’s neck, but his blow was intercepted by Kaito’s hand alone. He caught Sannan’s blade. Sannan unsummoned it, summoning it back up again and swinging again, but Kaito’s quick kick threw him far away - right into the village.

Sannan slowly stood up. He saw the divine soulful approach him, slowly and with a deadly glare.

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“I can’t escape for too long. I don’t think I can even get away from him...”

“And now we’re in this village.”

He took a few steps back, and Kaito entered the village. His fiery wings began setting the houses ablaze, the white flames devouring the buildings like a starving madman. The village’s residents all began scrambling and running away, some of them, unfortunately, trapped in their own houses and incinerated alive. At least the flames were powerful enough to quickly kill them off.

Kaito watched the villagers, and it filled him with disgust. Hatred and disgust, all flowing into his bloodlusted state, causing a trainwreck of emotions and resulting in questionable decisions.

“I don’t sense a soul...not a single soul is present here.”

“They all belong to that disgusting species. The soulless. The wicked animals that need to be extinct.”

Kaito released a pair of fiery flying slashes with his blade, targeting the infrastructure of the village and, most importantly, its civilians. The ones which were subject to the slashes were instantly decapitated. Mothers screamed for their children, the children for their mothers, the fathers, realizing that a creature of this caliber was no match, tried picking their families up and running as far as they could. The flames chased them down, burning their skin and drilling through their muscles and bones. By the time they reached their vitals, they were dead.

The houses crumbled down, and now, it was as if Kaito had forgotten about Sannan altogether - he chased down all the fleeing villagers, killing them one by one. It was a ridiculously easy task for him, it felt like crushing toy soldiers while being an elephant. And suddenly, he stopped. He coughed up blood.

“No way...the poison is working?!” Sannan asked himself. Amidst the blinding purity of the flames he saw a droplet of hope that could extinguish the unfolding madness.

“I gotta pump him up with more smoke. The poison will take effect much much faster...”

He rushed at Kaito, but a flaming slash not only stopped him, but cut his legs off. Sannan’s body fell on the ground, but he didn’t give up yet - he focused all of his soul prowess into his soul expression, flooding the area with poisonous smoke. But a swing from Kaito’s blade burnt the smoke away.

And Kaito himself? He shoved his arm deep into his throat and forced himself to throw up. He probably scratched his throat which explained the trace amounts of blood in his barf. But it was worth the price. He removed the poison from his body. All that was left for him was to feast on a defenseless Sannan. So he chose to burn the village more. He unleashed more flames, he released more slashes, his own vision was getting a little blurry from the unintelligible desire to kill. Only a few villagers were left, and those would die anyways from the burn wounds or the fire itself.

Kaito walked towards Sannan.

“Yeah... of course...” Sannan coughed up blood. He felt his consciousness try to slip away, but it was as if Kaito’s presence didn’t allow him to die just yet. “Of course he’s the one who gets to walk free and live...”

“Mansa, I’m putting my trust in you. You’re the only one who can stop this thing.”

Kaito stood right by Sannan and, in an almost ceremonial motion, stabbed his chest with his blade. He released a fierce flurry of flames that destroyed his body. And from beneath the ashes, another essence arose.

“The third soul out of the six required...”

Kaito’s hand shook a little as he raised the essence. He devoured it, and once again, he didn’t feel anything at the moment, nor did anything spectacular happen. His soul presence changed a little, and he felt hungry.

“Three done...”

“Ugh...I feel...tired...”

Kaito swayed a little in place, almost losing his footing. His vision got a little blurry, and despite not doing much, he felt exhausted. So exhausted he felt like his life was hanging by a thread. Not even the scenery of a soulless community being burnt down to ashes was enough to keep him awake. The sun was setting, it was night, a perfect time to get tired.

“Who are you?”

The words pierced Kaito like daggers, and he sharply turned around. What stood before him wasn’t a combat-proficient soulful or a devil, but a boy. A boy not older than twelve who was a soulful.

Kaito’s almost angelic wings fit well with the scene of the scorching village. The desert winds blew at the sand and fire, caressing both the boy’s face and Kaito’s bloodied hands. Kaito slowly approached him.

“Are you God?” The boy asked, confused. Before receiving an answer, he took a few terrified steps back. He looked like he wanted to cry.

“Why are you scared?” Kaito asked. He approached the boy faster than he could back off, and in a comforting motion, patted him on the head. “You are...a soulful, right? You are not like everyone else. You’re different. You can sense my presence, right?”

“Is...is that bad?” The boy asked.

“No. That’s what’s right.” Kaito said, smiling a little. “The soulfuls...are what...argh...” Kaito stumbled on his words a little, his legs started to give up. “I need...food...”

“What is happening to you?” The boy asked.

“Get me food...please...” Kaito’s stomach growled as he threw up a bit of blood. “I need to eat...”

The boy was amazed at the response. He ran to the remnants of his destroyed house and grabbed his bowl of stew. He rushed it to Kaito. His little brother was there somewhere, crushed beneath the burning debris. His mother and father were killed while looking for him outside. The boy himself only survived because he went outside earlier.

He handed the stew to Kaito who ate it like an animal.

“Do you have...more food...?” Kaito asked, drool escaping his mouth and dripping on the hot ground, starting to sizzle away.

“That was our dinner...” The boy quietly replied. A brief pause later, he asked again. “Why did you come?”

“I needed to do something...” Kaito said, coughing.

“In the book it said that when you come down, bad things will happen.” The boy said. “Why did you come?”

Kaito mustered up all of his strength and regained his footing. He looked at the boy, and he saw something strange in his eyes. Something he’d seen before, and something that even someone like him would shed a tear for. In his eyes, he saw a reflection of himself, a starving man. A man so starved his hunger was ripping him apart from the inside, twisting every organ of his and sawing through every one of his bones.

He slowly approached the boy and embraced him. A tear escaped his abyssal eyes.

“You’re a soulful.” He said, tightening the embrace. “And you saw that I am one too. Thank you...”

“Thank you for not being like the others...”

“I’m...starving...”

Kaito held the embrace. He didn’t even realize it, but he wrapped his fiery wings around the boy too. The flame, as warm as it was, was unforgiving, and it warmed the boy, allowing him to feel warmer than he’s ever felt before. And the boy’s heart stopped beating.

The sun finished setting, and the village continued burning in a pure white flame. And Kaito still embraced the boy.

He was grateful to the boy. Not just for being a soulful just like him, and being there for him, but for also helping ease his hunger. It started with a bite, and later, Kaito ripped him apart limb by limb and saved himself from his hunger...