The Soul Keeper

An otherworldly shriek sounded as I swung the ethereal blade. 

I felt little to no resistance as it dug into Uriithe's heart. The Crimson Witch's expression froze in horror for a moment before her eyes lost their glimmer, and her lifeless body fell to the ground.

For a moment, all I could hear was silence, and the distant shriek that echoed in my mind. I looked at the blade in my hand – it was bound to me, given by the Demon Lord himself, it was a part of his power. His malice. His darkness.

A single strike that Uriithe couldn't stop. Just like that, the Crimson Witch had died.

My blank gaze focused on the Divine Pillar. It was time to end this. 

"No!" Someone shouted. Aelith's power lashed out at me, but I dissolved her spell with a single swing of the ethereal blade.

I could feel it taking its toll on me already. I could feel my world growing ever bleaker. My slow steps carried me to the Pillar as Aelith tried to stop me in vain. She ignored Fetheion completely as she dashed towards me. 

Yet, the exiled divine wouldn't let her go so easily. His power enveloped them, forcing Aelith to face him if she wished to keep her life. I heard her cussing from within Fetheion's darkness.

I turned my gaze on the Divine Pillar once more as I felt something – a coldness that only continued to grow within my heart.

"Kai – you need to hurry!" Fetheion shouted. "Uriithe's soul is about to leave her body – you can't let her drag the souls she stole back to the homeland!" I could hear the desperation in his voice. "Or they are all lost forever!"

His words meant little to me until he mentioned that word. 'The Keeper'. I absentmindedly raised my blade over the seventh and final focal point of the Pillar.

"Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Aelith cried out. Her voice echoed throughout the city as she ignored Fetheion and ran to me. She cried in pain as Fetheion didn't hesitate to hurl his spells at her, yet she persevered, focused only on me. "Stop, you need to stop!"

I brought the blade down upon the final crystal.

I felt the Pillar resist under the weight of my blade. It was almost as if it were alive. Light gathered between my blade and the crystal and for a split second, it seemed as if it would be my blade that was would break, not the crystal.

Then, a crack sounded, and with it, the golden light that seemed ever present in Baile Chailce slowly dissipated.

"No!" Aelith reached me a split second too late. She pushed me away from the shattered crystal and knelt by it. "You will suffer for what you have done!" She hissed as her eyes, filled with hatred, met with mine.

A golden light shone from one of the buildings as the Divine Pillar's light began to fade. It shot up to the sky and disappeared in the darkness. Then, another one. Many more followed – they reminded me of fireworks somewhat. 

"They're leaving, Aelith." Fetheion spoke as the interval between the lights began to lengthen. "It's over. You lost this one."

The Divine Matriarch glared at Fetheion. "You will pay for this, all of you will pay for this!" She hissed as she stood up. Blood dripped from her numerous wounds. She looked just as beat up as the rest of us. "This not over!" A golden light engulfed her body and lifted her in the air.

I could feel her hateful gaze on me, all the way until she also shot up in the air and disappeared.

I turned my gaze back on the ground, it felt so empty now. I felt so… weird. 

I felt a coldness in my chest, ever growing. When I raised my eyes, I noticed them. The souls that began seeping out of Uriithe's body. One by one, they floated towards me. 

"What's going on?" I heard Rina's silent question. 

"The souls Uriithe stole from him are returning." Fetheion's words rang in my ears. Right, these souls were mine once. They resided within me, gave me power. Now they were returning, but what for? We hadn't found the Keeper's soul.

"Is it there?" Fetheion asked as the souls continued to stream into my chest. I stared at him blankly – since when did he seem so pale?

"Kai?" He asked again, his brows furrowed. He stepped back and looked at me with worry in his eyes. That worry turned into panic as his gaze fell on the blade I still held onto. "Let go of that power, Kai." He spoke quickly. 

I glanced at it. Why? Why would I? 

"Kai, please." He said, his voice was soft, yet I could hear a hint of urgency. "That's not a power you need anymore." 

That made sense. The battle was over – I didn't need to kill anyone else. I looked at my hand as I slowly released my grasp on the hilt of the blade made of darkness and malice.

It began falling to the ground before it disappeared in a puff of smoke. I felt the power return to my palm as colour returned to the world.

I blinked a few times.

"What happened?" I mumbled as I looked around. The transformation of Soul's Aspect ended as I released whatever magic I was still holding onto. My gaze swept the bloody, broken up battlefield.

It lingered on the lifeless bodies of the Kestler brothers. I felt a knot form in my throat.

"I'm sorry," Fetheion spoke in a low voice. "I couldn't save them." 

I glanced at Alina's body. My work – I had killed her. And I had felt nothing when I did so.

Then, I noticed Mona. Unmoving, she lay on the ground not too far away from here. My eyes widened – was she… No, no I refused to believe that.

Laura and Theresa weren't crying. She must have been knocked unconscious – she couldn't be dead!

"Mona…?" I asked as fear gripped my heart.

"Unconscious, she'll be fine." It was Asher who spoke. I glanced at him, then faintly smiled. "You look terrible."

He laughed and pushed his bloody hair away from his face. "You don't look too different I'd say." 

"The Keeper's Soul." Fetheion interrupted us. "Kai – you need to find it."

I flinched. "Right." My gaze turned to Uriithe's body. "There's that." 

I walked up to her and knelt besides her. The stream of souls that left her body to come back to me hadn't ended yet – I wondered, how did she use their power? Wasn't it only the Keeper of Souls who was supposed to be able to do this?

My gaze fell on the wound in her chest – the very spot I pierced her heart. Something was off about it.

Was that a crystal embedded in there? I narrowed my eyes as sunlight reflected off of something in there. That was where the souls poured out of. A crystal! Then…

My gaze fell on her ring. Simple, golden band with a tiny crystal embedded in it.

Could that be it? 

I removed the ring under the confused looks of everyone. "Give me a sword or a knife or something."

Lucius gave me his sword without hesitation. I put the ring on the ground, then raised the sword and brought it down upon the crystal embedded in it.

A blast of cold air blew my hair back as dread covered my heart. My eyes wide, I couldn't do anything but look upon the soul that emerged.

"Welcome back, Keeper."