Asheera herself was still hiding in the house. She could hear Azrael's announcement, setting her off in a panic worse than she had ever imagined. If there was a chance to live her life free... it just simply doesn't exist, does it?

  Asheera felt her heart beating faster, almost as if it wanted to crawl out of her body. She wanted to scream, to run, but she knew better. To run was to die.

  Then, as she sat there, trembling in that dusty, forgotten house, a different sound reached her. Not the marching of the Mobilizers, but a creaking floorboard directly above her.

  It was quiet. A careful footstep.

  "Hello!?" a small, reedy voice whispered down.

  Asheera looked up. A face was peering through a crack in the ceiling, illuminated by a sliver of light from a burning building nearby. It was a young boy she recognized from the village: Karsel, the baker's son. His eyes were wide with a terrible kind of fear.

  "Karsel? What are you doing? They'll see you!"

  "Asheera... Oh my god, Asheera! They're going to kill everyone," Karsel's voice was breaking. "Please... get out there... I don't want to die. My family doesn't want to die. We'll burn... Please, if they just take you, they'll leave!"

  He wasn't evil. He was just a boy who was terrified beyond reason. The words he spoke, however, carried a different weight. He truly believed her presence was the source of all this doom.

  "Karsel... The mayor said we never let anyone walk alone! We don't sell each other out! We-"

  "What has it gotten us!? Nothing but pain!" He sobbed. "We know for years that they'd come from you and all we did was just buy time! We're all going to FUCKING DIE IF YOU DON'T GET OVER THERE AND EXPOSE YOURSELF! PLEASE!"

  Asheera's throat was tight, but before she could say a thing to persuade him, Karsel gave a final look of despair. She saw a jerry can next to him. That was it. The fuel he used to help with the deliveries of the bakery's goods.

  That was it.

  "If you won't come with me... then I'll be the one to save us all. It's better for one to die, than for a whole town to be executed."

  "Karsel, wait wait WAIT! Roselka told me something else!"

  Karsel stopped.

  "No matter what you do... Just wait. Let them loot the entire town... They won't ever search this house. There is no one here and nothing here to search. In an hour we are going to sneak out! I'm waiting for Roselka to come back! We made a plan!"

  "They'll find out..."

  "They won't. I promise. Let's have faith in one another! For the town, for everyone, for our families. Don't you remember? We were supposed to look out for one another."

  "I... I..."

  Asheera's last plea left... "The Mobilizers are ruthless... they'll kill us all if they know I'm here! They're unsure so they didn't attack us. Yet... Come on... We were gonna go on a trip to Nomico... the waterfalls, the flowers... The rocks! The birds singing... ... We love each other, don't we?"

  That was the last she could think of to convince him.

  Silence. Karsel's fear was palpable through the floorboards, but Asheera's words...

  Did not work.

  Karsel tipped the jerry can over. A sickeningly sweet smell, gasoline, poured through the cracks in the ceiling and onto Asheera.

  "No... Karsel, don't..." Asheera whispered, scrambling away from the spreading puddle of fuel, but it was too late. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL! NOT JUST ME!"

  There was the scrape of a match. A flicker of orange and blue. A single tear escaped her eye, and a sad, desperate whisper... "Please..."

  "Roselka sold you out. She's one of us."

  A lie, but a well-placed one.

  "Roselka... one of you...?"

  Karsel took out a walkie-talkie and placed it next to his mouth. "Karsel Aguerne, reporting for duty. I've found the Soul-Wielder. I'm starting a fire to pinpoint her location. Kill anyone who tries to save her."

  Karsel then dropped the match.

  The room went from dim to bright in a flash.

  -

  "Please! Listen to us! The person you're looking for isn't here! What is this Soul-Wielder thing you are talking about!? Superpowers? They are all nonsensical stories! We are simple folk! Let us go!"

  Roselka was still standing there, listening to the pleading mayor. Her hands still up. Azrael didn't even flinch. He looked at the town headman with a cold, dead stare. The other Mobilizers surrounded the villagers, their vibro-blades and guns glinting.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "One last chance," Azrael said. "Where is she?"

  "... The town headman went silent, but he looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't.

  One of the Mobilizers whispered something to Azrael. Azrael's stoic expression turned to a slight smirk. "They have found her?"

  Roselka's eyes widened once more. The plan has failed. Then, a flash of light in the distance. Then a second one.

  The whole town saw it.

  "ASHE!" Roselka ran to the sound, effectively putting her life in danger as well as others.

  "KILL THE ONES RUNNING!"

  Azrael commanded. The Mobilizers opened fire. Plasma blasts and laser bolts cut through the darkness. The air was filled with the smell of burnt flesh and the sound of screaming.

  The people who tried to run were gunned down without mercy. It was a couple of hundred people, condensed around a street. A massacre. Roselka tried to blend in with the crowd, running along with them but it started to grow into a stampede.

  Everybody was running.

  The mayor was gunned down alongside other village elders. Children were trampled, and their small bodies were a blur.

  The Mobilizers weren't aiming, they were just firing into the crowd of people. There was no discrimination.

  -

  Asheera crawled away from the fire, using the rug to sweep away the gasoline as much as she could, but her hands were getting burned. She was crying, but she couldn't scream. Her whole world was burning down.

  She thought of Roselka, hoping she was safe. The only person she could truly trust. She had to get to her. The wood falling down obstructed any exit she could've used. But even Roselka was a rat. She sold her out.

  All the pain, the anger, the sadness. She turned into a raging monster. Her Soul-Aura erupted, setting her entire body on fire with black fire.

  "I... HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, ROSELKA!"

  She had to rely on her powers, even if it was risky. That traitor Karsel... They were in love at one point, but now... He sold her out.

  The heat was scorching. The fire was consuming the house. She couldn't think straight.

  "FUCK! FUUUCK!" The fire was getting to her. If she had to use her power, she had to do it now. Or she'll be burned alive.

  Her Soul-Aura manifested for the first time ever, protecting her from the fire. She saw the house crumbling down, but she didn't care. She needed to get out. With a primal scream, she punched the weakened wall of the house, bursting out with a shower of splinters and flame.

  She looked around, seeing the entire town in chaos. Mobilizers firing on civilians, houses burning. Symphonies of a shackled world. She had to find Roselka Eria now. Not to meet up to leave.

  But to kill her.

  For everything she has done.

  -

  "Stand down, girl." The Mobilizer kicked Roselka on the face, but still, she couldn't feel it. "Stand down, or you are next."

  Roselka was still trying to crawl. She lost all power in her left leg. It must be broken.

  "Stand! Do- UGK!--" As the Mobilizer tried to stun her with a gun whip to the head, Roselka turned around swiftly and lied on her back, grabbing the hilt of the gun and kicking his face with her right leg.

  This allowed Roselka to disarm him and take the gun from him. The Mobilizer dropped to the ground. She stood up, albeit struggling to stay upright with a broken leg, and aimed it at the Mobilizer.

  "You don't know how to use that thing."

  "No."

  But she pulled the trigger anyway, her head jolting back, a hole formed in the Mobilizer's forehead. She can't see, the smell of iron and burning flesh told her everything. He was dead.

  "But someone read it to me..."

  She heard them. Another set of Mobilizers running her way. She couldn't let them get her. Not now. But she couldn't run as well. In a split second, 6 Mobilizers surrounded her.

  "DROP THE GUN! DROP THE GUN NOW!"

  "GO AWAY, ALL OF YOU!"

  Roselka stood her ground, aiming at each and every Mobilizer surrounding her. What is that broken leg going to be of any use? She didn't care. She had an assault rifle shooting goddamn lasers.

  "WHERE IS THAT TRAITOR?!"

  "She went crazy... She killed Mierlen... the bastard got himself killed by a blind girl."

  "ANSWER ME! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU! WHERE IS KARSEL! I'VE HEARD YOU GUYS MUMBLING ABOUT HIM! WHERE. IS. HE!?" Roselka shouted so hard her throat hurt.

  "Little rat is burning a building with the witch you are so trying to protect." A Mobilizer, likely their leader, responded. "She deserves to burn for what she is.

  "SHE'S NOT DEAD!" Another Mobilizer shouted back at him. "We've detected a Soul-Energy signal! She's here somewhere..."

  "... Wha- GH-" A Mobilizer tried to disarm Roselka, the assault rifle still in her hands. She was punched in the face and then whipped in the eye. She dropped to the ground with a huge gash on her eyesocket.

  "Everyone, guns on the witch!" Their leader commanded. Roselka's hearing was blocked out. All she could hear was her blood boiling.

  "No, no! Stop! You'll kill the prize asset!" One of the Mobilizers tried to reason with the leader. "The Great Kamisword will have our heads!"

  "I make the calls here! Guns on the witch or die with the rest! Either one!"

  Roselka could feel the vibrations on the ground of Asheera running her way.

  The smoke made it unclear to see if Asheera was here, or if she was gone. Either way, the Soul-Energy readings made it perfectly clear that she was nearing. It became larger. Larger.

  Until it hit 5 million.

  An unprecedented number.

  Azrael Eria at his peak was a strong 7 million.

  "... The Soul-Energy readings maxed out at 5 million, sir!" A Mobilizer warned. "This isn't a joke!"

  "...Dear god... It's... It's..."

  "She's going to kill us all."

  The echoing of steps became louder until it was loud enough to not ignore it. Then, it came to a full stop. The 5 million Soul-Energy belonged to the very being in front of them all. Roselka could hear her heavy breathing.

  "Where is she?" Asheera's voice boomed.

  A few of the Mobilizers lost the feeling in their knees as they shook in fear.

  "F-fire."

  "Sir... we can-"

  "FIRE!"

  In another split second, they all fired inside the smoke. There was no way in hell they could miss with how much fire power they were pumping into that tiny space. Or so they thought.

  They were all shocked that the readings were still peaking at 5 million. If they shot her dead, it would've depleted to 0. The reader then exploded from how much power Asheera exerted onto the device.

  "... What are you-"

  The smoke dissipated and she was unharmed. She created a Soul-Barrier to protect herself, the laser holes apparently visible in houses and cars, but she remained unscathed.

  "... Ashe..." Roselka watched in amazement.

  "RAHH!" One Mobilizer rushed at her with a vibro-blade, only for Asheera to disintegrate his heart with a Soul-Beam. The other reloaded another round and tried to shoot, only for him to lose his left leg with a single beam.

  She finally manifested a weapon. Something that would become her identity for eternity. A Signature Weapon.

  Pummeler, her 2 meter long scythe-hammer hybrid. The scythe side is for offensive attacks while the hammer side is for defensive maneuvers.

  The last 3 Mobilizers lunged with their vibro-blades. The first one had her entire torso hacked out by the scythe. The next one had her skull caved in by the hammer.

  The last Mobilizer ran away like a coward but was sliced in half as well with the scythe. The training paid off. She used Pummeler like she was born with it. It was natural to her.

  The only ones left were the leader and Roselka, lying on the ground.

  Roselka could hear the leader's heavy, shaky breathing and his gun being loaded and pointed towards Ashe.

  "I-impressiv-"

  Dead.

  Ashe beamed him, not even caring what he had to say.