Chapter 29: Chapter. 29: Soul 

The sunlight illuminated the floating dust particles of the abandoned warehouse. At its center a gaping abyss stood as wide as a carriage. The asphalt corroded away, the dirt underneath shimmered from a liquid coating, and the darkness of its depth was unknown.

“Em… what…” I pointed at the hole. “What is down there?”

Ash stopped looking at her phone. “Probably some sort of insect? Nothing else can really eat through concrete like that.” She shrugged and went back to her phone.

“Insect?” I paused. “But I can only sense one presence down there?”

Ash turned to me and raised her brow. “So only one of them has emotions? Probably the queen?”

“The queen?” Well some insects did have queens, but… I frowned at the inevitable conclusion. “So I have to go down there?”

“Pretty much.” She went back to her phone.

My frown deepened realizing that I would just go alone into a hole, to… kill a bunch of insects. Moreover, I couldn’t even see in the hole. And then, a thought came to my head. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight, and gave it to Ash. She received it without a second thought, still too distracted on her own phone.

“Come with me to provide light.”

Ash paused upon hearing me, then looked at her hand. “No? Why does giving me the flashlight make you think I’ll just agree?” She asked in confusion.

“Well⁠—” I scratched my head. “I don’t want to do it alone.” At the same time it wasn’t really my responsibility⁠— I had a realization. “And if we don’t do it, won’t you get fired?”

Ash frowned. “So if I don’t go in there with you, you’ll just walk away?”

I nodded, even though I didn’t like Ash’s sudden change in mood.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “I will only provide light though.”

“Okay…” I awkwardly scratched my head and turned to the hole. The slimy walls gave me pause.

Wouldn’t this just ruin my clothes? A sigh of defeat left me. I didn’t like this shirt that much anyway. Going back would take over an hour. I extended my hand, the shadows gathering towards me, and my scythe emerged.

“Just to make sure,” I called Ash’s attention who was still on her phone. “We just walk down?”

“Yeah, and try not to trip in the process.”

“Okay then,” I looked back to the hole, the slope didn’t look too steep.

I began walking. Ash followed behind me albeit still on her phone. I rolled my eyes but focused on what’s important. I took a step, the sole of my foot touching the grimy dirt beneath me. It wasn’t so bad. I raised my other leg, and at that moment, my boot lost grip. A shiver ran through my spine before I tripped.

“Aaaaa!” I squealed, falling down the dirt trying to claw onto the dirt to stop my fall on the ramp, but getting nothing.

“I forgot to mention,” Ash said, her voice echoing with small joy. “Spiked boots are the best for these kinds of things.”

“Go to hell!” My scream echoed through the tunnel, a few seconds later I landed on my butt. Darkness all around greeted me. I felt my scythe on my hand still.

Ash pointed the flashlight while leisurely walking down. I couldn’t see her feet but she probably wore spiked boots to top it off. She could’ve just told me! Was it revenge? No, it definitely was revenge. A few seconds later, she arrived at my side, still on her phone smiling at something.

“Heh, this post is funny.” She chuckled to herself before shining the light all around us.

My admonishing words caught in my throat as a dozen giant ants stared at us, their mandibles clicking in unison.

“Oh, Suvia ants, not too bad.” Ash said before going to her phone. “No advice needed, their nests are maybe one thousand in total?” She shrugged.

“Is that so?” I asked, a bit confused. Their beady eyes and antennae twitched at us, but they didn’t really move.

Ash thought while looking at her phone. “And they are totally blind in spite of their size.”

One ant moved its hind legs and rubbed its antennae up and down before clicking its mandibles and beginning its march towards me. I held my scythe close to my body⁠— how did I even go about killing an ant? The ant paused, staring at me, its head pointed in my direction and its mandibles clicking. It seemed rather docile to me.

“Why are we killing them?” I asked Ash.

“They don’t kill things, however they create massive sinkholes if left alone.” Ash said behind me. “Before you ask, a sinkhole generally means the earth caves in and lots of people die.”

My eyes widened and I turned to the ant, still awaiting something from me. “Sorry…” I apologized, raising my scythe. The ant had no feelings, it was just existing. The blade of my scythe hummed, and I swung down.

The tip dug straight onto its head, producing a weird rattling noise. It cut cleanly through, and the ant made weird crunchy sounds as its head was flailed.

I sighed. One done, more to go.

The ant’s body kept moving. Was it not dead? I pointed my hand at it, enveloping my aura around it and looking for its soul. I found the thread to its soul, this time much less rigid. It felt like a string I could just cut.

I struck my scythe down again, this time towards the thread in the air that hung nowhere. A snap resounded in my head, and then I saw its soul. A red mist, it was almost formless but stayed together in mass, coalescing into a form⁠—

It vanished. But I hadn’t done anything?

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I frowned, and stopped using my senses. The ant’s body collapsed. That was weird. Wasn’t I the one supposed to⁠— pass the souls? Maybe it was because they were from the Underworld? I shook my head when another ant entered my vision. It tried to bite next to me but missed miserably.

A sigh left me as I extended my aura towards it, I felt the steel-like thread. I suppose the thread symbolized how much life they had left. I held my scythe once again, and once again, swung it down against the thread.

The blade struck against iron and chipped, landing behind the thread. The ant shivered and the thread became flimsy. Huh? I pulled the scythe back with utmost strength, and like a flimsy string the thread snapped. Once again, I saw the soul, slowly taking form into something. It was about half the size of the original one. And then⁠— it vanished yet again.

Another ant came my way. This time with utmost precision it lunged itself at me. But it was still slow, at least compared to the tentacle monster or the ghouls we had fought. I shook my head and extended my senses towards it. I found the threat, and slammed it with the outer rim of my scythe. It trembled along with the ant.

It felt odd to essentially hit something as solid repeatedly only for it to eventually snap. But the third ant went down eventually. The soul vanished once again before I could see what its true form was. And the wisp? I couldn’t even get a whiff of its soul.

I sighed, looking at the approaching ants.

◇ ◇ ◇

“The queen is dead.” Ash grunted, blood running down her arm, and the bone thing on her hand falling apart. The vapors of whatever kind of magic filled the tunnel.

“You didn’t have to help you know?” I asked tiredly.

“Kaiti, we’ve been here for over six hours. I just wanna leave.” She shook her head in annoyance. “Besides, you were taking too long.”

I humphed and looked at the rifle that was perched on her back. “Where did you even get weapons anyway?”

“That’s besides the point.” She sighed. “You went ant by ant trying to get their soul, that’s over one-thousand ants.”

“Well, of course.” I nodded. “I’ve never passed a soul myself before, but it's quite instinctual.”

“I assumed so, since you’re weird.” Ash humphed. “I am leaving now.” She walked away, and with her the light. On the way she picked my phone from the ground, taking the light with her.

I felt disappointed but followed Ash without saying anything. She climbed the ramp as if nothing happened⁠— well the ramp was mostly dry now so it wasn’t overly difficult to follow after her, but I couldn’t really see her spiked soles, they just had holes in them. Using my scythe as a type of cane I managed to get to the surface. Ash was staring at her phone yet again.

Well she actually had killed quite a lot of ants with her phone in hand. The only time she stopped using it was when she went into the queen’s chamber, but it was… it didn’t last very long.

Ash handed me my phone. It was slimy from sitting on the ground. I sighed and tried to wipe it with my now completely torn jeans, with mild success. My shirt was ruined as well, but not torn. An ant had managed to sneak on me and bite a bit of my leg, which, well⁠… hurt?

Though it was surprisingly not strong. It was akin to a graze⁠… well that was in the past now. I sighed as we exited the warehouse. The cold wind blew and the fence rattled, the dark sky greeted me. I still held onto my scythe which was⁠— it was quite dented.

“I am sorry…” I apologized, caressing it before letting it disappear.

I was now alone with Ash. Surprisingly she was almost completely clean except for the fact that her sleeve was completely gone. Her arm was now healed but scared, and her feet were stained with the filth of the tunnel.

“Let’s just go.” Ash said as she began walking, not really looking away from her phone.

A sigh escaped me seeing her behavior, but I still walked after her. “You’re always on your phone nowadays, why?”

She didn’t look up. “It’s like a portable laptop, I can get e-peen points from anywhere now.”

I paused. “E-peen?” What?

Ash crossed the gate. “You wouldn’t get it.”

I heard the distant whirring of an engine, but thought nothing of it. Instead, I frowned.

“Does this have to do with the incel thing?”

Ash shrugged. “Maybe? I don’t know,” she grumbled. “I’ll get going.”

“Going where?” Ash began walking onto the street.

“Don’t know, anywhere?” She paused on her phone. The distant whirring grew louder by the second.

It was too fast, no?

In an instant I saw the lights come closer.

“Get away!” I shouted at Ash who just scoffed.

“I got some time to move.” She resumed her walk. But the whirring of the engine grew closer too fast, it was like an insatiable beast, like a hellhound on soul fire. She was smitten and frozen.

I blinked, crackling, a painful grunt, and a horn went off, then⁠— there was silence.

Ash’s body flew like a mannequin twisted on itself down the road.

“Holy shit…” I muttered. Is she dead?

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