The sensation of pain was much ‘realer’ that those that I’d experienced before. It wasn’t any normal pain, with the use of a physical projectile or a razor-sharp claw, no. This was spiritual energy, condensed into an almost physical form.

The sickly, dark red energy seared my flesh as it passed through my gut, scraping against the bone of my spine, simultaneously burning, and cutting a hole right through my body in the most painful way possible.

The spear of spiritual energy finally reached the other side of my flesh, breaking through my skin and disseminating into a blazing heat as it touched the air behind me, burning against the skin of my back, scorching it to a degree that a normal human could easily die from, just with the shock of the injury alone.

As the spiritual energy burned against me, I realised that it was a tool specifically created for torture, but also something else. In a way it was its own form of editing, though for some inexplicable reason, it didn’t work on me.

As the last of the intense heat died, I finally managed to return my mind to what was happening, finding that only moments had passed in comparison to what had felt like hours of pain. The rawness in my throat was the only real indicator that I’d been screaming, the intense heat probably enough to evaporate any tears that I’d have shed.

The Hollow, the Adjuchas, wasn’t surprised.

“You are him.” It spoke, voice raspy as its yellowed skull clattered its jaw as it spoke the dry words.

“Probably.” I ground out snarkily, still fighting the waves of pain from the spiritual spear’s damage to my body. The cursory analysis I could do on the spear was that it was supposed to enter you and burn away inside of you, before releasing a small part of the spear that would allow the Adjuchas to control you by your own spiritual energy. He was a puppet master.

“Humour is not befitting of you.” It said, though its voice didn’t quite seem… natural. Even for a Hollow, the Adjuchas was acting strangely, too calculated in its subtle movements to be the being of ravenous hunger that a Hollow was at its core.

“That’s news to me. I was told once that I could be a comedian if I wanted to, though the blind jokes wouldn’t quite land right anymore.” I said, though I wasn’t really searching to pull more information out of him at the moment. In fact, I was just prolonging the moment before it attacked me, whether it was with its small army of Hollows that sat at the sidelines, with its massive partner, or by itself.

The Adjuchas stood still, its narrow slits for eyes glowed with a gentle red light, like the flash of colour on a poisonous creature, “You delay the inevitable.” The words rang with a power, the same mindless power that a Hollow possessed, creating a clear dichotomy between the Adjuchas itself and its power.

I dialled my mind up to eleven, trying to take everything in, but there was an earthshattering sound as the massive Hollow that stood dumbly beside the Adjuchas moved. The soil of the football field sprayed into the air with the inefficiency of the movement, but the speed it produced was undeniable.

It was only with the forewarning of the sound that I was able to dodge the first blow from its fist smashing into the ground hard enough to make the earth quake around my feet, forcing me to jump backwards or be put off balance.

The Hollow didn’t let up there, kicking out towards me while I felt a distinct prickling in my senses as yet another spear was formed in the hands of the Adjuchas, standing almost fifty metres away. I floated in the air for a moment as I realised the precision that I’d need to pull on for me to not end up with another hole in me, or end up as paste from the force of the massive Hollow’s kick.

Just as my feet touched the ground, and the Hollow’s kick was only centimetres from my centre mass, I did a short jump from the ground instead of the hasty leap back that I was sure the Adjuchas was waiting for.

Just as I did so, I committed to the sacrifice that I was going to have to make for the fight and turned both my feet to be flat against the Hollow’s leg as it screamed through the air with enough force to crumble a building.

I let the leg impact my feet, only cushioned by the extreme amount of spiritual pressure I was pumping through them with spiritual enhancement, then pushing off of the leg, using all that speed to send me flying through the air.

The height I gained was, frankly, ridiculous. It was easy to forget just how much power was being thrown around in a supernatural fight like this one, but when you used the advantage of your body being hundreds of times lighter than the forces that combat produced, it became obvious.

In fact, I was flung so high with the Hollow’s force, and the force I generated with my legs, that I actually managed to reach the peak of the dome. I didn’t quite slam into it like a cartoon character would, but it was close. With the last bit of finesse I could produce, I managed to adhere my own spiritual energy to the barrier, something that was surprisingly easy.

I didn’t have time to lose, even as my ankles and knees screamed with pain from the impact, as another spear followed shortly after, slamming into the dome right next to my head with a burst of heat that I quickly scrambled away from.

The solution wasn’t perfect, not with the intense pain from my gut, back, and legs, but it was better than being on the field with the Hollows. I couldn’t run away, there was no telling what they’d do to Uyu and Jinta, and I couldn’t let that happen on my conscious.

Another spear slammed into the dome, stronger this time. The two objects, made out of the same deep red spiritual energy, resonated slightly. It unstuck me slightly from the material, rejecting the presence of the anchoring tendrils coming from my hands.

I didn’t have much in the way of time either, it seemed.

“Alright Grayhom,” I said to the open air, knowing full well that saying so internally was likely just as effective, “I’m gonna need to pull the rabbit out of the hat here, buddy.” There was a response that bubbled up from deep inside of me, surfacing after a moment or two. Surprisingly, this time the response came in the form of spoken words.

“A rabbit might not be enough here, brother.” Grayhom’s voice had changed since the first time I’d talked to him, significantly in fact. Now his voice was slightly less like mine, more official and matured than my own, now linking far better with the aged appearance he’d begun to assume within my soul.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused by the sudden interactivity from the soul dwelling identity. Grayhom’s presence swelled up further, pushing through the surface of my soul solemnly.

“It is complicated,” he began while I dodged another spear, one of my two hands coming almost entirely unstuck, “we have already determined that the identity that I am, was the identity of the soul that collided with you own, yes?” He spoke clearly and methodically. The change from the chipper and somewhat irritating Grayhom of the past was stark.

“Yes, yes, get on with it you old geezer!” I said as I only just managed to dodge the effect of the spear, and then a large clump of dirt thrown by the big Hollow. Grayhom coughed gently, though I could feel the spark of amusement from within our soul. Apparently, the mischievousness wasn’t quite dead in him yet.

“Well, it’s more than likely something from my soul’s past coming to haunt us. There is no other reason for this being to be here, searching for us.” I swallowed, knowing that it was true, though I didn’t want it to be. The thought of it possibly being the truth was so much different than it being a reality.

“Couldn’t it be that they just sensed our spiritual energy?” I asked, though I knew it was weak argument just as it left my lips.

“No, brother. They were talking about me when they talked to you earlier.” There was a moment of pause from Grayhom, “Our soul does not contain the memories of our past, yet the link I feel with their essence… it is undeniable.”

“Okay!” I yelled, dodging yet another spear, one of the last ones I’d be able to take before I was pulled from the wall entirely, “This sounds like talk for another time, Grayhom. Get on with it!”

“We will need to go back to that power we once wielded. The one I’ve been withholding from you.”

“Withholding? What–”

Before I could finish my thought, a thick spear buzzing with spiritual energy slammed into the barrier, immediately unsticking me from the surface, forcing me to plummet towards the ground. I windmilled in the air, cursing at myself for getting distracted from the Adjuchas hurling spears at me.

“Grayson.” Grayhom’s voice resonated inside of my head, stopping the world around me as if time itself had truly stopped. I could even see the embers of the explosion of heat from the spear impacting the shield behind me.

“What? In the middle of falling to my doom here!” I screeched, pulled in too many directions to be snarky anymore.

“We are more than we thought, and our power, what was once my power, is greater still.” Suddenly there was a burning heat in my chest, my soul almost vibrating with a power that I once scratched the surface of, “Now, I guess, is the time that we truly inherit the power that has been lost to us.” Grayhom’s voice came through with a slight note of sadness.

“Wait, what’s happening?” I asked with a pang of pure dread. I could feel a small part of my soul moving into place, Grayhom not responding to my words. There was a moment of wide-eyed terror as I realised what was happening. I had believed that my soul was whole once more, but Grayhom had held one last piece behind, because he realised what fitting it into place meant.

“This is not a final goodbye, Grayson. Come find me, when you’re powerful enough.”

There was a harrowing moment following his words. I could almost hear the final stone being inserted into the foundation of a great mountain. The grinding of stone against stone sent pain lancing through my body, torturous in every subsequent moment. I thought it would never end, and then… And then–

And then it clicked.

The pain was gone. The world of gold was no longer. Gold was the colour of imperfection, a warning to its editor that it was dangerously imbalanced.

But silver… Silver was pure, it was powerful beyond what gold could ever be. Silver was perfection.

The colour of my soul shifted, the silver colour originating from that single stone radiating outwards, rapidly forcing the other material, rock, and crystal, to change in colour to that of the perfect silver.

The fear and worry were gone now, instead leaving me with an absolute calm.

“Ah.” I said, a small expression of sudden understanding, “A Life Bringer?”

The name resonated around me, the air shuddering with the realisation of a name long forgotten.

“I see. I’m a Life Bringer.”

Idly I noticed that I was still falling, time having continued its almost entirely unalterable flow. I didn’t bother to flail as my body made to connect with the concrete below flatly. Only a metre from connecting, I blinked and pulled on the pliable resource of spiritual energy within me, and with barely a thought, I was floating.

There was no big revelation, it was actually as simple as could be. It was just a disk of spiritual energy that the bottom of my feet could interact with. It was more power restrained than control. Yet now that I had a solid soul, a complete soul, it was something so much easier than expected.

I unhooked my feet from the horizontal disk, letting myself fall to the ground easily.

I looked up from my feet, finding the Adjuchas and its lieutenant beside it. The Adjuchas wound back its arm, its eyes blazing with red, forming a spear in its hand and threw it with astounding power.

Power that used to be astounding.

I reached out a hand, the crimson spear racing towards me, and gently clasped my fingers over it as it passed through. The wild spiritual energy screamed and flailed against the fingers, but the soft silver sheen over my fingers jailed it, constraining it to its bonds.

With a simple throw, I sent the spear towards the large Hollow, piercing it with the force of the throw as much as the spiritual energy itself. The Hollow bellowed in pain, making the smaller Adjuchas turn towards it. For a moment I almost believed it to be shock, or even concern, but the next words out of its mouth betrayed my thoughts.

“Silence.” A hand lashed out with a dangerous precision, slicing through the other Hollow’s mask, cutting off its bellow.

“That’s unfortunate.” I said lowly, “I had hoped I’d find some humanity in you, considering what you are made from.”

I didn’t allow for a response before my spiritual energy surged forwards to cover the field in its silver truth.