SOUL HUNTER: INVASION

PROLOGUE

THE bright light almost blinded him as his eyes fluttered open. He slowly sat up on the bed, his mind totally blank. Around him, many people he did not know were fast asleep, their faces peaceful.

Where am I? he thought. Who am I?

"Oh yeah. That's right. My name is Kenji," he said aloud.

Slowly, he pulled the white cover cloth off himself. He was naked, but that did not matter. Tentatively, he placed his toes on the cold floor, shuffling towards the nearest door. He pulled it and it gave way, creaking loudly, yet no one woke up.

Kenji stepped into the darkness of the night. The stars were all out, shining brightly. The moon was hidden behind a cloud.

Go, a voice said in his head. He obliged, walking along the road beside the building he had come from.

Once he was gone, the moon emerged. It's light beamed on the door of the building, and the board over it that read, 'MORTUARY'.

CHAPTER ONE

ASUMI would have never thought that such a day would come as she ran towards home on the dusty street. She had always known her people to be immortal, but the countless lifeless bodies strewn around her contradicted that fact. Her people,who had lived for ages,we're supposed to be immortal. Yet now, she was not so sure.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she pictured the merciless creatures reaching her family before she could.

"Please be safe," she mumbled,her voice barely audible.

A sudden scream shattered the stillness,sending her heart racing faster then a spooked camel. She darted past a story building that collapsed in her wake, sending a thick cloud of dust into the air. It stung her eyes worse than her first attempt at cooking.

She was blindly running through the dust cloud when a heart-wrenching screech stopped her cold. Fear gripped her as she peered through the choking dust,unable to see. Focusing,she heard something bounding toward her from behind, massive yet way too swift and quiet.

Her acrobatic skills kicked in, and she did a backflip, flying over whatever was trying to attack her. She landed neatly,then squinted ,trying to get a good look at the creature. Panic quickly settled in her as she realized she had come face to face with a Falphin.

She guessed it was a Falphin,one of any hybrid creatures known as the guardians of life- half bird, half beast- according to the dusty history books she had read in the city library sometime ago. However,she was pretty sure the books never mentioned it was a creature that had a smoldering black coat,attempted sneak attacks on people or had dark eyes glinting with a predatory hunger that said ,You look tasty.

Guardian of life, my foot ,Asumi thought,her pulse quickening.

Apparently,the Falphin was hellbent on getting an easy and free lunch,tearing circles around Asumi and kicking up extra dust until she could hardly see her own boots. For something that size,it was moving way too fast. She swirled left and right, trying to pinpoint the beast when out of nowhere,it lunged. Talons raked across her chest.

Asumi was thrown into a pile of rubble, screaming, like an unwanted rag doll. Her body racked with pain,and blood poured from the gashes in her skin,soaking her dusty, shredded shirt. Her waist long hair covered her face, increasing her overall resemblance to a tattered, beat-up doll. The Falphin pounced, ready to finish her off.

Then,it froze,darting its head left and right like, Where's my lunch? Asumi was gone.

There was a sudden SHINK!- like metal scraping rock- and then POOF! Asumi reappeared behind the Falphin. She was gripping a broadsword that dripped with black blood. The Falphin shuddered,its eyes rolling back in its head as it split clean in half, the halves tumbling to the ground.

Asumi raised her drooped head slowly. Even though her fiery red hair had hidden her face,a brighter red glow was seeping through it. Her shirt was torn to shreds, but she did not have time to think about that.She turned around, attempting to keep moving. The dust had finally settled, as if it knew she had won her fight.

Her legs, however, had other ideas, giving out after she had taken a few steps. She crumpled to the dusty ground, tasting blood and dirt. Her grip on the sword loosened, and her vision went fuzzy. It faded, but not before she heard a male voice calling to her.

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A hooded figure on top of the highest point in the city. It was a tall building,about a hundred metres high, with a big clock at the top. A spike stuck out from the clock, and that was what the figure had balanced on,surveying the destruction below.

The sight of the ravaged city was somehow amusing to him, considering the fact that its inhabitants, though they had been taken by surprise, had tried to put up a fight. This had been the last city on the planet, and he had utterly demolished it. The planet was basically his now. His eyes were hidden in shadow, but a sinister smile danced across his face.

"Finally," he said, his voice a deep masculine rumble - the kind that makes great beasts cower and men think about their life choices."Another annoying race of immortals gone. Good riddance."

From the corner of his eye,he espied a tiny figure - carrying another - darting into the woods that surrounded the city. Beyond those woods, he knew, a clearing held thousands of escape pods.

"Hmm," he hummed to himself, and his smile widened. He let out a low, chilling chuckle. "This is getting fun."

A black cloud swirled around him, obscuring him from sight. With a POP! he vanished.

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Asumi snapped back to consciousness in the woods, her vision still hazy. It was good enough to make out a man's silhouette though, a few metres away from her. His back was turned to her, but he must have sensed her waking, for he quickly rushed to her side.

Asumi, still too weak to move, peered into his face. She relaxed when she realized it was her husband, Shinzou, who was staring at her with concerned eyes.

She smiled weakly at him, then groaned and clutched her head in her hands. It was throbbing with pain as if it had been smacked with a hammer.

Shinzou, who knew what she was going through, tipped a vial of red liquid he had grabbed from his pocket to her lips. She drank it and sighed as the pain subsided, her vision back to normal.

"I'm good now," she said, her voice much stronger.

"Good. Did you see anything this time?"

Asumi nodded. "A blue and green planet, getting tinier and tinier. I was watching, tied up and gagged in a spaceship. There was a girl beside me. Do you know anything about that?"

Shinzou's eyes suddenly became uneasy, darting anywhere but Asumi's face. "No, I don't. Look, how's your wound now?"

Asumi suddenly realized she was wearing Shinzou's jacket. She unzipped it, staring at the ugly souvenir the Falphin had left her. Her wounds had healed into scars running across her bust. Shinzou leaned in, trying to get a look at whatever his wife was busily staring at, when her hand shot out and smacked his left cheek.

"Respect my privacy," she hissed.

Shinzou rubbed his now tender flesh. "I'm your husband," he whined.

"That doesn't give you the freedom to ogle me, especially when we're outside," she retorted, zipping up the jacket.

"I was just checking on you. Besides, there's no one here."

"Never mind. I'm fine. We need to leave. Those things might be hunting us down and now that I'm sure everyone else is dead, they won't have much trouble tracking us down," Asumi said as she rose. She looked all around herself,then leaned against the tree she had been propped up against.

"How do you know everyone is dead?" Shinzou inquired.

"Hello? We're talking about Soul Monsters here. Creatures that almost wiped out immortal life sometime ago, forcing the gods themselves to share their essence to the remaining immortals. Their master was on par with the gods, for goodness sake. What makes you think we ever stood a chance?" Asumi said.

Shinzou tried to counter. "How are you still alive?"

"I barely survived. I was lucky enough to avoid clashing with any Soul Monster... until that freaky Falphin tried to kill me," Asumi said.

"About that. What was that thing you killed back there? It pretty much looked like a Falphin, but I don't think guardians of life should have the same coats as the Soul Monsters."

Asumi offered a thin smile. "You just answered your own question. Connect the dots. Black, smoking Falphin, Soul Monsters. What comes to mind?"

"Oh," Shinzou said, the realization dawning on him. "The Falphin was corrupted."

His face grew grim. "Hard to imagine something so powerful falling to those things. We're done for if they find us."

Wow! What a genius! I said that first, dumbass, Asumi thought.

"Exactly," she said. "Which is why we have to leave as soon as we can and warn the other immortals. We need to find out how the Soul Monsters in the old books were defeated, otherwise, the universe is done for. Now let's see if- "

She stopped short, panic building up inside her. Hold up. Where's Kenji?

"I left him at home," Shinzou replied coolly.

Asumi felt like her heart had shattered. She grabbed her husband's collar and slammed him against a tree,her eyes blazing red. Her red hair flared.

"Tell me you're joking. You didn't leave him back there,did you? You're just messing with me, right?" she asked menacingly.

"Nope. He's at home," Shinzou replied. He must've regretted speaking, because his back was pressed harder against the tree until the trunk snapped.

He fell to the ground along with many branches and leaves, backing up as Asumi advanced.

"Why? Why would you leave your only child- our only child- in a city swarming with unbeatable creations? Are you mad? Listen up. We are gonna go back and search for him, and by the gods, if he's been touched, immortal you at be, I'll send you to him myself."

Shinzou smiled wryly. "I'm not immortal. None of us are. Secondly, what are you so mad for? I hid the kid at home. HOME!"

Asumi stared at him in disbelief. What did he mean by I'm not immortal? And what the hell was the difference between home and HOME? At this point,she was ready to accept the fact that he'd lost his mind.

Then she remembered. HOME. The underground bunker at the edge of the clearing. The place they had lived in after Shinzou had rescued her from assassins; they one they had gotten married in.

Asumi felt ashamed, but also relieved. She helped Shinzou back onto his feet, smoothing out the creases in his shirt and blushing.

"Sorry about that. I was just a bit scared. I may have overreacted a little."

A little? You almost snapped my spine. You can't imagine the pain I'm going through right now, Shinzou thought.

"It's no big deal," he said with a smile. " Let's get going."

They rushed out into the clearing and were met with a shocking sight. Every single pod had been destroyed, leaving the area a smoking junkyard. In spite of this, the couple were not fazed at all. Their bunker had a door that led to a private,much larger pod. Hopefully, it was intact.

They sprinted across the clearing, plunged into the woods on the other side and kept running, only stopping in front of a large oak. Shinzou placed his hand on the trunk, and after a few seconds a hatch spiraled open. A staircase descended into the darkness, and the duo went down,entering a hideout crafted to substitute for an actual house.

Asumi groped for the switch, found it,and flipped it on. The place lit up, and Asumi rushed into their old room, a smile softening her features when she saw her six - month old baby lying peacefully on their bed. She scooped him up, cooing softly, then turned to Shinzou,her expression shifting to a gentle scold.

" You know, it was pretty careless of you to leave him here. They could've found him."

Shinzou sighed. "I know, I just had to come find you," he confessed.

"It's alright. Now, let's see if the pod still works."

They went to inspect it, Asumi following her husband with Kenji in her arms. It was working, with nothing broken, but the battery was totally dead.

Shinzou decided to venture out and see if he could salvage a battery from the wreckage above. He left, while Asumi sat in a chair, rocking Kenji back and forth.

She ran a finger through his soft, black hair. He had gotten his father's pitch black colour instead of her own fiery red. His skin was also similar to his dad's - dark, though she liked to call it chocolate - but he had inherited her delicate features. Only his eyes were totally different from theirs - a vivid, emerald green.

A familiar throb began to announce its presence behind her eyes. She had been battling a strange illness for a while now: frequent debilitating headaches that always brought a short vision. She had no idea if she was dreaming or something was being revealed to her, all she felt was excruciating pain. Luckily, Shinzou was skilled in making medicines - he called them potions. He would create one to quell the headaches, but after some time the headaches had grown stronger, so the potions could only hold them back for a limited time.

She laid Kenji down and rushed to the storeroom, where Shinzou stashed the potions. Desperate for relief, she rummaged through the empty boxes, her vision blurring, until her fingers closed around a single vial of green liquid. It was a bit larger than the ones at had the red liquid in them. Ignoring the 'DO NOT TOUCH' label, or the fact that all her other cures were red, she uncorked it and downed the contents.

Instead of relief, a fire erupted in her skull. The headache exploded into something more agonizing, dropping her to the floor. she convulsed, foaming at the mouth. A trickle of blood dripped from her ears. Just like the Falphin she had slain earlier, her eyes rolled back into their sockets, and she slid into oblivion.

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Shinzou returned to find Asumi still rocking Kenji. He was toting a large cylinder that had not been destroyed. It was a pod battery, two metres long with a weight of nearly fifty kilograms . Grunting, he went to install it. Asumi heard clunks and bumps, and then Shinzou was back, covered in soot and dirt.

"I'm gonna clean up," he said, before realizing Asumi's eyes were red. Not from her ability, but raw and irritated, like she had been crying.

A cold dread settled in him. "I'll be right back," he said, then rushed into the storeroom, his eyes locking on to the empty boxes that once contained potions. Kicking them aside, he exhaled in a gust of relief. The large vial was untouched, with the green liquid still filling it. He went back to Asumi.

"Asumi, why are your eyes red?"

"Oh. Something flew into them while you were out," she said in a flat voice , not looking up at him.

"Are you sure?" he asked with a nervous edge to his voice.

"Yeah. Go wash down. We have to go."

"Okay," he replied slowly, moving off toward the bathroom.

When he shut the door, Asumi muttered under her breath, her voice dripping with venom,"You son of a bitch."

She raised her head, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Enjoy this day, 'cause you're not gonna live past it."