SOUL HUNTER: UPRISING

"Rudeus?" Kenji asked as he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Two years had passed since Khezar's defeat and Renji's takeover.

"What is it? Ask anything," Rudeus said gently, lying on a tiny bed in his own little corner of Kenji's room.

"I don't think I've asked this before, but how did you guys become gods? I mean, I've read the Bible, so I know there's only one true God. If that's so, how come you're called gods?"

Rudeus sighed. "It's a long story," he said.

Kenji quickly sat up in bed. "I can listen. I like a nice story."

Rudeus stared at him for a while, then shook his head. "Fine. Listen if you must. Be warned, however, for this story is far from jolly."

He cleared his throat.

"To you mortals on Earth, the story of creation is pretty clear. It's calm and peaceful, right until the first man sinned."

"What does it say?" Rudeus asked.

"In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. The Earth was formless and void," Kenji said.

"That's right, but it's not the entire story. Humans were not the only beings He created. He created numerous others, most of which were granted immortality. My people, Sinoberians, were one of such beings."

---

"Gabriel," a voice thundered, "what is happening down there? I hear an uproar of many voices from the immortals' planets. Go down and listen to them."

A bright figure in pure shining white clothes bowed. "To do your will is my desire, all powerful Lord," he said, his voice was gentle and soothing.

"Is something wrong. Father," a calm voice asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. The immortals are rebelling. I will listen to them and judge them according to their complaints."

Gabriel responded in the sky, hovering above a multitude of them.

"People of the Lord! Your cries have reached the heavens, and they have been heard by the Almighty God. Speak, and  I shall listen!" he said in a loud voice.

The crowd went silent. One man stepped forward.

"Glory be to our Lord God!" he hailed. "O great servant of the Lord!For a long time, we have held back our anger, but today, it refuses to stay quiet! Why, oh why, are we being treated with such contempt? You regard and treat us as equals with those puny mortals, when in truth we're far superior beings! We demand to be elevated to a higher status. To make them revere us as well! Is that not so, my people?"

"Yeah!" the crowd yelled, swinging all manner of weapons in the air.

Gabriel looked at them with pity.

"Are you the only ones who think this way?" he asked.

"No! Every single one of us supports this request!" the man in front said.

"If that is so, listen to me, you ignorant creatures! Repent and change your ways, for the path on which you are treading shall not end in your favour!" Gabriel warned.

"No! We shall not live like this anymore!" the people shouted.

Gabriel returned to the Lord's presence.

"I see. Lucifer's pride has infected them as well. It must be his doing, this foolishness of theirs, but tell them this..."

As Gabriel reappeared over the rebels, they cheered, each one thinking their request had been granted.

"Thus says the Lord Almighty! From the seven great planets, seventy should go to Nevunio to take a trial under its water. Should you pass the trial, I, the Lord, will grant you power but if you fail, I will destroy you all. I, the Lord, have spoken."

With that, Gabriel disappeared.

The next day, the seventy had been assembled. After a quick pep-talk from their leaders, it was decided they should get to know each other before they set off for Nevunio.

"Oof!" a teenager with short golden hair and striking blue eyes exclaimed as he bumped into another teen with jet-black hair and a pale face.

"Sorry," the dark-haired guy quickly apologised. "Umm... hi. I'm Ashtar. I'm from Celestia."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Rudeus of Sinoberia. Sorry about earlier."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm a bit excited, thinking about what this trial could mean for us, aren't you?" Ashtar asked.

"Of course I am. Honestly, I can't wait to find—"

"Ashtar!" someone interrupted. Another teenager with spiky yellow hair and a bright expression ran over.

"It's been so long," he said with a grin. "You've gotten taller."

"Good to see you're okay. Oh! Forgive me. Rudeus, this is Histeo, an old friend of mine from Crimson. Histeo, meet Rudeus. He's from Sinoberia," Ashtar introduced.

The two clasped hands.

"Nice to meet you, Histeo," Rudeus said.

"You said it, pal!" Histeo agreed.

By the time they had arrived on the first, the only piece of land on Nevunio, the trio had befriended four more teens: Soina, from Yertrini; Lyorde, from Xylos; Freia, from Inara; and Aliah, from Zenori.

As they prepared to dive into the water, the man who had spoken to Gabriel on their behalf cleared his throat.

"Remember," he said, "our goal is to find and enter the Cavern of Purity, where God will grant our request. Best of luck, everyone! Now, dive!"

"Your dad is so cool, Rudeus," Aliah said as they plunged into the water.

"I know," he replied, dreaming of what he would do with his power once he obtained it.

The group swam for three hours, unable to find the huge rock with gates in its side.

"Does it even exist?" Aliah asked.

"Of course it does!" Histeo retorted. "Don't be so absurd."

Soina suddenly yelled. "There it is!"

A huge marble rock, gleaming white, sat on the seabed. Two enormous gates made of pure gold hung on it, giving the water a golden glow.

It was too good to be true. They had actually found it. In a frenzy, they began swimming towards it. Ashtar was smiling, and the girls had tears in their eyes.

A few metres away from the rock, Rudeus felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise up. He spun around, just in time to see half of the team get snatched up by a long, large creature. He didn't even know what it was.

Frozen in fear, he yelled, "What the hell is that?!"

No one answered. Instead, Ashtar grabbed his collar and began pulling him away. From his expression, Rudeus knew things were really, really bad.

They reached the doors and began to open them. The creature darted at them again, missing Rudeus's head by inches. He got a close-up view of it. It was a huge snake with fins and spikes sticking out of its spine. It had bloodshot eyes and numerous rows of teeth stained with blood. Every part of its body was covered in scales so tightly packed it seemed a breath would have been unable to pass through them.

It swam in another arc, and ten more immortals were lost.

"How is it even killing them?!" Lyorde screamed, tugging on the right door. "They're immortal!"

"There's only one creature that can do that," Soina said. "It's Leviathan, the king of all beasts."

The doors opened, swinging wide on their hinges. The surviving twenty-five immortals splashed towards the room inside the rock, gasping as the water gave way to air.

"We're safe!" someone coughed, pulling his oxygen mask off and slamming it to the ground. "Catch us now, you damn monster!"

For an answer, Leviathan burst its head through the doors and snapped up ten more people, including the one who dared it to do so.

"We have to close the doors!" Rudeus yelled, running towards them after realizing the trial was not over yet. But it seemed an utterly hopeless struggle—especially now that their numbers had reduced and Leviathan was not one to give them the luxury of time.

They tugged on the doors in futility as the creature swam at them again.

This can't be the end for me. I can't die here! I'm too young. Is this—is this really it? Rudeus thought.

Suddenly, he spotted a few of his comrades plunging into the water again. His father was among them, but the fear in him caused him to lose his ability to talk, so he could not shout, "Dad!"

The doors began to move. Some people were pushing it from the outside. His father and three others engaged Leviathan in a deadly game of tag, although it was very much one-sided. It was enough, however, to allow the gates to be fully closed before Leviathan struck again. Rudeus shared one last look with his father before he vanished into their attacker's mouth.

Rudeus counted the heads in the room. Seven, including his own. They were all the friends he had made on the way. Everyone else was gone.

"Welcome to the Cavern of Purity," a voice said. The seven survivors spun around. A tall figure, identical to Gabriel, stood with open arms.

"I am Raphael, a humble servant of the Lord, and I was sent to grant you what you so ravenously desire," he said.

Ashtar stepped forward, balling his fists.

"Why?" he asked. "Why didn't you warn us about Leviathan? You could've given a hint, so why?! Huh?! Why?!"

"That is not what I was sent to do," the angel said, calm as ever. "Listen up. You have roused the Lord's anger by means of your rebellion. Thus says the Lord: 'I will give you what you asked for, but consider it a curse. Your immortality is now tied to your subjects' lives. They have turned mortal, and your duty will be to protect them, for once they all die, so will you. You forsook my commands, and so I forsake you. I will remain silent and will not come to your aid when you need me.' I, the Lord, have spoken."

Raphael vanished, leaving the surviving stranded teens staring at the empty space, unaware of their glowing bodies.

"So the Lord granted us power, and we each chose what we wanted to be god of. I became the god of creation. You already know about the others," Rudeus finished.

"We returned to our people, shared our encounter, declared Nevunio out-of-bounds, and the rest is history," Rudeus finished.

"So the curse came true?" Kenji asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. However, those dumb mutts refused to drop the 'immortal.' It was quite annoying, to be honest," he answered.

"And you've never heard from God again?"

"Never. Not once."

Kenji dropped his head back onto his pillow.

"Damn," he said. "Talk about rejection. Your story sucks."

"I know," Rudeus murmured. "Now go to sleep."

"M'kay. Goodnight."

---

Kenji woke up to the sound of sirens blaring, signalling the discovery of another group of unrescued humans. He quickly dressed up, grabbed Zephyr, and headed to the mess hall.

The other Hunters had already converged there, listening to the alarm's details while having breakfast.

The moment Kenji entered, the hall echoed with the voices of hundreds.

"Good morning, Kenji-sama!" they greeted.

He sighed. "This is why I wasn't keen on letting you watch anime. Whatever. Good morning, everyone. Glad you're all okay."

He walked to the Alpha Squad's table and took a seat, picking up a cup of hot chocolate. He nodded at his squadmates, then Annette, who was holding a tray full of toast.

"What's the situation, Taro?" Kenji asked as a teenager with cream-coloured hair and light blue eyes approached his table.

"Two alarms," Taro explained, tapping on a tablet he was holding. "One in Seoul. A village called Tekin, to be exact. The other is right here in Ghana, at Hafo. Which squad should take this one?"

Kenji took a sip from his mug.

"We'll take this one. I'll take Little Leo to Tekin, and the rest can go to Hafo."

Leonardo huffed. "I'm seven, you know," he protested.

"That's still a baby," Kenji said dismissively, ruffling Leo's hair. "Will you two be okay?" Remmi asked, concerned. "I mean, Seoul's pretty far away, and—"

Kenji kissed her forehead, shutting her up.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine, okay?"

Remmi averted her eyes, her face red. "I—I guess it's alright then."

Kenji glared at Kai and Flora. "Don't you two even think about copying us."

Flora raised her hands. "What? We didn't even do anything."

"Whatever. Thanks for the meal, Annette. Let's get going, Leo," Kenji said.

"Will you be needing Pegasus, sir?" Taro asked.

"Nah. The others will need him."

"Lightspeed?"

"No. Leo'll die."

"Portals?"

"No! Portals are boring," Leo interrupted.

"Hey, be nice. Portals are fun. But no. We'll be leaping there," Kenji said. "Go get geared up."

They met on the training grounds, Leo in his battle suit. Since he was Sparkless, it helped him to defeat Souls as well as the Spark-bearers.

"Ready to roll, sir!" Leo said.

Kenji held out a rope to him, one end in his palm.

"Tie this around your waist," he ordered. Leo obeyed.

"On three. One. Two. Three!"

The duo shot into the sky, parting clouds and startling a flock of birds. Higher and higher they flew, until Kenji activated a white-hole singularity that pushed them back towards the ground.

"Sir!" Leo said in the middle of their descent. "Our targets are being followed by five more figures! Probability that they're Souls is ninety-nine percent!"

"Alright. You haven't yet killed a Soul on your own, right?"

"No, sir!"

"Today's your day. They're all yours. Can you handle it?"

Leo had already untied the rope and was diving ahead of Kenji.

"Way ahead of you, sir!" he yelled.

Seven people were cowering in fear, their backs against a wall as five Souls shuffled towards them, screeching. One reached out to grab an old woman when Leo landed between them, kicking up dust.

His hand shot out, plunging into the Soul's chest and incinerating its core. The Soul burst into pieces, and a bright figure appeared in its stead, smiling. It vanished an instant later.

"One Soul down," Leo said.

It's so great Kenji came up with these suits. Even though I'm Sparkless...

...I can still battle Souls...

Two more Souls rushed at him, mouths wide open. He used his helmet's visor to locate their cores.

...and totally destroy them! he thought, destroying both cores with Aethon-filled plasma blasts. Two more Souls were destroyed.

"Well done," Kenji said, crouching on a tree branch. "But the others are getting away."

"On it," Leo assured, using his suit's thrusters to catch up to them.

"And where do you think you're going?" he asked, before slashing them with blades that popped out of his wrists and destroying their cores.

"All Souls have been annihilated," he said, his visor retracting.

Yeek! I killed five Souls on my own! Five!

"Once again, well done," Kenji applauded. "Now we can take these guys back to Haven."

He opened up a portal for the rescued people to go through, explaining something to them in their language. They stepped through it, followed by Leo, then Kenji, who was met with welcoming cheers.

"Happy hunting!" someone yelled.

"Idiot!" another hissed. "Hunting Souls isn't happy!"

"I love you, Kenji-sama!" a third person yelled.

"Shut up, dummy! You'll get yourself murderized!" the second voice reprimanded.

Kenji sighed again as the rescued were ushered away. Suddenly, Flora landed in front of both him and Leo.

"Sup?" Kenji greeted.

"We caught spies. From the Nest. They had no clue where Haven was, though, so we immobilised them and brought them here," Flora explained, leading them to Kirk's bungalow.

"Any identities?"

"Luckily, yes. They were very close to us, after all. Also, one of them is allegedly Aliah's host," Flora answered, opening a door leading to a basement.

Once inside, Kenji scanned the room. All the Alpha Squad's members, along with Kirk and Annette, were leaning against the walls, their gazes fixated on two people in the centre of the room. Their heads were covered with sacks, and they had been bound to their chairs.

Flora pulled off the sacks.

"Where are we?" Bianca asked, shakily.

"What the—I can't move!" Cudjoe grunted.

Kenji stared at them, then sat down on a chair, crossing his legs.

"Welcome," he said, "to Haven."