Chapter 26: The ninth stage part 6
PoV Tsuitame
The first swing was just a test; since he turned into such a big weapon, I feared I might not even be able to lift him or that he might break due to how unbalanced he looked as a weapon.
He turned out to be extremely light and solid; it felt as heavy as a small sack of rice (around 5 kg), which is extremely light when reminded of the size of the weapon. The hilt, instead of being overly large, was uncomfortably long. (around 30 cm)
It was most definitely a blunt weapon, as it should have been when looking at its sheer size. Why was it cutting people so well?
The first swing chopped off the head of the soldier I was charging. Unfortunately, my grip was rather lacking, and I ended up also throwing the blade away.
'Damn it, what's with this absurd weapon? It doesn't make sense!'
I grabbed the headless body and used it as a shield to keep charging at them while also recovering the sword using aura.
'Let's see if you are one of those weapons who refuses aura coating.'
I remembered that some soul weapons absolutely hated the idea of that. Those were some of the most proud weapons I had ever known.
The weapon didn't refuse my aura, so I created an invisible extension of the blade using the wind and proceeded to cut whatever was in front of me in a 10-meter range.
The second swing was also a test, but the third... I decided to use my full power to see what would happen, and the results ended with all the vehicles flying away, causing as much damage as they possibly could and crushing soldiers and civilians at the same time. The wind generated was so strong that everyone in a radius of thirty meters had either been crushed or the wind had knocked them into a building with enough force to crack their skulls open.
As I looked back, I saw many soldiers behind me dead, killed by darts shot by my brother.
'I guess I should've paid more attention to both sides.'
I noticed the weapon, then started to wake up. It slowly started eating away at my aura in the process.
"Eat your fill 'cause today it's gonna be a long day." I whispered before planting the sword on the ground.
The reason was simple; since a lot of my aura was covering the sword and the sword was eating it, I planted it on the ground. The ground still held some mana, apparently, and it was enough to produce more than double of the aura I originally had.
"TRY ME BITCHES! I'LL SEND YOU ALL TO HELL!" I shouted as I extracted the sword from the ground, creating a massive shockwave that cut several buildings down.
The buildings came down, creating a thick mist made out of dust. I used my part of the wind to protect myself from debris and dust.
'With this, we can easily turn this battle in our favor. Maybe we should escape. It would be best to ask my brother.'
As I tried to gather aura once more, I noticed I was already at my limits. Apparently, I lost most of it during that attack.
'I don't know if I can do that again. This world does not have enough mana to burn. It's probably best to focus on the little I have left, mainly to defend myself.'
I then started focusing on my hearing. Many soldiers were trying to regroup. Some civilians were crying, mostly women. Some kids were also calling desperately for their mothers. Some soldiers were trying to help the citizens. Some were dead set on hunting us down to make us pay.
'What a bunch of imbeciles. If you're not ready to suffer losses, then don't even bother starting the conflict.'
I immediately started running towards the ones that were helping the people stuck under the rubble. I found a group of mainly four soldiers. Three of them were working to free a kid, while the last one was making sure they were safe by guarding them.
He was blindly aiming his weapon in whatever direction. He was the most useless one. He only managed to discover my position when my sword was already extremely close to his neck.
Before the three remaining could turn towards me, I managed to kill the one located on the far right. I aligned myself with the remaining two so that the third one couldn't shoot at me. I grabbed the rifle of the one immediately next to me and pointed it at the sky before he could shoot at me. I kicked him towards his teammate, then once again I grabbed the sword and finished off the two on the ground.
'The army we faced in the snowy mountains was more coordinated than this. They were also stronger than these ones. Do humans get weaker as their technology advances further?'
As I charged the second group, the weapon started talking. It was obviously confused, so I decided to ignore its voice until it calmed down.
Instead, even after calming down, the weapon kept talking and kept showing me various images of its past memories. Most of them were of his father, but then he changed the focus to a cute girl. That was probably his crush.
'Wait, this is supposed to... This is just... a stage, an illusion. Why is it so detailed?'
I shouted at the weapon to calm down, but it didn't have much effect. At least it stopped talking, but the flow of memories hadn't stopped. I found myself completely stiff, overwhelmed by the emotions of the weapon, in front of the enemy. There was regret, sadness, and a strange sense of bitterness that filled my mouth.
I found it hard to even move an inch at that point, and before the enemy soldiers could execute me, my brother came to my rescue. He shot them all and then landed next to me.
He used the ability of his armor to create a protective barrier around us.
"What's that?" He asked while pointing at the weapon.
"I found it by chance. Unlike everyone else, this soul was weirdly strong, so I decided it would've been best to put it to good use." I responded.
"It's dangerous to have one when it's not tamed beforehand." He said this while patting me.
"You're fine with all of those souls inside your body. I can definitely handle one by myself." I said-
"Does it have an ability?" He asked.
"Yes! Am I not extremely lucky? I still don't know how to manifest it like you do."
"Mhhh…"
Bright lights illuminated the skies, so bright that they were even visible inside the thick veil of dust still floating in the air.
'Those girls…'
"Those girls… What is Forren doing? Why didn't he stop them?" My brother was apparently thinking the same thing as I was.
"Something must've happened there."
"It's probably for the best if we focus on getting out of here. Only then will we have the luxury to care for their wellbeing," he then added.
"I think we should go help them. I still have her mana stored inside me. Their magic will surely be-"
"Tsui, enough. You can barely walk now. Escaping is our priority. Call back your weapon for now."
"I don't know the-"
"Don't bullshit me now. You saw his name in his memories. Call him back now."
"Hannis."
He gradually disappeared and then returned inside my body. As soon as he entered, I felt an acute pain in my temples. What happened afterwards was a bit blurry, I remember my brother carrying me on his back towards the subway.
When I came back to my senses, we were in a long tunnel. It was an emergency tunnel.
My brother had left me lying on the ground, covered by some spare clothes as sheets. On the ground, there was some canned food that he had gathered in the meantime.
As I got up, I summoned the tablet and sent a message on the group chat.
"Are you all ok? Can you send me your coordinates?"
Diego answered with: "I'm fine, I don't really know where I am, but one of my weapons is familiar with the area, so I'll be fine."
Valis sent a thumbs-up emoji, while the rest didn't respond.
I tried to get up. My legs were still trembling a bit. It was a bit hard to remain standing still as my sense of balance was somehow off.
Hassis: Oh, you're finally-
"Oh right, I have a question for you. What happened in this world 100 years ago?"
Hassis: 100 years ago... Nothing in particular, really, but around 50 years ago, the first corrupted ship landed on our planet.
"Corrupted ship?"
Hassis: I don't know much since it was mostly classified information, but apparently aliens came from the deepest parts of our oceans, made their nest on some of our cargo ships, and started trying to take over some small cities. They were all captured in the end, and now they're testing how they can weaponize their genes. The monsters you faced today were the first successful results. They are cheap to make and better than an entire squadron, although their power is nothing compared to yours.
"Nah, that was just my brother. The average member of the Fargo clan is nowhere near that level of power."
Hassis: I think you're almost on the same level, if not stronger, seeing how effortlessly you cut down those buildings.
"That's just the power granted by the royal blood flowing through my veins; I couldn't control the aura and ended up wasting most of it in that attack. My brother in that situation would've been able to keep his aura. Not only did I waste the few manna available in the environment, but I also got in its way. He had to deal with the ones that were going inside the buildings but also shoot down the ones that were behind me, as I was too focused on attacking just one side."
Hassis: I see…
"Then what happened 200 years ago? I just want to know the relevant stuff. You can skip the explanation of such events."
Hassis: I think it was 300 or 400 years ago that we started searching for a new hospitable planet to build colonies on. After that, a big rebellion ensued, and the continent was split into many factions.
"Tell me more about it."
Hassis: While technically we are all still subject to the same nation, the government lost most of its ruling power. That's why it's heavily investing in the army. Right now, it can only control the capital and the territory surrounding it. All other areas are being managed by the "Lords." They act like kings and, for the most part, have complete authority over their dominions. Some are allied with the central government but wish for reform, while others are heavily against it and wish to eradicate it. He then showed me images of many old people in a dark conference room.
"So what about us?" I asked.
Hassis: I think you should belong to Affith and his cult. A weird bunch of people backed by the mafia. They apparently discovered the secrets of magic, and we've been monitoring them for a while now. They are openly hostile toward the government.
"How is your nation ruled?"
Hassis: You mean, how was it ruled? Technically, there should have been four chambers, each with a specific interest in mind. Each chamber can hold up to 100 senators. Out of every chamber, they would then choose one representative each to present the laws that their party had come up with or changes to other specific laws. Then, through a majority vote, they would decide the outcome.
"It doesn't seem to be an efficient method of ruling…"
Hassis: It had its ups and downs. Once those 100 people needed to be elected there by the people of each major continent and needed to be intelligent scholars, it thrived for a couple of hundred years until it became corrupt.
"I don't really care about that. When was your nation established?"
Hassis: About 700 years ago, it was a dictatorship at first, but then he got poisoned, and a huge civil war happened.
"And before all of that?"
Hassis: If I remember correctly, the world was divided into a lot of smaller nations, each with their own form of government. I haven't studied history that much, so I don't know much about what happened in that era.
"No problem; this helped me a lot."
'So this is not a world created just for it to be a stage, but it can still... This is so... unexpected. It's probably best to keep this information to myself.'
Hassis: Can you answer some questions for me now?
"Yes, of course."
Hassis: What's going to happen from now on?
"That's difficult to say, because unlike the rest of our missions, we haven't been assigned a clear-cut goal to achieve."
I refreshed the page on the smartwatch to see if there was a mission for us, but the page was still blank.
Hassis: Will I be able to return to being human in the future?
"That's impossible. Once a soul has turned into a weapon, it cannot go back to its original body. Some weapons have the ability to create a body and disguise themselves, but those are rare exceptions to the general rule."
Hassis: So what will happen once you die?
"It's likely you'll have to wait for a new holder, one who's worthy enough to carry you."
Hassis: What happens if they're not worthy?
"Their bodies will fall apart. There are various ranks among the soul weapons. There are the lower weapons at the bottom; those can't be enhanced by magic or aura, and then after that, there are those who can. From then on, you'll start grading them based on sharpness, durability, and whatever other method you can think of to rank them. After that rank, there are ability holders."
Hassis: So I'm part of the strongest rank?
"You're not necessarily the strongest. Ability holders are usually the standard, not because they're a common type of weapon but because most people don't even bother transforming a soul that is not strong enough. Your body alone is very durable and light. We still have to measure your ability to properly assess your rank."
He remained silent, then a notification popped up. Diego had sent some images through the chat.
They were all showing various offices filled with corpses. Attached to those images was a message.
"I'm going to act like a terrorist for a while. I already have a cult of very generous people serving me. You can lay low for now until I give you new orders."
He then sent picture after picture of crates filled with rifles, handguns, and various kinds of explosives.
"Keep a low profile and head towards the Graten district, where it'll be easier for you to stay hidden."
'What the hell is he doing now?'
I never once trusted him, not because he was unreliable as a team leader but because, as I recently learned, he doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. He would light an entire city on fire if it meant speeding up his mission, even if it meant a day. He tortured many people in the eighth stage and even bragged about how fast he managed to mentally break his opponents into giving him the information he needed.
'A man like him is really scary to have around.'
Now that I had confirmed that these people were real, I started wondering how many casualties he would cause to accomplish his goal.
He poisoned the sources of water in the eighth stage. He made the power plants explode in one of his attacks, then freed most of the prisoners related to criminal organizations and used the commotion as a distraction to finally assassinate his target.
'I wonder what happened afterwards…'
"You can probably guess what happened, but if you need me to spell it all out, the civil unrest was stopped by the use of military force." Said a small kid that appeared in front of me.
He was a small cub with brown fur and silver eyes. He was wearing mostly an oversized shirt that covered his whole body.
"I'm here to warn you about something. Be careful about how many soul weapons you create. The difficulty of the missions will ramp up as you keep creating or stealing them. I remember warning Diego about this, but apparently he failed to give you the memo."
He said, while floating around me.
"I had to warn you so that you'll be able to make an informed choice the next time you decide to create a soul weapon. I'll let this one slide for now."
He then disappeared just as fast as he appeared.
Hassis: WHAT WAS THAT!?
"Explaining it would take too long, so I'll give you just a short summary."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone