Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* NEFFEX - Cold *

With every breath she took, the image of the grim reaper's grin became clearer and clearer in her mind. She could almost see him mocking her, making fun of her ignorance. 

With every passing second, she could feel the aura of death looming closer and closer to her soul.

With every beat of her suffocating heart, she knew that she was about getting closer and closer to the sorrowful, yet, inevitable truth.

'Why did I not listen to my gut feeling? Why did I not listen to Kay? WHYYY?? I can't let this happen again! I CAN'T!!!!'

Energy and heat erupted in the girl's wake as a trail of gold glowed brightly behind her.

Golden radiance shone furiously all around her, illuminating the dark atmosphere. Her crimson-purple hair fluttered behind her violently in the wind.

Crossing the skies at top speed, she was like the thunder in a yet to come storm. She was strong and menacing... no sane creature dared stand in her way...

Yet, no matter how fast she was… no matter how fast the thunder was, in the end, it is always lightning that would strike first. 

And she was going up against lightning...

***

* Skillet - Hero *

"Ah~" Maria moaned gracefully while stretching her body under the starry sky. "That was some time well spent, won't you say, young ladies?"

"Yeah, this was so much fun!" Axane smiled while hugging baby Rituxi closer to her body. "Even dear Rituxi seems so refreshed!"

"Hahaha, I can still see the image of you trying to munch on that bowling ball in my head," Maya chuckled while holding her waste. "I can't wait to see Raven's reaction when we tell her, ahaha!"

"But you promised you won't tell anyone! You said it's our little secret!" Axane pouted. "We even made the pinky promise! Maria, please talk to her!"

"Hahaha, I mean, don't you want Raven to get a good laugh?" She asked with a smile. "I can almost guarantee that she'll laugh at first, but then she'll give you a good hug.

"You know how Raven is, right? She won't make fun of you like Maya did." Maria said with a chuckle.

"Hey, you laughed too," she tried to defend herself but alas she was ignored.

"Do you think we can fill her in on our little secret, no?" Maria asked. "Surely, you don't want to exclude her?"

"Hm, now that you bring it up this way…" Axane tilted her head and stared into the distance, in a thinking manner. "Hehe, I guess it's not a bad idea after all." She chuckled happily.

'So easy…' both Maya and Maria looked at each other, almost as if reading each other's thoughts.

"Well, anyhow, it's kinda late now," Maria said, looking at the starry sky above, then the luxurious watch on her wrist. "We should get going."

"I'm pretty sure our ride should have been here by now though…" Maya said while looking around. "What's the hold up?"

"Let me check," Maria said while checking her phone. "There might be an accident somewhere, holding the traffic.

After a few moments, Maria nodded to herself. "Yep, so apparently there was an accident near the port, hm-mhm, and some people are saying that a portal had opened there. 

"The traffic is completely blocked downtown too, well that's quite unfortunate… *sigh* You girls wanna book it home?"

"I mean, we're kinda lucky we chose the mall that happens to be near the house," Maya said and the two nodded. "Also, we're even luckier that the portal isn't close to this area. Now that would have been messy!" She sighed. 

Without Raven, Joey, or Camilla, their group was as good as dead.

"Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that Jakol's squad has their ship somewhere close to that port. Poor Jakol is always busy and now he has to deal with an efflux portal…"

"Uhm, by the way, have you told him that you're technically not human, and probably something similar to them? Meaning you're most likely their queen?" Maria asked.

"I mean, no… Raven hasn't given me the race measuring device thingy yet, so I didn't even try it. For all I know, I could be a human with super powers, not that I care much anyway." Maya shrugged. 

"Plus, it doesn't make any sense for me to be a queen of a whole race without remembering anything, don't you think?"

"True, I guess," Maria said with a nod. "Imagine if you are though, hehe, you'd be a decorator I'm pretty sure, hehehe!"

"Hey, I'm not that bad, right?" Maya asked while looking around for someone to say no.

But what she found was Maria shaking her head, Axane looking away from her, even whistling away as if trying to convey that she's not paying attention, and even baby Rituxi had a knowing smirk on her face.

"Oi, you traitor! I always feed you whenever Axane is busy, why would you take their side?" Maria cried at the injustice she was suffering from. "Are you serious? Do you guys think so little of me?"

"Well, I don't even care, humph!" She pouted and looked away. "I'll ask Raven about it."

"Hey, remember we can't tell her yet-"

As Maria was speaking, a sudden pressure and sense of dread washed over the group.

Unable to hold herself, Maria cowered down and started puking on the ground from the intensity of the sinister aura.

Axane watched in horror as blood leaked out of baby Rituxi's ears, eyes, and nose. 

Trying her best, she fell on her knees and flared her aura in an attempt to protect herself and the crying baby.

Maya froze momentarily from the shock, before teleporting near Maria and touching her shoulder. 

Extending her hand towards Axane, she was about to teleport all of them away when a sonic explosion shook the ground underneath their feet, producing a mini earthquake.

Everyone was launched away in a random direction.

A deafening explosion shattered the glass of the nearby buildings. The scene was something out of an apocalypse: no stable ground, smoke everywhere, people either running for their lives or bleeding to death.

Suddenly, an entire building seemed to shatter into tiny pieces, disappearing from view, as a dark shadow passed through it.

Although the huge building was visually gone, physics still played its role. The tiny pieces acted as projectiles that seemed to have the power of an orbital cannon. 

The projectiles passed through other buildings, cars, people, and some even dug holes through the ground.

A couple hit the group of three girls and one baby, even though there was a good distance between them and the building.

Although Maya had tried to teleport in front of them and shield them with her wings, the projectiles were simply stronger and far faster than she could have ever imagined.

Agonizing pain ran through her veins as she hit the ground instantly, blood splashed everywhere.

Opening her eyes that she wasn't aware she had closed, Maya realised that she was now missing an arm, a wing, and had a nasty deep wound in her shoulder.

If it wasn't for the adrenaline trying desperate to circulate through her veins, she would not have been able to move from the pain.

Looking around, she found Maria standing in front of her, shielding her with open arms, from the shadowy figure of a young girl.

Taking a closer look, she realised that Maria was bleeding from her face due to her now missing eye. 

In addition, a deep cut ran from her bleeding eye socket and all the way to her ear and back of the head.

Searching for Axane, Maya found her face covered in blood as silver mana shone in her eyes, which was a sign of her crying.

Even though Axane looked like she was crying out loud, Maya could not hear anything at all. It took her a second to realize that she has gone deaf.

Looking into Axane's arms, she realised that she was holding the bloody unmoving body of baby Rituxi…

"It seems as though the two of you have spent so much time with our unknown culprit," the girl in the dark dress spoke with a chuckle while looking at Maya and Maria in particular. 

"I can see that these two are still new to your party, so I'll be merciful... Oh wait, one is already gone." She smiled coldly at Axane.

Unfortunately, Maya could only see her mouth moving and could only guess by reading her mouth what she was talking about.

"What- do… you want?" Maria managed to speak between heavy breaths. She was already feeling her legs giving up slowly.

"Oh, I am only here in order to deliver the just judgement," the girl in the dress adopted a predatory smile that sent Maria down to her knees.

"Please," she begged. "Leave them alone-" *heavy breaths* "please, they're- still- so... young…" 

Maria was still unaware of Rituxi's situation, or even the damage the two girls have suffered.

"Oh, so would you like to die first?" The girl asked, dark energy swirling around her. 

"Uhm, if it… means that- they can live…" she managed to say between sobs and cries of renewed pain. 

"Hehe, of course you would want to die first, it's the easy way out." The girl chuckled. "To be fair, killing you swiftly would be the justice you deserve, but come on, where is the fun in that?"

Approaching Maria who felt her life force being quickly diminished, the girl extended her hand towards her as she was planning on injecting some dark mana into her.

It was an easy method of torture in the girl's eyes, but what she hadn't accounted for was the difference in power level. 

If one ounce of her dark energy manages to get into Maria's system, the latter would instantly die.

Just as she was about to touch Maria's forehead in the intent of harming her, pure white energy radiated furiously in front of her as two wings were unfurled and expanded outwards, almost blinding her sight.