Soul Digger-Chapter 75: BATTLE FOR DOMINANCE

Sylzao and two of his teammates strolled through the market, their faces tense and eyes reddened. Accompanying Sylzao were Frank, a black-haired man with a robust build, sturdy posture, and protruding muscles, and Marter, a feeble-looking man wearing a beanie and two silver necklaces. Despite their opposing physiques, the two men looked identical like twins, sharing round eyes, pointed noses, and thin lips.

Marter and Frank acted as bodyguards, following Sylzao’s every step with machine-like accuracy. Since the trial began, their group had found no luck in their investigations; the spiking wavelength was as difficult to trace as a microbe floating in the air. They felt its presence, but that was all. Every action they took ended in a dead end.

A few hours earlier, Sylzao had questioned some of the residents, only to be met with creepy smiles and hollow answers. On top of that, nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be taking place; no man-eater sightings or supernatural activities were discovered. Sylzao ordered the rest of his group to split up, dividing the labor equally among them.

He ordered three rookies to stay at the entrance of the Northern Nickel side, three undercover members to investigate any residues or evidence of supernatural operations that might give them a lead inside, and one to spy on Sylzao’s own group and report anything of importance. Sylzao, Marter, and Frank were in charge of questioning civilians; however, considering the time that had passed, it was beginning to resemble an aimless patrol.

Sylzao surveyed the market space with his eyes. The people behaved naturally; their interactions, speech, and manners were believable. A passerby collided with Sylzao’s shoulder by accident, and the man apologized sincerely.

’Is this man different from the others?’ His attitude intrigued Sylzao. Marter and Frank stepped to the side, observing quietly. Sylzao avoided asking his questions directly, beating around the bush as much as he could.

"No problem. By the way, what’s your name?" Sylzao asked kindly—a formulaic act, of course.

"It’s Agnes, sir. Once again, I apologize for my clumsiness," the man uttered weakly, his hands gently shivering as his eyes darted around.

Sylzao noticed this. A genuine emotion of joy poked the center of his chest. "Tell me, Agnes..." He dropped his pen on the snowy floor, stylishly bending near Agnes to ask the question. "Do you know what happened to this place?" he whispered, his voice below the whistling breeze.

Agnes gaped in a rigid stance, staring into the distance blankly. Upon seeing his reaction, Sylzao clicked his tongue and hissed. ’Damn it! Another failure...’ He clenched the pen’s weak material tightly, cracking it down the center.

The man, Agnes, crouched beside Sylzao, following the act as he leaned closer to Sylzao’s ear. "Are you an Indulger?"

Sylzao froze from shock, his squinched face smoothing out like a released candy wrapper. He shot a piercing glare at Agnes, a burst of surprise and joy imploding within him. "What did you say?" Sylzao spoke with unintentional harshness, dragging each word with a thick voice.

Intimidated, the man quickly tried to shoot up but was caught in Sylzao’s unyielding grip. Marter and Frank stood readily behind Agnes as well; the whole scene looked more like close friends conversing from afar. Frank swapped to the left, using his large build to cloak their lip movements from the public and whatever was observing them. To the right was a closed fish stall filled with smelly crates stacked neatly and a few fish remnants.

"I’ll ask again." Sylzao’s eyes dropped into something threatening, the dark lines shading his face evoked horror in Agnes. "What did you say?"

Agnes shrunk back, his body vibrating as if an earthquake struck. He couldn’t muster words due to the fear accumulating in his throat; the sight of Sylzao and Frank made his glare dampen. Impatient and vexed by Agnes’s sluggish and cowardly behavior, Sylzao added force to his grip. A shy crunching sound cried out as veins rose on Agnes’s arm. Using his other hand, Sylzao clasped Agnes’s face and squeezed it like a tennis ball. A desperate mumble escaped his shut jaws as his eyes rolled back into their orbits. Marter acted as a gate, making sure Agnes wouldn’t roll back and escape.

Sylzao eased his grip on both parts. "Now that you’ve been given a decent amount of stimulus, I hope you’ll start talking." He stretched a devious smile across the left side of his chin. "Now start, or I’ll do something worse."

Agnes slouched on his knees, spit pouring down his widened mouth as he let out dry coughs. The pain burned his arm; a stiff yet agonizing ache spread across his body as though he were struck brutally with a hammer. The area from his wrist to his shoulder changed to a dark purple and swelled. Tears slid down his cheeks as he wept softly.

Sylzao was rather uninterested in the display. The passing seconds wasted on the man’s sobbing were like a slap to his face. Rolling his eyes in boredom, Sylzao coiled a solid stranglehold around his neck and pressed on Agnes’s windpipe like a balloon. Agnes reflexively grabbed onto Sylzao’s hands, using his last bits of strength to oppose him. Unfortunately, the difference in their physical prowess was as distant as the earth and the moon; the struggle was admirable, but Agnes didn’t stand a chance.

Sylzao looked malicious. The glitter in his eyes made it obvious he wasn’t too concerned about the information; rather, he enjoyed each squelch and crack he heard, taking his sweet time to absorb Agnes’s pitiful, brick-red expressions as he remained defenseless. "I’LL ASK YOU ONE MORE TIME." Anger merged with his composed words and plastic face. "What happened to this pl..."

BOOM!

A powerful shockwave rushed through like a stampeding herd. The violent blast flung buildings, objects, animals, and people like useless toys. The forceful gale split upon contact with Frank’s body; Marter hid behind the sturdy build along with Sylzao. Agnes slipped out of Sylzao’s hand and became a victim of the cruel debris and merciless gust; his previously structured figure became red paint and internal matter on an aluminum wall.

"Shit!" Sylzao cursed. His fingers dug into the frosty soil. ’That was our only lead!’

Nothing was visible aside from swirling dust and flying materials. The dust and gale parted in a circumventing manner, creating a clear view of a flickering particle slicing towards the heavens above.

"Ceaser!" Nagita hollered. She made a dire jump through the window just before the powerful release of wavelength detonated. The dust and falling wood obscured her view before piercing through; she couldn’t decipher much, but from what she saw, a trail of dust propelled towards the set.

Nagita placed her index and middle fingers at the side of her head, forcing her mind to recollect the moments before the blast. Though disjointed, the pieces of her memory merged together. A few minutes before the blast, she and Caesar had engaged in battle with a supernatural entity. Caesar was about to land the finishing blow, yet the creature pulled its trump card and instantly charged a beam of sorts while sprouting wings on its back.

The next thing she knew, Nagita reflexively threw herself out the window before being bullied by the unexpected tempest. Meaning, what she saw dashing towards the set was the creature. Nagita staggered a bit, held herself together after a few minutes and chased it from the ground, showcasing her acrobatic skills and nimble footwork. As a dreadful greeting, the street floors were littered not by used items, but by corpses and decaying flesh.

Nagita didn’t notice; her movements were driven by instincts and her desire to subjugate the creature. A familiar sight briefed her vision; though far away, Nagita could adequately witness the creature’s grotesque new form. Apart from that, something odd clung to the entity’s being. She squinted her eyes for a better view and gasped immediately after.

"CAESAR!" she yelled from shock.

Caesar clung to its body, hanging behind its dragon-sized bat like wings and its sixteen-foot pointed devil tail. The creature twisted and maneuvered through buildings and thick air currents in attempts to get rid of Caesar.

Caesar remained stubborn, an ugly expression and malice-filled eyes gracing his face, looking more demonic than the creature itself. Caesar dug his nails into its hard, slimy flesh while a shard of the broken vase slit his fingers as the creature fleet throughout the North Pole. Caesar’s vision spun with the beast, his perception dizzy until he nearly puked.

The creature pullulated a screech and shot itself higher, crashing against the set above and breaking the region into shards of falling glass before leaving the city through the hole. The shards fell like plucked flower petals yet collided with the ground like falling meteors; the Northern Nickel side was set ablaze as the shards broke further into the snow.

The creature soared above the clouds, heading in a straight path towards the higher atmosphere. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

’It’s trying to kill me through the pressure and decreasing oxygen!’ Caesar’s mind swiftly concurred, his heart palpitating. His nerves bulged like revved engines, and the faint blue aura lit a potent spark as if a color war took place.

BADUMP!

Caesar’s heart paused at a single beat, and so did everything else. The somber blue sky drowned in a depraved black as he saw twinkles from afar. The creature he battled against vanished, and so did the clouds, the clear sky, the falling snow, and the city below his feet.

"What is this?" Caesar asked himself.

"Are you my incarnation? I must say, your actions and brave stupidity have me impressed." A voice resonated within the space while playing in his head.

"Are you the Deity that’ll grant me an Indulger ability?" he replied.

"A question with a question, huh? Well, I shouldn’t be too annoyed since both of us are aware of the answers to our own inquiries."

’Does this mean I’ve passed? I’ll become awakened,’ he thought in a sober manner.

"Don’t get your hopes up just yet. I’m yet to decide whether I accept you or not; however, it’s far too early for your story to end in my eyes. Thus, I claimed interference."

Caesar gasped. The space gave him an empty stare as he returned it with a pathetic face.

"I won’t give you my blessings just yet. Instead, I’ll let you have a taste of what awaits you if your actions continue to entertain me."

Caesar floated silently, his mind growing distant from his body. "I accept."

The Deity chuckled. "Oh? Even the consequences that follow?"

With a certain voice lacking doubt or reluctance, Caesar answered, "I accept."

"How bold. I concur as well. Continue to do your best; aside from now, I might not be able to interfere." The voice faded while everything else returned.

The dark space receded to the very edge of non-existence, as though Caesar had experienced a momentary daydream. The creature grew closer to the higher atmosphere, and Caesar’s breath dropped thinner.

The blue aura wrapped around the glass still clenched in his bleeding hand. With a thunderous roar, Caesar pressed the glass until it shattered as well. The fragments swirled with the blue aura, resonating into a bright white light that pierced through the creature’s spine from behind.

To those below—like Nagita, Caesar, Rolan, Velonica, Snider, and others—the frail radiance of the Arctic sun along with the arrangement of clouds and bright light depicting a sword from the distance resembled an angered god slaying a demon with a righteous weapon. At least, that’s how the conditions at the time made them perceive it.

The creature groaned and bellowed from the sharp, tearing pain as its chest ripped open. Its wings turned sapless, and both figures collapsed back to the Earth’s abundant warmth. The weapon dispersed. Caesar blinked multiple times; each time he opened his eyes, he got closer and closer to slamming against the ground. Through the shattered part of the set, Caesar and the creature returned to the city in decrepit states.