Arc of the Souls Chapter 116: Arc 3, Chapter 39 - I Never Hated You

Read chapter 116 of Arc of the Souls by Noyr on NovelPedia.

.:. She's not a monster. .:. .:. Whatever that form is... whatever's inside her, it's controlling her. .:. A blinding white lightning bolt traversed the harsh ground toward Asheera. She moved her Pummeler in a flash to guard against it. She lost her grip of her Pummeler, the hammer-side whipping her across the face and blasting her away. The force of the lightning bolt was so intense that it could've snapped Asheera in half, were the Pummeler not in the way. The Pummeler was sent flying across the sky and landed several miles away. The shattered remnants of the weapon rained down like glittering confetti, the pieces scattering in every direction. Asheera, on the other hand, felt as if her whole body had been ripped apart. She couldn't move an inch. Every part of her body was in searing pain. The barrier she put up didn't help at all. "A... ghh... ug..." Suddenly, she coughed, the ground beneath her face now littered with a red wine-like liquid. Her head was spinning. Too much. "S-Sato...Satono, fight... fight against it! Whatever's awakened inside of you... It's not you! You have to fight it! Don't let it control you!" But the response was nothing but another bolt of lightning speeding towards her. "Fuck!" She vanish-stepped away onto the roof of a falling building, trying to gain distance between them. It was hard. Whatever that energy was, it wasn't anything to laugh about. Asheera thought that she was fast but this thing was faster. How could she ever close the distance? Even with all the Soul-Stamina in the world, she couldn't get a single hit on that... thing. As they locked eye-contact again, the beast finally spoke. "Control? I'm perfectly in control. In fact..." It disappeared from her view. In just a split second, a silhouette appeared above her with a fist raised above her. "I have never felt better..." Asheera's eyes widened as she tried to block her fist, her arms trembling as she forced herself up. She could see the reflection of herself on the flickering aura, with an even wider grin. The impact that came after was... Cataclysmic. Her back felt as if it was getting crushed continuously. She heard buildings collapse one after another, the noise of falling glass was deafening, even more so than her pained screaming. And it didn't stop. She didn't stop phasing through buildings and crushing Asheera against them. "This feels amazing. I feel like I can control the entire world..." Asheera's Soul consistently warned her of imminent danger, flooding her mind with endless signals and flashing red in her mind. There was no way out of this and her consciousness was slipping away. Her grip on reality started to falter. Is this how death felt like? It couldn't be, she'd already experienced it. This was something far different than death. It was fear. Overwhelming fear. An unknown to all. Satono reeled her hand backward, sucking the air out of the surrounding area and pulling her back towards her. Asheera couldn't do anything but struggle against the collapsing pressure and intensifying gravity. She gasped, but her lungs refused to cooperate, refusing to intake any air. She was choking. "F-FFGGHH..." She resummoned her Pummeler, digging the scythe-side into the ground, ceasing any momentum. The blade of her Pummeler made a trail on the ground. .:. I can't... b-breathe... .:. Satono vanish-stepped before her Pummeler, grabbing the hammer-side. It felt weightless. Pummeler's weight is only weightless to Asheera as per her Soul's rule. Which means that Satono got such an exponential increase in strength and speed that her Signature Weapon now feels weightless to her. "Your Pummeler is weak." Satono's finger traced the line separating the scythe-side and the hammer-side. She then put pressure on the weapon with just her finger, creating a dent that became bigger and bigger. "...Wha-" Asheera heard her Pummeler cry for help. A horrible cry. One she never heard before, and hoped to never hear again. She couldn't bear to see her Wea