Chapter 19A: United Front Against A Common Enemy – The Mysterious Masked Man

"Voynich-Caduceus, or your lives, which will it be?" The masked man's emotionless voice asks. He's more eerie than the sword on his waist.

"This guy's dangerous. Shiori-sempai, you can't let him have what he wants." I explain in an obvious voice.

"I know, Yuichi-kun," Shiori-sempai says with a smile before turning to the masked man with a serious face "My answer is obviously 'no'."

"Pride before life is something I cannot understand. Is this the difference between those with emotions, and those without them? Your decision is opposite to the logical one. So be it. the outcome will be the same regardless." The masked man explains in a matter of fact voice.

He's certain of victory. His emotionless voice is really getting under my skin.

This isn't an opponent I can take lightly, therefore. I take the whistle Wolfy gave me and blow into it, no sound comes out of it however, is it broken? Tch, we'll have to do this by ourselves.

"Shiori-sempai, I'll try and force an opening, when you see your chance, strike." I whisper my make shift battle plan, Sempai nods in agreement. As we're talking, the masked man creates several transparent spheres, each one has a small flame in the centre.

"Those orbs have a high density of fire and air compressed into them. In other words, they're explosive." Shiori-sempai explains, "To create so many mixed element orbs at once. Like I thought, this man is truly bad news."

"Don't worry, Sempai." If those orbs are explosive then there's an easy way to get around them. I run as fast as I can towards the masked man.

"Yuichi-kun!" Shiori-sempai calls out in concern.

"He won't be able to use them in close quarter combat!" I shout back.

"You're underestimating me." Says the masked man.

No, I'm not. I'm going to go all out from the word go.

"My soul is one that is of self confidence." I chant as I continue to charge towards the masked man. Several of the orbs fly towards me. "Beautiful, intelligent and kind. Absolute belief in myself and those that surround me."

Boom! - One of the orbs explodes, luckily I jumped to the side just in time. I continue to close the distance between us after regaining my footing.

"And a will that never dulls, bends or breaks." I finish my chant and create my silver sword.

Several more orbs fly towards me, I skilfully skid to the side anticipating an explosion. But that doesn't occur they just continue moving. Shit, they're not aiming for me.

"Sempai!" I scream to warn her.

The orbs quickly surround her and…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"SHIORI-SEMPAI!" I shout into the smoke when something flies out.

"A Soul Anomaly?" I question. It looks like a huge eagle, and standing on its back, unharmed, is Shiori-sempai. Thank goodness.

"Concentrate on the enemy, Yuichi-kun, I can handle myself just fine." Sempai scolds.

I refocus on the masked man, who quickly creates more orbs and sends them at both me and Shiori-sempai. Shiori-sempai is flying in the sky and dodging the explosions, that from where I'm standing, look like fireworks. I also continue to avoid the explosions whilst edging closer towards him.

When he's finally in range. I swing my silver sword at him, I'll have your head on a platter.

He blocks my attack using Muramasa-Masamune's sheath. I quickly duck and avoid the sudden horizontal slash. "URGHH!" The masked man kicks me and forces me through the air. I manifest and throw several silver knives whilst in mid fall. The masked man arches his back and they all fly over him.

"Damn, I can't get a single hit in!" I painfully pull myself up. Shit! I'm surrounded by orbs. I don't have time to escape, I instinctively close my eyes.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! - I hear the orbs explode, why am I unharmed? I slowly open my eyes to see a Soul Anomaly disintegrating into the atmosphere. The masked man is also preoccupied fighting against several lion type Soul Anomalies.

"Are you all right, Yuichi-kun!?" Sempai calls, I see, she summoned several Anomalies to shield me from the blast. I give Sempai a quick nod. As I return my eyes to the masked man I notice the final Soul Anomaly disintegrating in an explosion. The masked man sheaths Muramasa-Masamune. Wait a second.

"You didn't sever any souls. How can you sheath Muramasa-Masamune!?" I interrogate.

"Muramasa-Masamune's so called curse is closer to the Soul Slayer's will." The masked man answers whilst shrugging his shoulders.

"What're you saying?" Sempai asks.

"Muramasa-Masamune's wish is to sever souls, and if the wielder doesn't give it what it wants, it consumes their soul instead. However, I took a different approach. If the curse is its will, then I simply dominate it. Force it to submit to me, rather than the other way around." The masked man explains.

"You're making no sense!" I scream as I charge towards him with my sword. Several orbs fly towards me.

"Master, get back!" A voice I recognise shouts, I follow its advice and jump backwards.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! - Several fireballs shoot out and collide with the orbs, that explode on collision.

Suddenly a lightning bolt rains down on to the masked man, but he guards using Muramasa-Masamune. Then Alicia appears charges in from behind him. "Die!" She shouts whilst slashing her scythe towards the masked man's neck.

Chapter 19B: United Front Against A Common Enemy – The Prodigy Appears (Perspective: Alicia)

"DIE!" I scream as I swing my scythe down on the masked man, who is still preoccupied from Gungnir-Mjölnir's lightning.

My scythe edges closer inch by inch towards the man's neck. It's over, there's no way he can avoid this.

CHING! - What!? My scythe is stopped dead by another scythe.

Standing there is a woman in her late teens with long cyan coloured hair, the fringe of which covers one of her eyes. She's wearing a dark robe with three embroideries, one is of an icicle pattern reaching up from her waist to her bust. The other two are the same cross shape pattern as the masked man, and are positioned on opposite sides just above the hem.

"It has been far too long, Alicia." Her voice greets coldly, I feel my face extort in anxiety. This girl is the prodigious Reaper who disappeared a few years back, the oldest daughter, and heir to the family of Thanatos.

"A Reaper!?" I hear Yuichi's voice from the sidelines. But this girl's no ordinary Reaper.

"What the hell are you doing here, Carrisa!?" I ask angrily, I never dreamed I would see her again in such a situation.

"Carrisa, if you wish to fight her, take it away from here." The masked man orders, as he continues to hold off Alma's lightning with Muramasa-Masamune.

"Understood." She agrees, as she grabs my wrist, "Connect." NO! She's forcefully teleporting us away from here. A bright light surrounds our bodies.

The next moment, I find myself in another part of the dimension, I can't see Yuichi and the others, only Carrisa is standing in front of me. She intends to fight me one on one.

"Why are you with that man, Carrisa?" I interrogate.

"A lot of things happened, but long story short, he defeated me in a game of chess when he originally died." Carrisa explains, "He's completely different from your boy who chose a luck based game and even cheated." What!? That man defeated a prodigy like Carrisa in a game of chess!?

"You abandoned the Underworld because of your loss!?"

"No, that man wanted me, so I became his." Carrisa admits without a hint of shame, to change her this much, just who is that man!? "Before I'm a Reaper, before I'm from Thanatos, before my loyalty to the Underworld, I'm that man's tool!" I can't believe the words I'm hearing. Is this really the same Carrisa I used to know?

Regardless, one thing is certain, she's an enemy.

"Which means I have no choice, let us battle, Carrisa Thanatos!" I point my scythe as I challenge the girl who I once admired.

"That's what I wanted to hear, Alicia. Show me your growth." She agrees as she spins her scythe in a circular motion.

I quickly create and shoot a fireball, Carrisa uses her scythe to slice it right down the centre and split it into two halves, that fly either side of her body, and off into the distance.

I quickly close the distance and swing my scythe horizontally. Ching! Carrisa blocks with her own scythe.

Ching! Ching! - We each wield our weapons, trying to get past the other's guard. Carrisa smiles as our blades fall into a deadlock, "You still have a lot to learn, Alicia."

"ARGGGHH!" I scream in agony as a jolt enters my body. "URGH!" Carrisa kicks me in the stomach, which sends me rolling backwards from the sheer force.

As I stagger to my feet I notice sparks of electricity running through Carrisa's scythe. "So that's where that shock came from. You ran your electricity through our scythes and into me." I analyse.

"Running your Reaper techniques through the air isn't always the most effective way, Alicia." She lectures with a smile, so rather than shooting it, she ran it through her weapon.

Which means even if I block her scythe, I'll still get electrocuted. I have to play this smartly. I charge at her again and swing my scythe, but before Carrisa can guard I shoot a water technique at her scythe. I'll have my water conduct her scythe's electricity and give her a shocking!

Carrisa nimbly dodges to the side, she read my attack.

"Nice idea, Alicia, but you'll have to try a bit better than that if you wish to hurt me." She mocks. I gnaw my teeth in frustration.

I throw my scythe into the air to free my hands, I then gather a ball of wind in one hand, and a fireball in the other. I throw the two elemental balls at Carrisa in an arc so that they will collide and combust when they reach her. However, Carrisa also gathers balls of fire and wind and throws them.

BOOM BOOM! - Her fireball collides with my wind ball and her wind ball collides with my fireball. She neutralised my elemental combination before they could even reach her. She then charges straight at me. My scythe is still in the air, so I'm unarmed.

"You shouldn't have let go of your weapon, Alicia!" She shouts as she readies her scythe.

I quickly conjure another ball of wind and shoot it at her, she dodges it, but it did delay her.

As her scythe edges towards me, I grab my own falling scythe and swing it in one motion, Ching! parrying her attack, but…

"URGHH!" Another electric shock. Blood seeps out of my mouth. It's no good, she's too strong.

Chapter 19C: United Front Against A Common Enemy – Versus The Masked Man

The masked man pushes the lightning bolt aside and then stares at the girl who was behind it, the weapon she's holding is the one Alicia talked about before, Gungnir-Mjölnir. He then turns to Wolfy, who is standing beside me, his fur is on end.

"Two Slayers, one Human Anomaly, and one mysterious Soul Anomaly. I believe it is time that I went all out." The masked man says to himself.

"Alma, how did you get here!?" Shiori-sempai asks.

"I followed, Alicia. She said she noticed Muramasa-Masamune in the distance, so we made a temporary ceasefire." She then turns towards me and Wolfy, her eyes are filled with killing intent "To be honest, I wish to extinguish you two right now. But I don't have time for that right now. So just this once, I'll work with you."

This girl's scary, in a way, probably more so than Vincent.

"Master, we need to keep our eyes in the game." Wolfy states.

"I wish I could, but I'm worried about Alicia, my instincts tell me she can't beat that other girl." I explain.

"All the more reason we defeat this guy now." Good call, Wolfy, as expected of my pet dog.

Wolfy suddenly launches a huge fireball. At the same time the girl known as Alma shoots a stream of electricity from her Soul Slayer. The masked man grabs the fireball with his bare hand and hurls it at the incoming electric attack. The two attacks cancel each other out.

Another lion Soul Anomaly attacks the masked man from behind, I create and launch several silver knives. The masked man quickly draws Muramasa-Masamune and swings the blade in an arc. A shock-wave deflects my silver knives and continues towards me.

"Urgh!" Despite diving to one side the edge of the shock-wave still caught my shoulder. Fresh blood flows out through my torn clothes.

At the same time, one of the masked man's orbs flies inside the lion's mouth and, BOOM! - Explodes. The lion's head is split in two, and comes clean off its body. The masked man once again sheaths Muramasa-Masamune.

"Logically speaking, no matter what, I will win. However, the longer the battle is drawn out, the higher the chance of uncertain variables appearing. Therefore." Most of the masked man's words make no sense to me. But the part about him winning regardless pisses me off.

I charge at him, I'm going to cleave his head off. The masked man doesn't move, he slowly closes his eyes.

"My soul is one that is of the unknown." Soul ID lyrics? His voice's tone hasn't changed, but his words makes me tremble in fear.

"Nothingness, empty and void." He continues.

"Wolfy this is going to get complicated, we'll handle him, go back up Alicia." I order. Wolfy quickly looks at me and nods before running off.

"I'm counting on you." I whisper to myself as I refocus on the masked man.

"Anger, love, happiness, fear and joy are mere words." Alma launches another lightning bolt. The masked man dodges effortlessly whilst still continuing his chant with his eyes closed.

"Take in pieces of others, and gain my illusionary completeness." A dark aura emanates from the masked man's body with his chant's closure.

From hearing his lyrics I start to understand his essence, but it's completely contradictory to how I thought Soul ID lyrics originally worked.

The first line 'His soul is of the unknown' means he doesn't understand himself. 'Nothingness, empty and void' he's like a hollow shell that has nothing within. 'Anger, love, happiness, fear and joy are mere words.' it means to him they bear no weight, they're words that have no emotion within them. 'Take in pieces of others, and gain illusionary completeness' This is the only line I don't understand.

The soul is the very nature of one's being, and yet his is 'unknown'. I remember an old saying 'people fear that of the unknown'. In that case, isn't this man's very existence an embodiment of fear?

Soul ID lyrics are meant to be the words used to acknowledge oneself to gain power. But he hasn't acknowledged himself, he doesn't understand himself at all. Putting aside that he's a Human Anomaly, it's like his very existence is a living contradiction.

"And now, I shall end this." The masked man declares, I quickly snap back to reality.

Alma launches another electric attack at the masked man. But in that instant, I suddenly feel a weird sensation, like my bearings have changed.

"ARGHHHHHHH!" I scream in agony, as I'm struck by Alma's attack.

"YUICHI-KUN!" Shiori-sempai shouts from atop of the eagle. Alma has a blank look, wondering what just happened.

I notice the masked man is standing where I previously was. Did he switch our positions? Some sort of teleportation? Is that his Soul Technique? Because it happened all of a sudden, I couldn't react quick enough to block the attack.

"LOOK OUT!" I shout to Alma. The masked man is standing where I previously was, in Alma's blind spot. Wind gathers around the masked man's hand and forms a blade that is several metres long. Reacting to my voice, Alma dodges the blade, that was inches from piercing her heart.

I punch my shaking legs to will them, that lightning really laid a number on me. Blood seeps out between my lips and some sort of blue steam is leaking out from my body. The masked man takes out some kind of vial,

"Your soul fragments may prove useful at a later date." He says as the blue steam is drawn into the vial, that he quickly seals. What's he planning on doing with that stuff!? Soul fragments?

"How dare you do that to Yuichi-kun!" Shiori-sempai shouts. Several Soul Anomalies suddenly appear, each one shoots out numerous fireballs.

The masked man creates more orbs, each one collides with a fireball, blocking every attack. Several more orbs fly at the Soul Anomalies and explode in their faces, disintegrating them.

Alma launches another lightning attack against the masked man. But he suddenly switches positions with Alma. Her attack hits nothing but air,

Wait, those are, "Get away from there!" I scream,

BOOM BOOM! - The orbs that the masked man planted before switching their positions explode on Alma at point blank. Alma, who didn't even have time to scream, falls bloodily to the ground.

"ALMA!" Shiori-sempai shouts in horror from the horrific sight.

The masked man without letting up, suddenly creates a huge dark sphere.

That sphere isn't a Reaper technique. Does he have another Soul Technique other than teleporting? I was told each Human Anomaly only has one. What's going on here? And what's he planning on doing with that thing!?

As if to answer my question, the dark sphere expands to about three metres in diameter, the masked man then throws it into the air.

"WHA!? I'm being pulled in!" Shiori-sempai shouts in shock. That sphere have some sort of gravitational pull!

"NOOO!" Shiori-sempai falls off her eagle and is dragged into the dark sphere. The masked man releases several of his explosive orbs that like Shiori-sempai, are attracted into the centre of the dark sphere.

"Shit, from within he's going to!?" I quickly send as much of my silver into the sphere as I can, please make it in time.

BOOOOOOM! - One huge explosion forcefully expands the sphere which dissipates. Shiori-sempai's limp body falls towards the ground head first. Ignoring the intensive pain coursing though my body, I dive with my arms stretched out, catching her. I cushion her fall with my body. Pulling this stunt should hurt badly, but I can't feel any more pain. I check Sempai's vitals. Good, she's alive, barely.

"You forced your silver into my gravity ball, and made her wear it like a suit of armour." The masked man analyses, "Well done keeping her alive."

"YOU! HOW COULD YO..." As I begin to release my frustrations, I notice a similar sensation as before, my body losing its bearings.

I quickly look around and see that we've switched positions again. He's holding Shiori-sempai in his arms. Not only that, he's left me with a deadly gift. I quickly manifest my silver as a suit of armour.

BOOM! - More of his orbs explode. My armour takes most of the shock, but I am still badly shaken. I fall to my knees, my legs have reached their limit. I stare powerlessly at the masked man, my vision distorts and blurs.

"Who are you? What are you after? Why can you use multiple Soul Techniques." I weakly ask.

The masked man takes Shiori-sempai's Soul Slayer and drops her unconscious body onto the floor, before turning to me. "Who I am is of no importance. I'm also unable to use multiple Soul Techniques, my ability is to imitate the Soul Techniques of others. Thanks to this, I have amassed a number of unique powers."

The power to use the power of others, so that's why.

"Theoretically speaking, during this battle, I also gained your ability of Silver Manifestation, there was just little reason for me to use it." The masked man explains in his usual tone "As for what I'm after. I want to find my emotions and become whole. Everything I do is to stimulate a way to draw out my own emotions. If I see something horrific will I be scared? if I find someone dear will I feel love? The current me that has only logic, cannot be called complete."

"Then why did you attack us?"

"I require Voynich-Caduceus for a future experiment that I believe will give me what I want. My work here is done, so I'll be taking me leave."

The masked man turns away and walks off, I can't stay awake any longer.

The floor cools my face as my mind falls into the depths of darkness.

Chapter 19D: United Front Against A Common Enemy – On Masters Orders (Perspective: Wolfy)

I run as fast as my legs can carry me. Master ordered me to assist Alicia-sama and I intend to do just that. My anxiety increases every second, please be safe.

I finally reach the two, Alicia-sama is on the floor, defeated. The other woman doesn't even have a scratch, was the difference in level this large? Master's intuition was right on the money.

"Farewell, Alicia." The woman says with a faint smile. Many dozens of flaming boulders begin to rain down towards her. I quickly shoot my fireballs and cover Alicia-sama with my body. The many fragments scratch my legs and body, but I won't let even a pebble hit my Master's fiancé.

"Wolfy!" Alicia-sama says in shock.

"Master ordered me to aid you. He was worried about you." I explain.

"Yuichi was?" Alicia-sama's face turns red. The two of you are truly meant for each other.

Someone else then suddenly walk onto the battlefield, it's the man wearing the mask, he's holding the staff Master's Sempai had, in his hand. The fact that he's here, did something happen to Master and the others!?

"Carrisa, we've achieved our objective, we're leaving." He orders.

"Understood." She nods then turns to us. "Pray that our paths don't cross again, Alicia." She smiles gently as her body slowly fades along with the masked man.

Alicia-sama forces herself to stand whilst using my body as support, "Let's get back to Yuichi." She says weakly.

Chapter 19E: United Front Against A Common Enemy – Epilogue And The Girl Left Behind (Perspective: Akane)

I was left outside the dimension, Alicia-san said that it was too dangerous for me, so I had to wait here. I eventually notice several familiar faces.

But they're all heavily injured. I run to them as fast as I can "Yuichi, Shiori-sempai!" They're both unconscious and are being carried on the backs of Wolfy and the other slayer. Alicia-san is also walking unsteadily. "Are you all okay?" I ask.

"Well, we're all alive at least." Alicia-san answers with a frustrated voice.

"Shiori needs medical attention so I'll be withdrawing for now." You look as if you need it as well, "But mark my words, Alicia. I shall settle the score with all of you soon." She states before running off, she might have looked cool if she wasn't running in the opposite direction from the hospital.

"We should leave too." Alicia-san says in a quiet voice. Just what on earth happened inside there?