"The soul…
A transcendent spiritual manifestation of one's willpower and life force. At its base, the soul emits an aura-like energy that heightens the user's physical and mental capabilities.
The aura of your soul has a color, texture, and shape—a visual signature tied to personality and purpose.
But beyond raw amplification, the soul acts as a conduit of self, capable of being manipulated into energized attacks and constructs according to the user's will.
What makes the soul truly powerful—and truly dangerous—is its ability to fuse with Blessings and Curses alike.
Through this fusion, the soul doesn't change the effect of an ability, but instead redefines its form or delivery, allowing for unique techniques based on the user's inner identity.
For example: Juno's Signature move, Rebirth Shot, it's a special technique of hers that takes the form of a green, flaming arrow that—despite the flame—deals no burn damage. However, the attack still undergoes original effects—spontaneously converting physical matter into plants.
The flame arrow formed isn't through her Blessing, but through the usage of her soul.
Training one's soul—whether through meditation, battle, or emotional resolve—is the truest path you can take towards strength for your soul.
Those with indomitable willpower can eventually fight using only their soul, bypassing the need for Blessings or Curses entirely.
Understand??"
…..
July 26, 2088
In a bustling gold-plated city of many millions located far out beyond H.Q's visual range, the blazing hot summer sun rains down heat upon four of our Junior Guards—Juno, Olivia, K'yun, and Ex-Shin.
"Man! Thank Nova Yuri made these uniforms herself. These built-in ACs are soooo gooouud.." Ex groans blissfully.
"You got that right!" Olivia shouts from behind, walking next to Juno as the two of them begin to look at a video on Olivia's phone that Ex-Shin sent.
K'yun look towards his right at Ex then stares at the girls' reactions as they share expressions of amazement—then back at Ex-Shin. "What are they looking like that for?"
Shin chuckles with a small scratch behind the head, "It might be the video I sent them of yesterday and our encounter with those three losers, remember?".
Before Yun could even get a single word out for response…
"WHOAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Olivia screams, blowing Juno's Afro back for a moment. You could practically see stars forming in her eyes as she rushed towards both boys, stopping them in their tracks through the crowded streets, and grabbing each by a shoulder.
Violently, she shakes both Ex-Shin and K'yun. "Whyhaven'tyouguystoldmeyouweresostrong? Huhhhhhhh?? Speak up, will ya??!!" Olivia lets go of Yun and stares daggers at Ex, "Especially you Yamo..!!"
"Yikes," Juno whispers to K'yun. "You know Olivia's mad at Ex when she calls him 'Yamo'" Yun nods passionately in agreement, "Mmhmm".
After a while, Olivia shoves him away and crosses her arms, walking towards the others, the orange curls of her hair dangle from her two messy buns, "Whatever. Come on you guys, we gotta head to our destination already. You know what Miss Mari said.." She gently closes her eyes, mockingly and robotically speaks like Okira, her voice just as stern. "Meditation is da pureszt way you can increase strength in the soul.." Olivia stops mocking, "And then she gave us a whole lesson on our soul, GOD was that boring."
After sharing a laugh together, the team head towards the country side of the city where they meet the bottom of a mountain, right where a freshwater river flows viscously under a high scaling waterfall.
"We'reeeee hereeee!!" Olivia smiles brightly.
Ex raises an eyebrow, K'yun leans in and examines the area, meanwhile Juno frowns. "I hope you don't have high expectations for us to do what I think you want us to…".
Olivia's smile unknowingly grows larger, "Why of course!" attention drew towards her as she dramatically steps forward, poses and points at four conveniently placed rocks that sit right below the waterfall. "You see..we're going to meditate right under this waterfall! Fun, right?"
Everyone else shook their heads but Olivia didn't care. She forces the Juniors to take off their uniform vest and shirt, even if by means pulling the shirts off herself; Juno knows what that treatment feels like all too well.
Juno adjusts her bra along with Olivia before tying her large Afro into a ponytail that bounces against any forces upon it, and showcases her caramel-colored eyes.
K'yun is the first to seat himself under the waterfall, followed by Ex-Shin, Olivia and then Juno.
It was not long until they closed their eyes to begin meditation. Each of them rested their minds for hours and hours, feeling their soul increase in power—their body metaphorically feels heavier.
Eventually, evening shifts seamlessly to night, and meanwhile, the four Juniors stayed as still as a tree throughout the entire session. That is until Ex-Shin felt a disturbance in the air..
Opening his eyes, Ex spots everyone there except Olivia who sat next to him on his left. It was almost like a signal to K'yun and Juno as they themselves opened their eyes.
"Do any of you know where Olivia is?"
Juno and K'yun shake their heads no in unison.
"Weird…" Ex-Shin glances at Olivia's folded up shirt and vest still on the small boulders like everyone else's stuff.
"Maybe she went out for a walk?" Juno suggests, "Yeah. She could just be taking a break you know?" Yun adds on.
"She isn't. If Olivia went for a walk she would have texted us. And we would have heard her get up to take one, no?" Ex responds in quick succession.
"It's clear he's worried about his woman K'yun, poor guy, he must miss his lover soooo much already~" Juno teasingly giggles from the side. K'yun steps up to Ex and jokingly wraps his arm around Ex-Shin's shoulder with a cheeky smirk, "Don't even worry bro! We're gonna find your girlfriend soon"
"Can you guys shut it? Olivia isn't even my girlfriend.." Ex admits.
"Yet" Juno and Yun say in sync, "She's not your girlfriend..Yet"
Ex can't help but let out a burning sigh that flushes away his fluster, "Whatever.." he says with closed eyes.
Juno, along with K'yun change back into their uniform before throwing the shirt and vest of Ex-Shin's right at him. He looks upward to K'yun and Juno who are both ready to go, and Ex, who smiles at this, gets dressed and prepared to go as well.
Once done, the three of them stride forward from the waterfall and continue there. Before long, clouds had begun to split and so as the ground beneath.
"What now?" Ex Steams.
Ripping through the splitting clouds, five Angels descend like comets, they all quickly crash into the already cleaved ground, creating gusts of wind that blow back all of the trees around.
Unfazed, the three Juniors remain standing as the Angels all enter out the dust cloud.
ANGELS: From beyond the skies and stars, these beings come from a realm called Heaven. Heaven has three layers, each boundless in size. These layers are named rings, and angels are the ones who reside in the first ring. Almost always wearing golden wings that flutter in the non-existing wind and sometimes, slight armor of the same color; a breastplate.
"You three look POWERFUL!!" An Angel with long black hair and orange eyes spoke up, "Just what we were looking for, right boys?" She said as the rest of the Angels grinned, making way for one to say her name clearly. "Your timing couldn't be any more perfect, Lady Hatsu.."
After said, emerging from the soil..black iron-barred gates known as summoning gates spiral open a crimson-colored portal, allowing for three Fiends to step out coated in their forever gray skin.
FIENDS: Residing in the first of four circles of Hell..A counterpart to Heaven's Angels, these human lookalikes almost always don on gray colored skin and sharpened teeth. Each circle of Hell is boundless in size. Very similar to Heaven, it cannot be measured.
Because of the cracked surface, each of the three Fiends split up as they were stepping from the portal. Two, facing Ex-Shin and the others—one, wearing an Afro smaller than Juno's, faces the Angels.
"SHAO!!???" Lady Hatsu questions the man in front. "Hello, Lady Hatsu," Shao smiles, "Fancy seeing you here."
The two Fiends behind Shao facing the Juniors spoke up in blood chilling voices.
"Seems there's a party going on.." one of them in short, dark blue hair said.
"Can we kill these three yet, lord Shao?" Said the other one in scruffy black hair.
"Not yet ladies," Shao procrastinates "Before you go killing, why not team up with Lady Hatsu's Angel men, huh?"
Shao's followers roll their eyes, "Whatever you say, sir…"
BOOM!!
The four Angels and two Fiends rush at our Juniors.
"Welp!!" Ex-Shin stretches forward, "Time to let out some steam!"
Ex runs through the rushing mob, carrying one of the Fiends and an Angel with him elsewhere as the remaining head towards Juno and K'yun; Juno handles a Fiend and Angel herself while Yun is pursued by both of the Angels left.
K'yun activates his Rock Skin ability, "40% to start.." he says as the Angels come in close. With an initial clash of Yun blocking the Angels' incoming attacks, they break apart slightly; a heavy hook to one of the Angels causes him to stumble back as the next attempts to follow up with a flying knee.
It fails as Yun steps to the side and grabs the Angel he had stumbled, throwing the being into a rock wall, K'yun tackles him through, knocking down both Angels.
Though wounded, the Angels aren't sloppy. They roll out the way from Yun's ground shaking stomp and rush in again.
"Your men seem to be having trouble with that rock-wielding boy.." Shao chuckles.
"Oh yeah," Hatsu is quick to rebuttal, "And your women don't seem to be doing much better..look at that girl and that boy over there."
Shao takes a peak and to his surprise, he sees how the match against Ex and Juno is unfolding.
Juno gracefully ducks under the Fiend's roundhouse, parry the Angel's two straight punches while popping him the chin with her left elbow. Mid animation, she delivers a right uppercut to the Fiend's jaw, forcing her upwards for a brief second before pulling the being back down into a nose crushing knee that sends her flying back.
The Angel tries again going for Juno but she holds him back, his legs trapped by layered grass. And before he knew it, Juno dropkicks him into the Fiend as the two of them volley through several trees…
With Ex-Shin, despite being right handed, stands in southpaw style. He slides under the Fiend's legs and delivers a powerful shot to her spine, blowing her through the air and into the soaring Angel in which he catches her before blasting at Ex with sound breaking speeds, attempting to crash through this body.
Ex-Shin playfully spins from the first—
Side steps the second—
jumps the third—And limbos the fourth.
The Fiend leaps back into action as Ex continues dodging the Angel's useless attempts.
He slides pasts the fifth—
And for the sixth, his feet stay stationary, weaving it, he smiles and repeats this for the seventh—eighth—and ninth time.
The Fiend closes up behind as the Angel bulldozes from the front—and for the tenth, Ex leaps in a mid-air split and winks at the Angel. After doing so he palms the back of his head and drives the Angel's head face first into the dirt causing a crater to form beneath that rumbles the area around, the Fiend stops in her tracks as she regains footing.
The Fiend spots the Angel's body driven into the pavement. "Well, he's dead," she sighs.
…
Back to K'yun, his punch roars through one of the Angel's guards, smacking him right in the temple. "Let's take this up a notch, huh?" Yun grins. His body undergoes total 100% Rock Skin—Yun's seven layers of skin morph into that of protective armor plates. Meanwhile, the Angels each send a barrage of punches to K'yun's chest. Unfortunately, none actually struck true into hurting K'yun. After a few long seconds, he tightly grips both of the Angels' heads and smashes them together effortlessly. Their bodies drop in a loud thud.
Yun looks at Lady Hatsu and Lord Shao; he pays them no mind but still glares as he strides powerfully to where Ex-Shin is.
To Juno, she cocks back her fist and sends a killer blow to the Angel's neck, crushing it entirely and killing him on the spot. The Fiend leans in and swipes at Juno.
She dodges left, steps right, pops the Fiend's nose with a jab, and finally roundhouses the Fiend's head, knocking her tons of meters back. So far in fact, that she collides with the other Fiend who was fighting Ex-Shin.
"Oh?" Ex-Shin grins mischievously, the two lady Fiends rub their heads in pain.
"WATCH IT KIRIU" growled the one in scruffy black hair that was fighting Ex. "Well, I just think that you should've caught me, Kiriko", Kiriu snarls.
"Well I don't give a shit about that NOW Kiriu…look in front of us"
Standing above the twins, Ex-Shin, chuckling menacingly at them. "I'll tell you two what," he begins, "Since I'm feeling nice today, I won't kill you two..however I can't say the same for your boss. Now you should run along."
The two sisters nodded and began to head towards Lord Shao where they sat next to the waterfall and relaxed.
"What are you two doing??" Lord Shao ask
"What does it look like..?" Kiriko replies.
Shao smirks and says, "So I assume you took care of those kids?"
Before anyone else could speak up, Ex shouted from afar. "Hey! Dumb and dumber," he points at Shao and Hatsu, "It's about time for your asses to get beat to a pulp..!!"
Shao laughs uncontrollably, "Bravo to you three, especially for making my ladies both jump out of commission. I applaud you. Wouldn't you say, Lady Hatsu?
"Yes indeed Lord Shao, seems like we need to show where being cocky gets them, yes?"
Shao smiles, "Right about that."
In an instant, the air around Lady Hatsu drops to freezing temperatures as she wraps both herself and lord Shao in an ice tight cocoon. Then, not even a second later they break out forcefully together in sync.
Lady Hatsu, once before a normal looking Angel, she now coats herself in ice to become more than she once was. Her golden feathery wings covered by ice spikes, her clothes shift into battle gear made of ice as well.
And Lord Shao. With no wings beforehand, the ice forms a pair of strong gliders on Shao's back while clamping down little amounts of armor on him.
The duo rise taller, striking about 8 feet in height. "I forgot how good it feels to use your Power Lady Hatsu…now let's have some fun! Like the old days."
Simultaneously, the two beings rush at K'yun, Juno, and Ex-Shin in a zigzag pattern.
Juno intercepts Hatsu, dragging them past Kiriu and Kiriko in a blur. Meanwhile, Ex-Shin and K'yun stop Shao right in his tracks.
Ex connects a right to the ribs but it has no effect. Yun then follows up with a hard front kick to Shao's chest—he tanks it as Shao goes on the offensive.
He misses a swipe at Ex neck, a hard left aiming at K'yun's torso, then a sweep; the Juniors hop over with ease. As soon as their feet touched the ground, Shao instantly launched ice spikes from the ground chasing both.
K'yun surfs the ground while Ex-Shin backpedals with speed. "I wonder how Juno's doing.." they both thought.
Juno dragged Hatsu unknowingly into a cave that was behind the waterfall, she gracefully lands but Hatsu does not, hitting her forehead on a boulder while on her way down.
Lady Hatsu immediately chills the rocks around, attempting to trap Juno's feet. However, Juno is faster, she grows a spring out of vines and leap towards Hatsu who weaves ice into fine blade before slashing at Juno horizontally. Juno spins mid-air to avoid any damage, also sliding under Hatsu's legs when she lands, Juno kicks Hatsu but she blocks with her sword, still getting sent back a few feet.
In almost no time, vines wrap tightly around the forearms of Juno as a thicker coat layers on, forming heavyweight gauntlets that dons tree bark on its knuckles.
Lady Hatsu and Juno clash! The pressure shakes the surrounding earth. Hatsu pulls back and tries to take Juno's arm off with a single slash. The blade didn't even graze Juno. Instead, she uppercuts Hatsu's sharp edge, digging it through the cave ceiling.
Synchronized, both ladies sigh.
…
Trapped deep underground, in a specific space where Olivia lies there, propped up by a fleshy substance, covering her limbs.
"It's soooo colddd down here…I have no shirt, and I don't know who could've kidnapped me" Olivia puffs, "What a drag…" without effort, Olivia rips the fleshy material from her legs and arms, freeing herself.
Grunting, Olivia adjusts her bra. "Good thing there's some sort of clothes I have with my blessing.." she summons a white chest piece of armor that gives her long sleeves of comfortable black underclothing. "That's better." She sighs
Olivia cautiously walks towards an entrance to a nearby tunnel, illuminated by shiny ores, it seems to head up—the surface.
Curiously, Olivia shrugs and begins her way down the tunnel. "Really, I must know who did this, because…no traps? No..show up while I was trapped? And this tunnel is mysteriously convenient, especially since I think it leads to the surface." At the end of the tunnel lies a staircase leading up. "Just as I thought" Olivia catches a glimpse of the Sun's direct light—looks right, then looks left before lunging up the stairs.
To Olivia's shock, the raw rays of sunlight hit her face as she surfaces back to the gold plated city where she arrived earlier along with Juno, K'yun, and Ex-Shin.
"I'm back here..?"
Olivia stumbles onto a plain grass field; she spots it..and it spots her.
…
GREAT ANGELS: Angels…as deadly as they are now—almost none of them compare in power to Great Angels. In fact, over 80% of Angels struggle in combat against these Cybernetically enhanced beings rise at a minimum of 7 feet.
Their wings become razor sharp copies of feathers made up of a Heavenly metal alloy, and their body doubles as a weapon as well, carrying modified functions in addition to the Angel's power.
…
Lady Hatsu and Juno both crash out of the cave.
Juno stumbles, but with the help of using her gauntlets, lands with grace next to Yun and Ex. Meanwhile, Lady Hastu smacked Lord Shao upon her landing.
SMASH!!
"Ooooooo….yikes!" Kiriu and Kirik wince.
"Nice landing Juno!" Said Ex-Shin as K'yun in the back nodded with a thumbs up, "Very good."
When suddenly, Shao comes charging in with an overhead swing that threatens our Juniors. Ex-Shin swiftly redirects the attack and lands a devastating blow to Shao's sternum, forcing cracks to appear as Ex whispers the word, "Shatter".
…
Shatter: An ability made from his curse…Shatter allows Ex to send his destructive "energy" through a target, causing them (or it) to be broken down rapidly and eventually, shattered like glass
…
The impact from Ex sent Shao barreling past Hatsu in a blur. Nonetheless, he recovers quickly—now speeding alongside Lady Hatsu, "You BRATS!!" Lord Shao yells. He finally uses his power and amps up the ice he wears with blood. Drawing a scarlet color on the ice he produces.
Ex-Shin peeps at Yun and Juno who are on his left, winking, Ex also throws a thumbs up and smiles at them before changing in at the icy beings.
Ex slides under Hatsu's legs—two jumping roundhouse kicks send her right at Juno and K'yun. They prepare: Juno lets her tied up hair go, exposing the titanic afro covering her eyes. K'yun manipulates the rock around him to form a sleek, one handed battle axe made of a mix of glowing ores.
Simultaneously, Lady Hatsu regains her footing just in time.
Summoning two blades of ice, she slashed the air..and as she did, visible waves of ice materialized into slashes. This all happened in an instant, but Hatsu doesn't stop there, she continues cleaving air around, sending nonstop waves of projectile slashes.
K'yun lunges in carefully, and Juno does the same.
Yun puts up an earth wall to block some of the slashes and boots it forward, hot on its tail, K'yun then slips under the incoming horizontal that goes through his wall like butter.
After, Yun hops over another, slams a few down with his axe and keeps that momentum as he spins on his side almost uncontrollably while airborne, deflecting and shattering the slashes upon impact.
Juno cartwheels in between two projectiles, rolls past another few, front handsprings over more of them with her gauntlets and finally, slams her hands down to create a dome made of bark in which she purposely falls out of; Juno launches the ball with her leg at sound breaking speeds, right at Lady Hatsu who stops what she's doing and maneuvers out the way while the sphere travels behind her towards Ex and Shao.
Ex-shin, from afar, sees the ball heading towards them.
He slips past a straight, performs a backwards high kick to redirect the Shao's overhand to kiss the ground before immediately using his other free leg to smack Shao in the temple.
Ex steps to the side and allows the boulder of wood to pass him, breaking on contact, Shao flinches forward as the ball hits him right in the spine.
Ex-Shin doesn't even let Shao recover, he pulls the Fiend into an elbow that crushes his intestines. Followed by an uppercut to the ribs, causing a wobble from Shao.
Next, Ex lands a leg kick that spirals Shao to take a knee—he hooks the jaw, jabs the face twice, then uppercuts. Shin continues by chopping the neck, hammer fisting the shoulder blade, elbowing that same place, and palming the chest three times, letting Shao rest until..he doesn't pulling Shao in by the wrist for another combo string.
Finally, Shin forces Shao to kiss his elbow upon arrival, snapping his neck back. Shao stumbles, meanwhile Ex stances in southpaw signaling Shao to come at him. And he does so, just to instantly get perception blitzed; Two jabs, a cross, uppercut, and a down overhand into a body bash drags Shao only inches away.
Ex-Shin blocks Shao's backhand with a knee, smacks his incoming hammer fist, hops over the sweep, dodges right while spinning towards the left before striking Shao cleanly in the liver.
"Shatter.." Ex whispers.
Shao steps back, holding his side in pain.
"How are you humans so strong, huh?" Shao laughs, his irritation builds up into a smile before vanishing from Ex's sight, then reappearing in that same moment, swiping at Ex-Shin with lethal amounts of force.
Shao goes for Shin's neck with a wind cleaving strike from his nails. Ex leans away without sweat. And after blocking Shao's high and low, Ex-shin widens both his Lord Shao's stance by pairing his foot next to Shao's and then sliding against the ground with it. Standing off, parties raise their arms in defense as each stance overlaps. Lord Shao unknowingly drips with sweat.
"You just don't seem to get it, do you?" Ex-Shin smirks before slapping Shao's hand away and over-handing his jaw.
This staggers Shao as Ex doesn't allow recovery. He charges in with a gazelle punch to Shao's lower ribs and the Fiend can't do anything but get hit with it.
"You and that lady aren't just fighting any set of Junior Guards right now.."
Shao then inhales Ex-Shin's strong jab to the body, a left to the kidney, and a right aiming towards his throat. Shao tries striking back, but that just leads to Ex casually stepping back and countering with a swift one-inch punch before continuing the combo.
Shin runs up and knees the chest. Going back in, Shao swipes at Ex but he counters, elbowing the forearm while using shatter then clocking Shao from the right with a hook followed by a left. Shin kicks Shao's leg twice, causing him to take a knee before drop kicking him across the ground, skipping him through the dense rock and forcing him to slide to a stop where Lady Hatsu also appears sliding on her back.
Shin, Yun, and Juno all stomp on the beings' chest. Yun plants the axe, Ex crosses his arms, and a light of green flames travel on the backside of Juno's arm in the shape of an arrow as she pulls back.
"You see…you're dealing with the Juniors Guard's finest trio: Chaos Incarnate!!" Ex-Shin winks, pressing harder on Shao's body, "Juno…" he gazes to his side.
With a heavy exhale escaping her lungs, Juno breathes, "Here goes….REBIRTH SHOT"
Juno lets go of the arrow formed—the green flame engulfs the three in a blazing pillar harmless to them all. However, lord Shao and Lady Hatsu dematerialize into weightless pollen, forever becoming one with the wind.
Kiriu and Kiriko, the twin sisters who were both under Lord Shao's command, are now staring at the aftermath of the fight, watching as the tiny specks of pollen disappear from sight.
"Did you get that, Kiriu?"
"Yeah..recorded the whole thing. Talk about entertainment."
The juniors begin heading towards the city again in search of Olivia. Meanwhile, the twins trail right behind, causing a sudden axe blade from K'Yun to get pointed at them.
"Whoa man! Chill.." Kiriko says with her hands up.
"What are you two doing?" Juno asks.
"Well…" Kiriko starts before her sister interrupts "We were hoping to hang around with you guys since we have nothing else better to do.."
"Hell no." A blunt answer from K'yun shifts the air, "I'm not taking any chances with two people that tried to kill us already."
"Look, we know it's suspicious coming up to you guys and acting like this. But we're not much different from you humans, you know, believe it or not, we were human before turning into these Fiends. You know, most people that die either go to heaven or hell. Hell is not only total corruption and enteral torture, majority of us get transformed into these beings." Kiriko explained, "just..let us come with. Promise we won't backstab"
Ex cuts through, "Why not" he shrugs, "I get where the golem is coming from. You two should be the last ones asking to come with at this moment. But then again…if what you say is true then I don't see a problem." Shin closes in on their face, "But get this..if I sense that you even have a little chance of backstabbing us..I will kill you…M'kayyy?" The facial expression from Ex-Shin could be compared to that of a demon's by how unhinged his smile was. Yet, his words still spoke out casually as if this was normal.
It wasn't long before Ex stepped away and continued walking towards the city along with K'yun, Juno, Kiriu, and Kiriko. Their journey to find Olivia awaits!