The flight from Athens to Rome was just under 2 hours. We arrived at 10 a.m. local time. "According to the info, their HQ is in the Pantheon of all places" Selene said. "Then let's go" Senna said. We rode through the city in rented cars like tourists but we weren't tourists. We were immortal beings out to do violence. We stopped a block away from the building. "Sweet Jesus. How do they explain all that armor to the public?" Chris asked. "Who knows and who cares. Alright. What we need to do is shock and awe. We drop some level 4 spells on them. Try to take out the tanks first. We follow up with level 3 spells and work or way into the building. Your 4 are going to act as snipers. You do know light spells right?" Chen said. They nodded. Chen motioned them to fly to the rooftop for a better vantage.

"Who's going first?" Elise asked. "I will. I started all of this after all. Just give me one second to get ready" I said. I reached for my iPhone and thumbed through my music playlist. "What are you doing?" Selene asked. "I play music to get me in the mood. Helps with concentration" I replied. "Pick a good one then" she said. "I already have" I said. I pressed the screen and put the phone on speaker so everyone could hear it. Go Hard or Go Home by Wiz Khalifa filled our ears. They all began nodding their heads to the beat and I began invoking a spell. "The earth knows neither good nor evil. I am the arbiter of the rock. I am the decider of the dirt and dust! Level 4 earth spell Atlas Shrugged!" I yelled. The release of the spell created a localized earthquake centered around just this block. Just imagine a magnitude 7 earthquake only in your neighborhood.

The pavement cracked. Glass shattered around us. The tremors grew and resonated with each other. A tank tipped into a fissure. Another flipped over by a rock formation jutting from the ground. Men and women screamed as they fell into cracks leading to the sewers...or deeper. When the quake subsided Chen stepped up. "The heavens are endless and know no limits. I summon the icy north winds from them to grant me a boon. Freeze my enemies. Shatter their resolve! Blanket them in deathly white! Level 4 ice spell Leviathan!" she yelled. The clouds had been gathering since she first started. The thunder grew and then a terrible cold wind blew around us. It wasn't thunder we heard. It was a howl. A monstrous serpent 50 ft. long descended from the clouds made of solid ice. It raced for the ground. Some soldiers fired at it to no avail. It slammed into them and a blast of pure whiteness clouded them. We waited for a few seconds for it to pass.

"A tank is moving! It's aiming right at you!" one girl shouted down. "Shields!" Selene yelled. We threw up shields just as we heard a low thunk. A second later we all felt a shell slam into our shields. The force knocked us backwards. "We gotta take them out!" I yelled. Another shell hit the pavement just in front of us. They were pushing us back. "Not enough time to invoke another big spell" Selene said. "They're moving towards you!" a lookout yelled. Senna stood up and flexed her muscles. "Then I'll make the time. Haste!" she yelled snapping her fingers. Everything moved in slow motion around us. Sound was muffled and low. Smoke seemed to stand still in the air. "Quickly Selene!" Senna said. Selene nodded and dropped the shield she was reinforcing.

Selene ran forward. Her fingertips glowed. I went to shout for her to look out as I saw a muzzle flash from a tank. The shell flew through the air like it was thrown by hand. Selene easily dodged it and closed the distance. She touched it and then she ran to another and then another. The surviving soldiers not frozen to death slowly turned toward her with their guns but she was too fast. I realized what was happening around us. Time wasn't slowed down. We were sped up. She was gone for just three minutes but when she returned she was smiling like she won a marathon. "You can stop Senna" Selene said. Senna released the spell and everything returned to normal...until Selene snapped her fingers. 12 bright flashes came from where those tanks were. Then they were gone. "Delayed shrink spell" Selene said. "Why don't you be good girls and take care of those annoying machine guns" Chen yelled. Beams of light shot from the rooftops. One by one those gunners died. "Advance" Selene said.

We approached the first line. Selene had shrunk the tanks to the size of toy cars. Their crews even smaller. At that size it was like crushing a crab with your shoe. Bodies surrounded us. Ice and snow 3 inches thick. Some soldiers were flash frozen in the epicenter. Chris touched one and he shattered like glass as he pried his M181 out of his hands. The girls met us with us as we neared the doors. They were closed tight but a gravity spell ripped them wide open. One girl who was standing in front was our first casualty. A high powered rifle bullet tore through her forehead. Her brains scattered onto the snow and ice. I'd never seen Selene so angry. It frightened us all.

"Give it up! We have the advantage in numbers and firepower!" a man shouted. "NOW ASK ME HOW MANY FUCKS I GIVE ABOUT THAT! I am the terror of Uruk! I am the one who made men spill their son’s blood into the Euphrates in the effort to appease my wrath! I AM SELNE AND YOU ARE DEAD! SHRINK PULSE!" she screamed. The red glow that emanated from her condensed into an orb in her hands. She let it fly and the blast of light blinded us. We heard screams and gunshots and then nothing but tiny whimpering. Selene was the first to step in. She and shrunk them to just an inch high. They fired guns at us but not one bullet could penetrate our clothes or even our skin. Seeing that, one by one committed suicide rather than to have their souls consumed. Selene quickly stopped them though. A mind control spell kept them from moving. "Who was it? Who fired that shot that killed that child?" she asked. What little movement they still had they unconsciously turned to one man. She snatched him up with lightning speed.

"I'm going to swallow you whole but first a protection spell. This way it will take hours for you to die" she coldly said. He was surrounded by an aura of light and then she to see him into her mouth and swallowed. "Kill the rest" she said. We stomped them. Kicked them. Ate them. Dozens of soldiers became stains or food. Chris singled one out and ate her. Elise found one man and crushed him in segments. He had passed out just as her sandal ended his life. One young man screamed for mercy as I slowly lowered by sole down on him. I had no mercy today. Any other day but not today.

After all we had done we knew it was only the beginning. We could hear soldiers coming up the entryway in the back. Chris tossed as grenade down there and the explosion caused a tremor in the marble floor. We walked toward it. The bad part was the entranceway was a bottleneck. The good part was we could concentrate fire spells all the way down. Burn them and shrink them was how we got through. Like stepping on human shaped embers. Level two...

Grenades and flashbangs assaulted us. Grenades were no problem with our shields but flash bangs were different.   They could be more deadly than grenades to a soul eater. Booms and flashes of light filled our ears and strained our concentration. To lose ones concentration meant the collapse of our spells. That would leave us wide open. Elise touched the wall and it glowed. The glow followed a straight line down the hallway until it neared the closest group of guards. Blasts of stream erupted from the walls scalding them. She had heated the water pipes in the wall. As they screamed the girls fired fireballs at them. Their screams turned to shrieks and then all you heard was crackling of flesh. Level 2 was clear.

As we made it to level 3 though something changed. We couldn't see any soldiers. We knew there were more. Many more so where were they? A girl grabbed her ear and then her head jerked to the side. She fell to the floor. Belle ran over to her only to see her bleeding from her right ear. She was dead. Another girl giggled and felt her chest. A small pop came from her shirt as well as a puff of smoke. She fell forward dead on the floor. Her friend went over to her and turned her over. Somehow her heart was literally blown out. "STOP!" Senna yelled. She had stopped time. We were frozen in place except her. She found out what was attacking us and showed us what it was when she restarted time. We were speechless as she held 8 shrunken people in her hand. Each one no bigger than a tic tac.

"I didn't shrink them by the way. I found them hovering in the air or on our persons" she said. "How could they have been shrunken then?!" Selene asked. "I don't know. All I know is they were using explosives to kill us. One got in that girls ear and blew her brains out. The other put one over her heart. This bastard here was about to put one on Amanda's eye" Senna replied. "Who did this to you?!" Selene screamed. One man gave her the finger and then a small explosion went off in Senna's hand.  She cried out in pain. Her hand was torn up horribly. We all pitched in and helped her heal. Even with so many healing spells working together it took 10 minutes to fix her hand. 10 minutes the enemy probably used to regroup.

"Let's just say what we're all thinking. There's a soul eater down here and it ain't one of us" Elise said. "Impossible. All soul eaters are accounted for. We even know where they all are" Belle said. "Then how did they get shrunk?" Elise asked. "We need to clear this whole area out. I suspect our answer lies on the bottom floor" Chen said. "Well there's just one floor left before the bottom" Carolina said pointing to a fire escape map on the wall. "You good Senna?" Selene asked. "Does a lion shit in the savanna?" she asked flexing her new hand. And like that we were off down to level 4.

"They beat gremlin team?! Fucking let them have it!" a soldier yelled. A storm of bullets hit our shields. 40 mm grenades flew from launchers. Carolina held out her hand and then we heard tiny clicks. Hovering in the air were grenade pins. A chorus of explosions shattered their defensive perimeter. Selene and I smiled with pride. We advanced and picked them off one by one. There was so much to work with. Selene touched one young man and he gripped his heart. She shrank his heart in his chest to the point it exploded from blood pressure. Senna wanted payback and found three men falling back. A levitation spell stopped them and the. She shrank them down. She opened her mouth and they flew through the air right into it. She closed her mouth and swallowed.

Chen took over some of their minds and made them shoot their comrades. I...I just stuck to what worked and shrank them until they were no longer a threat. I squished them easily. Black really does cover up the color of blood. When we got nearer they took out femur blades and charged us. They were so close it was hard to hold a defense. One slashed Elise's arm and Chris blew him away in anger. Femur blades are by far the most dangerous personal weapon an Order member has. Magic resistant by nature and the psychological aspects don't help either. How would you react to somebody trying to stab you with a sharpened leg bone made from somebody you might've known?

I pushed then back with a wind spell. We fired lux spells at the. Since it was the fastest moving spells there is. They died quickly. Chris yelled behind me. We quickly turned to see bone protruding from his chest. He turned his body and we saw that one had flanked us. He stabbed my baby brother through the back! My heart raced and I could hear it in my ears. Power crackled from by very being. "BASTARD!" I yelled slamming him into a wall. He grinned and laughed. "One less soul eater" he said coughing blood. "HE'S HUMAN!" I screamed. I used a gravity spell on him without even thinking about it. His body pressed into the reinforced concrete. Bones cracked. Blood spewed from his mouth and nose. "Even worse. Species...traitor" he coughed out. I screamed and let off a pulse of gravity spell. It was so much the concrete shattered. His body exploded like a blood filled balloon.

"Chris!" Elise yelled running over to him. She yanked the foul thing out of him. My rage broke seeing my brother bleed out.  He was dying. "Heal him quickly!" Elise yelled. My hands shook as I healed him. We closed the wounds but we all could see his skin grow pale. He was still dying. "Why won't he get better?!" I yelled. "Selene, look at this" Senna said. Selene held the femur blade and scowled. "It's been enchanted! Gods above! It cuts souls!" Selene yelled. "He's dying because his soul was wounded!" Senna said. "Can't we do something?! My baby brother is dying!" I cried. Selene sighed. "There's one way. It hasn't been used in over a thousand years and is very dangerous" Selene said. "Anything please!" I yelled. "Take off your shirt quickly" she said. I took off my shirt and she placed her hand on my chest. She did this once before. She's...she going to touch my soul.

I saw her hand magically reach into my chest. I felt her squeeze my soul. I let out an almighty scream when she yanked it back. I breathed heavily and through wincing eyes saw a tiny ball of red smoky light. It was my soul or part of it. She shoved it into my brother who convulsed immediately. "Hold him!" Selene yelled. Chris foamed at the mouth. He was having seizures. Slowly his body calmed down. I started to pass out. Raf caught me before I fell to the floor.

"Well you're both alive so it worked" Selene said. "What did you do?" Raf asked. "An old technique long since done. Soul Graft. I used a piece of her soul to mend the wounded one in the boy. If it wasn't for the strength in her soul. She would have died" Selene said petting my hair. "Selene, we know of only one person who can create a weapon that can injure souls" Senna said. "He's dead Senna. We both know that" Selene said. Who were they talking about? There was no time to waste. We had to press forward. Fortunately, the more we walked the better we both felt. Chris was slightly jittery though. "My back itches" Chris said. "My soul itches" I said. "You win" Chris said smiling. I felt so happy seeing his smile. I came so close to losing it.

"Here we are. The final level" Raf said. There before us was a large iron door. It looked old and yet shone with an evil ebony malice. "What do you think is in there?" Elise asked. "One way to find out" I said. Since it was made of iron it was susceptible to a magnetic spell. I wrenched the door open. We immediately put up a gravity shield. That one girl who had survived it all stood in front of me. She was eager to fight. There was a cascade of intense light. She screamed. When we opened our eyes we were horrified to see her. Still standing briefly her skeleton charred black. Her flesh burned to ash. Her bones made tiny sounds as they fell onto the polished marble floor. It was a lux spell. A level 3 one to do this. Gravity shields are a great defense but gravity doesn't stop light. It bends it at best. 

"Pity, I hoped to kill more of you with that attack. I applaud you for getting this far though" a male voice said clapping. Our eyes followed his voice. There before a golden throne stood a young man dressed in white. He was in his late 20's by appearance. Golden hair and muscular. His face looked old European. "He's a soul eater. I can feel it" Chris muttered. "You have a human with you as well. You're all full of surprises" he said walking toward us. "Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE! YOU'RE DEAD!" Selene screamed. "You would know wouldn't you Selene and there's Senna! The centuries have been kind to you two" he said mockingly. "Maladictus!" Senna said gathering energy. "In the flesh" he said raising his hand. We readied spells to fight him but a pulse of light radiated from his hand. We found our moment frozen. At first we thought it was a Chronos spell but it wasn't. We saw him move. He had somehow stopped us from moving. Was it mind control?

"We saw you die" Selene said. "You thought you saw me die. You killed two cities in an effort to kill me. You almost did. Making Vesuvius erupt back in 79 A.D. caught me off-guard. I was entombed for almost two millennia because of that! His power grew and we were forced to our knees. "I had to shrink myself down to the size of a flea. Forced to eat them and drink their blood to survive. Fortunately I had a few souls to keep me going in my buried villa. Entombed in darkness for so long! I had nothing but time to plan my revenge! Oh do think I didn't try to forgive you all" he said.

"You were a threat to all! Your power could have brought destruction to the world!" Senna yelled. "Admit you were afraid of my power! I was the only soul eater in existence who had full mastery of soul spells! Like the one holding you in place now. I call it Soul Anchor" he said.   "You would have fed on the world if your evil plan of conquering the Roman Empire had come to fruition!" Selene said. "You were a blight on the world! On soul eaters! We were forced to make laws because of people like you! You should have been terminated as soon as we discovered your power!" Senna said. Maladictus fired a bolt spell at her striking her in the face. She howled in pain as it hit her eye. "Shut your Nubian mouth!" he yelled.

"These three soul eaters here are young to their power. They show their real ages on their faces" he said peering at us. "If you're a real soul eater then why ally yourselves with the Order!?" I yelled. "Cute child. Ah that's part of my revenge. When I was "recovered" in an archeological dig I found out about the Order. They were a loose rabble back then. No real military might. When they saw how much a wanted to kill soul eaters they agreed to my proposal of a partnership. I lead them and supply me with femur blades among other services and they give me their armies and weapons for my use. I was the one that formed that shrunken attack squad you defeated" he said. "We lost two good people to that!" Elise yelled. "I'm upset about it too. Upset they didn't kill you all" he sneered.  

"Speaking of killing, who should I start with? I think you. You look powerful. I've never met an Asian before. Do you bleed red? Let's find out" he said walking to Chen. "Leave her be! If you want vengeance then lay it on me!" Selene yelled. "Oh I'll kill you. Have patience. But I'm going to kill them and have you watch" he said as he touched Chen's forehead. Chen had tears in her eyes. She struggled, against the magic which held her. Her eyes flickered with power. Maladictus grinned evilly has a burst of light shot from his fingertips. It burned a hole right through her head. Chen crouched there until the magic hold left her body. She slumped to the floor dead. "If anyone is curious when her soul left her body my spell on her broke" he said.  "I'll fucking kill you" Senna hissed through her teeth. "You tried that remember. What did that get you?" he said walking over to Carolina. She was scared shitless.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!" Selene screamed. The man sneered at her. He held his hand over her. Carolina began shrinking. She didn't stop until she was around 3 inches tall. He picked her up and scrutinized her appearance. She flickered with magic energy but she was so new to magic there was no way for her to break his hold on her soul. "You look so delicious. I've been stuck with local cuisine for too long. Time for me to sample some new world delicacies" he said. A small gust of wind enveloped Carolina and began shredding her clothes.  They fell off her like threads of ribbon. We all could see how frightened she was hovering naked before this evil man. "Amber! Granny Selene! HELP ME!" the poor girl screamed. "Granny Selene? A blood relative? Oh this is going to be sweeter than I had imagined" Maladictus chuckled.

"NO! Let her go godammit!" Selene begged. He levitated her in such a way she was heading headfirst into his open mouth. She was screaming as he closed it. We could barely hear her muffled screams past his lips which were locked around her waist. Her bare legs kicked in the air. He slowly sucked her into his mouth as he stared at Selene. Selene was horrified speechless watching her descendant slowly disappear into his maw. Within a few seconds only her twitching bare feet were visible and then they too were gone. He moaned and smiled as he raped her with his tongue. "Jupiter above she tastes good. Her pussy alone is divine" he mumbled as he sucked on her. My mind was full of hatred and at the same time images of Carolina having fun with me. The memory of Selene telling me Carolina considered me her big sister. My breathing increased and became deep and ragged. I felt heat on my upper chest. A familiar energy began creeping into my very being. He stopped toying with her and pointed to his throat. "NO! NOOOOOO!" Selene screamed until he did what she feared; what we all feared. *GULP*

Selene just sobbed seeing him swallow her loved one. That heat I felt became red hot. I was oblivious to the fact my pendant, the one I always wore that stored my father's soul was glowing blush-red. "YOU FUCKING ANIMAL!" I screamed. I stood up. I stood up? I stood up! I dashed at him. "What? How can you...”

"Gravija Ventus!" I yelled punching him in the stomach. A gravity spell mixed with a wind one. A miracle is the only way to describe it. I punched him so hard her puked. Carolina was lying on the floor not moving. I picked her up and felt her still breathing. She hadn't succumbed to his madness. Everyone looked at me with awe. I was so far gone I just walked over to Chris like Maladictus wasn't in the room and not sprawled out over his fancy chair shaking and coughing. "Take care of her" I said. He nodded. I burst of power and his chair smashed against the wall. "You'll pay for that you little bitch!" he said. His hand glowed once more and I felt a tug on my very being. This time though I wasn't paralyzed. "Impossible....nobody can resist Soul Anchor!" he yelled. At that moment I realized why his spell wasn't working on me. I began laughing.

"What's so fucking funny!" he yelled. "I know the weakness to your spell. You can only target one spell inside your target. But what stands before you is someone who has two souls working in concert with one another" I said with another voice. "Your voice...that's not your original voice" he said worried. It was true. I wasn't speaking 

 right now. It was my father! "You are what the Order has feared since our creation. Oh how far they have fallen to ally themselves to the likes of you" dad said. He tried Soul Anchor once more. My body was paralyzed and he sneered. Then I felt myself taking control again and I was able to stand up. He balked at me. As Belle would say you could've heard a mouse piss on cotton in that room. "Not so brave against someone who can fight back are you?" I asked. "Upstart! I've been a practitioner of magic since before Rome was just a village of rabble!" he yelled. He fired off a lux spell and dodged it because he was aiming as he ranted. All I had to do was move out of the way he pointed.

I quick ice spell shot razor sharp hailstones his way. A wind spell deflected almost all of them except the one that cut his cheek. He was really pissed now. Good. I wanted him pissed. He charged at me with a glowing fist. I stepped to the side and he caught me in the face with his other fist. "HASTE!" I yelled. Time slowed and I sped up. The very second my feet hit the floor I ran toward him. He was still in mid stance from punching me. A fire spell mixed with wind spell slammed into that tender chest of his. He went flying. Everything returned to normal and he slammed into the wall. I spat out a tooth and felt my jaw was broken. I was fortunate. If he had more time to charge that gravity spell up I'd be missing a head. He coughed blood and sneezed at me.

"Now you've done it. Now you've pissed me off! All things die! All things turn to dust! Come forth mighty one and grant me power to smite those who oppose me! Level 4 soul spell Pluto's Wrath!" he yelled. The man rose into the air and red and black soul energy began to form around him. The form gave way to a hulking mass of energy shaped like a roman centurion 40 ft. tall. His head nearly touched the ceiling. Maladictus was its core. The spell gave souls physical form. The way the floor cracked under his feet proved that. He punched down and I jumped but he kicked and caught me. I flew across the room narrowly missing Senna and slammed into the wall. I felt broken ribs. My lung punctured. I fired off a quick lux spell only to see his soul armor just shrug it away. I found it hard to concentrate. I was healing myself but it would take minutes I didn't have to fully restore myself. "On my belt Amber" Senna said straining against the spell that held her. I looked and saw possible salvation. It was that enchanted femur blade! The weapon made to cut souls!

I picked it up and cast a spell to increase the size. I needed a sword right now. I felt my lung heal and I could breathe better. I stood back up. "No" he muttered and I ran toward him. God it hurt to move! I felt the knitting ribs wanting to break apart again. He tried to crush me with his palm. His reward was me stabbing his hand. He yelled in pain and jerked his hand back. "So you feel pain when your soul armor is damaged. Now for you to get owned" I said. I cast haste once more. This is what everyone there said they saw. They saw blurs of speed and slashes appear on his body. He tried swatting the air to no avail. He was so focused on that one spell it never occurred to him to drop it and try to haste himself to my speed. That shortsightedness will cost him. A deep slash across his chest caused him to fall. I dropped haste.

I was out of breath and starting to run low on energy. His armor evaporated around him. I heard movement behind me. His spell holding them broke! My friends were free! And God did they look pissed. "I won't lose here! I planned to long to lose to the likes of you! A bolt of lightning tore the air asunder and struck Maladictus. He howled.  "that was for Chen" Selene muttered. Maladictus stood up smoking and fire balls appeared around him. Shards of ice pierced his body. "That was for Diane who you callously vaporized" Elise hissed. The man still stood with all that damage. He yanked out icicles embedded in his body. The evil bastard still had energy to spare. We all could see him healing his wounds. Crazy as he was, he wasn't stupid. He knew he couldn't win now. He began glowing all over his body. "I will have my revenge one way or another! Annihilation is my art! Destruction is my craft! All who gaze upon my visage find only oblivion! Level 5 soul magic Soul Oblivion!" he screamed.

His glow intensified. "The bastard! He plans to kill us all with him! He's using all those souls in him to make himself a bomb!" Senna yelled. "I know! Every soul he's been storing for the last 100 years is an explosive waiting to go off!" Selene said.   "With that many souls in him he'll turn this city into a crater! Belle yelled. "Can we stop him?!" Elise yelled. Maladictus laughed. "No dear you can't! The slightest touch will set me off. What will you do? Attack me now and wipe out this entire complex or die at the end along with every other human in Rome?!" he yelled. Every second that ticked by meant the blast would be more powerful. We were screwed.

No, Amber don't think that way. Remember what dad taught you. When you have a problem you can't solve with normal logic then think outside the box. "We shrink him. Shrink him so small the blast won't hurt anyone" I said. "Will that work?" Belle asked. "It might! Shrink spells aren't considered attacks. They might not cause him to blow early!" Senna replied. "Fuck you waiting for then!? Shrink the fucker!" Chris yelled. All of us except Chris formed a circle around him. We each fired a shrink spell. It was hard. He was resisting us. Raf yelled and increased his spell. He began to get smaller. It was working! "Pour it on!" Selene yelled. Smaller and smaller he got. The man who was so sure of his victory was screaming for us to stop. "You can't! You can't beat your fate!" he yelled.

5 feet. 4 feet. 3. 2. One foot. We were running out of time. He was glowing like a small sun by the time he got to 5 inches. My hands trembled as I poured more power. Two inches. He needs to be smaller! Half inch! We kept shrinking him as he passed out of sight. A bright flash made us wince. The over pressure knocked us off our feet. We glanced at where he was. The marble was burned black and a small mushroom cloud 6 inches tall stood where he was. The tiniest nuclear blast in history and all it took was the most evil being who ever lived to make it.

We were beat. Raf hugged me tightly. "You are amazing chica. Anyone ever tell you that?" he asked. "Only the most important people in my life" I said kissing him. We wearily made our way out of the building. When we got to the surface we found ourselves surrounded. Italian armed forces along with the remnants of the Order were waiting for us. We couldn't fight them all. I knew the time had finally come to cast the spell I had worked on creating for 3 long years. The spell to change the world. "Everyone I need to   you to create a shield to protect us. I'm going to cast a spell" I said solemnly. "What? Amber you're running low on power like the rest of us! It would take level 5 spells to stop that many and I know you don't have that in you! None of us do!" Raf yelled. "I won't be casting a level 5 spell. This spell will be level 6" I said. A whistle of a rocket was in the air. Belle barely got a shield up to protect us. "There's no such thing as a level 6 spell!" Selene said. "Even if there was it'll kill you!" Senna yelled. "No! I'm not letting you die!" Raf said holding me. "Please or we'll all die. If you love me you'll let me do this" I said. Tears fell from his eyes as he let go of me. I began chanting the words...

"I call upon the day and the night. The day I give to my mother. The night I give to my father. The bloodline of ages past flows through many. Since time began we have walked beside our prey. Since time began we have mated with our prey. Let those who carry the bloodline awaken! Take the souls that need to be taken! Awaken the power that sleeps in the many! Cast off the visage of humanity! Awaken! Awaken! AWAKEN!" I screamed. As the last word erupted from my lips a pillar of light shot from me into the sky. Power bled from me and into the magic filling the sky. Small beams of light shot from the pillar and arched into the horizon in all directions. I felt my power wane. The spell was collapsing! I didn't have enough power. I felt someone hold my hand. Raf. It was Rafael. The spell powered up again. The strain was too much for him too. His nose bled. Elise held my other hand and the spell flared up once again.

One by one we all held our hands as the spell built to a crescendo. Only Selene held the shield but the weapon fire had receded. Everyone was in awe at what was happening. The pillar flashed so brightly it was like the sun had descended onto us. Then was gone. "Level 6 soul spell Soul Awakening complete" I muttered. Blood poured from my mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. I had used up too much energy. This was the end. We all collapsed even Chris. They approached his with guns drawn to kill us. A smart person would have shot us dead but then human curiosity got in the way. "Your spell failed. We're still alive" the company commander said. "The spell wasn't meant to destroy. It was meant to create" I muttered. "Create?" he asked. "I was once asked why there weren't many more soul eaters out there. I did the math after I gave my answer. I figured one in a thousand of the total population of humanity carries soul eater bloodlines and one in a thousand of that can be awoken. Doesn’t sound like much but do the math. 7000 soul eaters are going to awake any second. Can you kill so many? Or better still, don’t many of your Order carry soul eater bloodlines? Your families? Oh we’re about to get our answer already” I coughed out. 5 streaks of light descended from the sky. One struck a woman in the crowd of soldiers. Another a woman peering out of her office window. A man manning a .50 machine gun turret on a tank. And to the astonishment to our entire surviving group hit Chris.

“I feel strange. Ahhgh!” Chris yelled. His body convulsed like the others and we saw blue soul energy leave him. A red hue of soul eater energy surrounded him and the 4 others and settled into his body. “I feel…I feel good now. Very good” Chris said beginning to stand up. The commander raised a shaky hand and pointed his gun at him. He fired. The bullet stopped in pinged off something hard. It was a shield! My brother used magic! He…he was a soul eater. The soul graft spell must have given him my spark of power! “You guys out there. You want to die just because of what you are now? I can feel them you know? A side effect of my spell. An old man in Toronto dying of lung cancer just awoke. A 5 year old girl in Belfast abused by her father just awoke. A woman typing legal documents in New York just awoke. A 10 year boy in Tokyo playing PlayStation just awoke. I can feel them all. I can feel you all. That woman there was raped in basic training. You can punish him now, you have the power” I said pointing to the woman. Her old friends pointed their guns at her.

Panic set in. The man on the .50 was the first to act. He began firing into the crowd of soldiers. A bloodbath ensued. They turned on each other like rabid dogs. As my life ebbed away, I watched my legacy take hold. Chris, Raf, all of them shouted my name as I faded away. “Don’t die. Oh god don’t die! Don’t leave me all alone!” Raf pleaded. I couldn’t say a word. “Sis! Sis!” Chris screamed. “She stopped breathing!” Senna shouted. The last thing I felt there was warmth on my chest that radiated deep into my body. Vision faded away. Peace….

One year later…

“No rest for the wicked huh?” Raf asked me. “Not by a long shot. Nearly 7000 soul eaters were born that day and it’s been one thing after another” I replied. “Well be thankful you survived to deal with it all” he said. “Yes, you’re right. If it wasn’t for my dad’s soul retreating into me when it did id be worm food right now” I said holding that old pendant. The light had gone from it. It no longer shone like before. “I miss him Raf. I miss him so much. His soul is gone now. I can’t feel his warmth anymore” I said crying. “Oh honey. He’s not gone. As long as he’s in here and here, he will always be with you” Raf said pointing to my heart and head. “And this is why I married you” I said hugging him. “That and my good looks” he said. I heard small crying coming towards us. “Uncle Chris needs some help” Chris said holding my daughter. “She’s just hungry is all. Come here Anna” I said holding my daughter. I sat down on the bench and undid my breastfeeding pocket. “Shouldn’t you be looking in on Elise?” I asked. “She’s okay right now. Morning sickness is over for today” he replied.

“Heard from mom?” I asked. “Yeah she’s coming down to Amherst Academy next week to see where you teach” he said. “How many Academies are there now?” Raf asked. “11 come August. We’re scrambling to build more and even still trying to draft elders to teach there” I replied. “I was expecting a hysteria to break out” Raf said. “The Order doesn’t want that anymore than we did; what’s left of them anyway. Missing persons skyrocketed though. Things are tense but change is rarely easy” I said. “Spoken like a true mistress” Selene said walking up to me. “Selene! When did you get here?” I asked. “Not long ago. Had to round up some future students in Boston and New York. Since Amherst is just an hour or so away I decided to stop by. I see my namesake is doing well” Selene said. “Yes Anna Selene Coronado is doing just fine” I said smiling at my daughter nursing from my breast.

“Do you think she was born with the spark?” Selene asked. All eyes were on me. It was a lingering question since she was born 3 months prior. “I hope so. If not I plan to make every day with her seem like eternity” I said. I had brought our species back from extinction. For good or bad, the soul eaters will become major part of the future of humanity…

Amber Grayson. Soul eater, mistress, wife, and now mother has found out that the road to vengeance is not a straight and narrow one. It is a road with dips and curves that takes one to unplanned destinations and in her case led to a new life and not death. This has been an episode from The Size Zone