Zack snapped out of his trance at Solgrave's sudden distraction; his grip loosened, allowing Solgrave to reclaim his emotional keyboard.
"I lost," Zack admitted, revealing his secret. "I have an option to undo the attack from my father's sword." He explained how he could imagine, materialize, and then have the ability to cut anything, while also having the option to undo the cut—albeit with a far higher cost for cooldown.
Psycho's head kept inflating, filling with expectations, until Zack casually tossed him the sword, revealing it was on a cooldown for a month. And no, time magic can't speed up the process, as it works on a unique internal clock akin to a standard clock in the mortal realm. They had to wait for a mortal month to pass without any magic shenanigans for the sword to attack once again.
Solgrave was happy to see Psycho deflate—for more than one reason—and was about to claim it to be still useful, until Zack claimed he had to be in direct contact for the sword to work, and also be the one to visualize what to cut. Not to mention that he had to know the exact scope of what he's cutting, otherwise, he would waste the single charge, which in normal circumstances—when he doesn't undo the strike—will only be available one unmagical day later.
"Restrictions. Should've guessed." Solgrave scoffed, looking down on Zack and all four of his parents.
"For a kid who already managed to cut through Concepts," Azrith countered with a smirk. "Not so much."
Zack wanted to mention he couldn't reenact the miracle on a whim, yet stayed silent, not wanting to lose the sisters' attention. Or, you know, revert their hungry gazes onto Solgrave. "My generation's imagination is off the charts." He lied to everyone, including himself, almost making it into his new reality.
"No wonder," Lux agreed. "It took us a while to be present in two realities at once."
"I've kinda always lived a double life." Zack winced, the memory losing control and leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth. "That's why I am unable to make three clones. Two is way too familiar."
"The more, the merrier," Pinky cheered. "I don't know what that means, though."
"Stop storing half-knowledge," Barbie sighed, slapping Pinky at the back of her head and popping out the memory.
"Ahem! Shield?" Solgrave cuts in. "And anything else about the sword."
"Some secrets aren't worth sharing," Zack smirked.
"Only works around you, and you don't know its entire functionality either. Gotcha!" Solgrave smiled, taunting and gazing at Zack's fragile emotions to confirm his theory.
"You know I can one-shot you with my sword, right?!"
"Ah!" Solgrave's smile grew into a grin. "A strike that can bypass concepts and barriers in between, lock onto the target, and surpass the immortality clause." He deliberately spoke aloud, revealing the artifact's hidden mechanics.
"Damn this Auto!" Zack switched it off.
By now, Solgrave's smile almost split his face in half, yet he kept forcing it to go wider. "So easy," he claimed, reading Zack's every move. "Everything and everyone has a loophole. A clause, for everyone else to exploit."
Zack reached for the sword in his core and said with a deadpan expression, "Have you figured out mine?" The sword materialized in the real world, humming with power.
Psycho gasped. "How did he surpass the one-month timer?" He said, taking a step back.
"If we are done here, it's time for us to go." Solgrave clasped his hands, casually walking away. "I've got a lot on my plate, unlike someone." He rolled his eyes.
"But there was no hint of lying." The sisters claimed, not registering Solgrave's retreat, while everyone nodded in agreement.
"Slot." Pinky shrugged, her dismissiveness revealing Zack's bluff.
"Ah, ahh!" Solgrave clicked his shoes together and turned around with confidence. "As the team leader—" a cough from Lux made him correct his designation. "—your sponsor, I—" this time Azrith coughed. "—we, would need—" he stopped and glared at Psycho before he could cough. "No more coughing." He warned everyone. "Working as a team, we need to know each other's specialties. For team building and whatnot."
Zack took the opportunity and slip of tongue to pressure their sponsor. "What's yours?" He asks.
"Warden." Solgrave shocked Zack into stunned silence.
Needless to say, a god imprisoning another god is damn impressive.
"How the 'F' does that work!"
"You'll be out on a mission soon." Solgrave deliberately yawned, showing off. "But, in short, you locate a broken soul, investigate, touch their true core, then summon me. Which, by the by, is hard to ask." He glared at Lux. "Touch and summon, that's all. Fighting until they give up on life is my part."
"Suicide!" Zack's heartbeat switched on his emotions without warning. "How's—how!" He stammered out.
"Some fights go on for ages, a few need trickery, while most die to a thousand years of torture. It's always case by case. No two broken souls are the same." Solgrave shrugged as if it were a typical day's work. "You might last a decade—a century at most." He addressed Zack.
Lux invaded Zack's core to switch off his emotions, helping him ask something they had never dared. "How many prisoners do you have?"
"Let's just say I am the only warden in this known universe," Solgrave flexed, but his mood soon slipped into grimness, affecting their surroundings as well. The lights in the room scurried away as if they were living creatures, as if a hunter had arrived. "One less than I'd like."
"Someone escaped?" Lux tuned out the sound, too scared to listen.
Solgrave clutched his fist, space distorting and breaking under the pressure. Azrith and Virith stepped in front of the group, their flames shielding and containing the miniature black hole about to be born by the collapse in space and time.
"Someone very dangerous," Azrith explained telepathically.
"That's the reason why we are here, too," Virith said. "We need you, and every other soul hunter, to track someone down."
"I don't—"
Azrith stopped Zack before he questioned Solgrave's power and got thrown into prison. "Ten times stronger than Solgrave. And yes, the one we are looking for is also." She clarified. "And no, ten times doesn't mean ten of his caliber can win. We need about a hundred million of him to make the other party rethink their blazen approach."
"What the actual Fuck!" Zack's outburst dismissed the gloomy weather encompassing the room. "All of you need a serious lesson in math." He spat out.
DJ conjured a napkin to clean himself. "No, you fool, it's ten times down, and down you go. Ten Flicker to an Echo, ten Wisp—which is you—to a Vessel, with outliers like Artifacts crapping all over our existence."
Zack turned to Azrith, baffled. "You're here for me-- for my artifact." He realizes. "Which is beyond Voidborn." The room's temperature rose. "You never cared about this division, or any other."
"Relax!" Solgrave's heavy voice froze the room in an instant. "A tool is only as useful as its wielder, and with its restrictions—you! It's not worthy enough to be designated as Flicker."
Zack would've loved to retort, reminding Solgrave his mortality was a single slash away—that's if he wasn't frozen in the real world, and in his core.
Four arrows—similar to a monitor mouse's cursor—appeared over the group, moving back and forth, indicating a clicking option.
"Teamwork!?" Azrith guessed, as Zack flickered his eyes vigorously, telling her she was right.
"Y and Z divisions were killed, while X barely managed to survive during your last mission." Virith snorted. "Which was which grade again!?"
Zack manifested a huge question mark above his head, the memories fuzzy and morphed so many times they made no sense.
Furious, Azrith's hair turned into a sapphire-blue snake made out of pure flames; its presence was enough to melt, evaporate, and singe the group red.
Everyone was quick to turn off their pain sensors, with only Zack screaming for a minute before he realized. Still, standing there talking casually as his flesh burnt away was weird and traumatizing, the only solace lying with the power to reform his body on a whim.
On second thought, yeah, he could easily trample a million mortals, even if every single one of them were the strongest earth had to offer, with the desire not to waste time and resources on such low life-forms being the only thing holding him back.
Willpower is the ultimate winning factor, so maybe finding a hundred million Solgraves might make the escaped prisoner choose the confines of a cell!
"Say, is there a way to find that many clowns as Solgrave?" Zack asked, genuinely curious.
"Clowns?"
"Broken Souls – Sani users," Zack explained.
Zack was knocked out cold—which, for a "Clown such as Zack," meant being trapped in the void, deprived of all their senses—for the rest of their conversation.
Lux raised his hand, scared of getting trapped himself after his next revelation. "His artifact can lighten your burden." He said after much deliberation.
"Too many variables," Azrith said while looking at Solgrave, who finally seemed to regain his posture.
"So close to the frontlines, yet so far." Solgrave looked disappointed at everyone—even the sisters. "All of you had frontline seats while the brat made his core, right?" He glared at Lux's group, who twitched slightly in response. "And you both, the signature." He received similar twitches from the sisters. "Did you notice him making slots?" The group struggled to shake their heads sideways. "That's because he didn't make any. Busy protecting his memories—humanity. Pathetic." He spat, later taking a huge breath to calm down. "That glow around the sword was from a hastily formed slot, if I had to guess, one that enhances attributes. Similar to the ones that make you'lot superhuman."
Solgrave snapped his fingers, dragging Zack back into the conversation to confirm his suspicions, then promptly sent him back to the continuum.
"Isn't there any other way?" Lux asked, knowing their sponsor always had a plan.
Solgrave survived the passage of time for a reason after all, and turns out, the reason was simplicity itself. And quite anti-climactic.
"Time," Solgrave said, unbothered. "The one time we immortals have in abundance. He might not be the solution now, but in time, he shall become one. Or we make him into one." He turned to Psycho with a psychotic gleam in his eyes. "Break him." He commanded. "Beyond humanity!"
———<>||<>——— End of Chapter Nineteen. ———<>||<>———