Soul - The Shadow of Fear

The Last Reunion

Martin could not say it. Every time he tried to ask Soul why he was burning the world for achieving his goal, the vision of his death came back in his mind. The vision which was haunting him from all this time, his biggest fear, had become the reality. Now Soul was about to die. It didn't matter whether he was right or wrong at this moment, he had taught Martin everything he could be proud of. Should he question him on his ethics and his actions at a time like this? He could not decide. If this was like an energy leak, then time must be slipping from his hands with every passing second. Now what should he do? Before he could answer himself, Soul did that for him.

"Don't hesitate Martin." He said. "The Truth wants to come to you, would you reject it and be imprisoned in the cage of futile thoughts of hesitations? Accept the reality, and act accordingly."

'Right.' He thought. 'I should accept the reality. That's what he has taught me before. I will help him in saving the world, and for that, I need to clear my mind of all the doubts and questions.'

"SOUL..." He said. "I have so much to ask, but I don't have the words to ask. You know what is troubling me, and you know what I am thinking right now. So answer my question...Why are you doing it this way...Why are you doing this at all? WHY?"

"Because I had made a promise." He said. "There aren't much people in this world who understands me even a little. But I had met some of them in life. I promised to two of them, that I will protect the world no matter what it takes." He said. "Whatever I did was the best my mind could think of in this condition. If you look at the situation from my side, there was no other way to prevent the disaster of bloodstained Manhattan. However, as you think, there still could be a way to save all of them. Maybe it was my incapability to find the best solution of that problem. If that was then it was probably because of two reasons, one of them being my energy disbalance and decaying system of life."

"What's the other one?" Martin asked.

"My fingernails." He said showing them to Martin. "I bit all of them at the museum, so my thinking capacity reduced by 20% after the Museum night."

"But why did you sent Heart away?"

"Oh, you deduced that much. Well, that's what I expect from you. Well if you speak of that...it's a different story." He said. "But you will realize its importance soon enough."

"What about America and Britain, why did you ask them to surrender?"

"Yes, I forced them to surrender. I purposely wanted the world to be divided." He said. "Plus that was a part of my experiment."

"What experiment, I don't understand the objective of this move of yours.

"You can't at this point. It is related to your previous question. Without acknowledging the objective of the previous one, you can't understand the second." He said. "Don't worry my friend, you will understand everything soon. After all, the world isn't going to be blasted off by somebody. It's just that humanity is about to be introduced to the most magnificent and most historic moment of all time, speaking of which, do you have any plan to stop K?"

"What?! I thought you had a plan." He exclaimed.

"I have, sort of. But I want you to know this first." He said. "Soul is eternal Martin. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgment. Whatever happens during today's gambit, or after it, I want you to act rationally, I want you think of the best, to think like an Astral, to think like 'him'...because the world is relying on you, and also, for the second time in my life, I am relying on somebody."

Martin wanted to ask Soul about 'him' (which was of course Edward Collen), but he sounded so depressing that Martin went speechless again. Soul was extremely serious this time, which meant that his 'plan' wasn't anything simple and straightforward. Well, that's a pro Astral for you.