F-Rank Soul Eater-Chapter 147: A Future Regret

Soren eyes widened in shock at the sight of the entities that just shot out of his body.

He could see it clearly. The giant rat, around the size of a two story building had scars on its back, and a long diagonally scar on its mid section that seemed to leak a mix of blue foreign liquid and green ectoplasm.

The giant crystal ant looked even worse, missing an abdomen and two legs on its right side.

Subconsciously, Soren grabbed his chest.

He felt lighter. It was not from his body, but his soul.

Like a few hundred pounds had been taken.

Also, he felt a sense of lost.

Right now, seeing them, Soren knew.

These were both wounded Shades Chronovore had consumed.

The ant was one of those ones that had been too wounded to use. And the Rat.

That Rat was... Rattler’s Shade.

—its tail whipped sideways.

Soren instinctively shut his eyes, hands to block in front of his face.

Boom.

It slammed into the stand.

By the time Soren opened his eyes. He was shocked to see that he was moving.

Cynthia.

Just before the tail of the giant rat would hit, she had taken soren in a cradle position.

The rat saw this and shrieked loudly, pupils narrowed.

The giant ant was no different, mandibles grinding against each other. Both shades looked at Soren like he was their enemy.

Their killing intent was obvious.

The air had barely settled from the rat’s shriek—

When Goldsworth screamed again.

"I am the star in the sky!"

The red energy around him convulsed violently.

Then it burst outward.

Not in a wave this time.

In a surge.

A violent tide of liquid soul force blasted across the platform, tearing trenches into the reinforced stone.

It moved like blood flung from a ruptured artery—fast, heavy, and purposeful.

A ribbon of it lashed upward—

And sliced across the giant rat’s side.

The effect was immediate.

The rat shrieked again, bit in pain.

Where the red energy touched it, its fur blackened and peeled. The blue and green fluids leaking from its wound hissed violently, turning into vapor as the crimson energy ate into it like acid.

The rat’s pupils contracted.

Then—

Its body shuddered.

And split.

One became two.

Two became four.

Four massive, scarred rats now hung in the sky, each slightly smaller but no less furious.

These multiplying ability was not new to Soren.

Rattler used to use it a lot. And even Soren had used it the time he tried to sneak into the Science research institute.

The crystal ant reacted in kind.

Its fractured body shimmered—crystals became sharper.

And then it shot the crystal spikes into the retreating crowd.

The arena descended into chaos.

However, these were still cadets of the most prestigious academy in the land.

And danger was not new to them.

Many acted immediately. Li, and the rest of his party moved, as weapons; swords, staffs and daggers were drawn.

They defended against incoming attacks.

Those of lower ranks and ability ran for their lives.

Those that did not want to participate also left—the girl with sleeveless black tunic was in this category.

Not because she was weak. But she had gotten what she came here for.

However, the boy as fat as Pencil stayed to watch.

For some reason, no matter the chaos, nothing reached their side.

Not even a misplaced piece of stone.

And he still ate in piece, even requesting that the next dish be placed before him.

The rest of the arena was not so serene.

Two of the rats dove straight toward Soren and Cynthia.

"Down!" Soren barked.

And she dove down before flipping mid-motion.

A rat slammed into the space she had just vacated, cracking the arena floor in a violent explosion of debris.

Soren’s chest tightened.

He knew these things weren’t attacking randomly.

They were targeting him.

Of course, the instructors had also acted.

Instructor Eagle-Wing Eyebrows shot into the air, his soul energy purple, flaring wide enough to press down on the battlefield like a dome.

"Evacuate the students!" he roared.

His voice boomed through the arena.

"Shield the lower ranks! Move! Move!"

Instructors on the ground reacted instantly.

Some sprinted toward the stands, forming layered barriers of soul energy as they ushered panicked cadets toward emergency exits.

At this point, even the aether neuralinks were no good to hold such abnormal raw mix of power.

Others launched upward, streaks of light cutting through the smoke-filled sky as they intercepted the charging Shades.

One instructor extended his palm toward Goldsworth.

A concentrated beam of soul energy erupted forward—precise, lethal, controlled.

Targeting the bird on his shoulder.

It should have struck him directly.

But it never landed.

The moment it touched the red aura surrounding Goldsworth—

It vanished.

Not deflected.

Not absorbed.

Gone.

Erased.

The instructor’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Instructor Eagle-Wing Eyebrows saw it.

His expression hardened.

"Instructors, be careful!" he barked sharply. "That is a corrupted Shade!"

The words struck harder than the explosions.

Several instructors froze mid-air.

Corrupted.

That wasn’t a term used lightly.

Shades were creatures of a world that fed on negative emotions to bring about positive results expressed through the will of the soulbound warrior.

However, Corrupted Shades were different. They sacrificed their own lifespan, and souls for the destruction of the world.

Yes.

It was the same formula used by red sword inquisitors.

However, it was more controlled.

A red sword coukd slice apart the connection a Soulbound warrior had to their shade.

A corrupted Shade woukd extinguish other Shades.

This was the reason for the Instructor’s warning.

Below, Goldsworth’s body twitched unnaturally, the red liquid energy crawling up his neck like living veins. The small bird on his shoulder chirped once—

And its eyes glowed the same violent crimson.

One of the ground instructors shouted, voice tight with urgency:

"The Red Sword Inquisitors are on their way!"

The declaration rippled through the battlefield like a second shockwave.

Above the ruined platform—

Five wounded, furious Shades circled.

Goldsworth stood at the center of a bleeding storm.

And Soren, suspended in Cynthia’s grip—

Felt the battlefield tilt toward something far worse than a duel.

He was right.

After all, this day would mark the true beginning of his problems.

For far off in the future, he would look into the sky and sigh, saying. "I should have never accepted that fight..."