This is a multimedia webnovel with giant city-crushing monsters, a valiant man who dares to fight them, a hero who loses himself on a righteous path, and a darkness which conceives a profound love. But I suck at descriptions, so I strongly encourage...
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"Can anyone out there hear me?" yelled a single voice from the edge of the tempest that roared in Hatasuko's mind.
Though his body was fast asleep, Hatasuko still could not find peace from the orchestra of souls in his head. As soon as he heard these words, he tried to mentally sift through the endless darkness in search of the voice. He rarely heard coherent words in the tempest, and even then, it was almost always an exclamation of agony. It was almost always the sound of a lost soul screaming for someone who meant so much to them that it was all that they could think about, even in this disembodied state.
"Yes! Yes, I can hear you. I can hear all of you. I can't hear anything else," Hatasuko answered into the emptiness.
"I don't know how, but I managed to piece myself together in that massive storm of souls. I remember screaming even when I had no idea why! But I found my memories, and I found pieces of the man I used to be. Please tell me, how can you hear me? Are you another soul in the tempest?" asked the frantic voice.
"I am not. My name is Hatasuko, and I am the one cursed to carry the weight of the lost souls. Their endless screams are my burden to bear."
"Are you God? Are you a ghost?"
"I am neither. When I was younger, I once believed that I was a ghost left behind by the Interfectus. I can hear the voices of their victims; I carry the weight of the dead on my back. I really thought that I was one of them, but in time I came to accept that I am still alive. I am haunted by a chorus of screams and stuck inside a tempest of hopeless souls, but I am alive for a reason. I am alive so that I can kill the Interfecti and end the misery that created my curse," Hatasuko explained.
Though he was still asleep and cursed to hear nothing other than the countless voices, Hatasuko heard the tempest grow quieter in the background. This conversation seemed to have a calming effect on the restless abyss.
"I can't tell if you're a fool or a hero. Maybe you're both," said the voice with a friendly laugh.
"At any rate, is this your first time trying to speak? When I last fought the Interfectus, I heard another coherent voice in the tempest. Was it you? Who are you?" Hatasuko asked.
"I don't think that was me. My name is Sokaido, and I come from Catena Island Four. When I was still alive, in the days before our first visit from an Interfectus, I was a fisherman who saw beauty in everything! I could look at an empty net and smile; I could see a rising storm and sing a happy tune! I'm sure it drove my family insane, but nothing could get me down. Even now, I can appreciate the solace of this hopeless state. If nothing else, it gave me the opportunity to meet you. I've been given the chance to make a new friend!" answered the voice with an upbeat tone.
"But are you really content in here? It's like a dungeon for severed souls."
"I can make the most of it! I've always said that seventy-five percent of life is how you handle situations. We're the artists of our own happiness! But the truth is that my heart is not strong enough to defeat fear. As soon as I pieced myself together in here, the first thing I thought about was my family. I don't even know if they're still alive," Sokaido whispered as his voice started to fade.
