[The Daniels Estate, Outside Garden, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 1:25 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
Cathy had flown Amelia out of the house, setting her down at the edge of the garden to the right side of the mansion. Amelia sat curled up on a bench, looking towards the commotion. Her skin turned normal again as she had just gotten used to Flow and was unsure how to use Shamat, The Fourth Step, fully.
"That doesn't sound good at all… It sounds like they're really going at it," Cathy murmured to herself as she hovered next to Amelia.
"Miss Cathy… I don't know if I should've told you earlier, but… Mistress Erika has something hidden underneath the mansion."
Cathy looked down at Amelia and curled up in a ball next to her on the bench.
"Yeah? I thought… When I fought that weird fly thing, we were down in the mineshafts or caves or whatever under the mansion. We even went into that room where Erika came out of, earlier during our little 'training' session or whatever the hell that was. The fly, it got its grubby little hands on a weird purple eye or something and that made it stronger. Of course though, Erika stepped in and it just flew away."
Amelia shook her head gently, looking down at the ground.
"No… Underneath the mansion there is something big… When I was younger, and I first arrived here, the mansion was still being built by a bunch of people her parents hired! That's when I first met them — Master William and Mistress Gloria. We used to live in a smaller house that was temporarily built to keep us until the mansion was finished… One day, when I was out in the garden, right from this spot, I saw it." She shut her eyes as if picturing the scene. "There was a crack in the ground, so I got curious and I tried to peek through and saw a large dug out hole by those builders where… where they kept it…"
Cathy leaned in closer, her eyes widened with visible interest. Amelia looked up and opened her eyes, wincing back from Cathy's stare.
"Yeah? Well, go on! Don't be shy… What'd you see?!"
At that moment, the ground started shaking terribly.
[The Daniels Estate, Front Lawn, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 1:33 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
"You think you're better than me? Just because you're keeping your hand hidden?! WELL YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!!"
Erika held her position, with her only arm held up. There was a large boom as something burst from the house —
A large, 35 meter, or around 115 foot, wooden statue of an oni — with two short horns, a wild mane of wooden hair, prominent fangs protruding from its mouth, a heavy brow and nose. It had a robe on with a loincloth below it, tied by a large rope, and more cords around its waist, chest, and with large sandals. All made of wood — burst forth from the mansion.
[The Daniels Estate, Outside Garden, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 1:35 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
Cathy and Amelia looked up at the large wooden oni in awe.
"Holy shit… Wait, this isn't safe anymore! We have to get out of here!" Cathy quickly grabbed Amelia with gravity and began flying upwards.
"Ah! M-M-Miss Cathy!?!" Amelia protested and swung her arms wildly as they flew upwards.
The mansion exploded as the large wooden Sentinel burst forth, sending debris and pieces of it everywhere, revealing also a large dug out hole beneath it from where the Sentinel was lying dormant, deep below the tunnels from where Cathy fought Teen Spirit.
"This is crazy… We… Where do we even go?"
"O-oh! I know! Miss Cathy?"
"Yeah? What is it? This isn't a good time for a chat…"
"Remember that house I told you about? The one they built while we waited for the mansion to be finished?"
"What about it?!"
"T-they never took it down!"
[The Daniels Estate, Front Lawn, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 1:37 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
The Sentinel yelled in fury as it rose from beneath the mansion, sending debris everywhere. Its maw opened and from it came hundreds of 'heads' from Erika's Hey, Soul Sister.
Carrion reeled backwards, genuinely shocked.
"How… How long have you been hiding this for?!" He dodged out of the way as a large window came crashing down next to him.
Erika barked out a laugh and slapped her thigh with her remaining arm.
"Ten years! It took me a lot of souls, Flow, and tears to make it! It's completely sentient and has around one hundred people's worth of souls in it! So you're not going anywhere. This is where we settle this!"
Erika then dashed forwards, grabbing Carrion by the arm with surprising speed — chucking him upwards around 10 meters into the air. She followed him up by jumping, using Titan and Shamat to make herself lighter and faster.
"Hey, Sentinel?"
"Yes, Erika?!" the large wooden statue yelled, its voice echoing across the once quiet suburb.
Erika kicked Carrion right in his back, causing another Apex Strike and sending him forwards towards The Sentinel.
"Shoot him!"
The Sentinel extended its right hand, turning it into a large wooden gun.
"Wood: Ball Bearing!" It yelled, and from the gun came a large wooden ball, as large as a boulder, that shot out at an incredible speed towards Carrion Murata.
It was also not just a normal wooden ball — it was a minion of Erika's Hey, Soul Sister.
"Yes, yes, yes!" the ball screamed as its mouth opened, shooting out a barrage of many tinier wooden balls, also minions of Erika, and those shot out even smaller wooden balls. The entire sky seemed to almost be blotted out completely by the attack.
Carrion wasn't fazed, however. He smirked and held up his arms, his body getting covered by a white glowing aura.
"Lamentation: White Serpent!"
The wooden balls rained down on Carrion Murata, but they were all burned to a crisp as they tried to touch him. He fell back onto the ground, landing gracefully on his feet. Eventually all of the balls also fell to the ground.
"I-Impossible! Erika! The little human is strong!" The Sentinel cried.
Erika wasn't hurt by her own attack as her skin was heavily modified by Flow and wood. She looked up at the Sentinel and yelled.
"That doesn't matter! Use your sword instead!"
The Sentinel looked shocked by her suggestion, its surprise quickly turning to a wild grin. Its right hand began turning into a large wooden katana.
"I've always liked how you think, girl!" It swung downwards.
"N95: Rule 3, take off the damage from my body!" Carrion grinned and looked up as the katana made direct contact with what remained of the mansion, destroying it completely. The large wooden blade stopped right on Carrion's forehead.
"Man, now you've made me excited. This shit's hard!" He unsheathed his katana, imbued with Flow and Titan, and cut right through The Sentinel's larger wooden katana.
"No! No! You're not getting away with this!" She held up her right hand, aiming right at him. "Drops Of Jupiter: Soul Shatter!"
She yelled, and out of her palm flew a large white ball of energy at incredible speed. A streak of Flow followed behind it as it connected with Carrion's back, sending him reeling forwards.
Drops Of Jupiter was Erika's third and final Holiness, working in tandem with her previous two Holies. It allowed her to manipulate her own soul and other souls to control and shoot out like blasts of energy. Because of this, despite Carrion nullifying the damage that his body could receive, it fully damaged him anyway, as his soul was targeted.
Carrion was sent flying into the debris of the house by The Sentinel's right foot. His spine was almost fractured in two and his right shoulder completely dislocated.
"Oh, this shit is hard! Ruach!" He quickly stood up as his body began healing itself.
"Haha! Little bug! Get squashed!" The large wooden oni laughed as it began stomping the area. Carrion ran around it and back out of the mansion, only to come face to face with Erika in the destroyed foyer.
Her missing arm had been turned into a mini-tree, with different branches coming off of it. Erika grinned and stared at him as he ran towards her.
"Miss me? Asshole?!" Her new right arm stretched outwards, the tendrils growing larger and larger and trying to strike Carrion.
He ran and dodged around them, his body being fully healed again.
"I gotta hand it to you! You're quite creative, girl… I'll give you a final chance! Join us and you won't have to die!" He jumped on top of one of the tendrils and ran towards her.
"Like I'd ever do that! Die! Wood: Yggdrasil!!!" Erika pulled her hand back, the tree growing impossibly large from her hand, almost to the size of The Sentinel itself. "Come on!"
As it continued growing, hundreds of minions grew from its leaves, jumping down onto the house, The Sentinel, and the general area.
Erika Daniels's Hey, Soul Sister allows Erika to store the souls of any dead body she's looked upon, only as long as she had even a tiny connection with the person. Then, based on her own Flow amount, she can imbue that person's soul into random objects around her in a hundred meter radius. The objects will then sprout the heads or various limbs of the person she's channeling and gain the properties of the objects they are summoned into. They can easily be commanded by Erika to do various tasks, but can also seek out evil intent naturally and will try to destroy the source of that evil.
Most importantly, it also allows for Erika to share pieces of her own soul into other objects or even people. When imbuing her soul into something or someone else, and that thing or person is destroyed, or if Erika dies, then the imbued part of her soul gets destroyed too.
Jack Daniels, unbeknownst to him, had a piece of Erika's soul inside of him, put there a long, long time ago.
Her love.
"Ay ay! I've got it now! I understand!" The Sentinel stepped forwards and ripped off Erika's tree arm. It then jumped off of it, grabbing it at the same time, and lunged towards the ground with it.
"Oh, you're fucking crazy—"
"Wood: Earth-Shattering-Implantation!" The large tree shook the ground, destroying most things in the area and cracking it completely, killing a large number of Hey, Soul Sister's minions too. The mansion collapsed under the weight, and The Sentinel itself fell back into the hole under the house from where it came.
"Erikaaaa! Noooo! Ruuuuun!!"
The large tree seemed to merge with The Sentinel and disappear into its body.
"Lamentation: Black Bull!" Carrion had stood his ground firmly. He had used another strange martial arts move combined with Flow, an eerie sort of aura emanating from him as black aura started covering his body. He looked completely unaffected.
Erika couldn't believe her eyes.
"You son of a bitch… What sort of martial art is that?! I thought… I thought only The Ten Steps existed… Who are you?!"
Carrion put his arms down, calmly walking towards Erika, who couldn't move an inch.
"Carrion Murata, The Accursed Judge. The Second Son of The Magnificent… You'll do well to remember that." As he said this, his eyes changed from black to a bright pink-ish color.
Erika couldn't move her body. Her eyes widened in fear, and she fell backwards. Her skin turned back to normal and her aura evaporated, alongside the use of Apex, Titan, Shamat, and Agnus.
"The… The Magnificent — no way, so that's… That's why you're so good at using Flow?!"
Carrion stopped before her, not answering her question immediately. He looked around the area calmly, as a man standing in his own backyard without a care in the world. He sighed and pulled out his katana.
"You could say that… You hid The Primordia inside of that wooden oni, didn't you? I felt it earlier when that wooden katana hit me."
Erika turned to the side, coughing up blood. She clutched her stomach with her right arm.
"Yeah… I don't care anymore. You've won fair and square, shithead… Now kill me! KILL MEEEEE!"
Carrion tilted his head and looked down into her eyes, meeting her angry gaze.
"You don't want your younger brother to see you like this, huh? How prideful of you… Fine, your wish is granted."
Carrion moved in an instant —
Slicing her neck.
[End of Arc 2 - The Daniels Estate]
———
I get no eternal sleep as blood pours out of my pores,My being — filled with agony — I think of that cold splendorous mansion,My soul is restless within me.I'm likened to a cherry blossom that is very out of spring.