F-Rank Soul Eater

Chapter 212: To Save Sophia.

A cold, hollow weight settled in Soren’s chest as Tía Maria’s words sank in.

Guilt, sharp and jagged, tore through his resolve.

He flashed back to only a few days ago—the deal he had made with Sophia to heal the massive, jagged ruin of his own chest.

He remembered the relief of the wound closing back when Aegon had caught him, falling from that destroyed ridge.

But he hadn’t cared go check up on her that day as he had a lot of ghjngs to do.

He hadn’t seen her body break and reform to mimic his own near-death state.

Meaning that she had carried his agony in silence, a invisible debt he had never even acknowledged.

Am I any different from the Baron? he wondered, his gaze dropping to his boots. Did I want to save her because she’s a ’Healer’ who can help the party or do I actually give a damn about the girl under the ’saintess mask’?

Soren felt like a hypocrite—a person who spoke of freedom while benefiting from her secret cage of pain.

A heavy shadow fell over him.

A lot had happened.

But having suffered a lot as he had because of chronovore, he understood.

He would not wish what he went through on anybody.

And definitely not Sophia.

Such pain was too much of a burden. Soren remembered how he had nearly ran mad because of his own torment.

He could not help but find Sophia to be very incredible.

And the most amazing part?

Even though she knew how she would suffer, she still willingly helped those in need.

Cynthia stood, the floorboards of the shack groaning under her massive frame.

She took a thunderous step toward him and placed a hand the size of a dinner plate on his shoulder.

"Sooo-reeen..." she rumbled, a thick plume of steam whistling from her helmet vents.

Soren looked up at the visor, seeing his own conflicted reflection.

He knew she was trying to steady him, to anchor him before he drifted into his own head.

"Don’t worry, big girl," he said, obviously lying. "I’m alright."

"So let me get this straight," Vass stepped forward, his voice was a low, dangerous growl.

"That noble bastard won’t let her go unless we kick his ass, right, Turdface?"

As he spoke, a faint golden aura began to shimmer around Vass’s skin.

It flickered like solar flares, heat radiating from his body in waves.

He stopped just before Soren, towering over him, his frown deepening until it was a snarl.

"So why the hell are we still sitting in the dark? If a pampered asshole tried this shit with a member of my party, I would’ve turned him into a crispy memory by now."

Polystar stood up, dusting off his trousers with a clinical calmness that grated against Vass’s heat. "It isn’t that simple," he said, adjusting his glasses.

Everyone turned to polystar.

"Stay out of this Four eyes." Vass barked back.

But polystar, obviously did not listen.

"All nobles, no matter how remote the region, exist under the mandate of the Emperor of Almace Empire.

This Baron may not have a Soulbound Knight under his banner yet, but if we strike a noble house without proof of treason or ’bad intention’ toward the Empire, we won’t just be expelled. We’ll be hunted and trust me, even if you are an SS ranked Soulbound warrior, you do not want to visit noble court."

Vass turned his fiery gaze toward Polystar.

The tension between the two was thick enough to draw blood.

No doubt these two had something else between them.

Something more than the topic at hand.

"And what if we do have proof?"

The voice was cool, sharp, and came from the corner where Bloodshine stood.

Every head in the shack turned toward her.

Soren straightened up, his eyes narrowing.

"What do you mean? Bloodshine, did you find something while we were at the manor?"

Initially, they had split up on Polystar’s advice—never put all your eggs in one basket.

While the others had been playing ’nice’ at the dinner table with Don Alejandro, Bloodshine and Vass had been the "insurance," lurking in the town’s periphery.

Just in case anything happened, they could either come help or report to the academy in time.

According to Polystar, ’Nobles are crazy people.’

Bloodshine stepped into the faint moonlight filtering through the roof. Her expression was grimmer than usual.

Instead of waiting in the room, she had used her ability to sneak out, hiding in plain sight.

Firstly, she noticed something very strange, the driver that had brought them and had been healed by Sophia—was not allowed to leave the town and go back to his family.

Further investigation proved that even those that tried to farm outside and scavenge for food were monitored, such that everyone returned to the town.

Absolutely everyone.

Secondly, while going through the tunnels, her Blackfield had caught something deep within the interconnected tunnels.

Or to be more precise... something underneath.

Something that made her feel dread.

These were Soulbound warriors in training. Their instinct when it came to danger could not be ignored.

In fact, Bloodshine would not be bringing it up if it was not important.

Even now, as she spoke, describing yhe feeling she had when her blackfield came upon that dread—

she instinctively embraced herself.

Polystar adjusted his glasses, the moonlight catching the frames in a sharp, clinical glint. "If it is true that Baron Don Alejandro is performing illegal activities—or worse, actions that undermine the Imperial mandate—then we have the legal standing to intervene. But," he raised a cautionary finger, "intent is not enough. We need cold, hard evidence of the crime before we draw blood."

Soren shook his head, his thoughts returning to the image of Sophia writhing in the dirt.

"Even if we prove he’s a monster and take him down, Sophia is still shackled. She has a Soul Oath with the Los Elegidos family. If we pull her away by force, the oath will just tear her apart from the inside out. Or is that not how they work?"

A slow, knowing smirk spread across Polystar’s face. "Not if we dissolve it."

Soren blinked, stunned. "Dissolve a Soul Oath? I thought those were permanent until the conditions were met."

"Every lock has a key, Soren, and every contract needs an anchor—a wedge," Polystar explained, his voice taking on the tone of a high-society tutor.

Then again, these were things that he was very familiar with.

Soren had been reading about bonds and all, but he was still far away from the kind of knowledge that polystar had access to.

Then again, the noble boy had lived this life for a longer period.

Pllystar explained.

"Think of it like a physical contract. It requires a medium to exist. In the case of these old noble families, they use Soul Shards or resonance stones to anchor the oath to their bloodline. If the anchor is destroyed, the proof of the contract vanishes into the ether. Meaning that if there is no anchor, there is no oath."

Vass’s golden aura flared with sudden, violent enthusiasm. "Now you’re talking. So the plan is to just level the place, right? Smash everything until the ’anchor’ is dust?"

In all honesty, even soren was thinking in this manner?

However, polystar poured cold water on their destructive ambitions.

"It is not that simple, you brute," Polystar snapped. "Unless we identify the specific object and destroy it correctly, the backlash could kill the person bound to it. We have to be surgical."

Soren nodded, his mind finally locking into a rhythm. The pieces were moving.

"Okay. Here’s the plan," Soren said, his voice dropping into the low, commanding tone of a Party Leader.

"We go back in. Bloodshine, you will lead vass to this evidence of the Baron’s shady dealings in the tunnels—that will be our shield against the Academy.

Cynthia will create a good destraction so that the wedding is halted, or at least obstructed.

While the Baron is distracted by the ’break-in,’ we find that anchor in the manor and shatter it. We dissolve the oath, we take Sophia, and we leave this swamp behind."

He looked around the circle. Vass was a pillar of golden heat;

Bloodshine was a shadow with a sharpened edge; Cynthia was a silent mountain of raw power, and Polystar was the cold, calculating brain of the operation.

"We find the contract, we destroy the anchor, and we take our teammate back," Soren finished. "We leave when the sun rises."

Everyone looked at one another, the tension in the room coalescing into a single, unified purpose.

Even the old woman looked at them, her eyes brightening at the thought.

"Oh... mi bebe... you finally made friends that care for you so much." She clasped her fingers together in silent prayer, "Praise be to the god of the neurallink."

One by one, they nodded. The hunt was on.

(Author’s Note; Well... I do try my best to give deep and meaningful characters... please, enjoy. And yes, we are still accepting gifts.)