Gifted

Charging into battle, June summoned golden flames unto his left hand, materializing it into a long bow. Pulling the string, June's whole right arm and hand bursts into golden flames, producing flaming arrows.

Aiming carefully at the huge black raven, June started shooting blazing arrows, one after another.

Sensing new enemies, the raven flapped both of its giant wings, producing a black wind that neutralized June's attacks.

While occupied with June, Andrew took the opportunity to blindside the opponent. Playing a soft melody on his violin, Andrew summoned multiple icy chains from the ground. Sensing another opponent coming after it, the raven immediately flew higher into the sky, wanting to gain some distance from the icy chains that were coming after it.

With enough distance, the raven swiftly turned back and launched a powerful black beam, obliterating the icy chains easily.

Gaining a sliver of advantage, June didn't hesitate to take a hold of it and use it. With eyes blazing with golden flames, June summoned his gigantic broadsword. Crouching down, June took a long inhale, filling his lungs with cool air, before letting it out slowly. Eyes set on the raven, June then launched himself to the air at blinding speed and headed straight for the raven.

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As June and Andrew does their part of the mission, the remaining three also started to do theirs.

Loosing all rationality and only having his instincts intact, the raven easily beaten Scott black and blue. It could be said that the raven looked like it was just playing whilst facing the enraged Scott.

After being sent flying by the raven, the enraged Scott looked visibly worn out from the battle.

As Lily raised her right hand in front of her, a intense pink glowing aura enveloped her whole body. Thick vines erupted from the ground and started wrapping Scott's whole body. As the vines began to constrict him, the enraged Scott's instincts kicked into overdrive and began thrashing. Some of the vines might have snapped as Scott struggled hard to break free, but new ones always sprouted out from the ground.

Not wanting to waste any sleeping gas, with Maria's Gift, shadowy tendrils shot up from the ground and created a dome, encasing Scott in it. Maria wanted to make sure the Scott is securely and thoroughly sedated for Jordan to approach.

It took some time for Scott to be fully sedated, but once he is, and Lily no longer sense movement from him, Lily nodded at Maria to signal her that it's now fine to release the dome.

Understanding Lily's signal clearly, Maria released the dome, revealing a now unconscious hulking Scott.

Watching them work their magic, Jordan was in awe and felt really inspired to do his very best in his part of the mission. Considering, he's the one that had to play an integral part of it.

Seeing that it was finally his turn, Jordan took a deep breath, then walked towards the unconscious Scott. With a nod of thanks to Maria and Lily, Jordan then lightly touched Scott's head. As purple eerie aura engulf his hand, Jordan said-

"Soul Link!"

An eerie chain extended out of his ċhėst and linked his soul to Scott's.

Closing his eyes, Jordan then said with a low voice "Soul Invasion!"

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When Jordan opened his eyes, he now stood in Scott's soul realm. Seeing Scott's soul realm for the second time, Jordan saw a lot of difference from when he first saw it.

Previously, it felt like Scott's soul realm was being devoured by an external force, but now it felt like his soul realm is being devoured by none other than himself.

The sky was dyed red, while the air around was dry. The green pastures he once stepped on, is now a desolate land devoid of life. Although not affected by it, but Jordan knew that the current temperature around him was scalding hot. He knew that having this kind of temperature for a soul, would feel like they're constantly burning alive. Just the thought of it made Jordan's heart squeeze a little, understanding that Scott might be suffering greatly right now.

"So, this is his soul realm" A familiar voice said behind Jordan.

"Yeah" Jordan simply answered, while in deep contemplation on how to save Scott's soul this time.

Another one of Antara's rules is that, Jordan cannot and is forbidden to "touch" another person's soul, with the exception if the person's soul is infected by a Shadow/Chaos, if the person is hostile towards Jordan, or if the situation greatly calls for him to do so.

One other thing that was different from the first time was that; the reason why Jordan was able to help Scott the first time was because the problem was being caused by an external force, meaning not natural to Scott's soul. But the current situation places Jordan in a though bind, since the cause of the harm this time is something that is a part of Scott, therefore it's a natural cause.

It could be compared to a type of illness, so to speak.

At that though, a light bulb popped in Jordan's head. Turning around, Jordan was pleasantly surprise by what greeted him.

"You look... Good!" Jordan said with an approving stare.

There he saw Arthur now dressed in a pure white yukata, where he only wore a single sleeve, leaving the other hanging. The left-half part of his torso that's exposed, brandished white beautiful markings, while his whole left arm and hand completely shone with ethereal white light. While his other arm and hand is complete covered by the long length of the sleeves, that reaches up to his knees. A white rope is tied around his waist, where a circular bell hanged from their tips. the lower half of his yukata has beautiful black brush stoke designs. Just like Jordan, he has a fox mask on the upper left side of his head, while he has a single white fox tail.

"Really? Antara said that there needed to be some changes on what my soul's appearance should look like since I am now connected to you. She said that I am now representing you" Arthur explained.

"And you have no problem with that?" Jordan ask in confirmation, since what Antara said might be true, but he still didn't want to fully take Arthur's freedom of choice.

"Yeah!" Arthur said with a grin "I badly needed a change of style for a very long time anyways"

"That's great, then!" Jordan said happily, relieved that Arthur didn't feel forced into anything that he didn't want to do.

Jordan was prone to getting sidetracked a lot, thankfully this time he remembered what his priorities were.

"By the way 'Plague Doctor'" Jordan said with a teasing tone and smirk.

Hearing what Jordan just said made Arthur's face immediately heat up in embarrassment.

"How did you-?" Arthur was about to say, but then he remembered that his soul is connected to Jordan's.

"Please don't call me that" Arthur said with a calm tone in voice, but his ears were still red.

"Hey, don't get embarrassed I thought it was a cool name" Jordan said in encouragement. But from the teasing smirk still on Jordan's face, it was really hard for Arthur to take the encouragement seriously.

"Moving on" Arthur cleared his throat to clam himself. "What's the plan?"

"Well... you are the plan" Jordan said, which only made Arthur's jaw almost drop to the ground.

"Care to explain?" Arthur said with a furrowed brow.

"If I'm not mistaken a 'Disease' is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not due to any immediate external injury, right?"

"More or less, yeah, but what's that got to do with the situation?" Arthur asked, but then it suddenly hit him.

"You mean-? But Scott doesn't have a disease" Arthur said

"Physically yes, but his soul is another thing" Jordan countered "Think about it. What's happening in Scott's soul is like a disease, right? 'It is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not due to any immediate external injury'. So if we treat it like a disease, this whole ordeal is actually just a cake walk for you."

Finally understanding Jordan's reasoning, Arthur couldn't help but shake his head in amazement. Ever since having the unbreakable bond with Jordan, the young man has never ceased to amaze and surprise Arthur.

"You really are something else" Arthur said with a sense of admiration towards the young man in front of him, to which Jordan replied with his signature boyish smile.

Arthur then pushed the other side of his yukata off, revealing what's behind its long sleeves. Opposite to the left side of his torso, Arthur's right side is marked with inky black markings, while his whole arm and hand shone with a deathly black glow.

Lifting his right hand towards the sky, Arthur closed his eyes. Slowly his soul body started emitting a powerful energy, as black and white ribbons of light danced around him.

"Absorption!"

Like a black hole, Arthur's right arm slowly started absorbing the 'disease' in Scott's soul. The berserker's energy that previously has taken over Scott's soul is now being suċkėd into Arthur's right arm.

As Jordan watched on the sidelines, his eyes shone with admiration towards Arthur.

Born into a poor family in New York; Arthur worked blood, sweat and tears, his way up. With strong determination, he's the first to be able to graduate in his family. After graduation, Arthur studied being a doctor with full scholarships every year. After getting his medical license at the age of twenty-four, Arthur immediately volunteered for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.

At his time there, is when he met his bestfriend Jae. It is also the time when Arthur's Gift manifested when a small plague hit the village they were volunteering at. Still being the young and idealistic man that he was at that time, he wanted to save all the plague's victims. But after his patients died one after another, Arthur was soon slap awake from his naivety.

Having reality crashed to him like a raging tide almost threw Arthur into deep depression, if it wasn't for a single miracle.

While his time in Haiti, Arthur got romantically close to a woman. And that same woman was also one of the plague's victims who wasn't able to get treated immediately. Arthur only found out that she was infected when her disease was already at the final stage. Finally at the end stage of the plague, Arthur was completely helpless as he wail while clutching the hands of his dying lover.

At the last moments of Arthur's lover, that is when his Gift manifested into his greatest wish to cure her disease. Finally freeing her of her disease, Arthur was ecstatic, not knowing that the Gift that he received was also a double edged sword.

A year or two into their relationship, Arthur became worshiped as a god in her lover's village. As a being that is able to cure any diseases that plagued their village. Arthur was living his best life.

Unfortunately, his lover's parents are in complete opposition to his and his lover's relationship, believing that Arthur is a devil instead of a god. Always convincing their daughter that they've seen in their dreams what Arthur was really capable of.

One night while Arthur is currently back in the US, his lover's parents went crazy and killed their daughter. Making her a sacrifice to their gods, as a form of penance for their daughter's rebellion against them. The parents believed that by sacrificing their daughter, they could quell the wrath of the gods for her blasphemy against them.

The parents might've "successfully" quelled the wrath of their so called gods, but what they didn't expect was for them to receive the wrath of a different person.

Going back to Haiti with full of excitement, Arthur rushed to her lover's village only to find her remains still hanging on a post in the back of their house.

Not knowing what happened next, Arthur woke up at a hospital room back in the US. Jae informed Arthur that a sudden plague broke out from the village and spread through out Haiti at an incredibly fast rate, killing thousands upon thousands of people.

Arthur sunk into deep depression, for about a year after the incident, before deciding to move on in his life. Though he was still haunted by the corpse of his dead lover everyday, Arthur managed to power through and move on with life. Two years after the incident, Arthur only then finally fully understand his Gift.

He has the ability to absorb any form or kind of diseases. He can then turn the absorbed disease into something that could be beneficial for his own body or for others (Ex. Vitamins, Carbohydrates, Enhanced white blood cells/Immunity, Enhanced regeneration and so much more.), but on the flip side, he can also turn the disease in something more deadlier.

Finally knowing this facts, Arthur became even more careful in using his Gifts. Thankfully, finding out that Jae was also a Gifted, really help Arthur a lot. They both helped each other like real brothers would.

Jae was also the one the gave Arthur his nickname, that greatly embarrasses him still in the present.

After some time, Scott's soul realm came back to its original form. Successfully absorbing every last bit of berserker's energy, Arthur put his arm down and let out a little tired sigh.

"I just have to say, that was a sight to behold" Jordan said in praise, making Arthur let out a small grin.

"So what do you intend to do with this 'soul disease'?" Arthur asked

"I'm mean... with that amount, we can probably supply everyone with some 'beneficial health upgrades'." Jordan contemplated, but then another light bulb popped in his head.

"On second thought, we'll use that to kill that freaking raven" Jordan said with a vindictive smirk on his face.

"I think I know where you're getting at... and I'm liking it!" Arthur replied approvingly, with the same vindictive smirk on his face.

"Glad we can agree on it!" Jordan said lifting his fist for a bump, to which Arthur responded with bumping Jordan's fist.

"I gotta go back to the physical realm so we can finally end all this mess. I'll see you soon!" Jordan said to Arthur with his signature boyish smile.

"I'll see you soon as well! Now, finish this mess!" Arthur replied with a grin on his face.

And with a snap of a finger, Jordan returned to the physical realm, while Arthur returned to Jordan's soul realm, only leaving the faint echoing of bells.