A Spark Is All It Takes

The lake of fire spanned out as far as the eyes could see with countless souls trapped in its clutches. Those that struggled to escape sank further and further below the surface of the lake of fire. The souls that had been there for a long time and had lost all their will to fight, floated up from the depths to the surface of the lake.

After what was a considerable amount of time passed in fiery agony, a light wave passed across the ocean of fire. Though no wind blew, the wave carried those that were floating on the top of the lake.

Yoshuu was one of these scorched souls that were pushed to the burned shores of Hell. His soul lay in a fetal position on the shores without any strength to move; however an unseen force raised all the bodies from the shore.

Cluck...cluck...cluck…

The sound of hoofbeats were heard as a fiendish figure, upon a ghostly horse appeared as if to lead the souls away from the shore. With a magical grip, the figure lead all the souls off the shore and into a very large canyon inside the earth. Within this canyon were large pink crystals that protruded out of the earth. These crystals were being placed into the minecarts by souls and then pushed off into the distance. The railway for the cart could be seen on the ground, heading off into the distance.

It is here that many souls labored by extracting the crystals and another appeared in its place after it had been extracted. Souls that had lost all its spiritual life essence, dropped to their knees and then disappeared with a small magical shadow flying up to the gray sky above.

It is here that they will toil as long as they can till the remainder of their eternity.

Countless souls, hammered away at the crystals, removing them from the earth and placing them in a railway cart like they were part of an autonomous machine. New crystals appeared and the cycle began anew.

With pickaxes in hand, these newly arrived, empty souls began their task of extraction.

Ping, ping, ping was the sound of pickaxes that echoed in this canyon quarry as they hit at the rocks to extract the crystals.

Over and over and over. This was the melody made as the soul of Yoshuu was tasked with picking up crystals and placing them in the carts which moved down the rails and into the darkness.

Yoshuu mindlessly stooped down, picked up pieces of crystal and moved back and forth from the nearby cart. When one fell, with blank eyes, he reached down, picked it up and journeyed to the cart.

Then walked back to begin the cycle again and again.

Suddenly Yoshuu's soul paused as a random soul, struck a nearby crystal instead of the rock. This caused the pickaxe to create a few sparks, which fell to the floor.

The nearby soul strike again and there was another set of small sparks.

Like a man, looking at lightning for the first time without the thunder his eyes pondered in amazement yet his mind did not interpret anything. As if in a dream where he was an observer, he marveled at the sight of the spark.

Then again, then again causing more spark each time which looked like a piece of metal being struck at a furnace.

Suddenly an unknown but nostalgic feeling came over Yoshuu. It was something that he had not felt in what seemed like an eternity. In reality, it was a feeling that no other soul had felt or was supposed to feel. A feeling of consciousness to the body of an empty soul.

Then a voice suddenly echoed in the mind of Yoshuu's soul.

"What are you doing up so late, my son?…"

"I am watching you work, father, Yoshuu responded."

Ping, ping, ping was the sound of the pickaxe in the mind of Yoshuu like a church bell in the early hours of the morning.

Suddenly he saw himself working at the furnace and a female voice was now heard.

"Are you crafting me something… Yoshuu? Yoshuu! Yoshuu! Emrica voice trailed off into the darkness."

Then he heard himself say, "isn't my love enough, Yoshuu joked!"

My love…..

Love….

Suddenly a piece of the crystal broke off and fell slowly to the ground. Yoshuu could hear the wind whistling in his mind as the crystal pierced through the air on its way towards the floor.

What was a usual sound of the crystal hitting the floor, now sounded like an explosion in the ear and mind of Yoshuu's soul.

As if Yoshuu stood at the very foot of a volcano as it was erupting, the quake and explosion shook the very foundations of Yoshuu's entire being. Yoshuu's mind had been reawakened.