I wanted System to explain himself since this was a more confusing revelation for
than it appeared to be for him.
Whenever I killed monsters, I was eating their souls? That was where the energy ca from? To think that the soul itself could be used as fuel.
"Well doesn't it make sense? To empower your soul what better way than with other souls?" System chid in helpfully.
I felt like I needed to sit down. Maybe I wasn't the most ethical person, but to think that I was actually eating the souls whenever I killed sothing...
"It's not like you're the one doing the eating...
does that help?" System continued sowhat delicately. Sohow picking up on my sensitivity around the topic.
"It doesn't bother you?" I asked the system. Contemplating to myself whether or not I should finish off the treant in front of , receiving strange looks from the n for wasting ti with my weird 'hobby'.
"Not at all... If I had to say, then I'm rather proud to be doing this. It's for your sake afterall. If I didn't eat the souls, you'd be up to your neck with the whole curse situation."
"Curses?" I reacted to the word.
"Monsters, humans, anything with a soul reacts negatively to being killed. The soul instinctively seeks out the one that killed its body, trying to enact retribution in any way they can. 'Karma', I've heard it called before. Obviously quite an issue for us, and especially nasty business back in the day. But luckily for you we've made improvents to the system. Nowadays, bengeful spirits are another source of energy."
It still seed sohow wrong to , but looking at the monstrous treant in front of , I didn't feel much sympathy. Dispatching it with learned efficiency.
"I've heard of soul eating monsters before, but I may be the only soul eating human in the entire world." I joked to myself grimly.
"Like I said, I'm the one doing the eating. And it's not entirely accurate to call it 'eating', think about it more as 'reprocessing'." The system replied seriously, not picking up on my sarcasm.
Even with the jokes, the subject was just as unnerving as the situation we were in. The only light now being that of our own torches. Creating a wall of darkness around our group as we moved through the forest. It seems we had exited the living grove, no more treants or pitcher plants blocking the way. Even so, I was more on edge than earlier. At least before we had sothing to fight.
The forest at night was disorienting, but rather than growing used to it, I felt myself feeling more and more uncomfortable. Sensing in my mind a bizarre repulsion towards what I knew to be the way out. My [navigation] ability pointing
towards town, but nausea occuring whenever I moved in that direction. To that end, I felt the need to invest more points into navigation, fumbling around in the unreliable dim light of the torches as I interacted with the mirror.
Feeling the fog in my mind lift sowhat with each point spent, I decided to max out the skill. But the anxiety I felt was still there.
I wasn't the only one apparently, the knights and soldiers seed especially shook, not having the benefit of a skill to ease their nerves. Finally the group stopped, unwilling to take even a single step forward. Disregarding my urging and assurance that this was the correct way, and refusing even under direct orders. In the darkness it felt like I could see countless eyes watching us as paranoia set into our group.
"System, sothing's wrong here. We're under attack."
"How so?" He could see what I saw during this ti, but with the darkness that didn't help much. Plus, it seems like his mind-reading only worked on surface level thoughts. Not aware of the intricacies of my thoughts.
"My head feels weird, I can't explain it well, but it's trying to keep us in the forest."
The system suddenly got serious, trying to help
in any way he could.
"Is it a ntal or soul attack?"
"How should I know?"
"Hmm... that's right. You wouldn't rember how, would you? It's really about feeling it for yourself, but there's a very big difference between how the two types of monsters act."
I tried explaining the symptoms, the nausea, the ntal fog, the loss of direction. Not to ntion the overall panic setting onto our the group, sothing that wasn't helped by the more undisciplined of the common soldiers, who were on the verge of ntal breakdown.
The weakest of our group seed to already be having a breakdown, dropping his torch onto the forest floor and desperately scratching himself, trying to remove his own armor before fleeing into the dark to his almost certain death. An action that set a fire off in the minds of our group. This was farther out of my depths than I ever wanted to get.
I tried calming the group down to no effect, all the while increasingly nervous as the situation continued to spiral out of control.
More of our group panicked, fleeing off into night. Stripping their armor off and throwing down their weapons as they ran off. It looked like an action out of terror, but when I thought of it from a monster's perspective it made perfect sense. They were disarming us for an easy al.
I myself felt no compulsion to do so for the ti being. After becoming aware it was the actions of a hostile force and not the workings of my own mind I was able to exert so limited control over myself and prevent total panic.
Seeing how even the knights were looking like they wanted to bolt, I felt rushed towards action.
"Listen up, I know the way out of the forest. Put your trust in
and I swear I'll do everything I can to get you back alive. All you need to do is follow , I'll guide us out."
Gawn spoke up, seeming to act as a proxy for the n.
"I don't think so... we followed your orders this far and look where it's gotten us. We're clearly going the wrong way. I say we backtrack back to the grove, find the path we ca in from, and leave through that." Gawn's mind being subtly warped. He was feeling the sa repulsion towards the direction of the town that I was, whatever monsters were responsible clearly not intending for us to leave.
"In case you haven't noticed, there's sothing out there. I'm not about to send us back into the depths of the forest, when we're almost at the edge already."
Gawn simply stared at
with contempt, not dignifying a response.
Seeing the unsettled attitudes of the knights, and the total unwillingness to leave, I made a final ultimatum.
"I'm leaving the forest. With or without you. This is an order, follow . Follow , you live. Disobey my order, and you die."
Gawn looked amused. Looking into his eyes I could tell he was scheming, even in this dire situation.
"You heard the man... clearly he's lost more than his sense of direction.
To think you threaten to kill the ones guarding your life so thanklessly. We're just trying to help." He smirked, throwing out words ant to incite the n even more against .
"I'm not threatening to kill you." I replied angrily, my emotions getting out of control.
Their confusion convinced them the only safe direction was wrong. Looking at
with pity as I intended to split off from the group.
"You've made your decision." I spoke coldly.
Even my brother was rooted in place, the compulsion of the monsters making him unwilling to go in the direction of town. I was beyond frustrated by this group but I couldn't leave my brother to his death. A compulsion to leave him and save myself flickered across my mind, before I was disgusted by the thought. Unsure whether it was the effect of the monsters or my own weakness at this point.
I steeled myself for what needed to be done. Not paying any mind that I was leaving the rest of them to their almost certain deaths.
Walking up to my brother, I summoned my sword. The rest of the n reacting with surprise, while Tristan flinched, unable to respond in ti as I raised my arm like a whip, bashing the poml as hard as I could against the temple of his head. His helt ringing with a crack and dent as I struck him with force, beyond twice the strength and speed that any knight my age could muster. Knocking him out cold to ground with a thud.
The rest of the group aghast at what I had just done.
"He's gone mad! I knew it, he's led us to our deaths." One of the soldiers hissed accusingly, their warped minds making them easy to assu the worst. Even so, I could only feel disgust towards this group who would surely die.
Gawn again demonstrated his natural leadership, organizing the group against . His own biases more exposed now that he was under the influence of whatever fiend was attacking us. But I had no intention of fighting, picking up my brother and turning towards the direction of town.
"Wait." Gawn stopped , throwing up his hands as he approached . A smile on his face.
Whispering in my ear.
"I never thought you'd do the work for . This day will be the happiest day in Marcella's life, second only to the day we promise ourselves." Gawn was chuckling to himself, corrupted by whatever force was here, but clearly not a fan of mine from the start.
So it was about Marcella, I almost felt like joining in with his laughing at this point. Soone who's going to die tonight wanted to steal my woman?
I didn't even bother to respond, not needing words for a dead man. Dashing off into the forest, carrying my brother over one shoulder, my sword ready in the other. Devoid of the light from the group's torches, I relied entirely on the pull of my skill to guide
back to safety.
Reviews
All reviews (0)