His voice fell and the sculpture absorbed the floating souls. Like a magnet, the souls were drawn to the statue on his palm, absorbed into the white gem in the snake’s mouth. For such a small thing, the suction range was immense. Slowly at first, but it’s getting faster. A rain of light charging down towards Viers, as if the stars itself coronating his ascension.

“Snake, don’t absorb these souls: Farley Styra, Gwen Styra, Benjamin Styra, and Paina Wattle, these four.”

Viers didn’t know if the sculpture could differentiate the souls. He hoped it could, if it couldn’t, then it’s a shame but there was nothing he could do.

Like a crack in the earth swallowing a river until the water was dry, the magic item kept gathering souls with gusto. Viers’s hair was moving because of the wind produced by the mighty suction. Three minutes he waited until the sculpture finished. Excited and thrilled, Viers felt like a child opening up his Christmas presents ever.

The wooden snake sculpture spat out the white gem to Viers’s palm before turning to silent and fell to the ground. After absorbing thousands of souls, the gem contained a strong mysterious power Viers never felt before.

“Soul…”

Viers made a fist, enveloping the gem with a resolute grip. Like a burst fruit, the gem broke and magical power went inside his body. It didn’t hurt but it felt cold. As if a stream of cold ice injected into his bloodstream. From Viers’s left hand, until it disappeared into his chest area.

A pulse he felt. A single pulse of a new ability he gained. It signaled the completion. Although, Viers didn’t need it because the world appeared different to him.

He was a tier 5 of the soul affinity, a prerequisite of a level 5 Path-seeker.

This is… tier 5 affinity. I can sense… my soul. It feels so real as if I’m looking at an image from a clear mirror… and their souls too.

There were about a hundred souls existed near him, it seemed the snake didn’t need all the souls as a catalyst. He was glad the snake didn’t eat them all and started to search for the souls he need. Thanks to his highest possible soul affinity, he could feel their identity. The four souls he listed were all here.

Good, the snake didn’t eat them.

Viers picked up the now lifeless and didn’t seem functional wooden sculpture.

“I don’t know if you can hear me but thank you for this. I’ll make you grave later.”

Viers said his gratitude. The statue was half-sentient and it helped him tremendously. Viers didn’t want to leave it like that.

“Now, I must take care of them.”

Viers approached the sisters’ bodies, he could feel their souls despite their death. Using his tier 5 affinity, he wanted to influence the souls just like how he manipulate water in the past. He was not familiar with the deed so it was a bit awkward but his soul affinity was higher than his water affinity thus he still managed to do it. Two souls were floating in front of him after he pulled them from their bodies.

“Farley and Gwen,” Viers pressed the two spheres into his chest, absorbing them. Then Viers immediately went towards his realm of consciousness.

Inside his mind, the black space had two new addition. The sleeping form of two girls, floating like they were in space. They no longer looked like a ball of mystical cotton candy but in their human form, albeit wispy, a little transparent, and naked.

“Well, that’s distracting… can I make some clothes for them? Nnnn, hah!”

Viers somehow conjured a loose white robe on top of their bodies. The sisters looked like they were sleeping, their chest even showed signs of breathing and with Viers’s new soul affinity, he was sure the sisters were fine… at least their souls were fine.

Do souls need to breathe? Perhaps not but they look like that because of muscle memory from their bodies.

Viers opened his eyes in the real world and picked another soul. Unlike Farley’s and Gwen’s, this one wasn’t inside her body. Just like the rest, the sculpture’s suction brought all the remaining souls in Luxore town to Viers’ vicinity.

“Paina…”

Viers eyed the soul ball with complicated feelings for a few seconds then also absorbed her into his body. Inside the realm of consciousness, he also conjured a robe for her after making sure she was also fine. Before he went out, Viers created two sturdy cages in his mind. One was big while one was small.

This will be the place for the other souls.

Viers approached the bloody corpse of the old man he killed, Benjamin soul’s also remained inside his body.

“AAAAHHH!! What!? What happened? What is happening to me? You! This is your doing!”

Unlike the other souls, Benjamin's soul was awake. Viers could hear his scream and hate filled voice despite having the form of a mouthless ball of soul.

Huh, that’s new. I suppose his tier 1 soul affinity makes him a bit special.

“Hello there, I’m your killer. Omae wa mou shindeiru… It means you’re already dead. Now be a good soul and wait for your turn. I’m busy and my time is short.”

YESSS! I wanted to say that line for so long! One of my dreams has come true!

Benjamin started another round of monologue but Viers wasn't in the mood to hear them. Viers absorbed him too and put him inside the small cage he made.

Now he can’t roam free inside my mind… realm of consciousness is inside my mind, right? Anyway, letting souls freely roaming the inside of my consciousness certainly isn’t wise so I make a cage. If he broke it, I will know.

The four special souls he had taken care of, but the remaining souls were an unexpected boon of him. Of course, Viers would not waste free gifts. Just like the other four, he collected all the souls and absorbed it into his body. He put them all inside the big cage. All souls were unconscious unlike Benjamin but he still put them all inside the secure cage like a bunch of unironed laundries.

“Pheeeww,” Viers was satisfied.

Time to get out of here.

Viers took August’s inventory ring and started to run towards one of his hidden preparations. He returned after ten steps, stomped Benjamin’s head and destroyed his body with his Arte. Benjamin’s corpse looked strange and he didn’t want to leave evidence. He did the same with August's corpse while he moved Farley and Gwen bodies to a nearby house. He created a kitchen accident with the kitchen stove magic item lookalike and created a pyre for the sisters and the house owners before continuing his run.

Viers’ first choice was a hidden rucksack in an abandoned house he left a few days prior. He had a few of these filled with getaway necessities and put on fresh clothes. Along the way, he saw many corpses. He even saw a meat monster, a former cultist transformed into a mindless monstrosity. Blood and death were everywhere. Then, because it was near, he visited his dorm. Yisha was there, with some of his classmates' corpses.

“…”

Viers didn’t speak, he had a hard to describe feeling. He went to the kitchen, and with a fire-making magic tool for cooking, burned the place down.

He had a few reasons for this. First, the barrier in the form of black sky had no sign of fading, he couldn’t get out. Second, even if he looted the corpse town he wouldn’t be able to bring any with him for the inventory rings he took could not be utilized by the current him; Viers didn’t want to take any risks so he planned to transform into a monster and ran away incognito. Third, since he was stuck here, he wanted to sabotage the scene of the crime as much as possible. The destroyed town would invite investigators and if he could burn the town or part of the town to make things difficult for investigations, then it would be worth it. Fourth, it would be a funeral pyre for the fallen; because of the battle, some part of the town was already burning anyway.

The dorm building used a lot of wood so it burns well. Viers saw the burning building from the outside for a few seconds with deep emotion.

“Thus my life at Luxore town ends…”

Viers turned his back and continued his arson of nearby houses and property. With luck, he wanted other people to assume he was one of the dead.

About forty minutes later, the Demonic Soul Isolation Arte started to weaken. Viers dropped his willful fire-raising and went towards the edge of the town. Naturally, he didn’t choose the many main gates and common entrances for making his exit.

Fire enveloped quite a bit of the town’s residential area. Viers left behind an inferno of burning buildings behind him. Smoke filled the area, making even the arsonist hard to breathe. Fires cracked and some of the earlier houses had a fallen roof. A pity he did not any fire-related Arte, otherwise the flaming destruction would be far greater than the manually induced conflagration.

At the edge of the town, a membrane of black barrier prevented his exit but it was clear the Arte wouldn’t last much longer. Viers stripped again and transform into a monster, a spider monster. This cat-sized translucent monster was only level one but notoriously hard to catch, it specialized in stealth, Water Ghost Spider.

Viers turned transparent and waited behind a wall, patiently he stood still until the time came to make his escape. He didn’t wait long, only five to ten minutes. No people nearby him when the barrier broke, and so Viers made his way out without any trouble. The commotion was at the other parts of town, far and away from Viers’ location.

As a spider, he wore the two inventory rings as leg rings. He couldn't use them at the moment but the inside was too valuable to let go so he must carry them out. Besides, he refused to leave without the 'boss' loot.

The Spider-Viers went to one of his other hidden supplies. Viers had prepared a few inside and outside of town. His preparations were tremendous because it covered almost every scenario he could think of. When he arrived, Viers didn’t immediately turn back to human form and dig up his buried backpack. It was almost sunset and he wasn’t that far from Luxore town. Viers hid covertly near a bush of vegetation.

While he hid, he went to his realm of consciousness to check up his picked up souls.

Viers checked the potentially dangerous ones first. Benjamin in the form of a human, still thrashing around trying to break the cage he made while screaming hate and curses filled words. The cage had a dog cage design, Viers couldn’t find a better alternative. Seeing his dog cage had no signs of breaking, Viers left the old man alone.

The bigger cage was a house-sized box. His realm of consciousness was very spacious and it's three dimensional so even fitting a hundred mountain wasn’t a problem. Some of the people he recognized had human form, the rest were in soul ball form. They were all unconscious.

So only the people I recognized I perceive in their human form… Yisha, Teldo, Classmate J, Abe, a few classmates, hm? He is… what’s his name again? The hunter that helped me in the past, ah yes, Collins. His grumpy brother isn’t here… that’s all, no other people I know. The rest should be used as the catalyst… I wonder what happened to them. Are their souls destroyed?

After checking there were no problems, he turned towards the three guests of honor. Viers decided to change the scenery a little bit. He brought them into a field of white flowers under uncountable magnificent constellations. Viers had grown capable of manipulating his own consciousness in the past months. Conjuring fake scenery was not difficult for him.

“Wake up,” Viers tried a mental nudge… or soul nudge, even he wasn’t sure.

“Umm…”

“Nn, this is…”

Farley and Paina started to wake from the slumber. They found themselves in a dreamy place.

“Viers! Where were you? Gwen? Ahh, Gwen!”

“Both of you… where are we?”

Farley and Paina seemed confused. Viers looked at Gwen, she showed no signs of waking up. Farley realized her sister was next to her and tried waking her up but it was futile.

“Viers, what is going on here?” Farley seemed agitated.

“Field of flowers… is this heaven? Are we dead?” Paina looked full of disbelief.

Viers scratched his itchy scalp and sheepishly smiled.

“Oh boy, where to begin…”