Adam had a pleasant dream about being back in Hessler with Helen. Unfortunately, the dream started to crumble as the whole word turned into ash colored sand around Adam. Adam woke with a start from that dream turned nightmare. Still, it did not feel like he had woken up from that nightmare. All that surrounded Adam was just that ash colored sand full of death essence.

Adam slowly got up. As far as he knew, he was exactly where he was when he fell asleep. He felt relieved that he wasn't walking about without control like when he blacked out. Adam found that eerie song playing in the back of his mind, still trying to dominate his soul. Adam did not know how long he had been in the spirit plane of death, but he felt he was getting used to that song. It made it easier to fight against.

Adam took this chance to examine himself. He had not had the time to when he was fighting those ghouls earlier and the thought had not occurred to him when he was trying to stay awake. Adam wanted to make sure he wasn't wounded anywhere during the previous fight. As Adam examined himself, he became quite frightened! The black death essence from his replaced limbs had extended halfway between his elbow and his shoulder for his arm, and halfway between his knee and his hip for his leg! This was a faster progression than Adam was hoping for. He even noticed that a thread of death essence was circulating throughout his body!

Adam tried to calm down and think of a way to deal with what was happening. He carefully examined the death essence invading his body from his limbs. He found that the the majority of the death essence was still just in his skin, it had yet to sink down into the marrow of his bones. Adam figured that it was a good thing, but wasn't entirely sure how he might try to dispel it from his body. Adam sat there, various thoughts passing through his mind: “Maybe if there was more of other types of spirit essence, it could push back the death essence. There is the spirit essence gathering formation but... there is not really a lot of other types of essence here. I might just suck in a bunch of death essence instead!... push... I wonder...”

Adam decided to try something out. He could change the wind formation to create a gale in front of him, what if he tried to make the spirit essence rush through his body? Adam concentrated on his memories in an attempt to conjure up the wind formation. Adam found it extremely hard to actually accomplish. Not only was just pushing the pure essence through his body farther from the original function of the wind formation than pushing a gale out, there was hardly any wind essence around him at all! Adam thought about giving up after a few attempts, but this was the only solution he knew of for his problem! It was either try harder, or just let the death essence pervade his body!

Eventually, Adam was able to use just the wind essence that existed in his soul to form the tiniest of formations. Adam got an extremely faint feeling from the formation that confirmed its existence but it was as though it was totally overshadowed by the voluminous amounts of death essence around him. Adam made the formation gently push against the death essence in his body. After just a moment of pushing against the death essence, the formation started breaking apart! The wind essence circulated back from his body and to his soul. It was as though the pressure from so much death essence outside pushed the spirit essence to gather in a place where there was next to no death essence, namely Adam's soul. Normally the spirit essence Adam would use in any type of formation would be lost until he could gather some more from his surroundings. Yet, being in a spirit plane seemed to change the rules that Adam knew of.

Over the course of the next several hours, Adam continued to push against the death essence in his body with the pitiful little wind formation he could make. Very slowly, the death essence was pushed back, but only so far. As the death essence was pushed back, it collected together and became more pure and even harder to push against. After these several hours, Adam was able to push the death essence back to a point where it was only a quarter of the way between his elbow and shoulder with the same for between his knee and his hip. He could not push it any further back than this. As for the death essence that was circulating through his body, it was mostly dispelled during the process of Adam pushing the death essence from his limbs back. There was a problem with this, however. Adam noticed that the more death essence he stopped from circulating around his body, the hungrier and thirstier he got! It seemed that the death essence circulating around his body had actually been somehow sustaining him! Adam had extremely mixed feelings about this. In the back of his mind, Adam had been worrying about food and water. If he could not find any food or water, was allowing death essence to circulate in his body the only way to sustain himself? But that was walking the thin line of becoming a ghoul!

Well, just sitting and thinking would actually make things worse. Adam got up and chose a direction to walk off to. Adam had no idea how long he had been walking. He would occasionally take a break and work on dispelling death essence from his body. He even had to sleep once. As he was going along, he was getting more tired, hungry, and thirsty. He had to find something soon to remedy this situation or he would have to let death essence circulate in his body again. During this time, he had not seen anything else besides the ashen like desert. No ghouls or anything else for that matter. Finally, though, Adam saw something at the fringes of his elemental sight!

Adam slowly walked in the direction of what he saw. He was being cautious, as he did not truly know what it was. It only took him a few seconds, to recognize it. It appeared to be a lone wandering ghoul. At least as far as Adam's elemental sight could see, there was not another ghoul around.

Adam wondered what to do. Should he kill it? Should he just walk the other way? And an additional horrific thought came to mind in Adam's desperation. He quickly shook his head to dispel the thought and looked in the direction of the ghoul. He hesitated for a moment and then started walking in the direction of the ghoul. When Adam got to within five or so meters from the ghoul, it finally noticed Adam and looked at him with confusion on its face. Adam thrust one of his two swords into the sand before continuing. He was tired and wielding two swords was hard and rather cumbersome. Against this lone ghoul, one sword would be enough. When Adam suddenly rushed the ghoul, it backed up to get away from the commander's sword Adam was holding. Adam was too fast, though, and easily decapitated the ghoul!

Adam looked down at the now dead ghoul, with that horrific thought racing through his head. His body shook as he thought about it. “Would it be better or worse to eat this ghoul or let death essence circulate through my body? Both would eventually turn me into a ghoul but... which option is worse?”

Adam also stuck his current sword into the sand and bent down to lift the ghouls arm up. The only way to know which way was worse, was to actually try it. Adam shakily brought the ghoul's arm up to his mouth and paused. Adam then quickly let go of the arm and backed up, frightened. “What was I about to do? Even though it is a ghoul, it is also human!”

Adam's mind was not fully together. He was tired, in an extremely unfamiliar place, and his mind was constantly being attacked by that eerie song. For a moment, he had only thought of the ghouls as animals, not humans. However, in that final moment he realized that it was more than just whether or not to eat a ghoul. The ghoul was human and this was cannibalism. Could Adam really cross that line?

Adam looked at the decapitated head. He hadn't really been paying attention before, but he had seen the trapped soul go free. As the soul dispersed, that small spark that was a true soul had disappeared to wherever it was they went, if they went anywhere at all. Even though it was a ghoul, it had truly been human. Adam firmed his resolve, if he lost himself for just a moment he might loose his soul! Adam got up and grabbed the sword behind him, then turned around and grabbed the sword he had left a small distance away. He looked back at the dead ghoul. He wouldn't spare the effort to bury it since he had to conserve what strength he could. Also it would be rather dangerous for him to try and dig a pit in the sand as he might get swallowed up by the eerie song. He did form a kind of determination, though. Even if he had to circulate death essence in his body to support it like a ghoul does, he would do everything he could against becoming a ghoul. Adam decided that he would kill any ghouls he came across, not to feed on them or to simply just kill a ghoul. Instead, it was for himself! He would let his soul ignite in a passion of saving those poor souls trapped in the wretched body of a ghoul. He would fight to the very end and in doing so, hoped to find a way home.

Adam was about to walk away when he started to hear an incessant chatter. It seemed rather curious, but Adam was immediately frightened! His mind started to blank out again as he tried to run away. This time he managed to shout: “STOP!” before he finally blacked out.

When Adam finally started to come to again, he once again found himself in a ghoul horde! As Adam was once again regaining control of his mind, he couldn't keep himself from shambling around the horde. This ghoul horde was a little different from the last, though. First, he came to realize the horde was at least three times larger. Second, there was a large black rock in the center of the horde that was somewhere around ten meters across. Adam's had enough control that his elemental sight was just enough to see that the rock rose up nearly two meters above the sand and on top of the rock was a rather crude looking structure made of compacted ashen sand...

Adam was shambling towards this structure. Adam was quite worried since he figured at least one commander was going to be there, maybe more. As soon as they saw him carrying not one, but two commander swords, they would no doubt be suspicious. Adam had only been able to kill the two ghoul commanders he had thanks to the element of surprise, but that would only last so long. Eventually his luck was going to run out and Adam felt it was already pretty dry.

When Adam got closer to the structure he noticed a weird anomaly in its center. There was some type of gaping hole suspended in the air! Adam had never seen a portal between a spirit plane and the world before, but he figured that this had something to do with it! Adam got excited and tried to gain control over his body faster. This hole may just be his ticket home! Before Adam could even try to do anything, though, the hole started to flicker like it was becoming unstable. Four figures appeared from the hole before it rapidly began to shrink and then entirely disappeared!

Of the four figures, three looked calm, even gleeful. The other, however, was struggling and was crying out in fear! The three were ghoul commanders who had captured a young woman! One of the ghouls started chuckling as he said: “Can you believe our luck? A rift opens right on our doorstep and leads to some delightful prey!”

The ghoul holding the woman said: “Yeah, yeah, you had your fun back there, but now it's my turn! I saw the portal first and captured the girl. I will be the one who gets to have fun with her before she turns!” He then turned to give a meaningful look at the terrified woman: “How should I enjoy you? Cook you, eat you, torture you, or perhaps... get intimate together?”

The woman's cries had started to lessen, not because she was afraid or scared beyond the limits of her mind, but because her mind was being assaulted by the death essence which was quickly infecting her body! Adam saw all of this and could only hold pity for the woman. There was no way he would be able to help her. Let alone rescuing her from the clutches of three ghoul commanders, he had no confidence in helping her fight against the corruption of the death essence. She was simply doomed. Still, Adam wished he could do something for her.

Still without full control of his body, Adam pointed a finger at the woman from where he was at. It somehow seemed instinctual and Adam's mind filled with sound similar to the incessant chatter that had caused him to black out! A thread of the death essence, that had started circulated in his body again, then stretched out from his finger! It extended out and around the ashen structure and went directly into the woman's forehead! This string was entirely made out of a small amount of death essence and was invisible, even to the ghoul commanders. Adam could see the woman's soul with his elemental sight, but now he could also somehow see it from the perspective of that thread of death essence he had sent out! The thread wiggled its way through the spirit essence that made up the woman's soul. It had an easy time as the thread followed the death essence that was assaulting her soul. The thread proceeded all the way into the center of her soul to wrap around a tiny spark that was smaller than even a grain of sand! Adam realized that this was the woman's true soul! Before Adam could think another thing, his finger suddenly yanked back as it tore the woman's soul away from its spirit essence! Adam became horrified as the spark was pulled completely out of her body and the previously barely struggling woman went limp! As soon as Adam's finger had tugged the woman's soul completely free, her soul began to fade away...

After all of this happened, silence ensued for a good few seconds. Adam was horrified by the fact he had just killed an innocent woman by somehow pulling her soul out from her body! The three commanders stared in mild shock at the now limp body of the woman. “What happened? I thought she would last longer!”

“Haha! I can't believe you were bragging so much about having some fun with her. She was so weak she couldn't even last a minute here!”

The commander holding the woman appeared disgruntled. He tossed the woman's body out over the rock to the ghouls surrounding it before turning and disappearing into the ashen structure. The other two followed suit as Adam cowered at the base of the rock. He was trying to come to terms with what just happened. It was a kinder death for her than what may have happened but still... It didn't help any that when the woman's body fell among the ghouls, they seemed to turn into ravenous dogs! The spirit essence contained in her body was clearly not corrupted, so the ghouls attacked with wild abandon, even though she was already dead. Adam's ears were assaulted with the terrifying sounds of snapping bones and the tearing of flesh! Adam quickly got up and ran in the other direction to get away from this place as fast as possible!

A few hours later, Adam came to a pause in order to rest. Along the way, he examined the state of his body. The state it was in was far better than what he had feared. The death essence had progressed since he blacked out, but not quite as much as last time. A smaller amount of death essence was also circulating in his body, like it had reached an equilibrium that was optimal for Adam. It was just enough to keep Adam from dying of starvation or thirst while minimizing the amount of death essence it would produce in his body.

Adam sat, trying to think. How did he come to use that method to kill the woman? The method was hazy, but he understood how he could start it. Somehow he had learned it while he was blacked out! He needed more information. Perhaps there was a reason Adam learned this weird and frightful method to kill someone. There was also clearly a way to get back to his world through these 'rifts' that the commanders had talked about, but Adam had no idea how they formed! He had no layout of the area too, so he could only travel blindly. Unfortunately, the only way to gain any information was to ask someone and the only ones he could ask were ghoul commanders... Adam debated for a long time before he came to a decision; he would go back! Adam's determination had been set. Adam needed to get a lot of information from the ghoul commanders and the only way to get it was to force it out of them!

When Adam finally made it back to the horde, he had already come up with a plan of attack. He could only hope that it would work like he wanted. Adam quickly ran through the horde of ghouls who stared confusedly at him. He got right up to the black rock and hid by its side as he waited. It didn't take long for one of the three commanders to come out of the ashen structure. He asked back to the others: “You sure you don't want to come with me to find what has got the ghouls so riled?”

The other two commanders continued to decline. One seemed too grumpy about losing the woman to care and the other seemed kind of frightened. The one commander that decided to check things out went to the edge of the rock and looked out across the horde. Although his vantage point was not incredibly high, it still put him above the entire horde and he was easily able to look through it. As the commander scanned the horde, looking for a discrepancy, Adam sneaked along the base of the rock to where the commander was. When the commander's gaze was looking in the other direction, Adam swiftly jumped onto the rock and lunged, while pointing one of his swords at the commander's head! The commander started to jerk his head to look at Adam when he heard the noise of the jump, only to find the point of a sword directly in front of his face! With no time to move or dodge, the sword pierced the commader's skull and destroyed his brain!

Adam immediately got down below the rock again and continued to sneak around. As soon as that commander had died, the other two had already noticed. The grumpy commander immediately came charging out of the ashen structure while the frightened commander seemed unsure of what to do. Adam decided that the frightened commander was going to be the one he would have to overpower and interrogate since he seemed more of a coward than the others. The grumpy commander saw the body of the first and cried out in rage: “Is that you Yvonne!? Think you finally killed one of us with your sneaky ways!? Engle, get your ass out here and help me get the horde to attack anything unusual in the vicinity!”

Adam was startled. He had to stop the commanders from doing that or the ghouls would surely attack him en masse! Adam wasn't too far away from the grumpy commander, but did not have the time to sneak around. Adam decided it was all or nothing, so he jumped onto the rock and charged the commander! The commander was thoroughly surprised. He had been suspecting someone else was behind the death of the other commander and was expecting different tactics. Adam was also naked and still covered in dried ghoul blood. It was a fantastically odd sight that one would likely never see, even in the spirit planes!

The commander drew out his sword to meet Adam's own two swords, as they began to fight! Adam tried to gain the upper hand and force the commander into his own pace, but the commander was too strong. Even though Adam had a small element of surprise, it only lasted for a moment and then it was gone. While two swords might have been effective against normal ghouls, it was actually being detrimental to Adam's fight with the commander. Adam simply couldn't put enough force behind his swings to force the commander back. In fact, after around ten seconds of fighting, the commander knocked Adam's left sword flying! Now without a defense on his left side, the commander tried to attack Adam from that side, before he could recover his stance! As the commander started what he hoped to be the final attack, Adam realized he had to do something to stop it, but he would not be able to position his right sword in time to stop or even deflect the attack. Only one thing came to mind, Adam pointed his finger at the ghoul as he attempted to do what he did with that woman. He let the defenses in his mind down as he allowed his body to move instinctively to accomplish his goal. The thread of death essence quickly slipped into the commander's soul and surrounded his true soul. Adam then gave a vicious yank and pulled the commander's soul out! Adam managed to accomplish this just before the commander completed his attack. The momentum of his body was still pushing the attack forward, but it was now weak and slow enough that Adam had enough time to deflect the blow with his right sword! After that, the commander simply fell to the ground, dead. Adam then immediately turned around and pointed his sword at the commander Engle. Engle was visibly shaking as he stuttered: “I-I surrender!”

[Proofread by: Ayumu]