A unique energy signature began to rise from within the Slime Abomination but it was extremely fragile. In fact, it was so feeble that if Eridel wasn’t as capable as he was, he wouldn’t have detected it at all. But not only could he detect it, but he knew exactly what it was.

It was none other than the Slime Abomination’s Soul.

…Clearly, despite the continuous interruptions of the Chaos Transformation and the Tribulation Lights, the Anomaly Transformation has not halted at all. Instead it had sped up!

According to Eridel’s calculations based on prior experiences, the creation of the neo Soul should have taken at least 3 more minutes, and that should have happened AFTER the physical changes. But obviously, nothing was going as planned anymore and Eridel didn’t even feel like reacting anymore.

What had just happened had not saved the Abomination. Not even in the slightest. In fact, it had only ensured its death even more. After all, going by the rapidly ballooning size of the Tribulation and the nearly-imperceptible-but-still-there red aura that was beginning to surround it… The Soul, the very defenceless Soul, had just been targeted by the Tribulation.

Eridel looked up at the sun.

Really and truly, the Slime Abomination was probably the most lucky but unlucky person he had ever met… in person. He couldn’t help but wonder if Fate or the so-called heavens were dipping their fingers into the Abomination's life, trying its hardest to make sure that the Abomination perished.

If things had gone as normal, the Abomination should have begun to form its Soul after the Tribulation had already ended, ensuring its complete safety. But instead, its Soul had chosen right before the final strike of the Tribulation, the most dangerous time of all, to form.

Even if the Tribulation didn’t correspondingly rise along with the Abomination’s new found potential and stayed at a regular Blue Tribulation, it still would have been enough to erase the Abomination’s Soul, probably ending its physical body right along with it.

The Slime Abomination was finished, and if those increasingly terrified screams and screeches were to be believed, it knew it too.

‘Unbelievable…’ Eridel thought with faint exasperation. The things that were happening were too bizarre and they were completely out of the scope of his current understanding. But although he probably should have started leaving by now, he couldn't help but feel like he had to stay. Like this was an event that he absolutely could not miss.

It was probably how a mortal Scientist felt when they found themselves lucky enough to witness the birth of a star… or the death of one.

‘Well, whatever… Even if I stayed, it wouldn’t matter. The Tribulation Light would kill it before the Chaos Transformation ca-’ Eridel was thinking, but then his eyes abruptly widened.

“nnNNNNNAAAAAAAARRRRGHHHH!!!!”

Suddenly, the Slime Abomination let out its most terrifying roar yet. An apocalyptic roar that was so horrifying and loud that not only did it reach impossible distances, it also erased the Souls of those that were too close, causing the bodies that they resided within to drop like flies. Only the trees were able to stand firm, but their Souls too, the primitive and fragile little things, had evaporated like smoke.

Only the giant Tree of Death which had become a Spirit Tree, and Eridel, whose Soul was incomparably mighty, were completely unaffected. But other than them 2, every other Soul in the vicinity had vanished. However even though this looked like a purposeful malicious attack on the Abomination’s part, Eridel knew better.

Feeling the unshakable grip of death, the Slime Abomination had likely been forced by sheer desperation to rapidly harness every drop of potential within its body, including its growing an incomplete Soul. But the thing was that since its Soul had been blueprinted by its body (unlike lifeforms that are naturally born) and was therefore imprinted with some of the qualities of Chaos, the roar of desperation that it had released, powered by its others paths of power, had caused severe damage to the Soul of those in the vicinity.

It was this Chaos Soul that had caused Eridel to be surprised, but not shocked. After all, he had, to some extent, expected that to happen. All prior Anomalies had Souls that were attuned with the same Affinities that their bodies were attuned with. For the same principle to occur with the almighty Chaos was certainly stunning, but he had seen others (within his inherited memories) with Chaos Souls before.

The actual thing that caused him to be shocked was the depth of the blooming emotions that he was sensing within that roar. Other Anomalies had emotions too, but their Souls in comparison to the Slime Abomination’s Soul could be considered normal or even average. Nothing should have stopped their Souls from perceiving and feeling emotions as efficiently as a normal lifeform could. But for the Slime Abomination who had a Chaos Soul? Emotions should have been far, far harder to process.

That was the downside of a Chaos Soul. They had great power but their emotions and thoughts were always in disarray. Only far, far into the future would they learn to ignore the chaos within their thoughts, or even rarer, manage to calm it.

Eridel didn’t know how the Abomination did it (and this was becoming increasingly annoying), but somehow, its emotions which it had just obtained, were exceedingly stable. Well, when in comparison with a normal Chaos Soul’s emotions that was.

The despair that it was currently emitting had all the rights to be turbulent.

But it wasn’t just despair that he could sense. In fact, the despair that it was feeling barely caught his attention. After all, that was always something it could feel if its life was threatened enough. What really caught his attention was the feelings of regret. The feelings of injustice, the feelings of sadness, the feelings of unwillingness… but most importantly, the feeling of Gluttony.

‘Oh boy…’ Eridel thought.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!