“““We rise.””” Thousands of deep, eerie voices responded to the call of their maker, making the crumbling and burning streets look even more like a scene out of an apocalypse, and the appearances of those harrowing figures didn’t make anything better.

Having stepped out of the shadows, their forms had become clear and what a ghastly sight they made. Their forms varied but there was a single constant and that was their very clear relation to wolves. Around 70% of them looked just like regular wolves, but not only were they much bigger and appeared vapious in nature like ghosts, there were also some that had strange add ons. Some had horns, some had wings, some had multiple eyes and some had large ears.

And as for the remaining 30%? They were even more irregular. They were humanoid wolves. They stood on 2 legs and possessed 2 fully functional arms with 5 fingers that ended in claws. But unlike the Enlightened Beasts back on Eridius, that was where their relationship to Humans, Elves and other Enlightened ended.

These humanoid Wolves had completely retained their wolven heads, and black vapious fur covered every inch of their bodies like the beasts they were. Even their legs were double jointed and had paws instead of feet like an ordinary wolf. It was bizarre.

And as if their daunting appearances weren’t enough, they each radiated an aura filled with death and eldritch coldness. There was an alien savageness in their eyes that words alone could not correctly identify and their silence only made things worse. They didn’t growl or snarl like normal aggressive beasts, no, they just stood still and watched.

What was even scarier was that it could be perfectly imagined how one of these wolves could sit in the corner of someone’s bedroom, perhaps blending in with a shadow. And an innocent Human who was peacefully interacting with his C-Cube, maybe watching a show or reading a book, would be none the wiser that their life was no longer in their hands.

They wouldn’t even know how they died.

“Bring me more Souls.” Their creator spoke, her form multiple times more terrifying than theirs.

“A hunt?” Spoke a 3 metre tall humanoid wolf, the tallest of all the humanoid wolves. A question could be heard in it’s voice but it still sounded as emotionless as ice.

“A feast?” Said a giant 6 metre tall wolf with ram horns on the sides of it’s head.

“Growth~” Breathed a 5 metre tall wolf with wings on it’s back.

“As the Sire commands…” started a perfectly normal shaped wolf with no add ons, yet standing the tallest at 7 metres high.

“So shall it be.” Every wolf said in unison.

Then they slipped back into the darkness before reappearing somewhere else a few seconds later, using the shadows to travel the city at a horrifying speed that the mortals of this World would find a hard time witnessing. And they did it all without making a single sound.

No feet could be heard during the few times they ran under the daylight, no sound effect as they wielded the shadows, no growl as they leapt with menace. It was all silent.

Such a sight was nothing if not blood-curdling, and it was very evident that this city was doomed.

Such was the fate of a land that hosted a Horseman of Apocalypse.

…

[Eridius World]

Eridel watched this apocalyptic event with interest.

Those Wolves were the result of the Death using her Corruption abilities to transform a Soul, an ability that all Horsemen had. Of course, the results were different and they didn’t all become wolves. For example, the Horsemen of Conquest could turn Souls into strange entities covered in tentacles, mouths and eyes. However, the result still took influence from the Soul itself.

As was shown, any animal the Death had used that ability on had become a wolf, regardless of what kind of animal they were before, and they only retained a few features from their previous forms.

A bat had become a wolf with large bat ears, a bull had become a wolf with horns or hooves or sometimes both, a bird would become a wolf with wings, and a spider would become a wolf with multiple eyes or multiple legs.

But for the humans or to be more specific the ‘Enlightened Races’, they would become a completely humanoid Wolf and only very rarely would they be able to keep things like horns, a halo or wings. For instance, a regular demon would just become a humanoid wolf and would lose his horns, but a demon who had amazing compatibility with the corruption would not only retain the horns but also his racial abilities, which was what made it so hard.

Watching a Horsman corrupt a lifeform was always interesting for Eridel to watch because unlike if that were to happen on his own planet, he didn’t create the lifeforms of other worlds so he couldn’t perfectly predict the result. So it was like watching someone trying to unlock a rare character in a game. Most of the time they would get the usual common stuff, but every once in a while they will get a nice surprise.

But as for all the lives that were being taken…?

He didn’t care too much.

He had seen a scene like this take place multiple times before and in each of the 4 Worlds he had sent a Horseman. And regardless of what his view on those actions were, repetition creates indifference.

But on that topic, when it came to murder, Eridel’s view on it was unsurprisingly apathetic.

Having almost reincarnated before his Soul was whisked away, he had reached a sort of limbo where he didn’t see the death of a body as true death. True death was actually the destruction of the Soul and as long as it didn’t perish, you would once more walk the lands of the living, even if you didn’t retain your identity.

Naturally that meant nothing here since the Souls were being devoured. These people were truly dying. But once you create an excuse for any act and truly accept it, is it that much of a surprise that you accept it once more when it crosses your new ‘boundary’?

When faced with this dilemma, some people just created a new boundary. A lot of the time that held, but sometimes an even bigger boundary than that was needed and some actually created it. But then there was people like Eridel who just decided ‘fuck it’.

Killing people was sad, but if it was needed for his goals, then so be it.

The only thing he wouldn’t intentionally do was torture the innocent, and that was a boundary he would not be crossing. In his mind, any action that had the end goal of causing suffering towards the undeserving was evil, especially if it was for the sake of pleasure, and evil was something he refused to be.

In the event that he needed to slaughter someone, or even a group of people, for gain that he couldn’t do or even merely wouldn’t do without, he would first look for his enemies. If he needed more than just his enemies then he would look for those he considered evil, if he needed more than that then he would target a large faction that he was opposed to, regardless of the values of the individuals within. And if he needed more than that…? Then unfortunately it was anyone on sight.

He would only make pre-emptive measures to ensure that the innocent didn’t suffer in the process whenever he could.

Of course, it was utterly impossible to avoid harming everyone you wanted to kill, especially if it was through a third party, but Eridel couldn’t bring himself to care about every single scenario like that.

Almost every goal could accidently harm others. Even the simple innocent pursuit of becoming beautiful could bring woe to those who wished desperately to obtain you but lacked the capability.

And for everyone who wished to win, it meant that you wanted others to lose. Of course, a group of people could win together, and that was good. Perhaps your innocent goal was for your country to never lack food, thus everyone wins… But what about the animals? And if you wanted to make your country vegetarian, what about the small creatures whose livelihood was those plants that you didn’t want getting violated? And if you were advanced enough to make artificial food, then who were you benefitting from to get the energy to feed a whole country? And if ALL those problems were solved, what about those who watched in envy, hating the fact there was a heaven that was barred to them? Some may say ‘then those people should come to the country’, but sometimes it wasn’t that easy.

Somebody always loses, and it was foolish to care about every single one.

Eridel wouldn’t care about the people who despaired because of his appearance, he wouldn’t care about the people who despaired when he obtained a priceless treasure and they didn’t, he wouldn’t care about the people who cried after losing in a competition in which he was competing, and he wouldn’t care about the few seconds that someone may feel pain as he claimed their life.

If he could make the effort to stop the suffering then he would, but if not, it is what it is.

That was Eridel’s belief.