Thud!
A simple sound.
One made by the soulless body of a brotherless man.
This flat noise also happens to be the sound of the hope disappearing from the researchers as their last line of defence collapsed.
You have slain a level 321 human, Axis. Soul acquired. Store or use [Crimson Smith] skill to craft?
The Knight chose to just store it for later. This was the strongest soul it had ever gotten – and it was a pure soul at that – but it felt at a loss for letting yet another strong soul escape. Red Scorch had become its minion, Keiper had escaped, and literally nothing was left after defeating the void being. It didn't need greed to remind it – but it did, nonetheless.
Now that everything around the Knight had stopped being immaterial it absorbed the void from its gauntlet and soles. It then pushed some of it into the armour to cover up the sight that within dwell. It then turned to face the researchers.
'They know more about wills than I do – I better find a way to extract this information from them. Otherwise, I'll just feed their souls to my army.'
The follower inhabiting the vessel of the Vile Hunter drooled as it sensed this intention from the Knight. The Knight then began moving towards the defeated researchers.
***
Guilos was on her knees, sure she had a failsafe plan – but she had never thought the arrogant Ill would abandon his brother. She didn't know Axis much, but she had gotten to know him since Ill used his body to visit her.
'I can't move – My legs – I can't stop shacking. Come on… I'm a top researcher; I haven't been afraid of anything for a while… If I don't do anything we're all going to die.'
She kept trembling as the Knight took slow steps towards them. She even began crying – she wasn't afraid of losing her life, or pain, or sorrow, but at this moment she feared the fate that would befall her should she end up in her adversary's path – after all, those screams from Axis weren't human, and all of them unfortunately heard them.
'… you're right… if I don't do anything we're dead – but it remains we still aren't. He could have ordered the monster to just kill us, but he didn't – even if it should have been hard in battle – he could have…'
Her original plan was to stab herself and just barely alive hibernate. Once the adversaries were gone, she would use every ounce of strength to restore herself – that way at least one survived.
She doubted this would have worked but now that she had realised something new. It meant she could come up with a more reliable plan whilst also saving more information per researcher.
"Hi there."
She said in her head – the words not leaving her mouth. She couldn't bring herself to speak to him – to it.
Finally, she gritted her teeth, since the Knight was about to pass her.
"… h-h-hey guy…"
'Guy!?' – thought both her and the Knight.
She quickly composed herself and spoke again. "Y-you w-want information, right?"
The Knight looked at her confused, after all it had stopped the use [Visage of Terror] for a while.
'It seems, even if permanent fear isn't aimed at you directly, it still reaches – interesting.'
The Knight then turned faced her and made sure to enhance her desire to speak enough to overshadow the fear, so even though her body was still shaking, she didn't stutter.
"Let's say that I am – are you willing to speak?"
The Knight could just overstimulate her desire to reveal information, but it might affect the information she gives just like how Folisha began spouting nonsense near the end of their lessons. The Knight would rather keep her alive for as long as possible.
'Strange, I thought my army had collected all the humans – it seems one eluded them. She seems to be sure of herself; she did step up to confront us earlier. What did she say she was? Lead Researcher – that's perfect.'
"I am the lead researcher of this place – what once was Abio research facility. And as such I possess a rather generous amount of information. I may not know what you are after, but I do know enough to help."
The Knight took her up and asked, what do you know about the wills.
'He knows about the book of wills, who is he really?' she quickly thought before answering.
"I do know about them."
"Then speak."
'Here goes the hard part.'
"In return I need you to promise to let all of us all live."
…
The researchers, even in their terrified states all listened to the conversation with baited breaths. They trusted the lead of the lead R. – and this time it concerned their fates.
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
They all silently gasped as though they were dying, and once again they became still and silent. Guilos herself was surprised.
"If I tell you we die, if I don't, we still die."
The Knight then corrected her. "You will tell me and die, the only thing in question here is by what means you speak."
Then the Knight walked past her. Then the Knight stood before the researchers, reaching its hand out. Now that it had someone who knew about it, the rest were dead weight. A dark wave poured out of its hand, the void consumed all of them and instead of collecting the souls the Knight eradicated them. Their bodies all collapsed to the floor in a chilling tune, as Axis had before them.
You have eradicated 65 souls. Void territory has increased by one.
The guards and other earlier casualties were used to feed the vile army. Some that weren't human were collected for later use in soul crafting. The human souls had all been just stored – these were the remains. And still after so much eradication, including that of material it eradicated during battles, the void territory only just now increased by one, and in comparison, it only took one divine spirit last time.
The knight then absorbed the void back. It scanned the room and saw that two people were still alive, it had missed one. Her soul was barely alive, just a push away to begin naturally fading. Her body had been just left beyond the group.
The Knight walked towards her, this was Yellow, still curdling blood. The Knight reached out, and immediately after touching her, it felt a chill run through its arm and into her.
'Damn Followers! Sometimes I forget they have the [Greed] skill too. Maybe I should start referring to them with something else now that I have other followers. I guess Vermin will do just fine.'
Just as the knight had said, it seems one of its dormant Vermin, jumped after coming into contact with her soul.
'Must be one tasty skill…'
This was the first time a Vermin had taken a soul without the Knight even learning about the skill. But something felt even stranger, the Knight had never felt a Vermin this determined.
You have slain a level 86 human, Yellow. Soul not acquired. Soul has been consumed, corrupted, and reformed. Soul is... synchronising with Vermin. Vermin has formed a pact with the vessel. A Followerhas been lost.
New Follower has been acquired. Level 76 General Kitrino.
She stretched her arms in a yawning motion and spoke.
"Finally!" – said the rough female voice – bordering on manly – but most of all, child-like.
"You can speak?"
Kitrino, who is actually using Yellow's body, had healed it, but the suit still laid in tethers, barely covering anything, and her figure was nothing to scoff at. The thing inside her then stretched out her limbs – it didn't need to, but it instead used this to get used to its vessel. Usually, all the vermin did this, but the Knight found it strange to watch a human do it.
It then answered the Knight. "She's speaking. We're speaking? I don't know."
…
There was silence because that answer didn't quite explain much for both of them. So, the Knight resigned itself and just used slaughter points to get explanation, after all it did slaughter over 100 today alone.
Being known as Yellow and being following the Knight now referred to as Vermin have assimilated. A Vermin possesses little to no knowledge stats. Their unison has resulted in a new being similar to the Knight in design only… their shared mind has resulted in a single mind.
The whisper went on like this explaining that whilst the follower responded to her skill. She had no will of madness, that usually made it easier for Vermin to turn monsters into vessels. So, in order to acquire the vessel, the follower made a pact with the soul and merged. This made them one.
***
About an hour ago.
I should be dead – she had stopped calling out for him just a while back.
I can't move, to be more accurate I won't move it hurts too much. That bum. He should have let me die alone.
She then thought about his last moments.
At least he didn't sacrifice himself for me – I was worried for nothing – he didn't break his promise. She was thinking about that nightmare she had had a decade ago. She had made quite the fuss, but in the end, it was her who attempted to sacrifice herself, even if it failed miserably. To be fair – she had never made the promise back.
Maybe I should join him. The centre has been put to ruin, and I might not hear well but I can tell I'll be dead soon. I'm already halfway there anyway. She had pushed the pain to the back of her mind to allow herself to think clearly – including the pain of losing him.
She then heard the noises made by the rescuer, Axis, as he screamed out for his brother. The fact that he lost was enough to tell her that their adversary was more than this place was meant to protect against. She had even realised there were multiple assailants even if she had no visual confirmation. Afterall her plan to rescue her husband had failed because of the explosion from the front throwing her back, meaning there were multiple attackers.
Those noises – safe to say if Axis is gone, and we're next. She then felt a disturbing chill run through her. Each giving her more pain to push back, as she heard the body hit the ground, lifeless.
In the end I just managed to live just a little longer. My father said he was going to kill Dniz if he let me die – that's why I made him promise to never try to sacrifice himself for me. She then tried to form a smile, even if it didn't hurt, her body was simply incapable of it.
The princess of the mountain folk dying out here… If I had things to look back upon, I'd say I'm just glad I never used that accursed skill.
This was the skill that had been passed down in her family since the ancestor's time. But it is useless without the power that mountain folk possess.
She was talking of the power over form – but instead of forms of souls – the forms to physical objects. She had even raised her knowledge stats instead of her power to avoid this as a form of rebelling against her father. In fact, this is how she met Dniz, on her studies. The power itself is no problem. It was the skill she wanted to avoid.
"… h-h-hey guy…"
Is that Guilos… I never thought I'd hear her losing composure… well I can't actually. Funny, I guess…
Creepy noises escaped her mouth as she almost laughed.
She then listened to the conversation, and she felt a slight chill go through her again, but this time from the sounds of multiple bodies dropping limp to the floor.
Wait, why did it miss me… she then heard footsteps approaching her… I guess they didn't.
Even in pain she felt the cold touch of the Knights gauntlet. Her heart, beat faster as she felt her life drawing to a close. To the type of death Axis had… However, nothing of the sorts happened, instead she lost conscience and was in this empty place, nothing as far as the eye could see.
The pain is gone. This place was deeper than the subconscious.
Then she felt something enter this space. She could not see it, touch it, or hear it.
Who are you?
…
This feels so wrong…
She wasn't the only one, the follower was just as confused. Usually, the Knight gave them souls of monsters, and life before the Knight had long disappeared from their minds. As such it was confused, as much as a mindless-being could be. So, it just chose default and tried to consume her.
It creeped towards her and began trying to consume the soul.
What's happening? This thing… I can't get it off… oh, it stopped.
It had stopped because consuming her soul while keeping it from eradicating until fully corrupted was impossible. If it continued – her soul would be sent to oblivion, and it would lose its vessel and its skill. This happened because she had a will that was not mad and was more complex. And that it didn't know how to deal with, or simpler to say if it had known it had forgot.
So, for a time that seemed like an eternity, but really just a second, they stood there in her conscience, doing nothing. One truly oblivious to what was going on, the other at a crossroad unable to continue.
What's this?
She said as dark lines appeared out of nowhere. That is when something strange happened. The whisper of darkness isn't just innate to the Knight, it's also latent in the followers, but due to their mental capacity it's mostly passive. So, in this moment, it activated to help facilitate this strange situation for the follower. A display tab, just like the one for the Knight appeared and on it, it wrote:
A Pact has been requested – failure to comply will result in eradication.
[Accept] – [Decline]
Before even thinking about it, she instinctually accepted, the earlier chills had persuaded her to avoid eradication – it sounded even worse than death.
Soul Merging… Complete… Title Acquired – Kitrino.