The Soul Keeper

I pulled my wrist free and stepped away from her. "It's fine," I said as I destroyed the next focal point. That satisfying crack as the crystal embedded in the symbol broke, the slowly weakening golden light… They made the pain of my burnt hands worth it.

I destroyed all seven focal points as Rina and Alex watched on with shock. As soon as the golden structure crumbled and the last crystal broke, the golden light finally dissipated completely.

"Much better," I said with a sigh as Soul's respite began to heal my burnt skin.

"There has to be a better way." Alex mumbled.

"I told you, it's fine." I said, forcing a faint smile. "It wouldn't have been nearly as difficult if I had my scythe, but…" It's long shaft would have allowed me to do this without letting the light touch my skin at all.

"What happened to it?" Rina asked as she watched the souls slowly heal me. 

"The Divine took it, I think." I wanted to clench my fists but stopped myself as it hurt. "I'll get it back." 

"Why would she take it? Was it special? I mean, did it have some special ability or something?" 

I shrugged. "Maybe – There was nothing listed in the interface but perhaps it did have something that I simply hadn't discovered yet." I remembered the black miasma that spread from it from time to time. Was that why she took it? No, a Divine wouldn't care about demonic miasma, would she?

"What happens next?" Alex asked after a short moment. "I know you want revenge, but I doubt you are strong enough yet."

"I'm nowhere near strong enough." I replied with a chuckle. I was still a long way away from that, but I was getting there, slowly. "As for now… I have to go somewhere. I'll contact you again when I need your help." I paused. "I assume you're ok with helping me?"

They both nodded. I felt a little relieved and somewhat annoyed at the same time. "In that case, I'll send you back to Stonepatch Village." I extended my hand as I spoke.

"How are you doing that?" Rina asked, her voice filled with curiosity. "I've never seen something like that before. What's the name of that skill?"

As the light around my claw twisted and broke, I chuckled. "It's not a skill – it's not in the interface." A rift formed and slowly began to grow larger. I could see Rina's confused and amazed expression as she watched.

"I thought everything we could do was in the interface?" Alex asked.

"Rina could cast spells without using the interface since we first met." The rift had grown large enough as I spoke. "This isn't too different from that." I gestured towards the rift. "This will take you right outside Stonepatch Village. Hurry up – I can't keep it open for long."

They thanked me, apologized again, then finally passed through the rift. As soon as I felt them step through, I let it collapse. While it was one of the most useful abilities I had, it was also quite exhausting to use. It drained a lot of mana to sustain itself and even more willpower to keep it from collapsing in on itself.

With a sigh, I opened my status panel – I had to have levelled up after killing so many Ereth, right?

My lips slowly formed a smile as I saw the numbers. I was slowly gaining more power. 

'Kai Friseal – Level 107 Soul Keeper | Exp: 66780/150000 - - Souls 100/100 + 621 - - Mana: 2210

Fallen Grace Lv. 5 | Death's Scythe Lv. 5 | Dark Bolt Lv. 5 | Soul's Respite Lv. 5 | Keeper's Haven Lv.5 | Soul's Aspect Lv. 5 | Explorer | Crystal Sage

STR: 20 – CON: 11 – DEX: 100 – INT: 100 – WIS: 100'

I pondered a moment as I looked over everything. I had thirteen stat points and… way too many skill points that I could give. I looked over the available skills, only for something really old to catch my attention.

'Keeper's Sight'

How had I not noticed this before? No wait – I had! As I read over the description of the skill, I wanted to facepalm.

'Allows the Keeper to sense dying creatures nearby.'

Well… I knew why I hadn't taken this back in the day – What Erik and the others had told me was that Experience was what mattered the most. Naturally, killing an already dying creature yielded little experience. 

I allocated a single point to the skill. "Better than nothing," I mumbled. I didn't need this to find souls to collect, I needed it to make sure nothing – and no one – could escape me once I began fighting them. Especially a certain rogue who loved to disappear and reappear.

I also allocated all of my stat points. In the end, my status panel looked something like this.

'Kai Friseal – Level 107 Soul Keeper | Exp: 66780/150000 - - Souls 100/100 + 621 - - Mana: 2210

Fallen Grace Lv. 5 | Death's Scythe Lv. 5 | Dark Bolt Lv. 5 | Soul's Respite Lv. 5 | Keeper's Haven Lv.5 | Soul's Aspect Lv. 5 | Keeper's Sight Lv. 1 | Explorer | Crystal Sage

STR: 33 – CON: 11 – DEX: 100 – INT: 100 – WIS: 100'

I decided to bright strength up to fifty and leave it there when I had enough points. Constitution… I didn't know what it did. We had no health bars, there was no indicator of when we were in mortal danger. If all Constitution did was buffing up a non-existent stat, I didn't want to waste my points by allocating them to it.

I decided to ask Asher and Lucius about it. Maybe the young swordsman wouldn't know, but considering Asher's past and his profession, he had to have at least a sliver of an idea, right?

Deciding on that, I took a deep breath and spread my wings. I decided to return to Fetheion's hideout at sundown. Until then, I wanted to grind. As for what I would kill, that was fairly easy to find.

I could feel the corrupted animals from all the way up here – I didn't even need to search for them. I leapt into the air and flew towards the nearest group.

The Divine Pillar had corrupted them – perhaps because of the power it released as I destroyed it, or maybe because the Not-an-Inquisitor-yet Ereth had drawn too much power from it. Whatever the reason, I needed to dispatch of these creatures before the corruption drove them to attack the nearest Ereth settlement – Stonepatch Village.

I didn't even need to use my sword as I killed them. My dark bolts and flames made short work of these creatures. They were weak – the same creatures as I could kill at the very beginning of the game. Wolves and large eagles. There was nothing special about them. If it weren't for the number of souls I was getting, the experience they gave me wouldn't even be worth the mana I used to kill them.

That, and I didn't want another attack to Stonepatch Village to happen. I didn't want to see Rina go through the same thing as Alex. I don't think I could forgive myself if anything that I could have prevented happened to Rina's sister.

A young child such as that shouldn't have been stuck in this game to begin with. She was too young, too innocent.

I sighed and pulled myself away from such thoughts. Now wasn't the time. Instead, I glanced at the setting sun and decided to head back to Fetheion's place.

I had gotten somewhat used to opening the rift by now, and the same could be said about keeping Soul's Aspect going for longer periods of time. I opened the rift and once it was large enough, passed through it.

A cool breeze was what welcomed me, accompanied by the chirping of birds and the rustling leaves of the forest. And, of course, that incredibly familiar, nostalgic voice.

"You're back already?" Fetheion asked as I ended Soul's Aspect and returned to my usual self. He was sitting on a moss covered log. 

"I spoke to Rina and Alex," I said as the rift closed behind me. "And I destroyed another Divine Pillar."

Fetheion's expression darkened. "They're preparing for something." He mumbled. I shrugged – he was an Ereth Divine, he would understand the other Divines' actions better than me.

"How is Asher and Lucius?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Asher is healing. Lucius on the other hand…" He sighed. "He's bothered by something, but he refuses to tell me what." He raised his hand as if he were about to cast a spell, then dropped it on his lap again. "Perhaps you should talk to him – he seems to trust you quite a lot."

"I will, thanks for letting me know."

"Oh, Kai?" He said as I motioned to head inside. "Tomorrow, at night, I want you to give me a few hours of your time." He glanced at the distant mountains. "There something that needs to be done, and it would be best if you were there."