Shadowbane

The man in my hand finally went limp. I pulled him close, peeking over his shoulder at the fire caster behind him.

Heh... Pure rage would be a good description of the emotion flaring across his face.

"Wuunc---", Shit, I can't speak. I must have breathed in some fire on accident... So much for bluffing my way out of this. I was going to tell him 'Once I absorb this man's soul, his spear is going to disappear and I'm going to kill you next'. Which is complete and utter nonsense. I had to absorb all three of the souls from earlier to enhance myself enough to kill the guy in my hand. Not only would I have failed at crushing his throat, but his punches would have pulverized my head.

There's no mana left to heal my lungs and it's also not possible to absorb this guy right in front of his friend. It takes way too much time while giving off an eerie light. Whoever marked their unit would certainly have told him about his friend's souls being eaten, he'll know right away what I'm doing. Honestly, I'm not sure how to get out of this...

A blue aura appeared around the man glaring at me, making him immediately shift to a confused expression.

"Sis no!!" The man yelled.

A second later he phased out of existence, leading to an imperceptibly fast blue light shooting off deeper into the woods.

I... Assume she did that to save him? Probably panicked after I killed one of them, forcing a return warp on her brother to get him away from me.

I wish I could consider this another stroke of luck, but does it even matter? The spear disappearing was part of the bluff. If I use his soul to enhance my strength enough to rip the spear out, I'll have nothing left to heal myself with. This forest looks completely dead, not a single biological around for me to consume. Likewise, if I use the soul to heal up, which will take a long time, I'll still be stuck to this fucking tree until the mana runs out on this spear and it starts to break down into ether. I assume he pumped it to the max to make sure it pierced me, so that isn't happening anytime soon.

............ Rip the stake out, then crawl and hide... I guess.

The sound of heavy rain pouring down around me is all I could hear. Droning on, dulling my already weakened senses.

What a pathetic state I'm in. Completely charred with a log-sized spear stuck through my chest. No mana left to do anything. Pretending to be dead won't work again... Not that it matters since the Satyr will eat me when it comes back anyway.

I bit my lip as I clenched my fists.

... What the hell am I even doing here? Now that I'm given time to think, I feel like I'm about to cry or scream in rage... I'm positive I died trying to kill Viktor before he escaped through a portal. An absolutely pointless act of desperation. There were several unknown powerful Eldritch there, with a legion of their own Lords as well. They would have absorbed me if the entire city wasn't collapsing down onto us. There is no way I survived that... Plus, these people are conducting rituals at a Kitsune village. I was buried in Xelba, a place located over a hundred miles from the Kitsune. I can't imagine they found me deep underground in the mountains on the way to a village far away from there.

The other option is that I revived the same way Eldritch do, parasitizing off human souls until I was powerful enough to be reborn. That might be possible... But I'm caught on one glaring issue.

The Satyr.

I just so happened to revive as a Satyr was summoned nearby? Me? The one person who wants to kill Satyr more than anyone else? This feels... Directed. Like there's an obvious purpose behind bringing me back here. Either that or it was the most unbelievable coincidence ever. However, if it was on purpose, then the being responsible only knows about me on a superficial level. No way in hell I'm anywhere near strong enough to kill one right now. Even if I manage to kill all his little human helpers, I'll still be forced to let the Satyr go. Assuming I still had the three souls from earlier and this new soul, combining them into one punch might make the Satyr stumble a little before he swatted me away into a tree.

I need to eat some monsters damnit, I can't keep going like this. An Eldritch would be preferable but that's not even an option.

... Wait, weren't they hunting an Eldritch? There's a chance they're getting more sacrifices, but my instincts are telling me they are hunting bigger game. Stealthing up after they kill an Eldritch to steal the soul within sight of the Satyr is an absolutely ridiculous idea... And yet.

I looked at the blue sphere in my hand.

... It's not enough. I would attempt it if I could, but it's not an option right now. Pathetically crawling into a bush while slowly healing is all I've got.

I tossed the sphere into my mouth.

I want to sigh that I'm about to use this soul just to get off this stupid tree, but I can't even do tha---

Everything went black.

I flipped over while activating my veil and heightening my night vision simultaneously.

Wait, flip over? I'm also underwater for some reason...? I'm on my hands and knees right now, which means I was lying down? D-Did I forget moving to wherever this is? That... Shouldn't be possible. But after the night I've had I really don't know what to think anymore.

I quickly glanced around, taking stock of my location.

... It looks like I'm inside a deep hole in the ground that's strangely illuminated by a bright blue light. Hmm... it appears to be about fifteen yards deep? I did say I wanted to hide somewhere, and this is a great spot for me since I don't need to breathe. Which is why I'm still annoyed that I scorched my lungs earlier. They're only used for talking, so there's no reason for me to be breathing in fire like that.

Still though... I've been in worse positions and never once lost my memory. Something is off here. Especially the fact that I'm fully healed despite still owning the soul from the spear user. That's by far the strangest part.

Standing up, I grabbed the dirt in front of me and climbed to the top, peeking up only enough to see above ground. Ceasing to move for a minute, I scanned the area around me. Two things of value entered my vision. First, I see some type of dog monster looking away from me, sniffing vigorously with its snout against the mud.

Tracking something in this weather? Impressive if possible, but I'm going to have to interrupt it.

Next is the strange blue flora everywhere. Blue flowers, and blue mushrooms, all emitting enough light to reach up to about six feet on the surrounding trees. Everything above that would still be pitch black to human eyes. I didn't see anything like this back on the tree I was pinned to...

Crawling up onto the ground, I kept low on all fours as I slowly advanced toward the creature.

Standing up would be a pointless risk. Even a moron like Gaz would find it odd seeing rain bounce off of nothing within ten feet of him.

A creaking sound comes from high up in the trees, making the dog whip its head up. Seeing this, I kicked off toward the creature, removing my veil and enhancing my fist right before it landed on the creature's head. A loud crack emitted as I drove my fist into its skull. The dog smashed into the mud, sliding several yards forward before stopping.

Reactivating my aura, I immediately dodged to the right and laid down. Looking up, I saw a medium-sized owl staring at me.

... Just an owl.

Standing back up, I walked over to the dog and ripped its soul out.

Finally... Something of actual value. It's not much, but it's better than human souls.

After absorbing it I could feel my vessel fill up almost an imperceptible amount.

Eh, better than nothing.

Fortunately, I already know what I need to do next. The person who warped me is in for a world of pain. If you're going to do something so extravagant like taking control of my soul in that way, even if it was only for a second, then you better make sure I'm dead. I can still sense the general area where it came from.

After remaking my armor and sprinting off in the direction of the aura, I finally realized how cold it was.

Is this really Urza? Only the backside of the moon is frozen, and there is obviously nobody living there or anywhere near it. Xelba was probably the closest nation on the other side of the mountains, but it was never cold there... I need to find somebody to talk to after this is all over. At the very least I would like to know where the hell I am.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later I came to an abrupt halt.

I'm close but... There's something else here too. Spiders. They're about my height, and maybe ten feet in width? This entire area of the woods is webbed up, with small openings here and there at the top of the canopy. So that's how they get in and out? All the spiders running back and forth are probably spawn, and considering how well-fortified this place is, I'd bet the Eldritch is here as well. Which means...

Focusing my vision to see far off proved pointless, I couldn't see past all the webbing and trees. I'm going to have to go around.

Before leaving, I grabbed a stick and threw it far off to my left onto some webbing. As it landed, three spiders bolted toward the disturbance, moving at speeds that shocked even me.

Holy shit... They were at least thirty yards away and pounced on the stick within two seconds. Alright well, definitely need to make sure I don't lose my veil around these spiders.

I slowly backed away, distancing myself far enough away to where I could just barely see the webbing. I settled into a light jog towards my destination this time, keeping any sound I created to a minimum.

... They're close. The warper is somewhere on the other side of this hive. Strangely enough, the blue flora is nowhere to be seen past the hive. It abruptly stops directly before the hive. There are however tiny little magical lights connected to random trees along this path. Either the humans or the Satyr did that since they'd be blind here otherwise.

After a few minutes, the edge of the hive came into view. I slowed down while scanning in all directions. The others are most likely near the warper after all.

I caught sight of a large horn far off to the left. I immediately stopped and snuck up to a nearby tree, peering out from behind it in the direction of the horn.

Ahh... There you are fucker.

There are a few trees blocking half of his body between me and him, but I can still make out that towering physique. Around twenty-five feet tall, eyes closed as if in a trance, arms positioned in a carrying pose with its palms skyward. Basic channeling pose. My best guess is that it plans on wiping out the entire hive with ancient magic, but that could take half a day or longer to cast depending on the spell it's going to use. There's no way of knowing how much time is left, which isn't a big deal, I can wait for weeks in the same spot if need be. For now though, I have one last problem to deal with before I try stealing part of the Eldritch's soul away from them.

I began walking again, past the Satyr and the couple of humans I saw around him. They're guarding to make sure nothing interrupts him I'm sure, which is something I would have happily done if I had the strength for it.

Thankfully, what I'm looking for appears to be much further in this direction. I can see several tiny blue lines connected to the people surrounding the Satyr.

That's right idiot, keep your connections live for me. I'll be seeing you shortly.

~Nisha's POV~

"Don't blame yourself so much kiddo, there was nothing you could do. You know he... He wouldn't hold it against you." Keith said.

"... I know," Albel replied.

Keith has it rough as the leader. They were best friends from the moment Brian joined the unit, and that was so very long ago... Long before me and my brother joined. Meanwhile, I'm...

"Sis, I'm sorry."

Stop. Just stop... None of this matters anymore. I only went along with this because Brian seemed determined to get us out of here. Not that I'm pushing blame onto any of them. They would have called it off if I ever said no. It... It just doesn't matter anymore.

"Sis Are yo--"

I cut all the connections.

I don't want to hear it, nor am I interested in the first Satyr warping us to the Elven planet. Especially after my first Elven encounter went like this.

No, what I really want to do is kill the higher-ups, but that's a death sentence considering they never leave Viseux. Those fat fucks sit around giving orders while the rest of us sacrifice ourselves. Have they even seen an Eldritch before? I wonder if pacts can change... It would be nice if I could get the first Satyr to cast some of his wide-scale destruction magic on the capital.

I suddenly felt someone grip the top of my hair and yank me above the soil.

"Found you~!" The Elf said, smiling.

"H-How?!"

"Surprising huh? I can see your connections when you access your marks. It was as simple as following the..." The Elf paused, looking down at my chest, "Whoa... You must've been a saintess in your past life."

In a panic I quickly opened communications to everyone.

"SHE'S HERE, HELP!! QUICKLY!!!"

"Hmm? One, two, three, four... Five? That's two more than I expected. Are there two more on the other side of the hive?"

She really can see them?!

"Now then, until I catch sight of your friends, I have some questions for you. Don't worry, I'll see them long before they become a threat to me." The Elf said, laughing.

"You... IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU HE'D STILL BE ALIVE!!"

"Which one has you so upset? I assume not the first two, they were obviously scum. You should've heard how proud they were of their role in the ritual."

... She's obviously talking about Gaz and Peter. Keith planned on killing them once we were done, so she actually did us a favor there. Bringing them with us to start a new life? Give me a break. They would have immediately reverted to their old ways, shining the rest of us in a bad light.

"The last one... He, he was..."

Ah, I can feel tears welling up again. Please not now, not in front of the one who killed him.

I glared at the Elf, hoping my anger would subside the tears.

"What a cute way of trying to close yourself off..." The Elf said, then continued, "However, if you were that concerned with your loved ones dying, maybe you shouldn't have sacrificed an entire village for your own purposes? You realize that whatever happens to you after that is fair game, right?"

"... You're not wrong. Still, that doesn't change how much I loved and needed him." I smirked, "I'm going to enjoy watching Keith cut you into pieces."

Canceling my marks earlier was the biggest blunder of my life. I need to be connected for a few minutes before I'm fully tuned to their souls, which allows me to warp them to the exit marks near me. It wouldn't be an issue if I had placed some entrance marks around the others, but Keith said the Demon didn't want any around it.

"I thought you'd warp them to you like you did earlier, but you're not doing that for some reason? I wanted to kill you while they were in transit, hoping it'd backfire in some way and kill them too. If you're not going to warp them, then I suppose it's time to get rid of you. Sadly, there's no time left for questions, I can see one of them off in the distance now. Don't worry girl, you'll be joining your lover shortly."

I let out a short whimper as the Elf pulled her right fist back. I didn't even realize I was peeing myself.

I was always the safest one... Having imminent death in my face is scarier than I thought it would be. I'm sorry brother, looks like I'm going first...

The Elf's fist looked like it was moving in slow motion, but right before it connected with my face the world turned black.

.......................................???

... Did I die?

... No, this is dirt. Judging from the ether around me, this is the area I was hiding in moments ago. Wait... There's only one thing that could have saved me in that situation. Oh god... What are the odds of the reset saving me right before she killed me? T-Thank you so much Lord Arkaios!! I know that timing was pure coincidence, but thank you all the same!!!

I connected to all my marks, informing the others about what just happened.

~Reimia's POV~

... Alright, seriously, what the hell is this? I'm back in this hole underwater. I was inches away from killing that girl too... I assume that means she's still alive? What an annoying turn of events, but at least I know exactly where she is now. No talking this time, I'm going to punch straight through the ground and crush her skull.

I pulled myself up onto the ground and looked around the area, finding that everything was the same, including the dead dog.

... It's still lying there with a crushed skull.

"This night keeps getting stranger by the minute..."