Chapter 59: Ch 59. A consumer of fine souls

I wanted System to explain himself since this was a more confusing revelation for me than it appeared to be for him.

Whenever I killed monsters, I was eating their souls? That was where the energy came from? To think that the soul itself could be used as fuel.

"Well doesn't it make sense? To empower your soul what better way than with other souls?" System chimed in helpfully. 

I felt like I needed to sit down. Maybe I wasn't the most ethical person, but to think that I was actually eating the souls whenever I killed something... 

"It's not like you're the one doing the eating...  does that help?" System continued somewhat delicately. Somehow picking up on my sensitivity around the topic. 

"It doesn't bother you?" I asked the system. Contemplating to myself whether or not I should finish off the treant in front of me, receiving strange looks from the men for wasting time with my weird 'hobby'. 

"Not at all... If I had to say, then I'm rather proud to be doing this. It's for your sake afterall. If I didn't eat the souls, you'd be up to your neck with the whole curse situation."

"Curses?" I reacted to the word.

"Monsters, humans, anything with a soul reacts negatively to being killed. The soul instinctively seeks out the one that killed its body, trying to enact retribution in any way they can. 'Karma', I've heard it called before. Obviously quite an issue for us, and especially nasty business back in the day. But luckily for you we've made improvements to the system. Nowadays, bengeful spirits are another source of energy."

It still seemed somehow wrong to me, but looking at the monstrous treant in front of me, I didn't feel much sympathy. Dispatching it with learned efficiency. 

"I've heard of soul eating monsters before, but I may be the only soul eating human in the entire world." I joked to myself grimly. 

"Like I said, I'm the one doing the eating. And it's not entirely accurate to call it 'eating', think about it more as 'reprocessing'." The system replied seriously, not picking up on my sarcasm.

Even with the jokes, the subject was just as unnerving as the situation we were in. The only light now being that of our own torches. Creating a wall of darkness around our group as we moved through the forest. It seems we had exited the living grove, no more treants or pitcher plants blocking the way. Even so, I was more on edge than earlier. At least before we had something to fight.

The forest at night was disorienting, but rather than growing used to it, I felt myself feeling more and more uncomfortable. Sensing in my mind a bizarre repulsion towards what I knew to be the way out. My [navigation] ability pointing me towards town, but nausea occuring whenever I moved in that direction. To that end, I felt the need to invest more points into navigation, fumbling around in the unreliable dim light of the torches as I interacted with the mirror.

Feeling the fog in my mind lift somewhat with each point spent, I decided to max out the skill. But the anxiety I felt was still there. 

I wasn't the only one apparently, the knights and soldiers seemed especially shook, not having the benefit of a skill to ease their nerves. Finally the group stopped, unwilling to take even a single step forward. Disregarding my urging and assurance that this was the correct way, and refusing even under direct orders. In the darkness it felt like I could see countless eyes watching us as paranoia set into our group.

"System, something's wrong here. We're under attack."

"How so?" He could see what I saw during this time, but with the darkness that didn't help much. Plus, it seems like his mind-reading only worked on surface level thoughts. Not aware of the intricacies of my thoughts. 

"My head feels weird, I can't explain it well, but it's trying to keep us in the forest."

The system suddenly got serious, trying to help me in any way he could.

"Is it a mental or soul attack?"

"How should I know?" 

"Hmm... that's right. You wouldn't remember how, would you? It's really about feeling it for yourself, but there's a very big difference between how the two types of monsters act."

I tried explaining the symptoms, the nausea, the mental fog, the loss of direction. Not to mention the overall panic setting onto our the group, something that wasn't helped by the more undisciplined of the common soldiers, who were on the verge of mental breakdown.  

The weakest of our group seemed to already be having a breakdown, dropping his torch onto the forest floor and desperately scratching himself, trying to remove his own armor before fleeing into the dark to his almost certain death. An action that set a fire off in the minds of our group. This was farther out of my depths than I ever wanted to get.

I tried calming the group down to no effect, all the while increasingly nervous as the situation continued to spiral out of control. 

More of our group panicked, fleeing off into night. Stripping their armor off and throwing down their weapons as they ran off. It looked like an action out of terror, but when I thought of it from a monster's perspective it made perfect sense. They were disarming us for an easy meal.

I myself felt no compulsion to do so for the time being. After becoming aware it was the actions of a hostile force and not the workings of my own mind I was able to exert some limited control over myself and prevent total panic. 

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Seeing how even the knights were looking like they wanted to bolt, I felt rushed towards action. 

"Listen up, I know the way out of the forest. Put your trust in me and I swear I'll do everything I can to get you back alive. All you need to do is follow me, I'll guide us out."

Gawn spoke up, seeming to act as a proxy for the men.

"I don't think so... we followed your orders this far and look where it's gotten us. We're clearly going the wrong way. I say we backtrack back to the grove, find the path we came in from, and leave through that." Gawn's mind being subtly warped. He was feeling the same repulsion towards the direction of the town that I was, whatever monsters were responsible clearly not intending for us to leave. 

"In case you haven't noticed, there's something out there. I'm not about to send us back into the depths of the forest, when we're almost at the edge already."

Gawn simply stared at me with contempt, not dignifying a response. 

Seeing the unsettled attitudes of the knights, and the total unwillingness to leave, I made a final ultimatum.

"I'm leaving the forest. With or without you. This is an order, follow me. Follow me, you live. Disobey my order, and you die."

Gawn looked amused. Looking into his eyes I could tell he was scheming, even in this dire situation. 

"You heard the man... clearly he's lost more than his sense of direction.  To think you threaten to kill the ones guarding your life so thanklessly. We're just trying to help." He smirked, throwing out words meant to incite the men even more against me.

"I'm not threatening to kill you." I replied angrily, my emotions getting out of control. 

Their confusion convinced them the only safe direction was wrong. Looking at me with pity as I intended to split off from the group.

"You've made your decision." I spoke coldly.

Even my brother was rooted in place, the compulsion of the monsters making him unwilling to go in the direction of town. I was beyond frustrated by this group but I couldn't leave my brother to his death. A compulsion to leave him and save myself flickered across my mind, before I was disgusted by the thought. Unsure whether it was the effect of the monsters or my own weakness at this point. 

I steeled myself for what needed to be done. Not paying any mind that I was leaving the rest of them to their almost certain deaths. 

Walking up to my brother, I summoned my sword. The rest of the men reacting with surprise, while Tristan flinched, unable to respond in time as I raised my arm like a whip, bashing the pommel as hard as I could against the temple of his head. His helmet ringing with a crack and dent as I struck him with force, beyond twice the strength and speed that any knight my age could muster. Knocking him out cold to ground with a thud. 

The rest of the group aghast at what I had just done. 

"He's gone mad! I knew it, he's led us to our deaths." One of the soldiers hissed accusingly, their warped minds making them easy to assume the worst. Even so, I could only feel disgust towards this group who would surely die.  

Gawn again demonstrated his natural leadership, organizing the group against me. His own biases more exposed now that he was under the influence of whatever fiend was attacking us. But I had no intention of fighting, picking up my brother and turning towards the direction of town. 

"Wait." Gawn stopped me, throwing up his hands as he approached me. A smile on his face. 

Whispering in my ear. 

"I never thought you'd do the work for me. This day will be the happiest day in Marcella's life, second only to the day we promise ourselves." Gawn was chuckling to himself, corrupted by whatever force was here, but clearly not a fan of mine from the start. 

So it was about Marcella, I almost felt like joining in with his laughing at this point. Someone who's going to die tonight wanted to steal my woman? 

I didn't even bother to respond, not needing words for a dead man. Dashing off into the forest, carrying my brother over one shoulder, my sword ready in the other. Devoid of the light from the group's torches, I relied entirely on the pull of my skill to guide me back to safety. 

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