Chapter 212 – Black Wings

Mikuriya lost her shape. Instead, pieces of her soul swirled around me.

What will happen? As I watched on, I realized this soul reconstruction doesn’t seem as gentle as I thought.

The fragment of her soul becomes sharpened like a needle.

[No way…that’s…]

My prediction was correct.

My body was pierced by countless needles. The pain was beyond anything I’ve ever felt before…it’s painful.

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From the surface of my body to internal organs, all seemed to be churning all over.

Breaking it down and reassembling it. The pain my soul experienced was reflected in my body. It was a different kind of danger than suffering from the Gluttony skill’s starvation state. My body also started to change in lieu with the changes occurring in my soul.

The malformed wings on my back began to grow and tore my jacket apart. Two wings spread out as if they were vigorously reaching to the heavens.

Ohh, two wings! I thought to myself, but then two more wings sprouted out from my back. I originally only had two malformed wings, but now four actually grew.

Four wings that match the angelic Roxy. The fact that the color is jet black, which happen to also be her exact opposite, is proof that I am my dad’s son.

[That’s right, I’m still me.]

My spirit hasn’t changed much. My other self was nowhere to be found as well.

(The other you didn’t want to be one. I simply connected the road. From here on, it’s up to you)

[Mikuriya.]

(It’s okay. You can do it. Because you were originally one existence… Please believe in your other self.)

[To think that he and I can find something in common…]

(I will watch over you just like Kairos… Now, hurry up with those wings. Before it all ends…)

I couldn’t hear Mikuriya’s voice anymore. But the warmth of her soul still remains in me. It proved her words.

『Let’s go, Fate』

[Yeah, with these wings.]

I spread my four wings wide. At that time, I had a slight headache. It’s as if my other self is rebelling against me. No, that’s exactly what it is.

Even so, I can still move my wings. I’m sorry, but let me use your power as a sacred beastkin. When I flapped my wings, my feet left the ground. I strangely know how to fly already. Should I say this is instinctive?

My body already knows what to do, just like a bird can flap its wings without being taught how to fly.

『Can you fly? 』

[Of course.]

I rushed up at once. In the blink of an eye, I felt my body become weightless, as if I have become one with the winds. The path we should take is beyond the horizon――the end of the souls. Weaving through the wreckage of the building.

Faster… faster, even faster.

After passing through the wreckage of the building, swirling souls appeared. It deviated from the original flow and created a different flow. It swallowed any soul that tried to pass by.

At its center, a black cube was spinning at high speed. Furthermore, there was more than one black cube creating the vortex.

[Is that!?]

『Something hasn’t changed, but I have a bad feeling about it』

[Is it a stumbling block set by Libra…Tch.]

『No idea…..it’s coming!』

With the black cube as the core, it is formed from souls as materials. An insubstantial thing――a demon whose flesh and blood is a red, transparent soul.

『So ugly and hideous』

[Is it collecting the souls of monsters…]

Each one was irregular and had no fixed shape. It’s a figure that gathers monsters around the core and forcibly connects them.

That’s why there are countless heads, hands, legs, torsos, everything. Even so, all the various eyes were looking at me. It was as if they had a unified understanding of who they should fight and who they should defeat.

I changed my weapon into a black bow and shot magic arrows to keep them in check.

[Tsk.]

『The opponent is comprised of souls. It has no substance』

[In other words, the attack has no effect?]

『It’s like that. In that case, you should destroy the cores that make up it, but…』

The black cube has the same indestructible attribute as the black sword. If there’s a way to break such a core, it’s the only one.

[The secret technique of the 6th form…only Revolt Brionac can do it.]

『However, it will significantly lower your stats』

I can’t afford to do that before I fight Libra. If I use Revolt Brionac here, I will be helpless against Libra with my paltry remaining stats.

Perhaps… Libra knew that, and thus prepared these soul monsters. There were more than 30 soul demons, even if I just counted them as far as I could see. I could feel more presence coming from behind. There are still many more.

So we’re surrounded in all directions?

[After dying, left only with soul…only to be used like this.]

『…..Fate』

[It’s sad.]

This may be the first time I’ve felt sorry for a monster. Tracing their ancestors, it is said that those souls were humans.

A being planted with a seed called skill, whose soul could not endure it and lost its human form. Due to the seed that sprouted, the soul was mutated and transformed into a figure that suited it. They lost their soul as a human――their heart, and only their hatred for humans who were able to adapt to their skills remained.

In the world of humans, there was a tremendous disparity in skill supremacy between those who had it and those who didn’t.

However, the biggest victims may be those who have turned into monsters. Those soul monsters probably don’t have the heart to understand even that…but still.

『It’s coming! Why aren’t you moving?』

Ignoring Greed’s voice, I stared at the attacking soul monsters. That’s not a living creature. If the opponent’s soul was released from the body, wouldn’t it be possible to devour it with the power of the Gluttony skill?

And since I’m assimilated with the Gluttony skill, I feel like I can do more than that. Coming to this soul-filled world, and going through Mikuriya’s help, I’m beginning to feel something I’ve never felt before.

Thinking that, I pointed my hand at the one monster approaching in front of me. The moment I touched it, I heard an inorganic voice in my head.

The soul monsters were scattered in an instant, leaving only the black cubes. And the liberated souls travel in the direction opposite to the horizon.

『Fate. It looked like the Gluttony skill was activated, but what did you do? 』

Greed asked in surprise. Meanwhile I was dispatching the soul monsters that were approaching one after another,

[I didn’t eat the soul, I tried eating only the skill and status.]

『That’s something tricky you did there』

It was the skill that caused them to become monsters. And their status is also a by-product of skills.

I expected that if I could remove only these things that affect the soul, they might lose their power and be freed from the shackles of the Black Cube. Even if it doesn’t, a weak soul wouldn’t be a threat.

『You can eat only the skills and status from the soul? The if we could get power from all those souls』

[That’s impossible.]

『How come?』

[I can’t eat without their consent…or something like that.]

The soul monster that attacked me was just forced to fight by the Black Cube.

It’s true that those soul demons had hatred in their eyes. However, at the same time, those eyes looked a lot like those of the dead who were trapped by the Gluttony skill.

They were looking for help.

I just removed the monster’s burden by eating it. By it I mean their skills and status.

[I still don’t know what this power represents.]

The souls, whose skills and stats had been devoured by me, flew off in the direction we came from. Against the flow.

Seeing that, Greed nodded.

『I see…you showed me the liberation of the soul.』

[Liberation of the soul?]

『Do you remember? Back at the Great Green Valley』

Gallia’s monsters had gathered to seek a place to die. From time immemorial, countless monsters have slept there.