"Circles.

Have I been going in circles all this time?

Where am I anyways? Who am I?"

Near blackness covers an unknown soul’s vision.

Quest Received: "Find your Legs." Move in a direction you intend to go.

"What? A box? What in the heck is going on here?!"

The appearance of a window surprised the soul. It floated in front of the soul's vision, fixed in the air to seemingly nothing. Even what was written in the window looked like it was just scribbled, but something felt odd about the box. It was as if the soul could feel... an intent.

That's it. The soul could feel the intent that the box wanted something. It wanted action to be taken. Whatever that action was, the soul still didn't know.

"What on earth... wait.. what is earth? Why did I just want to say 'What on earth?'.

I'll lose my mind if this contin-"

As the soul was thinking, a light in the distance suddenly caught its eye.. or whatever a soul uses to see. It was incredibly dim, and the soul could somehow sense that. Yet, compared to the darkness that once dominated the void it was like a spotlight.

The mystery light grew brighter at an agonizingly slow pace, but once it reached a certain level of 'brightness', the light revealed to the soul that it was not alone.

Wisps made from a bluish foam-like substance were traveling all around the anonymous soul. It was confused as to why it never noticed they were there before. The soul watched them for seemingly hours, until one wisp passed right through another as if it weren't there.

"They're... incorporeal to each other. But.. what if I touch one?"

The curiosity was overwhelming. It didn't understand what made it feel drawn to these foamy wisps, but it understood they were important somehow.

The light had also revealed that the soul was in fact moving. In a very wide circle.

"I knew it!" The soul felt a small degree of satisfaction, "Maybe I'm not crazy after all."

The rotation was out of the soul's control. It hadn't collided with any of the wisps yet, but it was coming very close occasionally. Another untraceable amount of time went by, until one wisp suddenly changed direction! It was almost like it was spooked by something it noticed in the distance. The wisp found its way right into the path of the soul's circular movement.

A feeling of nervousness suddenly overcame the soul, "Oh crap, what's gonna happen.. I don't know about this anymore!"

It braced for impact, then collided like a marble being dropped into a small ball of bluish slime. An incredible pain came over the soul all at once. It was as if the wisp was dissolving it from the outside in, and it immediately knew this wisp threatened its life.

"No!... Nooo! I didn't float here for an eternity just to become your snack!"

The soul fought against the wisp with all of its willpower. There was no way it would allow itself to die here. As the wisp tried to consume the marble-like soul, the marble began to glow and rumble.

Trait gained: [Powerful Soul: Rank I]

"Raahhhhhh!!!"

The shaking continued as the new window went unnoticed, then faded into nothing.

The pain began to recede as the soul began his own counter-attack. Revenge was all it could think about. The wisp found that it couldn't hurt the soul hardly at all anymore, almost as if it was suddenly much weaker than the soul. As the soul defended itself against the wisp, an incredible warmth flooded all of its senses. Senses that the soul didn't even know it had were satisfied in an incredible way. "Euphoric" is the only word that the soul could use to describe it.

"D-Delicious.."

From the outside, the marble sized soul seemed to absorb the slime like wisp. The wisp shrank and shrank until it vanished entirely. In that time, the marble soul had grown slightly. It felt much stronger now, and its thoughts became clearer as if it had been slightly drunk before it absorbed the wisp.

Godling soul Consumed

"What?.. but I.. No, I didn't mean to.. It attacked me first! I had no choice!"A sense of foreboding washed over the marble. Like this window wasn't as innocent as the last one. The intent was cruel, and evil.

Before the soul could finish the thought, another wisp seemed to veer into his path, but on purpose this time, not because it was spooked like the last wisp. They were drawn to him now.

One by one, like white blood cells attacking a virus, the blue Godlings came after the soul.

"No. Stay away! Don't come any clo--!"

The Godlings dogpiled the soul. Because the Godlings couldn't touch each other, they all made contact with the marble at the same time once they arrived. The pain returned and the soul knew it needed to fight again. The guilt was overwhelming at first, but the soul knew it wanted to survive no matter what. And so it fought..

***

Godling soul Consumed x98

After what felt like ages the soul was finally done. It had defeated them all... All but one that is.

The soul saw the last godling way off in the distance. It was likely afraid of the soul now, which had grown from the size of a marble to the size of a grapefruit.

"At least one of them isn't an idiot. I never wanted to hurt those other 99 Godlings... wait. I can read the boxes now!"

The clarity that came from consuming 98 more Godlings couldn't be compared to only eating one. It was as if the soul had gained stronger cognitive function, or had become more intelligent. The mental state of the soul from before absorbing all of the Godlings could be compared to being in a dream.

"I don't want to hurt it. I'm going to stay away, just in case it hasn't noticed me yet."

The soul, feeling the guilt of consuming the others, felt the need to move away from the final Godling. Surprisingly, it was actually moving backwards!

Quest Completed: "Find your Legs." Reward: Access to the 'Karma Quest' Karma Quest Received: To kill or not to kill. Save the Godlings from the Reaper or Kill the Godlings yourself Note: Once you begin either side of the quest, you can't change. You must complete it or fail the quest.

"... What on earth. Have I been killing them all this time?"

It cried out in its defense, "I had no choice!! I didn't realize I needed to figure out how to move before I would be given this information! One of them hit me before I could decide! And what the heck is a reaper?!

The feeling of extreme guilt came over the soul again.

The soul became distressed. It could feel the intent, and properly read the boxes now. The soul knew it had embarked on the evil side of this quest already. The only way to find out what needed to happen next, was to finish the quest.

The soul, despite the overwhelming guilt, approached the final Godling. It seemed to shake with fear as it got closer.

Navigating as a soul seemed to be linked to intent, but it was more based on willpower. Before the soul had absorbed the Godlings, it was in a dream-like state. Dreams can sometimes render the dreamer unable to move, no matter how much the dreamer wants to. Now that the soul was 'woken up' it had inherent access to movement.

Just as the soul moved in for the final, gut wrenching kill, it noticed something was off. The Godling was moving like the very first Godling that the soul consumed. Like it was spooked by something. As the soul approached the Godling didn't try to get farther away. The soul came to a realization.

"The Godling... it isn't afraid of me.. is it?"

It was as if the soul could tell that the Godling was looking past itself, not at it.

The soul changed where it was looking. Up, down, left, right, forward, and back were all the same in this weird realm, so the soul was a little dazed at first but got used to it quickly. The soul righted itself and looked back where it used to be when the Godlings attacked. It saw something new.

A gray wisp. Easily five to six times the size of the regular bluish Godlings.

"Woah, that must be the so-called reaper. Was it behind me that whole time?! That's really creepy."

Suddenly the Reaper shot out faster than the soul had ever seen anything move in this realm. It was headed straight for the Godling!

Panic suddenly took hold. Fear was the main source for the panic, but not fear of the reaper, fear of failing this quest. If the reaper got the final Godling when the soul was supposed to kill them itself, the quest might fail and the soul could be stuck in this place forever!

"Oh no way! I am NOT taking the risk of being stuck here forever if I fail. Go find your own Godling!"

The soul suddenly moved faster than it thought it could, straight into the oncoming reaper.

Karma Quest Update: "To Kill or not to kill." Choice: You have chosen to save the Godlings

The soul had no time to be confused. It hit the reaper hard, and the reaper rebounded like a rubber ball. The soul could sense frustration coming from the gray wisp.

Wait, I can still save the final Godling? Then I will!

The soul charged. The need to save the Godling and redeem himself for accidentally killing 99 of them was overwhelming.

The reaper took notice of the weird golden soul's unwillingness to let it feed, and it felt afraid. This soul was HUGE compared to the others it had eaten in the past, and the others were always white. Why is this one so different? Souls sometimes put up a bit of a fight, but the reaper has never felt threatened.. until now that is.

The gray reaper and golden yellowish colored soul collided. The reaper was a size larger than the soul, but the soul attacked it with all it had. Compared to the little bluish Godling off in the corner, this was a battle between giants.

The now angry reaper wrapped itself around the soul. Its cloudy gray, slightly seethrough foam covered the soul to attack from every side.

"Back. Off. You piece of gray scum!"

The golden glow that the soul gave off suddenly grew in intensity, and pulsated to burned at the attacker.

The reaper, thinking itself smart, had spread itself out all the way around its opponent. It maximized surface area for attack, but decreased its defense. The sudden attack from the entire soul all at once stunned the reaper.

"You're mine now!"

Before the reaper could get through its stunned state, the soul began to devour it.

"Screeeeeeeeeetttchhhh!!!!"

The reaper howled in pain, but that didn't deter the golden soul. It kept absorbing the reaper, just like it absorbed the other Godlings.

The reaper struggled and screamed, but once the absorption process was started it couldn't fight back with all of its strength anymore. Its will was fading with each passing second. The reaper wasn't nearly as tasty as the Godlings were, but the increase in mental clarity and physical strength for the soul was even more potent than the individual Godlings were. The soul drank in all that the reaper had until it had finally dissipated into nothingness.

Reaper soul Consumed

"*sigh*.. Glad that's over. Looks like the final Godling is gonna get through th-"

*squish*..*sizzzzzzllee*

Karma Quest Update: "To Kill or not to kill." Choice: You have chosen to save--- ---kill the Godlings

"Wait... what!?"

Alert: Karma Quest #ERROR# has been noted. Manager B67 has been assigned.

A sound and the feeling of a small impact interrupted the souls thoughts. It turned to see that the final Godling had charged from the other side of the void, straight into the soul like all the others had.

"Hold on, no! I was trying to save you! Stop!!!"

But it was too late. Despite the efforts of the soul to pry the bluish foam of the Godling from his round golden 'body', once the absorption process started, it wouldn't stop.

Godling soul Consumed

.....

Karma Quest Completed: "To kill or not to kill." You have failed. You have failed.

"????!!!!!"

***