Melakios looked around the glade to make sure he didn’t forget anything. He noticed the three Succubi left, Valafar fled, and even the red demon was gone. He probably got taken by the three to be interrogated.

There were still the corpses of the other Demons, and Melakios could hear the cries of animals in pain further on. After collecting the items off of the dead, Melakios was ready to start walking.

But where to? Thanks to looting, he now had a bundle of tough hide outfits, some lesser weaponry, and even a bag full of Soul Stones.

He brought out a pestilent pack rat spirit and enlarged it. It grew to the size of a house! Melakios proceeded to shove everything inside the rat and shrink it back down. Melakios was still wondering how and why each soul had a different ability.

After tying the rat to his belt like a pouch, he set off to the cries of what he believed to be the hippogryphs.

About an hour later, after stumbling around, Melakios walked towards a crashed carriage and saw two large creatures.

He would have arrived faster if he wasn’t so bad at directions. He would walk one way, then find out he was walking away from the sounds.

The two hippogryphs were stuck under the carriage. One lay still while the other was barely breathing.

The remaining hippogryph lurched upon hearing Melakios walk forward.

“Woah, there. Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Unfortunately for Melakios, even though he liked animals, they didn’t seem to like him. Must be the not having a soul, thing. Didn’t stop him from approaching with all the animals he came across. When he would arrive for dinner, he would normally have scratch marks and torn clothing.

But rather than being alarmed or scared, the hippogryphs seemed to accept its fate. It calmed down as tears fell from its eyes.

Melakios stopped a little bit away from the crash site, watching the soul of the departed hippogryph stand over the living one.

Melakios had seen this kind of thing several times. He even realized that the feeling some people felt when a person died but no one felt it was real, was actually, in fact, the soul lingering a little after death and watching over the ones left behind.

Melakios, who could pretty much read, write, and speak soul, spoke to the dead soul.

“Do you wish to help her?”

The soul began to look over Melakios for a long while, before nodding and walking over to him. He knelt for Melakios and started to shine. His shape began to change, swirling into himself like water going down a drain. He formed into a small shape and landed in Melakios’ outstretched hand.

“This isn’t a Soul Stone. Is it a Core of sorts? Maybe the other hippogryph is to have this.”

Melakios used some spirits to remove the debris off the hippogryph, which he found out to be named Clair. Apparently, the original owner named the hippogryphs in a way to contain the sky. Even the male hippogryph’s name was Skyler.

He set to work cleaning the crash site and piling the broken carriage and fragments. Although, he didn’t have to work too hard. The spirits did a lot for him. He left the Soul Core for Clair and began looking for food.

Or rather, he looked at the peaceful now sleeping Clair and remembered what he did. He had killed people. He sat down as realization came upon him, thrashing his insides and turning his stomach into a mess.

That was when he realized he actually had something messing around inside of him. He began to calm down and enter his inner mind, his spirit realm. What he saw could only be described as a battle.

The 9 Demon souls he absorbed were duking it out with each other. Even Alkelios had joined in.

“Haha! Fighting you blowhards is definitely good for dealing with boredom! Prove to me that it was a good idea to kill you!”

He held himself rather well for a human. He dodged in and out, evading blows and kicks as he stabbed out with his hands, piercing the Demons through and making them dissipate into a white mist.

Melakios saw the mist swirling around like a fog, enveloping the spirit realm. It made visibility lower and seemed to drown him in a stuffy negative feeling. Of course, he had felt this bad energy. It was killing intent. The remaining emotions of the Demons wanted blood.

It was interfering with everyone’s reasoning, and even Melakios could not stay for long.

“Let me know when you finish, Mr. Alkelios.”

“HAHA! Will do, kid!”

Melakios exited his spirit realm to calm his excitement. He sat down cross legged on a section of land near where he planned to start a fire.

It was already night by the time Alkelios finished fighting and Melakios had gathered the negative remains of the Demons’ souls.

Using the Core as an example, he began to focus the gathered souls to form a sphere. He realized it was too big compared to the true Core. After starting the campfire by using the broken carriage, he spent the rest of the night working on the Pseudo Core.

The demonic red sun was finally peeking out from beyond the horizon when the campsite was bathed in a strange blood red resplendent light. If one payed close enough attention, they could hear the wails and curses of the souls used to make it.

This Pseudo Core was made with the leftovers from Alkelios’ bloodbath. It was considerably smaller than the hippogryph’s Core. Not only was the size different, but the color and feeling was, too.

There was actually a method used by some Monster Tamers that captured many dangerous beasts and abominations and locked them in a bottle. They would consume each other until the strongest and most bloodthirsty remained.

Most of the time, the remaining monster would not leave anything behind, but Alkelios could not consume all the energy yet since he was just a human’s soul. Besides, a Demon’s soul would be too dangerous for him. What was left over was all the negative feelings the Demons felt at their last breath.

Thus, the Soul Stone would be known as the Dying Sorrow Core.

The reason Melakios could not transform the spirits permanently was because the product was not technically finished.

But even though this was his first creation, this Core would cause a small war if sold outside.

Melakios saw that Clair woke up. She saw Skyler's Core and started to weep. She then grabbed the Core with her beak and looked up. Then she ate it.

“What?! Wait, what are you doing?!”