Keith awoke with a splitting headache. It felt akin to being stabbed with countless needles. It was even worse than the time he secretly drank alcohol as a child. Since the world was full of people with strong physiques nowadays, the drinking age was lowered. Even so, his first time drinking at the age of fifteen had not caused a headache as horrid as this. This was far worse than any pain a hangover could cause.

The pain was not only felt in his head. Although he had not been injured externally, the insides of his body were ravaged. He didn’t know what was injured. It was not something as simple as internal bruising. The organs, especially his heart, felt were all burning in pain. It would not be surprising if he had suddenly experienced organ failure while unconscious.

Even with the Soul Eater ability diverting the soul power it absorbed to heal his wounds instead of gathering Soul Points, it was not enough. The power he used was not something that should be trifled with. He gambled with fate. This time he won, but next time not necessarily so.

Forcing himself to sit up, Keith looked around. When he fell unconscious it was midday, but now it seemed as if the sun was rising. Despite the pain and burning sensations, his body felt cold to the touch. Perhaps the only reason he hadn’t frozen to death was because of increasing his status for half a year.

Keith called out softly, “Elena, are you there?”

“Yes,” a tired voice responded from the depths of his soul.

Keith had never heard Elena speak in such a quiet tone. It sounded like she was on the verge dissipating. The voice was so soft that it felt forced, it took all of her energy just to say one word.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m tired. Let… let me sleep for a while. Don’t kill yourself while I am gone.”

Once she said her piece, Elena’s consciousness drifted away into the depths of Keith’s soul. Their connection grew faint. Keith felt her soul, but unlike before it was now incredibly weak, and like a flickering flame it was on the verge of being extinguished.

Keith gritted his teeth and dug his nails into his palms until they threatened to draw blood. This was his fault. He was not careful. From the very first Kysansha, he should have been more cautious. Alone, or even in small groups, they weren’t that hard to deal with. But in large groups, they were a far different foe. Had he not followed Elena’s instructions, he would have died. So what if he had a unique Inherent Skill, it didn’t help him in combat. In the end, he didn’t even rely on his own strength to survive; instead he borrowed Elena’s power and nearly killed her.

The two most important abilities that she had told him to purchase were Soul Manipulation and Vessel of the Damned. They were the two abilities that nearly took all of his Soul Points. His victory could be attributed to these two powers.

Soul Manipulation allowed him to interact with his soul, and the souls of others to a certain degree. Since he didn’t have the power of Law, he was extremely limited in what he could do with this ability. Luckily, it could be used in conjunction with Vessel of the Damned. Vessel of the Damned was what rapidly raised his strength to a level that was on a threshold he should not be able to touch. It allowed him to make use of a soul that he was contracted with. This was the only condition for its use. He would take on some of the physical traits of the soul he became a vessel for, and also gain some of their abilities. The stronger the soul, the greater the boost he received.

While the ability was powerful, it was a double edged sword. He couldn’t force himself to become a vessel for an unwilling soul even if he was contracted with it. There also had to be a certain level of trust. The two souls would share one body after all. Elena was never formally contracted with Keith, she was fused with his soul. This was perhaps an even tighter bond than a contract.

Today was a onetime use trump card. To exhibit the full strength of Vessel of the Damned, the soul had to be completely intact. Elena was only a fragment of herself.

Souls were unique. They did not adhere to the normal rules that governed life and death. While they couldn’t survive on their own and would eventually dissipate, there were some ways to preserve them, such as through a contract, sealing them in a weapon, or through the use of other secret methods. They would retain their power, and could use it freely without worry of dissipating.

Even if Elena was fused with Keith, she hadn’t recovered. She was still in danger of dissipating if she used the entirety of her strength. It was only a sliver of her past power, but it was still from a genuine Divine Ruler. This was not something a mere mortal could bear. Had Keith gone beyond the three minute limit, his soul would’ve been shattered into pieces while his body spontaneously combusted.

It seemed that he would be on his own for a while. Who knew how long Elena would be out of commission. If he had to guess, it depended on how quickly he gathered souls.

Gathering his strength, and struggling to stand, Keith began the monotonous task of searching the corpses one by one. Most of the bodies were destroyed beyond recognition. Their armor and weapons were shattered and ripped apart, however, there were some that could be salvaged and be of use.

None of the Kysansha, not even the leader of the battalion, had any type of spatial storage item. Within their pocket, there were a few low rank mana gems. But of what use were those? He wasn’t on Earth where almost every single shop dealt with mana gems as a currency.

When he searched the leader’s corpse, there was nothing. Perhaps the only things that it had of value were its armor and weapons. But those were destroyed beyond repair. Well, the curved sword was mostly intact, with only a few nicks along the blade edge.

Keith walked around and a while gathering anything of use whether it was worn out weapons or damaged armor. If it could still be used, he scavenged it and threw it into his inventory. Then he began the laboriously long task of attempting to butcher and skin the War Beasts. At the end of the day, they had cores in them that would be of use if he ever made it back to Earth. Their fur and claws would possibly sell for a decent price as well.

For the most part, he only obtained their cores however. To butcher and skin the corpses of so many War Beasts would take days to complete. By the time he got to the tenth or so, suddenly Keith heard a sound to his right.

Immediately he raised his scavenged sword in caution. Slowly approaching, there was a War Beast still alive. Surprisingly, despite the power that Keith had used, this one seemed to have escaped death. Did he not encounter this one?

Now that he wasn’t fighting, Keith managed to get a clear look at the creature in detail. They were all of myriad dark colors that allowed them to camouflage within the desert. The seats on their backs were what made them all seem like a black tide staining the land as they moved.

This War Beast, he actually didn’t have any information on it from his memory. Was it a new species? Where did the Kysansha acquire them? Was it a mutation of a different species?

It seemed to be almost like an ape, or a gorilla. But it was larger than a horse. They were massive. This one in particular seemed slightly different from all the others. Was it the runt of the group? Compared to the other corpses, it was only half their size. It didn’t have a throne-like seat on its back either. The only thing on its body was a rope around its neck, and many bags. Perhaps it carried rations? While every corpse had some rations on them –some of which were spoiled-, they didn’t have much. Maybe this was the reason why.

This particular War Beast didn’t blend in with the environment either. It was more a reddish-brown fur, with streaks of gray. Almost like a Timber Wolf. The tint was too dark; it stood out in the desert sand. The claws on its hands were shorter in length and duller than the others of its kind. However, its fists were actually much larger than the others. Its front arms were also much larger, while the hind legs were shorter. However, the muscles were rippling like water, and probably hard as steel.

Just from appearances, Keith wondered why this one wasn’t used for combat. Sure it was smaller, and it didn’t have sharp claws, but those fists could easily bludgeon something to death. It’s fangs as well; the canines were quite long, longer than the others whose canines were akin to molars. They were similar the fangs of a wolf instead of the teeth of an ape.

Seeing as it was defenseless Keith lowered his sword. There was no longer any reason to have his guard up. When he looked at the War Beast, it didn’t fear him, but neither was it hostile. It was struggling with a contraption upon its neck. It only glanced at him once before it began to wrestle with the small metal chain around its neck. This chain, when Keith saw it his eyes darkened in anger. Only now did he notice them. At first he thought they were like collars, but that was only because the dangers of them were hidden by the fur of the War Beasts.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that they had spikes on the inside which stabbed into the neck. They were like riding spurs for a horse, only they were far crueler. Perhaps this was how the War Beasts were controlled. Maybe they weren’t originally domesticated.

Perhaps it was due to a momentary impulse. Keith began to approach the War Beast. The moment he did so, it began to eye him dangerously. Keith immediately stopped. He had no way to communicate with it. However, it appeared intelligent enough; it was almost human-like in its facial expressions. Its eyes were observing him, as if judging how dangerous he was.

Keith thought for a moment, and then lifted his right arm and pointed towards his neck. Then he pointed towards the War Beasts neck. He then opened his inventory and took out a fragment of Atraxia’s Wrath. He had scavenged its blade fragments in the hopes that one day they would be of use, or melted down in order to remake the sword. With another swiping motion, he swiped the fragment near his neck.

Observing the motions, the War Beast seemingly understood his actions. It stopped moving and sat on the ground staring at him. Keith slowly approached. He didn’t know why he chose not to kill this War Beast. Neither did he know why he thought it wouldn’t try to kill him. However, when he looked at it with those cloth bags of rations on its back, and a spiked collar which threatened to pierce its neck, for some reason he thought of himself. He thought of his days as a Courier, carrying bags almost identical to the ones he saw now. He associated the collar with the time he had been in the Silvermoon Family. Back then, he was shackled by his identity as the trash Young Master.

Once he was within range of its massive fists, Keith moved slowly, his muscles, although relaxed, were ready to be used at a moment’s notice. He would escape if there was even a muscle twitch from the War Beast.

But, contrary to what he thought would occur. Keith was able to come within mere inches of it. He raised the fragment of Atraxia’s Wrath and it didn’t even flinch. As a former sword owned by someone who worked for the Windsor’s, it was easily able to slice through the collar, even if it was only a fragment.

In order to prevent cutting himself, Keith had wrapped it with a part of the cloak he wore. After roughly a minute, the blade fragment cut through the collar, and it fell to the ground.

Keith watched for any signs of hostility as he backed away from the War Beast. However, it didn’t move and only stared at him. Now that it wasn’t struggling with the collar or moving, the strain on neck lessened.

With his small deed done, Keith sighed in relief and began to carry out his own tasks. The most important thing on his list, go through the scavenged armor and see if any of it could be worn.