Now that I was reassured that the stone city had knowledge and I even gained some information; I was left to wonder. ("Should I do it?")
I still had the soul of Yerald. I could eat it to gain more strength and further improve the chances of survival for the villagers. I knew that the soul of Yerald probably couldn't even compare to that of the creature, and back then I was only out for a few minutes at most. And due to that I had grown stronger, if only by a little bit. So, I probably wouldn't pass out this time at all.
However. It would be the first time eating the soul of a human. ("Is there still a going back after that?")
I knew that on the battlefield every little advantage you can get could change the outcome entirely. I had heard that many times from the monster hunters and soldiers who travelled trough the lands and had stopped to rest at my village.
As I stated before, I couldn't place myself above so many others.
I took out the soul from the test tube I had been storing it in. the appearance of the soul didn't change. It still looked as discussing as before.
But now that I had become better at spreading my consciousness, I could sense that despite being disgusting and broken, it still held a lot of strength. What suddenly made it a lot more tempting. The power that the soul held was a lot more than I expected, nearing half of wat the soul of the creature held.
I took a deep breath and swallowed the soul. It was tasteless and bleak. But after a while I could feel the power from it breaking free. This made me feel lightheaded and weak for a short amount of time. However, as predicted I could handle it a lot better than the soul of the creature and managed to stay awake.
I leaned against the wall of a building until the feeling completely faded away.
Then I sensed the horde of monsters approaching. ("How do they move so fast? It has only been a couple of hours!")
I sprung up and with a single flap with my wings I managed to land on one of the roofs.
"Everyone on your posts. They are coming"
All the people ran to the makeshift ladders to climb the roofs. Some were already preparing their bows to shoot.
"don't shoot jet. They are still too far away; you will hit nothing but air."
Despite the few that were ready for battle some were incredibly nervous. They had pale faces that were shining from the sweat despite the cold. I could hear their heartbeats racing like it was a contest which one could beat the fastest.
One of the young women who decided to stay fell to her knees and threw up on the sight of death drawing near.
It didn't take long before the swarm of monsters ran out of the woods. Their footsteps sounded like a heavy rainfall when they all stormed towards the wall.
"Shoot!"
At that moment arrows stones and other objects rained down from the skies. Piercing the limbs of some of the monsters . but that didn't stop them. They kept charging.
"Reload and fire at will!"
The sound of everyone replacing their arrows and stones formed a slight contrast against the noise the monsters made with tier footsteps.
I replaced the stone from my slingshot because I was never taught how to use a bow.
After a few seconds another wave of projectiles filled the air, and along with the cries of pain and the snapping of bones more creatures left the world of the living or were no longer able to move.
Despite the death of so many beings almost no souls were released. Apparently a soul wasn't necessary to survive or these creatures were some type of undead since a lot of them no longer had souls.
However, the state of these creatures made me realise why the creature in the forest wanted to die so badly. The soulless ones were emotionless and didn't even cry out when hit. the souls of the ones who still did posses them were broken, corrupt and could best be described as rotting inside them. The corruption spread so far that their physical bodies were affected by it. Some parts of them had begun to deform, some had lost their hair while others that usually didn't had hair gained it, and some had a black and dark red fungus like substance covering their bodies, and with the most extreme cases the bones had grown so much that they pierced trough their flesh and skin, leaving a bloody mess. These creatures were drooling, snapping at every single twitch that they noticed. I could feel their mindless aggression radiating from them.
Driven by their battle intend and everlasting hunger and pain, they kept charging. The only thing preventing them from attacking one another was the control of the demon commanding them.
Despite our efforts the monsters drew closer and closer. The inhabitants of the village were desperately shooting. But it didn't help.
I bit my lip and a single drop of blood dripped from the small wound before it healed quickly after.
("This won't do. I need to come up with something else.")
Then one of the humans started screaming. The other followed his gaze and saw the people who had gone missing in the village. Abruptly they all stopped. Some started crying when seeing those who they held dear in such a state.
Like the monsters they were rotting from the inside out. But it was noticeably less than with the monsters because it hadn't been that long since they started to be affected by whatever caused this. But I suspected that this was somehow the demons doing.
While the humans where hesitating the monsters drew closer. Until eventually they reached the barricade of furniture in front of the wall.