"Uriel, hey. Can you hear me?"
Uriel heard a soft voice calling out to her.
It was gentle like the morning breeze.
"Uriel, we're in a critical situation so please help me out here."
******
Ten minutes later after the fight, Uriel woke up and Raven was helping her with her wounds.
She got pierced by something in her shoulder but it was probably burnt away when she used her insignia.
"I'll listen to your story later because this place will get messy later on. We should prepare to get out of here quickly."
Raven said, finished bandaging Uriel's shoulders with a cloth he brought.
After attending to Uriel, they scavenged the stuff these people were wearing after gathering them up in one place; including the other two bodies from before.
Clothes, equipment, strange looking vials and even jewelries weren't spared.
"Brother, we should probably burn their bodies just in case."
Uriel said a horrifying thing a normal two-year old kid wouldn't have said, as if that's the most natural thing in the world for her.
"I know, but please step back first."
And here's her brother, completely agreeing to her without second thoughts.
It was part of her brother's special education to her when it comes to covering their tracks, since they only have each other to learn things from.
So you really can't blame it on Uriel.
'Extract.'
Raven touched the corpse of the guy on the right first; the guy with no upper body.
Whooosh
An almost visible, swirling stream of pure energy came out of the body that caused the winds around the area to carry slight chilliness.
Sensing this pure and almost warm quality of energy flowing through his hand, Raven was quite shocked.
'I didn't think that a human's soul was this superior in terms of quality from all the other stuff I've absorbed in the past year. It was basically night and day.'
Raven was intrigued, but absorbed it fully in mere seconds before hurriedly checking the quest log.
[Soul is damaged. Needs immediate repair in order to function completely.
Find a living object and extract their soul.
Energy: 96.9%
Time limit: 309:11:43
Reward: General control of the system.
Penalty: Death]
"!!!!"
Now Raven was absolutely shocked, the energy contained within a single soul pumped up the meter by a whopping 1%!
You shouldn't look down on that mere 1%.
It'll take Raven at least five days to gather that much energy, so imagine the shock he felt when the percentage jumped by a whopping 1%!
"Holy shit, if only I knew it earlier..."
He almost can't believe it. If he can absorb a hundred souls of humans from the start, he can finish the task in less than a day.
"This fucker..."
He sighed deeply, thinking how much time he had wasted looking for energy sources all around the forest.
"No, if you look at it in another perspective, my time here wasn't that wasted."
Yes, Raven didn't just wantonly killed everything on sight when he's in the forest.
Most of the time, he's studying spells, experimenting various stuff, educating Uriel about all things that she's curious about, learned about various different bitches living in the forest, and the adventure he had while roaming the forest.
Those were precious pieces of knowledge and experience he obviously can't get anywhere except here.
Or he's just consoling himself from all the hardships he had experienced.
"Nevertheless, I can complete the task now. I'm curious on what surprise it'll bring me. This shit better be worth it."
Raven was almost shaking from the excitement brought to him by these series of events.
Truly, this tiny mishap was a blessing in disguise!
He quickly calmed down though, and proceeded to the next one.
[Energy 97.9%]
And the next one...
[Energy 98.9%]
And the next...
[Energy 99.9%]
'The final one, here we go.'
Raven thought, both nervous and excited about the final one.
*****
Uriel watched everything happened from the back.
She knew what this thing her brother was doing whenever they finish a fight.
'He said it's a little secret of him, and he'll eventually tell me about it when it's time.'
She was just a simple girl. When her brother told her to do something, she'll do it without a doubt and when he doesn't, she won't.
But now, she was wondering when would her brother tell her that very secret of his.
She didn't dwell about the thought that much though.
'That shouldn't be my concern for now, what I need to do was to focus practicing control over my insignia. That way, I can fight side by side with brother all the time..!'
Uriel clenched her cute little fist, motivated about the thought of fighting together with her brother.
When suddenly..
Honnnnggggggg
Raven emitted waves of unbearable pressure so strong that it swept everything away in a hundred-meter radius.
Honnnnggggggg
Rocks, trees, the corpses, and even the water on the lake were affected because of the shockwaves.
Honnnnggggggg
The area was being ravaged, as the shockwaves kept getting stronger and stronger as time passes by.
Raven's eyes were close during this time, slowly floating up in the air unaware of what is happening around him when...
Crackle
Flames coloured in a translucent aquamarine akin to ones from the deepest part of hell started to appear as it slowly gathered towards him like snakes dancing and slithering around his body.
Then...
ROAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!!
A dreadful cry sounded, creating a pressure so dense and strong that any creature in its presence will be having trouble breathing.
Plants withered like dead stalks from yesteryear.
Beasts nearby were trembling from fear, some even collapsed on the spot unable to bear the dreadful aura surrounding the forest.
The deafening cry carried a majestic, ominous, and evil aura that washed the area around with balefulness.
Raven was high up in the sky when a phantom of an abominable creature was forming outside his figure.
ROAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!!
Pitch-black scales decorated its entire body, devouring any light came in contact with it.
The phantom's numerous red evil eyes woke open at the same time.
They were ten times bigger than the golem Raven fought earlier, staring malevolently above the sky as if in defiance over something.
ROAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!!
Its gigantic maw that was adorned with sharp ominous fangs were seemingly trying to break free from something.
The sunny, warm atmosphere was now replaced by dark swirls of clouds. Lightning were swimming in its presence, wreaking havoc everywhere it went.
Twisters were also beginning to form, blowing away all the trees in the vicinity.
ROAAAARRRRR!!!!!
The scene was grand.
It was both horrifying and mystifying to look at.
It was as if the world was celebrating the birth of calamity itself.
*****
Uriel coughed out a mouthful of blood. This time, she's not faking it.
She was wiped away from the shockwave earlier. Luckily, she wasn't hit directly by it. The corpses in front of her served as her shield, she only received the impact of the shockwave.
But Uriel was still soaked in her own blood, you can only imagine how horrifying the situation was.
"Brother, what is happening to you?!"
Uriel also released her insignia after realizing what's happening, using the shockwave as the propelling force, floating and landing on a safe place away from where her brother was.
She was now watching the catastrophe play in a distant place, as her brother perform the orchestra of disasters.
Worry was painted on her face as blood and tears were rolling down from it.
"Brother..."
*****
It's been a while when it started, and the area around Raven was long left in ruins.
[Synchronization: 87.3%]
And here he was, completely unaware of what is happening outside.
He can see his naked body floating in the middle of nowhere, only seeing the percentage of something flashing within him.
He's also trying to focus the surge of energy entering his body.
[Synchronization: 89.8%]
'Ah.. this feeling. I'm kinda addicted to it now.'
Raven thought, feeling that particular cool and icy sensation whenever he's extracting a soul. Now though, it was in a much more larger scale and he was feeling it happen all over his body.
[Synchronization: 93.6%]
He was feeling something change within him, he can't exactly specify it though, but it was there, he was sure of it.
'This system was having its way with my body now, eh? For fuck's sake, not even installed with something like basic human rights, what a shitty system.'
Useless thoughts like these ran through his mind.
[Synchronization: 97.4%]
'Honestly though, its kind of melancholic that I won't see that quest log anymore.'
A year of hardships and suffering lead him to this place.
'But I guess there'll be more to come right? I'm only hoping for it to not include shit like killing some god or something.'
Raven thought nervously, thinking that if this was only the tutorial phase, then god knows what more were waiting for him in store.
[Synchronization: 100%]
When the notification he has been waiting for this past year sounded within his mind.
{System was updated successfully.}
'This is it...'
After, he finally completed the dreadful task that's been bugging him all the time; like a blade hanging above his head.
'I finally finished this fucking task.'
Memories of hardships since day one was flashing through his mind.
'I think, I might just cry later when I can't see that quest log whenever I open the system.'
He felt an unprecedented wave of refreshment and comfort flowing through his very soul.
Like a caged bird finally soaring through the sky.
He felt his body falling down slowly, carressed gently by the wind as he tried to breathe out a mouthful of air.
Feeling the surface of the ground as he landed, he tried prying the changes in his entire body.
But he was shocked by the sensitiveness he's currently experiencing right this very instant.
His eyes were still closed, but he can clearly perceive the processes going inside his body.
His pumping heart, the blood flowing through his body, every nerve and veins that's working together to send signals, down to his very cells.
He can see them all clearly.
"Amazing."
Raven muttered absentmindedly as he tried opening his eyes.
"..."
And what he saw left him stupidly dumbstruck.
< Chapter 9 > Fin.