With a whoosh of wind, The blade which vaguely resembled the blade of a guillotine fell upon the Monstrosity as the faces began to cry tears made up of mana.
"Save…Us" Their final plea rang out as one yet again, a whisper compared to their previous combined roaring
Charon watched on, an inkling forming at what the faces may represent. The only question remaining in his head was how. Dismissing his sudden melancholy, he turned toward Howard.
The corpse of the monster began to shimmer and twist before it burst into motes of Mana which faded out of sight. Everyone except Charon and Howard jumped down from the bridge to find the core.
Disappointment was plastered across Charon's face as he let out a sigh of annoyance at the young mage. The mage opened his mouth to explain but was interrupted as Charon held up a finger.
"What was your mistake?" Charon held a leveled gaze against the mage who shrank back in shame.
"Was it my intention, sir?" Howard began to look sheepishly at everything around him except Charon himself.
"You are a mage, are you not? Answer my question with confidence even if you aren't sure." Charon's gaze turned into scowl as he found his anger rising at Howard who should be following the same profession as he once did.
"Yes, sir! It was my intention, sir!" Howard snapped up, adjusting his position as if answering one of his professors at the college.
"That's quite a good guess, Howard. You are partially correct of course but there's something else which you forgot. Something they teach everyone at the Nekronis College of Magic." Charon paused so as to let Howard take one more guess.
"Oh…" realization passed through Howard's eyes as he realized what Charon was hinting at. "The Dolber Effect."
"Exactly right. The effect which you seemed to have forgotten. The effect which states that when magic enters a monster, there can be catastrophic effects which are unpredictable. You only got lucky that it was just grotesque instead of catastrophic." Charon ended this by ruffling the sixteen year olds hair.
"Are you done berating the poor kid, Charon?" Hades called out to Charon from the beach while tossing a Mana Core up and down in his hands.
"Yes, I think that Howard has learned his lesson. It was most likely his first monster after all." Ramnis interjected as well for Howards sake.
"You are all right I suppose. You did good for your first fight against one of those abominations. Now we should keep moving to scout out the forest to make sure there are no other immediate threats." Charon looked at the treeline as he began planning out their next move.
With quick movements, Charon grabbed Howard and jumped down to the beach before dismissing the spell that held up the bridge. The bridge promptly faded out of existence as the two landed upon the beach.
Charon looked at the beach which still had many souls floating there as he realized that Hades and Aeacus could benefit from consuming these. Looking at the strangers however, he decided that for now he cannot have them consume in front of others even if they cannot see the souls.
"Hmm, some of us should stay back and watch the beach to make sure nothing else happens now that the monster is gone. I was thinking of having me and my subordinates watch the beach in case something occurs, does anyone disagree?" Charon purposefully withheld the true reason he wished to stay behind.
"That is a good idea pri… sir. We can split the four veterans to allow us to retreat to the beach if need be. As well as allowing us to get healing at a slightly safer position if one of us or the adepts get injured." Odysseus, as someone who traveled in similar circles as the prince, was also admittedly glad to see that Charon wouldn't try putting himself at risk either.
Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement as Ramnis looked at the two adepts in curiosity.
"We will also hopefully let these two gain some experience with combat as well. Something which they will likely dearly need in the coming days." Ramnis nodded his head in agreement to Charon and Odysseus' plan to scout the area.
"In that case we shall wait here for you four. Although you should keep an eye out for the time, I believe the ship will arrive in roughly an hour or two." Charon emphasized his sentence by pointing towards the ship slowly coming towards the beach.
"Good point. We should hurry then in that case. Let us go right now." Ramnis and Odysseus waved for the adepts to follow them into the forest.
"Try to find a good place to set up camp as well if you can!" Hades interjected at this point.
Odysseus who at this point had his back turned to the trio simply gave a thumbs up in response to Hades before disappearing amongst the trees. Charon watched until the rest of the group of four disappeared before turning towards Hades and Aeacus.
"I think you two are smart enough to realize the other reason why I decided to keep us on the beach." Charon received a nod in response from both of them right afterwards.
"Good, In that case you two need to be prepared for that. We don't know if that damned hunger will make a return or not in this case" Charon looked at both of them sternly before pointing towards the nearest soul.
"Who wants to go first? We don't know if you can also gain an afterlife or not but if you can, I'd assume it would be related to consuming souls since that's how I got mine." Charon continued on as Hades stepped forward.
"I will go first. Sorry Aeacus." Hades looked at Aeacus, whose help had been much appreciated back when they were fighting the spies in Nekronis.
Charon walked over to Aeacus and clapped his hands onto his shoulders, "I will do this to prevent him from interfering in case the hunger hits you both again."
"What If it affects you, my liege?" Aeacus asked, genuinely curious.
"While I don't think it will now, if it does then there are many souls scattered throughout this beach. We just have to find something to hold me back." Charon said as he shrugged his shoulders.
Hades prepared himself by the soul. Once he felt fully ready, he gathered Astral Energy within his hands before reaching out.
The tension rose to a crescendo when he was about to grab the soul. Everyone gathered was prepared for the worst case scenario.
Slowly, Hades clenched his hand around the floating soul as everyone tensed in anticipation of the hunger. They only found their fear was unnecessary however when they were still calm, lacking any signs of the hunger they had previously experienced.
Realizing that they were all fine, Charon gestured for Hades to continue on. Hades held up the soul to his mouth as he dropped it inside of his mouth. He could feel the soul being whisked away to the swirling vortex inside his head as his height ballooned upward for a moment before abruptly returning to his original height.
Finding his first time feeding on a soul strange, he looked toward Charon in surprise.
"Did you get the Afterlife?" Charon asked before Hades shook his head in response, "Hmm, Then either it's only for the progenitor or I only got it so early due to my heightened talent."
Hades shrugged towards Aeacus as the simply watched their master descend into his curiosity. Charon continued mumbling various things as Aeacus and Hades walked toward the next soul.
"Well, we should have enough time to eat all these souls before the others get back. So, would you like to go next?"