After sending the extras away from the house, Auriel sat in one of the chairs and asked Elise. "Do you know how fiends become stronger?"
Elise shook her head and said with uncertainty. "Eating?"
Auriel nodded and explained like a teacher. "You are right. They are eating to become stronger but not with the flesh they ate but the soul."
Elise wore a confused expression and sat in front of Auriel. Then she put her chin into her hands while her eyes shone ever slightly with golden light.
Without minding Elise's gaze over his soul body, Auriel continued to speak. "As you know, every person has a soul and after their death, this soul departs from the lifeless body. But there is something you know wrong, that not the entire soul escapes, some of the soul's parts remain in the physical vessel known as the body or corpse. And the fiends who eat the corpse are actually targeting the delicious soul parts instead of flesh. Latter is just a bonus for them."
After hearing this, Elise complexion paled and the corner of her lips trembled. It was probably the first time she heard something like that, but Auriel didn't mind her and resumed his explanation after a deep breath. "As for the Dream and Mindbender fiends, they usually have a good chance to devour the whole soul of the person instead of remnants of it. Though big fiends too can eat the whole soul via gulping the person down directly, leaving no chance for their souls to escape to who knows which hell."
Elise parted her lips hesitantly as the light under her blindfolded eyes grew more and a few drops of blood began to trickle down from her nose. "How can these fiends do that? Dream and Mindbender fiends I mean…"
Auriel was about to answer this as he was already planning to explain but he held himself back and flicked Elise's forehead. "Don't use it unnecessarily, you will help me to find the fiend. I don't want you to collapse because of blood loss while in search."
Auriel's flick was strong enough for Elise to let out a yelp and rub the area Auriel damaged to lessen the pain. This made her remember the fact that she shouldn't have relaxed even though Auriel was acting like a kind teacher. She forgot this basic rule that she set up for a moment, causing her to doubt her mental health.
"Anyway, what was I talking about?" Auriel asked and made himself comfortable in his chair. Then he snapped his fingers with an "Aha!" voice. "I was talking about Mindbenders and Dream fiends." He exclaimed and continued to be a teacher for a few minutes more.
"So, these kinds of fiends can eat the whole soul even if their bodies are smaller than rats. How so, you can ask but it is really simple but with a cruel method, befitting for a fiend. Dream fiends usually enter the dream of the person and break their lifelong dreams and hopes, making the said person hollow without any purpose in life. And when a person becomes like that, their souls also become hollow, even if they get killed, their souls don't even move from their lifeless bodies, waiting to be devoured by the vicious Dream fiend." Auriel explained and took a deep breath, continuing his teaching.
"As for the Mindbender fiends, they are vicious fiends with abilities to bend minds. Some of them erase memories while some of them outright manipulate people. So, they have a chance to eat complete souls too, but that is a bit different according to the ability of the Mindbender fiend."
All of this information came from Auriel's times as a narrator and not many people know this important information.
The reason why Auriel impart this knowledge to Elise was simple. Elise's ability was making her see the soul bodies of the people, so if she learns more about souls, she has a chance to gain an understanding of her abilities and be closer to Master.
In short, Auriel was boosting Elise's rank with secret knowledge to make her abilities better.
However, Auriel forgot to include the poor girl's mentality in his plan, making the already bad-looking completion of Elise look worse than before. Her face was white as paper and her hands were trembling. "I— I think I heard something I shouldn't, forgive me my godd-" Elise stuttered but didn't continue her sentence, just stayed silent.
A pang of guilt stabbed Auriel's heart as he didn't like the hopeless look of Elise. He lifted his hand towards her head to give slight comfort but he shivered at the unnatural change in Elise's expression. She was smiling lightly.
'Fuck! Someone put something in her mind… Was this caused by the supposed Mindbender or Asher, whom she was scared of and harbored complicated emotions?' Auriel concluded immediately. That change of expression was too sudden and unnatural for him to not figure out what was going on. Something was playing with Elise's mental state, not entirely but lightly, but these light influences could change a person over a long time.
Sigh…
Auriel felt tired again. Now he needed to remove this mental condition and find the unknown fiend while being careful around Archpaladin Asher.
"Anyway, did you understand what I just explained?" Auriel asked and Elise nodded her head in response.
"Then go around the house and look with your eyes, if you feel something dangerous, just come to my side," Auriel instructed and Elise stood up with her staff in her hand. Then she began to do what Auriel ordered.
As for Auriel, he sighed once again and rubbed his temples. 'I shouldn't cause her stress I guess. She became like that when her level of stress and shock exceeded a certain limit…'