Pain pulsated rhythmically throughout Seth's body. The dull throbbings emanating from the many cuts and scrapes that the Wraith had given him, but mainly from the one on his shoulder and his leg.
He let out a soft groan, turning to look at the slime girl before walking over to her with a slight limp. At the same time, Coal suddenly moved after being mainly static all this time, causing the girl to yelp in surprise and lash out with a strike that harmlessly glanced off his earthen armour.
"Sorry, I should have warned you before I did that." Seth muttered as he pulled up a nearby seat and fell into it with a groan.
"Before you did it? Wait, you control that thing?"
She glanced at it again, taking in the sight of it now moving freely. Watching as it tore strips off of what remained of the ghouls shirt, then shifting her gaze back to Seth who was using one hand to slowly unbutton his shirt with a distant look in his eyes. His fingers fumbling with the buttons and muttered curses escaping his lips every few attempts.
"You're telling me that you could have had this giant ass thing fighting them instead and you just used it as a battering ram?"
"I wish… No, that would actually be amazing if I could do that. Right now it's either me or the big fella, one or the other. Even this is proving difficult nevermind a full blown fight."
He said with a resigned sigh, half muttering the final part, as he grabbed the shirt suddenly and ripped it open, much like Coal was doing with the cloth scraps.
"Ah shit."
Letting out a groan, he gave up on both tasks and walked Coal over to himself. He lowered his shirt's collar, revealing the gash in his arm that was still slowly oozing blood.
"You probably would have had better luck using both hands, you know." Cynthia said and, although she didn't have any features in her eyes, Seth could still feel her rolling them at him.
"Yeah, that's the issue, my hands were busy. It's me at both ends."
Using both sets of hands, his own and Coals, to give her a short wave before going back to using Coal to bandage his arm.
"Plus, this other hand is full."
He lifted his left hand, his actual left hand, and opened it to reveal a glowing ball the size of a marble. The glowing ball that appeared when he crushed the Wraiths core.
Cynthia's eyes narrowed at it, in a way Seth could only assume was a frown, as she walked over to him and reached out for the ball. But when she tried to take it, her fingers simply passed through it.
"What is that?"
[It's a Soul Core Remnant.]
Before Seth could even try to answer, Angel's voice resounded inside his head and answered for him. They appeared out of nowhere, bobbing in the air next to Cynthia's head.
Naturally since Angel lived in his head, Cynthia couldn't hear or see them. However, he could guess by the expression on her featureless face that she got a similar answer from her own little voice and was conversing with it. So he decided to do the same and spoke to Angel inside his head.
'And what do I do with this Soul Core Remnant exactly?'
[I suggest that you eat it.]
'Eat it?!'
[Yes. Although not with your mouth. You need to integrate it into your own soul and absorb the latent essence within. Methods of this vary by individual or species, but for you I suggest using your threads.]
Seth nodded softly, pondering the small orb in his hand intensely. He didn't think that Angel would try to get him to do something harmful, after all they were here to help him. He was about to disconnect the threads from Coal so that he could use them, now that his arm was fully bandaged, but he stopped before doing so.
Eyes trailing away from the orb and up his forearm, he remembered the pain of his awakening. How it felt like his bones were drilled hollow. It wasn't just his fingers, but his entire arm. So surely he could move the threads. Surely, he could produce more than one set.
"Keep an eye out will you, I'm going to try something."
He said as he glanced up at Cynthia. When she nodded in response, he drew his entire focus back to his arm. Back to the threads emanating from his fingers.
Moving his hand away from the orb, it stayed suspended in the air in the same position, as the threads unravelled themselves from his hand. They had been wanting to do it the entire time, to take the path of least resistance and not be tangled up, it had taken another precious portion of concentration to keep them wrapped up.
But now he let them flow freely and, once they were finally unravelled, he started to focus on pulling them away from the tips of his fingers. Slowly but surely, they drew themselves together, converging in his palm before becoming a thicker, brighter thread that eventually split off into five.
Making sure to check his connection with Coal the entire time, he then pushed himself to create a new set. At first it was painful, flashes of pain making him wonder if he was simply wrong about this idea, but he kept going until finally a new set of threads pulled themselves free and once again emanated from his fingertips.
'I knew it! This isn't just good for eating this ball, if I have to fight another one of those things or something else like it then now I won't have to get up close and personal. Now I can actually do what I first tried to, slice them apart from a distance with a wave of my hand, even if it is restricted to ghosts. Maybe I can even get another puppet when I get used to this weird control scheme… This is definitely the way forward!"
Pumping his fists in his mind, he went straight to putting these new threads to work. With another thought, a much simpler one this time, he willed them to extend before plunging them into the Soul Core Remnant. He watched as they pulsated rhythmically, small waves of light travelling up the threads, up his arm and deep into his own soul. It was like slurping juice through a straw.
Each pulse, each drink, making it get smaller and smaller. When the first wave of that hit his soul made him gasp, his eyelids fluttering closed as he savoured the sensation of warmth spreading out into his body.
When he opened his eyes, Angel was floating closer to him, with some wonderful words projected in front of them.
[Your Spiritual Score has increased.]