'Well, what do we have here?'
Before me was the entrance to asimply build little hut, just standing out here in the middle of nowhere. There was a dim light shining through under the door, which itself wasn't more than a bunch of sticks nailed together.
A look inside revealed a man, probably in the middle of his twenties, sitting at a desk and reading a book. He seemed really focused.
The light came from a fireplace on the other side of the room. It barely reached him.
'I wonder how he's reading with that light. And where he got a book from. And where he learned read... What a strange place.'
His short and somewhat maintained brown hair, as well as his seemingly controlled beard were looking a bit out of place for someone living on his own in the woods.
'I would have preferred someone a bit more muscular... living alone in the woods and he's still looking a bit frail... but only a bit. It should be fine. And he can read. What is he reading anyway?'
I took a look over his shoulder and skimmed through the page he was currently at. At a closer look, the book seemed old, the pages, once white, were brown now and had some bits missing on the sides. The ink was also fading away, making some passages difficult to read.
'Ah, of course it's nothing special. A bit of basic Alchemy and such. Why would he read that though? He hasn't got any equipment here. Just for the sake of reading it? I don't know what to think of that.'
I looked around in the room once more. It really wasn't noteworthy. Just the bare minimum, perhaps even less than that, at least for me.
'I don't know if I would've taken him, if I had the choice. But I don't.'
I once again focused myself on him. He was really concentrating on the book in front of him. His eyes moved over the pages, albeit slowly, shutting out everything else.
'At least he's able to and willing to study. Hopefully he won't waste this chance... he does seem quite happy with this way of life... as I know them, they will destroy this place. He will be on his own, which was a possibility I didn't really account for... well, too bad for him.'
And so I waited for the arrival of my pursuers.
---
Milton stopped again, but this time we weren't suprised. In front of us the silhouette of hut came in sight. The building was on a little clearing, both it and the hut barely big enough to notice.
We stood about a hundre feet away from the hut and a bit into the forest around the clearing with Milton still standing in front of us.
"He is in that hut. But he isn't alone."
'It would be bad if he had found an allie of considerable strength that might hold us up in a fight. He could sneak of and the traces could vanish during the time the fight took. We would be almost back at square one.'
"Someone noteworthy?", Adam asked while I was still caught up in thoughts.
"Doesn't look like it. Feels more like the people in the village. It could also be someone able of supressing their aura, but if that were the case, we would have a whole new set of problems on our hands."
"Magical aura aside, can you actually supress the aura of your soul?", I asked.
'Or does that go hand in hand?'
"I don't really know, with all the research ongoing, we still know frighteningly few things about the nature of the soul and even less about how to use or work with it."
"That sounds like someone living out here won't be able to do that. So let's move in. Is he moving at all?"
"No. He is completly stationary."
"Great. That makes our job easier. I sneak up to the door and wait in case someone runs out. Adam, you prepare the spell. Milton, you stay a bit back and notify us if either of them moves. Questions?"
"None"
"No"
"Ok, move in."
We began to slowly move towards our positions. Milton came along until we were out on the clearing, but stayed there, never letting his eyes of the hut and presumably our target.
Adam stayed with me for another few steps but split of towards the side of the hut with the chimney or so sticking out.
I moved towards the door and leaned myself against the wall right next to it. If someone were to stepp out of there, I would cut them down on the spot.
---
'Ok, looks like they're here. This will only work if they're competent enough to this right. Otherwise it will all be for naught. I wishe I would've come up with another plan, but this is the only thing that might work. And it's not like I could've waited any longer, or their research might have caught up. Sadly, it has to be this way.'
The poor man was still sitting at his desk, still reading, but not noticing the men that were positioning themself around the house.
'I sense two people. It's clear what the one at the door is supposed to do. The other one is moving around the house and setting up the spell I counted on. It really is the best in their arsenal for this occation. It takes some time, but I'm not moving, so they have the time for it. So far so good.'
'There should also be the medium or whoever they brought with them somewhere around here, probably outside of me reach, as well as other mages or archers on standby... no, not archers. They wouldn't have brought archers for this.'
'Anyway, it doesn't matter. The one setting up should be nearly done. Now it's my turn.'
I expanded myself as far as possible, reaching out with my entire being and letting whatever energy I still had flow out of me, making myself look way bigger and nearly exploing with power.
I felt the strain of this act immediatly, my mind sight went foggy and my mind felt increasingly number.
However, I still moved towards the man and more importantly, his soul.
---
Suddenly, I heard Milton gasp behind me. He looked a bit pale, his eyes wide open, staring at the wall of the hut.
"What is he doing? Was he supressing his power? But why, how?!"
"Milton, what is going on?!", I called out to him.
'To hell with being heard, whatever is happening for him to be shocked, it must be important'
A quick look towards Adam and he was frozen in his tracks, looking at Milton, just like I was.
"He grew in size, at least tenfold, it looks... magnificent... and frightening."
"Get yourself together", I yelled, "That must be a trick of some kind, it doesn't make any sense"
---
I reached it, his soul was just before me and with my last energy, I enveloped it. I didn't harm it, I just completely surrounded it from all sides. Actually I couldn't even harm it, but they didn't knew that.
However, this far overextended form was impossible to keep up for much longer, it was already getting hard to form cohesive thoughts.
'Come one... do it...'
---
Milton got himself together again, or so I thought until he cried out once more.
"The soul, the soul of the other one is gone, he just... consumed it!"
"What, is he possessing the other one?!"
"I didn't think it worked like that, but it seems like it. If he has a body once more, we are done for! Quick, do something... something!"
He was right. There was no room for plans. Without much thought behind it, I kicked the door in while drawing my sword.
I saw a man sitting at a desk, he was obviously suprised by this but seemed unable to comprehend what was going on.
Without much pause I dashed forward and stabed him. The life instantly left his eyes, he was dead the moment my sword impaled him.
Of course, a normal sword wouldn't achieve this result. But my sword did. It was a holy sword with few equals, it instantly exorcised whoever it killed. It also had some other abilities common for holy or enchanted swords like never rusting and cutting through metal like paper.
But this was the important part. Demons, Ghosts, Ghouls and the likes of them were killed within a single hit, where other swords would need ten.
It also worked on humans, but a stab kills a human, exorcised or not, so it didn't make a difference there.
I pulled my sword out and the man, whoever he might be, collapsed on his desk.