The Realm of Death

The deeper into the cave Yuno and I delved, the weirder I felt. It was something I couldn't explain. It was a feeling foreign to me, but it was as if I was at my own home. I felt comfortable. My mind quickly began working while I kept Observation Haki active just in case.

<I feel comfortable here, in this hell-like cave... and there were hellhounds...>

Taking into consideration the facts and how dead the place felt, I reached one simple conclusion. This was a Realm of Death or at least an imitation of one. Deciding to confirm my assumption, I activated the Soul Seeing Eye. As soon as I did, I almost fell on my butt.

"This place... is cramped with souls" I muttered as I stopped on my tracks, almost pulling Yuno's arm. She heard me but decide not to comment on it, probably because of the shocked look on my face. "Ah, sorry about that. Apostle of Death issues"

Breaking the tension with a small joke, I smiled once again. I knew that this was definitely a Realm of Death, since this amount of souls could only be found if Earth exploded. It was overwhelming. The funny thing is that souls in this place seemed to be more sentient, because they naurally began congregating around me. The hundreds of thousands of wisps, which were the ones I could see but definitely not all of them, danced in happiness. It felt like they were greeting an old friend, or like a puppy that didn't see its owner for a year or a child when the parents pick it up from kindergarten.

I tried to touch one of the wisps and, to my surprise, it worked. I petted it and it felt... warm. I could tell it was happy, since its movement indicated it was nuzzling against my hand. When I was about to play with another soul, they all got agitated and ran behind me. I could see a creature coming closer with my Observation Haki. It looked like a dremora in appearance, but with a more anthropomorphic body. As soon as it turned arond the curve, I saw one soul that had been left behind. It was small but it shined brighter than the others. It was probably the soul of a child.

I didn't have time to react. I was too focused on the strange phenomenon of souls. But as soon as the creature got close to the soul, I realized what was going to happen. It grabbed the soul as if it was physical and, in one quick movement, brought it to its mouth and swallowed it. I felt as angry as I had felt when I saw Feirj in the Castle Gate. Perhaps even more. And both the creature, Yuno and all the souls knew how angry I felt.

"I will destroy this place until not even dust remains" I was out of myself, and it was understandable. After all, I knew what the consequences of a soul being lost meant. That was a punishment reserved only for the darkest of souls, like Feirj's. When a soul was eradicated, it would never find its way back to a new life.

All of this was something I tacitly understood when my job changed to Soul Weaver. I understood that souls should never be tampered with and much less eradicated. After all, killing a person meant the soul became a clean slate of energy that kept life pumping in the world. A creature actively eating souls was eating energy and stealing life from the world. Of course, one such creature represented no threath. But imagine an entire realm of them... I couldn't help but feel dread and anger.

Letting go of Yuno, I jumped to the creature and severed its head with Lament. It had been frozen in place by my pressure, something I had taken a liking to using as if it was Conqueror's Haki. Of course it would never be, as I didn't feel any drive to conquer, only to never bow.

"One abomination left"

*

For an entire hour, Yuno and I walked through the corridors of the cave, killing any creature we crossed paths with. From the ocational pack of hellhounds to the dremora abominations, I guessed the killcount was around 120-something, give or take. I was sure of two things. Yuno had grown in level a ton and I had grown more accustomed and in tune with my powers. I was now able to reign in my anger when I saw one of those creatures. It was there, but it was under control.

"Yuno, what is your fatigue at?" I asked Yuno with a bit of concern, since she had never been in constant action for more than a few minutes. "Twenty five, Noah. I've been applying SP constantly so it is kept in check"

Reassured that Yuno wasn't in need of rest. I kept going forward. I could tell how she was growing stronger, since the accuracy and strength of her arrows grew every couple of monsters. As we took a few more steps forward, my Observation Haki picked up a room in the next 200 meters or so. It was big enough for twenty people to lay in it without feeling cramped. Inside the room was a creature, similar to the dremora abominations, but bigger. He could clearly see its appearance... it was disgusting. Focusing on the room even more, he saw something unexpected. A bow.

It wasn't a regular bow. It felt like it was calling for help. Much like Berserk when he picked it up, he felt like the bow wasn't meant for him, but it was still asking him to pick it up. Then he looked at Yuno and her bow.

<If I'm right... how the fuck did that bow end up here?!>

"Let's go Yuno, the Boss's room is pretty close" I told Yuno as I began waking forwards once again. I was still followed by an army of souls that didn't seem to want to move away from me. I was sure the Gods of Death were laughing at me. "Noah... I fell as if something is calling to me further down this corridor"

That confirmed my deduction, but I was surprised at how strong the connection between Yuno and the bow was. My only guess as to how that was possible was that Yuno had such a strong connection to whatever Deities had chosen her that she could feel the bow calling for her.

"I think the Divine Weapon related to you is in the room right in front of us" I explained to her. "Come on, let's hurry there"

Once we reached the room, the creature that I had seen turned to look at us. It had a demonic appearance, with a beard of tendrils and a large skull. It had two goat-like horns growing on the side of its head, right above the ears and two rows of fanged teeth decorated its mouth. It looked like a demonized draenei that had consumed too much power from an Old God. As soon as it opened its mouth, laughter sounded in the room.

"*cackle* Two living souls... I want to eat them... they look so fresh..." it said with delight drawn in its hideous face. I felt the same way I had with Feirj. I wanted to be rid of this creature's presence. So I acted on it.

Without uttering a single word, I activated both the Soul Seeing Eye and Soul Guidance. I even used Soul Cleansing to purify the souls that followed me. They happily presented themselves to be purified and sent to a better place. The creature, realizing its food was being taken away, got angry.

"Nooo!" it screamed in a shriek that sounded like a banshee's cry. "My food! Hundreds of years of collecting it! Gone! It's all gone!"

The creature tried to capture a few of the souls, but as soon as it got closee, I shot a blade of energy from Lament, making a deep slash on the creature's chest. The pain made it stumble backwards, but then it looked at me with anger clear on its eyes. Not like I cared, I only wanted it to be gone.

"AAAAHHH!" It screamed before jumping at me. I also dashed towards it, spining lament on my right hand. Felix, who had been on my shoulder the entire time, jumped towards the abomination and clawed at its left eye, effectively blinding it and making it shriek in pain.

I took advantage of the moment and sent an energy ray from Lament's tip, piercing its stomach. I thought it was going to be over with sooner rather than later, but then I saw the monster's HP bar. It had only lost around ten percent.

<What the fuck?!>

"I'm hungry... I'm hungry and I'm angry... you... you took my food..." it began muttering crazily. I had an ominour feeling, so I asked Yuno to take cover. "You too it from me... NOW YOU'LL BE MY FOOD!!"

A dark energy began to ooze out of the monster. It grew at least another meter in height, now reaching around four meters, and the demonic features present on its face gew more hideous and ugly. Now it looked like an Eldritch abomination with a few human characteristics.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect this to happen"

The creature was clearly stronger than it had been a minute ago, enraged by the loss of its food. The good thing was that its HP hadn't regenerated, so I just had to kill it once.

Another thing to take into account was the fact that it had lost its sanity, so it would be simple to dodge its attacks. Besides... I had Observation Haki. It tried to punch, grab, kick and even bite me, but all I had to do was twist and turn my body with minimal movement. I knew were it was going to attack precisely, so I just moved out of the way. Felix had also been slowly but surely nipping at its HP with precise attacks to its articulations and softer places. I notices how he avoided biting the monster, which I greatly understood.

It was, all things considered, an easy fight. Observation Haki was broken as fuck.

"Well. Time to say goodbye, motherfucker" I said as I dodged one last desperate attempt at attacking me. Then, I quickly turned with Lament prepared and slashed at its neck. Since I had been using Soul Guidance constantly, the monster's head was severed in one fell swoop.

"Requiescent in pace"

I had to admit, I liked saying that every time I defeated one of my natural enemies. I found it surprising how I hadn't had the need to use Mantle of Souls up to that date, but then again, I had never gone into an S-Rank Gate or faced an enemy equal to me.

[Congratulations on killing Dozgath, Torturer of Souls.

Rewards processed based on performance:

-Dozgath's Spine

-Dozgath's Femur

-Dozgath's Scales x 25

-Dozgath's Eyeball

-Soul Smite Skill Gem]

<Wait... didn't I already have another Skill Gem?!>

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First of all, the next Apostle has already been chosen by Irreversible Flaw, who was the first to guess the reference on the Title of chapter 22. The concept chosen was Misfortune, but because of a lack of Gods related to the concept I will change it to Fortune focused on bad luck.

Second: Reaper_X_7998 said in the comments something about the Skill Gem... and I realized that I had totally forgotten about it! So here I made a small impromptu reminder to Noah!

Hope you guys enjoyed!