Night Of The Apocalypse

Beyond the shifting mist, these words appeared:

[Acolyte Techniques]

[Soul-Link] - comprehension: 97%

[Soul Search] - comprehension: 3%

[Conditions Met]

'Ah, Petra bless your soul, are you grading me?' Klein couldn't help but laugh at the thought. He didn't recall enrolling in 'Petra's Creepy Soul School', but he assumed that he took the entrance exam and passed when he made it out of that death-trap tomb alive.

When the mist receded further, the next bit of the text revealed itself.

.

.

.

[Beginner Techniques]

Klein observed the new additions to his totally normal soul-manipulating spell repertoire, reading the names and descriptions of each carefully. 

[Soul Fortify] - Technique to strengthen the soul. Mana recovery rate increases proportionally to soul strength.

[Soul Scream] - Stuns nearby souls. Dependent on soul strength.

[Soul Steal] - Use the souls of the dead to strengthen the soul of the caster.

'That's not creepy at all' Klein thought with a forced smile.

However, the first spell sounded intriguing, and it was also something he would very much be happy to obtain. He knew he couldn't do anything about his total mana capacity, but if he managed to increase the rate of his recovery, he may be able to offset some of his disadvantages.

Of course, he still wouldn't be able to cast anything beyond the third circle.

Other than that, however...

'Mana recovery rate is proportional to the strength of the soul?' He had never learned anything like that before. Soul strength wasn't even a concept he had heard about before, much less it being able to influence the recovery rate of mana.

'Am I supposed to use mana to increase my mana rate...?' It all sounded very paradoxical. He shook his head and decided to continue studying it. 

-------

While Klein was observing the new changes in [Petra's Soulspells] and engrossed himself in his studying...

Miles away, in the remains of an exploded gas station...

Charred corpses lay strewn around the destruction. The night deepened, and two moonlights cast their light upon the scene.

Howls began to sound - more piercing than the wind. After a time, ghostly shapes emerged from the forest; their form incorporeal, and their nature amorphous.

They came in numbers and began to feed. They hovered over the corpses and satiated themselves with something other than flesh.

When they were done, they began roaming - wandering the night - searching.

And when dawn began to break, and the moonlight faded, they vanished with the darkness.

And the corpses remained as they were, untouched.

-------

The Northern Dukedom of Etherwind, Massachusetts, Cambridge.

The rain had ceased, and Lena found shelter in the ruins of a building which thankfully didn't house a corpse.

She was still in the middle of the vast forest, and she only had half of a roof over her head.

She had found a blanket and then prepared herself to rest. She had wanted to go home to do exactly that today after all.

The only problem was that she wasn't home, it was cold, and she didn't have her PlayerStation to while away the time to sleep.

And also, the growls, clashes, roars, and howls of the forest were a little annoying.

She wrapped the blanket around herself, finding a corner of the collapsed building to cozy up in, and yawned.

She then paused for a moment, then rummaged through her pockets. She found her phone and then noticed that its screen was damaged.

She didn't know when it happened, but she assumed that it was a natural consequence of all the shaking and roaring and world-ending commotion.

Thankfully, it still worked.

If one were to disregard the lack of signal and internet connectivity.

'Hmm...' Lena flicked through the apps on her phone, attempting to find something interesting to do.

For while her current situation was precarious, and she didn't know where she was, and she didn't know where she was supposed to go, and she was surrounded on all sides in a deadly forest by predatorial beasts, she was also...

'Bored'

After lamenting the fact that she hadn't bothered to install any worthwhile games, she instead opted to type in her phone's notepad.

'I think it was the 25th of May today. I'm pretty hungry, but I'm even sleepier. Nothing much happened, and there's not much to do' Lena's finger paused after typing as much, then sighed, closed her phone, and looked to the darkening sky.

And there she saw two moons. One the calm blue of the ocean, the other, the crimson glow of...

Her PC keyboard.

She sighed and picked up her phone to type again.

'I've been Isekai'd, but there's no internet. Wonder if dad was too...'

As her eyelids began to slowly droop, steady footsteps sounded from close by.

She paused and then inwardly shrugged.

'Oh well, if something wants to kill me, it's better they do it when I'm asleep. I really just can't be bothered right now...' She yawned and nodded off to dreamland, where hopefully she would find a better world than the internet-less, video-game-less otherworld she found herself in.

The last thing she heard was a foreign language being spoken between two young voices.

------

"Aisa, Why are we being sent out again?" A boy with pointed ears wearing a green tunic turned to his sister who looked identical to him.

"The enchantments of the forest almost broke, Kai, and also..." Aisa looked around at the familiar-unfamiliar forest, then continued, "The elders want to know what happened, exactly. We need to find more of those foreigners"

Kai rolled his eyes at his straight-laced sister and replied "I know that, but why us? There's plenty others that could do a much better job..."

Aisa looked at her brother, and then looked away in embarrassment, "I-it's because..."

"Because?"

"Because, apparently, the foreigners like us more..."

Kai's eyes darkened, and then asked "... Why?"

"Because..."

"Because?"

"Because, the elders said..."

"Said...?"

"...Cute" Aisa spoke the word between clenched teeth, half in resentment, and half in embarrassment. They were young elves, but they had still lived the years of an adult human. It was about time they were treated as capable members of their tribe.

Kai remained silent, and then looked ahead, spotting a ruined foreign building in the middle of the forest, bricks and roots fighting in the greenery.

"...Let's take a look in there"

Aisa simply nodded, clearing her head.

When they descended from the opening in the roof of the building, they spotted a human woman cuddled up with a blanket in the corner, sleeping peacefully.

"Aisa, she's sleeping?"

"Yes Kai, she's sleeping"

"... In the middle of the Harrowing woods?"

"In the middle of the Harrowing woods," Aisa confirmed.

"How many high-ranked beasts did we pass by on the way here...?" Kai asked in bewilderment, scratching his head.

"About two dozen or so" Aisa nodded.

"... And she's sleeping?"

"She's sleeping."