Chapter 23 - Soul Stones

As Ashe closed his eyes, the soft bed underneath him turned into what felt like a pile of rocks.

'Ouch… where am I?' Ashe thought after opening his eyes.

He found himself in an almost completely dark and cramped place. The only light source was a dim glow coming from beneath him.

Ashe rolled onto his stomach and looked down to find a pile of glowing rocks. The rocks were multicolored, each an unnatural collage of different shapes.

Ashe picked one of the rocks up and inspected it closely. The rock was sharp and rigid on one side and smooth and wavy on the other. It had a mixture of different light colors that gave off a dim glow.

'What is this? It's quite the beautiful stone.'

Whoosh

'Huh? I thought I heard wind but I didn't feel any.'

Whoosh

Another quiet sound filled Ashe's ears.

'Is it coming from this rock?'

Ashe put the rock next to his ear and heard the quiet whistling of the wind turn into whispers.

"Good morning."

Ashe was shocked as the rock seemingly spoke out to him, but he heard another whisper from the rock before he could even think about responding.

"Good morning sweetie. Sorry about last night I'll make it up to you I promise."

Ashe inspected the rock again, and to his surprise, the colors of the rock were moving.

The surface of the rock was now showing a scene of a little girl and an older woman talking together while eating at a table.

'Is this a memory? Or maybe a weird camera of sorts?'

Suddenly light filled the room along with a cold breeze. Ashe looked behind him to see Sap staring back at him coldly.

"Hey…" Ashe said awkwardly.

Sap did not respond, instead, two claws flew from beneath its coat. Ashe found himself being lifted out from a basket, while the rock he took was taken away.

"What's that rock?" He asked.

Sap yet again didn't respond, it first closed the basket before opening its beak and throwing the rock inside it.

The previously cold stare had warmed up slightly as if consuming the rock eased Sap's mind.

"My apologies." Sap finally spoke.

"Waiting in these dreadful tunnels for so long puts me on edge." It continued while stretching its coiled-up body.

"So what are those rocks?" Ashe asked bluntly.

"Oh, these? I don't think you'll like the answer." Sap responded while putting the basket on its back.

"Just tell me, I'll be fine."

"Firstly get a move on," Sap said while nudging Ashe further down the tunnel.

"Fine… fine," Ashe said before starting to walk further down the tunnel. As he walked he could feel the slight itching across his skin come back.

"Then tell me before I pass out again!" Ashe said. He wasn't close to passing out yet but he could feel the density of demon energy rising.

"The answer is quite simple. Those rocks are human souls. Every true demon needs to consume soul energy in some way. And it just so happens that the only way to get soul energy in Hevell is through human souls."

Ashe sighed slightly. He stayed silent for a while before speaking again.

"Can I hold one?"

Sap gave Ashe a strange look but gave him a small soul stone from its basket.

Ashe kept walking in silence while staring at the stone. For him, it was a surreal experience.

'An entire human life is in my hand. It's so... stagnant... so dead. More like a memory of a life than a soul.'

"How do these souls work?" Ashe asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe you could gain more insight if you ate one." Sap responded.

Ashe got slightly flustered from anger. However, the anger quickly dissipated as he looked at the stone again.

The longer he held the stone, the less alive it felt.

'I just hope there's a way to make these stones back into people. Or else my brother...'

Not wanting to finish his thought, Ashe decided to put the soul stone into his mouth.

The previously hard stone melted in his mouth. The stone's energy was spread throughout his body without him even needing to swallow. It felt as natural as breathing, and he hadn't taken a breath in ages.

Quiet screams filled Ashe's head as the energy tried resisting its consumption. Such attempts were quickly dealt with by his body. Only a couple of new memories were left in his mind.

Ashe stood still, stunned by the process.

'That soul was definitely alive, but how? If even Sap doesn't know then I certainly can't figure this out.'

After a while of contemplating Ashe started walking again.

The two of them walked in silence for a while as Ashe was still slightly stunned by the event. When He run into his limit the two of them stopped.

Ashe was breathing heavily and he felt like he was going to explode any second. He sat down and started burning excess energy.

After a while, he finally remembered something he meant to ask.

"Will you teach me anything about combat?" Ashe asked.

Sap turned toward him before speaking. "Yes. We are traveling to a place where I will train you In combat."

"Do you have any tips for me now? I'm going to need them soon." Ashe responded.

"There are a lot of different ways to fight with demon energy, so I can only give you some basic tips," Sap responded.

"Firstly, all of your demon energy will always fit in a sphere with a diameter of 10 centimeters." Suddenly a dark crimson sphere appeared before Ashe.

"The more energy you have the more condensed you can make it. The more condensed your energy the stronger your control over it and the tougher it will be."

"Secondly, you should start purposefully instilling emotions at every possible moment. Fear, anger, despair, greed, or lust. Once you have some threads, feel free to experiment. I'm confident you'll make something useful."

Ashe's breathing was getting heavy. It was hard for him to focus on Sap's words as well as burn the overflowing demon energy that kept flooding him.

His skin was turning red and his head was beating.

"Lastly." Sap continued.

However, his guidance fell on deaf ears as Ashe struggled to keep consciousness. He was reaching his limit and all he could hear was his heartbeat throughout his whole body.

The rhythmic thumbs slowly lulled him into unconsciousness.

*Thud*

His body slumped to the stone floor. Sap picked up the unconscious boy and put him back into the basket before pulling out a web of threads from beneath its feathery coat.

Quiet words escaped its beak, spoken in a language no human spoke. However, their meaning was quite simple.

"Humans are such a hassle. Curse you Mortem."

_______

*Thump*

*Thump*

*Thump*

The sound of Ashe's heartbeat slowly quieted down. He opened his eyes and found himself back in his room. After checking his phone he found out it was 3 in the morning.

'It's Sunday morning. I leave for the expedition on Tuesday morning, and I have two things to do.' Ashe organized his thoughts.

'There's that beast corpse I left in the abandoned sewer. And I have to collect my money from the scavenger run while telling them I'm going to be out of town.'

'I could probably just sell the beast's corpse to the scavengers while collecting my money. I'm sure they would be pleased if I at least gave them something to sell while I'm gone.'

Slowly, Ashe got out of bed and put on some new clothes along with his older brother's old hoodie. He took the largest backpack he could find before leaving the house and walking onto the quiet streets.

The train station was also almost empty, with only a handful of people waiting for a train. Ashe didn't pay them any mind and got on his train.

The cart was empty so Ashe used this opportunity to check his demon energy.

The sheer volume of it almost doubled which surprised Ashe. He spread it evenly across his body to get a feeling of his newfound strength.

The demon energy enhanced his body and Ashe could feel his senses sharpen. He stood up and walked around the empty train cart.

He glanced around again to make sure no one was there before he threw a couple of punches in the air.

'Wow! I feel so light, this should make up for my lack of combat experience.' Ashe thought before continuing his fight with the air.

From an outside perspective, his speed wouldn't be inhuman, just very impressive. However, with the power and durability of his body, it was definitely something only a mutant could achieve.

Ashe sat down after a minute and patiently waited till the train reached the last station.

He walked out of the train and walked through the ruined neighborhood. Ashe could see flickering light coming out of the many abandoned buildings. Seemingly inhabited by either the homeless or people seeking illegal substances.

Once in a while, he got a weird look from a random passerby but when he looked back at them they averted their eyes.

Upon making it to the ruined building he made sure no one was following him, before heading underground.

He took out a flashlight from his backpack and started walking down the long stretch of the tunnel.

He kept his guard up, knowing that there was at least one beast here before.

Thankfully he made it to the building that housed the beast's corpse without any interruptions.

Ashe walked in before placing his backpack on the ground and starting to examine the body.

'It's too big for me to take it all in one trip, people usually only want the part that's the most mutated. Let's see… this doesn't look like any of the animals I've been taught.'

'But the head was glowing so I think that would be quite valuable.'

Ashe started to slowly create a cleaver out of demon energy while making sure for it to be as condensed as possible.

After a minute of creating, the cleaver started floating in the air. Using his control over it, Ashe started making the clever slowly decapitate the corpse.

'It's got tough skin as well…'

After a couple of swings, the head fell onto the ground. It got quickly put into Ashe's backpack before he found another target for his dissection.

'Those claws must be strong! They could sell for a lot.'

He walked over to the claws before controlling his cleaver to cut off the skin they were attached to.

Multiple claws were added to his backpack before another decision had to be made.

'Nothing else stands out here… maybe the heart. But I don't think I have the stomach for that…'

Nether the less, Ashe tried collecting the heart by making a small incision with his clever and then letting his demon energy flow throughout the corpse so he could locate it.

Just as Ashe was getting an image of the beast's inside, a weird yet familiar feeling washed over his body.

A warm nurturing wave came from the demon energy inside the corpse. Ashe quickly realized where he recognized this feeling from, as it just happened a couple of hours ago.

'Did I absorb this beast's soul?'

He quickly got an answer to his question as the beast's memories were flashing in his mind.

'This… these sewer tunnels are a lot bigger than I thought. They connect with a natural cave system! That's where the beast came from.'

More memories kept appearing which made Ashe realize why the sewer was abandoned. There was a monster nest deep within.

'These creatures were moles! They accidentally dug into the sewer and no one has been able to find their burrow.'

The picture of hundreds of nightmarish creatures at the center of a burrow came into his mind.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Light footsteps could be heard echoing in the distance.

Ashe instinctively readied his clever while perking up his ears and listening to the approaching footsteps.

A flashlight lit up the building, as its light entered through the broken window, just barely missing Ashe.

"This is it, right?" A voice spoke

"It has to be, there's no other building here. Let's steal their shit and get out of here." A second voice responded.

'Shit! Do they want the beast's corpse? Maybe we can talk it out? This must just be a crazy misunderstanding.'

Ashe walked out into the light of the flashlight. His eyes met with two shady-looking men that were both wearing black face masks.

"Hey…" Ashe said awkwardly.

"An Azel member? Hahahaha." The first man laughed.

"Azel? I don't even know what that is." Ashe responded with a confused look.

"Scum! You're wearing your uniform and yet you pretend you don't know! At least die with honor." The second man screamed while pulling out a knife from his pocket.

'Die?! What's wrong with the-'

Ashe's thoughts were interrupted as the second man lunged at him with his knife.