Chapter 2: The End? Or the Start?
Jason's knees buckled as a wave of agony washed over him. The effects of his last resort were finally taking its toll on his body. Feeling tremors deep in his body, he felt like he was going to shatter into a thousand pieces. Kneeling on the ground, he let out a silent scream of pain. Savitr neared Jason immediately, checking if he was alright. With blood still dripping from his eye sockets, Jason forcefully calmed himself down. Although he was still very injured, he had no problem walking.
Suppressing the pain that pulsated through his body, legs shaking as he managed to stand up, he silently stared at the corpse of Vepar. Closing his eyes, he quietly paid his respects to his tough opponent who managed to put up an almost impossible fight. But before he could open his eyes, he felt a thick killing intent behind him. "Seal," he tried to cast, as he struggled to conjure up enough mana. For he was still recovering from the aftermath of his last spell, blood spilled from his mouth as the spell failed to activate. The silver blade pierced right through his chest, completely destroying his heart. Seeing the familiar blade, it didn't take a genius to realize who sneaked attack him. "How could you?" Jason thought, as his limbs slowly grew cold.
Hatred that Jason never thought he was capable of brewed deep inside his already weakened soul, the white pure soul of his dyed crimson red. But there was nothing he could do, it was all over. Tumbling to the ground, he felt some comfort in the fact that nothing really mattered anymore. As he took his last breath, he tried to take a good look at the one who murdered him in cold blood, trying to engrave his silhouette deep inside his soul. "Goodbye world," he thought, as everything turned black.
Looking at his partner's cold corpse, Savitr let out a cold snicker. "As if I'll leave the only bane to my existence alive," he mocked. "Farewell my friend, may you rest in peace," he said, laughing as he left the castle. Returning to the kingdom was fairly easy, since there were already dozens of soldiers outside waiting for their heros to return in triumph. "Where is Mr.Jason?" asked one of the soldiers. Putting up his best mourning expressions, Savitr said, "He fought bravely, sacrificing himself for the kingdom." Hearing the horrible news, a lot of faces dimmed down, since Jason was clearly the more popular one out of the two. Seeing the sad expressions on the soldiers, a sense of hatred that perhaps stemmed from jealousy sprouted in Savitr's heart.
"So this is what death feels like," Jason murmured to himself, as he floated around aimlessly. He no longer had a body, and his soul was heavily wounded. It was pitch black, without a single sound. "Where am I by the way?" Jason thought, as he tried to explore the area. He had tried to cast some spells, but to no avail. As he looked around, he saw a faint demonic glow in the distance. Slowly floating towards the glow, Jason decided to investigate. Time was neither slow nor fast since he couldn't feel the passing of it. Perhaps it was for eternity or perhaps just in a blink of an eye, Jason finally reached the red demonic glow. Upon closer inspection, he could make out the rough outline of Vepar, who was supposed to be dead. "Is this supposed to be his dead soul?" Jason thought, trying to decide his next move.
After slight hesistation, he floated closer to the red glob that somehow provided a sense of warmth. His mind, or more specifically his soul, willed him to contact the unknown blob of light. Trusting his instincts, he touched the red glob, bracing himself for whatever that was supposed to follow. "DO YOU WISH TO SEEK VENGENCE?" powerful words rang through his soul, trembling. The hatred buried in his soul boiled, as he recalled the silver blade that pierced his heart. "I vow for eternal vengence," Jason replied, brimming with anger. As if it was responding to Jason's determination, the red glob began to assimilate with Jason's soul. His soul began to tremor, like it was warning for Jason to resist the assimilation. But hatred for Savitr fueled Jason, ignoring his own instincts.
The original spherical soul of Jason began to morph, taking a more humanoid form. His felt his strength fluctuate, as the dark world around him suddenly brighten up. Trying again if he could cast spells, he casted every spell in his arsenal. All the spells still failed to work except for his Sealing Magic. Trying to come up with a reasonable explanation, Jason decided that it must be due to the fact that Sealing Magic was a special type of magic that could resonate with the mage's soul. He could feel his strength increase tenfold, looking around as he sense more globs of light. "They must be the souls of the demons and soldiers," thought Jason. Thinking that the souls would grant him the same benefits as Vepar's soul, he greedily floated towards the wandering blobs of light.
As he had nothing to do, he spent a long period of time wandering around the castle's confines, trying to gather as much souls as he could. Unfortunately, as he absorbed the first soul he found, it did not grant him the same benefits as Vepar's soul. It still increased his strength for a small sliver, but it was arguably nothing compared to Vepar's soul. Although it was quite disappointing, he absorbed every single soul he came across. At last, every single soul he could find around the castle was devoured, he felt like his soul's strength recovered or possibly even exceed his original soul when he was still alive. His soul now looked like a demon, probably because of all the demon souls he absorbed. Ethereal red wings of a bat sprouting from his back, he could move faster than ever before. Passing through the walls since he had no material form, he searched the castle for anything useful. He found a whole chamber of riches, filled with gold coins and gems. Jason had no interest in those so he ignored them, but even if he did, he couldn't even touch not to say carry the gold in this form.
Looking through the piles of riches, a plain looking brass ring caught his attention. There was a pentagram engraved on the ring, but everything else looked quite normal. The thing that piqued Jason's interest the most was that he could somehow touch the ring, even picking it up. He fidgeted with the ring for a while, but not figuring out anything, he simply wore it on his finger and forgot about it. As all the rooms of the castle was explored already, Jason prepared to leave the castle.
But before he could leave, he saw a group of demihumans who wandered into the castle. Looking at their attire, they were clearly tomb raiders looking for a fortune. Jason prepared to leave since he didn't really mind whether they take the remaining treasures or not. "KILL THEM," a voice echoed from his soul. A sense of anger appeared in his mind, which he quickly tried to rationalized. The anger definitely sprouted from the fact that his corpse was still lying in the demon lord's chamber, which he didn't want anyone to disturb. As he successfully reasoned his motives, he dived down towards the four intruders, who looked to be goatmen.
"We will definitely make quite the fortune," one of the goatmen said, as he stepped over the rubble. "Shut up Darren, focus on finding the treasury," another goatmen who looked to be much more experienced scolded, as he held his torch up high. The castle was filled with skeletons, most of the castle's interior already deteriorated. "Something is wrong," one of the female goatmen said, seeing some of the curtains flutter with no wind. "You are over thinking, for decades this place has been abandoned, it's probably a rat or something," Darren said, smashing through the rubble that blocked their way. Looking at the eerie sight of a dozen skeletons lying in the hallway, the female goatmen felt like something was seriously wrong. "Be cautious, but don't panic," the experienced goatmen who was the leader said, as he carefully observed the skeletons. "Lord Savitr's blade had some special effects that could damage the souls that he killed, so this ruin should be much safer than others," he said, comforting his companions.
"That means that there should be no zombies or undead of that kind in here, right?" Darren asked, looking at the skeletons of the demonic beings. "That should be the case. But from some of the stories I've heard, there were two heros that attacked the demon's lair, a mage that died during the assault," the leader said, still on high alert. "Never heard of..." before Darren could finish his sentence, he pointed towards the hallway, where a skeleton slowly waddled its way towards the group. The female goatmen screamed as it backed up while the leading goatman bravely walked towards the reanimated skeleton.