Bro, I'm not an Undead!

What was the soul?

Many denotions and explanations had been written by many scholars, mostly Mages, Healers and even Priests, some with only slivers of truth while others were outright nonsense.

The truth was, this concept was controversial, not in the usual logical sense but in a hierarchical and natural sense.

Souls tended to differ for many people depending on the Stage of power one had attained and also on the components surrounding their birth – luck, talent, lineage and such.

It took many years for many to discover this but there were also things that were common or rather were found to be the fundamentals of souls, linking them to the body and how the duo worked together.

Then what was the soul?

The soul was an amalgamation of the information inbuilt within an individual.

How so?

It could be likened to a seed.

All the potential, talent and biological detail was carved onto the soul.

It was a source, or rather a carrier of the source of all things one would attain as they grew including a sense of individuality.

However, to better understand the soul, the significance of the body needed to be elaborated.

While the soul was undoubtedly important, it was nothing without a body.

The soul was a rather egotistical entity, taking the opportunity to control given the chance and rapidly spreading its information within a captive body.

Therefore, for all the detail stored within a soul to bloom, it needed ground for germination, for growth.

A body.

The body was the food of the soul.

For only when a soul met a body was it able to ignite the small details it held into power, an identity and tangible idea.

Only when within the body did the soul have the power to groom a core, structure a race and forge a limit – it could not create any of these on its own.

Given this knowledge which the mighty Skullius lacked, he wanted to have his Hound use the ability [Spirit Walk] to venture into his soul and find out who the little girl that always plagued him was.

This was something he had resolved to do right before the Galemonger incident and now, with the abilities that could potentially help him do just that, he was eager to get some semblance of closure.

Obviously this was a life he had lived, and this same life threatened to drive him to madness if he couldn't figure it out before....

~~~

Doomed Factor 2: Existential Crisis

Your distinct perception and absorption of mana throughout the years has caused you to start awakening what should have been lost a long time ago. If you fail to recover and remember this in time you will suffer a crisis of your own existence and descend into madness.

Time till DF2 : 3 months

~~~

There.

Of course, Skullius had checked this out when the percentage of the Factor's completion increased through various series of soul damage from Somanda.

Because of how much the value soared in the Arch-Lich's presence, he knew that Doom Factor 2 was bound to have reduced the time he had left.

According to VOW, he had to remember everything about his past life to avert this, which required him to venture into Deadmanland and battle Somanda, something he was nowhere near strong enough to do.

But for now, Skullius was always thrown off by the girl he always saw, so he wanted to know who she was and her significance.

For this, he wanted to have the Hound venture into his soul and try to find clues.

He couldn't share the perception of the Hound but the creature was quite intelligent. It could bring him clues through various means when it returned, which was something he was hoping for.

Of course he was going to do this multiple more times in the future.

"Do it, bro," Skullius said as his four sockets flared.

It was better for him to be in this body for this, in his opinion, felt more natural to him.

The fact he had reverted back when the night came spelled out an important factor, that [Cosmetic Body] did not affect the duration of time he had in his Discount Human form.

It was still 24 hours and Skullius was actually glad.

The Hound nodded as it activated [Spirit Walk], the marks over its body beginning to glow with a bright sheen that eventually overtook its figure which turned into a streak of light that burst into Skullius' body.

Unlike [Spirit Touch] which allowed the Hound to control other creatures' bodies, [Spirit Walk] required the Hound to fully deck the Pseudo Spirit Walker's Hide as to venture into the soul seamlessly required a shell most suitable for doing so.

Skullius kept absorbing the chaotic mana around him while hoping that this exercise wouldn't screw him over.

It was unclear whether [Spirit Walk] was meant to be an offensive ability or just a utilitarian ability that allowed for things like this but Skullius crossed his bony, armoured fingers.

His mind drifted to the image he had seen in the ice, a part of him that was tethered to Somanda so firmly....

He wondered what secrets would be revealed.

***

The Limitless Body Hound appeared in a vast stretch of space.

It looked around with its beaming sockets to behold bizarre sights and sounds.

What it saw a vast stretch of burning, crimson... waters?

A sea of blood-coloured liquid being razed by a ferocious flame that extended into the far distance.

The Hound stood unharmed over this sea as it watched everything apprehensively.

Up above, thick, dark green storm clouds constantly moved with bursts of lightning squirming in their builds, bringing split seconds of light to the darkened space between the sea and sky.

As for what the creature heard, it was the sound of loud voices that seemed to echo from a distant blotch in its view.

Something that seemed rather far, partly hidden by the fuming flames.

The Hound was attracted to that blotch.

That was most definitely where it needed to be.

To find clues, it had to venture there.

The creature burst ahead over the sea as it headed for this mark, travelling over this calamity as if it was the most natural thing to do.

It streaked over quickly to cover the distance as after a few seconds, what this blotch was became quite clear in its sockets.

It was... an island.

A massive island that was in the most pitiable of states.

It was from this island that the Hound heard the loud voices of multiple individuals and followed through with its journey.

However...

A thick bolt of blue coloured power flashed from the thick green clouds above and hurtled soundlessly towards the Hound which barely managed to dodge to the side before the mass of white slammed into its body!

BOOOM! FWOOSH!

A torrent of the bloody waters rose, the flames being scattered away as the lightning descended with its might!

The Hound which had retreated a distance away after the initial jump out of the way had the brown hide it had sizzling from the shoulder of its front right leg.

It had barely been missed by the shot and the power released showed how it could be one shotted if it got hit.

As if this wasn't enough, something started to rise from the waters beside it, the flames parting to reveal a new figure.

A tall creature rose from the sea to stand over the chaos with its large mighty height and bulky mass that was entirely skeletal.

This skeleton behemoth stood with a darker than black hue that distorted reality around it over its humanoid bone shape, a luminously golden white light shooting from its sockets with a familiar glint.

This fiend faced the Hound and pointed its finger.

"A physical enemy this time...? Hmmm. Much easier to thwart than that annoying probing. Perish!" the skeleton raised his bony arm, in the sky, the green clouds amassing what could only be described as a calamitous bolt of blue power that silently surged and aimed for the Hound!

Right!

This wasn't lightning.

This was... Silentburn Levin!