A nice, spring breeze blew as the sun was setting behind the horizon. Treetops of the nearby forest swayed and rustled while bending slowly under the wind. A human and a succubus were sitting around the fire, the familiar warmth of the gentle flame soothed the wandering hunter. The most difficult quest he ever had was coming to an end. With so many worries falling off his back, he allowed himself to lie down and watch the sky as the crackling sound of burning wood played a tender lullaby for his tired eyes. The succubus seemed rattled, always searching and finding something to do with her hands, be it adding wood to the fire or throwing pebbles at the anthill. She would glance occasionally towards her companion, twirl her lips left and right indecisively, and then look the other way.

"Soooo, you seem weird.", said Halia, not looking Yovan's way.

"Why?"

"I mean, why aren't you freaking out about that soul thing? You were crying about every little problem, but now that your soul is badly damaged, you seem so calm."

Yovan turned sideways, supporting his head with his arm.

"I'm not sure exactly. I never expected to come this far truthfully. Plus, Lord N00bpwn3r will revert my soul when we return. So this seems like a minor inconvenience when compared to what we accomplished already. I just have to hold out for two or three days."

"Ahhh, yes. I've forgotten about the Lord. Do you feel any different?"

"I don't think so. Maybe some tingling in my chest, but nothing serious."

"Ok."

Yovan grew suspicious about Halia's behavior. She didn't seem like a laidback demoness she usually was.

"Do you know what kind of reward I will get?"

"Noooot really. I never listen to that boring stuff."

"All right. How about Lord N00bpwn3r? Could you tell me something about him?"

"He is an amaaaazing lover."

"No, I meant is he a generous person?"

"Of course, he is very unselfish."

This was going nowhere. Yovan rose and sat again. They should probably eat something as well.

"Let's start again. How does your contract work?"

"That's easy. He summoned me and bound me to him. I have to obey his every order. But if I'm not going against his direct command I'm at liberty to do whatever I want."

"Interesting."

This sounded like there could be a loophole somewhere. It all depends if the Warlock was thorough with his commands.

"Wait. What you said about him being an amazing lover and very generous. Was it true or did he order you to say that?"

Halia smiled and winked at him.

"I guess you'll never know."

He didn't want to try his luck any longer. Lord N00bpwn3r will definitely not be happy if he found out Yovan was snooping about his contracts. Yovan got up and searched his bag for some food. He took out a lump of cloth and unwrapped it, taking out a rather large pie.

"Hey Halia, would you like some pie?"

"No, demons can't stomach plant food. Do you have any meat?"

Yovan rummaged through his bag again, checking out what was left of his food.

"I have a couple of strips of jerky."

As soon as he said it, the jerky left his hands and was already in Halia's mouth. She made a wide grin, showing the meat in between her fangs.

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"Great, I was wondering what am I going to do with all this meat."

"You're welcome."

Slightly annoyed at the succubus, Yovan finished his pie in silence. He set up his makeshift bed and lied down to sleep.

"Halia, You should go to sleep as well, we have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow. We have to go with the sunrise."

"Allll right, don't worry about me."

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Yovan was running through the forest. Pitch darkness everywhere, his eyes useless. Just branches hitting him from all directions. He could sense it chasing him. A loud howl pierced his body. He didn't know what it was. Nothing he read or learned in the academy mentioned a beast like this. Yovan was out of breath, his body refusing to move. Sickly yellow-green eyes appeared in front of him. He still couldn't make out its body. It was dark as the shadows around it. The shadowbeast pounced at him and toppled him down. Yovan squirmed to no avail. The beast rent his chest. Fractured ribs pointed out of his body as the beast treated itself with his chest. He tried to scream, but he had no air.

The pain in Yovan's chest woke him. His breathing, short and rapid, scraped his dry throat. His lungs ached from pressure as his chest felt like collapsing in itself. It felt like something was eating him from the inside. He turned to Halia and pushed her as hard as he could. He doubted his weak, raspy voice could wake her.

"Halia, please wake up."

The succubus turned, stretched herself slowly, and yawned.

"Mmmmm, what iiiis it?"

"I think it's my soul. I feel it collapsing. It hurts."

"What? Already? I thought you had more time."

"I thought so as well, I didn't feel much until now. It came so suddenly."

He started to cough, not managing to pause. Halia reached for the jug of water and helped him drink it. The cough stopped but the feeling of being consumed alive didn't. He looked towards Halia with pleading eyes, exhausted by everything.

"Soooo, I guess we should find you something to consume."

"Please."

"Can you walk?"

"Yes."

"Into the forest then."

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They searched for what seemed an eternity, but they didn't find a single magical creature. Meanwhile, the hunger in his soul intensified, making it even harder to breathe. And his lack of breath made it very difficult to follow Halia's pace. She stopped. Praise to the gods. He fell to his knees. Halia silenced him and then motioned to take a look at one particular tree. There was one thing that was strange about the tree, it had a giant spider web all over it. A deer wouldn't be able to free itself from it, and by the look of skeletons all around, neither the wolves fared better.

"I don't see the spider.", said Yovan.

"That's because it's hiding. Doesn't want to scare away the food."

Halia lifted Yovan up with one hand and threw him into the web. The thin, sticky threads enveloped him and glued to his body. He pulled and bit into the web, but he couldn't tear the tender cage.

"Halia, are you insane? What were you thinking?"

But no answer came. Yovan goggled around, searching for the succubus.

"Halia, release me now. Please!"

Through the threads, Yovan felt some twitching above him. Fearing the worst, he slowly lifted up his head. A brown-green spider opened its hairy set of fangs, releasing a chilling scream. It lowered itself in front of Yovan, raising its two front legs in anticipation. Yovan wasn't the bravest man in the world, but he doubted anyone would behave differently in this situation. He screamed like a sow before the slaughter.

"Halia! Halia! The spider is here! Do something!"

A spear of dark energy pierced the spider from behind. In an instant, it fell limply to the ground, giving no signs of life. Red flames erupted all around Yovan, burning the web and freeing the panicked youth. He managed to remain on his two feet. The same couldn't be said about his sanity.

"What is wrong with you? I could've died!"

"Spider wasn't going to shooow itself until it saw something in its web. We had to use some bait."

"Use something else next time! Anything else!"

"Don't be such a wuss. It's not sexy. Now feast so I can go back to sleep."

After the adrenaline rush, Yovan's hunger threw out fear and anger from his mind. Giant spiders were creatures of earth. They had six earthen magical energies. Two in its front legs, two in the back, one on its head and one its body. It was better to finish this fast, before others of its kind return. He took the spider's front legs and pulled them together. Then he slowly released a wave of magical energy where spider's apeirons should have been. He kept the spell slow and steady, increasing the intensity carefully. After some twenty seconds, he felt a slow release of earth essence. He strengthened his spell and in an instant, both apeirons on spider legs opened. Yovan managed the flow of essence like a wind carrying fallen leaves. He handled the flow with the utmost care, and with the last movement directed it into his chest. A small storm dissipated inside of him. His hunger abated. Relieved by the sudden success. Yovan repeated the process four more times. Finally he relaxed. Hunger was completely gone. Or at least satiated enough so he didn't notice it.

"Better nooooow?"

"Yes, thank you. I don't know what I would do without you."

"You would probably just die."

Yovan smiled at Halia's remark. There was too much truth in it.

"Let's go now immediately. I want to get rid of this soul issue as fast as possible."