“It’s… evolving…” One of the wolfkin stated as he stood up.

We weren’t in a village, but a farmhouse. We had noticed all of the animals were dead passing by and decided to check on the house. There was another family wiped out. This time was a bit different though. They had a more desiccated look to them. It was like the creature was getting better and sucking out lifeforce. Where the previous bath had only looked a little dry, these guys looked halfway to mummified.

Seeing the dead seemed to have lit a fire under the wolfkin. They started to take this threat more seriously, and thus increased their pace. They began to realize that every minute we didn’t end this threat could mean another person dead. I was able to keep up with them but had I had a shorter stride, I probably would have needed to depend on dungeon skills to increase my speed. I mean, I still equipped them, as they increased stamina and made it easier to maintain a quicker pace, but I didn’t need them just to keep up.

We reached a town in the evening. It was already eerie approaching it because there was no lights lit. We looked through and found nothing but dead. We ended up taking a house that was empty to stay the night. I noticed that they didn’t seem to be interested in doing something with the dead. They had left them lying there. It was the same thing in the first town. They had known about the town filled with bodies, but had seemingly left them to rot. As I was cooking, I decided to ask.

“Do you have any rituals for the dead?”

It was the leader of the pack who spoke. “It’s customary for the dead to be left to the wild, to rejoin nature. As you took from the land, you will return to the land. Maybe, you will become food for a passing creature, or only food for the worms. We prefer to let nature take its course.”

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“I see…”

The wolfkin leader took a drink and then leaned back. “Once the soul has left the body, all that is there is a husk. It has no value. Only a soul is needed for resurrection, right? With a powerful soul, a body can be rebuilt from scratch. There is no value in it.”

I nodded thoughtfully at his words. In a way, he was right. In this world, there was no value in the body. It could be recreated with magic in an instant. It would also be just as strong as the previous. No matter how physically powerful you became, it wasn’t like you had to rebuild that body once you were resurrected and lost all of that progress. Your soul contained a blueprint of your body. It was the lore of your life and a summation of your being.

“There is something nearby!” One of the wolfkin jerked. “I smell death!”

“We’ve encountered them so soon?” The leader cursed.

The men immediately grabbed their weapons and stepped outside. I joined them just as quickly, summoning Alysia by my side. Although the village was dark, I was able to make out a figure that seemed to be running straight at us.

“Who are you!” The lead wolfkin demanded.

“Help!” A voice cried out. “Help me!”

Their voice was hoarse and desperate. They sounded like someone who was in danger. The wolfkin still kept their guard up, waiting for the man to reach them. He stumbled down and fell to the ground, and I could see that he wasn’t a wolfkin. Rather, he appeared to be a catkin.

“Help me! She’ll kill me! She’ll kill all of us!” His hood fell back, revealing a fairly normal catkin who looked to be panicked.

“She? She who?” The wolfkin leader asked, grabbing the man. “The soul-eating monster?”

“Soul eating…” The man shook his head. “There is no soul-eating… there is only her.”

“Her… who is her?”

“Lady Death!”