"Consuming souls that are afraid reduces how much I fear?" Kita raises an eyebrow, trying to relate the logic to the feeling but struggling to associate the two.

The excitement she feels doesn't come across as fearlessness as much as it does a deep, unshakeable urge.

"Why do you think it was so easy for you to almost kill Ms Eeve," Caity says, "The more fear you consume, the less you fear consequences,"

Kita places her hand on her chin as it starts making more sense. This would explain why she becomes so much more carefree as she consumes more souls. Unconcerned with death or suffering because the more souls she has, the easier it is to overcome.

"So only people in fear give me this?" Kita asks.

"Not quite," Caity says, "Everyone fears. So all the souls you consume carry at least a little bit of fear. It's those that reveal their fear before death that truly fuel your blithe,"

This would explain why the urge to consume plagues Kita more and more. It's a self-fulfilling cycle that forces her into consuming more and more souls.

"Fuuck," Kita sighs, realizing the near impossibility of her desired self-improvement. "I made a promise to avoid hurting innocent people,"

Caity blurts out in laughter before covering her mouth as she realizes the honesty in Kita's remark. "Why would you do that?"

"Uhh, she made some valid points. I guess she'd seen this look in my eyes before and hoped I'd only use it on people who are deserving,"

"Ooh, and I thought you'd shaken your god-complex," Caity jests.

"It's better than just killing all willy-nilly," Kita shrugs, throwing her hand in the air.

"You always took as many souls as you could," Caity says.

"Well maybe I didn't need to," Kita sighs.

Caity squints at Kita, and briefly scans her face before tilting her head, "Maybe,"

A loud thud echoes against the steel wall at the opposite end of the room. Grabbing both of their attention as the thud rings for a second time.

Kita and Caity both look at each other with suspicion before slowly approaching the wall at the end of the room.

"Hello?" The voice of a young boy softly passes through the wall.

"Jan?" Kita shouts.

"How do you know my name?" He asks.

"Seriously? You don't recognize my voice?" Kita grunts.

"Not really, sorry,"

"It's Kita, your jail buddy,"

"Kita?... Kita! You're here too,"

"I came to prove I'm not a villain," She chuckles.

"I'm so glad you're here," Jan chuckles. "This place sucks,"

"Take me with you," Says the voice of a little girl.

"Me too," Says the voice of another boy.

"Ari doesn't know where I am," The girl's voice shakes.

"Ari?" Kita mumbles before she feels her stomach fall off a cliff. Her eyes widen as she smacks a fist against the steel wall. "Is that you, Starlet?"

"Yes," Starlet responds as Kita can hear the stutters of her breath, "I want to go home,"

Kita's hand curls into a fist before she punches the wall.

Damnit!

"Hey, other kid. What's your name?" Caity calls out from beside Kita.

"Dia," The boy softly responds.

"Dia," Caity nods, "We're going to get you out of here too, okay?"

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There is no response.

Kita takes a step away from the wall and raises her hand towards it. She immediately casts a push spell, which sends a large wave of air to crashes into the wall. A loud ring echoes through the room as a sudden breeze pushes Kita and Caity a few steps back.

"Kita," Caity says.

Shit. Kita grunts and raises her arm across her body. Slice. A slash of bladed air smacks into the steel and shoots its way back at Kita. She momentarily hesitates, thinking she should move out of the way but feels her body shift to the side when she notices Caity has pushed her shoulder.

The slash flies past Kita and Caity, grazing some of Caity's hair as it whizzes by.

"You're going to get us killed!" Caity yells. "You can't just waste spells like that,"

"Is everything okay?" Jan asks with a voice of concern.

"Everything's just great," Caity rolls her eyes. "We need to find the entrance.

"My bad," Kita heaves herself up to her feet before dusting off her pants and stepping up to the wall. "Do you know how we can get in there?

"There's a door after the gallery," Says Starlit in a shy tone.

"But you need the key from Ms Eeve," Jan adds.

"Alright, I'll get the keys from Alex," Caity says as she turns to jog towards the staircase. "Keep them company,"

Kita sighs and takes a seat on the floor, leaning up against the steel wall. "You two doing alright?"

There's a slightly prolonged pause before Kita hears whispered bickering.

"No, you answer first," Says Jan.

"Nuh-uh," Starlet grunts, "She's nice but she's also scary,"

Kita chuckles to herself, wondering if she should interrupt their arguing or let it play out.

"She is scary but she's not scary-scary,"

"I'll take that as a yes," Kita giggles.

"But we're not alright," Statlet says. "Ms Eeve is scary-scary,"

"Yeah, Ms Eeve is scary," Jan adds.

"Did she hurt you?" Kita asks.

"All the time," Jan responds. "She makes us hurt other people too,"

"I don't like doing it," Starlet mumbles.

Kita chuckles, "It might grow on you,"

"I just want my soul back," Jan says.

"Me too," Starlet adds.

"Welcome to the club," Kita responds. "But we need to get you both out of here first,"

"Have you met the dark one?" Jan asks.

"Yeah," Kita responds.

"Me too," Stalet says.

"Me three,"

"Really?" Kita asks.

"Yeah," Both kids respond in sync.

"What happened?"

"I can't remember very much," Jan responds.

"It felt like I was dreaming but I was awake," Starlet adds.

"Did you see what he looked like?"

"He?" Both kids query.

"I saw a young lady," Jan says.

"Me too,"

"Did she say anything to you?"

"She said that I'm part of a big plan," Starlet answers.

"She told me that the soulless are very special,"

"The dark one said that to me too," Kita says. "I don't know what he's planning, but I promise I'll get us our souls back,"

"Is it even possible," Says Dia, the third kid in the cell who is presumably soulless too. "When we cast spells, the souls are destroyed,"

Kita bangs the back of her head against the steel wall, promoting a soft gasp from Starlet as the sound reverberates.

"You don't know that," Kita dismisses.

"But… That's what it feels like," Dia says.

Kita sighs and rests her head against the steel wall. The kid's right- it does feel that way. Whenever she casts a spell, she can feel them dissipating. As if the energy within a soul is being converted into something new.

No longer existing in its older form.

It's why she can keep count of them. If she concentrated hard enough when consuming them, she might be able to remember which soul belongs to whom.

"Yeah, Kid," Kita sighs. "That's what it feels like,"

She slowly stands up and walks over to the tables of lab equipment, plant life and pills. She slowly walks over to the warmly lit table beside the storage unit, where a bowl full of immortality pills sits. She grabs one of the pills and holds it up to the light, seeing the glowing embers and wafting abyss within it.

She slowly opens her mouth and places the pill on her tongue when it immediately starts dissolving. Creating a warm, tingling sensation in her mouth that seeps down her throat- warming her neck and chest as it slowly passes through her. Once it reaches her stomach, she feels the warmth explode throughout her body, and pass down all her arms and legs, reaching to the tip of her finger and toes.

She tries to hold back a moan, but it escapes her as she puts her arms onto the table to provide herself support as her legs jitter.

One hundred souls, Kita notes as she feels the warmth of the immense energy flowing through her entire body.

Kita cannot recall a time she had this many souls. Her body feels stronger, and better in every way with this perpetual warmth constantly radiating within her.

One hundred and sixteen to be exact.