"Don't panic, a mere lesser undead," Kierok, the leading goatmen ordered. With a powerful kick from his hooves, he shattered the femur of the skeleton, bone dust flying everywhere. With another stomp, he pulverized the horned skull of the dead demon. The eerie glow that once shone from the hollow eye sockets faded, indicating that the undead was truly dead this time. "Brittle from all the weathering over the years, the undead that are left here couldn't be that strong," Kierok concluded, ensuring his group that they be just fine. Further into the darkness they marched, the stale air and dust making their throats itch.
Zahra, the female goatmen of the group still felt shivers down her spine, but reassuring herself with Kierok's words, she comforted her restless soul. They encountered several skeletal demons on their way their, but none of them put up a serious fight. After countless of easy battles, even the cautious Kierok began to let his guard down. "Told you this would be easy money up for grabbing," Darren said, as he played with the silver and gold coins they picked up along the way. But little did they know, on top of their heads was someone they could never imagine attacking them.
Phasing into the ceiling, Jason silently watched the group plunder "his" castle, trying to roughly gauge their strength from the battles they encountered. But since the skeletons were too weak, he could only evaluate them by looking at their souls. He was sure that if he was still in his prime, which was when he still had a body of flesh, he could easily take on a group ten times as big as the goatmen. A small flicker of anger was burning inside his heart as he saw Darren loot the castle's belongings.
Seeing a skeleton lying not far ahead from the group, Jason flew towards it, as he slowly sunk into his new temporary vessel. It took some time for him to get use to his new body, but after a couple of seconds, he was slowly getting the hang of it. Ghastly red flames poured out from the skeleton since the body was much to weak to handle a soul as powerful as Jason's. Before the skeleton shattered, he chanted, "Seal!" Crimson ethreal chains appeared, with black lighting arcing from the rusty shackles. Looking at his skeletal hands, which were both charred black, he murmured, "This will probably do the job." Slowly walking towards the group of scavengers with wobbly steps, Jason prepared himself for battle.
Being the only mage in the group, Zahra had a keener sense for mana than her team, Zahra cried out for help, "It's coming, this time it's really coming!" She screamed as she stared into the dark hallway where a faint red glow could be seen. Kierok was going to scold Zahra for acting out, but he suddenly felt a pulse coming from his soul, as if his very own soul was screaming for him to run. Taking a deep breath, Kierok unsheathed his rusty bronze sword as he braced for a life and death battle. "PREPARE FOR BATTLE," he shouted, interrupting Darren's looting spree. The goatmen who had been silent the whole time, Enzo the rogue, quickly escaped once sensing the same tremors in his soul. Cursing Enzo, Darren pulled out his daggers, which were both laced with poison, preparing for battle. Zahra also raised her bone wand, although her shaking hand clearly portrayed her fear.
As Kierok finally saw their opponent, he instinctively backed up a couple of steps. It was a completely scorched skeleton that was burning with bright red flames. The chains that wrapped around his body gave off an ominous feeling, with dark bolts of electricity crackling. The thing that frightened him the most wasn't the dreadful appearance of the weird skeleton, but rather the fear that it instilled in his soul. Keeping his inner turmoil at bay, he stepped fowards, raising his sword.
Jason waddled slowly towards the three goatmen, to be frank, he didn't know what to do. Although they were already shivering under his presence, he actually didn't know how to fight since the only spells he could cast were his Sealing magic. He was never a fighter, he was always an experienced mage that excelled in almost every type of magic. Standing about ten feet in front of Kierok, Jason stood there silently, waiting for Kierok to take the initiative. "Fearless Ram," Kierok yelled, as his horns glowed golden. Reaching speeds that were quite formidable for a goatmen, Kierok rushed towards Jason.
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"Interesting," thought Jason, observing the tough goatmen that was heading towards him with sluggish speeds. For Jason once reached the pinnacle of humanity, Kierok's special move wasn't really something to write home about. "Seal," Jason casted nonchalantly. As rusty crisom chains wrapped around Kierok, he felt his strength leave his body as the glow from his horns also dimmed down. Seeing the flames pouring from his own body, Jason wanted to see if he could cast any sort of fire spell. With a wave of his rattling fingers, he imagined that Kierok was lit on fire. The easiest spell that almost every mage could cast without chanting, Burn, which sets targets ablaze.
However, the flames were very different than what Jason envisioned, unlike the orange flames that normal mages created or blue flames that burned at a much higher temperature that he used to cast, instead the flames were radiating off a malevolent feeling, or demonic to be exact. The same fire that the demons he once fought used. Burning crismon red, they weren't that much stronger than the blue flame, but they certainly caused more pain to the victim.
For Darren and Zahra, everything happened in an instance, Kierok was rushing into battle when be suddenly stopped and bursted into flames. Since Kierok was still sealed, he stood there silently, as he slowly turned into ashes. Seeing their strongest member perish without any resistance, Darren knew that it was over for them. "Doppelganger," Darren casted, as he split into two. Rushing in from both sides, he lashed out from different angles. For most people, this would've been deadly with Darren's poisonous daggers. But for Jason, this was merely childsplay. With an eerie glow coming out his eyes, Jason easily distinguished the true Darren from the illusion by simply finding out the location of his soul. With a simple glance, Darren also burst into flames, screaming in agony as he rolled around on the ground, trying his best to extinguish the flames.
The two flaming goatmen soon died under the torment of the flickering flames. Two tiny beads of glowing light floated towards Jason, which were absorbed by the ring on his finger. This piqued Jason's interest, since he could still sense the two souls wandering around in the ring, which meant that the ring was a special container that could store souls. He wondered if souls could be withdrawn from the ring, as if it could read Jason's thoughts, the ring released one of the captured souls.
Holding on to the soul, Jason tried to absorb the glowing orb just like he did with the souls of the fallen demons. But unfortunately, as Kierok's soul neared Jason's soul, it was as if a water droplet fell towards the sun. Before it was ever going to get near, it will be evaporated. Since he had no current use for the soul, he willed the ring to store the Kierok's soul, which the ring happily complied. Thinking of what he could do with the souls, the shivering girl that had curled up in the corner caught his attention.
Since he didn't understand the goatmen's language, he gestured for the sobbing girl to come over. Seeing the one who murdered her companions without even moving a finger gesturing for her to go near it, Zahra's legs felt like jello. Walking towards Jason, Zahra said in a shaking voice with tears rolling down her face, "I'll do anything, please spare me." Not understanding a single word, Jason wanted to test something out. "I don't want to cause you pain, since you were quite fearful and respectful for the ruins. But you are still an intruder, I'll consider letting you go if you survive my little experiment," Jason said, not caring if Zahra understood or not. He still had a bit of humanity left in him, though most was buried by the souls of the fallen demons he absorbed. But all in all, he didn't want them to suffer pain that was unjust to the "crimes" they committed. Or perhaps the countless of years spent wandering around as a lonely spirit has driven him mad.
Ditching his skeletal body, Jason once again turned into a wandering spirit. Seeing the projection which looked like the demon lord portrayed in the books, Zahra almost fainted. With an easy tug, Jason yanked Zahra's soul out her body. Since they were now both in spirit form, they could finally communicate and understand each other by vibrations of the soul, which some mages would call Telepathy. Once again repeating himself, Jason checked if Zahra understood. "Experiment? This is definitely the end," Zahra thought. But since the other option was death, Zahra reluctantly chose the option with the slight sliver of hope. Withdrawing the two souls from his ring, Jason said with a smile, "This might be the biggest blessing you'll ever receive."