Andrew thrust down the shovel in his hands, ignoring the pain it brought to his shoulders and hands. Bit by bit he closed the second of the two graves he had dug out this day and it slowly filled up.

Blood already ran down the shaft of the shovel from his blistered hands, but he still didn’t stop. With his next thrust, the shovel broke apart with a loud crack. So he took the sharpened stone that served as the shovel itself, went on his knees, and continued shoveling.

When the ordeal was over, he rammed two thick branches into the earth at the top of the graves and started carving names in them.

When he was finished, he stood up and stood there silently for a few moments. The quiet was then broken by his raspy and monotonous voice: “Your sacrifices will not be forgotten. You have died for a good cause.”

He stood there for a while longer until the silence was once again broken. But this time, by heavy footsteps.

“You can’t even care for two idiots properly,” Alex said with a disgusted voice and looked at the graves. “Well, I guess one can say that you get the job done properly this time, right? Death might be the better alternative than staying alive after what you have done to them.”

Andrew slowly turned around to Alex and looked at him for some time without saying anything or moving. He just stood there.

Alex started to feel uncomfortable and stepped closer threateningly. “Why don’t you answer you…”

But Alex didn’t come further than that. An incorporeal, greyish spike had shot out of Andrew’s hand, directly into his chest.

Alex started screaming in fear and agony and tried to get away from Andrew. But Andrew calmly followed him, always making sure to stay out of the reach of Alex’s massive arms.

Andrew pushed even more energy into the spike which was still embedded in Alex’s chest. Alex tried to pull it out but couldn’t even touch the incorporeal energy.

The spike started shaking and rippling, which got stronger the more energy Andrew pumped inside. And with an audible popping sound, the energy ripped apart and imploded.

Alex stopped screaming and moving. He just stood there, a short distance away from Andrew, with a vacant look on his face.

Andrew stepped closer and looked Alex in the eyes. A thin thread of saliva started flowing out of his open mouth.

“I’m sorry, old friend.” He said and grabbed Alex by his head. Through the connection to Denise, he sent the impression of a fierce and dangerous beast, which overwhelmed Alex and himself. And then, he stabbed his stone knife into Alex’s throat.

Alex’s body shuddered slightly and his hands weakly pulled out the knife out of his neck. His vacant eyes stared at the bloodied blade until he fell to the ground.

Andrew stepped over Alex’s dead body and started walking towards the center of the camp in a wide circle. He heard multiple people running through the forest. With satisfaction, he noticed, that they ran in the wrong direction. Just as planned.

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Suddenly, pain shot throughout his very being. With an enormous amount of willpower, he pushed down the feelings that wanted to rise inside of him.

“Not now. Not yet.” He groaned while holding his chest. After a while, the wave receded and he was left panting in exhaustion.

When he calmed down again, he started running. There was no time to lose anymore.

He ran through bushes and shrubbery, which caused cuts and injuries on his legs. But he still didn’t stop.

With a loud cracking sound, he broke through the last bush and onto the main clearing in front of the caves.

A lot of people were running around in a hurry, trying to build up some defenses out of various objects. Andrew didn’t care about them and ran straight to the center. His goal stood there.

He built claws out of his soul energy and pumped them as full as possible. Denise turned her head in confusion when he was just a short distance away and opened her mouth to shout something, but it was already too late.

Andrew crashed into her with as much force as he could muster and ripped with his energy claws into her body and very soul.

He immediately overcharged them and they imploded with loud ripping sounds inside her soul.

Denise roared in pain and anger while they fell to the ground together.

With surprising force, she pushed him down and rolled on top of him. He could see, that her soul was in a very bad state. Tattered and ripped apart, but for some reason still functional enough to defend herself.

“You will not kill me!” She roared and started punching him with full force. Andrew tried to block, but his arms were swiped to the side like his strength meant nothing. Denise was way stronger than expected.

“No one will kill me!” Denise continued roaring and started to rip at his soul with her skills with every punch she delivered. He desperately defended himself, to not have his soul ripped apart like she had. He was very sure, that he wouldn’t survive such an injury.

But she was too strong. “I will get my wish! I WILL REVIVE HER!” she cried out and with the last word, she punched into his stomach, and with the fist came a tremendous wave of energy, which rippled through his whole being and cracked and ripped it in places.

With horror, he felt the big lump of darkness inside him rip apart. It had swollen to a much bigger size by now, and it was completely open.

It started with a silent, wailful cry from behind him. And then it felt like he had plummeted straight to hell.

Inhuman screams echoed around him and he could barely keep his consciousness inside this storm of madness.

All the guilt he had never had the chance to feel washed over him and he nearly just gave up then and there. But seeing one of his people fall lifelessly on one side brought him back from the brink.

With an agonized roar, he stretched out his soul as far as possible and stabilized every soul he could feel around him. He didn’t have time to pinpoint Denise's soul, he had to worry about her later.

The force of the madness multiplied and he could barely hold on.

The souls around him lost their stability more and more, so he ripped even more of himself out to stabilize them. The pain was unimaginable.

Then, the first soul started to break down. He had to do something. He had to protect it. So he did the only thing he could still think of in his crazed state.

He pulled the soul deep inside of him and protected it from the storm of madness.

The next soul was set free suddenly, as the body of the person just died because of the stress. This time, without his intention, the soul traveled along his soul tendril and nestled inside of him, right next to the first soul.

One after another, the people around him started to die or break down, and the amount of souls inside of him increased more and more. He tried to hold off the souls by now, but it just didn't work. He knew instinctively, that he had made a horrible mistake.

His soul started to crack and rip, as there was just too much inside of him now. He felt like he would burst at any moment.

And then, something fundamental inside of him cracked and ripped, something he had never before noticed.

His whole world turned upside down. And the last thing he saw before darkness engulfed him, was a surprisingly clear system message.