Cautiously, Daniel backed up, grasping another stray soul. As he did, a horrible flood of sadness hit him like a tidal wave, robbing him of any energy. His shield was at full capacity once again, but the cost was his soul wallowing in the misery left behind.

Clinging close to the puppet, he conjured the midnight panther, the sparrow rejoining his soul. He hadn’t heard any screams of horrific agony coming from his party members, but then again, no shout would triumph over the sounds of slaughter in the village centre. For a few brief moments, he just watched it all.

His eyes widened in disbelief when he saw a familiar figure amidst the bloodbath. Thalia’s left hand was missing, replaced by a tentacle of crimson blood draining the life out of anything that moved. Even as she got her thigh ripped to shreds by a two-headed wolf, she only laughed, beheading it in a single strike. The blood spilling from its dead body rushed into her wound, slowly regenerating any flesh she was missing. Strange as she might be, she was also high-level and equipped with an artefact sword.

He ignored the pang of envy - after all, he had a legendary class, and she had trained all her life for this moment. Instead, he and his two companions circled the village outskirts, collecting souls and killing any injured monsters in the process. As long as they didn’t provoke an entire pack, they could easily take on any one beast.

Just when Daniel had the audacity to think the worst had passed, he heard a guttural screech coming from the largest creature he had ever laid his eyes upon. High above anything else, the monstrosity flapped its massive wings, boasting a hundred-foot wingspan. They were leathery, similar to a bat’s, and ended in sharp, dark-green tips.

Its body was not only incredibly fleshy, as if it were wearing a coat of skin for protection, but also muscular. Protruding and misshapen veins ominously pulsed, magic and blood flowing as one. The tail of the creature was long and thin, trailing behind it like a ribbon, however, unlike a ribbon, a thousand tiny barbs ran alongside it.

Finally was the monstrosity’s head, reptile features adorning it. Jagged scales, chipped and battered, stopped where its two horns jutted out. Sleek, elongated fangs dripped with venom, its piercing red eyes blood-shot with fury. The mockery of a wyvern let out another roar, and all of a sudden, the beasts remembered why they wouldn’t come near the abandoned village.

It targeted the largest monster it could find - the luminous creature, whose neck was too high to properly hide. In just a moment, a vicious blur of fangs and claws tore the thing to shreds, and as the wyvern whirled around, its tail eviscerated several others. The beasts, potion’s allure all but forgotten, scrambled to each side, hopelessly attempting to escape. It killed them all the same.

It would have continued doing so if not for a brave warrior, who, upon seeing the wyvern, had abandoned any other thought and charged in. With a majestic leap, she soared through the sky, bringing her greatsword down on the creature’s flesh. It sank deep. Not enough to split the creature in twain. She pulled and pulled at the sword, finding it stuck, gripped between the monster’s muscles.

Thalia stared in sheer horror as the creature’s tail shot out like a whip. In a single moment, the wyvern tore off her lower body, sending her flying through the air, a torrent of guts and blood following her. Despite the agony, the torturous scream escaping her lips, and the tears in her eyes, she never once let go of the sword.

To say that Daniel bravely rushed in to save her would be to lie. Instead, he hid behind a nearby house, watching Thalia’s body, eyes full of morbid curiosity. His stomach upended itself onto the nearby grass, but even then, he couldn’t stop staring at her insides.

No regular person could have survived the injury even with the most up-to-date technology on Earth. Indeed, he had pronounced her dead upon impact, but she defied all his expectations. The rapid blood loss miraculously slowed, and just like before, her flesh knit itself together.

Daniel rapidly turned his head between her and the wyvern, a fierce struggle between self-preservation and saving someone’s life occupying his mind. When he saw the wyvern turn to slaughter the remaining beasts, he darted between buildings, ordering the puppet to carry Thalia.

She moaned in agony, her body draining warmth and colour. Daniel cursed himself for not buying any healing potions, though he doubted they would help. Next to him, his panther lashed out at a stray wolf prowling the village for a free meal. They couldn’t stay here - the wyvern could return at any time. Not to mention the desperate beasts that would attack them at any opportunity.

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Hiding inside an intact stone church, he closed his eyes, feeling at his soul. It was struggling to deal with the misery, and a third of it was gone due to the panther. Every time he tried conjuring a second Phantasmal Puppet, it felt like he would get torn to shreds and lose a piece of himself forever. This time, he had no other option. His Reaper’s Eyes showed too many souls to pick out a specific human figure. The cloth puppet couldn’t protect both of them without added support, and without scouting the air around him, he would never find his companions.

During the days of his training, he spent a long time with the phantasmal beasts. First, when he conjured the panther, it would take every memory of what the beast was supposed to be, how it acted, how strong it was. Then, it would rob Daniel of some of his core memories - things that defined him and stayed with him no matter what. Finally, the skill would take away his ego, bits of his personality and emotions, and imbue them into the panther.

The image of the sparrow was practically burned into his mind, though he spent a few seconds imagining it in higher detail. With practised ease, he summoned the phantasmal image, splitting a part of him to give it life. Then, the world blurred.

Something inside of him cracked.

---

Daniel flew in the air, nearly hitting the ceiling, looking at the scene from above. The panther was prowling around in the darkness, protecting his fleshy human puppet and the friend it had made. He wasn’t quite sure why it wasn’t moving, or why it was crumpled up like a piece of paper, but maybe it was sad. He also felt sad when he wasn’t flying with his flock.

Still, Daniel had an objective he needed to fulfil. Using his Mana Manipulation, he produced a gust of wind beneath his wings that made him soar through the air with incredible speed. There was nothing he loved more than the feeling of spreading his wings and flying through the air, a sense of freedom unlike any other.

He spotted first the older human, who was always annoyed, sad, and tired. All around him were dead beasts, a thread of silver wire creating an impenetrable fortress that cut anything that touched it. Gone was the look of misery, replaced by focus and concentration. In an instant, he whirled around to look at Daniel, reflexively squeezing the crossbow trigger.

Using most of the mana in his body, he called forth a wall of wind that stopped the arrow dead in its tracks. Like a falling star, Daniel plummeted to the ground, stopping just before he reached the trap and letting out a desperate chirp. Corvin’s eyes glazed over in confusion before he put two and two together, courtesy of the morning they spent strategizing.

Gracefully gliding through the air, he led the warrior to where they all had settled down. Hopefully, he could help his human puppet. As for the other girl, he held no recollection of who she was supposed to be.

Finding the spooky mage was harder. There weren't any obvious signs of slaughter, so Daniel could only resort to loudly chirping beside every house, hoping for the best. Fortunately, before a wild eagle or hawk could taste his blood, Finnean stepped out from thin air, as if peeling away a layer of reality.

“Ah, I take it that something urgent has happened?” he said, not a single trace of fighting on him.

“Chirp chirp,” Daniel responded, beckoning Finnean with his wings. The sight of a serious sparrow made the mage chortle.

It only took a few minutes for them to arrive at the impromptu meeting spot, and when they did, they observed a strange sight. Corvin kneeled over Thalia, a dagger in his hand repeatedly cutting open his arm, the blood from which fell onto his niece. Half of her legs had regrown, though at a price - she was pale white and emaciated. Just like her brother, her cheeks were gaunt and bony, and Thalia was so thin Daniel could see ribs sticking out.

Finnean immediately began to cast spells around them, creating a simple illusion and a soundproof barrier. To his displeasure, Daniel had to land on the ground just to see what was going on. He let out a cry of concern.

“It’s a bloody wyvern. This place was a lair to a Bog Wretch. How could I be so stupid?” Corvin said, his voice solemn and resolved.

“I’ll kill that thing even if it’s the last thing I do,” he whispered, feeding Thalia a healing potion. As expected, it did little to help.

With Corvin and Finnean here, there was no need to share his soul with the panther. Daniel mentally commanded it to come closer, but, for some reason, it wasn’t obeying his commands. Weird. Regardless, he landed on top of it and forcibly dismissed it.

Then, something even weirder happened. Instead of it fusing back with his soul, the fragments burrowed into the flesh puppet, which jerked awake in shock. Something was incredibly strange here, and his mind spun in an attempt to process it all. His stomach lurched and twisted, anxiety gripping him and not letting go.

Daniel looked at the flesh puppet, which towered over him like a giant of old. Through the link between their souls, it commanded him to approach. Trapped in his own mind, he could only watch as his body marched toward his death. He tried to open his mouth, but no noise came out. A legendary Soul Reaper was nothing more than a prisoner to an eldritch skill that consumed him whole. Trashing with agony, he desperately wished for just one more chance at life - he hadn’t flown high enough to reach the gods.

The eldritch creature devoured him whole, leaving not even a trace of his existence.