..

"Hey there, little friend! Are you hungry?" Dante asked the malnourished horse

It just stared at him, not understanding a thing. It had been stolen months ago and was a warhorse, but after being used to only pull heavy charges, its health started degrading.

Even more so when they only fed it grass on the ground...

The black warhorse was now reduced to such a deplorable state that even an emotionless psycho would pity it.

"Hey Sylphie, could you cook up some of those bastards for the horse? It looks hungry."?

"Are you sure it's a good idea? Horses are herbivores." She looked doubtful.

"Oh, have you never seen those cases where horses eat birds and chickens alive? They do so because they're hungry or because their diet is not nutritious enough."

'Being a weeby nerd sure is useful sometimes.'

She looked disgusted at the thought of touching their cadavers, and she just cast an earthen spear and impaled an arm.

After casting a fire spell on the dried, gathered wood, she started cooking it. This looked like a scene from those cannibalistic and isolated tribes. Morbid…

As if finally smelling the scent of real food, it quickly galloped toward Sylph and docilely waited. Its mouth was drooling upon closer inspection, but not because of hunger.

"It's sick; horses don't drool like this." Sylph said, showing her small amount of knowledge about them. She then looked toward him.

"I sadly can't heal diseases." Understanding her intentions, he denied her.

"It looks like it's going to die in a few weeks, maybe days." Dante, for the first time since he transmigrated, saw a semblance of emotion in her eyes. More especially, pity...

This, for some reason, made him feel pity toward the horse too.

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"I can maybe save him, but his consciousness will surely disappear and get replaced by something new... It would be the same as killing it." He offered an uncertain option.

The horse, on the other hand, suddenly seemed to understand Dante's attention and quickly put its snout in his chest.

"What are you doing?" He, of course, was confused. Completely clueless that he had been understood by an animal.

"Haha! Stop it, you're tickling me!" Dante fell to the ground as he laughed while being tickled by the horse's snout.

"I really can't kill you; you're just too sweet. Man, why does life have to be this vicious?" As it heard about being done something, the horse started weakly jumping excitedly.

"I think it wants something." Sylph, seeing this, commented.

"What thought? Wait, I have an idea." Dante turned toward the horse.

"If you like grass, nod your head." Again, as if understanding his intentions, it nodded its head.

"Hmm, this may be a coincidence. Alright, another one. Do you like other male horses?" He smiled, feeling very silly.

The horse, however, quickly shook its head. Dante knew it was a male when checking its conditions.

"Wooow! Sylphie, do you see that? I can talk to animals!" He shook her shoulder while pointing at the animal. She looked tired of all this.

"Do you want to be saved? I highly doubt that anyone would pay to bring you back to your old self. You may even be killed for your hide.

I can save you, but you may lose your consciousness."

The horse, knowing clearly that it was in a very bad state, happily nodded its head.

"Sylphie. Try to talk to it."

"Erh, what am I supposed to say? Sit?" The horse looked extremely confused, affirming Dante's doubts that he could transfer his thoughts to other animals.

"Hmm, I've never done something with humans or animals. They're too indistinct; it may fail or need a lot more life force for small results." Dante's lowered.

"Sylphie, could you scout the perimeter for any 'uninvited guests'?" One of his eyes started getting hazier and cloudier, and his speech slowly started to deteriorate.

She hesitated for a bit but then gave up and quickly disappeared in the bushes, not before taking a peek behind her.

Dante's hands were glowing a vibrant color, a sort of hue seeping into reality before disappearing. She hadn't experienced what he had in his dream and couldn't find the similitude with the 'eldritch horror' covered in eyes.

Her pace then continued as she heard the horse's screams of pain and agony.

…

After a while, she decided that the surroundings were empty, or if there was anyone, they would be too weak to be able to battle against them.

On her way back, the horse's neighing had become silence. After getting closer to where she and Dante were before, she saw huge amounts of blood everywhere.

What was supposed to be a horse before now looked extremely different; its original black hide had disappeared. Its entrails could be seen moving on their own on the ground!

His head had become fleshless, and his eye cavities were empty. On its whole body, there were eyes filled with madness and craziness, as if all it wanted was to rip apart every living thing in its sight.

The horse was, however, lying on the ground, weakly breathing. Next to it was a boy with completely hazy and unfocused eyes. He was observing the results.

Around them, every corpse had disappeared. They all left a trail of blood going toward the horse.

Seeing this scene, she slightly hesitated about approaching them but finally gave up.

"Will it make it out alive?"

"No, life force. missing. Small amount. Needed." Dante's words were said with a lot of trouble; his articulation had lowered by leaps and bounds.

"What's needed for it to survive?"

"More corpses, bigger corpses."

"For how much time can it live?"

"A few minutes. Maybe. One, hour"

As if understanding her assignment, she readied her sword and started sprinting in the forest. The skull followed closely behind her.

The horse seemed to have lost all rationality; it looked at Dante with extreme hate.

When he tried to make further adjustments, yellow illusory scales would appear and cut off his hand. Dante would expressionlessly pick up his hand and reattach it.

"Stop. Making work. More ,difficult?" you asked. Next time, you refuse, I will ,kill you. I am doing this. Because of. Her. Not you." As if having had enough of its caprices, Dante's tone became ice cold and very threatening.

Small breathing sounds could be heard coming from it, as if it were trying to scream. Only for some very low sounds to come from its fleshless head.

...