Chapter 146: Crescent Moon

My heartbeat quickened as I lightly tapped on the new skill's name. The interface quickly opened a new panel, showing the description.

'Allows the Soul Keeper to temporarily take on any physical or magical abilities of any one chosen soul he has taken in.'

My eyes widened. That was… not what I expected, to be honest. It certainly seemed more interesting and useful than being able to create small gusts of wind. After a short moment of hesitation, I decided to just roll with it. I already had more skill points than I knew what to do with.

I unlocked the skill and gave it four more skill points, upgrading it to level 5. 

Then, I stood up, took a deep breath and used the skill. A new panel popped up, listing all the souls I had taken in so far. I couldn't help but laugh – over two thousand souls! How was I supposed to find what I was looking for?

I shook my head and closed the panel – doing it like this was meaningless. I wouldn't have time to search that list during battle anyways. I had to learn to use Soul's aspect without an interface anyways. Now was a good time as any to start.

I closed my eyes and pictured one of my more memorable fights – the sea serpent. I had intentionally not picked the phoenix because I didn't want to burn the room on accident.

A moment passed where nothing happened, then I felt my mana drain by a lot. I opened my eyes to see the sea serpent's soul circling around me. As it did, I noticed scales appear on my arms, just like they had before. As I watched myself in the mirror across the room, the same scales slowly climbed up my chest and even covered my face.

Gills appeared on my neck. My eyes widened – breathing underwater was something I sorely lacked during that fight – it had nearly gotten me killed even. I moved my body and looked at myself in the mirror to see if anything else had changed, but nothing else felt or looked different. 

I let go of the transformation soon after – even holding on to it depleted my mana incredibly quickly. I needed more mana if I wanted to use this skill for more than a couple of minutes. 

I pondered a while on how I could make use of this during combat, but my exhausted mind soon drifted away. Laying on the bed, it didn't take me long to fall asleep. My dreams were once again plagued with memories of lives I didn't live.

As I woke up with the first rays of sunlight, I forced myself to get up. Whatever Aelith wanted from me this morning, I wanted to get it done quickly and leave. Now I had another worry added on top of my already existing pile of worries – what if Erik or one of the others had also received that quest the Ereth Divine had forced on most players?

If one of them did, I had to meet with them before they left the city. 

I washed up and fixed my clothes, then approached the door. Once again, it wasn't locked. As soon as I opened it, the Ereth guard bid me a good morning and offered to take me to the Matriarch. 

"Please," I said, trying to supress Rhia and the other demons' hatred. They were making an already tough situation much more difficult. We made our way to the throne room, where the teleportation sigil once again took me to Divine Matriarch Aelith's library.

She stood by her desk. Her hand rested on a cloth that was clearly wrapped around something. I couldn't help but feel nervous as the light around me faded. She slowly turned towards me, with a bewitching smile. "Good morning, Keeper." I immediately averted my eyes. My mind was already a mess, I didn't need her tampering with it as well.

"As I promised," She said, slowly walking towards me, the item wrapped in cloth in her hand. "I have prepared a gift for you." 

I instinctively stepped back. I didn't trust her, or her gifts one bit. 

"Don't be like that," She said with that same, wicked smile. She placed the item in my hands. "Don't worry. It's not a trap and hasn���t got a hint of magic in it."

I raised my eyebrows. Now a hint of magic?

"In fact, it's not even Ereth made." She continued. "It belonged to a legendary demon warrior." She chuckled. "Well, she died a while ago, but the bow is quite well made." She gestured me to unwrap it. "Us Ereth can not touch demonic weapons such as this – but you can make use of it, I am certain."

I hesitated, then unwrapped the cloth.

The bow was massive. It was made from a dark coloured wood. Sections of it were reinforced with a black metal. The weapon wasn't just a bow – its string was hooked on with a simple hook. It was easy to hook and remove, and it was made like this for a purpose. 

I carefully unhooked the string. The bow straightened just a little, forming the shape reminding me of a crescent moon. The spikes that I thought to be decorative had now an actual use. They were blades, extending out of the crescent shape.

"It's a blade and a bow." Aelith softly spoke. "The warrior this belonged to was quite the terror on the battlefield with this." She chuckled again. "You may leave now Kai Friseal. I shall call for you when it is time."

"In that case, I'll take my leave." I said as the light enveloped me. Once again, I found myself at the throne hall. The Ereth guards escorted me outside just like before. Once I stepped foot under the sun, I immediately headed to the inn I knew Erik and the others were staying at. 

As my fast steps carried me to the inn, I couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved to be out of that god damned palace. I soon arrived at the inn, only to see Vincent sitting outside. His head was resting on his hands as he stared at the ground. 

"Vincent!" I called his name as I approached him. He flinched and quickly raised his head. "Kai!" he shouted as he jumped on his feet. "Where were you?" 

I smiled. "The Divine Matriarch sent me on an errand." I was downplaying what I did. "How are you?" I asked after a short moment of hesitation. It was a mostly meaningless question. How could he be after losing a close friend?

"We're fine." He said, his expression turning bitter. "Alina is holding in there. Erik is… angry. At anyone and anything." He sighed. "Kai, I… I didn't get the chance to say it but… thanks for coming to our aid that day. If it weren't for you being there, we all would have died."

I shook my head. "Please don't. Not everyone got out alive, so please don't." 

Vincent flinched, but then nodded. "Alright then," He mumbled with a bitter smile. "I'm glad you're back, then. How does that work?" 

I chuckled. "That works fine." 

We entered the inn. It was mostly empty inside, probably because it was so early in the morning. The bartender was cleaning the counter and a single Ereth sat by one of the tables. She seemed busy with a rather large pile of paperwork, so we passed by her silently.

I furrowed my brows as I noticed her glancing at me. "Come on." Vincent urged me to follow him. We sat way in the back and the bartender brought us a simple breakfast.

"Thanks." I said with a bitter smile. She just lightly patted my shoulder before heading back to the counter. 

"So," Vincent said as I took a bite of the sandwich. "A lot of stuff happened these last few days. There was a meeting-" I stopped him before he could tell much more. "I've heard the story twice before; I think I have pretty good idea of what happened."

He hesitated, then nodded. "Alright then." He fiddled with a piece of bread. "Well, Erik didn't exactly get out of there unscathed. The Divine gave him a quest too, to get him out of the city."

I clenched my fists. That was exactly what I had feared. "Out of sight, out of mind." I hissed through my gritted teeth.

"Exactly." Vincent sighed. "He's supposed to kill a 'cursed beast'." The young man finally ate the last piece of bread. "I know this is a lot to ask considering how he acted towards you before but…" he hesitated. I knew exactly what he wanted to ask. 

"I'll come along," I said, forcing a smile. "I'd be glad to."

I could see just how much of a weight lifted from his shoulders as soon as he hard my words. "Thanks, Kai. You have no idea how relieved I am."

I was about to say something when we heard footsteps, descending the stairs. Erik stopped at the last step as his gaze fell on us.

"Kai? What are you doing here?"