Chapter 74: Forest Way
"Does the soul of Phantasm Beasts remain, or are they devoured by the Phantasm Beast who killed them?" Reinhard asked with a tilt of his head.
"No, the Phantasm devours the magic of the things they kill while the souls wander off or fade into the planet of Paradise," Joseph said.
Reinhard blinked in surprise before turning his head slightly toward Joseph. "So, the souls are still there to be devoured?"
Marie nodded. "It is, but you would only be gaining the memories and experience, not so much an increase in lifeforce."
Reinhard’s eyes widened slightly, understanding dawning. "Because it lacks the magic?"
Joseph nodded as he crossed his arms. "The magic is tied closely to the soul, so while the Phantasm Beasts are devouring the magic of their prey. It also means they’re devouring the lifeforce and leaving behind just everything else."
Marie hummed as her hand waved vaguely at the carnage around them. "Well, there’s not much left considering most Phantasm Beasts eat the bodies, which usually have nothing left."
Reinhard nodded slowly, and then his gaze shifted upward to where Mimir perched on his shoulder. "Is there any magic in them, Mimir?"
The crow tilted his head, and then he nodded. "The bodies haven’t been devoured by other beasts."
All three of their expressions change. Marie’s eyes lit up, Joseph blinked in surprise, and Reinhard smiled.
"Devour the souls." Reinhard said.
Mimir nodded before launching himself from Reinhard’s shoulder, wings spreading wide as he circled above the battlefield. His beak opened impossibly wide, and then silver streaks erupted from the fallen bodies.
They rose like smoke but moved with purpose, each one drawn toward Mimir’s open mouth with magnetic inevitability. Dozens of souls rushed upward simultaneously, their silver light moved like river streams.
Mimir absorbed them all, the streaks pouring into its beak in a continuous flow. The crow’s feathers shimmered with each soul consumed and growing more lustrous.
The process took only seconds before it was done, and then Mimir closed its beak. He descended, landing gracefully back on Reinhard’s shoulder with barely any weight.
"Let’s go," Joseph said immediately, already moving. "The smell will attract other Phantasm Beasts."
They rushed forward, their boots pounding against the grass as they ran. The corpses fell behind them rapidly, disappearing as they put distance between themselves and the potential feeding frenzy that would inevitably arrive.
The passageway appeared ahead, which was another natural corridor between forests. They reached it within minutes, and they entered the passage unarmed, moving quickly through the narrow space.
Reinhard’s eyes tracked upward as they moved. The blue sky above was visible at first with only occasional branches reaching across the gap. But as they continued, more and more vegetation appeared overhead.
Branches grew thicker, interweaving with each other in increasingly complex patterns. Leaves filled the spaces between, creating a shade that filtered the sunlight into ever-dimmer beams.
By the time they emerged from the passage, the sun was almost completely blocked out.
Area Ten spread before them, with the area being dramatically different from the open plains behind.
The forest had spread out everywhere with trees growing impossibly tall, their trunks thick with age and their branches reaching toward each other overhead to form an almost solid ceiling.
The canopy above was so dense that only scattered beams of light penetrated through, creating columns of illumination in the area around.
The air here felt cooler and damper with moss covering everything, such as tree trunks, fallen logs, and exposed roots.
Reinhard glanced around, his light blue eyes adjusting to the reduced light as he noted the pockets of near-darkness between the beams of sunlight. "Where to next?"
Joseph’s hand gestured forward and slightly to the right. "We’re going straight, then taking the path on the right that’s going upward."
Reinhard and Marie both nodded, falling into step as Joseph led them forward.
Bird calls echoed through the area and carried through the dense vegetation. On the way, they saw the corpse of a half-eaten Tonothus and continued moving past it.
Reinhard glanced down at its massive body, which was turned over on its side with a grey, leathery hide torn open to reveal partially consumed organs. Flies circled the carcass in lazy spirals, their buzzing adding to the ambient noise of the forest.
None of them commented as the sight was expected. Even Marie only sighed at this once, but death was constant, and feeding opportunities were seized immediately in the Monster Zone.
Reinhard’s gaze tracked upward as movement caught his attention. He saw shadow figures move through the trees, small forms leaping from branch to branch with remarkable agility.
He couldn’t get a clear look at them through the dense leaves and dim light, but he could make out their basic shapes. They were small, perhaps child-sized, and carried what looked like wooden spears.
Their movements were quick and coordinated, suggesting intelligence and purpose.
Marie noticed this and looked upward. "Those are Leekos. They’re plant eaters in the forest, so they aren’t a danger to us unless we try to hunt one of them."
Reinhard nodded, continuing to track the movements overhead even as they walked. The Leekos paralleled their path for a while, maintaining distance but clearly aware of the humans below.
Then gradually they diverged, their leaps taking them away into different sections of the canopy until the sounds of their movement faded entirely.
The path began to curve, following the natural pathway of the terrain. Reinhard felt the ground beneath his feet shifting from flat to slightly inclined, which was subtle at first but gradually became visible.
Then a pond appeared ahead, its surface dark and still in the shadowed environment. The water reflected what little light penetrated the canopy, creating a mirror effect that made it difficult to judge depth.
But what caught Reinhard’s attention was the six massive beasts that stood at the water’s edge and in the shallows.
They were boar-like and easily reached the size of a horse.
Thick brown fur covered their bodies with multiple spikes that rose from their backs in irregular rows, each spike as long as Reinhard’s forearm and wickedly pointed.
But most striking were their curved tusks that stretched forward from their jaws before curving upward at the tips.
The creatures were drinking, their long snouts dipping into the water with surprising delicacy despite their bulk.
Marie’s hand rose immediately and placed a finger on her slip. Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "It’s the Bumbodusks. We can ignore them as we move, but we must not make eye contact with them, or they will rush at us. They see that as a challenge and a sign of danger to their life."
Reinhard’s lips twitched with suppressed amusement at the absurdity of the requirement, but he followed her instruction. He kept his gaze fixed forward and slightly down, aware of the Bumbodusks in his peripheral vision but never looking directly at them.