In a war torn city, on a certain street walked 5 people. All of them were men and they had guns. Everybody who even took a glance at them made way for them. If somebody did not they would pay the price of that disrespect.

 

In the middle of those people stood one man. Looks wise he was nothing special if compared to his companions but it was easy to see he was the Boss of their little gang. If one had to look for a difference then he had the longest beard.

 

As they walked to their destination the Boss felt something hit him from the left side. It was a light hit but it was enough for him to register it. Turning around he only saw his companion, Minion3. Minion3 was looking away from him and he was a few steps away from him. 

When the Boss looked at him he didn't notice anything and kept staring at something. 

 

Angling his head the boss saw nothing. Noticing nothing he ignored him and continued walking. Walking but a few steps he felt it again, but this time it was much harder. This time he felt some pain. Again looking left  noticed Minion3 looking away from him.

 

“ Minion3, are you provoking me? ” Asked the Boss. Hearing that Minion3 turned to face him with a confusing look.

“ Boss Possessed, I don't understand. What are you talking about? ” Said the Minion3 unsure of what had angered Possessed. 

Seeing that confused face Boss Possessed was unsure anymore. “ No, it's nothing. ” Seeing the Boss not saying anything Minion3 shook his head and started looking again to that side of the street and carefully watched if something would pop up and shoot them.

 

Few more steps and the Boss again felt something hit him. This time it was even harder and he felt pain much stronger too. Again the Boss looked at Minion3 but not saying anything he only swung his rifle and hit Minion3 with the but end of it on the head.

Thud.

With  the unexpected hit from behind Minion3 fell to the ground. Disoriented from the hit Minion3 heard the Boss talk. “ That will be your last warning, next time you do that I will kill you where you stand. Is that understood? ” Hearing the Boss talk Minion3 watched him and in his eyes he saw seriousness. Unsure what he did to anger the Boss he could only nod. 

“ Good, now stand up we still have our mission to complete. ” Nodding again, Minion3 stood up. As all that happened the other minions only watched, never said anything.

 

Again walking for a bit, the Boss was overly conscious of his left side, multiple times he looked with his eyes as if waiting for something to hit him. Few steps later as the Boss looked left again something hit him on the shoulder from the right side. Again it was harder than before and now the pain felt quite stunning and he had no choice but to voice it out.

Aaa

Hearing the Boss all the minions turned to him, but as they saw his eyes, they only saw anger. The boss focused on Minion4 who was on his right side and without any delay took his rifle and slammed it at him. 

Maybe expecting something Minion4 blocked it with his own rifle but that only angered the Boss even more. Immediately he kneed Minion4 in the stomach and he fell to the ground. Still not done the Boss wasn't finished. He kept slamming the but end of the rifle at Minion4s head.

Thud, Thud, Thud.

Again and again he did until finally the other minions came to themselves and hurriedly stopped the Boss. 

“ Possessed, what are you doing, stop! ” Called Minion2, while all of them took the Boss by the arm and pulled him away from Minion4. Minion4s face was quite ugly and bloody now. 

“ Bastards, let me go!  ” Called the Boss but the minions held on to him. 

“ Possessed, came to yourself man. You almost killed Minion4. ” Said Minion1 

“ I don't care, the bastard deserved it for playing with me. Let me go. ” Still struggling in their grasp the boss had no chance to vent his anger. As he struggled more and more, his anger clouded his judgment even more. 

 

In that moment he no longer cared for anything anymore. He stopped struggling for a second. When their Boss finally stopped, the minions thought he finally came to himself and relaxed. In that moment they relaxed the Boss with all his strength and got free. Punched Minion3 in the face, kicked Minion1 in the stomach and again punched Minion2 too. 

 

Free from the grasp of his minions and with a clouded judgment full of anger the Boss Possessed took his rifle and shot them all.

Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang.

 

One by one he shot them to their death. Done with them and with no target to vent his anger he looked around and saw people watching him from the distance. As he looked at them in his anger he positioned his rifle again as if he would shoot them and made his way to them with only one thought in his head. 

To Kill them all.

 

In the moment he took one step towards them he felt something grab him by the neck, and held the rifle wards. In a panic he pulled the trigger from the rifle and shot it all upwards as he choked slowly.

 

It was a slow death with lots of pained gasps for air that Boss Possessed felt but when the embrace of death came he only felt relief, as if something heavy was taken off of his shoulders. 

 

***

 

Holding the Demon possessed man by the throat as he choked slowly I observed the Soul that housed the Demon, or something of that kind.

 

As its host was slowly dying, the shadow that I assumed all this time to be the Demon showed movement. As its host slowly died, more and more the possessed Soul shook. More and more it shook and when the host did finally die, it detached from the host body and attempted to leave it. Unfortunately for it I had deployed a barrier around the body with my Auril, just in case such a case was going to happen. The moment it hit the barrier it bounced off of it and after that it just kept doing it. Again and again it just kept rebounding and hitting it again. 

 

As it was happening I observed it. ` It looks like it possesses no self awareness yet. But if I consider that it had influenced its host at all, should mean its either close to it or its an instinctive reaction. `

 

Deciding that it was enough observing for now I enveloped the possessed Soul in Auril and took it out of the now dead body. Ignoring the scared crowd that wondered why this man kept shooting in the air with one hand and claw at his neck with the other only to stop altogether and fall to the ground. 

 

Making my way around the crowded now I found myself a good stop and stayed there. The plan was that since one of the people had a possessed Soul then the chances of his comrades being the same were pretty high. Word would get around and they would come investigate it. ` Once they come I can follow them to their base and now let's play with my new toy. `

 

One feature all Souls possessed was that due to their intrinsic nature of being made of higher dimensional stuff they could not be breached by normal means. They could be destroyed, yes and quite easily, but if one wanted the content to be intact then one needed a gentle method of cracking it. ` Lets see if the same applies right now. `

 

Looking at it being enveloped by my power, I could only see blackness in my hand. Souls aren't that big, physically that is. The more Life Essence they held the bigger they were, but even those are barely centimeters if one could measure it. This black Soul was the size of half my palm, a bit bigger than normal.

 

Observing it from the outside, there was only darkness. Like a tiny ball of darkness it was held there by my power. ` Before I check the inside, let's do one experiment. `

 

For the experiment I opened a tiny hole on the upper part of my small containment barrier to let in normal sunlight in. As I observed I saw it swallow that beam of sunlight and as if noticing an escape was available it tried to squeeze through it. Of course I would not let such a sample leave just like that and immediately closed the hole. 

 

` Guess normal sunlight doesn't work on it. Magical one should work since it's, well, magical. Lets see what is inside. ` Using my secret infiltration technique which works by imitating the Life Essence signature of the one it had been anchored to, I was inside. Once inside I saw only darkness again but after observing it for a second longer, I noticed a tiny something in the center of the Soul.

 

It was a tiny little marble which was connected to the black stuff hanging in the Soul. It was that black stuff that tried to eat my Auril as if it was food only to be eaten back in response. When it happened I realized that the black stuff was Life Essence, or a version of it. 

 

` Hmm. ` Noticing that fact I made my way to the nearest person and took about 10years worth of Life Essence from them. Just in case I found some others and took a bit more. Back in my spot I took 10 years worth of it and shoved it into that black Soul. The moment it was inside the black stuff started to eat it and convert it into more of itself. Observing the process from the inside I saw that once a sufficient amount was gathered it was transferred into the tiny black marble. 

 

Like that the tiny marble grew bigger, but nothing else happened. Still not quite understanding what the purpose of it was I sent another 10 years worth inside. The same happened and the black little marble grew bigger again, but not by much. ` Hmm, the host was around 30, so if I assume that this marble consumed all of it, then with my additional 20 it should have consumed around 50 years worth or close to it. Let's go with 1 years worth of essence. `

 

Soon I was through all the essence I had gathered and still nothing happened, not even the tiny marble growing happened. The only thing that changed was the density of the black stuff inside the Soul. ` If I follow the logic something should have happened at the 50years mark, but it didn't so I am missing the trigger for it. Umm, if I consider the theme of this and the way it grows then emotions should be the trigger. ` 

 

Having used up all the essence I had, I went to gather from the people around me. Once I had it I infused Anger into it and sent it inside and a reaction appeared instantly. Reacting to a specifically infused Life Essence the tiny marble cracked. Crack after crack appeared and soon from those cracks appeared tentacles. Once they came out they started to suck in all the dark stuff along with the anger infused essence. Once no more was there, those tentacles started to eat the shell around it. Once it was gone I saw another tiny black marble just much smaller than before, albeit with tentacles attached to it.

 

Done with eating everything, more tentacles appeared and stretched all the way to the inner side of the Soul membrane. They attached themselves there and slowly started to spread around the points attached over the membrane, and then it just stopped halfway to completion. 

 

Raising an eyebrow at this event I asked myself. ` Does it need more essence? ` Indulging it I sent more inside. Calculating the number I stopped when it reached the 100 years worth of essence. With more essence the process it started before continued, and soon all of it covered the inner wall of the Soul membrane. 

 

Once that part was done I felt the Soul membrane vibrate. Observing it for a bit I saw nothing happen again at first, but soon I saw the inside of the Soul and the center part started to atrophy. ` Eh, what is going on now. It's shrinking as if it's using up its juice for this. There must be a reason. ` Sending more Life Essence did nothing but delay the atrophying and that is when it hit me. ` It no longer needs Life Essence, so it must be trying to draw in something from the outside. `

 

Immediately I opened the barrier a bit here and here, but still nothing changed. In an epiphany I remembered a little fact. ` Could it be similar to that little artifact. It couldn't work because of my Sphere being active. ` With the purpose of observing what was happening I contracted it inside me again. Immediately I saw a reaction, the vibration got stronger. Knowing that I opened more holes and soon I noticed the inside of the Soul start to fill. 

 

It was more black stuff, but this time it did not feel even close to Life Essence like before. It felt more like a separate category altogether. ` This stuff should be demonic energy, or however they call it. `

 

As this energy filled the Soul, the atrophied inner part started to grow abnormally fast with it. It grew and grew and soon filled the whole Soul. Soon after the membrane changed to and tentacles grew from them too and started to attach itself on anything it could. From the walls of my barrier to the holes I left open on purpose.

 

Having nothing else to attach to, it soon gave up and the tentacles retreated back inside. ` This should be a full fledged Demonic Soul. Since it has no body to convert into a demon it's staying inactive. Now what do I do with it? I think finding a bad guy to test on will give me interesting results. `

 

That said I tucked away the Demonic Soul and waited for the bad guys to arrive.