Now, I have been hit by a lot of things. Fists, large bludgeoning weapons, walls, buildings and celestial bodies. Admittedly, that last one had mostly been me being thrown into them at high speed… mostly.

Either way, I wasn’t unfamiliar with smashing into things. It usually hurts… a lot. Conveniently enough, this didn’t. I should have really expected it. After all, I had less sensation than any sedative could manage without knocking the subject out. I still felt discomfort, but it was barely pain. Of course, that didn’t help my body. 

I tried reflexively to jump up and over the oncoming vehicle. Unfortunately, my current lack of balance caused me to screw up the angle. Rather than going straight up, I actually ended up arching myself right into the windshield. Damn swaying.

It appeared that the windshield wasn’t up to the task of stopping a high-speed body, because it crumbled around me. I had thought these things were made for this, but it seemed that my knowledge was off in this case. After all, I was currently crushing the driver. I blame the manufacturers. They really should consider this sort of thing.

I wasn’t in a position to be sure, but the driver must have been a little to… distracted to brake properly. I knew that because we had swerved off the road and were heading for a tree. Well, that wouldn’t do. This guy had hit me with his car, and now he was going to send me flying off when the car stopped. The nerve of some people.

Deciding that it was time for the driver to give back, I rolled over and grabbed his shoulders, digging my fingers into his flesh with unnatural strength just as the car was forcibly stopped. I might not have great balance at the moment, but I did have superhuman strength and a truly obscene processing speed. If I was going to get flung out of the vehicle, either him or his shoulder bones were coming with me.

A split second after I grabbed him, I was sent flying along with the driver. Had he not had his seat belt on? Now that was just asking for it. Even if I had been biologically capable of guilt, I’m sure that would have relieved it. I mean, really, who does that?

We arched through the air and I used my rather fast processing speed and unfair luck to maneuver his body into position just before we hit the ground. The first and hardest hit had him on bottom, providing a well welcome shock absorber. After that we both rolled, him still serving as a pad for some of it.

When we finally stopped, I was… intact. I had accumulated a lot of lacerations, and I’m sure I would have been bleeding internally if I was properly alive. As it was, I seemed to be visually fine, although that might change if I tested standing.

As for the driver, he didn’t look so good. If everything was working correctly, my current body should have been slightly more durable than a normal human. I wasn’t sure if that would have any real effect with how little strength I had, but it might have. In addition, that first hit had been a lot harder on him than me.

I stood, finding that nothing was broken enough to inhibit me. I looked down at the mangled body of a rather unhealthy-looking man. I crouched, grabbing his neck before standing up again. He hung from my hand like a rag doll. He was clearly mostly dead. Of course, death isn’t an instant process, unless you use a lot of force. But, his body was clearly most of the way past anything even the more advanced medicine I was pretty sure humanity had now. Add in the lack of any other cars or obvious hospitals, and I figured I could pretty much write him off as dead.

I would have normally watched his soul to see if it was stagnating, but that wasn’t really an option. A soul stays somewhat connected to a body until almost all the cells are dead, something that takes a lot longer than most people think. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anywhere near enough power to analyze him closer. I was also holding his whole body up by his neck, which might not have been helping.

Well, this was a stroke of good luck. I had just been standing in the middle of a street and this guy basically handed himself to me. Okay, so there was the whole hit me with a car thing, but that wasn’t much of a problem really. I was basically fine, after all.

I pinched a torn piece of skin flapping from a gash on the side of his head, pulling a strip off before tossing it into my mouth. I chewed for a moment, feeling sensation slowly return, forcing back the numbness. Well, this would definitely work.

I had a feeling that standing next to a car crash while holding a dead body by the neck was probably… suspicious, so I started towards the woods, dragging the body by his throat. I walked far enough to be at least somewhat out of sight, before dropping the body and starting the process of pulling the chest open. Now, while it is true that the human body is resilient, it is also true that heavy rocks brought down enough times with enough force will crack open practically anything softer than them, including a rib cage.

I could have gone for the liver, that was where most of the loose power was, after all. But, that wouldn’t have helped me much in the long term. If you want a person’s magic, you go for the liver or, if you are more pressured for time, the blood. Blood has a lot of power in it, but it’s fast and dirty power. Easy to get at, quickly used up. The liver has most of the body’s reserves, making it the go to organ if you want to get the most bang for your buck. However, I wasn’t interested in either.

I finally got the mangled mess of a chest out of the way, allowing my hands to reach my goal. I reached into the cavity, finding the desired organ and pulling it free. It didn’t come out cleanly, taking a fair amount of connective tissue with it. I didn’t really care, as long as I got the important part. Now, the liver is where you find power, and the brain is where you find the mind, but the heart is where you find the soul.

I didn’t pause, shoving the heart into my mouth, almost managing to swallow it whole. Human hearts aren’t honestly that large, on a relative scale, and I had it down in what seemed like no time. There was a moment of pause, as I waited for what I knew was coming. Then, the burning started.

It was only a mild warmth at first, but it quickly grew into an itching burning that grew into a scorching pain. Oddly, it didn’t start from my stomach, but rather my chest around where my own heart was. That shouldn’t have really been surprising. After all, most people used their hearts as the main tether for their souls. This would have likely occurred to me, if it hadn’t felt like someone had replaced my blood with kerosene and somehow lit it. It started from my heart and rushed outwards, filling my emaciated spiritual body. This shouldn’t have hurt, but I shouldn’t have been the spiritual equivalent of near-death anemic. As it was, my newly acquired power was rapidly forcing its way into channels that were too shrunken to allow it.

I noticed that I was screaming just after I realized that I had somehow fallen onto the ground. There might have also been some thrashing involved. My back arched involuntarily, as the spiritual force surged. At that moment, I felt it. In the place in my chest that had so far been still, something finally moved. My previously still heart beat once, as if confused, then tried it again, realizing that it had a job once more.

I collapsed to the ground, feeling the pain fade as life slowly returned to my dead flesh. The numbness that had been my world so far receded, replaced by warmth and oh so wonderful sensation. I could taste the blood in my mouth and feel the bits of flesh stuck in my teeth. Before, I could only taste it as a vague awareness, and I hadn’t even known of my desperate need for floss, but now… now I could taste the wondrous beauty of his blood and flesh.

Through my body, sensation returned, revealing countless aches and pains, and they all felt wonderful. I reveled in it for a moment. Okay, so it would probably feel better if I hadn’t just been hit by a car, but the point still stood. No matter how much pain I was in, I still preferred it to nothingness. That was life, after all.

I wasn’t swaying anymore. However, if I kept bleeding from all the cuts that I had been ignoring before, I would probably start again. Luckily, they were starting to visibly close. It was exasperatingly slow, but still fast enough that I didn’t have to worry about passing out from internal bleeding or anything stupid like that.

Well, I now had the spiritual might of some random middle age white guy. Which, strictly, was a lot better. I wasn’t overly happy about having to eat a human soul. I never liked taking away their opportunity for salvation, but I also didn’t mind enough to not do it. Plus, he had hit me with a car, which basically made this his fault. It certainly wasn’t mine. And even if it was, I definitely wasn’t going to admit it now.

I quickly searched the body, finding a wallet which I took the money out of before putting it back without checking the license. If I didn’t know his name I wouldn’t be lying if I had to say I didn’t kill… whoever they asked if I killed. That was actually quite important for me. After all, I couldn’t lie. However, ignorance isn’t a lie.

“Well, best be off.” I said in English, testing out the sound of it. Hmm, seemed fine enough. All human languages are a little odd, but this one wasn’t that much more ridiculous than any other. I started off, heading into the woods and away from the sort of murder scene. I had stuff to do, after all.