At the base of the Flaming Mountain, on the side which I currently was at, was a large city.

This city was my goal, though I was going to be stopping a fair distance away from it.

It was a large, and busy, Human city. This city was a large trade city of a different empire, one under the control of a different god than the bastard Arre.

I hadn't spent much time here, so I never bothered to learn the name of the empire, or even the ruling deity.

The only empire that I knew was the Arrene Empire, ruled by the bastard god Arre, the empire that I was planning on completely eradicating after I personally slaughtered their god.

After Master had died, I had run blindly from her grave and ended up in this city. I had stayed here for a few weeks, before being violently driven out, as I tried to regain myself from the pit of despair I had fallen into because of my precious Master's death.

This city's name was Kerros, an unmemorable name, and one that would never be heard again.

I was here to use my Soul Sealing spell again.

Usually I would never kill innocents, but I needed the power to survive. While it felt so wrong, and I knew Master would be disappointed in me, I needed to do this to live...

Kerros had a population of around one hundred thousand people, sometimes more depending on how trading was going.

This meant that this was a good source of soul power.

I had used the last of my stored souls when I Transformed myself, luckily Soea's Transformation didn't require a Soul Stone, since it was both much simpler and I had the complete body of the Dragon along with the most important components. I didn't have to manifest them from nothing using Magic.

Even the Mana Engine was still there, so that it helped generate and store the excess Mana that I couldn't supply with the spell. My Mana was also much purer, with a greater base pool, from before my Transformation.

Unfortunately, I only had one more gem which could be used to contain souls, only twenty thousand however. The Umbra Gem was specifically designed and enchanted to capture souls. The gem was named after Umbra, the dead Goddess of Darkness and Souls, who's body had been split into shards by a large group of her rebelling followers.

Umbra had even been a Hero, summoned by some unknown god, and then she ascended.

Heroes find it easier to achieve deityhood than most normal races...as long as the one summoning them isn't the bastard god.

Being the Goddess of Darkness, even though she was evil herself, she tended to accidentally draw in the dark cults. One of the cults was known as the "Brotherhood of the Soul", which was a rather lame name.

The Brotherhood worshiped Umbra, but also believed that they could use her body to further some ancient prophecy, so they rose up against her and allied with one of her enemies.

Umbra was killed, the brotherhood stole her corpse and used an ancient Fallen Angel ritual and turned her into a massive gem. Then they split her into many pieces, which became known as Umbra Gems.

These gems were specifically enchanted by the Brotherhood to store souls for forbidden rituals.

The Brotherhood had been exterminated a long time ago and not many people knew about the Goddess or the gems anymore.

Master had found this knowledge when she had found the Soul Absorption spell in the ruins of an ancient civilization, she found the lost journals of the Brotherhood.

 

Gently placing Soea on the ground, I cast a large-scale Telepathy spell, which I would use to get the children, and their mothers, out of the city. This creed would probably be the end of me by some day, but it was also what remained of my Humanity, deeply ingrained in my subconscious.

After using the spell, I waited and watched.

But no one left.

I gave them the chance, but there was nothing more I could do now.

I started casting the Soul Absorption spell.

As the gem rapidly filled with souls, I began to get worried, but the souls kept coming and coming.

Once the gem was full, it fell from the air and dropped into my hands. I was unsure what would happen with the souls now, and I expected them to disperse or hit me, but they didn't.

The souls began to gather into a sphere of light, which just hovered above me, spinning and compressing.

Then the spell ended.

There was a ripple in the air, originating from the glowing sphere of compressed souls, rapidly spreading outwards. Every time a rippling shock wave spread outwards with a boom, the air compressed.

With every compression, the excess soul energy was compressed.

After a few minutes, the souls had condensed into a pure Magic Stone.

I had never seen this before, it seemed that souls somehow naturally grouped together, apparently if enough people died, their souls would reach critical mass and compress into a physical form.

This goes against everything that I had ever read or heard.

I had the sudden feeling of a presence watching me, but when I used a Perception spell, there seemed to be no one other than Soea and I.

Just in case, I blocked off space around us.

It was unlike any magical gem that I had ever seen, the Mana that it released seemed to pulse.

With each pulse, I felt my soul itch.

After studying the gem for a few minutes, I sat down next to Soea, who was still sleeping.

Once she wakes up, it will be time to head back home.

After a few minutes I felt Soea stir beside me.

With a quiet moan she twitched and forced her eyes open, her gaze roamed for a few seconds before settling on me, after which she let out a relieved sigh.

Suddenly, the Soul Stone pulsed, Soea twitched when this happened.

It seemed that the pulse affected people differently.

I had a resistance to Soul Magic because I was unofficially the Shureen of Soul Magic, I hadn't been recognized by the other Shureen, but I wielded magic as powerful as the others.

Officially, the Shureen of Soul Magic was Master's first disciple, the one who turned against her and got her exiled, the ex-disciple who caused problems for Master's whole family.

I would deal with him later.

Placing the Soul Gem into my Spatial Storage, I looked down at Soea, "How are you feeling?"

She took a second to answer, her hands moved over her body, her eyes widened slightly as she remembered that she was still naked. But looking around, then at me, she just shrugged and continued to check if she was feeling alright.

It seemed that she didn't mind being naked around me.

Well, I had already seen, and touched, her entire body anyway, so she felt no sense of embarrassment. I wouldn't have been embarrassed if she saw me naked either.

"I feel alright. What am I now, my Lord?" She asked as she ran her fingertips over the scales on her face, and her horns. She seemed interested as she carefully tensed and relaxed her muscles, which were now very powerful, but not visibly much bigger than before the Transformation.

 

"You are a Dragonoid, a rare Dragon mutation that, even though its primary form is a humanoid, it is still an authentic Dragon. You can shapeshift into a pure Dragon.

You also have an instinctive knowledge of the Draconian language and magics. You also have the strength, speed, and other abilities inherent in an Ascended Being, around the level of a lesser Ancient Monster.

"The Glowing sphere that I placed into your head was the Dragon Soul which I purified, it will give you the knowledge of how to use your new body to fight, and how to use Mana to cast Draconian Magic."

"Wow... Thank you, my Lord!" Soea looked very happy, her wings shifted slightly, subconsciously.

"Well, you did say that you wished to be able to fight, and this was the best form that I could give you."

It was entertaining watching Soea getting used to her new form, though I missed her tail slightly, I had found it enjoyable when she wrapped it around my arm or leg.

Soea suddenly paused as a thought struck her, her eyes widening, "If I changed, what happened to my Thralls?"

I had thought about this, but I didn't expect it to be her first question. I knew what would await us at home once the spell was undone.

"When you changed, your control was released and the spell undone, they all died."

Soea nodded at my words, looking strangely ambivalent.

"Well then, if you are ready, let's go home." I looked down at her, the corners of my mouth raising slightly, holding out a hand to help her up.

After taking a second to sort out her thoughts, Soea focused and clothed herself.

She looked down at the crimson dress, that she had instinctively formed, with a slightly thoughtful expression, before running her fingers over the neckline. As her fingers caressed the soft fabric, they emitted a glow, causing the fabric to soften and change.

The neckline rapidly deepened, displaying a rather fascinating vista.

During the modifications she watched my reactions, and at some point she saw something in my gaze that made her happy, at which point she stopped moving her fingers, keeping them on the cloth as the glow slowly faded.

There was a strange look of contentment in her gaze as she watched me.

The neckline of her dress was quite deep, displaying her attributes. But somehow it seemed more classy and refined than trashy.

Not that I would consider her trashy, even if she wore nothing at all, but I was rather biased.

After she finished altering, and perfecting her clothing, she took my extended hand.

Her hand was warmer than before, but it was still soft, and fit perfectly within mine. While her fingers were slim, her grip was a lot stronger than before, the flexible scales on the back of her hand adding a strange texture, which I liked.

Soea still felt light, even though her mass had tripled as her muscles and bone increased and compressed. The compression kept her figure the same even though she had much stronger bones and muscles.

With a gentle pull I raised Soea to her feet, where she deliberately fell into my arms, her body moulding perfectly against mine.

Squirming slightly to adjust her position, she stared up and into my eyes, pulling herself close to me, embracing me tightly, "Thank you, my Lord."

As her body pressed against me, a softness pressed against my chest, her height had increased slightly. She was now almost as tall as I was, if you ignored the length of my horns.

She buried her head into my chest, her breathing changed slightly, I felt a strange dampness.

Pushing her back slightly I looked into her now exposed face, and saw that she was crying.

Why was she crying?

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, my Lord...I feel something, a strange nostalgia or feeling like this is so right?" She smiled shakily, a look of confusion on her face, releasing me, she reached up and wiped away her tears.

Still sniffling quietly, she looked at me.

"Let's go home," my voice barely traveled as I spoke quietly, my words only for the ears of two people, myself and Soea.

"Yes, my Lord!" Happiness had returned to her voice, a strange look appeared in her eyes, as though she had been wishing to hear that phrase for a long time, yet even she didn't seem to notice.

Taking one last look at the ruins of what used to be a large trade city, all that now remained was dust, decay, and black, withered earth.

It was possible that the deity may get pissed off at me for acting like this in their territory, but it was equally possible that they would ignore me.

I had felt somebody, or something, nearby when I cast the spell.