The staccato sound of stone hitting wood ring out throughout the forest early this morning. Gol's muscular body is slightly shining in the sunlight as he brings down a sturdy stone onto the top of a crude wooden post. The post isn't perfectly straight, yet it's been stripped of bark and carved into a more uniform shape.

Several more posts just like this one are already standing in the soil beside Gol, while a pile of undriven posts waits behind Gol. The group realized that when stones are shattered they can create sharp shards, and these sharp rocks are perfect for carving up branches into something worthwhile.

"How's the fence coming along?" Cara asks softly.

Gol turns to look up at the rather modestly clothed women with a smile. He gestures to the uniform line of posts he's driven into the dirt, and grunts proudly.

"It's going great! I'm quite good at this building thing, you know?" Gol replies smugly.

Cara's body is fully covered from head to toe in fern leaf clothing she's made herself; Despite being completely covered she maintains some style as she uses leaves from the trees to break up the monotony of the broad rubbery fern leaves.

"I can see that... well if you're so great at it, I'm sure you can tie these yourself?" Cara asks sarcastically.

She holds up a bundle of rope; The stuff is essentially just the grass twine braided together to form bigger twine, but it holds a surprising amount of weight. Gol rolls his eyes at her sass before taking a length of the rope, and bringing it to the bare posts.

The two of them go back and forth with teasing remarks whilst tying the fence posts together with the newly braided ropes. Their combined efforts speed up the work, and the fence has extended to cover nearly a quarter of the planned area when they take a break.

"Need something to eat?" Nim's voice causes both Gol and Cara to perk up.

They glance over to see Nim walking quietly toward them with a skewer of well cooked fish. The scent of the rich freshwater food causes Gol's mouth to water, and Cara has to wipe away drool.

"Of course we do-" Gol scarfs down a whole fish. "Much obliged!" He exclaims.

Cara and Nim give him an odd look as he practically inhales the food, albeit Cara is no better as she chomps away the flakey white meat of her own cooked fish. Their moment of reprieve is brought tumbling down when a strange rumbling sound comes from the ground beneath them.

All three of them stop what they were doing, and look at the earth beneath them with wide eyes. Nim looks pale as she considers what such a strange roar could mean, while Gol has a steely look in his eyes. They wait a moment, but don't hear it again.

"Strange... God didn't say anything about-" Gol starts to say.

Deafening screaming causes the newly made fence to fall apart, and Nim to fall to the ground. Trees shake, and animals cry out in confused pain. The sound is nearly ear drum rupturingly loud, and gives everyone an ominous feeling.

"I-I'm going to the shrine!" Nim blurts out.

Gol and Cara are hardly able to reply as Nim stands before sprinting toward the shrine. Gol and Cara get up after a few deep breaths, and follow her to the shrine.

~

Ashes drift into the void once again as the seventy fourth soul shielder perishes before getting within twenty meters of Ben's motionless body. The soul keeper has long since abandoned anger and frustration; He's increased the toughness of each iteration, and yet there is almost no difference between his strongest and his weakest soul shielder.

"Is his power just too grand for me to fathom? Impossible!"

The soul keeper's desire for power cannot be so easily quelled by seventy five failures. He has been using the bare minimum when it comes to materials for these creations, and despite being physically unbreakable they have miniscule amounts of spiritual toughness.

Millions of souls are pulled from storage and smashed into one another to form an awe inspiring amalgamation of glowing soul fire. The soul keeper works himself to the brink of exhaustion, and he finishes by forcing the soul glob to coalesce into an imposing monster roughly the size of the soul citadel's inner sanctum. The thing is adorned with grand horns, and bears six yellow fires for eyes. The creature lets out a haunting roar that echoes throughout the realm, and frightens birds on the surface of the world above.

"Yes! Haha! Go and finally snuff that moron out!" The soul keeper cackles maniacally.

Strangled groans of those long dead echo from within the abomination as it lumbers through the air like an iceberg drifting across an arctic sea. The dense thing's body holds up against the destructive energy emitting from Ben's body, albeit cracks are gradually forming.

"Finally! He's doing it! Yes!"

The titanic soul being is closing the gap. Twenty meters becomes ten meters; Ten meters becomes one meter. The huge thing lifts an arm up to grab at Ben's glowing form, and with a mind warping scream the monster burns away to glowing white soul fragments.

The soul keeper is in shock as he stares at the dissipating behemoth; The soul citadel is covered in cracks, and several chunks of the black stone has fallen away after the monster's death scream. Worst of all, the souls used to create the thing are all being sucked into Ben's body.

"Wait... This won't... It can't!"

Ben's golden form pulses, and the feeling of being watched presses down on the soul keeper's mind like an impossibly heavy weight. There's an immense anger in his creator's gaze, and the wrath of God is so intense that the soul citadel begins to break apart. There's a rumbling, and the soul keeper trembles as he cannot move under the pressure God is exerting upon him.

"No! S-Spare me, my g-glorious creator!" The soul keeper pleads.

"You have sinned, my soul keeper. Face your judgement!" Declares the voice of God.

The soul keeper is unable to reply as his body vanishes from existence.