ã€ŠSoul Devourerã€‹ Chapter One New Life ><> ~<>< + ><>~ <>< Joel was just your average human, had a decent job which allowed him to live a relatively decent life. Had a close and loving family and was even expecting a child of his own, but that¡¯s whenthings took a turn for the worst. After being plotted against, causing him to lose his job he drowns his sorrows away at a local bar close to his house. Half-past midnight he was crossing the street during a bad thunderstorm when he was struck by a speeding car. He was flung towards a tree but he was still alive, somehow, no, what really killed him was when lightning struck the tree that cushioned his fall. His body couldn¡¯t handle the pain it was experiencing and shut down. Hedied before anyone could call for help. It reached local news but other than that people moved on with their lives and only those close to him mourning their loss. ><> <>< + ><> <>< When he woke up he wasn¡¯t on earth anymore, he was in space surrounded by a bunch of floating blue lights, he himself was one such light calmly floating towards an unknown destination. ¡¯What the?¡¯ Confused he retraced the events before his passing, him losing his job, drinking his sorrows away, crossing the street and getting hit by a speeding idiot ¡¯no seriously, who speeds while the street is covered in water?¡¯, and then his bad luck when the tree that he flew into got struck by lightning. ¡¯Does this mean I¡¯m in the afterlife?¡¯ For some reason he wasn¡¯t freaking out, he would have thought he¡¯d be panicking nonstop after finding out he died. As far as he could see he saw blue blobs everywhere, he moved close to one of them and saw that it was at least double his size. ¡¯Why am I so small?¡¯ Curious he started comparing his size to other souls and found that they were all at least double his size if not more. ¡¯This is totally not fair, why do I gotta be the small one!¡¯ Out of pure annoyance, he started ¡¯attacking¡¯ one of the souls that were only double his size. He crashed into it over and over again until he crashed right through it, confused he turned to see the soul bursting into a small cloud of blue mist. ¡¯Wha-¡¯ Like a moth drawn to a flame he flew into the mist only to be overwhelmed by sheer pleasure. The mist tasted like so many of his favorite things at one that it overloaded him, his favorite food, drink, candie, desert, all of it and much more. Everything that he loved all in one blue mist.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. After a couple of minutes he burped in satisfaction when the mist was completely gone, ¡¯That... was... amazing! Ten out of ten¡¯. Greatly pleased he moved towards another soul and froze. ¡¯Did I just get bigger?!¡¯ ¡¯Yep, I totally got bigger.¡¯ He floated up to the soul that was double his size before only to see that he grew slightly. ¡¯If I eat more of these things does that mean I can finally, be the biggerman?¡¯ Pun aside he quickly starting attacking the soul right in front of him. This time he had a much easier time breaking the soul and after twenty or so crashes it burst into a cloud of delicious mist. This time he quickly sucked up the mist before moving on to the next soul. The more he did it the easier it got and after his fifth soul, he was starting to feel a difference. His speed dropped but his size-and his strength-increased. ¡¯Does this mean if I get too big I¡¯ll be like these thingsand won''t be able to move anymore?¡¯ Worried, he became much more hesitant to attack the souls even though the mist was so, delicious. ¡¯Don¡¯t focus on that right now! Focuson making sure that you¡¯ll be able to move even after getting super big...¡¯ ''...'' ¡¯Okay, maybe just a couple more times!¡¯ Gleefully he continued his barrage of attackes on many more souls, when he reached twenty something felt very... wrong! He felt like he had a very painful stomach ache. He was stuck frozen while he felt pain all over his soul, ¡¯Okay, guess it¡¯s time to fix my problem then.¡¯ While he was still experiencing his stomach ache he tried his best to ignore it and focus on a way to solve his problem. ¡¯If I slow down as I get bigger, then why not shrink down? That should work right?¡¯ Without any other thought, he focused on trying to shrink down. It was a weird experience, it felt like he was trying to squeeze himself all at once and soon he started to get a headache somehow. ¡¯Okay, so that doesn¡¯t work, so do I just need to wait this out and let my soul process that mist or can I speed it up?¡¯ He looked inside his soul and found that it was full of that delicious mist, it was getting to the point that it was pushing against the boundaries of his soul. ¡¯Is this why I¡¯m in pain?¡¯ Experimenting he tried to squeeze the mist inside his soul... and it sort of worked. It shrunk slightly but the pain was still there, curious he looked at the center of his soul to find what looked like a small drop of something. ¡¯I wonder...¡¯ Without a care in the world he pushed the mist into the droplet with success, the droplet expanded slightly and the mist was gone. Instantly he felt better and the sluggishness he was experiencing was gone. ¡¯Does this mean I was only slowing down because I was full?¡¯ He shrunk slightly but overall his size was still bigger than when he first woke up. ¡¯So that''s how it works!¡¯ Understanding what he had to do now he tested his theory. Bashing open the closet soul and sucking up the mist, instead of letting it sit inside his soul he forced it into the droplet. He continued his feeding until he grew tired, he had another theory he wanted to try so before he fell asleep he bashed open a couple more souls and sucked up all the mist, instead offorcing it into the droplet he allowed it to gather around the droplet and that''s it. Tired he moved towards an empty spot and allowed himself to sleep. Chapter Two Rank Up ><>< + ><>< Slowly he started to wake up but he felt very groggy like he just woke up from an hour nap that only made him more tired. After taking a couple of minutes to completely wake up he looked inside his soul. The mist he collected before he fell asleep was completely gone and the drop at the center of his soul also looked like it grew a bit bigger. ¡®So this confirms my theory that I passively process any mist I consume.¡¯ Focusing outside his soul everything looked the same except where ever they were heading looked a tad closer. ¡®What happens when we reach whatever that place is?¡¯ ¡®That''s a problem for another time, first, let''s eat some delicious mist.¡¯ Moving towards the closest soul he was pleasantly shocked when he was slightly larger than the soul. ¡®What happened, why did I suddenly get bigger? Could it be I grow more by letting my soul process the mist naturally?¡¯ With more questions then answers he pushed it to the back of his mind and focused on the soul before him. ¡®I wonder...¡¯ Curious he moved closer to the soul and... ate it whole. Well not exactly, the soul was now inside his soul halting all movement. ¡®What do I do now, I don¡¯t think I can remove it now. He tried to push the soul out of him but as it touched his boundaries it felt like he was pushing against a brick wall, if he pushed long enough it might work but he could care less. ¡®If pushing it out of my soul won''t be easy then can I break it while it¡¯s inside my soul?¡¯ He tried to break the soul while it was inside his but... he had no clue on where to start, how could he break something inside his soul? ¡®What do I do now?¡¯ He continued to try out theories but none of them worked and without him knowing it a lot of time passed, after the second hour stuck like this the outer shell of the soul broke releasing its sweat, sweat mist. ¡®Finally! After a minute of enjoying the sensation, he collected his thoughts and decided to test out two theories at once. He moved towards another soul but it was larger than him so he looked for one that was smaller. After finding one he proceeded to consume the soul and reentered that immobile state. After an hour the soul broke and he confirmed his theories. Somehow his soul naturally broke down anything within after a certain amount of time and having mist already swirling inside his soul shortened the time needed.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Pleased with his discovery he decided to consume three more souls before that familiar drowsy feeling to return. ¡®It appears consuming souls instead of bashing them open tires me out a lot more, but the plus side I seemed to get a lot more mist then sucking it up after bashing them open.¡¯ Instead of entering his hibernation type sleep he stopped moving to allow his soul to regain energy. After a couple long hours the drowsy feeling completely went away and the swirling mist inside was almost completely processed. ¡¯So allowing my soul to naturally process the mist is much better than forcing the process myself.¡¯ The drop in his center started to round out and shrink slowly. After all the mist was processed the drop completely rounded out he felt an odd sensation coming from the rice-sized sphere. It started to release a white mist that fused with my soul, after whatever was occurring stopped his soul felt a lot more solid then it did before. Moving around didn¡¯t consume as much energy and even consuming souls was shortened by a few more minutes. ¡¯Whatever that was, it somehow strengthened my soul, for the meantime, I¡¯ll call it a rank up, and I¡¯m most likely at rank one as this was the first time it happened.¡¯ Looking at his soul he found it shone a bit brighter than the souls around him, getting close to one shown him that any soul within a certain radius of his soul was slowly pulled towards him, but it was much easier to just consume them. Oddly a thought popped into his mind, ¡¯how come no other souls move, they just seem to float towards whatever that thing is in the distance while in deep hibernation or something.¡¯ Curious he moved towards a soul that was now only half his size and nudged it gently. Feeling very stupid he did the mental equivalent of a facepalm. ¡¯Of course, it won¡¯t wake up, it won¡¯t even wake up when I bash into them!¡¯ Feeling very stupid he tried something else, he consumed the soul in front of him and moved towards another after consuming it. He focused completely on moving the mist outside his soul and into the soul before him. It was a lot harder than he thought and after it left his soul he felt as if he was being poked all over but continued anyway. After five minutes the poking feeling subsided and moving the mist started to become easier and he forced fed it to the soul in front of him, The mist easily entered the soul and after all the mist he currently had entered the soul it started to move. But that goes things went wrong, the gentle blob of blue light from before twisted into a dark--almost black--blue and turned into a malformed shape. The soul released a mental roar and bashed against my soul, it hurt a lot more then I thought and after a minute of fail attempts at breaking me the soul quickly tried to flee. ¡¯Oh no you don''t! I don¡¯t know what I did but I¡¯m definitely not letting you escape!¡¯ Furious he sped towards the now black soul and consumed it, after it entered his soul he started to feel a burning sensation and that drowsy feeling quickly returned. After what felt like an eternity his soul processed the black soul which released a disgusting black mist that tasted like his everything he hated. But he didn¡¯t have to worry about it much as sweet sleep released him from his torture.