Chapter 168: Soul Magic (EN)

[As for the origins of Soul Magic, it was a rather rare ability for Divine Essence(Divine Essence= mana) users. The Divine Essence users were divided into two groups: Hex and Magi. Hex for females and Magi for males]

[It isn't very clear exactly how these two names became popular, where one of them means witch, while the other means wizard, or magician. The most widely accepted explanation was that female divine essence users were, for whatever reason, very talented at obscure and mystical magic, like soul-related magic, illusions, memories, death and life, etc; while on the other hand, Magi were much more talented at direct and much more easily understood magic, like the various elemental magics, self-strengthening magic and aura magic]

Evin was pleasantly surprised by this piece of information about the wider uses of mana. And judging from the names of some of the magic, most of them seemed very similar to the Worlds, except of course, Death magic and aura magic to a degree.

[But that isn't the focus of this scroll. The focus of this scroll is Soul magic] 

[The blue spore-like things that the Corrupted Soul Tree(EN) spews out is Soul energy (EN). As you may have noticed, your soul is getting strengthened thanks to this, but remember that, it isn't nearly as effective as absorbing the corrupted souls]

[And if you do it right there's no need to worry about your soul merging or something, like what happened with the woman. It might be a bit confusing and weird at first, but you'll get used to it in no time]

[Just get out there and consume those souls!]

[This is actually the whole point of this place. And it's very easy for you to do this, since the corrupted souls inside this World had just woken up, while your own soul is much stronger and denser, albeit a bit old and spent]

[And it's especially easy for you, since I'm here to make sure you don't fuck up. So don't worry about consequences that might happen to you afterward, and just go for it! Consume everyone!]

'I feel like my move-set is becoming darker and darker as the days go on. Dark magic, Illusions, Gravity, and now Souls. Never thought I would become the consumer of souls, heh,' Evin thought wryly.

[Soul magic can widely be divided into three parts. Strengthening one's soul, Molding one's soul, and Burning one's soul (all EN)]

[Strengthening, as you might guess, is just consuming souls. You go outside, beat up some souls and then consume them. This is basically murder, yes, but don't worry about it. If it helps, just think of the corrupted souls outside like eggs, or meat. Everyone knows killing things is bad, but we still butcher millions of animals every day, so we can eat them. It's technically evil, but it's a widely accepted evil, so it doesn't count]

Evin read through the scroll, and realized that the more he read, the more aggressive Four's writings were becoming. As for murdering these souls, Evin felt that he already had this conversation with himself, so he wasn't going to bother with it again.

Four then continued to explain some of the methods to consume these souls. To explain it very simply, there were a lot. It was even okay to absorb the soul by direct contact if one was experienced and had a much stronger soul than the other. But this direct method had too much of a negative effect on a mage's brain and mind. If one wasn't careful, they would be have a mess of different personalities, all vying for power over their body. Four then listed a bunch of obscure methods that tried its best to calm the souls like sacrificial arts, prayer arts, soul soothing methods, cleansing a soul's latent regrets, etc.

[But in my opinion, the method most suitable for you and your situation is to create your own soul-tethered weapon. These weapons can be anything, even that skinshifter inside your shadow, but I don't recommend you turn her into one. This is because the weapon's main job is to work as a buffer between you and the soul you're absorbing, while also giving you access to the energies of those souls.]

[So, if that skinshifter becomes your soul-tethered weapon, her personality would become riddled with other ones, slowly turning her mad. So, it's usually best to have a non-sentient object for this role. Obviously, since it contains so many souls, the weapon would become cursed at some point, constantly trying its best to fuck you up. This can be solved with some methods, but we'll get to that when we get there.]

Evin really did prefer this method. The others all sounded very time-consuming and impractical, while this one had a much simpler and easier to understand.

[In any case, just choose your preferred weapon type and tell me, I'll prepare a suitable one for you]

Evin's released his mind from the scroll, and showed Four his spear.

"Can you turn this spear into my soul-tethered weapon?" he asked.

Four glanced back briefly and shook her head.

"That one has unsuitable materials. Give it to me… and I'll make one similar," she said and beckoned Evin. Taking the spear, she added: "You read too slow"

"Sorry, ma'am," Evin apologized and his mind reentered the scroll.

[After you get your soul-tethered weapon, well, now you just have to slay souls with it. If you're having trouble properly wielding the thing, don't worry. Remember that this isn't your real body. This is your soul and even though you can't do everything you imagine, you can easily make it so that you're stronger and faster here, while also recreating some of the effects of your spells]

Evin was instantly interested. Ever since he was able to use magic, he always felt like he could do something to affect the situations that arose in his path. But when he faced the woman, he truly felt feeble and useless. It reminded him too much of the time when the mage from Smallwall town was trying to kill him through Norna. 

Four explained that to recreate the effects of his spells, Evin had to recreate it as an illusion, before willing the Soul energy around to support the spell. Apparently, this was similar to how peak World of Thoughts mages would turn their illusions into reality.

[If you're thinking this will turn the World of Thoughts into the World of Creation, then you should probably give up on these ambitions of yours. Souls and reality don't really work similarly...] Four was quick to dash Evin's hopes, but he wasn't discouraged. 

'Well, I guess I can at least pretend to be a super-imposer of the World of Thoughts for the time being... One that can only use below average Half-core spells...'