Death... and me

Tapir quickly snapped back to reality from the shock he received from Roan's abilities. "That brat called Doan is perfect for the contest two years later. But how can he be that good? My Light Devil Clan already has one victory in the previous four contests. There's a very good chance we'll get the second one with his. In any case, his Soul Guiding Energy is definitely stronger than the others, but I'm certain there's something more to that."

Tapir then shook his head in the end. "Forget it. As long as we get the victory, that's what matters. They asked to be sent into the Swamp of No Return as a reward, so they'll be gone from my Light Devil Clan either way."

Back in the Path of Reincarnation's periphery, Fleus decided to put the matter at the back of his head. "Let's go deliver the souls to the Path of Reincarnation."

Roan nodded in response before their group continued to fly, this time in the direction of the Path of Reincarnation's entrance.

Rean was still very curious, so he used their Soul Connection to ask Roan. 'What's the difference between you and the other devils? That power you used to gather the souls was just too good.'

Roan glanced at Rean for a moment and began to explain. 'It's not like you don't have an idea, right? You're right if you think it's because I was a Death Spirit in my previous life. To create the Soul Guiding Power that Fleus talked about, you have to use your own soul to act as a beacon. Back on the other side of the Universe, the method is the same.'

'There's a difference between the devils and me, though,' Roan continued. 'Here in this half of the universe, they rely on Soul Power and Divine Energy to manifest the Soul Guiding Power from their souls.'

Rean immediately understood. 'There's no such thing as Spiritual or Divine Energy back on the other side, so you obviously didn't rely on that in the past. However, your Soul Guiding Power could extract the souls of dead bodies. How come?'

Roan nodded. 'That's the point. I had the natural talent as a Death Spirit to manifest the Soul Guiding Power without the need for Soul Power or Divine Energy. In fact, we didn't call it Soul Guiding Power to begin with. Well, the name doesn't matter here, so I'll just stick to Soul Guiding Power or Energy for now. The devils here don't have this innate ability that I had as a Death Spirit. Instead, they use Divine Energy and Soul Power to create something similar. It's just that it's an incredibly poor copy.'

'When I tried to use my Soul Guiding Power, I was able to create it without needing any other energy at all. I can produce the 'beacon' with my soul alone. You could say that I'm using the real Soul Guiding Power while they're not. Perhaps they don't even know about its existence.'

'I see...' Rean knew where Roan was coming from. 'You already had 'purer' Soul Guiding Power because of your memories as a Death Spirit. When you added our Divine Soul Power to the mix, it amplified your capability of gathering souls several times.'

Roan confirmed Rean's words. 'Exactly. A Death Spirit isn't much different from a dead soul when you delve deep into it. In a certain way, you could say that I'm pretty much a Soul Devil... although my soul is alive, not dead.'

Rean found it funny. 'Now that you say that, the speed you absorbed the souls did remind me of the description of Soul Devils that Fleus and Fagund talked about. Do you think I can do the same thing?'

Roan pondered over it for a bit. 'Another reason the dead souls like me this much is probably my Dark Element Affinity. Your Light Affinity has always been much better when it comes to living souls. You even created that new Soul Binding Contract because of that. But here in the Underworld, with dead souls, Dark Element definitely has the advantage. In any case, we can exchange elements. Maybe you can achieve good performance using my memories and Dark Element.'

Rean noticed that Roan also shared his memories on how to use Soul Guiding Power. It also included memories from the time he was still a Death Spirit. As they flew forward, Rean concentrated on those memories for a moment, assimilating them into his own. After some time, he raised his hand above his head and started to do the same thing as Roan.

Sure enough, the souls they passed by immediately grew excited and tried to go after Rean, completely ignoring the devils who were trying to capture them at first. Rean's range wasn't as big as Roan's, nor was the excitement he caused in the souls. Nevertheless, his Soul Guiding Power was definitely much better than all the devils they passed by.

*Huuhuuuuhu...*

*Uooooohhhhh...*

*Auuooohhhhh...*

Fleus felt like crying as he watched a huge stream of souls following them. Everywhere they passed by caused more and more souls to join Rean's stream, angering the devils even more. "C-Can you just stop, please? I truly don't want to have all the devils near the Path of Reincarnation following us."

Hearing that, Rean looked back, allowing him to see what Fleus meant. It wasn't just a stream of souls that followed them. Many more devils were doing the same thing, cursing Rean nonstop. "Oops..."

Rean immediately stopped using his Soul Guiding Power, causing all the souls following his group to suddenly stop in their tracks. Having lost their beacon, the souls returned to their still state. Well, it didn't last long, though. That's because all the devils following their group stopped together with the souls. So many souls were gathered in the same location, so how could they not take that chance to capture them? More souls meant more points, after all.

Yet, it was at that moment that the souls suddenly started to gather on their own.

"This..." Fleus didn't even know what to do anymore. "You had so many souls following you that now that they're free, they're trying to form a Soul Devil..."