Threads of the Soul

While Seth might have simply looked like he was staring down this depraved youngster as he yapped and whined about his pathetic, stalker life. But the moment that he started to yell and spit his words at being called 'Human', Seth knew he was a lost cause.

If he wanted to play the villain, then he could have his little monologue. Why would Seth interrupt him when it gave him ample time to prepare? And prepare he did.

He couldn't cast his threads from his puppets, not unless he was possessing them, and with this creepy teeny bopper eagerly telling him, in a round about way, that he was able to take the powers of others, there was no way Seth was going to risk his soul by possessing Corvus.

All he would need to do is heed some caution when it came to certain attacks, such as blue fire. He was not making that mistake again, especially with the risk that this creep could have eaten the heart of a similar Raven.

However since he had to cast the threads from his original body, which was far away on the exact opposite side of their current battlefield, it meant that Seth was actually grateful for this little outburst.

While the 'Heart-Eater' was stomping his feet and having his little toddler tantrum, he and his entire army were completely oblivious to the blanket of spectral threads spreading over them.

The wisps that had followed them to the castle, as well as those that naturally gathered around it, did notice the threads however. Although they kept their distance, in fear of being consumed, that didn't stop them congregating high in the air above the castle courtyard. Filling the sky above like twinkling stars, stars that were practically vibrating with rage.

The process took a little more time than Seth would have hoped, since he was mostly working off of memory from Geets' exploration, but with the guidance of a few arrows he managed to take control of a few of the castles Gargoyles that lined their walls and seemingly guarded their gate.

Seeing that little girl's face, however, and knowing what it meant for her fate... It got to him. As much as he hated giving this pathetic wretch the reaction he wanted, and how he wanted to keep abusing his speech to gather more puppets, he just couldn't stand by any longer.

He was not the only one either. Many of the wisps filling the skies above them trembled with unbridled rage and loathing for this pathetic little creep and his heartless nature. The candlelight flames that composed their existence flared up into miniature inferno's as their anger quite literally burned hot.

One particular wisp, whose flickering flame held within it the true form of a decapitated young girl, was especially driven by the form he took. In fact, the resemblance between the spirit and the stolen form was plain as day, Although the spirit had slightly longer hair and seemed to be a year or two older than the 'Heart-Eater's stolen face.

It was this spirit upon seeing her sisters stolen face, began to weave throughout the crowd of wisps, whispering a particular secret to them which only seemed to stoke their flames.

The Gargoyles that landed in a circle around Seth and the Heart-Eater, with claws at the ready and useless stone wings held close to their bodies, were not the only puppets available in the castle. In fact they weren't even all of the gargoyles alone, but he just couldn't take it anymore.

He had to put this monster down, permanently. He had spared Sirius because he pitied him, he was a pathetic coward. But this? There was nothing pitiable about this.

Shifting back to his original, scruffy blonde haired form, the Heart-Eater chuckled as he looked at the Gargoyles with curiosity and amusement. Letting out a soft whistle of appreciation, he nodded his head and spoke with a mocking, condescending tone.

"Look at you, got yourself some fancy magic tricks. Let me guess, the little fella was one of yours? No wonder he was so crunchy and didn't give me anything. Oh well...So, how does it work anyways? Actually... You know what, never mind. I'll just figure it out for myself soon enough."

The Heart-Eater leaned forward slightly before bursting forth like a bullet, his form blurring as he dashed towards Seth. At the same time, the Gargoyles charged, all of them closing in on the centre of the circle with blinding speed, but it was the one closest to Seth that was naturally the first to reach him.

Yet as it wrapped his arms around the Heart-Eater's waist in an attempt to tackle him, the Heart-Eater simply vanished in a flash of azure light. It surprised Seth for a second, not expecting him to simply disappear into thin air like that, as the Gargoyle stumbled forward and fell to the ground with empty arms from over committing to the tackle.

However Seth recognised that disappearing act, it was the exact same as Omelette's favourite meal. Blink Rat's.

Whipping his head up, Seth gazed at the wisp filled sky just in time to see the Heart-Eater reappear in another flash of light. With the Gargoyle wrapping its arms around him like that, this was the only place he could go.

However Seth's plan to snipe him from the air was immediately derailed as the Heart-Eater's arm began to transform while he hung in the air, gravity yet to assert its grasp upon him.

His fingers morphed, turning silver before elongating into five 11" long, razor sharp daggers. Like it was a braided strand of rope, his arm unravelled itself and split apart into five tendrils that stopped at his shoulder.

Each tendril was tipped with a deadly blade, which had previously been his fingers. With a sadistic, depraved smile cracking his face, the Heart-Eater reeled the tendrils back, like he was preparing to punch, before lashing out with them.

All five tendrils barrelled through the air towards Corvus like flesh based rockets. Seth weaved his puppets between the spear-like tendrils, letting the bladed tips dig harmlessly into the ground.

They didn't even get a chance to touch his shadow, but it seemed the Heart-Eater wasn't as dumb as he looked.

With his knife bladed fingers anchored into the ground, the Heart-Eater tugged his arm hard and yanked himself back towards the ground. Using it as a tether to catapult himself at extraordinary speeds, straight towards Seth as his other arm gained emerald skin and doubled in size, especially when it came to his new rippling bicep muscles.

Seth barely had enough time to get Corvus out of the way before the little creep smashed into the ground. Keeping his puppet on the side of the Orcish arm, so that he didn't get caught out by the tendrils, Seth dashed forward before the dust even had time to settle.

Wielding the [Requiem of Blood], Seth lifted the blade above his head before cleaving downwards with it, intending to separate the Heart-Eaters head from his body before he had a chance to stand after his reckless attack.

DOONNNG!

Tremors coursed up the length of his blood-formed blade, travelling through the handle and forcing the vibrations into Corvus' arm as his sword bounced away harmlessly. In the second before his sword could cleave through his vulnerable nape, the Heart-Eater had suddenly covered himself with some sort of chitinous armour, like an armoured beetle might have.

It completely covered his head, giving him a complete face plate with only eye holes breaking it apart, and even travelled down his non-tendril arm to form a layered and clawed gauntlet.

The vibrations weren't damaging, thankfully, but they completely messed with his ability to control the arm for a few seconds. But that was more than enough time for the Heart Eaters retaliation.

His emerald arm lashed out in a blur, striking the puppet square in the chest with the force of a freight train. It was more than enough to send Corvus blasting backwards like he was shot from a cannon, only coming to a stop when he slammed into a wall.

Bricks tumbled from above, clattering on top of Corvus as Seth focused his mind on creating more fresh troops from what the castle had to offer. Funnily enough, blindly waving ethereal threads throughout a castle, which had no sense of touch, was not a good way to find more troops.

It would have been so much easier if he still had little Geets.

Stone arms clamped themselves around the wretched teenager from hell, locking him in the worlds tightest bear hug. The Gargoyle's had finally caught up with him.

One held him from behind, spreading its wings and folding them above their heads, as if it was trying to shade him from the evening sun. In reality, it was just blocking his escape route.

If he was using the Blink Rat's teleportation method, then he had their limits too. He needed to be able to physically pass through a space to blink there. It was more instant movement than it was teleportation.

As one kept him restrained, two more Gargoyles stood before him and immediately started pounding into him over and over, raining fists all across his body and face without a second of reprieve. Seth did his best to trickle his mana into the punches, but after all of his expenditures so far his body, his real one that is, was already starting to feel heavy as he drained himself of his ethereal energy.

Yet even as they slammed their fists into him over and over, slugging stone punches into his face and body, they simply let out the same noise as Seth's sword did, as each punch rung out against the chitinous armour that spread across the rest of his body.

"Come on! Is that really the best you can do? You're weak! Pathetic! A little girl can hit harder than you, and I should know!"

As he screamed his shrill, goading taunts through the chitinous face plate that obscured his mouth, it unfortunately did nothing to muffle his irritating voice. The words echoed throughout the castle, causing the shimmering orbs of flickering fire hanging in the air to tremble once more.

Not able to contain itself any more, one of the wisps burst forwards, plunging into the spectral strings that controlled one of the Gargoyles and pushed itself into the grotesque stone puppet.

As it cranked its arm back for another punch, it halted for a second as its body trembled and had miniature seizures. The next second, the Gargoyle's eyes erupted with light, becoming consumed by an azure fire as it let out a guttural, blood lusting roar of absolute rage.

It tightened its fist more, so much that its entire arm cracked and threatened to shatter into pieces, before launching the haymaker forward. It slammed into Heart-Eater once more, hitting him square in the face, but instead of the armour letting out another irritating ring, it cracked on impact.