Why was the world in permanent sunset? What was this vibrant hues of red, orange, purple doing, acting like a veil blocking his eyes?

  Zalanir lifted his hands up and swiped the veil away, but nothing happened. His hand just passed through the air without any obstruction, as if the veil was … real? Okay, sunset it was. But where was he?

  He dropped his arm and leaned forward, wanting to take a closer look at the blurry mountain from afar, but … nothing changed. His eyesight and viewport remained in the same spot, while his hand was still in the air at the end of the swiping action.

  A red and black rabbit jumped at him. Its claw cut into his lifting arm. Zalanir screamed, but his lips wouldn’t budge. The air came up to two-thirds of his sore throat, but it stuck there. Instead, he spat mucus at the small animal, and to his bewilderment, the mucus corroded the rabbit’s head and made it spasm on the ground.

  Then he crouched down, putting the pressure onto his legs and … pounced forward? His right hand punctured the rabbit’s belly, grabbed something slimy and soft, and jerked it out. Without him even registering what was going on, that something was tossed into his mouth, and he chewed.

  Blargh! He vomited whatever was just inside his mouth. So gross! Even a piece of 90% fatty meat wouldn’t be that nasty. It was like a mixture of jelly and rubber, except that it took the worst parts of those and combined them together.

  But the bewilderment didn’t stop at that. He bent forward and stretched the hand out toward that very something that he had just gotten rid of. His thoughts were paralyzed for a second, but sprang back to life when his fingers touched that.

  No, absolutely no. Zalanir pulled his hand back. Whatever was going on, that alone couldn’t happen. Not under his watch.

  Grggggg! A strange sound came out of his mouth. Black smoke moved from his hand toward the rabbit, and that rabbit’s body corroded into nothingness. No sight of blood from start to finish. Just like the sand getting blown away by the wind into the undulating waves. Nothing remained.

  A small projectile hit him in the chest, pushing him back by a force that shattered and shook the air. That hurt!

  His eyes fixed on that mountain. Steep. His senses told him that he wouldn’t be able to climb that. Had to find another way.

  He swirled left and right, taking into account the position of six other rabbits. That projectile came again, but this time, his legs pushed him toward the right, avoiding the attack while also bringing him closer to the first target.

  A blue rabbit this time. Together with the red and black variants, these two versions populated the area. There were some colorful rabbits as well, but the number was just too little to make a difference.

  Grggggg! He made the same sound again, and pounced upon the rabbit. Two chill, sharp spikes punctured his belly while he was still in the air. Pain shot through his veins, but it didn’t stop him from landing on top of the rabbit and cracking its neck to the side.

  Zalanir pulled back his hand again after it reached toward the prey’s body. His senses yearned for that, but still, no. Too raw and nasty. He won over his instincts in the end, but then the black smoke came out again. This one he didn’t mind. No need to hurt his head trying to wreck control of something this insignificant.

  The rabbit was dead several seconds later, though its body didn’t vaporize completely as the previous one.

  The sunset veil was retreating to the rear as the black sky had been steadily marching on to the front line. Wouldn’t be that long until nightfall. The sunset was beautiful, but part of him craved darkness.

  A sweet aroma invaded his nostrils. It came sparsely at first, though Zalanir soon detected that they hovered around each of the rabbits. After the fifth kill, the scent had started to linger in the air for longer. It bathed him, knocked open his pores, seeped inside, and beat the tiredness away. Even the pain as well. He could tell that his wounds were closing and celebrating as the soreness was washed away.

  That pesky projectile again. He was used to its speed now, so his body just moved on its own to dodge with ease, but still, it was an annoyance. He hated it. Had to take that down for good.

  Thus, he moved. His instincts told him that it was enough. What was, he had no idea. He rushed around the area — still in the crouching position, but he was comfortably now with all of his legs and arms — and hoarded all the dead rabbits to one place.

  High up in the steep mountains, his eyes glanced at the previous spot where the coward was hiding. Only those inferiors would resort to underhanded tactics like that. But that would end soon. Showed yourself, o coward which had no shame. Showed yourself so that he could end this disgrace.

  There! He created tentacles using the black smoke emitting from his body. Not just his hands now. His pores had also come to work. Using these tentacles, Zalanir hurled each of the dead rabbits toward that area where the coward had just emerged and shot the damn projectile again.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Grggggg! He took the attack to the arm, and lifted it up. His legs planted onto the ground, soaking in and enduring the explosive force. And he held. Not a single step left its post.

  Grggggg! A true warrior was like this. Whatever was up there was no warrior.

  Each of the rabbits exploded into black fog, covering up the coward’s retreating path. There! He had concerned the enemy. Two rabbits later, and he sprinted toward the falling coward.

  Every step he landed, he continued to release more black smoke to the surroundings. All the rabbits stayed in his path bent down and spasm on the floor. Every stride he made, the sweet aroma continued to infiltrate his body. Die! Die! Die! All of these nutrients, he would grab them all.

  Jumping up and slamming the coward onto the mountain, his head stretched out and gnawed onto the rabbit’s neck. A stronger aroma assaulted his nose, making him feel like being in the middle of a flower farm, but at the same time, the bland and disgusting taste in his mouth ruined the sensation.

  He tussled with his own mouth, refusing to chew anything. The rabbit’s blood did flow into his throat, but that was inevitable. The meat was already inside his mouth, after all. But that didn’t mean he wanted to eat that. A no was a no.

  He battled the urge. A moment of indulgence had given way for this primal sensation again. Even though his head hurt from this wrestling, he could still draw this line. This much he could do.

  Grggggg! He dropped the meat and returned to use the black smoke to extract those aromas. He could sate the appetite this way. No raw meat was needed.

  Why did he act like this? The body was obviously his, but it moved on its own. There was a continuous stream of energy knocking on his mind, as if he was fighting a separated war there. It constantly rammed into his mind, bringing in shattered images of both strange and familiar places jumbled together.

  One moment, he was in a wetland dominated by forked-leaves trees and short, protruding shrubs several meters up from the dark, murky water surface. A second later, he was inside a cave with brown, bumpy walls and tons of exploding projectiles. These two places kept flashing in his mind, one after another, as if they were competing to be the dominant force. As if they were fighting for supremacy of his very existence.

  He swirled backward and licked his lips. A battle. Something was fighting there. A bear? How dared it steal his rabbits? No, this was his playground. Anything else had to die.

  The black smoke continued to make quick work of the remaining rabbits, but now, the majority of them went with him. Like a conqueror, he led the charge. Two legs at first, then he bent forward and tapped the floor with his two arms. Two became four. With four limbs, he dragged the whole smoke with him, and crashed onto the big black bear.

  Sniff. Sniff. A familiar scent exuded from the bear. Tasty. His senses ordered him to destroy that bear by all means. It couldn’t be let alive.

  He pounced upon the enemy. For each blow he got, he paid back with two bites. His jaw broke from a slap, but the black smoke trudged on. Countless tentacles formed and were crushed under the assault of the beast. And him as well.

  His fists kept on landing despite every bone having long been shattered. The veins burst and drenched his body in blood. He landed on top of the bear and stomped the beast using his legs. They suffered the consequences similar to their fist cousins, but none mattered.

  Fear. It had arrived. Not for him, but the enemy. In a duel, that was the first crack that would spiral everything out of control. He had no fear, and thus, the winner would be him. There was no other way. The result of this battle had long been decided. This was his rule. And this was his way of fighting.

  Then it came. In the middle of the fight, another force infiltrated his mind, where the other battle was taking place. A third party was here. Also green, but it shot straight through the current invading force, staggering it and causing chaos.

  For the first time in forever, clarity entered his mind. No more weird senses ordering his body parts around. And he remembered.

  In the middle of the ocean, he had found the raft. Under the illegal invasion of the soul, he had bet everything to go there. He had been searching for it ever since that night, but no matter where, he just couldn’t find it. Was it even real? This question had no less than once found its way to his thoughts.

  But here he was. He was standing in the final bastion. And what a final bastion it was. Nothing had changed. It was the same two-story mansion that he had seen in his memory. He didn’t build it. He didn’t forge it. But he was there, from the start to finish, witnessing it come to life from just a sketch.

  His “fingers” ran along the sturdy, dark green frame, touching the sharp, black spikes on its trunk and feeling the cold sensation from the item. The interior was empty, but soon, it would have its first guest. He wanted to embrace it, but that would need to wait for now.

  The two soul siblings weren’t here, but he had no doubt that they had fulfilled their roles with flying colors. A birduomera and a stag. They could’ve been his first two guests, but instead of a nice mansion, he only gave them the two crude cages.

  He had been looking forward to nurturing these two tiny souls into the two majestic beasts, but this option was by all means dead now. Not like he had any particular bond with them. Just a little closeness to the first soul he had ever captured in this world.

  The two enemies kept on fighting each other, but to Zalanir’s eyes, they were just one. Two parts of the same soul that he had risked his life to capture. How did they even get split like that? Also, where did that third smaller soul come from? If it wasn’t for its arrival, he wouldn’t have been able to regain his consci—

  Shaking his head, he let go of the thought. Over-analyzing this would lead nowhere. He could just merge them together later. How many parts or how they came about didn’t matter. With how overpowered this lantern was, there was no way such a task couldn’t be done. He had seen Verizss’ia captured even a god’s soul, for fuck’s sake.

  Let’s put an end to this raid, shall we?

  “Lantern of Verizss’ia!” he screamed the name of the skill. It would be a polite action to let the three souls know what had come for them.

  What are the most annoying/underwhelming things in the first volume?