Finding courage within himself once more, Logan came closer to the purely white soul. With smaller distances came better details. He noticed how the soul was being eaten away by the dark itself, small flecks of white light disintegrating from the soul, before being absorbed by the darkness.

'This is it! An answer to what I was looking for. The memories of a soul must help it keep itself together, not allowing for the devouring of the Dark. As such, a soul without memories is all but defenceless against absorption!'

Suddenly, one of the specks of light touched Logan's grey soul, and a feeling of intoxication spread out from him. At once, he understood why his soul had grown larger. It had absorbed part of the grey thread, which must have been created through a form of Soulforce.

'Consequently, absorbing other souls would allow me to grow my own, causing growth in Soulforce and allow me to possibly even find a way out of this place!'

A feeling of hope blossoming once more, Logan pushed himself with full force to the soul that is being disintegrated by the dark, determined to take his share of the meal.

Uttering a quick prayer and apology to the soul, he touched it, feeling himself fill up with power. Not allowing even a single particle of light to escape, he completely entombs the soul with his Soulforce, absorbing every particle and cutting of the Dark from taking any more.

Through his awareness, Logan felt himself grow stronger. He measured the size difference and concluded that his Soulforce had grown by a factor of 1.5. With the power of his Soulforce before the devouring, he was capable of extending his awareness to two times the diameter of his soul.

Logan started to sense the difference. Why did his soul only regenerate to maximum capacity, instead of growing infinitely? How come devouring another soul caused his soul to grow stronger?

The answer to such a question lay in the nature of Soulforce. Logan had found that the soul could be compared to a bucket, while Soulforce was the water. It would seem that while the water can be replenished through energy flowing in the dark, the bucket, meaning the soul, is a concept of creation and is not as easily increased.

After enlarging his soul he was able to vaguely notice small, transparent lines of energy through his awareness, replenishing him.

Unfortunately, it seems that his awareness is not yet powerful enough to seek the origin of the energy that replenishes him, and as such cannot yet take advantage of this piece of knowledge. Be that as it may, Logan was still confident in drawing in power at a faster rate, as long as he could find the source.

After the devouring, Logan had surmised he could extend his awareness to three times his souls' diameter. As such, he decided to call this unit Soulsense.

With the feeling of power and euphoria still fresh on his mind, he once again went forth, hunting for more souls, or perhaps a companion. It was only after four long hours that he found another soul, this one at least double his size.

And yet, Logan had to reluctantly accept that even this giant soul could not hold itself against the dark, and had lost its sense of self. Once again apologizing and suppressing his sense of guilt, he touched the soul, hoping to absorb more power for himself to take in.

Although the bigger soul had no consciousness left, it still struggled fiercely. When Logan came into contact with this soul, he felt like he would fall into a deep pool, never to wake again. It was only after a long struggle that the bigger soul relinquished its Soulforce, unable to win the smaller, yet intelligent soul.

A massive influx of force entered him, instantly boosting his total Soulforce to 4.5 and his Soulsense range to 9. Logan noticed multiple differences after the battle.

It seems his force has not only become more plentiful but also more robust and powerful, allowing him to split open the Dark at a faster rate, with the same amount of Soulforce.

If he had to describe the battle, Logan could compare it to a tug of war. Both souls absorb unfiltered power from each other, not yet integrating it for fear of split attention causing an unfortunate loss. After a certain amount of power was absorbed from a soul, it cannot fight back anymore, becoming passive.

It would, however, seem that the souls do not see the Dark as a threat, even as they are being devoured by it.

Logan did not give up, even after defeating the once bigger soul. He seemed almost obsessed, the feeling of hope giving way to desperation, the influx of power and euphoria causing him to seek out more and more souls.

It was only after Logan's soul started to show signs of instability that he forced himself to stop. After defeating the bigger soul, Logan has devoured over 20 different souls of varying sizes. He had become the undisputable predator of the area. With a massive Soulforce of over 70, he could a devour a soul in a matter of minutes.

With his extended Soulsense, he was able to locate another two souls to the right of his current location. Even though both of these souls should be considered empty husks, both souls still instinctually stayed together, not willing to part, yet also not absorbing each other.

Coming closer, his massive soul soon came in proximity with both souls. Enveloping them with his massive awareness, he was able to detect a phenomenon that would have been impossible to detect with a Soulforce of inferior quality.

It would seem that these souls had a small attraction to each other, like the way they resonated caused them to be in a merged state without having them seek to devour each other.

Through these two souls, Logan found that through the emission of certain wavelengths, souls could attract each other. This discovery, he reasoned, could be vital to his growth!

Even though he had become much stronger, his bigger frame forced him to push away more of the Dark, causing transportation to use up much more Soulforce. In the end, He still had to expend massive effort to progress.

As such, Logan started his research. He was met with limited success trying to replicate the wavelengths of the smaller souls, his finesse not yet up to par to the instincts of the twin souls.

'I must find a way to attract souls to myself! It is the only way for me to get out of here before I go insane of the silence and darkness. Every time my soul became stronger I was able to discover more and more facts about the place I have become trapped in. The strength of my soul also represents the strength of my being and emotion. There must be a way out if there was a way in!'

Renewing his determination, he moves even closer, but not close enough for soul-devouring and started to unwind his Soulforce until he had but a weak strand left, his control courtesy of his battles over the weeks against other, more instinctually gifted souls.

This weak strand, comparable to the Soulforce at his awakening, gently wove around one of the souls before entering its Soulspace. Once inside, Logan focused his complete awareness on detecting the waves, and how they are created.

'That's it! That's the key!' After watching the smaller soul until his own started to destabilize, he finally saw it, the way of replicating these wavelengths. There was still a very small sliver of consciousness present inside of the soul, an intense memory.

It is so powerful that it will create a small shockwave within the space, which in turn will create a self-replicating ripple of memory. Consequently, it would attract the attention of other souls, instinctually seeking something to fill their husks.

Retreating with his awareness, Logan gently probed the other soul, seeing the same wavelengths. At first, he did not understand how two souls could have the same recollection, but it became clear after a while that this memory was not as powerful as the first one.

Unfortunately, it seems that the resonating memory from the first soul created a reaction from the second soul, trying to mimic the memory. It succeeded for the most part but was not capable of truly recreating it. The only reason it was able to succeed is due to its instincts being able to recognize the memory.

'It must have been something they both lived through,' thought Logan.

Feeling curious, and wondering what kind of memory would refuse to fade, even after the devouring of the dark, he once again plunged inside the first soul, trying to see what the fragment of thought had to show.

The moment his awareness got close enough, however, he was suddenly overwhelmed by an outburst of recollection.