Two weeks later, Logan felt like he had hit the jackpot. He felt great as if he had just come home from a morning jog and took a shower. His mind felt refreshed and his efforts rewarded.
His Soulforce had grown a considerable size from his original 70 Soulforce, reaching a total of 130 Soulforce units after devouring more than 50 souls over the course of two weeks. His soul had almost doubled in size. This meant that his Soulsense now covered an area of over 260 times the diameter of his current soul. Not that Logan had any sense of time, he simply felt the joy of progress.
His sense of guilt had dwindled, replaced by a determination to succeed in his endeavours. Logan decided he would not dwell any longer, as that would simply brand him as a hypocrite. It is better for him to bravely own up to his actions, and at least leave this place of darkness.
He had also noticed the continually dwindling power of the souls he was consuming. The wear of the dark caused heavy damage to most souls, giving him increasingly diminishing returns. Even though Logan had devoured over 50 souls, his Soulforce did not even double, even though he got more Soulforce out of only 20 souls one week ago.
He was waiting for another soul to approach him, almost halfway through his Soulsense, when something brushed past his awareness. For the first time, Logan shivered.
'That wasn't a soul!' thought Logan, a bubble of fear welling up within him.
Calling back his awareness, he carefully weaved it into a long, thin thread of Soulforce. Extending it forward stealthily, he moved it into the region he felt the sensation. Sweeping past the area around him, Logan didn't find anything, even after searching for a long time.
Finally calming down a bit, he extends his awareness once more, dispelling the feeling as but an illusion, though still refusing to let down his guard.
Abruptly, something appeared in his periphery! Logan quickly gathered his Soulforce onto the entity that trespassed into his awareness.
'A soul… You scared me half to death dammit! Prepare for punishment, puny thing!'
Partly losing his rationality, he closes in on the soul with the full might of his massive size, his intentions all but obvious. Meanwhile, the smaller soul approaches carefreely, not realizing the grief it had brought upon the massive soul growing steadily in proximity.
Unfortunately, the smaller soul would not be able to receive said punishment. Out of the dark emptiness, before Logan could even react to its presence, a maw twice the size of Logan's soul, the colour of black transparency, appeared and devoured the pitiful soul in one big bite.
After devouring its prey, the maw disappeared without a trace, the body of the creature unseen by Logan.
Shell-shocked, he dared not move.
'Where the heck did that thing come from,' Logan thought, paranoid, 'it is in the middle of my Soulsense and yet, I could only feel its presence when it opened its maw and swallowed up the soul'
Horrified by the realisation he would not be able to see the abomination coming, he gently gathered his Soulforce, using his mind to the limit, trying not to provoke the invisible creature.
He quickly used his concentrated Soulforce to create a sturdy barrier, twice the approximate size of the maw, around himself. Logan could only hope it would be enough.
'A barrier of this size should prevent me from being swallowed whole. I can only hope it will hold against this horror!'
Out of the dark, to his right, the massive jaw abruptly materialised once more. It split apart his Soulsense before Logan could even get the chance to glimpse at its appearance!
The destruction of his Soulsense, however, created a short window of opportunity for Logan to react. He stretched his soul, using the whole of his Soulforce to strengthen the right side of the barrier surrounding him.
The destruction of his Soulsense allowed him to create an estimate of its appearance. A maw twice the size of his soul, with a short body following it. A sweeping tail, not unlike a whip, moved it forward while annihilating his awareness.
It was the action of strengthening his barrier, combined with Logan's quick thinking in enlarging the barrier in hopes of not being swallowed, that allowed him to survive the crash that followed.
Bracing for impact, he kept bolstering his defences when a loud blast hit his mind like a truck. The creature slammed into the barrier with its maw wide open, at a speed far superior to anything Logan had ever seen.
Cracks spread out on his barrier like a web. Logan quickly tried to repair the biggest cracks, healing it at breakneck speed. He did not get far before his barrier started breaking apart at a fast pace, the creature grinding its maw against it.
Suppressing his fear of the unknown, Logan tried out a new idea. Not unlike what he did when he first awakened, he wove his force together, creating a long shaft. On the shaft, he constructed a sharp edge ending on one sharp point.
Dismantling the unused parts of the barrier on the other side of the creature, he strengthened the tip of the newly-formed spear. With all the power he could muster, he thrust the spear forward, intending to pierce right into its maw.
With a roar destabilizing his soul, the creature let go of Logan's barrier, his spear stuck right down its throat. Trying to shake the spear loose, the creature rampaged through the dark, with Logan refusing to let go.
Thrusting forward with the entirety of his Soulforce, Logan recklessly abandoned his barrier, reconstructing it into a small edge, hacking down on its tail again and again.
A massive echo struck his soul once again, striving to fruitlessly disturb his concentration. Immersed in the feeling of hanging on the thread of life and death, Logan chopped down one more time with the entirety of his force, severing its tail while keeping the creature in place, manipulating the massive spear stuck in its maw.
Feeling the creature weakening, Logan hacked down on its presumed head, the creature having nowhere to dodge since losing its main method of movement. Cornered, the creature tried to lunge at Logan once more but was stopped by the spear.
With one final chop, the creature stopped moving, its form revealing itself at last.
'I did it! I survived!' Logan thought with pride, his feelings of elation only subsiding after a long time.
Unfortunately, after his emotions of victory subsided, what replaced it was fear.
'One mistake would have meant death. If I didn't have the Soulforce to battle, I would have been dead. Reacting a beat too slow would have meant being devoured. I mustn't get careless!' Logan thought drearily.
He only had one soul, a simple mistake would have snuffed out his existence. he would have no one to let out his grievances then.
Stabilizing his emotions, he calmly reached out to the corpse of the creature he had slain with his Soulsense. With the creature dead, his sense was not obstructed any longer. A monstrous being was revealed, a bulbous maw, with three full layers of razor-sharp teeth.
Right above its maw was an antenna Logan had almost severed with his final chop. Moving down, the rest of its body was very snake-like, narrowing down until the very end of its tail, ending with two sharp, flat blades on opposite ends.
Cautiously touching the body of the creature, Logan was alarmed to discover it being absorbed into his soul! He felt a cold sensation spread through his being. If absorbing the soul of his fellow humans felt like the warm sentiment of home, the body of this being chilled him to his core, not unlike a blizzard sweeping through his soul. As if he had become a black hole, the entirety of its body was deformed and devoured, expanding his soul and adding a surprising 60 Soulforce capacity, bringing it up to a grand total of 190 Soulforce!