The Ferrymen
After about thirty minutes, Hades and Aeacus had continued to alternate eating souls. They had each consumed around 5 souls since they were taking their time to make sure nothing had gone wrong each time they consumed another one.
After Charon stopped coming up with theories, he decided to join in as well. He decided to experiment a bit however.
He gathered Astral Energy in front of him, slowly carving their shape into something else until he got five hands made up of Astral Energy which were slightly bigger than his own hands.
He had then sent those hands out to gather up souls for himself, he had decided to not hold back since there were at least a hundred souls gathered on this beach. Using this method, he gathered up about thirty souls in front of him.
As he was debating what to do with the souls, he saw Hades walking towards him.
"It seems that you only got it with one soul due to the heightened talent of a progenitor." Hades gave Charon a big grin.
"So you now have a door similar to what I described then?" Charon gave a grin to Hades in turn, happy at his brother's success.
"Yes… Although it's interesting." Hades said, thinking of what he saw inside his own afterlife.
"I'm assuming you had those figures as well then?" Charon's countenance rapidly shifted to a much more grim one.
"Yes, but according to the knowledge I gained…"
"Exactly, Hades. I am not sure but that is what I think as well. Don't tell anyone else for now, as far as we know right now we could still be wrong."
Hades nodded in agreement to Charon's words before looking at the thirty odd souls gathered in front of him.
"I'm letting Aeacus continue without me for now so he can gain one as well. We may not know our species fully yet but I think we can agree that the afterlife is a key aspect." Hades informed Charon before having his attention drift back towards the souls gathered.
"What will you do with these?" Hades gestured toward what was essentially a pile of souls.
"I'm not sure, I was considering adding them to my afterlife however. Even with those strange figures, I haven't received even a drop of Astral Energy from my afterlife. It seems that only these souls can do that."
Hades nodded in understanding before rubbing his chin, "Why not do half and half? You have about thirty souls here, so you could always consume around fifteen of them and send the rest to your afterlife."
Charon thought about Hades advice before shrugging his shoulders, "I suppose that's better then doing it one way or the other for now."
Reaching out, Charon gathered Astral Energy in his hands to allow himself to grab the souls. He slowly began to place them in his mouth, sending them to what seemed to function as his new stomach, only stopping when he reached exactly fifteen souls.
With each soul devoured, his size rapidly inflated and deflated back to six feet over and over again. His Soul and the Astral Energy which it was made of became heavily condensed beneath his skin.
He could feel more Astral Energy coursing through his body and soul than ever before. As it seemed to have condensed to the point that the Mana which spread throughout his body slowed down to a crawl.
He could feel as if something about him had fundamentally changed, so he decided to check with his records as he summoned it forth into his hands. He began to look through the most recent pages to see if he could find a greater understanding of what had happened.
However he was shocked to see several new positions as well.
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Owner: Charon Vertigo
Inherent Ability: Instinct
Species: ??? (Unnamed)
Position: Progenitor of ???, Prince of a Fallen Kingdom, Adjudicator, The New 01110011 01101111 01110101 01101100 00100000 01100100 01101001 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 00001010
Discovered Talents: Research, Soul Mana, Tiger Claws
Discovered Racial Abilities: Soul Pact, Soul Sight, Species Ritual, Afterlife
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"What is this?" Charon looked at the long string of numbers in confusion.
"What's wrong?" Hades asked as he looked at Charon.
"I am not sure. Whatever it is, I don't think it's important right now however." Charon decided to investigate the strange new position later.
Charon continued on, reading the most recent passage about him eating the souls.
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Charon ate each soul, sending them directly to the vortex. As he ate, his soul's size increased but was immediately and forcibly shrunk down by the physical aspect of his being.
As this happened, his soul's Astral Energy was forcibly compressed together. Due to the new Astral Energy being from another soul, he has received contact from several other souls during this process.
His existence has now become slightly enhanced.
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"Interesting. It seems my existence has become enhanced further even if only slightly." Charon nodded his head in newly gained understanding before unsummoning his Records.
He then decided to unsummon the hands made up of Astral Energy as they dispersed before the energy returned to his soul.
He then began to place the souls within his afterlife, guiding them past the devouring vortex and towards the door. Once leading them inside, the souls turned into vaguely humanoid figures made up entirely of Astral Energy.
They looked around in confusion before they could feel some force guiding them towards a cloaked figure holding up a set of scales.
The scales proceeded to lean one way or the other, as two ferrymen showed up, one at each side of the river. The Ferrymen were on each side of the scales, with each person feeling themselves forced toward whichever Ferryman the scales leaned toward.
Once the fifteen souls were separated, the ferrymen began to paddle away from the shore which the souls had arrived at.
Charon had been talking to Hades during this process as he stopped talking when he and Hades had seen something unexpected.
Out from Charon came two cloaked ferrymen on their own ferries. Their stature was quite small, as their ferries were around the size of a fist. They carried several tiny passengers with each of them made up of Astral Energy.
The Ferrymen floated on a river as black as the night sky with tiny spots of white light glittering through the surrounding darkness. The tiny RIver seemed to grow forward as the ferries moved while receding behind the ferries as well, almost as if moving alongside the two ferries.
Hades and Charon simply watched on, utterly shocked at this turn of events. They saw one of the ferrymen move towards Hades as it simply bobbed along the river moving right past Hades' skin.
Hades looked even more shocked as he could sense inside his soul. He kept track of the ferry as it moved calmly through his soul before arriving at the door to his afterlife.
The tiny Ferryman then opened the door before the passengers slowly entered the afterlife one by one. After all the passengers were brought to their destination, the door slowly closed as the ferryman simply seemed to fade out of existence along with his ferry and the river below it.
Hades then turned his gaze toward Charon who was watching the other Ferryman in confusion. The ferryman calmly rowed his ship forward towards Aeacus who was walking back towards Charon.
Aeacus stopped however, when he saw the tiny Ferryman rowing towards him. He looked at Charon and back towards the Ferryman who reminded him of his liege for some reason.
"I don't think it's harmful, Aeacus. It seems those passengers are souls. I'm guessing you finally opened your afterlife?" Hades interjected before Aeacus could do something.
"Uh, Yes. But why is it bringing souls to me?" Aeacus asked in confusion.
It was at this point Charon looked towards Hades in shock. Hades also turned towards Charon in confusion.
"I am receiving energy from your afterlife!" Charon could feel it now, a steady trickle of Astral Energy coming from his door, Astral Energy which he innately sensed came from Hades' afterlife.
Hades could also sense a flow of Astral Energy heading for Charon from his own soul.
"So, your afterlife collects energy from ours? How?" Hades didn't mind, he had already decided to follow Charon for the rest of his life, he was just curious.
"I am not sure. My guess is that our afterlifes are actually connected with each of you having one for people my soul deems good and people who are deemed bad. It seems that a Ferryman will then bring those souls to the correct afterlife for them." Charon hazarded a guess, even as his face was marred with deep confusion.
"Interesting. It seems we still receive energy too from our own Afterlife as well." Hades interjected as he could now feel his own trickle of Astral Energy coming into his own soul.
Aeacus simply let the tiny Ferryman enter after hearing their words, his loyalty in Charon fully apparent to all gathered.
"We should save the rest of the souls for your siblings Aeacus. They will need to gather enough to gain their own afterlife." Charon said as Aeacus gave him a grateful smile in return.
It was at this moment that the group of four returned. They seemed mostly unharmed with only Howard and Kathy having a couple minor injuries visible on their bodies.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone