章 230: Loss

"Thirty-eighth of GOETIA, Earl of Hell, Count of Death and Destruction, Halphas." 

Introducing himself, the black substance that his pale, malnourished-looking body was coated in seemed to coalesce into a single spot on his chest--etching into his right pectoral the number thirty-eight. Sora intended to part his lips to question this answer given, but he found a vacancy in his throat, soon recognized to be replaced with fear as he finally felt the aura that resided with the entity before him. 

It was different from mana, but still the same at its core. The true difference laid in its thickness and potency; it felt akin to the essence of divine mana--an existence meant to exceed mortal limitations, but the harrowing, corrupted nature of it was the complete antithesis of that very concept. 

Punching himself directly against his own cheekbone, Sora smiled as he drove the suffocating fear out from his throat.