Reincarnated as a Phoenix

Chapter 171 - Guardians

"To the right Lotte!"

"Gotcha Nat!"

Nat x Lotte run together and the knight slashes into one of the beasts while the priestess's sword flies the other direction nearly cutting the creature in two.

"Haha, die hell spawn, die!"

Zeki charges forward wanting to give his new spear a proper run out and the tip of it finds its way into the undersection of the monster, impaling it upwards with Mr obnoxious relishing every moment of the killing.

'Not today'

The last of the three realizes it now is in a really sticky situation and tries to flee, only to be met by me plunging both my two weapons into its back, presumably piercing its lungs and heart if it has those organs. I'm not even sure if these things are undead but it's a fair assumption.

A strange thing then happens which I failed to notice being from the other dying creatures, almost like a white fog seems to be excreting from the corpse I just produced. It reminds me a little of the souls around this place, albeit faceless and more of a condensed husk.

It matters little how things were done or what's happening now though, all the opposition ceases to exist anymore. I am a little curious on something while cleaning the blood off my blades.

"Hey Charlotte, have you fought against those beings before?"

"No Ikarus-sama, it's just that I could feel life being consumed within them. That mist might be the residue from the souls they've consumed"

(Petra) "Huh, sensed that as well Charlotte, pretty sure that was the consumed souls themselves though"

'Oh, these two both picked that up as well? I'm oddly proud of myself'

"I presume they feed off them like how vampires might do with blood Petra-sama?"

"Unsure Charlotte, their bellies were filled with conscious souls though. Not a pleasant way to go if those screams were from the victims they consumed"

At least I can see why those two took that fight pretty seriously then, these soul eaters must consume the dead and we've just freed the victims from their burden? Eh, everybody wants a peaceful death but I really couldn't care about this sort of thing if I'm being honest. At the end of the day, maybe the souls should've done better hiding from these creatures. I'm probably being a little uncompassionate to the dead though.

"So, those creatures eat souls then? Bit unoriginal but at least we have a name for them now. We going to move on?"

Other than that small group of soul eaters and hellhounds, there doesn't appear to be anything else around here, even those passing souls we came across in the other Underworld regions don't seem to be loitering around. Considering Tartarus is supposed to be extremely dangerous, it's pretty empty all things considered. I guess those guys and the hydra weren't exactly easy foes though.

Regardless of the finished combat, Petra has started to crouch down next to one of the bodies and seems to be staring at it intensely. It's a little weird but she must have her reasons, we are the couple of weirdness after all.

"Heh, just give me a second Ikarus and we can continue on, these things are surprisingly fascinating to observe"

'Fascinating? Is Petra turning into a scientist or something now? Ah, I've got to get her in a lab coat someday, imagine if she was naked under it as well...'

"Saying it's fascinating is a little worrying Petra-sama, but I get what you mean, it's interesting despite how these souls may have suffered. Hopefully, they can rest in peace now"