Star walked around the forest for the remainder of the day, making sure not to go too far away from the snake he had immobilized. He left a few marks in the places he visited so it would be easy for him to find his way through next time he came this way.
When the sun began disappearing behind the horizon, painting the world in shades of crimson, orange, and lilac, he returned to the snake, watching it in the final stages of its struggle. Its vitality was being sustained by the sun's presence, and as soon as it disappeared, without the wound through its skull healing, it would remain dead throughout the night.
Only to be revived the following morning for as long as its soul remained. That was why he wasn't simply going to kill the snake; he was going to extract its Soul Shard as well to prevent any possibility of it coming back to life.
Though if he played his cards right, he could potentially get himself an endless supply of snake meat. If only snakes were actually appetizing.
The sun finally disappeared completely, and a silver moon rose into the empty sky. It was a starless night once more, and with it came the snake's demise. It simply stopped moving the moment the sun was out of sight.
Heaving a sigh, Star pulled out his sword from the snake's skull and turned it over, carefully carving the chest open. As his fingers traced along the creature, he could feel a subtle Aura welling up within its body, signifying that its Soul Shard was already manifesting.
Every living thing on Astryss possessed a Core; the medium through which one's Soul Energy, and thus one's Aura, could be expressed. Upon death, however, the Core would shatter as the essence of their existence would simply cease to be.
But not all of their essence would disappear. A fragment would be left behind, contained within the creature's body in the form of a shard of what was once whole. The phenomenon was one that greatly intrigued Star.
It reminded him of the philosophical question of which had come first between the chicken and the egg. In this case, his question was whether one's Core was merely a part of the soul, or if it was actually the soul contained within one's Core.
In any case, it was a question he wouldn't be receiving an answer to anytime soon, so he put it at the back of his mind and quickly began carving out the snake's Soul Shard.
Before long, he found the Soul Shard embedded near the creature's chest. The crystal was as hard as diamond when he felt it, but what drew him even more was its ethereal glow. Plucking it out of the snake's chest, he stared at the jagged crystal intently.
Rough on the edges, the Soul Shard looked like something that had absorbed as much light as it could and was now slowly expelling it, lighting up a small area around him. But the light wasn't very strong.
"I think it's only a Dormant Soul Shard..."
Wondering that, a sense of alarm began to rise within him. In all his preparations there was one thing he had failed to account for, and that was what he would do with all the shards he would get from hunting creatures around Paradise.
Had it been any other Dormant human, then they would have been able to absorb the essence contained within the shard, saturating their Core. However, Star wasn't any other human—he couldn't even be considered normal in any normal sense.
There were many practical nuances to his existence that he still had yet to understand despite his foreknowledge of the story, and it all had to do with what had transpired for his birth to actually be possible.
So this crystal was as good as useless to him.
'I guess it's not too useless. I at least have a torch to find my way back.'
Now all he needed to do was find some dry firewood to make himself a nice dinner.
Knowing which way to go and with the Soul Shard lighting his way, it didn't take him a lot of time to get the things he was looking for. After dressing the meat, he tied it up with vines and headed back to the heart of the sanctuary.
His entire body was sore by the time he arrived at the castle. Setting his spoils to the side, he sat down on the stairs and leaned back, taking raspy breaths. He did not see Elysia nearby, which meant that she was somewhere behind or by the castle instead.
While thinking about her, Star couldn't help but look to the shard he had in his hand. The glowing crystal reflected in the depths of his ruby pupils, making him smile wryly.
He suddenly had an idea on what to do with the Soul Shard, but it all depended on Elysia.
Star made a mental note of what he intended and stood up from the stairs. He walked to the side where he kept his spoils and immediately set the firewood in place. Then, he tried to make a fire.
'This is... a bit too hard.'
He kept trying as best he could, but after what felt like an eternity of hitting two stones against each other, Star slammed one on the ground and sighed in frustration. A minute later, he began trying to make a fire once again.
Once again, he groaned and angrily threw the rocks on the ground. Sighing, he stood up and went to pick up the stone he had thrown to his right. When he turned around, he saw Elysia walking toward the other stone.
She picked it up and turned to him.
"What are you doing?"
"Making myself a good dinner."
Quickly closing the gap between them, he reached out his hand for the rock she had with her. However, rather than give it back to him, Elysia reached for his other hand and took the rock he was holding.
Her voice sounded slightly enthusiastic when she spoke.
"Let me try."
Star did not say anything but quickly stepped back and watched her kneel in front of the firewood he prepared. She immediately rearranged everything, but before starting the fire, she placed the rocks together and asked him a question.
"Where did you find a Dormant Soul Beast?"
Star shrugged.
"There's a small forest south of here filled with Dormant Soul Beasts."
He noticed a subtle shift in her composure the moment she heard his words. Elysia was quick to set herself straight, though. Without another word to him, a fire was soon made. She stood up and dusted her hands.
Throwing a furtive glance at the glowing crystal shard Star had lying by his side, she turned around to leave. Star noticed Elysia's gaze and quickly picked up the crystal, offering it to her with a smile on his face.
"I wouldn't be okay with myself if I didn't at least thank you after you just went out of your way to help me."
Elysia refused his offer.
"How about you give me some of the meat instead?"
Star nodded, pulling away his hand. He was lucky she simply refused and didn't ask him why he hadn't used the crystal anyway, so this was as far as he could push his luck.
He could always tell her he had already fully saturated his Core, and although she would be able to easily tell he was lying, he was certain she would decide not to. Elysia didn't like talking either, so she made the decision that would cost her the least words.
'It's not like I wouldn't make the same decision.'
Sitting by the fire, he began roasting the meat while Elysia watched him from the side. He took a bite once the meat was done, but quickly lost his appetite. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't good either—simply not to his taste.
It was Elysia who ended up eating most of the meat. She finished it all, in fact, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Star continued to force a strip of meat down his throat and felt joyful when she finally finished the last piece.
Next time he was going to hunt creatures with much better meat, but that wouldn't be until tomorrow. He put out the fire and picked up the Soul Shard lying on the ground next to him.
Elysia looked at the shard one last time before going to the lake to take a bath. While she was taking her time, Star went ahead to pluck one of the golden fruits for himself. Unable to eat most of the snake meat, he was still left hungry after their meal.
After he was done eating, he moved to the grove and continued his training from where he left off the other night. Although there was little progress to be made, he still kept trying to better his control of Soul Energy as best he could.