Gran's hands were shaking, blood leaked from all his orfices, but he was still firing arrows one after another.
With each arrow that pierced through the fishing net and hit the crows, Gran's grin widened.
The crows were doing their best to dodge the arrows as best as the could within the limited space the net gave.
"So what if you're a herald of Pilgrim, so what if you bring death, you still got trapped by me. And now I'll kill you."
Gran spoke hysterically.
Watching all his friends died around him and left him insane. He didn't care about the consequences. He would have his revenge.
It was fine even if all of them died here, as long as these monsters were killed so that they couldn't spread the curse back to the village, then that was enough.
All of a sudden, one of his eyes exploded, splattering black blood everywhere. Gran stumbled but stood up once more and began firing with a frenzied grin.
Ishar didn't stop there, he ordered the wounded crows that were close to death to quickly block for the ones that were still alive.
"Strigoi, quickly kill those goddamn crows." Gran coughed up black blood as he shouted, he didn't have the strength to pull his bow anymore, he had reached the end of his life.
Strigoi trembled as he raised his bow. Earlier, he could work fearlessly because Gran and the others were there.
Now that some of them had already died. And Gran was about to join them, he became fearful and didn't dare to attack, after all, these were servants of a god! And an evil god who derived pleasure from people dying.
"Do not be afraid, Strigoi!!" Gran used the last of his strength to shout and give Strigoi the courage to nock an arrow and pull the string.
At this point, Ishar didn't even have time to regret sparing Strigoi he was wracking his mind trying to get out of this situation.
There were only 4 crows left alive, one of which was already badly wounded by the arrows.
Chances of it surviving were extremely low. but the main issue was Strigoi as long as he wasn't dealt with, then all his crows would soon be dead.
"He's still alive so I can't absorb or neutralize his white mist. Even if I curse him now it will take too long before it has a proper effect. That time is more than enough for him to kill the remaining crows."
Ishar stared at Strigoi the white mist surrounding him was so thick that he couldn't even attempt to communicate with him..
"There must be another way" Ishar forced himself to calm down and began to think.
Being a remanant soul had it's disadvantages. Such as his human emotions being dulled to the point that they were almost non-existent.
But it also had a few advantages. One of which was that he could use his think far more effectively and faster than a normal human.
Ishar turned to look at the dying Gran, his eyes lit up. He had a plan.
He rushed forward and finished Gran off and began absorbing all the white mist and aura that came from his body.
Gran's emotions weren't like the other dead people, it was full of frenzy, madness and surprisingly satisfaction.
His memories and emotions caused Ishar to be be stunned. Meanwhile, the consciousness of another crow disappeared within his field of cognition.
Of the 7 crows that Ishar had started with only 3 were left.
Ishar's telepathic force came out, enveloped the crow's blood on the ground and flicked it unto Strigois' face.
Strigoi screamed ahhh recoiled in panic throwing the bow and arrow on the ground.
From the memories he had absorbed. Ishar knew that this worlds medical field was primitive and non-existent.
You didn't need to be a genius to know that if a person was cursed. And it's effect reached the blood turning it black.
Then chances are high that said sure would be transmittable through contact with the blood. To Strigoi it meant that Pilgrim had noticed him.
"Are you the one who killed my servant" a familiar yet eerie voice called out, causing Strigoi to jump and hurriedly look for the source of the voice.
He turned to see Gran he lay on the ground legs stretched before him. His back resting limp on a tree.
Black blood leaked from all his orfices. His dull and lifeless eyes a pool of obsidian. But his mouth moved like a puppets.
Strigoi was scared stiff, fell back on his butt and began to speak, "Dea—dead people coming back to life!"
"Did you kill my messenger? Human?" The voice was soft almost like it was a whisper.
However the words were a lot clearer, even though there were still some mistakes. Strigoi was able to understand what the other party was saying.
"You, yo-you are Pilgrim!!" Strigoi cried out in fear.
"You and your friends have killed so many of my messengers, I curse you to die. Your limbs shall lose their strength. Your blood will turn black. You shall bleed from all your orfices, your skin will rot away, and your corpse will be eaten by the animals of the field. This I decree in my name. Pilgrim."
"No! Please don't curse me, I didn't want to do it! It was Gran he forced me to, please forgive me, great and venerable Pilgrim please forgive me! Please take back your curse, please give me a chance to redeem myself of my mistakes!"
Strigoi prostrated himself and hurriedly begged in horror.
"Is that really true?" the dead Gran questioned the smile on his face causing Strigoi to shudder.
"If you are truly repentant and desire to redeem yourself, then there certainly is a way."
"Please, please... tell me, oh hallowed Pilgrim."
Strigoi spoke, trembling, his voice contained all sorts of emotions, including joy, horror, hatred and humiliation.
"Since you killed my servants, you will only need to help me get more."
The three remaining crows finally managed to struggle themselves out of the net, the other crows had already bled out and died. apparently,
Ishar now had only 3 out of the 7 original mutated crows he had started with.
"These 3 will follow you as long as they're with you. The curse won't kill you. You shall find more crows and raise them. You shall spread my greatness and find more people to help raise my herald's. You shall treat them as you would me. Otherwise, not just you, but your entire village will be cursed."
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Great Pilgrim, I will do as you command." Strigoi hurriedly replied.
"I shall grant you the right to call upon me, when you are faced with difficult situations, you may seek my aid. Prepare a medium such as the one I'm using to speak to you."
After declaring so, Gran's corpse went completely limp.
"Thank you, O' benevolent Pilgrim." Strigoi hurriedly thanked him, kowtowing five times to the body.
Strigoi carefully waited for a bit to confirm that the Pilgrim had indeed left, and turned to leave, only to be met with 3 cold pairs of obsidian eyes.
Ishar sighed in relief, this had gone well, besides the untimely death of 4 crows, but he damaged was nothing irreparable.
"There are several reasons why things ended up like this. But the most important one is that I am still too weak. This isn't just talking about my power, but In general."
"I was originally nothing but a normal person, a weakling. I was not exceeedingly smart in my past life, I wasn't particularly gifted. I wasn't rich I was the definition of ordinary."
"Even now as a remnant soul, my personality defects remain, like being easily pleased, arrogant, careless,... so on and so forth. If I don't change myself, what happened today will repeat itself."
"Now that I have a second chance at life. I can not waste it. I must strive to be more. I must become more than the collection of my parts. I must become something beyond human. Something inevitable. A force of nature. I must become Pilgrim, God of Curses."
Ishar's thoughts moved, he needed to change and become stronger, not just in strength alone, but in mind as well.