Damain sat upon the corpse of the once great foe and looked out towards the carnage, the still bubbling entrails and dusting of shattered bones made it seem like the scene from the deepest pits of hell, but he wasn't too focused on that what played around him, instead he moved a small crystalline shard around in his hand instead, its opulent shine reflected the bright sky like a flawless gem, its surface twisted and broken yet not any less beautiful.
He had spotted it laying in the remains of one of the many shattered corpses out of place among the chaos, its surface had been smeared with blood so he had cleaned it off in order to better examine it, Jasper was laying on the ground some distance away unconscious, he had spent a lot of his energy during the attack so he needed some well deserved rest, so for now Damian was left to his own ponderings.
The strange gem felt slightly warm to the touch as he held it in his hands, it also felt incredibly durable under normal circumstances but he was slightly hesitant to break it, he did not know what purpose these served for all he knew they were the souls of these creatures which had invaded their world and by breaking it releasing it back into the world to reap more innocent lives.
Instead he decided to survey the battlefield, hoping to better understand the workings of the creatures to better be able to take them down later, true all the creatures were different but they all shared at the very least basic anatomy, learning where vital organs were located would be a useful piece of information if used correctly. As he was examining the corpses or at least what was left of them he began to notice more and more of the same shards he was still holding, each body seemed to hold different amounts, some held only a single gem whilst others held as many as three, curiosity peaked in him as a thought crossed his mind.
He walked over to the edge of the embankment where he had shot down a number of creatures earlier on, he bent down to look over their bodies and by using his hands he tore open their flesh with quite some effort, eventually he managed to pry one open, a small deer like beast with crimson antlers and a dark grey coat and after a few minutes of digging around the corpse he found what he was looking for, right near the heart of the creature he found what felt like a strange crystalline growth and pulled it free of the connective tissue.
Soon he performed another such search on a much larger creature, this one had been covered in an almost fluffy fur if it wasn't for the dried blood holding it down, its horns curved upwards towards the sky and its face was flat and firm, he tried ripping this one open like he had the previous one, its hide was much tougher but after putting all of his inhuman strength into it he managed to succeed.
He quickly felt around finding another crystal once again near the heart in roughly the exact same place, after pulling it free he searched around some more, and near its sternum he found another and pulled it free also. His idea had been right, one thing that tied all these creatures together were these crystals, all seeming to share placement even across differing forms, the deer like monstrosity was a beast whilst the large fluffy cow like creature was a monster. Did this mean that the next tier up, most likely demons would have three? He was almost certain, but the question now came, how many crystals did the Devourerer possess?
As one question was answered two more always seemed to replace it, but it was good it meant that slowly but surely he was learning more about the new nature of the world, suddenly a strange realisation washed over him, if all the creatures here had these inside them surely the ones in the theatre would have as well. Which on its own wasn't very important but thinking back on it something clicked in his brain, remembering that Jasper had torn through the bodies of multiple creatures back then, looking down at one of the crystals in his hand he swallowed his fear, and crushed it in his palm.
The sensation was strange yet very satisfying, he could feel energy trickling into his body the amount was very small almost insignificant but the feeling of strength it provided never faded, hurriedly checking his runes he was stuck with a stupid smile painting his face as he saw it, his runes now read,
[Soul Saturation: 1/1000]
His mind was filled with a sort of perverse excitement, he had never forgotten the feeling of his…apraisial, his ascension into a more powerful version of himself, he had long desired to undergo that feeling again, to feel inhuman strength poured into his very soul, and now he had found away, the process was nowhere near as potent with only one shard but after ten? One hundred? A thousand? The strength his body would feel would be unimaginable, he would be like a lesser god in the face of humanity.
His breathing became unsteady as his excitement got the better of him as he hungrily absorbed the remaining shards in his possession letting himself relish in the euphoric feeling of power rushing through his body like an untamed river, looking over the battlefield with hungry eyes all he could see was the path to strength as the countless shards laid buried in the blood soaked dirt, ready to be consumed.
Damian spent the next few hours gathering up all the shards he could find, holding off from absorbing them until Jasper had woken up from his slumber, even carrying him back to the remnants of their temporary shelter, the idea was to share them between themselves in order to have the best chance of survival, Jasper would benefit from them much more than Damian would anyway as the more powerful he was the stronger his abilities would be and vice versa, and as much as Damian appreciated his abilities he would have rather had something more destructive right about now, on his own his ability was nothing short of amazing but once you add other people into the equation its utility becomes less and less apparent, at least in an outright fight.
Jasper stayed asleep for close to a full day after the attack, Damian using the time to build back up the damaged sections of the shelter and even cook a small meal of synthetic food over the fire, no creatures approached during this time but the pile of shards were all but alluring to Damian, and seemed ever so slightly smaller than they did at the start, not like Jasper would know the difference, however in all this time had had failed to open up the Tyrant, its hide was far to thick for Damian to puncture so he left it for now, hoping that the new memory Jasper showed off before he slept would be able to pierce through.
He hadn't shared too much about the memory before he fell asleep, Damian only knew that it was Dormant and that it emanated a strange almost hypnotic effect on those who saw it, thinking back on his own memories he summoned his bow to his side he had been too weak to draw it before but now he may have a chance. Standing up he pulled back the string with all his might, it moved more than it did before but nowhere near enough to be used, he guessed he would need to absorb close to 100 shards before he could even think about using it, and that was before the fact that he still didn't have any arrows to fire from it.
Would he ever get arrows for it? No normal arrow would be able to survive being fired from the string of this bow so would he have to wait until he got a memory arrow and even if he did only having one shot until he is able to recall, summon and fire it again would simply be way to long, if he knew how to he could maybe make some out of the discarded corpses of the creatures but he wouldn't know where to begin.
As he was contemplating these issues a noise broke him out of his thoughts, he looked over as Jasper groaned as he slowly sat up, his eyes still half shut and a look of absolute confusion painted across his face as he tried to take in his surroundings. After giving him a moment to wake up and providing him with a quick breakfast Damian explained what he had discovered about the crystals to Jasper, who was still half asleep, only responding in simple noises and affirmations.
When asked how many points he had accumulated his answer shocked Damian, as the young man had somehow managed to acquire twenty four additional points of saturation making his grant total a whopping twenty seven. Soon enough Damian was standing in the middle of the shelter feeling his body overflowing with incredible strength and endurance, he and Jasper had made a deal to share their spoils fifty fifty in order to keep it fair, and after sharing the horde together they both now had a total of thirty each.