I awoke softly, a strange urge to open my mouth washing over me.
I let out a strange breath. I had no idea what it was called, but my past vessel did the same as well whenever it awoke.
A freezing cold gust nipped down at my very bones.
I rubbed my eyes softly as two spots on my vessels back began to throb in pain.
My back was hot though, throbing in a burning pain. I had already gone through it once before with my last vessel, so it was bearable, but it was incredibly sensitive to touch. So much to the fact that even the cold air blowing on it was enough to cause pain
It seems that the mutation is ready to occur any moment...
I'll have to sleep without clothes. If I sleep with them and my wings grow in whilst I'm unconscious, it'll be a mess.
I look over. A simple white "shirt", black "boxers" and a pair of "shorts" of a similar shade.
I sighed inwardly to myself, wearing the clothing to keep myself warm as I crawl out the broken window of the structure I was in.
Thankfully, the roof seemed to be leak-proof so I was completely dry. I was, however, as previously mentioned, freezing.
Not as bad as it would be outside, but still incredibly cold.
My abdomen releases a guttural sound, like a groaning of some sort as I look down.
I'm also hungry.
I began to prod at my body. I had a bit of flat, so my vessel will be able to consume nutrition from that for a small amount of time, meaning I have a grace period till I desperately need food.
The gnawing feeling of hunger bit down on me, asni got up and shook the drowsiness off my vessel.
I find vessels by reviving corpses without souls.
I can't bring people back to life, as that would require their soul to return to their body, however I can revive the body itself for me to inhabit.
This kind of "Pseudo-Revival" is what causes the mutations. However, as stated before, the first of the mutations is regeneration. This stops the aging process of the cells in the body, because they regenerate before they can die, meaning that I'll have to change my vessel semi-frequently even if I don't die so as not to raise suspicion on why I'm not aging.
I've only had one other vessels so far.
I lived out in a cottage in the wilderness with it before...
Well, there was a disaster that forced me to leave...
Either way, that's unimportant.
I need food.
I looked around the structure I was in. There wasn't much, a strange wooden box, a few large iron scaffolds of some kind with rotting crates on them and moss everywhere.
I could probably use that wooden box to trap an animal, couldn't I?
I look towards my arms.
Regeneration and wings aren't the only mutations. There are a few others. For example, heightened strength.
But it seems a little too early for it to have developed properly right now, so I'll just have to do this without.
I cracked my neck and walked over to the box. It was about big enough to fit one of those tiny humans I see everywhere inside.
Perfect for a small animal.
I place my hands on the box and begin to push, using all my strength to move it out.
Since I'm on the inside, I can remove the barricade that stopped me from entering before.
I open the door to the structure and begin to push the box out slowly, urging with all my strength to get it out.
I managed to just get it out of the structure, fully exhausted. But I can't stop yet. I opened the lid of the box, and I had to use a surprising amount of might to do so.
Inside was nothing but dust.
I take a breath and limber up a little before venturing out into the woods for a few berries.
Doesn't matter if they're poisonous or not. As long as it's not something that'll kill me in, like, fifteen minutes, I can just regenerate my way out of most poisons.
Not saying it won't be a pain though...
I had good knowledge with plants, I don't know how long I've been alive since, I've spent most of my time as an Angel out in the wilderness, but I know it's been a long time.
It would be pathetic of me not to know how to survive after all that time.
I managed to find some, and by some I mean a lot. I took off my shirt, my bare breast ou in the open as I used my shirt as a kind of bag to hold all the berries.
I move over to the box and eat some to stave off my hunger a bit, before dumping the rest in there.
I use my hand to squish it a bit in order to properly let the aroma spread through the air and attract a few small herbivores.
And then, we wait.
I had taken a vine from the forest, tying it to the lid of the box and setting myself up a good distance away.
And then I watched.
Time went by slowly, as I stayed completely still.
It'll take time for an animal to fall for it.
Thankfully, I was lucky. It didn't take too much time for a small animal to come by.
Two bunnies.
I like bunnies.
They're my favourite animals.
I yank on the vine, the lid of the chest falling down before I hear loud squeaks. The chest rattles, the bunnies desperate to escape.
I walk over and carefully open it up, only allowing my hand to enter before grabbing one of the bunnies and snapping its neck. I do the same for the other one as well.
I examined the bunnies, one was a bit bigger than the other, a male. The smaller one was a female.
I watch two wisps of white float up above the corpses as I quickly catch them and stuff it into my mouth.
Souls. Both demons and angels need souls to survive. Living as a purely spiritual being means you need to eat souls in order to continue your existence and grow stronger. Since I'm not in a purely spiritual form and have an actual body, I don't need to eat as many souls to survive, but eating them will allow for the strength of my mutations to increase.
The less pure a soul, the more energy I can get from it. However, the purity of a soul is determined by the soul itself. If you think you're a saint, even if you kill people your soul will be pure white. The opposite is true as well. That's why creatures that don't have sentience like bunnies have very weak energy…
I sigh and look over at the two bunnies.
I begin to eat them both raw. I didn't have time to cook them, and any disease I could catch will be healed by my regeneration anyway, so it doesn't matter.
It was tough, smelled bad, had a gamey taste and was frankly hard to swallow. I had a lot of experience eating things raw though, so it wasn't too bad.
My muscles were a little stronger from the souls I had eaten, so I was able to gobble up the corpses rather easily.
I need to ration them though. I'll save one for tomorrow, if I can't catch another. I was lucky, I might not be tomorrow.
I strip and go back to bed.
I was so tired…