The thing is that the curse realised that Folisha had ran out of earthly things to explain, so she had started to add random things, because the curse knew that without information, the Knight might kill her and then no more monster meat. But in the last week it had gotten worse as if she was going rabid, her own personal experiences were running out. The Knight saw that something was wrong, then it decided to look at her soul. The Knight could not see as vividly as Arduo but having to deal with souls often, it could observe souls with a bit of strained effort on its side.
One look at Folisha, then at the cage, it was then the Knight saw it, monsterfication. It was not that the Knight had seen this process before, but their souls started to resemble a soft mix between the two, monster and human, as if it was one soul becoming the other. One of Folisha's lessons was that when what is known as a pure soul has met a certain number of conditions it evolves into another soul, this is how the other races emerged, but this is also how the monsters emerged. So, they were becoming monsters.
The Knight did not panic but it had a couple of options some not useful, and others distasteful. Hoping another group of humans would come was not a reliable plan, the guard posted at the gate, had not seen anything thus it was not a viable option. It could try and remove the monster part out with visage of terror, the Knight knew how to use it to such an extent, but then what would it feed them after. Then was an option the Knight had sacrificed a few slaughter points to get from the grain of darkness.
Madness cannot be removed while keeping the soul attached to the body. A dead soul possesses no madness.
That was when the Knight decided it will just kill them and store their souls in the inventory for later use. The whole thing was the Knights folly. It had known it could store souls for later; there was no need to keep them alive. Then why? The Knight may not be human anymore, but it was reluctant to just throw it all away. So, even after killing Nick there was still a hope that it could somehow still regain some of the parts of being human. By keeping the humans as company and breeding generations to stay with the Knight, the Knight might retain some of its human quirks. It had even gained 10 levels for this greed.
The Knight had wanted the souls and the people themselves. It was not under a curse, well, unless one considers the greed skill its own curse, but it had convinced itself it could keep the souls alive. The whole 50 years in solitude, the Knight had hoped to still find a way to be human again, and these unfortunate souls were its goal. The current ones were a lost cause, but the babies to come would think of the Knight as their companion. Holding onto what is not there is how you fall deeper. The Knight was trying to use a rope that was not fastened on anything to climb out of a boundless hole, one so deep, the Knight was still falling.
Imagine being lost, not only that you have lost your memories. You are stuck in the woods filled with trees so tall, their foliage blocks out the sun, and in a forest so vast, most of the critters living in it never live long enough to make it to the edges. You know not which way is home, or if you even have one, and you just start running hoping to break through. The Knight had not been too active in its search, but one thought had been festering for fifty years, what if it gets its memory and it had come further from home, being human, that it could ever hope to ever recover. The Knight truly had nothing human in it, even the heart did not beat. Even now it was not hesitating, merely going over its options, this was not a dilemma, just an inconvenience.
Thus, before their souls deteriorated any further the Knight started the butcher.
You have slain a level 40 human Ansi. Soul acquired.
You have slain a level 41 human Max. Soul acquired.
You have slain a level 43 human Arduo. Soul acquired.
They had not fought, impassively waiting to die. The curse might have wanted more flesh, but it could not make them fight against their source of monster flesh, it was not even sure what to do. The Knight then looked down at the baby, not even bothered by their slaughter, softly giggling in the dark, even with its blood flowing, did this baby even know to cry.
You have slain a level 3 human Unnamed. Soul acquired.
Looks like Arduo was too far gone to even name her baby. She would have loved it to death, she lost her parents, then Nick, then the thing that her love with Nick had borne fruit to. She did not even care. Her last sane thought was how she was not even able to protect anyone in the end, 'just like my parents, I could not keep my promise, pretty pathetic really.' She probably would have cried if not for the hold the skill has on her senses. The Knight had at least done mercy to the baby, not letting it grow up as a mad being, the monster that would have eventually eaten her mother's corpse.
The Knight had to face it; the greed skill was a curse of its own. It led the Knight here and allowed the humans to live long enough to suffer an even worse fate than Nick had. The lost their minds, dying in a sick twisted sense of peace, not even remembering the warmth they once shared with the comradery of those they passively watched die. The Knight looked at the cage one last time. It had even been made to become slightly more comfortable, there was a semi toilet, and sleeping bags, all crafted from Folisha's understanding by the Knight. The corpses that lay inside were at peace; madness was surely freeing. The dream the Knight had had, of harvesting human souls, while keeping the sliver of humanity it had, had become a Knightmare for the humans, that destroyed them, and taken what remained of humanity in the Knight.
Then came the time to kill Folisha. The Knight was really trying to avoid it, but after looking into her eyes, it felt even more hollow than even the Knight's own. She had just watched her friends get slaughtered, yet she seemed not bothered, more like the monster eater skill had altered her memories in real time to make sure she does not notice. She had not even talked to her friends once this past year and a couple months. She had probably been made to forget that she even had them. All there was plastered to her face was a smile, a lonely smile, waiting for the Knight to continue their conversation for the day. The Knight could hear her expression saying, 'what will we be talking about today.' She was the hardest for the Knight because it knew her in and out, she had become an integral part of its existence for a whole year. Her skill had grown twice. At level 30 she could communicate with her mind and at level 40 others could communicate to her too in her mind. Seems like special skills are more complex than the skills of the monsters. That the Knight had learned that from her too.
She had a dream to become a knight so that she could leave that depressing village. She even said Nick was a fellow who wanted to too. She was basically dead already, her friends were gone, her boyfriend – Max, her solace from the village – Ansi, her support – Arduo. Nick had started this train to madness, but it seems she will be the last aboard. Without any compassion at all, not that the Knight had any, it hugged her tightly. The Knight was not going to pretend to understand her, even though it did. But it could give this lost soul one last gift, even after robbing it of all it had left, since this soul had just told it stories enough for the Knights first 10 levels. With how greedy void creatures are with information, the grain of darkness also wanted the sacrifice of slaughter points for information, she had given him a generous amount of knowledge. With the will it possessed the Knight had a sharp memory, thus the weight of this knowledge will always remain.
Right before dying, maybe because the skill had loosened its grip on her mind because it was futile, her lips could not move, but the Knight heard it, her voice in its mind, "you were the only Knight I met, and helped me complete my understanding of the ancient language, I am just asking for one last thing… can you please bury us."
You have slain a level 42 human Folisha. Soul acquired.
There was no emotion left in the Knight, so it did not know what it would have felt otherwise. They were all gone, but they would forever be etched into its mind. It did not feel obligated to do anything, they were all just food after all, but along with its humanity the Knight decided to bury them. It knew that they did not want to end up as monster food, since they were killed by such an act, consuming monsters themselves. Coffins were made from the sturdy bones of the Alluga, and metal from the Sygiligon, even for the baby. They were then burned inside, since there might be monsters that borrow underground.
The Knight stored the other souls in the inventory and was staring at Folisha's soul. Then the Knight decided to craft it into a pendant. It was strange really, maybe the smithing skill was also responding to the situation, because the pendant had a picture of Folisha inside, an imagination of the Knights, surrounding her were her friends. Even the baby was there, cradled softly in her mothers' arms, this is how the Knight pictured they might have looked like, should they have made it out of the dungeon. The pendant had become a universal translator.
"How fitting indeed."
While the Knight could converse with void beings easily, it still would have more encounters where communication is hard in the future, and then it would have to remember them. It was the least it could do for allowing them to suffer the effects of its greed instead of a merciful instant death as Nick had received. The cage was destroyed, keeping human's captive was not needed, eventually the Knight built a more savage cage, this one for monsters.
The Knight buried them next to each other, even Nick, the Knight went back up to fetch the almost fully decayed body. Using the almost indestructible steel of the Knight the Knight fought, the Sygiligon, for a tomb stone. The stone wrote nothing but the description the Knight had gotten from the stories of Folisha. It was about how they were all connected by the desire for a better life, even if in different ways. Nick wanted adventure, Max wanted to be his second hand, Arduo wanted to keep her loved ones safe, Ansi wanted to make Arduo live better by her side, Folisha's was to become a Knight, which is why they all willingly walked in here on their own. The tomb stone said:
'A better life is worth fighting for, even if it means death.'