But the tendril never reached him. As Dorian looked up, the tendril and the swirling ball were already disappearing, turning into black mist. Dozens of jet-black spikes were jutting out of the ground and into the brown robed man's body. Although his face still had a frozen look of surprise and disbelief, he was undoubtedly, dead.
"W-what?" Dorian could not believe the turn of events, just a minute ago, he was walking down the alley with his friend, worrying about selling some papers and now some strange circus freaks killed his friend and somehow one of them ended up dying too. All of it felt like a nightmare which he couldn't seem to wake up from.
A chilling voice, barely a whisper but somehow clear in his head, came from the other stranger "There seem to be no humans in the vicinity" he paused and looked at the corpse of the horse-faced baldy "No living humans at least. I apologize but this is the best I can do."
"What are you on about you bastard?" Dorian screamed. "What even are you? Why are you doing this?"
Before he could get an answer, a high pitched, distinctly feminine voice called "Dorian?"
He looked back, a spark of hope in his heart, but Lily was still there, unmoving.
There was no one else there, except her dead body and a white cat in the corner. 'But i heard my name? Am I going crazy? Am I hallucinating? Is that why I can't wake up from this dream?'
His thoughts were interrupted when the cat moved towards Lily's body, sniffed, and then turned to Dorian, staring at him with ocean blue eyes. Slowly, it opened its mouth and the same high pitched voice came out "Dorian? What is happening?"
He took a step back, turned around and looked at the tall, hooded man, but he was standing still as a statue. 'Well, if he wanted to kill me, I'd be dead already. Maybe he mistook us for someone else?' thought Dorian and ran to the cat, grabbing it in his arms and turning around to keep the stranger in his field of vision. It'd be better if he could run away but he was still trapped in a ball of shadows, nothing but darkness surrounding him on all sides and besides, he didnt want to test the patience of the veiled murderer.
"Lily, you're alive?" Dorian hissed. "What the hell? Is that really you?"
"What's happening to me Dorian?" the cat repeated "who are these people?"
"Again, I apologize" the hooded figure hissed. "Soul magic is far too complex, even for me." he glided forward as he was speaking "This feline creature was the only living being around us and I am merely a novice in soul transplant."
"You bastard!" the cat, Lily, hissed and jumped out of Dorian's arms. "I get it now. You did this to me, your ugly bastard friend killed me and then you put me in this cat-body. What kind of freaks are you?"
Dorian felt a jolt of fear at his friend's outburst, after all it was common sense not to yell at a psychopathic stranger who might or might not be here just to kill you, was it not? Lily really has no tact sometimes. Actually most of the times.
"I presumed being in a cat body would be better than being in a dead body" the strange smoke covered figure replied. He was now only a couple meters away from them and despite being covered in that eerie smoke, his movements still looked graceful "Perhaps I was wrong? Shall I undo it?"
"You-" "Stop, Lily. Please!" Dorian interrupted before Lily somehow managed to piss off the stranger. "Who are you? What's soul magic? What do you want from us? Believe me, you have the wrong people, we are homeless kids. We don't have any money to give you. "
"I am Nox." replied the veiled stranger. "And I have much to tell you, Prince of Nephtis."