He looked at his hand. The faint aura of energy that usually coated him when he absorbed a soul… it had changed.
"Lighter," he observed, flexing his fingers.
Before, the energy had been a dirty, gritty Ash Grey. Now, it was shifting. It was cleaner. It was leaning towards a true, neutral Grey.
He closed his eyes, reveling in the sensation and looked inward at the hollow cavity.
The Ash Gray energy swirling in his chest had also shifted. It was no longer the dark, dirty color of soot. It was lighter now, leaning toward a polished steel gray. And it swirled faster, with more fluidity.
He opened his eyes. The world sharpened again. He could see the individual veins on a leaf ten yards away. He could even hear the heartbeat of a squirrel-like creature in a tree.
But more importantly, he felt a new sense of control. The energy didn't feel like a wild animal he had to wrestle; it felt like a limb he could flex.
