Chapter 2: Skies of Sorrow

The Skies of Sorrow is the second major story in SoulWorker and is the first chapter for Chii Aruel and Ephnel. This arc deals with the growing SoulDreg problem in Candus City.

## Synopsis

The player SoulWorker allies with the Candus City Starry Forest Squad to help eliminate the SoulDregs. The group is the Starry Forest League's finest squad led by Aaron and Shade. Catherine, a young SoulForcer and Aaron's daughter, looks up to the SoulWorker and asks to assist the player. After taking a mission without her father's permission, she is placed on watch and is not allowed to move out of the city. The player is sent on multiple tasks to investigate the SoulDreg sources and eliminate the swarms. However, the player discovers traces of NED Company's experiments regarding SoulDregs and attempts to find evidence to expose NED Company's corruption. The player is recommended to search the abandoned NED mansion for proof of evidence only to discover Catherine's ribbon. The player makes a search effort to find Catherine but a lurking SoulDreg takes Catherine away and she is poisoned. With Henryk's cooperation, the player searches for an antidote in the abandoned NED Company lab and administers it to Catherine. However, moments later, massive SoulDreg activity suddenly occurs and the Starry Forest Squad is forced to abandoned Candus City. As the citizens escape Candus City through the skies, a SoulReaver from the abandoned lab was able to breach the carrier and makes it way towards Catherine. The SoulReaver catches Catherine and uses her as an energy source. With little hope to save her, the player is forced to kill Catherine. After her death, the SoulDreg activity whittles down and temporary peace returns to Candus City once. However, grief-stricken, the player and the members of the Starry Forest Squad seek revenge against the SoulDregs and Henryk for the cause of Catherine's death. The player makes their way towards Grace City to chase Henryk.

## Summary

Restless after resolving the troubles in Rucco Town, the SoulWorker travels to Candus City with a recommendation from Miriam. She tells the SoulWorker to head to District where a certain person would assist them with reaching Candus City. The SoulWorker meets Deleska, a Bashai, who betrayed his race and is currently allied with the Starry Forest League. Due to his actions, he is not fully trusted by the SFL but is able to obtain exclusive information due to his identity. He explains that the crossroads between the cities in Western Cloudream have become a lawless region due to the looming SoulDreg activity in the region and is attempting to restore a form of order in the area. After helping the SoulWorker understand the current situation, he redirects them to Candus City where help is more urgently needed.

Upon reaching Candus City, the SoulWorker meets Aaron and Shade and learns about the current situtation regarding Candus City. The garrison was set up after the Starry Forest League determined that the recent explosion of SoulDreg activity came from the Candus area and the 21st Starry Forest Squad Battalion led by Aaron was sent to investigate. However, the Starry Forest Squad was unable to fight against the swarm, leading to the eventual loss of supply routes, and the city is close to falling. Since Aaron heard about the feats of the SoulWorker from Miriam, he requested her to send them over to Candus City to assist with the effort. After clearing the route to the Coastal Road, the SoulWorker meets a SoulDreg researcher named Luke III and Aaron's daughter, Catherine. The SoulWorker learns that Luke III is a supporting member of the Starry Forest League and seeks to find a way for SoulDregs to coexist with humanity. He tells the SoulWorker to meet up with Catherine since she has been the one who was looking forward to the SoulWorker's arrival. Meeting with the SoulWorker, Catherine is immediately excited, and is amazed with their abilities. She laments that while she is a SoulForcer, her ability is weak and her father does not allow her to take part in missions. After clearing another mission, Luke III requests that the SoulWorker should attempt capture SoulDregs instead of killing. He does not offer a means of capturing them but tells the SoulWorker that they should mention codename Queen to Shade. Shade is initially angered with Luke III leaking confidiential information but decides to tell the SoulWorker regarding the SFL's theory in Candus City. The SoulDreg swarm is presently unnatural compared to anything the SFL has seen in the past and the Great Void has not acted in a long time leading to the hypothesis that there exists a SoulDreg with the ability to create SoulDregs. With the assistance of the SoulWorker, the Squad is able to order supplies from Grace City but a SoulDreg swarm appeared by the area and the SoulWorker is asked to eliminate Aspalt Golem and detonate the tunnel leading to Candus City. The loss of the tunnel would stop the Squad from receiving more supplies but Aaron decides to focus on safety first. As the SoulWorker was about to leave for the mission, Catherine is able to persuade the SoulWorker into taking her on the operation to eliminate Aspalt Golem. The SoulWorker reluntarly guards Catherine on the mission and stops short by the tunnel area due to Catherine's exhaustion. She wishes that she could become stronger and then become the SoulWorker's traveling partner. Focusing on the mission at hand, Catherine stands aside while the SoulWorker completed the mission.

After completing the mission, Aaron finds out that Catherine disobeyed him and assigns Luke III to watch over her in case of any troubles. Afterwards, Shade tells the SoulWorker that somebody from NED Company wishes to meet up with them. They meet up with Henryk, the person in charge of NED Company in Western Cloudream, and demanded that the SoulWorker should clear the sewer tunnels to the water supply drying up. Shade attempts to initially refuse for the SoulWorker but Henryk states that if they refused, NED Company would barricade the tunnels and leave the city. She tries to pry additional information regarding the sewers from Henryk but fails. The SoulWorker receives permission from Aaron to explore the sewers, only to discover that SoulDregs are now swarming the area. Angered by Henryk's excuses, the Squad attempts to learn what caused the SoulDreg outbreak in the sewers. Henryk claims that NED Company disposed a massive amount of pike into the sewers and the pike caused the SoulDreg transformations. Due to the danger, Henryk recommends that they should seal the tunnel but Shade suspects that Henryk is still hiding something and does not allow NED Company to follow though. Afterward, Shade notices that Henryk ordered mercenaries to investigate and tells the SoulWorker to leave immediately before they dispose of the evidence. In next tunnel expedition, the Squad discovered scientists who became SoulDregs and a SoulDreg with the same energy signature as a SoulWorker. The unnatural occurrence of humans being SoulDregs was considered impossible and causes the Squad to believe that NED Company was performing human experiments in the sewers. The squad immediately attempts to report the information to headquarters but refrains from doing so since it would give time for Henryk to bury the current evidence. As a result, the SoulWorker is ordered to collect a blood sample from the Baalride, the SoulWorker turned SoulDreg. After obtaining the blood sample and analyzing it, the Squad discovers that the Pike in the sewers contained AntiSoul: a prohibited material banned by the SFL.

Shade tells Henryk of their hidings and demands answers from him but Henryk refuses to comment any further on the topic. Bamz overhears the conversation and offers to tell the Squad that a capsule recently dropped in a NED manor and turned the residents there into SoulDregs. He ultimately states that while he still works for the NED Company for money, he does not agree with how they operate. Following Bamz's tip, the SoulWorker makes their way towards the abandoned manor to find further evidence. Afterward, the SoulWorker discovers Catherine's ribbon in the manor only to realize afterward that Catherine evaded Luke III and sneaks into the manner. As a result, the mission changes to prioritize Catherine's rescue. The SoulWorker was able to find Catherine but she was whisked away by Arache. Unable to pinpoint her location, Shade threatens Henryk to give information about Arache. With this information, the Squad begins their pursuit for Catherine once more. As a the SoulWorker made their way to find Catherine, the outlook is grim and Shade panics and gets into an argument with Luke III. Foruntely, the SoulWorker was able to find Catherine but only to find her infected with enhanced Pike and was slowly transforming into a SoulDreg.

With no other opinions left, Shade offers to erase evidence of NED Company in exchange for antidote from Henryk. He agrees and tells the Squad that they need to secure antidote materials from the N102 Lab. Due to his guilt with not properly watching over Catherine, Luke III heads into the lab by himself to secure the antidote. In the lab, the Squad discovers that NED Company has created a special SoulDreg named a SoulReaver and they have created an artificial Malevil. After securing the materials and Luke III, the SoulWorker blows up the lab to ensure that the SoulDregs do not escape. Afterwards, the antidote is administered to Catherine but she does not immediately became healthier. Due to a lack of information, the SoulWorker is asked to head to Rucco Town to learn if any other cases like Catherine have occurred. From information from Seoni and Voy, the SoulWorker learns that there was a single case where a man heard a female voice but when he eventually stopped hearing the voice, he became a SoulDreg. Due to the lack of information, Voy is unable to supply any further information to the SoulWorker and they head back to Candus City.

Upon returning to Candus City, the Squad reports that SoulDreg activity has suddenly accelerated and Candus City must be evacuated. The SoulWorker is asked to help with evacuation process by opening the roof and clearing all of the SoulDregs that appear. Due to the correlation of the current events, Henryk tries to get Aaron to abandon Catherine, where Aaron adamantly refuses to do so. As the group leaves for the skies, the airborne SoulDregs attacked transporters and were able to infiltrate them. The SoulReaver reappears and is attempting to Catherine but was stopped by the SoulWorker. The Squad checks Catherine's condition again only to find that she hasn't improved and that voice is getting dimmer. Due to the SoulDregs continually attacking the transporter, Luke III moves Catherine to a more secure cabin. The SoulWorker fends off the SoulReaver again and finds that Catherine's condition has miraculously improved. Catherine tells the SoulWorker that this event has changed her and she would make a better effort to assist the SoulWorker in the future. However, shortly after, Catherine was captured by the SoulReaver and became a SoulDreg. Inevitably, Catherine perishes after being defeated and these events change the lives of the SoulWorker and the Starry Forest Squad.

After Catherine's death, the SoulDreg activity in Candus dies out and the city returns to normal. Angered with Henryk's involvement with Catherine's death, the Squad attempts to find Henrky but learns that he left Candus City and headed to Grace City. Aaron and Luke III were the most affected by Catherine's death and decided to make a full assault on eliminating SoulDregs completely in order to avenge Catherine. Unable to forgive Henryk, the SoulWorker heads to Grace City in order to kill him.

End of Chapter 2.

## Story Differences

* Catherine Introduction - Erwin
* Luke analyzing Baalride sample conversations - All
* Shade Interactions - All
* Henryk true antidote - Chii,Ephnel
* Henryk fake antidote - Former SinWorkers
* Henryk leaving Candus for a promotion - Former SinWorkers
* Henryk leaving Candus due to fear for life - Chii, Ephnel
* Source of Catherine's death - SoulWorker - Former SinWorkers
* Lakasha's appearance - Chii,Ephnel

## Characters

* Aaron
* Catherine
* Luke III
* Shade
* Henryk
* Bamz
* Shiho
* Lakasha

## Locations

* Candus City
* Rucco Town