The hours passed by as Praxis, Kranis, and the other demons toiled away in the Empty. By the time they were done, Praxis ended up digging 53 holes, while Kranis dug 161. Kranis' experience and technique greatly played a factor in the difference.
Praxis spent much of the time getting used to the reflective shock of using the essence-infused shovel. He had never felt so much power and resistance before. With every usage of the shovel, it did not feel any better. It did not help him much that by the time he finished one hole, the other demons had already finished two or even four holes.
Worse was the fact that all his hard work amounted to only 13 rocksouls, while in that same time, Kranis had uncovered more than 50.
As Praxis was halfway through his 54th dig, the foreman rang a giant bell.
"End of the work day, finish up your current digs and begin packing up to head back to the base. The gate closes in 7."
Praxis turned to Kranis with an uncertain look on his face.
"Well, you heard the big man. Finish up and get ready to leave. We're done for the day."
Praxis rushed through the final. Even with the brunt of the recoil shaking his entire body, he persevered through it to finish the hole. He vigorously scooped out the dirt until he heard that sound which always filled his body with dopamine.
Klank.
He hit a rocksoul. Excitedly, he bent down and pushed the dirt out of the way. There it was the dark orb-like object that was the objective of his labor, and the purpose of why he was doing it was still unclear. He picked it up and went to his sack, which Kranis kindly gave him. He placed his 14th rocksoul into the sack and hurried towards Kranis, who was already waiting for him.
"How many did you manage to get?" Kranis asked Praxis.
"14," Praxis replied.
"That's rather good for your first time working here. I got 23 on my first shift, but most only get about 9 or 10. You might have some talent for this somewhere within, after all," Kranis chuckled.
"Much appreciated," Praxis said.
As they headed towards where the foreman was standing, Praxis noticed the abundance of holes that now littered the surface of the Empty. The file of demon trekking looked as if they were slithering around trying to walk around all the holes they just spent hours digging.
"Do we just leave all the holes here?" Praxis asked Kranis.
"Yeah, this place has a way of taking care of itself. In a week, all the dirt gets shifted back and new grass sprouts, creating a fresh new layer. It will be as if we were never here."
"But, what about the soul rocks. We must have ripped out thousands by now."
"That's the best part. These bastards multiply like crazy. As soon as we take one out, they are already reproducing and creating more. The ones we are harvesting are just the old mature ones, there are loads more deeper underground, but those younger ones haven't collected much energy yet."
"Right, these are being harvested for energy, how..."
Kranis cut him off, "If you're about to ask how we use it, I already told you I'll show it to you later."
"I was about to ask you how these things breed so much. The Empty appears to be endless, and they look like they are in every few feet from one another."
Kranis looked down after hearing the question. Soulrocks were living creatures, meaning that, like every other living creature, they fed on other living creatures. It was the natural order of life: plants get eaten by animals, those animals get eaten by bigger animals, and those bigger animals get eaten by even bigger animals. It eventually ended either with some massive animal or it ended up right back to where it started, the plants.
"You see that mound over there that no one dug near?" Kranis said while pointing over to a bump on the grass. Bumps that Praxis became accustomed to seeing while walking aimlessly through the Empty. He had no idea what they ever, but he knew he was about the hear the unfortunate reality of their identity.
"Yeah, I saw many of them while I walked through here."
"Well, that's how the soulrocks eat. They consume anything alive and with essence. Once they sense something alive or dead that they start wrapping it in around with the grass and pulling it into the dirt."
"Then they slowly consume everything they can from it, leaving nothing behind. Not even bones."
Praxis already had suspected that was the nature of the mounds he saw in the Empty after almost becoming one. "But, how much energy could a living creature even produce. No way that small mound is producing enough energy like coal or something similar."
"Coal?" Kranis asked.
"Something you find on Airth's ground. Remains of long long-dead thing that we burn for fires."
"We don't have that here," Kranis said. "Those soulrocks are how we get fuel for our fires. We don't know how, but they can these things can convert even the smallest life-forms into loads of energy."
Praxis hesitantly asks, "I'm sorry to ask, but how do those mounds end up here? I mean the creatures they feed on, how are they brought here?"
"Well, after we leave. The burial teams come here. They leave our dead here. All the dead are left here to be consumed by the soulrocks, by the Empty. That is the circle of life in the First Circle of Hell. We spend our days digging out these things, so we can feed their children when we die."
There was a prolonged silence after Kranis spoke.
Eventually, he added, "That's life, though, don't expect to eat if you don't expect to be eaten, as well. Without these soulrocks, we wouldn't have the power to keep the First Circle running."
Before Praxis could say anything else, they could reach the crowd that was forming around the foreman. There were about a hundred demons all standing around the foreman.
"Alright, ya all good work today," the foreman said. He glared at Praxis while emphasizing the good as he spoke. Praxis almost had forgotten about their unamiable relationship after focusing on working the whole day.
"Don't forget that ya don't have a shift tomorrow. Enjoy the break."
He looked around at the demons. "That's all from me. The gate should open any second. Don't walk in all at once."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a purple colored flare of light appeared behind him. It was a portal. The foreman walked through it, and the demons followed one by one. Praxis was aware of portals, but had never seen one before on Airth.
"Where is that taking us?" Praxis asked Kranis.
"We are going back to the Nest. That's the name of the base camp."