A Soul can be pretty clingy, it'd take some horrific amount of power to drain it in its entirety. Some Darkstalkers take pieces of mortal Souls for food, like Lord Raptor or the Soul Bees. Upon one’s death, their Soul and Heart typically hold onto each other, awaiting passage to the Afterlife. However, a particularly strong Heart can, if they aren’t ready to go, actually overpower the expired body and Soul, making them into…something else.
Often, it’s some form of Darkstalker, the ones born from human lives including forms of Yokai(Classified as spirits themselves), mummies(brought back to life through a strange power), ghosts (who abandon their bodies), demons(Often if they are exposed to demonic power), etc. An example would be Rain, who upon death, was overtaken by the Darkness in her Heart, making her into a shadowy Yokai that haunts dark corners.
Typically, when someone dies, even if they have strong Hearts, they often await an Angel or Grim Reaper to lead them to Heaven or the Underworld…or the bad place depending on who they were in life. As a Spirit in the Afterlife, their Heart is their main battery, one they can’t function without. The Soul’s fate depends on who has authority over it. Palutena, ruler of the Heavens, does…something with them while the Hearts live in paradise. Lord Death keeps his Souls sorted and collected in the Underworld. Hell has no proper ruler, and its inhabitants often fight over Souls, not that it helps.
Losing your Heart to Heartless makes your Soul-fueled body into a Nobody. Losing your Heart any other way makes you unable to empathize or even feel properly, not that you’d realize it. Some who lost their Hearts, like Kairi, still instinctively act like they can feel, but their attempts to emote can be…off. People with no Hearts can form new ones over time via connections with others, or just reclaim their Heart like Kairi did.
Keeping numerous Hearts in you is way easier said than done. People typically couldn’t hold more than one at a time, and holding more just can be catastrophic. Sora, however, is able to do just that with no ill effects. Splitting one’s Heart among other vessels is more possible, but if the vessel is killed/destroyed, the Heart fragment returns to its original owner. Splitting one’s Soul, however, is a lot more risky. If a Soul fragment’s vessel is destroyed, that piece of them dies, and the more you split your Soul like this, the harder it’s going to be to grow it back, especially if your Heart isn’t capable of fixing it. This practice may make it harder to kill you, but the risk isn’t worth it.
Needed to update how these work in the Multiverse. The Heart is based on Kingdom Hearts, obviously. The Soul is based on Darkstalkers, and how it portrays their appearance. Funny enough, a thing about the Old Universe that the Multiverse spawned from was that it started with nothing but the Heart(Kingdom Hearts) and the Void(Void Termina). The Heart looks like the former, duh, but the Soul looks like the latter.
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Kingdom Hearts(c)Nomura, Disney, Square Enix
Darkstalkers(c)Capcom
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