Rest assured, 76 takes everything with a grain of salt--desiccated corpses left in Reaper's wake doesn't mean souls, but it does speak to some kind of other life-draining ability. The real question is whether or not Reaper needs to do it to survive, or if he's just that sadistic. He certainly wouldn't put the latter past him, at this point.

76 can deal with the smoke, but watching parts of Reaper's face crumble is a little disconcerting, especially when he doesn't know the nature of these strange powers.

"Jesus, you're falling apart."