Beastforged Bond

The next few days passed in a simple fashion. Waking up early, I worked out until after dawn. A quick shower and a sumptuous breakfast later, I found myself surrounded by scrolls and a tower of books. The archive was my home until early afternoon, and it was only then that I returned to Blastor Refinery’s technique.

Refining my World got easier, and much smoother, with every day that passed. On the second day since I freed Cosmo, I also retrieved Sapsie and Tessa from the World. Tessa went into hiding, using the Illusion trait she’d acquired in my absence to fade away, while Sapsie ended up in my shirt’s chest pocket.

No longer having to feed Cosmo, Sapsie, and Tessa with soul energy was incredibly helpful. They still required nutritious meals, nonetheless, but the extra cost was more than worth it. The freed-up soul energy units could be used to practice the third volume of Blastor Refinery after all. While that did not turn out exactly how I wanted it to, the World creaked and groaned when I first used Blastor’s third volume, but it did work. And when I used it for the second time, the situation was already better than the previous day. All I had to do was slow the refinement process.

Spending close to six hours on a task that shouldn’t have taken more than half an hour with my control over ether and soul energy was a nuisance, yet the results were obvious enough.

“Too slow.” Still not satisfied with the result, I returned to the market four days after I consumed the regular Elixir.

This time, I walked past the smaller stalls. Scar greeted me with a smile and asked a myriad of questions regarding his Elixirs, but I didn’t stay too long with the scarred man. His attention drifted to Cosmo and the little twigs of Sapsie peeking out from my chest pocket at times, though he never asked about my Soulkins.

Pushing past the stalls, I reached the licensed merchants working with Essence. Their place was less a stall and more a shop adorned with crystals of all colors. Essence brimmed within them, stirring something within me.

Half a dozen shelves stood before me, rows upon rows of crystals filled with the means to transform an ordinary Blessed into a powerhouse. Some crystals were dim and small, whereas others were roughly as big as my fists, their colors far more vivid. Power, Essence of some kind, oozed from a minority of crystals. Filled with high-grade Essence, they screamed at me, begging me to integrate it into my World. And my World, it resonated with their screams and calls.

That feeling was the strongest with the crystals kept in small boxes, preserving their power. Yet even the boxes could not fully isolate the Apex-grade Essence crystals.

No one seemed to notice it, or maybe they simply did not care, but raw, unfiltered power trickled out of the box.

Lifesight, one of Sapsie’s traits, did not make it much easier to resist, especially not when a pulse of life caught my attention.

“Are you interested in the Life Essence of the Empress?” A mellow voice caught me off guard, pulling my attention away from the box and toward a young man. He was human, had dark skin, yet something about him seemed off. The presence he gave off reminded me more of a beast. His eyes, slitted like a feline’s, glowed bright yellow and seemed to want to devour me, whereas the fluffy, dark-furred ears popping out from the sides of his long, black hair moved around cutely.

His nostrils twitched and he emerged beside me. “How curious. You are broken, yet your World calls out to me.”

What was I even supposed to say to that? ‘Thank you?’ felt wrong, so did every other answer forming on my tongue.

Cosmo popped up on my shoulder, space distorting around him. The chipmunk, shy as he was, pointed fingers at the odd man and leaped forward. I half-expected Cosmo to be shredded into a thousand little pieces, but the man reacted differently than anticipated. His eyes flicked from me to Cosmo, who teleported around wildly, closing the distance to his target until tiny chipmunk fingers touched the man’s nose.

The man’s nostrils flared and he jerked back in surprise. Cosmo squeaked in fear, space warped around him, and he teleported right back to my shoulder. Fear and vivid images of getting eaten alive by a ferocious beast popped up in my head all of a sudden, then Cosmo leaped into my chest pocket.

What are you doing?! There isn’t enough space for both of us!

Sapsie squealed, already struggling to compress her size enough to fit into the small pocket.

As the scene unfolded, my shirt tore in multiple places. The pocket was shredded by accident, but I had to move fast when the World Tree sproutling nearly fell to the ground. She held tightly onto my hand and expanded to her regular size again, roots and branches coiling around my right arm until it looked like I wore a gauntlet made out of living wood.

“Interesting.” The man chuckled. “You have a strong bond with your Soulkins, don’t you?”

Even if it wasn’t actually a question, I nodded absentmindedly. “I try my best. The last few weeks have been rough though. Spent months in a coma, my World was, and still is, a mess, and now I’m here with a lot of troublemakers.”

The Horror Tessar’s Illusion ended momentarily, her large body hovering right before me. While most would be horrified by a head-sized eye surrounded by dozens of tentacles levitating before them, I could only smile.

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“You are not a troublemaker, Tessa. You’re a good girl.” As the words left my mouth, Tessa’s tentacles reached out. Closing her large eye, she pressed her body against my head. Our bond grew firmer ever so slightly, though I couldn’t tell if that was because of my World’s recovery or because my words really meant that much to her.

“You have a wonderful family.”

The moment Tessa heard that, she flinched, spun around, and disappeared in an illusion.

Cosmo, in the meantime, had teleported atop Sapsie and squealed at her, seemingly having forgotten about the existence of the man whose nose he’d poked a few seconds earlier.

Feeling the gazes of more people on me, I glanced around to see that my Soulkins had caught some attention. Nobody uttered a word, which I hadn’t expected them to do, yet some of the men and women looking my way made me uncomfortable. Their expressions were neutral, yet a mixture of Lifesight and Predator’s passive effect unraveled what some of them were truly thinking.

Jealousy and greed were part of it.

“I am Jura, owner of this small establishment, and you and your Soulkins probably noticed it already – yes, I am a beast.” The man’s words pulled my attention back to him. “I’m the last living member of Darkness’ family, as well as one of the first beasts to be born on Razarn.”

My lips parted, but they sealed shut after a moment. First beast born on Razarn? Just how old was Jura?

“I am old, yes. And as you probably guessed, I am not unlike the Spirits’ Voices. If Darkness were still among us, I would be her Voice.” A look of sadness crossed Jura’s features for a moment. He patted his chest, which resulted in a burst of dark mist. It faded after a moment, yet it caught my attention.

I didn’t think you were a Voice, nor did I know a Spirit called Darkness existed…or that she was dead.

“I am talking too much, am I not? I apologize, esteemed customer.” Jura lowered his head ever so slightly. “Your World and Soulkins filled me with nostalgia. How may I be of service?”

Too many things happened all at once. Information I didn’t expect floated around my head, and I had to spend a moment or two crushing those thoughts before I could return to Jura and the reason I entered his shop in the first place.

“You mentioned that I’m broken. I’m trying to fix that, but most World Mending Elixirs are too inefficient. Either my World needs more, or low- and mid-quality World Mending Elixirs simply are not good enough. I used a high-grade Elixir that helped me greatly, but the others are simply not worth it. They cost a lot and take too long to digest. Time I could have invested refining my World, taking care of my Soulkins, and returning to my prime. That’s why I’m here.”

“Your prime?” Jura tilted his head slightly but continued without waiting for an answer. “I think I understand what you desire, and I understand why Elixirs do not work as well on you. What you need is Essence. Raw Essence rather than diluted, refined, or tampered Essence. Elixirs do help a lot, and I do not know how bad your situation was in the past, but if you used a high-quality Elixir before and your World is still in shambles, you probably needed it anyway. That aside, if you think your World can handle the potency of raw Essence even when broken, you should try absorbing it.”

Initially, I considered going to the black market to purchase Essence for cheap, but I suddenly found myself very happy to have come here.

“I can help you single out useful Essences, although I do believe your World can absorb most of the Essences in this place. You do not have many restrictions, do you?” Jura asked, though he clearly knew the answer. Anyone who’d seen Tessa, Cosmo, and Sapsie would understand that much, and Jura was an Emperor beast.

I still don’t understand how he can look human. I murmured to myself but pushed that doubt aside for a later discussion.

“I have no restrictions, and I have–...” My sentence was cut off when I remembered Volix was no longer with me. “Or had several special bonds as well, forming unique Gates.”

Jura nodded toward Sapsie curled around my arm. “Like her,” he said rather than asked. His eyes narrowed, and a tiny fragment of his power erupted forth. It reached toward Sapsie, embraced her, and then pulled back when a pulse of emerald life flowed out of the sproutling. “Thyria’s offspring? How did I not notice that?”

He turned back to me. “You really are special.”

“I don’t feel all that special. All I want is to repair my World and grow stronger to reunite my family.” That was my new plan. Not to gain strength to fight the Devourer or to do whatever the Spirits wanted me to do, but to bring Volix back to where he belonged. Looking at Jura, who regained full control of his expression, I considered my options.

“That might be a stupid request, but if you ever meet the Fire Spirit, tell him to return Volix to me. I don’t know what he’s scheming, but I won’t play his game before he frees Volix.” It would be best if the Elemental Phoenix could decide what he wanted for himself. However, I wanted him to make that choice when we weren’t in Volca’s presence.

“Why are you asking me such a thing?” Jura asked, though he did not look like he’d reject the request. If anything, he seemed more inclined to do it, his feline eyes shimmering curiously.

“As an Emperor beast, you must have spoken with a few Spirits before. Considering you’re handling Essence, you probably were somehow involved in mankind’s slavery or the extraction of the Essence of human livestock. I don’t particularly mind since that’s a thing of the past. And as long as the Spirits or beasts no longer create human farms, there won’t be an issue for me either. Honestly, I think humans would have done a similar thing to the Spirits if we had the chance. We are not better than the Spirits, beasts, or any other race.”

Even now, beasts and humans were fighting in the Bastions. There were, and probably always would be, fights between mankind and beastkind, and while peace across Razarn would be best, I didn’t think it was possible. Not everyone would agree to it even if someone had the strength to force all of Razarn into submission.

“I do not like the insinuation, but it is not like you’re wrong.” Jura shrugged. “I will tell the Spirits about you when I see one of them. I am not sure how you are connected to the Fire Spirit, but I hope you do not enrage him. Dracos is not perfect, but it is as close to perfection as it can be. Rebuilding a place where all beings can live side by side like this is not easy.” He let out a sigh. “It may simply be impossible to replicate.”

That was acceptable. It was much more than I could have hoped for. And now, knowing Volca would hear about me sooner or later, I wanted nothing more than to fix this World. It was time to grow stronger.