Beastforged Bond

Apparently, the Spirits wanted to change something. I didn’t know what they’d planned, but it felt like learning about the Spawn I bound and the ability to close a Fracture had made them change their opinion.

They…wanted to see me. Only a few days had passed since the large-scale battle, and the Spirit Guard Temples all over Razarn had been busy. Spawn remnants had been collected and imported to Dracos’ Temple, where they were stored and guarded for me to use.

A handful of True Alchemists, most of them older than the time the Spirits had spent on Razarn, were curious about the Spawns and showed interest in using their body parts for alchemy, researching them thoroughly, and using the bodies of our greatest enemies for something good. That was rejected. Death was apparently interested in finding out more about the Spawns and if it was possible to turn them into useful ingredients for Elixirs and the like, but the danger was too great.

Anyway, they wanted me to meet with them. Glacia’s Knight was kind enough to guide me to his office before stepping outside.

“What do you want me to do? Didn’t you say the Spirits wanted to talk to me?” I called out to the old Emperor, but he disappeared without a word.

I can feel their presence. Take a deep breath and don’t try to antagonize them too much.

Aureus said sarcastically, though I wasn’t too sure if he really was joking.

Closing my eyes to feel what the Earthheart sensed, I noticed something that caught my attention. The Insignia glowed faintly and filled my veins with spirit power, revealing traces of Essence much greater than the Apex Essence of Emperor beasts.

Just as my eyes snapped open again, the space around me changed. There was no spatial distortion like the one Blink caused, but it didn’t feel like I was still back in the office. This was no illusion, yet space stayed the same even as the room changed. It expanded and transformed into something that couldn’t have been the office.

An old, seemingly ancient palace hall unfurled around me. The ether density was much greater than anything I’d felt before, which was likely the fault of the dense mist hanging in the air. For the mist was compressed ether of the highest purity. It was magnificent, and it concealed the ceiling far above the ground.

Pillars adorned with countless runes, ether circuits, and various other enchantments were faintly visible through the dense mist.

Thoseare not pillars.

Aureus commented before manifesting behind me. While he did not bother using his main form – he shrunk his body to the size of a young Soilback to lie down on my shoulder and coil around my neck – the presence of the young Earthen Spirit erupted in its full might.

“Our long lost brother has returned.” A sonorous voice rang in my head rather than through the hall.

“This is not our brother, and you know that. Do not create any misunderstanding.” Another voice, this one deeper and suffused with annoyance, resounded.

Turning to the nearest pillars, I realized what Aureus had been saying. I had mistaken them for pillars. But they were not pillars, but ginormous creatures. And because they were humanoid and hadn’t moved, false assumptions had been made.

As the supposed pillars moved, the forms of several Spirits unraveled. The enchantments faded away, and the elemental structures of the Spirits burst forth.

Death. Light. Fire. Ice. Wind, Lightning, and Space.

Seven of the strongest existences of Razarn stepped forth, some resembling mighty beasts made of their Elemental Essence, others taking on humanoid forms. Their presence surged outward and pressed down on me, yet they never truly reached me. Not with Aureus protecting me.

“Welcome to our humble abode, young Primal.” A third voice, this one coming from the brilliant light to my right, or so I thought. The pressure of the voice ringing in my head came from the right, and the Light Spirit was the closest to it. “Or do you wish to be called Adam? But it is a fairly weak name. No, I shall call you young Primal or Primal Heir.”

It felt more like Light was talking to himself, which was quite…pleasant. Truth be told, I’d been a wreck when the Spirit Knights told me the Spirits wanted to see me. Being part of the creation of the Earthen Spirit should have been something good, but I couldn’t tell if the Spirits liked that Aureus was bound to me.

“You seem nervous. Why? Have you not met enough of us yet to know all about us?” This time, a familiar voice entered my mind. I first thought it was Volca, but he sounded different, hoarser and a shade more annoying. No, this was Death.

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Turning to the pillar of darkness that oozed with death and destruction, I shuddered. It was hard to suppress the fear lodged deep within me, especially with something as profound as death. I didn’t like it.

“Do you want me to return the Netherkin’s Source?” I asked her with the courage of a hundred men. Or, at least, I wanted to sound courageous, while also changing the subject a little. My nerves were going crazy, and I hated it so much.

“The Source? Ah, right, you and your friends found them.” Death’s musing resounded, and I was more than happy to hear that she didn’t sound angry. “No. The Source is of no value to me at this point. If anything, the Source did everything I wanted it to do…and more.”

Without Death’s Source, I would be dead. Raffael Torch, Ruler of Fire, would have killed me after shattering my World and ripping Volix out of it. He would have bound the Elemental Phoenix to his World, and he would probably have wreaked havoc across Razarn as the first and only Emperor of the human Bastions. But now he was dead, killed by Merlin Zerog and myself, because my friends and I found and used Death’s Source.

Without her Source, your World would have sustained a lot more damage.

Sapsie commented.

That I wasn’t too sure about. The Source was empty now, but I didn’t know what happened to it. We left the fallen civilization of the Netherkin when there was still a lot of Essence in the Source. Now, however, the Source had been empty ever since I woke up in Dracos, to be precise.

I used the Essence. Did I never tell you about that?

The young World Tree clarified the mystery that had been on my mind for quite a while now.

“You didn’t,” I muttered quietly, ready to flick Sapsie’s forehead for telling me only now.

Must have slipped my mind. Not that it matters. Or does it? Well, I don’t know. All I know is that it took a lot of the power my mother left behind for me to access your ring and use that Essence. It was a pain. Good thing Mother is the strongest!

Sapsie snickered.

“Thyria is the strongest?” What did that even mean?

“Are you communicating with Thyria’s progeny?” Death sounded more curious than angry about my commentary. Lightning and Space, on the other hand, seemed awfully frustrated by it. The Lightning Spirit thundered and discharged currents of energy in all directions like someone had just burned its house down. Neither the Spirit of Space nor Lightning said anything, but Space teleported farther away to tear through the fabric of space. It almost looked like the Spirit of Space was about to leave the Spirit Hall to find and fight Thyria, the World Tree.

“I am. I apologize,” I called out in a hurry. “Sapsie is a little…special. She is quite playful at times.”

“Just like Thyria.” Volca’s familiar voice echoed, and it didn’t take long until I could see the full form of the Fire Spirit. His molten humanoid form shrunk until it was only a few meters tall. “But you are not here for Thyria. She may be the strongest of Spirits, as she represents Life and Nature in one, but that power changed her. It made her resent her own power when she was too weak to protect Garus.”

Volca glanced at Aureus.

“She is a very difficult being to be around, and we do not want to free her.”

No matter how I looked at the situation, it felt like the Fire Spirit wanted to add “Just yet” at the end there.

They will bring Mother back. And if they don’t, we will free her. Right?

Sapsie’s hopeful voice resounded, but I didn’t answer right away.

Thyria was dangerous. She’d threatened to kill me, and her hatred for humans was publicly known. Then again, she did give me a sprout of her own flesh to bind. That was how Sapsie ended up with me in the first place.

We will help her, yes.

That was all Sapsie wanted to hear. Satisfied, our connection grew firmer before she went back to sleep.

“Why am I here if not for Thyria? Is it about the Spawn I bound, or…” Hope bloomed in my chest. “Or are you finally willing to part ways with Volix? I think that would be a good decision. It’s time the Elemental Phoenix came back to my side. Wouldn’t that be a win-win situation for everyone involved?”

Volca clicked his tongue, though I didn’t even know he had one.

“You are here to demonstrate the power of the Spawn bonded to you.” Volca’s voice no longer rang in my head. It echoed through the hall.

A small, familiar marble materialized before me. It was the Spawn marble Zegrath and I found in the frozen cavern.

“Use it. Consume it or do with it whatever your Soulkin wants to do with it,” he ordered, all while the other Spirits stared at me. Their presences grew more intense until not even Aureus’ earthen aura could ward them off anymore.

“After that, you will gi–…”

“One step at a time,” the Fire Spirit interrupted and gestured to the Spawn marble.

That was enough for me.

Turning to the Spawn marble, the corner of my lips curled upward. I was hungry, ravenous even, and the Spawn marble was exactly what I needed – what my Soulkin needed.

Activating Maw of Gluttony, the Spirits watched as an otherworldly creature pierced through the veil of the Spirit Hall. It feasted on the presences obstructing it first before materializing in the form of a shade with rows upon rows of star-like fangs.

The creature didn’t distinguish between friend and foe, as long as I didn’t order it to. And that…that I didn’t do because the Spirits weren’t bothering to retract their presences. Since they wanted to pressure me, I decided it was time to push back a little.

Whether that was a good decision was hard to tell, and yet it was the best I could think of as Maw of Gluttony ripped through the Spirits’ presences to close in on the Spawn marble before consuming it all the same.