Beastforged Bond

The Spirits were clearly not all too happy about their presence being consumed. Still, rather than attacking me, they retracted their presence in silence and watched.

All the while, traces of their Spirit Essence, embedded in their presence, flowed through Maw of Gluttony and straight into the mass of nothingness. I half-expected the mass of nothingness in the Inner World to devour and digest the Essence, yet it spat it all out into the World.

We’re on the right track. I recognized at that moment, more than happy with the turn of events. The Spawn did not want the Spirit Essence, even though most of its kind would have done everything in their power to devour the Spirits. That was a step in the right direction, and, arguably even better, the Spirit Essence was for me to control. And I did what every sane Blessed would do: I wove the Spirit Essence into my soul energy and practiced the 8th Volume of Blastor Refinery.

The World trembled at the immense power entering the system, and it would keep doing this for a while. Digesting Spirit Essence was nothing like consuming a bunch of high-grade Elixirs or Apex Essences. It was more, and it would take a while to digest it all.

Grow a lot, little World. We need more space!!

Sapsie yapped, bringing a smile to my lips. Although she wasn’t wrong. My World was nowhere near small, but with an Overlord beast, namely a young Earthen Spirit that would grow a lot in the next few months and years, I had to grow my World a lot.

The 8th Volume of Blastor Refinery would help me with that, and…the soulshare with my Soulkins. The return of soul energy generated by Soulkins – or was it the bond that produced the soul energy? – was never as important as it was now, even more so since Nox wanted to become a Spirit as well. The Bladed Spirit, or so he called himself.

Whether that was possible, I honestly wasn’t sure. Then again, I was confident Sapsie would become a Spirit in the future. What kind of Spirit I didn’t know. Not when her mother was apparently the Spirit of Life and Nature.

I will follow Mother’s roots.

She said matter-of-factly, which was all I needed to know.

Putting aside the trouble a young World Tree, aka a second Life-Nature Spirit, would bring to my World, I focused on the mass of nothingness. My Spawn was still hiding within the mass, and now something was about to change. And it had nothing to do with Spirit Essence.

The mass expanded and shrunk back down as the Spawn within began to absorb the energy produced. That, for the first time since I bonded with the Spawn, revealed something I could have noticed a while ago.

The mass of nothingness was not an extension of the Spawn’s body. It wasn’t an energy storage system either. No, the mass of nothingness was a grindstone and converter. It ground whatever it consumed down and converted the devoured substances into a different kind of energy. I couldn’t access the energy, nor did I feel inclined to learn how to do so in the future, but the energy was what transformed Spawns into…well, Spawns.

It resembled ether, and yet it was different. To give it a similar name, I labeled it aether. Anomalous ether.

Maw of Gluttony, which was tied to the mass of nothingness, created aether. Said aether could then be used by the Spawns to grow stronger. And that was exactly what my Spawn did. It pushed to the equivalent of the Awakened Rank, completing its first breakthrough. Maw of Gluttony grew more potent in the process, and so did the ravenous hunger that came seemingly out of nowhere.

Without a second thought, I retrieved several body parts of some weaker Spawns from the spatial pouch attached to my hip and activated Maw of Gluttony again. Satiating the newly advanced Spawn took a short while, but it showed me a few more things about the aether produced in the process.

First of all, consuming Spawns was more efficient than consuming other things. That was what it felt like. Sure, it was only my gut feeling telling me that, but that was how it was with most traits. Another thing of note was that aether was being used to change Spawns. I could tell that the marble-shaped Spawn could use its accumulated aether to transform. To take on the shapes of the creatures it had consumed. That did include their traits and the like, though it would drain more aether to add and apply traits as well.

It was also possible to adorn the Awakened Spawn with the traits of a stronger creature it had consumed, but that would cost a lot of aether. Possibly enough to push a Peak Awakened Spawn right back to the lower end of the Awakened Rank. That was curious, though it didn’t really matter to my Soulkin because it didn’t plan on taking on another form. It liked being a marble and staying within the mass of nothingness in my World. As odd as that was, it was acceptable, especially with how the mass of nothingness changed with the Spawn’s advancement to the Awakened Rank.

Readers can trace this chapter to the author’s official page, which was copied without consent; reading there supports the writer.

To advance to the Awakened Rank, a Soulkin had to possess at least 11 units of soul energy. While that was not a lot anymore, it played a significant role when it came to creatures that were made purely of aether. Soul energy was foreign to the Spawns. It was not something they possessed, and they were far more likely to devour soul energy than to keep it within them. But by being bound to my World, a new door opened. My Spawn became a unique member of its kind, one that could safely contain soul energy, and that changed it.

While it was hard to tell how much this changed the Spawn, especially with how little we knew about Spawns, I felt the soul energy coursing through my Soulkin influencing it, pushing it in a different direction than its instincts suggested. And that was perfect. After all, the instincts grafted into every Spawn originated from none other than the Devourer. Influencing those instincts, altering them slowly, allowing the Spawn to think for itself and to create a personality of its own choosing, was the second step in the right direction.

The more it grows, the more soul energy will course through it…change it, I thought with a smile on my lips. Slowly, the Spawn would change, becoming a being unlike anything the Spirits or the Devourer had ever seen.

And maybe that would be enough to end the age-old war.

I had totally forgotten about the Spirits or that I was still in their hall, basking in their presence and the dense mist of ether. That was until Volca’s voice entered my mind once more.

“Curious.” The Fire Spirit mused, but he wasn’t even looking at me. None of the Spirits were. They stared at one another for a while, and I was quite certain that they spoke to one another telepathically.

“We have come to a decision,” Volca spoke aloud this time.

“A decision?” I asked when nobody followed up.

Death stirred. Her shadowy frame shrunk until she was roughly my size. A shard of some sort, glowing in the colors of the rainbow, materialized in her palms.

“We decided to let you choose,” Death said. “This, what I am holding here, is one of the Primal Fragments I have collected ever since we descended. The Allfather left behind only a few, and I searched for them for a long time. I have a few, and I am willing to give you one for your achievements. You closed a Fracture without the Spirits’ help and you bound a Spawn, which may or may not help us against the Devourer. We will have to see.”

“Anyway,” Volca stepped forward, a tiny flamelet conjured in his hand. “While the Primal Fragment will help you grow stronger – it will probably further enhance your World, not unlike what you call Aspects – I have something much better for you.” The Fire Spirit stared me straight in the eye, and his tough voice grew a touch softer. “He has been waiting for you.”

The flamelet flickered as if in agreement, confirming once more that it was exactly what I thought it was.

Volix.

Get him! Hurry up, before he takes back his offer!

Sapsie hurried me along.

No backsies!

Nox hissed as well, but I didn’t move right away.

“I’m not sure what you are planning, but wouldn’t it be best if you returned Volix to me while also giving me a Primal Fragment? If you want to work against the Devourer, helping me grow will help you as well. Maybe I need more Primal Fragments to create more Spirits, which would help you as well, wouldn’t it?”

While creating more Spirits may also be seen as a way to replace them, it would also help the old Spirits, shoulder some of their workload and responsibilities in a way. I would never force Aureus or future-Sapsie and deprive them of their Spirit Essence to close a Fracture, but it was something they could do – technically.

“Don’t overdo it. We will create more Blessed like you. More Spawns will be bound in case you fail.” Death snorted, sounding almost like she expected me to die. Not too nice, but coming from Death herself, it wasn’t too bad.

“Makes sense.” Not really, but I nodded anyway. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, my heart skipped a beat. Turning back to the Fire Spirit and the flamelet resting in his hand, I began to smile like a fool. “But I want Volix back. It’s time that he returned to his family.”

“As expected.” Volca nodded slowly and bent down. The flamelet floated into the air before descending slowly toward me. “Take great care of him. Do not kill him too often. He may be a phoenix, but they too feel pain. And I do not wish my child to suffer unnecessarily.”

It looked like Volca had a lot more to say, but my breath was stuck in my throat as I stared at the flamelet heading toward me. My mind went blank, and it felt like my entire being started to tremble as I reached out to my old friend.

“Welcome back, buddy,” I called out to the Elemental Phoenix as soon as it landed on my palm.

Back! Now we fight!

Nox called out euphorically, and he wasn’t the only one. Everyone was happy about Volix’s return, including the Spawn. Though it didn’t really understand what was going on. It merely felt everyone’s happiness and decided to join.

Now all that was left was to bind Volix and to hatch him at the expense of my soul energy, of course.