Beastforged Bond

The most recent addition to my inner World was hungry. It was also in a frenzy as the power of the bond reached out to it.

I got up to my feet, ready to fight the incoming wave of Spawns, when I lost control of my traits. It didn’t last long, no more than a moment, but it distracted me long enough to make me inspect the inner World. And it was good that I did, for a second core had formed in my World.

Not a core. A mass of nothingness.

Sapsie, the young World Tree, snarled. She was satisfied that I had bound the Spawn, yet the appearance of something as atrocious as a mass of nothingness, especially in a place as sacred as the inner World, irritated her.

But it was unlike the masses that empowered the other Spawns. I didn’t have the time to study it, but the mass of nothingness felt different. It materialized alongside a trait as well. An influx of information that allowed me to instinctively understand what the trait could be used for entered my mind, yet all it did was fill me with ravenous hunger.

“That’s not the time to eat something,” I chided myself before manifesting a blade made of spirit power. It glowed brilliantly as it coalesced, coated in the thick might of Annihilation Blade.

A moment later, the Earthen Spirit, Aureus, emerged beside me. His gargantuan form, which exceeded 20 meters in length at this point, burst into the sky, all while his power rippled forth. He unleashed the power of his Aspects and slowed the Spawns closest to us before pitch-black stone spikes tore free from the ground. Some Spawns were fast enough to respond to the raw power of the Earthen Spirit, but the majority failed to escape. Their grotesque forms, made up of the thousands of beasts they had killed and devoured to assimilate into their bodies, were impaled or pierced through and through.

But that was not enough to kill them. Spirit power oozed from the spikes and into the Spawns, weakening the grotesque creatures first before ending them once and for all.

Spirit power was incredibly potent. It was also not that easy to produce for most creatures that called Razarn their home, but a Spirit, even a young one such as Aureus, had no problem unleashing spirit power in waves. Neither did I.

With a Blink, I teleported away from Scott and toward one of the few Spawns that had survived Aureus’ first strike. Making eye contact with its pitch-black eyes, Paralyze triggered, freezing the Spawn long enough for me to carve through its abdomen, where its mass of nothingness was located.

Cutting a Spawn into pieces was not enough to kill it. Neither was piercing its heart, brain, or other vital organs. Burning it alive, on the other hand, was very efficient. But carving through its mass of nothingness was even better. The amalgamation made of dozens of beasts fell apart as soon as spirit power cut through the mass of nothingness, severing it. That was the power bestowed upon most Spirit Knights of the Spirit Guard Temple, and it was the very reason Razarn had yet to be consumed by the Devourer’s progeny.

Watching the Spawn fall apart, something stirred within me. My stomach coiled and twisted, and…I almost began to rip into the grotesque creature. Alas, I managed to hold onto the terrifying sensation that had threatened to consume me.

“You want that? Then say so. Don’t make me eat that shit.” I stared down at the marble-shaped Soulkin resting in my empty hand. “Do whatever you have to do, but do it fast. We’re not on vacation.”

We really didn’t have any time to waste. If anything, it’d be best if we moved away right this instant. It may have been a better idea to leave the Spawn marble behind, letting it do whatever it wanted to do with its brethren’s corpse, yet I didn’t release it. Instead, I stayed in place, using the Gravity Aspect and bursts of ether to hover in the air as my new trait activated.

Maw of Gluttony triggered through the Spawn, for it was not a trait I could use. It may have formed within the inner World, but it was a trait that belonged solely to the youngest of my Soulkins. And it used it with surprising glee. The ravenous presence that had only enveloped me initially spread out instantaneously. It exploded and surged outward and toward the corpse.

Following the presence came a structure. A shadow even darker than the darkest night, and yet…yet it shimmered like the stars hanging high above. Like the cosmos beyond Razarn. It was magnificent and just as terrifying as an abyssal maw with thousands of teeth made of stars and galaxies emerged from the shadow.

The ravenous presence grew more intense, so much that it dyed the vicinity crimson. And through that crimson tint, I watched the abomination of a shadowy maw swallow the Spawn’s corpse. The maw snapped shut around the corpse, creating a cacophony of breaking bones and squishy noises I’d much rather not have heard at all. Then, as if nothing had happened, the ravenous presence subsided and the Maw of Gluttony seeped back into the shadow.

It traced back to my palm, which felt even colder than it had in the frozen cavern, only to become drenched in boiling sweat.

The author posts on the NovelPhoenix site, and reading there supports the writer; this copy does not.

My Spawn Soulkin didn’t say anything to me as it disappeared, but I knew what it was doing. The marble-shaped Spawn dissolved in my hand only to reappear in my World. But it didn’t appear in the space of the other Soulkins. It materialized within the mass of nothingness, which rippled and expanded.

Did it just eat the Spawn?

Sapsie asked with newfound curiosity. She then proceeded to initiate the Soulfusion, which I accepted after a moment.

There is more to it.

Aureus said mysteriously, though it felt like he didn’t really know what this ‘more’ was. It was more like a feeling, one I could wholeheartedly agree with.

As Sapsie fused with me, roots grew from my skin. They spread out from my chest and would have expanded to cover my entire body until I looked like one of the Terats, but the young World Tree had a target.

Her roots and vines grew alongside my left arm. They coiled around it like a tight embrace, only to come to a screeching halt and freeze when they reached my palm. Reaching the first location, where the Spawn marble had been a moment ago, Sapsie stopped for a good dozen seconds before erupting with power. Her roots and vines followed the trail left behind by my Maw of Gluttony, which appeared to lighten her mood.

As odd as that was, I couldn’t stay in the same location for too long. More Spawns were heading my way, and Aureus could only deal with so many of them simultaneously.

Looking up, I watched the Earthen Spirit soar through the sky like a nimble, young dragonling – one pursued by no less than a hundred Spawns. Aureus twisted his way out of danger and used the Gravity Aspect and Paralyze when it seemed like his swift movements weren’t enough.

I had to use Blink several times to catch up to Aureus, which the young World Tree did not particularly like.

Eyyy! I was just about to find out what that stupid Spawn did there!

Sapsie exclaimed.

You can do that later. Helping Aureus is a little bit more important, don’t you think? I called her out, silencing her for the moment. A moment later, I called upon the fire of my spirit flame. Flooding it with spirit power, the flame erupted in the pristine light of the Spirit who’d created it. Moving through the air with fiery explosions and constant Blinks, I weaved through the masses of Spawns, both spirit blade and pristine flames slashing and flowing left and right, removing the peskiest of enemies one after another.

Most Spawns left behind were not particularly strong. A dozen of those left alive were likely stronger than we were, but those were busy getting thrashed by the Spirit Knights. Glancing down for a moment, Glacia’s Knight and other powerful Emperors and Rulers wreaked havoc. It was a beautiful sight, yet it also filled me with hunger.

I could tell that my Spawn had yet to properly digest its brethren’s corpse, but that didn’t seem to matter at this moment. It wanted more, and it would do everything in the Realms to consume more.

“I will collect them, okay? I will store as many Spawn carcasses as you want, and you’ll devour them.” I promised it, all while continuing to dance through the masses of Spawns it wanted to consume. “But you will have to repay me.”

I didn’t need the power of the Spawn for myself. Nor did I need to create a second Devourer by consuming the main culprit. I didn’t want a God-devouring, Realm-consuming creature bound to my World. What I wanted was to use the Spawn to fight the Devourer, to close a few Fractures, and to fix the mess the Spawns had caused all across Razarn.

Filling the land they had deprived of life, ether, and essence with something should be possible. At least, it felt like that should be the case. If not…

We will figure something out. But now, before you’re out of spirit power, you better leave to close the Fracture.

Aureus called out to me.

I will be fine without you. Don’t worry too much. Worst case, I’ll be injured. But I won’t die.

Trusting the young Earthen Spirit, I left. I teleported out of the encirclement of Spawns that couldn’t even pull up a trait that blocked my escape. Clearly, they weren’t as strong as the Monarch Spawn or the other Spawns I’d fought before. And that was probably for the best.

Lifesight helped me figure out where all the masses of nothingness were located, where Scott’s weak life signal was, and where everyone else was located. That included the Fracture located at the edge of the valley.

I teleported right to the Fracture and stared at the disgusting structure. It was no more than a violet-blinking tear in the fabric of reality. Nothing to worry about, really.

Who am I kidding? This is nuts. I cursed, studying the structure without getting a clue about… anything. How exactly I was supposed to close the Fracture, I had no idea. That said, I slashed at it with my spirit blade. Nicking the Fracture showed that I did something. It was not necessarily a good thing, but it was better than nothing, or so I hoped as I slashed at it again and again.

The spirit blade shrunk with every hit, its power rapidly depleting in the process. However, at the same time, the cuts inflicted upon the Fracture didn’t fade away. They didn’t recover.

“Can you consume that thing?” I asked the young Spawn bound to be, but while its ravenous presence resurfaced for a moment, Maw of Gluttony didn’t trigger. That would have been too easy.

So, instead, I used the Insignia. Pumped full of the spirit power created by the Spirit Heart, I unleashed everything at once, which was probably a mistake, because while the Fracture disintegrated as a blast of sparkly spirit power tore through it, my vision grew hazy. The last thing I saw before darkness consumed me was the Fracture disappearing. Then there was nothing.

I should learn to hold back a little. I chuckled mirthlessly to myself, then got knocked out cold.