Beastforged Bond

It was chaos all over the valleys, but the fight was over when I woke up again.

My Insignia pulsed painfully, making me regret pushing everything I had into the Fracture, even if it clearly worked out as well as I’d been hoping for. Truth be told, the final result was even better than expected.

You closed the Fracture.

Aureus stated matter-of-factly.

And you didn’t die.

Sapsie added happily.

My World didn’t shrink either, meaning I didn’t lose any Essence in the process. That, if nothing else, was a win in my books. Spirits had to sacrifice their power to close a Fracture, while I didn’t.

“You closed it.” Glacia’s Knight walked up beside me, his presence cold as ice. The pale-faced man never smiled, but he did not look displeased either. Just…cold and distant.

“Looks like it.” I scrambled to my feet with a groan, my head thundering as if it had been struck by Daniel’s condensed lightning bolts.

If there had been more than one Fracture in the valleys, I wouldn’t have made it. Closing them would have killed me. Even now, it felt like a simple breeze blowing against my cheeks would knock me out cold. I was beyond drained.

I’d much rather deal with a bunch of Spawns.

Same!

Nox’s voice rang out in my head as the oversized Ferronox Mantis appeared at the edge of my vision.

Nox was far from a regular mantis. He was more than two meters tall, covered in thick, dark plates resembling a knight’s heavy armor, yet he was fast and flexible. Plus, he was equipped with two scythes, incarnations of death, capable of cutting through everything – ever since Nullblade evolved to Annihilation Blade, that is. Not even creatures stronger than him could easily block Nox’s scythes at this point. Combined with Predator, the Ferronox Mantis’s other traits, the Soulkin transformed into a creature of death and bloodshed. And that was exactly what he wanted to be.

He loved combat, and I knew for a fact that my bond with him had affected not only my desire to fight but also my other Soulkins. Even Sapsie had been influenced.

Combat is fine.

Sapsie agreed wholeheartedly.

As long as we beat up the bad people. Fractures and Spawns first and foremost.

Aureus’s agreement reverberated through the bond.

“Anyway.” Clearing my throat, I turned to Glacia’s Knight. “I need the Spawns’ carcasses. If they haven’t been burned by the Fire Caldera already.”

It was protocol to incinerate the Spawns’ remains until the very last bit, not because the Spawns could recover once their masses of nothingness had been destroyed, but because the remnants would harm Razarn even in death. The power of the Devourer would seep out of the carcasses and destroy everything, accumulating enough power to potentially create a new, stronger Spawn.

“We can’t do that. Glacia may have ordered me to–”

I raised my hand to stop Glacia’s Knight. “That was not a question. I know this is weird for you, and it is weird for me as well, trust me, but I need the Spawns and the Spirits will agree on that.” Ordering the head of Dracos’ Spirit Guard Temple around was certainly not what I wanted, especially with him being one of the oldest Emperors on Razarn, but there was little I could do about it. I had to feed my new Soulkin to figure out if there was a better way to make use of him.

Worst case, feeding him his brethren will make him stronger. Best case, feeding him Spawns will help us figure out how to deal with them more efficiently.

Aureus commented as he landed behind me. The ground did not tremble as the Earthheart’s massive frame descended – it embraced the Earthen Spirits with a tight hug.

Aureus’s frame towered high above all, and the Earthen Knights who had come to aid the battle against the Spawns gasped. They uttered a quick shout and knelt to the ground as an earthen-brown hue peeled away from Aureus’s black scales. Golden specks decorated the young Earthen Spirit’s majestic body, and his brilliant gaze whipped coldly toward Glacia’s Knight.

A duplicate appears here despite the author’s lack of permission; reading the chapter on their official page supports continued writing.

Glacia’s Knight pressed his lips together before they finally parted.

“I see. We will collect the remnants.” He lowered his head ever so slightly. “I shall communicate with the Spirits once we’ve returned.”

Even though he made it seem like he’d just issued a threat, I nodded in agreement. It wasn’t on me to lecture Glacia’s Knight, nor was it my task to explain to everyone what the Spirits and I were trying to achieve.

Does he not know about your background? What a pesky brat.

Sapsie commented, which was promptly ignored. Calling an age-old Emperor a brat was certainly not on my to-do list either, though she was not entirely wrong.

Maybe he doesn’t know about the Primal Fragments, or that I’m the Primal Heir. I responded with a shrug. Not that I knew much about it either. The only thing we had figured out up until now was that my World’s compatibility with just about every creature was the result of a Primal Fragment.

How that Primal Fragment ended up inside me, I didn’t know. Nor did anyone else. Even the Spirits didn’t seem to know.

That aside… I was tired. Tired of Glacia’s Knight, but also mentally and physically exhausted.

Rest a little.

The young World Tree commented before flooding my body with life-attuned ether. It was purer than my ether, and it filled me with more warmth than the Pool of Life’s nectar.

Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye as the world around me blurred. Glacia’s Knight left, and Nox and Aureus returned to the inner World to recover from the exhausting battles they had fought and the wounds I had failed to notice.

Nox was on the verge of death, even though he couldn’t have appeared more alive. He was excited and overflowing with power, yet poison had eaten through his intestines. It didn’t surprise me when the Ferronox Mantis fell into a deep slumber as soon as he returned to the World.

Aureus, on the other hand, was merely drained of energy. Neither spirit power nor ether coursed through him at this moment.

I’d seen the young Earthen Spirit fight. He dealt swiftly with the strongest of Spawns, his power far surpassing the might of an Overlord beast, yet it never occurred to me that he could be exhausted. That felt wrong, which was also wrong. After all, everyone who fought tirelessly would grow exhausted at some point.

I really needed some rest, and I got it while the Proto Knights and Spirit Knights cleared the battlefield. Mountains of Spawn carcasses formed around me, and I stored them away in a spatial pouch, hoping its enchantments would withstand the Spawns’ corruption long enough.

Feast.

The grotesque voice of my youngest Soulkin rang in my ears, making my hair stand on end. It was as terrifying as I expected the Spawns to sound if they could speak. Anyway, we were bonded now, and I wasn’t going to starve that little fella to death.

I triggered Maw of Gluttony and watched yet another shadowy tendril pour out of me and into the ground. It surged toward the nearest mountain of carcasses in a heartbeat. A moment later, an abomination with rows upon rows of fangs that glittered like the stars high in the sky appeared. The maw made of abyssal darkness and star-like fangs snapped shut around several parts of the Spawns before disintegrating once more.

The mass of nothingness in the inner World rippled and bulged, yet I was more focused on the glow engulfing the Spawn’s frail bond. It seeped into the bond, strengthened it, and nourished it. Feeling the process rather than watching it was weird. Not only was it unlike anything I had ever felt before with any of my other Soulkins, it was almost like I was trying to feed an extraterrestrial baby of doom and chaos. It was just that… well, the baby hadn’t hatched yet.

If my senses weren’t tricking me, the marble I’d bound merely a few hours ago was not a newborn, but not even born yet. And yet it feasted on its brethren, and it desired more and more.

But while it was different from any of my other Soulkins, it also occupied part of my World’s soul energy. It wanted to feast on it, devouring it relentlessly, yet it focused on the Spawns. And doing so allowed me to imbue it with more soul energy. To nourish it with a type of energy that should never have worked on it.

Spirit Power destroyed the Spawns. Feasting, using Maw of Gluttony, allowed it to devour others to transform them into its otherworldly sustenance. But soul energy it did not consume. Because I forbid it. So whenever a unit of soul energy flowed toward the Spawn, it stayed in the marble, merging with the other energy that had only one purpose – to consume. And it started to change.

It was hard to make out, but there was something about the soul energy merging with the Spawn’s power. And, while it was almost too minuscule for me to sense, I felt it anyway. Because we were bonded for eternity.

I just know that you will give me many, many bad headaches. I groaned, all the while the corner of my lips curled up.

As hard as the challenge promised to be, I was up for it. For myself but also for my beloved and the greater good.

This was something only I could do, and I’d do everything in my power to do a good job at it.

And to start off, I’d have to give birth to a Spawn that wanted to do more than devour. A Spawn that desired to be better than its brethren and the Devourer.