Beastforged Bond

Allowing Raffael Torch to torment me even in death was certainly not helpful. It wouldn’t fix my problems either.

Seeking distraction from lingering thoughts, I studied the beasts roaming the streets. Even if my senses were duller than they used to be, it wasn’t hard to tell that only a few of them were bonded Soulkins. Then again, I’d be able to tell even if I couldn’t sense anything, because the Soulkins did not pay as much attention to me as the other beasts.

Fortunately, they were not aggressive, which was likely the sole reason both humans and beasts could live peacefully in Dracos. However, they were quite powerful. Even the weakest beasts in the bustling streets were Guardians, the intelligence shining in their eyes was as impressive as Aureus’ and Volix’s.

Learning to communicate with the beasts of Dracos felt worthwhile, considering I might be able to bind some new, powerful beasts to my World, but it felt wrong to approach those intelligent creatures with such lowly intentions. Furthermore, I couldn’t be certain that my World would prevail, or that I had any space to spare for new Soulkins anytime soon. Or… that I wanted to bind a new Soulkin after what happened to Volix.

In the future, probably, but not now or in the next few months, if not years.

With that in mind, I returned home, where the Terat were already waiting. They appeared in our home as they pleased, to tend to me, yet I couldn’t help but feel like they only helped me because of Sapsie. The Terat were simply too curious about the World Tree’s sproutling, asking a myriad of questions about her kind, if I would be willing to let her talk to them once my World was repaired, and so forth. It was suspicious, to say the least. However, that was the price I had to pay for their almost daily healing sessions. They helped me, and I was grateful for that, even if they likely had ulterior intentions.

***

Recovery was slow. I searched the library stored in the onyx ring for books and techniques that’d help accelerate the healing process, but the few useful books in the library were mostly effective on minor damage.

Fortress seems to be the most useful. I mused to myself, several days into reading all kinds of books.

The World Defense technique I’d been practicing to protect my World from the Ruler of Fire’s prying eyes appeared to have been more useful than I could have hoped for. It had consumed a tremendous amount of ether and willpower to form spherical strands, forming a shell around the World, which probably kept it in place when it shattered.

Fortress also formed a thick membrane around the channels of all soulshares, as well as the World’s core, protecting both from all kinds of damage. The latter was likely part of the reason why my core felt mostly fine and why it kept absorbing ether in small quantities, because the core hadn’t been damaged and the soulshares were protected. If the World’s shell hadn’t been severely damaged, the core would absorb a lot more ether, but the current situation was better than nothing. The shell only prevailed because of Fortress’s reinforcement.

The last thing I did with Fortress was to infuse the spherical strands and membrane into the World structure, further strengthening everything. Usually, that process took the longest, and it would keep draining an exorbitant amount of ether as the World expanded, which it had from the Essence Source my friends and I had absorbed, but… now it was likely the sole reason my cracked World was kept in place.

Another advantage was as disturbing as it could get. My World had shown signs of both recovering and shrinking. The latter was likely because I was finally awake for longer periods, my soul no longer forcefully shut down. The exact terms and reasons eluded me, and they didn’t really matter. All that mattered was numbers, and the disturbing fact that Volix’s death was likely the only reason I had enough time to repair my World properly.

After pushing Aureus to the Overlord rank, my soulshare with him had grown considerably. However, that did not remove the strain his existence had put on my World. In terms of numbers, Overlord beasts required at least 10,000 soul energy units to be bound to a World. By improving the soulshare, which had been closing in on the third Stage, we managed to decrease the strain drastically, all while improving the amount of soul energy my World received from the Elemental Phoenix. Yet, no matter how potent the soulshare was, the World had been under constant strain.

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That was no longer the case, creating a surplus of soul energy and space that could be used by my other Soulkins, or consumed by them, depending on how long the recovery process took.

“Aureus is already a Guardian rank beast. I pushed Sapsie to the Guardian rank as well to recover from whatever injury Raffael Torch would inflict upon me.” I snorted at the last bit. My past self clearly hadn’t anticipated the fight with the Ruler of Fire damaging my World like this. Regardless, nourishing the World Tree sproutling had been helpful, producing a lot of nectar as well as strengthening our soulshare.

I was sure Sapsie was doing everything in her power to hold my World together and mend it from within.

“Nox was on the verge of advancing to the Guardian rank. Good thing he didn’t,” I murmured, scribbling down everything that appeared somewhat important. “Cosmos is at the Unblemished rank, so is Tessa.”

Neither the Cosmic Chipmunk nor the Horror Tessar had a powerful soulshare with me. They probably regretted initiating a bond with me, considering they’d been imprisoned for several months already, but that was not something anyone could change now. All I could do was apologize to them once this mess was over, ask for forgiveness, and hope they wanted to stay with me. Worst case, I’d sever our bond and release them into the wild. That, if nothing else, was the least I could do.

“Considering everyone’s ranks as well as their soulshares, I should have more than 4,000 unoccupied units of soul energy.” Having noted that and comparing it with the feeling I got from my World and its subtle changes, I grimaced. “That’s not a lot to feed my Soulkins for several months, even if they’ve been hibernating like the Terats suggested and it is definitely not enough to repair the World while continuing to feed my Soulkins.”

At this point, my World’s condition was at roughly 7%. Apparently, that was really good considering it had been at 5% the whole time I was comatose. All those numbers were rough guesses made by the Terat and myself, but they were likely close enough to come up with a somewhat correct timeline. It was certainly enough to understand that my World would be consumed way too quickly. After all, my World was currently being consumed to feed my Soulkins and to recover faster.

If I could refine my World, I could stimulate the core enough to provide the soul energy needed for the latter, but that wasn’t possible.

“My World’s condition is improving by one percent every other day. If that trend continues, I’d have to supply half a year’s worth of soul energy. But, if the current trend continues, I will also lose 100 soul energy units of my World every day. A portion to feed my Soulkins and another to initiate the healing process in the first place.” The more I thought about it, the more frustrating the situation became.

Writing down everything didn’t really help all that much either. Or… did it?

“I don’t need a fully recovered World to retrieve my Soulkins. Resh’s evolution may be an issue, but I can pull Aureus and the others out of the World as soon as the World recovers a little. Once that’s done, I can try refining my World with Blastor Refinery’s lower techniques and slowly ramp up the difficulty.” I exclaimed into the empty room before writing down a few more pieces of information. Several variables were still unknown, but the few things I did know were enough to come up with the framework of a plan.

First step, recover my World just enough to pull out my Soulkins. That would most definitely damage the World again, but it would remove a heavy weight from my shoulders.

Second step, experiment with refining a half-shattered World. Sounded dangerous? Yeah, because it was. Unfortunately, I would have to take the risk. Either that, or I’d have to sever several bonds, which might as well act as the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The stronger the soulshare, the greater the backlash on the World and Blessed once the bond is terminated.

I had slightly more than forty days to finish step one and release my Soulkins to Razarn without breaking my World, all while retaining enough space and soul energy to start with step two. I needed time to experiment with refining a damaged World. No matter how much I wanted to improve instantaneously, I knew it wouldn’t work like that.

For all I knew, it could take weeks, if not months, of highly precise work to refine my half-broken World and stimulate the core enough to recover enough soul energy to support the World’s recovery. As long as I made it this far, the rest would be easy. However, to do so, I first had to reach that level, and that didn’t sound easy at all. If anything, it was a hell of a challenge.

“I really need those Elixirs.”