Beastforged Bond

Talking with my parents had long since been overdue. I went for a thorough shower to cool down before joining my parents for dinner. Peter and Chloe Zerog were not at home and were spending the evening on a date, while Daniel and Lea were already fast asleep.

Mom mentioned something about the Zerog siblings working themselves to the ground. She was worried about them, but that was nothing new. Mom had been watching them ever since their uncle died and knew how they felt about it.

Useless. Just like my parents felt right now.

While they hadn’t seen the fight from up close, what they had seen was enough to imagine the rest. Their uncle was dead, killed by the Ruler of Fire, and I looked like a bloody mess. Volca’s forced teleportations to Dracos did not help them feel any better. If anything, it made them feel even weaker than they were.

If their peers had heard about that, they would have cursed them out. After all, both Daniel and Lea were powerful. Even the Rulers’ Scions may not have been strong enough to hold a candle to their growth, especially after what happened in the Netherkins’ home. All the Essence they absorbed pushed them further, and I still couldn’t tell how much they’d grown ever since.

Mom’s worries about the Zerog siblings aside, we talked a lot about the present, the future, but also the past.

As exhausted as I was, I thought I’d fall asleep mid-conversation, yet I ended up staying awake until late into the night. The constant supply of food might have helped keep me awake and kept my stomach full, but the deep conversation with my parents played a much more pivotal role.

Happy, stomach filled to the brim, and dead-tired, I retreated into my room, darkness embracing me the moment I got into bed.

The next morning, or afternoon, if the sun’s position was to be trusted, I woke up full of energy. Eager to get moving, I was about to leave the house to stock up on food and other essentials when Dad noticed me.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t you say you’d be out of commission for the next few days because of that Elixir you got from the auction house?” he asked, eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Your mother has already prepared a few snacks. She said she’ll cook a bunch of easily digestible meals for you to consume while you work through the Elixir.”

Meeting Dad’s eyes, I grimaced.

“Don’t tell me you forgot what we talked about last night?” He exhaled deeply before motioning me to go back. “Get started. We will take care of you!”

Dad said that last bit with a smug smile, which was funny to look at. Anyway, I complied, returned to my room, and sat down on the bed, legs crossed, back pressed firmly against the wall.

Circulating excess ether through my body to stimulate the weave, I got ready and removed the World Mending Elixir from the onyx ring. The sapphire vial looked as intricate and majestic as before, but no time was wasted marveling at the expensive vial. Instead, the cap was removed in an instant.

The result was instantaneous. An explosion of energy burst forth, flooding the room and dyeing it amber. Taking a deep breath, I immediately noticed a difference. The amber hue filling the room pressed hard on my physical body, yet it reached much deeper than that. It seeped into my skin and reached for my World, pressing down on it…damaging it further? Yet as it inflicted damage, it also mended the pieces that crumbled from the heavy presence.

Did I do something wrong? I wondered for a moment, then crushed all doubts and downed the viscous amber liquid. The energy in the room followed its source straight into my mouth and down my throat.

As for the effect, it was immediate.

At first, it was unbearable, as though the seams holding reality apart had suddenly turned liquid…inside me. That was already weird enough to make me wonder if Serviath gave me something dangerous. I hadn’t doubted the human powerhouse before, but it wasn’t as though this would have been my first time trusting a stranger far too much.

In my situation, I really shouldn’t have put too much trust into a stranger, but I’d needed the World Mending Elixir, and he’d been willing to give it to me. A high-quality one at that!

No hesitation! Trust yourself! I chided myself all while the situation within me grew more and more confusing.

While the amber liquid was not directly visible, it could be felt. It was everywhere and nowhere. The hue spread in all directions, flooding body and mind with its presence and an energy that couldn’t have been more mysterious. Then, after what felt like an eternity, even though it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, an amber stream manifested. It was not in my stomach, nor was it really inside my physical shell. It dispersed and reformed in and around my fragmented World.

The World shuddered and appeared to be falling apart, yet it shuddered not in fear but in anticipation as the broken pieces tugged toward one another. The Elixir arrived in the form of a stream, swirling through the myriad fractures in slow spirals. It glowed with a strange, mythical light that felt both searing-hot and freezing-cold. Wherever it passed, fragments softened without dissolving completely. Jagged edges melted, and hairline fractures smoothed over just enough to recognize one another once again.

The searing heat moved through the fragments, returning blood to a numb limb, painful yet exhilarating all at once. The cold deep within the searing heat followed immediately after, preserving what mattered before it could be consumed by the intensity of merging. All of it was slowly drawn together, knitting itself back into continuity.

The World groaned and creaked from exertion, and I couldn’t help but join it as the pressure reached out much further than I could have anticipated. While I had no idea how intense digesting the World Mending Elixir would be, I could never have anticipated something like this. This reached much further than merely mending something that was on the verge of breaking. It empowered it, fortifying every piece of it, all while deepening our connection.

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Even though the process had just started, and I knew it wouldn’t be over for a long time, I was already feeling more in tune with my World. That shouldn’t have been possible, or at least I did not think it should have been, yet I leaned into the sensation. It felt right, just like my Insignia. It glowed dimly, its mark etched on my core, as it absorbed more and more of the amber stream.

In return, soul energy, small golden particles, coalesced all around and within my World. Analyzing it, barely noticing the tears streaming down my face, I watched as something dead awakened to life once more.

The World creaked again, yet underneath the strain and pressure was something else. Relief.

As the amber current spread further, the sensation stopped resembling chaos incarnate. It felt more like remembrance, in a way.

Fragments realigned slowly, finding their way back to where they rightfully belonged. Motes of light, resembling the white flames of the Insignia, gathered in the World’s cracks instead of leaking through them, aiding the process.

The Insignia, mark of the Primal Heir, awakened once more. And with it, my World awakened as well, its recovery accelerated by the power of the Primal fragment I was supposed to have within me. While I still didn’t know if there was any truth to it, Volca certainly thought so. The Fire Spirit had called me Primal Heir, so there had to be something about it.

But be that as it may, my World and Soulkins were much more important than whatever stupid title the Spirits wanted to give me.

That was what I focused on until the Elixir fulfilled its purpose.

Just like that, ten days passed until the last trace of amber fused into my World.

***

I felt great. Not my physique, because that would require several high-intensity workout sessions and draining a lot of ether, but my mind and World.

It was like something clicked back into place, which was likely exactly what happened. My stomach felt oddly full even though I couldn’t remember eating anything, but there was a tray with some leftovers on the nightstand.

Maybe I did eat something. It certainly felt like I did.

One way or another, I closed my eyes again to check out my World. It was still far from fully recovering. The hairline cracks were no longer visible and the smallest of cracks had been mended as well, but the massive cliffs carved through the World were still there. They no longer looked as atrocious as they had before, but my World was not yet fully healed.

“Forty percent maybe?” I mused to myself, just as I felt something stir. It was a connection, a bond I hadn’t felt for several months.

A loud, hoarse yawn reverberated through my mind, filling it with noise once more.

Aureus? I called out, the corner of my lips curling upward until it hurt.

Adam?

Aureus’ voice rang out, and even though I fought against it, mist gathered in my eyes.

“Hey buddy.”

You are fine. I’m glad the chatterbox was right.

The Earthheart mused, his voice overflowing with happiness.

“Chatterbox? You mean Sapsie?” The moment I mentioned her, another bond stirred.

Me~? You talked about me?

Sapsie’s cheery voice echoed.

You missed me! I knew it. I knew you would miss me – or us!

I did miss her. Missed all of them.

Aureus, the Earthheart, sacred beast and Guardian-ranked beast. He was my first and strongest Soulkin. Without him, I might never have become a Blessed.

Nox, the Ferronox Mantis, came next. While not a sacred beast and a lot more difficult to handle when I first hatched him in the Grand Camp, we had grown to love each other. He was still at the peak of the Unblemished rank and was unlikely to break through anytime soon, but he’d come a long way from his racial limit. Ferronox Mantises were rare, violent beasts that rarely reached the Unblemished rank. Their traits were powerful; however, their violent tendencies led to premature deaths more often than not. That was why they were near extinct.

But Nox was different. He easily advanced from a Wild beast to an Awakened and broke through his regular limit as an Evolved to become an Unblemished beast. He made it far, and I was going to make sure he would grow further. Now that we were in Dracos, we had a lot more opportunities to push his racial limits, so it was only a matter of time and effort.

Hell yeah! We kill, then grow!

Nox’s bond flared up, his chittery voice ringing out and making me smile even harder.

The Ferronox Mantis wanted to leap out of the World and get started – with killing – right away, but I had to stop that. He’d damage my World even further, and it was not like I wanted to be incarcerated for letting a murderhobo mantis loose on Dracos’ streets.

“Calm down, will you?”

Yes, calm down, Noxie!

Sapsie exclaimed, as overjoyed as I remembered her.

Sapsie was one of my younger Soulkins, but she was also the second strongest. She grew from feeding on my blood, which was disturbing yet also incredibly useful, especially since she helped me recover rapidly. However, being the offspring of a human-eating World Tree had me worried at first. Now though, I knew I could trust the World Tree’s sproutling with my life.

Pond of Life, one of her stronger traits, was empty right now, but once she created some nectar, we could use it to treat the World’s cliff-like cracks. Whether her nectar would be enough to actually do something remained uncertain. It was worth a try though.

Checking out my World and the remaining bonds, I noticed that Resh, the old Mirage Serpent, was still shrouded in a cocoon. The cocoon was thinner and dimmer than I remembered, which was entirely my fault. If the World hadn’t been damaged or I hadn’t been unconscious for so long, wasting precious time and energy, Resh’s evolution would have proceeded without issue, maybe even completed. Now, the evolution had stopped. It hadn’t failed just yet, which was likely the only good news, but that also meant I had to supply a lot of ether and soul energy to jumpstart the evolution again.

You will be fine. We are there for you.

Aureus called out, his voice filling my heart with warmth.

I missed my Soulkins; I knew that much, but I didn’t realize how much I’d missed them. Now that they were back, I understood that a massive chunk of my very being had been sealed away with my Soulkins.

Cosmo, the Cosmic Chipmunk, was as silent as ever, but his emotions flowed through the bond straight into me. The little guy was already at the Unblemished rank, and he was not all that happy to have been imprisoned in a small, confined space. After saving him from a very similar place, it was now my fault that Cosmo had been stuck in one. Nonetheless, he was not too mad. He liked my World, the growth I offered, and the other Soulkins enough to graciously forgive me.

That left me with Tessa, the Horror Tessar. She was, by far, the youngest of my Soulkins – if one ignored the fact that she’d been in an abyssal egg for several centuries. She didn’t mind the silence or the isolation, yet she was happiest bonded to me. For it made her feel something.

“Only one is missing,” I said quietly, blades of fire piercing my heart. At least, that was what it felt like.

Volix was no longer there. No bond. Not even the sacred flame I’d formed in the Pyrosh had been left behind.

The only things that reminded me of the Elemental Phoenix were the Blazing Gates linked to the weave and our memories. And even that was more than I could have hoped for. It was enough to remind me of the beautiful time we’d spent together.