Beastforged Bond

B4 Chapter 19

“You are taking too long, human.” Thyria grumbled, pulling on the essence chains in frustration.It had almost been a year since she used precious energy to create an offspring.

The sapling was not the first she formed in the thousands of years she had lived, but it was the only one that remained. It was also the only sapling she produced in the fragmented dimension, reducing the time she could maintain it by more than a hundred years.

She even went as far as to sacrifice decades’ worth of energy to safely bring him outside the dimension. And she did all that for what? Only to watch her offspring shrouded in darkness for months, unable to awaken by himself.

It was a disgrace. Humiliating. To watch the human ignore her very offspring, treating him like he wasn’t worth his attention.

Thyria often asked herself ever since Adam left. She didn’t like humans. She them. She loathed their very existence.

They were no more than livestock and should never have become more than that. But look at her now. Sealed in the fragmented dimension, waiting for death, yet still hoping. Relying on the very being she loathed the most to rescue her people.

Thyria didn’t even have to survive. She cared more about the Faes than her own survival. If not for that, she would have never lowered herself to give the human a part of herself.

As long as he helped the Fae escape the fragmented dimension, she was fine dying. That would be better than submitting to a human. She’d much rather die.

“What are you doing, you braindead moron!?” she grunted, life essence oozing from her branches. She was often irritated these days, unsure whether the ray of hope she had been given was a good thing. It should have been, yet Thyria could not help but doubt the hope nestling in her chest. What if the human crushed her hopes? What if he exploited them? Used her greatest weakness against her.

Her offspring was supposed to resolve that issue. The bond’s influence should have pushed Adam in the right direction, forcing him to think about the fragmented dimension–about saving the Faes and the World Tree. Instead, all Thyria could feel was the human’s strength growing. That was great. It was a necessity rather than a luxury. Still, the sapling had yet to influence Adam. It hadn’t even sprouted. It was… useless.

How much longer was Thyria supposed to wait? Time was running out. Her dimension was falling apart, her body suffering more with every day.

Then, she felt it again. But it was not her offspring stirring. That would have been an event worth celebrating. What she felt, however, was anything but great. It was a dreadful sensation. A tear in space within her range of perception, but not within the fragmented dimension. It was farther than that.

Razarn.

“The Spawns are coming,” she mouthed, fear gripping at her core.

Thyria wanted to move, eradicate the Devourer’s Spawn. Demolish them before they could grow stronger. But she couldn’t do anything about it. The World Tree could only watch as new threats descended upon Razarn.

***

The sproutling looked at me. It expected something from me. Probably? As far as I was concerned, the sproutling didn’t even have eyes, yet I could tell that it was looking at me. It wanted something.

“I’m not going to give you any more blood. Suck that corpse dry for all I care, but stay away from me.” I pointed my finger at the odd Soulkin. A sigh escaped my lips as it didn’t move, so I added,

“Later. You will get some blood later. Not now though. We have a little beastwave and Outsider problem to take care of first.”

The sapling shook its head, or so I interpreted, and sent an image through the soulshare. The image was odd, for lack of a better term. It showed a mishmash of grayish masses that formed a grotesque creature.

Was that a drawing? If so, the artist was insane, with more loose screws than anyone should ever have.

When I didn’t say anything, the sproutling returned to my inner World. No help was required this time, which I took as a good sign. It was learning fast, maybe fast enough to abandon its mother’s personality.

Salvaging the sproutling sounded like a good plan. Even more so if I wanted to keep it by my side, which… would be for the best. One Emperor beast was useful. Two potential Emperor beasts would be even better.

The sproutling ignored my train of thought and added a feeling to the image. An emotional impression. A sense of hollowness, mixed with dread, and something I couldn’t quite grasp. I still didn’t get it, but Volix did.

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The Spawn. It must have detected some.

Volix interpreted for me.

The Devourer’s Spawn? I hadn’t thought too much about them in the last few months. The amalgamation of a Chimera with countless, ever-shifting faces appeared before my eyes sometimes, but those were just memories. That didn’t stop me from shivering at the reminder.

The Spawns were real. They truly existed.

Maybe I’d be strong enough to fight the Chimera Spawn with how much I had grown, but that didn’t change what happened in the past. The memories didn’t change, including how it all started. With Volix pointing me to that amalgamation in the first place.

Or was that Volca controlling the Elemental Phoenix? The entire truth was a mystery, although I was fairly sure it was Volca.

Anyway, more Spawns meant trouble.

Troubling indeed. They may not even care about the Worlds of humans, but if they find the Bastion, it is only a matter of time before they find you as well. As little as they may care about your people, they will not ignore you. I can promise you that much.

Volix said, his voice deeper than usual.

Swallowing hard, I tried to dispel the images forming in my head. The worst-case scenario would be bad, to put it lightly.

You have a few options. For one, you could wait and do nothing. Ignore the Spawns and let the Bastion’s Ruler and its Grandmaster remove them. I am sure your kind has already encountered the Devourer’s Spawn in the past. If you do not wish to rely on the Bastion and its powers, you could always seek them out first. Eliminate them before they can inform the Devourer of your existence.

Volix pointed out.

Were all Spawns as powerful as the Chimera had been? I didn’t think so. If memory served right, Volix mentioned the Chimera had been several centuries old. That meant they weren’t all that strong and that the Chimera was a unique case. As to how unique…I couldn’t tell.

I don’t know. I cannot even sense them. But I do know who can tell us.

Volix said in his all-knowing, sagely voice.

“Who?” I blurted out loud, only to be met with silence that stretched longer than necessary. Until a quiet but high-pitched voice rang through my mind.

Me~

It said.

Closing my eyes, the sproutling glowed, a green spark shimmering within.

Really now? You’ve been inactive for months and now you can talk? Just like that? I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“What even are you?”

Daughter~!

The sproutling answered in a singsong voice.

She can help you. Sense life and thus also the absence of it. Her power will also help you locate invisible Outsiders more easily. Resolve your greatest problem. But–

The rest of Volix’s sentence was cut short by a deafening groan.

Nobody answered, but that was enough of a response. I let out another groan, suppressing the desire to scream from the bottom of my heart.

No matter how cute the sproutling sounded, I had yet to forget that it sprouted from consuming my blood. There was no way I’d ever forget that either.

A frustrated sigh later, I put that thought aside for the moment. First things first. We had a Bastion to clear. All other issues could be postponed.

You exposed Volix in front of others.

Aureus pointed out the obvious.

That–

I did not really expose Volix. Only part of him. Soulfusion, as well as Volca’s Mark.

“Later,” I grunted and moved out.

Kicking the ground, it was time to rush to the ninth sector. My core was nowhere near full, but an Intermediate Etherium serum ought to solve that issue. It was as sour as it was potent, and it carried the potential to make the consumer addicted, but it was a good serum anyway. Although only those with an efficacy of 101% were actually useful–or ‘untainted,’ as Beaster Bert and Volix confirmed to me a few weeks ago. Anyway, Bert had made a few serums for me a while ago. For emergencies only, which fit the current theme.

Emptying the serum, ether pumped through the weave. It was sticky, unlike regular ether, but it would do its job for the time being. Though I’d have to purge the residue later if the Blazing Gates wouldn’t.

Pumping ether through the weave, I rushed ahead, just to turn around when a pained screech reverberated through my bond.

Nox was injured.

I returned to the massive building Nox had cleared earlier and leaped into the air, gravity reduced as low as possible while fiery trails propelled me upward. Air cut into my face as I reached the rooftop in a moment’s notice. Gravity reasserted itself as soon as I landed, and my head swiveled toward the massacre at its center.

Nox’s body was shredded in several spots. The winged spider’s fangs were stuck deep in the mantis’ neck, and acid was all over him, dissolving his exoskeleton and the soft flesh beneath. But he won the battle. And he was alive.

Fortunately, without losing a limb or an eye.

Almost lost my arm. Feels numb!

Nox said proudly, though I failed to understand why that would be anything to be proud of.

Arm still there! Spider dead!

He rebuked, still feeling giddy.

“Good job, buddy.” I grimaced, releasing a spat of fire at the Ferronox Mantis, burning away the coat of acid.

He didn’t look good–like, at all–but Nox was happy, and that was all that mattered. In a way.

“Now get in there,” I grunted, after pulling the fangs out of Nox’s neck.

Fortunately, the bloody Soulkin was compliant and returned to the World to recover.

That only left me with Aureus, who was already in the ninth sector, doing what I was supposed to do.