B5 Chapter 32

Zegrath was burning through her life force to summon Volca’s power. Lifesight showed that much easily enough. The flame of life burning within her flickered and shrunk, all while the fires erupting from her burned fiercer with every moment. I had to use Blink to escape her first strike and applied Illusion and Inflict Fear with bursts of ether, but they failed.

Nox’s appendages lunged forward and cut deep into Zegrath, yet they began to melt at the same time. Nullblade’s coat diminished the horrendous temperature’s effect on the scythes, but it wasn’t perfect.

Should I knock her out? I wondered while triggering Paralyze with yet another burst of power. The trait didn’t work, so I continued to move around.

Mirage combined with Illusion made disappearing much easier, which only grew simpler when I used Blink as well. It was draining, but the effect was more than acceptable. Teleporting around the Fire Caldera, cutting her extremities without mercy, I wore her out.

Yet instead of growing weaker, Zegrath’s fire of life erupted with newfound vigor as her strength diminished. She panted heavily and nearly tripped over her feet, but life turned into more power. She caught up to me, her glaive tearing through the spatial distortion, forcefully halting Blink. A moment later, the glaive cleaved sideways toward my head. My scythed arms rose to the occasion and blocked the attack, though one of the arms was severed.

Nox let out a pained hiss but didn’t end the Soulfusion. Instead, a new set of appendages started to grow, draining a considerable amount of ether and nutrition. Leaning into Predator, I decreased the gravity weighing on me and increased Zegrath’s. At the same time, I made dozens of spears jutting from the ground, piercing through her blazing armor and puncturing her calves and feet.

“Is that all—” I was about to blurt out, slowly losing my rationality to the excitement of combat, when a freezing cold descended.

It rocketed across the battlefield and quenched Zegrath’s fires within seconds. I teleported as far away from the direction the cold came from after a moment and coated my body in thick ether layers. Turning to look at the Fire Caldera, I watched her freeze up. Flowers of ice sprouted around her, extinguishing her flames…as well as Zegrath. She was frozen solid for a few seconds before a tall man as pale as a snowflake stepped up beside her.

He was the source of the cold flooding the vicinity, yet it was his eyes that emitted a colder presence than the air itself. Meeting the man’s eyes, I felt like my World came to a standstill. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have been certain that the man was checking out my World, that he was staring deep into it, not unlike what the Ruler of Fire had done at the end of the Grand Camp.

“I do not think Proto Knights are supposed to be sparring with our cadets.” The man spoke to Zegrath with utter calmness. As he spoke, the thin layers of ice coating Zegrath’s body cracked and fell apart.

She gasped for air, her legs quivering and giving in. Her molten core circulated once more and warmth returned to the vicinity, melting the man’s ice.

“Sir.” Zegrath leaped to her feet as soon as she realized who she was standing before. She lowered her upper body again between several heavy breaths and didn’t rise until given permission.

“You did nothing wrong. I understand why you did what you did.” The man spoke, his gaze flitting from Zegrath to Aureus, then to me, before returning to Zegrath. “But you should not rely too much on the Spirits. Being a Vowed is necessary to fight the plight that followed us from the Realm, but it should not define us. Volca’s power will never truly belong to you, so you should treat it as such. With vigilance, for it may leave you at any time. Or kill you if you do not tread carefully enough.”

Zegrath bowed once more toward the man, who turned away. He left the hall, but not before stopping to talk to someone I actually knew. Max.

Max, human, and also a member of the Spirit Guards, grimaced at whatever the old man said. At first, it looked like he was annoyed and beyond frustrated, but the longer I studied the human Blessed, the more apparent one thing became: while Max was good at detecting truth and lies, he was a really bad actor. Whatever was said clearly made him happy.

“Who’s that?” I walked up to Zegrath, who was joined by the Spiritcaller, Aureus, and the other Fire Caldera whose sparring session had concluded.

“You don’t know who that was, Pyaera?” Zegrath clicked her tongue but didn’t look offended or bothered in any way. If anything, my ignorance seemed to elicit a smile. “That is Glacia’s Knight. The strongest of Spirit Knights, as well as the Head of the Spirit Guard Temple.”

That he was strong was obvious enough. I barely even sensed what he was doing while he was doing it. Freezing a Fire Caldera wielding the power of Volca solidly shouldn’t have been easy, yet Glacia’s Knight made it look like an effortless ordeal.

“Glacia, the Ice Spirit,” I mused quietly to myself, adding her name to the list of Spirits I knew.

Volca, Death, Thyria, and now Glacia were the few living Spirits I’d heard about.

As for the Spirits that no longer walked Razarn, or never had walked Razarn, there were the Earthen Spirit and the Primal Spirit. Thinking about Death Spirits reminded me of Jura and the fragment embedded in his chest. It may not be anything, but it felt almost like the fragment of Volca’s power we’d used in the fight against Raffael Torch. Only that there was more to Jura’s fragment.

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It resembled Death, yet it was not related to the absence of life or anything of that sort.

Darkness?

“How many Spirits are there?” I asked the Spiritcaller while watching Glacia’s Knight leave for good.

Max turned to us and walked over, the corner of his lips tugging upward.

“In Razarn? I do not know the exact number,” the Spiritcaller spoke honestly. “But I do know that there were once 13 Spirits, one to rule a Realm. At first, only the Primal existed. But when he bested Death itself, a Spirit representing Death was born. To control Death, the Spirit of Life was created from the heart of the Primal.”

He sighed. “But neither Death nor Life could perfectly balance one another. Out of Life, Nature was born. From Death, Darkness. But five Spirits were nowhere near enough to control the Realms. Hence, the Primal Spirit, ruler of the Origin Realm, imbued his Essence into the realms that sought just rulers that were compatible with their lands. Over the course of millions of years, the Primal’s energy accumulated within the Realms that had yet to find suitable rulers. And, once the time was ripe, the Realms gave birth to Fire, Earth, and Wind. Then came Ice, Metal, Space, Lightning, Light, and last but… certainly not the weakest… Aether.”

The Spiritcaller looked hurt at the last bit, but I didn’t get to ask him any more questions when Max reached us.

“It’s good to see you here, Adam. I was a little worried you wouldn’t come.” He chuckled.

Worried? That too sounded odd, which Max clearly noticed because he quickly waved his hand.

“Please don’t overthink what I just said. Truth be told, I was ordered to invite you to the Spirit Guards by none other than Death after you exterminated the Spawn near Dracos. She was very impressed with your power, and I think I would have been forced to come knocking at your door if you’d decided against joining the Spirit Guard Temple.” Max explained with a grimace. He shuddered and continued. “I never planned to force you to do anything, but Death is a Spirit who knows what she wants. But do not panic, we won’t force you to do anything you do not wish to do. Joining the Spirit Guards, especially as a Proto Knight from the start, will benefit you more than it will annoy you. I promise!”

It was hard to tell what Max wanted from me. Then again, it was already annoying enough to hear that he would have forced me to join the Spirit Guards.

Death forced him.

Aureus pointed out like the sagely little beast he was.

That too was true. At least, it rang true in my head. While I hadn’t met Death personally, I could only hope that she was a little bit more rational than Volca. Or, at the very least, that she wasn’t petty enough to hurt him or his friends for absorbing the Netherkin’s Source.

“Wait a moment…” I raised my hand before Max could continue to spout anything. “Death wanted me to join because of what happened with the Spawn? I…I think I can get behind that.” I certainly could. If Death was truly there, she must have sensed my Insignia, which was honestly explanatory enough.

“Forcing me to join the Spirit Guards sounds a little bit too much, so I guess it’s a good thing that I wanted to join your Temple in the first place.” I sure hoped so.

“He will join as a Proto Knight, just like that? What about his trials? He is not even a Vowed.” Zegrath asked, sounding a little accusatory. But when Max’s head flicked to her, eyes narrowed, she quickly lowered her head. “…Captain.”

“The old man told me to promote him straight to a Proto Knight. He either sensed Adam’s spiritual power, or he understands what it means to be bound to a sacred beast. It could also be that he was just impressed with how easily Adam could have killed you, one of our most promising Proto Knights.”

Zegrath’s lips parted. She clenched her trembling fists, more than ready to say something, yet she did not. She stared at Max, a flame of defiance burning in her eyes, but even after several seconds passed nothing was said.

“You may leave now,” Max said sternly. A trace of power oozed from the human Blessed, making Zegrath flinch. No more words were exchanged as she lowered her head once more before joining the Spiritcaller.

“We will leave you to talk.” The old Fire Caldera said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Be sure to protect yourself at all times, Pyaera. Make use of every opportunity at your disposal, for you will need it.”

Somehow that sounded like a threat and an opportunity at the same time. Regardless of what it truly was, I was left alone with Max, his smile growing wider.

“How do you feel? Are you excited about joining the Spirit Guards as a Proto Knight?”

What exactly did he want me to say? I only knew a little about the Spirit Guard Temples, let alone their hierarchy. That much should have been apparent enough.

“I am here to learn, not to feel excited about something. If being a Proto Knight helps me gain access to more training equipment, to secret archives, or to receive personalized lessons from a True Alchemist, I will gladly accept the promotion. If not, then the rank means nothing.” I answered as truthfully as I could.

“You are interested in Alchemy?” Max raised an eyebrow. “I expected you to be far more interested in our shops and the defeat of more Spawns.”

Alchemy may not be essential for me since I could always purchase Elixirs and serums from others. All I needed was enough money after all, which I did have with the Spirit Coins. Be that as it may, my Soulkins were unique and I had to figure out how to push them to advance past their racial limits. Some already did that, which meant I had to leverage their potential and jumpstart an evolution. Or a mutation that allowed them to continue to grow.

“I am,” was all I said in response.

Also, Alchemy reminded me of Volix. But if it had only been that, I wouldn’t have bothered with a whole new profession. There was a reason the Elemental Phoenix wanted me to learn Alchemy. And just because the phoenix was no longer with me to bestow his centuries of knowledge upon me didn’t mean I couldn’t continue where we left off.

“That’s interesting. Really not what I expected after all I’ve heard about you,” Max mused, which made me wonder what exactly he’d heard. “But that’s fine as well. As a Proto Knight, you have access to all our training grounds, to the secret archives’ first to fourth level, and you may join the group sessions of all of our Instructors. I can prepare some solo lessons for you as well, but they will cost you.”

That sounded good enough. I hadn’t expected the Spirit Guard Temple to serve me everything on a silver platter. There was only one problem. Without Volix I didn’t have a Fire Aspect. And that meant I needed a new Soulkin. A fire-attributed Soulkin. Or, at the very least, a fire strong enough to replace phoenix fire.

“Great. That only means I need one more thing.” I grinned weakly as Max smiled back at me. “I need a sacred flame. Does the Spirit Guard Temple sell some, by any chance?”

“We don’t have sacred flames,” Max said, meeting my smile with one of his own. Only that his grew much wider. “We have something much better.”