B6 Chapter 1

Life was not simple. It never was.

If someone had asked me what I wanted to do a few years ago, I would have told them I wanted to become a Blessed. To grow my World large enough to bind the weakest of beasts and to rid my body of its curse.

Of course, that wasn't the limit of my dreams at the time. I dreamed of advancing to become a Ruler as well. To join the Council among the oldest of the Blessed, who spared no effort to protect the Bastions, providing safety to those who couldn't protect themselves. I wanted to be like Raffael Torch, Ruler of Fire, strong, mesmerizing, and known around the Bastions.

But my dreams changed when I actually became a Blessed. Life changed, and what had once been a far-fetched dream would become reality…or never come true. Joining the Council was the least of my worries, and my unbending loyalty to the Rulers had long since faded. How could I not after witnessing the Rulers treat another race's kindness with greed and bloodshed?

They betrayed the Caldera, who had treated us better than most ever would. Being around them had been pleasant, so it only hurt more when the Rulers used me like a tool, betraying not only the Caldera but also me in the process, just to get their hands on an Emperor beast.

But even then, they failed. The Emperor beast, an Elemental Phoenix born from the Essence of the Fire Spirit, escaped their clutches. It killed itself in the process, irritating the Rulers, and…it came to me.

Seeking refuge in the flame bound to my inner World, the Elemental Phoenix escaped the Rulers' grasp.

Was… Was that when everything changed for me? My dream of joining the Council never returned after that, my trust in the Council and its Rulers broken beyond repair. Instead of dreaming of joining the Council, I started to fear them. That they would find me and the Elemental Phoenix. And that they did, almost.

They didn't catch me for years, during which the Rulers forced the Bastions into a war we never wanted to fight, and they never even apologized. If anything, the Council acted like it had nothing to do with the forces besieging the Bastions. As if they hadn't betrayed and killed their people to get closer to the Emperor beasts they revered.

It was a shit-show, and I was happy to avoid most of it. For some time, at least. Until Raffael Torch, the Ruler of Fire and a madman, found out about the Elemental Phoenix that resurrected in my inner World. That was when I knew I had to fight, to kill, one of the strongest men in all of the Bastions.

And that I did. Not alone, of course. I would have died. There was no doubt about that. Merlin Zerog, a family friend, as well as a powerful Blessed who hated Raffael Torch more than anything, fought by my side. Sacrificed his life to end the Ruler of Fire's terror. But that had not been enough. The Elemental Phoenix, the strongest of my Soulkins, sacrificed himself as well. To protect me and all those important to me.

But even then I nearly died. I still didn't know how my World didn't collapse. It should have sustained permanent damage, at the very least, yet none of that was my concern when I woke up in Dracos, city-state of the Spirits.

We survived the fight against Raffael Torch. The price we paid was a hefty one, yet I made it out alive.

However, that didn't change my dreams all too much. I was just happy that I no longer had to hide away. Free. That was what I was, for the first time since I became a Blessed. And I made use of that freedom to do whatever I wanted–…

Actually, I didn't. I had to work hard to repair my World to protect myself and my Soulkins. After that, however, I...I still didn't make use of my freedom and instead threw myself into the next challenge. One after another until Aureus evolved into a Spirit. A true Spirit, like the strongest entities of Razarn. It was ridiculous, but that was how my future would look. A life filled with more and more ridiculous events.

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Turning my Soulkin into a Spirit, resurrecting the Earthen Spirit in a way, was only one of them.

The other one was even more ridiculous. I had to bind a Spawn, the progeny of the Devourer. The very same big bad evil guy who was after the Spirits, and who'd already devoured the old Earthen Spirit and was eating away at the Primal Spirit.

And the worst part? I was confident it would work.

As for my dreams, I really didn't know what they were. I wanted to survive, for one, but I also wanted to protect my family and friends.

Hence, I sat down in the middle of the battlefield, deprived of life and ether, to bind that damn Spawn.

It was a marble the size of a baby’s clenched fist, suspended effortlessly between Scott and me. My friend still radiated divine energy like a fountain, but I could not bring myself to focus on him. The Spawn, its surface perfectly smooth and dyed in complete darkness, made me grimace. A deep frown crossed my features, only deepening as its ravenous presence seeped outward.

Compared to other Spawns, this one was weak. So weak I could barely sense the nothingness of the Devourer within it. That, however, did not stop its presence from trying to devour me. It was hungry, and...I was going to feed it.

“Can you hurry up a little, Adam?” Scott urged me, though the calm smile on his face told me there was no reason to rush anything.

“I will hurry up if you shut up,” I retorted, making sure not to add any venom to my voice. Scott looked positively exhausted. Even though his World was the largest I’d ever seen, I couldn’t tell how long he’d been in the Spawn’s territory, let alone how long he’d been holding the young Spawn. Because that was what I was fairly sure the marble was. Unlike the other marble Zegrath and I had found in the frozen cavern, this one was not only weak but also unblemished. In a weird, distorted way. The Devourer’s presence was still there, but I could instinctively tell that the Spawn hadn’t devoured anything yet. And that made the decision for me.

While it had already been fairly apparent that I should bind a Spawn to my inner World, I hadn’t planned on rushing the decision.

But now, with my inner World vibrating like a mountain-shifting earthquake, and my gut telling me to just do it, I had to do it.

Reaching for the marble that contained neither the sheen of obsidian nor the darkness of a moonless night, I knew it was time. My World, no longer restricted by my will, surged into action. A myriad of golden particles sparked within my inner World and rocketed toward the target.

Aiding my World, the golden particles gathered and formed pristine golden strands that shot out of my inner World and through my body in a single moment.

The ravenous presence of the marble grew more intense, and I welcomed it as the golden threads of my soul burst from my palm and fingers to touch and seep into the Spawn.

What happened next was as curious as it was anticlimactic.

The Spawn devoured nearly half of the soul-energy threads coming its way before the ravenous presence faded away. Something I couldn’t quite grasp replaced the hunger—was it confusion or something else?—but I simply continued to infuse more soul energy into the Spawn. Slowly but steadily, a frail, fragile bond came to be.

Then, as expected, came the hunger. Not in the form of a presence but from the Spawn itself. From deep within it, through the bond, and toward me.

“We can eat and consume all you want,” I promised the Spawn. “But not Razarn or its Spirits. No, we will consume the Devourer and its creations.”

At first, the Spawn didn’t respond. Half of me was certain it couldn’t understand me, while the other half was confident the bond was too weak to convey intent. Both assumptions were wrong.

As the seconds passed, the little Spawn’s presence reached into my inner World, and all it conveyed was a simple response. An agreement, if you will.

Feast.

The Spawn responded in a language I certainly shouldn’t have been able to understand. Its voice was like the song of a thousand locusts. And yet I understood everything I needed to.

“Feast.” I nodded, the corner of my lips curling into a bright smile.

That was what we were going to do. Feast. For a banquet had already been prepared for us.

Turning around, my Spawn Soulkin still in hand, I was faced with a battlefield of nothingness. And hundreds of Spawns, some of which bounded closer, their desire to feast on us instead all too obvious.