Chapter 2050: Unfortunately Poor Options

Dana’s mind spun as she tried to accept that these were the only ways forward.

She knew that the rest of the group likely wouldn’t see it the same way that she did, as they had undergone so many changes, and accepted them all as natural. But asking her to give up the last vestiges of her humanity to keep the bond for a few more years, knowing that it was going to break anyhow, was a lot.

Obviously, a certain fluffy tailed troublemaker would have absolutely zero issues with the change. But asking Dana to become an actual beast, or more beast than human beastkin?

She would need to think about it.

There was no question that the Soul Bond was going to break. Now that it had been pointed out to her, she could feel the fraying connection.

If the pain was already this bad, and the soul bond was still mostly intact, with just a bit of fraying at the edges, there was no doubt in her mind that having it fray to the point of snapping would be absolutely agonizing.

Perhaps there was a way to dampen the effect?

No, that seemed unlikely, given that the damage was because the energy of their souls was completely different, and the spell was trying to balance something that could never be balanced.

The third option was really just to break the bond without forming any sort of other bond back to Karl to replace it.

That one seemed like it was the most likely and logical outcome.

Just break the bond so that it didn’t cause continual soul damage to her. And then, she would adapt to being alone in her head again. That was the easiest way forward, but it would be a hard one to get used to, now that she was so used to having all these other minds with her own.

But that method would also leave Karl alone in his mind with the beasts, and the older they got, the less responsible most of them were getting.

Even Leo had been tricked into helping Cara help Remi with her experiments.

And she knew Tian would go along with any plan that sounded helpful.

"Do you have a proper plan for how this is going to go? Has anyone ever undone a Soul Bond before?" Dana eventually asked.

Leon nodded his head. "I know the theory. Undoing a Soul Bond is a rare thing, but there have been cases like this, usually because of a Divine Curse or other irreparable injury that imbalances the pair, so the bond is severed to save them."

"Well, that’s a start. But does the spell that Karl wants to use to rebuild the bond even exist?"

Leon smiled mischievously. "Not yet, but I have confidence that he will manage to make it work. He has the appropriate motivation to make it work, and if it doesn’t take long to create the spell, we can do the whole process today."

Karl nodded. He had everything that he needed, or at least he was fairly sure he did.

He had fifty points to buy a space with the [Blessing of Family] skill, then he just needed to make a new skill that would let him bond a Dana Mage. Perhaps if they altered her first, it would be easier, as she would be more beast than human.

But he would make it work.

However, he didn’t want to buy the space yet. He was fairly sure that he had to activate it at the same time as he used {All Things Are Pets} to create a Pet Space linked to Dana. Or, the upgraded version of it mixed with the [Pack Link] and [World Crafting]

Karl began the process of [Skill Merger] to create a new combined skill, with the appropriate bits of each of the involved skills.

At first, he was coming up with a skill combination that was far too difficult. He was never going to be able to blend it properly if it was a Legendary Skill. He needed to focus more on the [Blessing of Family], emphasizing that it was more of a Beast Master type bonding skill, than whatever it was that the Pet Sitter skills thought he was going for.

Finally, he managed to come up with something stable.

[Epic Pet Bond] 250 points per activation. Creates one additional Beast Space that allows the bonding of Pets with Active System Interfaces.

Then another message appeared, unrelated to the actual skill

{Note: Collar optional, but highly encouraged.}

Dana stared at Karl as he laughed, and then finally managed to get a clear view of the System notice through his thoughts.

"Nope, skip that skill. I don’t even know what it does, and it’s already a hard pass. Whatever chaotic badger loving god you attracted while making it is into things that should not be explored."

That made Cara laugh hysterically, while Karl only shrugged.

"It’s just an advanced version of skills that I already have, to recreate a form of the Soul Bond, without the limitations of the spell trying to perfectly match us. It will be more like the bond I have with Thor and Leo, which helps them grow, but doesn’t require balance."

Rae snuck up behind Dana and wrapped her in a hug from behind.

"Come on, Sister. You can’t turn down his hard work, right? You might have to break the Soul Bond for your own safety, but that doesn’t mean that you get to escape our valuable advice."

Dana smiled at the thought that most of the group was actually intending to give valuable advice.

Rae was, but most of the group was either planning to play pranks on her, or use her as a comfortable spot to nap. And the more that she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that it wasn’t only Tian scheming to find better napping spots.

"So the spell to recreate the bond is ready?" Leon asked.

Karl nodded. "It is. What do we have to do next?"

"You will have to pre-cast the spell, but don’t finalize it. Target Dana’s soul with the spell, not her body, and as the new spell casts, you need to use every bit of power you can to cast [Nullify] on the Soul Bond at Dana’s end.

Not your end, or it will backlash onto her.

Cara, you can help as well, if Dana trusts you not to mess it up."

Cara looked offended, and Dana shrugged, then stuck out her tongue at the badger. She had earned that level of distrust. But in a pinch, she would do what was best for the group, even if she didn’t really want to.

Only, Dana underestimated just how much Cara really, really wanted this to work.