TS5 - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Far away, in a small world that was little more than a shard of rock hanging in the void, Akira sat up. She was resting in a cave deep underground, its entrance sealed by hundreds of layers of stone and complex spell constructs set by Hati. Blinking, she looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened. She turned and looked behind her at the large cavern where Hati lay unmoving, as if he were dead. The giant wolf had grown even larger as he absorbed the god hunter's divinity, transforming it for his own use. Just like Akira, Hati and Thorn shared a connection that melded their souls together. Unlike Akira, however, their connection wasn't through a contract that bound their souls, but instead existed in a deeper, more ethereal way. Though Akira had woken, because of the new contracts being added to Thorn's soul, Hati continued to sleep as his body processed the mix of divinities he had absorbed.

Scampering down from her perch on a large rock, Akira climbed up on top of Hati's head, carefully sniffing his fur as she examined him. For the last year and a half, they had remained here, hidden away from the Endless Worlds and the dangers it contained. Akira, bored out of her mind, had eventually decided to hibernate as well to try and synthesize the power her body contained. Having woken up, she found that her strength had grown even more than she anticipated, as Thorn's growth was tremendous, and she could feel the new dimensions that their connection had added to her even as she had slept.

The distance between them had been so vast that direct talking was impossible, and only a faint soul connection had allowed them to keep track of the other's status. Now, however, with the four elemental kings' contracts being added, something had changed. A tremendous amount of conflicting power raged through her body, but apart from a slight discomfort in her limbs that soon faded, she didn't seem to notice it. Her body, perfectly attuned to magic thanks to her consumption of the Sap of the World Tree, was the perfect vessel for such power. Without even thinking about it, she shook her tails, causing them to transform. Her three tails merged into a single tail, before splitting once more into four distinct tails, each of which began to dance with a different colored mana.

There was the dark yellow of Mountain Shaker's power, the bright red of Deep Flame, the pale white of Frost Wind, and the deep blue of Shore Breaker, forming a rainbow of color behind her every time she moved. The addition of a new tail took a moment to get used to, but soon the four elements surging through her body began to settle down, and she felt the connection between her and Thorn strengthening, to the point where she could finally speak to him once more.

"Master, what just happened?"

There was a brief pause before Thorn's voice spoke through their connection, filling her heart with excitement.

[Akira? I'm not sure, but it looks like our soul bond has been strengthened.]

Practically giddy with excitement, she spun around in a circle, her paws beating a rapid tattoo on the sleeping god beast's head.

"Master, that's so exciting. That means I can talk to you now. Which is great, because it's been terribly boring here. Ever since we started hiding, all Hati does is sleep. I've had no adventures. There's nothing on this blasted rock, but Hati says we still have to stay out of sight. Otherwise, we're going to be hunted down, all because he's stealing the aspect of some other god beast, or something like that. I didn't get the exact details because it was too boring to pay attention to. But Master, as soon as Hati wakes up, we're going to come and see you. Are you still going to meet us at the tower? Have you already been to the tower?"

Not waiting for any answers, she continued to pepper her master with questions, even as she dashed this way and that, too excited to slow down. Her rapid running woke Hati, and she only stopped when she heard him stir.

"Hati, Hati, Thorn got me a bunch of elemental pets, and they've given me elemental powers. Look!"

With a wave of one of her tails, a frigid wind blew through the area, straight past Hati's nose, causing the giant midnight black wolf to sneeze.

"But that's not all. Look at this, look at this."

Another of Akira's tails waved, and stone jumped up around her, before shooting forward to pepper the far wall.

"I've got earth, and wind, and fire, and water. It's pretty cool, huh?"

Still trying to catch up with what was going on, Hati blinked and nodded.

"Quite impressive," he said, starting to rise to his feet.

When his back scraped the top of the cavern, he let out a grunt and crouched once again.

"Are you done hibernating? Please tell me you're done, because it has been way too long since I've been out of this hole," Akira said, "and I honestly don't think I can do it anymore. Besides, I just got these new powers, and I really want to go try them out. Can we please go see Thorn and the others? Don't worry, if anybody comes to beat you up, I'll beat them up first."

Hati didn't respond for a moment, closing his eyes as he checked the divinity inside his body. Finally, the god beast nodded.

"Yes, we can go meet Thorn and the others," he said, causing Akira to let out a cheer and lift her paws in the air.

"Yes! Master, did you hear that? Hati said we can come and see you. We'll meet you at the tower."

Still on Verdant, Thorn heard Akira's words, and a wide smile spread across his face.

"That sounds wonderful," he said, speaking out loud into thin air, and earning himself a few looks from the people around him. "Let me know when you're close, and we'll head over there."

Realizing what was going on, Velin couldn't help but smile as well.

"Is that Akira and Hati?" She asked.

"Yes," Thorn replied. "They're going to be meeting us at the tower."

"That's wonderful," Velin said. "How soon will they be able to get there?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it should be pretty quick," Thorn replied, "and if it's not, maybe we could go get them. But before that, we have something else to discuss."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he turned to the four elemental kings who were staring at him, shock still covering their features.

"Maybe you can explain to me what just happened," he said.

Moving as slowly as always, Mountain Shaker looked at his siblings and then shook his head.

"I'm sorry, my lord. I can't do that, for I do not know myself. We expected our soul contracts to exist in balance with one another, but they seem to have been subordinated to that creature you own."

"First, her name is Akira, and second, I don't own her," Thorn said, shaking his head. "We do share a soul bond, however."

"Indeed, I meant no offense," Mountain Shaker replied. "It is highly unusual for any creature, god beast, or not, to be able to withstand the power of one of our contracts, let alone four. To our knowledge, only a Titan such as yourself, or one of the immortal dragons, possesses enough strength of soul to take on more than one contract. How this Akira has done so, I can only hazard a guess. If her soul is intrinsically tied with yours, then it would naturally be of the same quality and strength. Therefore, what your soul can do, hers can as well. It would seem that her soul contract has subordinated ours."

"What does that mean in plain speech?" Thorn asked. "What sort of effect will it have?"

"It simply means that she gains access to our powers before you do," Deep Flame replied. "Rather than our powers flowing directly to you, they flow first through her, and then into your own soul. Along the way, she can make full use of them. Just as your absolute affinity for fire and for earth will grant you free use of our strength, so too will it unlock the same for her. Wind and water will not be as easy, but still, she should be able to channel our affinities, in order to make some use of them."

Flapping her small wings to keep her position in the air, Eve gestured, and a window popped up in front of Thorn, showing Akira's status. It had been some time since he'd been able to access it, as the distance and seals that Hati had put around their hiding place had made it too difficult to receive the signal. Now, however, with their soul bond strengthened by the addition of the four new subordinate contracts, he found he was once again able to form a connection with his battle pet. She had long since risen to the ninth tier, and seemed to hit no bottlenecks along the way.

His own strength seemed to be acting as some sort of limiter, and he had the instinctive feeling that she would ascend to the tenth tier as soon as he did. Waving the window away, Thorn felt the traces of power trickling into him through his connection with Akira. He could feel the different elements competing for position, but soon the atlas star began to spin, and the four elemental streams of energy found their homes in the four elemental stones that ringed it, bringing balance back to his body. As much as Thorn wanted to continue exploring the changes to his strength, he knew that now wasn't the time for it. There were too many other details to deal with. Putting his excitement about the upcoming reunion aside, he spoke once more to Mountain Shaker and the others.

"Tell me, you have pledged to me, now what? Will you come with me, or will you remain here?"

"Unless you have need of us, we will remain here," Mountain Shaker said. "We are bound to this place, and it will take considerable time to extricate ourselves. If it is your wish, we will continue to create our armies, sending them against your people to train them. Or, if you would prefer, we can sacrifice our strength to break the seals that keep us here to come with you. Either way, we are yours to command."

Thinking for a moment, Thorn glanced at Velin.

"What do you think?" he asked. "What should we have them do?"

"If I'm leaving, Verdant could use guards," Velin said. "So if we're going to visit this puzzle, it makes sense that we would leave somebody behind to watch this world and guard the World Tree."

"That makes sense to me," Thorn said, before turning back to the Elementals.

Organizing his thoughts, he looked at each in turn and then spoke.

"It would be good to have you continue to test Cloudstone City," he said. "The Empress there, and the forces she controls, are benefiting greatly from your attacks. So for the time being, maintain them. We will be heading out to explore Urgma’Tal's Puzzle. And until we return, I would have you guard this world, ensuring that nothing happens to it."

"A simple enough request," Deep Flame said, leaning forward. "But remember, if you have need for us, all you need to do is call."

"Thank you, I will," Thorn said, bowing his head. "And thank you for trusting me with your loyalty. I will do my best to honor it."

With arrangements made, Velin waved her hand, and the power of the World Tree enveloped Thorn and the others. A moment later, they were standing in the cathedral, next to the massive trunk of the World Tree. A number of Elven caretakers, seeing them appear out of thin air, jumped before continuing on with their tasks.

"Do you think they'll let us still run the dungeon?" Mina asked, looking at Thorn. "I mean, I still have a lot of spells that I'd love to test out. And that's really the only place to do it."

"Of course they will," Corvo replied. "Just get boss Thorn here to tell him to let you back in."

Chuckling, Thorn held up his finger and closed his eyes, using his connection with Mountain Shaker to speak to the Elemental King. A moment later, he opened his eyes and nodded towards Mina.

"Yep, they'll keep it open. Anytime you want to go in, you can use the regular doorway."

"What are you going to do while we wait for Hati and Akira?" Velin asked, looking at her husband.

"I've got some forging to take care of," he said. "What about the rest of you?"

"I'm quite curious as to why my potion didn't work properly," Alph said, causing everybody to step back as he lifted one of his potions and gave it a good shake. "I mean, don't get me wrong, the teleportation effect was interesting, but that's not what I was going for."

"Wait, that just teleported someone?" Thorn asked. "I thought it erased them from existence."

"No, it was most definitely a teleportation, though without any sort of void protection. So chances are, they did get shredded along the way. In fact, that would explain why they didn't reappear," he said, scratching his head. "Based on my observation it probably blinked them through the void and then returned them, approximately in the same place they left from. But chances are, the unprotected journey through the void was not conducive to their survival."

"I can imagine," Thorn said.

Next to Alph, Sparky shrugged. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet," he said. "I might go see what some of the other god beasts are up to."

"Corvo and I have more training to do," Mina said. "I've got to get him up to speed before we go to this Titan puzzle. Who was it again?"

"Urmag’Tal," Thorn said.

"Right, him. If we both want to go, we need to get him a couple more tiers, which means building out new spells and new kinds of spells. That'll occupy us for at least a little while."

"Sounds good," Thorn said. "If you need any help, let me know."

"Thanks.”

“What about you, Velin?" Thorn asked.

"I'm going to concentrate on my meditation," Velin said. "I need to understand what sort of aspect I should be carrying into the tenth tier."

"Shouldn't it be life?" Mina asked, her forehead furrowing as she looked at her friend.

"Life might be one part of it," Velin said, "but it needs to be more specific than that. Is it growth? Is it care? Is it protection? Is it new life? Life is a little bit too broad," Velin said, "and so I need to narrow it down to a single aspect. After all, not all of us have souls that can accommodate all things."