Both the old Archmage named Keps and the Dex hunter named Klint desired to take down this confounding creature of the Astral Ocean.

[Use the [Tamus-Anima] Song-spell on this beastie, boy!] I could almost hear the crusty, experienced legionnaire mentally shouting at me. [The song-spell requires no skills and can be hummed rapidly! It is a perfect weapon against these damn things!]

I flung my minute body towards the phantom whale jellyfish monstrosity, swiftly singing [Tamus-Anima] in an attempt to tame the creature's soul, to slow down its attack.

It worked!

The resonance of my song somehow slowed a few of its razor-covered tentacles just enough to let me pass right in between them. I smashed into the monster's belly.

[Now, sing the [Sectus-Anima] spell! Slice through its skin, get into its innards where it cannot grab at you!] Keps barked and I obeyed.

As the whale's shimmering tentacles flailed above me, I hummed the [Sectus-Anima] stanza and the glowing skin of the creature parted. I dug into the aberration's body using my own threads, prying apart the cut I had made.

[Now, [Tamus Anima] again! Fuse that cut!] The Archmage hollered and I complied, pulling the cut shut with my threads and vanishing the view of the flailing tentacles.

[Yes! That's the spirit, my lad! A job well done! Take a breather... and then examine your enemy from within. Find the heart and strike it down! There be plenty of experience in hunting monstrosities like this one!] The Keps part of me laughed. [Why, I remember hunting down a sandstorm-dragon in the Basque desert with me lads on our gliders! A great time indeed!]

I smiled internally. It was great to have someone to push me into action. Keps reminded me of Professor Mikhail Lavrentyev from the Academy of Sciences, an old friend and trusted advisor during my student days in USSR. Mikhail could never sit still and in 1957 he became the first Chairman of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences and founded Akademgorodok, the city intended to be the Soviet "Foundation", akin to the imaginary "Foundation" series by Isaac Asimov.

Lavrentiyev's project was a beautiful idea to create a hidden, science-built city in the middle of Siberia, to preserve and magnify the power of the Soviet Academics, so that if things ever went awry in Moscow or if the Americans nuked it, Academgorodok could bring USSR back from the ashes as a technocratic utopia. I doubted that Mikhail's Foundation would be able to save anything at all, since after the fall of USSR in 1991 many Academics chose to immediately flee to America rather than preserve the legacy we all built.

[Khm... I reckon that our aberration stat... might be a problem,] Keps commented, interrupting my ponderings of USSR. [Or an advantage. Regardless of the situation, I would advise you to Sing the Alanian Legionnaire's Hymn. It will help you affiliate yourself with the All-Mighty-Inian Legion and awaken your Soul-Song fully.]

The Archmage's advice was sound thus far. I didn't think that it could hurt to affiliate myself with the locals. I started to hum the song of the All-Mighty Legionnaire. The Alanian troops had sung this hymn before battle and also every morning to strengthen their souls. Klint sung it himself before every job, believing that it brought him good luck.

Like the other Alanian Song-spells it was also a story.

It was a tale of the great Emperor Celesar and his quest to unite the children of Alania into one people. His determination in never giving up, his courage and his appeal to his troops to protect the motherland, to stand against all enemies of Alania for all time. The hymn spoke of many victories stretching from unimaginably distant past into the future, a loop of glory that could never be broken. It praised the heroes of Alania that would never die, the greatest of which had been pulled from the Astral, to walk once again against the vile enemies of our Empire, just like Keps had been.

I was one of these heroes, an awakened man that stood up against the gods, wielding the Soul-song to defy the world, to crush my enemies, to always strike true and to bring justice to those that needed to be punished. I would bend the universe to my will. I would serve the Alanian Empire with my entire heart.

At first nothing happened, but as I continued to repeat the stanzas, I felt some inexplicable change within me, a connection to something far greater than myself.

Some kind of a blue chart blossomed in front of my face, blocking the view of the grotesque, shimmering insides of the phantom whale.

Name:

[Evaluation error]

Age:

[Computational error]

Species & Subtype:

Astral Phantom [+ 2 in Agility & Dexterity]

Affinity: Alanian Legion [+ 2 skill channels]

Blessing of Emperor Celesar [+ Soul Song skill]

AEX [+Tether skill] Specialization: Soul hunter [+ Soul Devourer skill]

Experience:

0/50

Health:

0.1/0.1

Stamina:

0.1/0.1

Mana:

0.1/0.1

Mana regen:

0.1m/hr

Strength:

0

Agility:

0 [+2]

Dexterity:

0 [+2]

Vitality:

0 [+1]

Charisma:

0 [+1]

Magic:

0 [+2]

Luck:

0

Intelligence:

0 [+2]

Wisdom:

0 [+2]

Soul:

1 [+2] [-2]

Skills:

[Soul Song LV 0]

[Tether LV 0]

Affliction:

[Soul decay: - 2]

I stared at each line in serene wonder of first discovery - it was an entire System that evaluated a being! How unique. Could something like this develop naturally through evolution or was this a construct of some advanced intelligence? Did the Alanian Archmages create it?

The memories of Keps told me that Emperor Celesar created the Soul-Song in his divine, eternal wisdom by carving planet-sized rings onto the surface of Lunaria above Novazem. The answer seemed like some ridiculous propaganda at best, but then again... Keps was right about how to get into the phantom and survive. I decided to accept the answer with a grain of salt.

I thought about looking around me and the blue menu vanished. The view of the insides of the ghostly creature was back, made up of transparent pulsating bones and organs, the most freakish semi-transparent anatomy I had ever seen. I had no idea whatsoever where the heart of this thing was.

I seemed to be safe within the belly of the beast for now... but for how long?

...Did this creature have internal defenses akin to white blood cells?

[ Find the heart ]

[ Find the brain ]

[ Attack everything ]

[ Study the phantom from within ]