We stay wary for a while, expecting them to come back, or transform into a giant one or something. Isn't that how these things occur?

But it seems, despite my uneasiness, nothing much happens. The void becomes creepily quiet.

Aria looks at me, and I shrug.

We turn and move back to the others.

Rishya is poking Seria, who appears to have suddenly gone back to being a young girl again. She looks annoyed.

Michael is staring at the strange floating diamond.

"You're back to normal, Seria?"

"Mmmm... yes... it is remarkably strange... Eeep!"

She jumps as Rish pokes her again in the ribs.

Rishya bursts out laughing and Seria glares at her.

"It... is... weird! Hehehehe..." Rishya laughs to herself.

"Okay Rish... don't bully the Sage."

But I snicker myself as I say it.

"Hmm... your defence is not really convincing, boy." She glares at me, holding her sides in annoyance.

"Kyaaaaa!" Seria leaps again, and glares at Rishya again, but it wasn't her this time.

"Kyaaaaaaa!" Seria is poked again repeatedly, and gets tears in her eyes as she squirms.

"Are girl-shapes supposed to poke? Be poked? Poke poke poke! Yayyyy!"

Aeris is like a snake going around Seria, poking her in all sorts of places.

I look at my hand... I didn't even notice she wasn't a sword any more. I guess she was that lightweight?

"Haaah! B-boy! Kyaaaa!"

"Okay, Aeris, that's enough. You're not supposed to do that."

"Not?" She tilts her head quizzically, looking at Rishya and back at me. Rishya is just laughing hysterically.

Seria falls on her knees, breathing heavily and glaring at me and Rishya.

Aeris immediately stops thinking about it, loses her thread and goes back to humming something whilst she skips around. She really acts like a much younger girl than her appearance suggests, doesn't she?

But then even this is likely miraculous, given she is effectively a few weeks old.

"Boy! Keep your damn spirit under control! And you can stop laughing as well!" She glares at her floating diamond.

Its laughing, huh? Hard to tell.

Then I spot somethinng out the corner of my eye, and look to the right.

It seems I'm not the only one.

Something glinting?

Something glowing?

Then, there are more shinies.

And more...

Stalks burst from the shifting terrain in front of us.

The entire plain in front of us blooms.

Literally.

Hundreds... thousands... of those odd flowers grow out of nowhere in a radiant display.

Seria, Aria and Rishya sharply intake breath as the plains continue to be filled with radiant flowers, creating a scene of ephermal beauty.

"It... it's kinda pretty..." Aria says.

"Uh... is that... normal here?" I ask.

"I really have no idea, boy..." Seria grimaces, standing up, the poking incident forgotten.

Aeris suddenly dashes into the flower field, her feet making crunching noises as she giggles.

"These flowers are clearly important, though." Seria says, folding her arms and tapping her foot.

"Thats so obvious even I get that much." Aria snarks. Seria glares at her.

"The void spirits become this way." Michael suddenly says.

"They do, Michael?" Rishya asks.

"It is like... I am not certain... but as Light spirits like myself are their counterparts... I feel like, to an extent, I understand them?"

The large man-tiger strokes his chin in a surprisingly human gesture.

"I believe that... they do not fear their demise like other spirits. Like humans." He says.

"Fear their demise... hah..." Seria sighs.

"Is it like I thought that one time after all, Seria?" I ask.

She shakes slightly, but she pulls herself up.

"Ahem. Michael. Do spirits die to generate power?" Seria asks.

The tiger-man somehow looks startled.

"Of course." He nods. "It is the prerogative that the smaller ones sacrifice to give strength to the higher ones. Do humans not have a similar system?" He cocks his head.

Seria rubs her face.

"Of course... right now, I am purely using my own power. It is not something I have really considered before... but I suppose my identity stems from the thousands sacrificed to become me, and will and knowledge and achievements and strong love of my capacitor, Rishya."

He bellows a growly guffaw.

But Seria merely bites a fingernail in anxiousness.

"I wish I had realised sooner. You were indeed correct, boy. I cannot believe the hubris of the first sage to not include this information. He must surely of known?" She shakes her head, pacing backwards and forwards.

"It all came about when I realised Void Spirits appeared for no reason sometimes. I tried to find out why... but..."

"But I am guessing they come about when certain spirits die?" I nod.

She sighs in exasperation.

"It all makes sense... if we assume that they do not all go to the void... if we assume, rather than them just being attracted to death... creators of death... they themselves appear as the result of death."

I think I sort of figured as much already. After all, my explosives don't suddenly need fire spirits to work. The science of earth still works. But fire spirits appear with the fire. But to create it from nowhere? Well its obvious to me that energy is not created or destroyed, because that is something we have discovered in our world, but would they know the same here?

The spirits seem to just appear when they go through the motions. If you don't think too much on it... it might well seem like they are appearing to do your bidding. But in fact... you are sacrificing at least some... and others, bigger ones, are made from the residue.

I suppose, they are simply like conscious energy or matter. When something happens... some of the effect turns into spirits?

I could be entirely wrong, of course. But I explain my thoughts to Seria, including some hash of earth science thats probably ill-remembered in the process.

She goes through various states of distress as I do. Rishya and Aria merely look confused.

I have no idea what this means for the world, but I'm guessing its not very good...