The phantom looks at me, the leather creaking quietly and the chains covering him rattling. “Mother helped give me form, Father.”

“Mother?” Dread starts to creep into my voice.

Vengeance sounds regretful, though it is hard to make out through the hollow ring of his voice. “She bade me to not reveal her existence till she was ready.”

I can feel my fists clenching, and I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. Holding it for a moment, I exhale slowly, opening my eyes. “Where exactly is ‘Mother’?”

Vengeance looks away from me, “I do not currently know. I have only ever met her once, and that was when she helped me take this form.”

I furrow my brow, “What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?”

The Ruler of Chains turns to me, kneeling down. He bows his head, “I do not know where Mother currently is. I accept any punishment you see fit, Father.”

I can feel dread and fear mixing inside me. I supress a chuckle, Hah, inside me.

The idea of an unknown being inside me, that I have had no idea about, is extremely unsettling. Then again, my world is still a big unknown.

But I have had no control over this ‘Mother’ and I haven’t even known about its presence. From what Inik had suggested was that it could hurt me. Could it be trying to grow in strength to eventually attack me?

There is that tingling at the base of my neck. I rub at it, massaging the flesh a little.

Looking at Vengeance, I try to decide what to do. I contemplate it for a few minutes, eventually sighing, “This is important Vengeance. I need you to find… Mother, and tell me where she is.”

I don’t trust him completely anymore, but I can’t spend anymore time here. There were more worrying matters to deal with in the real world. If this ‘Mother’ hasn’t done anything yet, then I can wager that I have a little bit of time.

Vengeance nods, “Of course, Father! I shall vigilantly search for where Mother has secluded herself.”

I nod, wanting to pull my hair out. There are so many things happening!

First there is the immeniet battle between the tarrasque and Inik, the sandstorm approaching and now the revelation that there might be a enemy living in my soul space. It could be the demonic astral the system was talking about.

I look at Vengeance, and warn him, “You are not to follow any commands ‘Mother’ gives, you are not to listen to her or help her, do you understand? You are to find her and tell me where she is.”

Vengeance nods, “I do, Father.”

“Go.”

“Yes, Father.” Vengeance quickly flies off, moving down to the surface of my world.

I’m going to have to search myself as well. But right now I need to be in the real world.

I’ll just have to have faith that Vengeance is more loyal to me than this ‘Mother’.

Closing my eyes, I shift my mind back to my body.

Blinking, I look at the now closer wall of sand. That’s approaching pretty fast.

Kamar drags me on the stretcher past the pile of rubble that Inik knocked down. We are steadily making our way to the cover of the rock outcroppings.

We should be fine. We’ll get there before the sandstorm hits.

Two sides of me are struggling right now. One full of fear and the urge to find whatever is residing in my soul space. The other side wants to stay here and make sure nothing goes awry.

Gods!

The more immediate issue is that of the sandstorm, but there isn’t much I can do about that. So, it would be better trying to extract my invader.

Though, what concerns me more is that the invader might be able to do something. I need something to help defend Amia and my core.

Closing my eyes, I move myself back into my soul space. I float above my world, trying to decide what to do. I need something to help me defend this place. While Vengeance searches, I should try to create something.

I am opposed to trying to make something out of another animal for now. I think I can use less katra while manipulating plants.

If I remember correctly, I had just enough of it when creating Hala. But when I changed Vel, I spent all of it and then some.

So, lets get a seed and use that.

I fly down to the surface of Amia, landing softly in a dense forest.

The moon light filters through the leaves, the wind whispering through the leaves.

Crouching down, I rummage through the mulch on the forest floor, eventually coming up with a small acorn. I inspect it, and ndo when I find that it is still very much intact, thus alive.

This’ll do.

I close my eyes. What do I want to create?

A protector.

In a way, Vengeance could be seen as a protector. But I would call him more of a enigmatic warden. Though, he does only have one prisoner.

I bring my thoughts back, I don’t want another Vengeance.

I want a protector. A shield, but also something that can fight back. Something powerful, yet loyal.

That familiar buzzing at the base of my skull starts up again, and I can feel a image taking form in my mind.

This might take some time.

I look up at the two moons in the night sky. I’m also going to need a lot more space.

I clutch the seed in my palm, and flick my will, launching myself through the stratosphere and back above my world. I inspect my world from above, but more specifically, the composure of gases that make up its atmosphere.

If I want this seed to grow, then I’m going to need a hospitable environment.

The tingling in the back of my neck intensifies, crackling up and down my spine.

There’s a lot of different types of gas katra here. Most namly of them was carbon dioxide and oxygen. I’m not sure how I know what those two things are, but I do. It’s like with the DNA.

Strange.

If I was thinking right, I could up the oxygen to promote increased growth in plants and animals. That should work well. A oxygen rich environment to help boost plant growth.

I take a handful of the different Gray katra imprints that compose the atmosphere. Moving over to the smaller, blue tinged moon, I hold the ball of gasses out in front of me.

How do I make more of it?

The simplest answer would be to feed each type of katra an equal amount of my plain Gray katra. Though, I want to focus more on the oxygen than anything else.

I start pulling Gray katra from my now nearly full reserves funneling it into the ball of invisible gases in my hand. It starts to quickly expand, and I channel it down onto the surface of the small moon, making sure to fully encompass the entire thing.

The tingling in the back of my neck is more like a crackling, running up and down my spine. This is… invigorating.

It takes a while, but eventually the entirety of the moon is encompassed by the oxygen rich gas. Now, I just need to plant the seed.

A good half of my katra pool is gone, but I have an idea of what I want, and it shouldn’t be too hard. I have a bigger pool to draw from, unlike when I was making Hala.

I close my eyes again, reaching into the seed and touching the Life katra that has mixed itself with the Plant katra. I start drawing Life katra from my core, preparing for the process.

A Protector. A stalwart defense, but also powerful offense.

I take that general idea, a concept, and try and imbue it into the seed. Much like with Vengeance and how I had accidently used that hollow pit in my chest, where I boxed up my emotions.

I take that base, and start building the image up. A sturdy trunk, made of wood as hard as steel and bark as solid as stone. Roots that reach far down, holding themselves steadfast in the earth. Long branches, endowed with green leaves.

But that’s not enough.

The roots burrow deep, twisting into the earth, able to move of their own accord. The branches twist, morphing spikes and bristles, clawing at the sky. The bark is thick, dark and flexible.

I can feel subtle shifts in my image, minute changes, the parts setting in to make everything possible.

I focus on the tree, and the idea that it can sever parts of itself, but those parts go on living. Those parts changed, becoming separate, yet connected entities. An army.

I keep those two images together, but turn my focus from them and onto what I think is the most crucial part. The protector.

The tingling is intense now, and it feels like there is a guiding hand helping me.

I start forming an image. It’s human shaped, stands upright. It’s skin is that of the same bark as the tree, thick and rough. A downy of leaves and ivy for hair, two pointed and sharp horns spiraling from it’s brow.

Tail. A tail forms, 4 feet in length and ending with four sharp, jagged spikes. The legs change, forming into those of a hooved digitigrade.

Claws. It’s hands are similar to a human's, four fingers and one thumb on each. But I focus in on the idea of claws. Jagged, curved blades form from it’s fingers.

Retractable. Muscles made of plant matter form, allowing the claws to be sheathed and unsheathed.

Now, for the most important part. I focus in on it’s brain, making sure that everything there is working. Connect and control.

I home in on the idea that it is connected to the tree, that the tree is it and it is the tree. That they are one, yet separate. That my protector can control the tree, command it and its many parts. The general.

Once I have tweaked it and feel happy with the image, I grab them. Then I start pressing them down onto the acorn, and the burn of katra begins. I can feel my reserves draining quickly, but the image is holding fast.

I crouch down, digging the seed into the ground a little. Now, grow!

Taking steps back, I watch as my katra fuels the image and the growth of the seed. First, it splits open, a small green sprout unfurling from inside.

Then it starts growing taller, its roots growing further down and spreading out. The sprout quickly becomes a small fern, then a small tree. It continues to grow, the skin of it darking and becoming a rough texture, bark forming.

Soon, a large tree about 30 feet tall, standing in front of me. I can feel my katra reaching empty, so I cut off the flow.

I look up at the tree, its branches are twisted,e ending in a sharp point and spikes protrude out from the bark. Leaves grow between these spikes, crowning the tree in green.

The roots extend far underground, securing the tree deeply into the earth.

I watch as a bunch of roots twist upwards, breaking the bluish surface of the ground and shaping themselves into a pod. The roots meld together, forming a thick skin over what I can sense is water pooling inside the pod.

The protector.

I don’t have enough katra to completely fuel the growth of my tree and it’s protector, only enough to give it a jump start. But it should be sufficient enough to get the tree close to making its mate.

I can already sense the tree pulling katra from the earth to help fuel its growth.

With enough time, it should be able to make a sizable army.

Of course, I am pretty sure that I don’t have near enough katra to bring an entire army from here into the real world. Maybe enough to bring one or two of them.

I’m pretty sure the more complex the object, the higher demand of katra it needs.

The metal rod had been a simple construct, but if what I understood from the message, the more complex the object is, the more katra it needs to be sustained.

I blink, shaking my head and rubbing the back of my neck. The tingling has stopped.

I can hear something distantly, a voice. It sounds like Kamar.

Looks like I need to return to the real world now.

Closing my eyes, I drift back into the real world. Only to find my ears being assaulted by the howl of wind and Kamar's yelling.

Two words stand out the most to me, "-Umber Hulk!"