After eating to her full, she felt so full of energy Pip immediately fell asleep. With a start, she woke to find herself sleeping next to a small campfire, barely bigger than her.

“Peep! Peep!”(Where is this?), she called out wobbling up her legs, with difficulty after her recent meal. She did not recognize the place, but it felt like she knew the place. She felt unfettered, she unfurled her wings and with a light flap she was soaring through the sky, leaving the campfire and the blue world behind. She closed her eyes, feeling the sense of the wind blowing by her face.

“Peep!” she let out a long caw, her heart was full of wonder.

After a few minutes of soaring through the endless blue, she grew tired and circled back to the fire. There was an emptiness gnawing at her, the further she got away from the fire, intrigued she bobbled closer to the fire.

It was blazing hot, but Pip did not feel any fear from it, rather she felt a warm comfort from it, like a homecoming. She walks into the fire without any hesitation. As she comes in contact with the fire, she feels no burn. Instead, the heat of the fire felt cool against her skin.

Completely immersed into the flames, she bathes in the flames. The cold flame rushes through the pores of her body, opening them up.

“Peep!”(Ouch!), she let out a squeak, clutching her oversized gut.

Her body was overflowing with Mana she had ingested from eating all the herbs. The Mana stirred and rushed out of her body filling the surroundings with white steam.

“Peep! Peep!” (So good!), she cooed.

She eased down her shoulders and her neck slumped, her body turning into dough as she relaxed her muscles. Closing her eyes, she propped down on her buttocks, enjoying the fire bath, beak agape with pleasure.

The small fire slowly grew bigger as the colourless Mana quickly bath itself in the crimson glow, taking on the form of Fire elemental mana particles. As mana poured out of Pip, the fire spread covering greater parts of the world.

As the fire grew, there was a change in Pip’s physique simultaneously. The yellow of her feathers became a darker shade; her tiny round body became longer and graceful.

Suddenly she stirred back upright, eyes wide open, reminded of something she could not forget, “Peep!”(Mom?), her heart skipped a beat.

She shuffled out of the fire looking around, searching for her mother, but could not find Rick anywhere. The last thing she remembered was the rugged face of her mom looking at her, picking her up in her arms, before she fell asleep.

She flew around the sky refusing to give up, white smoke flowing out of her, reminiscent of a show-plane. As time passed, the sky lost its colour.

“Peep!” confused she flew back down to the ground.

The blue slowly turned translucent in moments and Pip’s eyes grew wide at the scene outside.

From beyond, she could see her mom, looking down from the sky, and then the world turned to pitch dark.

“Peep! Peep! Peep!”(Ma! Ma!) she called out flying up, without care for anything else. But no matter how high she flew, she could not reach the end, Rick’s eyes withdrawing further away. No matter what she tried, she could not get out of the endless world, extending endlessly.

“Over my dead body,” after what seemed like ages to heard, she heard her mother’s voice, like a soft whisper of wind. Along with it, she could feel the pull in her mind, like an unyielding itch.

Pip knew what this was, it was blood connection she had formed with her mother when she had first come into the world. Without a second thought, she accepted the connection.

A thread of her consciousness immediately left her body, connecting with that of Rick. She could see everything happening outside, although her consciousness did not return to that world.

Her mother was facing off two people at the same time and all for the sake of saving her. She could feel Rick’s despair at the face of the duos strength and his conviction to save her.

“Peep! Peep! Peep!” she tried called, but she could not reach out to him.

“We have one chance to break off the connection with the human,” an authoritative voice suddenly resonated, forcing her consciousness to return back to her world.

Facing her was a face in the flames, but she knew what the face meant. Every connection that he ever made would give rise to an inner devil, limiting his strength. It was a trade she had to make between power and Rick.

“We have one chance, you know that human is not your mother. We are the supreme beings, you calling a human your mother is nothing but a disgrace to us,” the face continued.

“Peep! Peep!”(He saved me. Even now he is protecting me with his life), he shook his head no.

“It should be the honour for him to sacrifice himself for us,” the face snapped back.

“Peep!” (Stop!), Pip snapped, annoyed by the face.

“You will realize I am right afterwards. You can thank me then,” the face declared.

“Peep?” (What do you mean?)

“The human will die in minutes, and then this discussion will become moot,” the face smirked

Pip’s realized what the face was getting at. She stared at the face, her eyes red with anger. The vision of Rick flashed through her mind, holding her for the first time, riding on his head, sleeping in his pocket, sneaking out. It was only a short while earlier that she had met him, but if he was willing to sacrifice himself for her, she was not willing to sit back watching him die.

“Pwaaa!” she screeched, spreading her wings. Her feathers turned to flames, only growing larger by the moment and fire from everywhere else absorbed into her. The flames around the Face waned before going out completely. She flew up without pause, soaring through the sky, leaving a trail of red in its wake. As she soared higher up, her vision blacked out.

Opening her eyes, she found herself back in the real world. She tried to pick herself up but fell back exhausted. The sudden burst had really taken a toll on her. She looked around and realised Rick was nowhere around, instead, she was in a big green box!

‘Peep!’(Mommy, where are you?), she called out, worried she was late to arrive.

“It’s going to be okay, don’t come over.” a moment later she heard back. Grunting she picked her up, she could not rest yet.

---

A moment of silence and thereafter another call more desperate than the last, ‘Peep! Peep!’

‘Hang in there, I will take just a moment,’ Rick communicated back, his head hanging down.

The three of were a car’s length away from one another. Eira walked away from Rick and stood next to Alex, gesturing him to take over.

Rick raised his head up to see Alex walking up toward him. With all the force he could muster he puffed his face and spit out as hard as he could, a small rock flew out.

It was the Earth Golem core. Right when the Eira’s ice had started inching up his body trapping him, he had grabbed the core from his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth, waiting for just this opportunity.

The core shot through the air, Rick could feel the pull of a consciousness thread forming; it was the moment right before the golem core would form its body by drawing onto Rick's Mana. But he did not have the strength to call forth the golem. So he decided to do what he could.

As soon as the connection with the golem-core formed, Rick intoned, "Immolate".

He did not need the Lemegeton to teach him this. It was something he knew he had the power to do at the back of his mind from the very first time he called the golem and the consciousness thread formed with it.

Rick’s command was simple, he had instructed the golem-core to self-destruct.

As Rick articulated the word, the thread broke.

The golem core flew past Alex towards Eira. The duo immediately recognized what it was, after their last encounter. But the golem-core started to self-destruct before they could react anyway.

The signet mark on the golem flashed before the golem-core shook midair emitting a deep rumble.

And then came the explosion. it explosion was beyond what Rick could ever anticipate. The beast-core in itself was the source of every spirit beasts energy, besides that, most of the numerous runes on it served the sole purpose of gathering a greater amount of mana into the beast-core.

Boom, the core exploded.

Every moment slowed down thereon, forming vivid memories in him. He first heard the sound of the golem-core self-destructing, followed by a mighty gust of wind, sweeping everything with it. As it crashed past Rick, he could feel the distinctly unique Mana element, one he had never left before. Under the force of the blast, the icy prison holding him to his shoulders creaked, threatening to break at any moment and all he could do was keep his head low and his eyes shut. Right after, Rick felt something hit the ice, the dull blow of which he felt on his leg. Another broke the ice and hit him square on his chest.

Blow after blow came along with the gushing wind, leaving him breathless and in searing pain, pulsating around his numerous wounds, more piling on with each passing moment. Blood poured out from the numerous hits his body took, his hair stuck to the skin of his skull.

‘Pip, find Samira, take care of each other,’ Rick spoke telepathically, through the intensifying pain. His last words, with a smile on his lips and his consciousness waned.