Chapter 6

Zuphaiross felt the air ripple as it condensed all of its remaining mana under its skin, attacking each millimetre of flesh with surgical permission to open up a wound over its heart. An agonising pain, like a thousand barbed arrows twisting simultaneously, spread across its chest. The sudden ferocity of it drew Zuphaiross attention away from controlling the mana, some of it was lost and absorbed by the chains as a result. Zuphaiross mentally reprimanded itself, and through the pain regained order over the mana. A scarce resource that Zhuphaiross needed to protect; if it made a mistake like that again, any chance of freedom would be lost.

Yena watched in abject horror at the etterals body. She stared at the hole that began to open up under its long neck. The wound seemed alive, like a blue fungus eating away at the black body, slowly and systematically. It snaked out over the skin, cutting strings of its flesh off that dropped to the ground wet with purple blood. She gagged at the scene, it's probably better that I haven't got any food in my stomach, she thought looking up from the grey ground at Zuphaiross. The wound had opened up further revealing a dark green circle, protected by layers of muscle, about twice the size of her head.

So that's what I need to destroy, Yena thought, stepping close to the body. 'Not yet!' The voice screamed into Yenas mind, the thought being transferred with excruciating pain. Yenas body seized up involuntarily; her lizard brain automatically putting her body into survival mode. The link between them abruptly cut off, leaving Yena on her knees, sweaty and shaking from the sudden adrenaline rush, everything around her seeming to have lost its colour, leaving behind a black and white super-focused image of the cave. She blinked breathing slowly-

CRACK

Yenas eyes shot open. A white line ran through the green orb, which webbed over it a split second later, splintering to reveal a purple core. It was the size of an apple, and as Yena drew nearer, she could feel her body get heavier, each step taking all her strength to execute. The air thinned, as though she was climbing a mountain, making each shallow breath harder to draw as she made her way directly in front of the etteral.

'You are going…' It sounded like a whisper, 'you are going to need to hit my core with all of your mana to make this work-' the sound suddenly cut off. The mana that it's gathered has probably run out. Yena lifted her right arm in front of her chest, the bow a 45-degree angle from its intended target suspended four meters away. Her movements were fluid and experienced, certain that she couldn't miss from this distance. Her confidence surprised Yena, who was holding a bow for the first time since high school. This is probably the result of forming a bond with the Shasind, it changed me too? Yena drew her dominant left arm back, channelling 50 points of mana into the string, not knowing how she had done so; feeling her body get weaker, she widened her eyes to not faint, luckily I didn't add all my mana. Yena dismissed her trepidation and decided to trust her instincts instead. She narrowed her onyx-black eyes, and despite no visible arrow appearing above her fingers, she let go.

Yena never saw anything move. One second she was drawing back the bowstring, the next moment, the bowstring was still. Back to its original place. No movement, nor any noise escaped from it, the law of inertia failing to govern the weapon.

An explosion of purple threw Yena back. She smashed into the stone altar hearing the distinct crunch of bones breaking, and looked up to see the etteral on the ground, the chains that once held it shattered. Their links blew off by the force of the explosion. Yena looked around confused, feeling blood drip down her neck. Where the hell am I? She felt a deep rumble around her, which quickly reminded her of what she was doing, and the next step of the plan. She started to stand up but failed to do so, as her left leg collapsed beneath her weight. Shit! She swore to herself, and looking at the bloody limb that her torn military trousers now exposed, she winced at where her shin bone now projected below her knee.

A second rumble shook yena to her core. The sound was the very definition of destruction and catastrophe. She remembered the primary issue. Getting out of this dimension. Yena gritted her teeth, closing her eyes tight, as she ripped off the fabric to untangle her leg from her clothes. She stood up shaking, using the shasind as a crutch and balancing on her good leg, she dragged her battered body over to the etteral corpse, the broken limb trailing behind her as if it had been abandoned.

Now that Yena could see the eterral body up close, the destruction that had wrought through it was made evident in the chunks of flesh strewn around the room. Her boots were drenched in the thick mixture of tissue and blood, which was splattered all over the walls, and upon closer inspection, Yena found that the purple gore had splattered all over her as well. The muscle had been ripped clear from bone, leaving a massive crater at the centre of the body where the core had been, the yellow ribcage cracked and oozing with green goo.

The inspection was cut short, as a third rumble shook the cave, much louder and terror-inducing than before, closely followed by rocks being dislodged from the walls and falling to the ground, smashing the ground which then disappeared. Yena wasted no more time announcing her intentions to the corpse, “Soul contract.”

-Do you wish to initiate soul contract with the etteral Zuphaiross: Yes/No. -

She selected the former

-soul contract has been requested, please wait for a response...

Yena covered her head with the shasind, as more of the carven began to rain down on her; she hadn't foreseen this delay and started to pray for Zuphaiross's response.

Zuphaiross felt its mana heart explode. The pain lasted for a second before it stopped. Before everything stopped. All sensation was lost, and Zuphaiross felt its consciousness fade. Being dragged into a river of mana. It drew closer to the edge, and for the first time in its existence, it truly felt small, in front of the endless light. So this was death.

A tug snatched its attention away from the sight, and Zuphaiross turned around to see a small creature standing before it. A human. Female. Yena. Begging Zuphaiross to return with her. It ignored her, starting to turn away from the figure before a dull pain overcame it. It looked at the girl once again, looking through her at its memories and remembered everything. From trapping the human woman to the meandering walk it had taken through her memories and finally the forming of this hare-brained plan with Yena. it turned away fully from the river; the time is not here yet for me to join you, and without any further glance back it walked towards the mortal that called it.

-soul contract has been established-

The system notification flashed before her before Yena was engulfed in darkness that stretched out in all directions, the sheer magnitude of it overwhelming her. She shut her eyes, only to find herself in front of golden fire, its flames reaching out and burning nigh into the sky. Yena covered her face and was kneeling in front of Zuphaiross. Back to reality, amongst the massive pieces of rocks disintegrating into nothingness, before flickering and fading as the very dimension began to break into itself.

-Soul contract successful. You have gained the skill ‘Mana Shield (level 1)’ stats have been updated:

Name: Kim Yena Age:25 Class:C Level:1

Ability: Soul contract

Skills: Identity (level12) Nocturnal sight (level2) Mana Sheild (level1)

Attributes: Strength: 32 (+110) Speed: 59 (+230) Mana: 53 (6.5/hr) (+340 (32/hr)) Vitality: 58 (+320)

Unallocated stat points: 10

Yena had no time to admire her newfound strength amongst the chaos that ensued around her. She looked around the cavern which was now mostly destroyed, and now how do I get out of here?

'You'll have to jump through one of those' gaps and hopefully, your body should hold up. Yena jumped slightly at Zuphaiross's voice. How are you alive? 'I'm not alive,' came the immediate reply. 'It seems that my essence has bound itself to your soul, and therefore I can communicate with you without the usage of mana.' Zuphaiross sounded much less intimidating than before. The statements still sounded as if they hummed with power, but on a slightly lower frequency. As if it were somehow lesser than before. Or more open? Closer? Or maybe because I've gotten stronger?

Nevertheless, Yena was glad at the reassuring presence of Zuphaiross. She stood up, finding that her leg was fine, all of her wounds had been healed, no doubt from the sudden elevation of her stats. She let go of the shasind, which was reabsorbed by the tattoo in her hand and started running towards the largest gap in the walls. She gulped as she drew nearer. A tear in reality...