*** IN A WORLD CALLED ABADDON, IN A PLACE KNOWN ONLY AS THE HELIX ***

***Mysterious Goddess ***

“There!” The Goddess cried. Her disciplined patience finally bore fruit as she sense a compatible soul moved into the river source, and she maneuvered her magic to catch it.

It’s been 82 hours since she builds her magical circle, and although technically she can keep going forever, the only weak link is actually herself. You see, the magical circle is self-sustaining because it is directly link to the river source, while she herself is only reawakened less than ten days ago. Her body and mind has not yet adapted and is still very weak. She calculated that she can only keep the magical circle for another half a day or 14 stick of time to be exact.

Once the spirit reach her net, she closed the trap and started reeling it in. She felt it struggle, and she is surprise by the will of the spirit. It’s as if the spirit is self-aware and not just dormant. It peak her intellectual mind but there was no time for it. It was such a shame though since immortal like her are very rarely surprise.

And so she mercilessly pulled the spirit to her and coldly suppress its essence. Then she began to mold and combine the new spirit with the damage one of Amriel by synergy. First, she needed to artificially change the radiance signature of the two spirit to make them completely alike so they will not reject each other. Next, without any preamble, she started to tear pieces of the new soul to make the two souls relatively equal. If this is not done, the new soul will completely dominate Amriels and it may completely erase his personality. Once the two souls are combined, a vast amount of radiance is poured into them to create a unique magical sealing enhancement around the souls. This helps it to naturally mold together and permanently cement the combination and make sure the universe will accept the new life form.

*** Daniel ***

Daniel’s soul screamed again from the unbelievable agony as he felt itself tore apart.

Is this hell? Amriel thought, almost panicking in his despair. Is this what I’m going to feel for all eternity? My god, my mind will shatter. Please let it happen soon. I cannot continue feeling like this!

And then he screamed again.

The moment he entered the light and started looking for her daughter’s essence, an unbelievable force begun to pull him in. This is not like that time in the store when the universe pulled me to send me to my destiny, Daniel thought. That one he can still resist, but this is completely different.

Next thing he knew, He is inside a bluish light that is poking and dissecting him somehow. He knew he doesn’t have a physical body but somehow he knew that the pain is cause by pieces of him being viciously torn off one by one.

He can feel another entity next to him who is also screaming, but he cannot muster enough interest for the agony he faces is absolute and all consuming. But even that was forced upon him, when he and the other entity was… well, there is no way to describe the phenomenon, but to put it in its simplest form then the only description Daniel can put it is that they are being… melded.

Daniel felt his essence touch the essence of the other entity and their minds begun to link together. He can feel his memories, his wants and pains, his innermost secrets all become part of the other spirits mind, just as his memories and secrets poured into Daniel’s own mind. The intimate violation was so profound that it become more agonizing to Daniel than the original pain.

Amriel, Thought Daniel. That is the name of the other spirit. He is a Rune Knight of the order of Celes. What the hell does that mean?! Whatever it is, I do not have time for it. I have to find my daughter and be with her. That’s why I need to escape whatever this is!

He began to struggle, to move away, to bite, to shout, anything to scream his defiance to the magical force that is detaining him. He kept moving and thrashing until he felt something give way. And so he re-doubled his effort even more.

Then a memory of Amriel distracted him. He saw the beautiful dying woman in Amriel’s arm, and the mewling babe besides them. He remembered how Amriel ignored the pitiful cry of the baby as he grimly travelled by horse for two straight days. The Baby in his strong arms finally succumbed to her exhaustion and slept restlessly, while the knight still drowned from his own grief upon losing his wife from the foul traitors. Eventually, they reach the outskirt of a compound outside the town of Gentra. Amriel went directly to the small hut at the end of the street, and in the middle of the night, begun knocking at the door of his only family left to him. A man opened the door with a knife in his hand, the surprise in his face was unmistakable when he realizes he is looking at Amriel himself. They argued for some time until the other man finally agreed and Amriel push the babe into the man’s reluctant arms. Two days later, Amriel was a part of a huge army that did battle against a god and her minions. Here in the field of battle did the knight found his death.

But what really took Daniel’s attention was the baby, for when the knight Amriel held the babe in his arm, Daniel felt the same spiritual presence of his own child Mara. He already found where his child is. He knew from Amriel’s memory that the child was born a few months now, despite the fact that he was following the child’s essence just several minutes ago. But things like this didn’t bother him anymore since the mysteries of the universe and the divine are things better left unanswered.

The baby Amriel let go was his own child, he named her Ella and she used to be Daniel’s own child, Mara. These are the facts that Daniel find important and that Daniel’s destiny is now irrevocably tied to Amriel’s. Without another qualm, Daniel stop resisting and let their souls merge into one.

***Mysterious Goddess ***

The woman gasped in surprised.

The other soul suddenly stop resisting. She was surprise by the will of the new soul and she almost lost her hold. Whatever made him stop she really didn’t know, but she is simply grateful for it for she needed all of her remaining strength to complete the magical ritual. If she fails, the resulting magical backlash is strong enough to kill millions of mortal souls in this plain of existence.

“Just a bit more…” she said, gritting her teeth as she eases the new soul in Amriel’s old body. “Good, there is no rejection. I just need to empower the life force with my radiance and jump start the body and… Done!”

The bright light covering the magical circle slowly deemed and died down. After checking that the young man is slowly breathing, she rested her head in his chest. Her exhaustion was something she finds surprising because the last time she ever felt like this, was when she and her siblings help in the creation of dragons several millennia ago.

But unlike then, this time she fell into exhausted sleep with a smile in her face.