Autumn continues to hear Nanna howl of pure agony. She could see from his perspective. He continued to roll across the ground while screaming at the top of his lungs. She has to access the situation. She tried to make her form solidify again. It was much harder than when she was attached to the magic crystal. Slowly but sure, she was able to form an avatar outside his body.

By the time she solidified, he passed out from the pain. She began to expand her senses around her. One of the first things she noticed was that her body felt extremely weak. She was only the manifestation of her soul but she felt stronger before the soul contract. She felt that she had a minute amount of mana stored in her soul. Her having so little available made her feel weak. The second thing she noticed was that her mana pool was tied to Nanna now. She could only access a portion of his mana pool. The mana stored in her soul was for her soul to continue functioning without dissipating and the mana that she could control for other things was linked to Nanna.

“His amount of mana that he carried is abysmally low” she murmured. She knew that he was a young developing cub. He might have potential but that was far off in the future. She began to float further away from his body. She wants to see if any changes in the environment could cause adverse effects to the cub. After moving further away from the cub, she noticed another change. She could only move approximately 10 meters away from Nanna before it felt like she hit a wall. She tried to force her way through before she felt an acute pain that ran across her ethereal body. She circled the cub and realizes it was around 10 meters away in all directions. He was at the epicenter of this range.

“That never happened when I was tied to the lake, but I never actually try to roam too far away either.” She thought. She knew bad things would happen if a soul left it catalyst alone. It could be destroyed. Even if she took it with her, most of the mana would have been left in the lake. Her leaving would have just sped up her disappearance.

“There should not be any damage to me using his body as a host. I am nothing more than an extra bag in the back of a carriage. There probably been a change since we completed the ritual.” She thought.

As she circled the passed out wolf ling, she did not discover anything different from his physical appearance. He was still malnourished but he did not have any discolorations or any external wounds. She decided she had to dive deeper to find the root of the problem. Even when he first came to the lake with deep gashes, broken bones, and lacerations; the wolf still refuses to as much as a whimper. For him to be in this much pain meant that it was something serious. She decided to look at his inside. She kneaded mana to her fingertips. She slowly put her hand on his head and ran it across the rest of his body.

“His brain seems normal. His heart rate is up but he been tumbling in agony. His organs seem fine. His muscles are struggling though. He is malnourished. These basic results are to be expected. Did I do something to damage his soul? “She said out loud. She went into doctor mode.

She did not know much about the soul but she knew enough. She was using his body as a catalyst. This was just a fancy way of saying that she was being a bit of a leech if put bluntly. Her soul would be attached to his body and would be granted access to his perspective and a percentage of his mana reserve. She in return offered nothing physical in return. She would carry her weight. She would be his teacher and guide until they eventually parted ways.

She knew this had some demerits for both of them. The soul would always shape the body, while the body would also shape the soul. The problem is that if her soul was affecting his soul. That meant that his soul was affecting hers. In some cases, this was a positive symbiosis. He howls in pain meant that she was more of a parasite than anything.

“Having a soul attached to another being should only be a problem if the soul was rejected by the body. I already attached myself. I would not even be able to use his mana or see from his perspective if I was not accepted by his body. Maybe there was a delayed backlash that causing this situation now?” she questioned.

She knew that things already progress past the point of no return. If there were minor problems to the catalyst, it would be slight muscle spasms. If there were major rejection issues; there could be vein ruptures or organ failures.

“I already inspected all things about the body including internal and external. If something physical was not the problem, it could only be the soul.” She declared with a heavy breath.

She began to tense up. The soul is what made a person. The brain might contain the memories of the mind but it is said that the soul contains the memories of the body. When healing magic is used, the soul is what determines the normal form. The body reverts to whatever information the soul releases.

“If I permanently damaged the soul, He might not ever be the same. We might be on a crash course against destiny” She thought out loud. “The soul contract I made was perfect in theory. I made sure his mind body and soul stayed connected. That way it would minimize my influence on him which in turn minimizes his influence on me.” She said, her voice rising with each word, reaching a shout by the end.

“I need to go into his soul space. He is extremely young; he probably does not have a soul room. I should not be rejected.” She said before concentrating.

Her soul should be held inside his soul space. She decided to go back inside and have a look. She slowly floated over his body and sunk into Nanna. Once her mana avatar returned to his body, she decided to dive in deeper. She needed to reach his soul space where his soul was held. This is also a space where a soul weapon was held.

“This is a bit more difficult than I originally thought. She had to search for her connection to her soul before she located the space. It rejected her mind for a moment before the resonance with her soul came in. Her vision switched from the darkness of Nanna's closed eyes to a white space. This space was mostly white with spots of crimson everywhere. The white and red mix to make varying shades of red to floral pink. This place was left almost untouched. He just began to explore the world and have not even found out much about himself. “I lead him to the right path.” Autumn smiled as she mentally celebrated.

The soul space of a being was the reflection of them as a whole. It contains everything about them; from likes and dislikes, personality, and even what combat/magic techniques they practice. This space would eventually solidify into a room as he gets stronger. It would slowly expand until it was no longer any room for growth. It would transform from a simple room to a house; from a house to a courtyard.

She continued to look around until she saw what seem like a white flame in the middle. It was about a 1/3 of a meter all around in circumference. She began to closely inspect the white flame before standing there in awe. It was like a small flame at a campfire. There was no cackle but the sparks would hit the outside space. These sparks would then combine with the flame again.

She inspected the flame and saw miniatures formations interwoven with each spark of the soul. The formations lines were miniature but complex. This was not only on the flames but the individual sparks. These sparks formations had individual lines that were unique but also complemented the whole. They would release into space and then united with the bigger flame. Each time they gathered again they would change slightly. Something was added from the environment before it was absorbed again. This way she could not find one spark that was identical to another.

This continued every second. The soul expanded by a centimeter or two before condensing. As she continued to inspect the soul in awe, the soul space suddenly shook. Things began to dim before going back to normal. This woke her up from her trance. She knew that something went wrong here. She continues to examine his soul as closely as possible until she caught a glimpse of a small purple dot inside his soul. This was for only a moment before it was surrounded by white sparks again.

She began to focus on the same spot before the black dot was seen again. The reason she was so focused on this dot was that she felt this aura before. She felt a negative emotion spring up from staring at it. This emotion causes a cold shiver to go up to her spine. To cause a natural reaction as if she was in her body while living as a soul caused her to focus even harder. This meant that it was an important memory of the soul. This caused her even more confusion.

This was her first time seeing his soul. After getting as close as possible she noticed that the purple dot was slowly expanding. When it got a bit bigger, the soul space would shutter for a few seconds then go dim for a moment. Then things would return to how it was originally. As it got bigger, it aura got stronger. She finally recognizes where she knew this aura from. It was the black nether lily poison!!!

“When did he come in contact with the poison? He was able to drink from the lake and was fine. Is it because he absorbed my soul? Were there still remnants of it that got carried here?” She spoke quickly while inspecting his soul for confirmation. “This is the poison. Thank Fauna that the poison been diluted to an extreme degree and the dosage is minuscule.

The nether lily poison no longer had that deadly ink-black appearance that plagued her soul. Its color was beautiful lavender. It seems that this could no longer be called nether lily poison. It was still a poison that is dangerous. This held especially true for a young undeveloped wolf cub such as himself.

She needed to do something quickly. The dosage was minuscule and diluted. This was the only reason he was not a corpse. It would eat at his soul while slowly causes his death. She needed to remedy the situation fast! She began to try to bring mana into the soul space.

He did not have the mana reserve to cleanse himself. She quickly left his soul space and moved him into the center of her mana gathering formation. She began to activate the formation that was still on the ground. The light of the formation illuminated the ground as the mana from the environment began to gather over Nanna.

The mana that she converted the best she could begin to flow into his soul. This was a difficult procedure. She had to isolate the poison as best she could, cut it out of his soul and then try to use the extraneous amount of mana to repair the soul. The soul would naturally heal by itself if it was not too damage but she could speed up the recovery with mana.

She began to use mana to grab various herbs and plants from the surrounding area. She saw a medium size rock and carved it to a makeshift mortar and pestle. She began to fuse a variety of plants and infused it with water. She continued after making several quick medical products. She brought the lake water out and makes two quick drinks.

“This will numb the pain as much as possible and this should increase your natural mana and vitality recovery,” she said out loud. “A damaged soul cannot be fixed by repairing the body but just as the soul affects the condition of the mind and the body, the reverse is true also.” She continued to say. She knew every little thing helped. She needed to fix the soul as possible. A damaged soul could lead to permanent problems such as extreme emotions, brain damage, loss of bodily function and most common, death.

She then brought the abundant mana that hovered over him through his body. She circulated it through his body but she could not bring it to his soul space. She then thought of mana signatures. She tried to direct some of his mana and found success. It appears that she could bring mana into his soul space. It was only accepted if the mana was related to him though. The neutral mana from the environment could circulate through his body but would be allowed into his soul space. She began trying to convert the outside mana to his.

She began to push the mana towards his soul. The soul did not reject it. Even with her controlling it. His soul was completely defenseless. “This soul space would have to increase its defense in general.” She thought as she continued.

She wrapped the mana around the purple dot. She began to tug at it. She wanted to get rid of this poison as quickly as possible. This might cause some minute damage, but she believed that she could patch him up quickly.

The poison began to devour the mana once it was in contact with the poison. She had to detach the mana before it attacked her soul also. “This is going to be a problem. I do not have many options. I guess I will have to brute force my way this time. “She said out loud.

“This would be a lot easier if I was the owner of this body. My body could absorb neutral mana a lot easier. I also had better control and more force when I expend my mana. Using this mana avatar is a big hassle.” She sighed but never stopped working.

Using mana in an avatar state was a lot harder than having a physical body. It caused more mental exhaustion and the amount of power went down also. The ability to naturally regen mana was almost non-existent. To combat this, she had to use foreign means for mana regeneration like a formation. A mana avatar did not have a container to store mana in. She continued to laminate her problems as neutral mana flowed into Nanna.

If someone saw what was happening from the outside, it would look like the young wolf cub was placed on a formation as a sacrificed. A large amount of ambivalent mana was made visible hovering over him. It slowly was siphoned into his body and converted. She tried to help his body converted this into usable mana as quickly as possible.

“This will only cause him to wake up with some muscle fatigue. Better than not waking up at all” She thought as she pushes his body to the brink to absorb mana as quickly as possible.

The young wolf body would spasm every so often. This happened when too much mana was circulating through his body at once. Once Autumn felt she could bring about a suitable amount of mana into his soul space; she once again appeared on the inside. There were slight and major changes.

“The white, red, and pink soul space now have purple in it. His soul is being contaminated extremely quickly.” She said as she brought in more mana running his stored mana capacity dry. She had complete control over his body at this moment. She could even influence his soul. This thought was a bit intimidating to her.

“It never a bad thing to influence someone’s life for the better; teachers, parents, kings, friends, lovers do it all the time. The list goes on. Directly changing it is another matter. I rather not become a Majin” She said with some helplessness.

Once she gathered all the mana she could; she shaped it into a glove. She continues to condense the mana making the glove thicker. The glove maintained its thinness as if it was a second skin. She proceeded over to the flame. After standing directly in front of it, she realizes the poison already reached more than 7 cm in size.

“This will be a problem.” She said with some tension. “I do not know if this is enough mana. This will cause damage to his soul. There’s a chance for permanent damage that could only be fixed with expensive medicines and pills. I have to finish this quickly.” She said as she reached into his soul.

The soul space began to shake in contact. She made sure she grabs the chunk of poison. She allowed some of the condense mana from the glove to completely wrap around the poison. This would allow for a better pull.

The purple poison began to perk up as if it was exciting. It began more active and attacked the mana that surrounded it. The purple dot was now a blob and continued to grow. She did not want to continue to feed this blob that would lead to her and Nanna's death.

“First and last try.” She thought as she pulled.

She continued to pull as quickly as possible. She pulled with strength she did not know she had. The blob continued to eat the outer membrane of the mana as it was getting torn out. With one last pull, it finally was yanked from the soul. Simultaneously, the soul space shook as if an earthquake was present. Cracks began to appear in space. This was not a good sign.

She took the poison and expelled it from his soul space directly to the outside world. It landed a few meters offshore and just hissed as it splatted on the ground. She looked back towards his soul and her face turned sour. There was a huge hole around the center of his soul. About 25% of his soul was taken out with that poison blob. That was not the worst part. Before the blob was fully pulled out, a few dots splash to other parts of his soul. She had to rip them all out quickly.

She continued to take out the infected part of the soul. This felt as if she was doing surgery. If soul, this would be her first surgery. This continued for a few minutes before she was able to expel the remaining toxin from his soul. This caused his soul to look like a holy sieve. His soul space had cracked in a 360 view as afar as the eye could see. She felt that her soul would be sliced into pieces if she were to run into them. This gave the feeling that his soul would collapse. She just hoped that she could help it recover in time.

Autumn did not have a body but she felt physically tired. Her mental state was a bit exhausted. “Laying down and reading a good book does not sound bad.” She had that thought. “It’s probably a lot easier to read a book while relaxing without having a body.” Another random thought popped into her head.

As she continued to think these random thoughts, the formation was running autonomously as she continued to help replenish his mana. She planned on using his mana to help speed up his soul regen. This would not fix the missing parts. The damage parts would remain damaged but this would at least stabilize the soul again. The missing soul parts would begin blank like a white canvas. It will then be painted again with his experiences.

As neutral mana slowly flowed into him, he continued to recover his mana at a much quicker rate. He was using and recovering mana in such a limited amount of time. His body could only handle so much.

“There should not be any big problems.” She paused for a moment then continued. “I feel like there only been big problems that have been cropping up.” She exhaled.

Once he recovered half of his mana pool, she entered into his soul space again in an instant. “This becoming a lot easier with practice,” she thought. Once she collected her bearing, she froze in shock as she looked around. There were more cracks in space than ever. She felt like it would be an obstacle course to reach the soul.

As she had that thought, another cracked appear by her soul. It nicked her causing her severe pain. She just felt a small part of her soul get destroyed.

“If this is what it feels to have a small piece carved away from your soul, I am glad Nanna was sleep and numb.” She declared as she ran over to his soul as quickly as possible.

The soul was no longer whole. It was much smaller than before. It ripped into two pieces. 2/3 of the remaining soul was on the left while the remaining 1/3 was on the right. They both were withering away. She needed to do something fast.

“The right side is weaker and withering away faster. Whatever kept the soul functioning has been weakened or destroyed. It still healing on it’s by itself luckily. It is just deteriorating faster than it is healing.” She said as she brought all the mana she could into his soul space. She slowly wrapped the right side with it. The soul only stops withering away after all the accumulated mana wrapped around the soul like an eggshell.

“I do not have nearly enough mana for recovery. I do not think I have enough time to gather more even with the boosted recovery.” She said in a panic. “The left side is still deteriorating. It needs to start healing up as soon as possible. If I only I could bring my mana in here.” She thought.

As she saw all the cracks in the soul space she came up with a crazy idea. “I could not bring my mana in here earlier because the soul rejected it earlier. All the cracks in the soul space show the condition it in. Maybe it’s possible to bring it in now.” She said as the idea popped in her head.

She looked to the outside. The lake that contained the magic crystal and her essence laid there. It was essentially her body before his. She should be able to use the mana as her own. She began to pull the water from the lake. She began to wrap the water around him as if he was in a cocoon.

“His body is slowly absorbing the water and mana is washing over him. Let me try to direct the mana into his soul space.” She said while directing the mana. This continued for half an hour before she checked Nanna’s mana reserve.

“He is suffering from mana saturation. His mana recovery will be cut in half for a while. He will not be any help with mana for the right side of his soul. His recovery was already abysmal. This will make his mana reserves a non-factor. This would not have been a problem if his soul never ripped in half.” She thought.

His soul was a white flame but began to have hints of blue throughout it. This eventually turned into a cerulean color. It was just parts of his soul but by the time it recovered to 70% of its original size, the soul as a whole was a light cerulean.

“This is about the time I should move them close and try to solder them together. I can finally rest soon” she said.

She began to move them together. She hoped that the two pieces would stick together before it slowly regenerates together. When the soul was complete before, the sparks would detach then reattach itself together. She planned on bringing them together to allow that to happen.

The two sides of the soul were side by side. They began to intermingle for a few minutes before a sudden change. The almost complete left side of the soul began to attack the right side! It seems that it did not recognize it as a part of the soul. Once this happened, the soul space began to shake and tried to push it out. The left side of the soul wanted to devour it, while the soul space itself wanted to banish it. It saw the right soul as a foreign threat!

“This is unbelievable. I never heard of this happening before. What should I do? I know!!!” As she separated them from each other. The left side was slowly recovering without mana and the right side was being attacked. She decided it would be best if she allowed her mana to flow through the right side also. This would change it also, but at least he would have all the pieces of his soul available. Once she stops using the remnants of his mana to hold his soul in space, she started using her mana to help recover the bits of his soul.

Her mana began to wrap around the right side. Once this happened, the soul stopped attacking. The soul space stops trying to banish it also. The right side continued to squirm against the mana for a while before it went into a stasis also. This continued for a quarter-hour before it began to reject the mana completely. Now Autumn was completely befuddled. “This worked last time. Not it not only rejecting the mana, but the soul seems to be deteriorating also?” she exclaimed! She thought for a moment about the change then came to a simple realization.

“The right side see this mana as dangerous. It just attacked it earlier. There’s no way it would accept it now. Damn it!” she cursed for the first time in a while. She did not know things would go so awry. “This is why mortals should not meddle with souls. That’s the domain of the gods. What should I do now?” She said afraid of the results.

“At this rate, half of the wolf cub would have been destroyed for my actions. There will be permanent damage because of me. The wolf cub soul being damage would cause irreparable damages to its personality and body. I would be just like those Majin who play with creatures' souls for their enjoyment!” She said with anger.

“There has to be a way somehow. My mana does not work. That means I need another source of mana that is not mined but is compatible with mine if I ever hope to fuse them. The mana might not even be able to get into the soul space now that the cracks been repaired.” She said while looking around.

Then an idea hit her. “I still have my soul weapon. A soul weapon usually sits in the soul domain. Its compatible with me and its mana signature are different than the lakes. It should be useable. “ she said while returning her consciousness to the surface.

She located her body and summoned her soul weapon towards Nanna using her mana. She tried to bring it into the soul space but it was rejected repeatedly. She began to lose hope but then had a thought. “The soul has changed a bit, maybe if I used some of the scarce mana he recovered, it will allow it in. The mana might not be enough to save his soul, but maybe it’s enough to bring in the soul weapon. That is only if my weapon recognizes him.” She said as she tried to slowly move his mana.

As she began to use the wisp of his mana to grab the weapon, she had to physically pull it to his body. She needed to summon it into his soul space. His mana enveloped the weapon but it did not budge. She added some of her mana in a strange mix. The weapon finally was summoned into the soul space.

“It’s so much I do not understand about the soul or the soul space.” She thought as she moved her soul weapon to the right-side soul. They made contact and they stayed next to each for a bit before the right side soul then entered into the soul weapon. This was a soul weapon that was a set; the bow and quiver.

As they hovered around each other, the right-side of the soul finally began to fuse with the bow and quiver. It slowly began to sink in as Autumn watched. “This should hold it for a while until I figure out how to sync the two back together.” She thought. She looked to the side and saw that the soul seems to be almost at its original size. The soul space seems to be a bit bigger but all the cracks where gone.

“Finally this can all end.” She thought. She looked back and saw an opaque Nanna figure hover over her soul weapon. Nanna's eyes were yearning for strength. The look of absolute hunger scared her. She felt a tremble in the soul space before everything settled down. Things finally returned to a somewhat normality. The light blue cerulean soul was at the center of the soul space while the bow and quiver circled it like the moon in the sky.

“I need to take a mental break. Thank Fauna everything settled. I should let the wolf recover and wake up naturally. I’ll check the damage then.” She thought as watched her soul weapon and the wolf soul interacts with each other, confused on how to feel. She closed off her senses and took the time to recover her mental energy.

“The days ahead will be long and arduous.” She said as she allowed her mind to wonder.