Another 5 minutes later, the gaseous planet had reached saturation and began to release pink splendorous lights along with heavenly fanfare that signified the birth of something miraculous.

Eridel briefly paused. None of the other Anomaly transformations had produced the sounds that the gaseous planet was now making and it was quite odd. However, he decided that it had to do with the fact that the thing that was being transformed was an entire planet, a gaseous planet even, and took it in stride. The birth of extremely rare things had always been accompanied by seraphic sounds and colourful lights, just like the Tree of Life that he had forcefully created over a hundred years.

Although Anomalies could arguably be considered more precious than the Tree of Life, there were 6 of them and a 7th one was already on the way, Eridel even had plans for the 8th.

The Eridius World had only entered the domain of magic 167 years ago and there were already 7 Anomalies, whereas, the Tree of Life was the only World Tree on the planet and there was no other Tree that even approached its level. Only things like that could receive the warm attention of the Universe. Regular Anomalies were unable, but apparently, the gaseous planet Anomaly did. This just goes to show how powerful it was going to-

‘It’s here.’ Eridel thought as he detected the ghost-like shimmering lights that began to bloom within the planet's core. All Anomalies were granted sapient Souls at some point in their transformation and it could be considered their second if not most important feature. And now, the gaseous planet was receiving its own.

Souls were typically colourless and this one wasn’t any different, but its quality was startling and as it grew more complete, its quality only continued to rise. Eventually, it took on the form of a sphere surrounded by swirling gas, which was essentially its physical form. Most Souls took on the form of their physical shell so it wasn’t a surprise.

However, when the Soul gave a magnificent pulse of Soul Energy that signified its completion, the jolt that it arose in Eridel… was a very, very big surprise.

It was a contraction within his very Soul that even temporarily dizzied his senses, which was very abnormal. After all, other than the time that he had faced the Tribulation Lights and the time he forcefully awakened his planet's Magical Energy, Eridel had never felt such a dizzying sensation. But when he peered into his Soul to identify the cause, Eridel was so flabbergasted that his little light form started rapidly blinking as if he would die out at any moment.

After confirming the thing that he was seeing was really true, Eridel took a good moment to calm himself down. Then, he looked towards the pink planet with a look that he had never given another being in a long, long time.

‘So it really is you…’ Eridel thought with mixed emotions.

Within his Soul, 1 of the 6 unconnected Soul Mate Links had finally changed for the first time. Not only did it gain the snake-like fluidity of a connected Soul Mate link along with a peach-like colour, an odd feeling of complete naivety and innocence could be felt from it if he focused on it. No doubt it was the emotions of the other being it was connected to. As for the being it was connected to?

…Who else could it be other than the pink gaseous planet?

Eridel looked towards the planet that was finishing its Anomaly transformation with complex emotions that caused him to marvel. However, love was not one of them. The Soul Mate link did not make one feel love, or any other emotion for that matter. It was the Soul Mates themselves who were so ‘meant for each other’ that inevitably fell in love after spending time with each other. However, there were times where one or even both of the Soul Mates were undeveloped and hadn’t yet grown to be the other's ideal partner.

It could be as simple as one of them not yet having a specific affinity that they would gain in the future that was compatible with their Soul Mate’s affinity, or perhaps one of them would consume or undergo something that would change their appearance in future to meet their Soul Mate’s ideal but had met the Mate before doing so. Most of the time these minor problems were inconsequential because the compatibility that Soul Mates had with each other were multi-varied (e.g if the man/girl didn’t look a certain way yet, their minds could still be compatible enough for them to still bear a strong liking for each other until they reached full compatibility). But… sometimes there were highly unfavourable situations.

It would be rare, but there would be times where someone who was already an adult would meet their Soul Mate when said Soul Mate had yet to even reach the preliminary years of adolescence, or times where someone who had gone through very severe experiences and gained a grossly unique personality, would meet their Soul Mate who had not yet gone through the things it would take to become the ideal partner. In these situations, the possibility of actually disliking each other actually existed, which, depending on how unlucky one was, could end up becoming tragic. Just think of a situation where somebody had been ordered to assassinate the new born baby of so and so, and actually did so, not knowing that the child who they killed was their Soul Mate.

They would certainly feel the sudden disintegration of the Soul Mate link, but of course, it would be too late by then.

So once again, the Soul Mate link itself did not force any emotions. And as such, for Eridel (who used to be a Human and preferred women who at least looked like one) to suddenly fall in love with a Planet which had just gained its Soul and didn’t even have a defined gender… was impossible.