Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Bond Evolution

My hands fell gently on the panther's beautiful and once pristine coat. Where before her fur had been a spotless white, now I saw the true extent of her many wounds.

Deep gashes from who knew how many Skulkers' claws crisscrossed my companion's, and now savior's, body.

How had she even managed to stand, let alone come to my aid while being so damn injured?

I felt guilt and fear welling up in my heart.

I hadn't realized how alone I'd felt before summoning Gwen.

She'd already proved herself to be the most loyal friend I'd ever had.

And, even though it might have been a part of the nature of me being her summoner, the panther's loyalty felt so genuine.

I couldn't lose her.

"Gwen," I shook the cat and tried to rouse her.

She wasn't healing. She was at least comparable to me in strength, if not stronger, which meant she should be recovering from her wounds by now if she was going too.

My blood ran cold? Was she even breathing.

I uncorked the potion and poured it lightly into the mana cat's mouth. It only dribbled out.

"Gwen, come on," I said. "Don't do this, girl."

As I shook the panther, I felt something I had barely noticed inside of me before slowing begining to dwindle.

I blinked in confusion for a moment as I reached out to the strange sensation in my mana core.

When I did so, the presence of Gwen's own spiritual essence touched me back.

What I was feeling, I realized, was the spiritual tether that connected myself and Gwen and that, presumably, allowed her to exist as an extension of my own soul and mana.

And it was slowly fading.

If the cord was a thread of golden, blue light, then it was slowly dissolving away, particle by particle, into nothingness.

I could feel Gwen's touch fading. I could feel her dying.

"No," I said out loud and gripped the cat's gorgeous fur.

"No," I said as I clenched my fists harder. "Not when I can shoot fucking fireballs from my hands and teleport. You are not going to die on me."

Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.

I wasn't a crier.

But even someone who wasn't could cry when their friend was leaving them... forever.

"I'm not giving up," I told my feline friend.

As quickly as I could, I opened the Spell-Forging menu.

For spell element, I selected Radiant.

For range, I selected Touch.

For effect, I selected Buff.

Without any hesitation at all, or thought to the cost, I sacrificed a Greater Mana Shard to create the spell that I'd envisioned.

My hands bathed themselves in a glowing, soothing light that spread from where I touched Gwen to cover the mana cat's entire body.

I poured and poured my mana into the spell, but no matter how much I tried, the [Healing Hannds] spell I'd created did nothing.

Gwen wasn't moving.

And... Gwen wasn't breathing.

I was failing her and my friend was almost gone because of my inability to find a solution.

The cord that connected us grew so very thin. I could feel it almost ready to break apart and drift away into nothingness.

"Gwen," I whispered. "If you can hear me, just hold on."

My mana reached zero.

My hands lost their glow.

I closed my eyes and brought my face down to hover just above the cat.

Tears fell from my face.

"Please," I said.

I felt everything inside of me wishing I could just save my friend. I'd give anything. I'd already given my mana and resources. I'd give anything else too.

I ground my teeth together.

There had to be a way.

Spell-Forging had failed me.

Healing magic had failed me.

But Gwen's soul tether was still attached to my mana core.

She was still clinging on, waiting for me to help her.

Just like she'd helped me.

She'd given everything for me already.

It was time for me to do the same.

I reached out to the cord of power that bound us together.

My mana core was nearly drained dry, but at the center of it there still pulsed a power I'd never dared to touch.

Somehow, I instinctively knew the energy that resided at the core of my being was more than something the System had given me. It wasn't mana, no that circulated around and flowed from the deeper energy. The deeper power was me.

I was pretty sure it was my soul.

And it was what the thing, almost dissolved, cord binding me to Gwen was actually connected to.

Opening my eyes for a single moment, I looked at the cat's unmoving face.

She looked peaceful.

But that wasn't enough.

She needed to look alive.

I had to make that happen. No one else would, or could for all I knew, help me.

I closed my own eyes in determination.

I focused in on the strange energy at my core.

It was hard to grasp, as if everything within me told me not to move it and not to expend it, but with my emotions raging inside me as I willed it to move it did indeed begin to.

The power of my soul dimmed slightly as it began to course up the barely remaining soul tether between me and Gwen.

I felt an incredible pain and emptiness spread throughout my very being as bits of my soul flowed along the tether.

The feeling of lacking was indescribable. It hurt, yes, but it was so much more than that. Using the strange power made me feel like I was left as less than I had been before as I did so.

But I couldn't stop.

Everywhere the glow of my soul spread along the tether, the decay stopped.

No, I wouldn't stop.

Gwen had been willing to give her life for me.

That made her family.

Family didn't give up on each other.

At least it shouldn't.

And I wouldn't.

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I pushed yet more of my soul's essence out from within me and along the strange, tethering cord.

Eventually, and with a spark of light within my mind's eye, I felt myself leave my waking physical form.

My awareness was now filled with two spinning nebulas of energy. One was massive and bathed in flame. The other was a presumably once-bright, glowing light that was struggling to not flicker away into nothingness.

Somehow, I knew that these two clusters of power were the very make-ups of me and Gwen.

The two energies were almost completely out of sync, however.

They rotated and spun, nearly escaping each other's gravity entirely with every cycle of the spin that they were currently just barely maintaining.

My awareness shifted yet further and I realized that I wasn't watching the fiery nebula, but rather that I was the fiery nebula.

And I could feel my own functioning soul's orbit overtaking and dislodging that of Gwen's dwindling soul.

For a moment I panicked, until I realized that I felt some small piece of myself also cindering within Gwen's core.

In fact, that small piece of myself was what seemed to be relighting Gwen's soul every time it almost flickered out.

What I had been doing with the soul tether had apparently been working, I realized.

Fine then, I'd keep going, even if it meant losing most of myself to restore Gwen.

She could have half of everything if that was what it took.

I willed the part of me that existed within Gwen to grow stronger.

As I did so, Gwen's light grew and mine faded.

Suddenly, however, as Gwen's light flared I felt some of my power being taken from me without my active giving of it.

It was as if, once I had started the transfer, that I couldn't stop it. Not, I instinctively sensed, without pulling life back out of Gwen--which I wasn't willing to do.

My light dimmed, more and more, and Gwen's continued to grow stronger.

Just as our two lights were nearing an equilibrium, however, I felt myself then become the weaker light.

I was now the one that was fading.

My soul was dissipating, I realized, and being absorbed into Gwen's own in much the same way I'd consumed the Ruler of the West, only I had willingly started the process of giving away my own essence.

My nebula of power continued to die. Eventually, I was almost as weak as Gwen had initially been.

I felt my consciousness fading out as Gwen's overtook my own.

A blackness that was almost like sleep began to rest over me.

I'd wanted us both to live, but if this was the way it had to be...

And then, just as suddenly, I felt myself spark back to life.

It was slow at first. I experienced multiple cycles of a black oblivion that was followed by bursts of growing awareness.

I could feel a new energy growing within my own. It was purer and less raging than my own, but it had a touch of stern love within it.

Was Gwen sharing her soul's essence back with me?

My soul continued to flare up and die down, until eventually mine and Gwen's own souls were orbiting in a perfect harmony.

Our souls still didn't look identical, but there were now parts of each of our souls in each other's.

Gwen's bright core of glowing white was wreathed in an aura of flames, and my fiery soul was now giving off a powerful white glow.

It seemed that, because neither Gwen nor myself had opted to consume one another's soul when energy had been allowed to transfer along our soul tether, but rather that we had both freely given of ourselves when the other needed it, that we had actually bonded rather than merged.

My eyes opened then.

Gwen's wounds were healing, but my own body felt terribly tired.

The pain in my soul core was gone, however. Instead it was replaced by a strange feeling of connection with Gwen.

When I reached for our soul tether, though, I found nothing. Rather, I could freely feel Gwen's soul itself as if it was my own, though it quite obviously sat within her own mana core still.

And, I imagined, that she would be able to feel my soul in a similar way when she awakened.

[Conjure Mana Cat has been removed from spell list and replaced with Call Familiar.]

[Congratulations! As the first soul from Earth to create a bond with a familiar, you have earned a reward!]

[+50 Soul Synergy, Conjurer's Mantle [R] added to perk list.]

[For reaching at least fifty points in Soul Synergy, and having a familiar, you have unlocked various abilities:]

[Eyes of the Familiar [Un] perk added.]

[Eyes of the Conjuror [Un] perk added.]

Another new dialogue box from the System then appeared before my eyes next:

[Your familiar, Gwyneth, is ready to evolve to a new form. Do you wish to guide her evolution now: y/n?]

I selected yes and the world once more disappeared from around me.

Gwen appeared before me then, at least a form of her anyway, in my mind's eye.

The cat walking before me was featureless, and made of pure glowing white mana, but I could see that it was still my faithful companion.

[Gwyneth shares in your strength, but not necessarily your path. You may choose from three paths for your familiar: Mana Strider, Lightning Caller, or Flame Bearer.]

Two images then shifted out from the silhouette of Gwyn's form to walk by its side.

The Gwen to the right took on a form that was thinner and more lithe than the Gwen I knew, but that was still larger in size. Swirling glyphs of power covered her body, much like the Ruler of the West, and she appeared to blink in and out of existence at her whim. Her eyes also shone with a vibrant azure light.

The Gwen to the left was, contrastingly, much larger than the Gwen I knew in both raw size and muscle mass alike. Her once white coat was tinged black as if covered in a thick soot. Fire prowled from her eyes and powerful flames cindered on the edge of her blackened hairs. I felt a strange connection to the flames that this alternate version of my friend wielded, as if I was the reason she now had access to the element.

The Gwen in the middle, however, seemed to become a mix of the two as it finally took shape. She was neither thinner than the panther I knew or more overly bulky. She was just a larger version of herself. An azure lightning, however, flickered off her body and shone in her noble gaze.

It seemed that I would be able to choose which form my friend would grow into.

Interestingly, while I myself was not too tanky, Flame Bearer seemed to be drawn from my own affinity for fire; likewise, it seemed to be designed to fulfill my current, growing need to have someone there to divert damage away from me so I could unleash my spells and deal out skirmishing attacks with my conjured blade.

But Flame Bearer didn't feel right. It was too much a divergence from what Gwen was.

I needed Gwen's opinion.

And, remembering what had just happened, maybe I could have it.

I reached into my soul core and felt for the presence of the cat's own spirit.

Just as I was hoping, Gwen's touch reached back out to me after a few moments of searching.

I willed for the panther to help me decide what she would become.

My eyes flared a bright light within the vision and, suddenly, and somewhat to my surprise, a crash of thunder resounded.

The flames from the Flame Bearer version of Gwyneth burst up as the cat itself became apart of them.

Likewise, the Mana Strider version dissolved into particles of pure power and spiraled towards the heavens as well.

When the two powers met high above the Lightning Bearer evolution, they merged as one with a crackling flash. The flames were charged with pure mana and then, suddenly, burst down into a thundering lightning bolt that was neither purely elemental nor entirely made of magical essence.

The vision faded from my sight as the bolt of celestial fire made from the combined powers smashed into the Lightning Bearer version of Gwyneth; meanwhile, the cat herself, now alone among the previous three, roared and shook the splintered sky with her voice.

My sight once more refocused into the material plane.

I was still holding Gwyneth's fur, only now she had grown much larger.

The cat opened her now gorgeous and glowing blue eyes.

"You saved me," she said.

I smiled through my tears. "Yeah, imagine that?"

The panther purred and slapped her tail against the ground. Her lips seemed to curl up into what I could only assume, and feel, was a smile.

"I saved you too," the cat said happily.

"Yeah," I laughed out of relief, "you did."

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