Chapter 151:

Pushing mana into the ritual, Nick began to focus his thoughts on what he wanted to summon. The monster core would serve as bait, but he needed to impart the specifics into the framework, or he risked calling upon something too different from what he needed.Broadcasting his thoughts through the ether was always a gamble, but now that the biggest, baddest threat around had been eliminated, Nick felt safe enough to do so. He still had several contingencies in case something too big took the bait.

The last time he had tried summoning a spirit, it had been torn from his command far too easily. This time, he would ensure that nothing could contest his control.

Red light shone from the carved circle, illuminating the meadow with otherworldly power. At Nick’s silent command, the monster core at the center of the ritual shattered into motes of light, releasing its contents into the ether.

That would serve as the initial offering;

With the matters of the material plane handled, Nick followed the motes into the ether. It was much easier now that he could command his mind so precisely, but this process was made possible by his most useful sensory spell. He often used to scout or keep an eye on his surroundings, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t peer between the layers of reality. He just needed to look.

His third eye opened, and even though he had been expecting it, he still gasped in surprise. Multicolored eddies of power shifted seemingly without rhyme or reason, converging into single points before exploding in bursts of energy.

Nick took a moment to ensure he hadn’t mistakenly breached into a claimed territory, pushing his senses outward, but he couldn’t feel any claim on this part of the ether.

Satisfied with his exploration, Nick turned back to the circle. The lines had transposed well between layers of reality, and he only needed to add a flicker of power to ensure the eddies of the ether wouldn’t erode it before it had fulfilled its role.

At his side was Talbot, who wasn’t as constrained in this plane of existence. Rather than the usual blue cat he appeared as, he had taken on the form of a tiger with glowing, multicolored eyes and silver claws.

“All good?” Nick asked. The power he felt from his companion made his eyebrows raise. While the cat wasn’t as strong as he was, he was still much better than he had been when he first summoned him.

“Indeed, young Master. To a good hunt,” Talbot replied. This being the astral plane, words were more a jumble of thoughts and impressions, but they could understand each other well enough.

Smiling at the officious tone, Nick directed the motes of power outward, pushing the impressions he had prepared into them, and settled in. Sometimes, spirits would swarm at the first sign of free mana, but often, especially when the local land had once been part of a territory, it could take longer for something to bite.

Surprisingly, the wait wasn’t long. From the currents of the ether, half a dozen spirits emerged, following the path of the motes. Nick smiled at how eager they were to feed.

Though several spirits had shown up, Nick was quick to dismiss two of them. They glowed a bright purple to his third eye, indicating that they were tainted. While they would undoubtedly make for a powerful weapon, he didn’t feel like playing Russian roulette. might keep him sane, but anyone else who traveled with him would be fair game. “Those two aren’t good, you can take them.”

Talbot didn’t hesitate and appeared before them in a flash, flaying them with his silver claws and gobbling their essence for himself.

The speed at which Talbot moved was frankly surprising even to Nick, who had barely managed to track his passage. The two spirits distracted by the motes had no hope of escape.

The other four spirits were less dangerous, and Nick took a moment to study them.

One was a nature spirit, something that could work in a pinch but wasn’t necessary at the moment. The animals and plants in the Green Ocean were familiar with death and the necessity to kill, but it wasn’t their strongest affinity. Growth and survival could be potent in the dagger if he bound it, but that wasn’t what he sought.

With the Purification of the Ashes approaching, Nick felt secure in letting it go. If his assessment was incorrect and it turned out to be malicious, it wouldn’t survive the ritualistic cleansing.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He dismissed it by summoning a gust of wind, injecting enough force to throw it back into the eddies.

Turning his attention to the two closest to him, Nick realized that they were spirits of battle.

The last one, however, was something interesting. Nick took a moment to scour it with his senses, as it had an unnatural tinge.

Despite not being one of the two most common types of unnatural spirits, Nick could still sense it had an unnatural grasp on reality. Even in the ether, it flickered and vanished from his sight for an instant before returning as if it didn't quite belong.

Nick tried to look deeper into it, but that pulled its attention away from its meal, and the spirit regarded him with faint curiosity.

, he realized after a moment. A powerful entity had been slain, and from its corpse, this iteration had been born.

Over hundreds of years, it may regain its strength, but it could just as easily be consumed and destroyed once and for all.

Smiling, Nick decided to give it a new purpose. “Talbot, you can eat those two. I think we’ve found our spirit.”

The guardian didn’t need to be told twice; in a flash, he was all over the discarded ones.

At the same time, chains of red power erupted from all over Nick, grabbing onto the chosen spirit.

As expected, it didn’t trash or react beyond attempting to tug at the bindings, moving as if through molasses. Being a fraction of a whole, it likely only followed its instincts and didn’t know how to respond to new situations.

“This might be confusing to you, but I’d like to offer a home and protection, in exchange for your aid. I have a dagger I feel like would serve you well as a vessel, and in the material world, you will be safe from any predator of the ether.” Nick murmured to it, maintaining a calm tone and not allowing himself to be distracted by the sounds of Talbot tearing into the battle spirits.

“I might take you in battle, but it will be under the protection of steel and my magic. You will be used to slay many enemies, and may grow safely through it all.”

Eventually, the spirit bobbed, and Nick felt its consent thrum through the ritual. Given its passive nature, he doubted it fully understood what it was agreeing to, but he wasn’t one to look a gifted horse in the mouth, and proceeded with the binding.

Pushing the spirit into the dagger was the work of a moment, and despite how pliant it was, Nick still ensured the bindings were empowered even further, using its consent to prevent any attempt to escape.

When the ritual was fulfilled, Nick opened his eyes in the meadow and found at his feet the dagger, whose blade was now a midnight black, and whose bone handle had become bleach white.

CONGRATULATIONS!

has been bound!

+ 37.000 Exp.

Talbot, now back in cat form, licked his chops at the meal, and Nick bent down to pat him on the head for a job well done. He also grabbed the dagger and could feel the muted power it now held.

Satisfied with his success, Nick went about preparing the second ritual.

The totem of protection he had chosen was his mother’s lucky charm, the little owl statue she had taken with her on her adventures. While it had a lesser connection to him than the dagger, the intent behind it and its spiritual weight would make it a perfect host for a watchful spirit.

Fortunately, due to the ease with which he had bound the remnant and Talbot’s feasting, there were no fluctuations to clear, and he was able to repurpose much of the binding circle. However, he made sure to carve the lines again, lest any ether corruption taint them.

Once more, Nick flooded the circle with power and opened his eyes in the ether as the second monster's core broke apart.

This time, it took a while longer for anything to come sniffing around, and when it finally did, it was a bit more than he had bargained for.

The eddies of the ether churned violently as something powerful moved through them, and Nick prepared for a fight.

“I believe this might be a more difficult opponent,” Talbot remarked from his side in his tiger form. His gaze was unwavering, and Nick knew he could count on him.

Eventually, a creature from the deeper layer emerges, looking like an amalgamation of eyes, tentacles, and wings. Dimensions didn’t exactly function in the ether, but Nick had the impression it was several times larger than he was.

While a less experienced Occultist might have been struck by how mighty it appeared, Nick recognized the creature as a , a spirit borne from people's disillusionment with their religion. It was interesting to see it so close to Floria, though he knew it had traveled a distance to reach him, given how long it had taken to appear.

After a moment of assessment, he decided that although it was a bit stronger than he had wanted, it would make do. he thought, taking in the thousands of eyes all over its body.

The eddies of the ether began to churn as Nick summoned additional power while Talbot yowled at his side, preparing to pounce.

The didn’t even bother to touch the motes of power he had left as bait and instead attacked them immediately. Dark light gathered before its eyes, and a thousand thin beams erupted, intending to eradicate them on the spot.

Nick unleashes a barrage of into the avalanche, creating a massive explosion and using the moment of reprieve to craft a around himself.

In the ether, spells didn’t exactly work as they did on the material plane, but given how powerful his mental presence was, he didn’t need a specialized barrier. Any spell would suffice as long as his desire to defend was strong enough.

As he expected, the weren’t enough to kill the angel, though they were still sufficient to hurt it, given the screech of anger it let out.

A beam of dark light shot out from the cloud of etheric winds, and Nick was forced to strengthen his shield, deflecting the blow to the side, where it was lost in the eddies.

Thus began an exchange of powerful spells as both attempted to wear each other down. Nick did his best to keep the tempo high while maintaining just enough of an edge so that the angel wasn’t overwhelmed. He didn’t want to kill it, after all.

Taking the spirit by surprise wouldn’t work, as its eyes provided far too much sensory feedback. However, even if it knew Talbot was coming, that didn’t mean it could do anything to stop him.

Just as the angel shifted some of its eyes towards the feline, Nick raised the stakes, intensifying the barrage of and even throwing in a few to stay unpredictable.

Of course, placing a powerful spirit in such a desperate situation was bound to have consequences. When Nick saw all its eyes glow at once, he braced himself.