Chapter 454

An oppressive presence suddenly intruded at the edges of his perception, slamming headfirst into the external defensive wards surrounding Crowley Manor.The invisible barrier groaned under the sudden stress, and the ambient ether in the room rippled with the disturbance, though there was no physical sign that anything had happened at all.

Nick pushed himself to his feet, a fresh surge of vitality from his double level-up washing away the ritual's fatigue.

He reached for his belt, his hand wrapping around the hilt of his dagger as it vibrated violently in his grip.

The dark blade seemed caught in a frantic energy, tugging slightly in his hand, and Nick frowned, tightening his grip.

He hadn't found much use for the weapon lately, relying more on his expanding elemental arsenal and his spiritual authority. He figured the semi-sentient spirit trapped in the steel was merely sulky after being ignored for so long, its sudden vibration a hungry reaction to the new spirit’s approach after having to watch as he devoured a Prestige core.

"Stay close," Nick told Talbot tightly. For once, he wasn’t sure what he was up against, but he knew he needed to hurry, lest the being try more than just to splatter itself across the wards.

The feline didn't argue, keeping his eyes fixed on the ceiling, a low growl rumbling in his chest as they moved.

Nick took the stone steps two at a time, moving silently through the manor’s quiet halls. He bypassed the main doors, slipping out a side entrance into the cool night air, only then realizing how much time he’d spent absorbing the core.

The temperature outside had plummeted, and the town's usual sounds were absent, smothered by the beast's aura as it prowled the perimeter.

He stepped onto the lawn, expanding his to look past the gates and finally see what they had drawn from the deepest recesses of the ether.

Prowling just beyond the boundary of the manor’s wards was a shifting, translucent construct of dark mana. It had a vague, hound-like shape, but its proportions were warped, with no eyes or defined features. It was a manifestation of predatory hunger, clawing at the barrier’s spiritual foundation.

It wasn’t doing much damage, considering the sacrifices that had gone into empowering the wards and the sheer amount of mana they drew from, being so close to the Green Ocean, but he wouldn’t let such a dangerous thing be so close to his family seat.

Talbot stepped out onto the grass beside Nick, letting out a sharp hiss as he crossed the threshold between the physical realm and the astral plane.

The moment the Guardian Beast entered the ether, he was no longer bound by the material world, and his physical limitations dissolved, revealing his true spiritual form.

The small, azure cat swelled into a majestic tiger, his blue fur streaked with dark, undulating stripes. His eyes blazed like molten silver in the dark, and razor-sharp silver claws sprouted from his heavy paws. In this imposing true form, Talbot radiated the mighty, ghostly energy of a formidable predator, a fact immediately apparent to anything with spiritual senses.

The shifting hound paused, its featureless head snapping toward the imposing tiger and the Occultist beside him.

Sensing the profound danger, it let out a soundless howl, abandoned its assault on the wards, spun around, and bolted westward. It bypassed the slumbering town entirely, seeking the dense, untamed sanctuary of the Green Ocean.

“Yeah, you’re not getting away that easily,” Nick muttered.

Talbot let out a resounding roar through the ether and bounded forward, covering the distance in seconds.

Nick summoned a current of wind at his back, propelling himself into flight across the grounds. He flew over the gates, his boots barely skimming the spikes as he gave chase.

The newly integrated fire within his coils spread at his command, keeping his muscles warm and his stamina high.

They flew over the empty streets, a blur of motion and ghostly light. Soon, the western wall loomed ahead, but Nick didn't slow. He gathered the wind beneath him, launched himself over the stone, and landed smoothly on the other side before rushing through the logging camps.

The deep woods swallowed them whole. The towering trees and thick ferns formed a labyrinth of shadows, but the entity's wake in the ether was impossible to miss, far too chaotic and panicked to leave no trace.

Nick pushed his speed further, weaving through the dense foliage. As he flew, the dagger in his hand grew increasingly frantic, pulling him forward so strongly that Nick had to focus his senses on the weapon, trying to find a reason for its behavior.

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However, what he found was that the dagger mirrored the spiritual ripples left by the fleeing beast perfectly.

The realization clicked into place, washing away his earlier assumption. The dagger was resonating.

The entity they were chasing wasn't just a random feral spirit drawn by the venting of the Prestige core, but the missing, larger chunk of the whole it had once been ripped from, which made sense, since Nick had first found it floating aimlessly around Floria’s outskirts.

It seemed the ritual had served as a beacon, drawing the fragmented predator to the only part of itself still anchored in the physical world.

"Talbot, force it to stop!" Nick shouted, adjusting his trajectory.

The tiger surged ahead, moving through the trees without disturbing a single leaf. Because he was fully immersed in the astral plane, the forest’s physical obstacles meant nothing to him, and he intercepted the fleeing hound near a glade, swiping a silver paw across the creature's flank.

The spiritual impact sent a shockwave through the ether. The hound stumbled, letting out a fractured shriek, and was forced to pivot, turning back toward the physical realm to escape the tiger's reach.

Nick was waiting for it.

Just as the hound materialized from the shadows, its dark form solidifying as it tried to slip past him, Nick raised his free hand, his mind perfectly clear.

A roaring torrent of orange fire erupted from his palm. It poured forward around them, sweeping across the forest floor and forming an impassable wall of heat that blocked any retreat, both deeper into the Green Ocean and into the ether, thanks to its spiritual component.

The hound skidded to a halt, recoiling from the sudden heat. It tried to phase back into the astral plane to bypass the wall, but repelled it. The moment it faltered, Talbot was already there, descending from the canopy.

The majestic tiger landed squarely on the hound's back, his silver claws sinking deep into the creature's shifting body.

When the hound tried to fight in the physical world, unleashing bolts of darkness and waves of rolling shadows, Nick drove it back with searing whips of fire and blades of wind.

His new elemental balance let him weave heat and air together, creating scorching vacuums that sapped the entity's momentum. When the beast desperately shifted back into the ether to escape the flames, Talbot mauled it, his ghostly fangs tearing chunks from the dark construct.

They moved through the clearing in a deadly dance. Nick stepped into a sweeping, shadowy tendril, parrying the spiritual strike with a , then spun, driving a fist wreathed in orange fire into the hound's center.

The impact hissed, burning away a layer of its defensive smog and hurling the creature across the dirt.

The beast scrambled to its feet, cornered against the wall of flames. It was visibly diminished, its form flickering erratically as it struggled to hold against the dual assault.

Nick raised his left hand, ready to weave an exorcism. He drew a line of fire in the air, intending to form a cage of consuming pyres to permanently incinerate the fractured spirit.

But as he raised the dagger in his right hand to serve as the conduit, the weapon practically sang in his grip. The resonance was deafening in his mind, a chorus of fragmented memories and desperate hunger.

Nick paused, the fiery rune hovering before him.

If he destroyed the beast, he would lose the larger half of the spirit forever. The Remnant of Akas would remain a useful tool, but it would never reach its full potential. More importantly, his family's most valuable asset—the Crystal Forest—was sitting completely undefended, and he had been seeking a solution.

"Talbot, pin it down!" Nick commanded, shifting his stance.

The astral tiger lunged, crashing into the flickering hound. His silver claws sank into the earth, anchoring the struggling entity, and though the beast thrashed, its form rippling wildly, the Guardian Beast held firm.

It was clear he hadn’t been the only one to grow during the months they’d spent apart.

Nick dismissed the consuming pyres. Instead of performing an exorcism, he walked a slow circle around the struggling spirits, letting a steady stream of fire trail from his fingertips.

The flames did not burn the grass as they settled into the earth, forming a glowing ring that bound the ether to his command.

Once he was satisfied his makeshift work would hold, he stepped into the circle, approaching the pinned hound. The creature snapped its featureless jaws at him in a desperate display of defiance, but Nick ignored it. He knelt beside the beast, raising the dark blade as he settled into the right frame of mind for what he was about to attempt.

"You are fractured," he said, his voice taking on a resonant echo. “Because of that, you came looking for the piece you lost, hoping to become whole once more. I will do that for you, but there is a price.”

Unfortunately, the spirit’s mind was either too damaged to understand or too frantic to listen, but that was fine. He had the consent he needed because the spirit had already made known its desire to be whole.

With a deep exhale, he drove the Remnant of Akas directly into the center of the hound's shifting form.

A blinding wave of energy washed over the clearing. The beast’s dark mana rushed toward the blade, swirling around the steel like water in a whirlpool, and the dagger eagerly drank the energy, its edges glowing with an intense violet light.

Nick couldn’t let the weapon consume the spirit. That would surely achieve some kind of unity, but he had a different role in mind for it.

He kept his grip firm as he channeled his desires through his mana down his arm, forcing the two halves of Akas to recognize his dominance.

"I bind you to the soil," Nick chanted, altering the runes on his fiery ring with quick gestures from his free hand as more understanding of the spirit’s nature filtered through. He drew terrestrial anchors in the air, weaving the orange flames into spiritual chains, not unlike those he’d once used to bind the Guardian of the Fox temple, though for a less destructive purpose.

The chains shot forward, wrapping around the coalescing form of the hound. They hissed on contact, searing the binding contract directly into the creature's core.

"You will no longer wander," Nick commanded, the task made easier by the fact that a portion of Akas already recognized him as its master. "You will serve, and the Crystal Forest will be your domain. You will guard its borders, protect its wealth, and tear apart any intruder who seeks to steal from House Crowley.”

The hound let out a long, shuddering breath that ruffled the ferns around them as his words finally began to make sense.

The violent thrashing ceased. The dark mana stabilized, flowing smoothly around the blade embedded in its chest. The dagger's violet light flared one final time in silent acknowledgment of the completed bond before fading back into the dark steel, which was now little more than a sharp blade.

Its loss would hurt, but what he’d gained more than made up for it.

On the ground, the hound slowly pushed itself up, no longer a featureless shadow.

The binding had given it structure, and it now stood tall, a sleek, imposing mastiff forged of violet spirit. It looked at Nick, then at his familiar, as if for a moment considering its chances.

Talbot let out a low, rumbling growl, a reminder of its power.

The newly bound hound lowered its head in submission, accepting its place, though with a glint in its eyes.