The Beast Pagoda was an enormous organization, spanning all of mankind’s territory and wielding tremendous political influence. The more I read, the clearer its hold over the Bastions became.
Some great minds even said that the Beast Pagoda was one of humanity’s most important organizations, as it was responsible for providing suitable Soulkins to those with considerable talent.
If my World had been a little larger when I was born, the Beast Pagoda would certainly have noticed me. Once noticed, they would have nourished my growth and provided me with a suitable beast egg from a young age as well. Alas, that never happened. An inner World too small and a family too poor to purchase a beast egg from the Pagoda forced me to work tirelessly for years, refining my World in a slow, time-consuming manner.
But even that was not enough. It was not until my father nearly died that things changed.
It wasn’t as though I had never visited the Beast Pagoda’s temple in our Bastion. I visited them quite often, actually. Probably more often than I should have, hoping someone would notice and help me. It was foolish, but despair was far more potent than pride. The latter didn’t help me survive. If anything, it would have killed me.
“Why are we here?” I asked, trying to make sense of it all.
The old man just smiled as he led me to a wide staircase. We passed a group of guards strong enough to perfectly conceal their strength and ether before descending the flight of stairs.
Minutes of utter silence trickled by. All I heard were the old man’s slow and deliberate footsteps as he moved down the stairs.
It took quite a bit out of me to keep up with Nathaniel–odd in itself, but not nearly as strange as the small habitats that began to appear along the way. The stairs continued to lead us downward, but my eyes were drawn to the habitats that expanded left and right from them. They were massive, yet all I saw were a few beasts at a time. A handful of mature beasts with dozens of small, young ones was the most I caught when we stopped by a desert habitat.
“We separate expecting beasts from the Sanctuary. Mothers can be… troublesome.” Nathaniel looked back and grimaced at the last bit. “The first-timers are the worst. Overwhelmed by unfamiliar hormones, they become emotional, territorial, and will attack almost everyone. Even their keepers have to be careful.”
As he spoke, we walked past a small, plain area covered in multicolored flowers. A tall antelope and its young ones grazed and devoured the blossoms until a middle-aged woman stepped into the habitat through a small door I hadn’t noticed before. Her movements were slow and deliberate, yet she seemed to phase through the habitat, reinvigorating the field of grass and flowers.
She moved so efficiently I barely caught the needle in her hand. The antelope noticed and bleated loudly. The mother beast charged the woman, who retreated with a soft curse.
“We only want the best for them, but administering medicine is often difficult.” Nathaniel gestured toward the antelope. “She is a very possessive beast–one of the worst, if you were to ask me. However, her young ones have tremendous potential. If only they weren’t sick as often.” He let out a deep breath. “They need constant supervision and thorough examination for us to provide the right medication. If not, well, their potential will suffer and they may even die at a young age.”
Unsure what to say, I nodded. The old man took that as his cue to keep going and to explain all there was to know about the beasts in the habitats we passed by. Some beasts looked my way, stirring something within me.
There was no bloodlust. No desire to kill me. Quite the contrary, actually. The hair all over my body stood on end as we made our way to the bottom of the staircase. It couldn’t have taken less than half an hour–shocking in its own right–when I finally noticed dozens of people. All Blessed, and most definitely stronger than I was. However, they were not combatants. They were dressed in the same protective attire and took care of the incubators and related equipment.
There were hundreds of them, each occupied by several eggs. But as marvelous as the marbled hall spreading out before me was, my attention flicked to a particular incubator. A particular set of eggs peeked out from beneath the glass capsule, bringing a smile to my face.
I knew these eggs.
One didn’t even seem like an egg. It appeared like a mountain of energy pressed into an oval shape. It was the ethereal egg of the Spyre Elemental, glimmering in a myriad of colors depending on the influx of light.
Beside the Spyre Elemental egg, which I could have chosen in the flying ship a few months ago, was none other than the egg of the Horror Tessar from the abyssal plane. My World vibrated in anticipation as we walked toward the incubator, but I had to squash all thoughts of binding either of them. Perhaps, in the future, I could bind them.
Maybe. To be honest, I was not quite sure whether it was smart to bind either of them. One would grant me control over multiple elements, augmenting my control over ether by several levels, whereas the other would focus on the mind. They were strong and carried more potential than the Ferronox Mantis, but that was also why they were so dangerous. If their growth spurts were even worse than Nox’s, how was I supposed to grow my World fast enough to contain them?
If I were ever to consider binding them, my World would have to be large enough to keep them at bay. As of now, I wasn’t even close to binding a third Soulkin. Maybe in a few months, but that was a problem I’d solve in the future.
Seeing all those eggs, the beasts, and their habitats was unlike anything I had expected to see in the Beast Temple. I had read so much about the Beast Pagoda, but nothing had prepared me for what awaited at the end of the floor.
Nathaniel never stopped walking. He guided me toward a massive, metallic gate in silence and slowed only when a tall man clad in armor appeared out of nowhere. I was too busy with the dozens of screens and ether technology I’d never seen before to notice the Blessed around us. Several people nodded toward Nathaniel, but it was the armored man, whose mere presence snapped my attention away from all the new impressions around me.
The old man and the armored Blessed didn’t say a single word. Nathaniel retrieved a card and had it scanned in silence. A beep later, he was let through and motioned for me to follow. I retrieved my ID as well, hoping they’d let me through, and stepped past when a second beep rang out.
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Yet, as I brushed past the tall Blessed, I felt as if I had touched death. Immense pressure flooded my body for no more than an instant, and I felt as though a mere touch would crush me–if the Blessed had wanted to.
My instincts screamed at me, urging me to flee, to run for my life, and I had never felt smaller. Not even Merlin made me feel that way, and Daniel’s uncle was a Master with a monstrously powerful Wyvern Soulkin.
Doesn’t that mean he– I shuddered involuntarily.
That guy was a Grandmaster, merely one rank beneath the rulers, and he stood there in silence, guarding whatever lay behind the gate. The Grandmaster turned away from me and disappeared in an emerald blur, yet it took a while before Nathaniel pulled me back to my senses.
“I forgot about that part,” he noted with a light, apologetic undertone. “That was the first time you met a Grandmaster, wasn’t it?”
I was too busy taking care of my racing heart and the chaos within me to answer. Not that I had anything good to say right now–curses were all that lingered on my mind. But even they dispersed as the massive gates opened, revealing paradise.
The gates opened to magnificence incarnate. It was a complete ecosystem.
As the darkness peeled away like mist, revealing a vast expanse that couldn’t–shouldn’t–exist beneath the earth, I was starstruck. The cavern, if one could even call it such, stretched endlessly. Its ceiling was lost in shadows and crystals shining as brightly as the sun. Columns of stone jutted from the ground, supporting the underground world brimming with life.
Towering mushrooms reached dozens of meters high, their caps overlapping with the regular trees that went high up into the shadows of the ceiling. Between their stalks, roots and vines coiled together, forming natural bridges and hollow tunnels filled with water.
There was even a river snaking its way through the expanse–slow, wide, and faintly luminous.
The deeper I looked, the more the ecosystem unfolded in impossible layers. Crystallized fungi clung to the cavern walls, drawing sustenance from mineral veins. Plant life of all kinds jutted from the ground, flourishing even more than some ether plants ever could in the Giant Forest. Then there was the ether. It was dense, full. Just standing here filled my core to the brim.
Instinctively, I activated Soulfusion to merge with Aureus. My pores opened and I absorbed the ambient ether, digesting it instantaneously to infuse into my Ether Gates. The results were terrific, to say the least. It was exceptional, yet it was nothing compared to the beauty unraveling before me. This was far more than a mere habitat for beasts. It was more than a cavern.
I was in paradise. The perfect place to train and to– My eyes snapped toward the beasts. First, I only noticed a few critters, some large, others small, but once my mind and body adjusted to the ether density and the surprise the underground world offered, I noticed a lot more. There were hundreds–no, thousands–if not tens of thousands–of them. Beasts of all kinds, and I was more than confident that the majority did not belong in this place. After all, I was quite sure tigers, wendigos, and deer shouldn’t live several thousand meters below the surface.
“The Sanctuary,” Nathaniel said in awe. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
He reveled in the beauty of the place as much as I did, but the old man didn’t look the slightest bit confused. Nor was he scared. Nathaniel was in awe, excited even. Countless beasts entered my sight, and they noticed me as well, yet none attacked. There was no bloodlust; however, they were unlike the Soulkins in the Beastarium. They weren’t roaming Soulkins. None of the beasts in the underground world were bound!
“What in the–” I stared at the old man.
“This is the Grand Camp’s Sanctuary,” he said with a smile, as if that explained everything. When he realized that wasn’t the case, his smile widened. “Every Bastion has a Sanctuary – a place created for the protection of beasts, refugees if you will. They would have been killed, whether by the claws of other beasts or the blades of Outsiders, for numerous reasons. We offer them protection.”
At first, I couldn’t tell what the old man wanted from me. He looked at me expectantly, as if he wanted me to realize something, yet I couldn’t connect the pieces. That was, until it clicked.
“The Sanctuary protects them. In exchange, they help us as well,” I muttered under my breath.
Nathaniel nodded proudly. “Exactly. They protect the Bastions. Not necessarily by themselves, but by binding themselves or their offspring to those they deem worthy.” He snickered, seeing me confused, and continued. “To be honest, this is only the second time I was allowed in a Sanctuary. I don’t know everything either. But I know the Bastions would have long since fallen if not for the Sanctuaries. Several centuries ago, when mankind was on the brink of extinction, one of the Rulers rescued a Monarch from a Titan’s grasp. At that time, the Ruler was no more than a young Grandmaster, but he sacrificed his arm to protect the wounded Monarch. Although grateful, the Monarch would never have survived the grievous wounds it sustained. Not without mankind’s help.”
He was all smiles as he spoke about mankind’s history. “The Monarch was rescued and given the chance to leave, but it didn’t. It stayed and protected us from the attack by another Monarch alongside the strongest Blessed mankind had to offer at that time. Rulers did not exist at that time, neither did the Bastions or any measures to discourage powerful beasts from attacking humanity. All we had was a little power and the support of an unbound Monarch.”
“We helped each other. Mankind promised to rescue more beasts suffering under the tyranny of the Outsiders and mighty beasts, and we were given the Monarch’s offspring, bringing forth the birth of the first Ruler.”
To summarize it all: the Sanctuaries are a big deal. If not for them, humans would be extinct. Noted.
“It may look like we are at odds with all beasts, but that is not the case. Our cooperation has not ended, and it never will if the Council has any say in it.” Nathaniel smiled. “Allying with beasts created the strongest Blessed we currently have. No more than ten years ago, a young Wyvern was hunted by a group of Outsiders for some sort of ritual, if I’m not mistaken,” he said, waving dismissively. “Anyway, we were – and still are – at odds with those Outsiders, which was all the more reason to celebrate when we coincidentally discovered the hunting party. We fought and defeated the Outsiders and rescued the young, brown Wyvern.”
He looked at me expectantly, and this time it didn’t take long to connect the dots.
“Dirk?”
A knowing smile was all the answer I needed, but the old man was in a happy mood, so he continued to chatter.
“Merlin is a good kid. His combat awareness is great, and so is his ether control. However, his World was average at best. He was in the army, but he would have had a hard time rising through the ranks. He was still a private when he and his unit stopped the advance of a group of Outsiders. Many good soldiers died.”
A wave of sadness overcame the old man. “But those who survived were generously rewarded. They were shown to the Sanctuary.”
“That’s how they met. The rest is history, and now Merlin is on his path to become a Grandmaster. To think that brat had it in him.” He snickered.
They knew each other? No, that wasn’t important. Even the events of several hundred years ago were not really important. It was interesting, but important for me to know right now? Not really.
“Why am I here?” I asked the one important question.
Nathaniel snapped his fingers at me. “That’s the right question.”
“Congratulations,” he said with a bright smile. “You are being promoted!”
I narrowed my eyes at his happy outburst.
“Care to tend to the beasts in the Sanctuary?” Nathaniel asked, though it felt like he already knew the answer. “Or do you want to meet the ambassadors first?”
Ambassadors?
He let out a laugh, seemingly satisfied with my expression.
“You’re funny to look at, Adam. But yes, we have ambassadors in the Sanctuary. Outsiders. Pretty sure you already know one of them.”