The Twin Soul didn’t let him down. With the support of the venom rapidly eroding Spirit Power, the Breach Hawk’s resistance gradually fell until it was helpless against the attacks. The Twin Soul was battered and weakened, but the Breach Hawk was devastated. It’s soul had previously been huge and powerful, the original difference between the size of souls was the same as in the real world. A man sized Twin Soul versus a thirty foot tall Hawk, its wingspan more than double its body size. It looked like a six story building had fallen over and was rolling towards him.

The Twin Soul was fearless, flying around agilely to avoid the huge Hawk. It used glowing bursts of Spirit Power to create a shield and throw blades at him with flaps of its wings. At least until it ran out of Spirit Power. When the glow finally died off, the Twin Soul stopped flitting around like an annoying fly and began its attack. A harassing assault, the Twin Soul would fly in and smash a fist against the Breach Hawk and then dart away again to avoid a counterattack. Sometimes it wasn’t fast enough and would get smashed by the flap of a wing, but it always managed to avoid the deadly talons and beak of the Hawk.

Sage’s physical body stayed hidden within the Universe Ring, keeping him safe from the beast that was a full rank above him. It had taken many layers of tricks just to give the Twin Soul this chance and if it failed, he didn’t feel like getting killed again. Thankfully, the Twin Soul at this point seemed to be victorious. The Breach Hawk’s soul had been hit by Anima Devour over and over again. Little particles of its soul form crumbling and getting consumed by the Twin Soul. The Breach Hawk shrunk while the Twin Soul grew larger. Now, the size difference had been reversed. The Breach Hawk seemed to be only as large as a normal mortal hawk from Earth in comparison to the Twin Soul now.

In the Universe Ring, Sage bandaged up his shoulder stump with Blood Drinking Silk and downed Blood Clotting Pills. He cursed his mistake of not picking up any greater healing pills, but he already had a plan to circumvent this issue in the future so he didn’t dwell on it too much. On the other hand, the lack of an arm was definitely contributing to his mood. He exited the Universe Ring and took it out of the small stone disc. He placed his remaining hand on the ground and poured in more energy, taking his time to tighten and strengthen the restraints on the Breach Hawk. This time it was deathly still, not daring to make a move as the Twin Soul had already forced it to submit. Sage planned to cage it, but he wasn’t willing to move any closer yet. There was still the chance that the Hawk was too prideful. It might be willing to sacrifice its life in an attempt at revenge.

After about an hour of conflict and a few hundred Spirit Stones of expenditure, Sage walked into what was now an exceedingly overgrown forest. The Breach Hawk was wrapped up into a cocoon of tree branches, its legs flat and pulled behind it, wings strapped to its chest and head laying on the ground. It was pinned down and Sage was walking down a narrow tunnel towards one of its eyes. From the records he had and also its battle performance he was sure it didn’t have any eye techniques, so he approached with the intent to show his dominance. The Hawk could only watch him walk up so nonchalantly, tied up tightly with no way to retaliate.

The Breach Hawk.

The little human bug was dirty, one sleeve hanging loosely from a hastily donned robe. The new robe was pristine in comparison to the rest of the human’s appearance. Something it had just put on to hide the missing arm. The human sat down in front of the Hawk’s eye and just stared. The human’s two eyes were incredibly strange. The Hawk didn’t know much about humans, but it was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to have a field of stars inside their pupils. What strange magic was this?

Time continued to pass and the human continued to stare. It had already been many hours, the sun rising and then falling again before the human finally moved once more. It held out its hand and a wave of Spirit Power fell onto the Hawk’s forehead. A wave of pressure spread through its body and the Hawk felt like it had fallen into a huge vat of molasses, it felt so slow and weak. It could no longer feel the fluctuations of the air on its feathers and instead felt like it had been plucked clean. The human in front of it waved his hand and a large cage flew out, the door opening and falling over the Hawk’s head.

Everything went dark.

When it awoke, it had no idea how much time had passed. It looked around and saw that it was trapped inside of a huge metal bird cage about a hundred feet wide and twice that in height. Above it was a large perch atop a short pole and, strangely, the floor of the cage was furnished like a human dwelling. A small fireplace, padded chair and small table. To the other side of the area was a similarly simple kitchen and bathroom with high screens to separate them. The Hawk looked down and realized something terrible had happened. Its wings were gone!

It tried to screech and instead of a majestic cry, there was only a loud screaming. The sound that came out was just like the angered battle cry of the few humans the Breach Hawk had battled with. Next to the fireplace there was a small bronze mirror and the Hawk noticed its reflection.

Outside, in the Canyon.

Sage had been working hard since the Breach Hawk had been subdued. After applying a Human Seal to the monster, he locked it into a special cage, an expensive storage treasure he’d purchased for just such a reason. The Silver Vultures had been much easier to store with it long ago and now he had a better use for it. The Twin Soul was monitoring the Breach Hawk while Sage formed a series of arrays around the Canyon. The main component was of course an energy gathering array, but he first set up a many layered defensive array. First, to conceal the canyon and his activities here. Secondly, to provide a shield should anyone notice the flow of energy and stumble their way in. The concealing array created an illusion that would make the canyon appear to be another rock face and it also hid the density of energy, but if anyone were to look closely, they might feel the energy being drawn in from the surrounding areas.

After a few days, his task was complete and his first base outside of the Holy Flame Sect was completed. Given how remote this area was, it would be an important location in the future. A place to secretly train his forces outside of either the Dou or Shihu Kingdoms.

The Steam Harpoons weren’t bad, but it was troublesome to set up… maybe I should build an entire net gun.

Sage brought out an ant colony and linked to a Steel Silk Centipede, using the resources in the Canyon to start constructing a few buildings. Digging out a small manor from the side of a mountain and building a front entrance for it with large columns. Even without anyone here, he set up simple arrays and built a few devices to create a decent quality of life. Kitchens and bathrooms with stone plumbing, carved by ants, and fed with hot water from the springs, purified by an array. There were also array formations for lighting and a centralized heating and cooling system. By just adding a few Spirit Stones to this central array it would cycle hot or cold air through the vents, purify and then heat or chill water that was pumped into the plumbing tunnels, and also power all the lighting arrays. The building set him back a few thousand more Spirit Stones, but it was a foundation for the future. He couldn’t just let anyone into his Universe Ring. It was also practice for how to quickly and efficiently build similar buildings in other places.

Now, time to check on that big chicken.