An echo, then a shimmer.

A feeling took shape, yet it wasn’t theirs. The being had yet to realize it, too nascent for such thoughts, their life flickering under the weight of being born.

Yet, by some strange chance, it was.

A formless mass of instincts, when it woke up the first time, it felt like its whole consciousness was but a reflection of something else, something brighter, someone far mightier than it was, so close, so overwhelming it was molding it to its image. Not purposely, but rather as naturally as breathing.

Such, was the immensity of that being in comparison to them.

The thoughts disappeared from Avaln’s mind then, and were replaced by sensations, experiences he couldn’t prevent, nor change, just witness.

A man kneeled before a demon boar, the beast frozen in place, trembling… a common animal would have obeyed their primal instincts and attacked, not realizing the gap, but the being… was not common, nor an animal, but something greater and far more fragile.

The man smiled. There was something unsettling in that smile, bemused yet in control, with no expectations but full of knowledge.

“Want to rescue your friend?” The message, creeping into its thoughts, ringing true. “That’s easy. Just break the temple.”

Images, ideas, wisdom, just a drop of each, but enough to coerce its pueril mind, feathering its wish into an arrow.

But it was unfulfilled.

The wish.

Still trapped.

Now beaten.

Now betrayed..

Had to run.

Run.

Survive.

Survive!

It had to survive!

A strong body.

A strong soul.

Nourishment.

Survive!

Avaln shook his head, and in a swift move, cut the tendril that had landed on his forehead, yet the instinct gave way to his shaky consciousness, and so his figure staggered into one knee as his head rang and pulsed in pain.

What was that? Was his one coherent thought.

His gaze found the beast then, and to his surprise, it had frozen in place. A quick look with his seventh sense showed the shadow inside wavering, as if shaken just like him. What are you? He wondered, full of disbelief, silently cursing himself for his carelessness. Given how the tendrils predicted his path and tried to trap him, the creature inside that dead body was smarter than it seemed at first glance, and powerful enough to possess a being with a refinement level equal to a peak Tempered Essence realm adventurer…

Avaln shook his head at this notion, however. He was just at the first stage, and even if a bit unusual, he couldn’t claim to be anywhere near the peak, and hence what saved him from that attack just then couldn’t have been his own refinement level, nor strong physique.

Why was he still alive then? What set him apart from such a powerful beast?

The thoughts, images and sensations that had crossed his mind not so long ago, came back to him, and this time, he was aware enough to be able to analyze them.

Strong body.

Strong soul.

Nourishment.

For a moment, Avaln had an urge to slap himself for being such an idiot. The Tower of Babylon, he voiced inside his mind, recalling Sgithe’s explanation about how such a technique had a particular requirement before it could be formed, and how the blue book she’d given him was meant precisely to meet such a condition; if her words were to be believed, something he had no doubt about, his soul right now was equivalent to a Fervent Essence realm adventurer, which was also known as the peak of strength someone could reach in this world.

And for some reason, that creature seemed to be seeking a strong soul… to feed on?

The last part ended up as a question, not out of doubt, but out of disbelief. Could such a creature really exist? The lack of an answer was easy enough to accept, but not so the lack of a source of knowledge to turn to, or some other concepts through which he could support his own theories on. With a sudden headache, Avaln was made, once again, painfully aware of how ignorant he truly was.

He would need to find a way to fix that… yet right there, such concerns weren’t his priority. Not really.

Not when a red eye found him again, gleaming with delight.

It was a fact, now: the creature could instinctively know who had the strongest soul in its vicinity.

“It seems one taste wasn’t enough.” He thought out loud, spinning his spear into a stance, readying his senses for what was to come. “Let’s see who really is the prey, and who is the hunter.”

The words came out before he processed them, and only once he did, realization dawned on him. Of course. With a renewed swirl of his seventh sense, he examined the fleshy mess that was that demon boar, as carefully as he could, yet the hulk didn’t allow him enough time to do so before a tendril shot from its body, straight to his head.

He crouched low, then with a spin of the spear severed the second tendril that went to cut short his path to the right, and had hence missed. He did so not because he reacted to it, nor did he misjudge the distance, but rather just to test a theory.

A third, a fourth, a fifth… the shadow’s attacks continued, eager, hurried, as the hooves slowly walked in pursuit of the backing figure that was supposed to be its prey, his movements elusive, frustratingly so. Under Avaln’s seventh sense, changes began to occur, slowly but surely, as he stepped back right when a black blade was about to catch his ankle, then sidestepping to the right, avoiding one coming for his shoulder, performing Wave the river and Fortune abandons the bold consecutively, his spear flashing under the sun in a vertical low slash, followed by a horizontal high, each tendril falling, weightless, before dissolving into gray ashes.

Just like matter without Essence.

The creature was purely made of it, he now was sure.

And after a dozen breaths of action, where he repeatedly severed his foe’s extremities, Avaln also confirmed that doing so was indeed hurting it…

And when the creature hesitated for the first time, he couldn’t help smiling. It was a light smile, full of the confidence brought by being right… but it didn’t last. His first impression was that the creature had stopped attacking out of fear, but when the hulk it was controlling suddenly charged at him, he realized it had simply chosen to change tactics.

And his reaction was a step too slow.

Scared, the wind scattered about as violence and urge, made one, pushed it out of the way, hooves striking the ground, sending a vibration right into the hearts bearing witness to the fight between the young man and the strange beast, not knowing what to think, nor what to expect. Mira was one of such witnesses, her arms occupied with carrying the unconscious Rei, who despite having avoided most of the danger, was still struck not only by Avaln, but also by the falling debris, resulting in her current condition. There, as her seventh sense gave her the answers, she felt frustrated before her own impotence, for her hands were tied.

Her duty was with Rei, and so, she would never leave her, not even to help that brat who was now leading the danger away. With a shake of her head, through her mind flashed the image of the people who, bearing their belongings, had left Gale early this same day, and a part of her realized the truth that until now had been but an idea: She would be one of them, together with the girl in her arms.

Maybe he did it out of instinct, or maybe luck was on his side, but when Avaln understood there was no way to avoid such a charge through normal means, his body and Essence moved on their own, replicating the step technique he used during his fight with Keiner, the memory arriving all too easily to his wakeful mind.

Unfortunately, his body reacted in the wrong direction, sending him in a straight line backwards, only delaying the inevitable clash between beast and man. Four, five times he kicked the ground, Gale’s forge flashing through the corner of his right eye, and only then did he manage to yank the control of his body away from his fearful instincts, reasoning his best move…

But it was too late, his only possible choice to jump and avoid being trampled on, and like a ragdoll he was thrown into the air, pain flaring from his left side and almost stripping his thoughts away, and most of them did disappear in a chaotic maelstrom of the wind, sound, and lights entering his senses, trying to discern something, anything from the spinning world around him…

The sun, unbearingly bright…The beast, slowing down, several shadows sprouting from its back…

His hand, still gripping the spear old man Jeff crafted…

That last sense sparked into a thought, fast as light like many things happening in one’s mind; the spear, the demon boar bone spear, runes carved into its ivory material, meant to transfer Essence within it. The thought then, was shaped into an idea that manifested itself through a fearless smile.

Of course. Had he had the time, he would have slapped himself. That was the entire point.

Spreading like a tide, Avaln’s seventh sense gave him all the information he needed as his body spun, its skyward momentum lost, its fate now to meet the ground… but not yet. Maybe not ever. Gritting his teeth and fighting the pain coming from his struggling, stretched muscles, Avaln found his center, found his mark… and performed his most improvised Unneeded Heart.

Ivory flashed, straight, fast, powerful, and met its mark, the blade sinking into barely held together flesh, the shadow inside quickly reacting by moving away from the spot, its life just a few fingers away from being in danger. Such a thing had happened once before, not that long ago, and so the shadow recognized the feeling once again.

Fear turned into hesitation, and so its movements were frozen for an instant.

But Avaln, the ground ever so close, hesitated not, his fingers quickly drawing the link rune with one intent only.

Please work.

Please work.

Please work.

Please work.

Ivory struggled against flesh, the shaft of the spear vibrating, fighting to be released… but to Avaln’s relief, it wasn’t, and so the link rune did the only thing it could do: attract the lightest body to the heaviest. After a forceful pull, man met beast once again, but this time, Avaln was on its back, his hand firmly gripping the spear now, driving it down in pursuit of the shadow that had moved away, scared, too focused on preserving its own life to think about anything else.

The more he could distract it, the better, even if it was just a breath.

For that’s all he needed.

Intuition and practice came together inside his mind then, as Avaln reached out through his seventh sense to the runes engraved on the spear, activating them in quick succession, starting with the one on the blade that was now inside the beast, and in direct contact with the demon boar’s Essence…

An Essence that had no owner. He had carefully looked for any signs of a soul imprint all this time, guided by a hunch he got when that mass of flesh, that used to be a demon boar, stood in front of him for the first time. A hunch that later gave birth to an idea he was now carrying out…

What would happen if he were to absorb a 4th order beast’s demonic Essence into his spear?

In theory, it should work. The bone spear was made out of a demon boar’s corpse, and the same demonic Essence was now inside that dead carcass…

Just far stronger, denser, purer… so did Avaln realize when he saw no sign of it being drawn into the spear, and before he could decide if to double his efforts or not, the shadow snapped out of its fear and resumed its attacks, shadow tendrils soon surrounding Avaln’s figure without him being able to do anything to evade them, not while gripping the spear, stationary as he was.

So be it. He thought, and through his seventh sense he spurred the runes into action, pouring his own Essence to boost their power, increasing the speed of the circulation he’d created through them, yet soon a creeping feeling began to invade his body without warning. It was repulsive, instinctively foreign… but he gritted his teeth and pressed on.

He had no doubt such a feeling came from the shadow’s attempts to get a hold of his soul.

And so, their battle turned into a race. If he could transfer all that demon boar’s Essence into the spear, then the body would dissolve into gray ashes like all matter without it, leaving the shadow without its host. Avaln had no idea what would happen to the creature afterwards, but he could surmise it would be nothing good.

And besides, all that strong demonic Essence was just there for the taking… How could he ignore such an opportunity?

A strange gleam flashed on his purple eyes when he caught signs of his efforts bearing fruit, and like a current that had found another course, the Essence inside began to flow into the spear. Such a change was also perceived by the shadow, it seemed, for the corpse that until then had remained still, suddenly charged ahead, off-path and into the forest. Such a charge was not without obstacles, for the trees grew thick and tall, and so the beast had to make use of its brutal strength to run them down, crushing everything in its path.

And how could Avaln remain unscathed?

Some branches only slapped his skin off, but some, broken away under violence and fear, were more akin to blades, their edge soon splitting his flesh apart, some even sinking into his sides, drawing blood and cries of pain and resistance. Despite his reticence, he had to stick his body to the dead flesh underneath as much as he could, gripping the spear with an iron will…

But all the while, the shadow had also doubled its efforts, and before Avaln could know what was happening, his conscience was abruptly yanked away, leaving but one lingering thought…

A pair of scarlet eyes.