My back was dragged across hard sediment, pebbles forcing their way through the narrowest gaps and into my drenched shirt and underwear. Something was clamped around my shoulder and coiled around my waist. Dulled blades, cold as steel, slid beneath my armpits, pulling me closer to patches of grass, but my legs remained submerged in water.

  I could feel my legs!

  Opening my eyes, I was met with a familiar golden, slitted eye. Aureus stared at me, the thoughts behind his gleaming gaze impossible to discern. He pressed his snout against my face, pinning it firmly to the ground, then stepped back as Nox and Volix entered my view. Even Resh was present, the old Mirage Serpent’s maw clamped around my shoulder, trying to pull me away from the big bad water.

  No. That was simply what the Elemental Phoenix thought of water.

  Shaking my thrumming head, I discarded the thought and sat upright.

  “Thank you.” I smiled weakly, the world around me spinning. “Without your help, I would have dro–”

  Darkness swallowed me once more, my body slumping to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

  The next time I regained consciousness, sunlight prickled against my skin. I was encased in light too bright for my eyes to immediately adjust to, and I felt grateful as they slowly did. A large shade unraveled, engulfing my frame, and a vibrant smile spread across my lips when I recognized its source.

  Leaning against something hard, yet oddly cozy, I reached out to the semi-translucent wings shielding parts of my body, my cheeks aching from all the smiling.

  “Did I interrupt your transformation?” I asked, scanning the towering figure of my first Soulkin.

  You are awake.

  Aureus smiled at me, or what I interpreted as a smile.

  “I am awake.” I raised an eyebrow at the Earthheart. “And I don’t think I’ll collapse again. That was already the second time I collapsed in this forest. Though I’m not quite sure I can still consider this the same forest. Everything feels so… different.”

  The forest around me resembled what I remembered, yet everything was undeniably changed. Every part of this place was filled with ether–to the brim. Most plants had accumulated so much ether that it condensed into droplets. Even the grass around me overflowed with it. Liquid ether dripped from flowers like dew, though this was no ordinary condensation. That wasn’t how dew worked, not in the middle of a blazing hot noon.

  The sun sat at its zenith, yet… that wasn’t important.

  Shaking my head, I reorganized myself. The Onyx Ring was present. All Soulkins were accounted for. That was all I needed to know.

  This place is truly fascinating. It is saturated with ether. Plants whose age surpasses civilizations can be found here. Or so the bird said.

  Aureus chortled before returning to my earlier question.

  You did interrupt my transformation, yet you also did not. I digested the serums and successfully planted the Earth Aspect in my heart. However, I would have liked to remain in that state longer. It provided enlightenment and allowed me to progress considerably. A truly marvelous state.

  I grimaced. “Sorry about that.”

  Aureus didn’t seem overly bothered by the interruption, though he clearly hoped to return to that state someday. For now, he flooded me with approval, relief at having returned, and an overabundance of joy.

  Pushing myself upright, I scrambled to my feet. A wave of weakness washed over me, but the Earthheart lowered his head, offering support.

  Ambient ether seeped into my body as naturally as breath, and I had no intention of rejecting it. I accepted the ether and let it empower me. At the same time, I took a long look at Aureus. He’d changed immensely over the past few months, and yet, somehow, not at all. His presence felt so familiar that I took my time scrutinizing him.

  The Earthheart looked even more impressive now. He hadn’t grown much longer, but he was broader and taller than before. His scales were thicker, parts of them reinforced with highly condensed earth. It took me a few seconds to grasp what I was seeing, but it was almost as if Aureus was part of the terrain itself–connected to the soil, stone, and minerals beneath the surface. His ether, denser and more refined than I remembered, flowed through him in powerful currents, fueling him with strength… and more.

  I briefly wondered how heavy the Earthheart was, his claws pressing deep into the ether-infused soil and leaving behind pronounced marks, but the thought faded as Aureus reached out to me.

  He wanted to fly, his wings, resembling a dragonfly, stretching far and wide. Alas, he was too heavy.

  Under normal circumstances, the Earthheart shouldn’t have been able to fly. He had to weigh several tons, his wings far too weak to lift such mass. But there was nothing normal about us. That word simply didn’t apply.

  Watch me!

  Excitement and anticipation oozed through the bond.

  At first, nothing happened. Aureus stepped aside, ether circulating through his body. Then I noticed something strange. He wasn’t leaving any imprints behind. He strode lightly across the ground, as if walking on clouds, as though he didn’t weigh several tons at all.

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  His wings unfurled and flapped once.

  I expected him to remain grounded, but instead I felt the moment he disconnected from the earth beneath his claws. Aureus shot into the air, wings fluttering furiously as they carried him higher and higher.

  He burst through the canopy of a towering tree, letting out a jubilant roar.

  Did you see that, Adam? Did you? I can fly!

  He sounded like an overexcited child, his voice thunderous in my head. My lips curled into a bright grin.

  I–I did. I nearly stumbled at the shock, but once I regained my balance, I pumped my fist into the air.

  You can actually fly now!

  Gravitation.

  As my thoughts drifted to the power we’d once seen a Caldera wield months ago, something shifted. I felt lighter, the weight of my injuries and exhaustion no longer pressing down on me with the same intensity.

  Inertia remained unchanged, but the gravity around me had shifted. Or maybe it was better to say that my weight changed momentarily.

  The desire to experiment with this new power, to test how precisely I could control it and how much range it possessed at our level, was cut short as Aureus barreled through the canopy once more, executing a perfect crash-landing before me. I could have sworn I heard bones cracking as the Earthheart crashed into the ground. Ether shifted, and a cloud of dirt, pebbles, and blades of grass whirled around me.

  A vigorous and overly satisfied Earthheart swung his wings with great might, dispersing the dirt cloud. His eyes shimmered with utter excitement even as gravity reasserted itself, his claws digging deep into the ground once more. I felt heavier as well–weaker–but I let it go, too happy with the turn of events to complain about some wounds and lingering weakness.

  “You successfully fused a sub-aspect into the Earth Aspect, didn’t you?” My question was rhetorical, and we both knew that, but Aureus answered anyway.

  I did. Gravitation merged with Earth, meeting the final requirement to advance to a Major Aspect. If not for that, I would not have become a true Earthheart.

  Aureus couldn’t be certain of that. There was no reason to believe it had to be the case. In all honesty, our experiments with Aureus had been a great risk. So many things could have gone wrong, yet the Earthheart had been confident. Even now, he was certain that everything we did had been necessary. Without the serums that prepared Aureus for the grand change, the Terraflux Essence, or the hundreds of hours he spent studying the earth and deepening his understanding, the transformation could have failed.

  It would have failed without the Gravitation sub-aspect and the thousands of soul energy units I’d provided over the last few months. I was not too sure about the minor factors and their importance, but Aureus was confident.

  Be that as it may, I was just happy to have my friend back. It was even better that he could fly, his dream come true.

  ***

  Aureus knew about everything that had happened over the last few months. He was fully aware of the challenges, the thoughts flashing through my mind, and every turn of events. I hadn’t even realized how firm our bond had grown until the Earthheart mentioned that he knew everything. I never felt his presence in my head, which only confirmed that our bond had grown to a terrifying degree.

  We were still separate individuals, but the line had grown blurry. Where did Aureus’ consciousness start, and where did it end?

  It was possible to restrain the bond or diminish the constant exchange of information, yet I was comfortable with it. Aureus was not only my family. He was part of me. All my Soulkins were part of me, even if it was different for each of them. Only the Elemental Phoenix existed on a totally different level.

  I was in tune with the Elemental Phoenix and knew that our bond could grow much faster, possibly catching up to what I had with Aureus. However, the latest incident slowed that growth. It came to a screeching halt as doubts crept into the back of my mind.

  Had Volix ever been in full control of his own person, or had he been a puppet wielded this whole time? Was anything about the Elemental Phoenix real? I certainly thought so. Volix was old and had lived many lives. He had countless different personalities that surfaced at random times, but I knew the core of the Elemental Phoenix.

  Even if the phenomena surrounding the Elemental Phoenix and myself had been odd at times, I knew Volix wanted to be with us. That he wanted to be part of this family. As to why… that was something I had yet to figure out. At first, I thought he wanted to bind himself to me solely to survive, but that was not the case. He wanted to be here, even if that did not block Great Spirit, Volca, or whoever else from interfering. And that was the crux of the problem.

  How could I trust Volix if I couldn’t be certain where his loyalty lay, when others could take control of him and use him as they pleased?

  You think too much. He helped you against the Devourer’s Spawn.

  Aureus clarified, altering his weight again and again as he leaped back into the sky. He was right–as always.

  The situation surrounding the Elemental Phoenix was already complicated, but was there something I could do about it? Not really. In the first place, it wasn’t as if my situation had been easy for quite a while.

  Now, with Aureus’ transformation complete, his Ether Gates were the first to change. Being a true Earthheart came with a few perks, one of which was that Aureus was now officially a sacred beast. It was hard to understand at first, but when his Gates began to change into small foundations of compressed soil, realization dawned.

  Aureus’ Ether Gates transformed. They evolved into Earthen Gates, which were not unlike the Elemental Phoenix’s Blazing Gates. The ether within the Gates transformed as well, taking on a muddy brown hue as it attuned itself to the Gates.

  Changes occurred all over the weave, focused on the Earthen Gates already connected to it, fortifying the structure in ways the Blazing Gates couldn’t. They affected my body as well. I felt tougher and more durable as the Gates’ modifications came to an end. The weakness in my body was replaced with sudden strength, a smile blooming on my lips as empty, unrefined Earthen Gates came into existence.

  Several 3-Star Gates and one 4-Star Gate formed in the first hour, but it was only the beginning. Two 1-Star Earthen Gates sprang into existence as well, performing a task that ought to have been impossible. Aureus had only formed three 1-Star Gates when he was still a Wild Soilback. He hadn’t possessed the potential needed for more. His evolution into an Earthheart did not fix that issue. It didn’t fill the gaps in his potential as a weak Soilback, and it shouldn’t have. Yet becoming a true Earthheart altered rules I had thought chiseled into the laws of the world.

  That still wasn’t all. As Aureus’ potential unraveled, specks of dirt coalesced throughout the weave as well. I tried not to read too much into the turn of events, but the specks hinted at something more–at dormant potential waiting to be unleashed.

  And I was more than up to the task.