Jake brushed Aiko’s dark purple fur, pampering his kitsune daughter’s fluffy tail. Giving happy chirps, her chest rose and fell at a soft rhythm.

  His kitsune wife sat o him on a couch, reading a storybook for Nora and Cra to also enjoy, while Jake was joined by Ava on his other side. The family was once again rexing in their Refuge, haviuro their home of Highnds.

  Bze, his third mia daughter, pyed with her big sisters and Ruby. Having red scales and hair, the girl was a little tyrant. Spoiled by her big sisters, she never rested when it came to having of fun and seeking of affe.

  Ruby was really starting to fit into the family, havier trol or uanding over her body and the world around her. She now trained with the girls and Jake, practig against his summons, and with Ava’s battle body and Jasmina.

  Her cws were fierce, and Jake was a bit surprised by the strength and hardiness of the creature’s medium-sized frame.

  The blood badgerdillo’s body was now almost pletely covered in red crystal like some sort of chrysalis, Fhesiah having fed her various blood reted treasures from the vampire’s sad those she purchased or traded for.

  Sati floated over the hearthfe while Tanda and Ophelia worked the fe, helping them. She aided them iing Qi-infused fmes as Lia worked the Runic Crucible ability, allowing the two to more easily create the heavenly energy items.

  The fire spirits floated around the family, pying and joining in their activities. Faye had said the little sprites were soon to cross over to the sed Tier, the swarm gaining in strength rapidly. Having been infused with energy from Bastet’s Lamp and the Hearth of the Refuge, they were now reag the size of a small child–the size that his children should currently be.

  The two new perma summons could both talk now, using the mental speech of cultivators. They learned rapidly, digesting knowledge at a furious pace. Jake wasn’t sure why, but both Sati and Ruby acted a bit shy around him. Often he had tried speaking with them, and while polite, their answers were a little…short.

  Yet he knew Ruby spent a lot of time speaking with Blood, Berri, and Fhesiah, and it was the same with Sati. Usually while he was…busy. Strange.

  Ava’s daughter, a seed, was now pnted he World Tree on Highnds. From what he uood, a treakin would be born–the first in over a thousand years. Already his daughter had sprouted, and while he found this method of birth quite strange, he just rolled with it. His egg-ying wife was odd enough already.

  Not being a part of their body tempering cycles, both lesser avatars of Avara were now with seed once more, Jake doing his…duty to repopute the treants of Highnds. Of course they would be ged from their inal visages just like the rest of the beastkin, but he imagihat they would be weled on Highnds just the same.

  Bze soward Jake, jostling him as she crashed into him on the couch. Aiko growled at her sister for her pleasa being disturbed, to which Bze hissed back.

  “Dad! Show us more of your summons! Mommas say we haven’t evehem all yet!”

  Jake frowned and inteo reprimand his daughter lightly for her as. However, Blood grabbed her by the ear with telekinesis.

  “Ah–”

  “First of all, when you want someoo do something for you, you ask, and you say please. Sed of all, what you just did was rude. You disturbed your sister, and instead of saying sorry, you hissed at her! Be siderate of others, especially your dear sisters–you know that, two months old or not!”

  “Aw, but mom, I wanted–”

  “No buts. Say you’re sorry to Aiko now. You wouldn’t want to be disturbed during your time with Dad and mothers, would you? Just look at how disappointed your father is.”

  Bze met Jake’s eyes, then sched up her face, looking remorseful. “S-Sorry, Aiko. I’ll be…more careful. I got…excited.” She sighed.

  Aiko chirped, and Bze’s look leading. “Sorry, Daddy. P-please, you show us more of your summons? They’re so cool!”

  Nyxa and Rena stood behiheir expressions pleading, and even Nora and Cra both looked ied.

  “What do you think, Aiko? Do you want to see them too?”

  She chirped in affirmative and nudged against his chest with a vulpine smile, so they eheir grooming session. Giving her some pats and kissing his kitsune wife and Ava, he got up.

  That his daughter uood him, but he couldn’t uand her, was an oddity. He did have Fhesiah, Blood and Berri around to help, but his fox daughter was…a little odd to him. Still, she was definitely cute–and fluffy.

  Drawing from his wives and the Hearth of the Refuge, he cast his numerous summons he had collected. His kids and his wives all cpped, pointing out the iing creatures he had gathered temptes for. Some sed Tier dinosaurs had now joined his colle, powerful Highnds creatures capable of a wide array of abilities.

  The varied creatures of Gara joihem, along with a few from Ankhmar. The creatures of Highnds were definitely a mixture of fvored Earth mammals and aviaures, mixed with dinosaurs. But his temptes from Gara resembled monsters from games he was familiar with.

  From the specter he captured during his date with Ava, to beasts with breath attacks and giant is, Gara and Ankhmar had numerous useful creatures.

  Jake now had a wide array of moo choose from, and he was excited to make use of them wheuation called for it.

  But most of all, he was excited about his Hearthtribe Temptes. From Nadessa and her father, the War Treant, to Vesuvius and his daughter, Vexana the venomous cobra woman–Jake now had numerous powerful beastkin to call upon.

  While individually they were not that all strong, especially pared to his wives: he could create ten Vexanas if he wao use her auril venom against an enemy, as an example.

  His daughters all gasped iement as each creature was brought out, and he showed off their abilities against each other. His rge va golem punched his death scorpion, crushing its carapace, while his ice devil sliced into the va golem’s side, freezing it.

  Jasmina sang a song, demonstrating her power to enhance his Vesuvius tempte, who fought off three Roxos as they dashed and spun around with a whirling dervish of bdes. The Garuda even made an appearance, dueling Ava’s battle avatar.

  He called out Valtor and his wife, Amara. The two worked together and cast a powerful bst of are lightning, a surprisingly powerful spell that bsted into Bill, much to Berri’s delight and appuse.

  The number of temptes summoned in such a short duration was far beyond what he could aplish on his own, but Jake was somewhat shocked at the effect he could bring out. Dozens of creatures now battled, as his daughters, and even his wives, oo’d and aww’d.

  Bze cpped. “Yay! This is awesome, daddy! What about the heroic beasts? Mommy told me they were some of the best ones!”

  Jake hesitated, knowing that the heroic beasts appeared to be against being summoned for anything but true bat. But he remembered that at the very least, Bree had shown some i in his family–she had e to their victory celebrations, anyway. She hadn’t yet met his children, and he had been waiting for the right time to introduce them.

  He probed his e to Bree, and he nearly stumbled in shock from what he felt in response.

  Desperation.

  Something was going on with Bree, and he wasn’t sure he uood what was going on. It was like the moment he probed the bond, the floodgates for the emotion were opened.

  His wives were instantly apprised of the situation and his pn, and each mother quickly scooped their daughters up, or floated them by their side with Telekinesis in the case of Blood and Berri. They shushed their daughters, letting them know what was about to happen might be dangerous.

  He drew in all the mana from his structs, dispelling all but his perma summons a his avaible mana. Sati, Jasmina and Ruby looked on in i, gathering nearby–able to stay present thanks to the Refuge able to maintain them.

  The Garuda also floated in the air at the ready with Ava’s battle avatar, the giant trea t over everything.

  Jake summoned Bree’s special tempte, the giant red boar appearing in motes of light. Bree had bee rger now, being scaled up to the sed Tier. Flowers on her body were afme, her body covered in vine armor. Her auril heart pulsed, and Tanda and Ava both gasped.

  After a moment of what Jake knew was mabeats, Ava said, “It looks like she needs your help.”

  Tanda added, “It was your mark! It caused her…some kind of problem.”

  Jake frowned. “So should I… just try to re-mark her?”

  The boar’s eyes widened and shook her head, even as more pulses of her auril heart could be felt.

  Ava shook her head as she walked up to Jake. “It appears there’s a problem with doing that. If you unravel your mark to form a new one, you’ll lose your e to mark her. She cares about this e to you and doesn’t want to lose it.”

  Jake could certainly feel that Bree wanted him to do something. She stared at Ava’s battle avatar, lookiween that and Ava.

  Ava closed her eyes along with Tanda, trying to talk with her. Lia was already holding Cra, but came to take Nora from her to hold them both up.

  Tanda smiled, her tail wagging. “Oh! I think she wants you to do what you did with Ava. Let’s make her a new body!”

  He looked betweehree of them. “Wait a minute. Why is it she talk more now, and why did she wait until now?”

  Blood hummed. “Is it not because the world was tested? Even Ava was limited until the on.”

  Ava nodded. “Not only that, but it seems there is more to her situation than we uood. Even now, she does not quite speak in words. I believe she’ll be able to shed some light ouation if we manage her request. If you do not make her a body and soon, you will lose her–perhaps forever.”

  Jake thought about what they did when they created Ava’s battle avatar. They had used a seed from Ava herself, their bond which led to her core, Oran’s body and Jake’s Fusion Summon with Tanda. Then, Ava fed her body with the requisite materials and energy using her core…

  He frowned. “We have the special seed from the Champion, so I think we have what we need, but will Bree be able to do the heavy lifting here? I don’t think I’m capable of bining all these disparate things to make a body, and I know our…materials inally were all meant for Ava, and she was o plete the process.”

  Ava had special skills, already uanding how to create an avatar. It was only because she was a world core that she had the skills and energy to make it happen. If Bree was capable of doing this, that meant she was likely much more powerful than he inally imagined.

  Bree looked him in the eyes, hers filled with firm determination. She hen looked over to Bloodberri, pointing with her vines.

  Jake was a bit surprised. He could feel that she wanted him to use Bloodberri’s fusion summon. He reached out his hand to Tanda, and her haered her hearth, grabbing the seed she obtained from calling unnos during their battle with the enemy Champion.

  As she took it out, it pulsed with immeality and energy. Nurtured by her special ability, it had been fed by their Hearth of the Refuge, along with the fmes of their family for all these months. It was green and gold in color, spiral fractal patterns running up and down the seed, which was almost the size and shape of an apple at this point.

  Bree looked at the seed with what Jake thought was respect, a small smile toug her pore lips. Jake had previously felt something special from the seed, and now that effect had been amplified, perhaps by more than tenfold. It now almost felt like a Champion or a weak Diviandio him, or just like the world tree seed had felt.

  This item was clearly special, having a weight oy that he couldn’t quite fully expin, even after reag the fourth level in Divine Energy Manipution.

  Fhesiah was calming Aiko, running her hands through her fur. “It really is something. Tanda’s ability to nurture seeds like that one will surely e in handy iure. To think, the most fertile soil is…” She looked at Tanda’s chest with a smirk.

  Berri smiled, holding Rena and Nyxa’s shoulders, and they protectively held on to Bze. “Yeah, Tanda’s such a good girl! Amazing.” Her three daughters all cpped, joining in on the praise with beaming smiles.

  Tanda giggled, her tail wagging. “Okay, let’s do it! We’ll do the fusion summon with Bloodberri!”

  She joined Jake at his side, and he closed his eyes trying to find harmony with his Monard Saint. Their hearths began to beat as one, Jake’s es within his hearth bzing. Finding it, a fme ected from his hearth to theirs, a rope of bd white holy fmes.

  Fog on his mark with Bree , he felt her anticipation. She had been desperate, but now there was a fsh of excitement mixed with desire.

  Jake triggered fusion summon while fog on his e to Bree, along with the seed. A portal opened up, and golden hexagons of the Framework covered the portal. Powerful energies burst forth, along with a familiar energy and vitality emerging from it. Oher side, Jake was shocked at what he saw.

  It was some kind of creature’s face, but its teeth alone were rger than anything they had ever fought. Despite the portal being a distance of what was several football fields away from this being, its face took up the entire view.

  Tanda’s ears were ft on her head. “Some kind of… dino-dog? Bree is–”

  The creature’s head glowed, and something tore itself away as the golden hexagons ed around it. It was a shimmering haze, and from Jake's bonded e, he could tell–this light actually tained his mark. And that could only meahing: what just separated from the head was, at the very least, a piece of her soul.

  The haze flew into the seed, and Bree's boar body began destrug into motes of light and bined with it, even as the portal closed.

  A bst of wind blew through the Refuge forest, the tree's leaves and dirt being whipped into the air. The seed lit brightly, and the winds began to reverse, as it started to draw energy in.

  His wives shielded the children, but also sent their energies over to Jake through their bond. Ava smiled, a a rge amount as well through the world core. Something that they could only do while docked and not tested, the amount of energy entering their Refuge was immense.

  A vortex formed as streams of energy poured into the seed, along with something Jake hadn't expected: a seed from the Hearthfe tree id. They had seen a few seeds or fruits sprouting on its branches, but they hadn't quite been ready–until now.

  At the arrival of the hearthvine seed, there was a fiery, and thankfully localized, explosion. It was bright and dense, and the fme started to pact even further before a sed explosion occurred. Only this time, the explosion was posed of fming vines.

  The explosion was about the size of a moving truck, and a creature had begun to form in front of the family. Four limbs formed first, a quadrupedal beast of some kind. , a tail and a head, the body a deep green. Red scales and flowers bloomed on its skin, and as the creature took shape, Jake was surprised.

  It was shifting into peared to be…something like a triceratops. An Auril Beast of the sed Tier, it definitely looked different from how Jake had seen them depicted. The creature did not have ft feet to has massive bulk. Instead, its front and rear legs looked a lot more like… a lizard or a dog’s, now that its form had filled out a bit more.

  The vine armor made its return, as Bree’s vines grew and weaved around its body. Her head looked a bit different from a triceratops that he was familiar with. On its odd , twer horended far beyond what would have been its beak. It did not have a third horn, as it had more of a mouth of a ivore, a muzzled jaw rather than a beak, some kind of mixture of a dog and dinosaur.

  The tail was different as well, having a spiked club, almost like an ankylosaur. Bree’s auril heart pulsed, and Jake could feel the hearthvines within her chest and throughout the insides of her body.

  He could feel a boundless vitality within, a nurturing fme that embodied life aility. Its nature kept on ging, as if Bree were trying to alter or find her path, but Jake definitely felt like Brigid had some influence over the fmes and her new body. Thinking on it, a triceratops was a lot like a dinosaur version of a boar or cow that represented Brigid.

  The body firansf, and Bree sat down on her hindquarters, her upper body rising to tower over the family. In her chest beat a powerful auril heart, a pulsing red heat underh her green skin. The pulsing fme went through her body, the hearthvines underh her skin like a sedary vein system carrying mana-fueled fire instead of blood.

  Blood smiled. “Truly beautiful, and strong. This one feels like… oddess, Ea. I believe she is kin of ours. Wele, Bree.”

  Jake could also feel what Blood meant, and the portal which had opened felt a lot like when Jake, Blood and Berri had visited Ea’s home world in their minds.

  Tanda added, “But alsid! I feel it in her fmes, and in her heart’s song.”

  Ava nodded. “Yes, a bit of mother is within her. How o meet you once again, Bree.”

  Pride and satisfa radiated from Bree, and Jake could feel what she wanted. Now that her body had been rebuilt anew, she wanted him to fix his mark. It had been worn down, and in truth, it felt like parts of his painting had been erased time and time again and redrawn with a different paint.

  Knowing he wasn’t in for a fight again, he formed the mark with the fmes of his hearth, the sigils f the circle and branding her auril heart. Their e formed anew, relief washed over Jake from Bree’s emotions.

  “Wele back, Bree. If I had known you were in trouble…” Jake didn’t want to bme Bree, and he didn’t think he himself was without bme. However, more than once Bree had shown she was able to seion to him over their bond–even Isolde and Ainora could when he probed summoning their Temptes.

  A, not even a peep came over it. He had every reason to believe that, if there was some kind of problem, that she could have reached out to him. So, just why didn’t she, waiting for him to reach out to her?

  On top of that, things had just been rexing on the home front. Not needing Bree or the other two for bat, he had no real reason to call out to them.

  Bree’s auril heart began to beat strongly, and she looked over to Ava.

  “Oh! It might be best if we ect, so she speak with you.” Jake did his best to do so, his hearth beating aually eg to Ava’s as he found harmony with her and Tanda. His bond with Ava made this easier and clearer than ever.

  When that was plete, he heard her voi his mind.

  “I apologize for troubling you, Pack Leader. My other body had been…rather limited in how I could speak with you. At first, your soul wasn’t whole, and I knew you weren’t ready to help me how you did–so I did my best to hold on. I was almost at my limits, and was in truth about to reach out to you. Now that I am here, I am fully at your disposal.”

  That was…an odd way of w things. “ you tell us what is going on with Isolde and Ainora? You three always seemed ected in some way.”

  Bree hesitated, before her heart begaing once again, “Certain memories of mine had to be sealed for me to be able to join you in this vessel, so I don’t remember everything. However, they…were, or are, my sisters. We shared…a body.”

  “Like Blood and me!” Berri nodded. “That’s great. Let’s call them out, I want to meet them again now. Maybe we talk to them properly!”

  Bree’s expression and voice looked a bit pained, “I’m afraid…that’s not quite right, we were what you might call a Cerberus. And that won’t be possible. We had…a bit of a falling out, and I’m sure if Pack Leader were to summoemptes, they will no longer drive them. As to why, I’d rather talk about this at a ter date. Perhaps, after I’ve had time to…acclimate to my ence.” She gave Jake a pleading look. “As long as that’s okay, Pack Leader?”

  Jake could sense how important this was to Bree, so as much as he wao know, he let it go. That she called him Pack Leader felt like a bit of a hint, but he left it at that for now.

  “That’s fine. For now, wele. I’m afraid there will not be much battle for a while, as oddess wanted us to take a break and train. I know that was important to you.”

  Bree looked over the crowd gathered, and a smile tugged on her odd, dino-dog lips, revealing sharp teeth. “I am excited to train alongside my new pack. I see that it has grer since I st joined you, and it is even more impressive than before.”

  She stomped over o Ruby, Jasmina and Sati, and sat down beside them. Jake could feel te and pride emanating from her, but also focus. She was doing something to her body, her vines inside shifting around, and she was testing her auril capabilities. He knew she had done simir with her boar body.

  Tanda’s wings fluttered. “That was a surprise! You have so maes to summon now, Jake! I ’t wait to see you fight with all of them now!” She swiped the air with her cws as if fighting an imaginary foe.

  Blood added, “And our people are doing phenomenally well, quering the first Tier aing the Obsidiarash. We are building up thousands of allies, preparing for the War Trial.”

  Ava smiled. “Highnds will be ready. We are w hard to prepare and protect our people, giving them the best fighting e have when the war begins anew.” She looked over to Berri, “A certain castle is definitely going to be pleted in time. Maybe even more than one.”

  Berri pumped her fist, her old excitemeurning to her. “Yes! We the the king of the rings movie! I’m going to kiuch butt!”

  Lia was brushing Cra and Nora’s hair, fixing it from the burst of wind from before. “We have a lot of crafting and training to do! While we ’t fight in the war, we still train up our people at Headquarters, and help equip them. They have been fighting in the PvP war, but many are w toward finding their passion.”

  Fhesiah beamed. “While we ’t fight in the war, I still want to level up as much as possible.” She winked, and batted her brows. “I think we all know what that means.”

  Aiko chirped a ive, and Rena frowned. “What does it mean? you really level up without fighting?”

  Nyxa added, “And what’s wrong with mommy Faye’s eye?” She tried imitating the wink.

  Cra said to Lia, “Mommy quick, heal mommy Faye. Her eye is broken.”

  Ophelia rolled her eyes. “I wish healing spells could fix what was wrong with her, but healing spells ’t fix everything. Do not worry, daughter–there’s nothing wrong with her eye. But here, now that the danger is gone, you all go py now.” She retrieved several of the gifted widgets from Guan Yu and his brothers, the kids snatg them up and dashing away to py with glee.

  Jake and his wives, and his perma summons watched them all py fondly, sometimes joining along. The childreheir own perfect pymates, getting along well.

  He sighed, smiling at them as they all pyed. “They grow so quickly. Parenthood has been a strange adventure of its own, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m gd Hestia fought to give us this special time, as we might not have it iure.”

  Berri pouted, putting her hands on her hips. “This is just the beginning! It’s not enough. We need more babies to make our team! Blood and I will master the art of making babies, just you wait and see. I get better at it, I just need more practice!”

  Faye houghtfully. “Now, this is a line of thought I get behind, but it takes at least two to tango. I will be happy to help you and Jake to get better at this, as many times as it takes.”

  Tanda ughed, her tail wagging, and Lia groaned. “… I’ll be in my fe.”

  Only ht months had passed sihey rescued Highnds, and they had a few years left to go before they could take part in the war once more. The family had grown, from building up their allies to making new ohey would tio sharpen their cws, preparing for the difficult War Trial.

  The grace period was over in a little over a year, and when that happehings would ge for Hearthtribe. Their sed Tier worlds could then be included in these PvP events, and their guild would be forced to participate in Tier 2 quest.

  Soon, their people would be iionally crossing over into the sed Tier, to help prepare for fag the more difficult ehe doors to Tartarus, the dungeon on Highnds would soon open, enabling a new form of exploration, providing danger and opportunity both.

  Fhesiah smiled. “I may have a few other surprises ing too, husband.”

  Jake frowned. “Surprises? I thought…” He looked over to Ruby and Sati, the two already seemingly versing with Bree in their…more animal fashion.

  Fhesiah nodded. “That wasn’t all! We have so many more allies ing to this Sector, and soon your kingdom will grow faster than the Obsidian Bde could have imagined.”

  Blood gave a vicious smile. “Yes, I much like that. Those pathetic meraries will regret ever crossing us. Soon, our empire will grow, built upon the skulls of our enemies.”

  Ava gave a smile of her own. “Many of us will make our debut, truly joining the family in bat. I am ready to show my strength, itg for a real fight.”

  Bloodthirsty wives aside, Jake khey still had a bit of rest aio. Whatever the case may actually be, the Hart would be ready to fay challenge.

  AnnouHey guys! That's it for Bonded Summoner Book 6! As usual, I pn on stubbing the book here in the week. I will make an annou post shortly, to help folks that aren't caught up to know they only have so much time to finish the book. I will keep the st feters up for a bit, but eventually they will be removed.

  As always, folks join my discord and request a pdf copy (after 6/20 and book goes live on amazon) and I will be happy to supply it to them. Once again, thank you all for reading, and I will see you ime!