Chapter 31: Fantastic Being and Where It Found Me

"What the hell?"

His amber eyes widened when he raised his head and took a good look of what floated before him. It was a creature unlike anything he had ever seen. The only one coming close being the Wrath.

The creature was tiny. It was small enough to comfortably fit within both of his hands. Its body resembled a white gold chrysalis split down the center, revealing an endless darkness where its interior should have been.

Six translucent wings extended behind it, moving without making the slightest sound. In what looked like a face, there was only a single vertical hollow eye.

When it noticed Rhos staring at it in confusion, it spun excitedly through the air.

[Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations, Human! You survived! You accepted the contract! You didn’t die!]

[It seems your survival instincts are barely acceptable after all!]

The creature zipped around the apartment at alarming speed, leaving trails of golden light behind it. It inspected the sofa he slept in, peeked inside one of the cupboards, circled the ceiling fan then flew straight back in front of him.

[I expected you to die before accepting my proposal. I suppose I owe you praise]

It circled his head twice.

[Rejoice! Rejoice! Human. You are officially my contractor. As such, you have the permission to call me by my name]

Rhos remained frozen on the floor. It took him a moment to finally process what was happening. Even then, he wasn’t completely sure. When he managed to open his mouth, the only word to come out was...

"What?"

The creature clapped its tiny wings together enthusiastically.

[Go on! You may now begin asking approximately 473 questions. I estimate you currently possess round 612, but some of those are duplicates, so efficiency recommends starting with the important ones]

It stopped zipping around the apartment, its six wings continuing to beat silently while keeping it perfectly suspended in one place.

Its hollow eye stared at the human with unmistakable expectation. But instead of living up to those expectations, Rhos climbed back onto his feet and walked over to the apartment window.

He carefully peeked outside, to the neighboring apartments, balconies, rooftops and the streets below. Nobody appeared to be looking this way.

Satisfied, Rhos quickly shut the window, then drew the curtains completely closed until not a single beam of sunlight entered the room.

It was only after he made absolutely sure that nobody could peer inside did he finally turn around. When he saw it was still there, he buried his face in one hand and sighed.

"I’ve officially gone insane"

He remained standing there for a while, trying to sort through everything he knew.

It wasn’t impossible to tame wild animals. In fact, many of them had long since become indispensable to life inside the Biomes.

Some hauled cargo across enormous distances, others worked farmland, guarded settlements, the giant bird that had flown past him earlier belonged to one of Elderwood’s aerial patrols.

Any wild animal or plant swollen by spiritual energy could be brought under control if one possessed sufficient strength and patience.

A Wrath was different, it only slaughtered.

Its grotesque body, its overwhelming hatred toward humans and its otherworldly appearance made identifying one almost effortless.

Which was precisely why the tiny creature floating before him sent chills crawling down his spine.

’How did it get past the World Shell barrier?’

Rhos entertained the thought of abandoning his original idea and fleeing to report this to the Ranger Corps, but immediately went against it.

He had barely escaped one nightmare, he wasn’t about to gamble on provoking another without understanding what it was capable of.

The strangest thing about this one was that it could speak. How was that possible?

The Academy had never once mentioned Wrath possessing language. Every lecture had painted them as mindless abominations driven only by instinct and destruction.

Was every instructor wrong then? Or was this thing not a Wrath at all?

Rhos slowly lowered his hand from his face. It was right about one thing, he definitely had a lot of questions that needed answers. The first one being...

"What... exactly are you?"

The tiny creature stared blankly at him, then above him. After a couple of seconds, its wings fluttered once in what somehow resembled disappointment.

[Oh, Old One]

[What catastrophic event led to humans becoming this intellectually disappointing? I finally succeed in talking to one, and this is the specimen I receive]

Its voice was strangely solemn when it said that. It lowered its gaze back to the young man.

[I suppose the burden of education falls upon me]

Ignoring its first condescending statement, Rhos watched the creature float closer to him.

[I am a primordial existence]

[A being that embodies a collection of the fundamental concepts from which the Spirit World itself was formed]

Its wings spread elegantly.

[In simpler human terminology... I am concepts sharing the same consciousness]

Once it was done talking, silence filled the apartment. Rhos blinked, a nervous smile slowly appearing on his face.

"No way..."

A bead of sweat rolled down his temple and he swallowed hard.

"That’s... that’s the worst lie I’ve ever heard. There’s no way something like that is floating around inside some waitress’s apartment taking interest in a nobody like me"

The creature frowned.

[I have no reason to fabricate my own existence]

Rhos rubbed his forehead. He was struggling to believe all of this. Maybe someone was playing with him, that strange woman seemed like a likely suspect.

A memory surfaced and he pointed directly at it.

"Were you the one I made that deal with?"

The moment he asked, its demeanor suddenly softened. It began to drift lazily around him.

[I attempted communication long before our contract was established. It failed]

[I found success when your consciousness drifted toward the boundary of corruption]

[Unfortunately, your biological condition had deteriorated beyond operating parameters. Your organs had been destroyed. Your blood loss was excessive. You were no different from the dead]

Rhos unconsciously touched his abdomen where he had suffered multiple fatal injuries.

"Then... how am I alive?"

There was slight pause before the creature said;

[Just as you were forced to make a decision. I was presented with one as well]

[I possessed insufficient strength to restore your body through conventional means. I therefore divided my own soul. I severed one half from myself]

[I gave that half to you]