EG Monster Island Chapter 20

I woke to birds chirping outside our window, and nearly freaked out when I realized I was back in my bed. Jon snored on his side of the room. I could hear the birds crystal clear, like they were sitting on the window sill, but I could also tell they were in the park, across the road and over a hundred meters from where I was laying. I sat up, still feeling lethargic, but then I started to feel much more energized once I swung my legs over the side of my bed and stood.

“Wait, why is the sun over there?” I asked myself. “It was evening when we started the marathon gathering session, then two and a half days passed. I think, anyway, it was all a blur, but I remember gathering in every Element twice, so somewhere between sixty and sixty four hours. So morning when I finished. Then I slept some amount, but it’s morning still. So either I slept for only an hour or so, or an entire day?”

“An entire day,” Sia sent to me, suddenly fluttering onto the window. “Come, I need your assistance. I will be in the courtyard behind the inn. Shower and eat quickly.” He hopped back out, flaring his wings and growing in size as he flapped mightily over the building.

“Will do,” I sent back to him, then grabbed a change of clothes. A quick wash turned into a hard scrub, getting the thin black film of extruded impurities off my skin. There’s a lot less of this than I would’ve expected, I thought as I finally got clean. A small buffet had been set up in the dining room, and I grabbed a small plate of eggs and bacon. No one else I knew was there eating, only a half dozen or so other guests who nodded politely to me as I sat off to the side and ate quickly.

I quickly stacked my plates onto a table and then walked out the rear door into the courtyard. Sia stood about halfway across it, still massive. Zim  and Kami were standing nearby, looking like they were conversing. Librarian Narwan was talking quietly with Vaya, who had her hand resting on Lammy’s head and was idly stroking her fur. She nodded, then bowed low to him, before Lammy stood. She was bigger, standing almost to Vaya’s ribs rather than just below her waist. They walked towards one edge of the courtyard, then Vaya sat and Lammy laid her head onto her lap. Vaya saw me, and gave me a huge smile, before closing her eyes in mediation.

I smiled back, then ran over to Librarian Narwan and Sia. “Good morning, Master Narwan,” I said while bowing.

“Hmph,” he said. His hand shot out and he palmed my forehead as I stood. A pulse of Aether shot through me. “Good, you advanced with no deviations. Let it settle for today, simply gather a small amount and see how it feels. We will speak after the next event on how to best advance from here. This afternoon you and your fellows will spar lightly and attempt to get used to your new level. We still have not heard what the event is, except that it will involve your Beast Bonds.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, stepping back from his hand.

He nodded sharply at me, “For the rest of the morning, you will be assisting Siarczysty. Gather with him to start, and then he will guide you in helping him to evolve. I look forward to seeing a Rainbow Zarorzel here in a few hours.”

“I look forward to that as well,” I looked up at Sia. “Are you staying that size?”

“Yes,” Sia sent with a small squawk. “It will be much more difficult to advance if I did not. I will attempt to control any size growth. I do not wish to destroy the wall around the courtyard.”

“Okay, what do I need to do?” I asked him.

“Come sit in front of me,” Sia said, sitting down. I walked over and leaned against his belly. The feathers were softer than I expected there, almost downy in quality, while also flickering with Fire, Lightning, and Air Aether. I felt his consciousness connect with mine through our Bond, and we both dove into my center. I started to gather, watching as the Aether flowed into my center and then into my Pool. The level of the Pool was just below the meridian openings. Each drop I pulled in filled the Pool to overflowing, and was washed into my barely present meridians.

When I had first started to gather, my meridians were even smaller than they were now, but I’d expanded them several times as I progressed along the Aether Gathering stages of Vapor, Mist, Fog, and Smoke, until they were fairly large, almost the same size as my largest veins. When I compressed my Aether into a liquid, though, they shrank back to the size they had been at High Vapor, though the thickness of the vessels was significantly higher than it had been. Next, I’ll have to fill my Pool until the meridians are full, then somehow expand them, I thought. Librarian Narwan should have a good technique for that. For now, slow and steady until Sia is ready.

We gathered for nearly an hour before Sia pulled on our connection. I wrapped a cord of Aether around my will and pushed it towards him, connecting to his center through my upper gathering meridian. It was uncomfortable to push out through that specific meridian, but the rush of Aether coming in from him was much better distributed this time. I followed the flow up and met Sia in his center, where he directed my Aether into an eight petal flower pattern through his major meridians. “Do the same with Aether in your center,” Sia told me.

I nodded, mentally returning to my body and grabbing ahold of the Aether he sent. In an instant, the flow out quadrupled as he pulled. My Pool emptied quickly, only to fill back up as the flow into it increased similarly. I thought for a second, then picked eight meridians to move the Aether through that made a rough facsimile of the flower. The Aether burned slightly, significantly higher in Fire than I normally processed, until the mixture was ground away into a more natural one for my Affinities.

By the time the first drops of Aether completed the cycle, they’d been modified to match me, and then Sia pulled it back to him. I could feel my Fire Affinity increasing slightly as I was burned, but my Lightning and Air Affinities were not affected. “Sia, why didn’t we do this previously?” I asked him.

“The modified Affinity Powders Librarian Narwan made brought my Affinities to the point where you would not be completely overwhelmed with your advancement to Circulation improving your meridians. Without the powders, we would not have been able to accomplish this until you reached the upper stages of Threshold Condensation,” he answered. “Now focus and move the Aether faster if you can.”

“Sure,” I responded, trying to force the Aether in my meridians to cycle faster. The burning sensation grew, and I started to sweat from overheating. The feeling moved from uncomfortable to painful, and then kept rising from there.

With a grunt of effort, I spiraled another flow of Aether around what was coming from Sia, this one a mixture of Water and Ice. My Pool drained, but the burning was reduced to a dull roar rather than a finery crackle.

That lasted for the next forty-five minutes, and then I was just about out of Water Aether. I kept it going with just Ice for another two minutes, but I didn’t have that much higher of an Affinity there. The dulling of the pain for that long let me adapt to the higher level of Fire Aether somewhat better, at least, so the resulting increase didn’t get beyond what I could handle.

My world was Fire for a little while longer, and I kept increasing the speed at which the Aether was processed. Each second the ratio of incoming Aether changed by the tiniest margin, with all other Aethers increasing relative to the massive over presence of Fire, until something clicked two and a half hours after starting.

The amount of Metal and Earth Aether suddenly jumped to triple what it had been at the start, and a massive surge of Aether dropped into my center. Rather than be absorbed into my Pool and then flow into my meridians, a wave of Aether exploded out of me, impacting every single part of my body and the surrounding ten meters. The flow from Sia stopped abruptly after that.

I opened my eyes to see Sia shimmering in the midday light, red being the primary color, but over the next few minutes the proportion of Metal silver and Earth brown increased significantly, as did the green of Wood, the deep blue of Water and the purple of Ice to a lesser extent. Sia screeched in agony and ecstasy while suddenly nearly doubling in size. His feathers gained a metallic sheen to compliment the yellow and red of Lightning and Fire, and the highlights added silver and brown to the light blue of Air.

Another pulse shot out of him, and I felt it change me slightly. The pulse washed over the inn, andI saw sparks of Aether flare up as the pulse hit people. “Not quite to Rainbow,” Sia sent to me, exhaustion evident in his mental voice. “But one step farther towards it. Thank you, Aiden. Without your assistance, I doubt I would have made it this far.”

“Sure you would’ve,” I panted, trying not to collapse to the ground, “just might’ve taken a bit longer.”

“Without your unique, extremely high, Affinities, I would never have evolved once, much less twice,” he admonished me. “I Bonded with you for a reason. Though your personality and conviction to help others was the deciding factor, I would not have been willing to tie myself to you this way without your Affinities providing a way to evolve and advance.  Your accomplishments since have only cemented my desire to stay nearby. Of course, you also get benefits, beyond my presence.”

I looked into my center, and nodded, “My Fire Affinity is now almost equal to my Lightning Affinity. Since my Lightning Affinity is considered ridiculous by all my friends, I’m not sure how they’re going to take having two at that level.” I laughed. “Just got to push some of them higher!” I stood up shakily. “How much more do you need to get to Rainbow?”

“I will probably not be able to reach it until you reach Core,” Sia said. “Even your Affinity for Ice, Water, and Wood is too small. Every Affinity increases when you cross a great-realm of power.”

“Well, I shall not slack in my attempts to advance,” I said, affecting a bad formal accent.

“Of course. Just do not push forward so fast that you damage your foundation. I expect that you will eventually push me to heights undreamed of by even my mother. Now, it is time for you to go eat with your friends, and I will go fishing. Just this morning I found a large school of Bluefin Tuna with quite a few level four and five adults. Quite tasty,” Sia’s amusement echoed through our connection.

“Well, you did get a bit bigger, so I’m sure your dietary needs increased as well. Just, you know, make sure to eat healthy,” I yelled at him as he flapped off the ground.

“Did you just call me fat?” His outraged shout sounded in my mind, and his angry caw woke anyone who was attempting to sleep into the afternoon. Or caused delicate crafting to fail as they jumped in shock.

“If the shoe fits!” I called after my friend, shaking my head as I laughed.

“Really Aiden, do you have to provoke him?” Jon asked from the side of the courtyard. I looked over to see him sitting with Zimnodlot in his lap. The owl hooted and grew, his form shimmering with Aether as Jon finished helping Zim evolve. Bridget was cuddling Kami, both of them deep in meditation. Lampart went bounding away from Vaya, a much greater sense of pressure from her.

“Aiden!” Vaya exclaimed, “Lammy advanced to level five and evolved at the same time! She’s so much stronger now!” She jumped into my arms. “She wanted me to thank you for badgering Librarian Narwan until he adapted the recipe for her. So thank you.” She bent and kissed me fiercely.

I was barely able to stay standing, holding her to me, until she broke the kiss.I wavered for a bit, “Whoa,” then shook my head. “You are welcome.” I smiled at her, trying my best not to look like I was panting and out of breath.

“I bet you are,” she winked at me, then turned to watch as Kami evolved. I felt a pulse of Aether enhance my Earth Affinity by a minuscule amount. I examined my center, and realized I had gained a similar amount of Ice and Wood Affinity when Zim and Lammy had evolved as well.

“Did,” I started, shocked for a second, “Did all of our Bond’s evolve right after we advanced?”

“Yes!” Librarian Narwan shouted, exulting in something. “The Affinity powders and your enhanced Affinities acted together to advance your Bonds beyond what is normally possible! This will change how humans Bond to Beasts and advance them entirely! Hah, I was right yet again!”

We all just stopped, looking on as he danced in circles. After a minute, he stopped and looked at us. “Go eat. You have training this afternoon,” he commanded, not embarrassed at all from his celebratory dance.

“Yes, Librarian Narwan,” the four of us chorused, bowing to him and then turning to re-enter the inn.

I looked over at Vaya and grinned. She elbowed me, “Do not say anything. He could murder us without repercussion.”

“He wouldn’t,” I laughed. “He likes me too much.”

“Yeah, but those at his level are all,” she paused, “uh, different from us at our level.”

“You mean they are eccentric, or do you mean crazy?” I laughed, then stumbled forwards as I was slapped on the back of the head by Librarian Narwan. “Ow!”

“So, Lampart has evolved to a Forest Jaguar from a Jungle Jaguar. Her Earth Affinity has nearly doubled from what it was prior to this morning, and her Ice Affinity increased as well,” Vaya said, deliberately changing the subject.

“I am unsure if Sia’s type changed, but he definitely evolved. He was saying he hadn’t quite reached Rainbow Zarorzel yet,” I said. “He’s on the way though, and we’ll help him reach it. I can’t wait to help him become a Primordial Rainbow Zarorzel. I’ll be able to relax and let him save the world.” I laughed at that.

“Yeah, you relax and stop training,” Jon called from behind me, amusement evident in his voice. “Cause that will happen without direct divine intervention.”

“It might!” I yelled back at him with a laugh. We kept joking while eating quickly. The others trickled in from various training locations and joined us in our humor. I looked around at my friends and smiled. This, I thought, this is worth fighting for. I won’t lose this again.