NOVPUBZaya’s different appearance was something I didn’t expect, but it wasn’t a big surprise, powers that transform the body may be rare, but there are many among my companions and Familiars.
What surprised me was the creature that Zaya summoned, its power was no greater than mine and its size would be considered tiny if I transformed into a Dragon, but that was nothing that surprised me.
Since completing the 3 Sources of Power, I have gained a deeper understanding of Nature and the universe throughout the process, after completing the 3 Sources of Power I have created a bond with the very nature of the universe.
I possess the knowledge, senses, and understanding about nature to understand truths that I can see now, such as looking at a body and knowing how Vitality flows through it or looking at a landscape and seeing the flows of elemental power flowing as clearly as a normal river.
I still haven’t had time to calmly meditate and internalize all of this, but it doesn’t mean I’m not improving, my way of seeing the world has completely changed and the way I see my Dungeon is not the same as before.
That’s why I was truly surprised looking at the Wolf of wood and stone that Zaya created, he can look like a Golem with a superficial glance or be treated like an Inferior Familiar and I’m sure many would treat him like that without realizing what he truly is.
I can see the Vitality coursing through his body as it would in a living creature, his Aura also resembles that of a high level monster with high intelligence, I can feel him slowly controlling his own Aura, but the most surprising thing was to feel a Soul inside him, a real living creature.
For a few seconds I thought I had been summoned, but I soon realized I was wrong, the wood and stones that make up its body are part of the Dungeon, by extension it has a slight residual trace of my presence as well as that of Nix.
This means that Zaya created this life here and now, he created a truly living body and somehow bestowed a Soul, she created a living creature!
"(That shouldn’t be possible, there must be some trick.)" (I)
The Wolf-type creature was incredibly fast, heavy and strong.
It was a bit surprising for someone of his level, but of course it was easy for me to dodge each attack while thinking.
When its stone paw comes towards me its metal claws extend from growing branches, but even that can’t reach me with me avoiding it by a hair’s breadth.
Meanwhile I was still paying attention to Zaya who was standing still while I faced the creature she created, I could have gone after her or destroyed this Stone Wolf, but winning a simple battle of this level is not something I was happy with.
I took advantage while I was diverting everything to get a closer and more detailed look at the creature.
Only Gods can create life and even then they are limited to their areas of Divine Authority such as the Goddess Aine only being able to create Fairies, the God Dravos being able to create Spirits, the Goddess of Death only being able to create or reanimate Undead and the Goddess Mavis being the most comprehensive, being able to create all living creatures in existence as she is the Goddess of Life.
Evil Gods can also do something similar with enough power, but outside of these Divine level beings there are few exceptions like a Dungeon Master who uses an external Authority to create monsters and Necromancers are able to do something similar to the Goddess of Death in a much lower level.
That’s why he was so shocked by Zaya and couldn’t immediately believe what she did, creating a living creature like that must be impossible for her on a fundamental level, this has nothing to do with amount of energy, race, location or anything like that, it should be impossible in the absolute sense because of the impossibility of Mortals fulfilling the requirements for such an act of creation.
"(I see... it seems I was right and got scared for nothing.)" (I)
"< Claws of Life and Death >" (Zaya)
Zaya didn’t just look at me from afar, she came to attack me while she was striking the creature’s head, its stones scattering while its head simply fell apart.
I continued dodging blows from it while forming a line of thought that was easier for me to understand, the creature didn’t stay on the ground, it got up quickly gathering several rocks to reform its head.
"(I see, she didn’t generate a life, she manipulated a life, the true form of this wolf is the parts of plants, Vitality only runs there.)" (I)
"(The stones are moved using the roots to be used as armor for the rest of the body, the head is not even a vital point.)" (I)
Looking more calmly, I realize that the vital points are the tail and something in the middle of the body where all the Vitality circulating through the plants converges.
Seeing up to that point, I move after avoiding another attack and grab the creature’s leaf tail.
"< Fire Spirit Rune: Ignite >" (I)
I may not attack her, but I never said anything about not attacking her invocations, with this magic the fire will only travel through the roots and spread throughout the creature’s body, avoiding the stones.
"That was a very interesting technique, I’ve never seen anything like it before." (I)
"If you think it’s over, then you are very mistaken." (Zaya)
Just as the creature I left behind was burning, the rocks on its body were falling while the roots and branches were twisting until they fell charred to the ground.
"< Death Magic: Fire Specter >" (Zaya)
"..." (I)
It was very interesting when a completely black magic circle appeared on the ground below the charred plants with a movement of his left hand and instantly the fire that had just gone out reappeared, but this time the color of the fire was different, it had a green color and transformed everything that remained of the plants turns into ashes while particles of this fire come together in a shape that imitates a Wolf while the head opens like a flower revealing rows of incandescent teeth.
I could feel that this was not an Elemental Monster, it was a True Specter with the fire element, with my knowledge after studying alongside my daughter Hela, it was easy to understand what happened.
Zaya used the creature’s death to transform the Soul inside into a Fire Ghost from being incinerated, then used the power of her own death to strengthen it, making it evolve into a Spectre.
This may all seem simple in its concept, but the complexity of doing all this is immense, a Necromancer normally bypasses the rules of death, to do the same as Zaya would require a large amount of Mana, dozens of magic circles and a Ritual to coordinate everything, only Hela who has deeper knowledge and can manipulate the power of death would perhaps be able to do this.
The creature tried to attack me, this time it was faster and the fire behaved strangely as it curved around trying to chase me, it also tried to use a fire breathing attack against me.
Zaya didn’t sit still, she was continually darting in and out of the battle trying to dig an opening from me, but it was impossible from the start, I used my Aura to create Starfire and disperse any fire my fist touched, island flames were much stronger.
I could see that she was getting tired again with the ice forming thick layers of ice on her body as if she was freezing.
"Truly interesting, but even that won’t be..." (I)
"< Curse of the Serpent: Life and death are reversed >" (Zaya)
The entire battlefield for miles changed, everything was covered in fire, it wasn’t burning, it was actually transforming, the leaves on the trees were turning into fire, the petals of the flowers also turned into fire, the wood turned black while the fire was a sickly green.
The strangest thing was all the Vitality converging into the Fire Specter while the power of Death within it spread into the surroundings, permeating everything for miles.
This all happened very quickly and the dead Specter was suddenly full of life once again, plants grew from the ground taking over his fiery body creating an amalgamation of Fire and plants, his head was now literally made of a flower with fiery petals that when he opened it he showed his teeth.
His power was much greater than before and I could see a connection between the creature and the surroundings, but just in case, I decided to attack him with some attacks, I gave him some kicks, punches, cut with my claws and none of that worked, you body recovered from everything and I felt the power of the attack being transferred to the surroundings where one of the fire trees rose up like a plant-type Undead.
"This is incredible, a symbiosis between life and death, I’ve never seen something... you’re not listening, very well, I think that’s enough." (I)
"< Holy Magic: Arcane Blood Purification >" (I)
I cut my finger and let a few drops of blood gather at the top, then this blood burns in red and golden flames radiating light that burned the surroundings, everything that was burning with green fire disappeared in the surroundings and strangely after that the creature exploded releasing a torrent of Vitality that permeated the surroundings creating a field of flowers with some tree seedlings beginning to grow.
I saw the creature’s Soul leaving and stopped the Dungeon from collecting the Soul, I saw that it was a normal plant Soul just much more strengthened, other than that there was nothing wrong, so I let it follow its natural course and went to see Zaya who passed out standing up with half my body frozen, just by getting close to her I could feel the winter cold.
"Truly spectacular, his powers are as strange as Hinata’s, but on a different path, it seems I chose well." (I)
With that I took her back in my arms while filling her body with Vitality and melting the ice, I was happy to have made a good choice for my last Herald.
