Once I managed to overcome the awe contact with an existence as powerful as the one sealed in the Soul Prison brought with it, I steadied myself on my branch, my mind churning furiously. Such power, it was incredible, intoxicating. The being in there was so much more than I could comprehend, even just that small part I could experience was overwhelming. And that was likely only a small part of its power, nothing more than I could experience through contact with the Soul Prison. What would happen once the being was free, no longer bound into its crystalline prison and maybe able to regain a body for itself? I couldn’t imagine that a being as powerful as that needed a body, or wouldn’t be able to create one, simply by virtue of its powerful soul. Such a soul had to have some impressive magical or mental or something abilities. I was guessing, but I wasn’t willing to believe that it didn’t have power.

It made me understand the writings about beings too vast for a human mind to comprehend and I had a feeling that trying to do so, without having my mind thoroughly enhanced by attributes, would shatter my mind and soul.

Somewhere, deep within my mind, two neurons collided and a greedy thought sparked into existence, the idea that maybe if I shattered the prison, I might be able to gain some of that power for myself. To rob such an existence of its power, oh, how glorious it would be? What an achievement!

Becoming something akin to a god, wouldn’t that be a crowning achievement, one that entitled me to the highest of rewards Pantheon Entertainment was willing to give out? Wouldn’t that be my best chance to legitimately keep Sigmir by my side?

The idea brought a smile to my face, even as the vast majority of my mind was rebelling at the sheer audacity. It was madness and yet, maybe I had to be mad if I wanted to stay with Sigmir.

How could I make that audacious thought work? The question began to percolate, even as another question sparked into existence. Wouldn’t working with that existence be an option, too?

There were clerics in this world, people who channelled the power of greater beings, of Deities, so wouldn’t there be an option to gain some of its power, if it was willing to share? Maybe not in the same way a cleric or priest gained their power, but something similar to the previous feeding, where it greatly enhanced and empowered the effect of my magic? If it could do so while sealed in a Soul Prison designed to slowly grind its soul into oblivion, just how much more could it do once it was free?

Cooperation or Obliteration?

Or, in other words, how audacious and greedy did I dare to be?

Both ideas kept swirling around my head, but before I could even begin to actively work on either, I would have to find out more about the existence in the prison. That way, I could actually form plans from those vague ideas, maybe even try coming up with some sort of ritual to put those potential plans into reality.

Getting Lenore’s help, later in the day, would definitely be a necessity.

But first, the inhabitant of the Soul Prison.

Reaching out again, I put my hand against the prison, closing my eyes to focus inward, on that connection I was receiving. Or rather, the wave of sensation and emotion that was transmitted through my hand and almost washed away my consciousness.

It was not an attack, not specifically, but more akin to the call of a blue whale, simply far too loud and powerful for my puny mortal body. I could hold on, but it was a near thing.

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“Hello?” I tried asking, projecting my response towards the prison, as if I was mentally communicating with Lenore.

There was no response, and certainly no words, only endless waves of sensation swirling around my mind. It was clear that the being hungered, that it needed me to feed it more power.

I tried to communicate, trying to project my own emotions back when words failed, trying to suggest patience, promising that I would feed it, as soon as I could do so without bringing the entire elven civilisation down on my head. Sadly, no matter how I tried to communicate, there was no response, it felt as if the being didn’t even notice my attempts.

Maybe I would have more luck if I tried combining my attempts at communication with another feeding session, especially if I managed to enlarge the effect. It was quite obvious that even a single tree was noticed and brought an overwhelming response, so a ritual that drained a couple of trees shouldn’t escalate further. Not unless they had some sort of dragon riders, teleporting mages or something along those lines. Airborne cavalry should, hopefully, be near the top level of responses for trouble in the middle of the forest.

Or maybe there was a way to sacrifice one of those thicket walls to the entity, the scope and power of such a being should be a wonderful snack. The response should be equally insane, but it was a fun idea.

Letting out a sigh, I focused on my surroundings, ignoring the attempts of the being to make me feed it more power. Just because there was incessant mental interference from the Soul Prison’s inmate knocking on the door of my mind, trying to get my attention and feed it, I couldn’t neglect my guard duty.

A chuckle escaped me when I had to think of Jenn and the troubles of having a newborn. There, you had loud nightly wailing, the baby telling you it needed attention, NOW while my ‘newborn’ was knocking against my mind. I wasn’t sure what was more annoying, but at least with a newborn, you could feed it without having the entire region gunning for you.

The knocking continued through the night, only stopping when I felt dawn breaking somewhere on the hidden horizon, the powers granted to me by the Dark Moon fading under the light of the sun. Amused, I let out a snort at the realisation that apparently, the creature inside was stronger at night, too, just like I was, or maybe it was weakened by the sun. Given that the Elemental I had taken the Soul Prison from in the first place had been some sort of fire- or sun-creature, such a link was likely.

When Lenore awoke, I described to her the events of the night, including the multiple hours of mental knocking, the sensation incredibly obnoxious, to the point that the idea to chuck the Soul Prison had felt quite attractive. Not one to be seriously considered, not after carrying it for over twenty months and across multiple continents, but attractive nonetheless.

“We’ll have to feed it,” Lenore quickly accepted my thought, even if it came with serious problems. But compared to having a constant knocking against your mind, those problems were manageable, the knocking was a serious threat to my mental and emotional well-being.

“But we can’t just pick out a tree and get cracking, I highly doubt it’ll be a one-and-done kinda thing. We’ll have to keep feeding it, until we reach the Nexus and can actually break it. And in that case, we can’t simply do it where we are, or it’s going to be akin to an arrow, pointing right at us. Any idiot could find us with that much information,” I grumbled, the idea to lead our enemies right to us not terribly attractive to me. No, we needed to obfuscate and conceal as much as possible, or we’d be on the losing end of this deal.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked, quite curious.

“Do you think we’d be able to work through the Astral and feed it that way?” I asked, a vague idea of projecting my mind somewhere else and spreading the feeding across a massive area coming to my mind.

“I doubt it?” Lenore replied, “If you could draw the power you gained with your Blood Magic into the Astral, wouldn’t that power just return to the Astral River and get absorbed back into it? Without you getting anything. And I’m quite certain you can’t just take the Soul Prison through the Astral, or you could simply take it in there and let it absorb as much as it needs,” she elaborated and my idea died a quick death. I would still experiment, but I had a strong feeling it wouldn’t work.

“How about the two of us fly somewhere else each night? It would still give our foes a rough vector, but it wouldn’t be as bad,” I suggested, getting a brief silence from her as I could feel her consider the idea.

“That might work, we’d have to be careful not just to keep the same distance from our route each night and maybe even double back at times, but I think we could do something like that,” she agreed, “We’ll have to be incredibly careful though, those avian mounts of the elves are faster than I am,” she added, sounding quite concerned at the idea.

Now, we only had to convince Sigmir that it was a good idea. Something unlikely to succeed.