That night they let Wolf sleep in the same room as Delilah. Of course Wolf slept on the floor. I tried to instruct him to jump on the bed where it was more comfortable, but when I gave an order the chain of light binding his muscles and bones suddenly tightened.
It felt like I was being burnt by fire after I gave an order. I couldn’t even scream since it was against the rules of the chains. I left his body for a moment. Looking at his outside body I didn’t see any of the chains, but I knew they were there.
I possessed Wolf again. When I looked around at his soul, that’s when I saw it. Wolf’s entire soul was being restrained by these large chains of light. I decided to break them. I began to ‘look’ at them closely. After about an hour of following the chains, I finally found a flaw. One of the links of the chains was slightly weaker that the rest of the one in his body.
I began to dig into the chain. The thing wouldn’t budge in the slightest. I continued my work on the chains. I don’t know why, but I felt fulfilled while trying to break the chains. It was the first time in a long time I actually felt that way.
In the morning a servant fetched Wolf. Wolf was to start training in how to be a war-dog. Fighting and killing for survival. He was quite good at it actually. They had him spar with the humanoid members of the force, or had him do body strengthening.
I wouldn’t have been able to do that. He had to run an uncountable amount of laps around the training field. He had to step into a circle that, from what I understood, seemed to increase gravity. There they would have him attack a sturdy dummy. The saddest part was that he wanted to do this to the point of killing himself. It was because of the special light bonds that controlled his soul.
When they had him run laps, he would continue until he fell over and couldn’t physically continue anymore. When he was in the gravity circle, he would attack until it seemed like his muscles were going to burst. He did everything he could to please his new master. I felt really bad for him.
In the afternoon he would play with Delilah, then train again. At least they gave him ample amounts of food. Each day he seemed to grow noticeably, if only a small amount, stronger. He was fed well, and underwent sever training, of course he would grow quickly.
Over a month passed like that. He would repeat these same routines every day. By now he could at least easily stand up in the gravity circle. He could run constant laps around the field for over two hours, and only stopped because it would be time to spar. This Alpha wolf was something else.
After that month I finally had a breakthrough! I found out that instead of just breaking pieces of the light chains apart, which I couldn’t do, I could actually hover around a small part of the chain. Why did that matter? I would start to absorb it! So just by eating away at the chains for a while I’d be able to free Wolf.
There was one more important part of this. The longer I ate away at the chains, the more power I seemed to have. I could actually feel myself getting stronger the more I consumed. So instead of eating away on link completely, which I thought would free Wolf, I devoured each link until it had a certain amount of strength left.
Two weeks. That is how long I actually spent to eat the individual links. After the first few days I the power surges I felt died down, after the first week and a half I couldn’t feel any real increase. After the last day, I didn’t feel any power entering me at all. It was as if some force decided I had powered myself up enough from eating the chains.
I realized a few things about myself during this time. I could actually increase or decrease my body size. If I increased my body size, I would be able to absorb more of the chains, but it would take longer. If I made myself as small as possible, I could instantly absorb a large amount of the chains, but I would also only be able to focus on a very small part of the chains.
After I noticed I didn’t get much from consuming parts of the chains, I decided to just eat away at the rest of the chains. I made myself large enough to encompass all of Wolf’s soul, and went to town on the chains. It wasn’t that difficult to leave Wolf’s soul alone. They had different textures to them. I didn’t understand how immaterial things like souls could have a ‘texture’, but they did.
As soon as I finished consuming them:
You have successfully consumed a rank 4 Soul-Binding spell.
For consuming a rank 4 Soul-Binding spell, you will find it much easier to possess any rank 3 creature. Possessing rank 4 creatures is now slightly easier. Possessing a creature lower than rank 3 will not take any noticeable effort.
Wolf was a rank 3 creature, according to these boxes. If I could possess a rank 4? That would be powerful! The problem arrived when I tried to figure out a way to actually tell apart the ranks of creatures. There was no way, except ‘This one looks more powerful’. Not a very accurate way to tell if you ask me.
After eating the chains, I decided it was time for Wolf and me to go out into the world. As soon as this thought flashed through my mind,
Delilah’s Alleged Dad: GET THAT WOLF! HE BROKE MY BINDING!
Since Wolf was running around the training field, and the field didn’t actually have any walls blocking the nearby plains that connected to the woods, I took control of Wolf and ran. If we could get away that would be the best case scenario for me.
While the guards were confused, we made a lot of headway. We were over a tenth of the way to the woods before they even started chasing. With Wolf’s high speed abilities, we were able to cross over half of the plains before they even got close to catching up.
The chase was intense. It should be noted that these men had trained for over a decade. A measly month and a half wasn’t enough to stop them from overtaking us. Ten men with longswords approached. I hadn’t had control over Wolf in a while, so fighting would be a bit difficult. Thankfully Wolf’s new physical abilities should more than make up for my inadequacies.
I stopped running when it was clear I couldn’t make it all the way. We only had a second to catch our breath. Over the past month I had become very familiar with the language. I could understand almost everything they said. The thing I couldn’t figure out I could pretty accurately guess at.
Random Guard 1: Get Entity! Lord Delin commands it! Kill if necessary!
Kill? Hold on a minute! Why so extreme?
One of the people tried to grab me, but I dodged to the side. While I did though, they had surrounded me in a complete circle. I had no choice but to fight, not that I would have had any choice even if I did keep running. I gave Wolf back most of the control, he was a better fighter than me.
I just gave him one rule: Kill. He turned into a frenzy. He shot at the person in front of him. The two beside him tried to block, but their swords entangled each other’s. Wolf was able to duck beneath them, and tear at the legs of the man.
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The padded leather armor they wore for training didn’t do much to protect against our teeth. Although our attack did pass through it without losing too much power, his tough body stopped our teeth from doing anything but causing a shallow bite mark. There was a reason these were the leader’s personal guardsmen.
Wolf looked around frantically. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins. His breathing was heavy as he slowly lost the ability to think rationally, what little bit there was to begin with. He jumped back and landed in the middle of the circle.
The swordsman to our left attacked. As soon as the sword swooped towards us, I had Wolf claw at it. Several of the men smirked seeing the feeble attempt. Their smirks turned to disbelief when I added in the Light Claw to the attack. The sword was hit to the side, and had long scratch marks along its blade.
The group stared, open mouthed, at Wolf. They had heard he could use that attack, but none of them probably believed it. They thought it was just something Delilah made up. They were only stunned for a second, but I made Wolf take advantage of that.
With one powerful kick, he jumped over the head of the closest guard, and began running to the woods again. After only a moment of hesitation they began to chase. Wolf was used to running now though. He could run for long periods of time without tiring. Of course so could they.
They caught up again after only a few seconds. I felt something pierce our hind leg, and Wolf yowled in pain. I turned our head to look, and a barbed arrow stuck out of our leg. I knew Wolf couldn’t put any weight on it without causing an intense amount of pain.
While we struggled to get back up, two more arrows suddenly sprouted from our body. One in our left foreleg, the other in our torso. Wolf couldn’t stand the sudden amount of pain, and let out another howl. Then I remembered something Delilah had shown me.
Her family was very affluent. Her father, although some suspect her mother of sleeping with his brother, had a veritable library. They had books on just about anything one would need to know about the world. I always made sure to have Wolf act like he liked being in the library most. After a week she began to read to us.
I was mostly concentrating on killing the chain, but I did pick up some interesting facts. Alpha Dark Wolves, had an ability to call for other Dark Wolves. There had been a lot of study on the subject of monster attacks. One was that ‘wolf call’ ability as it was known. Even if they weren’t under my command I could call other Dark Wolves, as long as they were near and not being controlled at that moment by another Alpha Dark Wolf.
As soon as I thought of it I went to use it.
Delilah’s Dad: Mage Spell: SILENCE!
A bright blue circle formed around our mouth, and closed it. No sound could come out. Wolf looked pleadingly at the forest’s edge. Wishing to be free with all of his might. It actually made me feel longing as well.
Delilah’s dad came running, followed by twenty heavily armored men. He was slightly out of breath. He had run over a mile in that short amount of time, and he was only slightly out of breath? I could only curse my luck to be around someone like that.
The men surrounded me, and pinned me down with spears and swords. If I moved even a little I’d be cut. The only option was to stay as still as possible. My only hope of jail break had been crushed. Even though I thought I had gained some power it wasn’t enough.
Delilah’s Dad: So you thought you could run away? Men disperse.
One of the men started to say something, but was quickly silenced with a reproachful glance of Delilah’s dad. When they had all left I still stayed on the ground. I couldn’t physically move my body.
Delilah’s Dad: Now why don’t you tell me what you really are? I saw that Rat’s Claw Attack you just used. There is no longer any need to hide it. …
He waited for a moment for my answer. I wasn’t just going to reveal myself to him. He frowned, and began to mumble something. My heart filled with dread. I didn’t know which one, but I knew he was about to cast some sort of spell.
I strained Wolf’s body to get up, but nothing worked. After a full minute:
Delilah’s Dad: Holy Divinity Spell: Liar’s Remorse!
A white circle spread under us, including Delilah’s Dad. I felt it’s constrictive power start to pull at me. It felt like I wanted to confess everything I had ever done. A truth spell? How was that bad?
Delilah’s Dad: Now, I don’t know how you managed to lie to me while being under my control, but now you can’t. This spell will even make it so you have no choice but to find a way to tell me. Even should it kill you. Don’t worry though, anything you try to say will be translated, even without the binding on you. Question 1. How did you use Light Claw just now?
In barks and yelps, Wolf responded.
Wolf: I didn’t use it. I don’t know how it happened. Sometimes it just does. It first happened when I killed a rat and the Alpha wanted to attack me.
After that Delilah’s dad waved his hand, and Wolf suddenly stopped talking. My question was how could I understand him? I could read basic thoughts from him before, but this was insane! I could actually understand him?
Delilah’s dad, after thinking for a minute, seemed to come to a realization about something. He began to mumble something.
Delilah’s Dad: Breaking my soul binding, using attacks from other species… hm this is indeed odd.
He pulled a book seemingly from nowhere. I recognized it as the bestiary Delilah had been reading to me. Although we only made it just past the ‘common animal’ section. The book was huge. At least several thousand pages.
Delilah’s Dad: I thought so!
He faced us again. He pointed right at Wolf’s forehead.
Delilah’s Dad: You! Creature controlling Wolf, I am speaking to you. Who are you!?
I felt of surge of power forcing me out of Wolf. I tried to resist it, but that only seemed to make it stronger. I was thrown out of Wolf, but that wasn’t all. As soon as I left I began to feel this compulsion come over me. As if directed by a high force, I said
Me: I am John!
I could tell my words had been transmitted into Delilah’s dad’s mind. He looked around in delight, and a bit of fright. After answering the compulsive power of the magic receded.
Delilah’s Dad: So I was right!
He pulled out a small pearl. It looked sleek.
Delilah’s Dad: Now! Tell me where you are!
I again felt the compulsion. I was determined to fight it however I could. If I had to tell the truth there was no way out thought. Except, maybe…
Me: I’m right here you moron.
After answering the compulsion faded again.
DD (Delilah’s Dad): Where here?
Me: Right here.
DD: Where?
Me: Here.
After this lasted a few more times DD seemed to realize he wasn’t getting anywhere.
DD: How did you get here! Be specific!
I felt a compulsion to tell him everything about how I ended up here. From the time I was born until the time I transferred into this world. Until possessing Wolf and ending up in this position.
Me: I ran!