After a while, Rieren decided to pause her trek out of the dungeon for the time being. Now that her survival depended on Batcat, it was best to figure that out before she went too far.

Rieren picked up the squirming kitten off her head and placed it on her lap. It didn’t look happy about being awakened from its slumber. She patted its fuzzy head to calm it down. They couldn’t stay here for long, lest someone else found them, but this was imperative.

“Batcat,” Rieren said. “I need you to turn me into who I used to be.”

The cat simply stared up at her. It wasn’t a blank look by any means. Clear intelligence swirled in its glimmering golden eyes. She just didn’t understand what it might be trying to reply to her, if it even thought her request was worth an answer.

“Of course,” she went on. “You might not know how. That is alright. I will explain my thought process.”

It would have been strange to talk to a little feline furball, but Rieren forgot about that as she spoke. Her idea was rather exciting, if she was being honest.

All it involved was Batcat’s inherent powers of memories. The recollections in question might have occurred in a different timeline, but that didn’t make them any less of a reality. It didn’t remove the fact that they had happened once.

Batcat’s powers revolved around taking in memories of others and replicating them to some extent. This extent varied in a way Rieren hadn’t yet figured out. After all, Rieren had reproduced someone’s powers directly when she had fought that C-Grade Life Stifler. That stolen Divine-Aspected Essence was what had allowed her to kill the beast.

But later on, with Elder Olg, it had only shown her his memories directly. It hadn’t reproduced any specific part of the memory, nor had it been able to recreate the Elder’s Ashflame.

“Take a bite, Batcat,” she said, offering her hand to the kitten.

It only stared at her hand.

Rieren sighed. “Come, kitten. We do not have time to waste here. We must move as soon and as fast as possible, and I think we both understand that you hold the key to both our survival.”

Still, it was silent, only looking up with its adorable—and rather soulful—eyes.

She leaned forward, nearly nuzzling her nose against the kitten’s. “You also want me to find the Spirit Beast you came from, yes?”

That got Batcat’s attention. It was suddenly standing straight up on all its legs, looking at her intently with its tail and wings swishing insistently. Rieren smiled down at it. It wasn’t hard to tell that it wasn’t content to simply accompany her on any old journey she might take.

Now that it was finally time for her to leave the Sect properly, she had to return all the help and assistance Batcat had provided so far. That meant finding its parent Spirit Beast.

That memory she had seen in one of her cultivation sessions had shown her a tiny glimpse of Batcat’s past. She had no idea where the location she had been transported to might have been. There also had been no indication of how much time had passed since that memory. For all she knew, it might have been several years since Batcat had first started its journey.

Questions about why her, why now, and so on weren’t going to be answered by Batcat, so there was no point in wondering too much about them. If there were answers to be had, Rieren would find them later. Elsewhere.

Rieren reached out one hand. “So, Batcat, will you assist me in finding where you wish to take me?”

Batcat stared at her face for a moment, then at her proffered hand. It raised one paw and placed it upon her own. For a moment, Rieren even expected the kitten to speak verbally. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. Nevertheless, she had succeeded in ensuring its cooperation.

That was a good little victory.

“Now, will you please bite me already?” she asked. “And then grant me the wish I seek?”

Batcat looked up at her as though it wished to say something but didn’t know how. Of course. It couldn’t converse the way people could.

Either way, it extended its head forward and clamped its teeth on the side of her hand.

Rieren held still. When Batcat pulled away, there were tiny indentations to the spot it had bitten, but it hadn’t pierced her skin. She might have reinforced it with Essence, but she was certain the little Spirit Beast was strong enough to have done so if it wished.

“Now, grant me my own memory, cat,” she said.

She channeled her Essence through the kitten, ensuring the external Essence she pulled in passed through the little cat. That was how she had always been able to access Batcat’s memory powers, though the golden Essence it had gifted her had been a more physical thing. It had come from a coughed-out hairball. Maybe something like that was necessary here too.

One more thing to consider was that she could now emit Essence thanks to reaching the Awakened realm. It was worth a try doing it through Batcat, but then, the benefit would go to the kitten, not to her. Not that Rieren was that selfish, but she also wasn’t certain whether Batcat even wanted her Essence in the first place.

But as she pulled in Essence through the kitten, she was once again suffused in memories. This time, they were her own.

Rieren was thrown into the recent past. The real world had disappeared, leaving her in a stream of images recounting experiences that hadn’t happened long ago.

There was the fight with the Gravemark Puppeteer in her enormously powerful form. It was followed by her meeting with Essalina just beforehand, and then the battle against the Aetherian where Folend had given his life.

With a sudden jerk, Rieren was thrown back into her real world. She blinked. That had been abruptly short.

But then, the duration Batcat had bitten her had been short too. Maybe they were correlated. The longer the kitten bit her, the further along the trail of time she would be flung back.

That wasn’t a helpful realization at all. For one, it suggested she would have to let the cat bite her continuously for hours, maybe even days on end. For another, she had only been experiencing her past as images. She hadn’t relived her past. Rieren hadn’t been able to become her past self, which was what she really required from Batcat.

“Do you understand my dilemma, cat?” she asked, staring down at the winged kitten with a little frown.

All Batcat replied was a little flap of its tiny wings. Not quite helpful.

There was a different way to access Batcat’s powers, of course. Those tiny hairballs would be tremendously helpful. After all, that was what had allowed her to basically Enchant her blade with Divine-Aspected Essence before.

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She considered for a moment. “I do not know what you ate the last time, but can you absorb some of my Essence, Batcat? Essence is what allows you to create your hairballs, correct?”

Batcat meowed.

“I am certain that is a yes.” She closed her eyes and focused on her elixir field, pushing the store of Essence within it outwards. Rieren made sure to direct the path the Essence took so that it passed through the cat. “Take my Essence, and give it back to me in the form I need. In the remembrance of when I was quite powerful.”

Rieren peeked through one eye to see if there was any difference. Batcat was only staring up at her. When she focused some Essence into her eyes, she saw the same intriguing sight she had witnessed a while ago—all Essence entering the cat seemed to be disappearing.

“Can you grant me a hairball?” Rieren asked.

Batcat seemed to consider the request for a moment. After a moment, its back arched a little, and then it coughed. A wet little ball of hair dropped to the ground. The tiny bit of disgust Rieren felt at the sight disappeared as the ball caught fire. This one was silvery-blue.

She blinked. That was the same colour as the energy her Domain of her older form was suffused with.

Swallowing, she reached forward to touch it. Unfortunately, all that happened was the fiery hairball bursting apart. Her Domain materialized around them. Water splashed into being, glimmering with the same energy.

Rieren sighed. “Not exactly what I was looking for. But interesting to find out, nevertheless.”

Hmm, perhaps she had to consider a different approach to gain the powers she was seeking. Batcat could give her specific powers through its hairballs. But she lacked information about whatever else it might be capable of her, and the system was certainly not telling her any further.

Rieren peered down at Batcat. Another time she had been taken into memories, it had been those of Batcat itself. Perhaps she could do that again and achieve some sort of insight into her current predicament.

“What do you think, kitten?” she asked. “Will you be able to show me how I can unlock your true potential? I certainly have faith that you are capable of what I want.”

Batcat glared at her.

“Yes, yes, I am aware I am a hypocrite for taking so long when I told you full well that we ought to be quick,” she said. “However, I now have the answers I seek. Well, almost.”

Her Domain was fading around her, the water disappearing since she hadn’t put even an iota of focus on keeping it around. A distant part of her considered selling it to the System Shop, but it wouldn’t work well. The thing about selling something one produced via their cultivation or system-granted powers was that they were functionally worthless.

Instead, she focused on her Essence once more. The last time she had been submerged in Batcat’s memories, she had been attempting to advance in her cultivation. Perhaps that was the trick she needed here.

Rieren didn’t have the conditions to advance again, of course. There were too many prerequisites she lacked. Filling up her Aspect Pillars required the right properties of her main Aspect.

The two she had completed—water’s physical ability to shift shape and its ability to transmute into other forms—were the easiest ones. Now, Rieren had to look for the others. There were several too. Water’s sheer presence throughout the world, its ability to sustain and nurture life, the duality of its ability to bring destruction and calm in equal manner, and so on.

Luckily, Rieren could take her pick. While there was no minimum number of Aspect Pillars one needed to advance, prior experience had taught her that six total Aspect Pillars were all a water Aspect cultivator needed. Rieren could get that without too much trouble.

But that wasn’t to be at the moment. Nevertheless, since barging upon Batcat’s memories required at least an attempt at advancing, Rieren focused on her cultivation.

When she drew Essence through the winged kitten, she was once again lost to too many images flashing by her.

It was the same, cavernous chamber as it had been in the previous Batcat memory. The walls and ceiling were once again filled with nightlike crystals that had glimmers within them like stars. There was that strange Spirit Beast curled up in the centre too. The blood from its wound had spread outwards in a larger pool than before.

Batcat’s position in the recollection was at the far end of the chamber. Rieren wondered if it had been about to leave on the journey its parent Spirit Beast had tasked it with.

“You cannot leave without some power…” the large, wounded Spirit Beast said.

Once again, Rieren was struck with the feeling that it spoke somewhere between right in her mind and just outside her ear. Too close.

Batcat slowly padded back towards the wounded Spirit Beast.

“Memories… you hunger for memories… such is your strength…”

Batcat meowed in agreement.

“Remember well these words, little one… the more meaningful the memory you consume, the greater the strength you can gift will be… so, take my memory of you…”

Rieren’s eyes widened. She understood the stipulation that the larger Spirit Beast had set down. Surrendering memories was how Batcat grew in strength. Or at least, how the strength it gifted others grew. But that Spirit Beast was choosing to forget Batcat entirely, giving up the very memory of the one thing that could save it.

It was surrendering hope itself.

Batcat seemed to recognize this as well. It meowed uncomfortably this time. But it didn’t move. Not when soft glimmering Essence emerged from the larger Spirit Beast and slowly entered Batcat. When it was done, the Spirit Beast fell silent entirely, almost as though it was dead.

Before Rieren could determine if that was truly the case, the memory ceased. She was back. Batcat was staring up at her inquisitively when she looked down at it.

“So you require me to surrender my memories entirely, do you?” she said. “Hmm. I am not sure what I can grant you any that are strong enough.”

She thought for a moment. The Spirit Beast’s words had been about the strongest memories she could hope to give out. There were many she could pick from, of course. Her life had been one major event after another, most of which she recalled with great clarity.

However, sacrificing those memories—which Rieren was certain would cause the memories to disappear from her mind entirely—wouldn’t be beneficial. She would need them soon enough. Especially the ones about events that were yet to transpire in her current timeline.

And for the memories in this timeline, about things that had already occurred, she didn’t wish to give any up. Memories were what made a person. That was why Batcat could grant great strength when it consumed them. Rieren had no wish to surrender all her memories, all her thoughts, emotions, hopes, desires, and so, about the people and things she cared about.

Who would she be if she forgot all about her father, or Amalyse, or maybe the Sect in general? Not Rieren, that was for certain.

But there were perhaps those that she could give up on. Those that wouldn’t truly change her if she chose to forget, those that meant much to her but still didn’t have to be a devastating loss.

Rieren had a small number of Credits left after the Temporal Recollector purchasse. Enough for her to pop open the System Shop and purchase a simple stick of graphite and some paper. Then she started writing down all she knew about Folend, Auri, Eneyra, Nidelin, and Madielvo on the page. Then she folded the page and stuffed it inside her robes.

With that done, she placed one hand on Batcat’s fuzzy head. “I am uncertain as to how I should proceed to grant you my memories, but I hope you know how to do so, kitten.”

She began channelling Essence through Batcat once more. Perhaps it was disingenuous to think of the very people she was attempting to forget about, but she let the thoughts of all her friends pass through her head. Maybe Batcat would understand and simply pick them from her head.

It was quite generous to think of people like Auri and Eneyra as “friends”. Perhaps Rieren ought to have called them fellow disciples, though even that was being kind by not simply calling them murderers.

But at the same time, she didn’t wish to forget about them. They held important connections and information. Even if they had tried to kill her, she didn’t really bear any of them any ill will. They were important, even in their antagonistic ways.

For the others though, she tried to recall how much she had learned of Folend over their trip through the dungeon. She wondered how much she could have come to know about Madielvo and Nidelin had they lived, had she spent more time with either of them. They were all people much as her, individuals with their own complex stories.

They—

Rieren blinked. What… had she been thinking about? She looked down at Batcat, who seemed to have adopted a rather sad expression for a cat. Ah, right. She recalled now.

The power of memories. Rieren had been trying to figure out how Batcat could essentially perform the same function that a Temporal Recollector could. Something told her she had made some sort of breakthrough, especially considering the strange, white glow coming off the kitten’s fur.

New Achievement!

You have successfully raised the potency of your Bonded Spirit Beast! Enjoy a new technique but ensure you do not overdo it. There is only so much Essence you can spare.

Rewards

* 1 Level

* 1 Skill point

* 1 Credit

* 1 Spirit Bond Technique: Call of the Past

Rieren smiled. There it was. She had succeeded in getting the new power she needed from Batcat. A power that could keep her safe in the outside world. To an extent, at least.