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Record 040: Conflict

Manifold. Ethereal Realm. Glutton's Domain - Penum.

Glutton, who is now a two-headed wolf, is laying on the foliage throne. Floating on their right are Atrament and the three nymphs. In front of them, there are five other spirits. The others six or seven were killed by the snake's tendrils as they attempt to fly away.

"Let's start the introduction again." Brown says in a low tone. These spirits in front of them are only around Lv10 to Lv30, further more, Atrament is here so they don't have to fear any of these spirits.

Three of the five spirits are kneeling because they could: One ape spirit, one doll-like spirit and one humanoid aquatic spirit. The rest are two floating blue spherical objects. Although they don't like lowering their head in front of a Lv10 spirit, the snake forced them to do so.

Taking initiative, the ape-like spirit shifts forward and speaks.

"I will introduce myself first. I am from Obruo domain, a Lv21..." The ape was talking when Atrament throws his tendril at it, striking and flinging it to the other side. The ape hits a tree, causing the tree to disappear in a smoke before it falls onto the ground, unmoving. It's not dead as they could still see its Level-Race tag.

"Did you have permission to speak?" The snake hisses, causing the other four spirits to shiver. Red wants to tell Atrament to not be too harsh but chooses not to do so. They still need those new comers to listen.

"Well, I don't really care about your name or your former occupation. You came here on your own, so you all are now my subordinates." Brown continues saying while red simply stares at the spirits below.

The spirits glance at each other. Being this Lv10's subordinate? What kind of non sense is this? However they dare not to talk as the snake is still looking at them.

"I can feel your dissatisfaction." Red says with a much gentler voice, surprising Brown. Brown is even more sure that Red was sent by its master to torment it. "I'm just Lv10, but I am an Ascended spirit."

Red's words cause a small commotion between them. How could they imagine meeting an ascended spirit in this situation? Normally newly ascended spirit like this wolf would hide themselves until they become sufficiently powerful. After all this kind of spirit is very 'sought after' in this realm.

"I could see your level and race, and I could also guess your element from your color." Brown says and looks around. Two blue [Lv11 Orb Spirit] are probably Water element; The aquatic [Lv27 Selachian Spirit] is obviously also Water; The [Lv24 Vengeful Spirit] who looks like a doll draped in water. Brown looks to the left and sees that the [Lv21 Ape Spirit] is still unconscious.

"It seems all of you came from the same domain." Red says with a frown. Being the Fire element head, it is natural for it to feel uncomfortable around Water element. Despite Fire and Water aren't directly clashing elements, the two are still opposite in a sense.

"Ah yes." The aquatic spirit hurriedly says. "We are.. were servants of Obruo Domain's Lord. He is.." The Selachian abruptly stops. It's smart enough to understand not to speak too much in front of this two-headed 'lord'.

"Speak. What is he?"

"Actually." Atrament says instead of the new servants. "I know him too. Last time I saw him, he was a [Lv37 Kraken Spirit]. But I was Lv36 at that time. He was a lazy kind of spirit, staying in his den the whole time."

"You saw him in which occasion?" Red turns over to ask. Brown seems to be confused as to why this is important enough to ask.

"He wanted my Abysmal Sphere, so he tricked me to come over. I knew his intention beforehand so I put up a plan and screwed with him." Atrament says like boasting his achievement then looks over to the new servants. "Water and came from North, they were obviously his subordinates. Our relationship wasn't good to begin with, so I didn't have any qualm killing more of his spirits."

Red could only sigh. It hoped it could get out of this without much trouble. However Brown is happy for a new challenge. They stole that Kraken's servants, what could he do? Glutton themselves have the biggest backing possible in this world!

"So, why did you lot come here?"

"Because of that red spirit, of course. It has a huge amount of Mana and streak across our domain, so our master.. former master ordered us to follow it."

"Ah, so he didn't know that you all are here?" Red says with a hint of relief.

"A..actually..." The Selachian mumbles.

"Hahaha!" Suddenly, the ape laughs as he stands up. Although spirit don't have blood to show their wound, the ape's ragged breath and some dim blue particles leaving him could show that the ape has escaped death in a hairbreadth. "These blue spheres are our communication-type spirits! Our Lord probably knew what happened here. He is going to come and absorb you all!"

"What?" Red asks in surprise, then glances at the snake and the nymphs.

"We.. we don't know anything about communication-type spirit." One of the nymph hurriedly says. The other rapidly nods.

["Haha! An Ascended Spirit!"] A sinister voice echoes in their mind with the background of bubbling water. ["Atrament, you have to many good treasure. The Abysmal Sphere, a Fire Spirit with abundant Mana and an Ascended Spirit... Shouldn't you share some with your neighbor?"]

Everyone turns to look at the two blue spheres, now became two floating blue eyes in mid air with black vertical slits serve as iris. The ape slumps over, kneeling down in front of the eyes.

"My Lord! These spirits.. they killed a lot of our comrades, your faithful servants!"

The doll-like spirit who couldn't talk simply kneels down. The Selachian doesn't know which side he should kneel down, simply freezes in place, hoping either side would notice him. If he angers the snake, he would be killed right away; if he angers the kraken, he might be killed later. There is no way that guarantees him getting out of this situation intact.

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"I believe you talked to the wrong spirit." Brown says with a growl. Red tries to tell it to calm down. "I am the Lord here!"

["A Lv10 spirit dared to bark in front of me?! No.32, teach it a lesson for me!"] The voice angrily shouts in the mind of anyone present.

Red is frowning. The nymphs who have weak mind are crawling on the ground under Atrament. The Selachian blends with the background. The doll floats to behind the eyes while the ape walks toward Glutton.

"Yes, my Lord!" The ape says. Before he could finish his second step, a tendril drills a hole in his chest. As a spirit, no blood came out, but after his Level-Race tag disappears, he slowly dissipates into blue particles and disappears.

"Cruris! If you dare, come here instead of hiding in your shell like a clam!" Atrament retracts his tendrils and hisses.

["Atrament, you think a small domain lord like you could fight me? I have reached Lv 45! Even if our difference in power isn't enough, my army alone could easily crush you along with your entire puny domain!"]

Enraged, the snake throws another tendrils at the eyes, shattering the spherical spirits and also killing the doll spirit behind them. As they dissipates into blue particles, Cruris's voice could still be heard.

["A Darkness and a Earth spirit, just my kind of dessert..."]

"Just wait!" Atrament says angrily.

"Why couldn't we tell him about our master's identity and be done with it?" Red worriedly says, only to receive a smirk from Brown.

"You are a coward!"

"What? But how could we fight a Lv45? Not to mention his army! You heard him, an army is coming after us!"

"Hey, sharky!" Brown ignores Red and calls the shaking Selachian on the ground.

"Y..yes?" The aquatic spirit returns to its knee.

"You've made a good choice, following me is the same as following the Origin.. the Mana Dragon. Yes, I am currently the one and only servant of the Mana Dragon."

Brown's word makes Atrament flinch and Red frowns.

"Hey, don't have master all for yourself!" Red complains.

"Shut up! You could have that stupid dragon for yourself. I'm just using his name for my own convenience." Brown says softly without letting anyone else hear.

Looking down, the shark spirit is having a confused face as he keeps staring at the ground, mumbling "Mana Dragon" over and over.

"I guess you don't need to know this, but the red spirit earlier was a morsel sent from my master. If you are loyal, I might give you a share in the future." Brown continues. This time Atrament flinches in a different way.

"Y..yes! My Lord!" The aquatic spirit slams his head on the ground, making Brown grin and the nymphs chuckle.

"Anyway, what did he mean by 'dessert' and 'army'?" Red suddenly asks.

The Selachian immediately looks up at the two headed wolf.

"Ah? You are a new spirit?" The shark's question is answered by a growl from Brown and a nod from Red. It continues. "Earth and Dark are next to Water on the Element Wheel, so they could be used as substitute for Water element food. And about his army... you heard him call the ape No.32, right? He assigns a number for each of us and we have to use that as our name. I am No.22 myself..."

"So he has over 30 spirits in his domain?" Red asks with a frown. Brown doesn't understand how big that number is. Atrament glances at his pitiful three nymphs - his only subordinates.

"About 50 spirits.. But only about 30 are above lv20 and about 10 are above lv30..."

"This is a headache..." Red sighs.

"That's a lot of food!" Brown says with excitement.

"I don't know about that... But for your safety, should we listen to your left head and tell him your identity?"

"Yeah." Red says.

"No! This is a chance to absorb a lot of spirits at once!" Brown says in excitement. If Water could absorb Earth as substitute, Earth could do the same!

After that, the two-headed wolf have the nymphs teach them about elemental wheel. Back when it was a monster, the knowledge of that wheel among various other things (including the order to Not Harm The Origin Dragon) were imprinted in its head. It simply ignored most of them and maul everything in its path. But now it seems that spirit needs to care more about this wheel than usual.

The Eight Elements of this world are: Holy ↔ Thunder ↔ Fire ↔ Wind ↔ Dark ↔ Water ↔ Earth ↔ Nature ↔ Holy; distributed evenly on an imaginary wheel. Clashing element are on the exactly opposite of the wheel.

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"You said I could have exploded?" Brown barks in surprise.

"Yeah, clashing elements eliminate each other and become pure Mana..." The nymph explains then glances at Atrament.

"Ah, you said it was sent by your master, so I thought it would be fine." Atrament hurriedly says with a best 'sorry' face he could show.

"Well, luckily we turn into two instead." Red nonchalantly says.

"Sharing the body with you is the worst misfortune I could get." Brown growls at Red.

"Eh, you still think I was sent by master? I assure you, we are one. I have all of our memory since Lv1!"

"I don't even remember about those memory, then how could you?" Brown frowns.

"Maybe because I am actually better than you?"

"I'm going to bite you off!"

Soon the nymph's teaching has to be postponed so the two heads could argue. Atrament simply stares at the North in silence, sometime randomly lets out a sigh.