Chapter 153: Spiritual Beast Companion

When the portal fully opened, everyone was already packed up and ready to enter.

The glaring red portal was large enough four ten people to enter at the same time comfortably, so Styx's and the Kingdom's side took one half each.

The students on both sides looked at each other with a mix of emotions. Some were friendly, others nervous or even hostile. There was a greater amount of hostility from the Kingdom's side, but nobody spoke aloud of this.

What happens in the secret realm is out of the teachers, guards and supervisors hands.

Among the crowds entering, neither Piri nor Princess Zoerina looked at the opposite force, instead focusing on their own sides.

Piri was much less known among those from Lagoon Porter City compared to the Maple Dragon Princess, but knowledge of her had spread through the students like wildfire in the week they had been camped here. She was now someone everyone had at least heard rumors about. The umbrella she wore made her stand out too.

~~~~~

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As Piri stepped through the giant red portal, all her hair stood up and her stomach instantly roiled.

Whilst the world did twist and turn as she was transported into the secret realm, this wasn't because of any sort of vertigo.

Her connection with Styx, which was always present no matter where she was, was suddenly cut off. It was a strange feeling where the piece of Styx was still present within her, which she could still feel and retained her ability to see mana, but it had fallen into a dormant state.

Either way, it was a sensation as if a piece of her had been cut out, causing the young dark elf to keel over and pant of air.

"I… I don't like this!" Piri defiantly shouted as soon as her breath stabilised, despite there being nobody to hear her call.

Piri found herself standing in a room surrounded by clouds, as if a bubble had been inserted into a cloud and she stood inside of it.

The cloud beneath her feet was much sturdier than a normal cloud though as she didn't simply fall through it. Her feet sank into the cloud as they were met with a strong buoyancy, pushing her back up and allowing her to walk

Golden sunlight streamed through the walls of the room as if the early morning sun was shining through. Walking over to the wall, Piri pressed her hand against the cloud there and felt the same resistance as the floor, trapping her in this place.

On the far side of the room was a grandiose alter which golden engravings on it. On top of it, where those carvings seemed to be at their core, three eggs the size of footballs floated, intricate magic circles carve into the alter below them.

"So these are the beasts most suited to me? Nonsense, the most suited beast will be the one Lord Styx puts inside of me~"

Piri giggled to herself shyly before making her way over to the altar and trying to feel the eggs.

She saw the intricate weaves of mana that swirled through the altar before flowing into and feeding the three eggs. The mana would then shift and be digested by the egg to sustain itself.

Piri placed her hand before the first one and hummed as she extended her senses towards the egg.

Chaos.

Destruction.

Magic.

Such were the feelings she got from the egg. She could tell that the beast inside was very powerful and well suited to her, but she still examined the next one.

Love.

Darkness.

Obsession.

A thorny creature that embodied all of Piri's feelings towards Styx. She felt warmth and intimacy from the egg at an even deeper connection than the first, even if the beast inside seemed less powerful.

Elements.

Chaos.

Order.

A truly befuddling existence lay in the third egg. It was a contraction, embodying conflicting attributes that normally shouldn't go together. It was like flipping a coin and it lands on both sides at the same time. Impossible.

"Which one~" Piri mused aloud, but in truth, she had already decided since she first felt it.

She grabbed the second egg off the alter and into her embrace, her lips relaxing into a gentle smile as she caressed it. This egg was dark silver with dark gold etchings and bloody veins on the surface of it. It would have been grotesque to anybody elf, but the young dark elf didn't hesitate to hold it tight against her body.

"It doesn't matter if you are not as strong as the other two, you are definitely the one most suited to me. I will be strong enough for the both of us in any case."

Piri immediately felt the clouds beneath her feet losing their resistance before she fell straight through the floor with the egg, the altar and remaining two eggs vanishing behind the veil of cloud.

~~~~~

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The world suddenly opened up into an infinite expanse as Piri left the cloud and was free falling towards a seemingly endless forest, a football sized egg in one hand and her umbrella in the other.

The wind blew her hair about as she squinted her eyes to see where she was going. She could faintly direct her falling direction to land at a specific point, but she was still bound to the local area.

Even though she was free falling from the clouds, not once did the small dark elf feel any danger. She could feel the protection of wind coiling around her body, ensuring her safe descent and that no injury occurred on landing.

Just as she anticipated, the trees seemed to spread apart their branches to clear room for her to land, whilst the protection of the wind grew more condensed around her and slowed her descent until it was at a safe speed and even that was slowed further to ensure a comfortable landing.

As if the beast inside had just woken up, the egg in Piri's embrace begun vibrating. Cracks soon spread over the egg and the creature inside broke free.

"...This is…"

Broken eggshells rained from Piri's small hands as a weightless black sludge-like darkness covered her hands and forearms as it poured onto the lush grass beneath her feet.

Piri was surprised by the true form of the monster. Contrary to what one would think, there was no beast in the egg, it was the black darkness itself that was the spiritual beast.

The creature wriggled and shifted its form on the ground, extending tendrils out and even morphing its entire body as if it was stretching and getting to know its body. The grass, now very dark as if a shadow had been cast over it, swayed almost imperceptibly under the movements of the shadow creature.

"Come here," Piri said whilst squatting down and circling her finger through the shadow covered grass.

As if finding a home, the creature twisted and fled into the dark elf's shadow, becoming one with it.

Piri had a form of spiritual connection with it and could communicate, even if it was inferior to her connection with Styx.

She felt the timid shadow's timidness, afraid of being seen, yet also its possessiveness. It wanted to cling to and infect anything it touched. This wasn't born from an emotion of destructiveness either, but merely it showing its affection.

"You are still weak, let's go find you some spiritual fruits and level you up," Piri giggled lightly as she squatted down and patted her shadow.

Piri also instinctively knew what the spiritual beast was.

It was known as a shadowkin.

~~~~~

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"Please… stop," A young student from a city far in the Maple Dragon Kingdom's western lands begged whilst standing in front of his spiritual beast partner, a brown and black tiger cub.

Piri stood before him with an expression of disdain. Her shadow twitched as hungry eyes seemed to open within it.

"I will not be so kind next time."

The young dark elf snorted and walked past him and his deeply injured spiritual beast with her umbrella blocking the sun. On the grassy hilltop were seven other injured students and their companions, one of which was from Lagoon Porter City.

That student looked at her expectantly, but was met with no dfferent treatment than the others.

Piri fought with her bare hands, some small blood stains still remaining on them showing that she was far from a weak flower. She didn't use gauntlets as her immense magic covered her hands and formed an armor all on its own. Nothing was a better conductor for her magic than magic itself too.

On the peak of this grassy hill was an ancient oak tree with a cluster of spiritual fruits, small flower like plants with large bulbous crystal fruits instead of flowers.

Piri's shadow immediately shot out from under her feet and covered the spiritual fruits. They were consumed by the shadow and left nothing but bare plants behind. She could feel it strengthening even more with each spiritual fruit.

Now that these spiritual fruits had been consumed, Piri ignored the injured students and followed her mana sight to the next location that had a large agglomeration of mana.

"Hmm~ I will tell Lord Styx all about this place when I get out~ Lord Styx, I miss you…"

Not too far away, the MVP of the kingdom, Princess Zoerina, was fluttering through the woods in the same direction under the nose of her spiritual beast, a young fire drake.

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Piri apprached a region in the Fae Forest Realm where lava begun to seep out the ground, yet the forest still stood vibrant and full of life. Giant great oaks had towering canopies and thick snake like roots that arched above the ground before penetrating back into the earth.

Spiritual beasts flew through the air and along the ground. Fighting each other or any who were contending for the current spiritual fruit, a tree growing three fire essence peaches.

Several students and their spiritual beasts were already here and fighting in a chaotic war.

The native spiritual beasts were the first to notice Piri's presence and immediately attacked as soon as they identified her as getting too close to the spiritual fruits.

"Hmph!" Piri snorted and revolved her mana throughout her body, reinforcing it whilst also coating her fist in lightning.

He umbrella was retracted and became a weapon. It was in fact made from some of the strongest metals and fabrics Styx had available, so it would serve as both a weapon and shield even when she was at the Third Step.

A blood red unicorn like creature charged at her with its horn poised to run her through. Piri dextrously spun on her feet and avoided its charge whilst using her umbrella sword to cause it to charge to the side.

At the same time, her shadow shot out several jagged spikes that chased the unicorn before breaking out of the ground like needles and stabbing through its stomach.

The spiritual beast whinnied and hastily broke free from the shadow needles, leaving several holes in its stomach dripping blood onto the ground.

The unicorn wasn't out of the battle yet, but Piri didn't give it any chances to turn the tides on her. She dropped her umbrella into her shadow, allowing her spiritual creature to store it within itself, and charged at the unicorn with her fists poised to strike.

Piri easily avoided or parried the spiritual creature's attacks with lightning clad fists while punching and elbowing it back with expert skill. The unicorn cried in pain as electricity burnt its nerves and wanted to run, but the young dark elf struck its head and addled its brain, causing it to weakly collapse on the ground.

Her shadow branched out from her body and opened its giant teeth, striking at the spiritual beast's throat and gouging out a significant chunk of flesh. It ate the blood that spilled out while Piri broke its neck and let her companion feast upon the corpse before moving on.

There were lots of students and other spiritual beasts contending for the spiritual fruits, and Piri fell into the thick of that battle for hegemony.

Amidst the chaos, Piri suffered a surprise attack from behind, a long wooden arrow sneaking through her guard and piercing through her lower back.

"Bastard!"

Gritting her teeth, she snapped off the back of the arrow and pulled the remainder out the front of her stomach. Her regenerative powers were on par with the other woman of the dungeon and that hole could be seen closing at a visible speed.

Turning her head, she glared at the attacker. It was a young student that was using a skill to camouflage into the background. Even his presence was masked, whilst the attack contained no mana, allowing him to catch Piri by surprise.

The shadowkin spiritual beast felt Piri's anger and struck back. After consuming so many spiritual fruits, it was much stronger than when it was first hatched. It had also reached <Lv. 7> from the spiritual fruits and fighting other spiritual beasts.

The shadow tendrils shot across the ground faster than the eye could follow before opening up into shadowy teeth that bit into the attacker's ankles.

"Shit! Just die!" The young man knew his location was revealed and wanted to escape in the chaos to launch another surprise attack, but the strange shadow tied him down.

Piri sprinted across the distance and planted her foot directly on his face and kicked him away. He tore free of the shadow, one of his ankles bent in the wrong direction, whilst bouncing along the ground before coming to a stop amidst a small could of dirt.

"Who the hell do you think you are telling to die?!" Piri appeared above him again, her entire body and especially her fists giving off an icy aura.

The boy's eyes shot wide open in panic as he ignored the pain of his ankle and rolled away, narrowly missing the punch that put a hole in the ground.

His spiritual beast, a three-eyes green bird, swooped down from above. Piri's senses had already detected it, so she intercepted it and snapped one of its wings with a targeted strike. The bird was especially unlucky as its wing was crippled as it partially fell in a small lava river that had emerged from one of the cracks in the ground.

The boy regretted not aiming at the dark elf's heart as she looked down at him in anger. His bow was useless in in close combat and his ankle was broken too. Piri's shadow attacked again too, slowly spreading over him and corroding his body.

Piri's eyebrow rose in surprise as she raised her guard just as a new person attacked all of a sudden. She was knocked back several steps as the gauntlet-ed fists collided with her arms.

"What do you think you are doing to a fellow student?" A beautiful yet stern and disapproving voice originated from the attacker.

Piri looked at the young girl that was a national beauty in the making with long silver hair. On her shoulder was a young fire drake that constantly had small tendrils of smoke spreading from its nostrils.

"I know who you are, the esteemed Princess Zoerina," Piri stated with hostility as she looked at the princess of the kingdom Styx was against.

"I don't know you, but I have heard some recent rumors. You have the courage to assert yourself against the Maple Dragon Kingdom, and also claim spots in this expedition. You and your dungeon are poison in this kingdom."

Princess Zoerina scrunched her brow and looked at her in an extremely unfavourable light. Her kingdom had enough problems, and Styx's attack was one of them.

Piri felt her fury boil up to the tipping point at her calling Styx a poison.

Not to mention, she could tell that the young princess was overflowing with future potential. Whilst the amount of mana in her body couldn't compare with Piri or the dungeon wives, it dwarfed that of all the other students here. She was also brimming with pure physical strength from her bloodline, as Piri could feel in her still shaking arms.

Alongside a spiritual beast that could one day turn into an elder dragon, the young princess would be the most formidable opponent for Styx in the future.

This was unacceptable.

For the first time since coming to the Fae Forest Realm, Piri exuded her unadulterated killing intent.