14 Contracted Spirit.

Akin ran for his life, he ran as fast as he could, he never experienced a star falling before but there wasn't no way it could be a good thing. Poor him, if he would had took the time to look back he would stop his futile efforts as it seemed that don't matter how fast he was, it would be impossible to get far away enough from the impact point.

But the din, the collision,the tremble, the fire, nothing ever came, as if the star never fell, as if everything was just part of his fantasy. Akin stopped his tracks, as everything was silent, too much silent. Looking back he could see where the star fell, the zone around had burned and the impact point was still burning. But besides the beautiful flame there was nothing else.

While scanning the surroundings, Akin found a pair of eyes which were staring at him from inside the very flames. Before he could have another thought, by pure instinct he lean back his body and made a side swing with the spear which curiously hit something, sending it flying.

Without previous warning, without he having the ominous feeling, four fangs tried to bite off his neck, if his instinct weren't screaming at him to do something, that could be the end,or at least another time he would be forced to relied in his bracelet.

After noticing the sudden disappearance of the eyes fixed on him, he quickly shifted his gaze to where the object he hit, flew. Slowly raising from the earth, graciously floating in the air, there was the existence who wanted his life.

Two horns above his head, four long fangs at his mouth,a piercing gaze, totally black colored with some red patterns at his side, and a ephemeral aura as if it was about to disappear at any moment, there was the serpent who aimed for his life.

'The soul of a snake?' wondered Akin.

But he didn't use any soul power in his last hit, so if it was a soul he shouldn't had touch it, anyways no matter how much Akin wanted an answer, he needed to walk out of this battle first.

The snake got in position as if it were ready to attack at any moment, and before Akin knew, a black light with red streaks was already in front of him as well as his spear slamming down the snake. Another hit out of pure instinct but how many of these could he make?.

The serpent kept attacking and Akin deflected the hit everytime, even when all that he saw always was a black lighting with streaks of red, his body seemed to move on his own. The serpent increased its rhythm bit by a bit with every attack, but Akin could kept his pace, in fact as the fight was moving on he felt more and more spirited and energic.

The battle went for almost an hour, and Akin kept the high pace all the time as if he taking a stroll, his body should be at its limit but no matter how he pushed, his body would kept on. At this time the snake was no longer a lightning in his eyes, he could see it clearly everytime it moved and thus he started to gain ground.

This time the snake was the one being cornered, the spear came from all direction everytime, it would hit and then return just in time to protect his user. Its rhythm started dropping, the consume of energy was rather high and it wasn't able to kept it further.

Soon the snake was beat into submission and now was curled in the ground with a pleading gaze, Akin didn't wanted to kill it as he was very curious about a existence which was similar to a soul but also to a material being. But he couldn't just go an caressing it, nor drop his guard as he couldn't sense any emotion from the soul-like snake creature. So,he kept beating it, he hoped,it was like a normal beast and could fall unconscious in some point.

What a naive thought, how could a spirit fell unconscious from a beating, but even when he didn't obtain the expected result, reality was better, even beyond his wildest expectation. Feeling a warm in his Soul Realm , alike when he was bound to his little brother, Akin gadly let it in.

Out of his frenzy, the preassure he put over his body soon made itself present and Akin fell slept. While he was sleeping numerous change started to happen, inside his Soul Realm the number of star of his yet to finish Soul Palace went from 31 to 73, the number of star belonging to his little brother increased greatly and went from 4 to 14 besides the outline of his brother constellation started to change slighty.

But the changes weren't just in their soul, Akin's muscles, which were before normals and almost flaccids, got some outline and even his muscular mass increased something. Inside of his Shadow Space, a black cocoon as if it was made using the darkness as threads, covered the little cub body.

When Akin woke up he felt wondeful, his body felt relaxed as never before, and his soul felt as it had break through somekind of restriction. Looking at his right arm there was a tatto of a black colored snake with some red patters and two horns in its head. It looked exactly as the snake he just fought.

"Master,you should consume the fire from which i came from" A voice sounded in Akin's mind pulling him out of his amazement.

Akin looked at the snake tatto and asked. " What you are?". As he could felt that the voice came from it.

"I am a spirit master, you should go quickly an absorb the fire over there".

'A spirit, a spirit'. Akin repeated in his mind. " What a spirit is?". He asked.

"A spirit is an accumulation of spiritual energy which has gained sentience". Explained the voice.

"What's is our relation and what spiritual energy is?". Inquired Akin again, he had few knowledge about a lot of things and this seemed a good opportunity to filled in by a little bit.

"Spiritual Energy is spiritual energy, all things have spiritual energy one way or another, living beings stored it in their body, and spiritual beings as i ,myself, are made up from spiritual energy. When controlled the spiritual energy allow to making incredible things". A very ambigue definition was given by the spirit. "And we are bounded by a soul contract, as the other you previous one you did" Said the voice and the eye of the tatto seemed fixed in the shadow of Akin. " It make you our master, if you die we die, if we die nothing happens to you" .The spirit added.

"Now you should go and absorb the fire". Said excited the spirit.

"And that is why?" Asked Akin still thinking about some of the things the spirit said.

"I don't know.." Said apologetically the voice."..but i can tell its a good thing". the spirit added energetic.

Akin didn't ask nothing more and moved to the fire, if the spirit wanted to harm him it was just a deadwish, and the idea was enticing for him as fire was the element he had absorbed the less into his soul realm.

The fire was gold colored, and it didn't emited any heat at all, when he saw it for first time he believed it was beautiful but now he was close, he was infatuated by the fire. Without noticing he moved his right hand to the fire, and when just his finger touched the flames, it went totally inside his Soul Realm. Not long after touching the first flames all the fire around the collision zone was absorbed by Akin. The sensation from absorbing this fire was way better than absorbing soul power. Akin didn't knew then but soon than he could had expected he brought Fate inside his empire.

That same night a star which nobody noticed when appeared shined with a strong brilliance high up in the sky.

In a castle, in a pocket dimension high above the ninth layer of hell, a thin figure opened his eyes.

"It seen everything is going well". He said.