Chapter 63 – A true monster

"What did you mean by that?" It would be an understatement to say that Adam was curious after hearing what El said.

'For the flames of death to spark alight the flames of life… especially for something that should never exist. How ironic and fascinating….' There were so many amazing and mind-boggling implications to this sentence that Adam would not recklessly make any assumptions.

"Hoho, so that caught your interest eh? What do I look like to you?" He got counter questioned by El.

"A sketch of a hybrid creature," Adam said straightforwardly.

"How many talking sketches have you seen before?" Another question with a mischievous tone was asked. "Of course, none. I am a little different. This sketch housed my soul when my body perished. This was an unfinished sketch by a Grandmaster painter. It was that master painter who filled in the incomplete portions with my soul at the price of his life." There was sorrow dripping from every word of mention of the creator of the painting. It was not hard to realize that El and the Grandmaster had shared a deep bond.

"Grandmaster painter?" This was the first that he had heard of such a title.

"Someone at the pinnacle of their craft is capable of being titled 'Grandmaster'. This was a very common term in the place that I come from. I wonder if I am in the same place and how much time has passed since then…"

Adam began giving El a general basic lecture on the current standings of their environment around them.

"Gordian continent…. Never heard of it." This was the answer for almost all of what Adam explained.

The two conversed back and forth for a while as Adam understood what the place and timeline that El originated from were like and El picked up on the current trends of the world.

From the conversation, he was able to realise that El was a very ancient soul. In its time, people still were innovating body refinement manuals and training in them was not a very widespread concept.

From this, he could be certain that this individual in the sketch and the sketch itself were antiques. Far older than anyone could imagine and yet it did not show any signs of age. There was no way that something like this would end up in a backwater city like Two Fang otherwise.

"Hmmm, it does not matter. I am not sad. There would be no one that I have any attachment to regardless of where or when I am. These are topics that only haunt me. Let's not talk about them anymore. I am sure that you are more curious as to what I am and why I have made contact with you."

"These do interest me. However, I shall not force you if you do not wish to speak." Conversing with El, Adam had gotten a picture of what this mysterious being was like. It was not haughty or overbearing but was rather in its own way considerate of him. If not it would have never exchanged information so patiently. He had formed a very amiable impression of El and even hoped to form a friendship with the later.

There were a lot of things that he could learn from someone like this who originated from an ancient timeline. The melancholic and sorrowful tones that would slip through in El's sentences also intrigued Adam.

"I am not usually this chatty with anyone. Maybe its because I have awakened after such a long slumber." El mumbled the last bit. "No need to be reserved. I shall explain."

"My soul is that of a human. There were a few circumstances in the past that led to my current form. My family made an enemy that it could not defend itself against and was annihilated completely. I only have an insurmountable enmity left to me as an inheritance. You can be at ease though. In my current form, I doubt the other party will even recognize me.

As for my current form. This is a bit harder to explain… This sketch was painted with the blood of three celestial beasts. A divine light dragon, Nightmare crow and lightning unicorn. The magical properties of the nightmare crow that is said to able to live in its own dimension of nightmares is how my soul was able to remain dormant in the sketch all this while, while the blood of the unicorn that is said to be able to grant eternal youth is what has kept this painting from ageing and maybe even sustained my soul.

I have not awakened once since I was stored in this painting. This changed when I was held by you. Your body harboured flames that carried a heavy attribute of death to it. Something in your essence was able to have boundless vitality even with these flames of death present in you.

You should know that the blood of celestial beasts is not ordinary. It is almost impossible to kill a celestial beast physically. Their bodies are sturdy beyond compare, the only way to harm them is to attack them through different means unless you overwhelmingly outclass them in strength. Their blood as such is said to hold magical properties to them.

The blood used in this painting is no different. It has been able to amass magicules to serve as energy to nurture itself and my soul in the process. My soul would not have survived the weathering of the years in any other case. The amount of energy it had stored up is hard to put into words.

When the blood came into range of the flames of death in your body, a natural resonance occurred and the two attracted each other. The flames that exited your body also brought with it a bit of your essence since they seemed to be fused in a weird way.

What happened afterwards is anyone's guess. All I know is that whatever happened, it has caused my soul to fuse along with the flames of death and the three bloodlines. I am now something that is unique in the whole universe. The weird part is that all the magicules that were stored in the painting seemed to have been absorbed in the process. I can't imagine how that much energy was consumed.

This is how I am now the thing that I am. I have also formed a connection with you because of the essence of yours that had fused with the flames of the death attribute."

Adam was listening attentively. His eyes brightening with each revelation as he comprehended more and more as El went on with her story.

"I understand. How very peculiar… have you tried leaving the sketch? Why not give it a try." A strange idea popped into his head as he proposed. If El was able to fuse with the material blood, then how farfetched was it to assume that it had the capability of forming a material body?

"I…I have not tried. Let me see." El had not even considered the possibility of such a thing. When Adam brought the idea up, it understood how he reached such a conclusion and was a little excited to give it a try. The painting began rustling as if the sails of a ship in a storm.

This rustling continued for a few minutes.

Stretch.

As if trying to leap out of the painting, the hoofed dragon (El) began pushing itself out of the painting. The painting stretched outward little by little. The edges of the skies in the painting began losing colour the more El stretched out of the painting.

"Just a little more!" Adam encouraged from the side. He could hear the wails of pain from El in his mind.

The wail's of El's soul gave him flashbacks to when his soul had been tormented and he empathized with this creature.

El was almost halfway out when like a rubber band that had stopped being stretched, it was pulled back into the painting.

Adams eyebrows bunched up as he looked on seriously. Something had obviously not worked out.

"I am missing something." After a few pants of exhaustion El spoke up and relayed to Adam.

"what are you missing? Do you have an idea?" He questioned.

"I think… can you give me a drop of your blood?" El asked with a humble tone.

"My blood? What is that going to do? Though I really do not mind if it is just a drop…" As he said so he pulled out one of his daggers and poked the tip of his index finger on his right hand. With a swift motion, his finger was smudged onto the painting. He felt kind of regretful as this would ruin the painting but El had asked and he had no other ways to give it his blood.

"That's enough! Thank you." El's excited voice came through. "Hmm, Just as I thought. Adam… it seems that I have truly become a monster. Will you form a contract with me?"