Chapter 7 -|

The original idea was to wait a couple of weeks for the new Celestial Garden to prove itself stable, now that Mai's giant body was combined with the spell based computer. It would ensure that Adam leaving the dimension would not threaten Mai's stability or abilities, while this Realm which was so filled with magic would slowly adjust the spell hardware to better fit the giant clubhouse.

Well, that was Adam's plan at least.

Two days later however, both Twilight's had pushed him into her 'Science Dungeon' and hooked him up to dozens of wires for his new (And likely last) power from this Realm.

Squishy had determined that three powers was the minimum possible to ensure a stable soul, and even then it required his Worm soul as a base support. So.

Adam glanced at the crowd. All his mind population was out, including Narwhal who was in a 'support cuddle' with Dragon in the corner. The foals were still grounded, but Princess Luna had shown up... and was trying to ignore Nightmare Moon's section of the lab.

With a deep, calming breath...

"Consume."

His MLP soul twisted, before the trunk gained a hideous fang filled mouth. There was no face like the trees from the Everfree Forest, but the darkness within the jaws was absolute.

Now for the test, the one that should speed up his departure time by leaps and bounds if successful.

"Transfer: Summon: Flame of the Abyss."

Wincing at the pain, he focused.

"Consume: Refine: Soul Reduction."

His souls were... developing with his powers and actions over time. His initial core socket and soul from Worm still was a beautiful Fishbowl that Squishy was currently working from.

His new soul socket was a tree. Rich black wood trunk, glowing blue moss covered roots, bight blue tentacle leaves reaching toward the sun. Normally a glow fire of magic consumed the mass of soul material.

But now that flame burned empty.

A hungry, undefined color slashed the blue magic away, engulfing the tree entirely.

Oh. He was screaming. Well, it was expected.

'Recovery' was already enabled, and 'Growth' had replaced 'Consume' in the active slot for the tree itself.

It was... just. Just barely enough.

Roots twisted, grew, burned, screamed in pain.

Bark black as night was flaking into ash, exposing glossy surfaces below even as the decay spread.

Nearly all the blue tentacles had vanished, even as new ones thrust themselves into the pain and flames.

Thankfully, purified magic was being funneled into his soul by Mai. Unlike before, the added power was enabling him to recover fast enough that the damage was not able to build up as quickly.

After all, the damage he took when arriving to this world was fatal to almost anyone or anything else. Only Adam's twisted eldritch body and empowered soul had allowed such a dangerous journey. That said, this new ability was almost as dangerous, even if his new abilities mitigated the issues.

'Recovery' was burning power while 'Growth' was consuming magic, and his tree burned.

Good, his air ran out. Screaming was annoying.

Well, his soul tree now had a mouth that was ALSO screaming, but that was more an internal problem really.

His tree soul was hollow, as Squishy lived inside when visiting. But every other surface seemed to be bubbling as it burned, regrew, and adapted. The solid black bark was developing complicated runes of various species of wood and languages. The roots no longer followed the normal set of dimensions, but seemed to twist and twirl outside of normal vision.

The tentacles were struggling. Some grew short, thick, and dense. Others thin, long, and with rapid regeneration. And the strangest were the ones made from darkness, or light, or illusion.

He was glad the girls were recording this, because he was REALLY to distracted to take notes.

Squishy was... just keeping watch for now. Too likely the entire structure could pop or allow the flames to intrude inside for now, and this was AFTER a few days of passive soul refinement using just the Abyss flames alone.

Magic was... odd.

Unlike science, Magic had opinions. It was why this world didn't have mass production, because if you made a fun gadget to dry hair, it could turn into a gadget to dry bears without ponies noticing.

So this realm encouraged individual pieces of art rather than massive distributions of basic tools. It was why one of a kind magical devices didn't get duplicated a dozen times to protect the kingdom.

Make a giant ward stone to protect a kingdom? Fine. Make two? One may adopt the other, and splitting them apart could break them both. Or they may destroy the weaker and become stronger. Or one could just vanish.

This made new abilities in his soul dangerous if too... weak. All his abilities had to be on similar levels of conceptual power to safely exist side by side.

As he grit his wooden teeth, he felt Squishy carefully adjusting what little could be controlled in the burning half of his soul. Unlike the powers in his Worm Fishbowl, the Tree (as it was rapidly becoming more than a regular plant now) was constantly interacting with the three power sets generated.

Even without being socketed, 'Growth' was pushing 'Harmony' while 'Consume' was converting runoff energy into new resources for 'Growth', 'Harmony' was refining the interactions between the three as they developed, and 'Consume' was taking all the energy and power that Squishy was now hiding from the world and funneling it into the Tree itself.

He still couldn't access the abilities without socketing one individually, but unlike his Worm powers these were just... influencing each other. Growing.

Ah. Thankfully Squishy has enough control of the situation that Adam was allowed to black out from pain now.

Seriously, this crap hurts.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal clutched Dragon closer, trying not to distract the frantically talking ponies from their notes. This was the Cyborg version, the other Dragon was right there in the mess trying to record and understand it all.

She had seen horrible things over the years. Well, not her, but her 'sister'. Friends dying in battle, good people cut down by sickness or ambush. The travesties and horrors and crime-scenes.

Somehow watching her boyfriend writhe in gray flames, trying to scream... it was worse than she expected.

She whispered. "How long must he do this?"

Dragon sighed. "He's been doing a slower version of this for days now. Theoretically this will hurt less than experiencing that for literally weeks on end." She also winced when something snapped in the wolf's back. "And... he is going for a higher level of refinement than what he went through getting here in the first place."

Narwhal's eyes widened. "WHAT! Why!? It nearly killed him to get here!"

Dragon nodded with a sigh, illusions showing her details and graphs. "And unlike before, this time he will be carrying passengers, fully developed soul travelers. Before, he only had to worry about Squishy and an undeveloped Mai. Now?"

She winced. Mai wasn't exactly staying, she was leaving a copy. Like cloning yourself. The option had been open to everyone, but only mental-Twilight had considered it before passing it up.

And Adam had a tendency to just... take all the responsibility. Not that he was in the wrong here, if Adam's soul became splintered enough to allow her and the others pain then his soul would be heavily damaged too.

Her eyes drifted back to the bonfire and his twisting corpse. This was just... painful. "I still don't know why we couldn't disconnect his nerves or something. Why does it have to hurt like this?"

Dragon sighed. "I got lost in the magic involved, but Nightmare Moon basically said that disconnecting the feelings of the soul from a being was the same as destroying those sections of the soul. It... The soul just is not meant to be disabled. At all. Any changes, good or bad, have to be done while it is intact and stable."

The lump burned. "If he stopped feeling the pain, it would only be by killing sections of who he was. Many soul related magics that Moon knows of caused the user to go mad for exactly that reason. Because the unicorns involved didn't wish to feel pain, and paid a heavy price to avoid it."

Narwhal just... watched. "But he is killing himself."

Dragon frowned. "No, this is just... enforced self modification. Souls change over time anyway, but right now he is allowing the weakest and most extraneous sections to feel pressure. Tempering."

With a sigh, she went back to the numbers. "Basically, it is like Soul Boot Camp. Done correctly, it hurts, you hate the person doing it, but you come out strong and centered. Hopefully. Honestly the idea doesn't hold up, but I have no words for this."

Princess Luna had moved over to the two Twilight's and her 'evil twin', offering what little help she could to the interpretation. Surprisingly her knowledge of eldritch species and night terrors was helping the analysis a lot.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam woke... oddly.

He was currently a pile of twigs.

Blue fire covered, black twigs. With bits of blue moss randomly left on top.

It was strange.

'Recovery' was still active. So was 'Growth'.

It just... was fine with him like this. The magic was stable, his individual parts were fully repaired. Technically, he was healed.

Just... in a pile.

Stretching his non-existent back and spine suddenly caused the splinters of material to swirl upwards. Black claws sunk into the floor as black vines twisted around black branches. Even as his torso began to form together a carpet of blue moss began growing over the black lumber.

With a loud crackle and snap, his jaws reformed and clamped shut, his eyes popping into solid crystal with bright blue flames dancing within.

He twisted, checking his new tail and legs.

Yikes. Retract the black thorns. They were tiny, but something deadly was glistening on them. Teeth? Eugh. Something hollow with a nasty surprise inside. And wasn't this moss dangerous as well?

It took two more checks before all the subtle dangers on his body were settled into something soft, fluffy, and 'Not Deadly' again.

He looked over at the surprised crowd, catching the Twilight's eyes. "That. Was. Unpleasant." Another shake loosened the blue moss and let the wood separate slightly. Better. "What did Squishy say? Did I make progress?"

Oh, that didn't bode well. The less hesitant Nightmare Moon sighed. "Squishy says that one session of refinement took you over the 35% completion mark. Unless you want to lower your safety standards, at least two more passes are required."

He didn't hide the wince well. "Right. Did she give any guesses on refining the Worm soul? I still need to hit another Realm to get time travel data."

Outer-Twilight raised a hoof. "Well, aside from the... pain issue... Everything went better than expected. Only one pass of the main soul is needed, technically half of one if you could pull that off."

Adam groaned. This method already showed that the only way to STOP the abyss flames was to wait for them to burn themselves out. And he had ALREADY used the minimum amount possible. "So... three more times in total. Just. Great."

Pinkie Pie popped out from behind Narwhal and Dragon's cuddle couch. Because of course she did. "Ooh! Ooh! You should have chicken soup! I heard it's good for your soul."

Everyone flinched before checking to make sure Fluttershy wasn't nearby to hear the pink pony suggest killing and consuming one of her animal friends. Thankfully the coast was clear.

Adam tried to give her an appreciative look. "Thank you, but I want to avoid eating any meat until I am back in a world where animals can't talk. And hopefully aren't smart enough to know we plan on consuming them as folktale remedies." He looked down at his wooden torso. "And uh. Until I have a meat body again."

Thankfully the other girls distracted the party pony long enough for 'Science!' to continue. Adam relaxed on the nearest couch, trying to psyche himself up to the further refinements needed to travel safely in the abyss.

In the mean time he tried to relax and mentally went back over the culinary magic he picked up from Granny Smith. Some of these spells could be nasty if used during a fight.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Interesting side effect from refining your own soul: You become more... stable.

Adam could feel the influence from this reality fade significantly after his several sessions. The biggest one was a lowering of raw sensual lust. Not gone, but it wasn't a constant urge in the back of the mind.

Also, even as a wolf he was rapidly remembering how awesome meat was. Something about his old (plant) soul encouraged vegetarian life style. That wasn't gone either, he would always love salad more than any man likely should. Just... not willing to never eat anything but grass and trees.

After a few days of recovery and some charges saved up for the journey, he took stock of his situation.

One technological soul (Worm Realm), with 'Recovery', 'Fire Manipulation', 'Research', 'Technomancy', 'Conversion', 'Transfer'. Though 'Recovery' should be considered something similar to 'Nanoscopic Manipulation' or something.

One magical soul (My Little Pony Realm), with 'Growth', 'Harmony', and 'Consume'.

Squishy now stored her current power charges in the tech soul fishbowl, and they lay like sea shells on the grains of power sand. No real limit now to storage, but it DID make his entire existence revolve around technology first and foremost. Not the worst outcome really.

He only gained one charge per 24 standard earth hour time span. Regardless of what planet or reality he was currently living in. But at least he didn't HAVE to 'use or lose' them now.

Still, he had waited over a week and now had 10 charges saved up. None of this 'slow crawl into madness due to an uncontrolled soul' issue he ran into coming here.

Also he had stayed at the Apple Clan's farm for a few of those days, building up reserves of biological slurry to store in his soul. Ate some metal and gems with 'Consume' to store those materials there too, which showed up as neat rocks in his fishbowl.

So... 'Recovery' was fully supplied.

Finally, magic. His Tree soul now breathed through that hideous mouth, passively converting energy of any type that tried to escape his body or soul into magic, storing it for future 'Growth' use.

Narwhal had tried to convince him to name the thing... but it was a magical soul. That would do... who knew what to it. Names had power. Call it 'Betty' or something could make it mutate into any bizarre thing. So it was firmly named 'Tree', like a boring person would do. Her complaints were very much ignored.

Moving on, the magic was constantly absorbed or converted, then compressed into small pebbles that slowly covered the roots of the Tree thing. So... magic reserves were built up to respectable levels.

Honestly, that part he cheated with by having Mai's wolf/house/tree thing pass the excess power she purified. Otherwise building up this level of reserve would have taken ages.

Nightmare Moon and a surprisingly shy mental Twilight said the raw information about existing magic had already been gathered, though external Twilight had insisted on all kinds of random books and scrolls being added all the way up till a few hours ago. And the two mental versions were more than a bit hush-hush about HOW they gathered so much information so quickly.

And Luna was... very insistent that he not visit Celestia. Something that made Nightmare Moon snicker about for far too long. Point is, Princess Luna DID bring some copies of the related Time magics for him to review. Which... well, he was touched at the trust shown. To ensure no future issues, he burned the copies after memorizing the contents. No reason to risk others getting these spells.

Didn't help with his actual product though. It relied too much on a world with existing magic, and couldn't make anchor points to times where magic use was restricted or non-existent... so would only work in places that had a long history of magic use.

He took another breath. Calm.

Narwhal, Dragon, Nightmare Moon, and Twilight had been 'secured' by Squishy deep inside his simulation. Mai had decided after much thought to just... stay here. Her bond with the three little fillies was honestly stronger than her connection to Adam anyway, and the idea of living as his personal AI hadn't been as appealing as joining the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'.

It surprised him that he felt a bit hurt at her leaving. They hadn't spent a ton of time together, and he had a tendency to do things alone, but he HAD been there from the start of her existence. Still, he just made sure that the girl's Celestial Garden and giant body were both working as best as could be and wished her well.

With his mental companions secured, he focused.

Squishy poked him the options.

Acceptable penalties to lower the cost of 'Transfer' while still getting to a USEFUL Realm. First, the usual suspects: No safe travel. Arrive at an 'interesting' time. No language package. No reality insertion.

He could only risk those with others because his preemptive refinement should keep the flames of the Abyss from consuming his soul to the same degree as before.

Hmm. The costs were much lower than before. Almost a dozen times or more cheaper really.

Squishy pointed out that not only was his soul stronger now, but that there were two separate parts that could support each other. This not only reduced the pressure of the travel but the increased durability reduced how much energy was needed to protect his existence during transit. So... he had a surplus.

Then... what positive options did that leave available?

A quick list had quite a few nice choices that didn't even get mentioned the first time. Thanks to 'Harmony' he could ignore most social options, those would be picked up easily enough. 'Growth' and 'Recovery' would allow any body modifications required. Hmm.

In the end, he selected 'Avoid Realms with Overwhelming Power' and 'Discrete Entry'. If he popped into Dragon Ball Z or Naruto or whatever during a big boss fight, he could get vaporized a few times without even noticing. Not all gods were as laid back or friendly as Princess Luna or Celestia.

That brought the cost right back up, even a bit more than the initial jump... but still affordable.

Selection criteria? He wanted Time Manipulation Abilities, sure, but he didn't need the full power set. While it would be NICE to twist reality forward and backward or whatever, he knew the issues with temporal modification.

Slow down time, even to near standstill, in a local area? Sure. Speed it up locally? No issue! But affecting all of your current reality? Or going to your own past?

The costs of gaining those level of power would take far more time and danger than Adam was willing to put up with right now.

So he was willing to settle for time travel when transiting between Realms only. More versatility or power could be picked up later, but that was the core of his actual need.

Instantly, the ballooning cost of the transfer dropped back to reasonable levels again. Thank goodness.

The unknown destination chosen (Please don't be Dr. Who's Realm, that place was a MESS of time travel), he felt Squishy prepare for initiation.

With a subconscious wince at the upcoming experience, he grit his fangs.

"Transfer: Abyss."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Twilight watched with some regret as her most recent friend suddenly... just stopped. The blue flames vanished, leaving empty blue crystals for eyes... but the rest of his wolven body just seemed empty.

With a sigh, she levitated the new 'House Pet/Plant' upstairs. He may not return for some time, but at least she could water the thing and give it good sunlight. And the low level magic purification his body generated would make her Tree House Library feel a bit more homely.

Princess Luna was far less worried. Adam's lifespan was long enough that the two would no doubt meet in the future at some point if he returned. Hopefully after Celestia got over the teasing.

Neither pony noticed Pinkie Pie adding glasses and a mustache to the wolf, but then again the party pony could be fairly stealthy when she wanted to be.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

What. The. Hell.

Gently Adam floated through the gray Abyss, flames roasting over his souls.

It didn't even tingle.

If anything, this was damn boring!

Squishy, the hell!?

After some ranting, the embarrassed jellyfish poked an explanation.

He may have... over prepared.

The magic alone would have protected him by generating enough material to burn off as a protective layer instead of the fire reaching his powers, mind, or soul.

Not to mention how hardened his soul had been once entering the pony Realm.

But the additional levels of refinement? The massive amount of resources and magic prepared?

What tiny amount of energy consumed by the ever hungry Abyss was replenished near instantly by passive recovery rates. He wasn't even touching his damned reserves right now!

As he drifted through timeless grey flames, he... well. Pouted.

Squishy was quick to point out that his highly refined souls would be very beneficial. Master effects that could normally bypass the mind or body would no longer have hold on him, as his soul could just 'nope' the heck out of it.

Soul based attacks like the killing curse would be laughed off.

Her list got stranger and longer, but all he could think of was the hours of mind numbing pain he had WILLINGLY gone through in an attempt to get home... only to find out that instead of barbed wires and poison it was blankets and cookies.

This was the issue with pushing into unknown territory. Sometimes you were unprepared and naked in the snow, sometimes you bring a nuke to take out a bee hive.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Time... well, the ability to track it at least. It just didn't work here.

Without the constant pain distracting him, he rapidly 'woke up' his mental companions and just wasted time talking in the Simulation.

They did learn pretty quickly NOT to show the Abyss to anyone else besides himself and Squishy though. It uh. Well, the girls didn't handle it well.

But after that they spent internally somewhere between a few hours and maybe a day or so talking about ongoing projects, dream construction ideas for Adam's future naps, Dragon's designs and redeveloped schematics that both did and did not include magic improvements, and so forth.

Outside? Yeah, time didn't exist here.

Eventually, he was pulled back to focus on the incoming Realm boundary. Unlike before, where a new soul was near torn from existance and shoved into his being, he could feel... options. Templates.

Human was there, but it wasn't HIS type of human, if such a thing existed. It would be as strange to his soul as the timberwolf was, even though visually and biologically they should be very similar.

But the other options were... very wide and varied. Having experienced this once before, and now with the ability to actually make a choice instead of blindly grasping at the nearest point of salvation, he considered the many bizarre shapes.

Many, if not most, were interesting and powerful. On the other hand, as he felt the body and minds available, many came with mental issues. Apathy towards others, anger or rage towards non-similar species, deep hunger for the flesh or energy of specific species or even human careers. Odd.

In the end, he felt a sort of connection with a... strange thing.

It sort of looked like an elephant pig.

Still, it felt... pure. At least, it wasn't based on the concept of corruption or sickness like some of the others. Twilight was going through his memories and the magic stuff, but no one really knew what the heck it was other than 'cute' and 'tiny'.

Thing was about the size of a cat really.

With a mental shrug he fell into the template, then directly into the new Realm.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

In a dark bedroom, a shadow twisted. Turned. Then... sort of popped.

And Adam 'Adventure' Burns was... sort of there.

Still a soul though.

Bones and flesh rapidly twisted from 'Recovery', a small ball of meat growing into his new... whatever he was.

Surprisingly strong bones, his skin became grey and leathery while white and black fur covered his back and chest. And uh. His ears.

He had big ears now. And a trunk. And tusks.

He looked down at his... paws? Those were tiger paws. Even had the stripes, though the tough skin was still grey overall. And his paws were THICK, at least partially like an elephant.

Adam's confusion only grew as his body began gently shifting colors. It was now slowly forming shades of dark green. Like... Green leathery skin on his trunk, the white fur turning a very light green hue, the stripes near black emerald colors. The hell.

'Growth' was working with 'Recovery' now, as he felt strange organs which were NOT meat growing inside his body. And... well, he had lungs, but no stomach. So... no digestion.

Did the green part mean he was a plant again? That didn't seem right. His tiger claws couldn't even scratch the stuff, and it didn't feel like bark or moss.

Idly his trunk scratched his fur covered neck. At least he could do that even without hands now. And what the heck was his tail? That wasn't Elephant OR Tiger. Looked more like... donkey? No, Ox. Yeah, that was an Ox tail.

Even as his body slowed in growth, he could feel the density of his muscles and bones began to increase... while his weight dropped? How!?

Worse part, this wasn't magic. Not exactly. SOMETHING being grown within was causing non-physics related changes to his existence, but it wasn't powered by the energy Tree consumed.

Just as things were winding down, he could feel... instinct drop in. Something fundamental to his actual self, it felt like. And Hunger.

A very... VERY strong hunger. Like he was missing something.

It reminded him of the raw craving he had after first forming his Timberwolf form, the need for any sort of magic to fill the void.

By the time he regained focus, he realized he was now on a bed. A huge bed!

No wait, he was cat sized. A normal bed, just... big to tiny him.

Was that a girl?

He was in a girls bedroom.

The. Hell.

Still, she looked... pained. Fearful. Hurt?

Adam tried to keep track of all his new parts. Ears were normally just THERE, but he kept wiggling them now. His trunk was all kind of confusing, at least he had practice with tails before. And his hunger was rapidly causing him concern.

Did he want to consume this child? That... seemed very off. Nothing about the template suggested baby eating or child chewing.

But he was pulled toward her skull.

Huh. No, it was... sort of. Not quite her actual body really.

His trunk reached outside of... here. Somewhere else.

Black slime tried to escape his grasp. Flexing muscles he didn't have and pulling in ways he never knew, the mass of twisted fear and rage was just... plucked.

Like a pear. Just... tugged away.

Instantly the girl relaxed into the bed, a soft smile on her face.

Meanwhile, cat-elephant-tiger-Adam was stuck looking cross-eyed at the black orb held by his trunk.

It was VERY easy to smell it when your holding things with your own nose.

It was... decay. Rage. Fear. Layers of filth, picked up from every day experiences. Twisted by suspicion and uncertainty. Of self doubt and past failures.

The texture was both slimy and gritty, sand and oil with mucus.

Color didn't quite... work on it.

With absolutely zero hesitation, he stuffed it into his mouth.

Eyes crinkled with delight, he savored each flavor. Somehow he knew what it SHOULD taste like, how it should repulse everything he had.

But... it was amazing. Filling. Energy of some sort was flowing through his system even as he gently reached into the other for whatever scraps of hatred and self doubt remained.

Cake? Keep it! This stuff... Mmm.

Well, no point to having a stomach if your food is conceptual.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Hours later, Asako Higurashi gently knocked on her daughter's door. "Time to get up!"

Thankfully the laundry was already handled last night, the cleaning done earlier this morning. So she had more time than usual.

Her concern for her little girl had grown in the last few weeks though, after some disagreement with that nice wolf boy or some such had caused her to... well. Not pout or whine, but mentally recede?

The story she got from her girl's friends was that it was more an excuse so that she could come home and... recover. Recenter.

She sighed. If she could hold back the trauma and danger her little one had to suffer, she would be the first to volunteer. And she did what she could. Prayers, specially prepared food with what little good luck charms she could make, secretly working with her father-in-law to try and... do anything to help. But the spiritual realm existed everywhere, and would always be drawn to her regardless of any protective intentions.

Unlike her poor past husband, rest his soul, Asako herself was not gifted. Some sensing abilities, minor cantrips or rituals, nothing useful. She had always felt that being a loving mother was more important than trying to find peace with the spiritual side of existence... right up until her daughter gained the responsibility.

She tried to never show her self doubt or fear in front of either child of course. Thankfully her son Sota was too young to really understand the danger her little girl was learning to face, and even after the arguments she had with father-in-law, the older man still helped support her small family and her ever struggling daughter.

Her frown passed as she knocked again. "Sweetie?"

With a gentle push, she opened the door.

Paused.

And closed the door.

Right.

Best get father-in-law.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kagome felt someone gently push her shoulder. "Go way. M'Tired."

An older voice didn't let her go back to sleep. "Kagome, you need to very carefully wake up."

She frowned, hugging her pillow tighter. "Dunwanna. Sleepy."

The grip tightened for a second before relaxing. "Child, you need to stay calm but wake up. You have a guest."

Slowly she blinked awake. "Wha?" It had to be too early. This was the first time she had gotten ANY damn sleep and it didn't matter HOW much her friends wanted to visit or that stupid mutt wanted to bother her, she was going to get some rest!

The old hand wouldn't knock it off though. She groaned. "Grandpa, can't you just tell them to go away? I was finally having good dreams for once!"

The old voice hummed. "Not surprising, really. I suppose I will have to focus a study session explaining Baku traits and habits."

The heck? "What?"

He sighed. "Could you very slowly open your arms dear?"

She blinked, absently squishing her pillow tighter. "Why?"

Her eyes focused on her Grandpa... who looked very exasperated. "Because while normally a peaceful creature, you still shouldn't squish a spiritual being."

What?

Her eyes dropped down to her pillow.

Her warm, furry, squishy pillow. With tiny tusks and a trunk.

Which was apparently snoring.

"Is this a fluffy mini-elephant?"

Grandpa hummed. "Closer to a Tapir really, if anything. Still, please stop squishing it."

Why couldn't NORMAL things happen to her!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam woke up on his back. Sprawled with all limbs out, his trunk meandering to his right, ears flapped open.

Thankfully, his alien body was really flexible. This particular pose should really have caused him to sleep poorly.

Still, his bed was soft, it was still early, and although he vaguely felt something warm was missing he was too comfy to care about it right now.

Eventually he felt Squishy poke him.

With a mental sigh, he enabled 'Research' and 'Harmony'. There. Now the girls could analyze the outside world without him having to move.

He was asleep again in moments.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Nightmare Moon and Twilight were holding in squee's as Narwhal cooed over the image. "He is so... fluffy! And cute!"

Dragon sighed as she tried to focus on the research. "Right. According to the documentation the older man is showing the rest of the family in the other room, Adam is a Baku."

Narwhal snorted. "He is a cutie fluff baby is what he is."

Twilight poked the image. "Look at his little nose!"

Dragon grit her teeth. "Right. So Baku's seem to be a type of demon or spirit. Of which this world is stock full of, and are of many types and natures."

Nightmare Moon clapped her hooves together. "Look! He is wiggling his paws!"

Twilight was hopping. "He thinks he is running!"

Do. Not. Hurt. Them. Dragon continued. "His new body consumes nightmares and dark thoughts, and historically his kind were hunted because his skin when harvested and refined can discourage evil spirits and keep away decay, poison, miasma... which is some sort of spiritual poison gas, and disease."

Narwhal was thoughtful. "We could make tiny dolls or stuffed animals of him, but can we make mental versions in here? Like, not full AI's, but with maybe puppy level intelligence?"

Twilight was instantly fascinated. "Project Adorable Fluffy Elephant Kitties is a go!"

Dragon just... stayed calm. And continued to review the new information 'Harmony' was pulling in.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kagome couldn't BELIEVE how good she felt. Weeks of stress and terrifying memories and images of what could have been gone for a full night.

It almost made up for the sudden homework on a Saturday. "So bottom line, this one WON'T try to eat us."

Grandpa held his place in his notes and looked up. "Normally not, no. Of course, normally if a Baku stays with you after eating a nightmare, there is a risk of it just... continuing to eat. Hopes, dreams, and so forth."

Seeing her concern, he waved one of the talismans he held. "I've had protections against that sort of thing on your bedrooms for years now, and the Baku didn't even try. Just... this one is odd."

Her little brother Sota looked up from his own, badly written, notes. "Like... how?"

Grandpa sighed. "Normally, only a small portion if any of a spiritual creature would materialize in the real world. Only someone like Kagome or another priest or priestess could interact with them." He pointed toward her bedroom. "THAT thing is 100% real. Physical. It even snores."

Seeing the kids confusion he sighed. "It would be like finding a actual dragon. After all those years, physical beings with spiritual nature barely exist anymore. Only beings back in the past, like those friends of Kagome, are formed of actual real world material."

She frowned. "Do... do you think it followed me here?"

He shook his head. "No. These spirits were originally found in China, not here in Japan. They showed up here years later. And this one feels... strange. Too real. And it has some sort of magic, I think. I could only feel it when directly touching it though, so I am not sure."

She sighed. A magical cat-elephant-spirit-demon. Great.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Waking was slow. And really only because he was being carried by a giant.

No, damn it, he was just small.

Adam blearily looked up.

Welp. Clearly a woman. Thought those were cushions.

Didn't recognize her. 'Harmony' felt it was alright though. Good enough.

Her sudden hug caught him off guard though. "Squeak!"

...

What.

She seemed equally startled, looking down at his confused self. And hugged him again.

His trunk let out another. "Squeak!"

...

He was a stress ball!?

Narwhal's voice suddenly echoed in his ears. "Honey, you sound adorable!"

...They were recording this, weren't they?

Squishy poked 'Yes.'

Squishy, for the next few hours or until I come to terms with this, could you please block the girls from communication with me?

The chorus of 'Aww' thankfully went silent. Thank goodness.

"Squeak."

Great. He can do a deadpan delivery of an adorable chew toy noise.

At least the giantess got the point and looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry."

"Squeaker Squeak Squeak Squeakin."

That... well. This body was not built for English. Or whatever the hell they spoke back in Worm. Or here.

Thankfully she let it go as she carried Adam into another room.

Oh, it's that girl from last night! She seemed much less stressed now. Though more nightmare fuel had already built up again. Yummy.

Now that he was not ravenous or newborn though, he could sense more than just those delicious black slime pellets.

...Actually, he could sense all kinds of things. What the heck?

Squishy gave a poke.

Apparently as part of the process of becoming this creature, all of Adam's power charges decided to just... use themselves. Something of this new soul was guided by... not a thought process.

It was like his body was partially connected to another layer of existence. Not directly to anyone in particular, but something out there was just... connected. A part of him.

Was it even restricted to one Realm? Barely. If not careful, it felt like it would just move directly into his new soul and live there. Not that it was alive. Sort of. Huh.

Anyway, the new soul and the new power.

Internally, unlike the fishbowl or tree, this one was a... wooden gate? Two poles, a bar, three short poles, then a wide curved wooden structure on top.

'Harmony' was thankfully quick to help out. It was a gate. Specifically, a Shinto Gate.

And even though the gate was on no actual ground, at least not currently, there was a bubble around it forming a sphere. Invisible. Ageless.

Honestly, a bit like a snow globe.

Most concerning... the gate led somewhere. To that place that belonged to Adam, but not.

He felt Squishy pop into the sphere and go through the gate... and was gone.

Then back. And gone again. And returned.

Yeah, that felt strange as hell.

Hanging from the gate were white cords of power. And attached like decorations were white cards.

The one that glowed was the new power.

'Tithe.'

Huh.

Even as information poured into his mind, begging to be reviewed, he focused on this single power.

It was unlike any he had experienced before. All the technological stuff allowed him to review, build, project, or work with physical matter. All the magic stuff allowed him to perceive, absorb, control, and grow energy. But the biggest difference was they were HIS abilities. Used by him, for him, etc.

This new one was almost a SOCIAL ability. Tithe had to be accepted by someone who willingly gave consent. It would take a small portion of their potential, of what they were, of what they gained in life, and deliver it to him. It was a choice.

In return, they would gain a sort of connection to him. Allowing him to work through them, help them, give guidance.

And not just 'Eat your Vegetables', or boring stuff like that. Not just remote healing through 'Recovery' or allowing them to use 'Harmony' to learn languages.

When magic, technology, rituals, or abilities tried to force changes on his follower... he could determine the effects. Or just use his own energy to throw the whole mess away. When powers developed or grew, he could help give his followers self control or grant direction and development.

And this energy taken from his people, it could be gathered by his followers as well if others also had faith. This second level of connection was far weaker, but he could still grant minor boons or partial use of his powers. Even without meeting someone, if their belief grew strong enough a connection could eventually reach the same level as the initial 'Tithe' followers.

Odd.

Strange as it was, he was still surprised that after literal months of effort and training, of all the ideas he had or plans he made, all that time being a soul, refining souls, examining beings... this was the first time that he had experienced actual Spiritual energy.

This Realm was faith based.

It was a strange experience.

After realizing that part of his soul was just... floating out there, in danger of being examined or left behind when he moved on... Well, instead of carefully monitoring the gate's connection, he permitted a full binding.

'Conversion' and 'Consume' both were chosen and activated, and Squishy reached into the Gate and sort of... pulled.

Everything... vibrated.

Now the shrine soul gate just started spewing white flowers. Each one a small portion of faith, of 'kami', which meant spirit, essences, gods, or all kinds of things. The white flowers were slowly gathering under the floating shrine, until the Shinto Gate seemed to rest on a hill covered in white beauty.

And with 'Tithe' now socketed, a glowing white charm on those white strings... the power currently being converted into raw magic by 'Consume' was now giving a portion of power directly to the Gate. Even some of the energy from 'Transfer' and 'Conversion' was being drawn away.

As he watched the snow globe slowly spin, another white flower exited the portal and fell to the mounds below.

Huh.

He shouldn't have to burn this new soul to make it more stable, right? Cause... those flowers seemed flammable.

Squishy assured him that whatever this 'kami' stuff was, it was far more stable and yet more... ethereal? Abstract? Conceptual?

It would handle Abyss Flames even better than the magic coating. Then again, the magic handled the Abyss by sacrificing itself. Not really self sustaining.

In fact, unlike regular magic, the more kami one gathered the more external kami was drawn in. Faith grew faith. In fact, faith to beings or ideals similar to his own would be more likely to choose him than another if he was closer or cared more than the deities mentioned... or if they didn't exist.

This was partly why beliefs tend to gather into Pantheons rather than just brutal rulers or dictators of spiritual might. Why beliefs can grow into deities themselves rather than spread over millions of minor beings of belief. Mostly.

Ah, he was letting 'Harmony' get into his head too easily. He relaxed his laser focus and tried to just let the new process happen and stabilize.

Suddenly another hug. "Squeak!"

"Right, he also makes cute noises when you hug him. Are you sure he is a Baku Father in Law? I don't remember this flower thing."

He blinked. And dozens of actual flowers in the real world fell off, letting his trunk move the rest so he could see through the mound of vegetation.

The poor woman holding him was now standing in a small pile of... well, it wasn't pure kami. It was actual white flowers with no stems or leaves, full of energy, just being converted from the ambient faith flowing through the room.

What was this, a shrine or something?

...Oh.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sota raised a hand. "Does this mean he isn't potty trained?"

Kagome sighed, rubbing her forehead. Thankfully her cat Buyo wasn't in here, or he would be jumping right in to make this flower mess worse. "I'll get the broom."

Grandpa hummed. "No, I think we should keep these. I can feel strong, pure energy held within those blossoms. Might even make good material for talisman creation. Asako, could you please put the Baku down on that cushion and get the larger storage box from the supply room? I'll examine these closer."

Kagome watched her mother cheerfully leave the elephant thing behind and head off to get some storage.

The squeaking, adorably furry, apparently lazy elephant thing. Baku. Whatever.

Even as she tried to focus on the now resumed lecture, the urge to squeeze the small thing a few times grew stronger.

That squeak was adorable.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had never appreciated the difficulties in being short.

He waddled through the shrine, thankfully most doors were left open. Was that a Japanese thing, or were his hosts just being helpful?

Anyway, it avoided his biggest hurdle, door handles.

He also found walking to be strange.

If a normal cat or dog was his size, they would be able to slink or paddle along no issue. But he wasn't exactly built for defense or battle.

He weighed like... four or five times less than one would expect. Like a very heavy balloon.

Also, if he wasn't careful, each step would make a tiny 'bumph' of air escape his tiny trunk.

Which was... less than manly.

Then again, this was like the third or fourth form without genitalia. At least he was sexually consistent. Male, straight. Female (Mental Narwhal was curious), lesbian. Nonsexual, female oriented.

So... at least he wasn't having identity issues? Probably? Or at least, no issues with whom he was attracted to, even if his body kept changing species.

But what was odd was the absolute lack of sexual interest now that he was a Baku. It may be related to his species or the heavy need for spiritual power, but right now he was cuddle oriented.

If he was in Worm, being snuggled by an attractive older woman like Kagome's mom would have been a 10/10 experience. Here, in this body? Well, it was nice but not really stimulating like he would expect it to be.

It was a massive difference compared to the My Little Pony Realm (Sexual Freedom is Magic?) he had just visited.

He meandered into another room, trying to stay near the edges. He kept spawning white flower blossoms from the local faith, and if he wasn't careful he would leave a slipping hazard.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kagome sighed as she finished what homework her friends from school had collected.

Seriously, those girls were both a blessing and a curse. Sure they helped out a lot and helped her stay on top of her studies, but they also gossiped and made outlandish tales... that they believed.

They were convinced that all those trips to the past (Fighting demons and saving the future!) were actually a collection of horrifying and embarrassing personal issues that she was overcoming.

Really, telling those cute boys that she had explosive flatulence!? Off and on for FIVE MONTHS!?

She didn't know what was worse. Those who avoided her due to those rumors, or those who were supportive!

When a handsome boy secretly started to confess to her about his own debilitating diarrhea episodes, it took everything she had to accept his condolences with grace and good will. And as bad as it made her feel, she couldn't treat him the same after finding out that he had a custom tailor to help stitch the massive clothing holes caused by his condition.

Knowing too much could be painful.

As she absently piled her notes and work together, she realized that she had been staring at the tiny elephant thing as it poomphed around the edges of the room. Leaving a white flower trail.

Huh. And her normal 'after work' headache hadn't shown up. The blossoms smelled nice too.

She wouldn't trade in her own cat or anything, but this Baku was just so useful!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Was he noticed!?

No, for he was sneaky Adam! Baku of the night!

...But she WAS looking this way...

Just in case, he used his trunk and focused, new blossoms poofing into existence and helping to hide him away.

Stealthily, he snootched his way through a rapidly created flower tunnel. Thanks to the Girls, he knew that this Shrine should have some good stuff to scan outside, and he was on a mission!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kagome watched the tiny pile of flowers sneak toward the edge of the room.

Baku's were weird.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It only took a few hours for him to make his daring escape!

Well, a few hours and one surprise cuddle session with Kagome's mom, who had somehow discovered him.

Anyway, he had escaped!

...It was nice out here.

Summer? This Realm did have seasons, right?

Still, it was lovely.

Especially that trail of sadness, death, and decay over that way.

As his tiny legs pumped with less stealth in mind, he realized accidentally two important facts.

First, he not only felt like he was far lighter than he should be, but he was indeed balloon like in weight.

Secondly, while his body ignored the wind and everything (How!?), it did NOT ignore his foot power.

So now he was drifting. In a that-a-way direction. Slightly tilted.

No real sense of danger, and again, the wind (which wasn't slow) was being ignored.

But he was also floating in a near-uncontrolled manner.

Just... huh.

Well, it was roughly the right direction. So... why not?

He absently used his ears to tilt back to an upright position. Was this where that Dumbo idea came from? He was too worried to actually try and gain more height. What if he just went up till space? No clue if physics would actually pull him down directly. Or ever.

So he literally drifted slowly along.

Sneaking was faster than this.

Still, life tend to be a high speed, high risk ride. No reason not to take it slow once in a while.

...Really slow.

It was only when he felt Asako pulling him from the air that he realized he had drifted asleep.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Dragon growled. "We HAVE to tell him how to fix this. He needs more spiritual energy, with less magic being converted directly. At least until this form stabilizes. He has to be told."

Twilight whined. "But look at how cute he is! He makes little poof sounds when he walks!"

Nightmare Moon and Narwhal were too busy cooing over the images and videos to join in.

Dragon snorted. "And what if a demon shows up!?"

Twilight waved a hoof. "Then he will turn into a giant fire covered tree-Baku and 'Convert' them into purified energy. And likely 'Consume' them."

The cyborg sight. "That shouldn't be his first response to danger."

Nightmare Moon squealed. "Oh he's asleep again! And floating!"

Narwhal jabbed the display. "Look, his ears are making him do a barrel roll!"

Dragon sighed as Twilight ran over to join the viewing party. At least she was mature enough to save copies of all this for later, private cute-appreciation times.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Asako gently tapped the floating elephant thing, watching it float towards father-in-Law.

He also watched, fascinated. "No, never heard of this either. Normally when a spiritual creature wanted to defy gravity, it would shift to a spiritual form. Not just... float off like that."

Kagome entered, holding her spiritual notes from that morning... and paused. "Grandpa, why is the Baku flying?" She blinked. "And... is it snoring?"

Asako smiled at her daughter. "Ah, he seemed to have tuckered himself out exploring today. Please be gentle with playtime until he has time to get some more sleep."

Sota, who had TRIED to ignore the tiny demon in his house and stayed in his own room, came in with a sigh. If nothing else, he didn't want to be the one family member to NOT see a sleeping elephant fly.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Right, 'Harmony' had gathered several points of interest.

Outside there was a large tree, very old, with all kinds of talismans on it. Those would need scanning. The tree itself had something... something. Spiritually significant things happened here.

Secondly, there was a well. A STRANGE well. It was the source of the delicious decay, the ancient and fresh death, the black light of entropy. Also, a small scent of time magic, and the likely cause of him being pulled to this house in the first place.

Third of all, there was a spiritual barrier over the whole shrine, but it was only partially formed and reinforced by humans directly. Instead it was maintained by a pool of belief, one formed both by the humans and spirits that resided here and the belief of humans and spirits from the world as a whole.

The barrier existed because people and things EXPECTED one to be here. And then those theoretical shields and deterrents were 'repaired' and 'patched' to the point where eventually they would be purely cast via charms and spiritual frameworks. And as a creation of mortal belief, faith in the reliability of the new methods would fall, opening issues that faith would cover.

It was a weird system, where expectations become reality only to fail (also due to expectations), only to repeat.

In general, it was a decent defense. With a priest or shrine maiden, it could reach god level, able to block the change of reality itself. Without it, less than tissue paper.

So good and bad points, really.

On a similar pattern, those flower blossoms he was dropping were creating a series of barriers on their own. They didn't need kami, they were made of the stuff. So the layers of flowers that the old man hadn't collected were already reinforcing and expanding the shrine protections to silly levels.

Spiritual magic was truly a belief based power. It could empower an entity to deity level or cast them to be forgot and weak. In a way, his current setup was very ideal here. At least from what he could tell, he may be one of the very few creatures that could reinforce his own existence via his new spiritual Soul.

Those white blossoms in his soul were a constant slow source of faith, ones that grew even with no formal worshipers. Unable to be killed, converted, or lost.

So... a hard currency of power, as it were.

These three things would need investigation. Eventually.

He absently swapped to 'Recovery' to give Kagome's mother a quick tuneup. Good head scritches needed rewards after all.

Instantly, his mind filled with the biology of the entire family and their cat. His magic soul swapped from 'Harmony' to 'Growth', and 'Tithe' seemed unusually active.

Weak muscles. Bruised skin. Old bones. Weak eyesight. Badly healed bone cracks. Vitamin deficiency. Even as his power scanned and repaired them all, his power was latching onto something larger. Hurt. Untreated.

Spiritual wounds.

His eyes glowed with blue fire... as did all the flowers.

His power was using them as amplifiers. Connections. Religious donations or tributes even.

Even as the two adults, two children, and one cat rapidly reached absurd levels of health and stability, his power reached into the spiritual gashes.

Kagome was torn inside. Something that had been a part of her had been torn asunder. It wasn't lethal, but no wonder any little issue would blow up into rage or fear. Instability caused by spiritual damage.

He wasn't sure how he was helping. Memories of death and sadness were not being hidden or removed. Lives were not being rebuilt.

But these people were being wrapped in his own spiritual power... and it was helping them. Fueling their natural recovery. Helping their mind and heart cope with stress, sadness, and loss.

...

He was hungry.