Taming the monkey

Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosive sounds echoed in the forest as a giant monkey spirit punched the ground, trying to kill Nier.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Nier leapt left and right, dodging successfully. At the same time, foggy clouds began to spread, concealing his figure.

"Rrrahhh!!" The crazed red monkey spirit took to stomping the ground in fury. It had a high temper naturally. Now it was even forcefully summoned. In the golden era/age where all spirits were laying low or playing dead; the dumb bandits had forcefully summoned this spirit. It was enraged! Seeing only Nier in front of it, it decided to vent all its rage on him.

Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar! Suddenly multiple lion roars echoed and several black lions emerged from the fog leaping towards the crazed red monkey. They attacked its feet, arms and one even leapt up towards its throat.

Chomp! The crazed red monkey moved its mouth and directly bit the black lion, destroying it. The black spirit force dissipated immediately. Meanwhile, the lions were continuously biting and ripping chunks of monkey's flesh away. It roared in pain and fury and started to deal with them one at a time. It punched and pulled, stomped and roared. Often using its abundant spirit force to create powerful moves.

Meanwhile, Nier stayed in the fog, focusing. He had spent nearly all of his spirit force to manifest so many black lions. Even if he was an ancient demon, his body was still human and had an upper limit to the spirit force that he could manifest.

But currently Nier was preparing to go into overdrive. He intended to use the meager amount of ancient demonic power that his soul could safely unleash. He focused with his eyes closed. Yan was right by his side, prepared to pull him away in defense if needed.

Bam! Bam! Two more black lions were punched and obliterated by the crazed red monkey. Next, it opened its menacing big mouth and roared, hurling a red beam of spirit force, destroying the last black lion. Then it turned towards the fog where it could sense its prey to be hiding. Red spirit force danced on the monkey's body, resembling flames. It opened its mouth again.

Fwooosh!! A thick pillar of red spirit force shot towards the foggy clouds. It could blow up that entire area to smithereens but it didn't! Crazed red monkey was puzzled. It continued to hurl the spirit force beam but the fog remained unharmed. Soon a black warp emerged from within the fog. First, it sucked-in the foggy clouds, revealing that the red spirit force beam had also been getting devoured by that black warp. That warp was swirling on Nier's chest. Crazed red monkey's eyes widened. It immediately cancelled its move but still felt a great suction force from the warp. The red flames surrounding its body were pulled towards it continuously. Crazed red monkey felt its strength declining sharply!

"Graaah!!! Wha-what is this!? What are you?!" Crazed red monkey shouted through spirit sense. Spirit sense could act like telepathy and also enabled the users to be able to understand any unknown language. It was a miraculous thing. One of the reasons why spiritists were respected and spirits were worshipped (in ancient times). Crazed red monkey's rage was slowly getting replaced by unknown fear.

"Heheh. You still haven't realized?" Nier asked through spirit sense as he continued to absorb crazed red monkey's spirit force. At the same time, Nier's red eyes were glowing brighter and brighter. The white area of the eyes was completely engulfed by the red light.

"D-demon! An ancient demon!" Crazed red monkey finally realized. It had messed with the wrong entity.

"Curses! What bad luck is this!?" Crazed red monkey thought and tried to flee but instead, its entire body began to move towards Nier. The black warp was like a black hole, continuously getting stronger! At this rate, soon the monkey would be devoured whole!

"S-stop! Stop, please! I admit defeat!" The crazed red monkey pleaded.

"Hmph! Good. I am not without mercy. Stupid monkey…kneel and I will spare your life!" Nier said while smirking.

"Y-yes! Yes!" Crazed red monkey immediately knelt and placed its palms down, bowing its head towards Nier. Yan was stunned, looking at this scene.

"Oh great ancient demon, please spare this foolish spirit's life." Crazed red monkey said.

Immediately Nier cancelled his move and the black warp disappeared. The crazed red monkey's head was low as it began to kowtow towards Nier. It didn't notice that Nier was sweating profusely and breathing hard. Using his ancient demonic power was too taxing on his frail human body. Even half a minute more and Nier would have collapsed. He was truly faking it when he spoke imposingly to the crazed red monkey. Luckily, the spirit submitted to him before things could go wrong.

"The horizon is turning white…" Nier uttered.

"Oh no! Gods! They are coming for me!" Crazed red monkey shouted and fidgeted. It was scared shitless. In front of it was an ancient demon, and behind it was a God, rapidly approaching. Death was guaranteed!

"Ooh-ooh! Eeeh-eeh! Lord great ancient demon, please save me! I don't want to die ooh ooh!" The crazed red monkey pleaded. It was crying a river already. It didn't know that Nier didn't even have the power to kill him, let alone kill or even fight a God.

"….." Nier thought swiftly. It was not wise for him to stand up to a God for a spirit. Nier was not physically strong enough to even endure the full aura of a God, let alone handle their attacks.

"Monkey, I will not blow my cover for you. I have infiltrated this mortal realm for a quest. You shall not impede me. So scram." Nier said.

"Oh no! Lord ancient demon, please don't be so heartless. I will be a loyal servant to you! Please save me! I cannot outrun a God!" Crazed red monkey begged.

"Humph!" Nier snorted and frowned, thinking something. His red eyes gleamed at once.

"Alright monkey, there is only one way left for you then. You must die." Nier said.

"D-die?" Crazed red monkey was dumbstruck.

"Leave your body and let your soul enter my body. Become my spirit and this way no one can harm you." Nier said.

This suggestion was deeper than it seemed. Nier was basically telling the crazed red monkey to forget about freedom and become his slave! The crazed red monkey would be Nier's spirit and will never be able to break free. It was just how hunter spiritists gained their spirits back in the day. They would kill a spirit and absorb some of its soul or fuse with its body parts to gain its powers. Technically, the spirit they then manifest would be far weaker than the original spirit and not all the moves of the spirit would be inherited by the hunter. They would have to experiment and train themselves to gain a proper understanding of the spirit.

"Since your whole soul will be entering me, you will retain your memories, nature, power and techniques. Of course, you won't be able to display your powers without my will but it's better than dying entirely, right?" Nier said.

"…I'll do it…" Crazed red monkey said and sighed. Becoming an ancient demon's spirit was better than dying a dog's death.

Fwoosh! Red spirit force burst out of crazed red monkey's body and its soul directly left to enter Nier's body.

Whooom! Nier felt a heavy shock and wobbled as the crazed red monkey entered through his chest.

"Nier! Are you alright?" Yan asked and supported him.

"I'm okay." Nier took a deep breath and said before staring at the crazed red monkey's giant body.

"…"

—————

Virrrrrrrrrrr…. A cryogenic engine hub was making humming sounds as a khatola flew past the speed of sound, moving towards the ground. Khatolas were flying ships that belonged to the Gods. Inside this khatola, a graceful beautiful goddess was sitting on a throne observing the visuals in front of her. She was tall with long legs, slim waist and a sharp nose. Her blue eyes and blonde hair were glistening in the light of the screens before her. She was staring at the continuously blinking red dot on a map. Suddenly the red dot disappeared.

"Eh? It disappeared? This much spirit force that could stir up my domain's sensors has got to be that of a real spirit! But how can a spirit disappear so quickly? Was it a spatial type spirit?" The goddess muttered and increased the speed of her khatola, soon reaching the place where the red dot was last noticed.

As she descended from the sky, she was left stunned. An entire small mountain had been reduced to rubble. There was a large crater on the ground and near it was a huge corpse of a red colored monkey.

Light screens appeared before the goddess and a large amount of information started to appear on them.

"So, it was called Crazed Red Monkey huh? It was not a weak spirit. Rather a berserk one. Who or what could possibly kill it? There are residues of black spirit force… Another spirit? But my sensors picked up signs of only one spirit. Hmm…a spiritist then? A powerful one!"

Goddess' eyes gleamed as she raised her hands and several mechanical bugs flew out from her sleeves, flying away in all ten directions.

"Search the entire region for black spirit force spiritists. I Ceyda must recruit this person!" Goddess Ceyda said, grinning before moving back to her khatola.

—————

"Nier, why are we hiding here? And what happened back there? How did that spirit die so suddenly? You were so great fighting it though!" Yan asked one thing after another. A vein popped up on Nier's forehead.

"I will explain later. I need to meditate first. Make sure you keep this area under fog at all times. Use the chi stones." Nier said and sat cross-legged, closing his eyes to meditate.

Yan was oblivious to many things. Nier would need to explain some stuff, but staying hidden from the unknown God lurking nearby and processing his gains was Nier's first priority.

Inside his mind's spiritual space, there was a red monkey floating freely. It looked surprised because in front of it there was a black lion spirit.

"You…you died too?" Crazed red monkey asked.

"No. I'm still alive and dandy. You're the only dead one here, stupid monkey heheh." Black Lion chuckled.

"You! Who are you calling stupid? You're the stupid, stupid. You coward you! Ooh-ooh!" Crazed red monkey pointed finger at black lion in a fit.

"Silence…" Nier uttered with narrowed eyes. The two spirits went silent immediately.

"Monkey, now you're bound to me. Cough up your methods." Nier demanded.

"Y-yes master." Crazed red monkey said and opened its mouth. An orb of red spirit force came out of it and went into Nier's spiritual image. His image closed eyes and began to absorb all the information.

The spiritual space went silent. The two spirits didn't dare make a sound. As such they began to converse in signs and expressions.

Turns out, crazed red monkey and black lion spirit were actually rivals. Once upon a time, they had competed over territory. Then again, it was a long-long time ago. Now, although they seemed to be quarreling, they were internally pleased to see one another. Spirits had all been in hiding for a long time now. The fear of getting hunted was too intense. As such, the crazed red monkey felt happy seeing the black lion spirit.

Soon Nier's image opened its eyes and disappeared. In the outside world Nier awoke from meditation and pondered some things while inside his spiritual space, the two spirits got into a detailed discussion regarding Nier.

"So why am I spending the precious chi stones to maintain this fog?" Yan asked as soon as Nier awoke.

Chi stones were costly things. They originated from the ground where natural chi was most abundant and would seep inside special stones and turn them into chi stones. This chi could be extracted by cultivators. Additionally, it could be used as an energy source in machinations. In the current golden era, chi stones were only used in machinations since cultivators had all been eradicated by the Gods.

Machinations in turn were basically just mechanical arrays used for defense, transportation and miscellaneous works.

Nier had asked Yan to keep up the fog to obscure their current location. They were in a cave inside a valley.

"We're hiding from whichever God has appeared at the bandits' location." Nier said.

"A god has appeared!?" Yan exclaimed. "Why are we hiding then? Let's go greet them!"

"Shut up and listen carefully. I thought you would have understood things by now." Nier frowned.

"Hey, watch your tongue!" Yan pouted. Nier ignored her and continued speaking.

"Since I'm stuck with you, I might as well tell you things that can help avoid unnecessary trouble." Nier said and then explained the truth about his adopted family being heretical. Yan was shocked but she didn't make a scene. She felt that Ra'z was a great man who risked his life to protect the village too many times. She didn't care if Ra'z was heretical and not a hunter.

But since Nier was adopted, he shouldn't have been able to inherit the black lion spirit from Ra'z. But since he did inherit it, this proves that Ra'z's lineage was that of heretic spiritists. This was a crime punishable by death!

"And so now you know why we must hide from the Gods. They might know that the black lion spirit is still alive and thus deduce that I'm a heretical spiritist. I'll be slain right away!" Nier spoke. "Although chances are slim that this fog would be able to cover for us, there's still a possibility. So keep using your foggy clouds move."

"Hmm hmm. I understand." Yan said and nodded.

"There's also the matter regarding my fey bloodline sigh. I can't change the color of my eyes." Nier frowned.

"I like your eyes." Yan spoke softly while gazing into his eyes.

"…" Nier fell silent for a while.

"Let's just hide here and wait. I can sense the divine aura of that God near us. I'll know when it's safe for us to exit." He said and resumed his meditation to recover his spirit force. The fight with crazed red monkey had completely exhausted him.

Yan meanwhile sighed and stared at him with doe-like eyes.