Spirit Bound

"Enslave?" Jody was startled as he held the purring little Twilight Sphinx cub.

The enslavement function stripped the beast of all of its blood and essence before reconstructing a clone whose sole purpose would be serving Jody. Who could ruthlessly enslave something so cute? It had even given him its brand.

Wasn't this basically his daughter now?

"You refine not only its blood and essence but also its soul. The benefit of letting the grimoire refine its soul is far more then what you've imagined. This is a true Origin God Beast, born from Twilight itself. You could assimilate its bloodline. You can be a catman. How mighty would you be then? Don't be soft," came the emotionless voice of Sylvester via telepathy.

He sounded like a devil seducing Jody with evil thoughts. But these evil thoughts also seemed kind of rude. A catman? This bastard kept calling him a pussy!

"I seem to remember that I can form a contract without refining its soul?" asked Jody, and he immediately heard a disdainful snort in his mind.

[Request to initiate a standard beast contract rather than a slave contract.]

[If the contract beast's strength surpasses the host's, the contract can be forcibly broken.]

[As a result, the host will then suffer severe soul damage.]

[As the contract beast's strength currently surpasses the host's, this is not recommended.]

[Continue?]

"What do you think, X?" Jody asked Xavier via telepathy.

Xavier may be a bit of a character, but he was often the most level-headed among the present minds. Jody had already started treating these two guardians of his as partners in this strange new world. He would, of course, seek Xavier's opinion. Especially so in any matters related to the grimoire.

"There are benefits to be obtained with either course of action. You won't suffer a loss with us here either way," replied Xavier via telepathy.

Xavier knew far more about the capabilities of a grimoire than Sylvester. However, he didn't intend to tell Jody that the soul brand Eureka had just given him would be obliterated if her soul was refined. Although Xavier didn't say it directly, Jody caught his hidden meaning: there was no real reason to kill the beast and enslave its soul, and there could even be some hidden benefits if he didn't.

However, there was indeed a slight risk without enslaving the god beast. Ultimately, the choice was his own to make.

"Continue," Jody gave the grimoire the green light.

The next instant, the fourth page lit up as mysterious fate runes flew out of the page and surrounded the Twilight Sphinx, Eureka. The runes chained together as they wrapped all around Eureka, sinking into her body. Eureka was shaking and letting out contented purrs. A strange rune was glowing in her forehead's center on her face which oddly resembled a little girl.

The rune flew out and landed on Jody's glabella before melting within. Then the page emitted a purple glow, and Eureka disappeared. Once the light faded, there was a picture of a majestic-looking adult Twilight Sphinx, surrounded by a misty nimbus cloud, a crimson-colored third eye shining on its forehead. The clouds in the picture weren't stationary, and the page felt alive. Its vibrant pelt, which was typically gold in color, would sometimes shift to different colors. Sometimes baby blue, sometimes crimson, but there was a hint of bright gold in each color.

'Summon Eureka!'

Jody felt the mana in his body drain out by more than half. The [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire] lit up, and Eureka jumped out of the fourth page and hopped right into his embrace. She rubbed her face against his as she purred.

[Summon Status: Infant Stage - Spirit Bound]

[Summon Time: ∞ + ∞ = ∞ ]

The current status of Jody's contract beast appeared in his mind. Also, Jody felt indescribably close to Eureka, now. Almost as if they were blood kin. Yet, for some reason, he couldn't understand the bit for summoning time. What were those symbols?

'Summon Guardians!'

The [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire] flipped back to the second and third pages, which glowed brightly with violet light. This time Jody felt his remaining mana deplete by one-third as beautiful green and black flames danced into the air, and a majestic sword whistled as it slashed out through the smoke, landing directly in front of Jody.

Jody's eyes brightened, looking at the glorious claymore. It was plain and unadorned but still looked majestic and overbearing. The sword had a fiercely sharp blade that was so bright red it seemed to be made of scorching hot metal. There was a red gem in the center of the guard, and inside the gem, one could see a little puppy boy sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed.

Behind the sword, the flames receded into the small body of a sky wolf pup. Summoning his own Guardians was apparently far easier than summoning other creatures, as the energy expended was far less. Summoning both guardians would leave him with 83% of his mana if it was full. Even when he summoned them both simultaneously, it was still less than what it took to summer Eureka.

[Guardian Summon Status: Infant Stage]

[Guardian 1 Compatibility Rating: 57%]

[Guardian 2 Compatibility Rating: 33%]

[No Skills Unlocked]

[Summon Time: 5 minutes]

"The summoning time is still so short," grumbled Jody.

"This is because you are weak," said Sylvester indifferently as he casually defied gravity.

"Oh, pretty lucky, she made a spirit-bound contract with you." Xavier marveled via telepathy.

Sylvester had forbidden him from taking his true form. His voice sounded happily surprised. However, Jody was frowning. Using the summon function for anything but his guardians took far too much of his mana. It was over half! This was rather impractical.

"She's an origin god beast. Do you think it would be easy to summon her? It will only get harder. However, since she's spirit-bound, it means once she's summoned, she can stay by your side as long as you want. That you don't have to worry about," Xavier reassured him. "Unlike us, who are souls bound by fate, you must grow stronger before we can truly help you. As your strength increases, our compatibility rating will also improve. You're simply too weak for now. Even if you can summon us with the grimoire, what can we do? You can't even lift Fenrir yet."

Jody listened to Xavier's words while suddenly realizing why those symbols were familiar. It was a lemniscate.

"Maybe if you took your Sage formula seriously enough, you wouldn't have this problem." Sylvester snorted at Xavier, then used his words to kick Jody while the latter was down.

"You mean to say that if I had enslaved Eureka instead, then I would only be able to summon her after getting stronger?" Jody finally figured out what seemed suspicious. "You tried to trick me, you dirty dog!"

"You!" Sylvester's fur stood on end in anger, but he swiftly calmed down. "Hmph. Your slow progress will be the death of us anyway. I sought only to motivate you."

Jody frowned but didn't know quite how to respond. It wasn't that Jody had been intentionally slacking on studying his Sage formula. He was just worried. At the speed at which he forms energy, wouldn't Jody draw endless suspicions if he did it openly?

His experience as a spy resulted in him being excessively cautious towards certain things. Not to mention his mother's constant warnings lately. How could it be okay to show off so much while he was still so weak? How could he be blind to the enemies his parents had or the unstable state of affairs within the House? Merely since Jody was currently a child, there was nothing he could do for these adult problems.

He was presently weak and irrelevant.

Worst of all, soon, he wouldn't even be cute and little anymore. Titanic Rage was bound to make him look far older than kids his age. He already looked like a pre-teen. Because of this, he had also slowed down his Titan formula as well.

How tragic was this?

'It was fun while it lasted, of course. But I have to get stronger.'

All Jody could do now was raise his strength discreetly.

For this reason, Jody had not practiced the Bright Star: Battle Book since he had returned to Saint Anubis City with his mother. He didn't want to cause another commotion like before. Jody shook his head and smiled wryly after remembering those events. Though the end result was thrilling, it nonetheless proved that relying on Sylvester's currently unstable ability was dangerous and shouldn't be done lightly. It was as good as painting a target on his forehead.

"It's too dangerous, Sly. I'd rather gather a bit more power first. I feel like I'm close to comprehending the nascent level of titanic rage force!" exclaimed Jody in excitement.

"Titanic rage force? Are you some barbarian war god? Don't you have the Twilight system? You don't even need to comprehend it yourself! Furthermore, do you even dare to disappoint your mommy by growing too big too quickly? Quit being such a pussy, catman. How will you ever get stronger if you're so scary?" barked Sylvester as he landed on Jody's head.

"I feel rather strong at this moment," Jody's face was complacent, secretly proud of himself for not assimilating the sphinx blood.

He had considered it...being a twilight sphinx sounded awesome. But he knew this puppy would call him Catman for life. He felt like he had the right to brag a little. That battle against the stupid big bird proved he no longer had the same limits. And was the result of rage!