As they reached the gate, the wolves stopped at a great distance from it. The room opened to a wide bridge sitting over a bottomless chasm, on the other side, a giant suit of armor leaning against its sword could be seen by a slight flame of a torch, it was bigger than the wolf as it was almost twenty meters tall.
"Go destroy it!" The monster ordered before pushing Avis onto the bridge, unarmed and one-armed.
"I-I can't do it! I don't have any weapons!"
The wolf didn't respond, but its eyes were fixated on him.
Having no other option, he followed the beast's orders and walked forward. At the halfway point, a rumble came from the suit, like it hadn't moved in a very long time, and its body sprang to life, lifting its greatsword with both hands and slowly walking towards Avis.
Avis called out his invisible arm, trying and somewhat managing to make it work as the lost hand, but he was stuck in place. He didn't know how to fight living armor, even if he had a sword, it would be useless against the thick metal.
"What kind of monster even is this?"
"It's a spirit-possessed armor, the one who possessed it was, unfortunately, the one who locked me up here, so it has a strong grudge against me."
"Oh, great, so I have to fight something strong enough to lock you up here, this is out of my league!"
"All you have to do is absorb its spirit, you stupid child! Get it and I will be free!"
The armor kept advancing, getting dangerously close to Avis.
'All I have to do is touch it! This is possible then, I have to hope that it's slow enough for me to get it.'
Avis launched into an attack, the armor didn't seem to react, though, so he kept going, and then he descended on its legs, trying to grasp at the spirit, but without him realizing, the giant armor launched a kick and sent him flying to the back of the cave, almost falling into the abyss if the dark wolf hadn't caught him.
"You damn useless… Have to do some… I'll make…. Regret this…" As Avis slipped in and out of consciousness he could barely hear the beast mutter something.
He was brought to the back of the cave, where the wolf made itself a bed into the skull of whatever giant creature lived here before, making it into a bowl.
When he recovered, Avis stood face to face with the wolves, but the dark one stood behind the other, as he was now able to see their enormous scars that seemed just like his, and from their foreheads, previously invisible eyes opened.
"Y-you! You have the same thing as me!"
"I did see the eyes on your… Chest? You call it, but I can assure you they did not come from the same creature. It is indeed most strange that they are similar, but..."
"But?"
"Ours mostly have the same properties, they let us see spirit energy, they let us steal and control other's souls, but they won't let us use them to full capacity, your's however, is inexplicable, the only reason I can think of is that you are an absorber… And you having these powers is frightening, really… And that is why I decided to let you use my soul to get out of here. All I want in exchange is for my freedom once your body perishes, or a hundred years pass."
"That doesn't seem like a fair deal to you, I reckon you're getting something out of it too, or I lose something just as valuable."
The wolf looked away.
"Once you absorb my soul… Your body will suffer radical changes, thankfully in my weakened state, they won't be too extreme, but you won't be able to blend into human society easily. And if I'm taken out of you… You better not find out what would happen."
"I see… I'm not sure I even want to see humans again, anyway, but what will happen to your body in this situation? I'm no expert in spirits, but just giving it away doesn't seem good for you."
"You needn't worry yourself with such foolish thoughts, any wolf can be a vessel that would take me back to full strength."
"That's good, but tell me, what is an absorber? Is it the kind of monster I am?"
"I am not sure myself, but I do know some things about them. They are a superior race that ruled human civilization when I was imprisoned, they were few, well, a few hundred, all worriors, and each one of them was as strong, if not stronger than me. I believe they were fowl creatures despite their amazing powers, but even so, I was forced to rely on them plenty in my life, and I am now again forced to bow to them. Tell me, will you accept my proposal?"
"This is a little offputting… But sure, rotting in here with you doesn't seem very nice anyways. So, how do we do this?"
"I, the demigod Fenrir, accept that this absorber will have my soul for the next one hundred years, in exchange for my freedom. If the other party will accept the contract…"
"I do." Avis said. "Wait, demi~..."
A warm light came out from behind the eyes of the Fenrirs, covering Avis for a moment as his body was getting hotter.