243: A Plague of Phantoms XXVII

"This one, Astral series, version two: Solaris Wolfen." I exclaimed. Astrid looked up at the sign and cocked her head to the side.

"Solaris Wolfen…I don't remember ever seeing one of those in the warehouse." Astrid said.

"I only made eleven of them and you, Damon and Alberto were at the boutique getting your uniforms tailored when we got them out of the tanks." I explained. Astrid nodded and then looked at the gateway. From the outside it looked like a regular empty cage but then again the doorway to the picket dimension wasn't open at the moment.

"So how do we get inside?" Astrid asked. I smirked and held up my hand and pointed to the manacite ring on my middle finger.

"The mana crystal up there is designed to act as a power source for the whole thing and the door. All we need to do is this…" I pulled off the ring and then walked over to the door of the cage. There was a ring sized slot where the keyhole to the lock should have been. I inserted the ring into the slot and the mana crystal at the top of the cage started to glow. "…now you too. The crystal will only let as many people inside as rings inserted into the lock."

Astrid arched a brow at me but did as I instructed. Once her manacite ring was inserted the mana crystal glowed even brighter before a black portal similar to the one created by my void pocket.

"Star Shaper!" Jiggles exclaimed and rushed over to me. He skidded to a stop in front of me and frowned. "Let me go in first! It's my job to protect you!"

"You can't if you do then Astrid won't be able to go in." I said. Jiggles frowned and stomped his foot.

"But you can't trust those evos! I can't let anyone near the Star Shaper I can't trust!" Jiggles griped. I frowned and narrowed my eyes at the Ogrest.

"The only reason you don't trust them is because they called you fat." I said.

"AND I'M NOT FAT! I'M CHUNKY!" Jiggles bellowed. I covered my ears and groaned.

"Jiggles stay here! I have evos with me that can and will protect me of something happens!" I commanded. Jiggles deflated instantly in the face of my order and stepped to the side. I looked to Astrid and motioned for her to follow.

I stepped through the portal, feeling like I was falling for a split second before I made to the other side. The inside of the Solaris Wolfen pocket dimension was vastly different from the outside world. A vast and seemingly endless plains sprawled out before me with a bright and nearly blinding sun shining down on me. Astrid came through right after me and had to cover her eyes from the brightness of the sun.

"What the…?" Astrid gasped.

"The mana crystal at the top of the gates makes a ideal environment for whatever evo is housed inside. Similar to the biomes that our farm crystals make for our evos." I explained.

The entrance of the Solaris Wolfen environment sat on top of a small hill overlooking a small valley in the plains that a pack of ten Solaris Wolfen lounged about in. I frowned for a-second when I saw that there was only ten of the evo when there should have been eleven until I noticed a solitary evo watching the other from the top of the valley directly across from us. It was laying down in a lazy and authoritative manor, like a alpha.On noticing Astrid and I it stood and narrowed it's eye's at Astrid and I.

"Is that…?" Astrid started when she saw the lone evo and gasped when it stood to full height.

"The Solaris wolfen…yep." I said.

The Solaris Wolfen the combination of a Grey wolf, frilled basilisk lizard, condor, and hyena. It looked like a six and a half foot tall wolf with massive wings. It's fur was a deep red and had a slight shimmering quality to it. That was because their fur wasn't actually fur, it was individual strands that were made of crystal filaments that looked like fur. In natural sunlight the strands glowed with rainbow light which is them absorbing sunlight.

The alpha Solaris Wolfen snapped its wings open and flew over to Astrid and I. It landed a few feet away from me and regarded me with a slight bow of its head.

"Star Shaper. I did not know you were coming." The Solaris wolfen said. I pointed to Astrid who seemed captivated by the tall evo.

"I promised her a evo and I figured one of you guys would probably be the best match for her." I said then reached over and closed Astrid's mouth, which she left ganging open slightly. She looked a little embarrassed as the Solaris Wolfen regarded her.

"She seems…different than the care takers that normally come in here." The evo said, hiding a slight tone of disapproval. The Solaris Wolfen folded his wings and knelt his head down to sniff Astrid. "Ahh…splicer…female…you may enter."

"Ummm...thank you?" Astrid replied, glancing over at me. The Alpha Solaris Wolfen made a huffing noise at Astrid.

"Female, you should know my kin are all proud evos. The Star Shaper has named our kind: Solaris Wolfen. Bright and unyielding as the sun. They will not accept a weak or timid master." The Alpha Solaris Wolfen warned Astrid. Astrid frowned at the evo, brought out of her captivation by the brashness of the evo.

"Astrid is anything but timid and weak." I said crossing my arms. I looked off into the distance and smirked. "Annoying, hard headed, a little self-righteous maybe…"

"You are the last person that can call someone else annoying Chase. How many Paragon's hate you right now?" Astrid rebutted.

"Only one. The Morgan is dead and Loki is a shitty father so who cares." I said with a shrug.

"You forgot Anansi." Astrid said.

"He's dead too and he didn't know me long enough to hate me." I replied.

"He had a single conversation with you…that's enough." Astrid said drolly then looked out at the other Solaris Wolfen in the valley.

"Hey!" I snapped. Astrid pretended to not hear me and started down towards the valley.

At this point all the Solaris Wolfen in the valley noticed Astrid and mine's intrusion into their pocket dimension. None of them looked hostile in the traditional sense however they all had their eyes set on Astrid as she approach. From my place at the top of the valley I could see looks of uncertainty, curiosity, and annoyance in the eyes of all the evos.

It was true that Solaris Wolfen were proud evos, they were also pack animals and fiercely territorial. A fact that Haws and Louie found out recently when they started leaving food for them. One of the evos attacked Haws because it though he was challenging them, luckily Haws got all those body modifications from me. One quick shock and poking the evos eye out quickly showed them that he wasn't to be messed with. The fact that Jiggles and Cobalti both decapitated that Solaris Wolfen, twice, helped send that point home.

"That female is very brazen Star Shaper." The Alpha Solaris Wolfen commented. I nodded and smirked, my eyes darting to the evo that Haws, Jiggles, and Cobalti had to deal with.

"She's a noble, they're all like that. Which is why I figured the Solaris Wolfen would be a good match. Two strong personalities butting heads often leads to strong bonds." I said. The Alpha's eyes followed mine and I heard a slight huff escape him.

"That one is young, Star Shaper, the last to be taken from his tank. He is also bitter, I won in our fight for supremacy and then shortly after he gets beaten by that caretaker and it's guards." The Alpha said.

"She'll be fine…you'll find I'm less forgiving than Jiggles and Cobalti when someone under my care is attacked." I said softly, letting just a little of my mana flow freely from my body. The act made the Alpha visibly shiver.

I watched closely as Astrid walked towards the pack. All eyes were on here but she acted as if nothing was wrong, she was calm, collected and blatantly observing each evo as she approached. While I was weary about this since that behavior was the thing that made that young Solaris Wolfen think Haws was challenging him I knew that if I just up and told the Solaris Wolfen that she was going to be their master then they wouldn't accept it. Whichever one she selected she would have to win their respect.

Astrid's gaze fell on the Solaris Wolfen that Haws and company had a problem with. The Solaris Wolfen in question was a little bit different than all the other ones in the enclosure. Outside of the sunlight their crystal-fur takes on a deep red color while in the sun it glittered with rainbow colors. At least that's how it is for normal Solaris Wolfen. This Solaris Wolfen had deep blue crystal-fur, it was also bigger than all of the others in the pack save the Alpha. While I would've like to say this odd color was intentional it wasn't it was in fact due to a slip up I made when I was shaping his mana crystal core.

The mistake only caused a slight mutation in its fur color and didn't seem to have any negative psychological effects, apart from the aggression. Something I attribute to it realizing that it looks different from the others in the pack. So it felt a need to prove itself.

Astrid made her way over to the aforementioned Solaris Wolfen and immediately it raised its heckles, baring it's fangs and snarling at Astrid. Astrid looked confused by the sudden hostility and said something to the evo but I wasn't close enough to hear them and borrowing Fours or Alpa'nagia's hearing for that seemed trivial. The Solaris Wolfen's reply must have been a rude one because Astrid's face blushed and she clenched her fists. Her next words were loud and probably cutting but still inaudible to me because of the distance.

"Sounds like the two strong personalities have begun to clash." The Alpha said.

"Yeah…" I said as I popped my claws, just in case.

The Solaris Wolfen's response to Astrid's earlier comment must have been biting as she stood pencil straight and glared at the evo. A response that the evo looked very smug about. The next words that she uttered were loud enough that I was certain that they could be heard all the way back in America.

"HOW DARE YOU EVEN CONSIDER THE FACT THAT I AM FROM ANYTHING ELSE THAN NOBLE BLOOD LET ALONE SPEAK SUCH VILE DRIVLE YOU ASANINE COBALT COYOTE!" Astrid bellowed. I heard the alpha suck in a breath and then take a couple steps closer.

"Solaris Wolfen do not like being called Coyotes." The Alpha said.

"ASANINE COBALT COYOTE!" The Solaris wolfen bellowed back. "I'LL SHOW YOU A COYOTE YOU INDIGNANT BITCH!"

Jumping to its feet the evo snapped open its wings and flapped them, dashing backwards and putting some distance between him and Astrid. He raised his head to the sky and howled, his crystal-fur glowing a bright red as it channeled mana. The whole space instantly felt hotter as flames started dancing around the evo.

However before anything else could happen six swords made of pure light fell from above the Solaris Wolfen and slammed into the ground around it. Chains made of light shot from the hills of the blades and restrained the Solaris Wolfen. The mana channeling that it had been doing was instantly interrupted and the Solaris Wolfen was bound and restrained with little or no effort at all.

I looked to Astrid who had casted not her Family's traditional enchantment spell but rather a modified version of the spell she paid me to make shortly after I opened Sho'lajah Artifact Company. This modified version of the spell she asked for to specifically counteract my mana-nana manipulation spell since that one rendered her family spell useless. It was now able to siphon off mana from who or whatever was trapped by it when they tried to escape and use that mana to create more swords and chains. These changes turned the spell from a enchantment spell to a axiom spell. I didn't learn this until after she tired it out and realized I couldn't get out of it.

The Solaris wolfen tried to escape the spell which was evident by the three new swords that suddenly spawned and further restrained it. My eyes immediately darted to the other Solaris Wolfen, they were all on their feet and looked very agitated by the fact one of their own was getting attacked they kept giving sideways glances over to my direction or more specifically the Alpha's direction. He was keeping his pack in check with but a glare.

"It seems the female has fangs." The Alpha said. I nodded and watched as the Solaris Wolfen tried in vain to get free. By the time it had realized it was trapped more than fifteen swords had been created and chained it in place.

Astrid walked casually over to the evo and grabbed the hilt of one of the light swords, lifting it out of the ground and holding it like a seasoned kknight. This was another feature foolishly added to the spell. She stood in front of the evo and pointed her blade at it's neck. I borrowed Alpa'nagia's hearing now to hear what was being said, since things had escalated.

"Want to say that again, Coyote?" Astrid asked in a cold tone. The Solaris Wolfen looked a lot less confident, most likely because his mana was nearly depleted and wouldn't have enough to heal from an injury. Still the Solaris Wolfen had it's pride.

"Do what you will, Bitch Splicer, I fear nothing." He replied.

"You said it again…" Astrid said softly and then stuck the Solaris wolfen through the chest with the blade.

The blade went through the evo effortlessly but didn't injure it. Astrid stepped back and started casting a utility spell sigil, all of the swords that her previous spell entered I ntje ground suddenly levitated and all jabbed into the Solaris Wolfen at once before shattering into chains of light. The chains disappeared leaving the evo free.

"Well if you're going to call me Bitch Splicer, Coyote, I might as well give you a reason." Astrid said with a devilish smirk..

"What did you do!" Coyote demanded.

"Bound you to me. There is a spell wrapped around your mana crystal core, should you do anything to harm me or refuse to follow ant order it will shatter it and kill you. That spell is normally used on someone's heart but you shaped evos are a little more resilient." Astrid replied.

"You'll force my obedience through force and threats…impressive." Coyote said then lowered his head. "I submit to you…my master: bitch splicer."