At the ultimatum, Pvilycht and Lexie stared at each other.

Lexie was annoyed, and Pvilycht was passive and more than a little smug. Plus, sadistic. Now that he was no longer bonded with her as strongly, it seemed his previous irritating personality traits were returning. He'd been much milder and more eager to please before.

Lexie wondered if the card had truly altered his personality or if he'd simply pretended to get on her good side.

Most Eldritch couldn't pretend easily, but Pvilycht was a different type, an experiment, an abomination.

Just like Lexie herself.

Truthfully, adding him to her soul line would not be a bad choice. He was certainly powerful and clever enough to be her disciple. The question remained if he was too powerful and too clever for her to control.

Then again, did Lexie actually want to control him? She hadn't even thought about that yet.

She hadn't thought in-depth about what it would mean to be an Eldritch Lord in charge of her disciples and what she would do with the power.

She'd simply wanted the power for its own sake, because…well, because she wanted it and why not have it since she was powerful.

But why did she want it?

She didn't know. As a new Eldritch, she'd been obsessed with power, craved more of it. Now, she still wanted power, but she was starting to question herself, witnessing potential drawbacks.

Back to Pvilycht.

Did she want to control him?

Yes.

It was convenient for her to have a creature like that at her beck and call. However, to save herself the stress, she might approach it more like Naem, who really didn't exert his authority or control unless he needed to. Nevertheless, she could use a creature like Pvilycht to help her face Neqal, Naem, and Yasycht.

However, after she defeated them, then what?

Would she use Pvilycht to conquer the world and the rest of the enemies she would encounter?

If so, then what?

What was the end goal here?

What was her end goal after she was done defeating everything that could be defeated, after she became the strongest, the King of the Eldritch?

What would she do with that power?

"Lexie," Uncle Max called, but she held up her hand.

"Hang on," Lexie told him, not wanting to lose her train of thought. "I'm thinking."

"You look more like you're having an existential crisis."

"That too."

But she didn't have the time or the brain power right now to dedicate to that. Neither did she have time to really consider the risks of bonding with Pvilycht.

This was uncharted territory, and no one knew what would happen should she form a soul bond with Pvilycht. Only that, for now, it would save Ryn and Little Fae's lives.

Logic dictated that it shouldn't matter. She should make the choice that best suited her, regardless of who else lived or who died.

But she reminded herself how much Ryn and Little Fae suited her. She still had much to learn from the Fae. This way, they would owe her their lives.

Why is it so difficult for you to admit that you're saving them out of affection even though you already know it?

There was that pesky voice again.

Lexie had now developed enough intelligence and awareness to recognize that the voice was the remnant of the human part of her soul, and that it constantly worked in the background, scooping, trying to preserve whatever was left of her human essence.

But the human in her always made her weaker and less than her best.

She could probably get rid of it, or reduce its effect, by splitting her soul into different compartments or confining her human soul particles to a card somehow.

But until she found a way to do that, she was stuck with the thoughts.

She should ignore its words, but it was difficult to.

She had to do so, though; eventually she would need to exorcize that part of her completely so she could become the Eldritch of her dreams.

The thought of separating her human soul into a different card lingered in her mind, birthing another idea.

Hmm.

There might be something that could help her with the Pvilycht situation.

She took a second to visualize the pathways, then she finally told Pvilycht, "Fine."

She wasn't sure her method would work. Truly, she could debate the danger back and forth ad nauseam and still not come to an answer. She would simply have to take the chance.

After all, existence was an experiment.

She might as well find out once and for all what happened when she bonded with him.

If Pvilycht managed to somehow steal her soul power or turn the bond around on her, then she would kill him the first chance she got. End of story.

Hang on, could she kill him through the card?

She'd been working under the theory that she could, but now that it felt like her brain was working better, she wasn't so sure.

Per the pathways she read on the card, she might just kill his essence, weakening him but not killing him outright.

So maybe she had been bluffing with the V'Sala.

V better not find out.

"How do we do it?" Lexie asked. She had a faint idea, but wanted to hear him say it too.

Pvilycht was more than excited to show her. "We must soul touch for a length of time. Grow the bond into permanence. During that time, I will then work to sever my bond with Neqal, and only then can I completely bond with you."

It might be a trap, Lexie thought. Because if he didn't sever the bond with Neqal, and still maintained the bond with Lexie, could he not still feed Lexie's soul card details to Neqal, while aborting their bond at the last minute and maintaining his bond with his former master? Would Neqal manage to enslave her then?

Well, that was where her contingency came in.

"Typically, a soul bond will only come into place if our core essences are similar enough," Pvilycht said. "But I think your card will likely alter my essence to fit closer to yours."

"Will it alter my essence, too?"

"That I do not know," he said. "I do not think so."

It could be a lie. Neqal was a well-known liar and rabble-rouser.

"Alright." Lexie prepared herself, but before she could proceed, Uncle Max spoke up.

"Hang on, Lexie, do you mind explaining to your dear old Uncle what exactly you're talking about doing here?"

Lexie turned to him and explained, "Pvilycht here wants to be my disciple. I am an Eldritch Lord, and I need a disciple to be able to claim my….Lordship?" She glanced at Pvilycht for clarification, and he nodded somberly.

"Yes, Lordship. Now, while I wanted Pvilycht as my disciple, I wanted some more time to think about it, but the problem is that he already has a master, Neqal, and Neqal is restrengthening the bond with Pvilycht. When it's complete, Pvilcht will kill Ryn and Little Fae."

"That sucks," Uncle Max said. "But I'm more concerned with what the soul bond does to you."

"I'm not entirely sure how soul-bonding with him will affect me and my powers and the makeup of my soul."

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Is this dangerous?" Uncle Max asked, alarmed.

She thought about it. "Probably seventy percent dangerous."

"Seventy?"

"Or sixty. Math isn't my strong suit."

"I don't think you should do it, Lexie," Cecilia instantly said. "Ryn told me what happened to you the first time you tried to bond with Yasycht. What if something like that happens again? Ryn won't be here to mend your wounds."

"I can weave myself back together," Lexie said. At least she thought she could. She had never actually tried before, even though she had a card for it, because weaving blood and flesh neatly wasn't as easy as it looked.

Ryn made it look effortless, but it was a rather delicate dance, with a lot of delicate finger choreography involved, rather than just brute strength and pathway control, which Lexie excelled at.

It was easier for Lexie to weave larger things together, even though weaving those was hard, too.

"I'll be fine," Lexie told the adults.

The dishonesty tasted bitter on her tongue and nearly made her wretch.

She wasn't sure if she would be fine. Her soul might change. Her magic might change. Everything might change.

But she was going to do it anyway.

"You two will have to keep watch," she told Uncle Max and Cecilia. "I'm not sure how long this is going to take, so if we're in trouble..."

"I'll just teleport us out," Cecilia said.

"And I got plenty of bullets left," Uncle Max stated, and once they were done, Lexie nodded.

Then she pulled as much of Pvilycht's essence as she could into this world. She stared at him, and he stared back at her. Strong apprehension laced her gut for the first time in a long time.

Why? She shouldn't be feeling much of that as an Eldritch.

What was going on with her?

She'd been weird ever since she'd gotten here. She felt less like herself.

What was happening to her?

She understood that using her soul card often strengthened or, at the very least, affected her human side, and she'd used it pretty extensively with Yasycht. Was that why she felt weird?

Or was it because she was interacting more with Uncle Max? Confronting her non-Eldritch emotions towards him? Accepting them as part of her?

Was all that making her human?

No. She didn't want that. She didn't want to be human again.

"Are you ready, cousin?" Pvilycht said. "You might feel a slight pinch."

Lexie simply nodded, activated the card, and initiated the soul touch.

It was just like the last time she'd touched Pvilycht's soul and had been submerged in the atoms and broken pieces of things that he played with. This time, though, she went deeper. She didn't just siphon his power from the surface, but dove to touch the core of his soul.

A soul touch as a full Eldritch was a different feeling than doing it as a human.

She felt like she had more control; she could choose which parts she wanted to explore, and she could control the direction of the exploration, too.

Could he do the same to her? Perhaps, but he wasn't trying; instead, he was focusing solely on the card, even as the waves of Lexie washed over him.

She felt him invading, felt him touching the soul card, felt his bliss. She tried to limit his invasion–the way Naem had done to her once upon a time when they'd signed the soul contract– but she wasn't yet skilled enough in those ancient Eldritch techniques, and Pvilycht was too strong to be overpowered by a newbie.

While he explored her soul, she saw his entire history and saw him as he was put together by a humanoid creature, the same humanoid who had smiled at Lexie in the vision she'd seen when she'd first touched the dungeon wall.

So that was Neqal.

He had a human mask like Naem, but unlike Naem, whose mask was permanently expressionless, Neqal had a smile on his face. It wasn't a comforting one. It was like the smile had been carved into his skin, permanently etched there, and it spoke of cruelty, madness, and ambition.

He'd given some of that to Pvilycht. It was why the creature only liked to put things together in the most grotesque form possible. That nature of his power would always be affected by his Lord, the way Lexie's power had been affected by Naem.

That is, until it wasn't.

Lexie tried to dive deeper into Pvilycht's past, as she'd done with the other creatures that she'd soul touched, but she couldn't. She knew that Pvilycht's first life did not start on Neqal's experimental table, but she could not see anything else about his soul. It was all pieces and scraps mismatched together, with whispers of things, but nothing true.

All she knew was that he wasn't truly Pvilycht because, according to Ryn, his soul did not recognize that name. There was no true name either, because it had been lost to experimentation.

At last.

Lexie's exploration was halted by a foreign whisper in her mind.

Her heart pounded. So she was right. This was a trap.

Neqal was now trying to use Pvilycht to steal her soul card, and that was the only reason he hadn't fought harder to strengthen the bond with Pvilycht instantly.

He was willing to sacrifice one pawn for treasure.

But Lexie wasn't going to let that happen.

She pulled out another blank card and activated it, shoving it and linking it in front of her soul card.

She siphoned Pvilycht's power through that card, and she also used it as a blockade for the energy exchange.

What it meant was that she could control how much he would see, how much he could access, as his link to her would only be through that card.

She might be forced to give him her powers, but with this, she would do it on her terms only.

Lexie could feel a phantom confusion, from Pvilycht, from Neqal. They didn't know what she had done yet, only that they couldn't siphon her power at will.

Lexie worked subconsciously, creating the card quickly. She had banked on her soul doing most of the work and attaching the card to her when it felt she was in danger, like it had done the other times.

Luckily, it had worked this time, too, properly ascertaining Neqal's presence as a threat.

While she finalized the design, she gave the new soul card an off switch. That way, she could kill the contact whenever she wanted.

She gave Pvilycht just enough light to tempt him without giving him enough to siphon. They were no longer truly soul-touching. Their individual souls were now linked to the card, adding a degree of separation to the interaction.

Once she was done, Lexie turned up the dial and felt it work, felt the influence of Neqal dim. Now it was up to Pvilycht, whether or not he fought for their bond, or returned to his former master.

Lexie did not force it, though she could have. She gave him a choice.

Willing servants were always better than unwilling ones.

Pvilycht chose her. Despite her maneuver, outsmarting him, he held onto their bond, even as Neqal tried to draw him back.

He likely was not high enough in his soul line, so Neqal's direct influence wasn't as strong. Pvilycht held onto Lexie as she strengthened their bond, and then severed the last of his bond with his former master, establishing a new line with her disciple.

Just like that, they were done.

She pulled herself out of his soul and stared at Pvilycht, who looked...not entirely satisfied but not displeased either. He hadn't managed to steal and completely unearth the essence of her soul card and what made it work, but he had gotten access to her light, and he could draw from it anytime he wanted, unless Lexie specifically cut him off.

Luckily, since most of Lexie's skills were card-based and not innate or soul-based, it seemed that Pvilycht would not be able to access them unless she changed the pathway of their joined soul card. That was her theory anyway.

If so, this had all worked out much better than she thought. She held the advantage here, not him.

"We are now joined," Lexie told him. "You may draw my human light wherever you need."

"Thank you, Lord Lexie," he said, and the awe was back in his voice.

"No problem. Now go look after Ryn and Little Fae."

He nodded and disappeared. Lexie wondered if it was just her imagination or if he felt lighter…happier.

She, on the other hand, felt…heavier. She felt the weight of him, of his emotions, like a hum in her head. She still had impressions of him engraved in her soul. The hunger to create was there, to take things apart and see how they worked, but she accepted it like she accepted everything else.

Then she saw Max and Cecilia, who were staring at her.

"You okay?" Max asked.

"I feel fine," she told them. "Let's continue."

It was only when they were near their destination that Max told them he had a bike back at the cave that could have gotten them here faster.

"Unfortunately, it's a one-seater," he said. "I took it apart last night to add seats for the two of you, but I didn't get time to finish putting it together. I mean, I would have if we weren't doing this."

"Hmm." Lexie vaguely thought about putting the bike together herself, in her own way. In a better way.

"Darn," Cecilia said. "If we had that, we wouldn't have to walk so much."

"It's okay," Lexie said. "Walking is good for health."

Uncle Max faltered for a second, staring at Lexie. "You remember where you heard that from?"

"I don't remember," Lexie said because of the suspicious pressure growing in her chest.

They finally reached the other side of the market, where there was what looked to be a vampire's manor. Dark, gothic mansion with a hooked roof slanting toward the sky.

Spiked gates surrounded the estate, but Lexie and co easily floated over them.

The minute they touched the ground, it seemed to activate some kind of alarm.

Chittering noises clouded the atmosphere, and a large bolt of lightning exploded out of the roof, targeting them.

Lexie's void shield swallowed them, but the lightning kept coming, growing, whistling around them.

"Who dares?" the voice reverberated as an alarm sounded, and they were surrounded by zombies.

"I don't want to kill you," Lexie said. "I simply want to harness the power of the door."

They didn't listen.

They came at Lexie, and she made it rain void bullets.

Max was right. These ones were faster, able to use the lightning to deflect the bullets. Some of them tried to control Lexie's body electromagnetically, and some seemed to appear and disappear with the lightning.

At the end of the day, it didn't matter.

Lexie was better than all of them.

After the brief but decisive battle, she looked up at the huge hooded creature standing on the roof of the tower.

"I'm going to make it very simple," she said. "I want to see the door behind the Sovereign's castle. And I want to use it. Now."

With Pvilycht bonded to her, there was probably less urgency to return to Yasycht's dungeon, but Lexie still felt it was urgent to learn how to teleport.

At least for Uncle Max. In case he wanted to go home.

Lexie thought he did.

He said he was only staying here for her, and to kill someone, and neither of those was a good reason to remain in a dungeon.

Lexie didn't plan on staying in this dungeon forever. She was heading to the Other, and Max couldn't go with her. As for his other goal, well, Lexie could always kill whoever this person was for Max.

That way, Uncle Max could return to where he belonged, and human Lexie's dying wish would be fulfilled.

Then Lexie would exorcise her completely and become fully Eldritch.

This dungeon would be appearing on Earth soon, or maybe it was already there.

Was there another access point? A way out of the heart?

Would the dungeon tell her, or show her, if she tried to talk to it?

If not, she would need Yasycht. The good things were that she now had Pvilycht's card, and she could use some of his power to try to decode Yasycht's teleportation.

At the very least, she might be able to sort through the images better and find Uncle Max his access point to Earth.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.