Alice was strolling with Alpha on a hidden route by the talus and was suddenly attacked by a wisp of dark energy entering her core. Pangs of pain thumped at her chest, and waves of sadness washed over her. "So this is how a living being feels," her hands clenching her chest, wondering if this is what heartbreak felt like. Regaining her composure, she wiped away the droplets of tears from her eyes. Continuing her quest, she turned to Alpha, who appeared unconcerned and stared blankly at her. "Okay, little guardian, guide the way to the shaman," she said to the boy. He bobbed his head, his dark blue hair bounced, and his golden eyes widened with a sheen of orange.
As if responding to his gaze, glowing fiery mushrooms slithered across the abyss and arrived at a small, tiny wooden cottage by the dark sea. Upon reaching, Alice and the guardian found tiny shadowy figures guarding the front gate.
"Alpha," Alice commanded.
Alpha twitched his eyebrows, and the mushrooms started to chase the shadowy figures to open up a path for them to enter. Attracted by the commotion, a wrinkly old man with a large droopy nose opened the door. His dishevelled white, wiry hair hid his surprised expression. "How rare, living beings in the abyss," he said, wiping his gold-rimmed glasses for a second glance. "Mmm...," he hummed, scanning the humanoid-golem. "She almost seems like a living being," he thought.
"It's been a while, Sensei," Alice said.
"Have we met?" the Shaman asked. "I had never accepted any student."
Alice handed him a tiny slime core.
The Shaman held onto the dark core as his candid demeanour fell apart.
"Souls, myriad of souls. Lost... without a body, circling the light.... without a home. Waiting, waiting for that hungry white light... all stuck in this core," he gulped and licked his lips with that insatiable hunger, craving for the wet of their napes.
"It's okay, I know. You can have the core, in fact, you told me to give it to you," Alice explained. "But, I need you to give me the method to release the light trapped in the darkness," she added.
"And what are you trying to create?" the Shaman smiled greedily.
"Hope," Alice said.
"Your companions won't be able to escape their fate even if I give you what you wanted," he replied.
"Who are they escaping from?" Alice asked.
The Shaman shook his head and took a deep breath before giving them a serious look, "You should come in. It is unsafe here. Don't worry, as a favour for the dark core, I won't eat you."
Alpha looked at Alice; his instinct warned him of the imminent danger posed by the cannibalistic human. He shook his head, shielding Alice with his arm.
"I'll be alright. He is still a person with principles. He has his own 'code'," she assured and signalled him not to follow.
The boy nodded and stood by the door.
"How did you know about the 'code'?" he asked.
"You told me. You already knew of my arrival and yet you doubt your own ability," Alice mocked.
"I only managed to awaken my ability today, and an unexpected guest gave me an unexpectedly precious gift," he chuckled.
"This... is just a small gesture. We still need the spark trapped in it. I'm sure you have no use for it," she said as she sank into the sofa.
"You had changed my future and won my allegiance...," said the shaman while observing the golem with a keen interest. He then turned and walked towards an artpiece full of pendulums - 106 crystal pendulums to be exact.
The shaman held the dark core over the crystals, testing for a reaction. Like iron to a magnet, the pendulums stretched to reach out to the dark core. The shaman pulled the dark core back until a tiny white light was pulled out and absorbed by one of the pendulums. He then took the same pendulum and dangled in front of Alice. "You want this?"
Alice looked at him expressionless.
"Tsk, here. You got what you want. Now scram!" He said in agitation.
"Pledge your allegiance to me." The golem sternly warned, "or risk your life and forever be on the run."
The shaman's eyes widened. Disgusted by her brazen attitude yet intrigued.
"Not to Noel777 but to me," Alice added.
"Hahahaha! To you! Who the hell you think you are? Just because you tamed the guardian you think you have the power to bargain?" He mocked.
Alice purged a wisp of black mist and played around with the mist, teasing the shaman, "the dark cores and this. Pledge your allegiance and you will save decades of work."
His dreadlocks dangled in front of his white pupils. His fingers instinctively reaching out like tendrils.
"Just like he said, without reaching mastery over his technique, the pre-requisites are like a drug to him. Compelling him to obey to anyone. I'm sorry, but this is the only way I can keep you safe," Alice thought to herself.
"No more, the corrupted ones are losing the chance to change... History will inevitably rewrite itself." The Shaman abruptly spaced and gasped. "There's a glimpse of change, a twinkling... somewhere... someone who could collapse the inevitable future. But too much, too many..." the Shaman said as the vision of branches closed in on him.
When he regain consciousness, he realised he had already signed a binding blood oath to Alice.
"You exploited me!" He sneered.
"Merely business," Alice chimed. Redirected the mist to the Shaman's droopy nose which inhaled without hesitation. The man shivered in a state of ectstacy.
From the future where she was from, it was the same Shaman who sent her back in time by sacrificing himself... to atone for hunting his same kind - baby slimes. That was the only way he could attain his shamanhood. The cores strung around his neck cried under the sunlight as if sensing a being that should not have existed.
"You should go," Alice recalled the words Shaman said to her. "Death is coming for me and sending you back in time. I'll be safe here. I have learned to tread between life and death."