Frey was confused… no, he was fucking scared.
"Where the hell am I?!"
His soul body spun in place, eyes wide.
Everything around him was gray. A thick fog swallowed the horizon, and the ground beneath his feet was carpeted with colorless grass. There was no light, no sound, no sign of life — only silence.
This… didn't feel like the Spirit Realm.
The Spirit Realm was said to mirror the human world: lush forests, clear rivers, and skies shimmering with aether.
It was home to countless beings: good spirits, evil spirits, and those in between. A world of power, wonder, and death.
But this place felt only of death, like they'd decided to skip the rest.
"Does this mean I'm a failure too…?" Frey's throat tightened, and for a moment, he thought he might cry.
Then… he heard it.
A sound… or a whisper? No, a call.
His head snapped to the left, but the fog was too thick to see through.
He didn't hesitate… there was no time to. He had only two minutes to find a spirit before his soul began to unravel.
Frey sprinted toward the direction of the call, each step echoing dully against the lifeless ground.
After what felt like forever, something loomed ahead: a tree. A massive, ancient tree, its bark the same lifeless gray as the world around it.
Yet beneath it bloomed a field of red.
Frey froze, his eyes widening. Red roses swayed gently at the tree's roots, their color so vivid it felt almost unreal.
But it wasn't the flowers that held his gaze. It was what was chained to the tree.
A woman.
Ethereal and otherworldly, her long pinkish-blue hair flowed like mist. Her face… he couldn't make it out. It was fractured and blurred, as if he wasn't meant to see it — or perhaps not strong enough to.
She had long, elegant fox ears and seven massive tails, each longer than her body, though only one was solid. The others flickered like phantoms, half-formed echoes of what should have been.
Golden chains bound her to the tree. Her legs, hands, neck, even her tails' were shackled as if she were a prisoner punished by heaven itself.
"Wha… What is this?!" Frey choked out, dumbfounded.
It wasn't the humanoid form that shocked him. Rare spirits could take such shapes — oni, kitsune, and others. When a spirit grew powerful enough, it could eventually assume a humanlike form.
No. What left him stunned was the sheer, suppressed power radiating from her… and the chains that held it back.
He was only supposed to bond with a spirit at Stage 0 – Dormant. Once the bond was formed, a Spirit Seed would begin to take shape within his heart. When that seed matured into a Spirit Core, both he and his spirit would ascend together to Stage 1 – Awakened.
But this… this being felt as old as the Spirit Realm itself. Bonding with her? His soul would collapse instantly.
Frey swallowed hard and drew a deep breath. This was his only chance with no other spirits nearby… and luck was all he had.
He walked carefully through the field of red roses, each flower brushing against his legs as he approached the woman, and finally he stood before her.
Normally, when a spirit chose a human, it would initiate the bond itself. But this woman, bound and chained, clearly incapable of acting, left him no choice. He had to summon his courage and make contact himself.
Slowly, he raised his hand, trembling, and let his forefinger brush against her forehead.
The moment he touched her, everything changed. The gray world around them, already silent, felt as if even the silence itself had been swallowed.
Then her eyes opened. Piercing blue, locked onto his. He couldn't make out her face, but he felt it — a smile that owned him before she even touched him, curling with dangerous intent, both inviting and condemning, like the last sin given form.
The realm itself shuddered. Aether, or some unknown energy, began to swirl violently around them. The red roses at their feet were uprooted, tumbling in chaotic patterns.
The golden chains binding her shattered with a blinding flash, fragments scattering through the air as if the world itself had fractured.
And then she embraced him.
In that instant, the bond formed, raw and undeniable, linking their souls together. Power surged through Frey, wild and intoxicating, a clear sign that his Spirit Seed had begun to form. The woman was no longer a prisoner; she was his.
"Thunn káloth shë… Lythoré shan'thé…" Her archaic voice echoed in his mind as she slowly patted his head.
Then she dissolved into white motes of light, drifting straight into his heart.
Frey's mouth fell open, his face burning red. The moment she touched him, it felt like he had been lifted onto cloud nine, ecstasy surging through every nerve.
"Haaa… haa…" he panted, gasping like an animal in heat, clutching his knees. But before he could surrender fully, a sharp pain tore through his skull.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh—"
He screamed, collapsing to the ground, rolling as the agony gripped him.
Memories etched themselves into his mind: two timelines, two lives, two people, or perhaps the same soul split across time.
It was as if he was living through their experiences, feeling their joys, their pains, their sins.
Time in his mind sped past — days, months, years — all compressed into a single, unbearable moment.
The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was the gray realm fracturing from the horizon, shattering like the anchor holding it together had been ripped away.
* * *
Back in the grand hall, everyone waited patiently as the two-minute time limit ticked down.
The Hall Master's eyes fell on the boy. The limit was nearly up. Another failure, it seemed.
Then, without warning, the awakening circle flared with a blinding white light, forcing everyone to shut their eyes. Even the Master raised a hand to shield his face.
When the brilliance faded, the array glowed softly with a single white circle. The boy lay sprawled at its center, unconscious, blood trickling from his nose.
The Master's expression immediately darkened. He shouted toward the blonde woman standing behind him. "Livia…"
He didn't need to say more. She was already crouched beside Frey, her head adorned with antlers, a clear sign of her deer spirit merged within her.
Her hands glowed with soft green light as she began to heal him.
The teenagers watched in a mix of surprise and horror.
"What happened?!" Vivi, one of the awakened girls, called out anxiously to her friend.
"I don't know. Frey just suddenly collapsed… and what was that light? Even if he awakened a Heaven rank spirit, it shouldn't have been like that," Chloe replied, eyes narrowing.
Both girls considered themselves Frey's friends… or at least they thought so. Frey, however, knew better. Most were only interested in his looks… and probably his body.
After several tense moments, Frey finally opened his eyes. His pale gray irises shimmered blue for a fleeting instant before fading back to normal.