Bonded Summoner - Book 5. Chapter 5: Family

Jake and Fhesiah had collapsed on the bed, utterly spent. While Fhesiah was smiling in her kitsune form, she was completely exhausted. She wrapped Jake up in her tails and hugged him to her, and Jake distantly enjoyed the pleasant sensations of her soft body against his.

The body tempering result for her was excellent. It had gone well beyond her modest projections of how long it would take to temper her body and bloodlines, making her sturdier and more resilient, and empowering her bloodline energies within her.

Mysterious scripts even appeared within her temple, a magical energy resulting from Fhesiah and Jake’s joining. The Divine Flames of his Hearth were beyond special, and contained energies from a higher Tier within.

She was already powerful against an enemy’s flames as a dragon, but that effect would be multiplied.

Fhesiah was confident that if an enemy hit her with divine or god-powered flames, she would shrug them off even if they were filled with malevolence.

Her Spiritual Temple had been filled with the mysterious golden energy, mysterious scripts lining the various places within her temple that glimmered with her bloodline energies. She had forged and expanded her temple even as it was tempered, and the Framework already saw her as level 24.

Not only that, but her constitution had increased by nearly five points from just this one evening, her resilience being improved significantly.

Even Jake’s body was tempered somewhat. However, while Fhesiah’s tempering was a conscious tearing down and rebuilding, Jake’s was more like sitting under a waterfall. The effects were an order of magnitude lower, but he would likely see some benefits after a few sessions. The idea might be that when Jake has his own manual, he would be experiencing much more of the tempering–having many more partners, as it were.

Jake felt incredibly drained. His initial thoughts of Fhesiah being a succubus came back to his mind. While he knew he didn’t look like a withered husk, he felt like one. Looking inward, he felt strange. Shouldn’t his Hearthflames be coming back by now?

He had given them all to Fhesiah in the heat of the moment, and now, it was like he was empty. Jake had nothing left at all. As his breaths came in slower, he started to have difficulty. He sat up on the bed, finding he couldn’t take in a breath.

Then, it was like something inside him snapped.

A fire burned within his lungs, and it was like trying to breathe after being punched in the chest. Like his lungs had collapsed, and he was having difficulty reinflating them.

Jake was filled with distress, normally he would be able to hold his breath for minutes at a time, but now he was struggling after just a few seconds.

His mouth made gasping sounds, but nothing entered his lungs.

Fhesiah snapped awake from her stupor, and Ira arrived feeling its master’s distress. Inspecting Jake with her [Divine Sense], Fhesiah’s thoughts were a storm of possibilities. Whatever was happening to him was not simple. All the cells in his body thirsted for something, but what?

“Ira, move him right in front of the Hearth of the Refuge in the living room!”

There was a Hearth in the room, but it was still not exactly the primary. It had been focused to provide more pure heavenly energies.

Ira tried to shift Jake like normal, and as the hole in the void was created–Jake took a portion of a breath, and the spell collapsed. While this reduced the burning sensation somewhat, it felt like it was a drop in the bucket compared to what he needed.

Fhesiah’s eyes narrowed at that. “Void energy is what you breathed in?” Ira circled Jake, observing him with attention. Its eyes narrowed too, trying to sense what was happening to him.

Checking some functions of the Refuge within Jake’s Menu, Fhesiah guided him to reduce the protections to the void. Nothing immediately happened, but Jake could feel like something had changed.

Jake could barely function, feeling like he was being asphyxiated as he was. Fhesiah checked the Alliance Shop and Market, looking for anything that might have anything he could use.

Anything from the Shop would arrive instantly, and things from the Market could do the same if they were being sold within a certain range. The odds of him finding anything useful in the first place were dubious at best, let alone with the limitations.

Jake left Fhesiah to it, while he grasped at straws, trying to move his energy around. Using his Divine Energy, the burning sensation only increased, and he thought if anything it made it worse.

Pulling at the energies in his Hearth bonds, he even found these somewhat restricted. He still pulled energy in through [Energy Sharing], but it was like a minor effect of the sealing stones where he fought the enemy Champion of Apophis.

Jake thankfully still wore his [Storage Bracelet]. Retrieving his conjuration spell rod, he attempted to open a portal to the void to summon water. Once again, the spell collapsed as he took in a portion of a breath.

Ophelia arrived in a near blaze of light in her full-bodied polka-dotted pajamas, taking over trying to cast the spell. Fhesiah started dumping out random purchases, things related to the void but not expressly the same, as these were the only things available.

As an Eclipse Stone hit the ground next to him, he took an entire breath. His body was like a vacuum or magnet, causing the stone to fly toward his body.

The item crumbled into dust, as Jake got a second breath–before he was back to the same situation he was in. Ophelia kept trying to cast the portal to the void and this seemed to add up over time, but it was not enough for what Jake needed to survive whatever was happening to him.

Tanda and Bloodberri arrived now similarly dressed–Tanda naked as she slept au naturel, and Bloodberri wearing her own cute snake-doggy pajamas. Blood dumped out some items she had just purchased, some odds and ends scattering on the floor.

The Shadow Essence was drawn in, his greedy lungs and body absorbing what was contained in the odd liquid within a mere instant.

Various items were dumped onto the floor, of things Fhesiah knew were adjacent to the void. Both that she purchased, and items that they had for crafting. Monster carcasses of umbral creatures, plants filled with twilight essence, shadow, and more. Some were drawn in to Jake, while others appeared to be ignored.

Fhesiah had already spent nearly ten percent of their available funds, and little had moved.

Tanda hugged and held into Jake, distressed she couldn’t do anything. Jake’s heart had slowed to a near stop, and she did her best to harmonize with him. Taking shallow breaths of her own, her heartbeat started to take on Jake’s cadence.

A flicker went through Ira’s eyes, and it weaved itself around to draw attention to it. It put its tail in front of Jake, with the white and black flames flickering off of it. It then made itself a circle, hovering between each of the girls.

He wasn’t sure on Ira’s meaning, but he thought it meant to find resonance with each of the girls.

Jake did his best to find resonance and join Tanda in finding harmony with one another, his hearth starting to flicker along with Tanda’s. Taking on the state of the avenger, items that previously fell on the floor to no effect began to be drawn toward Jake.

They appeared to be related to death, such as the Abyssal Water and even Tanda’s Deathbloom Flowers.

Even creature corpses were drawn, and Fhesiah and Blood quickly purchased more. Tanda willed her manifestation to be sent to Jake over their Bond, and it seemed to be drawn into him, infusing the cells in his body.

Soon though, something within Jake began to burn. He guessed some sort of balance was not being maintained, and he pulled away from his resonance with her.

Still, she continued to find harmony with him. Tanda matched her breaths, her hearthvine’s flame flickering along with his.

Jake tried to latch onto Ophelia, and felt that whatever was inside her was not quite what he needed at the moment. While she could use the magic of the goddess, her soul or energy was not attuned in that way. Then, Blood and Berri were completely in sync. He wasn’t ready to synchronize with them.

He urged Fhesiah to shift back to her dragoness form, which thankfully only took a few seconds now. Resonating with Fhesiah, he took on the state of the Sage, and the creation flames of the dragon were drawn into his spirit.

His hearth flickered with the cadence of his dragoness wife, and now new items were drawn toward him. Celestial Stones, Astral Embers, and Starfall Crystals all were absorbed by his hungry body.

The burning sensation decreased until it stopped, but his cells were still hungry. He drew up everything he could get from Fhesiah expending all of her bloodline energies, until his cells began to burn again.

Keeping his resonance with her, she activated her bloodline transformation. Shifting over to the dark kitsune, her bloodline flames took on a ruinous quality. An Eclipse Heartwood and Wraithfire Lantern floated into Jake, along with several monster corpses crumbling into dust s they reached him.

The burning decreased until he had consumed all of Fhesiah’s bloodline flames of the dark kitsune. Fhesiah’s dragon flames were much more powerful than Tanda’s death manifestation or the kitsune flames by a significant margin, so Jake felt that he was much more at balance than he was just after finding resonance with Tanda.

Still, he wasn’t sure how thirsty his cells were. He couldn’t really breathe as soon as the energy from the creatures and materials were expended.

Tanda and Fhesiah both stayed connected as he moved on to find resonance with Berri. She was the least distressed, because she had confidence that Jake and the rest would work it out. If not, she’d resurrect him when they were done. It’d be totally fine. Probably.

Taking on the resonance of the Saint, very little floated toward him. But Jake was suffused with her powerful holy light energy, bringing Jake close to being centered. Breaths came in quickly, until once more she ran out of everything to give him. So he moved on to Blood.

He found resonance with his queenly wife, his state switching to that of a Monarch. Her holy dark was drawn into him, empowering himself and drawing in a few more materials to be drained by his lungs and cells within his body.

From what Jake and Fhesiah could guess, what helped draw materials in from the beginning was likely the light and dark flames in his hearth.

Ira was filled with frustration as it scoffed at their thoughts. It told them that already!

But as Blood’s holy dark energy combined with the other energies in Jake’s Hearth, they became chaotic. More creature corpses were drawn in, including a chimeral corpse that Fhesiah purchased.

Jake could feel that whatever was absorbed was a little different. Seeing this, Fhesiah used most of their funds to purchase a peak Tier 1 boss corpse, some kind of Manticore. Most likely some kind of Raid Boss corpse, the creature took up a large portion of their room.

But it was drawn in just the same. The chaotic essences that made up the creature were drained from the corpse, leaving its body crumbling to ashes and dust. Something began forming within Jake’s chest, some sort of spheres within his lungs.

Suddenly, energies from the void were drawn in, tears in space ripping into the fabric of their Refuge. Every cell making up Jake’s body boiled and tore as it drew in energy from the Hearth in the room, even as bloody rents were scored on Jake.

The tears in space were localized, the fabrics of reality cracking and shattering like glass around him.

A tear in Jake’s flesh was mirrored on Ophelia through her Chosen ability, and she was unable to really do more than suffer along with him. But her gasp in pain reminded him, that he hadn’t yet found resonance with her. He took on the state of the Guardian, and she summoned her Hearth of Hestia.

It immediately healed their wounds, restoring their flesh and even feeding some of Jake’s hungry cells as it floated inside him.

Ira roared as it expended its void energies, forming a barrier around Jake of black void. It was drawn in by Jake’s breaths, but the juvenile void wyrm did its best to hold on, drawing out as much as it could.

Jake drew in everything he could from his Hearth bonds, who were all connected with him, their Hearth’s flickering along with his. Their vortexes drew the energies of the Refuge in, the Hearth keeping the density of energy significant.

The two spheres in Jake’s chest finished forming, and the storm of spatial tears finally disappeared. It was like a barrier was created around the spheres, or they finished becoming void orbs.

He now had no trouble breathing, him drawing in just a little bit of the void with every breath.

The void orbs within his lungs would then emanate the energy into his body, where his cells would greedily absorb it. Ira was greatly interested in this process, hovering around and monitoring his breathing.

Tanda had stayed by his side all the while, but still hadn’t been wounded. His girls were still in their pajamas or naked, but he looked at them with pride.

“Thanks, girls. It really feels like if you all weren’t there, something really bad would have happened.”

His girls all smiled with pride, their hearths still flickering along with him. They had weathered this horrible storm, and he was sure that it was only because his wives were with him, and that they were both strong and balanced among them.

Fhesiah hummed. “I don’t know if you’d have died, but it would have been a close thing. I do wonder what would have been lost if we didn’t help with our resonance.”

Jake frowned. “I couldn’t even breathe until I got some energy though?”

She smiled. “The problem was we were in our Refuge. Until you had enough energy to open the portal into the void, you were kind of stuck. If you were back on Highlands or Ariminum, once enough spatial tears opened, you would have drawn in enough energy on your own.”

Tanda asked with worry, “Is it done? What happened?”

Jake received a notification, but Fhesiah already knew the answer. “Well, it looks like Jake wasn’t just a mere human, after all. He had a hidden bloodline, it looks like.”

Tanda frowned. “What, like a parentage?”

Fhesiah nodded. “That’s right. Jake is probably a half, or quarter, of some kind of creature that managed to mate with humans. Though what, I wonder?”

Jake looked over his notifications, and sighed with relief that a new section of the Menu appeared, able to give him information.

[Race: High Human]

[Bloodline: Child of the Void*]

The asterisk appeared to be that until Jake identified the actual creature, this would not update it and give him information he didn’t already know. However, it told him that he was now considered a High Human.

Looking at Ophelia’s status, she was now listed as a High Valkyrie as well. As they approached the peak of their Tier, their race had been evolving all the while. They had already arrived at a Tier 2 race, and that boded well for them.

This was before they increased in Tier and received the special reward the Framework would give them, along with the fact that their Race would usually only be boosted by it once they triggered raising in Tier at a Node.

Their special Hearth cores were already improving their race, evolving them to a higher Tier without the Framework’s aid.

[Bloodline Menu]

[Bloodline Refinement Rating: E]

[Trait: Void Lungs]

[The orbs within your lungs draw in void energy with every breath. Through them, you have established a connection to the void.]

[Trait: Void Cells]

[Cells within your body have harmonized with the void, storing significant amounts of void energy. Your body is naturally stronger, and more resilient against all spells.]

Jake saw that the change on his physical attributes was almost ten each, and from only embarking on refining and improving his bloodline. Later, he could unlock additional abilities.

Berri frowned. “We went through all that and you just breathe now? That’s kinda lame.”

Jake chuckled at that, but it was Fhesiah who responded. “As mentioned, Jake is likely only a quarter, or maybe even as little as an eighth of this special being–perhaps even less than that. Only by refining and enhancing his bloodline can he bring out the full power of it. Cultivator humans would inject special bloodlines through various artifacts and methods, and use them to enhance themselves. They would go through a similar process as they became more like their ancestor.”

Ophelia asked, “But just what was his ancestor? Do we want him to become more like it in the first place?”

Tanda was frowning now too, from where she nuzzled him from the side. “You feel different, Jake. The restriction on the bond didn’t go away.”

Looking inward, he found she was right. For her, it was a little distressing, as her bond was the weakest among the girls at the moment. Still, as a Hearth Bond, it was more than strong enough to have no problems, but what if they had to fight through the sealing stone again?

He wasn’t sure if he would have an easier time dealing with it now or not.

Ira seemed to sneer at this thought–it thought that this would be no concern at all. Jake got the feeling it was now prouder than ever that it chose Jake. However, he also got a sense of familiarity from the juvenile voidwyrm.

“You think you know what I am, Ira?”

Ira proudly nodded, as Blood hummed. “It would be nice to know. Now that your bloodline has awakened, I can feel you are just a little more monstrous than you were before. Not a lot, but it is there.”

The party headed to the computer in the living room, where all could get a good view of the research.

Jake brought up all the information he could gather on creatures of the void, and those adjacent. There were countless, but thankfully there were images of a sort, and he could view them by category.

Ira watched with interest as he cycled through the descriptions and images, from eldritch-like beings to random creatures of the void like bugs or demons. None were in the ballpark though, until he arrived at a creature covered in wings and eyes, with a giant one in the center.

Jake’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and he was a little sickened by the gross creature. “Void Seraph?” Ira shook its head, but Jake got the feeling that the creature was at least tangentially related.

Digging into the category, or those related, there were various descendants of the strange beings, but what drew Ira was the Umbral Envoy.

As Jake read through the description, the creature became sure of it, and so did he. They had specialized void cells that made them resilient to the void and all exotic energies, and even had enhanced regeneration.

They were descendants of the Void Seraph, and were creatures that could take on a human-like form. As travelers of the void, their common form was more like an elemental golem comprised of a gas-like void, having tentacled hands.

Most images had the large gaslike body coming out of a hole in the void, like it had one foot in another dimension as it attacked with its large body in this one.

Tanda’s ears were flat on her head, as she looked at the resident bloodline expert: Fhesiah. “Is Jake going to become like that? That’s a little…weird.”

Fhesiah smiled at the opportunity to tease. “Hmm, I wonder? Don’t you think it’d be wonderful for him to envelop your entire body, so he can be inside all of your holes in four dimensions instead of just three? Now I really wish Jake had gotten that faun, then–”

The entire Hart family, including Ira, looked at Fhesiah with narrowed eyes, just what was this degenerate thinking?

Ophelia interrupted, “Isn’t it time for you to throw on some clothes? We don’t need you breasting boobily in the living room.”

Fhesiah raised her brow at Tanda. “What about this one? She doesn’t bother you?”

Ophelia blushed. “She at least tries to cover herself a little with her wings! Yours are always spread out, like everything else!”

Tanda did have her chest mostly covered with one wing like a cloak, and her modesty otherwise covered in front of her legs with the other.

This was in addition to the fur on her arms and legs almost looking like clothes to begin with. Still, she quickly put on a skirt from her storage bracelet, the action taking less than a second.

Jake cleared his throat. “Let’s focus? Tanda isn’t the only one worried about what this means for me.”

For some reason, Berri was quite distressed, especially. Of course, Jake didn’t want to become some weird ball of gas with tentacles, either.

Fhesiah sighed, and her cultivator robes appeared around her. “Yes. So, as you refine and enhance, or reinforce your bloodline, you may take on more or enhance the traits you already have. However, you will never be an Umbral Envoy, unless you went through excessive lengths. At the end of the day, you are still a human–or High Human. There may be a point where you could throw away your humanity in favor of this race, but it would have to be a conscious decision, requiring various artifacts consumed and merged with yourself.”

Berri sighed in relief. “G-Good. I love Jake how he is now! That thing doesn’t look like I can wrap him up, or carry him on my back.”

Blood hummed. “It did look powerful. Still, our bond is already hampered from these void cells. His skin even glimmers purple in the light. I’d rather our lord husband continues as he is, too.”

Tanda now inspected Jake a little more closely, hugging onto him. “You’re right! It’s like my feathers.”

Ophelia’s eyes began to sparkle. “I think I had a story like that! Oh, that vampire movie you told me about, they sparkled or something, didn’t they? That’s neat!”

Jake groaned as he looked at his hands. He glimmered purple now?