Chương 344: The Bear

The family is actually quite expansive already. I have seven little sisters, a daughter, two wives, a dog, or rather, a coyote… And several servants special enough to be counted apart from the mass of other spectral servants and the like. I even have a disciple, though the relationship we share can very easily be likened to the one I have with my sisters or daughter.

I find the distinctions important, but due to the fact that I frankly do not believe there is a difference between being an older sister and being a mother, it would make sense for anyone looking at the situation from the outside to wonder why I didn't call Xlown a little sister as well, or why my little sisters aren't my daughters… It all made sense to me, but I assume it made little sense to everyone else. Anyway, family is of tremendous importance to me.

Be it via a link of blood or not, I believe that there is no bond stronger than the one shared between family members. As such, there is something that I neglected doing that I feel quite poorly about. I looked down at a flight of stairs going below the ground. Descending them, I arrived before a white room. The heavy door was wide open, and inside, Faelan was standing in a corner, as he often did. He seemed to quite enjoy doing that for some reason.

Out of all the spirits I ever came into contact with, he is certainly the most unstable one. His soul was tainted, and he died in a violent and psychologically crushing manner. The resulting spirit is powerful and loyal, but he is different from all others. He is most similar to my ghostly little sisters, as the transition from mere soul to spirit was direct, and he retained his appearance somewhat. Just like him, my first five little sisters had begun looking quite different from now, or how they did while alive.

Their limbs had been stretched unnaturally, and they had resembled corpses. Faelan was changed in other ways, but it remained that he was in a similar situation. His spiritual body could morph into monstrous ways, and while his strength is incredible, most of his powers seem not to quite obey his direct control. Or at least, they only obey him when he wants to do something specific, but the rest of the time, they just do whatever they want, for the most part.

"Faelan" The spirit turned around, although his face remained somewhat deformed, as though frozen in the process of switching from normal to bear-like. When calm like this, Faelan was actually quite normal. He couldn't really express himself through words, but he understood what was told to him without problem, and he could manage to figure out ways to get points across.

"Ma… Ra…" Fragmented words like this were just about the best he could muster vocally. He tried to lower his head, but I stopped him by grabbing his shoulders.

"Why don't we take a seat, mmh?" I sat him down on the very simplistic bed, which was basically just a big mattress, and then sat beside him.

"I see that the uniform I made for you fits perfectly. Any issue with it? It was my first attempt at clothing of this style" He shook his head negatively.

"Alright… Listen, Faelan. The fact that an area manifested out of thin air inside the Mindscape means something. I knew what I meant from the very beginning, but I ignored it, and I would like to apologise for that. As you know, I am not exactly on great terms with Leton, and somewhat unconsciously, it has…"

"... Let's just say that it has made me somewhat averse to the idea of allowing a boy to become part of the family. Coco is more like a pet, and likes of Kyrtian are just mere servants with more importance than the rest, but when it came to the family itself, I felt reluctant because of the situation with Leton" I took a long look at Faelan. He didn't seem to quite get why I was speaking so much to him all of a sudden.

"I was wrong to do so. The moment you became a spirit and formed this room inside of the Mindscape, it was a sign. As far as I am aware, only the spirits that I hold dear manifest something new inside of the Mindscape. So from the very beginning, even if I didn't realise it, I've always given you more importance than it appeared" I placed my palm atop his head.

"I wasn't quite certain which role you should occupy, though, but I think I've figured it out now… Faelan, if you are willing, would you be my son?" I didn't really know what kind of reaction to expect, but Faelan was absolutely gobsmacked. He looked around and pointed at himself as though he couldn't believe that he was the one I was talking to The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"M… Me…?"

"Yes, you. It wasn't right of me to just leave you like this as if you were just a spirit servant like any other. I worried too much about Leton and let it cloud my judgement, but in truth, you've always had a special spot" I waved my arms at the room all around us. It wasn't much, and frankly wasn't very welcoming, but this was the area Faelan had manifested. Just like Poppy had manifested the Flower Field, or Annie had manifested the Great Plains.

Upon being sure that I wasn't somehow talking to someone behind him that he couldn't see, Faelan energetically nodded. It seemed like I was the only one worried that he would care about any of this. He was actually overjoyed to become my son. I had thought about making him a little brother instead, but it just seemed more appropriate for Faelan to be my son. This also made him Xlown's brother, and I have the feeling that they'll get along excellently.

It makes me wonder if, once Xlown is able to enter the Mindscape, she'll cause a new area or region to manifest. Leou and Mari could enter the Mindscape now, but they hadn't caused anything, which I suspected was because they were very much alive and not spirits, just like how Rose hadn't caused any changes. Xlown is alive and not a spirit either, but she is a unique being nonetheless, and she is strongly connected to me… I'll have to wait and see, I suppose.

To commemorate Faelan's official entry into the family, I had him show me what he could do to give some pointers. Though there wasn't much to say–Faelan was quite similar to a berserker. I have never seen a berserker in my entire life, but they were popular enough that I had a good idea of what they were like. Some have special abilities, some have special training to enter their 'berserk state', and some just straight-up eat hallucinatory mushrooms to trigger an unending rage.

Regardless of the method, a berserker is a type of warrior who allows themselves to turn into a mindless, bloodthirsty beast for an immense gain in power. Weaker berserkers aren't considered weak purely because of their strength, but because they completely lose all reason and logic, so even if they become several times stronger, faster, and more resilient, they become easy targets as they often forget that dodging is a thing that exists.

The strong berserkers are those who have the decency of retaining their actual battle instincts, so even though they are–For all intents and purposes–Unconscious, they still retain their fighting acuity and act with some semblance of reason in their rage. Right now, Faelan is somewhere in between those two. He clearly has the potential to retain some intelligence while enraged, but it is directly tied to the power increase. The more powerful he becomes, the less rational he acts.

Since his strength grows not only as he gets angrier, but also the longer he remains in a state of anger, it means that he inevitably loses all reason. Thankfully, he still listens to me perfectly regardless, but I don't want him to be dependent on me to fight. If he ever has to face an opponent without me being around, I want Faelan to be able to win on his own, and without exposing himself to being defeated because he stopped dodging attacks entirely. …

To be honest, though, he already had something allowing him to rampage without thinking, and it was the fact that when he lost control, he would be blinking between being corporeal and non-corporeal madly. It isn't perfect, but it does make him quite hard to actually land a hit on. He also has a sort of aura around him, which makes it seem like he is a Poltergeist.

Various paranormal events tied to ghosts happen around him when he gets into combat, including furniture flying madly around and also directly at whoever he is fighting. Nonetheless, I would prefer it if he wasn't left to the whims of lucky odds. Especially since he is quite bad at running away. Not because he is unwilling to back off from a fight, but because he can't float or hover at all, and he struggles dearly to phase through solid matter even when non-corporeal.

He can always just pop right back into the Mindscape, but even this he is slower than other spirits in this regard. Clearly, he is built for aggressive offence. With his incredible strength, and the fact that his hands can form into claws, and his face can turn more bestial, he can definitely tear up the average knight in one-on-one, but knights aren't equipped for fighting with spirits to begin with.

The only common way available for people to hurt spirits is energy-based attacks, but even then, simple spells aren't the most effective, especially not against spirits the strength of my little sisters or of my son. Nonetheless, as their guardian, it is my job to worry about all possibilities, and even if some well-timed war would definitely take some heat off my back, I am still quite the infamous character by now, and many are probably aware of a good chunk of my tricks.

Even if they don't know that I am technically a Vengeful spirit myself, they would know that I am followed by spirits, so if some people track me down and decide to attack–Unless they are completely idiots–They would be prepared to deal with ghosts. Mmh… In the end, I told Faelan to train little by little. He needs to learn how to keep it somewhat together even as his strength increases, and the only way I know for him to do this is to simply train directly. He only needs to be a bit angry and wait.

As long as he remains angry, his strength will continuously increase, and he can thus get used to higher and higher levels of power slowly. Of course, the difference between such training and a sudden rise in strength in a real situation would be quite different, but for now, it was best to take things slow instead of throwing him into actual fights. Especially since his adversaries need to be quite resilient to actually last. Even when in full control, he isn't exactly the kind to hold back.

In any case, I left him with a training dummy and exited the Mindscape. Since the organisation doesn't seem to be preparing any new missions, I suppose I'll stay inside Leou's tower at least until what I promised Lunovis is done. The body-creating process is one thing, but I'm going to have to create an appropriately blank soul to go along with it. Hopefully, I can deliver the goods swiftly. Then I can guarantee that this annoying owl will get off Leou's back.

After all, the soul might be blank, but it will still be counted as a spirit of mine. So if I want to, he and his wife can end up with an empty husk. Lunovis has already signed a contract anyway, but it never hurts to have alternatives…