Demonic Collaboration
Chapter 3:
After eight hours, Fenrin woke up, though instead of walking around, he decided to continue talking to Garmr.
"So Garmr, what are you? Are you inside my head or something?" Fenrin asked sheepishly.
Garmr waited a few minutes before replying, "No, I am not inside your head; currently I am outside that miniature castle; the only reason I am able to talk to you is due to the fact my life is bonded to you."
"So what, you're like my spirit animal or something?" Fenrin asked feeling a bit excited, spirit animals are incredibly unique in the entire world, in Avaritia theres likely less than a thousand.
Fenrin learned about spirit animals due to it being a popular bedtime story.
Garmr responded in a smug tone, "Kid, I am way better than any spirit animal. I am the peak of all life forms, a natural calamity at birth; I am a demon!"
After a short pause, Fenrin asked in a questioning tone, "What is a demon?"
"Demons are the strongest race of any throughout the entire world; we are born with the death element at birth! Our skin is tough and hard to break through, and we do not die from old age." Garmr continued to build up demons image while speaking smugly.
Fenrin asked, "If you're so strong, why don't I know about demons?"
Garmr responded after feeling a metaphorical arrow stab his heart. "That's because due to us being so powerful, our race has certain drawbacks. A demon can only give birth twice, and it takes one hundred and eighty years to become an adult."
"So basically you're just an impotent fossil." Fenrin held back no words, mainly due to it being inside his head and hard to control his thoughts.
Outside the miniature castle, there was a dog with an angry expression; its face was red, and if he could have steam come out of his ears, it would be right now.
"Kid, while we do lack numbers, our power is incredibly higher than any other race. We used to be the apex predators of this world; now we have to survive in the shadows, controlling humans and other races to live."
Fenrin recalled when he first saw Garmr, "So you're all dogs then? That doesn't seem very powerful to me."
Garmr stared at his own body, and suddenly he went into a panic! "I'm a dog! I never noticed until now! What the hell..."
Garmr continued cursing in Fenrir's mind. "Fuck you, Loki! You piece of shit, you kept me in that dark room for a hundred years just to turn me into a dog?!"
Frenrin had his hands covering his ears. "Stop yelling! You're hurting my ears, or I guess my brain."
After Garmr stopped cursing, Fenrin continued the conversation.
"So then you're a very powerful demon that's stuck in a dog's body; that's basically it, right?"
Garmr responded in a defeated tone, "Yes... That's correct, although in my normal body I would be powerful enough to kill every single person here in an instant; right now I am quite useless..."
"That's pretty powerful, but anyway. Who is this Loki person you mentioned?" Fenrin responded as if Garmr didn't mention committing genocide in the town he was currently in.
Outside the castle, you could see the dog go from angry to nervous.
"I'm not sure who Loki is; about 100 years ago he randomly entered my home, then defeated me. He sealed my core, then threw my soul into a dark room." Garmr shivered as he remembered his last 100 years.
Garmr continued. "He is incredibly powerful; there are very few people that could beat me and even fewer that could toy with me like he did. Honestly, I didn't even know you could forcefully transplant an unwilling soul into another body. Especially one that doesn't match the soul's previous host."
Garmr did not stop just yet, "If I was within the top ten thousand in the world, he could easily be in the top one hundred."
Garmr blabbered even longer, "For what I know about him, basically nothing. I only know his name from him telling me right before he pulled my soul from my body."
Fenrin asked while feeling nervous about how such an incredibly powerful person took interest in him. "What would he want with me though..."
"It's likely related to your death element; other than that, I have no clue." Garmr responded, stating the obvious.
"What exactly is my 'Death' element?" Fenrin asked after a slight pause.
Garmr answered almost immediately. "Heh, this is where you're in luck. I am one of the most experienced death users in the world. To be frank, that's likely why I'm here with you right now, so when it comes to teaching you, there's almost no one better."
Garmr continued showing his knowledge. "Death element is the most powerful element when it comes to killing; when utilizing 'Death' with your ren, you can age anything in the world until it eventually crumbles into dust. This includes even other elements and ren!"
Garmr continued now in a smug tone, "You probably don't understand the significance of being able to affect other elements like that, let alone Ren. But I can promise you that there is no element better to have than 'Death' when it comes to fighting and killing."
"How exactly do you 'kill' with the 'death' element?" Fenrin responded bluntly.
Garmr, with his experience, lectured Frenrin. "'Death' itself is a bit metaphorical compared to the other elements. How could you kill a piece of sand? By destroying it, obviously, unlike how all other elements will "destroy" materials and organic substances by converting them into a form of energy, 'Death' will simply destroy it completely."
"For example, if you destroyed a wooden box with the fire element, it would burn until it turned into ashes. Meanwhile, the death element will literally erase it; there would be no remains of something that's been destroyed by the 'death' element. Obviously you can't just walk up to someone and erase them from existence, but if you were powerful enough, and they were weak enough, you could." Garmr continued explaining 'Death' to Fenrin.
"Right now, for example, you can only touch people with your skin to affect them, and it would take a while to even do any permanent damage; you would have to hold onto a person's wrist for about 10 minutes just to cut it clean in half." Garmr continued.
"But the drawback is you don't have very powerful long-range attacks; eventually you will be able to coat daggers and arrows with 'Death,' which will act similar to poison, but for now you basically are a glorified wrestler." Garmr explains very formally.
Fenrin responded after thinking for a bit about 'Death's' power, "So basically I am incredibly weak at the start, but I'm incredibly strong later?" Fenrin asked straightforwardly.
Garmr responded fast, "You only think that due to not knowing about the other elements powers at the start. For fire, you can barely control a candle's flame; for water, you can at most control a glass-sized amount of water; for earth, you could only create small holes; and finally, with air, you could only make a breeze."
"Obviously each of them will get incredibly stronger, but for now death is easily the strongest, although there is the 'Life' element, but that's not worth talking about." Garmr responded, avoiding talking about the 'Life' element.
Frenrin was very interested in 'Life' due to him having the counteracting element, so obviously he asked Garmr about it: "What does the 'Life' element do?"
Garm's face went into a frown. "'Life' element is very similar to the 'Death' element; the two basically are complete counters to each other, even more so than water and fire. For example, 'Life' can restore a person's vitality, while 'Death' will decrease one's vitality. 'Life' rewinds the clock; 'Death' speeds it up."
Garmrs's face contorted into an angry expression while wearing a smile. "I'll tell you a secret, kid: even though 'Life' users act like saints, they're almost as bad as 'Death' users. Ever wonder how Sanctus can make all of those healing potions, its due to them taking other lifeforms vitality and transforming it into a liquid state."
"I thought you said 'Life' returned vitality, and 'Death' removed it?" Frenrin asked, confused.
Garmrs's face only wore an angry expression now, not even smiling anymore. "They don't decrease it, but they can take the vitality. It's nowhere near as fast as a 'Death' user; it's a long process. But it essentially makes all 'Life' users immortal."
Frenrins's right eyebrow raised up. "How do they make potions then? I've never heard of potions increasing lifespan."
Grammar's face relaxed back to a passive state. "Their potions are indeed life essence itself, but unless you have the 'Life' element, you can't make it extend your lifespan."
Frenrin's face, in contrast, formed a frown. "That sounds a lot better than the 'Death' element..."
Gramr started to smile again. "Don't worry, there's more than one way to increase your lifespan; for example, once you temper your soul enough, you can possess another person's body."
Frenrin's face relaxed a bit. "That sounds complicated, but it's better than nothing, I guess. But how would you temper your soul?"
Gramr smiled brighter. "Killing. You kill, kill, and then kill some more."
"That sounds alright." As Frenrin thought this, the image of his parents popped up in his head.
"I'd prefer to not kill other humans, though... I don't want my parents to be sad." Frenrin frowned as he thought this.
Grams face dropped, then she smiled again. "What they don't know doesn't hurt them, but even then we can always kill things besides humans, whether they're beasts, lynths, furbles, ragnarians, or magem."
Frenrin spoke bluntly. "I literally don't know what any of those are besides furbles and beasts."
Gramr smiled. "All of those are different races with intelligence, and more importantly, living beings with souls."
"Another advantage of the death element is that it's the only one that allows you to temper your soul easily; the method of doing that is by absorbing the soul directly into your core. Unlike all other elements, you can see the souls of other living beings." Gramr continued praising the 'Death element.'
"The advantage of having a stronger soul comes in many forms; it will speed your thought process, make you more resistant towards certain attacks, give you a stronger mental fortitude, and absorb information faster."
Gramr continued while smiling.
"But the best benefit is you can look through other people's memories through their soul! This is incredibly useful for almost anything, and the stronger your soul is, the faster you can search through its memories."
Frenrin smiled oddly.
"That does sound pretty nice."
"Now let's continue talking about other elements! I'll give you a fast lesson on all of the other elements." Gramr, said while smiling.
Two days later.
Frenrin and Gramr continued discussing Ren and elements for the entire two days, except for when they fell asleep, continuing even while eating!
The three awakeners currently watching Frenrin were discussing him away from Frenrins ears.
"Don't you think the child is too quiet?" One of the three said
"Being quiet itself isn't bad; it's the fact of how much he stares off into space and how long he does it for. I think I saw him stare outside a window for almost 2 hours!"
The general consensus was that Frenrin was a very odd child.
While the three were discussing Frenrin, two other awakeners walked in; Grim, who was the oldest of the five, and Fin, who was the youngest.
Grim immediately walked up to Frenrin, while Fin walked to the group of 3 awakeners.
"Frenrin Your escort has arrived. I hope that you were able to put up with us during your stay." Grim said while smiling.
Frenrin smiled back. "I'm glad that I can finally leave; it wasn't all bad, though."
Frenrin continued, "Where is my escort, though?"
Grim continued smiling. "He is waiting outside; all five of us will meet with him, and then we will depart from this town while he stays with you."
Grim motioned for Frenrin to follow, and Frenrin obliged.
A few minutes of walking later, the group of six spotted the escort.
Frenrin saw the escort; his muscles looked as if they were sculpted. He was wearing a long-sleeved yellow shirt and brown leather leggings, and he was standing seven feet tall. His hair was brown and disheveled, but he had a normal appearing face. Everything about him radiated the word "powerful," not even mentioning he was equipped with a giant axe that was taller than himself.
The tall ogre of a man shouted at the six of them. "I'm over here! My name's Paul!"