Spirit Taming

Chapter 213: You're Not Alone

Your family just has places like this all over the city?" Clark was very surprised by the size of the hoe that Isa had brought them to.

"Yes, we have many places like this. The number of merchants we hire every year for certain harvests, events, and even special sales cause us to need many employees. As their contract demands, we give them temporary housing while training or before they leave." The way that Isa's family kept their massive mercantile empire solid was through these kinds of favorable contracts.

"I never would have thought so. I grew up in the city and never heard that the merchant contracts were so good. Although, I doubt it would have changed my dream to be a tamer." Clark laughed a little thinking about how many times his parents had once tried to introduce him to other professions. He soon looked at the ground a little saddened.

"You should see the lengths that we go to to ensure that contract details are confidential between every merchant hired. We have to assemble many tamers with unique magical talents to create magical contracts. That's where a large investment in gold goes every year." The way Isa spoke made it sound like this could be very tiring at times.

"We should rest while we can. It will be a short while before we have to return to the academy." Ella knew that there would be a call for them soon. Alexander was going to take Clark away for training while they prepared themselves for the main tournament between their year.

As the group cleaned up separately in the large house that Isa had brought them, they found that it was well stocked and cleaned. It was definitely set up for working class merchants that would be traveling at the drop of a hat. The basics were all there to be taken away at any time.

While the group rested, Clark sensed that something was off. He followed his intuition to find that Isa had separated a large portion of materials around her. The magic patterns on the floor were made of white ash and too complicated to be done easily.

At four separate points on the floor, Clark could see materials representing the four elemental energies. Wind, water, earth, and fire. The ice maiden floated between the wind and water while the flame sprite hovered over the fire materials. The crystal golem sat between the fire and the earth materials. It was a perfect show of where their specific energies were formed in the combination of energies.

Not every single energy was pure, just like Crim's new lightning typing, they were made from multiple energies.

The crystals that were set at each converging point of the ash patterns seemed to be bleeding their elemental energies in to the ash. The energies were moving toward Isa who was pale and sweating constantly.

'Elemental ritual- legendary

This is an elemental ritual to open one of many taming spaces created by an ancient elemental force. The knowledge has been separated and broken over many generations. Only recently has it been put back together in to four separate forms.

The form being used here can result in one of the four separate taming spaces being opened, however, the energy is not sufficient to open the fifth taming space that is ideal for the tamer attempting this ritual. The result will be energy dissociation. The tamer will lose their soul to the ritual and return to death.

The best way to prevent the failure of this ritual is to…'

Without any notice, Clark was moving. Isa was trapped in her own mind absorbing and trying to grasp the shapes of the energies coursing through her body. But she could feel the pain as she did. She knew that from what she was taught that patterns would painfully engrave themselves on her body. The shapes of the elemental energies would become one with her.

But now, she was questioning if she would be able to handle it.

"Breathe deeply and call your beasts to fuse with you, even the crystal golem. It will work. I promise." The whisper that made it to Isa's ears through the pain was drastically different from what Clark was doing. His shouts should have woken the dead, but he finally saw a change as the ice maiden, flame sprite, and crystal golem stepped toward Isa.

"Good, now let's see if I can help." Clark knew he had woken Maria and Ella. their thundering footsteps told him he would have more help in seconds. They were perfectly on time. Before the pair could even say anything, Clark was shouting orders.

"Ella, call your high elemental wisps, Isa needs elemental energy as much as possible! Maria, start healing the skin you see blistering here and here, Isa tried to open her taming space without enough energy. I found her and she needs a stronger body."

The things the system had said required Isa to be bound with her beasts. That was the first key that the taming space needed. It would help her survive the energy being forced within her body. Then the additional energy would nourish her beasts, her soul, and the taming space that was breaking open.

As the three beasts touched Isa, Clark witnessed them melting in to her body. Instead of an armor forming, Isa's skin became like blue crystal. Maria's healing quickly fixed the portions that were cracking. Lit had been right with Maria when she had arrived. The two were still low on energy but had a significant enough amount to help here.

The high elemental wisps moved in unison pulling energy from the air and sharing their own energies with Isa. The high spiritual wisp even floated above Isa giving her body another level of strengthening.

The sudden flash of gold light that bloomed before everyone blinded them, but what was left was exactly what was meant to be there. Isa was covered in moving gold patterns that represented the elemental energies within her body. Instead of being fused with her beasts, they had been sent to a new taming space. The patterns were the clear proof of this.

'Congratulations for unlocking a hidden quest.

The system has seen that the host has perfectly facilitated a life threatening ritual to become a potential breaking ritual. The potential of the tamer undergoing the elemental ritual has unlocked the lost taming space; the elemental palace.

The host will be rewarded with the hidden gotcha ticket. Please use it to reward yourself at any time.'

For the time being, Clark could care less about the reward or whatever the system was saying. Eh could look in to it later. All he, Maria, and Ella cared about was that Isa was opening her eyes and that the golden patterns were fading.

"Umm…why are you all…" Isa started to ask why everyone was there but quickly realized that their looks of fear and worry were because of her. She glanced at the beasts around her and felt that the energy in the room had come from them. "Thank you for helping me. I tried something dangerous but I have to keep up with-"

"You idiot! We just became sisters and you are trying to leave me alone!?" Maria's flood of tears stumped Isa completely. What went even further was when Isa felt the soft hug of Ella chrome her opposite side and the soft drip of tears hitting her cheek. Ella was barely containing herself as well. It was hitting Isa even harder because Ella rarely showed how she felt to this degree.

"As far as I am concerned we are all family, you didn't have to do this alone. But we were here, I won't let you lose as long as you're part of my family." There was a slight shake in Clark's tone. Even he had not realized how worried he had been to possibly lose one of his team members. It was what pushed him to finally say that they were family.

He had built another family that would help shape the city's future.

"I'm sorry…I just…I won't do this again. I will get stronger with all of you." Isa's solid tone made them all breathe a little easier.

"Until we leave, get acquainted with the elemental palace taming space. You aren't allowed to train for a few days. You did just rediscover the fifth unique taming space for your elemental ritual." Isa gawked hearing Clark explain this. She had long given up questioning how Clark knew anything but she was still stunned.

"Come on, you need to get cleaned up again." Maria put herself back together and pulled Isa up from the floor. She and Ella had already pulled Isa away before questions could be asked. Clark could only sigh softly before returning to the bed he had chosen.

"These are all good things. The faster we get stronger the better." His heart was finally slowing from the adrenaline. "But before I rest, what is this ticket?" His eyes focused on the pitch black ticket that was very different from the normal golden gotcha ticket that he could not hold and only materialized within the system.