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The power granted by the Spirit King also included the means of rescuing the spirits melded into the spirit chimera, on top of allowing Mira to see the fragmented spirits floating in the air.
The chimera was a conglomerate of spirits that had lost their sense of self, so it was impossible to return them to their original shape. But there was a way of saving their souls. Through a Summoning Contract. Though it was no regular Summoning Contract, it was one conducted through the Spirit King’s Divine Protection.
He stood above all spirits, and was their lifeline. Even if spirits had been stripped from his presence, in a situation of complete disarray, that could tie them back together and bring them to safety.
The Spirit King’s Divine Protection allowed this to happen, taking all the spirits inside of the spirit chimera, and the fragments floating around, letting them be reborn into new spirits.
But newborn spirits were incredibly weak, so once Mira formed a contract with them, her connection to the Spirit King would allow him to protect all of the new spirits.
That was the Spirit King’s plan for Mira.
How to actually start the process was the issue. Gathering the fragmented spirits was easy enough, they were already starting to float around Mira, lured in by the glow of the Spirit King’s Divine Protection.
The spirit chimera posed the main issue. To form a summoning contract, Mira’s hand would need to be touching its body. The spirit chimera was like a natural disaster taken form, which was only matched by Isenfald’s terrible strength. Mira had the frail body of a young girl, so she could not approach it so easily.
But if she did not try, the spirits could not be saved, so she had to find a way.
「And that’s the gist of it. I’ll be counting on your help.」
「Understood. We sisters will do everything in our power to support.」
Once Mira explained the situation and her strategy, she headed towards the spirit chimera. The Valkyrie sisters followed after her, slowly spreading to the sides.
『My son, is everything ready?』
『Yes, mother. Just give the signal!』
Isenfald had also heard the strategy. Mira glanced at her reliable son, continuing to fight arduously far away, and sped up. 「Well then, mission start!」 she shouted and ran like the wind.
At the same time, Isenfald and the sisters went into action. The Valkyries ran ahead of Mira, sword in hand. On the other end of the battlefield, Isenfald stopped all the spirit chimera’s attacks, blocking it with his own body.
「Almost there.」
As Mira got closer, she felt powerful gusts of wind blowing around her, while the surroundings seemed to change color.
Resonant Summoning : Sylphid
Engulfed in the power of a spirit of wind, Mira negated the effect of the incoming wind, using her sage arts to make her way through the raging flames in her way, stopping the bolts of lightning with partially summoned shields, and kept running without slowing down.
Ten seconds after the new strategy was put into effect, there was another change. Isenfald forced the spirit chimera onto the ground with a loud and heavy thump. The Valkyrie sisters acted next, lined up along the chimera, they rushed in and used their swords to impale the creature’s four limbs, tail, head, and wings.
The sisters’ role was to support Isenfald, fighting with all their might to contain the beast.
「Hieee! Alfina, this is kinda-!」
「I…I can keep going..! Compared to Alfina’s training, this is nothing!」
The sisters attempted to force raging nature-taken-form into submission with their swords. But the burden was too heavy for them, as Christina cried and stomped her foot in desperation. Eletina showed incredible strain on her face as well, but she braced herself to keep going.
But no matter how hard they tried, they could not contain so much raw fury, and every second their protective shields deteriorated further.
「It seems we won’t last too long…」
Alfina kept resisting the force trying to blow her away, and calculated they would resist for only a handful of minutes more. But her face showed no signs of desperation at all, she firmly believed that was enough time for Mira. And proving those expectations right, Mira arrived at the scene, below Isenfald’s wing.
「Mother, it’s trying to resist so much!」
Isenfald exclaimed while holding down most of the spirit chimera’s body. While he could fight it and emerge victorious, restraining its movements was different.
「Just hold on a little longer!」
Even with the pressure from an Emperor Dragon and the Valkyrie Sisters, the Chimera wriggled and thrashed violently. Mira quickly went to its head, and activated the Carved Seal of Contract.
The Spirit King’s Divine Protection had let her know everything. This was her first time using it, but her movements were confident, as if she was used to it already, and began channeling the power of the Spirit King into the spirit chimera.
There was a stillness distinct from anything else in land or sky underneath Isenfald’s wing, and Mira completed her task shielded by it.
There was an immediate effect. The raging bolts of lightning stopped, the winds calmed down, and the flames were snuffed. At the same time, the spirit chimera and all the fragmented spirits gathered around Mira began to glow. Their light was reminiscent of the stars she had seen in the Spirit Palace, and they slowly began merging into one.
Eventually they all formed a palm-sized glowing ball and stopped moving. Mira reached towards it, and the light shone brighter, covering both of them, and then everything around them in a gigantic magic circle. It was even bigger than the one required to summon Isenfald, which left even Mira in awe and speechless.
A moment later the enormous magic circle turned into flames, water, wind, earth, and what was known as the eight fundamental spirit attributes, which all flowed together with the light into Mira’s palm and vanished.
「Hmm, that was a success…」
The contract had been formed. Mira could feel she had accomplished her mission, but also felt a vast amount of energy drain from her body. She began having a vision of the Spirit King carrying a young baby.
『You have our most profound gratitude for saving our family. We’ll never forget this favor.』
『Don’t stress about it. I just did it because I wanted to help.』
Hearing Mira’s response, the illusory Spirit King in her mind had a slightly dejected, but thankful smile.
「That was splendid, Master.」
「I knew you could do it, Mother.」
Mira looked around, her surroundings completely still. She had not noticed when the Valkyrie Sisters had lined up in front of her and knelt. Isenfald was next to her, looking at her with expectant eyes like a dog that had fulfilled an important order.
「It was only possible thanks to you all. You did well, I’m pleased with your service.」
「Ahh, Master!」
Hearing Mira’s words, Alfina broke into tears. Her sisters also looked proud and honored, though they were not as emotional as Alfina.
「Mother!」
Meanwhile Isenfald took those words as permission to proceed, and transfigured into his human form, instantly clinging onto Mira.
「Oh, you remembered to wear clothes this time. Good boy, good boy.」
Isenfald was definitely the one who had worked the hardest. On top of that, Mira had made him wait for a long time before summoning him again, so she did not resist her son’s embrace, gently patting his head. She had already expected things would end in that way, but she was relieved to see he was wearing a robe at least.
In front of them, Alfina looked at the two, her eyes concealing some amount of jealousy.
