It didn’t matter that there were no volunteers. They all got the sigil carved into their bodies eventually.

Miya went first… because Kain had closed his eyes and pointed at her randomly saying, “You’re up.”

She responded by flipping him off, then lay back with a muttered curse. The moment the needle began tattooing the array into her shoulder, her mouth exploded into a flurry of profanities so imaginative that even Gogo paused where he was chewing on Jax’s pant leg to flinch back in shock.

Next, Garret, for all his massive size and booming voice, began shaking the moment the buzzing started. Tears welled up before the first line was done. He clenched his fists and forced himself to stay still, muscles rippling with the effort not to cry out.

Jax started off strong—grinning like an idiot and saying, “I bet this tickles.” Two minutes in, he screamed loud enough to be heard down the street had Kain not invested in soundproofing the entire building. The next moment, he joked, “Okay, that was just the warm-up scream.” Then screamed again. It repeated like that the entire time, a tragic back and forth between comedy and pain.

Lira of Darius’ four teammates, lasted the longest without crying out. Her brow furrowed, lips drawn tight, until something in her expression cracked. Her hands trembled, her breath hitched, and her carefully controlled mask shattered. Her eyes were wide and wet by the end, locked on nothing, looking thoroughly traumatized.

And last, but not least, was Malzahir.

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t twitch. He simply exhaled when the needle began carving the intricate array into the flesh above his heart, his chosen location. His eyes never closed. He stared forward like he was used to worse things.

By the time it was over, all of those watching couldn’t help but give him a look of respect. Although Darius and the others knew nothing about him, nor questioned aloud what kind of ‘test’ Kain had him due to prove his worthiness, his pain tolerance alone was incredibly impressive.

Kain let them rest, gave them time to breathe, to discreetly wipe their eyes and steady their spirits. Then he stood again at the center of the room to instruct them on the next step.

“Channel your spiritual power into the mark,” he said.

There was a pause. A few unsure glances. For some of them, it had been years since they’d last tried to mobilize their spiritual power—the last time being back when they were teenagers, still hopeful they might awaken and cultivated diligently. Back before they failed to awaken an affinity…even aft trying the maximum three times.

Therefore, Malzahir was the first to get the array to react—his foundation as a former beast-tamer giving him an edge. But even so, Kain noted how sluggish his connection was. The damaged remains of his soul fought against the flow, and the gap between him and the others wasn’t as large as one would expect.

One by one, the others followed.

As their eyes closed and their consciousness slipped away into trance, Kain’s own awareness drifted toward Pangea. His body remained still, but his mind followed the ethereal figures, what he’d come to think of as the souls of Malzahir and the others.

They looked like translucent wisps—tethered to their bodies on Earth but allowed to exist for a limited time on Pangea due to the branded sigils.

He watched them move curiously about the wild surroundings of Pangea, before darting off in separate directions, almost as if they were responding to the calls of creatures suitable for themselves.

————-

Miya’s soul, like her fiery hair and personality, moved like a firecracker. Wild and bright, its path streaked through the Pangea like a comet until it reached a volcanic region rife with fire-attribute creatures. She passed over winged fire serpents and singing red crows made of molten crystal before abruptly halting in front of a strange object that looked like a spinning ring of obsidian teeth orbiting a pulsing heart of blue flame.

The ring and heart split open like a jaw, revealing a second creature inside: a feline-shaped beast with black fur and three blue flame-tipped tails. Once the ring opened and a cat-like creature became visible, a wave of heat so intense erupted that the entire region for miles was covered in a strange wave-like filter due to the intense heat waves.

Miya’s soul was not put off by the heat and continued forward, making contact with the feline. The contract was sealed.

————-

Garret’s soul moved slow and heavy, like trudging through deep snow. Strangely, instead of moving across the land in search of a contract, it actually descended deeper into the earth of Pangea, past layers of deep soil and rock.

The soul passed creatures that resembled worms make of precious jewels and crystal-plated ants the size of cars, marching through labyrinth-like tunnels. It continued downward, pulled by something more profound.

Eventually, Garret’s soul found itself within a titanic cavern with no light source—yet not truly dark. Bioluminescent moss glowed along stalactites like stars, and a lake of a mysterious silver substance resembling liquid mercury sat undisturbed.

There, nestled half-submerged in silver sludge, was a beast that looked like a cross between an ox and a miner’s drill. Its body was plated in layers of compressed stone and matte metal, with a horn of conical spiral stone jutting out from its forehead. A mane of hanging iron chains clinked with every breath.

It lay unmoving in the center of the cavern, until Garret’s soul touched the tip of its horn, and only then did the beast stir. It opened one of its glowing eyes drowsily, like a sun igniting in the dark. The two souls resonated, slow and steady. A new bond was formed.

—————

Jax’s spirit was chaotic. It moved erratically and darted this way and that as though it couldn’t make up its mind.

Finally, after flying around for quite a long period it veered downward and stopped—suspended before a peculiar beast made of floating, segmented cubes. Each block rotated independently, held in place by magnetic arcs of crackling pink light. The creature spun faster the closer Jax’s soul got, almost like it could sense it, until it formed the vague shape of a humanoid figure with bells of electric energy on its limbs.

It blinked its solid pink, pupilless eyes—once, twice—and then burst into light. The connection was sealed with a burst of erratic sparks.

—————–

Lira’s soul had the most low-key appearance and behaviour. It travelled through a region of fog and glided silently over lakes without ripples. Beasts didn’t look up as she passed. The wind didn’t stir. And yet, one creature did seem to see her.

Perched atop a lakeside mountain covered in mist was a creature resembling a young fawn woven from threads of fog and streaks of light that resembled lightning but felt calmer and less threatening.

Its antlers looked like old, charred tree branches, its tail left ripples of distortion in the air as it moved back and forth, and small luminous motes hovered around its hooves like fireflies.

Its eyes held the weariness of an old soul that belied its juvenile appearance. But when Lira’s spirit neared, the creature stirred, leaned forward, and met her light with the tip of its snout. The bond formed easily, with neither tension nor resistance from either party. Almost as though the connection had existed for ages and was only now remembered.

——————–

Kain observed each pairing in thoughtful silence, pleased with the high-quality of the spiritual creatures selected.

But even as the others solidified their connections, one soul seemed unable to find its match.