In front of me, descending from the heavens above in a blinding haze, stood the most magnificent and terrifying creature I had ever seen. Within a second of its instantaneous appearance, all signs of frostbite vanished from my body as my now regained senses could only focus on the creature with bated breath. The creature in front of me vaguely resembled some sort of majestic winged bird, however, it was at least the size of the northern gate I had passed through just four days ago, its body blanketing the empty canvas in front of my eyes. Although trying to capture every ounce of the creature’s majesty with my naked eyes was almost too herculean a task, I couldn’t help but try. 

The gigantic bird with navy-blue and white feathers had not one, but three pairs of angel-like white wings, so large that I feared they might block out the sun. In addition, wrapped around its neck and ‘torso’ were two sets of golden beads, woven together into some sort of necklace-esque structure, crisscrossing like strands of human DNA. And over its head floated some sort of angular ‘crown’, almost too blinding to look at, as if thin long strands of the golden sun itself had decided to interweave themselves into a right-angled V-shaped ornament above the creature’s head.

Before I even had a chance to feel any fear at the sight of the overwhelming presence in front of me, I could sense the creature’s crystal blue eyes lock onto mine, followed by a sharp ringing in my head, loud enough for me to grab it with my hands and bury it between my knees. And when the ringing normalized, after what seemed like an eternity, I finally heard it; a voice inside my head.

‘So, you’re the one who summoned me here?’ a dignified, female-sounding voice echoed in my head. Almost immediately, I sprang up off my feet, my head shooting upwards to glance at the creature with its eyes still fixed on me.

‘Yes, it is I who is speaking with you, young human. Were you the one who activated the runemap I had left behind in this place long ago?’ the voice spoke again, this time with an air of authority.

Was I hallucinating? Or was the giant bird actually talking to me in my language inside my head? I was aware that mana creatures A-rank and above were able to transmit some of their ‘emotions’ to mages who had formed a mana-link with them, but this wasn’t at all the same thing. There was absolutely no way mana creatures could understand human languages, let alone hold mental conversations with human beings. And I hadn’t even formed a mana-link with this… this creature. So how was it talking to me right now?

‘For someone who had the ability to activate my runemap, you seem quite unknowledgeable young one,’ the voice rang out once more, as if having read my exact thoughts.

‘Wait… you can hear what I’m thinking?’ I gasped out loud, as if it was somehow an okay thing to be talking to the gigantic bird which could kill me any second with a single breath.

‘Yes, young one… no, Minjun. I can recognize why you’re distressed… you humans have such restrained ways of perceiving the world. Allow me to answer your questions…’ it spoke, right before I felt a surge in mana strong enough to reverberate through the heavens. And then, with a single blinding golden light, thousands of ‘thoughts’ flooded my brain, providing me with an almost immediate understanding of the situation.

Although I didn’t understand exactly what this ‘being’ was, it was definitely no high-level mana creature. If it was a mana creature, I had a feeling it would be the strongest mana creature in all of existence, something above S-class; perhaps it belonged to the fabled SS-class that was rumored to exist somewhere in the world, although I had always believed those were just fairytales for aspiring adventurers. That ringing in my head before had been the creature using some sort of mana art to connect directly with my brain… no, rather my soul? I didn’t understand it properly but the creature had initiated a kind of mana-link with me, only it was much deeper; something akin to a ‘soul-bond’. 

This allowed it to instantly acquire all of my skills, including my ability to converse in the languages which I already knew. And of course, we could now speak directly to each other’s ‘soul’ instead of having to use words; although I didn’t understand a lot of what the creature was trying to tell me; for now, I decided to call this connection a ‘mental link’ for my own sanity. The creature had created the cavern and the magic circle I had come across, on its last visit to the Hayan Mountains, perhaps a decade ago. Since then, no one had found it, until I activated it; a kind of signal flare to get the creature’s attention; a ‘summon’ if you will. It was actually the creature that had brought me here to the top of this mountain, and not the magic circle. And that was about all I could understand before the mental strain of the process took over.

‘So, do you get it now?’ I heard a now higher-pitched, younger female voice speaking in my head as I opened my eyes, having closed them shut under the stress of the mental flood I was experiencing earlier.

However, as my eyes adjusted to the intense sunlight once again, unexpectedly, the creature as large as the Eiffel Tower was nowhere to be seen. Instead, in front of me, on the snow-covered ledge, stood a small white fox, no bigger than a ‘housecat’ I had seen in pictures from my father’s youth. It resembled a tiny version of an A-rank mana creature, the white devil fox, with the noticeable exception of it’s paintbrush like tail having been dipped in a jar of ice-blue paint covering it’s tip, and of course, the tiny icy-blue diamond-like jewel embossed into the center of its forehead, a little above it’s eyeline. However, one look into the creature’s crystal-blue eyes was all I needed to tell that this was indeed the same creature that had been towering above me moments earlier.

‘I thought this form would be more appropriate!’ the creature ‘spoke’, its thoughts directed to my head via our still active mental link.

‘Umm, more appropriate for what exactly?’ I instinctively inquired.

‘For our adventures together silly human… teehee!’ the creature replied, in a drastically different tone fit for a thirteen-year old girl.

‘Our adventures?! Wait, what are you talking about?’ I asked, my courage slowly brimming to the surface now that the creature’s imposing gigantic form had disappeared.

‘Oh, you haven’t noticed yet… Umm, please take a look at your wrist,’ the creature replied innocently, as if worried about my response.

As I looked down at my right wrist, which had so far been covered by the think black gloves I had been wearing, I saw a series of black runes encircling it as if I was wearing some sort of tattoo bracelet on my wrist. I didn’t even have to articulate my next question before the creature’s voice echoed in my head with a suitable answer.

‘Well, Jun… where I come from, it’s really boring, to be honest. I mean, nothing interesting ever happens. Sooo, the last time I was here by chance, I left that magic circle for a strong human mage to find so I could meet them. Well, I mean you’re not as strong as I was expecting, but you did manage to activate the runemap… I mean magic circle I created. Anddd you seem… interesting. So, I decided to make you my soul-bond. Isn’t that amazing? Now we’ll get to explore this fun human world together!’ the creature replied in one breath, unable to contain its excitement as it jumped up and down on all fours, poking holes in the snow below it.

‘Wait, so you’re basically an all-powerful mana creature who was ‘bored’ so you decided to form some kind of mana-link with me so we could explore the world together?!’ I summarized in disbelief, a tone of annoyance emanating from my mental exhaustion.

‘Well simply put, yeah… but hey, you don’t have to sound so unhappy; you know I’m kind of a big deal where I’m from, isn’t it a good thing to have someone as strong as me as your bond? I bet mages stronger than you would line up to be my soul-bond yet I chose a weakling like you, maybe you should feel a little more excited!’ the creature shot back.

At this point, I couldn’t really make sense of the world around me anymore, so I just gave up. Apparently, this cute little mana creature skipping around in the snow in front of me was an all-powerful ‘being’ who had chosen to ‘bond’ with me without asking for my consent. From what I had gathered, a soul-bond was a higher version of a mana-link, effectively making this creature something akin to my familiar? For the sake of my sanity, I felt it would be pointless to probe into the circumstances which had led to this turn of events, so I decided against it. I mean, I had originally come to these mountains to initiate a mana-link with the B-rank Purple-Winged Imperial Eagle. Instead, I was now in what felt like an unbreakable mana-link with what looked like an A-rank White Devil Fox, but was actually, maybe, a stronger-than-S-rank mana creature. I couldn’t exactly call it a total loss.

‘So umm- you… how exactly do we get down from here?’ I asked, unsure of what else to say right now.

‘I have a name! Well in human tongue my name would be Azurine, but… you can call me Azu!’ the creature said excitedly.

‘Ah so, you ARE a girl then…?’ I asked rhetorically as if to confirm my own analysis.

It was then that Azu decided to flood my mind once again with a dozen thoughts, probably finding it easier than having to explain everything verbally. From what I could tell, Azu’s ‘race’ of mana creatures didn’t exactly have genders, although in terms of mental alignment, Azu was definitely a ‘girl’ by even the broad human standards nowadays. That’s why, during our initial mind meld, Azu had picked up on the tone and nuances of the most important female figures in my life, namely my mother and Yoonah. It was no wonder she sounded like a mixture of my mother’s elegance and my sister’s colorful, sarcastic personality. Although apparently, Azu herself was considered ‘young’ for her race, so perhaps her actual personality was similar to my sister’s as well.

‘Ah can you please warn me before you do that next time,’ I pleaded, my head still spinning from the influx of information, albeit less than the first time.

‘Sorryy! I will use my words next time, teehee!’ Azu replied in her most cheery voice so far, before adding, ‘…as for getting down from here, allow me,’ she smirked.

As the icy-blue jewel on her forehead started to shine, she quickly jumped onto my head, positioning herself cozily in between my hair and the teal-tinted hood of my snow coat. The next thing I knew, we were instantly in another location, surrounded by lush green trees, barely a hint of snow on them. I checked my WristNAV to find that we were now standing a little way off from the trail at the foothills of the Hayan Mountains, just a few miles away from the Ivory Post, where I had been only four days earlier. 

I was ecstatic, jubilant even, with the practical knowledge that my ‘familiar’ could use a spell similar to a gatekeeper to teleport over large distances. That was a lot better than anything I could have hoped for with a Purple-Winged Imperial Eagle. Although my celebration was cut short somewhat after Azu explained that using this ability of hers really drained her energy in ‘this form’, so she would refrain from using it unless absolutely necessary. Of course, she had chosen to take this form to blend in with ‘the locals’ as she put it, so it couldn’t be helped.

Once again careful not to reveal my lightning element, I used the half-day long walk back down to the Ivory Post to get to know my familiar better. To be honest, once the initial shock of Azu’s gigantic form had died down, it had actually been rather fun being able to ‘talk’ to the small white fox now napping snuggly on top of my head. Or perhaps it was the result of our soul-bond which made us feel ‘instantly close’ for lack of a better expression. While Azu’s personality was quite similar to a young child’s, she seemed to know a lot more about mana arts than us ‘silly humans’. 

Apparently, Azu had always been a bit of an outcast in her family, who all excelled in using wind magic, while she was born with an aptitude for ice magic; something which, even to my knowledge, only a few high-rank mana creatures were known to be able to use. While the rest of her family apparently spent their time performing important ‘duties’, Azu wanted to live a life of adventure, so she decided to find a strong mage to bond with so she could travel the world and experience new things. Although she was still unsure how I had been able to activate her magic circle, which was called something similar to a runemap in her language. I could vaguely tell that it was meant for someone of high S-rank, but still, Azu didn’t really seem disappointed. If anything, she kept admiring how ‘pure’ my soul was through our soul-bond, whatever that meant.

After walking for about ten hours without taking a break, I finally reached the Ivory Post with my new partner before sunset. I decided it would be too tiring to make the journey back home today, and rented a small room in an ‘adventurers’ inn’ for the night. Tomorrow, I would make my way back to the northern gate, which would give me a couple of days to rest at home before my first year at Ashford Academy would begin.