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No one said anything at first, no one could. What possible response could there be for such a request? The fact that Bloom and all of the other plant spirits now existed implied that any combined affinity could be made if Mora wanted to, with only the issue of the request being the reason behind it.

There was no reason to create new types of spirits, not really. Sure, Ben himself was for it if only to satisfy his curiosity at what alterations within a soul would even allow for such a thing and what levels of power would be held for types of magic that had either never grown to such a height or hadn’t in centuries, but that same curiosity wasn’t why the other spirits would want to do it. The greatest thing the creation of new types of spirits would bring was power for one purpose, killing the demons infesting that world.

Something Mora had already said that he himself didn’t want to participate in. Ben wasn’t sure if the boy was an outright pacifist but at the very least he had no interest in killing anything that was a person, something that he would indirectly be contributing to if he used his magic in such a way, a fact that left both his and Thera’s eyes turning to the child.

“Why?” Mora asked, too young and inexperienced to see the reason behind it that seemed so clear, even if the answer Abrus gave was different than what either of them expected.

“There’s a few reasons,” The earth spirit admitted, trying to look gently for the child he was asking this task. “There’s no denying that our existence living among mortals has the potential to cause trouble from time to time on this planet but we also work to help them too and more of us with different varieties of power will mean we’re more equipped to do it, with more strength to protect all of the fragile lives we’ve grown to love, but there’s more to it than just that.”

“More?”

“Mora, you haven’t made any new soul spirits, have you?”

“…I haven’t.”

“I thought so. Whether you choose to or not is your decision but without them you might not fully understand this. We and them are connected in ways other races simply aren’t and there’s a mutual love between us. It is the nature of the great ones to care for and protect the small ones but there’s more beyond that too. The way we all think and all see the world… It can be hard for the regular spirits to understand us and the role we have as we would understand each other and while the connections we form with the morals of this world are close and will leave permanent marks on our eternal lives, they are just that, eternal. When the people we’ve learned to love grow old and die as time goes on, we’ll once more be left with each other for whatever good or ill that holds but we started as ten and then dropped to eight for so long and it’s only now that we’ve seen that we can grow to even more beyond just us. Our own fates can’t be guaranteed, even if we could live forever we’ll still have the potential to die but in whatever long years there may still be for us ahead, given the chance, we’d enjoy having more by our side to face it.”

The longing for companionship seemed true as Ben invaded their thoughts, even if there was still a strong undercurrent of desire for more power to kill the demons and protect the world, but Abrus had implied as much at the beginning of his small speech; there was nothing that needed to be spelled out for Mora and Ben had to admit, it might be good for the boy too. Even if he and Thera succeeded in reaching the third tier in any of their skills, one day their mortal bodies would die. Still able to interact with that plane but no longer a part of it, even if they’d be able to talk to Mora, he’d be alone and what small bit of company they’d be able to give them was only if they really did manage to transcend their limits like that.

No, the boy needed something more and while he was now getting to know a bit of his extended family, considering that of the ten other spirits living in the world, two of them had abandoned him so soon after he’d been born, there was no escaping the idea that it would be good for him to have more options. The chance to have peers to mingle with and grow to love him as well for whatever eons awaited them.

“And you’ll all accept them?” Mora asked. “They’ll be your family?”

“No, they’ll be our family,” Abrus told him. “For better or for worse, whatever sorts of people they might grow into, they’ll be great spirits and that’s enough.”

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“…Alright, I’ll do it but I can’t just do it.”

“Hmm? Thank you but what does that mean?”

“When I made Bloom, I’d already seen plant magic and the skill through peoples’ souls,” He explained. “I needed that too…”

He began miming with his hands, trying to use them to get a point across but failing on that front too until Ben spoke up.

“You just need to see holders of any combined affinity you’d be trying to make, is that it?”

“Yeah, I won’t be able to do anything unless I see them first.”