Chapter 495: Consumer of Mana

“Mmm, this is delicious,” Seraphyne moaned, her little flippers flapping around with glee.

Drasil cooed off to the side as he enjoyed something out of Julius’s lunch box. The spirit still wasn’t able to eat regular food, so he was a bit depressed seeing Seraphyne eating real food.

“Are you feeling better?” Julius asked her.

She nodded with a mouth full of food. “Yep. It took some time to integrate, but everything should be fine now.”

“What about Drasil? Is he going to be alright?” He asked, glancing at his buddy.

She looked over at Drasil as well, but Julius noticed a weird look on her turtle face. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have said she was a bit nervous.

“What? Is something wrong with him?” He questioned anxiously. Vailon had told him that Drasil would experience potential growth with the introduction of Seraphyne. But he didn’t like the look on her face, nor did he like the wave of fear from her aura.

However, he relaxed when she gave him a firm shake of her head. “No, he is fine. More than fine.”

“Then what was that look for?”

Her eyes flickered toward Drasil, who was still busy gorging on his food. “He’s not normal,” she said in a whisper.

Julius narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m saying that he isn’t like a normal spirit.”

“I still don’t understand what you mean by that,” he told her.

“There is something unusual about Drasil. He is clearly more intelligent than the typical spirit, especially given his age. He also has a grasp of life mana that very few will ever achieve. The most unique aspect, though, is his ability to eat mana,” she shuddered as she explained.

“Why are you surprised by his intelligence? He doesn’t even talk yet. I mean, look at you,” he said, gesturing at her aquamarine turtle body.

“I have also lived for decades, whereas Drasil feels like he has only been born within the past few years. He is still practically a child relative to spirits who can live for a very, very long time.”

“Wait, you are old?” Julius asked with a widening of his eyes. He thought she was a child based on how she acted when he first spoke to her.

She glared at him. “No, I am still very young for a spirit. I also have some very special circumstances in which I was born.”

He shrugged and continued to eat his own food.

“You don’t seem surprised about what I said.”

He nodded while chewing. “I’m surprised by how much it bothers you, but none of that is particularly shocking to me,” he said to her.

“Why not? Do you understand how weird it is for a life spirit to consume that much mana? Drasil practically drained me dry when I entered the soul space with him. He is like an endless void who consumes all mana,” she said and shivered at the memory.

“He is a hungry, growing boy. However, it might be partly my fault. I fed him a lot while he was little,” he admitted.

Speaking of whom, Drasil trotted over to Julius’s chair and climbed up on his leg, looking at Julius with expectant eyes.

Julius sighed and took out another loaf of bread from his lunchbox. Drasil whistled happily and grabbed it with a grateful cheer, completely ignoring what Julius and Seraphyne were talking about.

“See what I mean?” She said while waving her flipper at the gluttonous spirit.

“He just has a healthy appetite,” he said in defense of his adorable friend.

“Yeah, an appetite that almost sucked me dry,” she muttered.

“Sounds like a personal problem,” he retorted.

She spat a stream of water at his face, but he was already prepared and used some of his aura to rip it apart. Only a bit of mist actually hit him in the face.

Instead, she hovered over to him and tried to whack him in the face with her short flippers. Safe to say, she wasn’t very successful.

***

In the morning, after a surprisingly nice sleep, he woke up to the beautiful sunrise that he had never seen before. The way the light hit the horizon made the sun glisten iridescently. He took his time to watch until it finally faded over the horizon.

Afterwards, he got packed up and went on his way toward the pillar of light that was still piercing the sky.