Journey Of A Legend

The moment Greg lowered his gaze to look at what happened, his whole expression turned to that of disbelief.

All over his body, on his skin, golden carvings were swirling and moving here and there, making Greg instantly jump up onto his feet.

Taking off his shirts in one smooth move, Greg at his body with widened eyes.

On his skin, the same golden carvings could be seen that were on Shapeless, moving around his body like snakes.

However, even though the sight looked strange, if Joe didn't warn Greg, he wouldn't have been able to notice it.

There were no feelings or pain at all, not the slightest. It was quite bizarre.

"What happened?", asked Joe from the side, as he looked at Greg with confusion.

Shaking his head Greg didn't know it either and looked up at Joe.

"Nothing, when I fell into the pond Shapeless has vanished. Not knowing what happened I instantly came back up, but strangely my body felt extremely exhausted when I came back up to the surface."

"Wait. The moment you fell into the water you came back up instantly?"

"Yes, why?", asked Greg with a slight frown.

"You were down in the water for almost an hour."

"..."

Hearing this, Greg turned instantly speechless and glanced at the pond on his side.

As he thought about this, he wanted to say something, but suddenly the carvings on his skin lit up with blinding golden light.

"!"

Covering his eyes with his hand, Joe watched as the carvings on Greg's body moved and started to melt into each other on his back, right in the center of his spine.

"Bleargh!!"

Vomiting up an insane amount of blood, Greg fell onto his knees and clenched his teeth together in pain.

"What is happening?", asked Greg as he felt like his body was about to explode from the inside.

"Don't resist. Let the power seep into your bones and cells."

Suddenly Alice's voice sounded inside Greg's head, making Greg to relax his body, even though heaven-defying pain was going currently inside his body.

"What is this.", asked Greg as sit down on the ground and closed his eyes.

"It seems your Soul Creature underwent an instant evolution and now is fusing with your body."

"What? How? It was still in the Calamity rank, so how could it reach evolution?", asked Greg instantly with confusion.

"Because it's not an Evolution Step which is after the God rank, but simple Fusion."

"And what should that mean?"

"On the Evolution Step, one fuse and melt together with one's Soul Stone and Guardian, forming a new being. However, when a Fusion happens, then the outcome will be unknown."

"Unknown? So even death is possible?", asked Greg.

"Yes."

"Perfect...", thought Greg with a wry smile and asked, "Then what now? Should I just simply pray not to die?"

"Exactly.", said Alice with a monotonous tone of voice and continued, "If you try to resist, then your death will be 100% sure. That is why I said try not to resist and simply relax."

Knowing that resisting would be completely useless now that he knew what was happening, Greg relaxed entirely and let the power to seep into his body.

Bit by bit, Greg felt as the interior of his body underwent changes, while the carvings on his skin melted together on his back.

Slowly, the golden carvings melted together fully and started to rotate.

At first, it was slow, but as time went by the speed became faster and faster.

Just as Joe thought the golden whirlpool on Greg's body was about to detonate, the swirling halted in one motion and changed shape and color.

The golden color turned abyss black while the shape was no longer that of a swirling whirlpool, but a small circle surrounded with stars. In the middle of each star, different golden-colored symbols could be discerned, making the whole 'tattoo' seem mysterious.

"It... Has ended?", asked Greg with a huge sigh as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

The feeling during the process was almost indescribable. Not only did he felt immense pain, but felt like every cell inside his body underwent great changes.

It was like he became something new, yet at the same time remained the same.

After waiting a small while to calm down and make the pain to dissipate, Greg wanted to stand up but suddenly a shocking scene happened.

Just as he put his hand down to push himself up, his hand melted away, making his body to fell forward powerlessly.

"!"

*Paff!*

With a heavy fell, Greg hit the ground, making Joe run to his side instantly.

"Are you okay?", asked Joe with a perplexed expression as he watched Greg's melted arm to appear again.

"What the f*ck?", cursed Greg as he sat up looking at his arm.

"Just a moment ago, it felt like my body became... Air? No, instead it felt like my arm vanished into nothingness."

As Greg said this he turned his arm around, but seeing that he was doing perfectly fine he stood up and looked at Joe.

"This... Was awfully strange."

"Yeah...", nodded Joe and glanced at Greg's back.

After thinking for a while he looked around and asked, "Umm... Where did you throw your shirt off? Wasn't it here a few seconds ago?"

Knowing what Joe meant he nodded and pointed to the side, but seeing there was nothing there he frowned.

"Huh? I definitely three it there. Where did it go?", asked Greg and started to think back.

However, when he did, Joe before him turned shocked and said quietly, "Greg... On you..."

"Huh?"

Not knowing what he meant, Greg glanced down, but when he did his expression froze up.

On his upper body, his skin started to grow and change shape, and soon a shirt that looked exactly the same he had appeared on him.

The only difference however was that on the shirt, small barely visible golden carvings were visible.

"What the hell?", asked Greg instantly touched the shirt, but when he did, his face paled instantly.

The moment he raised the shirt to see what was below it, he saw as his body has vanished and only swirling abyss darkness could be seen.

The sight was just as scary as it was shocking.

As Greg saw this, suddenly he realized something and said quietly, "Don't tell me that Shapeless and I have become one!"

As Greg thought about this, the picture of Shapeless appeared in his head, making the shirt on him vanish, and a black staff with golden carvings materialized in his hand instantly.

"This can't be true...", said Greg quietly with disbelief as he looked at the staff in his hand.

Swinging it here and there, Greg felt that the staff was exactly the same as his Soul Creature was, but with the only difference that it was one with his body.

Just like the sight below his shirt before, when Greg opened his palm in the hope to drop the staff, what waited for him was swirling darkness, making the weapon to be glued right onto his skin.

"Just what happened with my body?", thought Greg with a bit of fear as he looked at the staff disappearing into his body slowly.

"You don't need to fear, nothing will happen with you. The Soul Creature that fused with your body now became your power. The only thing you need to do is to learn the way to control it."

"So it's like now I have a second Guardian?", asked Greg from Alice when he heard her voice in his head.

"You can think about it like that, yes."

The moment Greg heard the answer, his eyes widened, and looked shocked.

He knew that when someone obtained a Soul Creature, one could use its power just like one's Guardian's abilities. 

However, there was a big difference between a Soul Creature and a Guardian. When a Soul Creature dies, the owner will only lose the powers that the Soul Creature had. But when someone was brave enough to summon their Guardian out and fail to protect it, one will die alongside their Guardian.

However, now that his Soul Creature fused with his body, it meant Greg had not a Soul Creature nor a Guardian. He had a power that was his and his alone no matter what happens, which was quite shocking.

"Wait. Then this means I have obtained all the powers that Shapeless had before our fusion?", asked Greg with curiosity.

"If we think logically, then yes. But it does not mean anything. It could be also possible that you have obtained its main power but not everything it had previously.", answered Alice calmly.

Hearing this, Greg nodded and said, "Then there is only one way to find it out."

As he said this, Greg looked at Joe and with a slight smile said, "Try to kill me."

Listening to Greg's wish, Joe looked at Greg in silence.

Just only a small while later did he frown deeply and ask Greg, "Sorry, say that again?"