This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Looking at the splinters and damaged pieces of furniture caused by the previous explosion, Serena stared at Kain with a deadpan expression, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

Gabriel, seated on a stool nearby, mirrored her expression, though his furrowed brows and a faint pout added an extra layer of judgment.

"You know," Serena said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "when I warned you about not blowing up the lab, I didn't think you'd take it as a challenge."

"I wasn't trying to blow it up!" Kain protested, his voice slightly higher-pitched than usual.

"Could've fooled me," Gabriel muttered, wincing slightly as he shifted his weight on the stool and ended up getting pricked by an errant splinter Kain must have missed. "You realize I was asleep in here when you decided to make shrapnel furniture, right?"

Kain rubbed the back of his neck, guilt written all over his face. "Look, I messed up, okay? But that's why I'm asking for help. Serena, can you... you know, help me not almost kill myself—and Gabriel—again?"

Serena raised a brow, skepticism plain on her face. "You're actually admitting you need my help? This must be serious."

"Very funny," Kain grumbled, but his tone softened. "I tried to modify the array to connect to this... realm I came across in a text I read before."

Serena's expression shifted from mockery to half curiosity and half skepticism. "What realm? And why?" she asked, stepping closer.

Kain pulled out the sigil he had created for Pangaea, keeping his face as neutral as possible. "I found this sigil mentioned previously but don't have the original text. It's supposed to represent a realm that may allow Gabriel to form contracts without a specific affinity, however, it doesn't seem to be recorded in many texts and I only saw it mentioned once. I thought the array could help establish a spiritual contract with a creature from there."

Serena squinted at the sigil, tilting her head. "I just explained to you yesterday that realms also have corresponding sigils, and yet you just so happened to have one memorized?" she looked at him as though she was looking at an idiot. "If you're going to lie, please do better."

'Damn it!'

Seeing her attitude, he quickly tried to convince her to help him. "I'm sorry! The truth is that I can't explain to you how I came across this sigil. But I promise you that what I'm saying is true. I think this is the one thing that Gabriel needs to be able to become an official beast-tamer without an affinity."

Seeing his statement, Serena examined the sigil more closely with interest. "I've never seen this before…and there's nothing in these notes or my studies about a realm matching that description. Are you sure this is legitimate?" Find exclusive stories on empire

Kain nodded to express his certainty while maintaining eye-contact, hoping that she'd be able to feel his confidence in this plan. "Even if it's not the perfect solution we need, I figured it wouldn't cause any harm and was worth a shot."

Serena sighed, her gaze drifting to the damaged furniture. "Well, considering the explosion, I'd say your 'shot' missed. Let's see what went wrong."

She grabbed the parchment with Kain's modified array, her eyes scanning the lines. After a few moments, she clicked her tongue. "You made several mistakes. This is why amateurs shouldn't think they can just wing it with complex arrays. Sigils aren't scribbles, Kain."

Kain winced. "Like?"

"First, this line here—it's incomplete and doesn't connect fully. It would have caused the energy flow to escape instead of remaining inside, destabilizing the entire array," Serena explained, tracing the offending line with her finger. "Second, you didn't account for the fact that this specific array requires a sentient vessel. A chair wouldn't have worked even if you'd carved it perfectly."

Kain groaned, slumping against the workbench. "Of course it wouldn't. Figures."

"On the bright side, you didn't blow up the entire lab," Serena added dryly.

"Not helping."

Serena smirked faintly. "Fine. Let's fix this. Do you have another Nihilrat?"

Kain nodded, quickly retrieving one from the storage area he had fetched the first from previously. Thankfully, is approval for the previous Nihilrat was still valid for another.

Serena injected spiritual power into the enchanted pen again to tattoo the creature. And while watching her work he realized that even if he had drawn the sigil perfectly, without the expert control of spiritual power during the drawing process, it likely would have failed once he tried ot activate it anyway

When the final line was completed, the array began to glow faintly, just as it had before.

Almost immediately, he felt a connection form between himself and the Nihilrat. It was stronger than the pull he had felt previously with the untargeted array—now there was an almost tangible presence tugging at the edges of his consciousness.

Moreover, instead of the connection focusing on pulling his attention like previously, he felt the majority of this connection being established between the Nihilrat's spirit and the planet in his star space.

He also sensed that with a slight thought he could completely cut off this connection or even completely annihilate that portion of its soul. If he chose to do so the Nihilrat would likely end up brain dead.

Kain closed his eyes, focusing inward. He could sense the fragment of the Nihilrat's spirit entering Pangaea. It didn't remain there for long though, though. Almost the moment it arrived, it dispersed back into its body without causing harm to its soul.

'It worked,' Kain thought, his heart racing. Without a beast-tamer on Pangaea to form a contract, the bond couldn't manifest and so the connection quickly ended. But this was enough to support Kain's theory. Although, there are no beast-tamers on Pangaea to allow a contract to flow in that direction, there are beast-tamers in this world to form contract with the creatures on Pangaea.

When he opened his eyes, Serena and Gabriel were both watching him with expectation and confusion, wondering why he'd closed his eyes. After all, the sigil was carved into the Nihilrat not him, and they couldn't sense the momentary connection that had just occurred between the Nihilrat and Kain.

"It worked," Kain said carefully, suppressing the enthusiasm that threatened to spill over. "The connection formed. No explosions this time."

Gabriel's expression softened into one of cautious hope. "Does that mean...?"

"You may be able to leave soon," Kain interrupted, keeping his tone neutral. "But there's still more testing to do. We don't know if it's safe for humans yet, and I don't want to risk trying it on you until we're sure."

Gabriel nodded his head naively. He also didn't want to risk being hurt, or even exploding, if the array isn't compatible with humans. Therefore, he also didn't pester Kain to try it on him then and there.

However, when Gabriel went aside to continue reading some stories on the laptop Kain had brought back for him, Serena's apprehensive gaze met Kain's.

After all, unlike the young Gabriel, she had quickly realized that the only method they could use to be certain that the array was safe for Gabriel to use would be to test it on another human…