While pondering what I had just experienced, I felt Master grab my shoulders as she began to shake me, breaking me out of my train of thought and looking into her eyes.
"Alexander!? Alexander, you okay!?" Questioned Lavender worriedly while violently shaking his body, nearly causing Alexander to get whiplash.
"Yes, I'm fine, Master, so could you please stop shaking me so violently? You're going to break my neck." Replied Alexander while resting his hands atop Lavender's arms, attempting to stop her.
"A-Are you sure you're fine!? After those two spheres entered your body, you became completely unresponsive for an entire minute, and I was worried something bad had happened to you!" Stated Lavender with concern as she stopped shaking Alexander and began examining his entire body, nearly stripping him nude.
"M-Master, stop! I'm fine, alright; there is nothing wrong with me; I'm completely fine." Said Alexander while barely managing to keep his pants, since, as he always goes commando, Lavender would've seen everything, not like she already hasn't.
Thankfully, after my yelling, Master stopped trying to strip me and slightly backed away, which I used to put my shirt back on and fix my pants that were nearly pulled off my body.
"Haa, It's good you're fine; with Mythical and Legendary artifacts, you never know what they're truly capable of. I wouldn't want your body being taken over by a foreign soul or possibly being permanently crippled." Remarked Lavender with a relieved smile as she cupped Alexander's face with her hands.
"Yeah, well, nothing bad happened to me, but it's not like nothing happened to me, Master. Shortly after the spheres entered my body, I was transported into an area with nothing but ocean and a clear blue sky as far as the eye could see." Stated Alexander, rubbing his head while still confused about what transpired.
"Hmm, well, you're body was still standing here, so you weren't teleported anywhere; it's most likely your soul was sent somewhere by the silver orbs, to where or the reason why, I don't know; you'll probably have a better guess then me considering you experienced it." Said Lavender with a thoughtful expression while rubbing her chin as she glanced at Alexander.
"Also, since you brought up the concept of my body possibly being taken over by a foreign soul, those silver spheres had life, I could see signs of life radiating off them, but it was so minuscule that I didn't think much of it." Mentioned Alexander with an awkward smile while looking at the now angry Lavender.
"A-And that's not all; when my soul was transported to that area, I heard two voices: a woman and a child; they kept calling me Master." Added Alexander while refraining from looking at Lavender, who was currently taking deep breaths to calm her nerves.
"Before I lash out in anger, the two voices most likely belonged to the silver orbs; in fact, the voices are probably artifacts, spirit artifacts if you will, which isn't surprising given it's a Mythical rank artifact. Before you found them, they were probably hibernating; that's most likely why the life you saw from them was negligible and why they call you Master; well, it's obvious, they've forcefully bonded to you, and now you're their owner." Stated Lavender as she explained everything to Alexander while her face twitched in anger.
"And that's probably why they absorbed all of the artifacts in this place; they needed enough energy that they could use as a catalyst to awaken them from their hibernation." Added Lavender as she and Alexander viewed the nearly empty room, only broken shelves, barrels, and tables lying about.
"So, when you said forcefully bonded to me, could you go into a little more detail, Master?" Asked Alexander awkwardly while shifting the topic.
"In this world, there are who knows how many artifacts; however, only a few of them can initiate a bond since, for a bond to be created, the artifact needs to have a spirit. However, while bonds are usually formed between two consenting individuals if one of them is much stronger than the other, it's possible to create a bond forcefully; there isn't anything wrong with this necessarily, but it can end up backfiring if the person or spirit artifact gets too powerful and they want to separate, if that happens, the one who initiated the bond will have their soul heavily injured." Replied Lavender while intently looking at Alexander, dangerous thoughts floating through her mind.
'So, I've been forcefully bonded with, that means I can't get rid of them until I get stronger than them, and considering they are a Mythical rank, I won't be getting rid of them anytime soon. Though, I honestly doubt I'd want to get rid of them; I mean, it is a Mythical artifact, and they are bound to be powerful.' Thought Alexander, feeling indifferent about his situation.
Since I was now apparently bonded with an artifact, that meant I should be able to use it; so with that, I attempted to call out to them using a mental command, similar to how I use my status panel. It seemed like it worked, as I felt this weird yet oddly pleasant feeling emerge from my heart and brain before it began spreading toward my arms, seemingly heading toward my hand.
Once the feeling reached and enveloped my hand, I watched how a mercury-like substance emerged from the center of my palms, forming what looked like a golden hilt in each hand; however, that wasn't the end, as the mercury like-substance continued to expand from the hilt into a large black blade with weird purple markings on its side.
[Note: Image will be posted on Discord]
'That looks fucking sick!' Thought Alexander in awe as he marveled at his greatswords in his hands.
"Is that the artifact, Alexander?" Asked Lavender with interest as she observed the two greatswords in Alexander's hand.
"Yes, I had just willed them to appear, and then this happened." Replied Alexander while swinging around the two massive greatswords, already fond of the two weapons.
Out of curiosity, I was tempted to inject my mana into them, but considering I'd already done enough damage for today, I held myself back before I once again did something stupid; I'm sure Master is beyond livid with me; I didn't wish to anger her any further, though at this point I don't know if it was even possible.
With another mental command, the two weapons began withdrawing back into my body as they further receded to my heart and brain before peacefully resting there.
'Though I am curious, how come they've decided to reside in my two most important organs? Hmm, maybe that's the reason why, actually.' Thought Alexander curiously before glancing at Lavender, only to nervously gulp as he sensed the intense anger radiating off her.
"S-So, we've been here for some time, and I'm starting to get hungry; want to head home, Master? I-I'll cook lunch." Asked Alexander timidly while slowly backing away from Lavender, though he was forced to stop as the earth enveloped his legs.
Looking down and seeing stone surround my legs, stopping me from moving, I gulped nervously and looked up, only to spot Master approaching me, and unlike usual, I didn't use this chance to appreciate her beauty.
'She's going to kill me.' Thought Alexander while sweating as he tried to free himself from the earth.
Usually, If I happened to anger Master, I wouldn't do something stupid like run away as that'll only end with me receiving even more punishment when I'm caught, but currently, with how angry Master was, I was willing to take that risk; unfortunately, even though I wanted to escape, it didn't end up happening.
"You know, Alexander, because of your impatience and stupidity, all the artifacts I've collected throughout the course of my long life have disappeared, absorbed into YOUR artifact." Stated Lavender with a furious expression while standing before the frightened Alexander.
"W-Well, on the bright side, it's a Mythical artifact, so I'm sure it's not like I wasted everything. Right?" Remarked Alexander as he looked away while awkwardly tapping his fingers.
"I've lived a long life and experienced many forms of anger, but I truly believe this is the angriest I've ever been; to think it was all because of my stupid disciple as well." Commented Lavender as she looked at the ceiling while Alexander stayed quiet.
"I'm going to need some time to cool off, or I might, haha; I don't even know what I'll do to you." Added Lavender with a bit of psychotic laughter, which served to freak Alexander out.
After that, Master gave me one last glance before walking away, heading toward the stairs in the distance, though while doing so, she didn't release me from the earth, which caused a terrible feeling to well up in my heart; only when she started walking up the stairs did I finally gather enough courage to call out to her.
"Um, M-Master, I'm still stuck." Said Alexander nervously while watching Lavender's figure walk up the stairs without any hesitation.
"I know. Didn't I say I will need some time to calm down? Did you think that would be possible if I saw your face every day?" Replied Lavender once she arrived at the top of the steps and approached the exposed tree root.
'S-She's not being serious right?' Thought Alexander with widened eyes as he realized what she meant.
Just as I thought she was being serious, I felt the earth encasing my legs crumble to pieces, causing me to release a sigh of relief as I quickly freed myself and began running toward Master.
'I knew she wasn't being serious.' Thought Alexander in relief as he looked at Master, only to notice her figure wasn't there.
"Master!?" Exclaimed Alexander, though the only response he got was the mana torches that illuminated the storage room shutting off.
"Haa, I deserve this." Said Alexander while sighing in complete darkness.
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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, it also works this time; I've reset it again, https://discord.gg/gyR4yJcU
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 152: Elaine's Ultimate Decision!) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 32: Talis Enters a Dungeon) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 48: Frenzy Photo) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]