"I am so so sorry that your master is dying..."
Even while he said it Gordon could see the bunny's eyes well up with even more tears just when she had almost stopped.
"She is dying?"
said the rabbit.
"Oh! I thought you knew!"
At his words the rabbit was now shivering, her fur drooping and shaking in fits. Awkwardly he sat up and gathered her into his arms.
"There, there, it is okay. Look I gave your master a limited time voucher and now she is evolving. She isn't going to die. Instead she is going to become even stronger."
But no matter what he said the little rabbit just leaned farther into him snuggling close while pitifully wailing. Tears dripped onto his arm and he could feel her heart pounding against his chest.
The only thing he could do was to hold her. Stroking her long ears and fur seemed to help. After a much longer period of time the rabbit was once more calm. At least calm enough to ask a question.
"Is master really going to evolve?"
"Yes, of course, see."
Gesturing towards Renier's body completely eclipsed by the starry mist of evolution.
Gordon watched as the bunny hopped over to the illusory evolutionary egg and sniffed. She didn't just sniff once, but proceeded to go around the egg several times investigating every little swirl and eddy.
Eventually she was content and decided to trust him.
"Okay, ... , thank you!"
Unexpectedly the bunny rabbit thanked Gordon and he felt a little touched. Hopping over the rabbit climbed back into his arms and huddled there uninvited as the evolutionary egg continued its work. Gordon went back to laying in the grass and closed his eyes. It had been a long bus ride and an eventful day. He didn't know when he had last slept well and this environment with its moon and the gentle breeze was absolutely hypnotic. Between one moment and the next he was asleep.
The bunny did not sleep though, it stayed up throughout the rest of the night quietly huddling down and watching the egg. Occasionally her eyes swept the environment to check for threats her ears swiveling around in the direction of any little sound while she dutifully sniffed every scent ready to alert at any anomaly.
_____
"Wake up! Wake up!!"
The rabbit screamed and Gordon surprised out of his sleep jumped up only for the bunny to spring from him chest and land in front of Renier's evolution egg.
Having reached his highest alert state he realized immediately that there truly was an existential and immediate threat. Above his head a crack that almost seemed like a permanent lightning strike was still clicking and groaning like thunder. The crack widened in fits and starts as it traveled down the skyline continuing to fracture the dimension in the distance.
The moon was no where to be seen in the sky currently, but somehow there was still a general glow. At least it was enough to see clearly when a thump like an axe splitting wood reverberated above their heads. The result of which was another crack. Which created a web like portion fragmented glass in the sky right above their heads. The dimensional sky had not come falling down yet, but it looked like only one more strike of the same caliber would completely shatter what was left.
"Renier, if you are going to come out, now is the time to do it."
Calmly Gordon said to the starry mist of evolution in the general shape of an egg.
[Upgrade commenced ... 94.7%]
The system told him that she wasn't ready yet.
The bunny was crying again, this time silently as it huddled on the ground still in the same place ready to protect her master. It wouldn't move, this was the most dangerous place in this dimension at the moment, but it still tried to make itself as small as possible while refusing to abandon its master.
"Thank you for staying with me all night, little one."
With Renier's strong confident voice coming from the evolution egg the misty stars stopped swirling for a moment before directly diving into Renier's body. A gentle hand reached out and stroked the bunny's ears and back.
"Master! You're evolved!!"
Excited the bunny jumped into her master's arms snuggling into the elemental's body. Surprisingly there was really not that much different about her. She looked almost the same as before. If anything she was shorter, but there was now a crown of thorns sprouting around her head.
"Enough of that now, stay quiet little one. I will protect you."
Renier gave the little bunny a quick hug.
For the life of him Gordon wished that he had the golden finger for discovering other people's stat screen. Even just a little bit of information would cure his curiosity to see just how far Renier had evolved.
Looking up Renier waved a hand and seven points of light suddenly broke out from where the largest amount of cracks were in the sky and swiftly descended to the ground with an initial staccato of impacts followed by thunder that echoed back and forth off the surrounding cliffs.
With another wave the cracks in the sky simply disappeared.
Then looking at the ground in front of her Renier calmly waited for the dust to clear. When it did seven broken beasts their visage marred by blood and gore lay in the dirt. Their bodies had split open under the pressure of whatever they were experiencing right at that moment causing blood to pool in the depression of their own impact crator.
Gordon could only guessed that Renier was still acting upon them even after bringing them down to her level. Five Behemoths and two Rocs meekly struggled under her pressure.
"Well met, Granath, the tables have turned."
Almost a whisper the earth elemental explained the situation for one of the beasts, whose name seemed to be Granath.
The largest behemoth strained and while blood leaked from its mouth said.
"Mercy, please, mercy..."
Striding forward Renier came to the front of Granath who was lying on his side. His broad forehead with half his horns and tusks embedded into the ground was still taller sideways than Renier was standing upright. However, the power difference was stark.
"Bow to me. Allow this human to make a contract with you and your friends here and I will let you go."
What Renier required was simple and probably the easiest way to get rid of her rivals. There was no compromise or negotiation, they had to submit and do exactly what she asked or death was implied. They were already as good as dead.
"Anything! Allow me to live I will serve to the end of my ..."
With a muffled bellow the behemoth began to say something important.
"Uhmm, Renier, there is just one problem!"
Suddenly Gordon spoke up.
Turning to look at Gordon, Renier cocked her head to the side.
"I see. Well then human do you know any mortals who could form a contract with these interlopers."
Relaxed Renier saw the problem without having to ask and then queried him for his input as if this wasn't a problem to find someone to contract with her new playthings. With the seven beast bleeding out on the ground in front of him Gordon only had one thought, Jessica.
"Yes, my best friend can contract with behemoths. I am not sure about the Rocs. Her name is Jessica and she is one of the Philos clan."
This time Renier approached Gordon and putting her hand on his head he felt a warm breeze go through his mind. Then she smiled. The next second Jessica was teleported right in front of him. She had been in the midst of some kind of defensive or attacking stance and off balanced sprawled on the ground with a squawk.
"Hey!"
Was all Jessica could say before she turned around and saw Renier. In a surprise move Jessica quickly righted herself, but stayed kneeling on the ground bowing to the elemental.
"Oh, great, god Renier! How may I serve thee?"
Praying to Renier, Jessica froze with her head down refusing to move until the newly evolved elemental had given her instruction.
"Come, child, arise. This man, here says that you can contract with behemoths and rocs. Is that right?"
Clearly Gordon had not said that Jessica could tame the rocs, but he wasn't going to say anything. And he was pretty sure that Renier could see exactly what Jessica could tame just by looking at her after she had done the same for him just a moment ago.
Jessica finally did look up giving Gordon a weird look and then said.
"Yes, I can tame behemoths and rocs. My affinity covers a wide range of animals. But I have no open allotments at this time. I need to rank up before I can form a second contract."
"Oh, don't worry about that my dear. I can solve that little trifle of a problem. Come."
And leading Jessica by the hand Renier proceeded to go to each of the broken beasts facilitating a contract between them and Jessica. One by one she placed a golden ring in each of the beasts bodies.
Each golden ring scaled up or down according to the size of the beast. While the behemoth's received a ring into the septum of their noses the rocs rings encircled their left tarsus bone right above the ankle.
Stunned all Jessica could do was fall into the grass on her butt and stare when it was done and Renier proceeded to heal all seven beasts.
"It is a pity that you can't contract with one more or I would have you bond with my friend here as well."
The elemental gestured to the little bunny that had continued to snuggle into the crook of her arm the whole time.
"I, ... , I only have eight allotted spaces for taming."
Jessica said a little dreamily as she viewed the rabbit. The bunny suddenly swung her ears forward and sniffed towards this new human inquisitively.
"Wouldn't this little bunny feel a little persecuted among so many predators?"
Gordon said to the side where everyone had been forgetting about him.
"I like you human, you have no compunctions. But I think you will find that this little bunny can take care of herself."
Renier reprimanded Gordon serenely.
"I wish that I could contract with her!"
Emotionally, Jessica, seemed to have fallen in love with the cute little bunny on first sight.
Rolling his eyes Gordon sighed and quietly threw the [Add One Allotment Voucher] at Jessica.
This time the upgrade wasn't an evolution and the system seemed to be able to instantly perform. Gasping Jessica held her head while grunting in a very unladylike way.
"That solves it, and you are a very mysterious person, indeed."
Saying something quietly under her breath towards Gordon, Renier placed a tiny little ring in the bunny's ear and then handed her to Jessica.
As the bunny was placed in Jessica's wooden arms the bright light of a successful contract forced Gordon to look away. When the light died down Jessica had lost her wooden surprise and was hugging the little bunny to her cheek. Nuzzling each other's cheek it was evident that the two had lot of similar thoughts. Maybe these two were a perfect fit for each other.
"Come, take a more elegant form for your new master. This will be my final gift to you!"
Speaking to the bunny Renier smiled as nine streaming stars shot out from the crown of thorns on her head and implanted into all nine of Jessica's beasts. Nine because there was a cut little additional behemoth that paced out from behind Jessica. Having been summoned from Jessica's first beast space, this new behemoth was in perfect health and was clearly not nearly as powerful as its elders. It wasn't even as tall as Jessica, although it was at least to her shoulder height.
After the star had exploded on each of the beasts they were briefly encapsulated in that same sort of starry mist and then out walked the human form of the beast. Five female and four male figures surrounded Jessica. One of the males was just a boy and seemed to be around twelve years old, probably the smaller behemoth. Another one of the males seemed to be in his thirties while the other two were definitely older with white beards and haggard faces.
One of the females seemed to be in the age range of about twenty with only one item of jewelry, a ring in her ear. The other four women were older, middle age or above. Yet despite their age they were in the prime of health, muscles bulged when they moved and they stood like there was no one in the world that could or would challenge them.
"Come, mortal, let's talk. Let Jessica meet her new family members."