I stared at the glowing blue panel in my mind, a sudden wave of suspicion washing over me.
I highly doubted this perfect upgrade was a mere coincidence.
The timing was entirely too convenient.
The Absolute Synthesis Well was the exact tool I needed to survive and thrive in this chaotic, void-infused realm.
While the technique followed a logical progression path, I strongly suspected the System was subtly orchestrating everything behind the scenes. It felt exactly like its usual methods.
’...’
A chilling thought surfaced in my mind.
I think the System had likely calculated my arrival in the Nightmare Realm a long time ago.
This realization resurrected the most terrifying questions I harbored.
What exactly was the System?
Who or what was pulling the strings behind it?
Was I an Inheritor like Cassandra or something else?
I stared into the digital interface, searching for answers.
The blue screen remained completely silent, offering absolutely zero clues, as usual.
’Suit yourself.’
I let out a quiet sigh and begrudgingly pushed the overarching mystery to the back of my mind.
The truth was far beyond my current reach.
At the very least, this mysterious entity was currently helping me stay alive and grow stronger.
Shaking my head, I moved my gaze down the profile window to the ’Affinities’ section.
A proud smile tugged at my lips. My Ice and Fire affinities had long evolved, currently sitting proudly at Grade 7.
My Darkness affinity had also recently advanced to the exact same rank. This massive leap was entirely thanks to my new bond with Nemo. Before the desperate battle against Bane, the Nightmare Devourer had surrendered a core piece of his essence to me as part of our deal. Consuming that pure abyssal energy had forcefully pushed my darkness manipulation to Grade 6, and bonding with him further pushed it into Grade 7.
Even my weak Void affinity had stabilized and upgraded to Grade 4. This would make it much easier to train teleportation and other void-related techniques and skills.
I let out a soft chuckle in the quiet room.
’I wonder if I can awaken every single element in the world and upgrade them to the highest grade in the future?’
I already knew a highly effective method to achieve this. As long as I bonded with powerful beasts possessing corresponding elements, I could awaken and evolve the related affinities within myself. It seemed like a flawless strategy to gain absolute power.
However... my smile slowly faded.
I shouldn’t be that certain about it, though.
After all, that perfect elemental sharing had only happened flawlessly with Sereniel. My connection with him was an absolute soul resonance. It was the purest and highest grade of bond possible.
On the other hand, my bond with Nemo was entirely different.
It was more like a contract, and we stood on equal terms. It was a mutual agreement of survival rather than a complete blending of souls. Due to this restriction, the elemental feedback and essence sharing were significantly less efficient.
I couldn’t simply rely on equal contracts to effortlessly max out my future affinities, unless they were like Sereniel or gifts given by the system.
Speaking of which...
I tapped the bonds tab and opened Nemo’s window.
━━━◇◆◇━━━
[ THE NIGHTMARE DEVOURER ]
Name: Nemo
Race: Nightmare Beast
Affinity: Darkness | Void | Mind
Innate Rank/Potential: Mythical Tier
Current Rank: Peak Overlord
Bond Affinity: ★★⯪☆☆
◈ Abilities/Powers
◈ Special Bond Ability
◈ Shared Powers
━━━◇◆◇━━━
My eyes paused at the bond affinity for a moment.
2 and a half stars...
It was a strictly average rating, resting exactly in the middle of the scale. This made complete sense to me. We had only been together for a single week. Furthermore, I had essentially forced this bond upon him out of sheer necessity. It completely lacked the deep, willing soul connection I shared with Sereniel back at the Eclipse Keep.
However, a flicker of surprise crossed my mind. The affinity had started at exactly two stars right after the battle. It had actually risen by half a star.
That probably happened because of what occurred today.
I recalled our highly emotional, melodramatic reunion in the courtyard earlier. That brief moment of genuine relief must have strengthened our connection. At the same time, the increase was quite small. My harsh words and cold scolding immediately afterward must have severely dampened the overall growth.
I shook my head softly.
’No matter. I don’t regret what I said. It was also necessary anyway.’
We have plenty of time to get to know each other in the future.
I mentally tapped the ’Abilities/Powers’ tab, expanding the intricate list of the Mythical-tier beast’s innate skills.
━━━━━━ ◇ ◆ ◇ ━━━━━━
▸ Absolute Umbrakinesis (*) – Sovereign authority over shadows, darkness, and abyssal energy. Capable of solidifying shadows into indestructible constructs, devouring light, and dissolving physical matter into the void.
▸ Reality-Negation Field (Black Dome) – Projects a localized domain of absolute darkness. Within this space, the laws of physics and ambient aura are severely suppressed, granting the Devourer absolute territorial dominance.
▸ Nightmare Consumption – Feeds directly on the mental energy, deepest fears, and aura of its targets. It uses these stolen fragments to sustain itself, heal injuries, and project terrifying mental illusions.
▸ Ethereal Voidform – Possesses a shifting, semi-immaterial body made of pure abyss, granting:
- Physical Nullification: Conventional physical attacks and brute force pass harmlessly through its form.
- Shadow Phasing: Grants the ability to sink into any shadow and traverse through the void for instantaneous repositioning.
....
━━━━━━ ◇ ◆ ◇ ━━━━━━
Nothing changed, huh.
Shaking my head, I tapped the shared power tab.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ Shared Powers
▸ Shadow Phasing: You can utilize Nemo’s innate ability to sink into and travel between connected shadows. The effectiveness heavily depends on your Void and Darkness affinity mastery.
▸ Foresight (Fragment): Allows the Nightmare Devourer to tap into your unique cognitive ability. Nemo gains a fraction of your predictive combat instincts, significantly increasing its reaction speed and situational awareness during battles.
▸ Evolved Darkness Affinity: Your inherent Darkness Affinity advanced to Grade 7, granting you comprehensive control over shadows, aura suppression, and minor void constructs.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
’Hmmm.’
I stared at the second shared ability.
A sudden realization hit me. This explained why our bond affinity held steady despite my harsh scolding in the courtyard.
Nemo possessed a fragment of my Foresight. He must have sensed the exact same premonition of absolute death radiating from the Mistress back then. The giant wolf recognized my sudden coldness as a calculated act to save his life.
Still, he was a naturally cautious and distrustful monster forged by the brutal wasteland. Gaining his complete loyalty would take significant time and proven actions.
It made perfect sense.
However, the exact same logic applied to me.
I refused to trust him unconditionally.
He would have to thoroughly prove his worth and character in the future before I ever considered treating him as a true, reliable partner.
A simple contract was far from enough to guarantee blind faith in a predator like him.
Pushing those heavy thoughts aside, I refocused my attention on the glowing interface.
There was one final, highly anticipated tab left to review. I mentally tapped the ’Special Bond Ability’ section, watching a detailed text box expand before my eyes.
━━━━━━ ◇ ◆ ◇ ━━━━━━
[SPECIAL BOND ABILITY]
« Eclipse Domain »
"A synchronized manifestation of the Nightmare Devourer’s power. You and your bond temporarily merge your auras to cast a targeted and evolved Reality-Negation Field, blanketing the battlefield in absolute darkness and suppressing all enemies within."
◈ Activation Requirements:
· Mutual agreement and shared intent between both parties.
· A massive expenditure of Aura from both you and Nemo.
· ★★ Bond Affinity (Minimum)
◈ Activation Method:
· Vocal Command: "Devour the light." (Optional)
· Mental Trigger: Simultaneous synchronization of killing intent.
◈ Duration:
· Base: 1-2 minutes.
· Maximum duration heavily depends on your combined Aura reserves.
◈ Cooldown:
· Moderate (e.g., 24-48 hours), depending on the scale of the domain used.
◈ Benefits:
· Enemies trapped inside suffer severe Aura Suppression and sensory deprivation.
· Both you and Nemo gain enhanced spatial awareness and mobility within the dome.
· Your Darkness and Void affinities receive a temporary massive boost.
◈ Drawbacks:
· Equal Toll: The Aura drain is split equally. If one runs out of energy, the domain collapses, causing both to suffer heavy backlash.
· Mental Strain: Prolonged exposure to the Devourer’s raw psychic energy risks temporary mental instability or hallucinations.
━━━━━━ ◇ ◆ ◇ ━━━━━━