The circles flashed a bright light. Both of the circles split into two.
The golden one emerged outside. The pieces of the golden circle formed 2 distinct sigils, unique representations of the soul names: the sigil of the Devourer and the sigil of the Fury.
Col's soul name meant Devourer of Realms and Paths. The spirit was Fury of the Stars.
The moment the sigils were formed, they went to the bodies of their owners. The Devourer's sigil was imprinted onto the Fury's back, and the Fury's sigil fell onto the Devourer's hand, on the back, to be precise.
Then they were branded onto the skin and soul. The pain was brief but stinging. Col was thrown from the state he was in. He was dragged through the vortex once again. He could understand the basics of what had just happened. With the contract established, the delicate state he had exploited to enter the mental space prematurely had stabilized.
The moment he came back to his own mental space, his consciousness was ejected.
The sigil had just finished imprinting itself. The entire process had taken place at the speed of thought, so barely a ten seconds had passed since he had connected to the spirit. Col sensed the change. He could feel an imprint of the spirit's sigil in his mind.
Col sensed the sigils and immediately cringed. Just what the hell were these names?!? It was like something someone infected with some pretty severe late-stage eighth-grader syndrome had come up with them.
He had felt this when he discovered his path was called abomination, but this took it too far! I mean, Stellaris Furiae was better, but his name? That was a literal spell. He'd never have the face to be called by that.
Not that he'd use it anyway. He had a feeling that these things were important, to the point that he wasn't sure he should ever let anyone know his.
He decided to call the spirit Stellar from now on. It was close enough.
He stood up. And then looked at the filthy and naked loli in front of him. He had to do something about that first and foremost.
He decided to speak aloud, to let the young one get used to the concept of talking.
"Hey, system. When can I use my next boon?"
'DING! The host can use the next boon when he takes the first Step in both Paths. As of now, the host has taken the first step as an abomination, you are now a Gazer on the path. This is the first step of all paths. Before you walk, you have to see where you are going. The elementalist path has not been walked on yet.'
"So how does one walk on paths anyway?"
'DING! That information is restricted from the host until he has used the first 2 boons.'
"Great. Thanks a lot." Col didn't even have the energy to be angry at the system at this point. It was expected.
"Hey, little one. From now on I'll call you Stella. Short for Stellaris if anyone asks. And you'll call me Col. Under no circumstances are you to let others know about our soul names, right?"
Col would rather kill himself than hear someone suddenly calling him devourer out in the streets. If they had streets here.
"Let's get you cleaned up first."
Col and Stella were on one of the foothills between the giant mountain and the forest. It was sort of a dividing line where the two expanses of terrain met.
Many waterfalls were dotting the hills. Though Col had a fear of the waters, he felt more confident with Stella around. It's just that since he had made the contract he could feel something tickling the back of his head.
It was similar to the sense he gained from his sixth sense but distinctly different. Brian just ignored it. He couldn't figure it out, and he didn't know if the system would even agree to tell him.
Col had… let's call it spawned here when he came from Earth. He had come out of the plunge pool at the bottom of a nearby waterfall. Luckily, he had had a change of clothes in the backpack, which he had left to dry as he explored. With any luck, they had not been torn apart from the bushes where he had hung them up to dry.
Speaking of his backpack… Col looked around to see if he could find even the remains. He hadn't eaten anything since the afternoon of the previous day when he had been communing with the system.
An energy bar would go a long way. He assumed that he would no longer have a problem with meat in this world. He was a devourer, after all. Just the thought of his title made Col cringe.
Col looked around. He then heard a soft, tentative, and incomparably melodious but decidedly childlike voice reach his ear.
"What… you.. do?" Stella had gained a knowledge of language from him. There was no other explanation for her to be speaking in English right now. How she had done it was completely past him and not worth his energy.
"I'm looking for my bag… Knapsack…. Satchel… Like this." Col pointed at the tattered clothes on his body. He had, after all, been remade in body and been through several fights. He was half-naked at this point.
Stella seemed to understand, then she closed her eyes for a bit. The feeling at the back of Col's head intensified, like a pressure about to burst out. She then opened her eyes, looked up, and pointed at a particularly sturdy-looking tree a bit further away.
The tree had survived the ravages the area had been through. The trunk was thick; 20 grown men would need to link their arms to surround it. There, inside the tangled branches, on one of the road-like branches, was a bright blue color.
It was his backpack. It was surrounded by even smaller branches inside a chamber. Col's eyesight had improved, but even he couldn't tell, for the life of him, how it had gotten there.