It wasn't long until two more corpses were laid in front of the spectral silk cocoon, its tendrils having already ensnared the offerings and devoured them to fuel the life inside.

The loyal living mannequin stood, watching the pulsating cocoon, its painted eyes staring at it with an enchanted twinkle as the guardian spoke once more.

[Catalyst energy absorbed and fully processed. Finishing Metamorphosis.]

The tendrils retracted, leaving a headless corpse uneaten, as the pulsation of the cocoon grew faster and brighter. Like a racing heart beat, it pulsed over and over until it glowed with a constant pure white light then… it dissolved into nothing. The threads that made up the cocoon unravelled themselves, retracting into their source, leaving a gaunt, one armed figure floating in the air for a brief moment before it collapsed to the ground.

***

Seth's head was ringing like a church bell as he finally roused from his slumber. The first thing he could feel was the oddly comforting chill of the cold floor against his cheek.

The next thing he noticed was the strange lack of pain. He had been feeling it for so long that he simply thought that his body had grown used to it, but as he slowly sat up it became clear that wasn't the case.

Even though his eyes were stinging, like he had lived his entire life in a pitch black cave and was finally seeing the sun for the first time, he forced himself to examine his body.

The most noticeable thing was he was skinny. Very skinny. Enough that he might make some supermodels jealous and ask for his diet.

As he curled his toes, trying to get feeling back into his legs, he could see how tight the skin was clinging to his bones. There was still some muscle keeping the two apart, so he wasn't completely atrophied and useless, but his body had made quick work of all the fat he had in his body for… something.

Apart from the stick-like appearance of his legs, he noticed that the wound that the raven had caused was gone. The tear in his trousers, from where it had rammed its talon through, was still there yet there was no wound underneath. Even the fabric was completely clean of the blood, all of his clothing was.

It was as if the wound had never occurred. The only thing breaking that illusion was the hole in his trousers and the nasty, twisted scar underneath.

He quickly darted his eyes over to his right arm, eager to see if that too had been healed by whatever had happened to him. But before he could get his hopes up, they were quickly dashed when he was met with the same sight as before.

His right arm was still severed, leaving him with a stump between his bicep and where his elbow used to be. At least the burns, from where Sirius had cauterised it, were looking better healed.

Lowering his arm with a resigned sigh, he raised his head and was met with a baffling scene. A mannequin was standing in front of him, looking down with an eerie and lifeless gaze, as it held out one of its arms towards him.

Not in a gesture to help him up. No, instead one of its arms had been removed and the mannequin was holding it in its other hand, offering the detached arm to Seth.

He wasn't sure what to think about the scene, it was only when the mannequin tilted its head like a confused puppy, that Seth even realised the thing was alive.

Narrowing his eyes, he looked over the gesture again, noticing now that it was the mannequin's right arm that it was offering. The same as he was missing.

It was…cute, in a naïve way. So much so that he couldn't help but chuckle at the notion. He gently pushed the arm away.

"You keep it. It wouldn't fit me anyways."

As the mannequin reattached its arm, Seth's eyes began to burn once again. He quickly clenched them shut, instinctively raising his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as he winced at the pain.

Yet, even though he had his eyes clamped shut, he was not greeted with the soothing darkness he was expecting. Through his eyelids, he could see swirling blue light as if someone was holding a flashlight up to his face.

Slowly peeling his eyes open, he found that the world around him had changed. The room itself had grown dark, the colours muted into an assortment of grey shades, reminiscent of television before colour.

From his left hand, the only hand he had left, he could still see the ethereal threads emanating from his fingertips yet now to his eyes they were startling blue strings that shone with light. The light itself was dimmed, but it was there nonetheless.

His eyes drifted back to his new companion, gazing at the living mannequin with curiosity. More specifically, he was looking through him, at the glowing shard nestled comfortably within his body.

Seth struggled to his feet, his string bean legs trembling with the herculean task of supporting his frail body, as he made his way closer to the mannequin.

The core itself of it twinkled like a miniature star inside the mannequin's torso, with threads of its own wrapped around it. The threads of its soul were loose, surrounding it completely with no outward branches like his own had.

While his soul was like a spider in the middle of an intricate web, the mannequins looked more like a standard diagram of an atom, with a nucleus and the electron orbits.

When the subject of his own soul popped into his mind, he couldn't help but walk over to a nearby mirror, which was once used to check out clothes.

Drinking in his miserable reflection, he could truly see the sad state he was in, but he also noticed an important change.

While before his eyes had been noticeable, having a distinct colour that made them stand out, now they were truly one of a kind. His sclera had turned pitch black, devouring the light that entered them and seemingly forcing that light out of his irises, which had once been silver but were now glowing pure white.

He closed his eyes for a few moments, focusing on the tingling feeling that filled them, and willed it to disperse. It took a few seconds of concentration, since the feeling itself was rather distracting, but he finally managed to make it recede.

So when he next opened his eyes, the world had returned back to normal. Yet even still his eyes had that same ominous black sclera, but at least his irises had lost the glow and returned back to his natural silver.

'Guess this is my new look now. And people thought I had intense eyes before… At least they match the bags underneath.'

He chuckled slightly at his own joke, still slightly bitter that his years of late nights and especially long game sessions had left him with permanent dark circles around his eyes and heavy bags underneath. He was like a panda, although now it was more of an insidious panda.

Activating his 'Soul Sight', and taking a mental note to try to come up with a better name, he examined the state of his own soul.

It was still broken into different pieces, like a partially exploded planet, yet at least now the fragments weren't eager to escape from him. They were still surrounded by a weave of his spiritual threads, while wisps of energy combined the different fragments in a stable orbit of each other.

He could see the divergent threads that branched off from the web, the five that ran down his arm and erupted from his fingertips. However, curiously, there was a single wayward thread that snaked its way out of his chest and danced through the air behind him.

Turning, Seth followed the path the string took through the air. His assumption that it would be connected to the mannequin was quickly shot down as the thread bypassed the clothing model without a care for its existence.

Instead, the thread snaked its way towards the ramshackle nest and burrowed its way into the enormous egg, which was steadily shaking.

Before Seth could even gather his thoughts about the situation, a crack resounded throughout the room and sent shivers down his spine. The familiar sound activating a primal response in his mind.

Thankfully, it was something less devastating this time that was causing the sound. Instead of his life being ended, a new one was being born.

The pristine white surface of the egg was now marred by a single, jagged black line. With another crack, the jagged line broke into a dozen more, branching out like lightning dancing in the sky.

It wasn't long before the once pristine surface was being forced out of the way as a small, pink head poked itself out from the hole it created.

As soon as the creature broke free of its shelled prison, Angel's voice resounded in his mind.

[Bond has been completed.]

[Would you like to name your new companion?]