Chapter 1036: Good Friends
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[You have assimilated the power of [Mammon's True Demonic Soul (Divine Spiritual Awakening)]!]
[You have used most of its powers to heal those affected by Mammon's Soul Parasite.]
[You have used most of its powers to revive your friend, Chris.]
[Due to the errors that occurred while trying to revive Chris, the power of the Grimoire and its Authority has been used to fully revive him instead.]
[To Fully revive Chris, you have used the powers of the Divine and Demonic Soul of Mammon in combination with the Grimoire's Authority to forcefully evolve him into a [Spirit Familiar (Human)]
No matter how much Blake wanted to run away from this truth, he couldn't, he had to face it head-on.
What he had done to revive Chris, it was now as clear as water once these notifications appeared.
Chris could not be sustained within the world after having such a gruesome death.
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His soul could have been reincarnated, but by then, he would have completely lost everything that made him himself.
Blake was desperate, he didn't want his dear friend to die, someone that had been with him for so long…
Using those godly powers back then, he did the only thing he thought was reasonable.
He transformed him into a Familiar.
However, he was a special kind of Familiar, something not bound by his Grimoire, but that worked with similar principles to a Unique Familiar.
The card that belonged to him, however, was placed inside of his Spirit Orb, becoming the new core of his life.
He would continue growing up, developing his abilities and everything like before, but the card would remain there, as it was his new core, his new heart.
Some might think nothing of that, if it didn't especially affect Chris.
But it did, there were different sensations now, Spirit Familiars experienced the world differently than living beings.
He could sense energies around him everywhere, so much it felt confusing.
Yet Chris wanted to keep calm, using his own spiritual energy, he tried to null most of his sharper senses.
Yet the powers within him, his spiritual body, which was now connected even more with his own spirits and the elements of the world, was very hard to get used to.
Yet the most dreadful thing was obvious.
The fact that he could be considered nothing but a card now, and not a living person, a human…
What was he now? Should he have died back then? Is life in this new form even better than before? Or is it all an illusion, and he should have instead accepted his death?
There were too many questions in both Chris and Blake's minds, but none wanted to talk about it. This was a secret nobody else knew than the two.
Blake felt guilty he had turned his friend into a monster in order to save him, that he had stripped his humanity, or that Chris would think he turned him into a slave of sorts…
Yet Chris only greeted him with a gentle smile when he first saw him.
"What's wrong buddy? Come on, sit down! Let's eat! Erika's mom made a huge feast!" he said. "We gotta recover our energies after all… And, well, thanks a lot for what you did for me. Man!
I really thought I was a goner there, hahaha!"
He was trying to lift everyone's spirits, but although they were trying to go along, and even if they didn't know the true nature of his revival, everyone felt bad he died right there, and that they were unable to prevent his gruesome, horrible death.
They had thought Chris would be traumatized after dying so horribly, yet he was already cheerful and ready for another day…
In their minds, there were just two options.
He was either trying to not worry them and was still hiding his pain.
Or he was just an idiot that didn't really care.
"Hah, you died and you're talking like it was nothing, Chris!" Elfriedden snaped. "Stop treating this like… Like it was not even a hardship to you… Ugh, you died in front of me… Chris…" suddenly, the elf started crying.
"E-Elfriedden… C-Calm down, I'm alive, dude. It's… it's fine…" Chris smiled, trying to keep himself cheerful. "It's okay."
"No, it's not okay!" Eric cried, hugging Chris. "Stop pretending you're okay! D-Don't you feel anything?!"
"I… N-No? Of course… not, dude, I don't care, you know… I…" Chris gritted his teeth. "I just don't want to worry all of you, fucking idiots…"
Chris couldn't stay like this any longer either, as tears quickly started pouring from his eyes.
"It's okay to sometimes cry, Chris…" Erdrich sighed. "We all love you as our best friend, as family… You can trust us, you… you can rely on us, friend."
"Dammit, I didn't want to cry again…" Chris groaned. "I… Hahh… dammit…"
He ended accepting the hug from Eric and Elfriedden, his two friends comforting him as he kept crying.
Blake remained in silence, feeling even guiltier as he saw the scene.
"I'm sorry Chris, for not being there before everything happened…" said Blake. "This is all my fault, I should have planned it better, maybe if I didn't try to attack the King right away, nobody would have died, nobody would have suffered. I was reckless, and I'll take responsibility for this."
"You're putting too many burdens on you, Blake," Cattalina walked into the dining table. "Sit down and eat with us, everyone went through a lot. And our wounds will not heal so quickly no matter what anybody could say about it. It'll take time… It always does. You have to stay strong, together. To face the horrors of the world as a group, as a family."
"Mom…" Erika sighed. "You're not wrong…"
"Chris!"
Blake ended running towards his friend and hugging him too.
In fact, everyone went to hug him at the end, Alberta, Erika, Elizabeth, everyone…
Familiar or not, Spirit or not, whatever he had become, Chris was still Chris.
And it was already a miracle that he was still alive with them, even after dying so horribly.
The very thought of having lost him permanently, it broke everyone's hearts.
Before this, they never thought how close they were with one another, and how strong their bonds truly were.
"I love all of you guys…" Chris kept crying. "Thank you for being there for me…"
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