Noel had been meditating for quite a while. In fact, he began to lose track of time because of the chill coming from the ice energy.
The energy was much more violent than Heisk couldn't completely absorb it. The surrounding area had been frozen.
Fortunately, there was a master of ice standing not far from him. Raincart had deemed that the ice energy wasn't enough to cause a problem for Noel, so he decided to let him fully absorb it.
After what felt like a week, Noel could finally open his eyes. But this time, instead of meeting the frozen grass field, he found himself inside his consciousness.
The white space expanded to the horizon with no one in sight.
All of a sudden, a chill breeze brushed his skin, causing Noel to shiver.
"What is this chill?" Noel was quite surprised. On the one hand, he had been with Heisk the whole time, so the chill wouldn't be that much of a problem. On the other hand, Heisk couldn't protect him from the chill anymore, and this breeze had a temperature lower than Heisk's ice.
As soon as he turned around, Noel found a huge cocoon behind him. The cocoon was made of ice and emitted a chilling breeze from time to time.
"What is this? No, is this Heisk?" Noel corrected himself, slightly panicking. This was the first time he saw a Spirit evolving, so he wondered what change Heisk would have.
"Ardagan?" Noel called the other spirit, wanting to understand the situation.
Unfortunately, Ardagan couldn't appear before him or his element would clash with Heisk. It would be detrimental when Heisk was about to evolve.
However, that doubt soon disappeared.
When Noel couldn't find Ardagan anywhere, he decided to take a closer look at the cocoon. He realized that the closer he was, the lower the temperature. And it wasn't the radiation. Instead, it felt like the Spirit Link connected the temperature because the chilling sensation came from within instead of the breeze.
"Heisk…" Noel called her name quietly.
As if responding to his call, the cocoon released another breeze.
Noel couldn't help but smile, knowing that Heisk was fine. But at the same moment, the cocoon began pulsing.
"Hmm?" Noel's heart skipped a beat. He thought responding to him caused this one, so he said, "No need to do anything. Just focus on your evo—"
Before he finished his words, a crack appeared on the cocoon.
Noel's face became pale, thinking everything was his fault. However, that crack became bigger in an instant as a pair of wings pushed through the crack, creating a hole.
The pair of ice wings was similar to Noel's Phoenix Wings. But instead of fire or feathers, it was made completely of ice.
The ice wings started expanding and pushing the cocoon open. The crack spread as more and more shells were broken.
Inside, Noel could see the back of a human. But surprisingly, it was quite small. When the gap widened, he could see the legs and head areas, confirming his suspicion.
It appeared that she had long, light-blue hair, covering her back. Due to her coming out from the back, Noel couldn't capture any of the facial features.
"I'm sorry for taking too long." A gentle and mature voice echoed from the inside as the ice wings began to pull the person out.
Noel was completely dumbstruck by her appearance. As expected, her height was only reached up to his chest. In fact, her wingspan was bigger than her height.
She had a pair of crystalline ice pupils that completely covered the entire eyes. It was clearly not a human's eyes. The eyes dimly glowed as though it was getting filled up with Spiritual Energy.
Despite her stature, her face was mature and devoid of emotion, making her look aloof. Other than those, nothing could differentiate her from a normal human.
"Are you… Heisk?" Noel couldn't help but ask, still not believing the transformation before his eyes.
"I'm sorry for taking too long." Heisk nodded. "Let me introduce myself once again. I am Heisk, a Humanoid Rank Spirit coming from the Ice Fairy Lineage. Thank you for helping me evolve. It appears that you're quite startled by my appearance, but this is how other Humanoid Rank Spirits from my lineage appear."
As far as Noel could remember, Heisk had only been a head-size spirit. Once she evolved to the humanoid rank, her body expanded. It was probably due to her original size that she couldn't expand completely to mimic that of a human.
Either way, it didn't change the fact that Heisk had become a Humanoid Rank Spirit.
"It's nothing. Helping you is also helping me…" Noel replied slowly, still having a hard time calming his heart down.
"I don't think there is any need to mention this, but if you haven't felt it…" Heisk extended both hands toward Noel.
In that instant, Noel could feel a weird sensation, which never happened before. But this weird sensation felt rather familiar.
"This is… Isn't this the usual sensation when you used to touch me? Our link…" Noel frowned.
"Yes. Our link has gotten stronger. Now that I have reached a humanoid rank, although my appearance doesn't look completely like a human, I have become pretty similar. You might haven't noticed this, but my conversion rate has increased to 92 percent. Though, it doesn't matter because Ardagan has increased it to the maximum."
Noel was quite surprised. In the past, Heisk's original conversion rate was 80 percent. Even though after the evolution, she was still lower than Anna's Spirit, albeit it was extremely close. She should be proud since Anna's spirit was already a Humanoid Rank Spirit before she even got him.
"As much as I want to give you my power right now, I'm afraid that I can't do it." Heisk raised two fingers. "Your body might have become a Spirit Grandmaster, but I should wait until you expand our Spirit Link with those pills so that I can give you even stronger power."
"I know. That's my intention. I'm going to form a Spirit Link with Ardagan first before consuming those pills."
"That's the second reason. Because I'm now filled with power, I can help you suppress Ardagan's flame during the linking process. You could say that my evolution is one of the requirements for that Spirit Link. Without my ice suppressing that flame even for a little bit, your body can't handle it and will end up burning away."
"I see. So, you're going to use all this power to help me." Noel nodded in understanding. "Is this why Ardagan is not here?"
"A part of it, yes." Heisk nodded.
"Do you have any suggestions of what we should do next? You understand Spirits more than me, so I want to know your opinion."
"Actually, your plan is already good enough. After giving you a new ability after boosting our link with the awakening pills, I might have to disappear for a while."
"Disappear…" Noel frowned, feeling concerned. But he soon remembered something. "Wait a minute… Is it related to the True Spirit Body?"
"Yes. The Spirit God is delivering his promise and planning to bestow me that chance. I don't know how long, so I want to give you a stronger ability before disappearing."
"I see." Noel contemplated for a moment. He asked, "How about Ardagan?"
"He is preparing for the Spirit Link. Because of his strength, the pain you will receive will be unimaginable."
"I'm prepared for it."
"In that case, there is nothing left for me to say."
"But there is one for me." Noel looked into her eyes with a smile on his face. "Heisk. Congratulations on reaching the Humanoid Rank."
That expressionless face changed as a warm, gratified smile appeared. She politely bowed, saying, "I can't do this alone. Thank you."
"Alright then, I'm going to leave and condition myself to form the Spirit Link. Since Ardagan is occupied, you tell me when you're ready."
"Yes."
Noel closed his eyes again as his consciousness returned.
When he opened his eyes, the ice had begun to disappear and the frozen structure crumbled to the ground.
It was quite uneventful for evolution, but Noel didn't know that waiting for the Awakening Pill before Heisk bestowed him another ability was the right thing to do.
After all, he didn't know what kind of power Anna had after awakening the Spirit Link.
More importantly, this was also the time for Noel to form another Spirit Link. It was clear that Ardagan was superior to Anna's Thunder Berserker Spirit, but what would be the difference between them?
What kind of ability would Ardagan give to Noel after all this was over? What kind of benefits would the Spirit Link and the Awakening Pill have?
He could only find out by linking himself with Ardagan.
Four days after the beginning of his transformation, Noel had set up for another big transformation.
He once again stood in the middle of the field, surrounded by Raincart and the soldiers. However, Noel had warned Raincart that he wanted to create a Spirit Link with his Fire Spirit. Because of its destructive force, the soldiers had to remain on high alert if they didn't want to get injured.
Now that the stage had been set, the Spirit Link between Ardagan and Noel began to form.
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