CH231 The Eagle Named Senu

***

Alex's head snapped toward the sound, only for his heart to sink when he realised it came from the direction of the Bonsai Tree.

Thump~

His chest tightened, panic rushing through him.

For a brief, dreadful moment, he thought something had gone wrong with the Voidheart Core.

But his fear proved unfounded. He had simply been too paranoid.

What had cracked was not the Voidheart Core, but the Nightmare Eagle's Egg.

Or at least—Alex believed it was the Nightmare Eagle's Egg.

He had reason to doubt. The egg now in front of the Bonsai Tree was far larger than the one he last remembered seeing a few weeks ago, when he had last stepped into the Sanctuary.

This one now stood almost a full metre tall.

If not for the familiar runic symbols carved into its shell, Alex might have thought some other egg had inexplicably found its way into the Sanctuary—a possibility that would have been truly alarming.

The fracture spread further across the shell as the creature inside fought to break free.

Through the bond of their contract, Alex could feel his Nightmare Eagle's restlessness… and its thinly veiled resentment toward him.

He could only chuckle wryly in response.

Poke~

A sharp beak pierced through, poking out from the egg shell. From there, the 'little' eagle worked furiously, expanding the gap piece by piece until the entire shell split apart with a final crack, collapsing around the hatchling.

Alex's jaw nearly dropped.

What stood before him was not a helpless, fluffy chick.

As he should have guessed from the egg's monstrous size, the creature that emerged was already a feathered fledgling—a juvenile Nightmare Eagle.

And what a sight it was.

The young eagle stood a staggering ninety centimetres tall, almost a metre—already more than half the height of a full-grown Nightmare Eagle.

Unlike its kin, whose feathers were a dull, matte jet-black with ashen-grey tips and talons, this one's plumage gleamed a bit.

Its body was covered in glossy black feathers, the edges of its wings shrouded in a faint, misty haze.

Running across its chest and crown were vein-like streaks of white-gold, glowing faintly as though they pulsed with life.

Its talons, already eight centimetres long, glistened with a silvery sheen that radiated an ominous threat—as if they could slice through steel, or even space itself.

Gazing through Spirit Sight, Alex immediately noticed that the fledgling harbored three mana elements within its body and beast core.

The overwhelming bulk was the pitch-black essence of the Nightmare Eagles' native Darkness element.

Interwoven with it was the brilliant white-gold Light element, an inheritance from Alex himself through their [Eternal Magic Companion Contract].

And finally, coiled within its frame, the silver strands of Space element, the product of greedily absorbing spatial energy produced by the Voidheart Core during its incubation.

This hatchling was already unlike any other of its kind.

Alex couldn't help but recall Fen's situation as well.

'Am I going to end up building a zoo of 'unique' Beast Companions or something?'

'At least Dread, his Nightmare Horse, was still normal enough… for now.'

Which, of course, led to another ridiculous thought.

'Since I already have two Nightmares, maybe I should try to build a whole deck of Nightmares.'

He smirked at his own joke, but his amusement was cut short when the juvenile eagle abruptly turned its head and locked eyes with him.

Klee-klee!

The fledgling's cry echoed through the Sanctuary as it flapped its wings and bounced towards him, scolding him with every hop.

Alex blinked in surprise, then reaching through their bond, he came to understood.

The bird was berating him... complaining that he had left it alone for weeks without so much as checking in.

A guilty laugh escaped him, and with the benefit of his experience handling Fen, Alex managed to coax and soothe the indignant bird. Though it took far more effort than he expected, the fledgling eventually quieted.

Skree!

Even so, it gave a sharp cry, turned its head away, and deliberately ignored him, making its displeasure crystal clear.

From the fledgling's reaction, Alex didn't need anyone to tell him—this eagle of his was female.

"Come on, go eat your eggshells. You'll lose important nutrients if you don't," Alex said, recalling countless fantasy stories from his previous life where beast cubs did exactly that.

To his utter surprise, the bird gave him a look of very human-like disdain.

Then, without hesitation, she walked over to the shattered remains of her egg and deliberately stomped them into powder.

Before Alex could open his mouth, her shadow surged outward like liquid darkness, dissolving the fragments whole until not a trace was left.

Alex chuckled wryly, realizing he'd been outsmarted by his own beast companion. Relying on fantasy novels had been a mistake. If he had trusted common sense instead, he would have remembered—hatchlings didn't eat their shells. It was the parents who did, so as to recycle the nutrients for their young as breast milk or semi-digested meal.

Since no parent was present here, of course no one was eating the shells… at least, not through conventional means.

Skree!

Another irritated cry snapped him from his thoughts, pulling him back to the matter at hand.

According to the [Eternal Magic Companion Contract] method, the final step required to complete the bond was to name the beast companion.

For eggs, that step was always deferred until hatching. Now, with the juvenile eagle standing before him, the moment had come.

Alex didn't even need to ponder about it. From the instant he took her from her nest in the Dankrot forest, only one name had been on his mind for an eagle companion.

"Senu," Alex declared. "Your name will be Senu."

Klee~~

The eagle let out a clear cry of delight, flapping her wings furiously to show her approval.

Thankfully, she couldn't fly yet. Otherwise Alex was half-worried she would have launched herself straight into his face, talons-first, in her excitement.

After the brief celebration, Senu transmitted her next demand to him; she was hungry.

Alex grimaced.

The Sanctuary Space was barren with every edible scrap having been devoured by the Nest Queen's drones for their Queen's metamorphosis. The drones had even consumed each other, leaving behind only one dormant drone left behind.

There was nothing left in the sealed space for the young eagle to eat.

With no other choice, Alex exited the Sanctuary and immediately ordered one of the Fort's live cows brought to him at the stables.

Nightmare Eagles were notorious for refusing to scavenge or eat the kills of others. Alex wasn't about to risk offending her by offering secondhand meat.

His caution was justified.

The moment he gave permission, Senu pounced toward the cow, wings spreading wide. To Alex's shock, it wasn't her dangerous dagger-looking talons that struck first—but the tips of her wings.

Spatial Rend!

Wrapped in a thin film of silvery energy, her wing edges cut across the air itself, severing the cow's neck in a single, merciless strike.

Shree!!!

Senu cried in triumph as the animal collapsed, blood gushing. She waited with eerie patience for the lifeblood to drain out completely, and only then tore into her first kill with savage satisfaction.

Alex watched only briefly. He didn't have the time—or patience—to stand around until she finished her meal. After giving the juvenile eagle a quick explanation, he called Udara to keep an eye on her before moving to leave.

Fen padded over as well, drawn by the new arrival.

Through their shared bonds with Alex, the wolf and the eagle seemed faintly aware of each other, though Fen kept his distance as she fed.

Perhaps it was beastly etiquette… or perhaps Fen, the culinary wolf, simply couldn't stomach eating raw meat anymore.

Either way, Alex had more pressing concerns.

He returned to his private quarters, then slipped back into the Sanctuary Space.

His gaze instinctively moved towards the Bonsai Tree, and the crystal heart resting in a nest on its crown—the Voidheart Core.

Noticing no visible changes, Alex moved on, walking to his workstation near the Nest Queen's cocoon.

From his storage, he drew out a carefully prepared beast hide, laid out his rune-inscription tools, and got to work.

Alex quickly prepared the Ink. Then beast hide was smoothed and stretched. And finally the Rune pen was loaded with the freshly mixed cartridge.

He exhaled once, then with full concentration, he lowered the pen to the hide and began inscribing the Greater Rune formation he had devised as his attempt at solving, or at least improving, the Voidheart Core's crippling energy-efficiency problem.

Since the Core was organic in nature—close enough to a living being—and, for some inexplicable reason, possessed an innate Rune Slot, Alex's idea was to inscribe a Rune Tattoo onto it.

His reasoning was simple.

Rune Tattoos were his unique Greater Runes, essentially compressed and condensed, specialized formation arrays, which were inscribed as tattoos onto a living medium.

Different from the special formations used by Alex for his Rune Tattoos, typical array formations were designed to be carved or inscribed onto inanimate media, usually at fixed location, forcing the user to remain within the formation's range in order to benefit from its effects.

But what if these typical formations could also be converted into a Rune Tattoo?

That would mean the Voidheart Core would always carry the formation with it, wherever it was, gaining permanent access to the formation's efficiency-enhancing benefits.

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