Immortal Paladin

307 Animal Soul

I’m Da Wei. Well, not exactly.

To be precise, I’m Da Wei’s Animal Soul. And to be even more precise, I’m a dog. A golden retriever, no less, a species in my progenitor’s home world known for their golden fur, their tireless energy, and, if I may humbly add, their dashing good looks.

Not that anyone here knew what a “retriever” was. To them, I was simply a spirit beast shaped like a dog, bound to Tao Long. But in my heart, I knew the truth of my heritage. I was no mere animal. I was Da Wei’s spirit given form. His loyalty. His laughter. His bark.

I burst from Tao Long’s body in a shimmer of golden light, my paws touching the earth as I took on my corporeal form. Ahem, corporeal was a strong word. I was more of a spirit-body, radiant, half-transparent, and fur glowing faintly with divine sheen.

The air shifted at once. All eyes snapped toward me.

Dave’s eyes in particular were on me.

He froze, and his mouth was parting as if the very world had split before him. “What manner of creature is that?” His voice trembled. Then his eyes widened, as if the veil of years had been torn. “Wait… my Lord!? Is that you?”

My tail wagged before I even thought about it.

Something in his tone from shock, hope, and disbelief made my heart leap in joy. My spirit quivered with the echo of recognition. He knew. He knew!

I jumped. My paws landed on his chest, claws pressing against his robes without harm. I barked once, twice, and thrice. Each cry carried not just sound but the pulse of soul-deep emotion: joy, care, adoration, and the pleasant shock of a long-lost reunion.

“It’s me. I’m here. I never left you.”

I licked his face, tail thrashing behind me, golden light scattering in bursts of radiant motes. My tongue brushed his cheek, his chin, his nose, over and over, as if I could bridge the years of absence in an instant.

Dave’s voice cracked as though he was seeing a ghost.

“My Lord, what happened to you!?”

His words were heavy with disbelief and sorrow, but truthfully, I didn’t care about the question. I didn’t care about mysteries, politics, or the endless storms of this world. What I always cared for were the people that mattered to me. And David_69, dear good old Dave, had been one of those people.

My progenitor sometimes wondered if he could truly trust Dave. His existence was strange and too bizarre to be anything but suspicious. But my progenitor never voiced those doubts aloud. Why? Because, like me, he cared more for his people than for the endless game of who betrayed whom and who got the biggest weiner in the universe.

I barked, tail lashing, unable to contain the rush of joy. I leapt up again, tongue dragging across Dave’s face like there was no tomorrow. Slobber shimmered in golden streaks where my spirit-body touched his skin. He sputtered and twisted, trying to shield himself, but I was relentless.

This was just how I spoke, and I’m sure he understood that.

“It’s good to see you, Dai Fu,” said Tao Long abruptly. “Or… do you wish for me to address you by your other name?”

Dave choked on half a laugh, half a sob as he tried to shove me off. “Tao Long! Get him off me!”

“I’d rather not,” replied the dragon. “You look… like you need it.”

I barked again, louder this time, licking Dave’s nose for good measure. Because if my slobber could wash away even a fraction of the burden he carried, then I would never stop. Moreover, who didn’t like to be licked over? My progenitor secretly wished it… That was what my brother, the Hell Soul, at least told me.

Dave was half-laughing, half-gasping, voice choking with incredulousness. “Oh god, he just won’t stop. Wait… is he peeing on me—”

That made me wag harder.

I tilted my head, ears flicking. I sensed… Embarrassment? Why? Peeing was release. Wagging was joy. Wagging until peeing… Well, that was pure joy. This was body speech, the language of honest creatures. I am happy. Could he not feel it?

Inside, the threads of my being touched me, the echo of my progenitor’s shame. He recoiled as though the man I loved should never see us in such a state. Why recoil? The shame throbbed like a bruise in my chest, and it irked me beyond bearing.

“Get away, weird coot,” I barked inside. ”Enough. We are having a moment here, and you are poisoning it with your self-loathing.”

My progenitor spat back at me. “You… Let me talk to Dave!”

“No.”

When Tao Long had whispered to me of Dave, told me of his hours and days with him, of their wandering and laughter, I had wagged then as well, in the quiet of my soul-space. I had waited. Oh, how I had waited for this moment of reunion. To smell him. To crowd close. To press the truth of raw happiness against him.

And now, finally, here he was.

“Please, stop this,” cried my progenitor. “This is hurting our dignity!” 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“But… I’m already dignified.”

I shoved the embarrassment of my progenitor further into the shadows. His sadness hummed, unwanted, but I stepped past it. I needed Dave’s recognition and his affirmation. He couldn’t go on acting like this was an indignity. This was a connection. This was a reunion.

I plopped down onto my haunches, tail still thumping the ground. My tongue lolled. “Dave,” I said firmly in Qi Speech, “say it.”

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“Say what?” His voice was guarded.

“Call me… a good boy!”

His eyes widened. He winced, as though I had just asked him to sacrifice a limb. “Excuse me?”

I could feel my progenitor face-palming at the back of my head, the phantom slap echoing through the tether like waves in a pond. It wasn’t even my hand, not my gesture, but the shame of his expression burned down into me as though I’d done the deed myself. Humans do that when they’re embarrassed… hit themselves. Weird. Why hit yourself just because something awkward happened? What a ridiculous custom.

Tao Long broke the silence with a cough. “We should get business into order.”

His words grounded the moment, but my progenitor didn’t let me off. Through the tether binding my soul to his supreme being, I heard his scolding voice as sharp as a sting on my ear.

“Bad dog!”

The insult snapped across my mind, and I bristled. My tail swished smugly.

“The joke’s on you,” I spat back through the tether, not aloud, but down the soul-bond where he would hear it. “That makes you a bad dog too!”

He went silent for a moment. Whether out of shock, or amusement, or just stewing in canine indignation, I couldn’t tell. Best not to push him too far. I finally behaved, stepping back while suppressing the grin threatening the edge of my face.

Tao Long, unbothered by the invisible bickering raging inside my chest, reached out a steady hand to Dave. He pulled him up in a firm, manly grip, arm to arm, the sort of thing humans did to show solidarity.

“Thanks,” Dave said, though his wary glance flicked toward me like I was a rabid mutt barely held at bay.

So… rude… Come on, don’t be wary of me. I’m cool, bro. I won’t bite. Probably.

“Sit,” came my progenitor’s command. Just that single word.

And I obeyed without hesitation. My body folded down, and my knees bent before I even thought about it. Some habits were etched into the bones and blood. I could mouth off, I could rebel, but sit? Sit was primal. Sit was instinct.

I grumbled inside myself, but stayed put. I mean, I’m a good boy in reality. Unlike my stupid progenitor, the so-called “supreme bad dog.”

The air thickened with an unspoken understanding between Tao Long and Dave.

Dave’s expression shifted; something in his posture softened. He took a breath and spoke to Tao Long in a voice that had both old familiarity and careful politeness.

“Call me by the other name when in the presence of others,” he said. “I hope you understand…”

Tao Long’s mouth curved, a very small, almost tender smile finding its place. “I see,” he said. “So… Mao Xian it is.”

I felt bad for Mao Xian, not Dave in particular, but Dave’s vessel.

Mao Xian only wanted revenge on the people who unleashed genocide against his people. Instead, he got possessed by my progenitor’s Holy Spirit…

My progenitor hadn’t done it out of cruelty for cruelty’s sake. If he hadn’t tethered Dave to Mao Xian’s vessel, Dave would’ve been extinguished the same day the progenitor nearly burned out of existence. I knew it. My progenitor always made decisions like that, balancing horror against necessity, with one impossible compromise against another.

It was inevitable.

“You stupid dog,” my progenitor said inside my head. “Let me up. I want to talk to him. I want to speak with Dave.

Nah…

I ignored him. I threw the tantrum because I just felt like it.

“It must be fate we’ve been reunited so soon,” said Tao Long. “It’s good to see you, still alive and well.”

Dave chuckled, though it sounded dry. “Yeah, only been twenty-five years. How long have you left the mountain?”

“Only four years,” Tao Long replied. “I’ve been traveling a lot, looking for members of the organization. I’ve heard you are doing well, becoming a Warlord of all things! Tell me, how does this help you in your quest to save the woman you cherish?”

Dave’s shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t deny it. “Resources.”

I tilted my head. Ah, the human obsession. Gold, blades, men to command. Always resources. Why not bones? Or tennis balls?

“Resources,” Tao Long repeated, with a small smile tugging at his lips. “Resources that I am sure your master could provide.”

Dave blinked, his brows knitting together. “What do you mean?”

Tao Long leaned slightly forward. “Da Wei is alive.”

The silence stretched. The waves broke somewhere in the distance, and the wind brushed past my fur. Then Dave’s gaze turned straight at me. His eyes narrowed with a mixture of disbelief and dread.

“My Lordship is alive, but…” His lips twitched. “He turned into a dog?”

I barked, loud and sharp. It was a sound that cracked across the clearing. My tail wagged furiously. In Qi Speech, my voice carried to his mind like a bright golden bell:

“Play fetch with me!”

The look on Dave’s face was priceless. He stared at me as though I had just declared myself emperor of the Hollowed World. I barked again, tongue lolling, eyes shining. “Come on. Throw a stick. Or a sword. Anything!”

The more baffled he looked, the more excited my tail wagged.

Tao Long’s added. “It’s a long story, but he could… split his souls? Yes, he could split his souls… I think… Or something like it?”

Dave frowned, clearly unsatisfied. “You sound unsure, but you mean that dog is My Lord?”

Tao Long didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

I barked proudly, puffing out my chest. Finally, someone said it with conviction. That’s right, it’s me. Or… sort of me. Close enough!

Dave’s eyes softened, though his voice was low. “Does the Heavenly Temple know that he’s alive?”

Tao Long nodded with a rare flicker of regret shadowing his face. “Yes. He sacrificed his anonymity to save me… The sacred mountain of my organization is gone…”

I stopped wagging my tail for a moment. I could feel Tao Long’s shame pressing faintly against me, like a hand pushing between my shoulder blades.

Dave’s voice came sharper, “What do you mean?”

Tao Long’s eyes turned away, as if looking back to a memory he didn’t want to revisit. “It was destroyed in Da Wei’s fight against a powerful expert from the Heavenly Temple.”

My ears perked up. That was a bad day. Even through the tether, I’d felt the clash… It was raw, burning, and the kind of battle that left scars on the world. Thankfully, the mountain was on a pocket dimension that time.

Dave pressed, “And the Arch Gate?”

Tao Long’s tone sank as he confessed. “Da Wei destroyed the Arch Gate, so that the Heavenly Temple won’t take it.”

Dave’s voice grew soft and regretful. “I’m sorry, Tao Long.”

Tao Long straightened, his robes rustling faintly with the movement. “It was done,” he said firmly. “And there was nothing we could do about it.”

I understood feelings, but not their tangled grammar. Sadness was a weight you could sit on; anger was a hot, noisy thing that made the air crackle; hope was a bright itch behind the ribs. I felt Tao Long’s sadness like a cool shadow whenever I nested inside him, an old bruise in his spirit that never quite faded. Even now, watching him stand beside Dave, I remembered that bruise and wanted to lick it better, the way dogs attempt to mend the things they do not understand.

Tao Long’s gaze found me first, then slid back to Dave. He asked simply, “What are you doing here?” The question was soft, more an attempt to understand than a challenge.

Dave answered with a clipped, businesslike breath. “We’re on our way to ruin someone’s day when I sensed a foul essence nearby. I sent a few of my adventurers to scout, and we made camp a short distance off. A forward operating base, somewhere to fall back to if things go wrong.” He rubbed his jaw as if smoothing down an old scab. “We didn’t want to march blind into the Nameless City.”

“You’ll have to explain more than that,” said Tao Long, filled with curiosity. “The Nameless City?”

“Sooner than later… We’re going to siege the Nameless City. I can’t handle complications when that happens. I’d be honored if you’d join us.”

For a dog like me, the word ‘siege’ meant nothing more than a possibility of greater excitement. My brother, the Asura Soul, loved a good siege and had been harping on our progenitor for them to have one… I imagined it would be glorious.

“The Heavenly Temple is aware of my membership in Ward,” Tao Long said quietly. “They have lists. They know names. If your organization, your Union, or your adventurers become implicated because of me, it will not end well for you.”

His warning settled like rain. I could feel the tension coil between the two men, each one measuring the other’s willingness to risk. I cocked my head and pressed closer to the dirt, letting the earth hold the worry so I didn’t have to.

Dave’s response broke the silence. He inhaled, and then his aura flared. Light seemed to gather around him, a blade of conviction that warmed even the fur along my back.

“Let them come. I will crush them.”