"It’s something that he will decide when his time comes to evolve his spirit," the Fox rolled his eyes, "till then, take your claws off my human, got it?"

"I was just trying to help," the lion ignored the Fox and then added to William with a wink, "just call my name, the Dragonic Lion Spirit, whenever you are undergoing a major breakthrough, and I’ll answer your call..."

"He isn’t ready yet..."

"Actually," William scratched the back of his head, feeling like he was about to miss a grand chance if he kept playing the game of the Fox spirit, "I’m already in such a stage. I’m ascending to the upper realm, and I came here as I was having a breakthrough..."

"This fast?!! Dammit! You were just at the gold grade a few years ago!!" The Fox spirit’s eyes went all wide, and with what he said, many spirits looked the same way towards William.

"Hahaha, I know my hunch is always right, hahaha!" the lion laughed, before looking around and saying in warning when he noticed the greedy looks of other spirits around, "Don’t even consider it! Don’t even dream about it! I’m the one who took the first step, and I shall reap all the rewards..."

"As if he is going to stop at this stage," another spirit, a hawk with the body of a baboon, said, "you said it yourself, he is going to need a new spirit when evolving. So you can give him help this time, and I will help him next."

"No, I’ll help him now," another spirit roared, a monstrous cat with five tails, "I’m the closest to the fox, and I can easily help him evolve his spirit without the need to worry about any backlash."

"Who said anything about backlash? Hyh?" the lion roared in anger, "I will help him with all my might! I will never compete against other spirits..."

"Let’s just finish this war, then we’ll talk about that," William could only smile, feeling some pride in seeing all these mighty spirits compete to be part of his spirit after ascending to the upper realm.

"After all, I have a weird mixture of spirits that aren’t harmonising inside me. So it’s better to have some strong and ferocious spirit to keep those in line with the Fox spirit I have."

"See?" the lion laughed, "he is just asking for my help, hahaha!"

"He just said he wants a fierce spirit, didn’t say it’s you," a golden bear spirit with icy mist coming out from its gigantic body said. Seeing that bear made William recall the Scarlet Bear monsters he kept fighting and struggling against, feeling somehow hostile towards it. And then he recalled it was standing on the side of the Fox spirit, so he just kept it in the neutral zone, still wary about it.

"Anyway," the Fox spirit showed a look of impatience on his face, yet William could easily tell he was very happy about how every single spirit envied him for having William as his spirit master, "let’s first handle the stolen spirit essence, then we’ll talk about which spirit best suits him. And I’ll make the final call."

"You..." Many spirits gave the Fox spirit a weird look. It was clear what the Fox wanted to do. He wanted to extort them in return for suggesting and supporting them as William’s spirit. Even if they knew what the Fox spirit planned, none ever questioned him in public. They ignored him and eyed the grand prize: William.

"Are you sure you don’t need help?"

"I can stay behind and fight alongside you if you want."

"I think they don’t need extra help, let me stay here and help William."

Just as the group of spirits ran towards the portal, surrounded by William’s monsters, the fight looked way easier than ever. Many didn’t need to even take part in the fight, while William and his monsters cleared a bloodied path towards the first group of portals.

William did that intentionally to showcase his prowess and to help them rest a little bit before going to the world beyond the portals. Yet when they arrived at the three portals, and as William and his monsters were killing the spirits around and clearing a good area, a few spirits started to speak and offer their opinions.

It was clear what they wanted; they wanted to stay behind and help William. It wasn’t out of their good hearts; they just wanted to leave a good impression on him, and get to know him better.

"We all march through the portals," yet the Fox spirit didn’t accept any of this, "we’ll fight together, then come back here together. We’ll leave William alone to defend the portals." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The Fox spirit’s tone left no room for objection. Every spirit moved through the portal while feeling they missed a big chance to get closer to William. The Fox spirit made sure to leave as the last one, to make sure no one would stay behind or cause trouble.

"Hehehe, you did great so far, hahaha!" Just as the spirits on his side left, the Fox spirit finally turned to William and laughed in delight. It was just like how William imagined, the Fox was very pleased and amused with the current turn of events.

"At least there is someone happy today," William crossed his arms, "tell me, what the hell is happening here? Why is there a big war against you? And what’s all about this spirit essence?"

"It’s not all about the spirit essence," the Fox spirit rolled his eyes, "that essence is something we, spirits, painstakingly cultivated for thousands of years. It’s important, but not to cause such a huge war.

What is really happening is that the coalition of spirits working for the Chaos camp attacked me and a few others. They wanted to usurp our strengths before growing beyond control. So we responded by calling reinforcements and striking back to weaken them. Who knew they would use this dirty trick of using semi-spirits to stop us?"