Versatile: Alternate World

Despite declining the offer as it was something I can handle in the future, the two still ended up agreeing that I was the one who was the right one to do the bidding and responsibility of the heart of the Cath Palug. In short, I will now be getting a new pet. A pet that I have no idea whether it will listen to me or not.

And right now, we are standing in the middle of Merlin's summoning circle that he created a few minutes ago. My companions and the 4 party members stood on the side alongside the Lady of the Lake that is observing the process and perhaps to ensure nothing wrong will happen though I felt like something will happen, it was the Cath Palug after all. I just hoped that the monster would not be summoned especially since the players are not strong enough to deal decent damage against it.

"Alright. I will need a drop of blood on your fingertips. That way, we can add a failsafe spell you can use in case Cath Palug will be uncontrollable."

"Okay," I bit my thumb and a bit of blood appeared. Merlin snaps his fingers and the droplets of blood float in the air. He then held the heart of the Cath Palug alongside my blood and let the blood drip into the surface of the heart.

The moment the blood dropped to the heart, the heart shook for a bit and I was almost instinctively ready to pull out the Versatile Weapon and activate [Devour] to stop it from doing any kind of thing that would cause the awakening of the Cath Palug. However, Merlin stops me from doing so as he raised his palm and continues the process.

He started snapping multiple times and after the 6th snap on his fingers, the heart of the Cath Palug immediately stiffened from moving and six transparent chains appeared, chaining the heart.

"This is the seal that will restrain the wrath that sleeps within the heart of the soul. Hear me out, vile beast, and follow the command of the owner of the blood."

The chains started to glow red after Merlin speaks the chant. It also made the heart of Cath Palug struggle. It's clear that it is trying to break free with all its strength but since it was just a heart, it seems to have less power than it should have.

But the struggle didn't last for long and the six chains that were binding the guy snapped and covered the whole heart of the Cath Palug before completely disappearing. Once the chains disappeared, a circle of light covered the whole heart of the Cath Palug. It also fell down back to Merlin's hands and this time, the heart of the Cath Palug is no longer struggling just like earlier.

The heart now looks like a small egg that I usually saw in pet shops, it looks strikingly similar to the shape of the egg that Leona hatched before but compared to Leona's white eggshell, Cath Palug's shell is a bit greyish.

Merlin pulled out a large chunk of mana stone from somewhere and liquified it in his hands with magic. He then poured the liquified mana stone straight into the egg which caused the egg to shake which is a huge sign it is gonna hatch. He then passes down the egg into my hands before it actually hatches.

I reluctantly got the egg in my hands and I was nervous holding it. Not because of being excited to see a new pet but because I don't know what will hatch in here. I don't want an abomination to suddenly maul at me once the egg hatch as I know how the Cath Palug works.

The shell started to crack and the nervousness that swells in my being started to overflow as I stare at the egg hatching up. It didn't take that long though and a small greyish cat with some fins around its legs though the cat looks more like a stuffed toy with features of a fish due to the fins. Oh, and it also has the white horns on its head that made it look like it was kind of a goat's horn.

Other than that, the red patterns on its body are a clear sign that what I am holding right now is indeed the Cath Palug. The pattern is present even in the giant version of it so I am quite certain this one is indeed the Cath Palug but a smaller version. Around the size of an adult house cat. The only difference is that it has a horn of a goat and has a very fluffy coat fur like a stuffed toy for kids.

It slowly opened its eyes and looked around the surroundings. Then, it looked at me.

"Huh? What is a human doing and holding me like this?" the Cath Palug speaks in a kind of small voice. It was like a voice of a human male child which made me stunned as I don't even know that the Cath Palug can talk.

"You have been sealed in that state, Cath Palug. And for the rest of your days, you will remain like that forever."

Hearing a familiar voice, Cath Palug turned around and saw Merlin grinning.

"MERLIN! CURSE YOU! RELEASE ME OUT FROM MY SEAL RIGHT NOW!" Cath Palug immediately leaps and tried to attack Merlin but because of the size difference between the two, Merlin easily stopped the little cat monster from attacking him.

"You can't do anything at all, Cath Palug, accept your fate, that is just the only thing you can do from now on. Stay as a normal cat!"

"No, I won't! I will rip you apart!"

Compared to my expectations, the Cath Palug lost the scary thing about him. It was like the only thing that made him remain as the Cath Palug is the fact that he is the heart of the Cath Palug himself. But perhaps this is a welcome change. With this, the resurrection and the rampage of the Cath Palug is now gonna be resting in my hands and whether I can prevent that from happening or not will all be up to me.