Samuel pulled his hand away and looked at his hand, a swirl of fire and water essence trying its best to fuse into one but unable to no matter it tried. He was not trying to do it consciously but after witnessing the greatness of that harmony his pseudo-sentient essence was trying it anyway.

But this was something that alluded even the greatest of cultivators, he was not a great cultivator, a competent one maybe, but no cultivator could be called great before they removed the shackles that were time.

“Haah... Uugh.. Aaah...”

Samuel was finally outside of his head enough to be once more aware of his surroundings and the first thing he noticed was the moaning noises coming out of Eishath's mouth.

Then he noticed her flushed cheeks, the bit of drool leaking from her mouth as she panted like a dog and her eyes glassy. 

This... was new. 

Immediately he activated his soul sight to see what was going on and what he found almost made him jump.

She was 'eating' his essence, which by itself would be nothing to write home about. But when he could not feel the drain at all, that was worrying. 

The other thing of concern, she was consuming it at its maximum power, at its nascent soul-level power!

Which led him to another monstrous discovery.

She was a nascent soul expert! Not only that, she was at the final late stage, only a half step away from ascending to soul formation!

"WHAT?!?"

 Samuel yelled, even his powerful mind could not make heads or tails of whatever the fuck was going on.

There so so many things wrong with what he was discovering.

Somehow, that was not the end of it!

Samuel felt her Soul tether! A fucking Soul tether! A connection so powerful he could not find where he ended and she began. 

Elizabeth also a cauldron, had a soul tether but hers was not even worth mentioning compared to this monstrosity.

*For context here is an explanation of why he was losing his cool. Soul tethers are what are used to bind one person to another, in a master-servant format, where one side gives up control and the other power in a very permanent fashion. The most well-known of these are the cauldrons, who were subservient for as long as they lived, and in exchange the bond granted them a fragment of the binder's soul(one of their breakthrough destinies). Soul tethers, like everything else in this world, come in a quality range from common to mythic. The stronger the tether the more power is given and the more control is taken.*

Eishath was no longer her own entity. But in a quite literal sense a part of him. She was essentially a living breathing sentient artifact. 

Samuel's legs gave out under him as his ass smacked onto the ground, in pure horror at what he had done. This was not something as small as making a cauldron, nope, at least death could severe that tie, her soul was tied to his in subservience for as long as he existed and he did not mean that as long as he lived.

For as long as the soul that was currently Samuel would exist so would Eishath in their service.

To wrench a soul so completely, to remove their infinity so absolutely. The heaven's chosen wanted to vomit in disgust.

He wanted to do everything in his power to make it right, but there was no making it right. Even if he vowed to never abuse her it would not matter because the bond did not end in this life and could he promise to be the same in the next?

Soul tethers at the mythic level were so damning that if a celestial was bound to an abyssal lord, that angel would become abyssal. It was never a matter of if but when. It was so damnatory that the celestial in question will not notice the shift, somehow keeping all their personality traits while their values would wholly change.

There were three famous stories about this and Samuel read all three, and the one common thread in all of them.

The binding turned them into slaves, despite being unhappy they loyally served their masters, with no attempt at undermining their slavers, so complete was their allegiance.

More insidious was that they enjoyed pleasing their lords while still hating the acts they committed. 

The most terrifying thing of all, Samuel knew he would not change his ways despite all of this. He would reach the pinnacle of cultivation and he would stop because of this. He would not try to give Eishath the best life he could possibly give her, not if it meant possibly halting his progression.

He had already reasoned out that the best option was to halt his path and settle down, give Eishath a loving life everyday life at least for a time.

Then leave it up to her to decide whether she wanted to walk the path of cultivation. The right thing to do would be to give the reigns to Eishath, and he would simply follow. That was the righteous path.

But he would not walk this path, his future in cultivation could not and would not be given to someone else. It would always be his decision.

Even if it made him evil.

What he would do, however, was make a hypocritical oath to keep commands to as little as possible and when it did happen, to make sure she could be okay with what she was being told to do.

To that end, it may have been better if she did remain a demon. Samuel could only move forward from here.