When I awoke, it was to Jeldorain shaking me, jostling me from my slumber even as he piloted our shared body from out of the bed.

Danger is approaching, Ryan. We must be ready, and we must warn the others.

I watched from the side as he walked us out into the common room, the orange-red embers of the fire deceptively peaceful in light of his warning. Part of me protested, wanting to get back to bed and slumber, but I could feel it too. Something was wrong, almost like the air had changed and gone wrong.

A side door opened, and Kevinar entered the room, his blades drawn. He saw me and nodded, before disappearing into the shadows.

Should we go wake Ike? I asked.

Jeldorain shook his head. I have no doubt that Kevinar is taking care of that as we speak. No, I have a different plan for this encounter. I sense a great many approaching, though the garments they wear shield them from heat vision. I am going to activate Soul Divergence to even the odds.

Soul Divergence. I had thought of it as a means for us both to be free of each other during less dangerous days when combat was unexpected, and the thought honestly frightened me. Wouldn’t I appear as a human gamer, level 0, with no abilities to my name?

Jeldorain watched my thoughts flit by and chuckled. It is possible, but highly unlikely. Your physics don’t fit with this world. Universes and dimensions force those who enter them to adapt to the new physics of the domain. Unless of course they are powerful enough to resist them. In my home plane my abilities are a hundred times what they are here. I was reduced to fit the system. You . . . I don’t know what you will be, Ryan. But you will have 14 levels of it.

I shook my head slowly. Or maybe I’ll be an NPC.

Jeldorain rolled his eyes. The first information this system had on you was that you were an infernal named Thorack. My guess is that when you separate, you’ll be another copy of me. Just a different name.

I thought about it briefly, watching through his eyes, catching the most subtle of movements. These would-be assassins saw us standing in the dark, and they were encircling us, no doubt ready to spring as soon as we made any sort of move. Two infernals of ice, that would certainly even the odds.

Assuming Jeldorain was right.

Alright, I’m in. Back to back?

Of course, Thorack responded with a huge, frosty grin.

The first assassin emerged from the shadows, a flicker of movement, but Kevinar was faster. Appearing from nowhere, his dual blades slashed left and right, bloodying two unseen opponents as the assassin raised his hands in defense—just in time to take a dagger in his kidneys.

“Thought you could take us by surprise, did ya?” Ike asked incredulously. His other dagger parried a blow, and he countered with a vicious riposte.

Jeldorain thought the words, and a blast of light enveloped the room, showing two-dozen or so dwarves wrapped in deep blue cloth, carrying short swords and crossbows. As they shielded their eyes, I stepped from his body, another ice infernal holding the same weapons and gear, a copy of my host in every way.

“Back to back is off the table. You ready, handsome?” Jeldorain asked. I nodded, and together we charged into battle.

The dwarves howled, a guttural scream as they attempted to mob us, but with Jeldorain and I running headlong into their masses, swiping Frostchain left and right between us, a number were slung sideways to crunch into the walls.

Reaching a wall, we turned to see that Kevinar and Ike were still back where they’d been, fighting a defensive battle against a handful of the attackers. But the majority of our enemies were closing in on us, and the ones we’d swept aside were back on their feet, ready for vengeance.

“First to ten?” Jeldorain asked, eyeing the incoming horde.

I smiled. “Ten kills? Yeah, I’m down. Let’s do it!”

With our backs to the wall, we stood, letting the eager dwarvish assassins rush our way. The first to charge was a dwarf with a long gray beard, his short sword raised high, almost certainly aiming to slash one of us in our ankles or knees. I parried with Frostchain, the clash of metal ringing loud like the toll of a bell. Utilizing my agility, I sidestepped and swung Frostchain with precision, its frosty swing-blade catching him off-guard and sending him sprawling into his comrades.

Next to me, Jeldorain shot me a predatory grin, then leapt forward into the mass of them, unleashing his Whirlwind Attack. Spinning with lethal grace, his weapon became a horrid electric blizzard as Chain Lightning activated, tearing untold havoc through the shoulder-to-shoulder enemies.

“Maybe I didn’t need your help after all,” Jeldorain chortled, kicking a dead dwarf and vaulting his body into the door of our former bedroom.

Snarling, I activated Flame Puppeteer, calling on the embers of the fire to take form. Concentrating hard, I summoned the ethereal flames to light, a blaze roaring to life casting orange light over the battle.

Concentrating on the fire, I began to twist them, willing them into different shapes and forms. Thinking hard, I recalled the battle of the arena, pushing those monsters into the mold of the spell, and compelling them into existence.

First, there emerged the likeness of a colossal bear, its form made entirely of dancing flames, roaring silently into the dimly lit room. Its massive paws scraped the stone floor, leaving behind trails of smoldering heat.

Following the bear, a serpent of fire slithered into being, its long, undulating body encircling the room as it chased screaming dwarves, the illusion always just barely missing its prey.

Then, from the swirling chaos of fire, a mighty wyvern took shape, wings unfurling with a grace that filled the room with a sweltering heat. Its maw opened to release a silent roar, a cascade of sparks falling like rain.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

As I watched, the dwarves panicked, all morale broken by the sudden appearance of such a clearly infernal horde. They scurried, dodged, and bolted, while Jeldorain, Kevinar, and Ike smote, stabbed and slashed.

A few stood their ground. I saw one turn to thrust his short sword into Kevinar’s side, only to find Kevinar’s blade through his windpipe. Another attempt to blast Ike with a crossbow, only for the agile kobold to parry the device from his hands before stabbing him through his armpit.

In the end, it was just a small handful that made it out through the double-doored entrance. As they exited, I let my spell ability die, the flaming illusions sparking to nothing in an instant. We stared at the door a second, panting in a singular post-battle moment as we adjusted ourselves to the new reality of the situation.

“Did anyone get hit?” I asked, trying to think the battle through. It’d started and ended incredibly quickly.

“I took a nick to the shoulder,” Ike called.

No one else spoke up, and a thrill built up inside me. “I’m going to have to go back into Jeldorain. And then I think it’s time we go have a talk with the king.”

Thinking the word MERGE I found myself drawn back into Jeldorain’s body, another powerfully bright even that forced the others to shield their eyes. Then, everyone ready to go, we headed out into the corridor.

I won, Jeldorain informed me.

I chuckled. Yeah, you did. Well done buddy.

He was quiet for a bit, even as the three of us stomped over stone tiles and under arches made for infernals on our way through a hostile palace. Staring at me with an indiscernible look in his eyes.

I think maybe you should go back in charge of our body, he said, his face sheepish. I was the greater warrior, but your actions . . . you were the better leader and strategist. I just wanted to smash and maim. You actually thought about the battle, and because of it you defeated an enemy many times larger than us in a tiny amount of time.

I beamed, though I tried not to. It was the first time he’d alluded to me being good at strategy unironically, and it meant a lot.

Thanks Jeldorain. I’ll take over for now, but I’ll need you to keep watching and advising me. We’re a team, and I can’t do this without you.

He nodded. Honor has been forsaken in this realm, Jeldorain said, his voice echoing through the depths of our mind with a sudden increased amplitude. And in the past I would have found that hilarious, because I thought the lesser species were like chimpanzees in robes and wigs. But you aren’t lesser. Your struggles are just as real as those I faced in my realm. Let’s do this right.

I took the helm, continuing to trot unopposed with Ike on my left flank and Kevinar on my right. The corridors of the castle stretched before us, an intricate and brilliant construction whose walls were laid out with tapestries lit by strategically placed glowing fungi, showing off at least a millennium of imperial rule. But they were tattered and faded as well, and I wondered for how long the kingdom had been in its decline.

My ruminations came to a halt, though, as we turned the next corner. There stood an actual phalanx of guards, five wide and five deep, each of them wielding wicked looking halberds and interlocking shields. We skittered to a stop before them.

“Surrender yourselves! Your actions are an affront to the king!” one voice cried.

Kevinar smiled, a wicked grin with no mercy or remorse behind it. “Your king just tried to have us killed. If I were you, I would leave. What do you have? Twenty-five soldiers who have probably never seen war? Youth being told to come and slow us down. To die to a man so that some other, bigger force can be assembled to fight us?”

He paused, and I narrowed my eyes, seeing that indeed they looked shiny and young, full of fear and inexperience.

He leaned forward slightly, and a few of the youthful guards jumped. “Do you know what we have? We have a 25th level assassin-warrior of the Deeps, a 27th level dirty fighter who doesn’t give a damn, and a hells-drawn actual Infernal.”

The unit shared terrified glances, clearly unsure of what to do.

“What are you waiting for? RUN!” Kevinar yelled, and the dwarven guards clattered together in a mess, dropping weapons and shields as they scrambled to get out of their way.

“Kevinar, that was brilliant!” I exclaimed.

“No,” he shook his head. “It was wise. We’ll need them later when we sort out this king and ally with the kingdom. Learn the difference, leader.”

Jeldorain gaped inside of me. Perhaps I should have been infused with Kevinar.

I nodded, as impressed with the elf as he was.

We continued forward, a blur of halls and doors. As we moved, we saw other piles of abandoned weaponry, spots where there’d obviously been guards not so long before. Kevinar’s words had spread, and the signs spoke a clear message. The dwarves weren’t loyal to the king. Not the common ones, anyways.

Finally we moved into the main hall, approaching the towering doors that led to the throne room. A thin line of defenders had gathered here, but none of the cloaked survivors we’d fought in our room, nor any of the youth we’d encountered on our way. Instead, the dwarves we faced here were obviously elite, well-groomed to exactly this moment. Their armor gleamed, ringed in glowing sigils the color of muddy earth, the little bit of observable skin crisscrossed with scars and the leftovers of battle or adventures they’d undertaken in the past.

They looked intimidating, and I wondered what bonuses that armor gave them. They wielded axes that blazed fire, and I knew that they’d wreck me if I got close. Behind them stood a mage who held a staff that pulsed with an inner light, its top adorned with a crystal that seemed to contain a swirling galaxy. Even as we watched, a bright and electric dome of power covered the lot of them, reminding me of starship shields on TV.

Beside the mage was a priest, but one that looked more of a warhammer sort, with massive shoulders and chest underneath flame-red mail that somehow form-clung to his body, showing off every contour. He held a mighty, fiery staff, and around his neck blazed a symbol, one that left Jeldorain gasping and bewildered.

That is an infernal god! Pyrathos, the Ember Sovereign. He is the one who forced us to bend the knee! He killed Jezebel!

In my mind we were both suddenly standing side-by-side, watching as a towering figure of flame and magma rose up a single hand, blasting a mountain of ice and snow into a volcano. Ash and glittering globs of molten earth coalesced, falling and steaming into the land around it. Ranks of frozen beings were obliterated in an instant, their essence snuffed to liquid in an instant. The god looked on, his coal-burnt eyes glittering before blasting gouts of flame into the already broken army standing before him. I saw young Jeldorain among them, throwing Jezebel into the snow before shielding her with his body.

But it was too late . . . already the bright orange-red of oblivion had taken root, their almost-born baby sizzling before breaking, her stomach deflating to nothing. Jeldorain took her up and carried her off, loping past the dying and wounded. Behind him, a ragtag group of infernals, ranging from young and human-looking through stages of age to the point that Jeldorain looked like today, charged the titanic behemoth of fire. He peered at them as if curious, before destroying them in a single smote of blown plasma.

The scene broke, Jeldorain standing before me.

I will destroy them. Give me back control.

I shook my head. Remember what Kevinar said. We have to talk to them. They can join our cause!

He sighed, his spirit reaching out as if to embrace me, before seizing me and throwing it out of our zone of control.

I toppled at the edge, barriers suddenly erected. Jeldorain! No! You’re breaking our compact! You said there’d be real consequences if you did it! Don’t do this!

He looked at me sadly through the thick energy barriers of his mind. Ryan, you don’t understand. These infernals . . . they took everything. I will have my vengeance.

Even at the cost of your life?! I asked, surprised and bewildered. You said that a Devil’s Bargain will destroy any who break it!

They already took my life, he responded, turning to the controls.

A prompt appeared before me:

An infernal being has broken the pact of your Devil’s Bargain. Do you wish to enforce terms? Y/N

I shook my head. No, hells damn you. Do not kill Jeldorain.

The prompt slid away. In its wake, I watched as Jeldorain raised Frostchain, and charged.