Joseph was driving home from a party, his younger brother was in the passenger seat. "Y... you were quite the drag at the party you know, just read that dumb book the whole time." Joseph said, his voice slurring from the alcohol on his breath.

"I should have called a cab, or at least let me drive." Chris said, thumbing his bookmark. "You're drunk as a fish."

Joseph chuckled. "The day you drive my car... is the day I let dad enroll me in the military."

Chris watched as the car dipped slightly off the road but Joseph corrected his course. "Christ on a fucking stick pull over, We're sleeping in the car."

Joseph huffed but as he was bid. They did spend the night in the car, but the night was short.

Chris was reading by flashlight when he saw a blinding light he looked up only to see a fiery mushroom cloud in the center of the city, a shockwave of rubble rolled toward them, and he watched a car being flung straight toward their car. He blinked, he looked around at the ruined landscape, buildings were destroyed, burning forests, even the cement was on fire, he looked to his side and saw his brother floating next to him, but he was spectral, he looked down at his hand but he could see right through it.

"..." They both stared at the destruction of their home city.

"Mom was at work today..." Chris said, his voice cracking slightly.

"Fuck... I hope dad's okay." He said, his face twitching slightly but all together he looked like he was made of stone.

"We're dead..." He said, pinching his arm. "But... I can still feel... this can't be real. I- I refuse to believe this is fucking real!" Chris started panicking he saw their mangled corpses crushed and skewered by metal, no more than hunks of meat, the cars didn't explode, just turned into a macabre sculpture of metal, rubber, and flesh. but... then he noticed more light coming from behind them.

He turned looking at his brother and his eyes widened, he was expecting to see a second nuclear explosion, but what he saw was a woman blazing with fiery radiant gold, a white dress hugging her voluptuous frame, her blond hair glowed and her eyes were two fiery spots that analyzed them both. "Joseph Rider, you've been chosen to guide the people of the Hadrian empire, come, I shall guide you to their world."

Joseph blinked then looked at Chris who was floating beside him, they gave each other 'wtf?' look. "This sounds like something from your dumb books Chris."

Chris nodded. "Even drunk and dead, you make fun of a serious situation, I should have known I'd go to hell."

Joseph raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about man?"

Chris smiled. "Hell's wherever you are, but even then, I'll be right there with you."

"No." The woman said simply.

Joseph shook his head. "Hey lady, we're a package deal, you want me to come to the party, you're gonna have to take him too, that's just how it works."

The woman at him, slight rage building in her face but she sighed.. "So be it."

The two were wrapped in a golden energy and they started flying through space stars zipping past them, until they came to a place where there were no stars, and then they kept going, until they came to a sun the same brilliant gold as herself. and was lowered to a planet, and then to a large continent and finally to a large cathedral with a large sun on it. beneath it, Joseph and Chris saw a room where a man was tied to an alter, the head priest who wore a large gold crown of the sun, he looked at the goddess while others looked down, those who took peaks at her had their eyes burned from their skull but they oddly didn't seem to mind struck with a dumb smile despite their vision being burned out. "News pope, you'll need one more host."

The priest sighed, and whispered into the ear of a nearby priest who left the room and came back in with a skinny man in nobles clothing, he seemed to be fighting tooth and nail. "Bastard you can't do this, Do you know who I am?!" His protests died when he saw the goddess and the pair of souls bound. The man on the podium seemed unnervingly calm about this.

Soon Joseph's soul was shoved into the man's body. The noble screamed. "No! you can't do this to me!"

But the goddess didn't bother giving him a choice. Chris was forcefully shoved toward the noble and if felt like someone encased him in stone and moved him toward the noble. The nobles soul didn't exit his body but rather it seemed... smaller, frailer than his, he had full control of the nobles body, though he could feel the nobles soul raging, and heard his voice screaming at him, calling him a peasant and a thief and a thousand different insults that would have him thrown out of court.

Instead of thrashing against his captors iron grips he calmly looked around, despite the weird sensation in his body, like his legs falling asleep but slowly regaining control, it was a horrible feeling, it was like standing on a pair of peg legs, his legs feeling like worthless logs, but slowly the numbness subsided and was replaced with pins and needles, once he had full control of his faculties he fidgeted his fingers. "What... the fuck... was that..."

The pope looked at him, and then raised his scepter and swung it at his stomach causing him to double over. "Don't speak profanities in front of the sun wife!" He shouted.

Chris groaned. "OOoooogh, a church run by ass holes... yeah, that tracks..."

The pope raised the scepter again, but a hand grabbed his wrist. The pope looked over his shoulder seeing Joseph's new body now untied glaring at him, he reeled back his fist and slammed it into the old man's face his stupid sun crown clanging against the ground. "You... you punched me? How did you-" Joseph smacked him with the back of his hand and the man fell back to the ground. "Don't touch my fucking brother you old fuck."

"Who untied him?!" He yelled spitting out a bloody tooth. A pair of priests with knives quickly hid them in their robes. "You bastard I'll-"

"Do no such thing." The woman apparently called the sun wife said in a voice. "My husband might be too lazy to travel across the universe for a soul of exceptional strength but I am not, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to make the trip twice, you will not harm either of them, I have no clue why my husband chose you as pope but to me you're no more than a man in a spiky metal hat."

Chris watched the goddess turn and leave, giving a dire warning as she did. "This is your peoples last chance, don't disappoint us again, lest my husband be angered."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After their summons and introduction they were brought before the emperor, who like everyone else in his life, dismissed Chris in favor of his brother, that was more than fine with him, he was nice and cozy in his brother's shadow.

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The emperor looked at his older brother from his chair at the head of the feasting table, he gave off the air of someone a person can get along with easily. "So, you're Grelorious' paragon, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Joseph nodded, taking a bite of something that looked like chicken. "Yeah, nice to meet you too." He leaned toward Chris. "Who is this guy?"

Chris sighed. "Too busy throwing your eyes at the churches nuns to actually bother using your ears, that tracks, he's the emperor of the country we're in."

The emperor snorted. "Correct young man." He said, turning his golden eyes toward me, and suddenly realized why he preferred his brother's shadow, because this man's gaze was like a damn spotlight, bright and piercing.

Joseph made an OH face. "Someone did mention that, didn't they..."

The emperor sighed. "Well, My name is Hadrian like my fathers before me, and I have a proposition."

Chris leaned over to Joseph and whispered. "I am not feeling this, anyone with this much gold clearly has something going on."

Joseph nudged him. "Don't be such a stick in the mud, aren't you the one who always wanted to do the whole reincarnation thing?" He whispered back before looking at the emperor. "I am Joseph, this is my brother Christopher."

Chris heard the voice of his host in his mind. 'This can't get any worse...'

Chris sighed and thought back. 'it can and it probably will.'

Joseph set his chicken leg down. "I'm here for something right?"

The emperor blinked, and shot Chris a look but it was gone so fast that if you had blinked you'd have missed it. "Yes, the goddess should have explained."

Chris sighed. "She did everything but explain."

The emperor nodded as if that made sense. "Well, you've been brought here to assist us with my countries ongoing war with the demi humans, the dwarves and elves have been attacking our borders for centuries, we've had three paragons before yourself, but they all betrayed us and had to be put down. You're the last one the sun god will be sending, we've been a bit of a disappointment to him for the last few generations, and I fear what would happen if we lost the support of the sun god."

Chris' inner alarms had started blaring like an air raid siren to the point where even his host's voice started shouting. 'Would you calm down.'

Chris shot his brother an alarmed look but he wasn't paying attention. "Well, I'm not going to start massacring people in the streets if that's what you're worried about."

The emperor laughed. "I'd hope not. Anyways, I have prepared a squad of our best to assist you in battle."

Joseph blanched. "Battle?"

The emperor became serious suddenly. "Yes, battle. you're a paragon, and a paladin at that, we've not had a paladin or a cleric in years, more signs of the sun god distancing himself from us. Even the pope himself can only perform minor miracles, if we lose his support we're done for."

Chris felt that at least was genuine, but was not convinced the man across from them had the best interest for them, as if to confirm his point Hadrian turned toward Chris. "I'll set it up, but you'll be running Baron Rainhearts territory."

Chris was about to ask but the voice in his head spoke first. 'that's me, I can at least instruct you in the way of running my Barony.'

Hadrian sighed. "But I'm sure you don't have experience running territories like this so I can hire you a tutor."

Chris shook his head. "No, I think I can handle it."

Hadrian raised an eyebrow but said nothing more about it.

they finished eating and Hadrian gestured for a few servants. "Show these two to their rooms, we've also got a-"

Chris held up a hand. "Would it be okay if we shared a room?"

Hadrian's face made a micro expression but it was gone so fast that he couldn't tell what it was. "sorry, i should have told you earlier, in our traditions, two men sharing a room is rather frowned upon, quite a lot actually."

Chris frowned, that made no sense, if that were true then soldiers wouldn't have barracks, but he had a feeling if he pointed this out it wouldn't go over well. "As you wish." He said, looking down submissively, he thought it was suspicious, a thought that the voice of former Baron Rainheart agreed with, he felt it was a little weird that they were getting used to sharing a body.

They were lead to separate rooms by a servant in a white tail coat, he lead Joseph to his first, and lead Chris to a larger much nicer door, Chris was confused atleast until he opened the door and lead Chris to a large desk where emperor Hadrian was working on ledgers. He walked in, and Hadrian gestured to a seat without looking at him. "Christopher correct?"

Chris was more nervous now than ever, he was here alone with a man who he didn't trust in the slightest. "J- just Chris is fine sir." The voice of Rainheart was eerily quiet, So Chris sat down in the proffered chair.

"Well Chris, I have a request." Hadrian said, writing on a sheet of parchment.

"Uh... ask away sir." Chris said nervously.

"Give me a reason, not to sign this paper." He slid the sheet across the ornate desk and Chris took it, the words were strangely enough in a different tongue but the voice of the Baron read it for him. 'Dear Lady Rainheart, I am deeply sorry to inform you that your... husband was killed in the city by a gang of street thugs, we send our apologies along with a large sum of money as an apology for the city guard not capturing the culprits responsible before your husbands death... -signed Emperor Laurence Hadrian VII. shit kid, you're in some deep shit, we're going to need a miracle otherwise we're both dead.'

Chris gulped. "T... The mechanized soldiers you had surrounding your throne... Are they some form of artificing?"

Hadrian frowned. "Your life is on the line and you want to know about golems?"

Chris nodded. "I took some classes in my world on technology... I might be able to make technology, imagine, flying ships, horseless wagons, weapons far surpassing that which you currently possess, if you can have someone give me lessons on enchanting I may be able to bring you this technology and maybe more." He said, his fear fading slightly as he started geeking out about how magic and technology could be combined. Rainheart was screaming in his mind. 'Are you mad? there's no way the emperor will buy that bluff, and even if he did there's no way you know how to do such things!'

The emperor looked at him with those piercing gold eyes. "Alright, but it's your head if you're lying." he said, taking the death threat and tossing it into a hearth. "Needless to say, this doesn't leave this room."

Chris nodded, if he'd told his brother then emperor or not my brother would probably try and fail to kill him and end up getting them both executed, whether he liked it or not he was alone here.