My brain was exploding with questions that I wanted to ask Krahinn. No wonder he hates the Void King. Or should I say $^!*$? Wait, why couldn’t I say $^!*$? How did $^!#$ erase, or was this more distort, his name? What if someone tried naming their kid $^!#$? I shook my head as that last question was not relevant at all. What would possess someone to betray their ? Especially someone who helped you create an entire new kind of ? I realized Krahinn brought us to one of the underground bunkers rather than the courtyard or roof like he typically enjoyed lounging around on. For some reason, he was setting up some powerful wards around us. What were those for? These were not some small, weak wards; these put the ward around the castle to shame. What did Krahinn becoming my entail? What about it justified this level of protection? Which question should I prioritize asking him? Ask him about the process from here or about the Void King?

“No questions?” Krahinn taunted while he continued to set something up.

“I am thinking of which I want to ask first. Why are you setting up so many wards? What’s the process from here?” I shot back, deciding that I wanted to know why the wards were needed was the more immediate concern. Krahinn was still adding layers to the wards which was mildly concerning.

“Because I am about to become your , which requires a minor ceremony. Afterwards, our will be linked as we will be bonded for the foreseeable future. The issue will come after that as uh, I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen.” Krahinn confessed with a bit of a shrug.

“What do you mean by you’re not sure?” I inquired. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Don’t ask that Nil, it’ll likely be the result.

“I don’t know how to explain this to you other than I’ve heard there is a bit of adjusting once we form our contract. As you have a powerful and while I have a millennia of accumulated knowledge and at the limit, I have no idea what could happen as most say there’s this odd fluctuation when you bond. Given the two of us, I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Krahinn explained. Ah, I guess he never cared about this before; better safe than sorry was a good policy.

“Okay. Um, how to ask this, what happened with the Void King? Also, why can’t I say $^!*$ but you can?” I checked. Krahinn bobbed his head back and forth as he debated his response.

“That is not a quick answer, as the disaster at Zaubsaal has a lot to explain. As for the latter, I imagine only me and him can currently still say his name as he used a powerful to obscure his name from existence; you need to reach a point where you can say his name as a benchmark.” Krahinn informed me. It was nice to have a goal, I guess.

“Okay. Where’s Zaubsaal? Is that in Arcadia?” I asked as Krahinn kept preparing. I am curious what motivated him to become my ; I know he's been debating it.

“It’s now the capital city of the entire Realm of Arcadia. Back then it was a major city but was on the frontier between the conflicting powers. It’s where everything went so terribly wrong. The worst part was that the starting event wasn’t an accident; it was an act of intentional malice of a delusional being.” Krahinn sighed, with his face looking so depressed.

“Who?” I probed. Krahinn paused for a moment as he recalled the events.

“The hero, the first Reincarnator the Void King ever met, and a being completely erased from history for his actions. I don’t even blame Scius for erasing him entirely from history; it’s about the only thing he and I have ever agreed on as in my grief after killing Helsiri, I cemented the hero’s annihilation from even being able to be remembered by anyone but those present.” Krahinn confessed. What did he do? Krahinn’s face looked so pained.

“Sorry for probing.” I apologized. Krahinn shook his head and took a deep breath.

“It’s fine. I guess the quick answer to what happened is, the hero did some truly abhorrent things in his delusions, and Scius let his grief consume him.” Krahinn clarified for me.

“Different question, why did you kill Helsiri?” I checked as I was kind of curious about what happened.

“He was the hero’s . The worst part is, he could have stopped or undid what the hero did before the events became permanent, but chose not to as it wasn’t in what he viewed as part of his responsibility. The events that led to the death of Hugminn.” Krahinn answered. I felt bad about my morbid curiosity to know what happened. What sort of shiza show happened?

“Ah.” I quipped. Krahinn kept working on the wards.

“Eventually I’ll probably explain the events to you; it was a truly historic moment in all the worst ways.” Krahinn told me with a sigh.

“So, how does becoming my work?” I asked, trying to change the topic.

“We make a contract that bonds our until we part our paths. After that, have a unique ability I'd like to test out; it’d be much easier to demonstrate than explain.” Krahinn told me.

“Okay.” I conceded. I just had to be patient.

Krahinn finished setting up the wards to his satisfaction after a few more minutes, and we both appeared in the center of what he set up. He began forming some powerful as countless began swirling around us like galaxies. His nine eyes projected off of his face and began encircling us while his began swirling in solid wisps. My projected above and below us while Krahinn kept making the swirl around us, now adding in several that rotated around us like planetary rings. Krahinn’s formed a small maelstrom around us and the eyes as several coalesced together into two identical in the air; each shot to our hands before branding themselves on our right hands. All of the condensed, forcing itself into our . The wrapped around our arms while the formation completed. I now had a massive tattoo of the and the that went from my fingers to just short of my elbow. I have a tattoo as a kid, what a rebel I'm becoming.

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What caught me off guard was nothing was really happening at the moment. I expected something more to happen based off what Krahinn described and the level of defenses he set up. Wait, where was Krahinn? I looked around me, seeing an ethereal set of raven wings next to me as nine floating crimson eyes surrounded me. Okay, that’s cool. It is, isn’t it? Wait. What? We can be of one mind, Nil. Here comes the interesting step. It was weird hearing Krahinn in my mind as I felt his presence envelope me. Hold on, what did he mean by interesting step? Then I felt Krahinn’s engage in my . I could feel Krahinn swirl my into his, and everything went haywire. In an instant, the world turned grayscale as time froze. The wards began buckling and creaking as several cast themselves as Krahinn could not control whatever this state was. Wait, what about the ? The world within the wards was still as time was forcefully halted which was bringing up some unpleasant memories.

Relax Nil, the might be going haywire but we split the so you’ll be fine. Krahinn lectured. That was easier said than done.

It didn’t matter, as the wards Krahinn placed were holding on for dear life; the space around us began contorting and twisting as time was frozen. Several swirls of violently twisted the space we were in which was causing the wards to begin to crumple. I was trying to remain calm, but the was getting progressively more out of control. Krahinn used my to cast before he threw me through it while dragging his wards and the wayward through it behind us. We were now in the Wastes before we seemed to be falling backwards. What? Several axes were manifesting as what looked like stars began falling. I so wanted to know what the star was, but now was not the time to ask. Now was for trying to calm down to help get our combined under control. However, seeing some of the that were manifesting excited me as they looked awesome.

Calm down! Your excitement is throwing off my control! Krahinn snapped at me.

Why is your control slipping? We’re in my body, right? I checked. I looked down, and these odd spectral feathers were around me.

It is your body. Do you know why the term is ? Krahinn inquired as he was eliminating the that was forming around us. I could feel coalescing around me.

I mean, totem where I’m from is some kind of emblem. I answered. I realized Krahinn was slowly getting better control of our combined .

is because can alter our forms as we are beings of , so when we bond our to an individual we can solidify ourselves into a kind of armor. provide more than just insight and knowledge from beyond. Krahinn explained as he seemed to finally get it under control.

What do you mean by kind of armor? I probed, wondering what he was talking about.

The circles on my arm began glowing as the black feather armor Krahinn typically had manifested around my body. I felt countless feathers seem to sprout from me before flattening around me and solidifying into metal. I realized his nine eyes were giving me feedback of what was around us that I could perfectly see in my mind without actually looking at it; it was odd being able to have this odd visual of around me despite not looking at it. Wow. I could feel the sheer amount of at my disposal as I did a few test flexes of my body. Could I mimic what Mahdi did like this? We immediately manifested twenty daggers of that Krahinn coated each of them with for me. The daggers look a bit more feather like than before. That’s my personal touch. It was going to get used to our thoughts being blended, but it was totally worth it. I went to cast , feeling Krahinn augmenting the as it formed, unleashing a massive slice that fanned out much faster than if I cast it myself. Krahinn engaged my , using the combination of and to make it vanish, before bringing it back and aiming the up. The new launched up, looking like it cleaved the night sky in half. This was awesome. The on my hand began glowing, as Krahinn manifested in front of me. Why did he st- woah. I nearly collapsed as a wave of nausea washed over me. Krahinn caught me, used me to open a , and then we went back into the bunker from earlier. Everything around me was spinning as I was struggling to stand.

“There are limits, Nil. If it was just my and abilities augmented by your gifts, you getting strong would be unnecessary. It also takes practice to maintain that form.” Krahinn lectured. My head was absolutely pounding from the .

“What’s the point of that then? Wouldn’t fighting two on one be better?” I asked, rubbing my temples. Oh this was not pleasant.

“We can synchronize our to a degree that’s impossible otherwise. It also allows us to share and gifts we have with each other. I have nine and you have one that’s a . While one of us fights, the other can prepare much more complicated or . We also can split the and damage that accumulates. It has a lot of advantages. One of the disadvantages is you are the one bearing the burden of failure, not me.” Krahinn explained with a shrug.

“Wait, if we lose, I die?” I verified, making sure I understood his point.

“Pretty much. There’s a reason used to think we were truly immortal.” Krahinn told me. That was not comforting information.

“What are the other disadvantages?” I checked. This seemed to be beyond potent; it also seemed like a massive advantage over the Void King.

“It requires us to work well together and have compatible ; it’s why Ipnerslei couldn’t be your . If we have conflict, the will rip us apart as our will go to war with each other. The other massive disadvantage is if we keep it going too far, the can kill you and you would be dead but still alive with the knowledge that when it ends you will have an agonizing death. Also, our doesn't just add to each other as some of the is needed to maintain that bonded form. It still gives us access to more than either of us have naturally. One other important note, just if you get powerful enough to not be completely dead weight, doesn't mean defeating Scius is a given. He is an immensely skilled and powerful individual that has definitely prepared countermeasures for centuries.” Krahinn informed me. I was noticing a trend among the disadvantages I was not liking, and I wasn't the biggest fan of his point about the Void King.

“I see. Now, why wouldn’t you want to be my if all the risk is on me?” I asked, as it occurred to me nearly all the disadvantages seemed to affect me more.

“Ah. See, if I want to kill Scius, I have one attempt at it. By myself, I cannot defeat him. I can maim and hurt him but not win. Most importantly, Scius knows how to kill . Currently, he thinks we’re on a tense truce where neither of us wants to face the grueling duel. The instant Scius knows I’m not okay with that, he is not dumb enough to let me live. To that end, I need someone capable of working with me that has a chance of defeating him. I have one attempt, so we’re in this till the end.” Krahinn clarified for me. Ah. That was a bit better, I guess.