Arthaya was mad, no that was an understatement. She was so much more than just mad. She wanted to tear Seth apart one limb at a time with her chain but she couldn’t.

He had been smart; he had plainly told Kai about the dangers of using the spell. He hadn’t deceived Kai in the slightest. He hadn’t even hurt Kai or at least in a way that would break his vows.

There was nothing she could do. Arthaya had tried to give Kai a way back if he could seize it in time but even that path had been cut off. Arthaya let out a sigh. Forcefully cutting off her connection with Kai was going to hurt a lot. But it didn’t matter since he was already gone.

“I-” Arthaya felt a primal fear well up inside of her before she had the chance to act.

A crack in space opened up in front of Seth and the blade of a lightning wreathed scythe sliced through Seth’s armor leaving a deep wound in his chest.

Kai emerged from the hole in space, his body crackling with power and his form was coated in liquid metal that was swiftly hardening into armor. Though only one part of the armor had truly taken shape.

Floating behind Kai’s head was a cracked and fragmented black metal halo. The black metal gave her the feeling of a benevolent and holy being gracing her with its presence. Though within that benevolence there was an undertone of death like he was ready to smite anyone who went against his will. Yet this was not what had filled her with fear, it was the cracks. The feeling of desecration and an aura of terrible things lay within those cracks. Each was different but all of them held one similarity, they all held the presence of immense and unimaginable powers that had been felled by Kai. Though they held the feeling not of past accomplishments but future challenges

***

Lightning crackled throughout Kai’s body, blood roared through his veins, and a fire of life and purpose burned in his chest.

Kai flew through the hole in space, his scythe already swung digging into Seth’s armored chest. The liquid metal shifted around Kai’s body slowly attempting to solidify around him.

Seth was thrown into the pile of frozen corpses, his entire body having been scorched by lightning.

The lightning crackling through Kai’s body fizzled out, the blood slowed, the fire dimed and Kai collapsed. His scythe clattered to the ground. He could feel the 2 extra pools he had gained access to cut off, his body was drained and the liquid metal started to quickly fall off his body.

Kai grabbed his scythe using it to prop himself up. Across from him Seth was slowly getting up and to the side was Arthaya staring at him. Her face a mixture of aw, relief and horror. Kai reached into himself trying to summon the power from moments before but even this small act caused him to nearly collapse.

“Kai wha-” Athaya was cut off before she had the chance to finish speaking.

“Bastard wha- no how.” Seth shoved himself up, his voice filled with anger that quickly turned to alarmed wariness. “How are you still alive after touching that?” Seth’s entire demeanor had changed. He gritted his teeth before seeming to come to a decision. “I’ll deal with you later”

Seth slashed at the air with his hand and suddenly the red landscape was gone. Replacing it was a massive stone room like that from some kind of castle. Covering the walls were beautiful banners depicting titanic beings. They were all bound either by chains or words.

One of them caught Kai’s attention; the banner showed an absolutely massive yellow dragon. It was in the eastern style with the typical dragon's head and above its eyes were a set of horns. Its body was long and winding with 4 legs. In front of it was a beautifully designed woman with a long flowing dress with chains woven through both her hair and dress. Kai wasn’t really sure how he could make out all of those details. Since she was the size of a spec and it should have been impossible to make out that much detail. She was similar to Arthaya yet there was a distinct difference between them.

“I’m glad you're ok.” Arthaya said as her arms wrapped around Kai’s neck. Kai felt comfort from her arms like the times when his mother would hug him.

“Me too.” Kai said, as he did he could feel the final vestiges of metal falling away leaving nothing behind. Well nothing wasn’t exactly correct. Kai could feel that his bones had been changed though he wasn’t sure how.

“What’s wrong, you look troubled?” Arthaya asked him.

“It’s my bones, they’ve been changed though I don’t know how.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Hmm, why don’t you tell me about what happened then I might be able to figure it out.” So Kai did, he explained everything that happened while he was in that strange place. Arthaya just shook her head after he was done explaining.

“That is quite the feat, very few people would have managed to escape after cutting that chain. Even fewer could have survived an encounter with that artifact. You are luckier than you know.”

“What was that thing? Was it some kind of bond armament?” Kai asked Arthaya.

“No that was not. In this world there are many aspects that evade even the gods. That place, that river and that artifact are one of these things. It would take a god of death to be able to survive that place through shear power. As for what it was, well it wasn’t a bond armament though it does act similarly to one. Bond armaments were created by putting a living spirit inside of something suited to hosting that spirit. That thing most likely came into being like that though I can only guess. The element of death is extraordinarily hard to explore even for the most accomplished of those that wield it. This is because they can not truly embrace death since to do so would be to die.”

“Oh, wait then how did I survive that place?”

“I have two guesses. The first one is that since you were neither fully dead nor fully alive you were able to endure that place. That cold you felt when you were there was probably an attempt to finish you.” As they talked, Arthaya pulled Kai over to a chair and sat down with him sitting in her lap.

“What do you mean I wasn’t fully alive?” Kai asked.

“ Seth was trying to take your body. If he had succeeded he could have either put your consciousness into the scythe or allowed it to dissipate. If he had done the former you would have still been alive in a way but if he had done the latter you would have essentially been dead.”

“Oh, that makes sense. What about your second idea for why I am still alive?”

“You died, well not you but you do have the memories of dying which is as close as anyone can get. So it would not surprise me if you are able to endure the element of death better than most.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Kai sat there thinking for a minute not sure what to do now.

“Hey, you don’t have to worry about Seth. You wounded him pretty badly so he won't be able to do anything for now. Plus I’ve still got a spell to teach you.” Arthaya waved her hand in front of Kai and a small bird made out of light blue light appeared and started flying around them chirping.

“I have thought about what to teach you for a while. Before I finally came to a decision on what I will teach you. Normally you would not learn this spell till you had become considerably strong. The reason for this is because as you are and you will not be able to use it for a long while. If you would like I can teach you a different spell though?”

“No, I trust you.” Kai said simply since he did. If Arthaya had meant him harm or wanted his body she would have done so long ago.

“I am the binder of magic. All magic is bound to me and all magic is bound by me. Mana bound” As she spoke Arthaya waved her hand in front of Kai. A light blue circle appeared mid air inside of it were two more circles. Rotating inside of the circles were lines of strange runic symbols. More lines spread out of the outer circle creating a web like pattern.

“This spell is called mana bound. It will allow you to seamlessly combine two spells together as long as there is enough compatibility between them. Though this is only the base of the spell.”

The small bird settled onto one of the lines that had branched off. To the other side another spell was being created. Arthaya’s finger moved leaving behind lines of mana. When she was done there was a single circle with 7 runes rotating around inside of it.

Kai watched on as a small ball of fire appeared inside of the circle. The center of the mana bound circle lit up and the small bird and fireball were drained into the web-like pattern. A small fiery bird slowly formed before flying off. The air around it distorted by the fire.

“How did you create those lines and why can’t I use that spell? It seemed simple enough to make once I know how to create those lines.”

Arthaya looked down at Kai, meeting his eyes. “I will answer your questions, but you must promise me you won’t even attempt to create any mana lines until you have learned more about how mana works, much less use that spell.” Kai nodded his agreement.

“For now all you will need to do is channel mana out of your body through your finger. Think of it like your writing. As for why you shouldn’t attempt this. All magic is simply a way of commanding mana to act in a certain way. This is done by verbally telling it what to do and writing down what you want it to do. Now tell me what happens if you give just enough of an order that it makes the mana do something but not enough to define what you want it to do. Along with that this language is far more complex than pretty much anything else. That is why you shouldn’t even attempt to use runic magic until you have any actual knowledge about it.”

“Oh ok I won't” Kai said a bit dazedly.

Arthaya wrapped her arms around him squeezing Kai tightly in a hug “Good I'm glad. Now you should get going, you have been here long enough.” As her words registered, Kai felt the familiar sensation of the world falling away and the blank nothingness rushing through him.

Kai felt sensation returning to his body as he began to move. He groaned, his head pounding, his body sore and an inexplicable feeling of exhaustion that went past the mere physical and mental. He pushed himself off of the soft pillow his head had been resting on. Only for the world around him to spin as he did so. Kai collapsed back down, unable to do anything.

“Kai are you ok? What happened?” Kai heard Nixie’s and knew it came from right next to him. He was even able to make out that he was laying on her lap but it felt and sounded as if she was miles away. Slowly Kai felt his mind fading further and further away but he was able to get out a couple words before he fell asleep.

“I’m fine. Gota sleep.” Kai’s words were soft and slightly slurred. He could hear people talking around him but couldn’t make anything else out as he drifted off into unconsciousness.