~~~Lee~~~

"Keep fighting!" Lee yelled at the duo with half his attention on his own notifications. "And don't use any mana skills."

The notifications about resisting something called a soul cage had stopped. It had to be from Stanley, and the entire thing felt far too reminiscent of the time they'd ended up using the source. But it had stopped. Had Stanley won?

"Tiring us out," Miller protested, breathing heavily. "Won't help us protect you."

"You're just upset that you can't touch me without mana," Amy taunted him from behind her shield as she circled.

Lee ignored the banter and tried to watch the mana moving inside their bodies as they clashed. It was the only way for him to distract himself from the sick feeling in his stomach. He couldn’t even think about worrying over secret oaths right now. Who cared if people were swearing to someone else? Stanley might be dying!

Alejandro could deal with that.

He forced himself to keep watching the duo again. They weren't using skills, but mana still moved from their cores to travel throughout their bodies. He watched until the flowing mana turned into a trickle, and both contestants were moving sluggishly.

It wasn't the same mana as their skills used. Similar, and still the same personal flavor everyone had, but not the same. It had to be stamina... or perhaps some kind of regeneration. Whatever it was, they fought a lot faster and stronger the more of it they had. "Take another break."

The mana he watched was one that Three didn't refill. It meant they had to rest. Which only strengthened Lee's guess about it being their stamina.

"My lord," Trak said in the lull. "May I speak with you?"

Lee had been trying to ignore the anxious anubi lurking at the edge of the courtyard. The guy was an emotional creature... and Lee already had plenty to worry about. "Of course, Trak. What is it?"

"I would... perhaps in private, my lord?"

Lee sighed and took a closer look at the feelings he was getting through the oath. Trak was really worried... "Fine, let's go to my place."

Of course, Miller and Amy trudged after him. Lee tried to watch their stamina use and regeneration as they went, but Trak's worry was catching. Or maybe it was Stanley's? Hopefully, it was nothing. Maybe Trak had had a negative thought about Lee and was feeling bad about it?

The door closed behind Trak, and Lee turned on him. "What's up?"

"My lord, I... I took an apprentice from among your people, and..."

"What about your kids? I thought you needed to train them. I told you to put them first."

"Forgive me, my lord. It is not that way. Hax has taken an apprenticeship with the Mistress Druid!" His pride at the statement was obvious.

"That's great, Trak!" Lee had seen one of the young anubi out with Saira a lot, but he just thought it was them helping her with their potion herbs. Now they would get another of the strongest healers in the fort. It was beyond great!

"My lord, I took a promising human as my apprentice... and I saw the human racial trait." He was back to that sickening worry...

"Is it a problem? I thought it was a good thing?"

"It is a good thing, my lord! It is... too good! It is beyond belief! It is impossible!"

"How can it be too good? I'd probably be dead without that trait."

"It is too good, my lord. It will draw attention! It is only a matter of time until the greater multiverse discovers this, and then... they will come. They will enslave your people. It is too... good." He wilted with each word, ending up as close to bowing as he could get without violating his orders. "My lord, had I not found you here... I would be seeking to flee this world ahead of the coming storm."

Lee stared at him. Too good? Coming storm? "I can still let you leave if you..."

"No!" Trak straightened instantly. "I will never leave you, my lord! I... I just wished to warn you... They will come..."

"Aren't they already attacking us? Will things really be any..."

You do not hold full dominion of your Twin-Soul. All involved parties must agree.

Stanley? He agreed, and...

Soul Awareness cannot be applied to a singular individual within the Twin-Soul. Solution applied. All involved parties gain Soul Awareness. Skill progression speed will be reduced and balanced.

What?

Soul rebalance has begun...

Lee abruptly found himself in a very strange... place? It was... his soul. A dark place, but with some light shining up from a ragged crack across the floor. Just enough light to illuminate the little pug sitting atop the crack and staring up at him with a wiggling, happy butt. It couldn't be...

"I did this," a bitter voice said from somewhere outside, and Lee recognized that voice! He moved without moving to look past the slightly mangled walls of this place... and saw his brother. Or a thing that he knew was his brother.

Stanley! He was upset about their soul. Lee looked it over himself... and found it... okay. Sure, it was a little messed up, and it didn't fill him with joy to look at, but...

We did this, Lee said to his brother. We chose life over death.

"Was it even worth it?" Stanley asked, sorrow heavy in his words.

You tell me.

"That voice," Stanley said hesitantly. Disbelieving. "Lee?"

Lee smiled at him. Come in and see what we did.

Stanley followed him inside... and stopped, staring at Caffeine. "It was worth it."

Yes, Lee said, feeling his presence in this place dimming. Their time together was limited... I'm building a home over here for when you get back, Stan.

"I'm trying," Stanley said. "I'm trying so hard..." There was so much pain and fear in his voice.

No big rush, Lee replied, forcing himself to smile despite the horror of what he was seeing behind his brother. I can see you're in a bit of a rough spot. It'll just give me more time to spruce up the place.

Stanley turned to look behind himself and out into the void. Into what Lee now knew was a field of glittering souls that surrounded his brother. So many of them—so many monsters. So many undead... all hunting his brother.

"I won't let them stop me, Lee," Stanley said, conviction filling his voice. "I'll come home..."

Naturally, Lee replied while fighting to hold on to his own conviction in the face of what he was seeing.

Soul Awareness rebalance complete.

Be seeing you. Lee could feel himself fading from this place. He knew their time was up, but crouched as Caffeine whined at him. I missed you too, Caff. Lee rubbed Caffeine’s head gently, hiding the tears that threatened to spill over.

"I will be back!" Stanley stated it vehemently, and their soul trembled with the strength of his words.

Lee stood straight, forcing himself to believe what his brother said. I know.

Then he was back in his apartment, falling to his knees. The entire experience had taken only a moment. He felt... concern and worry, but it wasn't his own. Lee looked at Trak, who was watching him with obvious worry. Outside his apartment, Lee could feel... something more.

Was it his new skill? Lee closed his eyes and tried to focus on what the skill was supposed to do. There was definitely something happening, and he was sensing emotions that weren't his own, but it was hard to pick any of it out through the louder noise of his Mana Mind.

Stanley was definitely more present in his mind, and Lee felt his worry and fear clearly as he scrambled to his feet. He also couldn't forget the sight he'd seen in that place. The sight of what hunted his twin. The skeleton—another fucking skeleton! "Where's Alejandro?"

Trak jumped as Lee sprinted to the door and burst outside. "Find Alejandro! I need... cores!"

He knew what was happening now. Stanley was in trouble. He was being hunted and didn't think he could win.

"What happened, my lord? How may I assist you?"

"I need cores! I need all the fucking cores, now!" If he could get his attributes high enough that Caffeine wouldn't have to dump points on him... so Caffeine could help Stanley... then they could use the source again. They could do anything with that power—kill anything.

Miller and Amy shared a look at his outburst and then chased after him on his way to the garage. Lee didn't care. It didn't matter what people thought of him... All that mattered was what he could do for Stanley! He had to help him!

I need to be immortal... There has got to be a way!

Saira! Maybe if she never stopped healing him... maybe it would carry over to Stanley? They'd almost done that before, right? She was more powerful now... it might work! "Get Saira!"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Lee forced himself to stop when he reached the garage, and he looked at his new skill. It was supposed to make their soul stronger... it was level twenty-five... which meant it wasn't a new skill; Stanley had chosen the evolution. Which, given that their soul had been under attack not long ago, made perfect fucking sense!

He dove into his rune storage. He needed to make something... anything. A rune like he'd put on his bones, maybe. But for his soul... Our twin soul. If I can do something... make it stronger somehow?

So he sat right there and created rune after rune in his storage. He didn't know if any of them would work or not, so he saved every iteration, just in case.

It was getting crowded inside his rune storage when Alejandro finally came back into range. Unfortunately, Lee never got the chance to talk to him.

He was sprinting toward the man and his bag of cores, halfway across the garage, fear and anger boiling through from Stanley, debuffs flickering through his mind, when something slammed into him and dragged him down into the dark.

Debuff: [Soul Intrusion]

Lee blinked at the sudden darkness as he stared at the strange sight he'd seen only a short while before. Their soul. He didn't need the unpleasant feeling gnawing inside him to know something was very wrong.

The giant, four-armed skeleton striding into his soul was proof enough.

Stanley was there as well, but covered in what looked like glowing chains as he called out, "Lee, help!"

I'm working on it, Lee whispered, then followed Stanley inside the center while reaching tentatively for his rune storage. Technically, it should be in here somewhere, but he'd seen no sign of it last time...

The runes responded, fading into view as if they'd always been there. Though they seemed to reside in a separate corner of their soul, not in the very center where he found Stanley and Caffeine both snarling at the undead. It didn't matter; he could feel the runes and knew they were available.

Lee hadn't exactly planned for a monster inside his soul, but if he could stick runes on his own soul... could he put them on an enemy's soul? Something non-beneficial. Something violent, and hopefully extremely painful!

He could. He just needed to...

That plan flew out the window when something unleashed a burning pulse of source into Lee's body and mind.

He reacted instinctively and impulsively. Recklessly.

Lee funneled that storm of god-like power. That drop of godlike power. He poured it into a rune. Even as it scoured his body and mind. He stuffed it all into a single blazing rune inside his rune soul storage. Where... somehow... it held.

Then the monster's spell carved a bleeding gash into their soul.

Mana Mind hadn't gone out when he got dragged into their soul. Lee couldn't feel his body from here, but he could see it. So he knew his body was thrashing and screaming back in the real world. Stanley and Caffeine's own screams echoed alongside, and the sound galvanized him back into action despite the pain.

That sound, plus the sight of his friends and family crowding around his spasming body. Saira's magic was flowing into him like a firehose, but it failed to touch the new wound. She couldn't save him from this...

Maria was coming his way too. Lee could see her sprinting through the building on her way to the garage. He could see everyone in the building scrambling. They were herding the children out of the courtyard and into their apartments. They thought they were under attack. They were... scared. He could feel their souls. Could feel the worry. The concern for him. The fear of the unknown...

They were right to be afraid. If he died to this monster... everyone would lose the protection of his runes. Three would die. Maria and Alejandro. Gabriel and Anita. Bradley, Mar, and Saira. Just a handful of the hundreds that would suffer for his weakness if he failed here.

He couldn't let that happen. He had to act.

This wasn't what he'd feared. It wasn't Stanley dying while he only watched helplessly. It was a problem he could do something about. He just had to act!

So Lee forced himself to move even as he screamed in agony.

What was a little more pain? He'd already died once. This was nothing! Who cared if his soul was bleeding? Who cared if it hurt worse than dying? None of that would compare to the pain of losing his brother if he didn't act. None of that would come close to the pain of leaving his newfound family to suffer and die without his protection.

So Lee screamed and started forcing his runes onto their wounded soul. Some of them stuck, while others broke upon contact. Some worked as he'd envisioned, while others didn't. He tried them all one after the other, noting the successes and failures, noting which ones could help him here and which ones he could ignore.

Liquid mana flowed in a torrent through him as he empowered rune after rune, and he was already working on a new combination, a viable solution, when Stanley appeared beside him. In front of the wound...

Lee felt sick just looking at the iridescence bleeding from their soul. It was not supposed to leak out like this. Not at all. The sight of it was akin to seeing his guts on the outside... something instinctively wrong. Only, this was so much worse.

There was one benefit, though. The chains around Stanley dissolved beneath that glowing... soul blood. That energy.

Lee didn't need words to feel Stanley's attention on him. To feel his intention. To understand what the desperate plan would cost them. To know how much it would hurt.

None of that mattered. Lee would endure it. He would survive. He would make them survive. Both of them. All of them! His family would live. No matter what it took!

Do it.

The skeleton's own scream of agony was a small consolation prize amidst the pain that ravaged his body, mind, and soul.

Lee fought his way back from the pain. He had to. The wound had torn wider after Stanley's attack. Their soul was no longer trickling away in a steady stream; now it gushed in a rushing torrent of everything they were. Flowing away. Draining away.

It was death. Dragging them down with the speed of a raging river sweeping off a cliff.

Lee ignored the looming specter of death. He'd already looked into the void, and it had looked back into him. It was an old enemy. One he'd defeated before. One he would defeat again.

He had no choice.

The runes were ready. The ones he needed, and he slapped them into place while Stanley raged behind him.

Then Stanley pulled at the wound again in a burst of outrage.

Lee knew what would follow. He had the barest moment to see the glowing wound tear wider as Stanley pulled energy from it... then the pain arrived. Fresh pain piled atop what already clawed at his mind and soul.

He didn't let it stop him.

There wasn't time to suffer. There wasn't time to die. So he screamed and kept crafting his rune.

He was almost finished when Stanley came back, full of rage and ready to die fighting. Lee understood the anger, but he wasn't willing to die here and now. He couldn't afford to die. Too many people needed them to live.

But that will to live wasn't enough. The monster still haunted them. It still sought their destruction. End this, Stan. I will hold our soul together.

Lee watched the tear in their soul fluctuate as Stanley gathered the energy. As his rage smothered everything. As he prepared to die...

I won't let us die!

Lee didn't watch as Stanley turned away to face the monster that was still trying its damnedest to destroy them. It wasn't Lee's fight. Stanley would deal with that... Lee's fight was here. A fight against death. Against the end of everything.

He bolstered himself for what he knew was coming. Taking the one last moment to focus on what he was fighting for. To focus on what he loved.

Stanley had changed since this started. He had an edge that hadn't been there before. A quickness to wrath... But beneath that, he was still the same brother Lee loved. The twin brother, who loved him back just as fiercely. It was that love which fueled the anger. The fear of losing it. The fear of losing everything. It drove Stanley. Drove his rage.

Caffeine loved them both. As he always had. Unchanging. Unwavering. Everlasting. He would love and believe in them forever. Absolutely. Lee glanced at the pug and drew more strength from the big brown eyes staring back at him. From the conviction he saw within them. I will save us, Caff. All of us.

Maria and Saira were both pumping mana into his body back home. Trak was frantically pouring potion after potion into Lee's slack mouth, trying different ones while he barked at the other anubi. They were equally frenetic as they brewed... something.

Alejandro stood by, and Lee could feel the helpless frustration radiating from the man as he looked for something to fight against. For some way to help. Anything.

Lee saw the energy of their soul stop gushing out in its mindless flood. It swirled and gathered.

It became... death.

Lee saw his friends and family. He saw them all flinch when his world threatened to go dark with pain. He clung to that vision. He clung to the sight of everyone who needed him. Everyone who was counting on him to keep them safe. Even as he felt himself coming undone... even as he realized it was over... even as he struggled futilely against their inevitable end.

Their soul ripped open... and his runes failed.

All of his grand promises and big dreams were for nothing. He wasn't strong enough...

He grappled with the runes while he screamed. He bound more to their soul while their life bled away. But it wasn't enough... he needed more. So he pulled on the rune he'd stashed earlier... the one full of source.

It fought him. It was too much power... It would destroy them if he tried to wield it... but he had no choice.

Lee screamed outside and inside as their soul split to the breaking point, but he couldn't hear himself. He was glowing in the raging fires of his mana as he fought against the rune and against the dying of the light. I will not let it go out!

He could taste blood on his tongue. Everything hurt. It hurt so much...

I will never break! He kept screaming even as he choked on the blood filling his lungs. Never!

Then something changed.

The looming power of Three was a constant presence in his Mana Mind. Only now... it moved without moving.

Lee felt it reaching out to him... reaching out to everyone... touching... seeking... asking.

A link of... something connected to Lee. A link from Alejandro. Then another... Maria. Then more... and more! Lee could feel them all.

It was their souls.

Every soul surrounding him. Every soul inside Three. They all reached out to him. All of them offered their strength.

He could feel the fear and pain they were all feeling. Feeling for him and from him. But they all wanted to help. They wanted him to survive.

Lee latched onto those links like a drowning man onto a lifeline... and they pulled his head above the water.

Caffeine was there, waiting for him. He stood, towering and defiant, atop the crack, glaring at the wound as it stretched wider and refusing to let it split further apart. Even as their soul bled away through the gap.

Somehow, it still held. They weren't dead yet.

Lee gathered up all the borrowed power. All the power of so many souls offering their strength, and he forced that power against the wound. Against the final rune. The source rune. You. Will. Obey.

He couldn't pull the power from the rune. It had scorched him just getting it in there in the first place, and he knew pulling it out now would end them. But he didn't need to take it out. He only needed the rune to change... and he had done that before. When it mattered most. When his life had teetered on the edge.

This time, it wasn't all up to him. He had help. Over a hundred souls, all of them reaching out to help. All of them lending him their strength. Their will to survive. Their souls.

It was enough.

The rune writhed and squirmed under their combined will. It wanted to explode in a maelstrom of destruction, but a crowd of souls stood amid a towering structure at Lee's back as he forced all that power to reshape into a binding, strengthening, stitching web of power.

Lee could feel the mana roaring through him, through his mind, as he used all the power that was offered to him... and he used it to bind their soul back together.

As much as he could. As well as he could.

It hurt, and it wasn't perfect. But it was a chance.

It was hope.

Then it was done, and only an iridescent line remained inside their soul when it was over. A glowing memento of sacrifice and pain. Of victory.

Thank... you! Lee thought distantly and faintly toward all the helping hands, and then he finally relaxed. He finally stopped fighting. He'd done enough... for now. They had survived. They would live.

He could... rest...