Chapter 103: The Oaths That Bind Us

Feeling the searing heat emanating from their soul, they knew they had to work quickly. Stabilise the link, before it collapsed and left them crippled. They needed the skill. Now.

One half still floundered, unused to the rigours of true mental communion. The other knew what to do. They trusted, and they acted.

It was time for the bloodrite.

They knew, even now, that they could back out. Even splitting their minds, they knew they wouldn’t. Pain was acceptable, risk was acceptable. They would be forged anew, and rise above, or they would die.

Opening their eyes, they were treated to a mind spinning duplicated sight of their bodies. One stout, red, furred, and strong. The other tall, pale, lithe, and strong. They moved slowly, mortal flesh struggling to cope with the sensation that flowed across their link.

Their human body drew their hunting knife with a shaking hand. Their meles body raised their paw to their mouth. Diverting a modicum of effort, they suppressed their Health.

The sting of tooth and blade was lost in the all consuming pyre that lashed across their link. Heartblood sprayed. With their Endurance they would survive for a short while, but the oath had to be forged so that they could heal.

They clasped arms, anointing the stone below with the ichor of their covenant. Hearts thumped in sync.

“We are one, by the rites of strife and adversity, the pact of the hunt, and the oath of fire and blood.

Be it searing sun, or frozen moon, we will endure.

Our blood is our bond, unbroken in the face of storm and starfall.

We are the fangs in the night, and the heartbeat of the dawn.

Forged in blood and pain, we rise. Unity will be our sword, and loyalty our shield.

Witnessed by fate, and seen by the Arbitrator, let it be known.

We are one.” They spoke, voices thrumming with the potency of an ancient pact revitalised once more.

The system noticed, and a familiar ding sounded in their minds.

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Soulforged Covenant (Unique)?**

They accepted.

The might of the system thrummed. Two seeds of power, the realisation of their shared might, substantiated in orbit around their souls. The new shard joined the procession of their constellations of legacy skills, filling the missing slots, completing the preparation for their final ascension.

Their skills thrummed with anticipation, vibrating with barely concealed power as they waited for the final skill to be ready.

Then Soulforged Covenant activated. Power surged, torrenting from the skill to suffuse the ragged holes in their souls. Soulstuff melted, channelling and bleeding across the yawning chasm that was their link. Then it started to contract. Finger-length by finger-length, the tunnel of meaning and connection shrunk, pulling their souls into alignment.

As they drew together, the tears in the border of their centres widened. They gasped, feeling the last remaining shreds of difference dissolve. They writhed, the dissolution of ego as much agony as it was ecstasy.

Souls united, the bubbles of their soul’s dominions intersecting, woven together with arcane might and a harmonious thrum of unity that burst free from their souls.

Then a pearlescent shimmer burst into existence, sealing the bridge. It wasn’t a total severance, for that had become an impossibility with a shared centre. Yet, it was enough to delineate. They became he, and Kaius returned to himself.

“By the fucking gods, what the fuck was that!” He called out, reeling backwards to slump into the bunk behind him as a rapidfire ping of dings screamed through his mind.

Porkchop groaned on the floor. “They said it would be bad-weird, but I didn’t expect that.”

Kaius shot him a wild look, before he burst into hysterical laughter. “Holy shit! We were we, what the fuck! You can feel your claws!? That’s so weird!” he asked, the vivid memory of feeling his own handspan long nails clacking on the stone floor.

Snapping up, Porkchop stared at him in bewilderment. “That’s what you took from this? Not the fact that, oh, I don’t know, we apparently share a soul-space now?”

Kaius giggled. “I think I should be surprised that you didn’t know that would happen, but I already know that because we knew that wasn’t going to happen. This is so fucking weird.”

He shook his head, trying to shake off the last remnants of discombobulation from having his entire sense of self dissolve. It didn’t work very well. Porkchop also felt the same, he could feel it. Far more intimately than their previous surface level link.

Previously it had been odd, but ultimately comparable to speech. Now, it was like he had a yawning window into the mind of his brother. Could feel his emotions, wants and intentions. It should have been overwhelming, but it wasn’t. He just knew him, like he knew himself. Like Porkchop now knew him. He thought he would feel exposed. Vulnerable. He wasn’t, it felt like coming home.

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

Plus, he could feel Porkchop. Feel their distance, like he knew how far his hand was from his face. Sense the way he lounged on the stone, the weight of his body. A strange proprioception that extended through the bridge of their souls, bringing awareness with it.

“This is too fucking weird,” Kaius said with a shake of his head. “I’m checking my notifications.”

Porkchop grunted in agreement, too frazzled to go through the effort of putting his thoughts into words.

Still unused to feeling his friend so clearly, Kaius tuned it out and pulled his notifications.

**Ding! Soulforged Covenant has reached level 2!**

…

**Ding! Soulforged Covenant has reached level 20!**

Kaius looked on at the notification in shock, almost finding it impossible to believe that it had already capped.

“I already told you,” Porkchop said, answering his unasked question. “It levels based on our connection, and later -once we have our class and bloodline- based on simple cooperation. We’ve effectively been levelling it since we met.”

Kaius shook his head, still surprised at the strength of their connection. He decided to try something.

“Like this?” He asked, pushing the words through his mind towards the omnipresent barrier that he could feel separating them.