Chapter 17

I pulled my hand back around the same time as Devotion’s eyes shot open. She gasped out a scream and for some reason tears filled my eyes. Unbidden and unexpected they began to fall as she drew in deep lungfuls of air.

As she brought her breathing under control I wrapped her up in a hug and said in a completely manly, non-sobbing way. “Thank fuck that worked.”

“What worked, Clive?” Her voice was weak and raspy. “Where am I? What’s going on.”

“Don’t panic. You died, but it’s going to be okay.”

“Died… I… I think I remember.”

“I’m sure it’ll all come back, but first, if you want, you should accept my Soul Mate bond.”

“Bond?”

“Yeah, I had to put a Servant Bond on you to get you back.”

“You commanded me back from the dead?” Her voice was close to cracking, unsure whether to be offended or amazed.

“It was a little more complicated than that, but for now, that’s essentially what happened. So, if you want, you should accept my Soul Mate Bond.”

Her eyes suddenly regained some of their sparkle. “If I want! If I want! Thank you, Clive. That is very thoughtful of you, and yes, I do want.”

She finally accepted my Soul Mate Bond but not before she noticed the prone form of Life lying next to her.

Tears now filled her eyes. “You can bring her back too?”

"I think so. You had to be first."

She gave a ragged smile. “How did I come to gain such a friend as you.”

“Just lucky I guess,” I replied with a ragged smile of my own before I set to work on Life.

Devotion fell silent so I could concentrate, but it really wasn’t too difficult the second time and I brought her back in less than a minute.

The reunion was not so heart felt this time as Life freaked out at the presence of a Servant Bond on waking.

I doubted I could have calmed her myself without leaning on the bond, but Devotion was there in an instant. “Life! Stay calm and focus on your breathing for a moment.”

It seemed to be working, so I took the opportunity to offered her the Soul Mate bond conversion. Her eyes locked on me immediately. All of Devotion’s hard work seemingly undone in seconds. “You think an enforced Soul Mate Bond makes this control any easier to bear?”

I attempted to answer, but Devotion beat me to it. “Life. Be reasonable. You can break a Soul Mate bond yourself. At least listen to what Clive has to say.”

Life continued to glare at me. “This all started because of the bond with you. All of my people lost forever because of that fateful decision. Free me of any bond and I may listen.”

“I don’t know if I can. Your grip on life is shaky at best. If you decided to take the Soul Mate bond, I could explain everything, you could leave my void, replenish your core from the ambient Neuma and break it yourself.”

“What nonsense is this? My grip on Life? You do remember who I am, yes?”

I smiled sadly at her. “You died, Life. I brought you back with the Servant Bond and the anchor I had to you. If I remove the bond while you’re still so weak, you might die again.”

“Remove it and we shall see.”

I was suddenly irritated by her words after everything I’d done to try and help her and her people. “Okay. I will. But I’ve bent over backwards for you and you’re being a total dick about this, so here’s the deal. You can take the Soulmate Bond which you can cut at any time you want. Or I can cut the bond now myself, with no changes, and we see what happens.”

She tried to speak, but I wasn’t finished. “But, if you die, I won’t bring you back again.”

“Clive!” Devotion said, clearly upset.

“I’m not a fucking charity, Devotion. It took a lot out of me to bring you both back and I need all the power I can get my hands on to build others up and fight Hakan. I’ve protected her people as best as I could with very little help, I offered her an amazing deal, now it’s her choice. Why would I half kill myself to bring someone back who thinks Hakan reappearing and catching us all by surprise is somehow my fault?”

“I will accept the Soul Mat…”

I heard Life’s small voice, but I had more to say to Devotion for both of their benefit. “If she had so little faith in me, she should have remained Neutral! Then Hakan would have just used a Servant Bond on her like he did with War and Light.”

As both of them gasped at my words, I pushed on. “Better still! He might just have killed her like he did with Death!”

Only horror filled their faces now as the truth of our situation unfolded.

“Such wonderful options awaited you as a Neutral, Life. Or, you could have put faith in a friend. Someone who would collect her body and kept it safe. Someone who scoured Onnekus to gather her followers and take them to safety. Someone who spent all of their remaining power to revive her and who is now offering a Soul Mate bond instead of abusing a Servant Bond.”

Life looked ill as my frustrated rant came to an end and spoke quietly. “I was trying to say that I’d accept the Soul Mate bond. But thank you for the breakdown of my possible options.”

I glowered at her for a moment, but pushed the offer of the Soul Mate bond again. This time she accepted it without reservation. Then met my eyes. “I’m sorry for doubting you Clive. This whole ordeal is terrifying.”

From the vibes I was getting along the bond she was completely sincere. I found myself shrugging. “Shit happens. It’s forgotten. Now would you like a full break down of what’s going on?”

“Should we not get to our followers first? They will be worried and I am blocked from them in here.”

I sighed. “You need to hear what’s going on first. A lot has changed.”

“How long have we been dead?” Devotion asked.

“Around a week I’d say. It’s hard to tell because I’m jumping all over the place and I haven’t slept yet.”

“I understand. I imagine you’ve been busy.”

“You can say that again.” I gestured to the couches. “Take a seat and let’s get started.

"To start with, you have to understand, you did actually die. Your bonds to your followers have been broken. I’ve managed to rescue everyone on Onnekus and we’re working on Falritas right now. I still need to get to Talitus and Galles to protect your people there, but... it's a lot of people and a lot of ground to cover and I still need to train myself.”

“Then we should re-bond them quickly and get them to safety.”

“Maybe, but there’s more. Both Destruction and Peace survived Hakan's attack, though it was very close and they both very nearly died. You guys have no defense against him because you’re limited by your bonds.”

I could feel Life bristle. Devotion sat calmly and listened.

“Destruction gave up all of her bonds a day or two after the return. Peace gave up all of her followers today. If they can manipulate Neuma or prevent their powers from being manipulated, then they have a chance to survive and they both took that option. You guys don’t have to decide now, but you need to know that.

“I’ve removed the barrier to the lower planes too, so we can rest easy that the universe isn't going to explode in 150 years. I've also removed the corruption from the Nexus. Your cores are both fully open. You should have another stat in your information. For me it’s Singularity, for Mal it was Harmony, for Destruction, Assimilation. Sania was Accretion. Don’t know why they’re all different, but…”

“Yes! It’s there. Harmony,” Destruction said.

Life nodded. “I have Harmony too.”

"So without our followers, you really believe we can defend ourselves against Hakan?" Devotion asked.

Injecting as much confidence as I could into my words I answered. "I do. Our plan is to practice together and form a team capable of taking Hakan out, and with recent developments I’m more confident than ever. I don't expect you to be able to beat Hakan one-on-one, but if we can cover each other's blind spots then we have a great chance.”

“What do you mean?" Life asked? “What blind-spots.”

“Destruction and her followers excel at dealing out punishment. Their natural attitude to attack is to throw out huge amount of destructive power in as short a time as possible. Natom is also extremely proficient in this area, probably after years of fighting demons. I have put them together as one group to push each other to be better and to work out new and inventive ways to blow shit up.

“Mal and your Chosen, Devotion, have neither the mentality nor aptitude for that kind of presence. Mal does, however, excel with shields."

Devotion smiled as understanding dawned on her.

"Karius, Harle and Gabrielle also have a similar access to Neuma and a preference to defend rather than attack. So I’ve set them on task of providing our defensive capability, both in providing shields and dismissing enemy shields."

"Perfect," Devotion said. "I see where you are going with this and if I do not re-take my followers and develop the ability to manipulate Neuma, I could join them too."

"Exactly right," I said, firing finger guns at Devotion who looked perplexed by the  gesture.

I moved on swiftly. “The Dokalfar, Danivra, Andalar, and Aslin, are attack based but not like Hakan and Destruction.”

“Stealth Attacks!” Life blurted out unexpectedly.

“Got it on one.” I said offering a smile.

“It’s very clever what you’re doing,” she replied. “By creating strong teams to cover the weaknesses of the others then as long as we can prevent counter manipulation of our Neuma or at least match it in some form we may well be able to provide a challenge to Hakan.”

“What about Peace?" Devotion asked.

"That’s one’s a little odd, but very, very necessary. Just before I came here, Hakan attacked and placed his own Servant Bond on Peace. She fought against it, so he attacked her mind with Neuma on a level surpassing even that of a servant bond.”

“An attack on her mind? What do you mean?” Life asked aghast.

“Mind control. Possible without needing a servant bond. HE’s tried on me a couple of times now, but… I knew about it already. So did Peace. If not for the Servant Bond she might have been able to fight him off but with the dual attack she was defenseless."

“You knew about it?” Devotion said, clearly angry.

“I did yes. Remember when I asked you all for any ideas on how to get bonus XP to level?”

Devotion nodded.

“Well, Peace did know something. Mind control attacks. She swore me to secrecy because of how horrid a skill it was. She’d never used it and swore to me she never would. I did the same to her for if anyone knew about it, they would judge us both.”

“That is very true,” Life agreed, her face stern, already looking at me differently.

“I will show you how to do it and how to defend against it once you become accustomed to seeing Neuma. As Soul Mates you have nothing to worry about anyway. The main reason I’m telling you this is because Peace, Dawnsinger and Inez will be working on offering us defensive options from mind attacks.”

“It is unpleasant but I am glad that someone knew and we are able to defend against it.” Devotion said.

“I agree, but there is a problem. “I am not proficient in any martial endeavors. Neither Defensive nor Offensive. All I really have to offer is healing. I do not know what help this will be for gods and Chosen who have rapid regenerative abilities.”

“No, that’s great, Life. There’s going to be lots of need for healing in the near future. If you can keep people in the fight a little longer, or get someone out of it safely…”

“Then I will gather my Chosen, and together we will find a way to transcend our current limitations and offer the kind of healing we need to stop Hakan.”

"What of Sania?” Devotion asked. “I assume she will have a place in this?”

“Her, Grigor, and Wind of the Wild are natural hunters. Their job is to search out any threats.”

“And you?” Life asked.

“I’m a Jack of all trades. I’ll fill in the gaps and help where needed.”