The next moment I sense that familiar spark once more, but something seems different about the way it came into being this time. Before I can think to question what is happening, I feel the deer mix his power with my Uua once again. He directs the mixture to the spark, and the next moment the mixture is lit by the spark, immediately moving to fill me and then continuing on until it leaves my body. By even though it is outside me, I can still feel it, as well as all the Eani within a certain area. At that moment, how I felt can only be described with one word. Powerful. Some part of me knows that within the area I feel the Eani, my will is the law.

I try to clench my fist, but nothing happens. I still can’t feel my arms. I immediately turn to inspect them. What I see confirms my suspicions, my arms hadn’t been joined together. At least, not completely.

“I can heal you completely,” the deer speaks to me, “but we need to merge minds and complete this bond. Otherwise, if I try to use what I know on my own, things could go wrong. Are you willing?”

My reply is an obvious one, “I am.”

It still attempts to warn me. “Many humans find complete bonding unpleasant. During the process, everything you are will be exposed to me, and vice versa, plus after the process, we will become one. Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I am.”

It doesn’t say anything else. I feel its mind reach out to mine, attempting to make a connection. I accept it. The next moment everything I am is spilled open, like water pouring out of broken glass. Every moment in my life, every secret, all that I have found embarrassing, all who I have loved, everything that I have shared with others, and I ever considered private is made open. Instantly, I am filled with revulsion. This is wrong. The fact that I am opening myself so deeply to someone else, someone who is almost a stranger, deeply unsettles some primal part of me. Almost instinctively, that part reaches out to break the bonds between our minds. Then I realize something, just as my mind is being laid bare, so too is the deer’s. I stop myself, suppressing that part of me that so desires to end this experience.

With our minds wide open, an unseen force suddenly grabs what is left and then violently mixes them together. I immediately lose my sense of self in the jumble of memories and experiences. Memory after memory flashes through my head; in some of them I am a boy, living a normal life, and in others, I am an immortal spirit that has lived for time unknown, and who will live much longer.

Then a particular memory passes through, and something in them makes me react instinctively, following whatever I see in the memory. Everything going on in my head stops and then rapidly things begins moving around until a semblance of order is formed, one where there are two, almost separate, sets of memories. It is then I finally recognize myself and what is going on.

The deer had been right, that was an unpleasant experience. If I had been a very secretive person, someone who couldn’t bear to have his privacy violated so badly, then I doubt I would have been able to complete the bonding. Which perhaps would have been better than having to go through the experience of having no sense of self and being both the deer and Ian at the same time. If it hadn’t been for that memory, I don’t doubt I would still be in that state.

I... no… We look at our arms. Suddenly becoming aware of another presence so deeply integrated into me I had missed it, I pause. Then We continue. Pulling on our past knowledge of noers, We rouse our Uua, while at the same time reaching out to turn some of the Eani around us into Uua to supplement the limited supply in us. We sigh with relief as our arms slowly merge back with our shoulders. If that had been our head or any other important part of our body that had been cut off, all the magic in the world would not have been able to save us.

Slowly moving our arms to check if all was alright, We nod to ourselves. Now that this is all over, it is time for battle. We look up to see Daniel staring at us in shock.

“When did you manage to open the third eye?” he asks us.

We smile. “During our fight.”

“But-”

We ignore him and turn to the battle. Drew, Emma, and David form a triangle around the Majin who is currently trapped in a cage made of chains on the inside and some kind of magical barrier on the outside. The Majin seems unbothered as he scans the inside of the barrier, as though looking for something. David and Emma have their third eyes open - judging from the glow coming from their eyes - and are feeding magic to the barrier surrounding the Majin, but their focus is on Drew and not the Majin.

We turn to look at Drew. He looks more serious than We have ever seen him before. In his hand, he is holding a massive steel glaive covered densely with noers that are slightly glowing.

“Please guys,” Drew pleads, “who knows when next I’ll get a chance like this. And if things go wrong, I can fall back to that.”

“But Ian’s here,” David interjects.

“You can get him out of here if it comes to it. Please.”

David turns to look at Emma, who, after a moment of deliberation, nods. At that moment, the Majin seems to find what he is searching for and strikes, immediately shattering the cage around him. David and Emma quickly move backward, leaving the Majin alone with Drew. We start to move forward to help Drew when David - who stopped next to us - blocks us. “He needs to fight it alone,” he looks into our eyes and immediately becomes confused. “When did you…”

We ignore him, only paying attention to Drew who has dashed at the Majin. He swings his glaive, sending arc after arc of energy to the Majin, then he disappears. When he reappears, he is behind the Majin and the blade of his glaive is glowing. Making sure to keep his distance from the Majin, he slashes with his weapon.

A blue glow covers the Majin as it focuses Uua on itself before turning to face Drew. The arcs of energy Drew had sent to it slam into its back, dealing it no damage as it grabs the blade of Drew’s glaive before tugging it toward itself, and along with it, Drew.

The blade shines with a bright light, obscuring both of them for a brief moment. A loud boom sounds and then the light clears, revealing Drew and the glaive, which is now embedded in the ground. We quickly spot the Majin behind Drew, looking as though it were getting ready to shout and shout it does. The same paralyzing shout it had used twice on us. Drew freezes and our heartbeat spikes as the Majin launches the same arc that had cut off our arms at Drew.

Hilla’s Barrier appears in front of Drew stopping the arc and giving Drew the time he needs to counter what the Majin had done. Pulling his glaive out of the gouge in the ground, Drew resumes his offensive, wielding the glaive as though it weighed nothing. The two fight with ferocity We have only seen once before when We had watched PM fight against Jade, but with one massive difference, this fight now is one to the death.