Eli was suddenly in a different place, his perception should have alerted him to movement, but there hadn’t been any. He felt his surroundings carefully and was shocked at what magic sense was telling him, everything around him was chaos magic. This made it all feel unreal and impermanent, like any of it could change at any time and the distance between him and the walls was an irrelevant concept. He reached for his own chaos magic and combined with his will he reached out to see if what he was feeling was real, to check if he really was where his eyes and magic sense were telling him he was. At first, he was taking control of the magic and expanding his influence over his immediate area, but then it snapped back and all returned to his body.

  “Hhhh-haven’t you been taught it is rude to take things from someone's home, especially from a friend.” A voice said seemingly coming from everywhere. A heavy breath noise led up to the words like speaking was difficult and the voice had to force words out.

  Eli didn’t panic, he had done something similar with his will before. “Friends are we? Then I would apologize, but I do not know your name.” Eli responded.

  “Hhhh-happy to meet you, I am Goshen and you are Eli, or should I call you Ash?” the voice asked.

  “It would be easier for me to recount this meeting to others if I could see you.” Eli responded

  “Hhhh-ha ha, I bet it would, but I would advise against that. Hhhh-my family and I have something of a reputation in the integrated universe.” the voice said.

  “Ok then, would you mind answering some questions?” Eli asked, still trying to sound arrogant and confident.

  “Hhhh-how do I know answering that wouldn’t be considered agreeing?” the voice asked. Eli could hear a smirk in its voice and he had to admit to himself that he was starting to like this voice.

  Eli decided to just ask his biggest questions one after the other, “How long until we join the integrated universe? How do they treat the heartless like me? Are you who I am here to bond with?

  “Hhhh-have time for what you want… depends… if you survive.”

  “Fair enough,” Eli shrugged. “Can we hurry this along, I’m tired and need to get on with things.”

  “Hhhhmmmmm, I supposed it can be rushed but I have a few things first.”

  “It doesn’t work that way my friend, you don’t answer, I don’t answer.” Eli said as he crossed his arms and stood with a posture that said ‘I can wait’.

  There was silence for a few moments before the voice responded, “Hhhh-have it your way then!” it yelled, the raised voice carried more will in it than previously and eli could feel it pressing in on him, but not enough to actually threaten his will. The room Eli was in was tall and long with columns on the sides, something like a great hall or throne room he had seen in movies. Then there was a creature in front of him about ten feet away like it had always been there, it was nine feet tall and had four arms that almost reached the ground. Its skin was a deep rich purple color and its face was a swirling vortex of black, like it contained a black hole.

  “You must be Goshen, it’s nice to meet you finally. I’ve heard some pretty cryptic things about you.” Eli said, being as cheeky about it as possible.

  “Hhhh-here is how this is supposed to work. We clash will’s, I win and add your soul to my collection.” Goshen said.

  During this conversation Eli had been feeling out this place, if it could be called a place. This realm was all in a state of flux, space and time were all irrelevant and only solidified where he was now because of Goshen’s will acting on it. Not to be outdone, Eli flexed his will and the distance between them shortened to two feet and they were now the same height.

  “Supposed to?” Eli asked with a smirk.

  “Hhhh-haphazard trick for a human,” Goshen said. Then the room they were in vanished and Eli was in a void with nothing but Goshen's head, but it was fifty feet tall and his swirling face appeared to be slowly devouring him. “Hhhh-however, my family's control over this realm has no equal.”

  “Alright, Alright,” Eli said, keeping every outward notion that he was calm while deep in his soul there was panic starting to build. “So, then seeing as I am still alive, I take it you want to make a deal?”

  “Hhhh-how astute,” he said, then the surroundings went back to the room with the columns and their regular sizes. “Hhhh-This will be beneficial for you as it is for me, my friend.”

  “You clearly have power, and the way you speak of family, you have influence, it doesn’t seem like you need me for anything… wait… That's it, your family.” Eli said, piecing it together. Ever since his transcendence, Eli’s mind seemed to put things together quicker than he did before. Taking small clues and his instincts, he could make pretty good guesses as to what is happening. He wasn’t very good at it yet and he didn’t know where it came from. However, from the way Goshen was dancing around what he wanted, playing word games and performing tricks of will, despite having all the power in this place, probably meant he wasn’t happy about needing help.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Hhhh-how about we stay on topic, we can make a deal.” Goshen paused and when Eli didn’t respond he kept going. “Hhhh-having a bond with a high-class being like those of my family is normally not possible, but I know how to make it work.”

  “I get a feeling for what we both can get, our bond would allow me access to more chaos magic through that node with less unpredictability. You would get a safer place to hide and a window into the physical world. What I want to know is why I shouldn’t accept this, what mess are you going to drag me into?” Eli asked. The more the conversation went on the more Eli was sure that Goshen was younger than it seemed, maybe not young in human terms, but definitely not fully matured.

  “Hhhh-having you know more would only endanger you further and I will also help you with your death node as well.”

  “My unique skill? If I feel anything off about you influencing anything there, I’ll force you out or die trying.” Eli shocked himself as his knee-jerk reaction was far more overprotective than he thought it would be.

  “Hhhh-hopefully we can come to an agreement, I won’t influence you in any way as long as you listen when something involves my family.”

  Eli tapped his chin in thought for a few moments, he knew he was going to say yes, but he wanted Goshen to know he was taking this seriously, and that he felt like he had options. “You have a deal, on one condition, I need help getting my friends I’m with in the dungeon bonds as well.”

  “Hhhh-happily, there is no need, as their connection to a transcendent is strong enough to fulfill that role. Hhhh-having you surpass level 100 will allow them to as well.” Goshen explained, his voice was steadily getting softer and more amenable after a deal was agreed to.

  “Well that works out nicely. Now, can we hurry this up, I’m tired and I have to go make a group of strangers wet themselves so I can go home.” Eli said, finally letting his weariness show on his face.

  “Hhhh-has anyone ever told you that you are odd?”

  “So many times Goshen, so very many times.”

  Goshen was then in front of Eli with his hands, all four of them, on Eli’s head. Eli couldn’t help but tense as the sensation was absolutely bizarre, like his skin both felt and didn’t feel his hands on him. Eli had closed himself off inside his soul entirely, leaving two funnels open to his chaos and death nodes. Goshen's presence entered and followed the funnels without pushing against them at all. He entered the nodes and seemed to place a rune next to the skill rune that was already there which created a link to him. Then, while still inside the funnel area he showed Eli a rune that he could place inside his mind. Eli’s instincts told him it was some kind of communication rune, it would share his senses with Goshen and allow them to telepathically speak to each other.

  Eli was hesitant, but he could feel that the rune didn’t possess anything that was harmful. Runes were basically hyper-stylized symbols that meant words or names, and due to his partially transcendent nature, he understood them somewhat. This rune was Goshen's name in the runic language with a few artist flair swirls that vaguely resembled an eye and sound waves. Eli accepted it and placed it in his mind, already having ideas on how he could do something similar with Bethany and Alora. Goshen’s presence withdrew and Eli removed his funnels made from his will and his soul.

  “I don’t feel any different,” Eli said.

  “That is because,” Goshen said but didn’t have the breathy sentence starter or the weird starting sentences with the ‘H’ sounds. He sounded like a ten year old doing his best impression of an 18th century British royal, including all the arrogance and pomp. “You have to activate them, or rather, give them permission to work.”

  “Woah, what's with the voice change?” Eli asked.

  “This is my voice over telepathy, the voice you heard earlier was will-speech. It's the only way to communicate in my realm without telepathy.”

  Eli reached into his death node and touched the rune that Goshen had placed there with his mind, it seemed that the rune was inert. Then he put just the tiniest scrap of magic into it and it roared to life like an engine, it was feeding magic into his node. Then when his node filled, it was feeding magic into his body, this magic didn’t have a flavor as he would call it. It was difficult to express in words but if he was burning wood to make a fire for a spell before, now there was charcoal mixed in with the wood. Charcoal is wood but they burn very differently, it was the same with this new magic filling his body and soul. Then Eli activated the rune in his chaos node as well and things got a little intense.

  The new magic flowing into Eli began mixing into his soul, which felt like he was having a panic attack while getting a shot of adrenaline to the heart after snorting a comically large pile of drugs like in Scarface. Even while these feelings were rushing through him, he could feel the new magic and knew why all this was necessary right away. Magic in the physical realm, the realm he lived in, was limited by the fact that it was from the physical realm, subject to the limitations that it requires. The magic he was getting was from a magic realm, the chaos realm, and it was far more pliable and subject to intent and will. This has to be what it meant by surpassing human limitations, having access to magic not limited by a stable physical reality, Eli thought.

  Opening his eyes after focusing inward to activate the runes, he was back in the dungeon, and he felt amazing, full of energy and fully recovered. His stomach was still sore, the scar was still there along with the black scars on his face, but he was otherwise in peak condition. The new magic was slowly coating his soul and body and he should reach his new peak strength in a few hours. Luckily he had a few hours because he could feel the difference in power that comes with the bond and if he would have run into someone outside with a bond, it would have been a risky fight. He looked at Alora and Bethany, who didn’t seem to notice any magic changes yet.

  “Well?” Eli said, “Anything different?”

  They both looked him up and down then Bethany said, “No, you look the same, did you already do it?”

  “I did, now I need to connect you to me in that way. I connected to a chaos creature, he says his family is a big deal but I think he was just trying to impress me.” Eli explained.