Silence fell in the clearing.
The dark skinned boy sat there dumbfounded, his eyes unmoving from the body of the boy who had saved his life, shocked to find that he had regained his earlier body mass and was once again steadily breathing.
Suddenly, his head began to ache slightly as unfamiliar but vivid Images and scenes played out in his mind.
When it eventually passed he was left thoroughly confused. It took him a while to process the intake of information but he eventually came to the conclusion that it must've been the memories of the boy in front of him.
He recalled the words of the of his early father: "Some things in this world either don't have an explanation or have an explanation long forgotten, it is best too not think to much of them. Otherwise you will find yourself in an unending cycle of confusion and longing" he vividly remembered the look of regret on his fathers face as he said this.
Thinking of his father, a mournful look appeared on his face.
"Father, Mother, what do I do?"
'if they were here they would've been doing something about this situation by now' a single tear rolled down his cheek that he quickly wiped away as he anxiously watched the boy while reminiscing about his long dead parents.
For a long time nothing happened. The boy thought it was peculiar how no beasts had approached them seeing as blood was splattered all over, not to mention the many corpses loitering the place, but upon further inspection he noticed a faint barrier covering the width of the area where the battle between goblins (and himself) and the Armasork took place.
'That must be a barrier right? But who put it up?' He figured it must've been the work of that weird entity that had entered the boy at his hands.
Then he heard the same voice from before say in a curious and mournful tone : "his name is also King? What an uncanny coincidence..." before the silence resumed,
After a long time, King finally began to stir.
Immediately upon fluttering his eyes open tears welled up.
He should've been happy to still be alive but only one thought persisted.
'Why can't I just die?'
Was the world so cruel as to not allow him the luxury of dying? Even in a place where death was common place, he alone failed at it.
As plans to die once again began forming in his mind, a unfamiliar voice interrupted him.
"H-hello?"
This made him jump as he quickly got to his feet and scrambled away from its source before realising it was the dark skinned boy from before.
"S-so u can speak?" He asked warily
"Well obviously"
"...."
"...."
An awkward silence fell upon them.
King was happy to see that he had at least somehow managed to save the Boys life even if he hadn't died like he had wanted.
It was then that he realised - he should be dead, right?
He quickly started checking his body all over. Where the spikes of the armadillo monster had penetrated his body was nothing but skin, as if he had never been injured to begin with.
Even his right ear had completely regrown.
"wh- what?" He turned to face the dark skinned boy inquisitively "what did you do to me?"
The boy opened his mouth to say something but before he Could utter a single word-
"He did nothing, it was I" said a low and regal voice seemingly from nowhere in particular.
Both King and the dark skinned boy widened their eyes in surprise but for different reasons. King because he could not pinpoint where the voice came from, as well as the gold light that began to shine around them.
As for the dark skinned boy, he had already heard the voice once before, Instead he was shocked to see that in tandem with the voice, the eyes of the other boy before him began to glow a dazzling gold.
His eyes remained fixed on King and after getting over the initial shock hearing the voice invoked, King noticed the dark skinned boy's gaze and began to feel uneasy.
"wh-what?" He stuttered
The dark skinned boy simply continued to stare shamelessly for a while longer, waiting for the boy's eyes to light up again, before calming down and answering the question when they didn't.
"Your eyes... They were glowing... Gold"
"huh?"
His eyes where glowing? Had it not been for the dark skinned boy's calm demeanor, king would've thought he was playing some sort of prank on him. But what he said simply made no sense, he was almost certain he surely would've felt something if his own eyes had started glowing, but then again he had noticed a gold light when the voice had spoken.
'Oh yh the voice!'
Deciding to momentarily put the matter of glowing eyes aside for now, King warily eyed their surroundings.
"wh-who's th-there?!" He questioned out loud.
"I'm not out there, you're wasting your time. Rather you should focus on getting your body into shape, your body is far too weak, I saved you but that will mean nothing if you die from starvation."
'!?!?!'
King felt too confused.
The dark skinned boy however, remained calm.
"you should listen to this voice, if we're going to survive we have to get our bodies stronger. Otherwise we'll become prey pretty fast"
"Quite a smart one aren't you? But what you say is right, the two of you are lucky to have been lingering on the very out skirts of this jungle where the weakest of creatures reside. Even then you both very nearly died. Any further in and you would be dead in seconds. Even now, more ferocious creatures approach and with this fragile body I can barely manifest 2% of my power, the barrier will not last if they begin to attack. Surely you understand?"
The dark skinned boy nodded in understanding with a solemn look on his face.
King however felt infuriated and confused as he listened to them speak. What happened after he had passed out? Why and how was he still alive? It seemed as if he was the only one in the dark about the current situation and he didn't like it.
Furthermore, why were both this voice and the dark skinned boy speaking about survival and getting stronger? When did he once say he wanted to survive? At this point he couldn't care less if another creature ate him, he was fed up of living and failing to die. And- wait did he hear the dark skinned boy say survive for 6years? Was that number coincidental or...
"Do not get us wrong, that number was not coincidental, After five years you will be able to leave this god-forsaken place right? As for your other questions if you listen and give me time I will explain"
Now King felt spooked, was this voice reading his mind somehow? But he kept silent and let it speak.
"somehow when you tried to save this child's life you unintentionally invoked a spell that saved him from death but by replacing his lost life with an equal amount of life from your own, however since you where already approaching death yourself it meant that you were sacrificing the remainder of your life for him. Just as you where about to die, I saved you by entering your body and replacing your lost life with my own, hence why your alive so-"
"so leave my body" interrupted King
"Pardon?"
"leave my body, your making up the remnant of my life right? Your presence is the reason why I'm still alive so if you leave I will die right? So please leave" King's voice had never been more determined and stable in the entirety of his two lives.
"I understand your sentiments but I'm afraid that it is no longer possible to do that. Our lives are bound together, its not possible for me to leave your body. It is permanent, If you die so will I."
"Dammit!!!" Screamed King with palpable exasperation and anger in his voice.
"DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!!!" In this moment he resembled a child having a tantrum, which in reality he was seeing as he was the physical age of five.
The dark skinned boy who had been listening all along frowned in visible confusion but felt that after all he had gone through, King's reaction was appropriate and so he remained silent and watched on.
The voice waited for King to calm down before continuing.
" I now understand your yearning for death and I ask that you forgive me, had I known I would've allowed you to die the noble death you deserved but in the moment, I thought it was not intended or wanted so I thought I was doing the right thing saving your life. How was I to know you wanted to die?"
The voice apologised, giving his excuse and despite how much King wanted to despise it for saving his life, he just couldn't. After all it was just trying to be a Good person and save another's life, how could he expect it to know about his situation. However one thing was still bothering him, the way the voice spoke... It was as if it now knew what he had gone through, and the dark skinned boy as well...
"Ah, well, since we share a life force, we are now bound. Whether or not you like it, I now reside within your body and conscience. I have access to your memories so I know everything. Truly horrible what you had to endure but rest assured with my help, nothing like that can happen to you again. As for the boy... It seems the both of you are also now connected but in a different way. My hunch is that this is the work of that spell, somehow your blood- our blood- now also runs partially through his veins. That is the only explanation I can come up with, After all, he can hear my voice, something only you should be able to do."
"when you where out cold, I experienced a vision of all your memories. So I also know everything, sorry" said the dark skinned boy.
King felt overwhelmed, all this seemed like a fantasy, too surreal for him to comprehend. He collapse on his bum and closed his eyes in an attempt to let everything sink in.
After a while when he felt he had given himself enough time to take everything in, he opened his eyes and spoke to the voice.
"what did you mean... When you said that with your help nothing like this will happen?"
"So you're finally interested are you? Well u should be, with my presence now within you, your mana has begun to properly circulate. Despite having underwent a naming, your mana remained mostly inactive, probably because you did not receive your name from your parents but because of me it no longer matters"
King was still confused, the voice mentioning his naming reminded him of Viera but before he could start crying at her memory he forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand, he felt he was onto something.
"...what does that mean? Does that mean his 'mana' started circulating as well?" He said, nodding in the dark skinned boy's direction.
"yes it does and it means that you are now able to use your innate abilities as well as your natural magic.