The Binding

 Louise let out a fierce battle cry as she ran toward the woman, who waited patiently, unmoving, which probably meant that she didn’t take her as a threat.

Louise’s fist, which was meant for the woman’s face, instead connected with a purple shield that had been conjured up by her. Unlike with my shield, hers simply threw Louise back without a scratch, which showed that her magic was clearly superior to mine. Louise didn’t give up though, and immediately started pressuring her again. She tried to run around the woman but the shield simply followed her as she ran in circles, so she gave up and started striking from the front.

Meanwhile, I took the time to make some adjustments. I opened up a small portal and reached into the pocket dimension that I called my inventory.

Don’t touch my belongings, you fraud! You don’t know how to use them!

Shut up! Stop talking!

I ignored the voice and pulled out a bow from the portal which then closed. I didn’t need any arrows, as I created one made out of ice.

Louise was still not having any luck with the shield, she kept banging on it with her fists that had turned bloody from how hard she was hitting, while the woman did nothing but chuckle silently and mock her.

I shot two arrows as high as I could and then manipulated air to slightly change their trajectory, striking them downwards into the woman from an angle that the shield didn’t cover.

However, she didn’t fail to notice this, and thus countered by creating some arrows of her own. Unlike me, she didn’t need a bow as she had full mastery of the air around her, thus making her capable of launching these arrows on their own, while I couldn’t.

The two sets of arrows collided into each other, canceling out the ice effects.

“Who are you, really?” I asked while preparing to shoot another pair.

“It doesn’t matter, but if you really want to know my name, it’s Selphine.” She said casually while deflecting the second pair of arrows while still holding off Louise at the same time.

I gave up on the bow, tossed it aside, and decided to run to the back of her, since Louise was still in front, but all she did was conjure up a second shield.

“You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, right?” She laughed, clearly toying with the two of us. “Now then, I guess it’s time to begin my counter attack, hmm?”

She clasped her hands together and started chanting silently in the same weird language as the first time. Before I knew it, five of the six corpses that had surrounded us were up on their feet, eyes glowing purple like Christopher’s.

“Damn it!” Two cultists closed in on either side of me, forcing me up the stairs a bit. I could have theoretically escaped, since my route was no longer blocked, but I couldn’t just abandon Louise and Emmett.

“You little-” I tried to craft a fireball in my hand, but nothing happened. “What the?”

I hadn’t realized it earlier since I was high on adrenaline and fighting for my life, but my energy reserves had been completely drained.

Of course, I’d been firing spells nonstop for the past couple of minutes, what else was gonna happen?

You idiot, you have no idea how to preserve your energy, and it may have very well cost you your life! If you die here, I’ll kill you myself!

Shut up! Of course I know how to, I have your-I have MY memories.

The cultists, realizing I was completely out, started chasing me, and I could do nothing but run up till I was near the exit.

They aren’t your memories, and they never will be! You may have access to them, but you didn’t live through them! You don’t have the experience necessary to handle a high level encounter that requires you to rely on instinct rather than memory!

I told you to shut up!

I tried to use magic again, but yet again it completely failed, so I kept running up until I reached the door I’d gone in through.

It’s no use, you’re totally ill-equipped for this fight! You’re gonna get yourself killed!

I decided not to respond to the voice anymore, as it was distracting me. As I opened the door and exited, a downpour of rain fell down on me, completely soaking me in mere seconds.

Of course, due to everything that had been going on underground, I’d failed to notice how bad the weather had gotten. I turned around to look back inside, wondering if they’d chase me out, and sure enough, they did.

Damn it!

I started running again, I tried to run out of the alley but fell down to the floor. I looked at my leg and saw it completely covered in blood. It was only after a few seconds that I noticed a small steel dagger stuck in my calf.

You have an option to get out of this mess, if you want.

…

I know you can hear me, stop ignoring me.

Unable to get up, I started crawling through the alley, but it was no use, as both of my shoulders were grabbed and I was pulled up by the cultists.

You have little to no time left, you must hear me out!

One of the undead cultists dragged me by my hair back inside and tossed me down the stairway.

Let me take over for a while, I can get you and the others out of here.

Hell no!

So, finally decided to listen, huh?

I didn’t know how my stairs there were, but it had felt like thousands, each one feeling like a punch to my face.

I’m not handing myself over to you! I’m me! I’m Arthur Barnaby! You’re the fake!

Shut up and listen! I’m not going to take over permanently, just temporarily, you can ensure this by signing a binding contract.

Why would I do that, you’d just break it!

Look into your memories, and you'll realize what a binding contract is, you dumbass! If I break it, I’ll get erased!

I finally reached the bottom of the stairs, and felt a hand on my hair again. I was thrown and collided into the wall, then I fell down and my face made contact with the floor.

But aren’t you technically me?

No, binding contracts don’t consider physical bodies, only the consciousness or the soul. In this scenario, we’re two different people, so it should work fine.

Why are you telling me this?

Because if you die, I die, Idiot! We’re both in the same body!

I brought my face up and saw Selphine smiling smugly with Christopher and the rest of the undead cultists behind her. I looked beside me to see Louise and Emmett laying there on either side.

“Unnghh…sorry, buddy…”Emmett groaned.“We definitely bit off more than we can chew…”

Hold on, I’ve got basically zero energy left, so you wouldn’t be able to do anything either, no?

No, that would be the case for physical exertion, but magical energy uses the same principle as binding contracts. Or rather, it’s the binding contracts that use the same principle as magical energy: In other words, it’s generated through the consciousness of a living creature. You’ve already got the memory of me explaining all this to everyone else, why do I have to say this twice?

…Alright, I’ll do it.

Okay, then focus.

I felt something tingling in the back of my head while I stared up at Selphine.

“We don’t need these two, you can get rid of them.”She said while pointing to Emmett and Louise beside me.

“Wait, hold on a second!” I yelled as loud as I could, which wasn’t that loud, since I was beaten up and bruised at that point.

“...What is it?” Selphine said.

I present to you this binding contract:

I shall take over your body until the current threat no longer exists, which can be fulfilled through three conditions:

-Defeat the threat

-Run away from the threat

-Come to an understanding with the threat

Upon the fulfillment of any of these three conditions, this body shall immediately return to you, without any doubt or misleading whatsoever. Do you accept these terms?

“Just, just wait….wait like ten seconds…”

I accept.

“Oh? And why exactly do you wish for these ten seconds? Are you plotting something perhaps?”She chuckled. “Are ten measly seconds really going to help you turn the tide?”

“Actually, nevermind, it happened faster than I thought it would.”

“Hmm? What did?” She seemed perplexed.

You have to say these words out loud, because you have a physical form.

“...I accept.”

Selphine’s eyes widened, and she immediately blasted a huge bolt of darkness towards me, but it was too late.

I suddenly felt I’d been pulled out of my own body. I could still see through my own eyes, but it now felt like I was looking through a tv screen.

My hands-no, not my hands. I hadn’t moved them, but they moved anyway and easily caught the bolt. No, not caught, more like stopped it dead in its tracks.

“You…You’re…” Selphine had already figured out what had happened, but had been unable to stop it.

Emmett and Louise still didn’t realize what was going on, and seemed confused at the fact that Arthur Barnaby had just stopped a full blown undead thunderstrike despite seemingly being completely exhausted.

The False Arthur snapped his fingers, and the bolt that had stopped then instantly shattered into thin air.

“I’m back.”