The giant crow landed next to Percy once more, the powerful rush of wind nearly knocking him off his feet. He could tell the bird was doing it on purpose, still not done flexing his new strength.

He rolled his eyes.

Percy had already equipped his familiar with a new clone, yet that was only a tiny facet of what they intended to do. Their cord had always provided them with a very convenient means of communication even in its original form, but they’d accumulated a few more tools over the years.

The first was the evolution of Percy’s Secret Art from Crude to Refined. The empowered cords afforded to him by Soul Resonance had promised to elevate his ability to work alongside Micky to the next level. Sadly, Acton had captured the crow soon after they registered the spell, robbing them of the chance to fully explore its limits. The second was Percy’s discovery that he could affix a clone to Micky, without losing a cord in the process. In other words, they could now establish a two-way connection – which they had also not truly tapped into.

That was why they had taken a break from their other projects today, whether it was the original Percy’s mana threads or the crow’s pre-casting exercises, to play around with their Secret Art.

“Is the area clear?” he asked.

“Should be.” Micky replied. “I haven’t spotted anything alive within twenty miles, and this is the third time I checked.”

Percy nodded. It had been some time since the Root dumped the latest shipment of beasts into the Valley, and many of them had already died. On top of that, Micky had gone out of his way to patrol their surroundings and cut their numbers down some more, to ensure they wouldn’t get attacked in the next few hours. After all, what they were planning to do might leave them vulnerable for a while.

Other than practicing with their spells, Percy thought it was an excellent opportunity to try and jog his friend’s memory some more. This was another important project the Holy Child had rudely interrupted. Helping his familiar remember his old life was something he had never given up on.

“Let’s begin then,” he said, activating his boosting art.

Fused mana rushed through his channels, two sets of greyish-teal lines lighting up on his skin, as wisps of the same colour danced around him, leaving long, burning trails behind them. Not even giving the spell a chance to reach its apex, he pushed a large bundle of mana through the cord on his sternum, sending it over to Micky. Unlike the other times, he didn’t even have to wait for it to arrive, however, sending a second just moments later.

While he was accumulating mana to send a third packet over, the first one returned, this time entering his soul from the other cord, near his abdomen. Evidently, one of the many advantages afforded to them by the twin link, was that it let them activate Soul Resonance much faster, since they didn’t need to send the mana back and forth through the same cord.

The Secret Art activated about half a minute later. Both the cords widened, allowing mana and thoughts alike to pass through them unimpeded. And Percy knew this would get faster still with practice.

Suddenly, he felt closer to Micky than ever before, the effect of two empowered cords far exceeding anything they’d experienced in the past. He and his familiar had always been able to point at each other’s direction, but this went beyond even that. Percy could actually tell exactly how far Micky was, even with his eyes closed. It was almost as if Micky’s body was an extension of his own.

At the same time, he felt two minds draw nearer – the familiar’s and the clone’s. Thoughts and feelings spilled uncontrollably through the cord, as the trio struggled to differentiate their own thoughts from the others’. In some ways, their connection was even more intimate than the one he shared with his hosts. Not just because of the cords – even with two of them, it wasn’t necessarily a stronger connection than sharing one’s body. But the three of them even shared the same soul – to varying extents.

‘Wow, this is pretty intense.’ Percy thought.

Or maybe it was someone else – it was hard to tell.

‘Can we even fight like this?’ another voice asked.

‘The two of you should have it easier, because you can split the work.’ he thought – it had to be him this time, right? ‘But I have to keep both the Carnival and two cords active.’

Micky shrugged, though Percy felt as if he had been the one to do that.

‘Let’s just try to stay like this as much as possible for the next couple of days. No point training with our other spells until we get used to it. We can figure out what else we can do after that.’

Percy nodded.

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‘Alright. But I think we should still take the chance to try and jog your memories. It would be a waste of our preparations if we didn’t. Just give me some time.’

Percy lit up a campfire. Well, it was more like a grill made of reinforced mana, with numerous heating runes carved onto it, since they didn’t have any firewood. Though even something that simple proved quite a challenge, considering all the spells he had to maintain. But he didn’t let that stop him. He thought of it as another challenge to overcome, pressing onward. Skewering a chunk of meat from his spatial seal on a reinforced construct, he placed it over the enchantments, letting it cook.

Taking out his ocarina, he played his favourite tune for the first time in years. At first, he was understandably quite rusty. All the other stuff clogging his mind didn’t help much either. But nobody complained about the off-tune screeches. The others silently listened to him play the pine-cone instrument, waiting for him to get better as their dinner roasted over the soft glow of his mana.

Every now and then, Micky flipped the meat so that it wouldn’t burn – at least not prematurely. The oversized crow was practically salivating over the Yellow buffalo’s steak, struggling to focus on Percy’s music.

Minutes passed, and then hours.

Eventually, Percy took a break, unable to keep the Carnival active for much longer. Micky took the chance to patrol the area once more while he rested, to make sure the scent hadn’t attracted any unwanted attention. It wasn’t until half an hour later that they activated their spells again, resuming their efforts.

The second round went slightly better. Occasionally, Percy felt Micky’s soul stir. He knew he was still not playing as well as he used to back when he first upgraded the spell, but their intimate connection probably did a lot of the heavy lifting.

At some point, the meat was done cooking. Droplets of fat dripped onto the runes, an appetizing aroma filling everyone’s nostrils as they sizzled. Micky almost pounced on it too, struggling to hold himself back. If it hadn’t been for the clone stopping him, he would have probably succeeded.

But they weren’t supposed to eat it quite yet.

Seeing this as his cue to take another break, Percy deactivated his spells once more as the others scanned the area again – just to be safe. By the time they returned, he had lowered the meat closer to the enchantments, hoping it would char a little faster. Wasting such a tasty-looking meal felt like kicking himself in the teeth, yet he understood sustenance wasn’t the point of this. They already had plenty of rations, and Micky’s spells allowed him to survive on about the same amount of food as a human.

More time passed, the crow practically sobbing as he watched the meal slowly darken into a piece of charcoal. Percy wasn’t in the mood to make fun of him for it either, sharing the sentiment.

‘If you want to blame somebody, blame your ancestors… They’re the ones who came up with this. I just hope your mother used to feed you this stuff as a child…’

Having no other way to console everyone, Percy picked the ocarina up again, playing the tune one more time as he activated the spells. By now, he had improved noticeably, though the music was still a far cry from Micky’s version or his mother’s – let alone Rei’s supernatural talent. In fact, Percy was confident he had yet to even catch up to his own past performance. Shaking all the rust off would probably not happen in a day or two. Regardless, this should be good enough…

‘It sucks I didn’t get the right trait for it, but this should still do something.’

While he had played better the last time he prompted some of Micky’s lost memories to return, he’d also only had a single cord. This time, they had so much more going for them. Guessing the meat was just about charred enough, he picked it up, passing it over to the crow.

He chuckled as Micky hesitated. This was his first time seeing his familiar refuse food. Though that didn’t last very long – the bird’s hunger winning out in the end.

‘Remember not to eat it too quickly. Try to savour it…’ he said, before scratching his head. ‘As much as you can savour it…’

Technically, Micky was large enough to swallow the thing whole. And he clearly wanted to do just that, to spare himself from the atrocious taste. But it would have all been for nothing if he did that. The crow seemed to understand that too, only pecking a tiny piece off, grinding it in his beak.

Doing his own part, Percy lifted his gaze from the familiar, grabbing his ocarina again. Playing the instrument was even harder than before, as he’d grown quite tired by now. It was already his third time activating the Carnival, on top of the other spell. But he kept going, guessing his Insomnia trait was already showing its worth. At least, he imagined he would have been quite sleepy by now without it.

Micky continued to begrudgingly consume the burnt meat as he listened to the music. Percy frowned as he felt the bitter flavour inside his own mouth, neither the crow nor the clone making any effort to keep the unpleasant experience to themselves. It was a little distracting, but it was probably better than eating the food himself.

Left with no other choice, he poured his everything into his music, playing it about as well as he could manage.

‘Come on… Anything… Surely, all this stuff has to amount to something…’

Sadly, there was no response.

Micky ate half the steak, and then three quarters. The meat was quickly running out, despite his compulsive efforts to make it last as long as possible. Percy’s fingers shook from exhaustion, his lips feeling quite dry as the glowing lines on his skin flickered.

It didn’t seem like it was meant to be…

But it was okay. They could just try again tomorrow. And the day after. However many times it took, until they saw some results. Percy would get better at playing the ocarina, and he’d keep feeding the crow burnt meat if he had to. If that didn’t work, he could try upgrading his Secret Art to Masterful, or even beyond that. Maybe his third trait would be the right one. Even if it wasn’t, he could look for a way to bring Micky to Melodia.

Either way, he knew from Rei’s teachings that all his friend’s memories still existed, buried somewhere deep inside his soul. And Percy would never give up until he found a way to dig them all out. Even the sky wasn’t a limit for him, and he’d do whatever it took to fulfil his promise to his friend.

Luckily, it seemed the situation wasn’t that dire, however.

Just as Micky swallowed the last piece of his meal, Percy felt their surroundings shift. He didn’t panic, having experienced something similar once before. After all, this was exactly what he had expected – no, hoped – would happen.

Another of Micky’s memories was about to unfold.