Putting the ring on his finger, Faxul walked to the pew where the Raven was waiting.
With a gesture, it hopped onto his finger.
Having seen the process in the recording, Faxul scratched the Raven's head, nudging it towards the point on his finger where the ring was there.
The degree of connection that he had with this beast was once again shown at this point. After reaching the ring, even though it felt the pain of having its blood absorbed, the Raven didn't even flinch and looked straight into Faxul's eyes.
The smile that came on his face unwittingly after seeing this froze, as a flood of thoughts suddenly assaulted his head.
Friend.
Trust.
Hungry.
Drowsy.
Meat.
Old brothers.
Talon needs sharpening.
Although the thoughts were simple, the feeling of having foreign thoughts invade his made him lose his senses for a moment.
What he didn't know was that unless someone had a prior experience of bonding with a Raven, the process was actually dangerous in its own right and had to be guided by a professional.
In fact, the majority of people could only bond with one Raven at a time. Some individuals, such as those who had reached the peak of the Exalted Human Level like the King, could bond with multiple, but it was said that only one could be used in combat because one's mind would be overwhelmed in the heat of a fight with two different sources of thoughts converging to form a cacophony to drive them insane.
Hence, historically, there had been very few who had been able to fight with two Ravens at once. Of course, all of these individuals had enjoyed an almost unbeatable status in the Central Continent, as their opponents would essentially feel like they were fighting three people, not one.
Thankfully, Faxul was no stranger to having his mind attacked. Previously, when he had had to handle the attacks from the entity living at his chest, he had figured out a way to keep himself sane.
Using this technique now, he bundled all the foreign thoughts before placing them to the side, away from his own.
This enabled him to think for a moment with clarity before the bundle unfurled, assaulting him again.
The technique, after all, wasn't perfect.
After several times of this repeating, Faxul finally got up with a sweat-stained face.
"Go land on the pew,", he said in his mind, controlling the Raven for the first time with his thoughts directly instead of using gestures.
The message made the Raven snap its head towards him before immediately going back to its previous position.
Taking a deep breath, Faxul felt a happiness like no other filling him.
Finally!
Finally, he could truly understand his companion!
Wait, this guy likes kicking my ass?
This last thought faintly startled Faxul, who had always thought that his companion felt regretful for hurting him when they sparred.
Yet, now that he could feel and understand its thoughts, he realized that the regret had always been that it couldn't take enough advantage of the opportunity to kick his ass.
Just like humans, it seemed that Ravens also had individual personalities.
Remembering that he was smack dab in the middle of enemy territory in the disguise of someone they had killed, Faxul's eyes snapped to attention as he tried to decide what to do next.
One thing had been puzzling him since seeing the recording. How had the King been able to form a connection so easily if he didn't have the true blood?
The only information that Faxul knew about this 'true blood' was derived from his experiences so far.
When he had started to communicate with this Raven, there had been a barrier between them which had taken some time to dissolve.
Now that he knew the feeling of connecting with the Raven, he was quite confident that he wouldn't have been able to emulate the same if he tried.
The bond made by the trinket was in such a way that the human or Raven could break it at any time, hence, deciding that he would have enough time to sever the connection if he was going insane, Faxul walked towards another pew to give it a try anyway.
This Raven had a scar across its face, and one of its eyes was gouged out. The rest of its body also had numerous scars that were imperceptible until he moved closer to it.
Looking into its eyes for a little bit, he started to scratch above its beak.
The well inside him caused an 'echo' to sound inside his head, allowing him to understand vaguely what the Raven was feeling.
Doubt. Anger. Desire for revenge.
After a few seconds, he inched it onto his finger before mimicking the actions of the King.
Yet, with a loud squawk, the Raven flew back to its pew before looking to the side, as if annoyed.
What…went wrong?
Didn't he even connect with it slightly?
Walking back to his own Raven, Faxul took it onto his shoulder before pausing for a bit to ponder.
Was it the power level? Faxul was weaker than the King, after all.
Yet, this didn't make sense as the probability of connecting with a Raven didn't change much with level.
What else could it be?
Finally, he hit upon the anomaly in the situation.
The old man.
If the old man had been able to trap the Protector Raven which was actually a Warrior Level being for so long, then it was possible that he had also done something in this matter.
After all, it wouldn't be the first time that he made the impossible possible.
Putting the matter aside and decided to discuss it with Daneel later, he walked towards the door through which he had entered.
Pausing before leaving and taking a few breaths, he huffed for a bit before taking off at a run and banging the door open.
His eyes had an expression of both hope and the desire for revenge, while his fists were clenched so tightly that blood would soon seep out from his palm.
"Good job! Now feed the bond with the blood of the one who killed your companion! I will come with you!"
Seeing the determination in Faxul's stance, the wizened man from before got up before smiling and saying these words.
In the room, there was another similar woman who had clearly just taken over the guard duty.
The last part, of course, had made Faxul almost curse.
Yet, he only nodded, knowing that they could handle stuff outside. The barracks was simply too dangerous a location to be caught in.
"Allow me. I know where the fight is happening."
Saying so, the man caught Faxul's shoulder with a blinding speed before teleporting both of them away, along with their Ravens.
After opening his eyes and adjusting to the sunlight, Faxul resisted the impulse to raise his eyebrows seeing the scene of pandemonium.
This was the street where they had taken their room, but the inn was nowhere to be seen.
In its place was a semi-transparent barrier under which stood over 30 people.
They had varied expressions on their faces, from fear to anger to even one of accepting death.
Arranged in a circle, they were facing outside, while there seemed to be a figure in the middle who couldn't be seen.
Yet, what was visible were the numerous ice pricks which were at the throats of all the civilians.
"Give it up! The area has been space locked!"
"Coward! How dare you hide behind women and children!"
"Come out if you dare!"
"May the Might Black Raven smite you!"
Shouts like these could be heard from the crowd who had been kept quite a distance away for safety.
Indeed, the people were just innocent maids and their families who used to live in the inn that had been at this place.
"Damn, it's a standoff. Just wait. He has nowhere to go. Even more troops will arrive soon. Word is, the King is also on the way."
Folding his hands, the wizened man spit on the ground with disgust on seeing the situation before saying these words to Faxul.
What he didn't know was that the person he had safely teleported from the barracks was an accomplice of the man responsible for this situation in the first place.
A few seconds after Faxul arrived, a thunderous voice appeared from the center of the group of people who were waiting to be saved.
"HAHAHA, WHERE'S THE STRENGTH THAT YOU BOASTED ABOUT ON THE NETWORK? DID IT STOP ME FROM WALTZING INTO YOUR KINGDOM AND HOLDING SO MANY PEOPLE AS HOSTAGE? YOU FOOLS, YOUR KING IS WEAK! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF! NOW WATCH AS I SIMPLY WALTZ OUT! I DARE THAT WEAKLING TENEBROL TO CATCH ME!"