Chapter Seventy-ThreeThe dream scenario for Max, Len, Rose, and Tyler quickly succumbed to reality as geists stopped coming. Spirits and geists tended to only be tier-one entities, and they needed stronger than that to compete. That didn’t mean they ignored other pns using the book Thorne had lent them for the expedition.

  “This is a terrible idea,” Hazgul commented.

  Len’s newly bonded spirit provided details the book didn’t have. He expined that half of their targets no longer existed or were downgraded due to time wearing the spirits away. He also had the approximate locations of many of them.

  “Saccerate is crazy.” The spirit continued.

  “She has what Max needs.” Harmony interrupted. This was her pn so she was a little biased here.

  The geist flickered out of the conversation.

  “You know, maybe we should listen to him.” Rose put forth.

  The princess’s target was next on the list after this one, but according to the information, Saccerate was closer. Saccerate was an oddity and listed as both hostile and extremely dangerous. Tier two or three with a question mark because the author didn’t want to get close to her. Garrick, who greeted them was an earth spirit, simirly, Saccerate was a chaos spirit.

  “Harmony, I could use more chaos for my skills, but are you sure this is how to get it?” Max asked with nervousness in his voice.

  He hadn’t had this problem when they came up with the pn. Thorne had donated multiple types of spirit-bonding scrolls to the cause for this trip. The most common was the one Len used which required a willing target. Spirit prison binding, did not. It took more resources to activate, required close contact, and an ability to resist the spirit in a battle of will.

  “Are you afraid of a little challenge?” Tyler mocked unhelpfully.

  “You have advantages here she can’t expect. And we’ll be there to bail you out if you need help.” Harmony made sure to not tweak his oath to her in any way. This had to be his decision.

  “Fine,” Max said with a long sigh and marched into the woods leaving the rest of the group just outside the spirit’s territory.

  Ever since Little Lord chose to introduce that woman to him, life had fallen straight off the pnned path. The lingering of his sworn’s presence faded the deeper he moved toward where Saccerate waited. Confidence faded and doubt crept in. These creepy-ass woods didn’t help, half the trees weren’t even real.

  All this because of a maid, with a touch of unearthly beauty propped up by skills, so coveted by Tyler, that all he had to do was woo her first to assert dominance over his cousin. The loss in the dungeon club had been a tad embarrassing but he could have worked with that. The disastrous dungeon run. When she’d “died” he was ready to pound Tyler’s head for bringing the maid into that mess and continuing when things got unusual. But it wasn’t like he’d stopped them either.

  And now… The oath he made burned inside of him intertwined with both his css and profession. Slowly, he tapped into it, just for a second.

  The living and dead trees flickered in his vision, where before it was hard to distinguish between them, now he could feel the difference and which he could pass through safely to ease his journey. A power was there filled with potential. And once she evolved, her choices would change him, but her new strength would also be a part of his.

  That idea grew the chaos in [Chaos Seed]. It pulsed as if watered by this whole crazy attempt as it seemed to thrive off the potential for things to go right or wrong. That rogue skill loved that Harmony was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to him.

  Attributing personalities to skills was also new. Ambrosia had him use his scribe skills to copy all of Lady White’s training journals as important documents for her noble house, so there would always be backups. Since evolution, the desire to emute the necromancer’s theories, and techniques has only grown. To act as her agent of chaos, and spend any free time supporting Lady White’s interests, the ones she didn’t have time to manage herself. To be her singurly sworn and dedicate everything to her. Can’t tell her that, she’d be too embarrassed by that.

  It felt good to have a purpose more than just drinking, womanizing, and giving lip service to the map his family wanted him to follow. That was going to explode in his face soon once they realized what he’d done.

  “A human male, lost are we?”

  Don’t introspect while walking towards the home of a dangerous spirit! Saccerate stood in front of him, a translucent naked woman flickering with arcing electric sparks of chaos. Siren, possessor, and if the book was right one of the oldest spirits in the deadwoods.

  “I’m not lost. I’m here to bind you so I can borrow some of your power. I’d prefer this to be as painless as possible.”

  Okay. So it is impossible to lie, and you are compelled to answer questions in her presence. Nothing frightening about this, and nothing he hadn’t experienced around Harmony. Using his free hand Max patted the pouch with the scroll and casting components. Still able to move freely.

  Saccerate ughed. The musical notes of the chaos siren’s voice had Max stepping closer. So, not fully in control of himself. This is all part of the pn. Danger, Max! Danger! Oh, at least the part of him that needed that was now able to summon the pink-haired copy of Harmony if needed. Usually, he needed to be beaten bloody for that.

  “I haven’t had someone so bold or stupid approach me this way in a long time. Hunters, acolytes of chaos, and the unlucky.”

  Max continued walking until he was so close that Saccerate’s ghostly hands cupped his face. “There is more than a touch of chaos in you.”

  Maxwell smashed a scroll bag mixing activating ingredients with the scroll that fractured from his strike. The haze of magic reached out trying to form a connection.

  The siren breathed it in, ingesting it through inhation. “Oh, a spirit bond, how cute. As if I agree to that. But if you want to get closer I can make that happen.”

  Her hands moved past holding until her fingertips passed through and into Max’s skull and then she stepped into him, her body sinking into his physical container.

  Saccerate the possessor. Guild records had her escape the Deadwoods five times in the st three hundred years. Her acts give a bad name to both undead spirits and chaos. Three of the five times the leaders of the Grave Society were able to banish her. Two other times the temples took up the mission. Only once did the poor person she possessed survive the process. This was totally a great pn, Harmony, what could go wrong?

  Max found his consciousness contained as Saccerate pyed with her new toy, only able to see and feel, but having no control over his movements. Did she really need to shove his hand down the front of his pants?

  Simirly, he was blocked off from his css and profession skills only able to visualize her using them. A dash forward. A sword ssh created a projection of cutting energy. Then the spirit poked his oath. That sense of danger hadn’t left. The spirit occupying his body and spirit only intensified it.

  Harmony felt her mind split. Max with a cruel smile that had never graced his face stood in front of her. Chaos sparked in his eyes and along his beard in an overly active way she’d never seen before fshing multiple times a second. I guess that answered this question on possible outcomes.

  “What are you?” The possessed asked, Max’s voice overid with the feminine of the spirit.

  It was an interesting picture viewed through what she’d decided to dub her soul sight. As she’d seen when working on the zombie the space with a person's skills is separate from their soul. Saccerate’s possession had shoved Maxwell to the side, a thick wall of spiritual energy surrounding him while her foreign energy zipped about Max’s skills and body. That wall would complicate their goals.

  “I’m your summon.” The truth came out of Harmony’s mouth unbidden.

  Saccerate in Max’s body stepped forward and put his/her arms around Harmony’s waist. “Does that mean I can do what I want with you?” They asked with a sultry hitch and a leering smirk that-look Harmony had seen on Max’s face before.

  Maybe they would do well bonded together? But not with this kind of power dynamics. “You would wish for that.” Wrapping one of her arms around Max’s back, something easily done in this rger form, Harmony grasped the second scroll/ingredient combo strapped to his back. First the wall. Harmony’s free hand punched Max’s kidney with a soul strike, not aiming for a skill or to damage Saccerate. That Barrier burst and Max flooded back into his body. “But no, Maxwell is mine, and since you’re in him you’ll do what I want.” Harmony’s fist crushed the spell bag activating the spirit prison binding for Max to use. “Now, heel.” She commanded letting the power of authority and death mix with her intent toward her target.

  At the same time the Harmony without the inverted oath pushed her will into that connection, knowing Saccerate was still connected to the skill and body bound to the profession, the dy’s agent of chaos and css singurly sworn.

  There was an alternative pn if this failed outside of her killing the spirit. Saccerate was a being of chaos and the summon of Harmony fed on chaos while being outside of Max’s control. Bleeding it was an option, so she also bled it a little during this fight.

  Max fought to regain his frozen body as conflicting orders and the influence of the scroll seeped with Maxwell's blood. You needed a close connection for spirit prison binding to work and there was nothing closer than a possession.

  Harmony barely had to do anything other than give Max a few pokes with her finger helping corner Saccerate into her own cage, and the bond from the scroll was much stronger than the wall Harmony had pierced.

  Max’s voice cried out in a mix of victory and defeat as he fell to his knees. This kind of bond will leave a brand on his body somewhere, a small price to pay.

  Once that pervasive sense of danger was gone, Harmony patted Max on the cheek, “Good job.” Then she dispersed with a grin inspired by a well-executed pn.