“I am afraid that is not for you to decide, necromancer.” Came the voice, sweet like honey, yet laced with ill intent. It would have been pleasant to hear under different circumstances, perhaps, if it weren't hellbent on enslaving his soul for eternity. Not mentioning how her words keep echoing through the dense fog, a real church bell of a ghost he was dealing with.

Elias took a deep breath, his unwillingness to let the ghosts win beat out every inch of fear from his bones, “That isn’t up for you to decide either, besides wouldn’t involving an innocent bystander dirty your karma.”

Elias took a moment, praying that he remembered the right chapter from the grimoire. “And I’m sure you know, beings who dabble in mana - exist on it don’t have much leeway in messing around with karma, unless of course if you wish to be dragged back to limbo?”

Within the fog where Elias couldn’t even see his hands the silence had become deafening. While waiting for a response he deluded himself into thinking that this whole thing was a bad dream. That he would wake up any moment, his drool covering a sorry page on the grimoire which he fell asleep on while reading in his room.

Only if it was simple like that. The blinding fog began thinning, swirling into a single focal point, soon coalescing into an ethereal outline of a woman. Elias's senses heightened as his body felt the depth of powerful miasma the foggy woman had. *Magister. She's a magister ranked being a whole rank above lily we are done for!*

“So should we let her walk away to bring upon us the wrath of the first church she sees? While the karmic weight of extinguishing her soul would be troublesome it would still be more manageable than the threat of priests and paladins.” Her melodious voice turned into harrowing echoes, each syllable lingering in the air before fading into silence

“Why not just have her take an oath.” Elias's hair stood on end as he could now observe the cursed graveyard in full detail. The fog woman was accompanied by equally unsettling ghostly visages of two men and another woman, which he guessed were the ones discussing how to use their bodies as flesh suits earlier.

“Every oath has a workaround.” Echoed the woman-shaped fog.

“I have a suggestion my lady, if I may?” The noble man stepped forward bowing to the red fog. When he got a go ahead from the red fog he continued, “Apart from the oath, we can let Miss Evelyn possess her to keep her in line."

"No, no possession!" Elias interjected, his words firm in spite of the ghosts he negotiated with.

"I can kill you where you stand, necromancer." The crimson mist swirled as she roared, "It's not lost on us that you stand before us as nothing more than a mere mortal. While the woman may be blameless, you are naught but a feeble thief." From the fog came the raging echoes.

Elias swallowed hard, while dying without having the chance to enter the cycle of rebirth filled him with existential dread. Succumbing to his fears right now would just result in him getting scammed off of his soul with nothing to show for it.

"Go ahead!" Elias put his shaking hands behind him, "If you're dumb enough to give up the help of a willing necromancer."

Good thing they have no idea that I started learning about all of this a few days ago.

"Willing? May I remind you that you have no choice in the matter." The fog woman echoed back.

"Yes, willing. While you can absolutely force me to do your bidding till death and beyond. You can be rest assured I won't do anything to the best of my ability for peo - entities that have forced me in a corner. Like you say every oath has a workaround." Elias studied the four spirits that encircled him, to his dismay it was hard to read the expressions on dead people.

The trio, apart from the crimson fog woman, had pallid skin that left no doubt about their deathless state. They seemed almost translucent, their visage only solidified with the help of the eerie darkness. Elias couldn't directly meet their clouded and lifeless stare.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

To his right stood a man, clad in tattered clothes which hung loose around his emaciated frame. Bruises, scars of varying lengths marred his pallid skin like an ugly roadmap, a testament of a violent end. Beside him stood the nobleman, his once-dignified appearance largely unaffected but overshadowed by the sinister hatred in his eyes.

And then there was her — the wolfish woman, Elias felt his hair rising at her gaze. Her malice, bore into him, stomach growling as she licked her lips studying him from head to toe. Her half-bitten wolf ears twitched with excitement, her long locks of blonde hair were drenched red with blood. Despite the elegance of her white noble dress, the perpetual drooling blood from the corner of her lip hinted at a deeper darkness to her hatred.

"Why not work towards mutual benefits. You claim I have stolen something from you. And I'm guessing you are talking about miasma, which to my understanding naturally gathers in sites such as this. Now let me ask you, sacrificing a bit of miasma for the aid of a budding necromancer sounds like a good investment, yeah?" Elias smartly decided to keep his sight set on the woman shaped fog, he shut up after throwing his bait. Hopefully they won't decide to kill me.

Near his feet Lily was stirring, soon her eyes shot open as she jerked to a seat her wet hair stuck to her head. In between hurried breaths she witnessed a crimson mist shaped like a woman, she didn't have to probe the blood fog to know the difference in ranks between them. Ignoring the other three obviously zombie like figures standing beside the fog woman her eyes looked up at Elias. She brought herself to her feet looking as composed as she could manage, she nodded at Elias and then bolted.

Elias watched her figure blur as Lily bolstered her legs with mana, she covered a good few meters before she was stopped dead in her tracks. Putting on his best poker face he watched Lily struggle - a volare ranked beast girl struggled in futility as her feet kept sinking into the loose soil; until she was knee deep. His brows raised when he noticed the hands that formed out of soil to hold Lily down in place.

So that's where the other ghosts went.

"Hiiiek let me go!" "I don't want to die. Let. Me. Go!"

"How about this?" Turning back to face the crimson mist again, Elias turned a deaf ear to the shrieks behind him, "She will swear an oath to cause you no harm, direct or indirect. And you can allow one your spirits accompany her to ensure she doesn't cause any trouble, there will be no need for possession then."

As Elias finished speaking, he heard Lily wailing "No.," But he blocked that out too, convincing himself that it was for her own good.

The woman-shaped crimson mist took a moment to consider before responding, "That would be acceptable. Evelyn."

Elias involuntarily took a step back as the ghostly wolfen woman stepped forward, smirking she winked making Elias rethink his decision. Nevertheless, she bowed down to the crimson mist, "Yes lady."

Do you understand the terms? Can you refrain from hurting the girl?" her queries echoed out from the crimson mist.

There was a bite sized chunk missing on Evelyn's wolfen ear, it made it no less jarring when it flapped, "Yes."

The crimson mist stirred in place, "That leaves your fate undecided, little necromancer."

Elias cleared his throat, feeling the weight of the four ghosts' attention bearing down on him. "Okay, so hear me out."

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The morning dawned, bringing light to the desolate graveyard. Two people stood panting beside an open grave.

"Oh-kay, alright. I'll drag the corpse over." Elias grunted as he moved to grab the ankles of the dusty nobleman who had chased them the previous night.

In spite of seeing it many times before Elias still cringed at the sight before him. The man's limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, rendering the corpse to be more like a morbid abstract art than human being.

"So this is what happens when three evil spirits get in your body, huh." Elias mumbled.

"Hey! This only happened because that crazy bitch Evelyn got her hands on it." Elias flinched, letting the broken corpse fall back to the ground.

Elias rubbed his forehead, this is gonna take a lot of getting used to.

"Look, Tom, you can speak, but try to keep it down. I don't even get how that's hurting my ears." While Elias talked with empty air, addressing the hitchhiker in his head.

Meanwhile, Lily stood beside the open grave, clutching the shovel. She stared into the distance as Evelyn kept incessantly whispering in her ears, detailing various recipes with humans as the main ingredient.

Unable to bear it, she covered her mouse ears with her hands, allowing the shovel to slip from her grasp and into the open grave. "Shut up. shut up. SHUT UP!" she cried out.

I just - I just wanted to go on a date!

Anyone who would watch these two would think the same thing. After all, only crazy people have open conversations with themselves.

Some time after when the voices in their heads fully quieted down they got back to burying.

Elias wiped the sweat off his forehead, sighing at the two broken corpses settled in the ditch.

"Apparently, this man was grave-robbing. His name was Tyre or something," Elias stated, stealing occasional glances at Lily, who remained silent and unmoving.

Feeling the awkward tension hanging in the air, Elias cleared his throat nervously. "Um... Can I... uh... have your telephone number?" he asked, deliberately avoiding Lily's gaze.