What is the difference between greed and envy anyway? I can’t help but ask myself that after being both of them, but I guess the answer is pretty simple.
Envy is wanting things because other people have them.
Greed is wanting things no matter who it hurts to obtain them.
Or, in my case, envy was want + spite, while greed was want + apathy.
And reaching the point of apathy… I wonder if that’s when I was lost beyond all hope.
- Excerpt from my journal
-------
Despite starting with the story of Charles Ponzi (which, I have to admit, I made most of it up because I didn’t actually know that much about the guy), I think the scam that we ended up with was closer to a pyramid scheme than just a Ponzi scheme.
Either way, the basic premise was the same. Promise people a fantastic return on investment on some non-existent business venture, actually return on it for a while and convince people to get their friends to join in, and pay for it all with the money from the next layer of suckers.
I think the scheme may have worked a bit too well. The reason I know that… well… the System decided to make a [Merchant] into the [Hero] to combat it.
Ayluin Eltris, a horned beastborn from Dryadal, and a [Merchant]/[Hero] who was given the most… unique… system abilities I had seen. He never called them out so that I could hear what they were, but I had to assume that they were along the lines of [Detect Scam] or [Perceive Fraud].
Honestly, I felt a bit bad about what I put that guy through. I don’t often think “upstanding, caring individual” when I think [Merchant] (which might be because I associate that term with Emilia), but he certainly fit the bill.
One of his most common mantras was, “it’s not a good trade unless both parties come away better than they came in.” It was a good platitude, but I assumed it was just that. I mean, that would basically rule out charity, right?
Wrong. He also had an answer for that when a young orphan girl asked him.
“My dear, I have paid for your shelter and food, but you have repaid me with something that money can’t buy. Your smile.” He laughed. “And when you grow older, I can only hope that you come to learn that the joys of giving often outweigh the joy of receiving. So, thank you, my dear, for letting me give and become a small portion of your life.”
… Yeah, if I still had a body, I was kinda worried that some of the things he said would give me a case of diabetes. However, despite the oddity of a [Merchant]-[Hero], he seemed to live it out the best he could.
And that meant a five-decade-long war of finance that… to be honest, I don’t really want to spend much time talking about.
Sure, it was entertaining playing the omniscient man behind the curtain against the [Hero]. Sure, we did make a lot of money, even if most of the Syndicate players eventually got caught. And sure, we almost caused Gram’s financial system to collapse completely, but…
Actually, the [Hero] did me a favor by saving the day there. It turns out that earning a ton of money to buy magicite doesn’t work if there isn’t a market alive to buy it from.
That period of being dead also marked the only time where I spent the full 50 years doing stuff. Sure, I fast-forwarded a bit when nothing was happening, but I also slowed some things down during the day when things started getting too frantic.
… During those times, I also wished that I had a skill that would help me multitask better or understand people who are talking aaattttt aaaaa quaaaarrrttteerrr speeeed. While I eventually improved at both, there were still times that I had to shut off all the scries and just decompress for a while.
During one of those rare moments, I found myself dumped unceremoniously onto the ground in front of the obelisk.
------
“Oof,” I grunted as I picked myself up.
My forming complaint about the rough entrance was immediately cut off by some messages from the System.
System: Change in biological sex during reincarnation detected.
System: Name reverted to Titus.
System: Greed Form Set
“Wait,” I said. “What the frick? Why am I randomly getting that form? I haven’t been greedy!”
The words were barely out of my mouth before my mind returned to almost everything I had been doing for the past several decades.
“Okay, fair point,” I muttered. “I guess it just didn’t feel like it should be set because there was less… emotion… involved.”
How far I’ve fallen. I thought bitterly. I knew that it was the right call. I needed that money to fund the ritual, and none of the things I had done would end up existing after it. However, that didn’t stop me from realizing that the me from my first life would have certainly felt bad about all the money that I had bilked from people.
Fortunately, the smell of something burning pulled me out of that downward spiral.
That confused me for a second because all of the torches were way over on the walls, but all I had to do to find the source was look back.
“Oh, right,” I stated as I pulled my gauntlets off, causing the fire to sputter and die. “It’s me.”
Looking down at my gauntlets also gave me a hint at my new body type, so I wiped the dust off the obelisk and then frowned.
“Short and fat,” I grumbled as I examined my perhaps 5 foot 5-inch frame with a large belly. “Guess all the attractiveness got used up last life.” I joked humorlessly.
Then, I realized something was wrong with the clothing under my armor. I temporarily pulled off my chest piece, fished out the bra I was apparently still wearing underneath all that, and then stuffed that into my inventory.
Is this body better than being stuck as a woman? I asked myself as I continued eying it in the mirror. I briefly wondered if maybe I should reroll my body again, but I squashed that thought as it came.
There’s no guarantee that the next one won’t be even worse, and I… I’m tired. I just want it to be over. However it ends.
I stood there a few moments before finally shaking my head.
“Well, if everything goes to plan, this will be my last time here. Last chance to grab some dragon parts.”
I scooped up some dragon scales and dragon bones until I hit over-encumbered and then started walking.
Speaking of last time here… If I complete the ritual, what will I do with it? I frowned as I made my way toward the boss room. It’s always felt so far away that I guess I never really thought about how I would use it.
My ruminations were put on hold as I got to the room right before the boss room. I sighed as the giant ants charged me.
“Do I really have to fight all these again?” I grumbled and got into a ready stance… until I realized that I actually didn’t have to fight.
“Where did I put them?” I grumbled as the first ant reached me and dug its pincers in… or at least tried to.
It turned out that 1 damage wasn’t nearly enough to break through my top-of-the-line armor, and the ants sat there furiously bouncing off me as I pulled out my gauntlets.
“And… there we go,” I stated as I put the gauntlets back on and became bathed in dark flame once more.
My assailants dropped like flies after that. They bit me, caught on fire, and then died just a few seconds later.
I walked towards the two elite ants that, as always, stood on guard by the door. They hesitated, and I simply continued on my way.
“Good choice,” I stated as I walked past them.
Then, the entrance slammed shut, I was treated to the usual boss room spiel, and I made my way into the final fight of the tutorial.
Nothing in here should be able to hurt me. I thought as I made my way down the slope. So, this should be a good time to-
“Ow!” I said as I took damage from a hit on the side of my head. I swiveled in that direction and laid eyes on the next annoyance… one of the ranged ants.
Lovely. They must deal acid damage. I grumbled as I realized I would have to pay a modicum of attention to the fight. I [Flash Stepped] and dodged around, with the latter being more difficult than I was used to with my increased… width.
I took a few more hits, but there weren’t many ranged ants to deal with, so I was soon clear of anything that could damage me. Then, it was back to my musings.
So, what’s the ideal scenario from the ritual? I asked myself as I sat down on a rock and let the ants come and immolate themselves on my body.
Best case scenario is probably… that I stop myself from ever coming here. I nodded. Yeah. I was happy back on Earth, at least, from what my swiss-cheese memories from before coming here seem to say. That would also stop everything from happening.
I frowned. “But if that was done by AltSys, I don’t know if I’ll even be able to stop it,” I muttered.
I stood up and began pacing.
“I might be able to do something with [Disrupt]. Whatever AltSys and Admin were using to message me, it definitely wasn’t [Message], or [Advanced Message], or they wouldn’t have been able to pick those names.”
My pacing was interrupted as a fire ant grabbed me, but I forced its pincers apart and then chucked it into the lava river without any further hesitation.
“[Disrupt] could interrupt that. And it can even mess up things like oaths to the System… so, maybe I do have a shot?” I paused in place as the second wave of the boss fight started, and elite ants poured in. “I would just have to find my way back here after casting the [Restart], and then [Disrupt] whatever AltSys is using to bring everyone over.” I paused. “Though, I would have to wait until right at the end. Jake was 2nd to last, and I wouldn’t want to deprive the world of its first [Hero].”
The ants gathered around me. I took a single step toward them, and they all broke off in a panic and scattered around the room.
I sighed as I began chasing them down.
So, if I want the ideal ending, I’ll need to secure a way to teleport back here. I thought. What if I can’t get that? What next?
I cornered my first group of elites that turned around and tried to fight.
I beat them down with some [Fire Strikes] and then started jogging towards the next group.
I guess the other options after that are less than ideal. As soon as I’m here, I’m stuck here forever. Unless…
I paused and stood there with my hand on my chin as some of the cornered elites started biting me and doing 0 damage.
“If I stop myself from picking up [Memory Protection], that will mean that when I die here, I die for real, right?” I murmured as one tenacious ant grappled me into place. “That might still be better than being stuck as [Demon Lord] for all eternity.”
I shook my head and pummeled the ant off me.
“No, if I’m stuck here, I don’t think it matters too much one way or the other. I just need to warn my past self that Admin is a lying sack of ship and that AltSys’ suggestions to not tell the party about who I was were also for his benefit and not mine. At the very least, that will mean that I’m not just a sacrificial pawn that AltSys used in his games to get back at Admin.”
I cleared out the remaining elite ants and then once again took damage from the screech as the tutorial’s boss appeared.
“And the only other warning I need to give is to not chase after dragons,” I said sorrowfully as I reached inside my chest piece and clutched the necklace that had been around my neck for centuries.
The boss charged me, and I wasn’t exactly built to stop it this life.
However, I had other means.
“Strengthen, activate,” I stated to my gauntlets.
The spell coursed through me, and I caught the charging boss by the pincers. It may as well have hit a brick wall.
I held it in place with a single hand and beat it down with [Earth Strikes] from my other.
I wouldn’t be opposed to the outcome of me becoming a passive [Demon Lord]. I thought as I rained down damage on the boss that tried to squirm out of my grasp. I think I truly had a chance of being happy with Megan. And I’m sure that the rest of the party would come around as well.
The boss died, and I suddenly found myself without a body once again.
Okay, that’s all settled. I have plan A and plan B for once I get the ritual finished. I paused. There’s a decent chance that either will destabilize the timestream or some BS. I’ll be removing both my reason and my ability to travel to the past in the first place… but I don’t care. It will be worth it. Whatever happens.
I paused.
And… what if it just so happens that time travel uses multiverse theory where I don’t actually go back in time but just alter the timeline of a different universe? I paused. I think I thought through that before. If that’s the case, I’m staying there. I’ve thoroughly fricked things up in this universe, so no reason to stay in it.
However, despite all that, it wasn’t like I had the ritual ready immediately. I still needed to go prepare it.
To that end, I needed some levels first.
How far east can I teleport? I asked as I tried to change my spawn-in location. I had gained several levels in [Spatius] magic since the last time I had cared to try that maneuver, so I was hoping that I would be able to teleport all the way to Besti. Or even better, one of the obelisks that I still owned over on the far east.
No such luck. In fact, I couldn’t even teleport to “New Besti,” the dungeon I had created in the deathlands.
However, I could travel as far as the border between the deathlands and Gram. A little walled town near the river that I wasn’t even sure had existed the last time I looked.
I almost teleported there immediately, but instead, I decided to be smart and wait.
It would be best if no one knew where I was or what I was up to. I thought. While a [Merchant]-[Hero] didn’t sound intimidating, and I didn’t think there was anyone else that could hurt me in my full armor besides him, I was willing to err on the side of caution.
Pride cometh before the fall on a wet floor and all that.
And so, I scried the area, and waited for my chance. I wanted a time where no one was around, and it was both after dark and before midnight. The latter so that I wouldn’t have the chance of spawning in a monster wave.
It took a few days for all of those criteria to be met, but I wasn’t exactly a stranger to waiting, so it wasn’t too bad. It also gave me time to remember to change my equipment so that I didn’t show up with conspicuous black flames. I would instead show up covered by a cloak.
My plan was perfect, so I reappeared on a snowy winter night.
System: The realm trembles as a new Demon Lord is born! Demon morale has been restored, and darkness begins its nefarious plans to conquer the world
“A-A-AHHHHHH!” the little kid, who I had apparently missed in my check, screamed as a cloaked figure appeared before him, right in time with the message and the usual earthquake.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Well frick. I thought as I stared down the little boy, who fell to the ground and sobbed in terror as he slowly crawled backward away from me.
Unfortunately, given the commotion, I could tell the Watch was on their way… and possibly Gram’s army. And while I could hope that they wouldn’t believe the account of such a young child, I couldn’t take any chances that my position would be leaked like that.
There was only one option.
“I’m sorry about this,” I stated as I pulled out my staff and leveled it toward the terrified boy.
-------
Bobby was scared. The monster, it was gonna eat him! Just like in the stories his mom and dad told him! It was gonna…
Bobby blinked and looked up. Wait. What was gonna eat him?
He didn’t have long to try to remember because he was soon surrounded by a bunch of [Soldiers] with their swords out. They yelled a bunch of confusing things at him, and then they took him away, gave him a warm drink, and asked a bunch of questions.
They asked about his parents, and what he was doing out at night, and why he had screamed, and he was able to answer all but that last one. Try as he might, he couldn’t remember. He just knew that he had snuck out at night, had been going around the obelisk, and then… nothing.
The [Soldiers] let him go with a warning, and his mom and dad grounded him for a week for sneaking out and causing a fuss, but that night would eventually fade entirely from his memory as just another time he got in trouble as a youth.
He had no recollection that he had met the [Demon Lord].
-------
[Control Z] worked better than I had expected.
What? I wasn’t about to [Hell Blaze] a kid. I wasn’t a monster. Or… that kind of a monster, I guess.
Anyway, I trailed around after the kid in [Sneak] just to see how things turned out after I cast the spell on him. After confirming that it worked, even with such an esoteric target as “undo him noticing me,” I went on my way.
Though, I did cringe a bit at the price tag of that cast.
Almost 1000 mana for just that. I thought. However, it still beat out the alternatives.
I no longer had any qualms about killing people that were in my way, but…
Killing kids is a no-go. I thought as I patted my chest where Megan’s necklace sat. She would never forgive hurting a kid. So, I draw the line there.
After that, I snuck out of town, swam across the river into the deathlands (which was a bit more annoying than I remembered. I had a bunch of fish monsters attack me), and started walking.
I went with walking instead of running because I had a spell I wanted to try to sort out.
“Let’s see,” I muttered as I pulled out my staff and began piecing magic together. “Was it like this? Or more like this… And what words do I use?”
The spell I was trying to figure out was [Major Illusion]. I had spent months, if not years, trying to figure that out while I was stuck in the Fey Forest, and I wanted to make sure that time was worth it.
However, I had two major roadblocks with that plan. The first was that I couldn’t really remember how it was put together since that visit had been at the beginning of my 50-year stint. The second problem was…
“Got it!” I said as I finally assembled magic that would form an illusion spell. “[Major Illusion]!”
Then I paused.
“Did it work?”
I had forgotten that with my innate ability to see through illusions, I had no way of telling if my spell was actually working.
Well, that’s a bust. Anything else I can do to keep myself occupied on this trip?
I had a few ideas. I could just run instead and get the trip over with faster… which sounded less pleasant with the body I was stuck with. I could practice [Temporus] magic like [Foresight]… which would eat up my mana in a flash, and I was currently capped at level 5 anyway. Or I could try to come up with another spell.
I went with the last one. My target spell school? [Spatius]. I figured that level 5 was going to be the absolute minimum I would need to teleport to the tutorial, so I thought it would be best to start working on it immediately.
“But what kind of [Spatius] spell do I want?” I muttered as I continued my walk. I have [Teleport] for mid-distance. [Grand Teleport] would be for long distance, but I don’t think I’ll be able to cast that one by myself… at least, not unless I do it as a ritual. So, that just leaves short distance.
I snorted and [Flash Stepped] forward.
“I kinda already have a short-distance teleport,” I stated to the eerie landscape of the deathlands.
I stopped for a moment and thought.
“Hmm…. I have one short-range teleport, but what about a second short-range teleport?” I asked. [Flash Step] was fantastic. It had a relatively low cost and cooldown, and since it wasn’t a spell, I didn’t even have to say a word to use it.
However, it also had some drawbacks. I had to have something to push off to use it, so if I was ever stuck in midair again, say… slipping on a wet floor and having my face head towards a mop… I wouldn’t be able to use it. Also, it preserved the direction I was facing, making things a bit awkward for using it on the offensive.
“Alright, that settles it,” I stated. “Time to make a new spell.”
That was easier said than done, but not by as much of a margin as you would expect. I already had a working [Teleport] spell, so I just needed to scale that down by a lot and then cut out all the chant and cast time.
So, ironically, the spell that helped me do that was one I had deemed useless. [Port]. While teleporting a held item a few feet was still marginally useful at best, it served as a good baseline for what I needed to cut out of my miniaturized [Teleport] spell.
The end result was that I had a functioning spell within two weeks, and it was finally ready for a test.
“[Blink],” I cast and instantly appeared 40 feet away. “[Blink],” I cast again with a grin. “[Blink], [Blink], [Blink]…”
I quickly emptied my mana bar with that cast because the spell still cost 100 mana to use. However, with Singularity out, I could cover 400 feet in the time it took me to say “blink” 10 times.
I used the last of my mana to reappear on top of a building in New Besti, and I would have stopped there to celebrate my success if not for the message the System gave me as soon as I arrived.
System: Zone entered, New Besti. Faction - Undead
“Well, that ain’t good,” I muttered from atop the roof. The last time I had seen an undead zone was… centuries ago. That meant that either the random undead that spawned in the deathlands had finally managed to take over the zone, or…
“We might have another [Necromancer] on our hands,” I stated softly as I dropped down from the roof and entered [Sneak]. In hindsight, the latter made more sense. I had spent two weeks in the deathlands, and I hadn’t seen any zombies despite their ability to just spawn in. That meant that all the spawns I was causing had to have been redirected somewhere.
I found that somewhere soon enough. Gathered in the middle of town were an undead obelisk and a literal army of the undead.
I sat back and watched for a bit and then frowned.
So, what do I do here? I asked myself. While I don’t exactly need to pick a fight with every [Necromancer] who gets too big for their britches, having an undead army invade will cause people to put their focus on that and not on getting my magicite.
I tried to think of alternatives but eventually just sighed.
Looks like I’m going to have to kick a third [Necromancer’s] asp. I concluded.
However, I wasn’t going just to charge out there. When taking on an army, even if it is an army of low-level fodder, it’s still best to have a bit of a plan.
I [Snuck] around the entire army, taking in the sights and thinking of a plan. There were literal tons of lower-level undead like zombies and skeletons, and even higher-level ones similar to bone horrors and flesh horrors I had seen so long ago. None of them concerned me. I was sure that with my armor on, not even those high-level monsters could damage me. No, my main problem was with a few monsters that were, thankfully, much more limited in number.
Ghosts and wraiths. Specialty undead that I had only ever seen at the beck and call of the first [Necromancer]. I was also pretty sure they didn’t do any of the standard damage types covered by my armor.
They’ll have to be my first target. I thought as I stopped my reconnaissance and hunkered down to think. Against all the others, I win the war of attrition. So, as long as I take them out with a well-aimed AOE spell before their controller knows what’s happening, I’ll-
My plotting was disturbed by the sudden sound of a multitude of feet marching in complete unison.
My head popped back up over the piece of rubble I was crouched behind, and I bit back a curse as I realized that the undead were on the move.
Well, I would have loved to have some weeks to summon my own reinforcements, but what ya gonna do? I joked to myself.
My recon took long enough that my mana was mostly topped off, so I was willing to make do with what I had.
Then, the [Necromancer] even threw in a bonus as all the ghostly enemies also moved in formation in two separate blocks.
Just have to end this in two casts. I thought.
“Orb of fire engulf my enemies and consume the foes that stand against me,” I started whispering. I knew the AOE wouldn’t be big enough, so I dumped some extra mana into it with [Overchannel]. “[Fire Ball]!”
However, I wasn’t done yet. As soon as the bright orb of fire shot out of my staff, I pivoted to the next group and cast again. “[Hell Blaze]!”
My timing was close enough, and both spells impacted before the undead knew what was happening. Then, I put my gauntlets back on, pulled out Insurance, and strode out onto the street in front of the horde.
“That black flame… That sword…” a voice called from somewhere up above. “TITUS!” it raged.
I frowned and looked for the source of the voice. “Have we met?”
“Have we met? Have we met!? You took everything from me! And then, when that wasn’t enough, you even took my life!” it answered.
I still didn’t see him, so I figured I would keep him talking.
“You’re going to have to narrow it down a bit more than that,” I replied as the undead slowly started taking up positions around me.
The voice laughed. “Fine. I became a monster. The worst kind of undead. A lich! And it was all because of what you’ve done!”
I paused again. “Now… you might not believe this, but if I had a nickel for every time that someone became a lich because of me, I’d have 10 cents. It’s not much, but you still gotta narrow it down a bit more.”
“I AM THE FIRST [TIME WIZARD]! YOU FORCED ME INTO YOUR SERVICE, YOU DAVE!” the voice raged.
I was getting close to finding the target, and I’m pretty sure he was flying down closer now. So, I just needed one more push.
I put my hand on my chin as if I was thinking. “Wait. It’s on the tip of my tongue…” There was a brief lull, and then I snapped my fingers. “Conner!”
“CAMERON! IT’S CAMERON, YOU-”
And with that final cry, I finally had a lock on his position. I pointed my staff in his direction and cast. “[Hell Blaze]!”
It was difficult to see him, he appeared to be a disembodied spirit after all, but I barely caught him dodging around my spell. I tsked in disappointment, even as he started laughing.
“Oh, you’re more cunning than I gave you credit for. If you had an ounce of that back when I worked for you, maybe the ritual would have stood a chance of working,” he stated. Then he made a gesture toward me. “Get him.”
I stowed Singularity and prepared for a slaughter.
And a slaughter it was. I didn’t even bother with defense against the low-level undead. I simply let them burn themselves on my armor and then stabbed them with Insurance so that I could loot their bodies.
However, that by itself wouldn’t have been enough for me to describe it as a slaughter. No, the reason it was so one-sided was that my flames had an added bonus I wasn’t aware of.
I accidentally discovered it as a zombie managed to sneak up behind me and latch on. I beat it down with a single [Fire Strike], and, to my surprise, its body fell to the ground and burned up. The lingering flames from armor were apparently extra effective against corpses. From there, I didn’t even need Insurance. I stowed the sword and walked through, one-tapping all the enemies until Cameron had enough.
“Get in there!” he shouted to his horrors.
They charged at me, looking to crush me, but I had some charges on my armor left to burn through. “Strengthen activate. Haste activate,” I stated as I ran to meet them.
I almost ate dirt for my trouble, but those two spells made up for a good portion of our level difference. I stopped one horror in its tracks, beat it down with a few quick [Fire Strikes], and then dodged under the sweeping arm of another. Then, I [Flash Stepped] behind a third and beat it down before it even knew what was happening.
“I should have known these wouldn’t be enough to kill you,” Cameron sneered from the sky. “But I haven’t shown you my greatest creation yet!”
Magic started coalescing, and bones began flying around beneath him.
Meanwhile, I pulled out Singularity, [Blinked] away from everything, and started casting myself.
“Rise, my greatest creation!” Cameron shouted. “Bone Colossus!”
Said colossus was perhaps 50 feet tall, and I would have had a decent cause to be worried… If I also wasn’t finished casting.
“[Lightning Spear]!” I finished as I also slammed a foot down to cast [Ground].
It was [Overchannelled], and I dumped a bit of SP into it as well, but that may have been a bit overkill. After blinking away the light and deafening sound, all that I could see was a scorched hole through the center of his colossus… and running through several of the ruined buildings behind it as well.
It collapsed into dust right after.
I cleared my throat. “So, you ready to surrender yet, Conner?” I asked.
“No, because you’ve finally wasted enough mana,” Cameron laughed. “[Bone Cage]!” he shouted.
Before I could react, dozens of bones reached up from the ground and grappled me into place. I struggled against them for a moment but quickly remembered my [Disrupt] and freed myself.
I was just half a second too slow.
One of the bone horrors reached me. It didn’t do anything fancy. It simply fell on me. Then, while I was struggling to bench press that giant monster off me, the others came and joined in on it.
I struggled uselessly against it for a bit but eventually gave up.
“You know this isn’t damaging me, right?” I asked as I watched Cameron float closer, my face being the one part of me that was outside the dogpile. “I’m still winning with my fire even here.”
Cameron laughed. “That’s perfectly fine. I don’t need any of these creations. In fact, what I’m after is your body.”
I had a sinking feeling that I knew what he was talking about, but I was also still in “tick off Cameron mode,” so I replied before I even thought the words through.
“Eww, sorry, but I don’t swing that way. Even if you weren’t some ethereal ghost thingy.”
His ghostly presence stopped right above my face. “I’m going to enjoy possessing you and destroying everything you know and love.”
“[Hell Blaze]!” I cast with most of my remaining SP.
However, the spell didn’t reach him. I had to cast it from my hands and said hands were trapped underneath a mountain of bone horrors. They simply took all the fire, and all the damage, for him.
“Goodbye, Titus,” Cameron laughed.
I struggled uselessly, and frantically thought through any options. I was out of resources. I wasn’t strong enough to escape. I still had Demon Lord form, and I tried to activate it manually but-
I didn’t know how to activate greed. The ghostly presence entered my body, and the System signed my death warrant with a message.
System: You have been possessed
That was it. I was done for. I could do nothing except be some mad [Time Wizard]/[Necromancer]/Lich’s plaything for the rest of eternity.
Cameron let out a cackle from my mouth, and then…
It was over.
System: You are no longer possessed
I lay there blinking as Cameron’s ghostly body was ejected from mine. He hissed and waved off some of the flames that caught on him as he left, and then we both stared at each other.
“Wow, you’re so powerful,” I deadpanned. “Whatever shall I do?”
“Quiet! It was just a fluke!” he shouted as he flew down into me again.
Once again, he lasted just a second and then was ejected.
“This time!” he shouted.
“Yes, of course,” I replied as we repeated once more. “Keep it up. Everyone knows that trying the same bad method over and over again is a sure sign of a sound mind.” He tried again. “Don’t worry about that, sport. You’ll get ‘em next time.”
However, while all of that was occurring, I was getting more and more of a sense of how he was pulling that possession off. And so, ever one to experiment, I wondered what would happen if, instead of simply kicking his soul out, I tried something… different.
On the seventh attempt, I was over my possession just as fast as before, but instead of Cameron being kicked out in a rage…
How are you doing this!? He asked inside my head. How are you keeping me in here without me possessing you!?
“I’ll be honest with you,” I replied aloud. “I don’t have a frickin’ clue.”
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The best I could figure was something like I had created a tiny prison inside my… soul?... memory partition?... whatever it was that he was actually possessing, and then trapped him in it. So, he was sort of constantly possessing a tiny part of me, but it was also a part that didn’t really matter much.
I hoped.
“So, we seem to be at a bit of an impasse,” I stated. “You mind letting me up?”
No. He replied immediately. I’ll never give in to what you ask, monster.
I just shrugged, or gave as much of a shrug as I could, and went back to waiting until the monsters on top of me died one by one.
That would have been a really long wait if it hadn’t been interrupted.
“Well, what is it that we have here?” another voice called from the sky. “The craftsmanship of these horrors is utterly subpar. They have no apparent owner, and… Titus, is that you located beneath that pile of shaped calcium?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Yup. That’s me. Hey, Tim. Didn’t expect to hear from you again.”
One by one, the bone horrors got up, which left me face to face with another ghost.
“That would make two of us,” Tim replied. Then, after a brief pause, he continued. “You seem shorter than when we last encountered. And yet, somehow more volumetric.”
“Ha ha,” I replied. “So, how are you not dead? Well, dead again?”
Tim nodded gravely. “Much like that second-rate specter in your head-“
Hey! Cameron shouted in my mind.
“-you failed to properly execute me during our penultimate encounter,” Tim finished.
“That’s not what that word-“ I cut myself off with a shake of my head. “Nevermind. More importantly, why are you back now? If you were going to come back to life, why didn’t you do that sooner?”
Tim hmmmed in thought, and I was stumped along with him.
It was Cameron who spoke first.
The curse. It worked? He asked.
I scowled. “Yes, it’s been a complete pain in the butt.”
I’m glad to hear that. Cameron continued. I could practically feel him smiling and nodding in approval of himself.
“A curse?” Tim asked.
That confused me for a moment, but then it clicked that he could hear the voice in my head, which made me glad. I didn’t want to repeat everything the second resident inside my head said.
“Yeah, this guy cursed me when I killed him,” I replied. “Everything I touch comes back as undead when it dies.”
“I understand,” Tim replied. “And what is the ramification of the malediction on those who are already non-living?”
It took a second to process that malediction equals curse, but thankfully there were enough context clues.
I don’t miss Tim’s pontificating. I thought. Oh great, it’s spreading…
“Existing undead?” I asked aloud. “They just come back near-instantly.”
“If that is the case-“
Then it looks like my curse brought both of us back to life. Cameron interjected. Ha! I knew that I would be able to take my revenge!
“Silence, inferior undead, the adults are conversing,” Tim said with a wave of his hand. Whatever spell he cast, it worked. Even though Cameron was currently just in my head, his “voice” was reduced to what sounded like him raging behind a gag.
“Now to more important matters,” Tim continued. “What progress have you made on decoding my journal? What percentage would you say you are towards enacting a time travel ritual?”
“From a theoretical standpoint, the ritual is ready. In part because of this other guy I’ve got trapped in my head,” I stated. “He was a [Time Wizard] while he was alive. Anyway, I’m mostly just trying to get all the magicite I need to cast it.”
Tim paused. “And magicite is?”
Oh right. It wasn’t very widespread back in Tim’s day. I thought. “It’s a crystal that can store a large amount of mana. It’s commonly ground down and used in rituals to provide the mana source.”
“That will be of great assistance with our endeavor,” Tim nodded approvingly. “And regarding the admonition I gave you about theoretical maxima?”
I cocked my head to the side. “If… you mean the fact that I’m limited to 1000 years. Yeah, we’re good on that front. I still have… [Get Date],” I cast.
System: Current Date is January 4th, Year 450 Age of Adventurers
“A bit under 550 years if I want to go back to the day we all came over,” I finished.
“Excellent,” Tim replied. “We should encounter no difficulties then. We need simply-“
Go back 1000 years with a single ritual? Ha! Cameron interjected while somehow shaking off his gag. Good luck with that!
“Once again, I will have your silence-“ Tim started.
“Wait,” I replied and held up a hand. “He was a [Time Wizard], even if he hates my guts. What were you saying, Cameron?”
He snorted in my mind. Why would I ever help you?
“You may possess greater experience with temporal magic, but in the domain of the spectral, I have no rival,” Tim stated.
He made a motion with his hand, and Cameron started screaming.
“You will enlighten us and aid us with this endeavor, or you shall long for the fires of purgatory,” he stated.
Stop! Fine! Stop! Cameron shouted.
Tim lowered his hand, and Cameron paused for a bit. That was apparently too long for the former lich, and he raised his hand again.
Wait! Stop! By Gram’s crown! Just give me a minute to collect my thoughts! Cameron interjected.
“Very well, a singular minute,” Tim replied.
So, the first problem is the ritual itself. You’re still working off the one I had started the plans for, right? Cameron asked.
“Correct,” I replied with a nod. “In fact… let me just pull those out.”
You can tell something is weird when it registers on the scale of “odd things that I have done in my many lives,” but I must admit that examining ritual plans in the middle of the deathlands with two ghosts critiquing managed to find its place.
I would have found much more humor in that fact… if not for the grim diagnosis.
“There are many areas the ritual can be improved,” Tim murmured.
Yeah, but good luck getting 1000 years. Cameron replied. The ritual I designed was never meant to go past any more than 500. After that, the mana density that you need is way too high.
I pinched my nose. “So what you’re saying is…”
“If you desire your chance of success to be non-zero, we must endeavor to cast the ritual within the next half century,” Tim stated.
Agreed. And even that is pushing it. Anything beyond 500 years is something that no one on Placeholder could ever cast. Mortal or immortal.
I sat there and looked at the sky for a moment.
My deadline had been moved up. I had less than half the time I thought I would to complete the ritual. And to make matters worse, that even coincided right with my respawn rate of 50 years.
If I died again, it was game over.
There was a part of me that wanted to despair. Throw in the towel. Give up on the impossible task before me.
With a sigh, I stood up and told that small part of me to shut up. I had been through tighter pinches before.
“Well, guess we better get to work,” I stated.