“I am a... man," I said.

"A man?” Kliss blinked.

“Do I need to explain to you what a man is?” I arched an eyebrow, suddenly thinking about Diogenes Laërtius, a Greek philosopher who made fun of Plato’s definition of man as ‘featherless biped’, postulating that the man in Plato's thesis was simply a plucked chicken.

“Tell me your real name, demon!” Kliss demanded waving her armacus dangerously. “Why did Giovashi pull you from the Astral and shove into the body of an unborn child?”

“Ask Giovashi! Also, I would appreciate it if you didn’t call me a demon,” I said. “I am not a demon and I don’t believe in such nonsense.”

“What?” Kliss sputtered.

“From my point of view, you’re a lot closer to a demon than I will ever be,” I pointed out. “You have two Astral entities controlling your decisions. Nobody is controlling me.”

“YOUR NAME!” Kliss howled like a preacher from a Western film that was trying to pull Satan out of a possessed kid.

“My name… is Vladislav Alexandrovich Kerenski,” I said, staring at the wild-looking, emerald eyes of the Overseer.

I sipped more wine from my overpriced Ishirkarian bottle, speaking as slowly and as deliberately as I could, watching my mana ticking up. I really didn’t want to reveal everything about myself, but the damn [Truth] spell kept pulling answers out of my mouth.

Two of my Infoscopes finally flashed into existence, activated!

I sent each of them at each of the Vows floating above Kliss and fired [Sectus-Anima], severing little, gold threads. Kliss yelped as both of her Vows dove into the Astral, escaping from my attack. Her lopsided, happy-sad expression readjusted itself into the face of an extremely tired, nervous, seventeen year old girl. She blinked. I saw that there were sparks of tears in her weary eyes.

“Who are you?” She uttered once again. It was the real Kliss this time, not a mad voice bound by the decisions and demands of the Vows. She was probably terrified that I was an aberration.

“My name is Dante Alan Skyisle and I’m not a monster from the Astral ocean!” I addressed the trembling redhead. “I have no desire to devour souls! I’m not an aberration or whatever the hell it is you Equality followers fear… I’m not a ghost driven by endless hunger... I simply know more!"

I drank more mana-repairing wine.

My third Infoscope activated. All three of my tools began to shred the hexagrammic chain of [Truth] sitting across my soul.

I slowly stood up and walked to Kliss.

Kliss gulped and took a step back, retreating from me.

“How long have you been dead…?” She whispered as she looked at me, eyes wide. “From when are you?” The armacus was unlocked in her hand, pointing at me. “Are you a ghost from before the Age of Darkness, before the Great Mage War? Are you one of the Basque nobles… maybe Taginae? Khazar? Adyghe? An Alanian Necromage?!”

“Neither of those,” I shook my head. “I’m not a ghost from Novazem, Kliss. Like I said before, I’m not an aberration. I hail from a world completely without magic… a world without gods.”

“A world… without Gods?!” Kliss uttered. "That’s impossible! Everything requires magic to function!”

I shrugged.

The chains of [Truth] finally fell from me, their remnants dissolving into the Astral. I moved onto destroying the spell-chain hanging on Delta.

“You’re lying,” The Overseer accused. “You’re tricking me again!”

I sighed.

Kliss wasn’t going to believe my words. She grew up with magic, Vows and gods all around her.

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“No more [Truth] spells,” I said sternly. “I'm done answering your questions, unless you genuinely want to help us fight Giovashi and other abominations you call Vows."

Kliss choked, trembling. Her finger slowly moved to switch the armacus to the [Destruction] rune.

“Don’t do it,” I said.

“I… I have to kill you,” Kliss trembled, retreating and shaking her head. “You’re an abomination, a liar…”

“I can help you,” I offered. “I can cut those Vows off you.”

“Not possible,” Kliss shook her head. “Unbreakable Vows cannot be cut.”

“Do you feel them now, controlling you?” I asked. “I hurt them. They ran away for a bit, dove into the Astral… they will return soon. You’re free, just for a moment. If you attack me, I won’t be able to help you.”

“I… errr,” Kliss nearly tripped on a root as she retreated. “I don’t… I don’t believe you.”

She suddenly activated her invisibility field and vanished. I watched her with all three of my Infoscopes as she retreated away from us. She didn’t fire her armacus, didn’t cut me down with [Destruction]. Perhaps, she believed me. It was impossible to tell. I saw that the Vows returned to her body. She stopped.

“Stop hiding, friend,” I called out to her. "Let's talk!"

Kliss appeared atop of a mossy boulder.

“Yeees?” She half smiled, half frowned at me.

This time, I only attacked the Overseer’s Vow, making it dive into the Astral. As the Overseer’s Vow dove into the Astral, the "Friendship" Vow remained in place.

“Come here, friend,” I ordered.

Kliss marched over to us, smiling widely.

“I’d like for you to get some sleep,” I said.

“But… I have to protect you,” she or perhaps the Friendship Vow said.

“You can’t protect me by staying awake forever,” I pointed out. “As your friend I’m ordering you to rest. You’ve been awake for far too long. If you keep it up, you’ll die and won’t be able to protect the Alans. Think about that. Go to sleep. Please… friend?”

“Fine,” the Friendship-bound girl huffed. “Fine. Don't endanger yourself while I nap, yes?"

"Yes, I promise," I said calmly.

Friendship wasn’t hard to control, I noted as Kliss chose a mossy hollow to sleep in. She bundled up her red cape as a pillow and closed her eyes. In another minute, I saw through the nearest Infoscope that the girl was asleep. The Overseer’s Vow tried to return to wake her up to attack us and I nipped at it again, making it retreat.

I dedicated a part of NeuroVista to keep attacking the Vow hostile to us to let Kliss sleep.

“Welp,” Delta commented in Russian, looking down at the lightly snoring Kliss. “Good job. You’ve actually made her go to sleep. Well done!”

“You want to eat souls?” I turned to my twin also speaking in Russian.

Delta blushed, looking very guilty.

“Well?” I said, crossing my arms.

“Yes,” she fretted. “Yes. I like eating souls. I… I think I’m addicted to it. I spent too long in the Astral nibbling on things… sometimes these things were bits of people.”

I sighed.

“It’s like a gnawing sense of hunger,” she explained. “I can control it though! I just have to go into the Astral now and then and bite something with magic and then it passes.”

“Delta,” I said.

“I know, I know,” she said. “It’s bad. It helps me level up though! I’m level twelve! I’ve almost caught up to you!”

“What are you, a freaking vampire?” I demanded. “If you keep eating souls you’re going to lose your mind!”

“I’ve been very careful about it!” She snapped. “I’m not an idiot! I used my soul-threads like blades to shred things before I eat them… I let the remnants of souls dilute in the Astral currents so they don’t turn me into someone else…”

I looked at her sternly.

“But… I’m… cold,” she confessed after a deep pause. “I’m cold… all the time. Even when I’m in my human body.”

I flexed my arms. My fingers still felt numb, cold. The sensation wasn’t going away. I looked down at my hands. They didn't look damaged, but there was definitely something wrong with me.

“Is being an Astral Hunter an infection of some sort?” I pondered. “A virus that affects the soul? If so, then I could figure out how to see it, cut it away… I’m sensing it too, I think. My fingers are cold and the sensation isn’t going away. It's particularly bad in my left hand.”

“Yeah,” Delta nodded. “You’ve eaten someone recently… right? An Alanian old soldier and an Agent made from artifacts?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Klint Klondike and his grandfather Keps.”

“See? You can’t shame me for this!” Delta said, her eyes lighting up. “You’re just like me, Slava!”

“Fine, fine,” I said. “Just… don’t eat people, okay?”

“I’m very careful,” she insisted. “I mostly nibble on artifacts and old ruins!”

I stared at her.

“Sometimes… they taste like people,” she said. “Things are mixed with things in the Astral.”

I didn’t want to lose Delta, didn’t want her to turn into a monster. I needed to break the chains of prophecy that Giovashi bound her with. I simply... needed power to feed Delta's cravings. What I needed was... clean, renewable power, not affected, not contaminated with bits of people and monsters.

I looked at the tree behind me. Somewhere, deep in the ground, beneath the roots of this massive tree there was a cracked Astral Engine... Battery.

I looked at the sleeping body of Kliss.

She was a victim, a prisoner of her Vows. I didn’t want her to go insane, didn’t want her to suffer more than she already was. I could use her strength, give her work… distract her.

I could slowly snip her Vows away with Sectus, freeing her bit by bit.

First the Overseer’s Vow, then Friendship.

Yes…

“Why are you looking at her like she’s a piece of candy?” Delta demanded.

“I believe I found someone who can help us with our work,” I said with a dangerous smirk.