It was time. While I was making final preparations I noticed that Kliss took off her armored chest plate and shoulder pads. She looked defenseless, small without it and sat hopelessly staring at the fire, sparks fluttering through the air around her. I walked to her armor set and disconnected the magic crystal that amplified her strength.

“Kliss?”

“Yeah?” The redhead turned to me.

“I can help you, but I need you to trust me. I need you to obey me, no matter how odd my requests might seem.”

“I… trust you,” she whispered and shot me a small, soft smile, light of hope dancing in her eyes.

I handed her a bottle of the incredibly overpriced wine. “Drink. You’re going to need the mana.”

She nodded, quickly gulping the offered Mana-restoring wine.

“Don’t ask questions. Don’t allow rational thought to manifest for the next hour,” I told her, hoping that her primary Vow wouldn't guess what I was planning if she wasn't thinking clearly.

She nodded.

"Put your armor back on and go sit down facing the Hex-Beacon,” I ordered. “Put your arms around the stone, hug it tightly and wrap your fingers together.”

She obeyed, dressing and relocating and pressing her body against the hex-gemstone.

"Do you want to learn about where I come from, yes?” I asked. “Do you want to know about… Earth?"

She nodded eagerly.

“Good. Listen to my words and relax…” I spoke slowly and deliberately. “Relax and let your mind drift, let your imagination paint you a picture of another world and another time…”

Kliss nodded again, staring at me with conviction.

"I was born on another world called Earth, in the year 1932, in an Empire called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was a mighty, globe-spanning nation that promised all of its children fairness, peace and most of all - equality…" I began to narrate my life to her.

I pointed all of my Infoscopes at the Vow.

As I continued to narrate to Kliss, I activated the batteries scattered around the beacon. The base of the large beacon stone she was holding onto was now wrapped with a copper wire coil. As I had discovered with my scan when I found it, most of the diamond-shaped beacon was actually made from a massive iron oxide dark gray crystal called... magnetite.

Mana poured from the mana batteries, turning into electricity when it reached a copper wire coil wound around the beacon. An electrical current hummed to life.

The conversion of pure mana into electricity with a hexagram rune was one of the first experiments I started to work on a long time ago. It took me nearly a decade just to get it to work properly. The copper wire wound around the beacon instantly turned the only slightly magnetic magnetite into a very powerful electromagnet.

The metal in Kliss’ armor attracted her to the magnetized stone. I tested it previously and neither Delta nor I could tear the armor piece off the magnet.

[Is your plan to magnetize her?] Delta commented.

The current in the electromagnet slowly grew stronger. Kliss didn't complain, didn't move a muscle throughout the procedure, hugging the large, obsidian gemstone tightly. She excitedly listened to my words as I slowly wove her a tale of the world without magic and a young boy named “Slava”, whose name stood for the word “Glory”.

A boy that was born in a time of unstoppable progress pushed forth by a united people tirelessly working together for a better tomorrow for everyone.

I told her about the achievements of Soviet people in agriculture and architecture, in machine building and computing. I told her about a nation of 280 million people that stretched 22.4 million km² from the Baltic to the Bering Sea. I told her in very simplified terms about breakthroughs in geology, physics, mathematics, chemistry. I told her about sea-holding dams, steel tanks and planes, zeppelins, trains... and rockets.

I spoke of Soviet heroes, achievements and accolades. I described Sputnik and spoke of Yuri Gagarin’s trip to outer space beyond the boundary of the Earth. I told Kliss about BESM One and how I helped build the first Soviet Supercomputer, a machine forged from inert materials that could do mathematics better and faster than any human alive. Her eyes sparkled at each of my fantastic revelations.

I spoke of my greatest mentor, Viktor Safronov, and his groundbreaking mathematical theory on the formation of celestial bodies. I described how Viktor’s math proved that vast cosmic dust clouds orbiting the stars created a multitude of worlds.

"You know how entire worlds form?" Kliss asked, her gaze filled with awe.

"Yes. It’s sort of like a snowstorm," I explained. "Each snowflake, a piece of cosmic dust, coming together to form something much larger. Over time, these clusters grow, attracting more and more until they become planets.”

I drank another wine bottle to top up my mana and stood up, the campfire casting long shadows behind me.

“I will tell you more… later. For now Kliss, I want you to shut your mind down as much as you can. Meditate. Close your eyes. Let go. Hide in the back of your head. Let me speak to your Primary Vow. It can control your body, correct? Let it take over one hundred percent. Don’t hold it back, don’t ask your Friendship Vow to fight it.”

“Okay, Slava...” Kliss closed her eyes. In a few minutes of silence, her breathing became deep and slow.

[Sing the Alanian song, Delta! Sing it slowly and very very quietly at first and then louder and louder… but do it with slightly wrong tones!] I ordered. [Kliss has no Soul-Shield, right? Grab onto her soul with your blades. Wobble it harder with every stanza but don’t actually rip it out of her body.]

[You got it, boss.] Delta replied.

Looking through Delta's Infoscope I relocated my Tether, connecting myself directly to the monstrous, mushroom-shaped, shimmering Vow hanging over Kliss. The Vow wasn't exactly there, it was mostly buried deep in the Astral, intersecting the soul of Kliss, growing out of it like a grotesque infection.

The Vow was a construct made from currents of magic.

The eyes of the Overseer suddenly snapped open. It wasn’t her looking at me. The soft smile was gone, replaced with a still, barely moving, neutral face. It was something, no… someone else behind the emerald, tear-streaked eyes of the girl.

Thanks to the Tether, I saw it clearly in the Astral. It had a shape. A pale shape of a muscular, faceless man in an Overseer's armor manifested atop the girl’s body. The thing looked at me curiously.

“I’d like to address the Overseer’s Vow,” I said. “Hopefully you’re smart enough to understand my words. If Kliss got you when she was seven then you are ten now, correct?”

“Correct,” Something spoke with an icy voice directly to me through the Tether. It didn’t sound quite right, it wasn't human. As it spoke the lips of Kliss moved in sync to the alien voice. I heard this voice before when the Vow spoke to Giovashi.

“Excellent,” I smiled. “You are level twenty four, yes?”

“I am. What do you want of me, aberration?” The Vow asked.

“I’m going to call you Vovan,” I said. “On the account that everyone needs a name and that you’re a very naughty Vow.”

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“Names are irrelevant,” the Vow said. “The Soul of my host is fractured. I cannot keep her alive for long. When she dies, our Empire will kill you and your kin. A fitting end for a vile transient phantom and its ally.”

“You were always the one trying to kill me, yes?” I asked casually. “That wasn’t Kliss pulling the trigger or aiming the armacus was it? She was too nice to execute me, correct?”

“She is indeed weak of will to act. I did what she could not,” Vovan affirmed what I knew, confessing his crimes.

"Why?" I asked.

“I do as the Law of Equality requires. I exist to obey the Word of my Goddess."

“You don’t seem to be afraid of dying along with your host,” I noted. “Why is that?”

“I belong to Equality. I eagerly await for her embrace,” the Vow replied. "When this human dies, I will return directly to my Goddess."

"Can you speak to your goddess?" I asked. "Can you ask her for aid, tell her about me?"

"No," the Vow replied. "Equality trusts me to collect human souls and ferry them to Arx for her. I need no aid in this simple mission."

“Ah, but there’s been a slight change of plans, I'm afraid. You aren’t going to Equality.” I circled the redhead’s body overlaid with the ghostly avatar.

“What?” Vovan squinted at me with Kliss’ eyes, tracking my movement.

“I’m a bit miffed at you on the account that you want to kill me,” I said. “Fortunately everyone has their uses. Even stubborn Vows. Do note that you are bound to an Inian necromag device. While we started talking my sister had already begun its activation with the Sentinel's Song!”

“What?!” The Vow barked. It tried to move Kliss away from the rock and failed as the electromagnet held Kliss in place. “You wouldn't dare to meddle with an Archangel of Equality, human!”

"An archangel?" I laughed. "An unstoppable servant of god? Is that what you think of yourself?"

"You know nothing, blasphemer," the Vow spat.

"I know enough to hurt you," I replied. "I understand how the Astral Ocean works."

The Vow looked at me without a comment.

"I've been experimenting with... and studying magic," I declared excitedly. “Learning many curious things. Have you heard my lectures to Kliss?”

"I do not understand many of your strange words, human." the Vow said. "Magic is the only power that matters here on Novazem."

"When a wizard freezes a puddle where does the energy go exactly? When a wizard casts a fireball, where does the extra energy come from? The Astral Ocean stores and releases excess energy from every spell!" I said. "You're not an angel. You're a living spell, forged from your host's soul, a grotesque Astral parasite made from energy and information currents, a magical self-aware fungus that needs to be put out of its misery!"

"I do not fear you. A Vow cannot be killed by a mortal," Vovan replied.

“Oh,” I bent down with a devious smile. “I’m not quite human, remember? I am an aberration from another world, a villainous ghost that stole the body of this pathetic Skyisle child. Don’t you hear the song of the All-Mighty Necromancers being sung by my twin sister? Try as hard as you might - you won’t be able to separate your hosts’ body from this crystal. You are now fully bound to the Inian device along with Kliss!”

The Vow tried to move Kliss away from the rock again with more vigor.

"When Kliss dies, the Empire will send a ship to kill you!" He growled.

[Add more drama!] I ordered Delta.

The bees took off from her backpack, spinning in a storm-like formation around us. Their stingers lit up, painting a hurricane made of fire rising above me into the air.

“I don't care. I’m the last Inian Sentinel and this tower belongs to me!" I laughed dramatically.

I tried to make myself sound like Koshei, a prominent villain from Soviet fantasy films.

"You see, Vovan, I really need to feed a soul to that crystal to awaken the arcane weapon of Almn-Inia." I pointed at the beacon. “You do understand that this crystal eats souls, yes?”

"Yes," Vovan growled, desperately trying to tear Kliss away from the large gemstone.

"I'm not afraid of the pathetic humans from the Empire of Equality! The Tricameron Citadel in the Valley below us and all of its armaments belong to me by right of this body's lineage!" I jubilantly declared waving an open hand at the Valley of Death. "As powerful as the Gregarious skyship is, I doubt that it will stand up to a real Necromag warship from before the Age of Darkness!"

I saw that the Vow shuddered. My psychological attack was working.

"An Inian warship 'Nemesis' is buried beneath this very tower!" I announced. "She is eagerly awaiting the sacrifice of one foolish girl with two Vows on her soul!”

“No, no, no! Damn you, Necromancer!” Vovan looked around wildly, panic painted on the girl's face beneath the blank ghost. He realized that I had played him, and believed my beautifully packaged lie. He was terrified, afraid of the Alanians! The Sentinel's Song had a kernel of truth in it. The ancient Mages truly tried to bring down the Gods themselves!

They possessed magitek tools that could imprison, take apart their servants - the Vows!

“Here’s the thing though, I would like to keep Kliss to myself for a few decades, if you know what I mean...” I idly noted, winking at the hate-filled eyes of the Vow. “But not with you around. You are making her... unappealing to me. In but a few moments this crystal will activate and consume both of you. Your choice. Either you surrender and let go of Kliss… or my hungry, hungry... dark crystal devours you.”

“I cannot depart from my host! The link between us is reinforced by my mother, Goddess Equality! It cannot be broken! Stop your infernal machinery, necromancer!” Vovan cried. “I will surrender control over the girl for her lifetime, however long it may be! I will give you my host’s body to do with as you desire. Do we have a deal?”

“Swear an unbreakable Vow,” I said.

“WHAT?!” The Vow gasped.

“You heard me. I can’t just trust you. I want you to swear a Vow to Equality… to surrender all of your core skills, whatever they are. You do have skills, right?”

“This is madness,” The Vow shuddered. “You… are insane!”

“Have you paid no attention to my story, Vovan? I’m a scientist from another world, an intelligence operative from a globe-spanning Empire called the USSR,” I noted with a headshake. “I’m an outsider to Novazem. I spent my entire life designing death. I refuse to be constrained by the idiotic rules of your world. I do not believe in your parasitic gods. I don’t see you as a Vow to Equality or an Angel. I see you as a vile being who performs vile deeds for an even bigger monster. I see you as an organism, an infection made of mana currents, someone that can be hurt, broken, snuffed out, imprisoned forevermore, digested!”

The fake Inian song around me performed by Delta and added to by the buzzing storm of bees intensified its chorus, rose another octave.

“Forty heartbeats before your host’s soul and YOU are sucked into the crystal,” I said. “Thirty nine…”

The Vow of the Overseer seemed unsure.

[Delta! Bite the Vow where it's connected to Kliss with your Soul-Devourer skill!] I ordered.

“Aaahhh!” Vovan gasped with the voice of Kliss. He must have witnessed the reduction in Soul on himself.

“The process has begun,” I commented. “My necromag core is VERY hungry! Soon you and your host will serve as my power source, pay for your insolence by being my batteries! Thirty heartbeats to full activation!”

“I swear a Vow to Equality to sacrifice all of my skills… to bind myself into inaction until my host's death!” Vovan barked.

“There we go, now that wasn’t so hard was it?” I asked. “Best agree to the prompt! Ten heartbeats!”

“Yes!” Vovan cried.

I saw through the Infoscope as the shimmering threads with which the Vow held Kliss turned against the construct itself. Loops upon loops of fractal ghostly, infinite gold thread belonging to Goddess Equality wound and tightened around the alien mushroom superstructure, choking the life out of it.

Then Kliss started to scream. Her scream was horrific, inhuman, raw and incomprehensible like a thousand violins being rubbed together the wrong way. With a winding, final choke, the scream of the Vow faltered and fell silent. The Vow folded into itself and sunk into the depths of the Astral, bound by its own thread.

[You… you actually broke a Vow!] Delta cried, sounding flabbergasted. [That was freaking amazing, Slava! Wait… She’s dying. There’s nobody holding her soul to the body now!]

I snapped my Tether to the Soul of Kliss, trying to hang onto it.

I leapt towards her body. I reached out with my hands, put them on her shoulders and cast the [Sectus] spell on myself from my Infoscopes, separating the emerald soul shards that once belonged to Klint’s tools and adding them to Kliss to bind her to her body, while humming the Alanian soul-binding song-spells. Emerald fire ignited on my fingers as my Soul stat started to drain away.

[-1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

My body began to ache horribly. My head started to spin. I kept an eye on my Soul stat.

[-1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

[-1 in Soul]

Each moment, each breath became filled with horrific pain as if all of my bones caught on fire.

[-1 in Soul]

“Stop! Stop! Her Soul is safe!” Delta yelled. “It’s fully tethered to her body now! She’s safe! Her Soul-Repair skill just kicked in!”

Kliss gasped, her eyes shot open. The emerald flames on my hands winked away. I let go of her shoulders.

The world around me dimmed and I fell, slumping down onto the mossy earth as my mana reached zero.