Published at 19th of August 2026 6:46 am

Chapter 206. One tough choice after another

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You want me to do what? Peter asked, clearly taken aback.

Drown, I repeated. Only technically. You wouldnt actually die.

Thats reassuring. Peter chuckled.

The real trick of the procedure is to turn you into, well a ghost.

Sounds spooky, Peter replied with a light chuckle.

The attempt at humor was clearly meant to hide his nervousness, which was evident in every other inch of his body at that moment. I could see his hands shaking slightly, matched by the tense muscles in his jaw visible through the skin.

Youre afraid.

Of course I am. I dont want to drown.

I get that. But as I said, you wouldnt actually die. Youd just transform.

Just like that?

The ritual is extremely risky, and Im not sure about side effects, I answered honestly.

So why do it? Im fine. You said I should be able to lengthen my time outside my own body. Manage the pain that way.

And are you fine with it? Just managing it? Living from one moment of relief to another?

Peter stayed silent, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled with the answer. I decided to push him once more.

Youd gain the ability to use magic as well.

That got a reaction.

You said that I regained some of the abilities from the souls that grafted themselves onto me. So why do I need to drown all of a sudden? he asked, a note of anger peeking through. Did you lie to me back then?

I didnt lie. Its just that the way they used magic and the way you can use it are different. Unlike ghosts we cant just hold the mana inside our bodies or souls as is. We reattune it and change its properties, storing it around our spark, allowing us to command it like an extension of ourselves. You seem to have some talent for ghost magic, yes, but that doesn't mean you have that talent for the way we humans control it. You should be able to draw on those ghostly abilities once you have mana, but getting it around your spark and controlling it is on you.

So why cant I just do that? Peter asked.

You dont have the talent for it, I answered firmly. At least not to the same extent as you have a talent for more ghost-like abilities. The fact that there wasnt an awakening now after all that pain and extremes you went through means you likely dont have the knack for human magic, even if your soul became strangely flexible.

But I can do it without talent. Hard work and

No, I cut in. One in a thousand has the ability to command magic in a basic form, and a further one in a thousand can call themselves talented. You can try and learn, but the simple truth is that you wont be able to match someone to whom mana simply listens. However, when you first pushed your spirit out of the flesh, the magic trickled into your soul on its own. So after using other tomes to piece together the knowledge present in the books the hive recommended, I believe you would be considered a I paused, searching for the proper words. Great ghost.

Dont I actually have to die to be a ghost?

You do. But you dont have to stay dead, I corrected my explanation.

Wont my body mutate? You said thats why I cant have a shell of mana for my soul. Thats why I have to come back to my body.

I exhaled slowly. I could understand why someone didnt want to drown, sure. But I needed him to understand what I was proposing.

Look. Im not asking you to do this only to satisfy my own curiosity. What Im proposing to you is a permanent solution. The thing I said about your body mutating is only if your body were alive. What I want to do is kill it. Once that happens, your soul would try to leave this plane with your spark. But since you already retained some ghost-like abilities, if we can slow that process and inject as much mana already attuned to you as we can, your soul should create a shell. Effectively, you would ghostify. I paused, letting him process the information.

Peter sat, his gaze jumping around the storage room, never staying on anything as his mind churned with the information.

Whats the point of drowning, then? Cant you give me poison to kill me in my sleep?

I shook my head. Well, thats the real trick. Ghosts need an anchor, something that keeps them in the real world. Your soul should create a shell of its own. We just need to keep your spark here long enough for it to be encased once again. The problem is with the anchor. Normally, its created by strong emotions. Mana answers them and binds the soul to the object of those emotions. But in your case, well, you cant suddenly gain an obsession, technically. Not the kind without side effects, lets put it like that. I saw his brows rise. The point is that creating this anchor will be tricky. Extremely. The only good news is we have the perfect candidate for it.

Please dont tell me its something like my fathers Bible. I dont want to spend the rest of my life bound to an object of anger.

No. I shook my head and then pointed at the middle of his chest. Its your body.

My body?

Oh yes. You are quite attached already, wouldnt you say? I said, chuckling at my own joke. But yes. Once your body dies and the alchemical liquids do their work, you should be able to be re-bound to it, effectively turning it into an object of your haunting. We then stop the rot and degeneration, and voila. Youre good as new.

Peter didnt buy my voila off the bat as he looked at me with clear skepticism.

Wait. But my soul. Its mutated, right? If I create this shell, wont I just go back to my initial appearance?

At first. But ghosts can shapeshift much more easily than humans. Turning you back to normal should be a matter of your control.

And my body? Wont it mutate when I possess it?

Not sure, honestly. Certainly not as fast as if it were living, but if any mutations happen well, reshaping dead flesh is much easier than living, I said.

At that, his hand subconsciously went to his left arm, where thin scars were still visible, the outcome of a rather complicated fleshcrafting procedure. Much of his current self was simply sculpted from his own excess flesh.

How is your body? I asked.

Its fine. My left hand lacks some coordination.

That would become a non-issue. Flight, magic, and more would become possible. And I took a deep breath. You would stop aging.

Peter flinched lightly, but it did not have the effect on him that I saw in other people at the mention of prolonging life. He wouldnt be immortal. No being with a spark was. But he would live for a long time.

You want me to risk death and possibly horrible aftereffects for power and prolonged life. He smiled lightly. You sound like a devil.

The devils in stories didnt offer what I offer you, not even close. And not at such a cheap price.

But why offer it at all? I He took in a deep breath before slowly exhaling. I dont know what to do. You offer me solutions I dont truly understand and expect me to say yes or no, as if no were even an option.

You can say no. Its not like Id kidnap and drown you in the night.

And do what then? You said it yourself, living from one moment without pain to another isnt really living, right? Will there be another solution?

Possibly. Or possibly not.

He smiled. You see. Its not really a choice, is it? I dont know if there's another option someone else might propose to me. I dont know whether youre just bullshitting me to run a fun ritual.

I smiled.

You want me to swear in the name of my clan? I asked.

He let silence hang for a few seconds before slowly shaking his head. No. You dont have to. I dont want to be ungrateful. I really am thankful for what you did for me, but My life right now is beaable. And it hasnt been that way in a long time. I dont want to lose it. But I would also like more. I just dont know. And I would like to know why you are even offering something like that. Why bother with a ritual that complicated?

Dont you believe I can be selfless?

Dont take it the wrong way, but your apprentice described you as a natural disaster. I dont think those help save peoples lives for fun. You dont care about my family, you dont care if I kill people, and you would kill me if I asked you to. So why?

I looked around the storage room, my gaze sweeping over the collection of tomes and artifacts, old chests, and alchemical ingredients.

For this, I said, nodding toward the shelves behind him.

Books? he asked skeptically.

Books, artifacts, everything. Knowledge. The reason Im eager for the ritual is twofold. I could use a living ghost, and Im curious about what you will become. Thats it.

Youre curious?

Yes. Id risk a lot, including my soul, for that curiosity. So do you want to live free of pain, to wield magic? Then the question I began, but he cut me off.

The question is how far Im willing to go, he whispered, nodding to himself.

Yes.

Peter smiled ever so lightly at those words.

Ophelia told me something similar.

She had a very good teacher, I said. You dont have to decide right this second. Sleep on it, think it over. But I might need the decision sooner rather than later. Deal? I asked.

Deal. He nodded before getting up, his eyes vacant as thoughts stormed through his mind.

Sadly, Peter didn't have much time to think, because the time to make his decision came two days after our talk, when I received an urgent call from the FBI.

Are you sure about this? Elias asked Dwayne, looking at the man with a deep frown.

Sir, Marvin piped up from the side, clearly not happy about the topic of their discussion. They were our men. We cant just abandon them.

Were is the key word, Dwayne said from the side. I doubt they are. We did not receive any ransom demands, we did not see a fight break out, and if the fight with the doctor was as your empath described, then I doubt they are alive anymore. Besides, they were our informants, not our men.

No fight and no bodies, Marvin spoke up again, putting emphasis on bodies. And how would we look if we left the disappearances of our informants unattended?

Dwayne chuckled at his words. Im sorry. They wouldnt be the first people to die like that. Did you perhaps give them any assurances? Something like, Tell us what happens in those tunnels, and dont worry about your families?

Marvin gritted his teeth.

We should send in our team. Dwayne turned back to Elias sitting behind the desk. The delicate approach is clearly blown. Now is the time to strike. We send our own team into the tunnels, you take that mage of yours and our best men. We show what weve got. We see what hes got, and we can talk it over after.

Elias clicked his tongue at that.

Im not sure about sending that man with our team into the tunnels.

Sam hasnt done anything bad to anyone so far, Marvin cut in from the side. Aside from a few comments here and there and his attitude, he seems trustworthy.

Dwayne scoffed at the idea. God, youre naive.

Well, we might have antagonized him with the last trick.

We entertained him, Dwayne continued. You showed what our intelligence can do. Now we show what that assault team of yours can do, and then we sit down to talk. If you dont show him some power, he will treat you as a joke, I guarantee you, Dwayne said, his voice firm.

Elias mulled the exchange over, looking up at the ceiling before giving a short exhale, bringing his eyes back to the scene.

Fine, he said. Try to interrogate anyone left and assemble our team. And call Sam. He looked to Marvin. But dont rush. Im sorry, but some things are more important than others. We do it properly.

Id think human lives are the important thing, Marvin barked under his breath, loud enough for Elias to hear, as the man just gave him a sad smile.

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