Chapter Twenty-Two

The butler kept his uniform impeccable and posture perfect. Apparently, that was part of the package that came with the undead servant. He was noticeably not floating, his feet firmly on the ground, and Harmony could feel, with weakened soul sight, that his powers were noticeably reduced. The seals were so hidden she wouldn't have suspected his true power if she hadn't seen it in action.

"The heir has ordered me to gather coins. I maintain leeway in how. Once you made your presence known it made sense that you would be near one."

Was that a threat? [Shadowed Graves], might as well have been screaming here is a necromancer calling dark forces. Not subtle. But while they both had seals, she was still a necromancer and he was undead. As much as the Games aimed to level the playing field some things could never be level. "Sealed, we can no longer scare the children playing here, but you'll find me more than you can handle," Harmony responded with death in her voice.

"Is that what you think seals are for? Some consider them a blessing allowing them to train underdeveloped aspects of their progression. For others, it can be a punishment for keeping a person's strength locked away. King Euless liked to use them to mingle with the everyday people, unbeknownst to them." Hargreaves's voice was so flat he never hinted what his opinion was.

It was more talkative than Harmony had ever seen the butler. "And?"

"I'm sure you could put me out of commission easily in my current state. Three equal parts [Cold Touch]. [Renew Spirit], and [Final Silence] would put me in a stupor that would last nearly an hour. No, I came here to offer you a deal, servant to servant. Information worth allowing me to fetch the nearby coin."

He just offered up a way to defeat him, be it nonlethally. Unless he, no, she didn't pick up any lies within that piece of information. He spoke with dead certainty, using his nature to speak honestly in a way she'd believe. A gift to prove the sincerity of his offer? It reeked of politics.

"Is Rose…"

"I assure you the Heir doesn't know I'm here. She'd disagree despite her best interests. It's unfair to you that she measures herself against you, but not as unfair as it is to herself."

Measure herself against her? While the princess was one of many, Harmony knew enough of Adric's childhood to know exactly what kind of resources and opportunities the princess had grown up with. Never needlessly hungry, cold, or discarded. No desperate blood on her hands. It was still praise from Hargreaves that was acceptable. Few people climbed Nae's Garden alone. Rose should aim so high, but maybe not be pissy about it.

Hyacinth, still wallowing in his treat, licked up a pool of white goo from one of the smooshed grubs. It's not like she wanted to go into the tunnels with him. And while the toad pretended to be ignoring the conversation, it was a ruse, and he wasn't dismissing the ancient spirit, but he also wasn't treating him as an active threat.

"Okay, I accept your deal. What are you offering in exchange?"

Hargreaves smiled a cold dead smile. Harmony doubted he could add warmth to it even if he tried. "Two pieces of information." He lifted his arm and pointed deeper into the valley. "That way is a spirit of rage who is guarding a gold coin. You might sense it on your journey but this saves you time. You have the tools to defeat it that I do not. The other is that if you find yourself needing to right any wrongs it is best to remove every last bit of the cause. Your profession is well suited for that kind of solution, Eraser."

That last bit was needlessly vague. The gold coin, though, does that mean she now owes Rose?

Hargreaves swiftly moved into the grub's warren before Harmony could force clarification.

"Ashed-stained politics!"

"Grupt?" Hyacinth asked.

"It's fine, let's go fight that spirit of rage." Hyacinth lept at her, shrinking mid-flight back to his carrying size, landing on her chest. "You are so rotting lazy." Harmony scolded him. Kicking off, she pushed forward to see if Hargreaves was right.

When the landscape shifted again to a black bog, smelling of rotten eggs, and yes a rage borne of misery and death, Harmony's necrotuned senses picked up on the spirit. Traveling though it was a dirty job. Her footsteps had her sinking up to her ankles and she would have sunk deeper if she moved slower or hadn't chilled the ground into a more solid state. Hargreaves with his uniform and shiny black boots would have been at risk. He might have said it was his inability to beat the spirit that was his reason for offering the trade, but he probably didn't want his shoes and pants cuffs covered in the smelly muck.

Stolen novel; please report.

Deep in the swamp, the spirit of rage stood out three men tall, making it about four Harmony's tall. Quasi-corporeal form, flesh that was not flesh, but enough of an undead material that [Manipulate Dead] knew it could work almost better than if she had a week-old corpse to play with. Six physical limbs around a core body like a starfish, but joined with four spectral ones that glowed a dull brown-orange for a total of ten. The gold coin couldn't be missed either, it sparkled as one shiny thing on the giant mass of black flesh and rotted-orange colored spirit bits right at the center where it was embedded under a sheaf of clear jelly preventing the errant idea you might be able to pluck the coin out with enough speed and strength.

The spirit of rage looked like a horrible monster. Flailing about, screaming in anger and pain, yet wasn't rushing out to attack. It seemed fairly fixed on the spot where it sat. Hazgul hadn't been the prettiest spirit either. All the experiences from the Deadwoods lent to spirits being unusual. Was this another test?

Harmony walked carefully closer. "Are you able to converse?" She asked loudly, lacing her words with death from her class in an attempt to pierce the wailing rage. Soul sight was still incomplete to the point where she couldn't find some metaphysical thorn in the lion's paw to full out. A splash of [Renew Spirit] might help, but the range she'd need to get close would have been dangerous. While curious about the possibility of this being something more than it seemed, it wasn't worth being stupid.

"ScREeeeeEeeeE!" Its arms waved more violently and lurched forward before snapping back due to a spiritual tether that flashed into existence to counter the movement. That caged it, still not enough of a sign fixing that would help and she needed that gold coin.

"That's not a friendly hello. May you find peace away from this bit of existence." Harmony got to work dissecting the problem. Rather than the clearer picture of impressions, soul sight was like watching an outline of a person through fabric on a sunny day or watching a naked person breathe, move, and have their heartbeat and guess what the organs are under that skin. More so, with experiences and rudimentary anatomy knowledge. Spirits and undead were annoyingly more diverse than humans, but she still got the picture. It produced no range attack to counter her efforts.

Harmony stepped into the range limits of what [Manipulate Dead] could reach and sheared off a bit of its dark fleshy covering. Now that made it angry, pushing forward and lashing out with its tentacles, only to be snapped back into place. That was with Harmony being gentle. The actual application of her skill was like a hot knife through butter with the ease she'd managed that, easier even than the spider corpses she'd worked on. Whittle it away at a distance?

First it's time to test Hargreaves's suggestion on what to do to him. Equal parts, [Cold Touch] - [Renew Spirit] - [Final Silence]. The range was shorter so two steps closer she slapped it with the combined skills. Immediate sluggishness took hold over it. Not that she doubted him, but one has to verify.

Hyacinth chirped impatiently so she set him down. With his reduced weight he didn't even sink into the mud and hopped happily off to chase some mosquitos while she tackled a little practice.

The next application of [Manipulate Dead] brought the monster raging back to consciousness. "EeeeeEEEEee!" Guess that wouldn't work as an anesthesia and instead, it created a trance-like state that could be interrupted. Great way to handle multiple undead opponents saving the sluggish ones for last. Now how well would [Disintegrate] mix in work here? "EeeeeeeSSkk!" The answer was excellent. One fleshy tentacle fell to the ground with a wet slap and continued to twitch.

Now it was really straining against the tether. This allowed for a clearer vision of it, nothing like she'd seen with soul sight before, a slip of constrained reality, the closest thing she could compare it to was the edge of Hyacinth's shadows when she traveled through with him. It flickered in and out a little as [Eternal Fable's Heart] beat too.

She couldn't do this all day. Eventually the game would be over. Harmony ripped into it near its core with [Manipulated Dead] Aiming to loosen the gold coin. The build-up of rage peaked, and as she suspected the tether snapped, sending the now nine-and-a-half-armed monster rushing toward her at high speeds.

It made too much sense not to allow competitors to destroy this kind of challenge from a distance. This was always a game and would limit the amount of damage you could do at range before it was allowed to enter the fight. A trap for ranged opponents who came across this, or those used to a support role. Things like necromancers were normally considered. The whole creature's situation was bait for a trap.

She could play that game too. [Stride Before the Fall]. Two seconds was nothing and everything. The level of power locked away had been disheartening, but not using it because of the long recharge time and the brief window was like choosing not to use your best cleaning tool because it wasn't at peak efficiency.

Unhooked, it was a speedy bastard, death would easily come in those two seconds. There was also a lesser-developed aspect of the [Stride]. Getting that extra burst as she accepted the end. As the bastard choked on her, as a big squirt drowned her, and in ridiculous defiance of Maekus Von Trell dying to stain his once red leather outfit a patchwork of colors.

The undead flesh collided with her and she let herself pass partway into the beast. This wouldn't work with a living opponent. But she had experience reaching in, healing, hurting, and modifying spirits. The lack of willingness made it a bit more difficult as her will pressed against the rage, but she was willing to die for it. Partway inside she became a bomb with [Disintegrate], [Final Silence], [Manipulate Dead], and all the skills she could grab onto at that moment sealed or not.

The beast was still massively bigger, as one harmony was snuffed out in a wave of crippling damage another was doing the finishing touches. Five more tentacles dropped into the mud sending the body toppling. Hyacinth, not to be left out, landed on its limbless core, shifting to its massive form before it landed.

If it wasn't undead, it would have been dead a long time ago. Here it took all that combined massive damage to feel it still.

Ten points earned for the red team!

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