“Nate the time is almost up. My Roots shall be letting go soon.” The Dryad warned.

  “NO MORE PAIN!”

  Hercules thrashed around his voice, oddly familiar to Nate. He didn’t have time to ponder on the matter. The magic of the snare was slowly fading away. Lupita’s fangs were causing damage but not enough to kill it. Mind reeling he searched for a solution. He needed it dead or delayed enough of the others. He’d only know once Karah returned.

  A voice bubbled up to his ears. Theodora was in the position of a commander. She had explained that her magic was focused on preparation. So long as Nate did not have the refined form of the magic circle provided by The Black Hand she couldn’t often help in a direct fight.

  Necromancers didn’t close distance and the first of her magic held the requirement of physical contact. She could perform this in her spiritual form but she lacked direct combat power. One swipe from anything magically charged would send her into recovery within the room.

  “Touch him while he’s down. I shan’t be able to corrupt him fully but weakening him is viable.”

  He felt each of her words not just as sound, though that was husky and deep. It was closer in a way to a command. Unbeknownst to him this was the power of her corruption leaking along with her voice. If not for the contract protecting him it would have poisoned his mind. Pushing him to do anything that she ordered.

  “Boudica protect me. I’ll go for it.”

  He clung to the few moments that he would have. As he approached the first of the branches and thorns faded. A controlled retreat by the Dryad that favored his approach. Only in favorable contracts could they so easily control these aspects of the their magic.

  The thorns were fading just by the face as he reached there. Hercules whipped his head up attempting to bite Nate in half. The head was met with a sharp shield bash from Boudica forcing him deep into the tiles. Without any preamble he touched the giant.

  Theodora’s first power. Corruption. A mental projection spiraled out empowered with magic. Lines of spiritual energy loosely grasped within the construct's hands. All she needed to do was harness the mind of the creature. Unlike her weak physical form within the mind she was a true Queen. No, need for her subjects.

  She delved deep into an emptiness but it seemed unending. Face paling she started to feel the magic and the spiritual connection that was present. Normal humans had their souls centrally located. The outer body acts as a vessel and protector for the soul. Wrapped further within was the mind a second layer that was ethereal in a way acting as a bridge between the two layers.

  Spirits unearthed from their physical body was a fusion of this mind and soul. Lacking the normal physical body that a human, monster, or animal possessed they were limited in manifestation. Most times completely blocked from doing so without a contract or a special terrain.

  Theodora’s power allowed her to break through these layers. Tainting the connector or in other terms the mind. When acting as the go between it would wear away or completely change both the body and spirit. For spirits whose mind became the sole vessel infecting the mind was as good as infecting the spirit directly.

  She found herself not within the mind. Some unholy technique had been deployed. What she had passed through on her way within was not just a body, surprising as that might be, but also a spirit. Within the center of its being buried where one’s soul should be was the mind. A boy smaller than her master but around the same age.

  Curled into a ball his brown hair was whipped with sweat. This was wrong. This was monstrous. To Theodora he was a contradiction that should not exist. He was defying what she knew of a person. Nate had no ability to contact her and all of this was taking only seconds to happen.

  Queen was not just a title it held a greater meaning. That she must know once given an impossible task how to answer. She had done this long before her corruption. Reaching out she touched his face. Venomous Corruption coursed hot from her fingertips into his mental veins. He was rejecting his body and spirit. The two were controlling him, discounting him. This was all she needed to boost.

  In others she might twist the type of person that they were, increase any number of exchanges between the soul and body, or what kind of creature they fundamentally were. Here, it was basic, not even needing a high degree of strain or power.

  “I’m out. Get back now!”

  Theodora’s warning didn’t leave time for Nate to act. Luckily Boudica had been Theodora’s knight for some time. Hercules arms were released and he lunged forward. Boudica’s shield disappeared and she tackled Nate backwards. The purple goop spread out across the ground sending the two twirling into the distance.

  Nate’s left arm brought them to a stop against a wall. Mind spinning he looked up, sure to find Hercules looming over them, ready to strike down upon them. Within his eyes no such shape filled his view. Instead Boudica was still grappling across his chest, a shield sprouting from her back. Eyes held tight ready for the impact.

  “Open your eyes, something's wrong.”

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  “Huh, oh, yes sir.”

  For a moment she hesitated giving his body an extra squeeze before unlatching from him. At some point within the highspeed slide she’d managed to wrap off four limbs around his body. She stood up first blocking the way just in case.

  Nate followed gazing over at the giant who now stood the vacant stare that once persisted within its eyes flickering back and forth. Some hidden war was playing out within the behemoth's body. Some trick delivered by Theodora.

  “What did you do?”

  “It seemed whatever happened to him was unwilling. I just gave him the boost he needed to fight back.”

  “So you made him stronger?”

  “Not all strength is a boon. Sometimes it is a poison all its own.”

  “What, where am I? Who, what is going on?”

  Hercules' voice was clearer, coming out coherent and intelligent. His shoulder slammed into the wall as he wobbled about. Whatever once carried his body was too far outside of what he had become. The wall toppled over as he fell to his side.

  Nate felt now was the time whilst he was down and unable to react he could finish this creature. It was a kindness if he truly did not wish for this life he would assist him. Even as he told himself such things he could not draw upon his power to deal the blow. Loading Lupita’s magic into the wand should give him enough power to bust through its neck.

  Rolling wildly on the ground, panic filled its throat along with moans and wails. Terror was rushing about its body like a maddened horse. Wisps of smoke billowed up off its body. Pain collapses down upon it along with the barriers between its soul, body, and mind.

  “Dryad, can you snare him without hurting him?”

  “Yes, Contractor.”

  “Do it. SNARE.”

  The magic ran once more down the wand. This time he communicated for the Thorn Wood to keep him within a certain range. It tangled around him, pain preventing him from resisting as he had before. The confusion of the three parts that made up his body made him easy to capture.

  Approaching closer Nate gaze at his face some semblance of someone he knew lay within. Hercules’ own eyes wheeled about the light, within, resting upon Nate. At first nothing sparked within but then understanding dawned upon its face.

  “Boss, what's wrong with me?”

  The voice was deeper, the body close to doubling his size, but it was unmistakable. It was Kent. Nate felt his body shaking, he’d been mad. Filled with rage over his fathers death, and the Necro’s part to play. Yet, it had felt so far away. Two years of mourning and struggle. He even had his soul back. One way of looking at it he simply had been on vacation for two years.

  Rage filled tears rolled down his face as he dropped to his knees. What he’d done here the way he’d been changed. Nate knew this wasn’t something simple. His mind had been pushed far enough down that he had been rendered a mindless husk.

  “It hurts, boss. Why does it hurt so much?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. We were always together, even when you could have left. You stuck by my side.”

  “AHH, Please boss help me.”

  His body twisted in place. His mind wasn’t able to properly control the strength of his mutated body. As he shifted, muscles tore and ripped. Blood leaked across the floor as his physical form was rejected by his mind. Somewhere within his spirit bounced back and forth between the walls of the mind and body.

  “Listen Partner. Focus can you do that for me.”

  “ARGH, stop this, no I.”

  *SMACK*

  Nate punched him as hard as he could in the face. In that moment his spiraling eyes darted up wide and clear. He didn’t have much time, the impacts of his dislocated soul would grow worse.

  “Focus.”

  “Nate? Boss.”

  “No, time to explain. Do you want me to end it, or risk it to try and get you back?”

  “Nate, Na… Nate. I ain’t ever given up. I’m going to beat you one day.”

  “And at that time I won’t let you win.”

  Within his mind he pulled upon Theodora’s power once more. He didn’t know enough about Necromancy to save him. What he could tell was that he would die if this kept up. There was only one state he knew wouldn’t actively kill him.

  “Are you sure? I know not if I shall be able to restore him to such clarity once more.” Theodora asked.

  “Don’t worry, I promise to bring you back.”

  “And you always keep your promises.”

  Kent drifted away as Theodora went in and took back her power. Unlike the last time no quick get away was needed. His body was torn, ruptured, something only its creator might be able to heal. Nate stood up canceling out the thorn wood snare.

  “How did it all end up this way?”

  Boudica kept quiet; she knew he wasn’t talking to her. Lupita brought her back in before replacing her on the outside. She grasped his arm soothingly brushing his shoulder. It was the most anyone could do.

  “Nate, we need to find the others.”

  “The others? I brought this upon them. That eye led him here to kill me.”

  “Then was it better for me to remain within that house?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then you have to save your friend, just as you did with me. Just as you have done for each of us who have signed a contract with you.”

  Nate looked down at Lupita, composure returning to his face. He’d let his anger burn away into sorrow, the lines blurring where the two met. Reaching a hand out he stroked her soft head. She attempted to not look pleased as her eyes scrunched and darted around.

  “Sir, where did the Mayor's body go? I was certain that I had crushed and sliced him to death.”

  “Shit. Let's go, obviously he wouldn’t have gone in without something special.”