Only after a short amount of time, the now concerned voice asked: “You don’t mean to stay here for two hundred years, right?”. Res didn’t bother to answer and stayed in his meditating position. “I am the wrong person for this job.”

Res perked up at the opportunity to get information about the being: “If you explain your situation, I will consider leaving.”

“Great, you will leave if I only tell you my story?”

“No, I … ”

“It’s so good to come to a compromise. You see, I am the first King of Trianon.” The voice paused as if Res should bow down in awe, but Res stayed silent. “Hehem. I would have expected more of a reaction out of that. It isn’t like the strongest king of all time told you he is living in a crystal.”

In a monotone voice, Res stated: “Continue.”

The voice seemed flustered for a moment but gave in: “I was a fucking badass as a king. I started as a simple merchant’s son but developed into an S++++ Tier. You may also know it as the legendary god-tier.” The voice, presumably of the king, stopped again as if to gage Res’s reaction. “Hehem. You are not a very excitable fellow, are you?”

The king waited for a response again but got none. “Never mind. I transformed into a total badass and built Trianon from the ground up. Trianon was kind of powerful and then BAM! The eastern kingdom attacked. I stood on the crenellations and shouted: ‘I will not allow you to kill my citizens!’ and everybody loved me. Especially the ladies. You know, being king also has its benefits if you know what I mean. There were sleepless nights and … ”

“Get to the point already.”

“Ok, ok calm down. So, I was the epic king on the crenellations and then I slaughtered their army by myself. You should have seen me. I was mowing through their ranks like I was cutting weed. That was fucking tight.”

“I don’t know if killing thousands of people is ‘tight’.”

“Woah, they attacked first, ok? The soldiers should have known that someone as sick as me would defend Trianon. No matter what. After that, I destroyed their capital with like a giant meteor. Dude, I did it like it was nothing. I flew in the air and then Bam! Meteor! I went back to Trianon and met a hot chick. I thought nothing of it and we had a good night. Somehow, she had gotten her hands on extraterrestrial umbrich feces concentrate. Nasty stuff. When I fell asleep, she inserted it into my body. The next thing I knew was waking up in this crystal. Some old man said that they were sealing me up for: ‘The good of mankind’. I still don’t know why I endanger humanity. But I don’t care about that anymore. I have come to like it in my crystal. I can create my own little paradise in it. Every once in a while, I have to rate the capability of some noble brats but that is a tradeoff. When they leave, I once again have my little paradise to myself. Now that our trade is finished, please walk through the door on your right.”

On the left of Res formed a door with a bright light emanating from it. A huge smile began to spread on Res’s face: “I have found my paradise too. I’ll look forward to 150 years of darkness.”

The cheerful voice changed to a panicked pitch: “No man, you can’t do that. I told you everything.”

“I said I would consider it.”

“Please, I can’t move in this small room – I will go insane.”

“That is a risk I am willing to take.”

His comment gave the voice the final push and it began to rage: “How dare you attack your king? You should bow in front of me!”

Res ignored his surroundings and began to retreat into himself. Only when the voice’s volume turned down, he listened again. “Look, man, we are both in a shitty situation and … ”

“Let’s clarify that. You are in a shitty situation and I am in paradise.”

The king let out an angry grunt and cried out when he saw that Res was lying down to think. “Wait, don’t do another meditating session. I wouldn’t be able to endure nothingness. I can … I can. What are the powers of a ghost again? Ahh yes, I can clean you.”

“What? No, I don’t need another servant.”

“Not like that. I can clean your body from impurities in your aether channels.” He knew that potions cleaning the aether channels sold for platinum coins. If he had been interested in becoming an elite guard, he might have agreed.

“Sorry, Mr. King. I am more of the thinker type and 150 years are too valuable.”

“I will die if you do that.”

“Didn’t you say you were a ghost?”

The silence stretched on until the king admitted: “Shouldn’t have told you that. Wait, you will kill thousands of small children if you destroy me.” A smile stretched across his face when he thought about what absurd excuse the king would come up with.

“Why is that?”

“Look, pal. Back in my day, no one knew one’s potential and everyone got the same amount of resources. What you don’t know is that aether deadly to most people. If normal people channel aether, they explode like a grape. I have seen it many times in my day. Young mothers brought their children to a martial art school, hoping they one day will become strong and rich. In my days, they called the first day the: ‘Bloody Monday’. It wasn’t fun watching women seeing their child explode into fleshy bits. Even if they didn’t explode in their training, they might puff up in a bloody mist in the middle of a fight.”

“There are hundreds of crystal balls that gage talent. You only look fancy. Everyone must die one day and you still have 150 years left.”

Res thought the discussion was over, but he could still hear faint noises. *Beep Bop Beep Beep*. A voice other than the kings resounded through the labyrinth. “Hello, this is the customer support center of helpmeiamaghost.com. My name is Bryan, how can I help you?”

The king answered: “Hello, my ghost crystal is currently occupied by a human who doesn’t want to leave, what can I do?”

“Have you already offered your visitor an aether channel cleaning?”

“Yes, he declined. He is a kind of philosopher and wants to profit from the time dilation.” The other person whispered with another person in the room, but Res couldn’t make out the words. It sounded like the voices agreed on a point and the voice spoke again. “Oh, sorry. Bssskskskss. Your connection is bad. Bsskksksks. I can’t hear you anymore. Bskskskss. I will have to hang up. Bye!” *Beep Beep Beeep*.

The sound of an object being thrown at a wall and the king’s voice could be heard. “When push comes to shove, they drop their customers. I can’t believe it. I trusted their website. They even had a video of a beautiful woman who likes the company.”

Res hadn’t understood many of the words the king spoke and asked: “King? What happened?”

A predatory gaze landed on him. “Article 1 of the ghost rights: ‘Never possess any human’. If I don’t break the taboo I’ll die anyway.”

Shivers ran down Res’s arms. “Mr. King what are you … “

Before Res could ask any more questions, a strange force began to crawl up his arm. He didn’t need the nausea that now wrecked his body to realize that that force was bad. He tried everything: binding parts of his arm off with pieces of cloth, willing the intruder away, and shouting magic words. Nothing worked. Waves of pain shot through his body and Res threw up.

The regions the small pumping ball of energy passed went numb. Veins bulged out from the numb parts and they began to jitter. The realization hit him like a ton of bricks – He was being possessed. The energy inched towards its final destination. His brain. When the energy reached his neck, the pain climbed up to intolerable levels. He couldn’t bear the pain anymore. Together with all his hope, he fled into the comforting darkness of his mind. Res felt like ages passed as he floated in the dark abyss and nothing happened.

“Did the possession fail?”

Finally, he determined that the pain was worth knowing what had happened to his body. When Res left the abyss, he found himself in the spot where his physical body had stood on the stage. All around him, hang a deathly silence. A look down at his hands revealed the previous round crystal ball scattered all around him.

The first thought that flittered through his mind was: “I am done for.”