Aurelia smiled, retracting her hand. “Ah, yes, I forgot you cannot touch me.”

“What do you want from me?” Red repeated his question.

“I want to collaborate, of course.” the woman said. “We are both in unfortunate positions, so it only makes sense that we should help each other.”

“The answer is no.” Red shot her down without hesitation.

Aurelia frowned. “You would deny it without even listening to the proposition first?”

“I don’t need to hear it.” Red shook his head. “There is nothing I need from you right now, and it would be stupid of me to collaborate with not only a ghost, but a ghost that tried to kill me before.”

The woman’s expression worsened. “You say that even after your collaboration with the necromancer?”

“If you know about it, then you should be aware it was never willing on my part.”

Red’s concerns were simple. This was a ghost of a cultivator who was potentially very strong when she was alive and was far more knowledgeable than the youth, making it very likely that he could at one point be tricked and backstabbed. After his experiences with a certain crimson being and a necromancer, Red decided he would never jump headfirst into a collaboration where he was the weaker and less informed party.

There were already too many dangers and volatile factors for him to worry about, and it was unwise to add more to the mix.

Aurelia’s expression suddenly relaxed as her anger faded away. Instead, she regarded Red with an amused gaze. “Well, I can’t say I was expecting a different answer from you. Unfortunately, you don’t really have a choice on the matter.”

Red tensed. “Do you mean to force my hand?”

Although she was a ghost, the youth didn’t believe her to be completely harmless.

She shook her head. “I don’t need to. Let me ask you this: why do you think I spent all these years watching you?”

Red frowned. “To steal my secrets.”

“Oh, you do have interesting secrets, but what use are they to me in my condition?” Aurelia said. “Do you think I would waste seven years of my time spying on a teenage mortal when I could instead be searching for a way to retake corporeal form?”

Red had to admit this didn’t make much sense, but that was only under the guise that he believed her motivations of regaining her body in the first place. Who knew if she had any type of secret objective the youth knew nothing about?

Still, he decided to play along. “You mean you didn’t have a choice but to spy on me? How could someone be forced into that kind of situation in the first place?”

Aurelia smiled. “Well, you tell me. You were the one who put me in this situation to begin with.”

Red frowned. “What do you mean?”

The woman didn’t respond. Instead, she started to walk towards him, putting Red on guard. When she was within two meters of the youth, her form began to shimmer before transforming into a mass of green light that flowed into his hand. Or rather, the object he was holding in his grip.

The insectoid core.

Red almost dropped the crystal out of surprise. When nothing happened, though, he brought the core in front of his eyes to examine. Nothing seemed out of ordinary with the crystal, but upon closer examination, the youth saw something shimmer on its surface.

A human silhouette.

Red’s eyes widened in surprise, but the image disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

“I’m bound to your crystal.” the woman’s voice came from behind him.

Red turned around and saw she had retaken her form without his notice and was sitting cross-legged again on a tree stump.

The youth frowned in skepticism. “How is that possible?”

She smiled. “You were the one who absorbed me into this core. Shouldn’t you understand how this works?”

Red’s expression worsened.

Aurelia shook her head. “They still haven’t explained anything to you, have they?”

Red frowned. “You know the necromancer?”

He didn’t really meet face to face with the being over the last seven years, so he knew for certain the woman wouldn’t have seen them while spying on Red.

The woman sighed. “You still don’t get it?”

“Get what?” Red frowned.

“It was all planned.” the woman said. “The floating head attack, the possession of your companions… It was all part of the necromancer’s schemes.”

Red fell silent. Of course, he suspected as much in the past, but it was another thing when someone else corroborated his suspicions.

“Why would they do that?” he asked.

“Because he wanted to force your hand.” Aurelia said. “He wanted you to absorb the ghosts into the crystal so he would have spies at your side that could keep him informed about what you were doing. In truth, what you did wasn’t really exorcise the ghosts from your companion’s bodies as much as it was to bind them to the crystal.”

Red frowned. “Then the other two ghosts I exorcised are also inside this crystal?”

“They were.”

“Were?”

Aurelia smiled. “Yes. I have destroyed and absorbed their essence since then. Although it is hard for me to interact with the material world, the same can’t be said for interacting with other ghosts.”

“So the fight I had with you and them was all an act?”

“Against me, yes. If I wanted to, I could have easily killed you all.” the woman said with an arrogant expression. “The others were mere distractions to not raise your suspicion, so they were not aware of the necromancer’s plan.”

The youth was silent for a few seconds. “… You have been informing the necromancer about what I have been doing?”

“A lot of it, yes.” The woman didn’t even attempt to deny it. “Though they seemed to be most interested in your curse and progress in cultivation.”

“Then you informed them about my demonification too?”

Aurelia scoffed. “Would you even believe me if I told you I didn’t?”

Red was, of course, skeptical. “Why wouldn’t you do it?”

“Because I have a brain.” she said. “Never once did the necromancer ask me anything about your demonification, or peculiar powers, which seemed strange to me and pointed towards them being completely unaware of it. This is not to mention the fact that necromancers and demonic cultivators have never gotten along, so it was even more suspicious. If I told them about it, they might have done something drastic to you, and by then what would happen to me, bound to this crystal?”

It was a reasonable explanation, as far as Red could tell, but he obviously would never take anything a stranger said at face value, much more so from a cultivator.

“Why did you help them?” Red asked.

“Because I wanted to get out of that damn head, of course.” Aurelia said. “Anything was preferable to that tormentous prison of insane spirits. It took me all of my will and fortitude to resist the corruption of the warden and his evil spirits, so of course I took the first opportunity offered to me to leave that place.”

“And then you suddenly decided to betray the necromancer and try to collaborate with me?”

The woman shrugged. “I wasn’t expecting to be able to make contact with you this soon, so it was a convenient opportunity. But no, it was always my plan to seek assistance outside of that necromancer. I would be a fool to entrust my fate to someone like that.”

Red stared at her with a steely gaze. “I assume it would be much easier to rely on someone you can easily manipulate.”

She smiled with an arrogant expression. “You give yourself too little credit. Besides, I am being honest about my intentions, am I not? This is a mutually beneficial alliance. You can’t call it manipulation.”

“It is not difficult to manipulate someone who is not aware of the entire picture.” Red shook his head. “My answer is still no.”

Aurelia sighed. “Red, I know the kind of person you are. Desiring freedom and independence, but bound by circumstance to forces beyond your reach and understanding. I can’t have claimed to have ever been involved with both necromancers and demons, but I understand your feeling of helplessness. I was caught up in the political struggles of my sect, and foolishly enough, I thought I could rise above their pettiness and focus on my own growth. I already told you how that ended up, didn’t I?”

“… You were assassinated.”

“Indeed.” she nodded. “Even now I must applaud my enemies’ boldness, but I had enough time to understand where I failed. I underestimated the powers that rule this world.”

Red frowned, but remained silent.

The woman continued. “While conflicts raged around me, I sought to ignore them and make my own path. Even if my enemies attacked me, I had the protection of my own faction to assure my safety. Yet, in doing so, I got too arrogant and complacent. I thought myself untouchable, much more so when I was the first of my generation to break into the fourth realm, and distanced myself more and more from these conflicts. That only made me an easier target.”

“So the elders of the rival faction killed you once you distanced yourself from the disputes?” Red asked.

“That is what I’d like to believe, what I convinced myself of in the many years I had to reflect on my own death.” Aurelia frowned. “However, chances are that it might have been my own faction that was behind the assassination. Perhaps they saw my distancing as a sign that I joined the opposing faction, or maybe they simply decided to kill me on the off chance I would do so in the future. The mere fact I can’t discard the possibility that my own allies killed me is enough to tell you how ignorant and naïve I was in dealing with the situation.”

The woman got up and started to walk around, waving her incorporeal hand through the tree trunks.

She continued. “I thought it would be best to distance myself from politics and inner conflict, for my own safety and interests. But I was wrong, oh so wrong. The powers that rule this world, this Empire, the sects, even your necromancer, their influence go beyond the spells they can throw out of their own hands. To think one can rise above their dominion and carve their own path is pure and foolish arrogance. The mere fact you were born in this world means you are already a part of their game, whether or not you wish to. You can’t ignore their wars, their disputes, their interests. You have to play their game, grasp every opportunity you have to rise in both power and influence, and then maybe one day you can be part of the select few that rule this world.” She paused, looking at Red with a deep, meaningful gaze. “Do you understand what I’m saying, Red?”

The youth didn’t respond.

Aurelia smiled and approached Red, circling around his figure as if appraising an exotic animal. “You are already caught too deep in powers beyond your understanding. This peace you have is a mere illusion. You have no independence. You have no freedom. Not as long as you are this weak. All that allows you to remain living is the fact you are of more interest to certain powerful individuals alive rather than dead. Yet, all it takes is a single move on their part, a simple change in mood for you to die without even being aware of the fatal blow. If you want to stay alive, you will have to throw your lot with someone, to throw away your pride and arrogance and make a bet that will allow you to live another day and find the hope you seek to be free. You need the help of someone powerful and knowledgeable that will protect and guide you until you can look after yourself… You need my help.”

She stopped in front of Red, no more than a meter away from him, and stared at the youth with a smile that seemed to hide deep intentions behind it.

“I am the only option you have.” she said. “I am the only one that knows your secrets and sees you for what you are. The only one that will not kill or imprison you after finding out your true nature. I am the only one that can help you, and in turn, Red, you are the only one that can help me.”

“… What do you want?” Red asked once more.

She smiled. “I already told you before, didn’t I? I want a body.”