After traveling for a few hours to the secluded spot, David sat down on the floor of the tunnel next to the pile of unconscious bodies that he had left previously.

"Do you still feel full of soul energy, Misery?," David asked through the mental link as he situated the things around him.

"Yes....very much so," Misery said happily, "...it feels wonderful."

David also felt that he was in peak condition right now. Their conditions messed to be perfect to perform the procedure of creating Misery's blood body.

"Okay.....now we will both need to work very hard to complete this whole process. From what I understand....it may hurt you a good bit.....but you should have a very functional body to use once everything is done with," David told Misery in preparation for what was about to happen.

The process that was given to David by his godmother of darkness was called the "Way of the Ker." The souls of people who experienced great pains in life could be converted into death spirits. These sort of spirits were rare and were used as a tool for battle.....the Ker tended to be really violent based on their general nature and the amount of trauma to their souls.

The process allowed for the Ker to form a physical body from the blood of the dead on battlefields. This body was called a blood body since it was basically made of the blood of the fallen soldiers. Since David didn't have a battlefield to use for blood, he planned to.....slaughter these seven men like pigs....to be used for Misery's blood body. David didn't feel bad about the whole ordeal...they were all bad people as far as he was concerned.

The procedures for the technique included a special method to modify a Blood Stone to house the blood body. Although this method wasn't necessary, it did make keeping a Ker spirit around...much more convenient. This method would allow the blood body to be stored when not in use and would also provide a stronger base for the development of the death spirit.

Without the Blood Stone, Misery would need to be present in the physical world at all times because the other method crystallizes its own blood crystal from the soul of another person and the available blood in order to house the Ker's soul. If Misery needed to go back into David's soul space...then she would have to forfeit the body entirely and go through the painful process again....every time she wanted a body.

Using the Blood Stone, she could bounce back and fourth from the real world and David's soul space....with nothing lost along the way.

Reaching into his pocket, David pulled out three small thumbnail sized blood stones. These stones should be enough to get the job done for Misery's new body.

The entire process would be much smoother if David successfully prepared the blood stone. If he failed, then he always had the other option.

The whole process of preparing the blood stone was similar to the way that David had etched the patterns on Misery's soul when they first created the pact between the two of them. But instead of etching a soul....he was etching with his soul on the condensed heavenly energy within the stone.

After reviewing the information in his head several times, David entered the soul space and focused in on his immediate area. The three blood stones in his hand were visible as small glowing orbs. The little heavenly stones had a slight red tint to their glow.

With his soul concentration, David began to focus in on the first blood stone.

With his soul focused down to a pinpoint at his fingertip, David began to write symbols from the technique on the condensed energy inside the Blood Stone. The effort was both tiring and very painful for David. The symbols were etched with great care, but after a few minutes the blood stone started to break apart in David's hand. A snap reverberated through David's soul with a flash of intense pain.

David's concentration came back to reality in time to see the stone crumble. With the dust of the stone sifting through his fingers, David was very disappointed that he had failed his first attempt.

He immediately went back to the soul space and focused in on the second blood stone. Maybe he was a bit too quick and forceful the first time. This time he went very slow as the patterns were etched on the glowing orb in the soul space. After a few minutes of excruciating pain, David actually completed the etching of the blood stone....but he wasn't done yet. He still had to connect the stone to Misery.

"Misery, come here quick," David said in the soul space," I want you to touch this orb and insert yourself into it....just like a dream orb....prepare yourself....it's going to hurt a bit."

Misery moved over to the small orb from the blood stone. She hesitated for only a second before reaching out an touching the orb. Her soul was instantly pulled inside.

All of a sudden, David could feel Misery's voice echoing in his head. She was in pain.

"Night.....this hurts...hurry," Misery's pleading voice echoed in David's mind.

He needed to give her a body quick.

David exited the soul space and quickly stood over one of the slaves.

David pulled a spider fang from his bag and stabbed a small hole in the back of the man's head. He placed the blood stone that now housed Misery's soul into the hole in the back of the still living man's head.

"Misery, fight off this soul, destroy and consume it, and the body will be yours," David screamed though the two's soul connection.

David could instantly feel a battle underway through the connection. However, he felt no worry from Misery. At this point her soul strength was great enough to rival a Demigod's....so it didn't take long before David noticed that the struggle stopped.

The recently deceased slave's body moved into a seated position.

"Fuck....," came a soft manly voice, "That hurt....What the fuck is wrong with my voice?"

"Yep....you have a body....but not one that you probably would want," David said to let Misery freak out a bit.

"What the hell?...damn it.....I'm am some weird guy....What the fuck happened, Night?," Misery said kind of pissed off as she inspected her physical form.

"Don't worry. This part is only the first step. Usually, you would have to condense a body out of blood....this is kind of a cheater method. As you absorb more blood and carnage from battlefields.....you will have the ability to manipulate the blood body as you see fit. Also, you will have the ability to revert back to the Blood Stone anytime you want. If we find a different body for you later.....we can always switch. I just take the Blood Stone out and pop it into someone else's skull. Try moving around," David instructed.

The method essentially allowed Misery's soul to be transferred to the Blood Stone. The Blood Stone was used as a conduit to connect with other bodies or pools of blood. The method also allowed the body to absorb power from blood or the souls of the dead. The more blood absorbed then the stronger Misery would get. This method also had one really neat trick that David thought was exceptional.

"Misery, I am about to try something...don't freak out," David said as he reached out with his soul and caused a reaction from the blood stone. The man's body started to dissolve into the blood stone....leaving nothing but a brighter colored blood stone sitting on the cave floor. Not a single trace of the body existed. David reaches down and picked up the Blood Stone.

"Night.....What happened?," Misery's voice echoed into his mind.

"The blood and flesh from the body was absorbed into the blood stone through the formation that is etched inside of it. Similar to the way your soul entered...Blood can be stored inside," David said as he entered his souls space.

With a thought, Misery popped out of the blood stone and back into David's souls space. Misery was excited.

"So, I can even come back here...great.....this place is like my home anyway," Misery said.

"Yes...the method even has a way to split your soul so that one half can reside here and one half can live in a body outside...but you are far from strong enough to do that anytime soon," David said with a laugh.

"Really? So how does this whole body swapping work?," Misery asked David.

"Basically, you are attached to my soul. The soul stone is etched with part of my soul in a particular way that allows you to move to the stone just like inside my soul. If I didn't have the stone, I would have to etch a different pattern on a living body.....then let you fight it out with the soul inside and consume it. Then you would need a lot of blood to condense your own crystal. Using the Blood Stone is much safer and the final product is more ideal from the information that I have. The Blood Stone that possesses your soul can be used like I just did.....to take over an existing body...or it can be used to store blood.....then create a body out of that according to our wishes....Like this," David said as he concentrated on the blood stone in his hand.

Misery's soul was forced back into the blood stone. Some blood essence from the stone was released and began forming a rough form of a body. The body was filling in to the exquisite curves of Misery, but was slightly lacking.

David spoke to Misery through the mental connection, "You take over from here. Use the power from your soul to manipulate the forming blood body....just like you would do in the soul space."

David looked down and picked up Head Guard Helio's sword off the ground....then he slit two of the other loyal slave's throat. The blood flowed out like a fountain, but was strangely pulled towards Misery's forming figure off to the side.

With the additional blood, Misery's body started to show signs of skin forming.

All of a sudden, Misery screamed.....it wasn't a scream of fear or terror.....it was a scream of happyness. She had her own body again. She stood there twirling around in the tunnel. Then she moved over and gave David a big hug.

"Misery...Misery...you're naked," David said a few seconds into the hug.

"Eeeeee...How do I get clothes?," Misery asked while backing away and trying to cover the most private areas of her naked body.

"You just have to picture them in your soul and force the connection to the blood body to change your appearance. Try it...or you can just stand there naked...you are very pretty you know," David said laughingly.

"Ugggh," Misery muttered before closing her eyes and concentrating. After a few minutes, Misery stood in front of David in a fully clothed form.

"Night, I feel a little tired," Misery said to David as she sat on the ground.

"Of course....you just exerted a ton of energy. Here," David said as he tossed the sword over to Misery, "Kill the rest of them and absorb the blood.....all of them except the guard.....we need his body for another part of the plan."

It didn't take Misery long to dispose of the rest bodies. One thing that David was surprised about was the level of violence she brought to the men. When David killed the two, he simply cut their throats...Misery just jacked away like a mad woman.

Reflecting back in the information he had, David started to realize that the word violent was used pretty frequently in the description of the Ker. Maybe he had overlooked it before....but seeing Misery butcher the bodies....he realized that the whole process might have influenced her mentality....slightly.