Kara stood in front of the storm in her own cursed body. How pitiful and empty it felt, now that she had tasted the pleasure of owning a real body.

The storm cracked and blistered, spitting water, lightning, and harsh winds. It was over lavish with rowdy energy slithering over each other--enough to lift a mountain, as her father used to say.

Thousands of different Sources enthralled within each other. The path to it was so convoluted and twisted that it was a near impossibility to tap into any of it. The Mage would not only be forced to tap into multiple types of Sources: Thermal, Electrical, Kinetic, and Gravitational, but also able to follow that connection while a hundred wires overlapped it.

Because there was no way to interact with the chaos, any type of energy of a lesser concentration that enters the barrier will also be lost in the storm.

Interconnecting Sources, such as what the storm has, was one way Mages countered other Mages when building magical devices or clothes.

That really beckoned the question, however. Just how is she able to pass it with her Death Siren’s Soul? Why was it immune to Energy? In fact, what are Sirens? How come they could blatantly break the rules?

With a click of her tongue, Kara gave up on the matter. No point about fretting about unknown answers while her new body might break itself somewhere off.

Him, it, her, or whatever the hell it was, was too important to let go, now that she had made it a Dancer. She didn’t know how rare they were, and how hard they were to tame, but after a few days of fighting, it was the only one she had felt to be compatible with her.

When she had failed to use Death Siren’s Acquisition on it, a notification informed her that the creature had gained resistance to her for the next three days.

That was fine. She had an inkling that the reason why she failed to take over was because of the large distance between her body and her Soul. Until the end of this Mission she'll watch over him, and once he nears her body she'll have another go.

It's been 15 minutes since she had left him--surely he can stay alive for that much time.

During her rest, Kara came back to find out that Caldain’s division, and by some odd extension, the soldiers she was supposed to also command over, were found circling the storm.

The poor lot were reduced to a third of their original number.

Trauma had a lot shaken up. Organizing, feeding, and housing them were apparently her responsibilities. She humored the thought of creating a Song that would heal them, but then quickly laughed the idea off.

Gently lulling the hurt soldiers into peace did not fit her image.

One interesting thing she found that Sirens had specializations.

Choosing a Dancer has opened an additional Dynamic: Pianississimo.

Pianississimo is the softest Dynamic for a Siren. Instead of your Notes impacting entire battlefields, your Notes will be impacting a handful of individuals in a more concentrated manner.

Reliably, Kara assumed that the ranges went from PPP to FFF, from a single person to an army.

She held off on picking that particular Dynamic specialization, which presumably did limit its usages and growth. There was a high risk in investing in a few people, and currently, she only had one pitiful level 20 monster that did not seem to be able to level.

While his foolishness did make Kara hesitate in further wasting her time on him, control of his body did offer her a solace no other alternative was able to accomplish.

She needed to find a way in order to control him.

It. Damn this is messing me up.

Her feet dropped to the floor, laying on the wet grass once again. She had found a suitable spot within a dense line of trees, close enough to the storm, but still concealed from anyone's sight.

Before had used Death Siren's Soul, Kara first had to activate her necklace. A silver ring ran aroud her neck, and then made a circle of 14 creamy white beads rested on top of her chest, their glow a rich yellow. In the center of that circle, connecting all the pears, was a radiant ruby gem.

(Unique) Sustained Fleshmaster Ruby

Equipment Type: Necklace Accessory

Equipment Star Level: ★★★★★-★★

Using the necklace will cause Fleshmaster to activate, siphoning Life Force from the Pearls.

Life Force Capacity: /850

The gem has a very high affinity with Life Force, naturally replenishing itself from its surroundings.

While this was a very useful technique to use while sleeping or when she left her body, it, unfortunately, could not be used while she was moving. Because the Ruby was connected to the Pearls, it would only activate with the Life Force of the Pearls it is connected to, meaning that she could not control it.

In situations where an upward of 100 Life Force was required to mend bones or re-glue torn muscle, the necklace was not able to meet the demand.

It did, however, give her approximately 212 minutes of mostly uninterrupted sleep. Each minute required roughly 10 Life Force, and taking in the extremely high 6 Life Force regen of the necklace itself, sleeping costed her 4 Life Force per minute.

It was worth the price, both in slot and gold. It was a large hit to her combat power, considering that the necklace was Soul-Bound, preventing her from wearing any other necklace until she destroyed this one, but living without it is just a nightmare.

The memories where she could only shut her eyes for a few minutes before feeling her body diminish into sour pudding lingered on her mind. No sleep was restful, like a speck of rain into a desert. Weakness, lethargy, and the dreadful sadness that came with it...

Kara sucked in a breath, closing her eyes.

The memories of having a body were coming back, but instead of filling her with warmth all she felt was resentment.

Channel it, Kara. All the pain and suffering, all your envy and desire. It's your most powerful Source. It kept you alive through death, second by second. It won't fail me now, not when I'm so fucking close.

Instincts told her that the method in which she expressed her Notes was also a specification she could pick. If that was the case, then voice and instruments were the obvious ones. There must be one for humming.

After all, it was a tad difficult to hold a sword in one hand and the piano in the other, and she would not get caught signing in public.

Breathing deeply, Kara focused on the vertigo swirling within her lungs. Instead of constraining and exerting strength over it, as she would do for normal Sources, she instead let the sounds and movement flow into her consciousness, becoming a part of it. As it mixed with her, she also fell deeper into it, like water parting as she descended into the ocean's depth.

The deeper she sunk, the further weight she shed. Her burdens, the chains to her limbs, slipped off as a coolness took over. She felt light, energetic, and most of all, in peace.

Being in Soul form, however, did not mean Kara had shed all her burdens. The constant need to maintain control over her shape was still a battle that needed to be fought. Now it was only more obvious. Whenever she would lose attention in regards to how she wove the Life Force around her self, the dark shell of her skin would peel off, letting a bright white light escape--it was her Energy, and what was left of her self-awareness. Each mistake was costly.

Now, Kara thought, snapping her eyes open to the gloomy clouds above. Time to hunt that brat.

Looking up, she saw the storm extend all the way in a spherical manner. The ground was likely as protected, if not more so.

Still, because her target was likely at the center, diving in from the top of the sphere would reduce the duration she would have to brace the storm as it pummelled her Soul.

After a slight build-up, Kara bolted towards the top, wondering if there was a limit.

Approximately 20 meters up, she nodded as she plummeted back to the ground. It was the same as the last time she had lost control; once the sound of her Notes fully dwindled, her Soul forcibly returned to the location of her physical body.

Though she was in ethereal form, the ground offered enough resistance to feel as if she had fallen into hard mud.

She floated out, thinking of her destination. Her Rat’s Soul acted like a lighthouse to her Notes, allowing her Soul to travel great distances without being lost. It was as if a road existed between her and him, now that she had officially made him her Dancer.

Tightening her fists, Kara floated towards the storm. She would have to take the gamble; last time, the storm was thinly clad, and Kara was able to pierce through the layers easily. This time, however, the storm had expanded greatly, increasing the distance she would have to travel through.

It made her hesitate. Leaving it was one thing, but entering it? She knew little about what would happen to her Soul if she were to become entrapped within the storm’s gales.

The Life Force keeping her Soul together could fall apart from hurled through dozens of different volatile Sources, and on the off-chance that the pieces would find their way back to her body, she certainly would not be...whole.