[Spirit of Lust] Chapter 112: Back and forth (part 1) (Patreon)

William leaned back on the couch, putting one leg over the other and getting comfortable. As much as he still wanted to go back home, getting to talk to Aoi was his main goal in this little trip.

“Let’s go back and forth, one question each. What do you say?” he asked. “You can start.”

“How thoughtful,” Aoi answered flatly. She, too, set one leg over the other and rested her hands on her lap. “Very well. First question: How long have you been possessed?”

How long has it been, actually? “About two months, maybe a little less. I have a hard time remembering dates in general, but those first few days felt like a blur. Now, my question. How much do you know about the Spirit of Sloth Nanami mentioned?”

“A fair bit. For the Spirit of Lust, the more sex you have, the stronger it becomes, right? For a spirit that rules over sloth, its powers comes from achieving its goals with the least effort possible. As such, it is arguably the most adept spirit at taking control of people’s minds and having them do its bidding. As far as I know, Cynthia was his first victim, and he began to build on his power using her money.”

Nanami nodded with an understanding hum. “Paying people to do jobs, using money he didn’t acquire himself WOULD count as low effort.”

“Just so,” Aoi continued. “The stronger he became, the more people he could control. Eventually, his power grew beyond what I had predicted. He caught me and made me his thrall.” She took a deep breath to ease her rising anxiety. “My turn again. You seem very much in control of yourself. Did you make the Spirit of Lust submit to you?”

‘Hah! You wish!’

“I wish,” Will laughed. “But no. It seems I was pretty good at resisting the blunt of her influence, until she took advantage of a moment of weakness when I drank a little too much. She ended up taking over my body for a night. After that, though, we struck a deal. Turns out it’s better for us to work together. Now we’re partners.”

“He even lends her his body sometimes,” Nanami added. “And she gives it back when they’re done. I can vouch for them, from what little I’ve seen, at least.”

Aoi pinched the bridge of her nose and frowned. “It’s hard to believe. In all my years, I’ve never seen a person and a spirit achieve coexistence. It’s always one taking over the other, be it man or spirit achieving dominance.”

“I guess that prompts my next question. What’s Jack’s relationship with the Spirit of Sloth?”

“He wouldn’t tell me, but from what we were able to gather from… before,” she swallowed. “It seems he was able to make the spirit submit to him. The fact that his magic is still underdeveloped would support this theory.”

That made Will raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean his magic is underdeveloped?”

“Ah-Ah. My turn to ask a question,” Aoi said, the faintest hint of a pleased smile on her lips. “What is the deal you struck with the Spirit- I mean… Ishtar?”

Will smiled at that, but then realized he had to actually answer that question and his cheeks burned red. He could make some excuse not to answer, but that would probably make him even more suspicious, and she needed this woman on his side.

He coughed to clear his throat and began to answer as calmly as he could. “The deal was that in return for giving Ishtar the necessary amount of… sustenance she needs, then she wouldn’t object to my choice of methods. That is to say, she won’t push me to use her powers on every woman that crosses my path. On top of that, she… Urgh.” He had to rub his temple. Spelling it out was more embarrassing that he ever thought it would be. “She wants to help me build a harem. Not of mindless, infatuated women, but of women who… care.”

He left it at that, the shame stopping him from saying more. Aoi’s eyebrows shot up while Nanami tried to hold back some serious laughter beside him. He had to cover his eyes with his hand, feeling on it just how hot his face was.

“See why I trust him, aunty?” Nanami asked.

“I suppose that’s a far tamer goal than… what I feared,” Aoi admitted with a slow nod.

“What? What did you think I wanted?”

“Making the women of the world your personal sex toys or something outrageous like that.”

‘Will, mind letting me take over for a moment? I have a couple of questions I’d like to ask, too, and it’d serve to prove to her we’re actually working together.’

‘…Fine. Just be careful of what you say.’

‘Sure, sure.’

***

Ishtar settled into Will’s body. Her posture changed, with her leaning further back, resting her elbow on the armrest and her chin on her fist. She then grew a savage, cruel smile.

“Will could have every single woman in the world worshiping his cock and he still wouldn’t be satisfied,” she told them. “My partner is just a bit lovesick, you see. He falls in love too quickly, and with more than one girl at a time. On top of that, he’s been betrayed too many times in the past. So instead of having to suffer that agonizing hole in his chest with him – one that no amount of sex seems to fill, and believe me, I tried – I’ll just help him fill it the other way. It’s more comfortable to me like this, and I get what I want anyway. It works for us.”

‘ISHTAR!’

“Ishtar?” Nanami asked. “It is you now, right?”

“Yep. Will was too embarrassed to speak plainly, so I asked him to let me take over for a moment. He wasn’t expecting me to say this much, though, and now he’s yelling at me from inside.” She cleaned the inside of her ear with her pinky, even if that wasn’t where she heard Will’s voice.

Aoi’s body tensed for a moment, eyeing Ishtar carefully. “So you’re Ishtar…”

“A pleasure, Miss Aoi,” Ishtar said with a relaxed, confident smirk. “No need to be so tense. I don’t pose that much bigger of a threat than Will. I have better control of our sexual energy, yes, but he’s been improving by leaps and bounds.”

‘You’re revealing too much, aren’t you?’

Ishtar blinked. “Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Anyway, it’s our turn to ask questions. What did you mean when you said Jack’s magic was underdeveloped?”

Aoi took another deep breath to relax. It seemed to take her a moment to accept she was talking to another person in Will’s body, and it bothered her somewhat. “It’s something we often see in humans who make the spirit submit. They gain the entirety of their power, but power does not equal mastery.”

Ishtar understood immediately. “I see. Jack doesn’t have the Spirit of Sloth to teach him how to use its powers like Will has me.”

Aoi nodded. “Jack’s methods rely entirely on the few skills he has learned and making them work through the sheer amount of power he has accumulated over time.”

“What are those skills?”

“One is suggestion, a lesser form of mind control that attempts to convince the victim that the caster is right. In the end, whatever the victim does is entirely up to them, but their decision will be based on the new knowledge the caster has imparted on them. Another one is giving people a small amount of his power, making them stronger and more agile, making them serve as better puppets to do his dirty work. The last one, of course, is full on mind control.”“How many people is he mind-controlling now?”

“Don’t push it. You get one extra question for revealing something I wanted to know without me asking. Now it’s my turn again.”