Divine Artifact in a Scientific World-Chapter 126: Judgement (2)

Who would believe Gerald if he tried telling someone? Who would believe him if he claimed that an industrial strength rubber band just magically appeared around his neck? Any sane person would assume he was lying, or had lost his mind.

Jack enabled his remote-presence technique and saw that Gerald had just returned home and was standing just inside the entrance to his apartment.

Jack pushed the linked template changes and watched as the big rubber band appeared round Gerald’s neck with a loud SNAP! Gerald’s eyes bulged, and he started clawing at his neck.

Oops? Maybe I should have gone with a weaker rubber band?

It looked like the man would choke to death if he didn’t get the black band off his neck. It was digging into his neck and the man was unable to get his fingers completely under it, only managing to roll up one edge.

He watched as Gerald stumbled into his kitchen and grabbed a knife off the counter. Then stopped, probably realizing he’d have to stab himself to cut the band off. Next, Gerald started opening drawers frantically before finally finding what he wanted. A pair of scissors.

Sinking to his knees, Gerald clawed at his neck, trying to pry up just a sliver of the band he could snip with the scissors. Failing again and again, face turning blue, he finally gave in and jammed the tip of the scissors under the band and started snipping, drops of blood dripping down his neck.

With a gasp, he managed to cut enough of the band that he could squeeze a finger under it. Then with one finally cut the band snapped, leaving a rapidly growing red welt on his hand and a slowly fading deep red mark on his neck.

Slumping to the floor in relief, and dropping the scissors, Gerald uttered his first words of the whole incident, "Fuck me! Which god did I anger?"

As soon as the rubber band snapped, Jack sent another soul bond request. This time there was a long pause before he received the message he wanted.

[Soul Bond Accepted: Gerald Jackson]

As soon as he received the message and sensed the soul bond forming, he grabbed Gerald’s soul and squeezed. Fueled by his rage at his home’s desecration and Gerald’s utter stupidity, he felt his grip on the man’s soul tighten even further than he’d achieved with Isabella.

The Gerald in his soul space flinched and changed to match the Gerald he’d just seen gasping on his kitchen floor. The red mark around his neck turning a dark purple. Not bothering to give the man a chance to catch his breath, he started giving him soul bond fueled commands.

"You will confess your crimes to the district attorney. Your destruction of my home, your framing of Isabella, your attempt on her life, and any other crimes you committed in the name of justice. You will build the best case you can against yourself and present it to the district attorney no sooner than tomorrow evening. If anyone asks why you are doing this, tell them you had a crisis of conscience. Make it believable."

"Yes, my lord," replied Gerald in a subdued tone.

Jack went on to give Gerald further instructions, making sure the man didn’t try to do anything stupid. The last thing he wanted was Gerald getting out of prison and seeking out Jack to ask for more commands.

As soon as he was done giving instructions, he banished the man from his soul space. He wanted nothing further to do with the idiot.

While he disliked the idea of being soul bonded with Gerald, he was able to reconcile his own feelings about it by looking at it from a different perspective.

While his bonds with Madison and the other girls, and his bonds with Isabella and Gerald were all technically soul bond, they were different variants.

His bonds with Madison and the other girls were more of a companion bond, mostly symmetrical in nature.

But his bonds with Isabella and Gerald were more like slave bonds. Extremely one sided. Neither Isabella nor Gerald had any access to his emotions and not only did he have access to their thoughts, he also had the ability to command them.

The soul bond didn’t force them to obey him, but their souls were so dominated by his own that they naturally felt intense reverence and devotion to him.

This was effectively the same as a slave bond, though it could be more accurately be named a devoted servant bond. Or maybe calling it a zealot bond was better, at least in the case of Isabella.

He was almost certain that both Gerald and Isabella would sacrifice their lives for him if he demanded it.

It gave him pause, realizing that he could turn just about anyone into a devoted servant, and maybe even into a zealot, like Isabella.

If he put less effort into dominating a soul during bonding, he could achieve something between companion and zealot, a follower.

An army of loyal followers, all willing to do what he asked, unable to betray him; it was so tempting.

He mentally shook his head. He was not some despot seeking world domination. Not yet anyway. He just wanted to be happy, to enjoy life, and make amazing advances in science and technology.

Finished with Gerald and the room, he deleted the chairs and Isabella’s prison clothes in the corner, then exited the room and deleted it behind him. Isabella was still standing outside, waiting patiently.

"Is everything well, my lord?"

He sighed. That ’my lord’ shit was going to get old real fast.

"Isabella, you will speak to me like a normal person. I don’t mind a bit of deference, but none of this ’my lord’ or ’master’ crap. Is that understood?"

"Yes, my...um, sir? Yes, sir?"

"That’s fine."

She nodded vigorously, then realized she was acting crazy and tried to nod like a normal person.

"Follow me, and I’ll introduce you to the girls," he said as he turned down the hallway. "Just remember, you’re bottom bitch."

Visit freewe𝑏nove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺 for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience