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Rain poured through the night, striking the stone-paved streets with cold, fragmented sounds. The entire city seemed wrapped in a gray mist. Lamps were scarce, and not a single pedestrian could be seen.
At the twelfth stroke of midnight, something eerie happened.
The maid who had died earlier that day appeared on the street.
At that moment, she looked utterly terrifying.
She wore a tattered yet luxurious red wedding dress. Its trailing hem dragged across the ground and was stained with mud and rotting leaves. A faded white bridal veil rested on her head. Her face was as pale as paper, and her footsteps were so light they seemed inhuman. With each step she took, a thin layer of frost formed on the ground while a sweet, decaying fragrance filled the air.
"Moon rises... moon falls..."
"The bride seeks her bridesmaids..."
The Ghost Bride sang along the empty street, each note sounding like a rusty blade scraping against a listener's eardrum.
She dragged a pitch-black coffin behind her. Its bottom scraped the stone pavement, producing a grinding creak that made one's teeth ache. Moonlight fell upon her deathly pale face, and golden sand flowed inside her hollow eye sockets.
Sometimes the sand formed the pattern of a sun; at other times, it twisted into the shape of a grotesque spider.
Suddenly, her head rotated 180 degrees to face behind her, the corners of her torn mouth stretching all the way to her ears.
"Careful. Don't let that filthy thing notice us."
Ian pulled Cam into the shadows beneath a doorway and cast three layers of concealment spells in front of them with his wand. He could feel Cam trembling. The young Hermits Society member had never witnessed such a horrifying sight.
"That coffin..." Cam whispered, barely audible.
"It's meant for the living."
Though terrified, he was still a wizard. His mind was sharp enough to make an accurate judgment.
Just then, the Ghost Bride suddenly stopped walking. She mechanically raised her arm. The black liquid dripping from her fingertips glistened with an oily sheen in the moonlight.
Her branch-like fingers pointed toward a two-story house ahead.
Ian's magical sight immediately detected faint magical fluctuations within the building; at least two wizards were hiding inside.
"The bridesmaids are dressing..."
The Ghost Bride's song suddenly rose into a piercing shriek.
"Gold comb... silver comb... lend them to me!"
Her chest split open again, like the petals of a flower. Dozens of golden threads shot out violently and pierced the wooden door like venomous snakes.
Immediately, horrific screams erupted from inside the house.
Two male wizards in sleeping robes were dragged out the window and wrapped tightly in golden threads. They desperately waved their wands, but every spell they cast was absorbed by the writhing threads, making them grow thicker.
The two wizards were stuffed into the coffin.
The Ghost Bride struck the coffin lid three times with her long, sharp nails.
Bloodcurdling screams came from inside the coffin.
"They're potion dealers from the Black Market!" Cam recognized one of them. "How could they..."
"A wizard's flesh is rich in magical power," Ian analyzed calmly, his eyes fixed on the Ghost Bride's every movement.
"She is the Ghost Bride. Her objective is clear: every wizard in this city."
"So, wizards are the perfect nourishment."
Ian fell into thought.
At that moment, he had already reached a conclusion.
The evil god embryo beneath the temple could no longer endure the long gestation period. It wanted to cultivate its own minions to gather nourishment.
That was why the Temple had created the Ghost Bride.
The temple had evidently realized this as well, which explained their tense attitude earlier in the afternoon.
At the same time, the Ghost Bride began moving again.
"Over there... there's another wizard!" Cam cried out in alarm.
Of course, he knew nearly every wizard in the city. Even though they did not all belong to the same organization, wizards communicated far more frequently than most people imagined.
After all, in this world, wizards were a minority.
Wherever they went, they naturally tended to stick together, at least on the surface. Thanks to Cam's knowledge of the area, Ian could identify exactly which groups the Ghost Bride was targeting.
Her next stop was with a wizard who had a special magical talent.
The first house belonged to an elderly wizard who lived alone. His name was Morin, and he earned a living through astrology and prophecy.
At that moment, he was bent over a desk, studying a complex star chart; candlelight illuminated his wrinkled face.
Suddenly, the candle flame flickered violently, and the temperature in the room dropped sharply.
"Who's there?" Morin raised his head in alarm, wand already in hand.
The door opened silently.
The Ghost Bride drifted inside, her red veil fluttering softly.
"You... you're not human! Damn it! Is this an undead spirit? So there really is a necromancer operating in the city!"
Morin lifted his heavy wand and tremblingly cast a defensive spell.
"Barrier of Light!"
A golden shield instantly formed in front of him.
But the Ghost Bride merely raised her hand gently. Her fingertip sliced through the air, and the barrier shattered like glass.
She approached step by step with her crimson eyes locked onto Morin.
"No... don't come any closer!" Morin backed away in terror.
"I'm an officially registered wizard! You can't..."
Before he could finish speaking, the Ghost Bride touched his chest with her fingertip.
A thin line of blood spread outward from his heart, spreading across his body like a spiderweb.
Morin's eyes widened as a choking sound escaped his throat, as his wand fell to the ground.
Yet his body did not collapse. Instead, an invisible force slowly lifted him into the air and suspended him.
The Ghost Bride dragged a pitch-black coffin out of the void, and the lid opened by itself. With a gentle push of her hand, Morin's body slowly slid into the coffin. His eyes were still moving and his lips were slightly parted as if he wanted to speak, though doing so seemed incredibly difficult.
"You... can't... bury me... alive..." he managed to force out.
The Ghost Bride lowered her head and looked down at the man in the coffin. An eerie "smile" seemed to appear on her hollow face.
Slowly, she closed the lid.
Bang.
The wizard was still alive. He had been sealed inside the coffin while still breathing. She intended to bring him back to her master, who would drain the wizard's life and essence.
The Ghost Bride's choices were extremely deliberate because the embryo of the evil god could absorb the essence of these people. Almost all of her targets were wizards who possessed talent in a particular field.
Just like the second house.
A young witch named Arya lived there, skilled in herbalism and healing magic.
She had just lit a protective candle when she sensed something unusual and saw the Ghost Bride pass straight through the wall, flowing in like smoke.
"Begone! Dispel!" Arya swung her wand, releasing a blade of purifying light.
The light blade struck the Ghost Bride, but it was like hitting a phantom; it was completely ineffective. The Ghost Bride raised her hand and spread her fingers. A crimson thread shot from her fingertips and instantly wrapped around Arya's neck.
The witch choked and struggled, her feet lifting off the ground.
"Please... please... I still haven't finished my potion," She sobbed, tears streaming down her face.
The Ghost Bride remained unmoved. She coldly dragged Arya toward the corner.
Another coffin appeared.
Arya was forcibly stuffed inside it, her limbs curled up. Before the lid closed, she clawed at the inner wall with her fingernails, producing harsh scratching sounds.
She was still alive, too.
Now, she could only wait in darkness for her fate to end.
The third house belonged to Karl, a wandering wizard from the north and a master of defensive and counter-spells. He had set up three layers of magical barriers: a Ring of Fire, a Wall of Frost, and a Soul Shield.
Yet, with every step the Ghost Bride took, the barriers shattered like thin ice.
"Who are you?! Who sent you?!" Karl roared, raising his wand. "Ice Storm!"
A violent wind surged, and countless blades of ice howled toward the Ghost Bride. She stood her ground, allowing the ice blades to pierce her body.
Yet her figure merely flickered slightly, like a phantom—completely unharmed.
"You...you're not a physical entity?" Karl's face changed drastically.
The Ghost Bride finally spoke, her voice like hundreds of whispers layered together.
"An offering... to Him... a living sacrifice..."
She raised her hand, forming a claw. Karl's heart suddenly clenched violently in his chest. He collapsed to his knees, coughing up black blood, and his eyes rolled back.
Yet the Ghost Bride did not let him die.
She injected a strand of black mist into his body. Karl's body convulsed violently, but he did not lose his breath.
The coffin appeared again.
Karl was dragged inside.
Even as the lid closed, he pressed his hands desperately against the inside, breaking his fingernails and bleeding.
He, too, remained alive. He would be sacrificed while suffering. The fourth house belonged to Victor, a dark magic wizard and an arrogant man.
He sneered coldly.
"A mere female ghost dares to come here? Watch me use Soul Rend to ensure you never reincarnate!"
He began casting his spell. A wave of black energy shot straight toward the Ghost Bride.
But she simply raised a finger.
Instantly, a blood-red thread shot out and pierced Victor's forehead.
His spell stopped abruptly.
His face still bore a vicious smile, but his body had already gone rigid.
Yet the Ghost Bride did not kill him.
She dragged him into the coffin and sealed it shut. Inside the coffin, Victor's chest rose and fell, and his eyeballs spun wildly within their sockets.
At that moment, Kalan, hiding at the mouth of the alley, witnessed everything.
His entire body trembled.
"Sir! They're dying! Our people are dying!"
He almost rushed out. He truly had the spirit of a hot-blooded youth. If he lived in the modern magical world, he would probably be sorted into Gryffindor House.
After all, despite his shaking legs, he possessed courage.
"Don't go; Magic can hardly harm a lifeform like that."
Ian held him back.
"Then what should we do?"
Cam's wand slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
Ian reacted instantly, catching the wand while covering Cam's mouth, but it was already too late. The Ghost Bride's head suddenly snapped in their direction. The golden sand that formed her eyes began flashing violently.
"The bridesmaids... playing hide-and-seek..."
She dragged the coffin and began to accelerate. Wherever the hem of her wedding dress touched the ground, the stone pavement melted like wax.
Ian grabbed Cam by the collar.
"Close your eyes!"
"Lumos Burst!"
Blinding white light instantly flooded the entire street.
The Ghost Bride let out a high-pitched scream as golden sand erupted from her eye sockets. Ian took advantage of the moment and dragged Cam into a narrow alley.
Behind them, he cast a chain of trap spells with his wand.
"We have to save them!" Cam struggled, trying to go back. "The Hermits' Society's creed demands that we..."
"Idiot!"
Ian slammed him against the wall.
"Look at this!"
His wand traced a line through the air, forming a luminous screen that displayed scenes from other districts of the city.
There was more than one Ghost Bride. At least seven identical figures were hunting across different parts of the city, each dragging a black coffin behind them. Even more terrifying was the pattern of their movements. They formed a precise net, driving the surviving wizards toward the Temple.
"Multiple bodies?" Cam's face turned deathly pale.
"No. Temporal overlapping," Ian replied, his pupils shrinking to needle points. "Embryo is manipulating the flow of time in a localized area, allowing the same entity to appear in multiple places simultaneously."
Suddenly, a thunderous crash sounded in the distance.
The light screen showed a house in the northwest corner of the city being ripped apart. Five wizards wearing star-and-moon robes ran out in panic, they were members of the Twilight Hermits Society.
They formed a defensive formation, standing back-to-back and firing spells of various colors from their wands. However, every spell that struck the Ghost Bride vanished like stones sinking into the sea.
"They're our people!" Cam struggled to break free from Ian's grip. "I have to go..."
"Stop!" Ian's shout carried a surge of magical force that froze Cam in place.
"Look carefully!"
On the screen, an older witch suddenly pushed one of her companions toward the incoming golden threads and ran away. The betrayed Hermits Society member was instantly wrapped in a cocoon.
But the traitor didn't get far. Another Ghost Bride intercepted her. As the coffin lid closed, her fists could still be seen desperately pounding against the inner walls.
"How... how could this happen...?" Cam collapsed to the ground. "We swore an oath..."
The Ghost Brides' hunt grew increasingly frenzied. Ian noticed that they were not attacking indiscriminately. Those with strong magical fluctuations were captured first, while those with only minor talent were ignored.
Most disturbing of all... every captured wizard developed a golden mark on their forehead, identical to the one that had appeared on the maid's wrist earlier that morning.
"They're selecting targets," Ian suddenly realized.
"The Embryo needs a specific type of magical power."
A scream from nearby interrupted his thoughts. At the mouth of the alley, three ragged wild wizards were desperately scrambling for their lives as a singing Ghost Bride chased them.
When they spotted Cam, a malicious light flashed in their eyes.
"There's a fresh one over there!"
The scar-faced leader suddenly turned and fired a purple spell that struck Cam in the knee.
"Ah!"
Cam cried out and fell to the ground. The wound immediately began emitting a strange golden glow. The three wild wizards seized the chance to scatter and flee in different directions.
One of them even turned back with a cruel grin.
"Thanks for the scapegoat, kid!"
The Ghost Bride immediately changed direction. The coffin scraped against the ground with a harsh screech.
Cam crawled helplessly; despair filled his eyes.
Just as the golden threads were about to touch his back... the runes on Ian's wand suddenly flared with blinding red light.
"Apparition!"
Cam vanished instantly and reappeared beside Ian the next moment. The Ghost Bride's golden threads struck empty ground, creating spiderweb-like cracks in the stone pavement.
She shrieked in fury as golden sand burst from her orifices. Soon, however, she mechanically turned toward the direction in which the wild wizards had fled and continued her hunt.
"W-why…" Cam clutched his bleeding knee, his voice trembling. "Why would they do that?"
"Because fear awakens the most primitive survival instinct," Ian replied expressionlessly while treating the wound.
Silver healing potion seeped from the tip of his wand.
"Compared to dying nobly, most people choose to survive disgracefully."
The scenes on the light screen grew increasingly tragic. Above the temple, black smoke had already gathered into a massive vortex. The seven Ghost Brides were leading captured wizards toward it.
Ian noticed that, before each coffin was thrown into the vortex, a strand of blue light was extracted.
That was the essence of a wizard's magical power.
"The embryo of the evil god can't wait any longer," Ian said, extinguishing the light screen. His voice was as cold as stones lying at the bottom of the Nile River.
"Normal gestation would take years. But it has forcibly created these minions to plunder nourishment for itself."
Under the influence of magic, Cam's wound gradually healed.
Yet the shock in his eyes remained.
"So that's why the temple was so tense this afternoon. They've lost control of the embryo?"
"Or..." Ian said, gazing toward the twisted sky in the distance, "The Embryo has begun resisting its creators."
"The first instinct of any life form is survival, even an artificially cultivated evil god."
The Ghost Bride's song drifted closer again. This time, it was accompanied by the scraping sound of at least three coffins being dragged across the ground.
Ian quickly erected another concealment barrier to prevent the Ghost Bride from approaching them.
However... it was useless.
The Ghost Bride slowly turned her head once more.
And looked directly at him and Cam.
(End of Chapter)