"Who am I?"
Hollowed out eyes stared directly at me, devoid of any spark of life.
The terrified shouts of James and Erina rang out from behind me.
"O unseen threads—"
The chant broke apart in my throat as I felt nothing beneath my feet.
"Huh?"
My body dropped into empty space.
"O wind."
I managed to stabilize myself as the currents coiled around my body like a safety net.
I looked down to see everyone else was sliding across an enormous slope like a giant's playground slide before crashing onto solid ground below.
Slowly lifting my head, I took in the surroundings, the park, the sky, and even the church spire were gone. An endless world of shifting colors stretched in every direction. Strange structures floated through space, some sideways, some upside down, some twisting into impossible angles while connecting endlessly through the distorted space.
"DAARRREENNN!!!"
The scream thundered from above.
The old man came rushing at me with his cane raised high. I jumped sideways, the swing tearing through the space where my head had been a moment ago. I immediately conjured a mana blade and swung at his exposed side, but he slid back with unnatural speed.
Ghostly arms burst out from his body.
From his chest.
His back.
His legs.
Even from his hollow eyes.
What the hell is this… Is he some sort of humanoid magic beast?
I formed blades over both arms and spun forward, tearing through the claws lunging at me while closing the distance.
[Swordmaster: Twin Arc Slash ]
Four consecutive rapid strikes exploded out one after another.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
Each impact rattled through my arms as his cane redirected the blows with terrifying precision.
Grah!
Pain shot through my arms and I bit down hard to suppress it.
Shouldn't be using Swordmaster techniques without an actual sword...
At the edge of my vision, I saw the others running across the strange twisted ground while those bald white creatures chased after them.
Fuck!
I sent a wide slash at the old man. He raised his cane to block it.
[Swordmaster: Guard Break]
That instant, I stepped in and kicked the cane aside.
"O unseen threads of the world... Repulsion!"
The force exploded from my palm and hurled him backward through the air.
I turned immediately.
Wind and lightning burst around my body as I shot toward the others.
Before the hands could close in on the others, I rushed forward, cutting through every arm that reached for them. The creatures opened their mouths wide and moved toward us with a mindless hunger.
This is not Pac Man!!!
"O unseen threads of the world–Attract Bind!"
The creatures slammed into one another midair.
"O mana–Mana Missile!"
Thousands of glowing points tore through the air with sharp whistles, a barrage of pure mana piercing through the creatures and shredding them apart.
I let out a shaky breath.
This is tiring...
"Sieg, behind you!" Perpetua shouted.
My head snapped to the side as sharp pain tore across my cheek and blood sprayed through the air. I grabbed the cane before the old man could pull away, lifting my body upward and kicking him right into the face.
Before he could fly away.
"Attract!"
I dragged him right back toward me. My fists crashed into his body again and again, each strike releasing bursts of repulsion straight into his body at point-blank range, the shockwaves sending him slamming into the strange ground below.
I shot downward at full force.
[Hacker 001: Spelljammer]
The waves of interference exploded directly into his body.
The old man screamed.
"D-d-d-Darren! M-Maya!!"
His body convulsed violently. Limbs twisted at unnatural angles as the surrounding space shook and distorted around us.
But I did not stop.
I kept pouring more willpower into the spell.
Something slammed hard into me from the side.
The world spun as my eye opened and closed in a blur as my body bounced across the strange ground again and again before crashing through it .
Pain exploded through my skull.
I tried forcing myself up, but blood dripped from my forehead onto the floor beneath me.
My head...
I haven't felt something like this since Mother hit me years ago...
From ahead hurried footsteps rushed toward me.
"N-no... Don't come..." I managed to wheeze out, raising a shaking hand to signal to stay back.
Instead, soft fingers wrapped around mine.
Warmth spread through my body. The pounding in my skull eased, the pain in my limbs fading little by little like something was carefully stitching me back together.
I looked up in shock, but my heart sank when I saw Perpetua doubling over, coughing harshly into her hand.
"You ARE awakened after all."
"RAAAIIIIMOOOONDDD!"
The scream shook the space around us.
I released her hand and turned instantly, kicking out with all my strength. The incoming cane veered sideways from the impact. My hand shot forward, grabbing the weapon before he could recover, and poured a massive amount of mana into the wood reinforcing it.
Under the sheer pressure of my mana, the cane cracked and splintered, exploding into useless shards.
Letting go of his broken weapon, the old man lunged at us barehanded.
Using force magic, I shoved Perpetua backward while throwing myself to avoid his grasp. I brought my foot down hard on his face mid-air. "Pressure step."
Force exploded downward through his body. His face caved inward as the impact traveled through him and into the strange ground beneath us.
The ground groaned and cracked, then finally gave away entirely. Both of us went plummeting down into the swirling depths.
Pulling my right arm back, I conjured another blade, coating it in sword aura as wind spiraled around it.
"Zephyr Drill."
I fired the spell straight at him, but ghostly arms burst from his body and grabbed the spinning attack, holding it back as it continued driving him downward until he vanished from my sight.
If there is one thing I learned about this space...
I looked upward while taking flight, pulling my left arm back and shaping another drill of wind and aura.
"Zephyr Drill."
The moment the old man came crashing down from above, I released it. The second drill struck him squarely from behind, forcing the ghostly arms to lose hold of the first.
Caught between two opposing vortices of crushing wind, both drills hit their mark simultaneously.
A blinding flash erupted through the strange world as his body burst apart, fragments scattering into the endless colors around us.
I finally allowed my muscles to relax as I moved down to the nearest floating ground, my arms feeling heavier.
"Sieg, you did it!!" James shouted as the others ran toward me.
"Lord Sieg, you were amazing! You went all whoosh and whoosh!" Erina waved her arms around excitedly.
Even Nidrik was looking at me with shining eyes, nodding his head in silent admiration.
A tired laugh almost escaped me.
At least someone enjoyed that nightmare.
"But..." Perpetua's voice softened.
I looked at her.
Her eyes slowly moved across the warped world around us.
"Why isn't everything going back to normal?"
"D-d-darren!" The voice echoed around us, seemingly coming from every direction at once.
I turned toward the sound and saw trails of smoke rising from the scattered pieces of the old man's body. Slowly, the smoke began gathering together, twisting into a dark cloud above us.
"Is this guy a zombie?" I muttered in frustration.
"He might actually be a ghost tied to this land." Perpetua said quietly, her eyes fixed on the growing mass overhead.
"Are you insane? There's no way ghosts exis–."
I cut myself off.
On second thought, in a world where I can conjure wind and control forces of nature, there is a very real chance they exist. But knowing they exist didn't help me understand how to kill one. There had to be a way to sever his connection to this place.
Maybe...
"S-Sieg, wouldn't Aethel magic work? I heard priests use it to exorcise bad spirits in the capital," James said, mirroring the exact thought forming in my mind.
As the cloud thickened, I hurriedly pulled out the spellbook Father Calem had given me.
"You read this too, right?" I asked, glancing at James. "Do you remember which page the exorcism spells were on?"
James nodded rapidly. "The exorcism section starts on page one hundred thirty-seven."
I flipped through the pages with trembling fingers while taking to the air, wand tightening in my grip.
"O Aethelhum, sacred root that shelters all life beneath your grace,
Cast out the profane and purge this corruption with your divine lig–"
A violent wheeze escaped my throat.
My voice died instantly.
Something cold spread through my chest as I felt my consciousness rapidly draining away.
I looked down and saw a translucent, clawed arm protruding directly from the center of my chest.
James Borg
"S-sieg...."
Sieg dropped from the sky as the claw tore back out of his chest.
"N-no..."
A bright flash of light came from right next to me. Miss Perpetua disappeared.
My eyes searched wildly until I saw her high above us, catching Sieg before he could crash into the ground below.
S-she is awakened too...?
A second later, she reappeared beside us on one knee, holding him carefully.
"Sieg... fried!" Nidrik rushed forward first. I stumbled after him, my legs shaking.
Sieg lay completely still in her arms.
He looked so strange. His eyes were all white, like he wasn't looking at us anymore, and his mouth was open just a little bit. He wasn't saying anything. He wasn't telling us it would be okay.
"Sieg... fried! Sieg... fried!" Nidrik shouted, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him over and over.
"Stop." I cried out, my voice trembling. "Y-you can't shake him like that!"
But Nidrik didn't stop. His face looked scared.
"Sieg, please wake up..." I whispered, kneeling beside him.
But he didn't answer and I noticed he was not even breathing.
My chest started hurting.
No... no no no...
"What happened to Lord Sieg?" Erina cried loudly.
Tears rolled down her face as she knelt and grabbed his hand.
I couldn't answer her question… If Sieg was in my place, he would have…
There wasn't a wound on his chest, from outside he looked healthy.
I looked at Miss Perpetua, hoping she would know what to do, but she was breathing so hard it sounded painful, her face red as if even sitting upright was hard.
Then her trembling hand pressed against Sieg's chest.
"He will... be fine..." The words barely came out between her breaths.
Something felt weird so I pressed my head on Sieg's chest too.
"H-his heart is not…" I couldn't finish the words as my eyes filled in.
"L-lord Sieg!" Erina sobbed, her voice getting higher and louder as she cried more and more.
Seeing her cry made tears rolled down my face no matter how much I rubbed them away.
B-but Sieg is strong...
Auntie always said Sieg would become the strongest. Grandmother said he would become the greatest alchemist.
H-how can Sieg...
"MAAAAAYYYAAAAA!!"
The scary Mister's voice screamed from behind us.
I turned around and my whole body shook.
The giant gray cloud had grown even bigger. A massive mouth split open across it while countless arms stretched out from inside, twisting and clawing wildly. Then blue light began gathering deep within the mouth, getting brighter and bigger inside it.
T-that thing is going to hit us.
I closed my eyes tightly and moved closer to Sieg.
It's going to hurt. It's going to be so scary and loud.
I thought there would be lots and lots of pain, but the big explosion never happened. Everything just felt warm.
Slowly opening my eyes, I saw Miss Perpetua standing in front of us with both hands raised. Orange light poured from her body like warm sunlight, splitting the incoming blast apart before it could reach us. Her breathing sounded rough and uneven.
"W-we will be f-fine..." she said, smiling back at us over her shoulder.
"Qiiii!"
A weird, pretty noise came from above us. A small orange creature came flying in and stopped right over Miss Perpetua. It opened its wings wide, and as soon as it did, a white veil appeared above her head, draped down the back of her hair, the orange light around Miss Perpetua became much, much brighter, like the sun was standing right there with us.
"Thank you, friend," she said, looking up at the little flying thing.
An orange creature with wings... and an orange-haired girl... Was Sieg telling the truth when he said he saw a weird creature and a girl in the forest that day? He wasn't making it up.
A light flared from beside me as well, Erina was suddenly surrounded by a red light.
What's happening with her?
"Sieg...fried!! Siegfried!!!" Nidrik kept calling out behind me, his voice sounding scratchy and loud as he shook Sieg's shoulders again and again.
Every time he said Sieg's name, the pain in my chest grew worse.
"S-stop..." I grabbed Nidrik's arm tightly. "He is... is..."
The words would not come out.
Nidrik looked at me with wide shocked eyes. Then his hand slowly moved to his head. A low groan escaped him as black light started spreading around his body.
He didn't look like the quiet Nidrik anymore. He looked forward, and his golden eyes were shining so bright they looked like they were on fire.
He walked past me and held out his hand. A big black cloud shot out from his palm, piercing right through Miss Perpetua's pretty orange light. It kept going, moving straight through the middle of the scary blue beam and hitting the big ghost right in its mouth.
Then, a giant mouth appeared in the middle of Nidrik's black cloud. It bit down on the ghostly monster and started sucking it in, bit by bit, like it was eating the whole sky.
The giant creature thrashed violently as the black cloud began swallowing it little by little.
"DARRRENNN!"
The old mister's scream echoed through the strange world while the ghost clawed desperately at the ground and the air around it, but Nidrik's cloud was too strong. It pulled and pulled until the monster completely vanished into the dark.
Miss Perpetua let out a tired sound and fell to her knees, the orange light fading away. So did veil on her head as the little creature moved closer to her.
Nidrik turned around.
He extended his other hand toward Sieg.
Soft golden light flowed out from his palm and moved toward Sieg's body.
What…?
A sharp gasp suddenly came from Sieg.
"Sieg!"
"Lord Sieg!"
Me and Erina rushed closer at the same time, happiness bursting inside me.
Sieg sat up instantly, his eye changing back from that scary white to their normal color. "Oh fuck. Did I die again?"
He said a really bad word, but I didn't even care. He looked around at the messy colors and the broken ground, and he looked almost sad, like he was disappointed about something.
"Tsk. I thought this time I would wake up in heaven with a beautiful angel," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head.
"A beautiful angel is right at your service," Miss Perpetua said, walking back over to us with a tired but kind look on her face.
Sieg looked at her and made a funny face. "Don't you mean a devil?"
He's okay. He's really, really okay. He's already making jokes and being grumpy just like always.
"Lord Sieg!" Erina cried out, throwing her arms around his shoulder. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it as hard as my fingers could. I couldn't help it anymore, the big, scary tears just kept falling down.
I never want him to go away like that again. Not ever.
"Siegfried... okay?"
Nidrik's weak voice came from behind us as he slowly crawled back over, his whole body trembling.
"I am. What happened to you–" Sieg stopped talking suddenly.
Everything around us started to wobble and change again. I looked around and saw a big stone standing in the grass. Then I saw another one, and another. There were stones everywhere. I looked up and the sky wasn't pink or green anymore, it was a pretty orange color because the sun was starting to go down for real.
"I-is this a graveyard?" I asked, feeling a little chill. It looked like the place where people go when they are gone forever.
"Where did the swings and the slides go?" Erina looked around in confusion.
"Like I thought," Sieg said, standing up and dusting off his pants. "It was a fake space created to lure us in."
Was it all a trick? So there was no park?
"Looks like you children had quite the experience."
A voice came from above.
We all looked up and saw Lady Serena, Sieg's teacher, floating down toward us.
Not long after, Grandfather Thorvald, Grandmother, and Uncle came running through the cemetery with a bunch of soldiers. I even saw Erina's mommy and daddy looking very worried.
We explained the story in the best way possible, and...
"Ouch owowow! W-why?!" Sieg cried out as Grandmother grabbed his ear hard.
"Why!?" Grandmother shouted furiously. "You lead all the children into a dangerous place and now you ask why!?"
"I-I didn't lead them anywhere!" Sieg protested while trying to wiggle his ear away from her fingers.
"Leave him, Ellie. It's not his fault," Lady Serena said, stepping closer with her pretty robes fluttering.
Grandmother finally let go of Sieg's ear, and he slowly pulled away while rubbing it with a painful, grumpy look.
"Such an occurrence is common in lands like these, where there has been so much death... especially recent deaths. It can cause negative energies to fill the land."
Her eyes moved across the gravestones.
"You should know how a strong soul with grievances can sometimes tether themselves to a land and roam as a 'Vengeful Spectre' or how people normally refer to them as Ghosts."
A tingling ran through me.
Ghosts are real...
"Normally, priests from the Church handle these exorcisms and guide the souls peacefully into the cycle of rebirth." Her voice sharpened slightly. "But looking at this place, it seems the necessary rituals have been neglected for quite some time. What exactly is the priest doing?"
Her gaze shifted toward the nuns who had arrived a little later.
"The priest has gone on a spiritual journey," Grandmother answered. "I heard a replacement should arrive before the Harvest Festival."
Then she frowned slightly.
"But didn't the Vengeful Spectre they mentioned sound quite... different?"
"Not surprising." Lady Serena crossed her arms. "There was a Darkkin invasion here before. The dark magic likely mixed with the negative energies. Weak grievances and broken wills probably fused together into that powerful spectre."
"That explains the memory problems." Sieg said while sitting down on one of the gravestones.
I looked at him quietly.
Even after almost dying... he sounded calmer than all of us.
"But..." Lady Serena suddenly raised her hand.
"W-why? Owowow!" Sieg cried out as she grabbed his left cheek and pulled hard.
"What was that performance against that third-rate spectre, huh? I was taking it a little easy on you since we just started, but I guess we need to raise the level of training by a notch or two," she said, her eyes looking all sparkly and scary at the same time.
"G-granny, m-make her..." Sieg tried to say, looking at Grandmother for help.
But then his right cheek got pulled just as hard by Grandmother's fingers.
"Wah??"
"Be respectful to the dead! Get off the grave!" Grandmother shouted. "And don't think you are out of a lecture yet either, young man!"
The two of them started dragging him away together by his cheeks while poor Sieg's legs were just hanging in the air, kicking at nothing.
"Owowowow! T-this is abuse!" Sieg complained miserably.
Even after everything that happened... it almost looked normal somehow.
Me and Nidrik quietly followed after them as I helped Nidrik walk.
I looked around the shadows of the big stones.
Where did Miss Perpetua go?
She was just here, and now she is gone again.
"Wait!" Sieg shouted. He pulled back so hard that he slipped away and fell right onto the ground. He rubbed his red cheeks for a second as he stood up and turned around. "Erina!"
Erina was being held tight in her mother's arms while Grandfather talked to her parents. She looked over at Sieg with big, watery eyes.
"Congratulations on awakening." Sieg said with a grin.
"Huh?" A big sound of surprise went through everyone in the graveyard. All the grown-ups and even the soldiers stopped talking and looked at Erina.
I looked at Erina with wide eyes.
She awakened too...?
...Then I'm the only one who still hasn't...