84 Soul Bound (2)

Phantoms were a rare type of demon. It was one of the few monsters that attacked indiscriminately against the class wielders and other monsters too. If it were to encounter any living being, then it went after them till the hunter or hunted was dead.

Galahad would learn weeks later with some simple research that a phantom was able to create a very weak, but long mana tether to their prey. The shivers he received from the gusts of wind was the proximity of the tether warning both ends that they were close.

After talking with Regin about it, he'd put together a theory that Sladdus and his mind magic made a connection which drew the phantoms into forming one with him. Like a moth catching fire and then drawing more moths to the combustion of light.

The only way to remove magic bonds like that was destroy the source, and that was a lot easier said than done.

Unless a magician or demon with offensive magic was present, the one to die was most likely the unfortunate mortal with no magic to attack. On top of killing everything they found, phantoms were unharmed by any physical attacks as their bodies were nothing but wisps.

A few theories went around about why phantoms went after both monsters and adventurers. Some believed they weren't demons, but jealous beings from a different plane that hated against the physical world and destroyed every living creature out of envy.

Others had theories pointing at them being the fragmented or leftover mana frame of a dead magician. A magician's body was composed of normal organs on top of mana pulsating around a separate, circulating nervous system; commonly known as the mana frame. Everyone had one, but battle classes and summoners didn't have the specialized ones that slowly grew like those that wielded mana to fight.

Regin said he met a man that claimed a phantom had a semi physical body that matched a mana frame exactly like an ordinary human, but it's lack of flesh and bone made the resonanting mana flux in a painful and aggressive way. In other words, the claim was phantoms were the angry, hollow afterimages of fallen magicians.

Since they never dropped mana orbs, most were unsure if they could even call them demons. All anyone knew was they were ethereal beings that could only be killed with combative mana. Physical attacks did nothing, and that was the only card Galahad could pull right now.

'Somehow this is much worse than a giant fiend or blemmyae. How the hell do I fight that?'

Even with the magicians shooting mana at the walls of the Spire, multiple phantoms still made their way onto the Gate lawn. As soon as they crossed over the boundary, the ground started lighting up with magic arrays.

Just like the Gate lawn in Teramore, magic arrays were deployed and maintained around the building to activate as traps if a monster were to somehow manage to get past every nearby adventurer that was available.

The traps set by the magic arrays started going off in flashes of light as soon as the smoke aimlessly crossed over them. Soon icicle spikes shot straight up from the earth, beams of fire mixed in from others. Random elements and explosions went off to create a plume of smoke all across the grass.

Galahad could hear the sound of battle spreading to the other entrances of the Gate, meaning there was even more phantom mist leaking out of the tower walls.

The bell at the top of the gate started ringing twice as fast now. Meaning the breach from the pavilion had now made its way into the city, making it a bigger threat. Galahad decided it was best not to linger as he had no idea what a mass of Phantoms were capable of. Especially when he watched one get impaled by a magic icicle, scream loudly, and then phased through it like it was nothing.

[ Diagon Emergency Message ]

[ The Dungeon Gate breach has now risen to level two widespread breach. Please continue to stay indoors as the Guild office is dispatching additional members into the city streets. Do not leave the safety of your residence at this time. More information will be provided in the meantime. ]

"Yep, definitely time to go." Was all Galahad had to say before he jumped back up the water pipe and nearly snapped the whole thing in two when he made it back up on the roof.

The part of message warning about the monsters spreading wasn't what drove him to flee, it was fact that more guild officers were going to start running around the streets.

There certainly wasn't any rational way to explain why he chose to watch the monsters escaping the dungeon or the fact that he alone was the leading cause for their arrival.

"Are you kidding me!?!"

Galahad was stopped and stunned on the edge of the roof to see at least eight individual phantom clouds closing in on him.

Each one carried a distorted face with gruesome expressions that could only come from a painful death.

Now that they were so close, Galahad could see the faces had no noses or eyes in the sockets, just wailing pain written across their mouths. Galahad didn't stay any longer than his quick glance called for, he briefly activated Raging Inferno and jumped back towards the direction of his home.

*****

The guild officers were trained for situations such as this, but none of them could understand how the situation came to be.

Earlier in the day, a few adventures began to notice a cluster of Phantoms acting very strange while roaming the dungeon. Something was clearly upsetting them and drawing them down below, a stream of reports were coming in about the phantoms, until suddenly they all stopped.

Over a dozen wisps of white mist were turned around, rising to the surface for an entire day. The guild barely had anytime to start pulling people out of the dungeon and the spire before the monsters were near the entrance of the spire.

Tunnels were collapsed via explosion and earth magic to buy time, while more magicians were asked to throw combative magic at the creatures, but none of it was enough to stop such an unexpected invasion to the surface.

The phantoms weren't wreaking havoc in random places, searching aimlessly for magicians to kill and devour for sustenance; rather, they were all fixated on going in a single direction.

Up and out.

*****

'Shit shit shit! Just think!! Why didn't the corrosion or trap arrays evaporate them, it makes no sense. I know at least for a fact that magic is the only way to kill them, but is there some kind of strategy to it?'

Three ghostly forms were close on Galahad's tail, wailing and moaning right behind him. Galahad jump onto another rooftop, where he startled a nesting pigeon that flew off.

Unfortunately it wasn't as smart as the human and flew straight into one of the white mists following him. It made a little cooing noise that was snuffed as soon as it started passing through the phantom.

In an instant, the little bird was dehydrated from the life force provided by the magic in its body. All that came out the other side was a puff of feathers and a little thunk noise from the dry-raisin carcass dropping against the roof tiles.

'Good Gods! I did not need to see that.'

Galahad regretted glancing back at the bird as he soon found him towards the edge of the rooves, near a street dividing the buildings from one another. The gaps between the rooftops were too far apart for even his boosted skill, he was saving his last couple seconds of boosted physique for any possible Hail Mary he could think of during his crisis.

Turns out he needed to duck instead, as a wave of fire erupted behind him and the phantoms without any warning, shoving him off the roof of the building.