Gate of Ghosts

The Phantom Rose in Magnus' hands shimmered as it seemed to mesh with his ghastly fingers. A dark energy shifted to and fro, moving with Magnus's every breath.

The rose itself was black. A jet black, reflecting not an inch of light.

Only the edges of each petal had some kind of glittery outline, giving the rose a magical feeling.

It was a beautiful material.

But Magnus had no way to use it.

He was not an alchemist nor was he a calligrapher.

All he could do was clone the rose and sell it for a massive profit.

'Perhaps in the future, when I acquire the ability of creation classes, I could make use of this.' Magnus thought as he handed Klaris the Phantom Rose.

Then, after nodding at the Hivemind member once, he disappeared in a flash of light.

The pursuit of those wolves still continued. From the information made available to him, they were still chasing after him.

'It's better to be safe for now. It is not yet the time to act.' Magnus silenced his ever-present desires to experience thrills.

As for Klaris, he continued attending the auction.

He watched as his chunk of Illuminite was sold for a whopping 125 thousand dollars.

This delighted the Hivemind very much. At this rate, money would no longer be much of an issue. He could easily afford the tuition fees for Archaeon University as well as his daily spending.

Thus, Klaris walked out of the auction in a great mood. After deducting 25%, he would still have 93.75 thousand dollars. That was two semesters of schooling with just a greatsword's worth of Illuminite.

[ We're rich! ] Klaris spoke into the Hivemind as a mental celebration occurred.

[ Woohoo! ] Magnus was hyped. He no longer shouldered the weight of being broke.

He was on the path to financial freedom.

Thus, like this, the day ended. Klaris booked a room in Hotel Vain for Magnus and company to enjoy for the next few days.

'Should I buy a house?' Magnus thought to himself.

Jumping from hotel to hotel was growing to be a problem. Especially with his delicate identities. There were several hotels that required IDs and using Magnus' identity constantly might even bring a few issues in the future.

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A few days passed.

Magnus was roaming the city streets of Midseer as Javelin. The sun had just set, and the sky was filled with clouds of dark blue and orange.

The next black market auction would still come next month. Therefore, Klaris didn't have much to do except for amassing more Illuminite and Phantom Roses to sell. He had already come to an agreement with Elodia to make the shares 70-30 next time because of how well she handled things.

As for Magnus himself, he had to keep hiding. The people chasing after him were out of his league at the moment. He had no way to eliminate them.

Thus he put his focus on the Emerald Twilight.

He still had a Personal Trial to complete.

At this moment, a large number of familiar faces could be seen on the streets. Magnus found it eerie how he recognized most, if not all the people here.

He searched his memories and then he found the source.

'These are all people with fates tied to the undead...' Magnus almost cried out in surprise.

Even Miss Green-Haired was here, looking tired with bags under her eyes and unkempt hair.

With a flash of light, Magnus appeared. His brows were scrunched up.

"Something is going to happen." He muttered.

It was then.

SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

An ear-piercing sound rang all throughout the area.

It was a horrible grating of vocal cords that seemed to come from souls of the damned.

Magnus instantly fell into a daze, forced to cover his ears.

Everyone else couldn't help but fall into a similar predicament.

Blood dripped from the ears of those who were weaker. Children and the elderly outright passed out from the immense force banging against their ears.

Magnus forced himself to focus despite his blurry vision.

What he saw next stunned him,

"Oh..." His voice trailed off as he realised the likely consequences of his actions.

He had created crowds worth of those fated with the undead. He sealed the fates of many.

And thus,

Ghosts.

Hundreds.

Thousands of them.

They were all rising from the earth like a reversed rain. Wailing and crying out with their deformed features, they poured themselves into the bodies of the weak.

"A Gate Overflow!" A roar appeared from within the crowd, desperate and defiant.

"All combatants! TO ARMS! FEND OFF THE UNDEAD!" That same voice shook the earth with its commands.

But it was too late.

Thousands of people had some kind of ghostly being devouring their souls and possessing their bodies. Banshees and wraiths were beginning to emerge as well, screeching into people's ears and causing their ears to bleed even further.

A ghost suddenly emerged from beneath Magnus' feet at this moment.

"Hm?" Magnus' eyes dilated.

'A 2-star threat!' He was shocked by the power that surged into him as the ghost phased into his body. It rivalled his.

And thus, Magnus wrestled with the ghost's control. His body flickered back and forth from ethereality to tangibility.

Sparks of light were birthed in sporadic patterns as ghastly howls rang out.

Magnus coughed up blood, and his nose bled.

He did not know how to fight something like this. Restiel could not appear in public.

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Nearby.

Flames were surging, coupled with the light of Divine Energy.

The opal ring on Blaze's finger was augmenting her Blessing, Focal Point Inferno, with unique magic. Divine light akin to Restiel's beautiful presence was radiating out of her flames.

It allowed her to create a zone of peace amongst the ghostly tide.

"Just my luck!" Blaze cursed as she took a deep breath.

This expenditure was way beyond her means.

But she had no other choice. It was either that or she would get possessed too.

She was currently bleeding out of two orifices— her nostrils and her ears, as she fought the undead that never ended.

"I am the cause of wailing souls,

A master of draconic breath,

The arsonist of Hell,"

Blaze invoked her Blessing in its entirety.

But Focal Point Inferno wasn't a pleasant Blessing to utilise against a horde.

Her command over the flames only included super-heated wisps that could drill into anything like a blowtorch.

If she were to spread her flames, the most it could do was singe people.

"It's a good thing Lady Arrenia lent me this ring," Blaze sighed in awe at the artefact crafted by their resident mage-type Blessing holder.

It was an amazing item to use in tandem with her weak area of effect flames. Those little singes turned into something deadly against the undead because of the divine magic imbued into them.

But deadly wasn't something useful to her right now.

What she needed was purification. A way to protect the masses from getting possessed en masse.

"That damn Klaris!" Blaze waved her arm wildly. A slash of flames jettisoned out of her finger tips in a wide arc.

The flames devoured a few ghosts that had no body to possess. A banshee was there as well, and its wails grew tenfold as it was purified by Divine Energy.

But…

"Oh no…" Blaze couldn't help but take a step backwards.

Black strands of light were squirming out of the pavement beneath her feet. A dark energy was fighting the lights in her flames.

Undead Energy breathed life into the once dead. It fed those who were blessed with undeath and brought rise to the unholy.

The banshee that Blaze had purified screamed ever louder as its body was remade by the creeping darkness.

—ROAAAAAARRRRRR!!

A thunderous roar shook the earth, shattering the glass windows of the nearby buildings.

A pair of gigantic wings rose out of the earth in all its ethereal glory while a slender serpentine body followed after it.

A ghastly winged dragon with a body similar to those dragons of Earth's eastern cultures rose. It brought with it an ocean of undeath.

Resurrecting whatever died and fanning the flames of life for those that had yet to fall a second time.

Thus, seeing this, Blaze's only emotion right now was simple:

It was despair.

"Am I going to perish here?" She inadvertently muttered to herself.

Similar reactions came from those valiant fighters from earlier.

They wavered in their attempts at life. The energy born from their Blessings dissipated against the dragon's aura.

They lost all hope of surviving at that moment. Dread filled their expressions and many fell to their knees.

Ghosts aplenty grasped at their tender flesh, fighting to the one to posses them.

Until,

Small points of black light descended upon each of their foreheads.

And a fierce gravitational pull yanked them upwards. It catapulted each of them into the sky above as if they were falling in reverse.

Blaze felt the world around her blur as she spun uncontrollably.

When she came to, a teenager with orange hair cane into view. It was a familiar face.

"…Magnus?" She blurted out.

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"…That's me," A weak smile was born from Magnus's lips.

He had figured out a way to defeat the ghost that had pounced on him, but it required the aid of the Half-Night Tome.

He tapped into a power he had yet to unlock and made a sacrifice to devour the ghost that wanted to consume him.

He turned the tables at the last moment before the Hivemind lost control over his body.

He then used the opportunity granted to him by the rising ghost dragon to shoot into the sky. His own abilities of undeath had been augmented, bringing him power.

Though it meant little in the face of all those other empowered beings that wished to devour him.

For the first time in quite some time, he felt an instinctive fear.

A fear that could be felt despite the presence the Hivemind.

He had discovered another weakness of his.

'I only have one soul.'

And that one soul was the only one that bore the Blessing, Master of the Hivemind. Together with all of what made Magnus himself.

If he lost it, that was game over.

This realisation meant a lot to him.

"At least I found out before any superior soul-killing Blessing had targeted me." He sighed in a mix of excitement and relief.

Thus, he made the choice to flee, bringing with him the others who had been fighting for their lives.

Like Miss Green-Haired who was floating in front of him at that moment.

"It is a pleasure to meet you again… Miss..?"

"Samantha," Blaze replied to him, still half in shock from being pulled out of the ghost horde, "Samantha Barrei."