Reverants

A ghostly body came drifting in front of Ares separating him and his destination. It was the size of an adult and shrouded in ghostly white rags with its head bowed down in front of it. Ares could partially see through its body. He stood silently hoping it would leave. This was a reverent an evil spirit.

The reverent stopped in the middle of the street and turned slowly towards Ares. He held his breath.

There were no sounds only a piercing silence as the reverent raised its bowed head to look in Ares's direction.

Its head came into full view of Ares. The face was skull like with white translucent flesh giving it an emaciated look. It opened its mouth slightly and a deafening wail sounded.

Crap, Ares thought quickly looking around for possible exits. The reverent would likely have alerted others.

Ares looked behind him back towards the wall and instantly felt dismayed. The deserted street he had just walked was now full of ghostly figures floating in his direction.

The reverent infront of him had now come close and a coldness was setting into Ares's bones. He was relying on his speed to outrun the creatures and hadnt expected to be cornered so quickly. The reverends had an ability called possession. This was how they killed victims and multiplied (besides the curse of course). They would enter the body of someone and slowly take over their functions devouring their soul bit by bit. Once touched it was difficult to expel a reverent and only those with high level magic or strong souls could resist.

Ares decided going forward was the only option, one reverent posed far less of a threat to him then the pack he could see behind. Ares strode towards the figure and walked directly into it. There was a horrible feeling similar to being exposed to the ice cold of the water within the mine. He felt like he had fully submerged himself in the water. He tried to continue to walk but found his body almost frozen to the spot.

A feeling of panic started to rise within Ares. Perhaps he had been too hasty; he had been stupid to rush into the forbidden city. Doubt spread throughout his mind as he considered mistakes he had made before; leaving Alex, leaving the city. All the mistakes of his life ran around in his head and he became more and more empty.

The reverend had started to devour his soul and the feeling of emptiness was a result of its consumption. A glimmer began deep in Ares soul. The glimmer started to shine brighter and brighter causing the reverent to let out another wail this time of pain. Ares was still absorbed in regret as the change began. A whisper sounded almost silently in his mind.

"Void." It said.

Ares could barely hear it but the voice shocked him out of his stupor. He started to circulate the void spell in his mind again and again.

There was a high-pitched squeal as the reverent was expelled from Ares's body and appeared in front of him a devilish expression of hatred upon its face.

Ares pointed his finger out in reflex and cast the void spell a small black spot colliding with the reverent.

Without sound a small black hole appeared and the entire body of the reverent disappeared. Ares regained his wits and thought quickly. While the void spell had no power against living beings these revenants were dead; he could destroy them with ease!

His path had opened in front of him and without the reverent inhabiting his body he was freed from its binding. Ares turned to look at the large group of reverends and then began running towards the castle, he couldn't cast enough spells to kill them all.

The path was almost straight from this point to the castle. Ares assumed this was likely a main road when the city was still in use. The group of Revenants behind him weren't particularly fast but continually accumulated more and more members.

Ares widened the gap between himself and the group to several hundred metres. Unfortunately, he continually was delayed by Revenants appearing in front of him; they would disperse as soon as he cast void at them but this took away precious seconds of his lead on the group behind him.

After around ten minutes of running he finally arrived at the outer walls of the castle. There were fortunately no new Revenants around the outskirts of the walls. Ares run along the wall boundaries and found what looked like a gatehouse.

Unfortunately, the huge wooden door was sealed.

Ares cast the void spell and the black dot collided with the huge wooden door. There was a popping sound before the spell disappeared. The door remained unchanged.

Damn it Ares thought. He had gained a lead on the large group in pursuit of him but this was diminishing fast, he needed to find a way into the castle. The walls and gates were immune to his void spell so he could only continue to run around the walls in a hope for an entry.

The walls were intact and after running almost around the full perimeter of the walls Ares had to re-evaluate his approach.

There was a small courtyard near to him with a well in the centre. It was possible that the wells were connected and the castle would undoubtably need a water supply. Running his options through Ares hedged his bets and ran to the well jumping in without hesitation. It was deeper then he expected and he fell at least twenty metres before hitting the water; the sides of the well were slick with moss and after bobbing about on the water surface he realised he wouldn't be able to climb back out.

Ares planned in his mind his next steps. The plan was simple in theory, difficult in reality. Ares planned on diving and heading in the direction of the castle; he hoped to find a similar well that he would be able to climb out of. After mentally preparing himself he took a deep breath and submerged himself.

The water was crystal clear and after only a few metres of diving he found himself in a huge underwater cavern which was lit by small glowing crystals in its side. Ares could see that there were several tunnels leading upwards in the route of the castle so he made his way in their direction. The cavern was huge and with the crystal-clear water he could see deep into its depths. Fish of all sorts swam around and there were more then a few large shadows visible in the most submerged parts. Upon arrival at a tunnel leading upwards Ares noticed a huge grate covering its entrance.

The grate was old and in a deteriorated state due to the continual erosion of water. Ares decided trying void was worth a go so cast it at the centre of the grate. The water swirled as the black dot made contact and the centre of the grate disappeared allowing him enough space to swim though.

He breathed an internal sigh of relief that it worked as he made his way upwards. After a short period of swimming his head broke the surface and he once again took huge gulps down of air.

He was inside another well, this one was far wider then a regular well. Because the well was more sheltered and in better condition the walls of the well were in a good state, someone had handily carved out ladder like groves into one wall. Ares climbed out and found himself within the walls of the castle.