Johann's face changed and followed the order. He entered the carriage and informed Melissa and Kathrin while Kael took over the reins of the carriage.
"Did you just say evil spirit?" Melissa's face changed as well upon hearing Johann's report.
"That's what Sir Kael told me," Johann replied solemnly.
Kathrin sat at the sides and listened with a puzzled expression.
"Is he sure about that?" The lady continued to delve further into the topic.
"Purely based on his abilities and the situation I have no reason to doubt his assessment."
"What do you mean by evil spirit? Do you mean those evil spirits that haunt and feed of humans dreams during their sleep, driving them to insanity and spreading evil you told me about when I was a child?" Kathrin couldn't hold it anymore and asked.
"That's basically it, but also it's not. There are different kinds of evil spirits. You were baptized in the name of Christianity because of your father's belief, so you should know about the basic principles of Heaven and Hell. In Christianity, you believe that you either enter Heaven or Hell upon death depending on your deeds. If you did well during your life you'll enter heaven and live in peace for eternity. But if you did evil deeds during your life and didn't reflect on them you'll have to enter Hell and repent on your deeds for an eternity. That's why we believe that one should regularly go to church and confess your sins. But there's a third category and those are evil spirits. A soul that holds resentment during death will transform into an evil spirit losing his mind and depraving into insanity. The only things on an evil spirits mind are to fulfill the unfulfilled desires held upon death. Upon fulfillment, the evil spirit will lose the last bit of sanity either to enter hell or to resist the pull of the otherworld and start to spread chaos through the world. An evil spirit automatically holds the powers of a captain ranked warrior at least, as they automatically hold an ability similar to qi which is the requirement for humans to reach captain rank. Their abstruse fighting abilities put them on a level above general humans of the same rank and one generally needs multiple humans at the same power level in order to fight them off."
Kathrin's face changed. "So you're saying we're up against a fearsome creature that can defeat multiple captain rank warriors by itself?"
"Yes. Our only chance during a situation like this is to trust into Kael's abilities. The original reason for the existence of the temples is to fight off those evil spirits and protect our plane of existence. Maybe he holds some techniques to fight the evil spirit off. Although the enemy is an evil spirit our bodyguard this time is a former temple disciple at the captain rank so we should not be entirely hopeless." Melissa's face was solemn but her eyes reflected a glimmer of hope.
...
Kael steered the carriage and tried to get to the front of the caravan quickly. When he reached the front of the caravan he turned towards the vanguard and spoke up. "We need to turn around quickly. We entered the territory of an evil spirit."
The mercenaries face's changed and they stopped their advance. They followed Kael's advice and gave the orders to turn around.
"HAHAHAHAHA. You're too late human. Did you think you could just enter my territory and leave whenever you want?" An eerie voice laughed shrilly and a purple fire rose around the caravan, closing up all paths of retreat. The figure stepped out of the flames and headed towards the group. It had a tall and extremely skinny build. The skin was dark-gray, almost black. Inside of the sunken eyeholes sat a pair of red glowing dry eyes, the cheeks were fallen in and he licked his blue lips greedily. Although it seemed to make stepping motions there were no feet to be seen beneath the long black gown it wore and he floated above the ground.
"Go, my slaves, go. Feast on their flesh and bring me their souls." The spirit called out and the surrounding earth started to cave in. Bony, rotten bodies started to rise and attack the surrounding mercenaries. The situation instantly turned messy.
"Protect the civilians, I'll take on the evil spirit." Kael shouted to the mercenaries and charged forth.
"Exterminate darkness, exterminate evil, a bright mind amplifying a bright heart, oh vivid soul, oh vivid world, dharma equipment." Kael chanted again and a golden glowing Buddhist staff appeared in front of him. (Here's a image how such a staff looks like) He grabbed the staff at the center and swung it down towards the evil spirit. He channeled his qi into his arms to strengthen the force behind the attack.
"There's a priest in between the group." The spirit's expression turned serious and it pulled a sword out of nowhere blocking the incoming attack. It deflected the attack and attacked Kael's abdomen with its free hand striking out a clawing motion. Its fingernails lengthened and turned into sharp claws ripping through the leather armor and the chainmail barely ripping open a light wound.
Kael quickly retreated and held onto his abdomen. The wound started dripping with blood and Kael's leather armor and pants quickly turned blood red.
"Although you're a priest you're rather inexperienced, and if I didn't guess wrong you just barely entered the qi channeling realm. I always wanted to know how the blood of a priest tastes." The evil spirit smiled cruelly and liked the blood of its fingers. Upon tasting the blood the expression of the spirit underwent a drastic change and he stared unbelievingly at Kael.
"You're no priest. You're not even a human. This is impossible."