It was a windy night in Townsend.
Ghostly voices and strange sounds could be heard as wind gusts blew past, rustling Alex's hair.
He guessed that the ghost density in the village had reached a very high concentration for such a phenomenon to occur.
"I'll be going," Douglas said in a hoarse voice.
Alex nodded. "End this quickly."
"Mn." Nodding wordlessly, Douglas turned and leaped onto the roof of a house nearby and like that continued to leap from roof to roof, quickly making his way over to Mrs. Granger.
Alex sighed as he glanced at the dancers ahead.
They were slowly being tortured to death and Alex could only watch expressionlessly.
He wanted to help them but seeing as how they still moved even when their bodies would normally not move, he considered that trying to restrain them would put them under further agony.
Sighing helplessly, it was best to leave them as they were.
Just then, a dancer turned in his direction and after sizing him up, began to dance toward his direction.
Alex watched this silently, unsure of what to make of this.
As the first dancer approached, others also turned and then they began to move as well.
Noticing the faint trace of hostility in the air, Alex made his move.
Snapping his finger, pulsating black and white erupted from beneath him and rushed forward like a tidal wave, completely enveloping the entirety of Townsend.
"This…" Alex frowned upon experiencing the same icky sensation as the last time.
Pursing his lips, he pondered. 'What is that?"
An answer quickly came as he studied the area he had covered with the use of his senses.
It was safe to say that Townsend was almost completely gone.
Instead, a town completely enveloped by pus-covered flesh and a most pungent aura came into view.
Most importantly, a great number of ghostly children moved about.
Similar to the ones he saw from last night, they numbered well into the thousands, laughing and playing as they pleased.
Currently, it seemed the reason the dancers were approaching Alex was because of them.
Just like puppets, the children carried the people along.
Within all this, Alex zeroed in on a figure in the distance.
Emily.
As she stood in place, a great number of ghost babies were moving about her, clawing at her fair skin.
She was clearly in deep pain but unable to move, she could only transmit her suffering through her eyes.
Then Alex took a closer look only to find that her stomach was bulging.
His gaze turned cold upon realizing that the bulge was a result of the ghost babies entering her body and nestling in her womb.
They wanted to be born human!
Without hesitation, he attacked.
Several cries rang out in tandem as the babies exploded without a chance to retaliate.
But there were too many of them.
For every 100 that died, several more took their place.
They were like ants as they charged at Alex.
They had learned from the last time that merging would only make it easier for the fearsome Mystic.
Thus, they relied on their numbers to pressure him.
Alex pondered the possibility of separating his domain and using the purification of the moon to deal with the children but he considered that such an attack may not wipe them all at once and knowing how weak he would be after separating his domain, he naturally decided against it.
Taking a deep breath, he decided on a battle of attrition but first… he had to take Emily.
Pa
He quickly made his move.
***
Douglas watched as a starry sky appeared all of a sudden.
Sensing the familiar authority, he knew it had to be Alex's field.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been in awe of Alex's prowess which was enough to instill fear on par with his master.
However, the situation was anything but normal.
Douglas had sensed the artificial link he had implanted in Emily just before the attack that shattered their new home.
From what he felt, she was not in a good state.
He wanted to believe that the entity possessing Alex's body would ensure her safety.
So despite knowing Emily was in danger, he kept moving forward.
Since Townsend wasn't large, to begin with, he quickly neared Mrs. Granger's house by the lake.
Using his enhanced sight, he saw her seated on the front porch, blurbs of white gas floating beside her.
Under his watchful gaze, she reached out and grabbed one before slowly placing it in her mouth.
Sucking it down like a noodle, the blurb disappeared and Mrs. Granger noticeably de-aged.
Douglas quickly understood what was happening.
She was devouring the people's souls!
"Vile bastard!" He cursed loudly as he leaped and dropped a few meters away from her house.
Mrs. Granger had a smile on her face. "Douglas my boy, it's you again. Did you come to say hi?"
"Die!" He didn't bother with unnecessary words as he moved like the wind, appearing beside her before she had a chance to react.
Grabbing her head, he flung her outside and watched her collapse awkwardly on the rough ground before leaping over to land on top of her.
Not giving her a chance to react, Douglas pummeled the old bitch, continuously attacking her head with his fists until a hole was dug in the earth.
Breathing heavily, Douglas stared at the unmoving corpse before he got to his feet.
Glancing back, he checked to see if the blurbs of gas were gone but they remained.
"Hmm?"
Then he sensed something causing him to leap away.
Then he looked toward the corpse of Mrs. Granger only to set eyes upon a most unpleasant sight.
Her body was ripped apart from the gut and out of it, a humanoid creature covered in blood and entrails crawled out.
"This…" Douglas trailed off as the humanoid creature stood at over 8 feet tall with a hunched back.
Strangely enough… it still had the face of Mrs. Granger despite having a most monstrous physique.