I look out over the dark graveyard, only illuminated by the silver light from the moon. At just a glance, I get a bad feeling about this. Something is in this graveyard. Waiting. Someone among my group, however, shares none of my cautions. Otto wraps a leather glove around his hand, stretching it out, and then walks between the stone graves first.
Blake follows shortly behind him as she runs her hands along the graves we walk past. I see bits of gray Ether leave her fingers and run down the stone into the dirt beneath. I give her an odd glance as I follow. Johnny and Dakota stay right behind me.
The girl with the shaved head gives me an awkward smile as she whispers.
"Making sure the spirits are calm."
Her words don't make much sense to me as I have no idea about spirits besides Bakwas. I just give her a nod and continue onward through the ominous and dark graveyard. Otto leads the way without a lick of caution as he ducks underneath a tree branch that hangs a bit too low. Our feet crunch the nuts and seeds beneath our feet as
We make it a few more steps through the graveyard and get about halfway in before Blake whispers harshly to all of us. Her tone is serious, and unlike anything, I've ever heard from her before in the time we've spent together.
"Stop. I feel something."
The second her quiet voice reaches us, we all stop in our tracks. Even Otto, who seems to not care for caution, stands perfectly still. No one is willing to ignore a partial Sexton in the matters of spirits.
While we all stop moving through the grave, I see in the corner of my eye Johnny pull out his revolver, Downpour, and load some bullets into it with flowing inscriptions over them. He notices my gaze but doesn't do anything about it and just studies the graveyard around us.
When I see him look around, I do the same. My eyes scan over the stone graves that denote where the fallen were buried, and I peer at the gangly trees that hang over them. But I don't see anything. It's pretty dark and brutal to see appropriately. I use my newly learned skill from Otto, Nightvision, at this thought.
Ether swirls into a pool within my pupils and spreads out to the rest of my eyes, dying them red. From there, everything becomes so much clearer and more vibrant. But even then, I don't see anything.
We stand stock still for over a full thirty seconds before Blake tells us to move. She does so with a voice just loud enough for us to hear but with a grim seriousness attached to it. My feelings about her change quite a bit as she doesn't buckle under the stress of the graveyard. Although, I suppose if she did, she'd be dead long ago.
"We're good now. Whatever it was passed. But be very quiet. Go straight for the building."
Otto nods at the front from her words taking steps forward silently, and I follow along, pushing cloudy-like Ether into my body to silence my movements with Stealth. Somehow Dakota seems to copy what I do as he also becomes incredibly silent beside me. Maybe animals have instincts that teach them skills? I don't know, but he seems to be quite proficient in Stealth. Maybe more so than me.
The pain of using Ether has lessened quite a bit since the fight with Hura, and the Strain, as Otto dubbed it, doesn't affect me as much. The overuse of Ether in a single place, either with volume, speed, or quality, makes a miniature meltdown of the body similar to going over the edge of Ether saturation. Usually, this takes months to recover from, but I seem to be progressing quite quickly.
My feet touch the ground, utterly silent with the cloudy Ether of Stealth that removes the impact noise. I grimace slightly as the pain has turned from sticking my limb to a hot piece of iron to a small cut along the hand. As I move toward the mausoleum ahead of us and the large iron door that awaits us, I keep searching around us for whatever Blake senses.
But I don't find anything, not even when Blake has us stop by putting her arm up again. And as she does so, I see decrepit black stained bandages form on her arms out of nothing that wrap their way around her hands and up her arms to her elbow, less like dressings and more like hand wraps. The bandages hang from her elbow quite a bit as she gets low to the ground.
We all stay stock still once more as we follow her directions and just watch her move slowly. Even Otto turns his head to watch Blake from the forefront.
Complete silence and immobility linger for almost a full minute before Blake bursts with movement out of nowhere, using a peculiar motion of movement to wrap her hanging bandages around something in the air and pull it to the ground. The second it hits the ground, the being becomes visible to me.
A long and slender humanoid creature, no ghost, is stunned momentarily as it is pulled to the ground. The thing is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It has exceptionally long black hair that is soaked in some dark liquid. Its knees are bent in a weird direction, and sharp claws lay at the end of the bare feet. Its hands, however, are thin and brittle, with one holding a long black scythe seemingly made of hair.
Before I can even react to it, however, Blake envelops her bandages around it and punches it straight in the head with a jab covered in Whetting that seems to stun the ghost further. I take a step to go help, and Johnny aims his gun, but she hushes us and the spirit.
"No, shhh."
Afterward, she grabs onto the ghost as the bandages start to cover it fully despite it struggling against her. But whenever it hits her, a gray sheen covers the girl that seems to protect her. I watch with rapt attention as the ghost is entirely devoured by her bandages and then pulled toward her stomach. Then, the ghost's head touches her clothes and tears through them as the spirit is pulled headfirst into Blakes's body.
Once it is entirely devoured by her, silence resumes. I share a glance with Otto, who is just as shocked as I am, both our mouths hanging open. A shared question passes through the two of us without any verbal communication.
"Did she just eat a ghost? With her stomach?"
Blake doesn't seem to see our incredulity and stands shakily after her brief feast of an actual ghost. She turns to us and speaks in her everyday, quiet, meek voice.
"I think there are more. We still need to be quiet."
Then, she moves forward again, eliciting Otto to do the same despite our shock. I step a bit closer to Johnny and frantically ask him what the fuck just happened with a whisper. I can't just ignore whatever the fuck that was.
"Psst. What the fuck was that?"
Johnny answers me as succinctly as he can while striding quietly. He manages to only leave me more confused.
"Soulbond. She can devour and bond with one spirit at a time."
Yep. That… That explains only a little bit of what the fuck just happened. Ugh. Whatever. I'll just keep moving forward and worry about it later. I guess I should have asked what Blake could do. She's just so damn weird, though.
I move forward some more, Dakota right beside me, and several more times, we stop before we reach the mausoleum that is not even that far away, only a few hundred feet at most from the iron gate. And as we approach, the stoppages become more and more common. Like we're getting deeper within a net of spirits.
But eventually, we reach the black iron door that is the entrance to the mausoleum. When we do, Blake puts a finger over her mouth as she rests her hands on the door handle. Black threads similar to the hair of the ghost she ate just a bit ago cover her hands like gloves and keep her hands from actually touching the iron. She uses this glove of hair to pull open the door with a creak.
She slides in first after only opening the door just enough for us to walk sideways in, and we follow her carefully so as not to touch the door just as she did.
When we get in, the room is entirely pitch black except for a single light down a series of stars. Blake also speaks to us, explaining what just happened. Even in a high-stress situation, she still somehow makes it long-winded. Quite a bit like Edmund, although far less bizarre. I am impressed, however, by the fact she doesn't stutter in her explanation even once. Perhaps I misjudged her.
"We just passed by a whole pack of Nalusa Falaya, or the long black beings. The Undead Surgeon must be quite the master of the undead if he can get a pack of those ghosts to protect him. Each is similar to a 2nd Sigiled at the minimum. They can bewitch and capture people with their hair, although they can only see movement and Ether. Luckily for us, we're human, and our Ether doesn't protrude like the demons or Pygmies. The one that got too close to us, I devoured and used my single bond to take it down swiftly. I'm not sure what else is in here, though. My knowledge will not be as useful the closer we get. I'm not a full Sexton, but only half and this guy is your Sigil strength, Johnny."
We nod at her in the dark as each of us understands what she's saying. Johnny steps up to the forefront now that Blake has admitted to being incapable. He gives us orders and even speaks to Dakota like a person.
"That's fine, Blake. You did well. Kept us from being spotted so far. Let's keep going. I'll take the lead; Wyatt, you get behind me; Blake, you're in the middle; Otto, you got the back. Dakota, just stick close to the group and growl for danger. Let's go."
Johnny takes out the Death's Lantern from his waist and twists it to open the light that never seems to fade from it in any way. Pure blue light inundates the inside of the mausoleum and dyes everything an odd color. Johnny then takes the first step down the stairs, lantern in one hand, Downpour in the other.
Slowly, carefully, and attentively, we make our way through the inner parts of the mausoleum. The hallways are long, filled with side rooms, and so dark that not even Nightvision will let me see clearly. Most of the rooms are pitch black, so Nightvision does literally nothing to let me see inside them.
We do pass one room, however, that has a single candle lit on the inside, and within, I see a corpse lying atop a surgeon's operating table. Tools are strewn everywhere, and a brain is placed on a table beside the corpse. I inspect it with my eyes for a few moments as I realize the candle had to have been lit recently. I tap Johnny and point it out to him as we pass it, and the man looks at it himself.
Johnny's eyes scan the flame atop the small candle before moving over to the corpse. He gives a slight nod as I see his grip tighten on Downpour. Something's not right here. Even I can feel that, and I'm not the most sensitive. I glance down at Dakota, and I see that his fur is standing completely up on his back like he senses a predator.
But as we move and are not attacked, beset by any force, or warned by Blake, I start to figure that we must have passed all the guards that this man has for himself. This so far seems to be his… what, experimentation building? I know Sexton's raise dead by putting spirits inside them, so they likely have to find a way to make a body as powerful or as accommodating as possible before doing so.
Blake is a bit different as her Sigil seems to make her the host of the spirits instead, allowing her to take on abilities that they have. At least, I assume that's what that hair thing was. Not entirely sure, though.
Our steps continue through the long hallway of the mausoleum silently from Stealth, but eventually, footsteps ahead of us meet ours. Johnny raises the lantern skeptically as two figures come from the dark of the mausoleum into the blue light of Death's Lantern.
The two beings are identical in every way and look far more demonic than an actual demon. A mask of bone with only small holes for eyes replaces their faces. Blood-red hair falls from their heads all the way down to their feet and leaves trails of crimson on the floor. They walk with slow but sure gaits as the two creatures crouch down to threaten us. The two creatures' appearances make Blake, beside me, gasp with a sharp word leaving her mouth.
"Skadegamutc!"
Her recognition of the creatures only confuses me, but it makes Johnny instantly fire some of the inscribed bullets from his gun. The man doesn't hesitate even a lick as lead slams into the bone mask on the one on the left. The loud gunshot sounds as the Skadegamutc's head whips back from the impact. It then brings its head back to look at all of us slowly. Cracks cover the creature's bone mask all over, making the creature look even more demonic.
I see Otto flick some knives into his hands from a pouch on his hip, and Blake starts wriggling black hair from her fingers that entwine with her bandages. I follow their lead immediately and pull out Intervention as the Skadegamutc roars at us silently with the cracks in its mask. It jumps from the floor and lands on the wall as the second one does the same with the opposite wall.
I step in front of Otto and aim Intervention at the one on the right as I immediately start pulling the trigger rapidly. The Skadegamutc leaps toward me as the bright fire erupts from Intervention and tackles me to the ground. I only get a few rounds off, but the creature is covered in burning shrapnel and is currently on fire from the rounds of Intervention that were put into it. The Skadegamutc doesn't seem to care or feel pain, for it starts to claw at me with black hands seemingly built to rip out throats despite the fire and damage upon it.
Ether flushes through me as pain spikes, and Strugglers Defiance gives me strength. I try to push the creature off of me with Intervention as a block against its attacks, but it is so strong that it keeps slamming me into the ground with its claws that strike the weapon. That and one arm versus two is simply bound to lose. The wind is bashed straight out of my lungs, and I have trouble focusing as the thing just beats into me, but after a few seconds, it is pulled off by Otto, who fills it with a series of sharp knives. The man then slides past it as it turns to him and pulls me up with a flick of his wrist onto my shoulder.
My mind briefly thanks his proficiency in Fasthands as I get up speedily and aim Intervention back at the Skadegamutc. It silently roars from behind its mask as it charges at us once more. Otto chucks knives at the creature as he pulls out a rope dart that wraps around its legs. While he does so, I aim Intervention and let loose every single shell left in the cylinder.
Deafening explosions ring out as the Skadegamutc is covered in the sun-like flames of Intervention's final shell. The smoke clears as Otto drags the creature out with the rope wrapped around its body, and I see that it is still alive, only severely wounded. I dash straight for it and jump on top of it, dropping Intervention and sliding my knuckles on from my pocket as I do so.
I slam as much Ether as I can using Whetting into the knuckles, covering them with a sheen of Ether as I start to throw haymaker after haymaker directly into the skull of this Skadegamutc. As I do so, I only continue to ramp up the Ether, adding Adrenaline Surge and Chainlink Boots as the monster tries to struggle against me. The added strength puts more power behind each swing, causing more and more cracks after every hit, and the boots of Ether help keep me atop the creature with the chains that dig into the floor.
While I beat into the creature's mask, Otto slides past me and pulls out a hand crossbow where he covers the bolt with some kind of pale liquid. He then loads the bolt and shoots it into the Skadegamutc's eye hole in the mask.
The bolt lands accurately despite the monster's struggling, but the bolt doesn't seem to kill it. It only grows angrier as it tries to throw me off while Otto tries to hold it down with the ropes he wrapped it with. I take the opportunity to follow the bolt that is sticking out of its eyehole.
With a deep breath to prepare myself for the pain, I slam a palm as hard as I can at the bolt, and with a loud crack, I slam it all the way into the skull of the Skadegamutc, making it finally stop moving. Thankfully, I hit it in such a way my hand is unbroken, although, with that force, I'm sure it would have had been my late right hand instead of the Bloody Palm.
A short sigh of relief comes from me as it finally dies, but I quickly remember that there were two of them and look up. But to my surprise, it is already dead. Johnny, Dakota, and Blake did a similar thing as me and Otto. Blake wrapped theirs with her bandages, Dakota bit its limbs to pull and slow it down, and Johnny unloaded his gun into its face. They killed their Skadegamutc far faster than we killed ours.
We all stand up and start to recover from the fight as clacking returns to the hallway. Instantly, we return to battle readiness. I grab Intervention and race to reload it in case there are more of those monsters.
But what enters the azure light of Johnny's lantern is a surprise to all of us.
A man in a bloody doctor's garb with patches of black necrotic tissue flaking off his gown steps into sight, lamenting our arrival.
"Now, why did you have to come tonight? I was busy working."