"BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY." The ghostly woman screeched so hard that a small shock wave blew dust and leaves in a circle around her, reaching Alina and blowing her hair backwards.
Faced with the sudden assault of icy wind in the dreary cemetery, her mind blanked in fear as she plopped to the ground.
If she was scared before because of the nearby sounds of rocks shattering, she was now utterly mortified.
Little did she know that the ugly ghost scrutinised her with its hollow eye sockets and blood-covered cheeks. If she could see it, she would probably die from shock.
"BABY! Give it to me!" the scrawny woman yelled, a strange hint of joy lacing her words as she dashed towards the poor Alina with her hand outstretched, ready to pierce her and retrieve the baby.
Then, her eyes narrowed as she suddenly heard movement from behind the young woman after dangerously closing the distance.
"RAAAAAAAAA!"
With a mighty scream, Adam phased through the tombstone behind Alina, his left hand raised high above his head, clutching his Beastbane Dagger. Swiftly, he brought it down into the woman's ethereal head with a victorious smirk.
The dagger was soul-bound. He could re-summon it anytime. That's why he didn't bother to retrieve it after his previous strike and hurriedly fled to hide again.
The woman was too dangerous to stay around. After all, he came here to heal his soul, not heroically fight her head-on, risking injury or death.
That's when he noticed Alina's crouching figure in the corner of his eyes. With how obsessed with babies the woman was, he knew she would target her.
"AHHHHHH!" the woman screamed in pain as the above-head strike propelled her towards the ground, face first, and burned her soul.
As her body collided with the ground, lifting a cloud of dust and leaves, Alina exploded into tears with a miserable face, thinking she would die here.
Simultaneously, as the ghostly woman felt her state rapidly deteriorating and Adam sat on her back to immobilise her, she urgently reached for the dagger, swearing to inflict the same burning pain on her hateful enemy.
However, she wasn't the only angry person in this place.
"I told you I could help! Look where we are now. You chose this ending yourself!" Adam said, his voice filled with anger after being forced into this unfair fight. However, he was hesitant to finish her.
Despite her ugly appearance and madness, she was once a human. Was it right for him to take her life? The only things he ever killed were the beasts in the first trial. Moreover, he was forced.
With a sigh, he resolved to let the woman decide her own fate as his grip on the dagger tightened, ready to cut her in half, starting from her head down to her back if she tried to attack him again.
"Give me ghost essence, and I'll let you go." He said, his voice commanding.
"Hahaha. Fool. You are one of them. They'll come for you!" She manically laughed and said.
"What do you mean?" Adam asked, confusion clouding his eyes as the woman once again said he was one of them.
"The babies! You are just outside. I don't know why... I don't know." She screamed.
"Who will come?" He asked, his mind descending into chaos as he couldn't understand what she meant.
"The officer! He stole her! He stole my baby!" she responded, hate regaining her features as she remembered the despicable officer, causing the temperature to drop by a degree. Then, she tried to move her whip to retaliate and free herself.
However, she underestimated Adam's focus as the moment she started to move her right hand, he pulled the dagger down.
"AHHHH." She shrieked in pain, feeling her negative energy and soul gradually burn and dissipate. However, amidst her pain, a glimmer of rationality flashed through her eyes.
"Gaston! Be careful of Gaston!" She screamed hurriedly as her soul flickered and started to collapse on itself.
"Who's Gaston?" Adam asked in confusion. Was it the officer's name?
But she ignored his question and continued with a plea that struck a chord of unexpected empathy. "I regret every choice I made in my life. Please grant me one request. Save her, save my daughter... and tell her... I'm sorry..."
Baffled by the sudden request after she tried to kill him so many times, he still felt the genuine concern of a mother behind her words and asked. "What's your name? I'll relay your message if fate allows us to meet."
He wouldn't actively search for her daughter, but who knew? He could maybe lend her a hand if they ever met.
"Rachelle." She said, smiling weakly before remembering her last three days.
As she died pitifully, regret gnawed at her heart and soul before mixing with hate and resentment towards her executioners, who didn't even borrow her body, simply throwing it before the forest. Guided by her gut's feeling, she used those negative emotions to condense her soul and turn into a ghost.
As she explored her new ethereal body, she discovered the ability to manifest strange phenomena through her emotions, unaware of the toll it would take on her sanity.
After only one day, she went completely mad and started to hunt animals and other humans to devour their souls, gradually turning into an evil ghost.
Thankfully, Adam stopped her descent into madness two days later, even if the cost was her life.
She would rather die than continue on this path as she wasn't herself and couldn't even think properly anymore.
Gazing at him in gratitude, she disappeared, leaving behind a glowing white orb as the last trace of her existence.
With a deep sigh, Adam said with a trace of sadness, "Why can't things be easy for once?"
Her moment of clarity before dying affected him more than he would like to admit. He didn't like the outcome, but what other choice did he have? It was him or her.
He quickly recollected himself before stretching his left arm to grab the ghost's essence but frowned in irritation as it phased through the orb.
"Why is ghost essence a physical item I can't interact with..." He muttered, his eyes reflecting his indignation. After this scary and stressful fight, he couldn't even touch his spoil!
He felt a bit scammed...