The three stood in front of Jakory's mansion and looked at the rusty main gate. They could see the grass dancing in the breeze behind the steel bars, but something inside left an ominous feeling.
Melany looked at the mansion with a worried face. "This place is cursed. A spirit had been born here and it's taken it as its domain. We'll never leave once we walk inside unless we deal with the spirit."
Spirits are a higher level of ghosts, usually represented as powerful entities of magic akin to fairies and will-o-wisp, but those are born of the souls they originated from. They have different personalities while fae-like pixies and fairies are predictable.
"We shouldn't go inside. Even I can't control what's inside. It has been growing there for decades and amassing power." Melany stared at Liam and Alice. "Let's leave."
"Can you block its influence?" Liam asked.
"I should be able to resist it. But I won't be able to fight while doing that, you two would have to face it alone. We don't even know what it can do so a fight is too risky."
Liam and Alice looked at each other, and Alice said. "We can fight. Let's just make a short step inside and see what it can do." I hope it isn't something too dangerous.
"Yeah, even if it seemed too dangerous, we can just retreat." Liam added with a smile. As long as it isn't a tricky one, if that was the case, we might be in for an exhausting day.
Melany stared at them with a scared face. "You two are crazy, but I guess you saved me from assassins and even survived a demonic shrine dungeon. Fine, I'll trust you for now." She approached the gate, "I guess all of your preparations are done, are they?"
"Yeah." The two replied as they walked behind her.
****
Name: Melany Ombreta.
Race: Human.
Soul Record: Grey.
Level: 30
Strength: 20
Speed: 42
Mana: 35
Special ability: [Spirit Master: Level 32]
Current Spirit: [Shadow Veil]
Spirit Skills:
[Shadow's Step]
[Shadow's Hand]
[Shadow's Pocket]
[Shadow's Beasts]
[Shadow's Form]
Normal Skills:
[Dodge: Level 26]
[Sneak: Level 17]
[Dagger Arts: Level 31]
[Sword Art: 32]
[Martial Arts: 13]
****
Melany looked at her own skills, pondering the days she'd spent enslaved and failed to achieve anything. Being bound by the collar had limited her skills by a lot and she has begun rusting. For the past years, her level had reverted due to not being able to fight or train unless on a mission, and even those usually ended with one stab. Her strength was impacted more, but even with this, she should've still been quite strong.
She could remember last night when she snuck on Liam in his sleep. She was sure he'd die with one stab, only for him to glare at her with an evil grin from the bed. Even though she didn't hesitate to swing at him, he still managed to win in a few seconds, and she ended up stripped down and tied with a rope. A defeat that she had never faced before and that had made her certain, that this Liam guy is far stronger than he seemed.
Using her butterfly swords, Melany cut the chain locking the door with a single swing. "Keep to my shadow and don't step out. I'll need to figure out how the spirit's power works first before we can face it."
They walked inside the garden and for a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen.
"To think it was really a spirit…" Alice sighed. "Melany, you're a lifesaver."
"Just let me concentrate…" Melany closed her eyes as she focused on the magic in the air.
Liam looked around with a bored face. "Ah! Shit…here we go again." He sighed, and everyone disappeared from his side.
Alice gasped as she fell into the water, barely being able to swing from how dense it seemed, as thick as honey. "This is water? What's wrong with it?" Alice shouted, "Liam! Melany!" None replied to her.
I can't sense their magic, were we separated? There is no helping it. Using her unique skill, Alice conjured a powerful gust of air beneath her feet to send her body flying up. But her eyes opened wide, seeing a small and mold-filled pond beneath her. "Is that a lake?" As she gasped, it didn't take more than a second to notice.
"Ah! Shit…"
Liam looked around as he stood alone on the dirt, "Now this is a pain…this damn spirit thinks this is enough to keep me away from it." At that moment, several cow-sized fire ants surrounded him, growing and grunting.
"Large buggers…no, I'm the small one now, aren't I?" the grass blades around him were as tall as towers, and even the speck of dust rolled around like small balls. This spirit's power or at least an application from it was apparent. He had noticed it just a fraction of a second before they shrunk, but it was already too late to dodge.
Liam clenched a fist, "Melany, you can go all out, and run if you want. I don't care what you do, it's your choice." He got ready for a fight.
Melany landed alone inside the mansion, standing no taller than an ant. But only a second later she returned to her normal size. She could counter spirit magic as she's a spirit master.
She took a step forward. This is a spirit that controls size? That can't be a primary power; it's probably related to the circumstances of death, which means it still holds another power.
Liam and Alice are probably around me…no, they aren't. So the spirit managed to separate us, what was it? A form of teleportation, no could it control the location of people inside this house? Questions started popping into her head, but she had to move around and search the place. Killing a spirit is barely an option as they are already dead. The easiest way to deal with them is usually solving their dilemma, whatever that was.
She walked through the empty hallways, her steps kicking dust as she looked through the door, spotting what was inside the old abandoned rooms of rotten wood and broken furniture. Of course, spirits don't tend to where they live.
Melany walked into one of the rooms and started looking around. On the ground to the left of the bedside table, she found a picture frame. She lifted it up, but the picture was caked with dust beyond recognition.
Melany looked around for anything to wipe the frame with but ended up using her hand. The picture featured a young wizard hugging a beautiful blond woman as they carried two newborn babies in their arms.
Those are the houses, former residents… One of them must be the spirit. Probably the wizard as he has the most magic I suspect. As Melany stared at the picture, a lump of flesh silently fell on the ground behind her.