Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:42 am

Book 2: Chapter 32

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Frozen in place, the six awakened began to struggle with all their might, but no matter what they did, they found themselves trapped. The invisible hair that wrapped around them prevented them from activating their abilities, sealing their soul sparks even as the Long-Haired Ghost appeared behind Eben, her comb starting to run through his silver hair.

“Your hair is beautiful,” she whispered, causing a shiver to run down his neck.

After what felt like an eternity but was really only a few seconds, his body was dragged forward, pulled into the mirror as the ghost appeared behind Marta.

“So much pretty hair to comb!”

Trying to scream, Marta found herself unable and was soon tugged into the mirror as well, vanishing into the Hollow Space right after Eben. One by one, the exorcists were dragged into the mirror, until only Ryn was left in the basement, her fingers trembling as she carefully covered the mirror’s surface with a cloth.

“I sure hope the boss knows what he’s doing,” she muttered, trying her best to keep the fear from her voice.

Inside the Hollow Space, Garrett heard a chime that sounded like a doorbell every time someone was dragged in, but to his surprise, they didn’t appear in the room with him. Seeing the pale fiends turning to float back into the hall, he realized that there must be other rooms where they were being deposited. Thinking quickly, he activated Dream Cloak and Illusory Dream, making it look like he was running for the door even as he took two steps in the opposite direction, heading for his wheelchair.

The Long-Haired Ghost’s head snapped around when she saw what appeared to be Garrett fleeing, and she let out a shriek, flying after him, her hair whipping wildly around her. Watching her go, Garrett tried to adjust his plan to the new situation. He had been assuming that everyone would get dropped into this room, and had been planning on manipulating the Pale Fiends and Exorcist into a fight, but since everyone was spread out, he needed to start gathering people, and quickly.

While he was hopeful that the exorcists would be a match for the Long-Haired Ghost, he didn’t think they’d have a chance if they were on their own. There were simply too many Pale Fiends, to say nothing of the shaper level Long-Haired Ghost. Thanks to the Dream Cloak ability, the only Pale Fiends still in the room were the four who carried dream flowers. Though they were terrifying, Garrett didn’t mind as they floated around him, as they offered at least a bit of protection. Canceling his current Illusory Dream, he heard a terrifying shriek echoing through the dark halls and knew that he had successfully enraged the Long-Haired Ghost.

Muttering a prayer for whoever encountered her next, he tapped his wheelchair, causing the light from the dream flowers that covered it to dim as they vanished. The last thing he needed was someone to draw a connection between the dream flowers and the Klein Family, and if he showed up sporting two dozen flowers, they were bound to realize that he was hiding deep secrets. Once the illusion had been established, Garrett sat down in his wheelchair and his body shifted, transforming from that of the masked Geller back to his waking world persona. Once he looked like Garrett again, he pushed himself out into the hall to find the others. While the hallway was dark, it wasn’t hard to figure out where the others had been brought in. Garrett only had to head toward the area where the shrieks were the loudest.

The long hallway branched off in half a dozen directions, and Garrett could see stairs going up and down when he peered down the dark paths, creating a confusing, Escher-esque maze. Occasional lights of flickering green flame cast pools of ghostly light into the hall, and it was through one of these that Garrett caught sight of an exorcist running. It was one of the two men who had come with Eben, and there were three Pale Fiends after him, their arms outstretched as they floated through the air.

About to send the Pale Fiends he controlled over to help, he saw the exorcist jerk open a door, only to come face to face with another Pale Fiend who was floating on the other side of the door. The nightmare lunged forward, long fingers piercing through the exorcist’s face as the nightmare reached deep into his skull, causing his face to twist into a soundless scream. In a futile effort to drive the nightmare back, the exorcist slashed at it with the sword he held but the blade simply passed through the Pale Fiend, not causing any damage. Shaking, his body began to rise up into the air as the nightmare lifted him up, the other Pale Fiends arriving a moment later and sinking their fingers into his body.

Bit by bit, the color drained out of him, transforming into a corpse whose face was permanently locked into a terrible scream. Watching from a distance, Garrett found himself shaken as he realized how all of the Pale Fiends came to be. They were like a virus, infecting others with their ghostly energy and transforming their victims into copies of themselves. Even the Pale Fiends who had been floating around him began to fly forward, wanting to attack, causing Garrett to realize that they still weren’t under his control. Each had three flowers, which was enough to keep them from attacking him, but faced with a victim who didn’t carry any dream flowers, the influence of the flowers they carried was not enough to suppress their instincts.

A slamming door caused Garrett to turn around, just in time to catch sight of Eben and Henri sprinting down the hall. At the same time, they caught sight of Garrett and the crowd of Pale Fiends behind him. Eben’s eyes widened, fixed on the newest Pale Fiend, while Henri let out a shout.

“Garrett!”

In a moment, the two exorcists had arrived next to Garrett, Henri grabbing his wheelchair as Eben shot him an incredulous glance. Garrett clearly hadn’t been transformed into a ghost, which, given how much longer he had been in the Hollow Space, was strange. But before they had the opportunity to question him, the crowd of Pale Fiends saw them and started chasing, forcing the three men to run. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the twisting passages and rooms in the Hollow Space, but for now, they were just trying to lose the Pale Fiends, so they simply ran.

Garrett, who was sitting in his chair, was impressed with how Henri kept a hold of him, pushing him along even though it slowed him down. He had fully expected to be abandoned to the Pale Fiends, and had been preparing his contingency for when it happened, but Henri had dragged him along, determined to save him. After they had created some distance from the Pale Fiends, Garrett suddenly pointed at a room up ahead.

“In there!”

Without hesitation, Henri turned into the room, and Eben followed a moment later, his expression twisted. The door closed behind them and they stood in the darkness as a shrieking group of nightmares flew past the room, soon vanishing into the distance. Garrett, whose eyes were closed, was tracking the Pale Fiends, and once they had gotten far enough away that there was no danger of attracting their attention again, he sent a command to the four Pale Fiends with flowers.

In the dark hallway, the dream flowers suddenly flared and the Pale Fiends that carried them pounced, letting out loud screams as they attacked one of their companions. The fight was short and fierce, but there was no way that the nightmare could withstand the onslaught of four of its peers. Feeling the energy the nightmare contained being absorbed by the dream flowers, Garrett saw a window pop up in front of his eyes, causing him to breathe an audible sigh of relief.

You have gained 2 EXP for slaying a Pale Fiend.

EXP: 2/320

The fact that he could gain experience points from the Pale Fiends killing each other brought a wave of calm to Garrett as the last piece of his plan fell into place. He was taking a tremendous risk by being away from the Dreamer’s Throne, and there had been a large, glaring flaw in his plan that could very well have proven to be his undoing, so seeing the experience trickle in lifted a weight from his shoulders. The fight had caused his Pale Fiends to become separated from the main group, so Garrett sent them hunting for other Pale Fiends that were on their own while he focused on the two men that were with him. Both were still on guard, wondering if the Pale Fiends would be back soon, so Garrett didn’t say anything, not wanting to draw any more attention than he needed to.

Eben, whose long hair was disheveled from his attempts to escape, stood by the door quietly, his ears straining, hoping to hear the enemy coming. Henri stood further back, his sword in his hand as his eyes scanned the dark room, checking for threats. A full three minutes passed before Eben shook his head and turned around to speak to Henri, only to freeze as they heard the soft scrape of a lock. Spinning around, he nearly thrust his sword, stopping only when he saw that the door had been opened by his last remaining companion. Behind the exorcist who stood in the doorway was Marta and Grant, and after checking to make sure that there were no nightmares behind them, Eben waved them in.

One of their number had fallen, but it was clear that they all felt much safer now that they were back together, though it was also clear that they hadn’t forgotten their earlier fight. Garrett sat quietly on his seat as the two teams faced off, one on his right and one on his left. Sneering, Eben glared at Henri, his sword still in his hand.

“Your foolish interference got us into this mess! When will you learn to leave these things to those of us who actually know what we’re doing?”

“Come off it, Eben,” Grant cut in, his eyes hard, “you can’t pass off your incompetence to us. You are the ones that shouldn’t be here.”

“Listen—”

A horrifying shriek suddenly sounded outside the room and everyone froze, their eyes turning toward the closed door, taking a step back as a scratching sounded. Hearing a faint moaning, Garrett looked at the others and saw that they were all pale, their hearts shaken.

“The Pale Fiends are immune to regular attacks,” Garrett said quietly.

“Shut up,” snarled Eben, his fingers tightening around the handle of his sword.

Garrett was happy to comply, and sat in silence as the scratching grew louder. There was another shriek outside the door and it was followed by answering shrieks nearby.

“They’re gathering. We need to break out of here,” Grant said, his breathing rough.

“How are we going to do that? Through the only door in the room?” Marta asked, pointing at the door which was starting to shake. “Hate to break it to you, Grant, but I think we’re trapped.”

Suddenly, the rattling door stopped, and there was nothing but silence. It was so abrupt that all the people in the room, even Garrett, stopped breathing as they waited. They didn’t have to wait long because the door handle began to turn and the door began to open, its hinges completely silent. Like a deepening chasm, the gap between the door and the door frame slowly widened until it was big enough for a lady’s hand to reach through. Gripping the side of the door, the Long-Haired Ghost inched the door open, revealing her long hair and a dozen Pale Fiends floating behind her.

“I’ve been looking for you!”

Dark hair shot forward, filling the air like a rain of arrows as the Pale Fiends charged around her, and the exorcists stepped forward to meet the attack. To their credit, the exorcists acted with courage despite the fear they must have felt, putting aside their differences to fight against the nightmares together. Grant and the exorcist who had come with Eben stepped to the front, their swords hacking as they cut at the hair coming toward them, while behind them Marta stretched her hands out and let out a shout, her soul spark flashing.

Fierce cold began to spread from her fingers, flowing out into the room and covering the advancing Pale Fiends, causing them to slow. Eben lunged forward, his sword passing straight through a nightmare’s head, but the monster didn’t stop, its hands reaching for his skull. With a grunt, he dodged and danced back, trying to slash the Pale Fiend, only for his sword to slip through it again, leaving no mark.

“These monsters are impossible to hurt,” he yelled. “My sword goes right through them!”

“Use your power,” Henri snapped, his own soul spark starting to shine.

From behind him, three figures started to emerge, their ghostly bodies slowly becoming more visible as they floated up next to him. One was an adventurer who was dressed in thick armor and carried a large halberd, another was a small child who held a short bow, and the third was a woman who carried a heavy knife. All three of them were laughing, filling the air with a chilling sound as they moved to attack, pouncing on one of the Pale Fiends. Unlike Eben’s sword, the ghost’s weapons managed to wound the Pale Fiend, driving it back as another Pale Fiend tried to advance around them.

Seeing that Henri was having success, Eben mobilized his soul spark and a wave of glittering energy appeared around him, looking almost like stars. He stepped forward once again, determined to deal with the Pale Fiend who was reaching for him. The glimmering points of light stabbed into the Pale Fiend, eating away at it and riddling its body with holes, causing it to scream in pain and recoil. Emboldened, Eben wanted to step forward, but a thick strand of hair stabbed at his leg, forcing him back.

“What are you doing?! Keep her occupied!”

Shooting a glance at his subordinate, Eben’s next words died in his throat as he saw him being dragged away by a sea of hair. The poor man was completely enveloped in hair, with barely any of his skin showing. He couldn’t even scream because of the hair that filled his mouth and under the team’s horrified gazes, blood began to seep through the dark hair as his body was sliced into hundreds of pieces. The stench of blood was thick in the air as the fight grew even more frantic under the continued assault of the Pale Fiends, and the Long-Haired Ghost began to stretch her hair out again, her shark-like smile barely visible.

“Come, my dears, and feel my hair.”

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