Fire Mage

Chapter 157: Ghost

Charles's eyes flickered in the yellowish lamplight as he saw the hovering black-haired woman.

The next instant, the lamp on his right side table started to shimmer and soon went off with a poof!

"Come...Play with me..." A young child's voice suddenly echoed in his ears.

A moment later, a chilling wind blew past his neck, caused Charles to frown deeply.

'A ghost?' He raised his eyebrows and conjured a ball of flame.

"Turn off the light, mom. I'm going to sleep." The same child's voice echoed in his ears.

"Who is it?" Charles asked in a cold tone and then started walking towards the hovering Ashley.

On the other hand, drops of blood fell from her face and splashed on the concrete floor.

As he was about to grab Ashley's hand, her body suddenly jerked up like she was being electrocuted.

Simultaneously, some invisible power moved her body upward and directly slammed her face onto the ceiling.

A painful groan leaked out of Ashley's mouth.

At the exact moment, Charles suddenly felt a faint presence from behind his back and furrowed his brows.

"You want to play hide and seek?" He let out a cold snort and suddenly released his wisdom power everywhere.

Then, he used [Hand of Mystery] skill and pulled Ashley from the air towards his direction.

'Hmm, an invisible consciousness is hiding in this house and seemed to be moving from one place to another.' Charles analyzed the situation and then stared at Ashley.

Her face was filled with knife cuts, and a strange triangle mark also appeared on her forehead.

It was a triangle colored yellow on top, red at bottom-right, and blue at bottom-left.

Although this was the first time Charles had seen the symbol, he clearly recalled studying about them somewhere.

'Wait, I read about such a symbol in the wisdom library. Yellow represents Birth... Red represents Death... and blue represents Life. A single member from this organization could cause a kingdom to tremble in fear... The Destiny Conquerors...' Charles's face turned abnormally cold.

'This is troublesome.' He conjured a bluish-green flame on his palm and threw it on Ashley's body.

A moment later, her whole body started to burn fiercely, and soon the flame started to heal her at a fast speed.

On the other hand, Charles placed her on the cold floor and turned his gaze towards the kitchen.

At the entrance door, a small white humanoid form started to take shape.

It looked more like a humanoid ethereal form.

'That's a person's soul. But something is wrong about this one.' The Holem's Crown suddenly spoke in his mind.

'Something is wrong?' Charles tilted his head in confusion and soon noticed that foggy ethereal form had long vanished from there!

'Yes. After death, one's soul usually enters the Eternal River of Life and would wait for their reincarnation cycle. But some anomaly cases appear from time to time. If some died of unwillingness or pure hatred and vengeance, their soul would refuse to go to the Eternal River of Life for soul cleansing and stay here in the ethereal form or astral form.'

'After some time, these souls would gain some terrifying mystic abilities and would influence the physical world. If they hate someone, they would follow after them and create countless problems for their enemy. These beings are always a troublesome bunch to deal with. This small soul should come under this category.' The Holem's Crown replied patiently.

'But why did it come here?' Charles felt more confused by the soul's appearance and soon asked another question.

'Is there a way to capture it?'

'Yes, if you are a necromancer, you can enslave it and seal them in a skeleton to awaken a bone puppet.' The Holem's Crown paused for a moment and then added.

'Another method is to create a ritual circle and seal it.'

Charles shook his head and soon turned his gaze towards Ashley.

He then took out a leather water pouch from his space ring, opened the tap, and poured it on her face.

Meanwhile, Ashley let out a painful groan and then started to cough before opening her eyes.

The next instant, her whole body started to quiver all of a sudden.

Soon, she noticed Charles's presence and spoke in a hurried tone.

"Please save the kids, My Lord. A few skeletons walked into this house and kidnapped them when we were asleep. I tried my best to stop them, but this ghost-"

At that moment, she suddenly stopped her talking, curled her lips upward, and stood up with a strange smile on her face.

Her head then twisted in a weird angle, and she spoke in a childish voice.

"You are a bad man."

Once she finished her words, she tried to break her neck, but Charles waved his hand and threw a ball of blue flame on her body.

Simultaneously, he used his wisdom power and completely focused on her body.

In a split second, he noticed that a white humanoid form started to take shape in front of her body.

No, he saw that the foggy humanoid figure was currently struggling with all its might!

'As I had thought, this soul fire really does work against souls. Is this some kind of purifying fire?' Charles thought inwardly and continued to toss another two balls of bluish-green flame on Ashley's body.

Within two seconds, the foggy form started to turn into an illusionary blonde-haired boy child's appearance!

He appeared around 8 to 10 years old and was currently hovering in front of Ashley.

But what shocked Charles was not his clear human appearance but a strange black chain on his chest.

One end was attached to his heart region, while the other end appeared to be moving into the void from his right side.

'Someone is using a death chain to stop the soul from entering the Eternal River of Life.' The Holem's Crown gave him an explanation.

'Is he a necromancer from the Destiny Conquerors?' Charles furrowed his brows for a moment and went near the soul. Then, he conjured another ball of flame, reshaped it into a sharp blade-like appearance, and slashed it towards the death chain.

A clanging sound echoed in the hall, followed by a loud metal breaking noise.

A moment later, the black chain broke into two!

Charles soon saw that blonde-haired kid started to turn transparent and then disappeared from his eyes.

Meanwhile, Ashley once again fell on the ground and became unconscious.

Shaking his head, Charles walked out of the house and soon frowned.

The only howling wings and the window shuttering noises echoed from all over the place, giving an eerie feeling to him.

'It's a mere trick to cause fear.' A cold snort appeared out of his mouth.

The next instant, two reddish fire wings appeared behind his back and started to flap.

Then, Charles's figure shot up towards the dark sky and soon reached 100 meters high.

He looked at the street roads from the sky one by one and soon zeroed his gaze towards the western side of the gate.

At that moment, he heard metal clanging noises from that direction!

Without any delay, Charles flapped his wings and shot towards the western gate like a bullet.

Meanwhile, a total of 14 bone skeletons in different attires surrounded a group of four kids and was pointing their weapons at them threateningly.

Some skeletons held long swords, while the rest held spears and daggers.

Each of those skeletons appeared around 140 to 160 cm tall and looked more like trained soldiers!

On the other hand, Noel pierced his short sword into a kneeling skeleton's skull and directly decapitated its skull from its body.

Then, he glanced at the surroundings and let out a deep sigh.

After these skeletons kidnapped Noel and others, they tied their hands and brought them to this western gate.

After that, these skeletons placed them on the ground and then waited at the entrance for someone.

Thankfully, Titus woke up earlier than others, untied the ropes before the skeletons' could notice, and freed everyone. Then, he also snatched Jessie's void pouch stealthily and gave their weapons back.

By the time the skeletons realized that something was amiss, Rhea used her magic spell, bombarded them with ice spears, and killed six of them in one go.

'Haa, if we had ranked up to Rank-2 Mystics, we wouldn't be ended up in this state.'

Shaking his head, Noel glanced at Titus and Jessie and became gloomy.

"You two are heavily injured." He muttered while gripping the short sword and gritted his teeth in frustration.

Meanwhile, Jessie and Titus held the daggers in their hands and watched the skeletons in vigilance.

Sword cuts appeared on many parts of their bodies, and blood drops were constantly falling on the ground.

Behind them was Rhea, who stood with a pale face.

Currently, she held a small wooden staff in her hand and was panting heavily.

Water droplets were constantly flowing out from her hands and soon formed into a transparent sphere, enveloping Noel, Jessie, and Titus.

It was a [Water Shield] spell!

"When will our Teacher come?" Noel spat out a mouthful of blood and asked.

A bitter smile appeared on Jessie's face.

"I have no idea-" At that moment, she abruptly stopped speaking and then looked up at the sky.

From the eastern direction, she noticed that a red bird was moving towards their direction faster!

She instantly widened her eyes and cried out in surprise.

"Teacher!"