CHAPTER 90: SPIRITS

"Do you see any vampires through the windows?" Louis asked, looking up as he saw her pull out her binoculars to see again.

She scanned the eight floors of the castle, window by window, until she frowned. She went back to floor 3, where one ran past at high speed through one of the windows.

And then one more on floor 2. It looked like they were going to come out.

"I see two... Their levels aren’t very high."

"What level?"

She put the binocular away. "Between 35 and 40. I thought vampires would be nicer, but these here are horrible." She smiled, pulled out her gun, put on her shooting glasses, and aimed over her shoulder.

"I’ll try to kill one. We’ll go in as soon as I shoot." She spoke.

She quickly returned to looking for the vampires she had seen, and this time, the one coming through floor 2 stopped for a moment as he sensed danger coming from behind him.

He turned his head sharply toward the window...

BAM*

A shot that came faster than he could react slammed firmly into his head and then hit the wall behind him.

"Now!" shouted Laura as soon as she saw him hit the ground. It didn’t matter if it was just one. A dead one was better than that same one alive.

They both quickly entered the Castle’s territory, speeding into its garden and running towards the fountain in the middle so they could reach the door behind it, the entrance.

Their hair stood on end when they took 20 steps into the garden.

"Hahahahaha..."

"New little ones..."

"New toys..."

"They’re human. They’re human."

Strange playful voices came from all sides but only reached their minds. Some said how much fun it would be.

Others said creepier things.

"The ancient cursed world will be born..."

"The land of the dead will emerge."

"The endless cursed spirits will reign once again..."

"What’s coming, what’s coming?"

"Which era will succeed in reigning?"

"Who will rise? Us!

"Hahahahaha..."

Their words were scattered and did not belong to the same person. Hundreds were talking and babbling.

As soon as they were noticed, they felt many presences focusing on them.

"Toys!"

"They must be killed!"

"They are invaders! The ones to blame for our downfall!"

"Traitorous humans who destroyed our nation!"

"The ones who destroyed my mountain!"

"The ones who killed my family!"

Louis frowned and looked at Laura, who was a little dazed by the bunch of voices they were hearing.

She gritted her teeth and kept running. "It’s the spirits. If they come near us they’ll try to talk us into weird stuff." She spoke.

And just then, Louis turned around and fired a shot.

BAM*

The bullet seemed to twist strangely as soon as it exited, before continuing to the front.

In those moments, Louis’ eyes could see more than five spirits scatter and join the surrounding ones.

’Joining them? What the heck? Are these spirits formed solely of threads?’ he thought.

The way they joined caused the voices mentally torturing them to become more frantic, but with madness.

They did not become more aggressive because of their attack; rather, they became more aggressive because other existences joined them.

Laura noticed this and was shocked.

"Spiritual Madness..." She whispered and stopped as soon as she heard it, forcing Louis also to stop.

"What’s that?"

She grabbed her rifle and aimed, looking for a spot to fire. She waited patiently and soon felt herself being attacked by several spirits.

Their voices pounding in her mind began to whisper to her in such a way that they asked her to kill herself, to shoot herself, and tried to invade her mind.

This confirmed the closeness and the direction they were coming from to her.

’Northwest.’ She thought and quickly turned her gun.

BAM*

Her shot had a Louis-like reaction, as if it struggled to get across, but still did.

When that happened, before Louis’ gaze, the threads that made up the spirits seemed to split from the pain in all directions and join the other spirits. Then, the voices became much more frantic.

Laura shivered.

"This is bad, this isn’t just any dungeon, it’s a magical anomaly, an artificial dungeon created by a powerful Sorcerer!" she shouted. "We must flee!" She added.

They were not prepared enough to attack this place.

Louis finally realized how dangerous it was, so he nodded. Fortunately, they hadn’t taken many steps inside, so getting out was just as easy.

They both turned to flee and ran.

But then...

"KIKIKIKI, IT’S LATE!" A scream from inside the castle emerged, and several vampires came out of the door and windows.

As soon as they came out, the spirits became more frantic, and some entered the various bodies.

Louis shot back without slowing down and fired. His bullet was fast; it flew at high speed and hit its target quickly...

Or so he thought.

The shot did hit the body, but instead of killing the vampire, it caused the spirit to disperse once again and join the rest, while the vampire wasn’t even affected.

’They serve as shields? Shit, that’s cheating!’

Numerous spirits stepped before them and made a strange barricade that caused them to bounce backward.

’Did we bounce?’

’Shit.’

They both turned back to see that the vampires that had come out from inside the castle were already in front of them. Without thinking, Louis fired towards one of them, to buy Laura time to fire.

The spirit covered all the damage, allowing the vampire to follow in front and try to hit him.

The blow hit him in the shoulder.

"Very weak." Louis spat before aiming at him at point-blank range and releasing the shot that was ready to go.

Blood from the vampire’s head splattered him, as his body flew backwards. At the same time, his shot was able to cross the head and hit another of the vampires, scattering the spirit into it.

That allowed Laura to shoot and kill that vampire.

At the same time, the third and last of the vampires hung on Louis’ neck, trying to kill him.

The spirits continued to attack their minds. This time, it was much more rampant than before.

"Kill yourself."

"Raise that gun and shoot yourself."

"Join us. We will empower you."

"We can avenge your revenge."

"Kill yourself. Kill yourself. Kill yourself."

Endless words telling him to kill himself invaded Louis’s mind.

At that moment, Louis raised his hand and put his gun to the level of his temple.

"YES, KILL YOURSELF!" The spirits roared, causing that to be repeated up to over 100 times in a moment.

"Louis!"