“I feel the whispers!”
The priest shouted to Shade.
“I feel them too.”
And this time it was stronger. The source of the elemental traces was still the corpse rather than the dagger, and this phenomenon alone was enough to explain a few things.
“Priest, we can't harm it anymore; that will only make it stronger.”
“Of course, I understand. Is there a way to temporarily restrain it? I only need a few seconds!”
“Of course, Priest. Lead it under the tree!”
Shade responded, and the priest began to run forward, drawing the corpse after him.
“Sins’ Chains!”
With a clattering sound, pitch-black chains shot out from Shade's sleeves. While Priest Augustus turned his head with a look of surprise and doubt, the chains climbed up the tree trunk, wrapped twice around the thickest branch, dropped down, and formed a knotted circle on the ground.
The corpse, brandishing its dagger, followed the priest under the tree. The priest stepped into the circle of chains on the ground, and nothing happened. But the moment the corpse stepped into the chain trap, Shade gave a violent tug, and the corpse was instantly hoisted upside down.
“Watch me.”
The priest immediately turned to face it, brushing aside the dagger that the upside-down corpse continued to swing, and pressed his hand against the corpse's brow.
“Hah!”
The old man let out a low shout. As the Life Ring behind his back spun rapidly, a brilliant white holy light radiated in all directions amidst the erupting plumes of steam. For a moment, the light was so pure that Shade felt as if he had touched the most pristine power in the world.
Strangely, however, the spirit runes on Priest Augustus's back did not light up while he used this power.
The holy white light gradually converged at the priest's fingertips. Squinting, Shade even saw the illusory silhouettes of several pure white feathers swaying and falling behind the priest during the process.
These were not physical objects, but strange phenomena visible only to outsiders with sensitive souls.
The white light gathered at the priest's fingertips was finally pressed into the corpse's brow. There was no abnormal phenomenon like the corpse exploding; it shuddered twice and then became completely motionless.
The panting priest took a step back. If Shade hadn't supported him, he might have collapsed straight onto the ground.
Shade could feel that the priest's back was drenched in sweat.
“I'm really not a young man anymore.”
The old man gasped, shivering in the night wind, and took a while before letting go of Shade's arm to stand straight.
The corpse remained hanging upside down from the tree, and the black dagger had slipped from its hand, stabbing into the ground.
“Meow~”
The cat on his shoulder seemed curious about the scene, but it conscientiously remained on Shade's shoulder.
“How should we handle this now? Should we send the corpse directly to the Church?” Shade inquired.
“No, the Church is too far. If this thing loses control and runs loose in the city, we'll all be sinners,” the priest said.
“But what exactly is this? Why are there whisper elements on the corpse? Is some relic controlling the body?”
“No, no. I believe the relic is right in front of us. Detective, I have read some terrifying records; I know what mad Ring-casters are capable of. I sincerely hope my guess is wrong, but we must question the soul.”
Shade nodded, scanning the corpse from top to bottom.
“This corpse... shouldn't be the deceased husband of that peasant woman, the original owner of the grave, Mushir Nem, right?” he said suspiciously. Although judging by appearances was wrong, this corpse, whose clothes had been burned away, didn't look like an ordinary peasant who had lived here for years. His skin wasn't coarse, and there were no marks of heavy manual labor on his palms; instead, there were calluses from holding a pen for long-term clerical work.
Furthermore, while the corpse's features weren't as handsome as Shade's current appearance, he didn't look like the kind of middle-aged man who would be content living in a small village outside the city.
“This should be the scholar who helped the peasant woman arrange the funeral. He buried himself in the ground, which is why the soul of Mr. Mushir Nem, who was never buried, complained to his wife in her dreams.”
The priest agreed with Shade's view.
“I suspect this is a very ancient ritual, using resurrection after death to obtain power. Evil, utterly evil, and containing ritual content that I cannot comprehend.”
Hearing Priest Augustus say this, Shade went to examine the coffin and indeed found traces of a ritual array and ancient text on the inner side.
Judging by the headache he got just from glancing at them, the characters were exceptionally ancient, but for Shade, deciphering them wasn't difficult. He could recognize individual runes, but he couldn't say for sure what the ritual's ultimate goal was.
“Should I commune with his soul? I happen to have the ability to commune, and the integrity of this corpse meets the requirements.” Shade was eager to try.
“No, no, I'll do it. Your occult art can only communicate with soul fragments; I can summon a complete soul. Detective, lower it first and let it lie flat on the grass,” the priest said, the [Soul] spirit rune on the Life Ring behind him flickering slightly.
Once Shade had laid the corpse flat, the priest took a wooden tube from his pocket and sprinkled the black powder inside in a circle around the corpse. He told Shade to step back while holding the cat, warning him that the cat must absolutely not jump over the corpse's head. Then, he placed the still-bright lantern in front of the corpse's head and began reciting an incantation.
Translated from the ancient tongue into the common language of Delarion, the general meaning was "Return of the Soul."
In the graveyard, where there had only been a faint night breeze, a violent yin wind suddenly surged. The wind howled, sounding almost like the wailing of ghosts.
Mia stood on Shade's shoulder, pressing her body against his cheek, while Shade carefully observed the priest's ritual.
Suddenly, Priest Augustus widened his eyes, leaned over, and slapped the corpse across the face.
“Return!”
The sight of the old man shouting with such fury almost made Shade laugh.
But it was effective, for Shade indeed saw a sickly green phantom slapped out of the corpse by the priest. He was very interested in this summoning occult art.
The soul looked exactly like the corpse lying on the ground. Upon appearing, it froze for a moment, as if failing to process the current situation, before recognizing the graveyard in the night.
Looking around, it saw its own corpse on the ground, and then saw Shade and Priest Augustus.
“You... are tired of living?”
Its expression suddenly became vicious, giving Shade and Priest Augustus no chance to speak.
Behind the soul, the Life Ring of a Fifth-Ring caster emerged. However, neither Shade nor the priest panicked. Ring-casters were not pure soul-based classes; only the unification of body and soul could wield this occult power. Because of this, the soul's face gradually began to shift toward the appearance of the physical body.
Even a Fifth-Ring caster, having lost their body and appearing as a pure soul, would inevitably have their power diminished. If the opponent were a High-Ring caster, Shade and the priest would have turned and run immediately, but they could handle a Fifth-Ring.
The Life Ring behind the soul appeared as a phantom, likely due to the operator's state. Several shimmering spirit runes flickered with a sickly green light. As the cold wind blew, abnormal sounds echoed from beneath the surrounding earth.
“Damn it, this guy is trying to desecrate the corpses to raise the undead!”
Priest Augustus cursed in a tone entirely unbecoming of a clergyman. He lifted his robes and stomped his right foot hard on the ground. A Life Ring also appeared behind the priest; as an expert in the powers of [Soul] and [Corpse], he was doing his utmost to prevent the undead from rising.
Shade, of course, wasn't idle. He swung a crescent of moonlight with his right hand toward the Ring-caster's soul. While the opponent used the convenience of a spiritual body to dodge, Shade stepped forward and appeared behind him.
But this sneak attack failed. The soul vanished the moment Shade thrust his sword—a special teleportation method unique to spiritual bodies.
The soul reappeared directly above the corpse.
“You really are fools!”
He laughed loudly and prepared to dive back into his body, only to see Shade charging toward him while holding the cat.
“You can't touch a soul, oh!”
Shade tossed Mia forward, and the orange cat flew over the corpse's face. Even though the soul had not yet entered the body, the corpse suddenly opened its eyes.
It was transforming from a corpse sealed by Priest Augustus into an undead creature.
“Do you think I'm helpless because of this?”
The Life Ring behind the soul flickered again, soothing the corpse as it tried to crawl up. Seeing that Priest Augustus was still struggling to prevent a mass riot of corpses in the graveyard, Shade grabbed the chain from his sleeve and threw it forward.
“Hmm?”
His intention was to force the opponent away from the corpse and then bind him with the chains. Unexpectedly, as the soul turned to block it, the pitch-black runic chains—composed of "Gluttony" and "Greed"—pierced straight through the spiritual arm and then easily impaled the entire soul from the front.
“What is this?”
The soul looked at Shade in astonishment, and Shade was equally surprised; he had thought the chains had no offensive power.
The chains didn't just pierce the soul; dense black marks began to spread from the wound across the entire spiritual body.
The soul summoned by Priest Augustus didn't even have time to curse Shade before his entire being rapidly changed color, as if being stained by ink.
The Life Ring behind him deteriorated like rusting metal. Dense spirit runes representing "Gluttony" and "Greed" writhed like burrowing insects across the pitch-black spirit and the rusted ring.
The soul raised a hand to point at Shade, as if to curse him. But as soon as the hand rose, the soul began to expand uncontrollably. The humanoid spirit writhed and deformed, and the spark of intelligence in its eyes gradually faded.
“He's losing control!” the priest shouted.
The surprised Shade snapped back to his senses, knowing he couldn't let this continue.
Gripping the sword with both hands, Shade stepped forward, planted his feet, and raised the Moonlight Greatsword high.
“Praise the Moon!”
He shouted, and the sword fell. Following the arc of silver moonlight, the distorted spirit was cleaved in two, then dissolved into black ash, vanishing bit by bit before Shade's eyes.
The chains clattered down onto the corpse. The ashes of the soul, carrying a foul stench, disappeared gradually with the night wind. This was the first time Shade had seen a soul turned to powder in such a manner; it was the most terrifying scene of the night so far.
(End of Chapter)