Chapter 9: Ancient Wraiths

Chapter 9: Ancient Wraiths

Fors’s pupils abruptly dilated, as though trying to draw in more light so that she could clearly see what Xio now looked like.

At the same time, light suddenly erupted in front of her—several times more dazzling and piercing than the flash of an old-model camera—turning the surroundings into a vast expanse of white.

Immediately after, her finger slid across one of the pages in Leymano’s Travels. Black fog surged up beneath her feet, completely enveloping her body.

That dense black fog rapidly split into one illusory bat after another, each roughly the size of a palm. They flew toward different locations within the underground hall.

This was Dark Wings, an ability The Moon had recorded inside Leymano’s Travels!

Its original function was to increase speed, allow short-term flight, and transform into a swarm of vampire bats to attack enemies. But Fors did not use it that way. She merely treated it as a “prop” for a magic trick.

After the illusory bats all flew away, the place where Fors had stood was already empty.

At some unknown point, her figure had shifted more than ten meters away!

After instinctively evading and protecting herself, Fors finally calmed down a little. She hurriedly turned her gaze toward Xio, who had shown the abnormality.

However, the Xio reflected in her eyes only had slightly messy blond hair, a face a little tanned from long days spent running around outdoors, and an expression of surprise mixed with a measure of confusion. She seemed astonished that her friend had suddenly overreacted and showed no trace whatsoever of being affected by any wraith or ghost.

“What happened?” Xio asked, puzzled and guarded.

Fors narrowed her eyes. Without answering directly, she flipped through Leymano’s Travels and asked in return,

“Xio, what is your real height right now?”

Xio seemed to understand at once and answered,

“One hundred fifty-two. That should be right, no?”

Before she finished speaking, Fors’s finger had already slid over the symbolic marks and magical signs on the page in her hand.

Silently, a sacred beam of light wrapped in flames descended from the upper reaches of the underground hall.

Clear, radiant, and majestic, it enveloped Xio at once, sending rings of sunlight rippling outward.

The blazing light pierced Fors’s eyes, making her see the entire hall collapse with a roar. The surrounding space shattered inch by inch like glass.

That sensation flashed and vanished. Slightly dazed, Fors discovered that she was still standing where she had originally been. She had never fled.

Was that an illusion? In a panic, she turned her head and looked to the side. Sure enough, she saw Xio standing there perfectly normally, gazing toward the damaged area near the heavy door.

Fors considered her words, then opened her mouth and said,

“Xio, what is your real height right now?”

Xio glanced at her and said in irritation,

“Don’t ask such boring questions!”

Phew, she’s real… Fors let out a sigh of relief and quickly described the important parts of what she had just experienced to Xio.

Xio thought for a few seconds. Holding the storm lantern in her left hand, she touched Fors’s arm.

“Let’s retreat a little first. Perhaps the closer we are to that door, the easier it is to hallucinate.”

“Mm, possible!” Fors nodded in agreement and swiftly took several steps backward.

Then she looked around again and said, somewhat puzzled,

“Why still can’t we find any wraiths or ghosts here?

“This kind of environment should be exactly what they like.”

Xio was also surprised. She began observing carefully and eventually fixed her gaze on the cluster of sunlight floating above Fors’s head.

“Extinguish it and try again,” she suggested.

Fors came to a realization and immediately canceled the illumination.

Darkness surged soundlessly over them, once again ruling the underground hall. Only the dim yellow glow of the storm lantern resisted it, small and weak.

Then two figures appeared within Fors’s Spirit Vision.

Both were close to the bronze door. One was female, hair coiled up, dressed in knight’s trousers convenient for movement and a gaudy blouse. The other was male, wearing silver-black armor and holding a longsword almost rusted through.

The former’s face was blurry. She continuously moved back and forth between that door and the area where Fors and Xio had previously arrived. The latter wandered beside the door, muttering something to himself.

So these are the two ancient wraiths? Fors nudged Xio with her elbow and lowered her voice.

“I see spirits.”

“I see them too. They aren’t hiding.” Xio slightly bent her body and assumed a fighting posture.

Fors hurriedly nudged her again.

“Don’t rush. We still aren’t sure they’re the targets.”

She tried walking forward three steps, but the two somewhat blurry figures did not even glance at her.

After thinking for a moment, Fors suddenly spoke.

“Madam, what are you doing?”

She had previously heard stories in other mysticism circles saying that higher-level spirit creatures such as wraiths and shadows could sometimes communicate.

Yet the moment the words left her mouth, regret surged within her. Even if they could truly communicate, she had no way to achieve her goal. It was not as if she could persuade the other party to commit suicide and hand over the ancient wraith’s cursed item and residual spirituality.

Just as Fors was considering whether to attack directly, the lady in the gaudy blouse and knight’s trousers answered her question in a tone without much fluctuation:

“I am searching for my husband.

“He is the guard here.”

So she really can communicate… Quite curious, Fors asked,

“Where did he go?”

By now, Xio had also approached, still looking highly vigilant.

The blurry lady answered stiffly,

“He is the guard here. He told me that a strange power was seeping out from behind the door, corroding his teammates. He asked me to take the messenger and leave this place as quickly as possible.

“He said he would guard it until I had safely escaped. But I didn’t want that. I wanted to leave with him… After sending the messenger away, I returned halfway and came underground to find him. But no matter what I did, I could not find him…”

Judging from the castle’s feeling of age, which clearly surpasses the current epoch, the final guards here really could have developed into ancient wraiths. Uh, this lady’s story actually touched me. I really don’t have the heart to attack her… As her thoughts turned, Fors carefully moved forward, circling around the female ancient wraith and arriving at the area near the bronze door.

Along the way, neither she nor Xio experienced any hallucinations again. This seemed to indicate that Fors’s earlier encounter had been unconsciously caused by that lady.

After reaching a spot not far from the knight wraith in silver-black armor holding the rusted longsword, Fors tried asking again,

“Sir, what are you doing?”

The knight wraith paused, then spoke in a buzzing voice:

“I am guarding this pitch-black door. I must ensure that my wife can escape to safety.

“If you meet her, please tell her that her knight will fight for her to the very last moment.”

Ah… Pitch-black door? This is clearly a bronze door… Wait, what did he just say? He said he’s guarding the door to ensure his wife can safely escape? This… isn’t that the other half of the story the lady described? He’s her husband? Fors was stunned. Her gaze moved back and forth between the two ancient wraiths.

The lady in the gaudy blouse and knight’s trousers approached the bronze door step by step, then turned back toward the center of the hall after reaching it, repeating this cycle without end. The man in silver-black armor wandered by the door with his rusted longsword in hand. From time to time, the two passed by each other, yet they never looked at one another.

This scene has lasted for at least fifteen hundred years, perhaps even longer… Fors sighed silently and turned to glance at Xio, only to discover that a thin mist had already gathered in her friend’s eyes.

She really is easily moved… Fors could not hold herself back. She shouted toward the female wraith,

“Look beside the door! Your husband has been there all along!”

The woman in the gaudy blouse and knight’s trousers slowed her steps. She first swept a glance at Fors, then turned her gaze toward the side of the heavy door.

Her stiff gaze passed through the knight clad in silver-black armor and landed behind him.

“No matter what I did, I could not find him…” The wraith repeated her earlier words and resumed her previous movement.

Fors felt inexplicably sorrowful. She was about to shout again when she saw the knight in silver-black armor turn his head and look at her and Xio. His buzzing voice boomed out:

“Who are you?”

The moment his voice fell, the female wraith also turned her gaze toward Xio and Fors once more.

Fors immediately felt her thoughts slow. Inside her body, a mass of coldness seemed to rapidly take shape, rippling outward and freezing her flesh and joints. In her eyes, Xio appeared to suffer a similar condition. Even the storm lantern dimmed considerably.

At that moment, two lightning-like rays suddenly lit within Xio’s eyes.

The male wraith let out a pained groan, and his figure blurred.

Xio instantly broke free from that “frozen stiff” sensation and hurled the triangular blade in her hand toward the female wraith.

At the blade’s tip, wisps of illusory lightning kept leaping before striking the woman in the gaudy blouse and knight’s trousers directly.

Psychic Lashing!

The female wraith screamed, and her figure grew even blurrier.

Fors’s mind cleared at once. Her finger slid across Leymano’s Travels, which she had already opened in advance.

The surrounding shadows abruptly came alive, gathering together and transforming into black chains that tightly bound the knight wraith in place and sealed his “mouth.”

Abyss Shackles!

At the same time, Xio charged forward. The female wraith’s figure reflected in her eyes, and in her hand was an illusory, scorching branding iron. She stamped it toward the target.

With Xio entangling the female wraith, Fors’s movements became even calmer.

She flipped page after page through Leymano’s Travels and slid her fingers over them in succession.

One silver-white bolt of lightning after another branched out in midair and fell from nowhere, striking the knight wraith one after another and turning that place into a purgatory of lightning.

In the end, a clear pillar of light wrapped in sacred flames appeared, enveloping the knight wraith and thoroughly purifying him.

Seeing that one enemy had been dealt with, Fors immediately turned and joined Xio in dealing with the female wraith.

She did not hold back the abilities recorded in Leymano’s Travels. Choosing suitable ones and combining them cleverly, she used Xio’s restraint of the target to alternate between limitation and attack. Before long, they had resolved the enemy.

Everything fell silent once more. Fors caught her breath and looked at the battlefield with an expression of disbelief.

“It ended just like that?”

She had originally thought the two ancient wraiths would have special abilities and a relatively high level, making them difficult for anyone short of a Sequence 5 quasi-powerhouse to handle. Instead, she discovered that the matter had gone unusually smoothly.

This made her truly recognize that Leymano’s Travels was indeed a divine artifact, and it also caused her to yearn even more for the next Sequence: Scribe.

Xio was also rather surprised. After thinking for a few seconds, she said,

“No wonder someone once told me that below the level of demigods, the number of Beyonders, their cooperation with one another, and their application of abilities matter more than the height of their Sequence.”

The moment she finished speaking, banging sounds suddenly echoed beside their ears.

They broke the quiet of the underground hall.

They came from behind the bronze door.