PSTH: Chapter Eleven

Ghosts are what happens when a magian attempts to steal the ousia of other living creatures in a foolhardy attempt to extend their own life. It works, at first, but with each successive cast, the bonds between the thief’s essence and the biological body are frayed. Eventually, the connection breaks, leaving a dead body and a haunt that usually only lasts for a few hours to a few days, depending on the strength of ambient essence levels. It has no memories of the creator, but it does have some of the same ultimate sin of greed that caused the magian to attempt to kill and extend their own life…

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The Essence of Animation, a book published by a biologist in an attempt to categorize every type of essence-based creature, published 439 Modern-Era

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Vince’s full power rolled out over the room and flattened the overwhelming presence of the Obsidian King’s ghost. His mere presence held nearly as much essence in it as everyone else in the room combined. Like Laurel and me, about sixty percent of his power was the active, flickering bright power of Anima, but even so, his pneuma reserves were deep enough to stand a real chance against the Obsidian King. 

“Begone, old ghost,” he said, and his voice cracked with an authority and presence that I had never heart from Vince. This wasn’t Vince, the affable baker’s cousin. This was Vincent Angon, Regent of the Tamer’s Consortium. 

I expected that the ghost would flee. I would have, if I was in its place. But the ghost wasn’t smart enough for that. All that it saw was a chance for a bigger meal to extend its life even longer. Shadows exploded across the room, and slammed shut against burning walls of fire. 

Vince had summoned his primary set of Primals. Unlike Laurel, his Serest’s battle form had evolved into a Serestiax, and it was long, almost eight feet from snout to tail, with a set of front claws made entirely of pneuma. Its green scales were thick, with ivy weaving between them, and it invoked the image of an ancient dragon, powerful and potent. 

His Ltan’s battle form, evolved into a Ltanival, was an aesthetic match for its partner. They were the same length, but the Ltanival had fiery red scales instead of green. White light shone from gaps in the pneuma, and the serpentine head was adorned with long whiskers of fire, rather than horns. 

The ghost flung his hands out and shadow exploded through the room, aiming for the Regent and his Primals, but another attack from the Ltanival sent them rushing backward. The room shook, and Vince thrust his finger forward, pointing to the ghost. 

“Finish it quickly! Spirit Flame!” 

Crimson, gold, and burning white gathered in the back of the Ltanival’s throat, but before the attack could finish, the ghost slammed its hand down against the ground. The granite beneath us cracked, then chunks of it started to crumble away into dust. I hopped back from one spot, while Scales did the same, but he slipped. I lunged forward, trying to grab onto him, and barely managed, but the dissolving parts of the floor spread further. 

Laurel grabbed onto me, but I was already starting to fall. As one, we tumbled down into the dark. I let out a shriek of fear, as we fell, but I’d barely had time to understand that then we smashed against the ground. My pneuma reserves abruptly bottomed out, absorbing the power of the impact. The glow surrounding both Laurel and Zaza’s also vanished, and Scales’ was bright with a dozen cracks, but I let out a breath of relief. Our pneuma had held, protecting us from the fall. Scales’ battle form faded away as he ran over to me and licked my face. 

“It's okay boy, it’s okay. I’m fine.” 

I scooped him up as I looked at the dark patch where I thought Laurel was.

“Are you okay? Dizzy? Having trouble seeing? Well, I guess we are in a dark hole in the ground, of course you’re–” 

“I’m fine,” she said, cutting off my nervous ramble. “You?”

“Out of pneuma, but otherwise okay,” I said. I slung my backpack off, grateful for the fact that my protective shell extended to cover most things I wore, and fished around in the darkness until I found a flashlight, then clicked it on. Light filled the room, and I looked around, and up. 

We’d taken about a three story fall down from the mansion above, and landed in some wet, packed sand, probably a sea cave. The entire area had an oddly artificial look, especially near the top, which made me think it had once been a part of the mansion’s basement, but the cave had eroded up into it. That was… weird. I didn’t want to say it was impossible, but I didn’t think that seawater would make its way up quite so easily. 

I turned the flashlight to examine all around us while extending my senses. The essence in the area was much stronger than I had expected, and it might have even broken the level ten barrier, but it still felt strange and creepy. 

For better or worse, there was no obvious path out to the ocean. I thought that it was about halfway between low tide and high tide, so it didn’t seem likely that water would rise enough to put us in danger – which made the geometry of the caves even weirder. There were branching tunnels going off in different directions. None of them seemed to have a powerful air current flowing from them, but several of them looked to stretch up in the direction of the surface. I didn’t know if it was better to follow them or not – while lost in the woods, the best thing to do was to stay put. Did that advice apply to caves? 

Before I could get in my own head about what to do, Vince’s voice echoed down from one of the gaps above. 

“Laurel! Aiden! Are you two okay?” 

“Fine!” Laurel shouted up. 

“We fell a few stories, but our pneuma shielded us,” I said. “Did you beat the ghost?” 

“I did,” Vince confirmed. “It was unnaturally powerful for a level sixty-eight. It…” 

Now that Vince brought it up and I had a moment to stop and think about it, the fact that the ghost had survived for multiple centuries was actually quite strange. I was no biologist, but I was pretty sure that most ghosts dispersed within a few hours, especially in low essence zones like the coast. Maybe the ghost’s gift was some form of perpetuity, which would be dangerous, or maybe it had something to do with the strange essence in the area? 

“How did it survive that long?” Laurel hollered up, apparently thinking on a similar track to me. 

“I’m not sure,” Vince said, and he sounded worried. “River is going to try and create a warp point down there to teleport you back up.” 

I remembered what Laurel had said about vertical distance and felt a flash of concern about that plan. It wasn’t like he’d cut us in half with a teleportation spell or anything – partial teleports essentially didn’t exist – but he could well fail to fish us out.

“You can do it, River!” Laurel said, projecting as much confidence as she could. I thought I heard a faint ‘thanks’ in reply, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I shifted to look at Laurel. 

“I don’t suppose Ella’s has learned flight magic strong enough to lift us out of here?” 

“No,” Laurel said grimly. “She flies naturally, since her body is the same weight as most air. I didn’t think there was a reason to learn the spell.” 

I thought that the ability to fly with someone was a good reason to learn it, but I didn’t voice that thought. Maybe Laurel was afraid of heights or something, I didn’t know. We sat in silence for a while before I eventually shifted my flashlight to one of the nearby caves. 

“I’m going to go exploring,” I announced. “Call out to me when River gets a teleport going.” 

“That seems like a dangerous idea,” Laurel pointed out. “A dangerous idea with no benefits at all.” 

“Nah, I’m not going to try and crawl through any gaps. If the tunnel isn’t wide enough to fit me comfortably while walking, I’m not going through. And no benefits?” 

“I don’t see any benefits,” Laurel said. “Also, what about cave primals?” 

“Well, for one, there won’t be any Primals around, since the ghost will have eaten all the essence to stay around. For two,” I said, pointing up to where Vince and River were. “Three stories, give or take. Remind me how far away River thought the egg was?” 

“Thirty… Oh, that makes sense. Fair, you can check the tunnels for the egg. Give me the flashlight, though. You have your pack, I’m not sitting here in the dark.” 

I handed it over, then wandered to the nearest tunnel entrance and climbed in. Scales let out a bark, and I helped him up, then pulled my own augpad out. I had no signal down here – naturally – but I turned on the flashlight, adding some light to path. 

I walked down the tunnel, which wound upward in a way that reminded me uncannily of a switchback, while still remaining plenty large enough for me to walk through. I was just starting to muse on this again and wonder if perhaps the Obsidian King had a bunch of earth magians working for him when my flashlight stopped working. 

I froze and sucked in a breath. The light shouldn’t have burnt out, and had plenty of battery, but something must have been faulty. Right? I had almost convinced myself of that, and was turning on the screen. Nothing happened. A spike of adrenaline shot through me, and I sent a pulse of anima into the battery, but… no, it was at least eighty percent full. 

Then glowing cyan eyes pierced the darkness. 

I froze, my throat forming a lump that stopped me from screaming, I couldn’t move, and even as I pulsed my essence, I felt a second source of essence forming in the dark. 

The ghost had somehow escaped Vince’s blast, and it was going to use its superior power to–

Except it wasn’t superior. It was level seven or eight. 

And it had toxin essence, in addition to shade.

That… wasn’t the ghost.

The darkness swept back, revealing a gray-black Primal. It looked like a cat crossed with a fox, and with large eyes that were a solid cyan color, no pupils or whites. Purple smoke flowed and swirled from each of its paws before dissolving into nothing, and its tail seemed to be made of the same purple haze, which curled several feet off the ground before it vanished.

A moment later, the cat-fox-Primal was swallowed by faintly glowing anima, forming a battle form with a second tail, longer legs, a larger body, and long, sharp claws that seemed to be made of shadows.

It wanted to battle? Well, that made sense. It was impressive that it had trained enough to reach the level it had, given that the essence here was… 

Almost level twenty? 

It was still locked down and strange, impossible for me to cycle into myself, but it was right at the breakpoint. Every ten levels, essence density jumped significantly, requiring far more to break through, and this felt like it was stuck right around level nineteen. 

My attention was drawn away as the Primal paced back and forth, and Scales stepped forward. His battle form re-appeared, still spiderwebbed with cracks, and the Primal sniffed the air inquisitively, before striding forward and tapping Scales’ form with one long claw. There was a surge of shade essence, then Scales’ pnuema shell vanished. 

A tiny flicker of essence entered Scales and I, but it was essentially nothing. We’d been defeated, and hadn’t even put up much of a good fight. The cat-like Primal released its own shell, then sat on the ground, licking one paw and watching me curiously as it infused its own spirit with the fruit of its victory. My eyebrows raised, and I lifted one finger. 

I wasn’t a magian, but I did know one spell that I could freecast: Bond Primal. I might be out of pneuma, but I’d hardly used any anima at all. It would probably take me a minute, but if this little guy wanted out of the caves, who was I to deny it? More than that, if it enjoyed battle and cultivation as much as it seemed to, it might be a great partner for Scales. As I worked on the spell, I lifted my augpad and scanned it.

[Name: None

Species: Felimalio

Element: Shade/Toxic

Rarity: Uncommon

Level: Seven

Gift: Negate the innate gift of nearby Primals.

Spells: 

- Weakening Smog (Toxic)

- Shade Bite (Shade)

- Shadow Cloud (Shade)

- N/A

Description: Felimalio are a single form land bound primal, similar to a cat or fox. They possess a variety of supporting, debuffing, and utility spells, but are not very popular due to their gift also negating the gifts of allied Primals. Click here for the full description.]

I had barely gotten through reading the description when my spell completed, and anima rushed out of me.