The cultists' legs were shaky as the air became colder and the room in the tunnel began shaking.
"Wail of the Abyss..." Shinto murmured, looking at the effects of Weber's power. "What is this?"
Weber shrugged. "Find out yourself," he said, and Shinto saw a faint aura pass behind Weber.
"Shinto," a voice whispered in Shinto's ear, and he whipped his head behind him, but no one was there.
Shinto began feeling claws tugging at his feet, which made him start kicking by instinct, but the feeling only got worse and it forced him to his knees. He used his hands to stop himself from crashing to the floor.
"I thought you were fast," Weber said, tilting his head as he walked closer to Shinto.
The cultists shot spheres of mana towards Weber, and their eyes widened as they saw it consume him and they cheered.
"Fools," Josh said, staggering to his feet. The mana settled down and Weber made himself tangible.
The cultists walked backwards and ran away.
Weber stretched out his hand and spheres of mana were shot towards them in small bursts, knocking them off their feet.
They fell, and Weber was in the middle of them. Shinto gasped and tried rushing to his feet, but he felt claws gripping at his hands and legs, pinning them to the ground, which made a scream escape his throat.
Weber enveloped his hands in the power of the Abyss and knelt before the leader of the cultists.
"I killed some of your members in Fantasia. Now I meet you people in Vespera," he said and grabbed one of the cultist members.
"I've never used Grasp of the Unmourned on a human before," he said, and his white eyes looking at the cultist member made their leader shudder, staring at the living apparition.
"What do you want?" the leader asked.
"Remove your hood. I need to see your face," Weber demanded, but the leader only clenched his fists. Weber brought his hand with the powers of the Abyss close to the face of the cultist next to him.
The leader raised up his hands in surrender and pulled down his hood, showing a pale man with deep cheekbones and blonde hair whose color had been washed off.
"You drain others of their power and yet, here you are half dead," Weber said with a grimace. "Now, your name. If you lie and I find out, you'll prefer hell."
The leader sighed. "Feign," he replied.
Weber squinted his eyes. "You're probably lying, but I'll bear for now," he said and pointed at the family they captured. "Restore their power."
Feign smiled. "You see, this art we're developing takes, it doesn't give. The only art of mana that will allow such."
Weber nodded and snapped his fingers, and Gabrielle manifested next to him, which made the cultists lose their breath for a second. Shinto was now free.
"Big mistake!" he said and dashed forward, but his speed wasn't enough for Weber to pat Gabrielle on the shoulder with Grasp of the Unmourned, which made her more physically useful as a wraith. Her gray aura turned black and she vanished.
"You're the only mistake here," Weber said, turning to Shinto. He made himself intangible and went into the ground.
He came out and untied the family that were captive, laying them on the floor.
The cultists sprang to their feet, but they lost sight as Gabrielle scratched their eyes and they yelled.
Shinto looked around for Gabrielle, but he couldn't see her.
Then he heard a deafening scream at both ears, and his ears began bleeding.
The cultists were running in circles because they were now seeing ghosts that weren't real, haunting and chasing them around.
The father they captured opened his eyes and nearly had a heart attack because he saw a flash of Gabrielle for a second.
A teenage girl with empty eye sockets but with white irises, in a black gown, white hair, and black aura.
"Rest, sir, you and your family are safe," Weber said, turning back to look at the father, who fainted. He didn't need to be a mana user to sense the paranormal aura Weber emanated with his mystic eyes and white hair.
Shinto clutched his ears and glared at Weber. "You're playing with death. And it will eat you up!" he said and dashed out of the room.
"Gabrielle! That's your killer! Go!" Weber yelled. Then they all heard screams and the tunnel shook, and Weber smirked as if hearing a wonderful melody.
"Death won't eat me up. Because it needs me." Weber's voice was more iced and deeper than usual, which caught Josh's attention.
"Oh no, using his power for too long and now the Abyss is coming out!" Josh said, tapping Weber's shoulder.
"Let's stop! We've done enough!" Weber looked at him in askance and only walked forward.
"I am the Wraith Keeper of the Abyss. I have a pact to finish. Gabrielle! Take me to Shinto!" he said, and Gabrielle manifested. A black aura consumed them both until they vanished.
They were now outside, and Weber phased through into a building, ran up the stairs, then phased out through the roof and started jumping from one rooftop to the next, following Gabrielle's lead.
Shinto was running at a speed Gabrielle couldn't match, and he was getting further away.
Then lightning struck, and it began raining, and Shinto tripped.
When he got to his feet, Weber was behind him. "Hello, friend."
Shinto rushed to his feet, but felt abnormally cold hands hug him from behind. "Don't leave yet," Gabrielle said in his ear, and Shinto ashened.
"I need more wraiths. His soul will do," Weber said, and Gabrielle slashed at his sides, but Shinto dodged and smirked. Then he squeezed a blue sphere and it burst, and a blue aura enveloped him until he vanished.
Weber stretched out his hand to catch him, but he was too late.
Weber knelt to the ground and slammed the rooftop with his fist, causing several cracks, and he powered down, the rain dripping down his head.
He looked to his left with his eyes closed and his teeth gritted. "I release you, Gabrielle, under the condition you deserve not to be satisfied with me for not killing your murderer." But there was no response.
He opened his eyes and saw that Gabrielle wasn't there, and he felt a person give him a hug from the side.
"You did your best and I did mine. Let's increase our power and get him next time," she said, and Weber held her hand as she vanished back to his pocket dimension where his ghosts stayed, his face filled with gloom.
"Thank you for staying with me," he murmured.
A giant shadowy figure with a body of black smoke and a hood, with white eyes underneath—the Abyss—looked down at Weber floating in the sky.
"He's learning..." it said with a low deep voice and vanished.
Weber stood up and looked up to the direction the Abyss was, but no one was there.
Weber clicked his tongue. "Without me you'd have no influence in the physical realm, right? So why not give me some answers? I know you're there," he said, but no one was there, and Weber just sighed.
He went back to the manhole and saw Ariel passing, and she looked at him in askance.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, and saw his hands injured and the skin in that region red.
"Long story," he said. Then his eyes widened when he remembered he left Josh down there with the blind cultists.
Even though they were harmless, he still wasn't sure what might happen with them being there.
He went into the manhole and Ariel followed him.
She whipped her head around, seeing the drawings and torches on the walls, but didn't have time to stop as Weber only ran further into the cave.
Then Weber stopped, and Ariel walked in next to him into the room he left Josh.
Ariel took several steps back when she saw the cultists' eyes bleeding and they were rolling on the floor, begging for mercy from something she couldn't see.
Ariel looked at Weber's expression, and he just watched with a straight face.
"Did you do this?" she asked.
Weber sighed. "Let's just help these people," he said and pointed at the family he left in Josh's care.
"Did you get Shinto?" Josh asked, picking up the teenager.
Weber scowled and nodded, picking up the father without a word.
"Can you help us with this kid's mother?" Josh asked Ariel, then went out of the room with Weber.
Ariel carried the middle-aged woman and walked behind them.
Weber was lost in thought, then looked at Josh. "Where did Feign go?" Weber asked, because among the cultists from earlier, he now realized that Feign wasn't among them.
Josh thought about it for some moments, then pointed at the floor, where there was a cloak with gold embroideries on it. "That might be a clue," he said.
"I sense mana from that cloak," Ariel remarked as Weber dropped the teenage boy's father to observe it.
"It's possible the person used an escape art," Weber pointed out and gnashed his teeth.
Weber stood up and dusted his hands. "We've reached the ladder that leads out here. It's best we Fantasians stop here, because it can look sketchy," Weber said and left behind the father he was carrying. Then he looked at Josh still holding onto the teenager.
"We are fugitives. If we're caught saying we're trying to help, they might still arrest us for suspicion," he said, then looked at Ariel. "But they won't have a problem with one of their own—Vesperan," he said and climbed out.
Josh thought the matter over in his mind and slowly dropped the boy. "He's right. Later, Ariel," he said and went out.
Josh looked down the manhole and thought of everything they'd experienced there, and he wondered.
Just how many more people will he witness Weber haunt and take down brutally?