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[Fsh] B2 Chapter 40: Vampress
Vale watched in awe, as the chips and cracks in the Fearshaper of blades’ bones were filled with and reinforced by shadow. One of her revenant’s missing fingers returned in the form of condensed shadow. It seemed like the invocation would allow her revenants to persist through physical damage for at time.[Reconstitution of the shadow wolf]“So that was Solastra’s angle. Empowering my revenants. It’s…”Brilliant.Shiver called forth the invocation she had gained.[Decoy of the shadow wolf]Shiver’s shadow stepped out from behind her, ...
[Ghst] Chapter 23: Magical Girl Rituals
Millie had often told her, that her mother was an afficionado of the occult. She could see the appeal of conspiracy theories in a world where the moon was destroyed by something beyond human comprehension.Allegedly.Short of going all the way to the outskirts, this is my second best shot at finding out about the magical girl. Or even, about the ritual.Evantra slowly paced through the room, filled with dark gothic bookshelves.Ghosts – sacrifice, beyond the Veil.Evantra’s eyes flicked to the picture of an old, dilapidated oil rig, then to anot...
[Ghst] Chapter 22: Peace, Serenity and Sniper Rifles
“A monk, Noelle? Are you sure you got the right guy?” Evantra whispered to Noelle out of the corner of her mouth.Noelle stared at Evantra, her mouth agape. Noelle had confirmed that he wasn’t using an avatar.“Like you’re one to talk? You’re a fucking preacher,” she hissed under her breath. The pair of them turned slowly to stare at the young man dressed in bright orange robes seated in the chair next to them, smiling inoffensively with bright eyes, his hands folded neatly in his lap.Which just so happened to contain a Wraithkiller...
[Ghst] Chapter 21: Amitabha Buddha
Carmen Alvarez POVCarmen Alvarez pulled up to the church with a glance towards her house.She let out a sigh.“Mama? Are you ok?” Lucas’ eyes were wide as he leaned forwards towards the driver's seat. Carmen couldn’t help but break into a smile at the sight of her darling boy.She knew that the Veilsurge had taken a toll on him. No child should have to experience what it was like being thrown into hell, to fend for themselves. Yet Lucas had done so, successfully hiding until help came, filling Carmen’s chest with pride and relief, wh...
[Fsh] B2 Chapter 39: Gloamshores
Shiver’s angelic smile bore into Virgil.A scant minute into the poor man’s mission, it was already going wrong.He really should have known better.Where they stood at the boundary of flame and shadow, Cygni prowled protectively before her Fearshaper. Virgil Starstrider stared at the trio that had relieved him of his parchment. The piece of paper listing out the creatures that Solastra had set for them to hunt. Her instructions had been clear – minimise the information at their disposal, to incentivise them to descend in the way she intende...
[Ghst] Chapter 20: The power of moe
Noelle stared at Evantra as the pair of them sat around the table for breakfast.“You look like you didn’t sleep a wink. You alright?”“I’m horrible with words.”“Heh. Pretty ironic for a preacher.”Noelle flinched, the words escaping her lips before her non-existent mental filter could intercept them. She winced at the cereal that had spilled out of her spoon, before clearing her throat.“I-it must be Cypha rubbing off on me. What’s on your mind?”Evantra let out a sigh as she dug into her own bowl of cereal.“I tried to speak...
[Ghst] Chapter 19: Ghostcults and Hypocrites
“Well?” Noelle and Cypha crowded her instantly, as Evantra let out a small sigh.“Uh… It was… good?”Cypha’s face fell flat, as she nudged Noelle in the side, tilting her head towards her.“Preacher who doesn’t know how to use her words. The joke writes itself,” then her expression rapidly shifted into one of sheer glee.“And I don’t give a strigoi’s arse because the two of you are going to make me rich!” The girl began to cackle, the Nezha drone in one hand, with some other electrical components stored in a bag in her o...
[Ghst] Chapter 18: Wisp
Evantra bit her lip, as the Ghostslayers slowly made their way back towards the Veilsurge. She cast a quick glance back towards the sand wall in the distance.“Planning to take a trip to the necropolis, Evantra? I see you staring,” the man nodded at her with a deep and profound sense of empathy and understanding.Clark was standing with his arms crossed, staring wistfully in the same direction that she had unwittingly been facing.She didn’t have the heart to correct him.“When the Ghostslayer guild finally takes it upon themselves to recla...
[Ghst] Chapter 17: Ghostslayers
The entrance to Caliburn’s mine was bustling with activity.Evantra stared at the massive, yawning tunnel, the entrance lit by powerful floodlights. Caliburn vehicles and personnel swarmed the area. It seemed like the megacorporation’s employees had been working around the clock in preparation to begin mining. Evantra’s eyes lingered on a massive drill parked outside the tunnel, likely responsible for the cavernous entrance Caliburn had created.Evantra watched as a familiar woman flanked by two Ghostslayers approached them. Familiar, point...
[Ghst] Chapter 16: Caliburn
The remainder of their night dive went smoothly. It seemed like Noelle’s intelligence had been right on point – only stragglers made it through the military blockade, and even if they managed it, they were often weakened and isolated. It made the junkyards the prime hunting grounds for Evantra, as vulnerable as she was.After picking off a handful of teethlings, they made their way towards the final drop of the night. The girl rubbed her hands together, cackling manically as she regarded her, seemingly overcoming her previous discomfort.So f...
[Ghst] Chapter 15: Night dive
“You made it!”Cypha greeted them with considerably more enthusiasm than she had the first time meeting them, when under the directions of her boss. She waved her chit over a sensor at the personnel entrance to the junkyard, and they entered as a group.The entrance to the junkyard featured a small clearing for vehicles entering and exiting the area. Beyond it, was a singular multi-storey building which contained Juno’s office.“Well… I guess this is my spot.” Noelle nervously wrung her hands in front of her, as they waited for Cypha t...
[Ghst] Chapter 14: Gun Safety
“Treat every weapon like it's loaded. Keep your finger off the trigger, and don’t point the weapon anywhere you don’t want a bullet to end up buried in. That includes sticking a pistol in your jeans.”“Alright, alright. I bought a holster. Get off my as— butt.”“Feet shoulder-width apart, keep your knees slightly bent.Noelle frowned as she watched Evantra correct herself, taking the stance that Officer Foster had taught her to adopt.“You know… I’ve found this weird for the longest time, but do you have a thing against sw...
[Ghst] Chapter 13: Contractual Negotiation
“A chatgroup? Ok… now you’ve lost me.”“You can’t do this alone. We should find other budding Ghostslayers to exchange intel with – anonymously of course. Ghostslayers and megacorporations are so possessive over their intelligence, that delves into the dark web for tidbits aren’t worth the risk. Besides.”Noelle expression flickered, but Evantra watched as the girl fought to steel her expression.“If you’re going to become a Ghostslayer, I suppose you’re intending to join the Guild in Elsecaller city, seeing as they organis...
[Ghst] Chapter 12: Juno's Junkyard
Juno’s Junkyard spanned the circumference of the slums that bordered the ruins of Los Angeles. Beyond the sweeping hills of metal and rust, was the military’s defence line, where the towering turrets marked the boundary, beyond which were the lost territories.It was just one of multiple repositories of the tech discarded from Elsecaller city and its surrounds. Vehicles, drones, weapons, and just about every electronic component that was rendered unusable found a grave in the hills of steel. At least, those stripped of all usable components....
[Ghst] Chapter 11: Flesh of the Ionian Mimic
Evantra made her way downstairs into the church’s basement, trying to push out Carmen’s words that were still ringing in her mind. On top of the [ritual of Veilsight], she also itched to try to consume the other catalyst she had found in the lab, the catalyst of the Ionian Mimic.“Catalyst or ritual hmm… Let’s do the catalyst first.”She extracted the catalyst stowed in her pocket and could practically feel the adrenaline surging through her body with the level of anticipation she had.CATALYSTS DETECTEDFlesh of the Ionian mimicExecute...
[Ghst] Chapter 10: Tension
[Ritual of Veilsight]Evantra itched to try the ritual, but between leaving the hospital and returning home to Wisptown from Bastion – the outskirts – she hadn’t exactly had the opportunity to do so. She would have to wait a little longer. Besides, there were other matters to be dealt with.Evantra sat across from Carmen, the older woman’s face drawn by the tension of recent events. The second floor of the church was bare, containing a kitchen, the dining area, a few bedrooms and the door to the veranda overlooking Elsecaller City.A singl...
[Ghst] Chapter 9: Quest Hunting
Having secured her new weapon, Evantra had spent the rest of her day at her second destination.Wisptown’s library.It was a humble establishment, located close to City Hall. One of the frontiers of misinformation that the megacorps had failed to penetrate as easily, was hardcopy. It was difficult to sow lies in printed editions of books that existed prior to their acquisitions of the publishers of said books.The older tomes contained more reliable information, and she was in search for anything she could find about Project Darwin, or more broa...
[Ghst] Chapter 8: Gun shopping
They walked past grimy and dilapidated storefronts, with the eyes of some of Wisptown’s residents trailing them as they passed. Remnants from the Ectorain last night lingered on the road, and Evantra yanked the girl aside as she narrowly avoided the spray from a puddle of black ectorain that a car drove through.“You seriously killed a teethling? What did it look like? How did it feel to get bitten? Woah. You are the coolest preacher I’ve ever heard of. You found a Remington Ghoulkiller? That’s a classic – one of the better automatic s...
[Ghst] Chapter 7: Archaic Adventures
Flaker: Hey Millie, I’m ok just got home. Lucas is fine too, we’re all safe and sound.Rad-cliffe: Evantra, USE YOUR WORDS, what happened in there? Are you hurt—Evantra looked down at her phone gripped in shaking hands.Upon hearing soft footsteps, she hid them under her blankets, turning to receive Carmen with a smile as she made her way into Evantra’s bedroom from the bathroom, having completed her shower.Lucas was sleeping soundly on the queen-sized mattress that lay beside Evantra’s own bed. Her room was certainly more lively with t...
[Ghst] Chapter 6: Elsecaller City
Evantra’s eyes lingered on Wisptown’s city hall.The building was a microcosm of the town itself. It had once been grand, which was clear from the building’s façade. Constructed with sweeping white pillars that lined its entrance, now stained and grimy with time. Just as decrepit scaffolding had lined the exterior of the building, evincing abandoned patch-up jobs abandoned by contractors, so did wooden boards haphazardly fill the gaps in the walls and ceiling of the interior.Outside, a thin crowd of people were gathered with makeshift sig...
[Ghst] Chapter 5: Archangel
Uriel’s POVUriel glanced at her side, towards the girl that accompanied her.Evantra Wraithmarked had long, black hair and a pale skin. The characteristic cloudy white eyes of the Wraithmarked. A relic of a revolver was tucked into her jeans, and she held a shotgun in her grip. Conventionally pretty, without the aid of cybernetic or bionetic enhancement.An utterly ordinary girl, in her early twenties, albeit one who had experienced some tragedy in her life.“Miss Uriel? Will the Veilsurge dissipate soon?”The Ghostslayer nodded.“Seeing as ...
[Ghst] Chapter 4: Ritual
SACRIFICE REQUIREDEvantra wracked her brain with her limited knowledge of rituals. Her attempts, if you could call them that, to mentally will into existence the [ritual of consumption] had been for naught.She desperately searched the scant vestiges of her knowledge of the Veil.Since the advent of the Veilsurges, earth had been brought within the proximity between realms resembling those of fiction and myth. “Resembling”, because they didn’t conform exactly to humanity’s prior understanding of them.The mists of Avalon.The bloody halls S...
[Ghst] Chapter 3: Magical Girl Ghostslayer
Evantra finally reached the bottom of the lift column after a few minutes of climbing. She had tried every single lift door leading out into the other hallways, but none had budged an inch.The only good news, was that she hadn’t encountered any other teethlings on the way down. Her left arm throbbed from the bite the teethling had inflicted, and the fabric she had torn to wrap around her arm was damp with her blood. Thankfully, it hadn’t been too deep, and her bleeding wasn’t major.Evantra slowly lifted open a small hatch on the top of th...
[Ghst] Chapter 2: Abandoned Laboratory
The tear in reality led to a storeroom.Evantra took in the familiar surroundings, and tried to steady her shaking hands and the revolver tight in her grip.The weapon was a Colt Python – the singular revolver that Carmen Alvarez owned. Practically a relic that could have fetched a decent ectocred if its barrel hadn’t almost been entirely rusted over.Evantra still recalled the woman’s bloodshot eyes filled with tears. The last thing she saw before leaping into the Veilsurge. Taking in her surroundings had given her a degree of unexpected re...
[Ghst] Chapter 1: Sermons and Vintage Games
Once upon a time, the world was blessed with magical girls and guardians.Noble and brave, they sacrificed their souls for power. Together with their adorable familiars, they gave up everything, to fight the forces of evil.Beasts that stalk the dark mists of Avalon.Bloodspawn from the halls of Shang-ri La.The writhing monstrosities of the Hanging Gardens.The walking dead under the black sun of Duat. Yaoguai and Yokai.Angels and demons.Countless creatures the subject of stories, fiction and myth intruded into reality with the advent of the Veilsu...
B2 Chapter 38: Reawakening
“I’m going to murder that plant bitch.”“You know Shiver… for once I agree with you. My head feels like it’s going to explode.”Vale, Shiver and Caledon sat in Castle Flora’s infirmary. They had finally awoken from the haze in Solastra’s “Mansion of Madness”. The mansion was where she kept Fearshapers under the effect of Tranquillity – the “Nectar” they had been consuming.Along with the other Fearshapers in the mansion, both their memories and their Fearshaping had been suppressed, and for a brief while, they enjoyed f...
B2 Chapter 37: Interlude - Highlord of Dreams
The Highlord of Dreams, Saravagan Dreamer peered out from eyes that were not his own.Wings of ice sprouted from his back, composed of thousands of crystals of frost. They propelled him forwards in strong wingbeats, cutting through the stale, dead air above Soulhaven.The Archcity of Death.The Dreadwalker that he had corrupted was formidable, the very same woman that cut short Valeric Brimstone’s brief assault on the Archcity of Dreams. Even from where he stood in Serenity, he recalled watching in awe at the innumerable orbs of flame that the B...
B2 Chapter 36: A Dance with Insanity
Highlady Solastra Flora’s banquet was positioned in the heart of her court.She was joined by Caledon, Shiver and Vale – unaccompanied by her Knight-lieutenants.They dined alone, in the dying light of the sunset, captured by the Dawntree’s million leaves that shifted far above them.“Nice lighting.”“Thank you, Shiver. I’m quite proud of it myself.”“I have to ask, lady. Do you eat your own plants? Is that cannibalism, seeing as how you’re made from them?”“The same could be said of you and your popsicles. Does that trouble y...
B2 Chapter 35: Private consultations
Caledon watched as Solastra’s banquet for them was being prepared in the heart of her court. He saw a well-built chef shouting orders with an easy air of confidence and command at the serving staff as they prepared the courtyard for their dinner.“May I help you, Highlord Brimstone?”Caledon nodded at Solastra’s secretary, who approached him with a practiced smile.“I’m here to seek a private audience with the Highlady, prior to our dinner.”“One for us as well, pretty please.”Caledon started as he saw Shiver and Vale approach the...
B2 Chapter 34: Fratricide
Vale watched, as Viveria Brimstone’s eyes bore into her from across Highlady Solastra’s private garden. Caledon’s younger sister looked to be slightly younger than her, with fiery amber hair that was unlike Caledon’s own darker brown.When Caledon had spoken of his sister to them, he had painted a clear picture of Viveria. She was hot-headed, as quick to anger as she was to cry, and possessed with a fascination for battle.The perfect combination, seeing as how the black skeleton that trailed Vale in her wake had taken her father’s life...
