Hastum

90. Possible homicide

“So what do you think? It’s an actual paranormal thing, right?” she asked, half scared and half excited.

I looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“So ghost hunters don’t believe in ghosts?”

“Well, it’s not that I don’t believe, it’s that we’ve never seen an actual ghost or demon… well, at least until now,” Mercy finished with a smile, to which Cecil rolled his eyes.

“So what do you think it is?” she asked me, stopping the footage at the stran...

89. The report

Danny looked around himself once again. He knew that this late in the night, no one should be around the closed morgue, but the pills had a tendency to add to his paranoia, so he checked again.

No one was there.

He approached the door and produced a bunch of keys on a keychain. He started to rummage through them, the whole process taking some time as each time he tried another one, he would stop to look around. He finally found the right key and opened the door, quickly getting in...

88. Mortician's cat

Author's note.

Sorry for the delay. I scheduled the chapter for the wrong day by accident, should have been released yesterday.

***

I shook off the surprise and asked, “Do you know the preacher’s son?”

I looked her in the eyes.

“I–I don’t, I mean I–” She started stammering.

“You have to, you should be similar—”

“We don’t have the time for this. You can have a shot at Protestants some other time,” snapped Cecil as he pulled ...

87. Interviews

I went on with the group of people who called themselves ghost hunters. They had apparently managed to set up a few interviews with local youth and community leaders, and I got to participate. I had mixed feelings about the whole situation.

On the one hand, it made information gathering much easier, but on the other hand, I had to pay the price at the cost of my nerves. After explaining the “viability” of holy gun-swords and rosary nunchucks, I was close to adding a new haunted spot...

86. Industry professionals

I stood there looking at the five people in an awkward silence. The larger man gazed at me with furrowed eyebrows. After a few moments, he slowly took his hand off his hip and bent down to pick up the camera, still keeping an eye on me throughout the whole process.

“Hello. Sorry. We thought you were, um… someone we know and wanted to surprise,” said a lanky, mousy-looking guy at the front.

“Oh, well then, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think we’ve met,” I said, smi...

85. Mutant

I let the staff jump into my hand as the creature flew straight at me. My initial instinct was to cast Shield, but halfway through the spell, I realized I was quick enough to simply move out of the creature’s way.

I stopped casting as the two sharp tusks flew right by me.

I turned to my opponent, just to see the thing lower its head and prepare for another charge. I fired a quick dual Pierce into the thing’s head before dodging again. To my surprise, ...

84. Small town

The next day, most of the effects of learning the spell were gone. I got up in the morning and packed up all my stuff. I packed the potions, some talismans just in case, the salt circle as well as a few other seals, and my usual gear, including higher-density mana stones.

Once everything was checked, I put on regular clothing and got into my car. The drive took me a couple of hours, and after getting some breakfast in a roadside café, I was almost in the town.

“Welcome to Lermo...

83. Stranger

“Can I turn it on now?” The recording picked up Mercy’s voice.

“Yeah, I think you already did,” commented Liz. Mercy turned the camera to record her own face and raised her eyebrows, noticing it was on.

“So?” she asked, pointing it at the rest of the people. “What do you think?”

The footage showed four people standing over a computer screen on which the end of the footage from the previous night was shown. Rey just shrugged, clearly not interested in the wh...

82. Came back to haunt

I approached Ophelia, who was resting to the side, massaging her ribs after catching a kick from Myhur. When I discussed her progress with him, he said she was ready to start reforging some of her mana into Qi once she gathered enough.

I also agreed she should be gathering mana by instinct from the magic crystal. She wasn’t capable of proper meditation before seeing into herself, but she was starting to build the circle.

But today’s bout didn’t go that well. Both he and I ag...

Interlude 8 - shapes in the night

The recording date jumped by one day from the meeting with Rey. The footage showed a forest road and four people walking on it in the middle of the night. The only thing lighting up their way was a few flashlights.

Cecil, with the tall man previously in a butcher’s outfit, walked at the front, while the younger woman walked next to Mercy, who was holding the camera.

“Hello, everyone—” Mercy started, but Cecil cut her off.

“What are you doing?”

“Vlogging. ...

81. Butcher's hook

Another two weeks were spent on the new routine, with Ophelia learning from Myhur and then training in magic with me later in the evenings. I spent the time I’d bought researching the journals I found in the pouch and doing something about my aura, as it was becoming hard for normal people to be around me. Thankfully, the combination of contact lenses or dark glasses and my conscious control of my presence seemed to do the trick.

I did check the weapon, which turned out to be a two-ha...

80. Father's secrets

I sat down in meditation, letting my consciousness rest before trying to get into the coffers. That technically shouldn’t be a problem, considering I knew the passwords. But who knew?

Finally, rested well enough, I approached the chests and tried the keyless locks. On the first few, no luck. But on the fourth try, I finally heard the lock click.

I opened the chest with excitement. It was meant to react to me when I reached the third circle. That must have been the case. There wa...

79. The pouch

I saw that my apprentice was now deep in conversation with Myhur, so I scooted closer to the cat.

“I have a plan for the mansion,” I said, lowering my voice.

“Finally. You have any designs?”

“Well, no. I sent a letter to Egypt asking about the original plans. I’m talking about the workers.”

The cat turned to me in surprise.

“Since when do you deal with contracts? Did someone give you an offer?”

“No, the opposite, actually. Do you know an...

78. The war

“They were practically the opposites of each other. The God of the Bible was a god of order and the concept of the greater good. Lucifer was the opposite, a god of hedonism and rebellion. And to make matters worse, they were technically from the same pantheon. At the time, Satanists were located in North America while the Church had most of its influence in Europe and parts of Africa.”

Ophelia furrowed her eyebrows. She wasn’t a historian, but Satanism in North America sounded rat...

77. Mycanoid

Ophelia was stunned. Was it wishing them death?

She looked around, uneasy and confused, especially with Sam, who, as far as she knew, would probably pick a fight.

But to her surprise, he just smiled broadly and answered, “I hope you rot and give life to the trees.”

Ophelia then looked at Q’Shar, who looked unamused by the whole thing.

He just nodded and said, sighing, “I wish you to rot and nourish the forests.”

The creature seemed to smile wider at tho...

76. Meet your teacher

Ophelia still felt strange waiting next to a massive Maine Coon cat on the side of the road. There was something about it that made her feel out of place, like the animal would start a conversation any time, and she wouldn’t know what to do if people overheard them. She wished Sam would arrive already, but he was running late.

It took another fifteen minutes before she saw a taxi stop next to them, and her teacher greeted them with a wide grin on his face.

Ophelia furrowed her e...

Interlude 7 - Ghost hunters

The camera shook as she ran. The ground was a blur of movement in which all one could catch was the gray of the concrete floor and the brown of the wooden walls.

“Help!” one could hear distorted shouts on the recording.

“Help, please!” screamed a female voice.

This continued for a few more seconds as the woman finally came to a dead end. She was pulling and pushing on a locked door, but after a few tries, she finally gave up and turned around. She was now standing wi...

75. Prayer

My new routine was going well. After a few hours of practice every day, I could feel muscle fatigue in my face. I would then drive to the storage room and start learning third-circle spells.

With the third circle and mana strengthening my body, I could finally learn some spatial magic, as most of those spells required dense mana and flesh that could withstand bends in space.

So my list of spells to learn for now was: Bone Arrow, Force Explosion, Spatial Mirror, Curse of Weakness W...

74. Have faith

I focused and started analysing my thoughts. Were they any different?

Was I mad?

Yes.

But that was nothing new.

Was I madder than usual? Now that was the question.

I went over my family’s moral compass. Did I have some new inclination toward the murder of the innocent or the twisting of people into abominations? Maybe a strange need to enlighten the next person I meet about our Lord and Saviour Azathoth, the Nuclear Chaos?

Not that I could tell.

Tha...

73. Inhuman

I awoke on the hardwood floor of the attic.

I could feel the rough texture of the boards pressed against my cheek. My nose was filled with the smell of dust and wood.

Waking up was already a success in my book.

I then immediately braced myself for a sensation of getting pulled into the Abyss. No eldritch entity could stay in real space for too long, as they were hated and rejected by the very rules of the world.

But nothing like that came. There was no otherworldly pul...

72. Ascension

The next three weeks were spent on preparations.

I told the cats about the house. They were able to confirm it was indeed a medium-sized mana vein. It would make a good hideout, but the price was a problem. The massive Victorian mansion would cost a few million dollars, not the kind of money they had just lying around.

So, last I checked, they were trying to get partial ownership with the Germain vampires, as the bloodsuckers usually had some money lying around.

Liam was ano...

71. Are you an artist?

I took a deep breath and looked around. I could sense that Liam’s soul was somewhere around here, but now, out of astral projection, I couldn’t see it.

I tried to get up, but the familiar sensation of wearing my own body wrong assaulted me. I grimaced as my hands and legs moved slightly off.

After getting back my bearings, I released Liam’s body from the bindings and rolled it onto the floor. Hopefully, he would not mind a few bruises, as right now, I had nowhere near good e...

70. Trapped

Two small beady eyes were staring at me from the floor.

It was a rat. A small spectral rat with a bitten ear, standing on its hind legs, tilting its head at me and Liam.

“You said there was none here,” I said slowly to the soul on my shoulders, keeping my gaze on the rat.

“Oh, that? That’s Hector, I think. One of her pets. I thought you asked about Ester.”

I kept my gaze on the animal. It was weak, barely had a presence. I took a step in the direction of the ...

69. Enter the cage

I went back into the house. Ester’s ghost would soon dissipate, but it would take quite some time for the mana to disappear as well. For now, the energy would keep its attunement and stay as one clump.

Once we were inside the house, I went to the living room and sat down.

“It will take me around three to four hours to completely regain the energy and recover some of my strength. After that, I will go fetch your brother’s soul,” I told Daniel.

“Can’t you just go n...

68. Decent human

Ophelia looked toward the old mansion with no small apprehension on her face. Next to her, Daniel sat on the ground with his knees tucked up and his head resting on them. His gaze was unfocused and distant.

She was pretty sure he was in shock, that or the hit he took to the head just a few minutes ago still had him groggy.

The past fifteen minutes were among the most intense of her life. Though to be fair, the past few weeks were firmly in that category as well.

The ghost ba...

67. Intrusive thoughts

The creature slowly walked forward but then stopped, looking toward Daniel. The boy looked like he was about to run again, but then the creature's empty gaze slowly fell onto the bones.

It approached the skeleton lying in front of it before bending its crooked spine and slowly extending its clawed hands toward the skull.

I could see that Ophelia was preparing to slot the metal piece to complete the seal, still holding on to Daniel with one hand.

The creature took it with sur...

66. Get her attention

We went to Daniel, who was sitting with Emma near the tents, as night was slowly falling.

“Did the rats find my brother?" he asked the moment we approached.

“No, but they did find Ester’s brother.”

“What?” Daniel asked, confusion clear on his face.

“Sit down, please,” I said, pointing at a chair.

We all sat down as I started explaining the plan.

“The ghost dragged your brother’s soul to its nest inside the Ouija board. Now I can go and g...

65. Rats

“Huh?”

“Come,” I said and turned around, heading into the attic with a quick stop to get one of the drawings Liam made while possessed.

Once up there, I approached the small circular window and held the drawing up next to it.

Ophelia’s eyebrows shot up.

It was an exact match to the circular window, with two crossed boards in the middle to support the glass, forming a dun cross shape in the process.

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a...

64. At the core

Ophelia paused for a second and then looked back at the stack of books.

“No… I don’t think he is mentioned much, not until he is around twelve.”

We started to look through the journals, now searching for Ester’s brother rather than herself. After some time, the strangeness became obvious.

There was mention of his birth, as the woman describes herself as a giver of life, but almost nothing after that.

It was unusual, to say the least.

“What do you thin...

63. Missing persons

The journals changed after the father’s death. It was the new wife who wrote them, and it became pretty obvious that she did not like her late husband’s daughter. The first problem was that Ester would inherit part of the wealth if she ever married, as it was stated in the man’s testament to leave a dowry.

But the bigger issue was that the family's talent for magic skipped a generation and was inherited by Ester.

The journals describe few occurrences of what the author suspe...