Chapter 120: Ghost Exposed

Rein and Core suddenly heard a loud thump echo through the tunnel, emerging from behind the large, metal door under them. They looked at each other with gazes of understanding, then rushed down to the metal door, kicking it down in a swift punt, entering a small, dimly lit rocky room, a large shadow floating down from the ceiling, holding someone in its clutches.

"Shit, it's got Clyde. It looks like it's headed straight down through the floors. That must be where the user is. That's all we needed to know from the purposeful capture, we need to find a way to get him out of the ghost's hold!" Core exclaimed as Rein hopped forward, trying to forcefully grab Clyde out of it.

However, instead of gripping him, his hands went through the apparition, and through Clyde, similar to the time Luther became intangible. The ghost continued descending slowly downwards, Rein unable to do anything to it.

"Attacking the figure is no use! If we want to disrupt it, we have to attack the user directly!" Core yelled out, which instantly gave Rein an idea.

"You said they were under us, right? Got it. Hold onto something," Rein affirmed as he took a deep breath, then opened his eyes sternly, lifting his foot off the ground, then powerfully slamming it back down, causing a seismic rumbling with the cavern, the magnitude strong enough to cause damage to the house above them, which they heard through the floor as things fell on the ground.

Suddenly, the ghost's opacity began to wane, its power growing weaker as it became disorientated, allowing Rein to swoop in once again, this time able to grab Clyde out of its hold, the ghost vanishing into thin air shortly after.

Clyde coughed as if he'd just been saved from drowning, opening his eyes to the unfamiliar dark room, seeing Rein and Core standing above him as he sat up.

"What is going on? The last thing I remember is the ghost capturing me… Where am I now?" Clyde asked as he rubbed his head in dizziness.

"We're under the village chief's house, in the inner barrier that we couldn't get into," Core explained.

"We are, huh? How did we get in?" Clyde inquired.

"Oh, we uh…" Core racked his brain for an excuse.

"I made us a way in. I was able to make an entrance in the barrier. I had Chloe and Xenia wait outside just in case though," Rein described, Clyde affirming his response as he stood up.

"Very well. What now? I don't see any way to advance," Clyde remarked as he squinted around the dark, cramped cavern they were in.

"Doesn't matter. If they're right under us, I can just do this," Rein snapped his fingers, hollowing out a wide diameter of the earth under them, opening a hole to a room under them lit with bright torches, the 3 dropping down into the opening.

There, they saw the 2 women they had met upon their arrival present in the room. The teenage girl, Lillia, sitting on her knees with her eyes closed, her hands interlocked together, her face squeezed together in distress. The chief was standing beside her with her hands crossed, staring at the 3 as they dropped through the hole, her expression unflinching.

"You all impressed me. I have no clue how you were able to enter the barrier unnoticed, but it doesn't matter. Once you're in Lillia's domain, you're as good as dead," the chief asserted, Rein sighing as he heard her ramble.

"I really don't care. Just tell me where the missing villagers are before I beat your ass," Rein replied in an annoyed fashion.

"You're too late. Lillia has already absorbed their life force and is feeding on it as we speak. You're about to be next," she laughed.

"So the girl needs life force to survive because of the curse… Looks like a regular person without a Spring contributes for 10 days, and for every level on their Spring, it's another 10 days. So that's why she's been kidnapping people, and I bet that's why her aunt hired Rangers. For that sweet Spring power. Curious, it doesn't say anything about a barrier in here," Rein scratched his chin as he seemed to recite the girl's Spring, making the chief woman recoil in shock.

"What! How did you know about Lillia's curse?!"

"Well, her Spring is lingering pretty heavily in the area, I'm almost chokin' on it. So you're the one who put the barrier up then? I assume you're also the one forcing her to do this. You know, because she doesn't seem to be doing it of her own will," Rein remarked as he approached, using on sight to copy the inverse of the chiefs Spring since he knew what it was.

"She has the ability to put up a barrier and repel people away… So the opposite of that would be…"

Original effect: Erect a magical barrier that nullifies Springs and repels people away. It also isolates whoever is on the inside.

Inverted effect: Create a condensed point in space, causing a shift in gravitational momentum towards that point. The strength of the point may vary.

"Answer me! Do you know something about this curse that began afflicting her?! She suddenly walked into my room one day and told me that she only had 10 days to live, and the only way to live beyond that was to absorb the life force of others. What happened to her!?" The panicking chief asked, seeming as though she was stalling for something.

"Shut the hell up, you have no right to ask me for anything. Look, she still has a chance at going back without killing anybody. Just tell me where the bodies of the villagers are for fuck sake," Rein grabbed the chief by the collar and yelled in her face, the woman smirking smugly as he did.

"The hell are you laughing at?" Core voiced as he and Clyde stood behind Rein.

"You fools! You've been breathing in Lillia's cursed energy all this time! It's only a matter of time before you drop dead," the woman laughed hysterically, the 3 Rangers standing there, unamused as the woman's laughs began to fade away, her humor turning into dreadful fear.

"Huh? How are you still standing..? Just what is your endurance?!"

"Never thought Riskel's Spring would come in handy at a time like this. Maybe I'll thank him next time I see him cleaning the academy halls," Rein thought as he tightened his grip on the chief's collar, making her begin to choke slightly.

"I won't ask again. Where are the bodies," his eyes flashed with a red flare, lighting a fire of fear in the chief's soul.

"C-can you save Lillia..? She's only your age… She had her entire life ahead of her… What else was I supposed to do..?" The woman pleaded, Rein tightening his grip yet again, causing the chief to cough, choking her more so.

"I'm sorry… The… Bodies are… behind that wall…" The chief weakly lifted her finger, pointing to the back wall of the room, Rein dropped her down on the ground as he activated STO, allowing him to use the earth Spring and Riskel's Spring simultaneously.

He activated another use of memory flip, now leaving him with only 2 more minutes, meaning 2 more uses. He swiped his hand at the back wall the chief pointed to, removing it, revealing a large dungeon-looking room, 24 bodies of villagers laying there, lifeless.

"I can still sense their souls. There's still a chance to save them… If I invert this girl's Spring and have her make contact with each person, she should return their life spans. I just have to make sure not to make contact with her skin myself," Rein concluded as he thought inwardly, inverting the girl's Spring through the heavy cursed energy in the air.

Now, instead of taking lifespan upon activation of her Spring, which she had no control over, she would return lifespan upon touch. Rein, Core, and Clyde began transporting the 24 bodies one by one, making each one of the lifeless bodies touch the girl's back. Each one that had their life spans return to them would recommence their breathing, their heart would start beating again and the warmth would return to their bodies.

"W-wait! Don't do all of them! She might die!" The chief frantically yelled.

"Didn't you say she had 10 days to live originally? Well, how long has it been since then? If your niece got this curse the way I think she did, it should've only been 7 days, meaning she still has 3 days to live," Core explained as he touched the final body with the girl, all of them finally regaining life.

Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes, looking around to see a pile of sleeping bodies ahead of her, her aunt on the ground, and the 3 of the 4 Ranger boys that her aunt hired.

"Wha-! What's going on here?!" Auntie? What are you doing?!" The girl yelled, making her aunt drop her head in shame.

"I'm sorry Lillia… I couldn't bear the thought of not fulfilling the promise I made to your parents…"

"What are you talking about..? Explain to me what's happening here!" She exclaimed in confusion.

"Huh? But you were the one who told me you only had 10 days to live… Don't tell me you weren't conscious that time too?!" The chief quickly stood up, then suddenly feeling something inside of her shatter as she dropped back down to the ground in pain.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling anemic?" Clyde asked as the chief held her chest in agony, breathing heavily.

"The barrier… It was destroyed…" She uttered, surprising Clyde, but not Rein and Core.

"So he's here then. He sure took his time," Rein remarked as he picked up the girl and jumped up the hole he created, heading up the stairs followed by Core and Clyde.

"Tsk, what an annoying ass barrier. It took me 2 full swings to break it. Fuck, now my hand stings."