Sinerman Mansion

Des hovered motionless in place, gazing at the door. She had a lot of patience, so she didn't mind waiting and was curious to see how long the mortal would last down there.

However, to her surprise, she didn't have to wait long. She turned her head when she felt something appear on the estate grounds. Fearlessly, she flew to the window she had been looking out of, her eyes following a black and white fox hopping around quickly.

Desmond could tell, of course, that this was no ordinary fox, but something else. She turned her head curiously and watched the movement of the fox as it hopped with all its might in front of the estate, occasionally letting out an animalistic yelp.

"Hahaha... that's pretty cute," Des said aloud and smiled. She didn't know what the creature was trying to do, but she was curious and felt happy. Lots of new things were happening today.

After a moment, Desmond moved and flew through the wall of the house and towards the fox. The creature jumped in fright when it saw her approaching and cried out in a male voice.

"'Bloody hell! It can get out!" He exclaimed before his body turned into a puff of mist and tried to fly away.

Des moved just as fast and flew after it, smiling in amusement and reaching out for it in an attempt to catch it.

Sita was scared because the Higher Spirit was chasing it, and even though it was smaller and more mobile, the Higher Spirit was catching up quickly. He could escape by going back to Aren, but that way the whole plan would not only fail, but he would put his master in mortal danger, which he not only didn't want to do, but it was also against the rules of the contract.

He looked back to see a dark face close behind him, eyes rounded up into crescents and a terrible pleased smile. Sita wanted to cry. This was how he would be caught!

Sita used his own Spirit Energy, his cloud form briefly taking on a red tinge before it suddenly split apart, shattering, and three different clouds flew in three different directions.

Seeing the creature suddenly split into three, Desmond stopped her pursuit and looked in each direction. She saw the thing split into three in equal proportions. Even the power she saw in it had split and she really couldn't tell the difference at first glance.

Des didn't really care, but she was having fun chasing the thing. She'd never had so much fun! Yet to keep the whole wanking thing going she sped up to catch the first cloud.

She opened her fingers wide and then grabbed the cloud, but as soon as she squeezed it, it burst and disappeared from the air. "Haha!" She laughed in amusement at that and started chasing the second cloud instead.

Sita, meanwhile, was nearly insane with fear. He had indeed split himself into three parts, but they weren't clones, they were his other true self, so it didn't matter which of his clones survived, it was still him. Granted, he was somewhat weakened by it, but it couldn't be said that it should have been that easy to kill any of his clones.

The Higher Spirit had done it without any problems! It was like zapping a fly, it just squeezed and he could feel his clone quickly perish and some of his spiritual power scattered around. If the spirit catches him, he's dead!

His only comfort was that Aren had already gotten out of the basement and the mansion; now all he had to do was get away from the mansion grounds.

"Ugh!" He groaned as he felt his other clone being caught. He looked back for just a moment to see the Higher Spirit squeeze his clone in his hands and it popped again like a popped balloon. The terrifying face of the Higher Spirit stopped laughing for a moment, but then it shifted its eyes in his direction and the smile reappeared on its face once more.

---

Aren approached through the dark corridor, and Velica followed him just as cautiously. The ghost was nowhere to be seen, so one could only assume that the plan had worked. Aren looked back at Velica, who still looked tired, but much more alive.

Naturally, they had her take an oath connected to her Spirit energy, which ensured that she would not break the oath. The Spiritual energy came from the Spirit World and was stored in the bodies of the Spiritualists. The more Spiritual channels that are open, the more Spiritual energy a Spiritualist can store.

How many Spiritual channels you have depends, in turn, in small part on the strength of the Spiritualist's blood and then on the strength of the spiritual beasts with which the Spiritualist makes a contract. If a person is born with some Spiritual channels already open, it means that they have strong blood and can make a contract with a Spirit Beast.

That is why in all maternity hospitals, Spiritualists are ready with contracts, so that such newborns can directly fill the spirit channel with a suitable beast. Naturally, these are the lowest of the low beasts, and if the family wants something better for their children, it is necessary to pay for it.

The weak ones are subsidized by the state because it is still necessary to fill the open Spiritual channel, because the newborn is not able to defend the open Spiritual channel so that no malevolent or insane spirit or even worse, a demon, passes through it.

Simply put, Spiritual Energy comes from the Spiritual world and so when one swears by their Spiritual power, the spiritual beasts witness such an oath. If an individual were to break such a pact, the Spiritualists would be greatly harmed or even killed by the spirits.

That was why Aren had no problem agreeing to the oath; for all intents and purposes, it was advantageous to him. He would probably still be able to kill her if he were truly determined, but murder was still murder. In fact, he was looking for a way out of this because his whole plan, in general, was more likely made out of affect.

His family was based on power; if you're not good enough, you're trash and the family treats them that way. Aren wasn't the lowest in the family, but still low enough to be the victim of his own family's bullying. After being left behind and humiliated again by his two scared siblings, he got angry and kidnapped Velica, thinking he'd get strong enough to stop being the family slapstick.

But after two days, he calmed down and began to have doubts. But what could he do once he started? He couldn't just let Velica go; everyone was already looking for her, and he didn't believe he could get away with it. Aren could only smirk derisively. He had been lucky in his misfortune after all.

Aren opened the front door slowly, yet the hinges creaked, and at each creak, the two young people twitched their shoulders. He checked his surroundings but saw nothing. It had grown dark outside in that time, but it couldn't have been more than a little after ten o'clock.

He let out a breath and started to run. Velica was also running, though a little slower, having been chained for two days and unable to move much. She was still somewhat stiff and broken because of it, but she could see the hedge and the lights of the city in the distance through the jungle of overgrown grass.

Velica wanted to go home. She wanted to see her mom and dad. She wanted to forget all this like a terrible nightmare. Naturally, she was never going to forgive Aren, and maybe later she would find a way to get revenge on him, but for now, she just wanted to get to somewhere safe.

They were nearing where the grounds of the mansion ended, and nothing had followed them until now. Aren sighed inwardly and began to think about how he would report the presence of the High Spirit to the family patriarch and maybe gain some good points that way.

He pondered thus until he felt a burning sensation in his back and jerked to a halt. Velica only slowed for a moment and looked back at him, but that was all before she hurried on. She wasn't going to wait for him.

Aren arched his back painfully and bent his hand to touch her back. His tattoo that bound him to Sita burned. Something wrong? It hurt like hell that he bit his bottom lip as he grimaced to keep from crying out. Sita was his strongest Spirit beast. He respected Sita quite a bit even if he wouldn't admit it out loud, plus if he lost him he would fall to the very bottom of the family hierarchy.

Velica had already climbed over the fence and landed on the ground on the other side. She almost fainted with relief, but instead of turning and running on, she decided to catch her breath and look towards Aren. The breath she was about to inhale got stuck halfway in, and her face paled in horror.

She could see Aren staggering in place, his face contorted in pain, and two white hands reaching out from his back. The hands were followed by a veiled face with eyes glowing the color of cyanide. The ghost reached forward and then rolled over to stare with joyful eyes at the struggling Aren, who was unaware of all this.

The high spirits leaned forward and her fingers cupped both sides of Aren's face, a wide smile spreading across her face. Aren froze in place, not daring to move anymore when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a smiling face near him. The ghost then shifted its eyes and stared at Velica, who cried out in fright and began to run.

---

A few minutes ago...

Des was having fun chasing the last puffball, and Sita was sweating bullets as he ran, but he couldn't shake his pursuer.

He quickly changed direction and tried to get back to Aren since he was almost off the grounds, so it should be safe, and when the Higher Spirit tried to follow him, he would be off the mansion grounds. Maybe they were mistaken in thinking that the Spirit couldn't go outside the mansion, but it certainly couldn't go outside the grounds.

Sita quickly created a channel that connected him to Aren and disappeared into it. When he found himself in a small space saturated with spirit energy, he sighed in relief. This was the place where the Spirit beast resided after the contract was created.

Spiritualists used the contract and tattoos to create small spaces of Spirit Space in their bodies that the beasts could inhabit, rest, or heal. However, this was not done with all Spirit Beasts, but only those that were suitable for combat or other forms of active support.

Aren himself only had two active Spirit Beasts this way. The one that turned into a Spirit Weapon that was a passive support and Sita that was cut as an active support. The rest were just meant to directly connect with the Spirit World for Spirit Energy supply and were not suitable or strong enough for any other role.

Sita opened his eyes and grew impatient. "Gah!" He exclaimed in surprise and started backing away when he saw a head floating in space with eyes glowing the color of cyanide. "How... how is that possible!?"

Desmond stopped as the puff suddenly disappeared, but it left a rift in space that was rapidly shrinking and threatening to disappear.

She walked over to it and looked at the rift she had seen once before today. Before it disappeared completely, she stuck her finger in it and prevented it from closing completely.

Poke, poke, poke, poke

She poked at it before she stuck another finger inside and began to force the rift open. She made enough room to use her other hand and pulled.

Rrrriiippp

It sounded like the fabric was ripping, Des didn't care and lowered her head to the rift, hitting her nose with the scent. Her eyes lit up with interest because she didn't feel much besides fear. Fear smelled like moss and mushrooms, this smelled sweet. Like apples in caramel, she liked it.

"Interesting, interesting..." She smiled before she started stuffing her head inside. It reminded her of the time she had tried to get out of the mansion using the drainpipe. She hadn't succeeded, but she didn't care much back then, it was just an idea.

Her head appeared on the other side; she could feel the rest of her body trying to cram in. It was a bit tight, but as a ghost who didn't have a solid form, it wasn't a problem.

"Gah!" She heard someone shout and looked at the creature she had been chasing earlier. She recognized it without a problem though its form was different here. This time he didn't look like a fox or a puffball, but a man with fox ears, lots of hair, and a tattoo in the middle of his forehead. He looked rather frightened. She smiled at him to put him at ease, but that only caused the man to quickly start backing away from her.

Des fidgeted for a moment, but finally managed to get all the way in. The man was already far away from her, where he was pressed against the invisible wall of the room, watching her fearfully and warily.

She ignored him and looked around the empty space. Her eyes saw the many colors that were bursting forth and flying like air flow. It smelled nice, sweet and sugary. But she didn't feel quite right. It felt stuffy, small, like she couldn't fit in here.

She turned and saw another rift in the space. So the moment she felt too suffocated, she dove into another rift to get out again. "What? No! Wait!" She heard the man call out, but she was already stuffing her way out.

When she emerged, she found she was somewhere different than before. Des rolled over and saw that most of her body had come out of the back of the man named Arena, who looked in pain. She looked up curiously and wondered why he was in pain; she felt nothing wrong herself.

She reached out and cupped his face in her hands and moved her face to his, then she noticed that the girl Velica was alive and even past the limit of how far Des could reach. So a human man hadn't killed her after all. She smiled encouragingly at her, but the girl screamed and started to run.

Desmond frowned, she thought it was a bit rude, but whatever. She looked again at the man, who was suddenly stiff and unmoving. Hadn't he been in pain for a while? What was wrong with him?

She released the rest of her body from his body, and Sita quickly rushed out after her who looked like a little fox again, terrified but also knowing that his master was in danger.

"Let him go!" He called out bravely.

Des turned her eyes to him but didn't do as he said. Instead, she squeezed the man's cheeks, making his lips pout. She thought it was funny and cute. "Haha," Des laughed.

Tears of pain appeared in the corners of Aren's eyes. He felt as if his face was being gripped in a vice.