“Oof, that was a weird one,” Ben said with a shiver after reading another ghost's memories.

“Why, what was it this time?”

“Some star species, only instead of being like any of the others I peeked into, I think its original species wasn’t made of matter or mana but instead energy. It was really weird to try and process. Also another notch I’m using to confirm that the majority of gods are assholes.”

With not much else he could do on their journey out, Ben had taken to exploring the minds of every ghost he could right until they entrapped them, finding both something he’d been too busy to notice on the first few, their unique status, same as he’d expect of any living individual on the world, but also where they’d each come from, namely a variety of species across the universe and all walks of life.

He was seeing plenty that had evolved on planets, the same as the majority of life he was aware of, but he was also encountering those that had been born to other environments in equal measures too. Gas giants, the void, the stars, with each environment having its own unique set of circumstances for the people in the memories he was seeing, and just as much as anything else, helped confirm a suspicion of Ben’s.

While he was seeing his share of terrors and tyrants, he was also seeing plenty of minds that he would happily call innocent of the sort of wrongdoing that would demand damnation, instead fitting more snugly to his earlier assumption.

Many were the victims or enemies of evil gods who had fought against them a bit too heavily, but more than a few were sent there by their own gods for largely superficial reasons or due to being eyesores, not the sort of heinous crimes that would demand that type of punishment.

Each time he found one undeserving of their sentence, he gave them a small prayer, even as he condemned them to a different imprisonment. They may have been innocent, but they were being controlled. He couldn’t let them be used to cause chaos and destruction and death across the world.

Which means if I survive I’ll have to figure out what to do with the soul crystal later. Maybe I can get Lux to help?

It was a future problem at least, one he didn’t need to worry too deeply on in the moment as they made their way to bash into the next ghost in their view, with their number only growing greater the closer they got to the center of it all and smashed through it, only for the limits of the soul crystal to catch up. Without a burst of light to greet them, that told them it hadn’t been sealed away, only passed through to cause whatever harm it could.

Hmm, not good. No matter how fast Thera regenerates her mana, she’s burning a lot to get us there as fast as she can and I already stole so much from her to materialize the crystal in the first place, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to steal more but that means we’re doing nothing about all of the ghosts. Maybe they shouldn’t be a priority but then they’ll be able to harass us while we deal with the outsider. Hmm, not really liking my options.

Saving mana for later versus dealing with the problem now, he could feel flaws in both choices and his various thoughts bumbled around for any alternative while Thera kept on, taking evasive maneuvers around the ghosts instead of ramming them like before and hoping that they wouldn’t follow or attack from behind, but it was looking to his girlfriend that gave him any hope for a solution as he went through his library of knowledge and put together a spell.

With the idea firmly in place, he ramped his thoughts to their maximum speed before connecting with her and bringing her into his mind to convey it.

“Uh, Ben? What’s going on?” Thera asked him, understanding what he’d done at least from the times he’d helped teach her some of his endless knowledge on magic but not seeing why he was doing it now. “This doesn’t really feel like the safest moment for this.”

“Hey, as long as I can convey this to you in an hour then we’ll barely be in freefall, it’s fine,” He told her calmly, as if being in freefall couldn’t spell both of their dooms if things went wrong. “I tried putting together a spell for you from what I know, it should make the ghost problem easier to deal with.”

The higher level one's life magic the closer it could imitate the effects of death magic and vice versa. It was that unique characteristic that caused both forms of power to have the same endpoint in the form of soul magic, and given that Thera had reached the seventh awakened level of that power, she had to have practically been only below Yuzu and Elvat in terms of skill. If there was ever a time for her to try and imitate death spells, it was then and that was exactly what Ben was aiming to help her learn.

With his own mind threaded into her own to incorporate the effects of his knowledge he did his best to convey all of the principles he needed to as quickly as he could, feeling Thera strain against all he was attempting to make her learn in such a short span of time until he felt semi-confident she’d had enough and freed her from his mental prison, keeping the speed of her thoughts up to correct for those few moments in the real world she hadn't been able to control her power.

“Alright, time for some hands-on practice!” Ben yelled while she did her best to divide her focus between keeping them up in the air and casting a new spell for the first time, all while a new group of ghosts was flying just ahead. “You got this!”

“I really don’t!” She yelled back as she barreled through them, unable to get the new spell fired in time while Ben checked behind them to be sure they weren’t about to deal with any surprise attacks.

“In that case, you’ve got it for the next group of them! I believe in you!”

Despite her struggles, Thera persevered in the face of Ben’s endless optimism as she did her best to process all the spell entailed.

It in no way felt like a life spell. It wasn’t even something to be applied to a body like any of the others she’d use, instead being targeted on disembodied souls. The entire experience of casting it felt foreign as she tried to put it together, all in an attempt to do a single thing. Bring the dead to peace.

And she could feel her mana fighting against her with every second she tried to cast it. It wasn’t a way it wanted to be bent, like she was fighting against its basic nature. Just because the two powers grew closer, didn’t mean it was going to come easily and she felt every bit of struggle trying to make it work, all the while she had to keep the basket carrying them in the air and rushing on.

They passed through more ghosts as she struggled with the spell, evading when she needed to as Ben kept an eye out for any attacks from the ones they passed as well, giving her the leeway she needed. Despite all of the other work to be done, she tried casting the unusual spell, letting her mana radiate out in all directions as Ben watched the passing souls to confirm the effects.

And it was instantaneous. When Thera’s mana hit any of them, they froze in place, seeming more confused than anything else before gently fading away, as if they’d never been there at all, leaving him to cheer.

“Knew you could do it!” He laughed, feeling just a bit of relief to have at least one thing go well. She’d still need some practice to really get used to casting that spell but with everything going on, she was going to get it. What really mattered was that they now had a way of dealing with the ever-growing ghost army, leaving only the big problem left to deal with.

<Be prepared.> Myriad told him. <You’re getting close enough that it could come into sight in only a few minutes.>