He who fights evil shall see to it that he doesn't beco one.
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Mikel could feel and hear his heart pounding against his chest. His breathing was heavy with every step, awake yet exhausted. He leaned heavily against a broken post, his legs barely holding him upright.
"Hah..." he breathed out, as though the dust polluting the South Block was spilling straight from his lungs. "Damn it."
Deep in his heart, he knew Doom could've notified him of the Blood Chain's growing hunger. But alas, Doom seed to want to see when Mikel would notice.
Screw you.
Mikel lifted his exhausted eyes ahead to the broken and quiet street. It was dark, with nothing to brighten it except the soft and rciful moonlight.
The bracelet pulsed faintly on his wrist again, a gnawing reminder of its growing hunger.
"Tch."
Another huff escaped him as he forced himself to keep upright, dragging his feet. Despite his slow movent, Mikel kept his hand tightly clenched, as if channeling his remaining energy into that area.
A gesture of protest or anger?
Maybe both. A protest and anger for himself, the intrusive Blood Chain, and the manipulative system.
"Doom, is there any malevolent spirit around?" he asked under his jagged breath.
[Scanning...]
[There were none.]
"Now that I need so godforsaken monsters, no one's coming." The words tasted like a bitter pill ground to dust on his tongue.
Not that Mikel didn't know the reason for this peace.
Before he left the headmaster's ho, Butler Basil inked so scriptures on his skin. It would keep Mikel away from spiritual harm, like an invisibility cloak that most malevolent spirits wouldn't sense unless Mikel let them know.
"Ugh..." Mikel clenched his teeth as he felt the bracelet tighten and his arm grow heavier. He glared at it and hissed, "How else would I feed you if you don't control yourself and start sipping more of my energy?"
His eyes burned as his exhaustion wasn't the only thing growing, but also his fury.
For so reason, the chain loosened with reluctance.
"Tch." Mikel snapped his tongue again and continued dragging himself along the quiet and dusty street.
His mind spiraled with thoughts of where to find any malevolent spirits. After all, since this all started, Mikel had always been the prey. They would co into his ho or even into his sleep.
"Hospitals have more spirits than ceteries..."
As Mikel's thoughts kept spinning, a recent mory suddenly struck him. His steps halted, his brow raising. The old man in the hospital—the one he shared the ward with for months, with hearing difficulties—appeared in his thoughts.
"That's right," he whispered. "Maybe... just maybe... there's sothing in there."
His level of uncertainty was still at an all-ti high, but at least he now had a destination. There might or might not be a monstrous spirit in the hospital, but there were spirits. If Mikel were the enemy, he would probably start recruiting an army of aggressive, malevolent ghosts from there.
Just as Mikel took another exhausting step forward, a faint voice echoed behind him.
"Mikel!"
Mikel ignored the faint call, keeping his mind on the thought of giving the Blood Chain a feast, enough to make it eat itself to death and die.
"Mikel—boss!"
His steps halted as the voice drew closer. Turning his head to the side, his eyes landed on one of the ghosts he'd recruited as a lookout. Since not all ghosts had the ability to move physical objects, Mikel thought of hiring lookouts for those willing to help.
After all, he also had to be careful, as soone might sneak into the sealed-off site and see what was happening. The last thing he needed was more trouble; the ghostly kind was already more than enough.
"Boss, where are you going?" asked the ghost. He was just a few years older than Mikel, though a lot more cheeky. He wasn't one of the neighbors in South Block but soone from another district, whose only request was for Mikel to bet on a lottery ticket with his chosen combination.
A task the ghost was planning to do before he was shot in the head during a drug raid. Hence, the reason for the hole in the right side of his forehead.
"Are you heading out early tonight, boss?" The ghost chuckled, rubbing his hands together. "Well, you see... I saw there's a new volu of the novel I was reading. It's a good one. Youngsters like you might like things like that."
Mikel blinked ever so slowly, studying the ghost with deep exhaustion.
"..." He quietly slid his eyes to the path he ca from, then to the other side.
It was empty.
And for so reason, the quietness didn't just stretch in the surroundings. The eerie quietness also exuded from Doom and his cursed relics, as if waiting... for him to decide.
The ghost's eyes lit up as he added, "You should buy one! Or better yet, just change my request to this one. If you read this, you'd not put it down—"
Before the ghost could finish his pitch, Mikel's hand clamped over his face. The bracelet snapped from its binding and slithered upward like a snake. In the next breath, the ghost's back slamd against a broken wall.
SLAM!
The ghost froze, stunned in horror.
As a wandering ghost, passing through walls and objects was never a problem. Yet, right now, not only was his back slamd on the broken wall behind him, but Mikel's hand was grabbing his face, and the bracelet was crawling around his head and neck, with its end making its way to the hole in the ghost's injury.
"Mhm!!" The ghost tried to pry Mikel's hand off his face, and for the first ti since his death, he ironically felt alive. He could touch Mikel, scratch his arm as he tried to pull it away, but to no avail. "Mhm!!"
Mikel stood just a step from him, his side pressing against the ghost, unfazed by his growing protest.
"Hah..." he breathed out, head hung low. "Thank... you for the recomndation."
Slowly, he lifted his head and t the ghost's eyes through the gaps of his fingers. The mont they locked eyes, the ghost froze, his eyes dilating even more, a sense of dread creeping up his spine.
The ghost panicked, his muffled scream growing, his movents frantic.
"And I'm... sorry." As those words slipped out of Mikel's lips, his grip on the man's face and the chain crawling around it like a parasite tightened. "May heavens... bless you."
The ghost paused slightly as he could feel the Blood Chain crawling from the hole in his head, down to his throat. The chain crept into the wound like a living parasite, hollowing him out from the inside.
And with that, Mikel squeezed the man's face, and the Blood Chain squeezed harder, glowing from within as it absorbed the ghost's energy until the ghost started to wither. The ghost's scream cut off into a choking sob before his form crumbled like ash in the wind.
Like a whip, the Blood Chain slapped back around Mikel's wrist. It glowed once more, but this ti, with a little bit of quietness. He stared at it and felt its silence, but also... he knew this wasn't enough.
It was still hungry, and one normal ghost was not enough to make it full.
Just then, Mikel heard sothing very faint as the screen on his side conveniently appeared. Doom said:
[You did what you must, Master.]
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