Purging ghosts was one thing. Luring them to a specific spot was another. The forr was easy. The latter was difficult, especially when the ghosts already had victims to prey on right in front of their eyes, why would they give them up just to follow Lia?
The streets was littered with corpses Lia could use, however, the problem was letting the mortals see the walking corpses would make them even more hysterical. So, Lia decided to first evacuate all the mortals until only she was visible to the ghosts.
Then she could use her corpses to lure the ghosts. A strategy that was quickly thought up but there was no other option for her at the mont.
She wanted to ask Yano for help but then rembered that he could only use one circle, in so sense it was indeed a restriction to his strong powers. Lia could now see the downside of it. If Yano drew a circle for her, he couldn't use his power himself.
There were right now ten mortals that were on the street, so sobbing about the death of the person they knew and so were haunted by ghosts playing with them. Lia realised that she had no weapon with her but her life force right now should be enough to at least repel the ghosts.
While other vengeful ghosts road around the streets trying to get into the buildings rather than caring about the mortals on the street. The normal ghosts all hid at the sight and didn't dare to co out. Even though they couldn't die from vengeful ghosts, they were still afraid.
Lia ran to the first woman who bawled on top of the corpse of her husband, she cried for him to co back as large chunks of his body were missing and his blood seeped into her skin, tainting her in red, an attractive target for ghosts.
"You need to get to safety," Lia approached the woman and held her up by the arm.
"No, I'm not leaving my hubby. 20 years, 20 years and more, why???" tears spilt from her eyes and snot ran down her chin. She was shaken and shocked, but still couldn't bear to leave her husband's side. Even though they've been together for so many years and she loved him, was it reasonable to put her own life on line?
Only those who have loved, could understand.
"Fine," Lia quickly looked around, a convenience store was located opposite to them, "Co with ."
Lia carried her husband's corpse over her shoulder, while grabbing the woman by her arm and pulling her up. The woman stopped crying to properly see the sight in front of her. She wasn't hallucinating.
That frail, young woman was carrying her dead husband like it was nothing. Stunned, the woman let Lia pull her with her. On their way to the convenience store, which wasn't even 10 tres away, the vengeful ghosts have taken notice of their movents.
They sward towards them with their hungry mouths condemning Lia for taking away one of their victims. Lia picked up her pace and just when the ghosts caught up, she slid on the ground towards the store, and flung the woman gently to the glass door, with her husband right after her.
The glass door that opened to the sides was locked while a store clerk panicked looked out. Lia didn't have ti to signal him to open it and could only hope he had the decency to open the door and save the woman at least.
Once Lia jumped back on her feet, she locked eyes with the ghosts and rolled to the sides, trying to lure them away. The blood of the corpse drenched her clothes and she sared so of it on her hand, tempting the ghosts.
They hesitatingly followed her, their eyes flickering between Lia and the woman hugging her husband.
"Co here," Lia coaxed them and once they walked her direction, she poured her life force out and ran towards the ghosts.
Her life force was like numbing smoke for the ghosts, it swirled around them while Lia slid under the ghosts and directly from behind inserted her life force into them. It took a while and the ghosts were screeching, wildly running around but at least, they were purged.
The woman and the store clerk watched with wide eyes how Lia was fighting with air but for so reason, their hearts felt at ease. Lia turned to them and saw that the clerk indeed helped the woman and her husband's corpse to get inside. Although his face slightly told disgust whenever he saw the corpse in front of him.
On instinct and pure coincidence, Lia has gambled on the possibility of letting the ghosts self-destruct if her life force was injected into them. She has never anticipated that it indeed worked to 100%.
Lia checked the surrounding situation. Right now, from the ten people, Lia was able to save one, however, the during the ti she took two other mortals have died, leaving only 7. Lia could also see that the ghosts have understood Lia's intention and thus stopped fooling around.
The mortals ran around panicking and Lia shouted, "Run towards , here!"
Without even needing to be told twice, they ca Lia's way. Although they tripped several tis, letting the ghosts catch up.
While they ca running towards her, Lia hit the glass door and motioned the store clerk to grab her a knife. If Lia's guess was right, then coating a knife or any weapon with her life force would also purge the ghosts.
For now, she should try to kill all the ghosts and scout this side of the city for any survivors. Only when everyone was saved, could Lia lure the ghosts to Yano and have him take care of them.
The street Lia was one was harmless compared to the rest of the city, if Lia didn't prepare herself right, then many more mortals would die. It was already a scene out of the apocalypse movies Lia has seen.
The clerk opened the door and reached out his hand with the knife but Lia shouted, "Just throw."
Anxious and afraid to hurt Lia the clerk was unwilling to do it but the woman snatched the knife away and threw it to Lia, "Here!"
Then the door was closed again.
The oncoming mortals followed by a horde of ghosts drew closer. Their desperate footsteps echoed from the ground, one heavier than the other. All striving for survival.
Taking a deep breath and surrounding the knife with the life force, Lia also let her smoke-like life force flow out before she charged at the mortals. They saw Lia's determined face and the knife in her hands and instantly scread in panic. As Lia rushed past them, they dropped to the ground holding their heads, but Lia only said, "Run to the convenience store!"
Zig zagging between the mortals, Lia t with the force of ghosts threatening to bury her. She threw her knife in the air, caught it before using its montum to cut a straight line through the air. Right through the core of the ghosts, which used to be their hearts.
Seeing their fellow comrades die, the other ghosts stopped and backed up a bit. They were indeed more intelligent than normal vengeful ghosts. They knew they couldn't blindly charge at Lia or else she would kill them.
The downside of the knife was it wasn't a boorang. She took out quite a lot of ghosts but now she has lost her weapon, and the ghosts didn't dare to blindly step into her attack range. Just like the ghost as the fabric who picked up Yano's dagger with its wide disturbing grin, these ghosts, seeing Lia not moving, also broke out into a disgusting smile.
A triumphant smile. It was a horrible sight. They were confident and full of themselves.
Once again Lia assessed the situation, she moved a bit, moving her body in a diagonal line so she could look behind her without letting the ghosts catch on. And to her relief, the other mortals made it into the convenience store.
Reassured, Lia changed her plan. What she was going to do now, was to follow Yano's initial plan. It was another gamble but if proven to be successful, it would be trendously useful.
"You're so intelligent? Do you really think you could catch ?" Lia mocked and saw the grins on the ghosts' faces instantly drop. So, they could understand her.
"Not confident?" Lia taunted a bit more, she felt a bit ridiculous talking to ghosts but if they were provoked then no matter what kind of words she had to throw at them, she would bring out a whole dictionary.
Seemingly enraged, the ghosts charged at Lia. The mont Lia finished the last word, she spun around and ran down the streets, across the city to the outskirts. And just as she guessed, the other vengeful ghosts stopped playing around and joined the mob of ghosts following Lia. Their interests were piqued and they couldn't help but chase after a person that had an abundance of ghosts running after her.
Lia tried to cover as many places as possible in the city, until she was back to the initial place and only then made her way to the outskirts. Having lured at least a thousands of ghosts, Lia knew she couldn't survive if Yano didn't already set up the confinent. Yet arriving at the promised place, Yano didn't disappoint.
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