Looking at the dark spot in the room where the light from his magic would not reach, Marcus decided to try his creature appraisal skill and actually got back the entity's level.
'Whatever it is, is level thirty-two. A bit higher than I thought it would be but still within the realm that I can handle it. Now then, is it just going to keep watching me or is it going to do something.'
Deciding to take the forward approach, Marcus began walking towards the dark spot in the corner of the cellar and said, "I know you are there so just come on out, or are we going to have to play a game of tag first."
Marcus waited for a few moments to see if he would get any response, but the entity still just stayed in the dark corner not making any moves.
Shrugging his shoulders Marcus began approaching closer when the figure of a young boy came out of the shadows with dark mist emanating off of his body and in pained raspy cries it said, "LEAVE, BEGONE, GET OUT."
However, Marcus had no intention of leaving and kept walking closer when the ghostly figure of the boy let out a howling screech that sounded like a million nails on a chalk board.
Covering his ears Marcus felt that this screech was some type of attack but luckily his spirt stat was quite strong, and while he did feel some mild discomfort, he managed to shrug off most of the effects.
Unfortunately, this was not the only move the entity had made as the dark mist surrounding it flew towards Marcus and surrounded him.
Marcus tried to run away from the mist, but it soon propagated through the entire room leaving Marcus nowhere to run.
Thus, he used his last trick and used his ghost form hoping that the mist would be unable to affect him.
As the mist surrounded him completely Marcus braced for something to happened, but the mist seemed to do absolutely nothing to him.
Of course, what Marcus did not know was that this was the signature attack for malicious spirts call life drain, which while incredibly effective on the living was not going to have any effect on another ghost.
Floating over to where the spirt of the young boy cloaked in dark mist was, Marcus could see him thrashing around violently.
'Well, I guess I can consider him to be hostile it does not sit right in my stomach to destroy the soul of a young kid, but it will hopefully put him out of his misery.'
Marcus then focused on the ghostly child and exerted his phantom pressure using the strength of his soul to attack.
The spirt of the young boy feeling the attack immediately started screaming in agony before training its gaze on Marcus rushing towards him.
Marcus seeing this did not even try to get out of the way figuring that the malicious spirt would pass right through him but failed to realize that both of them were currently ethereal.
The spirt of the young boy crashed right into Marcus startling him and causing him to lose focus on his phantom pressure.
The boy then began tearing at Marcus with dark claws slicing him up until Marcus activated his embodiment of light unique skill.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtMarcus ethereal body then became completely enveloped in light which pushed back the darkness surrounding the child spirt and causing him to cry out in pain.
This had been a gamble on Marcus part since he was not sure that his embodiment of light would have any effect on the child spirt, but it seemed to have worked incredibly well.
The malicious spirt attacking Marcus quickly separated away from him and dove back into the shadows of the room and disappeared beneath the floor.
Still reeling from the attack that had just happened to him Marcus shut of his embodiment of light and looked at his wounds.
He looked over his ethereal body and could see numerous cuts from the child sprit's wild clawing and a few parts of his soul where the darkness energy had corroded him.
'Damn this hurts, this is the first time I have ever fought something that is also ethereal, and it is a bit difficult. Luckily it seems to be weak to light so if I can corner it, I should be able to bath it in light and win.'
After taking a few moments to check his status to make sure he did not have any lingering effects like a curse or something, Marcus floated towards the area he watched the young boy's spirt float to and noticed that there was a trap door that was leading even deeper down.
Passing down through the trap door Marcus soon found himself in a long shaft with a ladder going deeper and quickly floated down into another room.
Looking around Marcus could see that the room was made entirely of stone with etchings of demonic looking beings and in the center of the room was a stone altar.
Floating closer towards the stone alter Marcus soon saw that there was a child's skeleton still laying there with a small amount of dark mist similar to the boy's spirt coming off it.
'What the hell is this place, it looks like something you would see in a movie where a demonic cult sacrifices people, except this is not a movie and I am pretty sure that is exactly what happened.'
Looking around some more, Marcus found many dried patches of very old blood around the altar.
However, before Marcus could finish looking at the altar, he heard something, and listening closer he realized that it was the sound of sobbing.
Floating over in direction of the crying Marcus soon saw the spirt of the young boy huddled into a small alcove sobbing.
The boy sensing Marcus' presence looked over at him and Marcus could see tears falling down his face although they disappeared before hitting the floor.
"You should go before it gets back, you hurt it, but it is going to come back soon."
The boy then continued to sob leaving Marcus dumbfounded by what he had just said.
'What does he mean by it, and why the sudden change in his demeanor. I thought he was just a simple site bound malicious spirt, but maybe I was wrong.'
Taking a good look at the sobbing boy Marcus could see that a few things were different about him now. The wisps of darkness around him were barely visible now and he was no longer blocking all light around him.
Marcus also noticed that the boy's eyes had gone from black to blue and that his entire aura was different now.
Gritting his teeth Marcus squatted down, grabbed the young boy, dragged him out of the alcove, and brought him into a hug before saying, "Tell me what it is and maybe I can help you get past this, you no longer have to stay in this place any longer."
The young boy being in Marcus' embrace felt a sense of warmth and comfort. He had in the last twenty years never felt the embrace of another being and his last contact before dying was so incredibly cruel and painful.
The spirt of the young boy then began crying even louder no longer just sobbing but balling his eyes out.
Marcus patted the back of the boy's head allowing him to vent out his long bottle up emotions.
'There is something else clinging to this boy's soul now and that I am in direct contact with him, I can tell. It is similar to the soul tether I had with Irene in the beginning but whatever this thing is, is eating away at this boy's soul.'
While holding the boy in his embrace Marcus decided to try something and activated his possession skill on the boy's soul.
Marcus then felt his soul begin to connect with the boy's but something else burst forward and the boy began flailing around while screaming like a madman.
Pushing through Marcus continued to try and form the connection and activated his embodiment of light once again and his soul began glowing brightly as he pushed through the darkness.
After passing through a torrent of darkness and shadows Marcus came out into a small room and sitting on a chair reading a letter was the young boy.
Marcus moved towards him and tried to touch him but found that he passed right through the boy.
Marcus tried to solidify his soul, but nothing happened and as he looked back at the boy, he saw him get up from the chair he was on and run out of the room.
Marcus deciding that it was in his interest and decided to follow the boy running after him.
Soon Marcus caught back up with the boy and saw him talking to his father.
"Dad, I just got a letter back from your friend, he wrote that he could get me a job in his master's estate as his kitchen aid. He wrote that I might have to do some other odd jobs as well, but the pay is good, and I will have enough money to send back home for you Emma."
The boy's father who was missing his right arm and leg look at his young son with tears welling up in his eyes and said, "That is good news Tyler, I am glad, now you and you sister will be able to have enough to eat."
The man then rocked the young girl that was sleeping in his remaining arm while he began crying.
The scene then suddenly shifted to the young boy called Tyler standing in front of the gate to the mansion Marcus had recently obtained, accept it looked quite different no longer in disrepair but immaculate.
Marcus continued to watch Tyler walk up to the mansion and through a side door where the servants worked.
Tyler then met up with a middle-aged man with blonde hair and a short scruffy beard who gave him a tour around the grounds and showed him where he would be sleeping in the servants' quarters.
The days of Tyler's life quickly passed by as Marcus watched and could often see from his vantage point that people would look at Tyler with sad eyes.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHowever, these days of hard work and hope for Tyler did not last long when one day the Marquess requested his presence.
Tyler being the obedient and hardworking servant he was promptly went to the separate apartment where the Marquess was.
What happened next Marcus did not want to watch, but he knew he had to witness what happened to Tyler.
Marcus watched as Tyler was brought into the wine cellar that was set up with a number of tables with people wearing masks sitting around them.
Tyler coming into the room looked towards the Marquess and asked him what he needed him to do when the Marquess shoved him to the ground and said, "Who gave you permission to speak. What you will be doing is whatever theses fine ladies and gentlemen here want."
Marcus continued to watch as the people in the cellar took turns torturing Tyler some of them cutting him, others burning him, and some even used magic to do all manner of unspeakable things to him.
It was a true horror show for Marcus to watch as they continued to torture him for over two hours using healing magic or items whenever he was close to fainting or death.
After the people that had been torturing him had had their "fun" and broken his spirt, they opened up the hidden door in the cellar and moved down to the stone room with carvings of demons along the walls.
They then placed Tyler on the stone altar in the middle of the room and began chanting. Once they had finished the chant the Marquess stabbed a dagger into Tyler's heart and then sliced his throat.
Tyler's blood began flowing out of his body and down the alter, beginning to fill up lines that had been carved into the floor.
When his blood had completely filled the lines that formed a rune on the floor, it began glowing with a dark red light before a pulse of darkness enveloped Tyler's body for a moment but then disappeared.
The people in the room began clamoring and Marcus could hear some of them say,
"So, it was another failure."
"I thought for sure this time it would work."
"Well, there are always more children maybe next time we should try more than one."
The people that had just completed a dark ritual using Tyler as their sacrifice slowly began to leave the room not even bothering to move Tyler's body.
However, what they did not know was that the ritual had not completely failed and the demon they had tried to summon became entangled with Tyler's soul.
The demon using Tyler's soul and rage as a medium then slaughtered everyone in the house except for a few young maids, that with his last ounce of will Tyler held the demon back and allowed them to escape.
The scenes of Tyler being stuck in the house bound to the place he was killed quickly began to pass by until during one of the scenes Marcus no longer continued to watch and grasped ahold of a dark tendril that had been surrounding his body.
"Did you really think that showing me this was going to be enough to distract me."
Marcus then turned around to see the shadowy entity that had been possessing Tyler for twenty years with multiply tendrils of shadow and darkness coming out of its body and wrapping around him.
Marcus smirked at the demonic entity and said, "Unfortunately for you I am not as easy to control as the soul of a broken little boy and now that have shown yourself you are not getting away."