I really have a bad feeling on that mansion but since Mirai rushed in, I have no choice but to follow her in. She is still in a ghost state and if she is harmed in any way, she would die for real. Upon entering the mansion, I was baffled by what I saw. The whole place is in ruins and cobwebs are almost all around the corners. The cabinets, vases, and other furniture are also covered in dust that you might think that no one is living here for how many years and was abandoned."How is this possible?!" Mirai exclaimed as she surveys the place, again and again, only to find everything abandoned.
"Did you really live in this place? Because this place is already an abandoned place and I don"t think someone lived here for how many years."
"But my body entered here. It is impossible that no one is living here. Where are my parents? Where are the servants? My siblings? It"s impossible that they will suddenly stop caring about this place!"
What she said is true. That is pretty impossible to happen. If so, where are they? They seemed to have not vacated the place with all the furniture still intact in this place. Why would they leave the furniture if they go to another house? That is just wasteful.
"I suggest that we don"t jump to conclusions first. Since we are here already, let"s take a look inside and find clues as to why the house is like this. What do you say?" I take a glance at Mirai.
"Yes. I don"t agree that my parents would disappear without a reason. There must be really a reason."
We stepped forward and looked around the living room"s furniture and appliances. They are all fine, but they are covered with dust. On a closer look, the dust is already a few layers so it is clearly seen that no one took care of this place for a long time. Just as I was examining everything in the living room, Mirai screamed.
"EEEEEKKKKK!"
My alertness activated and I s.h.i.+fted my attention from the source of the scream. Her scream is currently on the second floor. Without hesitation, I activated [Haste] and sprint forward into the stairs. But I was startled by what I saw. In the hallway of the second floor, I saw standing figures, but they are not humans but statues. I saw Mirai crying on the floor as she stares into the statues.
"Mom...Dad...Yuki... why..."
That"s when I immediately pieced together what happened. No wonder no one is here living and taking care of the place...because all of them have turned to statues. I approached one of the statues and the statue is indeed lifelike. If you are not familiar with these people, you would really think that they are just merely statues. And from the looks of it, they did not realize that they are turned to stones based on their calm expressions.
Then, I feel someone is staring at us. My instincts tell me to flee already.
"Pillars of Doom!" I slam my palm into the ground and grabbed Mirai off the way and jumped into the end of the hallway.
Of course, I made sure that the statues are not harmed in any way. When we are a few meters away from our original position, the Pillar of Doom that I summoned was easily broken into pieces. I put down Mirai and activated my flames without any hesitation. This is no longer a time for me to dawdle.
"What the..." Mirai was baffled when flames erupted on my hands. Maybe it was too much for her to handle everything but if I did not do it, we would be dead. Wait... she is a soul so she is not counted. I will die if I don"t defend myself.
The person who attacked us swiftly dashed forward and attacked with something sharp. I can"t see the face of the a.s.sailant because this person is fast causing my eyes to blur whenever I try to look who the heck the person was.
"Pillars of Doom! Earthshaker!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
All of the pillars I summoned are destroyed in one sweep but that didn"t stop me as I activated Earthshaker at the same time. The figure did not antic.i.p.ate the follow-up attack that I activated, causing the figure to stumble and fall. That time when the figure stumble down, that is the time that I managed to see the person who is attacking us. The person is no other than the body of Mirai. The only difference is that her arms are covered with black foreign metal that acts as her claws. That must be the thing that she used to destroy my Pillars of Doom. I wonder how sharp they are.
I didn"t bother to just stand there and look at her recover. I hurled my fireb.a.l.l.s to her in swift succession.
"Kazuma! Stop! Ack! It hurts!"
I stopped when I heard Mirai shouted. I saw her body suddenly covered with burn marks all of a sudden which made me stunned. The body of Mirai stood up and I realized that her body is unscathed and fine. She didn"t bare any kind of scar which made me curse.
I concluded that all of the attacks, wounds, and damages done to her original body, would transfer to her soul instead. It was like using her soul as the s.h.i.+eld to guard the body. If that is the case, I can"t attack her without any consideration.
"What a cheating b.a.s.t.a.r.d..." I groaned and activated my flames. This is not for attacking but for defense. Although flames can only be used fluently in attacks, it"s not impossible to use flames for defense.
Mirai"s body grinned and dashed forward with the claws stretched out. I quickly erected the flames in front of me which successfully blocked the attack she was about to do. However, she lunges herself to the flame barrier. It was not a real barrier and it can still burn so when she lunged herself to the flames, screams erupted in the air.
"AAAAAHHH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!"
Mirai"s mournful screams rang out while her body grinned menacingly. From the looks of it, the fake occupant on Mirai"s body can see Mirai that is why she is purposely using her own body to self-hurt that unfortunately sents Mirai to a h.e.l.l of a pain.
There is always time to strike but from the looks of our situation, it is time for a tactical retreat. Without hesitation, I grab Mirai"s soul and jumped off the window of the second floor and summoned my Pillars of Doom to use as stepping stones. I looked back and saw that the body of Mirai did not follow which is something that I didn"t expect. However, that is the best.
I looked at Mirai"s pitiful state. She needs first aid as soon as possible. This incident is now another troublesome one. I moved out of the mansion and made sure that we are already far from the mansion. I landed on the roof of a house, pulled out my phone, and opened the chat group Anonymous.
Kazuma: Emergency. It"s an urgent matter and I need help, I need someone capable of healing a soul"s injury. Is there anyone that can help me with that?