"But at least I've gathered a lot of interesting data for my research. Not to mention, she'll like what I've got here. And him...it looks like I can introduce him to a new goal." Under her hood, the woman smiled, hoping to see an excellent show soon.
"Lady Osmond's apprentice is interesting, with those green eyes that look like lanterns. Will the clown be able to handle her? HAHAHA! That would be worth seeing," she laughed softly, imagining scenarios she was eager to witness.
"Besides, that mushroom came with those women. I don't know why, but that creature gives me a bad feeling. It simply devours living beings. It's not the strangest thing in the spiritual world, but I feel like running away is the best option...." She fell silent, realizing this was a warning from her sixth sense. She decided to trust her instincts.
Thus, the hooded woman reluctantly took one last look at the gathering of spiritual energy before stepping back, fading into the shadows, and heading toward one of the entrances.
She didn't want to reveal herself to the forces of law and order so soon, so she abandoned her supposed companion. She also didn't want to put herself in danger because of someone she didn't care about.
As she made her way to the exit of this fragment of the Spirit World, strands of her red hair were visible through the opening of her hood. One strand was a braid with a golden bead at the tip. She quickly hid it with a smooth movement, accustomed to this action.
The confrontation between three women and a horde of controlled zombies began with her departure, but the redhead didn't care about the outcome. After all, the hooded woman thought that Howard Stone's use of her invented spells was subpar.
"I'd like to see that guy scream, but I have to take care of my little daughter. How did she end up at Lady Zhang's store? It looks like I need to be stricter," she muttered. Although her face was not visible, her tone suggested a maternal smile.
Séraphine was the first to spring into action, although she had no weapon in hand; these were safely stored in her hat. With a gesture, magic manifested itself before her.
She struck forward with her fist, generating a jet of ether that hit a group of undead creatures. Since they had little effective defense, her attack was quite effective.
Perhaps due to the bodies' state of decomposition, Séraphine's spell destroyed several of the undead with relative ease. The fallen corpses were a minor obstacle for the monsters behind them, allowing Séraphine to retrieve her hat.
As Séraphine drew her rapier, Élodie lunged forward and swung her warhammer horizontally, striking one of the zombies' exposed ribs and shattering the white bone. She pushed her enemy aside.
The police officer had a serious expression on her face as she kicked an undead creature that jumped toward her and tried to grab her. She easily used her left hand to grab the gun from her waist.
Without hesitation, she fired twice at her fallen enemy; the bullets hit its head and shattered it. Maintaining her steady pace, she continued to advance alone against the bulk of the horde.
It could be dangerous in these circumstances. Élodie was aware of this, but she was not alone in this fight. A heavy snake tail fell to one side of her body, shaking the area and crushing several zombies trying to flank the blonde.
Madeleine joined the fight. Her snake eyes narrowed as she moved swiftly, propelled by her serpentine body. Her sharp claws tore apart nearby enemies with several slashes.
On her left, a green flash appeared. Séraphine held her rapier. Although the witch did not have an enhanced body like her two companions, she was highly skilled in swordplay.
Séraphine adopted a combat stance, holding her enchanted weapon in her right hand and gripping the handle of her revolver tightly with her left. With a simple aim, she fired.
The bullet emitted a crimson glow as it streaked through the sky and struck a zombie in the chest, causing an explosion. The flames spread to other nearby zombies, igniting them.
This made the fire-affected zombies easy targets for attacks by Élodie and Madeleine, who responded with their methods.
The police raised their hammer high before bringing it down on the ground, not on the head or body of a zombie. The sound of metal hitting the floor was jarring, but no one cared; they were more concerned with the effect of the blonde's actions.
At the moment of impact, a line of ether appeared, traveling through the weapon until the energy was channeled out of it and shot toward the enemy that Élodie was aiming at. This energy attack was not a simple shock wave, but rather quite elaborate.
Rather than simply colliding with and destroying the zombie's limb, the energy climbed up its body until it reached its head, finally exploding. The resulting sparks were fired with excessive force, like pellets, hitting the surrounding enemies.
"I have ranged attacks too!" Élodie exclaimed, glancing briefly at Séraphine. Despite her serious expression, Séraphine couldn't help but smile slightly.
"Just don't get distracted and use up too much energy since the real enemy is up there. These things... are just poor victims who need to be freed from their suffering," Séraphine replied, firing at another zombie. This time, she used a normal bullet. The impact of the projectile allowed her to destabilize the creature's balance.
This allowed her to get closer. With her rapier gleaming from its activated enchantment, she stabbed the undead creature's rotten eye. The tip of her weapon pierced its brain and emerged from the back of its neck.
This feat was a product not only of her skill but also of how sharp her weapon was. Even Élodie couldn't help but mutter under her breath in envy. After all, not every magical weapon is perfectly enchanted and extremely expensive.
Madeleine glanced at the rapier, which glowed with an intense green light matching Séraphine's eyes, and clicked her tongue. She glanced sideways at Nisca, the talking mushroom that had guided them there.
The strange spiritual creature stood in the distance. Although it lacked discernible facial features, it was clear that it perceived everything happening. This had been confirmed before, but its tilted head made it look confused.
Under different circumstances, this would have been cute, but Madeleine remained cautious, knowing Nisca's abilities. She tried not to get too close to the being while fighting the zombies, as did both Élodie and Séraphine.
But although they did not approach the creature, Nisca did. With clumsy steps, the talking mushroom approached a fallen zombie. Instead of devouring it, as it had done with the bat's body, the mushroom reached out and touched the zombie's forehead as if it wanted to understand something.
"This was one of Nisca's friends... they were all Nisca's friends..." the mushroom murmured, its voice tinged with sadness. It appeared as if something had been activated inside it, as its body began to bubble and a red light covered it.
"Get away! That's spiritual energy!" Séraphine warned her two companions, who quickly stopped attacking the nearby enemies and moved away from Nisca. They didn't know exactly what was happening to the creature, but they had their ideas.
"I'm not surprised. Isn't it supposed to be the ally of those who did all this?" I never liked it. We should have crushed it earlier and explored on our own," said Élodie, gently turning the hammer in her hand. Séraphine shook her head.
"I feel strange saying this, but I don't think this thing is evil. It seems he had a connection with these women when they were alive and were brought here. Nisca seems very naive, don't you think?" The witch's question made Madeleine touch her chin, deep in thought.
"I wouldn't be surprised. Spiritual creatures operate very differently from us, beings of the earthly world. Did it get angry because of what they did to the women? Are they an ally or a potential enemy?" the Lamia wondered. Her words stirred up fear and anticipation in the women.
"Don't worry! That thing doesn't want to hurt us," said Sasha confidently.
The little fairy had been frightened when she sensed Nisca's commotion. Upon seeing the spiritual energy covering the mushroom's body, she flew to a place she felt was safe. She returned after confirming a few things.
"That mushroom is scary and not as pretty as those in the real world, but it's still a mushroom. What do you think its function is in nature?" In a haughty tone, as if she knew everything, the pink-haired fairy floated around the three women before finally resting on Madeleine's shoulder.
"They are regulators and decomposers, but above all, they are natural entities that support both plants and animals. Sometimes, however, their role as regulators requires them to act against them." Sasha quickly understood, and Séraphine gave that answer, causing the fairy to begin clapping her little hands.
"Exactly! It seems that Nisca became familiar with some of the zombified women, and the actions of the person behind the scenes may have triggered a hidden mechanism."
After all, messing with souls is the greatest taboo in both the spiritual and real worlds, which is why beings that devour souls are so frowned upon." Sasha said this as she watched Nisca's body turn into something more than a mushroom.
Bright spores shot out of her body and melted into mycelium, which spread voraciously throughout the stairs. Tendrils and appendages trapped every undead woman present.
"This is..." Élodie didn't know what to say, but she was grateful that she had held back her impetuous nature since yesterday's experience. Today, she had avoided dying a terrible death.
The walking corpses were now trapped but had not suffered any new damage. Knowing Nisca's ability to dissolve organic tissue, however, the blonde could perfectly imagine what the result would have been if she had recklessly attacked the fungus.
Nisca's form was completely lost, turning into a mass of white threads that continued spreading until it trapped all the zombies.
At this point, their activity stopped, and they heard a strange wailing sound, as if a child were crying. For some reason, this made them feel sad because they understood that the sound represented Nisca's sadness.
"I don't understand... weren't spiritual creatures always the bad guys in stories?" Élodie scratched her head, looking to Séraphine for answers.
"Spiritual energy is harmful, but many of its derivatives are not. Some creatures from the Spiritual World are kind. I was raised by one, you know?" Séraphine's reply caused the blonde to raise her eyes in amazement.
"Now that's some excellent gossip," Madeleine added, causing some of the witch's bad mood to dissipate as a smile spread across her face.
"You always have to be cautious, but never prejudiced. That's why I was gentle with Nisca. Otherwise, I would have attacked from the start," said Séraphine. Perhaps because of the mention of her name, the white mycelium in front of the women trembled, then began to writhe.
The zombies slowly consumed themselves. Instead of looking grotesque, they simply disappeared from existence, like fungi on fallen trees or dead animals.
When the process was complete, the mycelium manifested four appendages that slid toward the girls. Even though they were on guard, nothing bad happened. They simply floated in front of their bodies before something emerged from the tips of each one.
Mushrooms are considered the fruit of fungi. When Séraphine saw a green mushroom in front of her that resembled the color of her eyes, she didn't know how to react.
"I think it's giving us a gift," said Madeleine, who didn't hesitate, taking the purple mushroom in front of her with two fingers.
"Is it a good idea to eat a mushroom from the spiritual world?" asked Élodie as she took the blue mushroom Nisca offered her. It was the size of a fist, similar to the ones Séraphine and Madeleine had.
"I don't know. You tell me," Séraphine replied with a hint of exasperation. She was constantly tossing the mushroom in her hand, unsure of what to do. Should she eat it?
As for Sasha, Nisca gave her a pink mushroom, similar in size to a button mushroom and adapted to the tiny stature of fairies. This made the pink-haired girl smile.
Upon receiving the gift, Sasha greeted the appendage in front of her, and surprisingly, it returned the gesture. Then, the fairy began making other gestures, which Nisca repeated as best she could, even using her other appendages.
While Sasha played with the mycelium, Séraphine briefly activated her special vision, which enabled her to see that the trapped souls she had glimpsed earlier were now floating above Nisca, completely free.
Some of them seemed to be naturally entering the process of reincarnation. A few of them noticed the witch's gaze and nodded to her before finally departing.
Their fate would have been much more terrifying where they were, but seeing how Nisca allowed these women to find peace removed Séraphine's last bit of caution against this being and further fueled her anger against Howard Stone.
Séraphine deactivated her vision; she didn't need to see anything else. She brought her left hand to her lips, kissed her palm, and watched as the ether glowed upon contact, creating a blue heart.
The witch blew this energy construct toward the white mycelium covering the entire staircase. It fell gently onto the mycelium and dissolved. Then, Séraphine spoke these words from the depths of her being:
"Thank you for what you have done."