As the sun rose, Elizabethtown showed a completely shocking face. Things that you would expect to see during war and things even war could not explain.

Over 8000 dead as well and an unexplainable event that caused fear throughout the night. When the sun came out videos of ghosts and flying people, explosions and many shocking things flooded the internet.

The most shocking were professional cameras and security cam footage that was leaked to the internet before the town’s connection was removed so there wasn’t much that could happen except hide all of it but it was hard for it to not get out.

Mark looked at the news coming from the App and his face was in a scowl as he saw the damage. Even though a nature spirit had appeared, the reborn dead had actually swallowed the artifact that it had used to generate the domain and forced an evolution into a pseudo disaster spirit. If the humans, earthbound spirits and the Nature spirits had not been there to tie it down for it to be destroyed and purged it would have been much worse but the damage was more than that, the town was now overloaded with specters from the fragments.

IEO and Soul Society were also at odds on how to go about it but both groups weren’t fighting and were just clearing out the spirits at the time.

The artifact was naturally recovered by the nature spirit. There was no way they would give it to humans who couldn’t purify this kind of source of dark force easily.

Only by breaking the fusion of the fragments would it be possible to purify each piece separately so it was a difficult and annoying task.

For Mark, he didn’t know if they would blame him but he only remained quiet while he checked a community forum. The Society explained that an exorcist had accidentally disarmed the reborn dead’s dark force creation formation which had angered it to this point. No name or motive was said meaning they were covering it up.

They were asking those who weren’t poltergeist and below to avoid Elizabethtown until the dark force was finally cleaned up.

Mark didn’t leave home after that, he just trained and watched his house come together room by room and section by section until it was finally done after a week.

During that time, news finally leaked out all over the world and the shocking supernatural event scared many people.

After some level of negotiations, the IEO revealed some facets of the truth. Of course they also said that this level of event was impossible to happen consecutively because evil spirits were not all that level of strength. Of course this also showed the world that spiritual beings and spiritual energies were a real thing and it made certain groups of people extremely excited to try and do it.

Mark knew it would usher some increase in occult loving people but it was unlikely that these people would do much for the situation except annoy the real ones.

Soon the house itself was complete and all rooms were perfectly furbished and bright with fresh coats of paint, beautiful flooring and more.

Down below however took a full extra week to complete, which Mark remained home to allow the chaotic surroundings to calm down.

He spent most of the time training his crafting and ghost fire. He could already generate enough energy to melt and mold common items but he lacked the energy and fire power to actually forge different things.

Finally when the last bits were complete they gathered up and he thanked them for their work and they showed him the changes.

“This is the foundation formations, it isn’t that big of an upgrade but the cavern size increased roughly 30% and the Ley line vent has been enhanced by roughly 20% with the base formation. The altar sits like a cap but these channels along the floor and all the way to the walls allow energy to be released maintaining the regular capacity released prior to this but the cavern itself will soon increase in ambient energy. You will notice it within a few days but you will instantly notice once you sit on the altar.” The leader said.

“Does this affect the strength of people who come down here? Or still only wisps and above?” he asked.

“Only wisps and above. Phantoms cannot survive in such a spiritually rich location. It seems contrary but their souls don’t have the stability to maintain themselves.” He explained.

“Alright, thank you for the help. Eventually I plan to expand more so I hope you can help when the time comes.” he said.

They all were happy and group by group they went up the elevator and drove out.

After they all cleared out, Agatha appeared, “So it is finally done?” she asked.

“Yep, soon we will also get new residents to help with the farming.” he said before he started to order manure for the fields but he also pressed the single button he had avoided and that was to inform that he could support other ghosts. He limited it to 99 individuals since Agatha was already there.

He had no plans to revive the others floating around his house. In fact, he had secretly held the conscious one down while chanting the chant to help them move on while rebuilding it. They were all instantly sent on so his house was free of buzzing soul fragments in its surroundings.

The requirement was that they had to be spirit tea farmers but at the same time that he put it he got a spirit tea farmer contract from the list and he read through the contract.

Basically farmers get a 150 spirit dollar bonus for joining so that they have incentive and they are paid 10 spirit dollars weekly.

It was a contract for Mark because those who come will sign the other half of this contract.

After he read through it to know the fine print he agreed to it.

“You will be notified once all 99 farmers are ready to move in.” like that he finished up.

“Are you going below?” She asked.

“Yeah, strength is the key to safety and the Elizabethtown thing made me see that even more clearly so I’m going to train for a while.” He said.

She just nodded slowly and headed to her new room and also got into her altar and trained herself.

For Mark he went down the elevator and appeared in the much larger cavern and walked to the altar that replaced his rug and looked up. That said he thought a while before going back out and took a few trips to come back with all his book embryo and the rocks before bringing in a group of normal books that had clear paper like normal books and removing the seals and took the rocks and normal books and put them near the walls and a rock above.

He felt it start to suck up ambient spiritual energy and release it and he took off another seal and moved closer until he was about 2 meters and it started to react so he moved to the edge and kept it 25 meters from range and lined the outside with these at that distance. It was only 15 extra but he looked at the 180 others. He started taking out the seals and they started to react but didn’t directly combine. It was just a reaction.

When he removed the last one he looked and took two stones and touched them but with no reaction he infused his spiritual power and it finally began to react and it stopped releasing and began to absorb ambient power and convert it to the same type as Mark’s.

That said he hadn’t noticed that his spiritual power was different because it was a little yellow with the karma and that began to cause a change in the stone just like dark force did.

Soon the rocks fully merged and began to radiate a stronger reaction and took more parts and kept combining it within his limit and got to 5 when the reaction went up in level and the rocks began to levitate. That said only those nearby, those at the wall were still there, unmoving, but the combined stone was already glowing slightly yellow and these lights shot out and infused into the many other stones and they began to suck up ambient energy and they began to come and fuse forming more and more of an orb until the last piece forming a rounded orb.

It had a dull heart beat like glow that came and faded and it matched his spiritual power. Although a lot of energy was drained from the air it began to suck it up slowly again.

That said Mark looked at the altar and in particular the top which had what looked like a ‘slot’.

“Do they regularly put these stones there?” he muttered and floated up there and put the rock in the slot and it instantly shined brightly as the energy from the Ley line vent began to surge into the stone and it grew shinier and the glow strengthened a lot until it finally calmed down with a firm pulse and it almost seemed like a large light as the glow reached the walls.

“Is this right?” he muttered but didn’t know and couldn’t do much else with it. That said what he had thought was just a ‘Stone of Spirituality’ was not. The spiritual power of the person who makes it plays a large part in what it becomes. Normal phantoms make a Stone of Spirituality, dark spirits make a Dark heart but he wasn’t a normal phantom. His karma had overtaken his sin and enhanced it with the virtuous energy infused into his spiritual power.

Although it wasn’t completely one, this was a Stone of Spiritual Virtue. If his soul would undergo a new growth then the stone would grow even more, changing into a Heart of Virtue.

An exceptionally rare artifact that could make dark spirits weaker in its presence.

It still had the same function but it naturally generated karma in the spiritual power of its surroundings similar to how the Dark Heart generates dark force instead.

Seeing that what he could do was done he walked into the altar and found the ‘seat’ and recalled his mortal shell and sat there. The slightly yellow wisp had a faint glow around it from gathered karma but he didn’t notice and began to train.

That said the ambient spiritual power didn’t go directly as it normally would. It went to the stone before being transported down and he began to train and felt his body pulled and fused and seemingly purified while growing. That said what really was the kicker was how similar the energy was to himself but it was much denser and began to pressure his own spiritual power to match it.

Of course he didn’t store it, he used all the energy he was receiving to train but it was having an effect on his body. The first quality training as a wisp went for a full 24 hours when he floated out exhausted but his wisp was more stable and the yellow had grown stronger.

He was huffing as his body reformed and he felt his body and smiled because he felt his bones had solidified and he was feeling the formation of a new structure. It was his heart now but it was just a waving mass that would take a long time but the stability of bones was a good feeling.

He breathed in before standing and stretching and then sitting down while doing something a little different. Instead of training he just absorbed ambient energy and changed it into his spiritual power.

Naturally he sat back at the center of the altar and within about half an hour he felt full and finally got off for good and got dressed.

He checked his phone and found that the phantoms were ready for him to accept and he pressed the accept button to have them come over.

The ghosts in question were all unbound to any object. Different from Mark himself.

It was about an hour later where one man arrived but with a tool for holding ghosts he released all 99 souls and Agatha came out completing the 100.

“Alright, thank you for moving, have all of you been made aware of the work you will do?” He asked.

“Growing Spirit tea.” One of them said.

“Yes, did you get taught how?” he asked.

They shook his head and Mark looked at the man, “You’ve got the book so there is no problem.” He said.

Mark sighed but nodded and the man left.

He called the phantoms all the greenhouse where he began to read them the book and the specific things required. He already said that all the seeds were in their respective places.

“Sir, how are we going to channel energy into it.” one of them asked.

“I’ve prepared spiritual mediums for everyone, you will be able to touch and move things as well as channel energy into the seeds. Each ghost should be able to take care of 3 sprouts and will take care of 3 sprouts. At the same time, in return, I’ve provided everyone with an altar within my home for each person present. Everyone will have one and instructions of how to use and train in each altar’s book of usage. You will be able to use it freely to train and rest.” He said and told them all the instructions for properly raising it.

For himself he naturally said he had different plants he was raising so he brought out a bag of bracelets of prayer beads just like Agatha and handed it out to everyone. Of course these weren’t new souls. Several of them have successfully raised some herbs but getting a medium is only a dream. Most phantoms gain spiritual abilities only when they are close to becoming wisps.

He slowly guided them and taught them to hold solid objects and handed each of them three seeds that they held in their hands and began to infuse, although slowly, with spiritual power and he watched after all 100 had them and slowly the roots and sprout came out of all three but the phantoms themselves grew more transparent by the time the sprouts no longer absorbed anymore and they seemed very tired.

After that they each went to a pot and carefully planted each separate sprout and he took the chance to learn all their names as he wrote their names on the side of each holder.

When it was done he gave a tour of the mansion and showed them their rooms, which rooms they picked were up to them however the 50 rooms were divided up and he showed them his room which was restricted as well as showing them the elevator.

“Here is a warning. If you are not a wisp and don’t want to destroy your own soul do not go down this elevator. I was told that the walls of the elevator and even the areas around it are made so that ghosts cannot enter and there is also a barrier underground to keep you out. The place down there is lethal to your unstable souls so don’t do something stupid.” He said.

One of them looked curiously and taking off his beads he actually touched the door and couldn’t phase through but he would phase through the door knob and after opening the door after getting the beads back he couldn’t pass through the floor.

“Wow it is real.” he said proving to Mark as well the truth to it.

“What is down there?” one of them asked.

“The vent of a ley line. It is a place where spiritual energy comes out from below the earth but phantoms don’t have sufficient stability in your souls to survive in high spiritual zones like that. We can talk about what to do when you become wisps and what will happen after, until then you should just ignore it.” he said.

They nodded respectfully, having existed longer and living in the more rigid spiritual hierarchy than Mark, they were not disobedient like the living would have been.

“Alright, you all can go rest, activating the seeds looked like it was a big toll so you can go on ahead. There are books on each altar and whichever you pick make sure to keep the book safe so that if you end up leaving in the future, others can properly use it.” he said.

Like that the 100 ghosts spread out through the beautiful mansion and Mark headed to the green house and took out the ten seeds and walked to pre arranged flower pots and putting one of them in his left hand, he channeled his spiritual power into them one by one until they didn’t absorb it.

When he looked, the seed was much bigger and the skin was already parting, showing that it had activated so he planted the seed before doing the next.

He used 50% of his spiritual power to activate all 10 and watered them and then went to the pump and started it up.

The pump wasn’t some normal gas powered one. It was technology built around spiritual power, naturally. With a vent providing infinite power, it had a small connection that powered it and didn’t pollute. He read the instructions to turn it on and did the process fully and finally pulled the switch on and it rumbled like a car but with a low rumble before the noise stabilized when the entire thing activated and soon went silent releasing only a small hum.

He read about its durability and saw that it could go indefinitely for 10 years without maintenance due to the similar auto repair function that existed in the lamps in the cavern below. There is a 5 year repair period that a ghost will come automatically to confirm it’s condition and replace the most fragile parts that is the source of the ‘lifespan’ of the machine making sure that it maintains top capacity.

The pump naturally had an in and out valve so the water is always moving.

He reached the second part of the instructions and opened the water channel and it started to pump water into the system while blowing out air from the water through it all.

It would take a while and he waited until the water returned out the exit valve meaning it was fully functioning now.

He then activated the shut valves which helped gather water in each section until there was no air left and only water and what came out was a strong flow but no air and thus, no horrible smell from stale air will form or rusting.

After that he took a spin around the mansion and found any taps that were opened and closed them up before reaching the greenhouse and watering the sprouts. The ghosts were in their altars primarily because the sun was irritating to normal phantoms. Not that it was lethal but just like the towns were irritating to them, so was intense sunlight.

When he was done he had time to make himself some food and tea before he looked at his bounty listing in thought before deciding to go out only tomorrow.

As such he began to prepare his talisman. There were 50 bounties in a nearby town to the east and he was sure to be able to clear them out.

As such he decided to go work the day after once he had checked on the plants with the ghosts and made sure they properly infused them at dawn.

He made sure to check when to put them out on the field and looked at when his fertilizer order was in and called Agatha and told her it would come today and to help prepare the fields after it was dropped off.

They all got the tools ready and got used to moving solid objects again while he got in his car to go work.

***

While the crisis at Elizabethtown was resolved, that didn’t cover the other major trouble going on. It was almost June and shit was hitting the fan several times over not just in the USA but all over the world.

The new disease that was spreading all over was infecting people like crazy and Soul society was having an extremely hard time finding the source.

A world wide disease was not by chance. No matter if it was created in a lab, the capacity to propagate so viciously was not something a common virus could achieve. It was already confirmed by the Spirit Lords that new disaster spirits were born and their primary domain was disease.

Where they passed disease would follow and it wasn’t one or two, otherwise this rapidly growing pandemic wouldn’t be spreading so fast all over.

They had already found two spirits and caused a massive battle and killed it but not before it released all its plagues before it was destroyed and purged.

Causing the plague to spread throughout a huge distance around its death zone.

Even then the strength of the plague did not weaken at all and already society world wide was getting heavily disturbed. Schools were already being suspended until further notice, jobs were being made to close unless it was of essential jobs and even then they would have to wear protective facial gear as the virus entered through the mouth or nose.

The ones taking it hardest were doctors who were the direct fighters.

There were a number of ghost exorcists at most hospitals who were praying and chanting at the corpses of many who’ve already died from the initial wave so that the number of souls didn’t skyrocket.

In a major meeting at Soul Society HQ, members from earthbound to spirit lord were seated with projectors showing all of them.

“This matter is getting out of hand. It is nearly as bad as the European dark ages when the disaster spirits caused the chain of eruptions in the mid 6th century. It was a disaster that lasted for almost a millennium until the industrial age and the colonization of the remaining world.” one of the spirit lords said.

“It is more dangerous now however.” another one said. “Never in history has there been so many lives in the world. A mass death led by the power of a disaster spirit would lead to an immense rise in their power as well as an increase in dark spirits. We are not prepared for such an event.” he said.

“What countermeasures have been implemented?” Another of the spirit lords asked the lower ranks.

“Sir, we’ve put into field tests the dark force scan system. Thanks to the abundant satellite system built by man, we’ve mixed in special constructions into the mix allowing our people to monitor the flow of dark force. This became possible only in the last 5 years but it has proven useful to pinpoint dangerous nodes which we believe higher level dark spirits exist. One such point was also Elizabethtown that had its sudden surge but we didn’t have any means to confirm this until it happened. With this proof we’ve been able to confirm several thousand cities world wide, with similar reborn dead signatures. As for the disaster spirits, they’ve been moving like storms all over the world.” the nature spirit who was speaking said.

He took out a device and a live map like those of weather maps appeared for them all on the screen.

“This is the classic weather map we generally see on the news but this…” he said and clicked a button and suddenly the map turned much darker.

Areas of bright yellow covered the map but also there were a large number of dark stains that almost looked like a living parasite moving around was all over.

“Once we put into practice what we believed to be the correct method of scanning, we found that the sensor also somehow picks up the presence of karma.” the nature spirit said.

“Sin and Karma are two facets of the same coin. Sin corrupts spiritual power into dark force while karma lives alongside and sometimes enhances spiritual power.” one spirit lord said.

“Right, well as you can see, roughly 60% of the world is still positively charged with karma, almost 80% of that space is oceans where humans don’t live but even so they pollute. Beyond that, we have the land masses where mortal life does live and with the rapid birth rate, that has exploded over the last century, has filled the world with the negativity of dark force. This is a picture from last month, if you look at the USA where Kentucky had once been.” He said and the image changed and there was a dense black dot there and changed back.

“The concentration had a drastic drop.” Another nature spirit said.

“Yes, we purged a reborn dead and have been spending roughly 2 weeks already cleansing the dark force from the city and its surroundings while we’ve allowed the IEO fools to purify the specters and dark spirits still lingering in the city. It has reduced the negative energy and dark force in this entire area by almost 70%.” he said.

“You mean to say that we shouldn’t aim for the moving disaster spirits, instead we move to destroy these reborn dead that likely support the spread of this misery and slowly revive the positive energy?” One of the spirit lords asked.

“Yes, as you can see, we have no means to directly pinpoint it with such a large concentration of dark force and negative energy hiding it and with them hiding within that mist attacking only for moments when they are secure. If we take their mask…” He said and stopped and everyone suddenly thought it was a good idea.

“If we rip the mask of the reborn, the disasters appear, when the disasters are gone… if a true threat exists then its face can no longer hide.” A spirit lord said.

“If such a threat existed, this world would not be so peaceful.” another spirit lord said.

“If that is the case, update this map and find all the reborn dead, if needed… we will be open to negotiations with those IEO to fight sufficient threats to clear this threat that could bring decades of peace.” one of the spirit lords said.

“Sir, is it wise?” one of the earthbound spirits asked.

“If required, it would reduce our deaths. We do not obtain many fighters despite so many souls existing so we are forced to tap into the source of active spiritualists.” He said.

Quiet sighs came from everyone before they all finished and began to divide work in all the countries and their entry points in the outside area of all the dark zones to start unraveling this cloud of darkness over humanity.