Chapter: Phantom Fog

The group of Phantoms that we're blocking our way started to slowly come in closer to us, while shape-shifting into different nightmarish monsters, trying to frighten us, but the four of us were un-phased. One of the Phantoms let out a screeching howl before it flew straight into Leo's body.

"What the hell did it just…." Before Leo could finish off his sentence, he dropped to the ground, with his skin slowly turning light blue

Drew rushed to Leo's body to check up on him and tried waking him up, but no matter what he tried Leo did not open his eyes "his body temperature is dropping…." Drew said as he placed his hand on Leo's forehead

"This isn't good. Drew pick up his body, and stay behind me," Krow said, as he stood in front of us

The remaining Phantoms rushed towards Krow, trying to enter his body but Krow stood firm. Multiple magical blades appeared in front of Krow, and one by one each blade shot towards the Phantoms like bullets, the blades were able to pierce the phantoms and burn them up into white flames, extinguishing them.

"You three go ahead and find the girls, I'll stay here and try to extinguish as many phantoms as I can," Krow said as more blades appeared around him

"Don't you dare let those phantoms possess you!" Drew and I said at the same time

Drew and I nodded before taking off to go look for the girls of the RisingSun dorm. Me and Drew, soon entered a small room that was free of phantoms.

"Drew put Leo on the ground," I asked

"What's happening to him? Did he lose his soul?" Drew asked as he placed Leo down on his back

"Don't worry, his soul is still very much intact, his fighting off the phantom within him as we speak" I replied reassuring Drew of Leo's safety

"Of course he is, that little bastard doesn't know the meaning of giving up. Do you have a way of getting the phantom out of him?" Drew asked

"Yeah I do," I replied. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the level two banishing tag, that I grabbed from Finn, and held it in my right palm

"That's a level two banishing tag? Are you sure that will be enough to banish the phantom from within him?" Drew asked

"Well Phantom Nest is an expert spell, so no it won't be able to, but with my ReForge magic I should be able to change the rules and level cap placed on this tag," I said answering Drew

A small, dark purple, magic circle appeared above the banishing tag, the tag slowly started to disassemble itself, before changing its appearance, then reassembling itself. The small dark purple magic circle then disappeared, the banishing tag was now different in both design and colour.

"Alright I'm done, I've upgraded it to a level 20," I said, before placing the banishing tag on Leo's chest

"A level 20!" Drew said with shock "It's impossible to create a level 20 from a level 2, especially without a Forgers Table"

"Yeah I'm also surprised, this is my first time using this spell, so I didn't think it would work so well," I said a little shocked myself. ReForge, is the spell I've been working on for nearly a month now, it's a spell that'll let the user use Forger Enchantment, without a Forgers Table. Looks like all those late-night studies and theory writing came in handy

"Banish!" I invoked.

The tag phased into Leo's body and after a few seconds of Drew and I waiting, Leo's body started to glow with a white aura, and as it did the Phantom flew out of Leo's body before quickly extinguishing into nothing

"Did it work?" Drew asked as we looked at Leo's body.

Leo's eyes started to twitch slowly, before opening up, "what took you guys so long" Leo said as he sat up

"Good job on fighting the phantom for as long as you did," I said praising Leo

"Good to see you awake, it would have been embarrassing if you lost to a phantom" Drew teased, with a smile of relief

"Of course I am, I can't lose till I beat you," Leo said with a smirk "hearing all the noise outside, I'm guessing the situation has gotten worse"

"Your right about that, so let's hurry and find the girls and let's hope they are okay" I added on

With that, we all got up and continued looking for Hanako and the other girls. We arrive on the fourth floor of the ship, where we are met by a giant yellow dome, within the dome are a bunch of students. The dome seems to be some sort of barrier keeping the Phantoms out.

"Ken, Drew, and Leo!" Mira called out, as she came running towards us with Hanako, Koko, and Catherine

"Glad to see you're all doing fine! But where is Krow?" Mira asked

"He's down on the first floor fighting the phantoms" Drew replied

"Well, I'll go help him, the rest of you head into that dome and think of a way to stop this madness!" Mira said before she ran off downstairs

The rest of us made our way into the dome, which was filled with students who could no longer fight, or was filled with fear.

"I wonder if this same mess is happening on the other cruise ships?" Drew wondered out loud

"We don't have time to worry about them right now. We need to find a way to stop this happening in our ship, anyone got any ideas?" Catherine asked

"I have an idea, I'm going to try and get rid of the phantom fog that surrounds the ship" I replied as I looked out the window "since this is an illusion, you guys should find a way to calm down as many people as you can, and bring them here in this dome, and do not, let any phantoms enter your body"

"Get rid of the fog? I don't know how you are going to manage that, but I believe in you" Drew said with an encouraging look

"Umm...h-here, keep these talismans on you...and you should be protected...from the phantoms," Said Hanako as she handed Leo, Drew and I, each a talisman "I've already given them to the girls"

"Thank you, Hanako!" The three of us replied with a grateful smile.

"Right, since I'm pretty good at restoration spells, I'll help get rid of as many Phantoms as I possibly can," Cathrine said

"And I'll make the talisman, which can be used for bashing those possessed by Phantoms" Hanako added on

"Right I'll back the both of you up" Koko also added on

"I don't have any spells that would let me hit a phantom, so the best I can do is just find and help the injured and scared students" Drew said feeling a little useless

"I feel the same way big guy, so I'll lend you a hand" Leo also said feeling a little useless

"Right! I'll see you all after this mess" I said looking at all of them

And with that, we all went our separate ways to do what we could to stop this Phantom Nest. I wasted no time and ran up all the floors making my way up to the deck of the ship. Each floor I passed had a huge magical dome just like the one on the fourth floor, it seems like someone is creating them and keeping them stable, which I could only imagine how draining that would be.

The situation just got worse by the second, but that didn't stop a lot of students from fighting back and trying to survive. I finally reached the deck of the ship, and the fog was so thick that I even had a hard time seeing through it, it was as if I was in a whole other dimension.

Now for me to get rid of the fog. It's best I try to stand in the centre of the deck of the ship, or at least as close as possible. I started to feel my way around, as I walked straight, making sure I don't hit a wall. It's much quieter up here and for some reason, there are absolutely no phantoms.

As I continue to walk, My right hand suddenly grabbed something incredibly soft, it had a familiar feel to it, I squeezed it again before I heard a soft moan, and before I could do anything, I got a slap to the face, which left quite a sting.

"Owww! Who the hell just hit me" I yelped as I placed my hand on the cheek that I got slapped on

"Illuminate," A female voice said as a small ball of light appeared and lightened up the area, revealing the person that slapped me, to be none other than Claire "It's you!" Claire growled in an angry but flustered tone as she saw my face

"Claire?...why did you slap me?" I asked confused

"B-b-because you groped me! You stupid idiot!" Claire said with a flustered look

"Ohhh so that's what Claire's boobs feel like? Apart from Sister Lilly and Sister Valerie, this is the first time I've felt boobs, and to be honest, they felt amazing" I said to myself as I looked at the hand that groped Claire

"Anyways, what are you doing up here?" I asked trying not to make the situation any more awkward than it already was

"You pervert don't try to act like nothing just happened!" Claire shouted annoyed

"What? You want me to tell you how your boobs felt?" I asked confused "geez I wonder who the real pervert is here" I continued to say with a chuckle

"Sh-shut up! Forget everything!" Claire stuttered, even more flustered. With a few coughs to get back into her normal serious and calm character, Claire finally answered my question "probably the same reason you're here, I'm trying to get rid of the fog"

"Seems like you've had no luck in doing so" I replied looking at the fog

"Well obviously" Claire replied in a sarcastic tone "I already got rid of the fog before but it just keeps on reforming itself, the best I could do was get rid of all the phantoms up here"

"Then that means this fog won't go away until we find the person who cast the spell" I sighed "looking for the spell caster in all this chaos is going to take long"

"Phantom Nest is an expert spell, meaning someone strong must be doing this, it can't be any of the students since this exam obviously involves them," Claire said trying to narrow down who the caster could be

"Exam? So you think this is all part of the exam?"

"Of course it is idiot, did you really think such a thing would go unnoticed by the teachers?*

"Good point," I said agreeing with Claire. Looks like I was so caught up in all of this, that I couldn't figure out such a simple thing, I need to keep focus. "In that case, it can't be the robots cause none of them has any sign of mana in their body" I added on "maybe one of the teachers is hiding on board?"

"No there is no teacher on the ship, I already scanned the whole ship before coming up here" Claire replied

"The only person I can think of is maybe the helmsman" Claire suggested

"That's good thinking, let's go check" I approved

I followed Clair down to where the helmsmen were located, and to our surprise, he was a robot with no sign of mana within it, so it couldn't be the caster

"Damn it! Looks like I was wrong" Claire mumbled to herself

"This is definitely not good, we need to think of something fast, the more souls that get devoured the stronger this sell becomes!" I said, racking my brain for solutions

"Okay, let's start from the start, do you have any idea how this whole thing started? All I heard was a scream, but before I could check it out, there were phantoms everywhere"

"Actually yes! Yes, I do! I just figured everything out!" I exclaimed

"Huh? What? What is it?" Claire asked

"Follow me and you will know" I replied before running off

With no other choice, Claire followed me back down to the first floor, where the first incident happened. While all the commotion was going on, I focused on looking for the first student that was found soulless on the ground

"Found you" I mumbled to myself as I squatted down in front of the first soulless girl

"So what did you figure out?" Claire asked confused

"Well before this whole incident started, this girl was on the ground soulless, before the Phantom Nest was even active" I explained as Claire looked at me still a little confused "meaning she couldn't have had her soul sucked out of her if the Phantom Nest was never active, and Phantoms only started appearing after she fell to the ground soulless" I continued to explain

"Meaning she can lead us to the caster, or even better she is the caster!" Claire said putting the pieces together

"Bingo!" I replied, I turned the girl's body over making her lay on her back, and as I did I could feel mana in her but she was not living

"It's a doll?" Claire asked as she took a better look at the girl

"I see, this all makes sense now, it was a basic illusion covered by an expert illusion...how clever," I said with a light smile "When this girl dropped to the ground she let out a loud scream to catch everyone off guard, which was what triggered the first illusion, a basic illusion that made everyone that looked at her think she was one us, making us believe she was dead" I explained "and as soon as people started to panic the second illusion was cast 'Phantom Nest', which made the situation worse and made everyone forget about the first illusion and turn their focus solely on how to deal with the Phantoms and keep themselves safe...we were all so focused on the expert spell that we didn't realize the basic illusion that started all this" I continued to explain

"And looking at the magic circle on the doll's stomach, she is also the caster of Phantom Nest" Claire added on

"In that case, this should fix everything," I said before picking up a knife from the ground and plunging it deep into the doll's stomach right in the middle of the magic circle

Once I removed the knife, a shock wave made of light spread throughout the entire ship, and expanded into the thick fog, as it did all the phantoms burned up and disappeared, and the thick fog surrounding the ship slowly started to disappear, revealing the blue ocean once more and some of the other ships. All those that lost their souls did not wake up, they stayed on the ground soulless. The state of the once luxury ship was now a total mess, it seemed as if a cyclone had passed through it.

"Well, looks like me and you make a good team," I said looking at Claire

"Don't get full of yourself, I won't praise you" she replied in a smug tone

"Congratulations to everyone that survived with their soul intact! For those that didn't, have failed. The failed study ts will have their souls returned to them and will be sent home as soon as we reach port. Now for those that did pass, try to get some rest as your next test will start in forty minutes!" A mysterious man announced from all the speakers within the ship

Everyone was a little confused but they were happy to finally rest, even if it was a mess. All the chaos is finally over but there is still more tests to come.

"Say, why didn't any of the phantoms come to you?" I asked looking at Claire

"Because I had a protective ward spell on me obviously" Claire replied

"And all those magical barriers on the ship, were they you're doing?" I asked Claire

"Yes they were, what of it?" She replied

"I'm just surprised, that you were able to make that many magic barriers, and keep them stable, all the while not being worn out one bit" I replied with a chuckle

"Well something like that is child's play for a Wizard Elite" Claire replied

"You're a Wizard Elite?... I don't believe you," I said looking at Claire a little surprised

"Don't believe me! See if I care" Claire replied in an irritated tone as she stormed off

To be honest, I actually believe her, every time I'm near her I can sense a huge amount of mana from within her, nothing close to Louis's mana level, but she definitely has one of the highest I've felt since joining this academy, I just like teasing her that's why I said I didn't believe her.