“What—?!”

I awoke by a loud scream. I was lying on the ground with the ceiling of the central stadium looming over me.

The sound of a battle was muffled in my ears, but as I stood up, it became clear.

I turned to my side and saw Din kneeling on the ground. It seemed as if he had just been hit in the stomach.

In front of him was Grayson, lending Aydin a hand.

What had happened to me when I blacked out? How long had I been out for?

It looked like Grayson had intervened in their fight. With an Ace knight in the battle now, there was no chance of us winning.

“Din… we have to run. You don’t stand a chance against an Ace knight.”

He didn’t reply.

“Din, what is the meaning of this?”

Grayson asked Din in a menacing tone.

For some reason, even though he was against an Ace knight, Din seemed confident.

He pointed towards Aydin, “Why don’t you ask him? He kept calling Lorelei a demon and ended up killing her.”

Killed… me?

I looked down at my hands and clenched them. What were they talking about? I felt very much alive.

“Din, I’m alive!”

He didn’t reply. Not even the guards or anyone seemed to be able to hear me. Was I really dead?

Grayson didn’t move a muscle. Instead, he just seemed tired. Looking around, I noticed that the other Ace knights had disappeared, along with Katherine. Had she been able to escape?

There were marks of blood around where they had been fighting earlier. I only hoped that the blood didn’t belong to Katherine.

“We can all see it clearly, Din. I don’t know what the case was with Lorelei, but I can say for sure that you are a demon. Your eyes, Din, those are the evil eyes belonging to only demons.”

Din also had those eyes? From where I was standing, I couldn’t see his eyes at all.

“What do you—?!”

From the corners of the stadium, smoke began flowing into the room. Everyone appeared on guard.

I quickly moved towards Din as the smoke started thickening, but then noticed that even though my legs were moving, they wouldn’t hit the floor so I wouldn’t move forward. I tried leaning forward and then began floating towards Din.

“We’re here for you.”

Suddenly, two cloaked men appeared behind Din. Even though I was nearby, I didn’t notice them approaching us at all. With a hood covering their faces, I couldn’t tell who they were, only thing I could notice was how they were both identical in size.

“If you don’t wish to die, follow us.”

“Wait—!”

The two men turned around and quickly ran away. Din soon followed with me right behind him. I looked behind to see whether we were being followed but it was no use, the smoke was too thick.

Even though I couldn’t see where we were going, the two masked men seemed to have no trouble seeing through the smoke.

—After exiting the stadium, it was quite easy to maneuver around town. Many of the guards seemed to be running around to certain locations. The two cloaked men managed to wander through the city unnoticed.

With every corner, there were guards, but because of the chaotic situation the city was in, it didn’t take long before the guards would move elsewhere.

We were beginning to reach the wall that surrounded the city. It was hard to guess what the cloaked men were planning.

“Din, are you sure we should be following them? We don’t even know what they’re after.”

He didn’t respond. Or was it that he couldn’t hear me?

While we were hiding in an alleyway, I managed to take a peak at Din’s eyes. Grayson was right, they were the exact same eyes that I had. He also didn’t seem to be able to see me as well. So I really did die and now, I’m just a ghost.

Even while outside the city, they led Din through a forest with many trees as their cover. They were quite experienced in staying hidden.

While in the forest, the two ran nonstop as there were no guards around.

It was only until after they reached a riverbed that they decided to stop.

“This is good.”

“Din, you shouldn’t be that close to them.”

I knew it wouldn’t do anything to speak to him right now, but I just felt the need to say it.

“Huh?”

Din slowly turned around.

There was recognition in his eyes. In his previous emerald pupils, I could see happiness. The dark black that once surrounded it was gone and his eyes had returned to normal.

He quickly rushed to me. Was he about to give me a hug?

I became flustered and pushed out my hands and closed my eyes. This was a rather bold move from him, but maybe he’d matured after all that.

…

Waiting for a few seconds, I didn’t feel anything.

I opened my eyes and then noticed that Din was behind me.

“Huh?”

Din appeared puzzled as well. He turned around and then reached out for my shoulders. But his hands went right through them.

I see… so I really am just a ghost.

“Lorelei, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know…”

He tried reaching for my hair, my hands, my sides… but it was no use. The results were all the same.

“Hey! You two! What’s happening to Lorelei?!” Din called out.

The two cloaked men looked at one another before turning back to Din.

“Who’s Lorelei?”

With a finger pointed at me, he said, “She’s Lorelei! The girl right here. The one I’ve been trying to touch. My hands just keep going through her.”

“So that’s what you were doing.”

One of the cloaked men stepped forward.

“I thought you went nuts after fighting one of the Ace knights.”

“What?”

The cloaked man looked at his partner before continuing, “Mister, we can’t see this Lorelei person. You’re just hallucinating.”

“I knew you had to have a screw loose when you decided to fight all those guards by yourself,” the other cloaked person finally spoke.

I had thought it was a man, but the voice was that of a woman.

“Also, it’s getting super hot in this mask so can we take it off already? Hey, Tal, can we? Can we?”

The one called Tal remained silent, but then suddenly raised his voice, “You be quiet back there! How many times do I have to tell you to leave the talking to me until we find out more about the person? And are you stupid? Why in the world would you use my real name like that?”

“But it’s hot under this mask and I can’t think straight! I thought it’d be okay since it looks like we’re dealing with a lunatic anyways.”

Tal sighed and then turned to Din. He spoke in a serious tone, “I don’t know what you’re seeing, but whatever it is, it’s something only you can see. If I’m to guess, is the person you’re seeing the same one you tried to protect earlier?”

For some reason, Din seemed deep in thought. “I’m not a lunatic,” Din mumbled.

“What?”

“Tell your friend over there to stop calling me a lunatic. She’s been rude the moment she started talking to me.”

The one in the back stepped forward and challenged, “What of it? You’re talking to an imaginary friend no one else can see so you’d have to be a lunatic for sure! And this mask is making me sweaty, I’m taking it off!”

She pushed her hood back and then pulled off her mask. You could clearly see she was sweating a lot in there. “Much better…”

Tal sighed once more. “I guess it can’t be helped now.”

He pulled off his mask as well.

Both looked almost identical. They both had long light green hair. Tal had light green eyes while the girl had the eyes of a demon. Even though I had thought Tal to be a man, he had very feminine facial features matching the girl. Tal wore a ponytail while the other one had braided hair that she rested over her right shoulder.

Tal pointed his thumb at himself, “I’m Tal and that’s Mun. We’re twins as you can tell. Now, who’re you and is the ghost the same person you were protecting earlier?”

“My name’s Din Morrison.”

He did it.

He actually told them his real name.

I couldn’t believe him.

Din continued, “And yeah, I see her right here.”

“Din, I don’t know if you can trust them just yet,” I whispered to him.

“Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing,” Din said confidently as he gave me a proud smile.

“I think I might know why this is happening to your friend, but first tell me, why was the Ace knight attacking you even after they killed your friend?”

Din pointed at his eyes, “Because of these, I’m sure. They kept on calling us demons because of our eyes.”

Tal turned to Mun with an unsure expression.

Rather than Tal, it was Mun who spoke, “You really have some screw loose, don’t you? The thing they call demons have black eyes. Yours is as normal as they can be in this city.”

“What?”

Din turned to me and I nodded, confirming that his eyes were not black anymore.

“But Lorelei’s eyes are still black…”

Tal scratched the back of his head before speaking, “Look, I know you don’t trust us yet, but you’ll have to come up with a better lie than that. We may not look like we know much… Let me fix that, she doesn’t know much, but I know a lot. The people they call demons have dark black eyes, that’s true, but there’s also the fact that those eyes never turn back after one has turned into a demon.”

“But I’m telling the truth…”

Tal paused to think for a moment before finally deciding, “Din, have you ever heard of Spirits?”

“Tal! Eliana told us to never talk about that with others!”

“Be quiet, Mun. Answer me, Din. Have you or have you not heard about Spirits?”

Din seemed surprised at the random mention of Spirits, but he answered honestly, “Yes, my grandpa used to tell me stories about them.”

A sense of relief appeared over Tal.

“I see. Then I guess today wasn’t all for nothing. We’re part of a pack that helps and recruits Spirits. Here, let’s set up a camp for now. We can tell each other what we know about Spirits over a meal.”