As Emil stood there, contemplating his death, the man placed a cloth over the face of his corpse. However, it was then that the sound of multiple sets of footsteps walking together came from the hallway. He turned around, and watched as a few people then walked into the room. Of them, there was one that he recognized, Mabel the local alchemist.

She was with another hospital employee, but also a couple of guards. One of them was an older man, with a long grey beard. This person did not wear a helmet like the others, so the bags under his eyes and scars across his face were easy to see. As the older man stepped into the room, the hospital employee by Emil’s corpse saluted him.

“Captain Maynard, I didn’t realize you would be visiting so soon. I was just about to file the paperwork your office requested for its investigation.” The older man waved a hand, dismissing the salute and allowing the other man to be at ease.

“Yes, yes, just consider this as an unofficial visit. I understand that procedures need to be followed, but when I found the bodies, I recognized one of them as Duran from the start. Even with his… current condition, I knew it was him. But what I didn’t know what why he was in the cemetery so late at night, especially in the middle of the storm. Or who the other two with him were. Based on what little was left of the body in the worse condition, we deduced it to be Hadwin, a local cleric. Something we just came back from confirming, since his house was left abandoned. However, Mabel says she might be able to confirm the identity of the second,” the captain said as he nodded at her.

“A young man by the name of Emil visited my home last night, asking for medication to deliver to Hadwin. So I went to Hadwin’s house this morning, to check on his condition. But when I found the front door unlocked, and couldn’t find him, I feared that there was a connection.” She paused to pull out a handkerchief, dabbing it against her eyes.

“This young man claimed Ben sent him, but when I asked Ben about it, he denied such a thing ever happening. It was as I feared the worst, that I heard about the bodies discovered this morning at the cemetery. If this is him, there’s potentially a chance that the medicine I gave may have still been in his possession. In his personal effects, were you able to find anything resembling a tied bag filled with an herbal remedy?”

“Hmm, I can find that out for you right now,” the hospital worker replied as he began to look through his notes. Tracing his finger against a page, he eventually stopped, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Yes, the item you described was with him, yes. But…” He looked up, and glanced around at everyone in the room. “The way some of his other belongings were described are a little, well, concerning. Mysterious objects, a few of which are small and black spheres. The person that wrote this said that while touching them, she had a sense of weakness and needed to take a break for the rest of the day. Then someone else took over, and described a white item roughly shaped like a human. All he mentions is that he couldn’t hold it for more than a few seconds.” The hospital worker cleared his throat.

“He… I know he immediately quit after he finished putting away all of the personal effects. I was there for it, there was a wild look on his face. Even while walking away, he was constantly looking over his shoulder, like something was out to get him from behind. I wouldn’t normally consider myself as one for superstition sir, but I know abnormal occurrences when I see them. Just what sort of things did this person deal in to possess such strange objects?” The captain went over to the worker, and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“That’s what I’m here to find out. Could you let me know where in your storage his possessions are currently being kept? I won’t take anything away or modify any of it without official permission, you have my world. I simply wish to take a look at these things for myself.” That was what he said, however, there was something about his tone that indicated that he was being less than honest.

The worker gave the location, and the captain nodded as he did. Emil had been listening to this entire conversation, but was still thrown off mentally by the fact that he was now a ghost. However, it was as the location of his personal effects was being described, that he fully snapped back to reality. He needed to get reach there first and get to his belongings. As soon as the worker finished describing the place, Emil took off down the hallway.

‘I might be dead now, but I’m still here. I don’t even know yet if I can still use magic, but that doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that I get the memory orbs and that part of the mayor’s soul. If there is a way to resurrect myself, it’ll likely require power and energy. If I can’t gather any more as a ghost, then those are the only resources I have. The mayor’s body might have the other part of his soul still, but I won’t know that for sure until I check. So I can’t let those things get taken away or end up falling into the wrong hands,’ he thought to himself.

Based on the mayor’s memories, the captain didn’t know anything about the murders or the Order. However, mayor Duran had always believed that the veteran guard did have his own suspicions. And that if ever given the chance, he would use any opportunity that came up for the sake of his personal ambitions. What exactly they were, however, he didn’t know. But it had been enough for the mayor to stay on his toes whenever captain Maynard was around.

Emil ran through the corridors and corners. Eventually, he came to the right spot and began to look for the unit with the number the worker had mentioned. He then spotted it, it was one near the far-right side. It was a simple set-up, a series of cubby holes with sliding covers made of wood. Emil reached for the one he wanted, but rather than grab onto it, his hand phased right through.

“Alright, fine, that works too,” he mumbled to himself. “If I can just reach for one of the orbs or the soul, I should be able to touch them as a ghost. Hopefully that’ll be the case, anyway,” he said as he began to move his hand around.

“Ahah!” Emil victoriously cried as he grabbed onto one of the memory orbs. He pulled his hand back out of the storage unit. However, as it phased back out, the orb became stuck against the inside of the sliding door. So as his fingers exited the unit, the orb slipped away from his grasp. He heard it lightly hit the wood with a small thud, and realized that this could be a problem.

“Okay then, uhhh, shoot. What to do, what to do?” As he was trying to think, Emil could hear voices already coming down toward him from the hallway. He could hear the captain complaining about how chilly the hospital corridors were. There was only so little time for him to work with, before they showed up.

With few other options, Emil raised his hand at the storage unit. When it came to testing if he could still cast spells, there was no time like the present. He would just have to blast off the screen with magic and then take out what he wanted.

Emil tried to channel the abilities within him. The part of the person that allowed them to cast magic was contained within the soul. So even as a ghost, that should still apply and allow him to use the arcane. As he did, he could feel the void that was Negative Magic. Now sensing it, he tried to draw out its power to use as a spell. He drew it forth from the depths, however, he could not release it out.

It was right there, at the edge of becoming something he could cast. But it refused to go past that point, as though it couldn’t. It was as he tried to pull on it further, that Emil sensed what was wrong. He should have felt it earlier, but had been too distracted to really notice. Rather, it wasn’t what he felt, but what he couldn’t feel.

There was no Mana for him to fuel the magic with. He couldn’t sense any whatsoever currently contained with himself. When Emil first became a Necromancer, he lost the ability of Mages to naturally regenerate their Mana pool by absorbing it from the local environment. However, even then, he had still been able to sense the power contained within the air and all things. But now, even that constant feeling was lost to him.