For his first order of business, he still wanted to keep his possessions safe. Since he could move them around, Emil realized that he could just carry it all out of the hospital himself. Even though the objects couldn’t phase through walls as he could, but that didn’t pose too much of a problem. As luck would have it, this hospital had windows in practically every room and spaced out throughout each hallway. And with today being a nice, sunny afternoon, a rarity by this time of year, several of those windows had been opened up.

All Emil had to do was gather the memory orbs and half-soul in his arms, and then just carry them out and away. As he thought through this idea, he felt a little embarrassed about how simple of a solution it was. Emil had allowed himself to get carried away with the need for a stealthy plan that didn’t arouse suspicion. He had treated it as though he were still a living person trying to sneak out with contraband. Rather than as a ghost who didn’t need to fear what other people thought or did, for the obvious reason of them not being able to do much to the already dead.

He partially blamed it on the initial panic of realizing he had died, and the fact that Captain Maynard had sought to take his things from the hospital storage. But at the very least, if people did wonder how his possessions disappeared, it would be Maynard that they questioned. So he supposed that would make things just a bit easier for his future self. With that small bit of personal reassurance, Emil went into action.

He gathered up everything of true importance between his arms. Which really only amounted to the mayor’s half-soul and the memory orbs. The rest of his more material possessions that had been on him upon death were left behind inside the container. He would need to possess someone to actually be able to carry those. But he figured that there wasn’t a point. After all, it wasn’t like he was going to need any of it now.

Emil then made sure to check if there was anyone currently in the hallway. Even if they couldn’t see him, they would be able to see the things he was carrying. He personally didn’t really want to make someone freak out or think they were seeing things. The workers that had already interacted with these deathly objects of his had been negatively impacted. So now, he just wanted to minimize further damage. From there, he left the container and the still asleep Captain Maynard behind in the room.

For Emil, the rest of as easy and simple as it could really get. As he had expected, it didn’t take him long to find an open window. And once outside, it would become much easier to get to his camp. Where he could then drop off what he was holding, check on Theo personally, and be able to from there.

“Hmm. I could just run and try to avoid any people along the way,” he began to think aloud. “Camp should more or less be outside the town, opposite from here. It would be faster to cut straight through. As a spirit, it’s not like I’ll get tired if I maintain a full sprint. I mean, that better be how that works.” Emil would feel more than a little cheated if being a ghost couldn’t at least give him that much.

He hadn’t felt any physical drain from running through the hospital to reach the storage unit. So at least he could tell that much about it, even if it wasn’t a long run. However, to avoid being spotted by anyone, it would be safer to go around the perimeter. That was, of course, if he simply went on foot. But as a ghost, shouldn’t he be able to fly? The ghost of the little girl, Sarah, had already been floating in the air when Emil had met her. So how hard could it be?

Emil figured that it was at least worth a try. Ideally, he’d like to be able to take to the sky. If he could just high enough up, then nobody would be able to see the orbs seemingly moving on their own. There was also the question of whether he could fly faster than if he just chose to run. But one thing at a time.

“Alrighty, flying. I guess I could just jump and…” Emil muttered to himself as he bent his knees, and leaped vertically into the air. He closed his eyes as his feet left the ground, trying to will his ghostly body into staying afloat.

A few seconds passed, and to his own surprise, he successfully had yet to hit the ground. Emil opened his eyes back up. He was definitely still in the air, but there was a slight problem. He was still going higher, with no sign of slowing down or stopping. Emil focused on stopping. He imagined that the inertia carrying his form would simply cease. And his body responded, immediately stopping in place.

“Well then, that was easier than I expected. Honestly, kinda figured that would be more of a challenge.” But on the other hand, he was glad about how smoothly that had gone.

Emil then began to test his movement, willing himself to go in different directions at varying speeds. His arms and legs remained still, as it was pure thought that gave him motion. He wondered if he had technically been doing this the whole time. When he was walking on the ground, he did it with the same movements as a living person. But at the same time, he could say he had also been willing himself to move in that way.

But now he could fly. He did feel that there was a max speed to it, however. With nothing around as a direct reference, he couldn’t quite say for sure how fast that cap was. But he was sure that it would definitely be quicker than if he had sprinted. Emil then returned to ground level to grab his things.

With that, he went high into the air, where nobody in the town below would be able to easily spot what he carried. Once he believed he had gone far enough, he willed his body forward in the direction of his camp. As he moved, he began to count. He had estimated that if he took possession of a living person, it would have taken him about an hour to reach it if he moved quickly in their body. So by keeping track of how long it would now take him to get there, he would have a decent estimate of what his max flying speed was.

It took him just under twenty minutes. Or to be more specific, nineteen minutes and thirty-one seconds. That’s how long Emil had been flying for when he began his descent down toward the camp. As he got closer, he was thankful to see that it seemed untouched since he had left it. When the captain had sent a search party to hunt down Theo, he had been worried that someone might stumble across the camp even with his things relatively well hidden. But that worry was dashed as he reached the ground.

From the dirt, something began to stir. Theo unburied itself and began to spin around. It paused for a moment when it faced in his direction. It stared at the memory orbs and soul that he carried, but didn’t seem to actually see Emil himself. Seemingly confused, it then continued to look around. Emil could feel that the connection between them was still murky, but it could definitely sense his presence. But why was that connection like that?

It was a bond forged through the powers of undeath. So even without access to Mana as a ghost, that shouldn’t have mattered. In the hospital, it could be fairly assumed that it could have been due to the distance between him and the undead. But here he was, standing close by, and it still felt like there was a veil of fog that kept Theo and him separate. One that was just blurry enough to allow for the sensing of each other’s presence, but nothing more than that.

Emil’s spectral brow furrowed in frustration. He just had to go and get himself killed, didn’t he? And now he couldn’t even properly communicate with his own undead and didn’t understand why. He placed what he was carrying onto the ground, and approached the large insect. Emil placed a hand on Theo’s shell, and focused on trying to reach for its thoughts with his own. He stood like that for some time, but to no avail.

Nothing. He had truly felt nothing. Not even a sliver of his will could get through. Angrily, he made another attempt, this time putting his all into it. But instead of piercing through the barrier, the misty veil only seemed to stiffen up. Emil’s will slammed it into, and felt what was like a jolt go though his ghostly form.

As then expected, the golems were the exact same way. Emil had hoped that by being at least close enough or in direct contact, he could still command his creations. But it seemed like without a body acting as an anchor, he truly couldn’t even reach out to beings made with the power of death. Emil would never have thought of it that way.

If they had been constructs made from Mana, he could understand it. But they were fueled by death energy, and Theo at least had been directly touched by Emil’s soul before. So why was it that, as only a soul, he failed to interact with it now? In the face of this brick wall, he wasn’t sure what he could do. He looked up toward the sky, and bit back a scream. Emil closed his eyes, and tried to get himself to calm back down and think.