Heaven's Darkness (Book 2)

Chapter 18 - Red

 When Quint said he had a plan, I wasn't really expecting it to sound crazy.

Oh, boy, was I wrong.

"We're going to do exactly as the threat did," he had said. "We're going to get our guild members out of here."

I had blinked at him in confusion. "What?"

"We're going to bring our guildmates back to life. All of them."

My eyes followed my pacing friend back and forth. "W-what? How do you think-?"

Quint suddenly stopped so that he levitated right before me. "I need your mind. You must enter the minds, the souls of these spirits and command them to follow me. I'll use my magic to sever whatever bonds may be holding them to the heart."

I clutched my orange hair, not sure how that could ever work. "Won't this destroy a realm or something?"

When I got a shrug in response, I almost fainted.

"I'm not sure, but our entire guild is down here, dead. We have to try something. If one man could take one spirit out of here, then we could take our entire guild out of here."

I looked at my friend in horror. "I don't think that's how it works, buddy."

"Just command our guild spirits to follow me!" Quint called, running away over the cloudy ground, through the crowd of milling, shining spirits.

I rubbed a clammy hand over my face in an attempt to clear my mind of all of its confusion. I stepped before Master Caelestis' spirit, who stood right before me, and reached out a hand to his translucent forehead. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to enter the mind of a spirit, or if they had minds, but I decided to try whatever I could to convince them to be brought back to life.

I couldn't believe our entire guild was dead.

"Woah!" I shouted, surprised at how much magic power exploded from my hand to Master's spirit. The body before me shook for a moment, as if electrocuted, before turning around and heading in Quint's direction, closer to the radiant, portal-like gateway.

I stared down at my hands in awe. I had no idea that my magic would be effective on spirits, too. At least, not in this way. I thought I would be valuable when fighting the threat, being able to enter the mind of an alive person or being, but I had no idea I could manipulate disembodied forms of people.

Now, I had other members to save.

Sprinting around as fast as I could, I found the spirits of Sano, Hubris, Drake, Max, and Nama, sending them all in Quint's direction. I wasn't sure how many of our members were down here, but I was determined to sweep every inch of the place if it meant rescuing my family from their deaths.

There was Virdigo and Zero, both looking as beautiful as ever, even though they were mindless, translucent beings milling about absently. I sent them Quint's way as fast as I could. Seeing them in that condition did not sit well with me.

My magic was draining pretty quickly. I hadn't realized it when I cast the spell on Master, but I was expelling a lot of magic energy with each spirit I commanded. My running was slowing down pretty significantly, my breath hitching, but I pressed forward.

There was Yura, all by herself. It was kind of weird seeing her without Zeke and Jesse by her side, but I didn't get to see her too often anyway, considering how often those three quested together. I sent her to Quint with the last remaining magical power I could muster. I was just shy of empty at this point.

Seeing as I had swept the premises pretty thoroughly, I decided to turn back and head over to Quint. When I spun around, though, a spirit stood in my way.