There is Power in Death

Chapter 5

"You mean to tell me that a spirit wailed while getting reaped? That's impossible! It hasn't happened in several thousand years!" Mr. Silvia exclaims while worriedly pacing around his office.

"Wait, so this has happened before? You told me that it couldn't happen. Please explain," Talan seems just as worried as Mr. Silvia.

"Yes, please do. I've only been here a day and haven't been told much, so I don't have the slightest clue about what's going on," I felt excluded from the conversation.

As soon as we got to HQ, Talan had raced to Mr. Silvia's office and explained everything that had happened. 

"You might have to sit down for this. It's a very long story."

Talan and I sit down in the two empty chairs. Mr. Silvia sits on his desk and begins the story.

"It happened about four thousand years ago. I had just became an apprentice to a man named Cyrus. After I was promoted Cyrus became the CEO's assistant. We were still close friends, but one day we were told to go reap a demon's soul. A demon is a very specific type of soul. When the human died, they weren't able to interact with anything. No other spirits could see them. They started to go insane and their human shape changed to a dark blob. The living were able to see that form and as soon as the spirit noticed, they began causing havoc. Spirits were also beginning to be affected and were being seen by all living. This proved to be a bad thing as the living didn't have a clue what was going on."

"Cyrus and I went to the small island where the chaos was happening and were astonished when we got there. The entirety of the town was in ruins. All the citizens were hiding under whatever they could and the spirits were following the demon. They did whatever the demon did. We could tell why the CEO told us both to deal with it. As soon as the demon noticed us it began to approach with the other spirits following in pursuit. The demon began to attack us and it was powerful. We fought back but it was too much. We were down in five minutes until we saw another Phanter come in. The one that came in was only recently promoted."

"Up until that moment, all the spirits, including the demon, had been completely silent. As soon as the Phanter hit them, it sent a wave of power through the island as they all wailed before dissipating. Her blast was powerful enough to reap all the spirits, and send the demon flying back. This was something that had never happened, and that even Cyrus didn't know about. We thought that we were the most powerful Phanters, besides the CEO, which was why we were the ones told to reap the demon. This girl had already knocked it out when she told us to reap it. We were too scared not to listen to her, so we reaped it. She later told us that she couldn't reap demons, but could easily knock out anything as strong as, or stronger than that one. Apparently that was the weakest one she had fought in a while. She never told us her name, but later quit for unknown reasons. We theorized as to why she quit until a few decades later when Talan was recruited."

Talan shrunk down in his seat as soon as Mr. Silvia mentioned his name. I could tell that he wanted to leave but he didn't.

"Talan was a very special case. It turns out the girl was his ancestor, everyone could sense that. For this reason everyone avoided him. The higher- ups decided it was best not to tell him why. He went through his apprenticeship like normal, but after he was promoted he became more powerful, almost as powerful as the girl. The difference was the fact that Talan took longer to get used to everything. His apprenticeship had been half a year longer than it normally would have. He couldn't reap souls properly with with his scythe for an unknown reason. His magic didn't come as easily. He did gradually get more powerful but when he became a fully fledged Phanter he started getting tired of people ignoring and looking down on him. He had a fit. A huge one. His magic knocked everyone out. When people started waking up they were in some sort of trance and began wandering around mindlessly as if they were spirits. The only ones that weren't affected were the CEO, Cyrus, and Talan himself. They made Talan get them out of the trance, but had to restrain him not long after. Cyrus quit after that. It was too much for him to take in and he had felt like he redeemed himself. When he quit, I was promoted to CEO, and the CEO at the time wanted to quit too. I released Talan after a week of being locked up. He was different. He started to realize just how afraid of him everyone was. He avoided them as much as possible and stayed in his room when he was off duty. I thought of telling him about his ancestor until you died. He needed someone to talk to that didn't know about him. Your timing was great because Talan was starting to give up. That's the end of the story. I would say that once you're done your apprenticeship, you'll be as powerful as Talan."

"Does this that I'm related to Talan? Because it seems like I have that same powers as his ancestor."

"No. I don't sense the same bloodline at all. You are most certainly not related to Talan."

Thank goodness. I look over at Talan to see his face. He looks way more surprised than I am. He doesn't say a word as he waves goodbye to Mr. Silvia and nods me over. I say my goodbye to him and follow Talan. We stop at his room and walk in. He gets me to sit down in his living room as he starts making tea.

"So, you know what I did now. I completely understand if you resign as being my apprentice."

"Are you kidding? I know I've only been here for a day, but I think what you did was insanely cool. I'm happy that you're my mentor. I'm going to stay your apprentice whether you like it or not."

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