prologue

Steel had conquered the church. What remained was clearing out the spirits that were sealed in the crypts beneath the church. Steel was no exorcist and he was no ghost hunter. He knew not how to save them from eternal damnation and he knew not how to make their passing peace full and so It was the story of when Steel entered the catacombs of a church with a candle in his hands but not a piece of earwax knowledge worth how to do what he came to do.

Past

Steel woke up one morning during the autumn holiday season. Samhain was in full swing and the lands were rowdier than ever. Steel twisted and turned in his bed stretching like a cat as the few rays of sunlight on an autumn morning made their ways through the window. Steel had been staying at the Swineherds pub in Oak. He had no place to live ever since his childhood home burned down; he had only been staying in temporary homes. For example when he was with the Fairy Tail guild he had stayed in their guildhall.

Getting out of bed was the hardest part of every morning but still Steel did. After climbing out of bed he went straight to the bathtub in the corner of the room. It was a large oak tub that when you pulled a chain hot water was pumped into the bath. There was also a lever for getting cold water. This was very advanced technology and Steel was happy that after talking with the barkeeper who kept the place running, having a room with a bathtub where you could call on water from a central pumping station was possible.

Such an accommodation would probably not have been possible anywhere else.

Steel first janked on the hot water chain and hot water came spraying out of a tube that was angled into the tub. When the bath was half full Steel janked on the chain again and hot water stopped coming out. However he could of course not enter a bath with boiling water in it. That would be suicide so he janked the cold water chain and this time cold water came out of another tube that was also angled down into the bathtub. When the tub was nearing being full Steel once again janked the chain and the water stopped flowing out of the tube.

Steel then walked away and got himself a towel that he threw on the bed. He would use it later after he had finished bathing he got out of the bath and walked over to his towel. He then dried himself off and started dressing. He put on clean new underwear, pants, suspenders, socks, and finally a tunic. After that he put on a very strong leather toolbelt from which he hung Mjolnir. He needed the suspenders because otherwise Mjolnir would make his pants drop to the floor due to the hammer being so incredibly heavy. It was not heavy when Steel held it in his hands but when he was not it was definitely heavier than one could suspect.

He then stepped into a pair of boots, put on some gloves and walked out of his room locking it after himself. Then he walked down the stairs into the taverns main hall. Where he greeted the barkeep and one of the barmaids. He had gotten to know these people very closely over the last weeks that he had stayed here.

He asked them what was for breakfast and they very promptly served him some eggs and bacon with bread. To it he got a glass of cold milk as they had learned he did not drink alcohol. Something the barmaid respected but the barkeep scoffed at. “Some people are just different.” the barkeep used to say.

Steel vigorously ate the eggs and bacon that he had been served. Drank the milk and put the piece of bread in his pocket. He would maybe want to eat it later as he had no other way of getting lunch where he was going.

He then left the table and stepped out of the bar.

Present

Steel knew nothing about exorcising things so he would have to find someone who did. He went to the man he had intimidated into following orders. The minister of the Oakland church. Going to church was nothing new for Steel who had been a follower of Illumin for his entire life but going there in the position he was now was kind of weird.

He talked with the minister but even though the minister was the leader of the community church he had no clue how to actually exorcise ghosts. He was just a scam artist that used the church to control the followers of Illumin. Something Steel would usually have spat at but now he was using this man. He could not get rid of him in any way.

So Steel left the church. He needed to return there later to get rid of the ghosts but for now he needed to find a wise person that could teach him a thing or two about getting rid of ghosts.
He walked around town asking about it until finally he was told he could go and talk to the old hag who lived just outside of the city walls.
And so it was that Steel found himself outside of the city walls. He looked for the old hag and when he found her he would ask her if she would teach him. She answered that she would but that it would be a grueling task. Training montage ensues.

Training montage

Steel ran up and down the stairs among other physical tasks. He also had to read books on exorcism and the old hag also showed him a few tricks. Many times he just stood around chanting at a spirit the old hag had summoned until he was so tired from using his own spiritual energy that he almost fell asleep. And the times he did fall asleep he found himself waking up with a warm blanket over himself. The old hag of course also used Steel for their own purposes.

Steel had to help them with cutting firewood and gathering herbs and more things that the old hag needed to keep her livelihood. In return she taught him the arts of exorcism and the many ways it could be included into other things in life and not just exorcism itself.

But as much as he worked on it Steel only got to a certain point. You see Steel had already been corrupted by the ruinous powers and so he was more apt at learning evil magic rather than good. His tries at exorcism only made the spirits rowdier and the ones that he finally was capable of destroying would destroy the surroundings around themselves before leaving this world.

After a while even the hag was tired of Steel’s futile attempts at truly learning exorcism and she threw him out. Thanking him for the things he had done for her but also shutting the door in his face.

It seemed he was on his own.

Exorcising the wrong way is still a way.

Steel walked back to the church. He had tried his best to learn how to exorcise the creatures of the dead but had only learnt how to make them explode. So he made his way into the dungeons below the Oakland church taking step after step down a long circular stairway until he had reached the bottom at which point he lit a torch and looked around. It sure was a catacomb. The walls were covered by the skulls and bones of the dead. In many places the ground was covered in bones broken from people walking on them. Steel understood immediately that the problem here was actually one for a cleaning lady but that was not why he had come here. He was going to save the town.

Seeing the first ghost pass by he instantly started chanting foul words at it whilst pushing his mana into it. He did not exorcise the ghost. The overcharge of mana inside of the ghost made it promptly explode. Ectoplasm scattered everywhere. This was going to make things messy. Steel noticed all the ghosts become much more active and started to throw things around. It was as if they all turned into poltergeists the moment he exploded the first.

He kept going exploding ghost after ghost after ghost. And some time later he had exploded every possible ghost he could find. But he knew that this was just the beginning. He would have to come back here and explode more ghosts at a later time.

And so Steel left the church knowing he had made all the ghosts that survived even angrier and even more dangerous than before he had come there. You could say he had made things worse but at the same time he had also done what was asked of him. He had removed or destroyed ghosts.

-Exit-