So now he was cleaning up after Phantom Lord huh? Typical. Even now, years after they were destroyed by Fairy Tail and left in ruin, they were still causing trouble. From what he had been told, apparently they had sealed away some spirits beneath the local church, and over time the spirits had managed to seep out and started causing some panic. He personally didn’t think it was all that big of a deal, seeing as most of the spirits seemed to just cause a little mischief, but a job was a job. And his was to find a way to rid the catacombs beneath the church of their presence.


It was entirely up to him how he went about this task, to either destroy, or save. Of course, there was another option, but he knew that one would end up causing him more trouble than it was worth for now. Setting the spirits free and allowing them to move on would obviously be the most peaceful route, but he had no doubt that option would likely take the longest, and he was a bit pressed for time. So he simply settled for purging the spirits beneath the church. Fortunately, spirits were inherently weak to magic, and even his simplest of spells would be sufficient for ridding the area of their presence.


A few hours after getting the request, he found himself at the foot of the church. The priest of the church greeted him and then led him to the entrance to the basement. Once there he unlocked the doors then gave Mikajia what he assumed was some kind of blessing as he started down the steps. Mikajia walked for what felt like minutes before finally reaching the bottom of the steps. He walked out into a large room with a domed ceiling, grave niches lining the walls all around him.


WC = 312/1,500

It only took a moment; mere seconds after taking the first step in the room, he could see ghostly figures rising from the bones of the dead in the niches. Pale specters seeping through the walls and up through the floor. The number of spirits vastly surpassed the amount the quest had mentioned, but that didn’t matter to him, not a single one of them seemed to possess any type of foreboding presence. As far as he could tell, it would be a simple matter to purge this place, it would simply take a bit longer than anticipated.


From what he could gather from their presence, most of these spirits were benevolent, simply seeking to have their last desires granted so they could move on. But that would be far too tedious and time consuming for him. It was plenty easy for him to summon his chain and tear through several spirits, purging them and sending them on to the next life. His actions seemed to anger many of the spirits within the area, sending dozens of ghostly apparitions his way in an to attempt to deal with him.


However, it didn’t matter how many tried to stop him, unless they were some kind of vengeful, evil spirit that could make itself corporeal, any and all of their attempts would be relatively useless and laughable. All Mikajia simply needed to do was whip his chain around himself to disperse several spirits in one go. Then just repeat. He was beginning to think he had overestimated how long this task would take and had given the spirits too much credit, but that’s when he heard the first grumblings from much deeper within the catacombs. It sounded like some kind of grotesque mutated mutt. Moments later, he would see that his assumption was correct.


WC = 614/1,500

From the main room, multiple hallways spread in every cardinal direction, each hallway opening to another room similar to the one he was standing in now, but on a smaller scale. And from each of those smaller rooms, two more hallways spread out, connecting to one long hallway circling around the entire catacomb beneath the cathedral. The setup wasn’t too complicated, but it was vast. From what he figured, the main room was roughly two-thousand square feet. Each of the smaller rooms appeared to be just over half the size of the main room, making them a little over a thousand square feet.


Each of the hallways spanned about two hundred feet, which meant the catacomb beneath this cathedral was absolutely immense, and covering the whole expanse alone would take considerable time. Add to that the more difficult and vengeful spirits were showing themselves to be much greater in number than first predicted by the priest, this was turning out to be much more….fun, than first predicted. He was beginning to think this job was going to be so utterly dull that he might have actually taken a nap in hope of something more interesting than the dull spirits simply getting a little angry at him.


Now that the big boys were showing themselves though, he was pumped up. He could feel the smiling spreading across his face, his eyes glowing with excitement, hands tightening around his chains as he heard the beasts clambering towards him. “Bring it on.” He said as his look darkened even more; a wicked grin spreading wider across his face as soon as he caught the first glimpse of his next opponents. These creatures appeared to be ghouls; corporeal spirits, that were typically formed out of a vengeful spirit’s desire for blood, destruction, and death.


WC = 914/1,500

At least, that was one of the theories. As with pretty much anything spiritual, there were countless theories and myths, and a myriad of interpretations for each, the world over. He was far from an expert on how these creatures came to be, but that didn’t matter to him. What mattered right now was his capability to deal with these beasts, and fortunately he already knew how to do that. All it would take was a bit more effort than the spirits he’d been dealing with so far required, but only marginally so. Though they possessed physical forms, they were still relatively fragile.


However, if ghouls were here, then it was a safe bet that he would run into at least a few other stronger types of corporeal creatures. Or at least, he hoped so. It wasn’t uncommon that if you encountered ghouls, that you would also encounter creatures like Banshees, the occasional dark fairy, and in some extreme cases, or unfortunate, depending on your outlook and abilities, a demon or two. He highly doubted he would encounter demons of any kind however, seeing as this was a catacomb beneath a cathedral. And as a general rule of thumb, these were considered holy grounds, which meant that demons would not be able to set foot in these places.


Mikajia was honestly a little grateful for that bit of knowledge. Though he was excited at the prospect of a challenge, he knew he was still a bit too weak to take on a full-fledged demon. He still needed a great deal of training and strength to take on a challenge like that. But he certainly didn’t shy away from it, he wanted that challenge. To face such a fearsome creature, and come out victorious would be a massive milestone for him. He was getting excited just over the mere prospect. And this was just another step for him.


WC = 1,231/1,500

Mikajia faced the oncoming wave of ghouls and spirits, his eyes glowing with predatorial excitement. It had been far too long since he’d been able to let loose on anything. And though these creatures didn’t necessarily require his full strength and power, he decided to go full throttle anyways. He gripped the chains tight, jumped into the air and began battering and ripping through every single creature and spirit he could see or sense. Every lash of his chains left small craters or gouges in the walls or ceiling and insured no less than several creatures were wiped from existence.


It went on like this for almost an hour, and by that time, Mikajia had thoroughly checked and purged every square inch of the catacomb beneath the cathedral. His clothes were somewhat torn and disheveled from his battles, grime and muck from the ghouls coating at least eighty percent of his body. His excitement had flowed away with the purging of the last spirit in the catacomb, leaving him with a simple look of a confident victor as he ascended the steps back up to the door that led down to the catacomb.


After exiting, he encountered the very surprised and seemingly fearful priest. When he informed the priest he had completely purged the entire place, and informed him the grime and muck was left over from all the ghouls he had slain, the priest quickly handed over the jewels and thanked him for his service. The man then practically ran from Mikajia, heading back into the cathedral. Mikajia simply shrugged the man’s reaction off, then made his way back to his loft, ignoring all the wide blinking eyes of the passerby as he strolled down the sidewalk. Mikajia even gave a little smirk to the gasps of a few young couples. He had no doubt that he appeared rather unnerving to more than a few people right now. And not only did he not care, but it also gave him a small bit of pleasure.


Once back in his loft, he quickly stripped off his clothes then hopped in the shower, soaking in the deliciously warm water, letting it wash away all the disgusting grime and muck. Before he settled down for the night, he absently wondered if he would ever have the pleasure of dealing with the catacomb again.


WC = 1,622/1,500