In all honesty I wasn't prepared..

*****

“We are very grateful for your help and apologize deeply for any misunderstand this entire ordeal may have caused.

If you just follow me through here the children are being safeguarded by the Old Master and Mistress.

As these are their only grandchildren they have been doing all they can to preserve the children's condition.

Well, it's Better if you just see for yourself..”

Immediately after the chaos subsided we had no time for pleasantries, I told them to bring me to the children with haste.

The current Lord of the city Empress of Storms, Viscountess Rose of house Stormcaster was leading the way while Steward Ronaldo was giving bits and pieces of information while also mixing in apologies and thanks as we walked along.

When she calmed and realized I was here to help the children Lady Rose with the shake of her wrist made a jar with an indigo liquid appear in her hand, “Drink” was all she said as she started marching towards the door.

“Please excuse our Miss, this is a very trying time for her, this family has dwindled and their numbers are scarce, we do all that we can for the bloodline. I'm sure you can understand wanting to build your bloodline and nobility up. I hope you found the mana potion convenient!”

When talking about bloodline and nobility the steward looked back and gave me a once over. It's hard to say what he might have been thinking, but I knew I made a huge blunder revealing myself like that.

If I'd known the castle was going to be destroyed I would have memorized the layout to insure my escape. Hell of a time for [Teleport] not to work.

“After I make it out of here there are a lot of talismans and magick items I want prepared immediately!!”

I couldn't help voicing out quietly my indignation over the injustices I've suffered.

“Oh Young Master Alucard did you say something?”

I'm not sure what kind of species he is but I'm sure everyone in the hallway heard my small complaint. I'm not entirely sure but I think I seen a smirk form on the Viscountess face.

“No do forgive me, I'm just hoping it's not much further, the potion has completely replaced all the magick I'd spent up and I don't want to waste something so precious.

It will surely help supplement the magick needed to help the children. The technique I'll be using, although I have an item that will aid in healing, it hasn't been tested to what degree it will be helpful to yet.

Are you sure there is no need to call in more healers?”

I still haven't been able to fully assess the extent of their condition yet, Ronaldo mentioned the miasma was so thick the two elders were using magick to dispel it. But it seems as fast as they removed it was as fast as it was being produced.

“Don't worry about a trifling thing such as potion of that quality, if you need more during the process i'll force as many down your throat as it takes just be sure to do your part.

He might not look like it but he's been around for a while. Ronaldo your level is around 270 and the level of your healing magick broke into level 28 here recently correct?”

The steward gave a small nod and hum in confirmation to what she said. I was taken aback for a moment by Lady Roses frosty words.

Skills that do not belong to any of your classes or your specific race are much harder to level up, even if you spend extra time practicing. On top of that, the head butler.. I'm sorry the Steward, of the house was at least a D Rank bloodline? With a level close to 300??

I couldn't help wondering if this household had special classes and skills. So this is what a noble is, they have their own ways I guess when it comes to leveling up and keeping their house strong.

After passing through a courtyard overflowing with flora glowing in the light of this worlds three moons, we entered a different wing of the palace and with just a glance I realized the storm didn't even hit this side at all.

Thinking about it, the garden wasn't messy either. Throwing my thoughts to the side, Lady Rose seemed to be hesitating before a double doored room. She didn't hesitate for too long though as she steeled her resolve and flung the doors open and headed inside.

Tragedy..

That's all you could describe it as. Everything in the room had been thrown in corners and against the wall. In the center you could see four people two were sitting so still they seemed to be statues.

I poured magick into my eyes to makes sure I'm taking every bit of this sight in because there was no time to waste.

The too elders sat crossed legged with their fingers holding seal signs, they were emaciated with baggy clothes covering them. In front of the man floated a young boy who seemed to be sleeping in crystallized mana, in front of the women also floated a young girl under the same conditions.

Dozens of apparitions swam in a spiral at the ceiling of the room, they were still connected to the children metaphysically but the aura of magick kept them at a distance.

“It seems they gave up on dispelling the miasma and decided to take it into their bodies on their own.

All four are suffering from either the poison or the spiritual attacks.”

Because of my [Necromancer] class i'm very in tune with spiritual workings, I can even see a person's soul if I wanted to.

“The souls of the children have been damaged beyond natural repair, their condition is nothing similar to what I seen earlier.”

The mother of the children and daughter of the two elders fell to her knees, tears trailed from her eyes staining her face again, she could only punch the ground furiously since she couldn't scream out her grievances given the situation.

Ronaldo also had tears falling from from his eyes, he knew that eventually the elders wouldn't be able to take in anymore miasma and then the children would have to take the full brunt of it all. He turned to me slowly and said.

“I'm sorry for dragging you into this, it seems we've come to late. If you wouldn't mind giving our family some space so we can make our peace..”

He turned back expectantly, there was no doubt in his mind that the Stormcaster house had finally seen its darkest day.

Fortunately enough the one who they met today was me, I try to be careful who i sow karma with but how can I do nothing when I see a family working so earnestly for the ones they love.

“Move to the side there's still time left, I've come all this way and suffered my share of injustices. Are you willing to give up just because the doors a bit hard to open?

I'm going to put my everything into this so you Better not slack off, take this and just keep the healing coming until you see it take effect and then pour every ounce of your soul into making sure every wound is closed up!”

I barked my orders and tossed my [Vitality Essence Orb] to Ronaldo, even if only a little, hopefully the healing aura will have an affect.

I had no time to check to see if my theory was right because lives were one the line! I took out a majority of the souls I had saved up and began refining them into two orbs.

While that was happening in one hand, I brought out the [Pestilence Essence Orb] letting it float in front of me i started directing and refining all the miasma into it.

After 4 minutes the [Soul Essence Orbs] were complete. I figured after removing the impurities and destroying the ego they should have a similar effect to the [Blood/Vitality Essence Orbs] and be able to strengthen the soul of who ever consumed it.

Now that the soul orbs were finished, I made a grasping motion with my hand to try and collect all the tainted spirits possessing the children.

Of course though, things did not play out as simply as this morning. There wasn't even 40 spirits on the three orphan children but yet these two children alone brought home close to 80 tainted spirits.

When I went to make my move to capture them, my magick rebounded and struck me. Although I was flung into a wall, my barriers protected me from physical harm, it was the spiritual attack that had me spitting up blood.

The apparitions began swirling faster and faster soon a single form started to manifest. I quickly shouted out to Lady Rose!

“Hurry fill the room with lightning attribute mana! They're trying to become a something greater! We have to stop it!”

As soon as the words left my lips I could feel the space around me lock down making it impossible for me to use [Teleport] again.

Thankfully the people of the land new the undead are weak against the lightning attribute. It's just unfortunate that this family had no way of repairing the spiritual damage, and removing the spirits and healing the outer wounds is not enough.

And if you remove the spirits without having everything prepared you will only be bringing more harm to the victim potentially putting their life at risk.

The children earlier were lucky, as soon as I removed the spirits the fear effect started to wear off. There was also no permanent damage to their souls.

With the sudden surge of lightning mana the halfway formed [Specter] let out a terrible ghostly wail! A sphere of energy gathered at its mouth and grew larger every moment the light coming from it was blinding, it took aim and fired it at Lady Rose.

Taken by surprise since she was fully focused on controlling the outrageous storm magicks he works everyday to keep bottled up.

Having fought in many wars she figured how could an attack from such low rank undead have any affect on her, especially when she's clad in lightning aura.

What she hadn't taken into consideration is that these spirits have been feeding on the magick of her children and even soaked up a large amount from her parents massive magick pool as they held nothing back to help their grandchildren.

By the time she realized how dangerous the beam was it was already in front of her.

As the blinding light is expected to take her out, suddenly a shadow jumped in the middle.

Once sight returned to everyone Steward Ronaldo was lying on the ground, a bloody hole was gouged into his abdomen. Although it did not pierce all the way through, most of his intestines were shredded into bits…

No longer carrying for the circumstances Lady Rose let out a blood curdling scream..

“RONALDOOOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”