The faces of the four cultists looked like masks of rotting wax. Mostly due to the flickering, sickly green light of the brazier.

  Jack was observing them. Hovering near the ceiling in his invisible specter form. Watching the scene with the suppressed curiosity of a hunter observing his prey.

  Rune floated beside his shoulder. Her almost invisible wisp form was a dim, pulsing violet. A silent signal of moderate caution that only Jack could perceive.

  Cole Kane, the museum curator, looked around at his three companions. His face was twisted into a scowl of pure resentment.

  "The plan failed." He spat. The word 'failed' seemed like bitter poison coming out of his mouth. "The damned Trinity Churches... They all moved at once. They didn't just stumble onto the statue. They knew exactly where it was. They had seals ready. Someone leaked the information."

  The pale florist with the tight bun crossed her arms. "Impossible. We were careful. Even the transport was disguised as a donation from a dead Earl's estate."

  The heavy-set lawyer grunted. His thick beard was twitching. "Careful might not be enough when the Royal Faction is tightening the noose. The other factions are very vigilant right now. Now what? The statue must now be sitting in a sanctified vault?"

  The old gravestone carver tapped his cane rhythmically on the stone floor. "It's worse than that." He wheezed.

  With an ugly expression he explained. "I've checked the place beneath the Noble Cemetery. The Undead Legion... the vanguard we've been cultivating for months... it’s gone. Obliterated very likely. Nothing left but scorched stones and residual divine energy."

  Jack raised his eyebrows behind his mask. The Undead Legion? He remembered it. Another case tipped by the twins. The missing corpses case. He and Reina had assaulted the unholy creature. Mostly relying on holy bullets and grenades. Imbued with holy water from the Church of Prosperity.

  "The Legion is gone?" The florist's voice went up an octave. "That was our insurance! I've spent most of my savings for setting the location."

  "Divine energy? It's the damned churches again." Cole Kane cursed. His eyes narrowed as he stared into the green fire. "And if we don't act now, we won't just lose our status in the Undeath Sect. We'll lose our heads."

  "We should take it back." The florist proposed. Her eyes were gleaming with a desperate, manic light. "The statue. It should be in the Prosperity Cathedral's vault. If we sneak there tonight, we might be able to break the seals before the priests fully anchor them."

  She took a quick breath and continued. "The person in the statue is a demonized beast. Once he's awake, he'll turn the Cathedral into a slaughterhouse. It should guarantee our safety."

  "Suicide!" The lawyer barked. "The churches are on high alert. We'd be dead before we touched the vault's door."

  Jack agreed. The florist was an idiot. If she tried to break into the Cathedral now, the only thing she’d be 'stealing' was a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

  Cole Kane held up a hand. Silencing them. The green fire in the brazier flared, casting a shadow behind him that looked far larger and more jagged than a human man.

  "She is right about one thing. We need to act." He said. "But she's wrong about the method. We don't have capability for a heist. We need something more… deadly. We need to resort to the third alternative."

  The old carver stiffened. "The Summoning? Cole, we have discussed this. To bring a Death Emissary into this plane requires a bridge of high-tier transcendent energy. We don't have enough ritual components. We haven't prepared the sacrifices.”

  "We have everything we need right here." Cole Kane said calmly. "The brazier is an anchor. I've fed it with the blood of the innocent for weeks. It just needs a final spark of transcendent energy of undeath to open the gate."

  He looked at the three of them. His expression was grim yet determined. "If we pool our power, all four of us, we can force the Emissary through. You know its power. It will tear through this city like a plague. Getting stronger and stronger with each death."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The lawyer hesitated, then nodded. The florist and the old carver followed suit. They were desperate. And desperation made people stupid. They stepped forward. Surrounding the blackened bronze brazier.

  "Place your hands on the rim." The curator instructed. "Connect your channels. Don't hold back. If the flow isn't strong enough, it might backfire."

  The three Eldritch Warlocks reached out. Their fingers hovered over the screaming faces etched into the metal. As their hands made contact, a surge of dark, necrotic energy began to hum.

  "Now!" Cole Kane shouted.

  The green flame roared. Turning into a swirling vortex of neon sickness.

  Jack watched. His spectral eyes narrowed. He sensed the shift in the air. He prepared to interfere. Using his [Mysterious Anomaly] to...

  But as the three warlocks poured their mana into the brazier, Cole Kane didn't join them. Instead, he retracted his hands. His fingers weaved a complex, jagged sign in the air.

  "Dominoculo Moritelea... Nexali Viniculamo!" The curator roared strange incantation.

  A crackle of black lightning erupted from the brazier. It didn't reach out for some distant entity. It surged directly into the hands of the three warlocks.

  The three transcendent beings' eyes went wide. They tried to pull away. But their flesh was fused to the bronze.

  "Cole!" The lawyer screamed. "What the hell are you doing?! Bastard!"

  "You are the sacrifices!" Cole Kane's voice didn't sound human any longer. It was layered with a dozen different whispers. "The Sect doesn't need failures. It needs a vessel. Your lives, your mana, your very souls... they are the fuel for my ascension!"

  The scene was brutal. The green fire turned into a hungry maw. Literally pulling the life essence out of the three cultists.

  Dark, spectral ribbons of smoke, presumably their corrupted souls, were yanked from their screaming mouths and nostrils. Their bodies withered in seconds, turning into dry husks that crumbled into grey ash.

  The brazier exploded in a shockwave of necrotic force.

  Jack stayed firm. His invisible spectral form was shivering but holding. He summoned his spectral grimoire. Invisible, like he was. He wanted to interfere, but it was in the middle of an unknown ritual. He was afraid he would make the situation worse by interfering.

  The dark, soul-like energy from the three warlocks didn't dissipate. It fused with the blazing greenish fire from the brazier. The mixed energy hovered in the air for a heartbeat before slamming into Cole Kane.

  But, his body didn't burn. Or get damaged at all. Instead, it changed. His skin turned pale. The color of a week-old corpse, stretching taut over bones that began to grow and mutate.

  His fingernails elongated into jagged black talons. His eyes turned completely red. Weeping black ichor. He grew in height. His clothes were torn as his muscles humped into grotesque, corded knots.

  He was no longer Cole Kane. Jack's [Eyes of Judgement] identified him as the Death Emissary... a jagged, rotting undead nightmare that smelled of the grave.

  The creature let out a guttural, dry roar that shook the chamber walls. It turned its eyes upward. Sensing something.

  "Alright! That’s enough of the horror show." Jack's voice rang out. Cold and sardonic.

  He had to act now. At present, the creature was at about the same stage of power with him. But, he heard what Cole Kane said. It would get stronger and stronger with others' death. He couldn't let it happen.

  He dropped his invisibility. Appearing as a floating, masked figure in a spectral top hat, suit, and a cape. Holding a spectral torch and a spectral grimoire. Exuding an aura of mystery that was far more unfathomable than the creature.

  The Emissary lunged to attack. Its speed blurred the air. It seemed like it was a creature of pure killing instinct.

  "Rude!" Jack muttered. "Wards!"

  In an instant, three shimmering, translucent circles of geometric energy snapped into existence between Jack and the creature. It was his newly modified spells, the [Layered Wards].

  The Emissary's talons slammed into the first and second layer. Shattering them like glass. But they deflected the talons. The third held firm.

  Jack didn't wait for the next strike. He waved his [Spirit Torch]. It flickered with purple sparks. He activated another one of his modified spells... multiple instances of [Mind Piercing Missiles].

  Seven tiny bullets of jagged, violet energy around the specter. And flashed in various trajectories. They homed in on its head. And struck it repeatedly.

  They didn't damage the flesh much. But they weren't designed for that. They were modified to shred the consciousness driving it.

  The Emissary shrieked. Its red eyes rolled back as the mental assault scrambled its mind. It recoiled. Clutching its head.

  "Got you!" Jack said. He pointed his other hand at the floor. Activating [Vine Entanglement].

  The stone floor beneath the Emissary cracked. Thick, ethereal vines erupted from the ground. Glowing and being covered in spectral thorns. They lashed around the creature's legs and torso. Binding it to the spot.

  The Emissary roared. Pulling against the restraints. Its immense strength caused the spectral vines to groan and fray. About to break.

  "Eyes on me, Ugly Dude!" Jack commanded. Overlying his words with simple [Vicious Taunt] cantrip.

  Enraged, the Death Emissary looked at Jack. The specter grinned behind his mask and activated [Blinding Flash].

  A burst of light exploded directly in front of the Emissary. It was so white and intense that it seemed to hollow out the shadows of the room.

  The creature couldn't handle the sensory overload. It howled again in pain. The blast of light temporarily seared its retinas and disrupted its struggle.

  But the battle wasn't over...