Chapter 926 Ghost City
"We'll see if we can capture or kill a ghost. Rachel, I want you to read its soul to see if you can get a grasp on where the survivors are ok?" Shiro ordered as Rachel was the one that owned the soul reading ability.
"Understood." Rachel nodded her head with a serious expression.
"Good. Lyrica, you and Mordrak will be taking vanguard while the rest will be covering our backs since we're not familiar with this place. I'll be in the centre so that I can cover whichever area we're being attacked from. Indri and Kasper will be in the centre with me." Shiro continued as Mordrak was the one who impressed her with his attack power. With both Lyrica and Mordrak acting as vanguard, they should be able to deal with most of the monsters that appear in front of them.
Indri was the one that could give ghosts orders and Kasper could hide their presence.
Moving through the city, Shiro made sure to scan the area whenever she could to make sure that ghosts wouldn't ambush them.
Of course, when ghosts arrive, she'll leave most of the combat to them so that they can get a bit of exp themselves. For a level 600 like her, the exp from level 300's was miniscule.
"One's arriving in 10 seconds, Mordrak you're closer to it." Shiro called out with a smile as they were dashing through the alleys.
"Got it." Mordrak nodded his head as he slammed his knuckles together.
*BANG!!!
Golden fire exploded out as his arms were covered in flames.
Narrowing his eyes, he grabbed the ghost's head the moment it appeared. Without even giving it a chance to scream, he slammed his head against the ground before coating his foot in flames and stomping down on the neck.
Ripping off the head, the ghost was killed instantly.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled since a low level ghost like this stood no chance against Mordrak.
For a person that could do some decent damage to the ancient terror, he would probably be fine even against a level 500 ghost.
The main thing with ghosts is that while they're powerful and have strong defences against physical attacks, if one used skills that targeted ghosts specifically, they could be dealt with easily.
But in Lyrica's case, she didn't have any skills that targeted the souls so she should be theoretically struggling.
However, her powers with fire were helping her cut through them with ease.
Whenever a ghost appeared, it would be cut in half.
The four attackers that were placed at the back could only watch the two killing ghosts with ease while they had to struggle a little since their firepower wasn't enough for them to end them in one hit.
"Are you able to find anything from their memories?" Shiro asked as Rachel had been trying to read their memories to find out where the survivors are being kept.
"Not yet. All of them have been able to sense humans and some demi humans within the city but the exact locations haven't been found. On a more alarming note, they're all being ordered by what seems to be higher ranked ghosts that are also taking orders." Rachel replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Hmm… that's a bit concerning. There might be something similar to a Queen ranked entity in this city. But since there is no anchor here, they might just be scouting things out. Keep an eye out for things and make sure you stay close to each other." Shiro ordered as they nodded their heads.
As they progressed deeper into the city, the miasma started to thicken and Shiro had to make gas masks for everyone in order to filter out the poison in the air. This poison would cause one to hallucinate the longer they stayed in it so for a scouting mission, it would have been quite disruptive.
Of course, Shiro was able to travel without a mask thanks to her ridiculously high resistance to poison and negative effects.
After a certain point, they could no longer see the sky anymore as the sun was completely blocked out, making it seem like it's night even though it was early in the day. All of the lights would flicker on and off while the store signs did the same.
Ghastly howls would be heard and cold winds would brush past them.
During this trip, Shiro had been trying to sense where the survivors were but similar to what happened with the ghosts, her senses told her that humans were here but the location was hidden.
'Maybe they have something that wards off the senses.' Shiro thought to herself since it would help them in a place like this.
Continuing through the city, they killed any low level ghosts that they came across and read its memories. They were able to avoid large areas filled with high level ghosts since finding survivors were their main goal. Everything else was secondary.
Sending out a web of nanobots through the ground once more, Shiro tried to sense where the humans are but the result was the same. Nothing.
"I think we'll go for another hour or so before heading back. We'll try a different entrance next time." Shiro called out. Tokyo was quite big so finding survivors was never going to be easy. The best they could do now was just to persevere.
As they continued for another hour, Rachel managed to recover shocking news from one of the souls. Apparently, there would be waves of humans appearing around the city. If they were cornered, one would be sacrificed for the others to live. The one that is sacrificed will be used as bait.
Hearing this, Shiro decided to continue the scouting since she wanted to find out a rough estimation of where the humans appear. If they could guess the location or the area of activity, they would be able to pin them down and find them.
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Taking a deep breath, I tried to suppress the shivering of my body while looking out into the streets. Every time we did a supply run, one or two of us would always be sacrificed and we never knew who was going to be the next one.
After Tokyo changed and ghosts started to appear, we were forced underground in order to survive and one of the exorcists managed to set up a formation that prevents the ghosts from sensing us. It helped us establish a safe sanctuary but it also worked as a tool of manipulation for the exorcists that realised they were now the top of the hierarchy.
Beautiful girls would be taken by the male exorcists while handsome males would be taken by the female.
Of course, we could try to revolt but doing so meant the barrier would be gone. None of us are able to fight the ghosts so it was suicide. The exorcists were fine since they could fight the ghosts with their talismans.
Even though it's been two days, it felt like months for us since we could never tell when it's day or night in here.
"What are you waiting around for? Get ready, we're going for a bigger supply run this time." The leader of our group called out as he could see the panic in our eyes.
Since we're going for a bigger run, more baits were needed. Even though we didn't want to be bait, if we abandon our tasks, we would be killed regardless. So it was better to just join the mission. At least there was a chance of survival.
Grabbing some cloth to wrap around our faces, it was the best we can do when it comes to the miasma. We didn't know what the long term effects were just yet but quite a few of the supply runners had gotten seriously ill from the large intake of this miasma. Even the exorcists who controlled everything admitted that they couldn't revert the effects.
As the door opened, I breathed in my first mouthful of contaminated air and ran forward as fast as I could. Once we're out of the barrier, the ghosts will be able to sense us and once that happens, they surge towards our area. We needed to work fast if we wanted to live. The exorcists have placed a few barriers around the place which acts as safe zones for us to hide our presence but compared to the main base, it was nothing. It could only serve as a temporary shelter that would lose its effectiveness the more it's used.
It hasn't even been a minute and I could already hear the howls echoing from the distance as I quickly entered a shop and grabbed everything that had a long shelf life. Stuffing it into my inventory, I was about to turn back when the leader grabbed my shoulder.
"We're going for a bigger run, this isn't enough." He reminded.
Hearing this, I could only grit my teeth and try to fit more into my inventory with the knowledge that ghosts could appear at any moment.