“How far ahead?” Maya asked tautly. Miles debated if he should tell what the King said to the others before the mission but decided to be clear with them. He at first wanted to keep some of the information to himself lest he would scare others before the mission, but he also didn’t want to keep anything from his teammates who would fight alongside him.

But when he did tell, Maya got tense. It wasn’t the bit about the Mystic Branch or monster with unthinkable abilities, what she was afraid of was ghosts. When she was small, she had seen a movie about ghosts, and ever since, she had been frightened of them.

“We should be there in an hour.” Val checked the map on her wristwatch and answered after calculating quickly. Miles felt Val’s behavior was also a bit off, but couldn’t put a finger on it, so he thought it might be about the Phantom World and things the King said.

“Maya, you should calm down.” Alex walked beside her and put a hand on her dainty shoulder. “My lightning is the bane of ghosts so anything unholy will be banished straight to hell.”

Maya, seeing the assuring smile, relaxed a bit but the next second a scream put her back into her panic state.

“Human?” Miles questioned but didn’t rush out. When he was still in G-Circle, Zall, Xavic and he hunted spiders that they thought could imitate human screams. Later they found out that it wasn’t spiders that were screaming in human voices but a record. Now that he heard a human scream in the dangerous area, his first instinct was to doubt the authenticity.

“We need to help him,” Val said but Alex held her arm before she could rush out.

“You cannot trust your ears alone in Portal World. Especially in F-Circle and beyond. Let’s not be hasty.” He said as he let go of her arm. Val looked at Miles and saw he wasn’t acting either. They slowly walked toward the source of the sound carefully. Miles activated elemental vision to look around.

The green forest was covering most of his visage, while the wind was striking the canvas from time to time. There were some other elements appearing off-and-on. The humid air would leave blue strikes on the green and azure, while the warm breeze looked orange. Sunlight was like a sword cutting through anything if it could pierce through the thick branches. But among all these, an unholy lavender looked out of place. Miles walked towards that color and saw a human silhouette convulsing on the ground. He deactivated the Elemental Vision and looked at the teen lying on the ground.

“Who are you guys?” Asked the teen, despite wriggling in pain.

“Who are you? Was it you who screamed?” Maya asked with her raised fist. Fiery energy was covering her delicate hands. Alex was also gathering lightning energy, while Val was at the back, looking around carefully.

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“Hi, I am Everyperson. Nice to meet you.” The teen smiled but it looked eerie on his painful face.

“What kind of a stupid name is that?” Maya asked as a pair of fire gauntlets covered her fists.

“That is not nice, you know.” The teen said as he pouted, “That is my name.”

“Why did you scream?” Alex asked as he saw the teen was genuine.

“I saw Death.” The teen shivered as he said.

“You mean, you almost died?” Val asked from behind.

“No, no. I truly saw Death. Like the Entity.” Everyperson said, but seeing others not believing, he added, “You know, the messenger of God. The Reaper? Big scythe and dark cloak?”

“You are a Chanter?” Miles asked in disbelief.

“Am I?” Asked Everyperson as he scratched his head. “I do chant I guess.”

“For fuck sake. Let’s ignore this lunatic.” Maya cussed as she was about to walk away but the teen’s next words stopped her in her boots.

“There are ghosts ahead,” Everyperson said with a frightened expression. His face didn’t look as painful as before. Miles noted his purple eyes and pinkish-blue hair. He already saw his elemental energy when they first arrived. Probably Ghost or a rare form of poison. The elemental vision couldn’t see the element in a person’s body but luckily when they first came, the teen was using his energy actively, allowing Miles to see its color.

“You guys must help me, please!” Everyperson said with a pleading expression.

“No,” Alex said without any emotion on his face.

“No?” Asked the teen with a downcasted face.

“How about if I give you money?” He asked again.

“No.”

“No?”

“Please, I talked with Death and he said he would take me to the afterlife. I managed to convince him to give me 24 hours, but I need to find some companions before I go.” Everyperson begged.

“You want us to die with you?” Val asked in bewilderment. Everyperson looked at her and his eyes shined.

“You are the Beauty!”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” Val looked content but still rejected to go with the teen.

“You must be the Friendship!” Everyperson pointed at Alex and then to Maya, “You are the Five-Wits.”

“You must be the Strength!” He then pointed at Miles.

“I already offered my goods to Death but he refused to let me go.”

“Where is this Death? Can you take us to him?” Miles asked in annoyance. This person, how did he survive for this long?

“You are my Good Deeds, I misjudged you. You really want to die with me?” Everyperson asked in happiness but Miles shut him off.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Miles asked in anger.

“The elders in our camp used to tell stories about the judgment day and the afterlife. It went like this, you cannot take any goods, beauty, strength, friendship, or kinship to heaven, only the good-deeds. Everything you did in this life would fail you in front of the Lord, only the donations and good things you committed in life would help you pass through the mighty gates of heaven.”

“You are good-deeds, so you can come with me!”

“No, why don’t you ask other chanters to go with you?”

“They wouldn’t.” The teen said as he gazed at the ground. “Ever since I awakened my holy power, others always shunned me off.”

“What is your power?” Val asked.

“I can summon ghosts.” The teen said as he raised his hand. In the next second, a bald small ghost appeared above him. “Say hi to Casper.”

“Hell, no!” Maya walked behind Alex as she looked at the cute ghost. "No, no, no!"