Let’s rewind time a little.
It was at the moment Zed was separated from Mir and Raleigh. It was swarmed by countless ghosts that tried to devour it. Naturally, Zed wouldn’t want to end as food for the other ghosts, so it fought back.
“Hah! Get back you fool! You can’t beat me! I’m dan 100 of karate and my disciple is the strongest one in the world!” Zed shouted as it transformed a part of its body into something similar to legs.
That was right. Unlike other ghosts that looked like a will-o-wisp, Zed was able to think, talk, and manipulate its body easily. If it wanted to, it could have a human form as well.
But the human form was not its default state. Unlike breathing, Zed had to will it to transform its body. If it stopped thinking about it, it would return to its original form of a ball of fire.
However, in this situation where it had to fight a lot of ghosts, having the form of a ball of fire was putting it into a disadvantageous situation. Sure, it could manifest thousands of whips, but whip couldn’t push those ghosts back. It had no choice but to use something thicker than whips so it could push them back. And the form it chose was human form… though it lacked something. And it had more things that it shouldn’t have.
That was right, even though Zed took human form to fight the other ghosts, it also didn’t stay to the original form of a human. For example, it lacked a head. After all, the head was useless for a human in a fight like this. And rather than adding a single head, he chose to add more limbs.
And now, Zed had three pairs of hands and three pairs of legs. But it had no head.
“I am the headless Ashura, I will destroy everything I see!” Zed laughed as it kicked, punched, dodged, and did its best to defeat the other ghosts.
It managed to push them back. Well, only for an instant though. It could push them back but it couldn’t destroy them in one strike. And before it could deal a finishing blow, the other ghosts had taken their place and attacked Zed, causing him to concentrate on the other ghosts now. And the ghost that was almost beaten by Zed, recovered by using the power of black miasma, though Zed didn’t see it.
In addition to the attacks from the ghosts, Zed also received attacks from an unseen force. It whispered to Zed to kill all humans who came to this place. And Zed’s answer was…
“There’s no way I will kill my first friend, Mir! Oh, but the guy is okay, I guess. If I want to kill him, I will, though not because you order me to do that. I kill him if he keeps annoyed me!” Zed laughed as it said his lines.
“But more importantly, there’s no end to this guy, huh?” Zed was not a human or a living being, so it was not tired. At least, it didn’t have a body to be tired. However, it was tired mentally. It was as if it was doing tedious work of stamping infinite paper…
“I have to run!” Zed came to this decision after fighting back for fifteen minutes. However, he also added. “…though I am surrounded in 360 directions... or should I say that I am surrounded in x, y, and z-axis?”
Zed looked around but it was completely surrounded by ghosts. It couldn’t see any path of retreat now. It could only fight as best as it could.
As it fought fiercely, the situation suddenly changed. The number of ghosts that surrounded it had lessened significantly. They were still forming a perfect circle around Zed though. However, if previously they created five layers of defense to prevent Zed from escaping, those layers of defense had been reduced to two layers. Zed smiled inwardly as the situation changed.
Without waiting for more chance to appear, Zed transformed all of its body. If previously it had six hands and six legs, right now, it had double that number. It used all of its power to break through the barricade the ghosts set up. And breaking through them, he did.
“Don’t block my way! I’m not going to die for a second time!” Zed shouted as it hit all the ghosts in front of it with six hands and six legs. And the rest of its limbs were protecting it from the attack that came from behind it.
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After breaking through, Zed transformed its body again. Generally speaking, ghosts wouldn’t be affected by gravity, wind pressure, or something like that. So, even if Zed transformed its body into a fighter plane, it wouldn’t get an advantage even though its body was streamlined.
Well, that was true. Zed didn’t get any advantage because of the shape of its body. It got its advantage because of the state of its mind. Because Zed thought that this form was faster, it became faster. And so, with its new form as a plane, it flew all over the amusement park with countless ghosts behind it. Whenever it found ghosts, it would make a turn and before it knew it, it already memorized the position of the ghosts in the amusement park.
Naturally, it was going to the place with the thinnest number of ghosts. Although that place gave a bad vibe to Zed, it still went to that place. It was a mansion on top of a small hill. There were almost no ghosts around it. They seemed to be afraid of something.
“From that brat’s story, that place should be the rumored haunted house, huh? Well, it’s really scary that a ghost-like me is scared now.” Zed chortled as it flew at full speed to the haunted house.
When it entered the mansion’s yard, it suddenly felt a strong force of rejection trying to push it away from the mansion. No wonder there was no ghost around it, Zed thought as it forced its way into the mansion.
When it finally entered the mansion, the rejection force finally went away. Zed let out a sigh of relief… was what it planned. Because before it could act its plan, it suddenly felt another force that was even more terrifying than the other force it had felt before. It was as if Zed was a frog in front of a snake. Zed felt like it would be powerless to face the kind of enemy in front of it.
“…though I’m not going to give up. If I give up, it means Mir has to face you, right? There’s no way I’ll let her do such a dangerous thing!” Zed laughed even though it still felt the suppression to it.
When it was thinking about where to find the ghost, Zed’s instinct suddenly warned it to dodge immediately. Zed was a ghost that always followed its instinct, no matter what it wanted to do. So, this time, it dodged, and suddenly, a formless attack, much more like a wind blade cut the position he was before.
“What was that!? Kamaitachi? What a cheat! Why don’t you show yourself! I also can use something like Kamaitachi, you know!?” Zed retorted as it saw the formless blade attacked it.
“DIE!!” The answer it received, however, was not what it expected to have. Instead of showing itself, the ghost attacked Zed with much more intensity.
“Tsk! I got to go out of this corridor!” Zed said while dodging the invisible attacks using its instinct. It moved to the closest wall and tried to pass through the wall.
“Ouch! What was that?” Zed couldn’t pass through the wall. It bumped into the wall, and that small mistake almost cost it its life. Fortunately, Zed managed to dodge at the last second, but the fire on top of its body was cut a little. And then, the fire was absorbed by the wall.
While dodging more attacks, Zed was also thinking. The wall was solid that it couldn’t pass through the wall. Rather, it seemed like the wall was covered by a supernatural barrier that prevented even ghosts to pass through it. Zed was lucky to enter the house through an opened window earlier.
“So, that means, my ability to pass through the wall is sealed, huh? Heh, that’s a handicap! Against something as weak as you, I don’t need to use that ability at all!” Zed laughed but inwardly, it was sweating bullets. It didn’t need that ability, however, the premise was it was in an open space. Right now, Zed was in a corridor, so it didn’t have any rooms to dodge the attacks.
Thinking that it couldn’t stay there any longer, Zed moved. It followed the corridor, but the attack became even fiercer. The attack came not only from one direction, but it also came from the walls, floor, and ceiling, causing Zed to curse inwardly as it didn’t have enough time to talk at all.
Zed kept on dodging and moving until finally, it felt something horrible. Zed knew by instinct that something dangerous lurked inside the darkness from a half-opened door. Its instinct told it that its attacker was hiding behind that door. So, without thinking much, it chased after the presence it felt from behind the door.
“What a dark room!” Zed exclaimed as it entered the basement room. Not only it was dark, but Zed also felt the presence of evil was the strongest in this area. Previously, it heard whispers trying to manipulate it, but now, what Zed heard was no longer whispers. They were screaming at Zed.
“Tsk! Do you think I’m going to lose to such a lousy tactic?” Zed said, more to assure itself than to bluff in front of the enemy. Even if Zed had the confidence to block the whispers, the whispers still bothered it a bit. And it might lose its concentration because of the whispers, so Zed was a little bit annoyed.
Not to mention the constant fierce attacks it dodged every second. If it were a human, it was no different than running without taking a breath at all. It had to run full speed without breathing, and it started putting tax into its body. Or soul. It lost energy faster than it gained energy, and even though it dodged all the attacks perfectly, it was getting weaker and weaker.
“Tsk, I can’t leave it like that!” Zed muttered. It was dark so it couldn’t see a single thing… was not right. Unlike humans who used eyes to see, Zed was not using any eyes to see. So, even though it could perceive that it was dark that normal humans couldn’t see a single thing, that didn’t limit it from seeing everything around it.
So, using that knowledge it perceived through its ‘eyes’, Zed moved to the next room. In that simple-looking room, what Zed saw was a skeleton of someone. Without thinking much, Zed assaulted the skeleton as it thought that the skeleton must be the true body of the ghost that attacked it. However, even after cutting the skeleton’s neck, the attacks it had to dodge were still as fierce as ever.
“That is not its real body!?” Zed exclaimed in surprise. After that, it had to dodge for a long time before suddenly, Zed felt the pressure of its enemy lessened a bit.
“Chance!” Zed thought loudly. It was its time to find the real body of its enemy, but even after looking for a long time, it didn’t find anything that could be a real body of its enemy. Zed was desperate as it felt like it lost too much energy now. If it were a human, it would feel lethargic, Zed thought like that while dodging as best as it could.
And while Zed and its enemy were on a stalemate, the door to the room was opened suddenly. Behind the door, was a girl who looked as tired as Zed. However, her eyes were shining bright, as if telling Zed not to give up yet.
With a renewed feeling, Zed greeted that young girl who arrived just when it thought it would give up.
“Yo, Mir! Fancy meeting you here!”