Chapter 33

Despite the overwhelming flood pouring in towards them, they never reached them.

“Wow I didn’t think I’d be able to pull this off.” Sweat dripped off Aoi’s face as she held her arms out, a bubble having formed around the three of them. A massive swarm of ghosts raged and writhed around the orb, constantly attacking it with fists and body slams.

Despite it all, the shield held firm. Zach and Blue both froze in place, staring at the ghosts on the other side of the shield in clear amazement.

“Okay Zach, do what you need to do, because my brain feels like it’s on fire.” She complained as Zach broke out of his stupor and grabbed Blue by the shoulders. Blue jumped in his grasp, surprised by the sudden contact. Their eyes met, and Blue found itself unable to look away.

“Blue, are you okay?” He asked as Blue floated stilly.

“I can’t hear him anymore.” It finally answered, gesturing at the bubble. “I think it’s blocking him out.”

“Okay good. You usually want the only voice in your head to be yours.” He gave it a smile, and Blue had to fight with all it had to not give one back.

“Zach… you and Aoi need to go.” It said before trying to leave his grip.

“What?” Zach tightened his grip. “What are you saying Blue. I need to get you out of here.”

“Why. So I can just exist as someone else’s footprint?” It demanded angrily. “So I can just sit there as you become stronger and stronger until you don’t need me anymore? If that’s the kind of existence I have in store, I’d rather throw it all away.”

“Don’t need… Blue I do need you. I’m only half an exorcist without you.” He tried to argue as the storm outside raged. “Plus it doesn’t matter. Blue, I should have told you this as soon as I saw you again. You’re not a footprint, not to me.”

“How can you say that?” It pointed at Aoi still keeping the ghosts at bay. “The original is right there? Proof that I’m not a real person, just a copy of another one.”

“Do I form Gestalt by fusing with Aoi?” He demanded as Blue’s eyes widened. “Have I spent the last two months getting to know and living with Aoi? Have I fought ghosts with Aoi?” There was a slight pause. “Before today anyway?”

He managed to get a single chuckle out of her. He grinned like a shark smelling blood. He was in.

“Yeah maybe you started out as a copy, but you’re not anymore. You’ve grown and changed. I don’t care what anyone else says, I say you’re real.”

“But I thought…” it had a bewildered look on its face. She tried to look over at Aoi only for Zach to force himself back into her vision.

“I thought you already knew all this stuff and just needed time to put yourself back together. I left you alone because I didn’t want to stress you out. I’m sorry Blue, I should have come talk to you when I noticed how much you were hurting.”

With that, he pulled it into a hug, a chain rattling in both their heads.

“If it means anything,” Aoi cut in as a shiver went down his spine. Was she about to say something to mess this all up? “My mom’s basically come to the same conclusion as Zach. Started calling you her ‘other daughter’. Only reason I’m here is because my mom kept nagging me to make nice with my ‘sister’.”

She sounded like she had to force herself to get that last word out. Despite it, Blue felt something growing inside it.

“She wants to see you.”

Blue shifted before looking at Aoi.

“What?”

“It’s like I said. As soon as Zach figures out how, she wants to see you. If he can make you physical, she wants to hug you too.” And with that, the sparks that were building in her heart erupted into a full flame.

“My… mom wants to see?” There’d be tears going down her face if her body could still make them. “I guess… I need to figure out how to do that?”

And that was all Zach needed to hear. He pulled her away and held his hand out to her.

“So what do you say, partners again?” He gave her a full smile, as if to say everything would be alright. Her hand raised up… and then suddenly grabbed onto the hand. Both of their eyes erupted in blue light as Blue flowed into him.

The two of them floated in a black void, Blue looking how she did when she was alive. They both willed themselves forward, dissolving to dust and floating together. They blended together in a swirling cloud, forming Gestalt who floated alone… but not.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

A Blue Flame and Marble Heart formed in their mind, the chain wrapping around it tight and secure. It was no longer made from flames and marble like the heart, now it was made from unbreakable silver.

Gestalt’s eyes flew open as the sound of trigger going off rang out throughout the beach. But something was different this time. The psychic power coursing through them… it was like nothing they’d ever felt before. Their eyes and the stripe on their chest, they weren’t just glowing blue.

They were crackling with electricity, showing the world the power hidden underneath. Zach wondered where this power had come from only for a whisper from Blue to answer him.

The lord of the Nightmare made Manifest wanted Blue as his successor, and had been pumping her with as much psychic energy as he could in order to do that.

With that explained, Gestalt turned to Aoi who was having trouble keeping the wall up.

“Since when can you two do something like that!” She demanded as Gestalt bounced from foot to foot.

“A while,” Gestalt shrugged with a laugh before gesturing towards the outside. “We’ll tell you more later, right now we have to get out of here.”

“And what’s your plan for that?” She asked with labored breath. “Want me to make a tunnel back the way we came?”

Gestalt looked at their hand, psychic energy bursting out and dancing across their skin before sinking back in. They smirked and directed their gaze upwards towards the one who’d pushed Blue over the edge.

“Make a hole at the top when we give the signal. Give us a clear shot of the ghost in the black robes.”

“You want me to what?” Aoi barked, but Gestalt was already pointing their finger to the sky. They took a deep breath and focused. It was time to give this so called lord all of his power back.

Gestalt’s eyes’ flashed as a ball of psychic energy their size appeared right at their fingertip. The bubble wavered, both from Aoi’s shock and the sheer force of power the sphere was giving off.

Gestalt grit their teeth and forced the sphere to split into six more manageable pieces. They formed a ring, with the top one hovering in front of their finger.

“Aoi open it now!” The top of the orb spread out and opened like a flower, pushing the others ghosts out the way. The Lord of the Nightmare made Manifest glared down at them. “Hey Lord, have your power back! Ghost Shot: Six Shooter!”

The Blue half felt a half second of surprise when they felt no regret or shame in yelling the name out. Instead all they found was pride.

The shots fired off, one after another. The first hit the Lord in the chest, pushing him upwards. The next four did more of the same, pushing the ghost higher and higher. After the fifth shot it looked back down just in time to see the last shot hit him right in the face.

His head came clean off as the rest of his body dissolved into dust.

What followed was the loudest shriek they had ever heard. All of the ghosts attacking the bubble had stopped, even with the now open path at the top. A couple were starting to float away, but most of them were starting to dissolve.

Aoi dropped the shield as more and more ghosts started to fade away to nothing, revealing the open ocean. The three of them stared out as the outermost parts of the Nightmare made Manifest faded to dust. The ghosts overhead went as well, allowing the sun to break through and sparkle onto the sea.

“What’s going on?” Aoi sat down on the sand and looked out over the water. “You’re the ghost expert here not me.”

It took gestalt a second to figure it out, but it quickly became clear.

“They gave up whatever obsession was tying them down to where they were. Without it, there was nothing keeping them together. A few must have kept the obsession strong, those are the ones who floated away. But most of them… they gave the Nightmare made Manifest everything.”

“I guess that makes sense.” She let out a sigh and enjoyed a breeze as it flew in. “So are you two going to stay like that forever now or?”

Gestalt blinked, only now noticing that they were still fused. They smiled and willed themselves to split apart.

“No, I don’t think so.” Blue smiled at Aoi giving the woman a complicated look on her face.

“Well, I think it’s time we head back and find everyone else.” Zach told Blue. As Aoi got back up. “You should probably head back the way you came. If the other exorcists see you and Blue… well that’s a story we don’t have time for right now.”

“Yeah that’s fair…” Aoi shook off as much sand off her as she could before the three started making their way off the beach. “Oh right before I forgot…”

She reached into her pocket and handed Zach a piece of paper with a number on it.

“Call it when you figure out how to make Blue visible and stuff. She’ll be waiting on the other end.” Aoi didn’t have to say who ‘she’ was. Blue already knew.

Aoi split off from them once they reached the edge of the sand. Blue and Zach went the other way, quickly finding the other exorcists who were sitting with their backs on a wall, clearly exhausted.

Andrew was the first to notice them. He forced himself back up and started marching towards the pair. With how slow he was walking, they were still pretty close to the rest when the three met.

“You know, we were in the middle of fighting when all of the ghosts suddenly dissolved. You two wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Maybe,” Blue crossed her arms and gave him a cheeky grin.

“We’ll tell you all about it.” Zach took a second to look at Andrew before peeking past him at the rest of the exorcists carefully watching them. “Once you don’t look like you’ll fall over in a stiff breeze.”

Andrew laughed before breaking out into a cough.

“Oh laughing hurts. Okay then fine. We talk about this… tomorrow.” Zach laughed as he led Andrew to the rest of the exorcists.

“Did that kid just destroy the Nightmare made Manifest?” The man with the chain tattoos asked as Zach sat down next to the rest of them, Blue floating over his shoulder somehow looking just as tired as him.

“I think he did. Good job Zach.” Beth smirked at the camera in her hands. “All that work, and I didn’t even get a chance to use it on the big ghost in the center. Oh well, at least I got a new configuration out of it.”

“Well it’s better than nothing right?” Zach joked only for Lady Gray to suddenly get to her feet. She walked over to Zach and gestured the boy to stand up. Without a word of protest, Zach did as the older woman said. She stood there silently before pulling him into a tight hug.

“Forty years ago, my brother left our house to fight that thing. He didn’t come back.” She pulled away from him and Zach saw the small smile on her face. “Today, he is avenged, thank you.”

“Not to interrupt, but shouldn’t we be on our way?” Carrow’s mentor raised a hand. “It won’t be long before the people here start to wake, and you young man, have a certain lost child waiting for you.”

That was enough to get the moving again. Zach gave one last look back before crossing the bridge. When he’d woken up today, he hadn’t expected to fight a natural disaster.