Spirits were a race that was poorly understood. Ghosts have often been confirmed to be spirits and hardly any race could interact with them was about everything most people knew about spirits.
There was a category of people that did know more, however, these were spirit mages. Their name was quite misleading, as they were just summoners.
Instead of summoning and using monsters or magical life forms, they used spirits. Some say it was slavery, others say it’s the same as summoners and pet owners, but in the end, all depended on the contract between spirit and spirit mage.
The Moorland Menace, didn’t care about any of this.
The balloon spirit got sent to attack Loran, but it was clear that the spirit didn't want to.
The spirit mage kept yelling at the spirit as he collected gash after gash due to narrowly evading the Moorland menace’s claw swipes.
‘Clang clang’ made the Moorland Menace stop and turn around to face the balloon spirit with claws, which was shaking and backing off.
Loran expected the moorland menace to lash out, but it didn’t it turned to the spirit mage, lifted him by the throat and walked toward the stream.
The balloon spirit followed and continued shivering.
Black fog got expelled before the armor dunked the spirit mage into the river and kept his face in the water.
Strange sounds came from behind, and the spirit floated in sight, trying to communicate by gesturing.
No reaction from the Moorland Menace. Loran tried to decipher what the spirit tried to convey, but had no success.
The spirit mage stopped thrashing, and the Moorland Menace threw the body aside.
A strange thread appeared. It connected the spirit to the discarded spirit mage and snapped before disappearing.
The distress in the balloon spirit disappeared, and it floated off happily.
Was the Moorland Menace helping the spirit?
Loran couldn’t tell. He didn’t understand enough about them, but… the spirits around the stream appeared to be less stressed with the Moorland Menace around.
More blue flames erupted from the cursed armor, and the spirits fed off it as if it was a feast.
Were these flames important to the spirits? But why would fire be important for water spirits? And what about those spirit mages? Wouldn’t the spirits suffer from losing their spirit mages?
Loran knew nothing about this armor. He was trapped but understanding it could be the key to escaping. The only actions he could control were his thoughts. He had considered that it would have been better if even that had been stripped as he wouldn't have to suffer but there was nothing he could do about his current situation.
He was convinced that the key to escape was somehow related to his ability to still think and experience what the Moorland menace was experiencing.
So far, the Moorland Menace killed anyone on sight and provided blue flames to spirits. It also didn’t attack the balloon spirit with claws, even though the balloon spirit attacked it.
Was the armor a spirit? That couldn't be true, right?
The only known entities that could interact with spirits were spirits, spirit mages and elves to Loran’s knowledge.
How would he have wanted to look up information, so his thoughts could progress, but that was impossible.
‘Maybe he is a guardian.’ was Loran’s doubtful conclusion.
It had only started guarding since it trapped Loran which was where the doubt came from.
Loran continued racking his brain while the Moorland menace continued feeding the spirit's flames.
It was not just the moorlands, but almost every area in Lopahz and the Aquini kingdom had areas with an abundance of spirits. It wasn't a coincidence, as these 2 countries were the 2 countries the closest to nature on the whole continent.
This wasn’t something Loran knew, nor that spirit mages all over the continent were panicking as spirits were slowly disappearing from the world and due to the limited information on them, it was unclear how and why.
A distressed cry broke Loran out of his thoughts that lead up to nowhere. His body got forced to more as the armor reacted to it.
The ability to see presences didn’t activate, but the Moorland Menace was quite predictable. Someone will die.
Any attempts to stop the armor failed as usual.
The Moorland Menace marched toward its next victim.
The noise came upstream and a battle was visible from a distance.
It was the balloon spirit which was helping lesser spirits fight off 3 other spirit mages.
A moral dilemma unfolded for Loran. Would these killings be more acceptable a these spirit mages seem to be kidnapping spirits?
Killing was bad, but he couldn't speak, neither could the armor. Was violence optional or mandatory? The spirits were being treated poorly, however.
The balloon spirit was clawing at a bubble shaped barrier the spirit mages had put up but had no success.
A spirit mage summoned a spear shaped spirit and popped the balloon spirit.
It let out a sad whimper as it disappeared. The spirit mage shrugged and threw a strange net over the droplet shaped spirits. The more rebellious ones also got popped and disappeared.
A massive amount of black fog got expelled from the armor as it rushed in and clawed at the bubble barrier.
The spirit mages laughed as the barrier held.
The Moorland menace kept clawing and clawing at the barrier, and 2 spirit mages continued catching water spirits.
This annoyed Loran greatly. The spirits did seem simple, but it was clear they had emotions and personalities. The spirit mages were treating the situation as if they were collecting rocks. Picking those they wanted and popping those they didn’t.
‘Why aren’t they running?’ was a thought that welled up.
The balloon spirit also didn't run, even though this wasn't his business. He had been freed recently and gave it up to defend those that were weaker than it.
Was this something many had forgotten? Was the Moorland Menace doing the same?
The spirits tuck together in a heartwarming manner and the spirit mages were separating them and catching those they deemed fit.
The Moorland Menace stopped expelling black fog and the blue fire burst out.
A black armored left arm engulfed in blue fire stretched toward the barrier and shot out a stream of blue fire.
The barrier cracked and shattered. The spear spirit got sent toward the armor, but the armored right arm caught it.
More summoning circles appeared, and each spirit mage summoned 3 spirits.
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The blue fire continued streaming out of the arm of the Moorland Menace and hit the spirit mages and the spirits.
The spirits were unaffected, but the spirit mages rolled over the ground screaming, trying to put out the flames.
They fled to the stream, but not even water would help them. The water spirits blew bubbles at the spirit mages, but it was unclear if it was an attempt to help or attack.
Nothing suggested that the flames were hot as no steam was coming from the writhing spirit mages.
A throat of an unlucky spirit mage got grabbed.
Hands clutched the armored arm as he tried to free his threat from the grip.
Blue flames engulfed his body and caused blue fire to burst out of his eyes and nose, making for a horrifying scene.
They disappeared as the body dropped, and the Moorland Menace created a blue [Flame Blade] to puncture the newly erected spirit barrier.
A spirit mage called for his pony spirit, hopped on its back with his colleague, and fled. The contracted spirits followed their masters, and only the water spirits and the spirits of the deceased spirit mage got left behind.
The Moorland menace didn’t pursue. It sat down and fed blue flames to the newly freed spirits and the water spirits that escaped capture.
Spirit mages were believed to be invincible. To defeat a spirit mage was to defeat his contracted spirits. The only beings that could defeat spirit mages were those that could interact with spirits.
The reason was unclear to Loran why this was the case. It was his chance to study spirits.
Interaction was near non-existent. The moorland menace only provided blue flames while the other spirits seemed to interact with each other and attempted to grab the attention of the Moorland Menace.
The water spirits blew bubbles that rose into the sky for the spear spirit to pop before they got too far away.
3 spirits weer up to no good and combined their efforts to create a frozen ball and rolled it into another spirit that shivered and chased after them.
‘They are not much different from us’ was what Loran concluded after hours of observation.
Most behaved like children, which Loran deemed as plausible as there was a wide array of spirit classification, with lesser spirits being on the lower end.
The wisps he had spotted could be an ever lower stage. These evolved into lesser spirits after bathing in the blue fire for long enough.
Was Loran witnessing the birth of spirits? But where did those wisps come from?
A terrible thought awakened in Loran’s mind.
‘What if these wisps get formed after a person dies?’
No wisps had been spotted leaving any victim and most bodies had been carried away by armored vehicles, and Loran’s mind had been put to rest after realizing this.
The question still remained; why was the moorland menace killing mindlessly, and where did these wisps come from?
The spirits danced as the spear spirit had popped all the bubbles, some water spirits had polished the armor and made it shiny. Loran had grown his understanding of spirits slightly more.
No presence had been detected for the rest of the day, so there was no movement on the Moorland menace’s side.
Loran expected this to go on indefinitely, but the blue flames died and the spirits gathered. Those that did have anything resembling faces showed concern, and Loran felt uncomfortable.
The spirits that had been freed from the spirit mages left eventually, and it was just the Moorland Menace with the water spirits.
No movement, no killing, no black fog. This state continued until a presence got detected after a full week.
The armor appeared to be as good as new as the water spirits had kept it clean and polished it.
It was early in the morning and the Moorland menace started running. It leaped over the stream and focused on the 4 presences it had detected.
The moorlands sloped down and Loran got forced to slide down and got a visual confirmation of his next victims; a family.
‘Not again…’ was what Loran thought as he tried to steal his heart for what was coming.
Frustration welled up as an armored arm punctured the chest out of the mother of the family, and ripped out her heart.
It thumped several times, sputtering blood over the children and husband, before the organ fell to the ground.
The children screamed, and claws ended the screams of fear and turned them into screams of pain.
The Moorland menace took a punch to the chest and got moved backward slightly.
The man held a martial arts pose while tears flowed from his eyes.
Loran’s body got forced to take on a similar pose, which he found disrespectful of the armor.
A blinding fast punch approached from the right and Loran’s body got forced to just move his head.
The punch missed, but Loran hadn’t moved besides that.
Disgust welled up in Loran as he hated the type of opponents that attempt to invalidate the effort of the other.
The armor made minimalistic movements to evade punches, even though it’s armored nature meant that it didn't need to evade.
A dull sound marked the first successful hit landed on the armor, the man retracted his bloodied hand and clutched it.
A retaliation. The punch the Moorland Menace threw, sent the man flying, who rolled over the moorlands like a rag doll.
A calm pace was how the Moorland Menace approached the man, who laid on his stomach, covered in scratches and bruises. The man was screaming, but Loran identified it as a scream of loss and frustration and not one of pain.
Everything had been taken from this man in front of his eyes, and he had been powerless to stop it. It wasn’t too different from his own situation.
Loran empathized with the man who took armored punch after armored punch until all movement and sound ceased.
He expected a moment of control, but it never came. Was this due to the feeling of empathy and not one of disgust and horror?
The armor looked over the bloodied man crumpled on the ground, unmoving. The man was surrounded by colorful shrubs, and a curious rodent approached to investigate.
Another presence got detected and the Moorland Menace moved. More attempts weer made to sabotage the armor’s movements but nothing worked and due to this, Loran failed to notice that the Moorland menace wasn’t walking toward the presences.
A strangely bent tree came in sight and the Moorland menace sat down under it and produced blue flames.
‘You will burn the tree down!’ was what Loran tried to yell at it, but no such thing happened.
More spirits gathered, but these weren't water spirits. Most were round, but some were shaped like rocks or leaves and these bathed in the blue fire the Moorland Menace produced
Loran had been sure that the armor had run out of flames, but here was it, sharing them again.
These spirits treated the moorland menace the same as all other spirits. They didn't regard it as a threat at all.
Leaf spirits applied some sort of wax to the armor, enhancing its shine, and metallic clangs came off the armor as the pebble spirits corrected small dents.
‘This must be an exchange!’
Loran was sure. The spirits maintained the armor in exchange for the blue flames.
The blue flames died out, but the spirits continued putting a dent in his confidence.
The earth spirits weren’t able to take this dent out of his confidence, and he just enjoyed the wholesome interactions of the spirits.
Night fell and the Moorland Menace got up as the surrounding spirits fled.
A ghostly figure appeared, and blue fire mixed with black fog covered the arms of the Moorland Menace.
The ghostly figure resembling a pale woman with long black hair in long white torn garments wailed and targeted some of the lesser spirits.
Something that Loran would call a [Spectral Fireball]. Hit the ghostly figure, which caught fire and wailed even louder and focused on the Moorland Menace.
Countless light green transparent arms appeared behind the ghostly figure and rushed toward the Moorland Menace.
Loran wanted to run away, and that’s what the armor did. It ran away from the tree, and Loran got yet again a bad feeling. It was one thing for him to want to escape, but for the moorland menace to leave the spirits up to fate?
The arms followed the Moorland Menace, and any that did miss formed small craters in the ground after impact.
Loran circled around the ghostly figured and noticed how this ghostly figure was now between him and the strangely bent tree, ensuring that the tree and the spirits wouldn’t get hit by what Loran dubbed [Ghostly Arms of Death].
This figure resembled a ghost, which meant it must be a spirit too, the type of spirit that started ghost stories.
The Moorland Menace raised its arm and [Spectral Flame Pillars] shot out of the ground, which the ghostly figure did it’s best to evade.
Loran’s vision turned green as his field of vision got filled with [Ghostly Arms of Death], which descended and grasped for him.
He ran away and so did the Moorland Menace. An impact shook him, and a large dent had been put in Loran’s right arm.
It was the first time the Moorland Menace had appeared to be vulnerable to anything.
More impacts shook him and a [Spectral Firewall] appeared besides him.
A wall of blue and black fire blocked the incoming wave of green arms, grasping for anything.
Loran raised his arm and a large [Spectral Flame Pillar] appeared behind the [Spectral Fire Wall] and a loud wail followed.
All the fire disappeared and there was nothing, besides scorch marks.
The ghostly figure had disappeared.
The armor creaked as many dents caused strange sounds and Loran experienced difficulties in it’s movement.
The spirits left the tree and rushed toward the Moorland Menace and accompanied it until it reached the tree.
The metallic sounds started as the earth spirits removed the dents. The leaf spirits applied wax afterward to return the shine to the armor.
The Moorland Menace didn't move, nor did it produce blue flames. Presences did appear that night, but they got ignored as the lesser spirits had yet to finish their repairs.
The repairs continued throughout the night and finalized at noon the next day.
Spirits often get misunderstood as interacting with them is difficult or near impossible. Just as every group has good and evil factions, so do the spirits. It was yet to be determined how the Moorland Menace fits in all of this, however.