Siderius raised his two hands up. Then he directed the residue into the empty flask. The vortex stopped spinning and found its way into one of the flasks.
Then the hunter clasped his hands together. The remaining normal salt inside the Salt Seal crystallized and trapped the vapor inside a salt crystal.
Both the residue and byproduct of this formula were useful so Siderius wasn’t going to waste them.
The acrid mist could be used to make projectiles for the sling. Its smell would be enough to temporarily hinder Siderius’ enemy. The Erythraeus Balsam was useful for barriers just like the one Siderius had been using.
Shimmering on the floor with golden sparkles was the new yellow salt. This yellow salt was crucial for many higher forms of alchemical processes. One of them he needed right away to seal the sulfur inside the pyrrhotite, making a new alloy with the toughness of iron but the volatility of sulfur.
Siderius carefully collected the yellow salt into the new dedicated pouch and stacked it away in his utility belt.
"Now that is done. I can start to treat the first and second victims."
The first and second victims were completely trapped inside the nightmare made by the Phantom. The usual method was not going to cut it. He needed yellow salt to save them.
Siderius waved his hand around to deactivate the Mana Obstrusion Seal. Immediately, Jude regained the vision inside the room.
Jeffrey had left to take care of the estate. Only the Baron was left.
"What did you do, white witch?" Jude mumbled to himself. He was curious but he was not going to ask Siderius. After all, what he was doing was wrong. But soon, he would have his curiosity fulfilled.
Jude could see that Siderius was heading to him. The Baron composed himself and acted like normal, waiting for Siderius to appear.
"Baron." Siderius greeted Jude.
"White witch." The Baron nodded back.
Siderius’ left eye twitched. He hated that title but it seemed like it was stuck with the Baron. Siderius couldn’t careless to correct him.
"What do you want, Siderius?"
"Where are the first and second victims now?" Siderius said.
"They should still be in that room inside the garrison. Can you save them?" Baron said.
Siderius nodded. There was no reason to hide. "I can. The sooner they are released from the spectre’s grasp the better. Their souls are being chipped away as we’re speaking."
"If that is the case, we should waste no more time then." Newest update provided by novelꞁire.net
Baron followed Siderius to the garrison. On their way, Jude noticed Siderius was looking at his pipe a little too much.
"Fancy yourself a little smoke?"
"Aye. I haven’t smoked for a while."
The Baron laughed. "Didn’t think you were that kind of man. I can tell Jeffrey to prepare one for you if you’d like."
"That would be kind of you, Baron."
"Hmmm." The Baron sensed something in Siderius. His behaviour toward him changed a little bit. He didn’t know why or even if he was imagining things. Siderius didn’t seem any different at all. Jude told himself that he was just too stressed out.
The Baron was correct. His guts were telling him the distrust Siderius had for him. But the Baron was too cunning to believe something like a hunch, which would become his downfall.
Inside the garrison, the first and second victims laid motionless on the bed. Their mouths murmured unintelligible words.
"They’ve never spoken before you came here. For some reason, they started to speak in their dreams." Jude said.
"It is probably because of the Phantom. I have snatched its victims. I must have triggered it."
"Well. What do you need to save these two? From what I remember, you said that they were unsavable."
"Unsavable with what I had back then. But now, it was a different story."
With Siderius’ instructions, the men carried the two victims and put them on the floor. Siderius drew a new seal with the core being yellow salt instead of normal salt.
Jude’s eyes perked up when he saw the shimmering golden salt. He had a feeling that was what Siderius was making inside his room.
"Alright. Let’s see if we can free them from the Phantom’s grasp."
Siderius kneeled in front of the two victims and began to conduct his sign. The alchemical seal for this process wasn’t Psycho Apokion. That wouldn’t be strong enough to sever the connections between the victims and the Phantom.
He was using a seal that was created by the Eastern Monks. This seal was similar to the Last Rite of The Dead, it had a mantra accompanying the sign sequence.
Its official name in the Hunter Association was The Rite of Wandered Souls.
Siderius placed his two hands on the face of the two victims. His middle fingers touched the middle of their foreheads, his index and ring fingers touched each of their eyes. A slight yellow glow spread from his skin to their face.
Then, Siderius hummed the Soul Rite:
"No distant plane, no prison keep,
Can hold the life that lies asleep.
The soul of thee that wanders deep,
Be here, be whole, the nightmare sweep!"
Once again, the nightmare phantom was exposed. Inside the dark mind space of Siderius, he hovered in this endless darkness.
Behind him was his manifestation of the silver soul. In front of him was the Phantom. This time, it was revealed even more, showing Siderius its true appearance behind the black smoke.
A disfigured young man with one side of his body completely chomped away. Bones protruded out of his skin, blood spilling from his never-healing wounds. His hands were made of knives and needles. His eyes were two glowing white dwarves that were always exuding smoke. Its mouth was filled with unknown black liquid that was continuously leaking to the ground.
"So... It really is you." Siderius said.
He had his suspicion about the identity of the phantom. It must be someone that the Baron had wronged in his past life. It couldn’t be just some random bystanders that Jude killed, that would not fulfil the conditions for a phantom to be birthed.
Its death must be gruesome, unjust and painful for the phantom to turn from a neutral ghost to the vengeful phantom. Most importantly, it should have a connection deep enough with the Baron to make him his anchor.
The face of the young man was disfigured, but still, Siderius could see traces of the Baron’s appearance on it.
They were bound by blood.
The Phantom had come back to haunt Jude Fisher’s life because it was his son.