Chapter 424: The Spirit Form
It was a figure formed entirely from holy light.
She looked like a ghost, but Gawain was certain she wasn’t an undead creature—no undead could survive in such a pure environment of holy light, let alone be composed of it. Yet she was clearly not a flesh-and-blood being either. She floated just a little behind Leight, some distance above the ground, her entire form made of clear, shimmering light, semi-transparent and hazy. As the surrounding holy light shifted, her figure flickered between brightness and dimness, as if constantly dissolving and reforming.
This strange “spirit” appeared to be a slender girl of about ten years old. Her features were somewhat blurred, but her bright eyes were striking. Now those large, luminous eyes locked in a wide-eyed stare with Amber’s, and after several seconds of stunned silence, the spirit girl let out a clear, ethereal exclamation that sounded like wind chimes: “Ah—”
Amber’s reaction was louder: “Wow!!”
The half-elf girl then darted over to Gawain’s side, her face full of panic as she looked at the “ghost” she had “caught.” “Oh my god! Old Gawain, look at that thing!!”
It turned out that when people are nervous, they tend to blurt out whatever’s on their mind—most of Amber’s bumps on the head came from moments like this.
A side note: Rebecca’s bumps mostly came from her own loose tongue, but unlike others, that silly doe’s mouth was always running, even when she wasn’t nervous…
Gawain casually tapped Amber on the head again, while Leight had already turned around, staring dumbfounded at the spirit girl floating just behind him. With disbelief etched on his face, he finally tried calling out, “Emily?”
The spirit girl floated upward, drifting lightly like a leaf from Leight’s left side to his right. She seemed to respond to his call, a faint smile appearing on her face, but she didn’t speak.
“Are you sure this is Emily?” Gawain snapped out of his initial shock. He found it hard to believe, even pinching himself discreetly, but the spirit was undeniably right there before his eyes. “The Emily you mentioned?”
“Yes… it’s her… it really is…” Leight murmured, reaching out toward Emily. But his hand passed right through her ethereal form. She let out a soft, playful laugh and drifted from his right side back to the left. Watching this, Leight’s voice trembled, “Emily… could it be that I trapped your soul?”
“No… she doesn’t look undead,” Pittman said after a moment of surprise, now analyzing calmly. “Undead wouldn’t be this peaceful… nor would they be so close to holy light. She seems more like a pure energy being.”
Amber breathed a sigh of relief at Pittman’s words, rubbing her head and muttering, “That’s good… I thought I’d caught the attention of the Grim Reaper. Last time I touched a coffin, I pulled out a 700-year-old mummy, and now I drag out a ghost from holy light…”
Gawain gave Amber another playful whack on the head, making her squeal in protest. He couldn’t help but think—Amber’s suspicions weren’t entirely unfounded. He half-joked that maybe Amber had a knack for grave-robbing and resurrecting ancestors. If that were true, it wouldn’t be the Grim Reaper watching her, but the goddess of life herself blessing her. He might have to find a way to send Amber to all the ancestral tombs across Ansu, letting her touch the coffins of those legendary warriors who had such close ties with Gawain’s own family…
Despite these wild thoughts, Gawain maintained his composure as the founding ancestor. He nodded slightly at the spirit girl beside Leight, then gave Leight a faint smile. “Looks like this little girl doesn’t want to leave you just yet.”
“But why…” Leight still couldn’t understand why Emily, who had already died, would reappear in this form. “Why did she become like this? Could it be that the presence I sensed in the church all this time was her?”
“To be honest, that’s beyond my knowledge,” Pittman said, stroking his beard. “But there’s another expert in our territory who might be able to help.”
Leight was momentarily confused. “Another expert?”
Gawain had already guessed who Pittman meant, but before he could speak, the quick-witted Amber shouted, “Ah! Right! Kamail—there’s another glowing one in the territory!”
Without waiting for Gawain’s orders, the half-elf—still rubbing her sore head—vanished into thin air, leaving only her voice echoing: “I’ll go get him!”
Gawain could only watch as Amber disappeared before his eyes, then turned back, somewhat at a loss, watching “Emily” drift back and forth in the air.
Emily floated over to him, her big eyes full of curiosity. After a long moment, she broke into a wide smile.
Gawain smiled back, though curiosity gnawed at him. He had heard from Leight that Emily was just an ordinary poor girl, a child from a humble family. Yet this poor girl had a bold and cheerful personality that didn’t fit her background. She was endlessly curious and even dared to speak to the knights (soldiers) who came to the village. Now, as a spirit, she still interacted boldly with someone as obviously important as Gawain.
No matter how he looked at it, this girl was extraordinary.
Emily drifted a little farther away, laughing again and making a clear, ethereal sound. She floated within the range of the holy light surrounding Leight—but she wasn’t confined to it. Occasionally, Gawain saw her drift beyond the holy light, moving freely through the air like an independent spirit. But she always returned to Leight’s side, as if some mysterious bond connected them.
Gawain and Pittman didn’t wait long in the church. Whether by shadow step or lightning leap, their speed far exceeded walking. Within minutes, a crackling bolt of electricity appeared in the church’s central clearing, and with it came Kamail, his body glowing with arcane radiance.
“I heard Amber’s message,” Kamail floated toward Gawain. “So… what exactly happened?”
Then he saw Emily floating near Leight. Speechless for a moment, he couldn’t hide his surprise. “The ancients… a being of energy like me?”
A vague shadow writhed and twisted in the air, and Amber’s figure emerged from it, grinning proudly at Kamail. “See? Just like I said. Though she’s not as bright as you.”
Emily noticed Kamail’s sudden arrival. She seemed surprised but showed no fear—if anything, her already bold spirit had grown even braver since becoming a spirit. Perhaps she sensed something familiar in Kamail’s aura. Whatever the reason, she didn’t retreat but floated boldly toward him, letting out a short questioning sound: “Huh?”
“Can you tell what’s going on?” Gawain asked Kamail. “Is she really an energy being like you?”
“I can see her energy nodes… their distribution differs from mine, but the principle is probably the same,” Kamail said, extending his arm glowing with arcane energy toward Emily. “She’s not very stable yet, seemingly in the process of transformation, but she’s already capable of independent existence…”
Emily looked at Kamail with curiosity and mimicked him by reaching out her hand. One glowing with arcane light, the other formed from holy light, their luminous fingers slowly approached. Just before they touched, a brilliant but fleeting spark burst from their fingertips, forming a tiny firework in the air.
Emily laughed happily.
“Her mind also seems unstable, but there’s no doubt she can think normally—she’s definitely not undead.”
“You said she’s unstable and transforming?” Leight caught Kamail’s words and asked, “What does that mean?”
“Spiritual beings transformed from humans need a process to stabilize completely, since we aren’t elemental beings born with energy bodies,” Kamail explained. “Of course, this is just my inference based on my own experience. I can’t be sure all transformations follow the same pattern.”
Leight pressed on, “Do you know how Emily became like this?”
“That’s something I need you to explain first,” Kamail turned to Leight. “I heard that after you abandoned the faith in the God of Holy Light, you somehow regained the holy light, and this little girl Emily played a huge role… What exactly happened then?”
Immersed in his research, Kamail didn’t know Leight’s story. So Gawain and Leight recounted the entire night in the Konsko territory for him.
After hearing the full story, Kamail sighed softly and murmured, “That’s truly an incredible experience…”
He pondered for a moment, then said, “My transformation was due to the influence of the Nature God—the Great Stag Amon. The power of the Nature God infused my body, changing my form. Emily’s transformation happened through the infusion of holy light… My transformation involved my entire body being reshaped into what you see as these ‘armor plates,’ but Emily seems to have only her soul transformed; her body wasn’t preserved…”
“Probably because the Great Stag Amon’s power is on a higher level, allowing a more thorough transformation,” Amber guessed. “Still, for Leight to awaken holy light and transform Emily into this kind of spirit… that’s impressive.”
“This likely isn’t just Leight’s power,” Kamail said, conjuring a small orb of arcane energy that Emily floated around. “Emily herself… probably needs a very high affinity for holy light.”
(End of chapter)