It was the darkness night in Gringerfield. The winds were howling, rustling the leaves off of the trees and the moon was partially covered due to it being crescent. Inside the Saltberry Wood Forest not even the squirrels or ants moved out of their homes as winds began to pick up strength.

Deep inside the forest was a strange tomb with a sigil in its center. The sigil begins to glow, a light blows and mist exits from it.

Like a car engine, the steam fires out and five human-sized light blue clouds are formed. The five clouds flew away from the tomb and went high into the atmosphere. Then as they started to glow the clouds then changed their shape changing into five girls.

The girls were obviously not human as they were blue and transparent. The clothes they wore wore long dresses that were ripped and tattered their skins seemed ripped and dry. They had no eyes in their sockets except for little orange lights as they looked around. 

“After all these years…we are finally back…”

“What took so long?! I blame you for the delay in breaking our seal Delilah!”

“Tch! Do you know how hard it is to break a Sixth Layer Bound? You would have to be close to a deity to undo a seal like that…”

“I’m surprised though…”

The other two ghosts turned to a third who was checking her long fingernails.

“To think that those ugly sinners had the potential to put a seal on us…”

One of the ghosts scoffed.

“Those pathetic humans definitely did not have the ability! Someone must have helped them!”

“Whether it was them or someone else isn’t it just hypocritical? I mean they tried to kill us because of our gift but then use it to fight back?”

Delilah shook her head.

“Humans will always be contradictory. They destroy and throw away anything they don’t understand or fear but then their lives or what they believe are threatened you best believe that they will be willingly to do anything to keep it. Even sell their souls to the devil.”

“Ha…ha…”

“Hm? Rebecca?”

The smaller ghost was facing away from the group and hyperventilating. The two ghosts, other than Delilah, quickly floated by the smaller ghost’s side, putting their hands on her shoulders.

“Rebecca! Are you alright!?”

“She seems to be having a panic attack.”

Delilah commented.

“Calm down Rebecca! What’s wrong!?”

“Ha…ha…ha! E-Esther! B-Big Sister Esther!!”

“…Oh you’re worried about Esther…”

“T-those awful humans! T-they…”

A strange dark aura emitted from Rebecca. The other ghosts backed away as the darkness expanded and consumed the entire sky. The small ghost eyes turned dark and her teeth turned into fangs as she started snarling like a wild animal.

“THEY KILLED BIG SISTER! HOW DARE THEY! HOW DARE THEY!”

As Rebecca was thrashing around one of the ghosts was screaming out to her.

“Little Becca, you need to stop! If you keep releasing your mana like that you could destroy the atmosphere!”

“DROWN! I WILL DROWN IT!”

“Reliqua Wild Cordis…”

Delilah appeared behind Rebecca and put her ghostly hand on her back. A green light emitted from her palm and then the small ghost stopped crying and started to calm down. Rebecca then let out a loud yawn and fell back into Delilah’s arms peacefully going to sleep.

The other two ghosts approached while letting out sighs.

“Even after death, her magic is still so troublesome…”

“It’s because she’s a spirit that her magic is more powerful,” Delilah explained. “Mana is the source of life of the planet and being a soul is being the embodiment of earth itself.”

“That’s right! Esther said that using magic was calling upon the spirits of the world!”

“Yes, Esther’s magical connection to the planet is stronger than any witch I have ever known.”

“But now she’s…”

The three ghost witches were silent for a bit. Delilah eventually broke the silence.

“We have to set Esther free.”

“B-but how? Her Bound was WAY more complicated than ours! A Hundred Layered Bound!”

“We couldn’t do anything when we were alive but now that we spirits do you think—“

Delilah shook her head.

 “Did you not sense the density of the Mana behind Esther’s tomb? We would need the souls of nearly a million witches to tear it down.”

“And we don’t have nearly that many witches…even if we freed the others who are sealed in other Bounds around the town it still wouldn’t be enough…”

“…It’s funny the only one who could probably free Esther is Esther herself. She would definitely be powerful enough to break the Bound…”

“ Indeed…Esther’s power is beyond this world’s comprehension.”

“Maybe if we find someone as strong as Esther we could use them to break the seal…”

The three ghosts started giggling.

“Yeah right! Like there is anyone who is as strong as—“

At that moment the three ghosts felt an extremely strong presence. They looked far off into the distance as a fiery wind blew past them and blew them around like kites in a wild wind. The intense aura was even able to wake Rebecca up from her slumber.

“H-huh? Esther…?”

Delilah looked down at Rebecca, completely shocked that the girl woke up.

“My sleeping spell was undone? Did that mana…?”

“The hell was that!? Where did that magic come from!?”

The other two ghosts started to freak out. 

“I-I don’t know! Is there a witch as powerful as Esther in this era?”

“Someone…as powerful as Esther…”

Rebecca’s words were soft as if she was in a trance. Delilah smiled widely. 

“ Just our luck…let’s go see this witch…”

The four ghosts flew down to Gringerfield. As they flew by they left behind fog and strange glowing blue, green, and pink flowers in their wake. The four eventually made it to a neighborhood and flew past an old man who was walking his dog.

While Delilah and Rebecca flew past the old man, the loud ghost just went through him. Once the ghost girl passed the old man, he stopped and started screaming aloud. 

He fell to his knees and horrifying branches and flowers stuck out of his body killing him. His dog started barking aloud and ran away from the tree that was once his owner.

The three ghosts turned back around to see what their friend had done..

“Sarah.”

The ghost who was known as Sarah, stopped.

“Hm? What is it?”

“Be careful! We don’t want to alert anyone!”

“No one can see us, Rachel. Of course, unless they are sorcerers.”

“But your Mana is hard to control,” Delilah commented as she pointed to the dead tree man being Sarah. “People will begin to question how that man died and may even start to get suspicious of paranormal forces being involved. Until we get Esther and the others back we need to be careful.”

Sarah blew a raspberry.

“Whatever…”

“Can someone get rid of that thing?”

Rachel yelled out as she pointed at the dead tree man. But everyone glanced at her. The ghost groaned aloud and floated over to the corpse.

“Why does it always have to be me?”

Rachel takes out a ball that seems to encompass the earth itself. We don’t see what she does but the body is no longer present except for an old lady. Rachel seemed to be surprised by the old lady’s presence and could not contain her excitement.

“I could never do that before! Being a spirit is fun!”

“Now that that’s settled, let’s go.”

The ghost girls continued onward as Rachel lagged behind calling out to them.

“Wait! Guys! You don’t think this is amazing? Guys! Come on! Don’t you want to see what I can do? GUYS!!”

The four ghosts floated past multiple houses until they made it to their destination. 

“Is this the place?”

Sarah asked as she pointed towards the Pellington House.  

“This is where the powerful mana came from.”

Rachel said, “I sense a few souls in there. I can’t exactly pinpoint which one it was.”

“I can.”

The other ghosts look at Rebecca who continues to stare up at the house with a creepy smile and wide-open eyes.

“I can feel the presence of Big Sister…”

“It’s not Esther Rebecca,” Sarah replied as she rolled her eyes. “But whoever is in that house will help us set her free.”

Delilah nodded in agreement and turned to Rebecca.

“Lead the way, Rebecca.”

Rebecca floated into the house while the others followed her. They moved through the floors slowly and then made it to the upper floor. The four spirits floated past where the room Mr. and Mrs. Page were sleeping and even the other adults. Finally, they made it to the room where Nicholas and George were.

Half of George’s body was on the floor while his legs were on the bed. The TV was left on with a kid’s program making a lot of noise. And Nicholas was sleeping soundly on the other bed at the other side of the room. His snores were loud and shook the whole room.

Rebecca floated to Nicholas and put her face extremely close to his while breathing heavily.

“This is her! This is Big Sis!”

“That’s not Esther! It’s just some fat boy!”

Sarah shouted. Delilah floated right next to her and observed Nicholas.

“But he is the source of the mana we felt.”

“He’s a witch?”

Rachel asked as she looked at Nicholas with disgust. 

“The more proper term would be wizard,” Delilah answered. 

Sarah grumbled, “Well, let’s wake him up!”

Rebecca pinched Nicholas’s right cheek causing the boy to yell out in pain and wake up with a start.

“Ouch! W-what pinched me?! H-huh…?”

Nicholas looked up to see the four ghost witches and his face immediately turned pale.

The four ghosts smiled and waved at Nicholas.

“He can see us! So he definitely is a wizard!”

Nicholas started hyperventilating and shaking.

“Hello brother, may you please come with us and—“

Nicholas screamed to the top of his lungs causing the ghosts to cover their ears. The overweight boy jumped off his bed and tried to run but since he was not looking where he was going he slammed face first into the wall and fell on his back unconscious.

Once Nicholas was out cold the girls took their hands out of their ears and looked around the room to see if anyone else was altered. Sarah turned back to see that George was still fast asleep.

“He’s a heavy sleeper…”

“I guess that’s his first time seeing spirits like us. Maybe trying to ask for help was a foolish effort.”

“It doesn’t matter…”

Rebecca went to Nicholas and held out her hand. Her fingernails grew larger as a small magic circle appeared in her hand. 

“He will be the key…to free Big Sister whether he likes it or not. Lorum tenebrarum!”

Nicholas then woke up with a sharp breath as his eyes turned pitch black. He stood up seemingly lifeless and looking like a zombie.

“Rebecca!” Sarah screamed. “That spell is dangerous! It could destroy his soul!”

Delilah commented, “If he is still under it for more than an hour. But we do not plan to wait.”

Delilah put her hands together as if she were praying as a glowing magic circle appeared on the floor. The ghost girl at first closed her eyes and then opened them again which were now glowing as bright as stars. She also no longer was blue or transparent as fully had flesh surrounding her body. Her hair became blonde as flowers and branches grew from the side of her hand and shoulders.

“Portitorem Mundi!”

Coming out of the magic circle was a monster similar to a fish but its body was made of grass and dirt. Multiple different color eyes surrounded its strange body and it had four insect-like wings on its back.

While Sarah and Rachel carried Nicholas the group went onto the creature as it let out a horrible screech and then floated out of the house. With incredible speed, the creature flew back to the forest and appeared in front of the tomb.

“That was quicker than I expected,” Rachel stated. “Also, where did you learn this spell Delilah?”

Delilah answered, “Esther taught me. This beast is a fairy. A being made of magic.”

“So this is a fairy?”

Sarah started to pet the beast. 

“I thought fairies had a cuter appearance.”

“Fairies are beings that hold both holy and demonic magic. Their form varies from which side of the world they lean towards.”

“That’s interesting…I want a fairy as a familiar.”

“Can we go now?”

Rebecca proceeded to whine like a child which annoyed the other girls.

“Alright alright—let’s go!”

The four girls led the hypnotized Nicholas to the tomb and forced him inside. They walked down the seemingly endless stairs and entered a room where a singular coffin with strange markings and horrifying images on the wall surrounded it.

“Now Rebecca commands him to use the unsealing spell.”

“Repeat after me Big Brother. Revelare vinctum sic vera anima invenietur - Unveil the Bound So That the True Soul May Be Found…”

“Unveil the Bound So That the True Soul May Be Found…”

“Vera Animae Forma Sit Parere More - May a Soul’s True Form give birth to More…”

“May a Soul’s True Form give b-birth to M-more…”

As Nicholas was emotionlessly repeating Rebecca’s words he was holding out his left arm which emitted smoke. Then flames exited from his body and slithered over to the coffin-like snakes. They clung to the stone coffin and covered it in a blanket of fire.

“Iacuit super stratum, dolorem super dolorem, et mors super vitam. Sit gerens mundi immunis a peccati potentia!”

“…He lay upon the bed, pain upon pain, and death upon life. May the bearer of the world be immune from the power of sin!”

At that moment the flames exploded outwards and the room was filled with many small lights. The stone coffin then had a circle lock which held multiple strange letters. They turned over and over. As the lock kept turning Nicholas was groaning, spasming, and blood trickled from his nose.

After the symbols formed a certain pattern it glowed and the darkness of the universe with stars and galaxies bursted out from the coffin.

Nicholas closed his eyes and fell limp, but the four ghosts did not care. Popping out of the small hole in the lock was a mouth with fanged teeth and an evil grin.

“Caput pomi Eden. Libera te mater terrae…”

The lid was destroyed and springing from the coffin was a young girl in a ruined dress that seemed to have been partially burned away. She looked even worse than the others, being close to that of a corpse in her appearance with her skin looking more decayed and her eyes being pitch black. 

“ESTHER!”

“I…am free!”

Esther raised her arms to the air while declaring her freedom with a loud booming voice. Then a powerful pulse radiated throughout the entire Town. In certain sections of the town, tombs, burial spots, and strange relics released other ghost witches who seemed to be sealed in them. Thousands of them flew into the air like a flock of birds and traversed all the way to the Saltberry Wood Forest.

They appeared before Esther and smiled.

“…I have returned my sisters…”

Esther then looked over at the unconscious Nicholas who was still standing. She walked over to him slowly and grabbed his face.

“Thank you…Nicholas…”

And then Esther kissed Nicholas on his cheek.