The Impossible Virgin Omega Wizard

'Ghost' (Part 2)

Strong arms suddenly reached around and pulled him out. He landed with a thud on the floor, his glasses skewed upon his face, gasping for breath. He felt a hand grab at him and he opened his eyes to see a concerned Liam looking down upon him.

Had he been the one to pull him out, he wondered but then he heard a familiar voice and turned his head toward it.

Moon Tae Hyun, the alpha, stood beside him, his arms covered with lacerations so numerous he looked as though he was wearing some kind of avant garde lace sleeve.

Yoo Jin looked down to his own arms and saw the same patterns, blood dripping down from the ones that were deeper than the others. He didn't have to look at the rest of his body to know that the marks were there as well.

"Can you stand?" Liam whispered to him. "We need to get out of here."

"There's no point in running," Tae Hyun said, his eyes still glued to the creature. "It'll catch us in a fraction of a second."

"What is it?" Yoo Jin gasped, his voice hoarse and weak. The pressure had likely bruised his larynx. He gazed up at the thing as it hovered in a strange whirling form above their heads. The papers it had freed from their confines fluttered about it viciously and for a moment, against he white forms, Yoo Jin thought he saw that face again.

"We call it 'ghost'. It has no tangible form but it has mind enough to act with purpose."

"What does it want?"

Tae Hyun's eyes remained where they were, vigilantly watching as he responded. "Apparently, it wants you."

"What?" said Liam as his arms gripped Yoo Jin tightly. "What does Yoo Jin have to do with this?"

"I told you, didn't I?" Tae Hyun said, in a serious voice unbefitting of him. "He's a wizard. If I had to guess, I think the impact that caused the hole in 'Omega' tore a rift in our universe and he forced open a dungeon. Though how he was powerful enough to do this is beyond me."

"A dungeon?"

"It's a gate of sorts between our world and theirs. They are all over the world and we have, for the most part, tight control over them but it seems like Yoo Jin's burst of energy earlier today led to a crack in one of the dungeon's walls. It must recognize his mana, his pheromones. That is why it's after him."

"What do we do then?" asked Liam.

"We need to contain it."

"How do we do that?" Yoo Jin asked as he tried to stand with Liam's assistance.

"We can't, I don't have the appropriate vessel."

He gritted his teeth against the sharp jabbing pains. "Then think of something else. We can't just stand here and let it get us."

"Keep an eye on it," said Tae Hyun as he looked around, suddenly remembering a ceramic vase he had seen in the hallway.

"You," he said to Yoo Jin, "I'm going to need you to draw it to me when I am ready."

"What? How?"

But he was already making his way swiftly toward the door. "You'll have to figure that out. You're a wizard too, use your pheromones."

Yoo Jin gave his back a baffled look. He had only just found out that he was a 'wizard', he didn't even know what that meant and what he could possibly do. Tae Hyun had said his pheromones had something to do with something called 'mana' which Yoo Jin could only presume was how that magic was controlled.

But he had no idea how to use it.

He gazed at the creature, which had been slowly inching its way toward where he and Liam stood. Its behavior had changed since Tae Hyun had pulled him out of its vortex, almost as if it was cautious.

Yoo Jin took a tentative toward the door and as soon as he did, he saw the 'ghost' move along with him. It was watching him, hunting him. He looked around, if perhaps he just ran to where the alpha had disappeared then it would follow him and that would be all there was to it but Tae Hyun had said that it was fast, Yoo Jin doubted that he could go more than a yard before it engulfed him again.

He swore, his mind racing. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps there was no way out or perhaps he could simply wait for the alpha but no, that wasn't like him. He couldn't just stand there and wait for this thing to consume him. If only he could... anchor himself.

His gaze turned sharply into the path of the door.

That was it!

Liam's desk and between it and the door to the hallway was a heavy sofa. Those were his anchors. The only problem was that the door was several feet away from the sofa, he wouldn't be able to reach it without letting go.

"It's coming closer," said Liam softly beside him and Yoo Jin turned his head sharply in the direction of the 'ghost'. It was indeed coming closer and now at a marginally faster rate as though it was getting impatient.

There was little time to act.

Yoo Jin pushed Liam to the ground beside him and lunged. Within barely a second, he felt that suffocating 'air' engulf him just as his arms reached out and grasped onto the leg of Liam's desk. He could hear muffled yells from somewhere beside him. And then a moment later another yell, a different voice. The alpha was calling for him.

Using all of the strength he could possibly muster, Yoo Jin began to drag himself forward with his arms. The 'ghost' tried to lift him up and away from the desk but he simply held on tighter, grasping desperately onto its ornate leg, the fake gold glistening luminously as his arms burned from the exertion.

His throat, nose, chest, legs and everything else began to burn. He could feel new lacerations form all over his body as he inched along until he reached the edge of the sofa.

His eyes watered as he gazed at the distance between it and the door. He needed to do something but if he let go, the thing would simply raise him up and away and all this work and pain would have been for nothing.

But there wasn't anything he could do, he would simply have to try and reach for it. He let go of his right arm, gripping onto the sofa even more tightly with his left hand, feeling the muscle bulging painfully as he reached forward. His body levitated even higher off the floor. But he was still several inches away. The only way for him to make it would be to let go and leap but there was no possibility for success in that route. The ghost would consume him completely.

Then suddenly a broom handle appeared in front of his face and he looked up to see Liam standing only inches away from him, offering it to him. He could see the concerned look on his friend and mentor's face.

Without a second thought, Yoo Jin grabbed at the handle and let go. But the 'ghost' suddenly reached forward, and to Yoo Jin's horror, quickly consumed the handle, then the broom's head, and finally Liam himself. With wide, painful eyes he watched as Liam's mouth opened in a silent scream as cuts much larger and deeper than the ones that were inflicted on either himself or Tae Hyun ripped at his friend.

Yoo Jin yelled but the only sounds made were in his head as he tried to swim, scramble toward Liam while the 'ghost' lifted them higher and higher into the air.

A large gash formed across Liam's beautiful face, ripping the pristine skin from the left edge of his forehead to the bottom of his right cheek. He screamed as his eyes rolled back into his head. Yoo Jin yelled, struggling viciously, bloodingly slashing at the air as he felt something burst in his mouth and a bitter metallic taste filled it.

And then he saw it again. That face, that strange face in the empty clearness.

Then blackness engulfed him.