“Keep reading, Ollie,” Red ordered.
Ollie continued reading. “‘How dangerous a particular cluster ghost is can be determined loosely by the number of pieces that make up the clothing they wear. The more bound together patches, the greater number of ghosts it is currently merged with.’ Oh, that’s…yeah, that’s not good. Just…none of it is good!”
While part of him didn’t want to know just how much danger his poor Baby had been in without them knowing, he had to ask, “By your guess, how many did yours have?”
“More than ten?” the man said hesitantly, before his brow furrowed and with a frustrated huff, he corrected, “Maybe twenty? I don’t know! I didn’t exactly stick around to count, and it wasn’t like I could see all sides of them, just the front.”
Red snorted. “Then I can only assume it failed to hurt you because it intended to play with you first.”
He glared at the familiar when Ollie shuddered and let out a whimper. “Did you have to word it that way?”
“I’m not here to coddle him. He stumbled into a dangerous situation, and luckily managed to get away unscathed. Unfortunately, it's impossible to know how far along the cluster ghost is in its transformation, but we can only hope it hasn’t managed to actually kill someone. However, just because it hasn’t, that doesn’t mean it can’t, or that it can’t cause some serious damage. Now…” The cat looked at Ollie. “Keep reading.”
The little witch huffed, “Fine… ‘Cluster ghosts have an intense hatred for the living, specifically for humans. Once individually focused before they merged, it became a singular, unwavering, ingrained hatred for all living human beings in the aftermath. The creature’s only purpose is to grow in numbers, and ultimately, consume the living.
“‘While cluster ghosts are not person-, location-, or object-locked as regular ghosts are, they tend to choose a single location and remain there for up to a year before moving on to the next. As it isn’t always possible to know how long one has been there, it is best to remove the cluster ghost as soon as possible to avoid the risk of it changing its location.’”
Ollie turned the page. “‘Before getting into how to remove and/or destroy the cluster ghost, it’s important to be aware of the dangers. Cluster ghosts tend to try to latch on to—or strike out at—their victims with their claws, often causing physical damage.
“‘While one does want to avoid their claws, as that alone could result in death if the creature is strong enough, the real reason to avoid their touch has less to do with possible external injuries and more to do with the mental imagery they can project into their intended victim’s mind. One of the cluster ghost’s main methods of killing is mentally destroying the minds of those they touch, leading to self-harm and suicide.
“‘With this in mind, when engaging with a cluster ghost, it is best to try to maintain a distance of at least four feet. If that is not possible, and restraint is required in the process of destruction, it is important to do all you can to avoid their hands, as it is only through the palms of their hands that they can slip into your mind. Unlike normal ghosts, while it may be rather easy to touch a cluster ghosts, please be aware that, to actually restrain them in their non-corporeal form, does require spell intervention, as they otherwise can, and will, easily slip free.
“‘To note, while them gaining a physical form is the last thing one wants, it does, however, leave them vulnerable in some ways. The only way to truly injure a cluster ghost is when they're in that form, but once injured, that then prevents them from shifting out of their corporeal form until they have time to regenerate, leaving them open to further attacks.’”
Noble had known that it was through the hands, but he hadn’t realized it was specifically the palms one should avoid. Or that them gaining a corporeal form meant you could actually hurt them. But then, it wasn’t as if Noble had dealt with cluster ghosts often, or really at all, when he’d been active as a hunter, even though he had been required to report it if he ever ran across one. The order was always to report and not engage.
Noble, however, wasn’t surprised that it was best practice, even for witches, to get rid of them as soon as possible. As far as he knew, while normal hunters didn’t deal directly with clusterghosts, upper management would send a special team to get rid of them, due to the danger they posed towards humans.
Ollie frowned slightly as he turned the page, taking his time to scan over the words. “Looks like we have a spell, and a potion we need to make to get rid of it. One of the ingredients doesn’t sound real, while the others may be hard to find. Though, I likely can order most of it online, and possibly find some of it at a specialty herb store, but one ingredient I’m not exactly sure?—”
Noble cut him off. “You do not want to get what you need online or from some random grocery store.”
Red let out a clearly put-out sigh before almost begrudgingly admitting, “He is right, and we won’t have anything here that wouldn’t be too old to use, even if you had access to it.”
Ollie huffed. “Let me guess, another hidden room?”
Red shrugged. “Regardless, freshness when it comes to potions is important. And as it is a cluster ghost of undetermined strength that you’ll be dealing with, this caution is even more important. That being said…I’ll have to get back to you on where you can go. As I’m not entirely certain which witch-owned underground apothecaries are still open in the area, or if the ones I’m thinking of just moved.”
Yeah, he had to say, when apothecaries became less of the norm, for a while there it made finding witches really fucking easy... The aftermath of it was that it sent them underground and increased the frequency of them moving. Noble may have had a slight urge to apologize for being part of that. If only for the fact that it would now make things harder for Ollie. His conscience may have risen from the dead, but it didn’t necessarily mean it was that great of one.
Ollie hummed. “Okay…there is one other thing that may be a problem. With the spell, it appears we need the name of the person who currently is the face of the cluster ghost.”
“That I can’t help you with,” Red said with a chuckle. “However, with their removal being considered high priority by most witches, with even witch hunters going after them whenever they come across them, and the fact that it’s harder for cluster ghost to consume older ghosts, it shouldn’t be that hard to identify the person, as they likely haven’t been dead that long.”
“Even witch hunters? Does that mean there is a way to get rid of it that doesn’t involve magic?” Ollie asked.
There was, but… “There is a way, but from what I know, you need a lot of people involved, and it’s a hell of a lot more dangerous, with a higher risk of death.”
The witch grimaced. “Right, I’ll definitely be sticking to the method that involves a spell. I guess, Red, you can figure out where to buy this stuff, while I try…to sketch the man from memory.”
Red grunted, “If there wasn’t a risk involved, I’d suggest going back to refresh your mind about what he looked like, but as there is, and as we don’t know exactly how powerful this thing is, it’s best that you don’t go near it until you are ready to get rid of it.”
Ollie sighed. “It’s a good thing I have a great memory. What about the risk of it moving before we are ready?”
Noble clucked his tongue. “It’s a risk we are just going to have to take. It will only show itself when it wants to, and based on how that alleyway is set up, if I’m remembering correctly, there isn’t really a way for us to monitor it without being noticed. If it does move, we can worry about tracking it down then.”
“I guess we really should have gotten rid of it first… Sorry.” The witch let out a little distressed groan and slumped over the table, pushing the book out of the way as he buried his face into his arms.
