Marcus having used everything he had and more to beat Ander was currently in a state of unconsciousness. The battle had taken a toll on Marcus like no other, leaving not only Irene’s body in tatters but also Marcus’ soul.

‘Ugh what the hell happened, I feel like I got run over by a steamroller, where the hell am I everything around me is just a big white space.’

Looking around, all Marcus could see was endless white light that went on for infinity, until he looked down at his own form to see that it looked like grated cheese.

‘Fuck what the hell happened to me, did I die again and this time I got sent to purgatory… Holy shit what are those, why are there tiny glowing spiders crawling all over me, I absolutely hate spiders.’

Internally screaming as he had a great fear of spiders Marcus could do nothing but watch as they crawled all over his body. After panicking for a few minutes, he finally noticed what the spiders where doing. He saw that they were crawling around his body and using their thread and a sharp needle shaped leg to sew him back together. This seemed to go on for days as Marcus could feel himself slowly being put back into one piece. When he was complete again, he watched as all the spiders simultaneously jumped of into the white void soon falling out of Marcus’ sight. After all the spiders were gone a white orb floated in front of Marcus before it took the form of a familiar person. Standing in front of Marcus was Irene who uttered her final words to him, “Thank you.” And with those last words she turned back into an orb of light and flew into Marcus’ chest.

…

Waking up with a start as he was shunted out of Irene’s body, Marcus stared around at the scene in front of him in surprise. While it had felt like days had passed for him, it appeared that it had only been a few minutes as the ice he had created was only just starting to melt. After looking around the warehouse Marcus noticed two things, one that the tether linking him to Irene’s body had disappeared, and two that he could see the stiches holding his soul together.

‘Damn, I guess that was not a weird hallucinations, I must have broken the soul tether and now my soul has taken permanent damage. I should look over my status and see how bad things are.’

‘Status’

Name: Marcus Ferrous

Age: 28

Race: Unbound Ghost

Level: 15

HP: 620/620

MP: 470/470

STR: – (+39)

AGL: 38

VIT: – (+38)

INT: 47

SPR: 62

Stat Points: 80

Skill Points: 25

Unique Skills: Personal Status, #######

Skills: Small Item Box, Lesser Regeneration Lvl 1, Digging Lvl 1, Fighting Lvl 2, Magic Circulation Lvl 2, Iron Magic Lvl 2, Disassembly Lvl 2, Stealth Lvl 2, Lightning Magic Lvl 2, Creature Appraisal Lvl 2, Fire Magic Lvl 1, Danger Sense Lvl 2, Darkvision Lvl 1, Scythemanship, Superior Lvl 2, Healing Magic Lvl 1

Blessing of Iron

Race Abilities: Invisible, Ethereal, Chill Zone, Float, Possession (Limited), Undying

Possessed Race abilities:

Specter Powers: Ghost Sounds, Spectral Arm

After looking over his status and personal log for over a dozen minutes Marcus was still dumbfounded.

‘What the hell happened to me, I am suddenly level fifteen, and I can sort of understand that since I just killed Ander, but the soul tether is also gone now and when I check my log there is just a huge wall of error messages, with the last one being system rebooting. Also, my spirit stat has increased for no reason, my possession ability is now limited, I have a new specter power, and probably the weirdest thing is that I have a new unique skill that I cannot get any information on.’

While thoroughly looking over his status Marcus suddenly heard a loud, ‘DING, you have mail.’ Before a new message appeared in his log. A bit hesitant to open the abrupt and abnormal mail he soon received another ‘DING, open the mail’ and he realized that this was probably not optional. Opening the mail, the following message appeared in his head.

‘Hello there Marcus, it is good to see that you are back in one piece. I normally would not get so personally involved with anyone, but I cannot let my favorite transfer destroy himself. Also, since you seem a bit confused allow me to enlighten you about what happened. During your fight with whatever his name was you and the fragment of that girl Irene created a really nasty power that is well beyond your current ability. That power while allowing you to beat far stronger opponents shredded your soul into hundreds of pieces, and had I not intervened your soul would have dissipated. As such I have currently sealed away that power since if you used it again before you are ready, even I would be unable to do anything. Also, while I did put you back together as you can see your soul is still only being held together by threads, so I have limited your possession ability to ten minutes a day, so you do not unravel yourself. When you reach level forty, I will release this limit but until then sorry you will have to deal with it. Luckily for you, I am not heartless, as a consolation for sealing some of your abilities I have sent you a unique skill orb that will be most helpful for you.

– Your Favorite Administrator

P.S. This is the second time I have had to personally help you and there will not be another, so I recommend you stop trying to break my system.’

After the message was finished playing in his head Marcus’ brain was overwhelmed and if he was in a cartoon steam would have been blowing out of his ears.

‘This all just so weird, what is going on. I just received a personal message from that crummy administrator that put me here as a ghost, and he has sealed my new power and limited my possession ability. And that P.S. he left seemed really passive aggressive like I pissed him off or something. Oh, whatever I am still “alive” and kicking and even with the soul tether gone I still intend to see Irene’s last wish through. Now, let me see what this unique skill orb has.’

Looking at his log and seeing that the last message had a little gift icon Marcus clicked on it and a vibrant golden orb appeared in his hands. Marcus then saw a message appear that said, ‘Would you like to learn the unique skill: Solid Soul.’

Immediately understanding how powerful this ability would be Marcus quickly learned it and activated it. Once activated Marcus could feel his ethereal body becoming solidified and, soon he was able to physically interact with the world again.

‘This is great, now I do not have to posses other creatures bodies, especially since Irene’s has seen better days. Hopefully, she can forgive me for the sorry state I left it in since I did succeed in fulfilling her last request. Now I need to finish up here before anyone else comes by.’

Marcus then moved to pick up his scythe when he noticed something was a bit off about his new solid form. He had expected to look like he did back on Earth however, he still looked like Irene.

‘What the hell I know I have been in her body for nearly two months now but, I still have the soul of a man.’

Turning his solid soul skill off, when he was back in his spiritual form, he noticed that he still looked like Irene. He then focused on himself trying to feel why he was stuck as Irene, and when he pictured himself looking like he did originally his appearance changed back. Fascinated by his new ability Marcus switched between himself and Irene multiple times before he was satisfied.

‘Now this could be useful, I can seamlessly switch between myself and Irene, now that I think about it the fragment of her soul did merge with me so it makes since that I can still take her shape.’

Solidifying himself once again this time in his original appearance, Marcus collected his scythe and stored Irene’s body ready to finish the job he had started.