Setting Out.

In a few hours he would board a carriage heading to one of the cult's smaller cities, but he would get off before it reached the city. The place he wanted to go was a hunting ground filled with over a hundred thousand boars. The cult hunted them for their meat, but no matter how many they killed it never seemed to make a dent in the boar's population. It was the perfect place to make some boar ghost soldiers, there were plenty of other boars for them to feed on, to fatten them up for slaughter. 

The fire in the fireplace was out, the water in the bath barrel was drained, anything with food had been cleaned or put away, and the clean clothes had been put in his storage bag. And after waiting an hour, he left the small house and headed towards the northern gate of the city. Holding the soul orbs in his hand and using his divine sense to sweep his surroundings to find anyone following him but finding nothing. Xavier didn't believe that just because he didn't find anything he was safe, the shopkeeper was former high ranking martial artist, and his attendants were skilled at following people without being noticed, they could be following him outside the range of his divine sense. And if the shopkeeper still maintained his old connections in the cult, it might not simply be attendants that were watching him.

When Xavier arrived at the northern gate, he saw a long carriage and a team of eight large horses. Stading by the door of the carriage was an old man dressed in dark red taking coins from people before they entered the carriage. Xavier was about to head towards the man in red when he noticed someone hiding in the shadows with his divine sense. And where there was one, there was sure to be more. It didn't take long to find two more, all dressed like attendants, there might be more outside the range of his divine sense.

It didn't matter; he injected spiritual energy into the soul orbs and the two little ghosts appeared in front of him. Xavier disliked naming things; he was never good at it. So to make things easier he named the two little ghosts First and Second. A few seconds after they had been released, they ran as fast as they could towards the closest two attendants. A few minutes later they were dead, and the little ghosts were racing towards the third, the first to arrive would get to devour the soul. 

But Xavier's attention was focused elsewhere before the race had ended. The shopkeeper dressed in furs was walking down the road with several of his attendants. The shopkeeper stood a distance away, staring at Xavier. The attendants with the shopkeeper also looked at him, while stealing glances at the areas where the three attendant's corpses now lay. When they arrived, they looked confident, and when their three companions filed to emerge from their hiding places they began to look fearfully concerned. One of the attendants whispered something to the shopkeeper, and a look of rage appeared on the shopkeeper's face. 

But it was too late, the winner of the race had already finished its meal, and along with its brother began closing the distance. When the duo was close enough to strike, Xavier began pouring most of his spiritual energy into the ghost orbs, he wasn't going to have the little ghosts just devour the souls of two of the attendants, he was going to have them possess the attendants. The little ghosts jumped into the attendants standing the farthest back, the only signs they had become possessed was a little body shaking and the fact their eyes were now completely black.

Xavier gave a toothy grin to the shopkeeper, but before the shopkeeper could react to this provocation, there was a commotion behind him. Two of his attendants had pulled out their daggers and started stabbing their comrades to death. 

"What are you doing!" The shopkeeper's yell had brought the attention of everyone around, and everyone seemed eager to see a fight. 

The body Second was possessing was the first to attack, launching a stabbing attack at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper dodged the dagger and landed a powerful palm attack to the chest right above the heart of Second, this sent him flying backwards. The shopkeeper then turned to face First, when First stabbed towards the shopkeeper, his dagger was knocked out of his hand and the shopkeeper's blade slashed deeply into First's throat. Blood gushed from the wound, but instead of falling down dead like the shopkeeper expected, First charged towards the shopkeeper and was sent flying with a kick to the stomach. The palm attack that Second had received shredded his heart and shattered his ribs into his lungs, this should have been a fatal attack, which his why the shopkeeper ignored what happened to Second. Just after the shopkeeper kicked First away, he felt pain in his back, Second was behind him, stabbing him over and over again. After the sixth or seventh time he was stabbed, the shopkeeper fell to the ground dead.

When the shopkeeper died, the bodies First and Second collapsed to the ground dead. The two little ghosts began to devour the souls of the dead as a crowd gathered to see the carnage inflicted on the shopkeeper and his attendants. By the time the city guards showed up and dispersed the crowd, Xavier had paid for his ticket and was sitting in the carriage.

When the little ghosts had finished their meals, they returned to Xavier by climbing up through the floor. They were now almost as tall Xavier, but their bodies were no longer as clear as before. They had devoured many souls in a short amount of time and had been contaminated. Xavier would need to use his soul fire to purify the little ghosts of the remnants of the souls they devoured, if left unchecked it could make the ghosts unstable. Unstable ghosts may refuse commands or even attack their masters. He still had time, but it should be done before they feast on more human souls.

Recalling the little ghosts into their soul orbs, Xavier sat back and relaxed. The inside of the carriage was warm, thanks to a small metal wood burning stove, it would be more than enough to keep the dozen or so people warm till the carriage reached the first way station. Once there, people would get off the carriage and spend the night in the way station, in the morning some would return to the carriage or get on a different carriage heading to a different location. Xavier was planning to get off the carriage at the end of the second day of travel and head to the hunting grounds.

After a while the door of the carriage was closed and a small jolt signaled that the carriages journey had begun. A minute later and the carriage passed through the city gate. When the carriage got up to speed it was bumpy, and although the bench he was sitting on had a stuffed leather cushion, it wasn't nearly as comfortable as he had wished.