Chapter 18: How To Exorcize

"WHAT DID YOU SAY BRAT!?" The ghost of Trinity screeched as her haunted face warped in an unnatural and horrific manner.

"Yeah, why are you enraging her?" Julia hissed.

"What? You want me to call her stupid instead." Archer said with a shrug.

"Stupid!" Trinity yelled, somehow the ghostly visage looked to be getting red with rage.

"Well you did fall for every rumour Annaxia has been telling you, right?" Archer asked glancing back at Luna.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess." Luna said looking dumbfounded over Archer's current actions.

"I knew it." Julia whispered to herself.

"Shut up! You had a loveless relationship with Codrol!" Trinity accused.

"That doesn't mean that you can steal him and every other guy!" Julia shouted back.

"You know I think I know how you wound up here." Archer said as he taped his right hand first, "You were jealous of a girl named Caroline Song."

Trinity could be seen visibly bristling the moment Archer mentioned that name, Archer chose to ignore her as he began to tape his left hand. As he did so, he continued to talk.

"Caroline Song, is a woman I have met, she's an old lady now, with kids, maybe even grandkids." Archer then turned Julia, "You know she had long dark hair just like you. Tied in a ponytail also. It's grayer now, but point stands."

"She has a family!" The ghost sounding insulted.

"Yes she did!" Archer exclaimed as he finished taping his hands and tested the wrapping by hitting his knuckles against his palms, "With her high school boyfriend to boot, Ben Polja."

"Ben Polja?" Trinity said her voice sounding like venom.

"Yes, been to their house, nice folk, truly care about each other." Archer said as he opened his backpack and stashed his roll of tape into the bag and pulled out a container of rock salt and tossed it to Julia who caught it while being surprised.

Archer then turned to Trinity while holding a bottle of lighter fluid and used it to gesture at the spirit, "Unfortunately, there was this weird creepy stalker that tried to get involved with their love story, I believe that to be you Trinity."

"Stalker? STALKER? ME? That bitch ruined my love story with my prince charming!" Trinity yelled as the familiars under her control began to get more agitated.

"So you admit it." Archer said boldly as he tossed the fluid backwards into the free hand of a slightly panicked Luna, Archer continued to speak, "Funny thing is Ben did mention you, he mentioned how you stalked him and heard about the secret chute down to here. A chute that Caroline did not know about."

"Of course, despite her claims of love she didn't know anything about him!" She spat.

"So here's the situation as I need to figure out." Archer said pacing back and forth while making sure that he kept himself between the monsters and the two girls, "Why are you, a ghost, stuck down here?"

One of the wolf familiars tried to circle around and Archer made sure to step in the way, "From what I gathered is that you tried to lure her to fall down the shaft and be consumed by whatever creatures are down there, or here. Only it didn't quite work and you wound up down here instead."

"She's cunning if nothing else. Stole my man, stole my life! It's my life! I deserve to relive it!" Trinity roared as the familiars began to growl again.

"So in your anger your spirit remained stuck here. Then over the next few decades while your abandoned school items got lost and filtered through the lost and found system, you slowly developed as a vengeful spirit. Tell me, how long before you finally managed to possess the brooch?" Archer asked calmly.

"Funnily enough this year was the first time I got enough power to do it and my first body was great." Trinity said leering at Luna, "So pretty and slim, how lucky." Luna made a face of disgust as Archer proceeded to block Trinity's view as he did so he silently handed her a box of matches.

"Unfortunately it's going to be the last body you possess." Archer said as he began to move forward.

"Is that a threat?" Trinity bristled.

"No it's a fact. I'm going down to that tunnel, the same tunnel I imagine you took to try to escape but failed and died. Find your remains, salt and burn them and free your soul." Archer said, "Because believe it or not, being a vengeful ghost is not good for you."

"Like hell you will." Trinity said as the wolves readied to charge.

"I'll take their attention. There'll still be monsters around, but get to the tunnels, find the body, her remains will be huddled somewhere, hurt and lost, so she could've gone up or down accidentally, find it, salt and burn it. She wouldn't have gone far." Archer quickly said before leaping forward and smashed the front white wolf's head in with a massive flying knee.

As the wolf collapsed and dissolved into the ground Archer proceeded to taunt, "Three decades and that's all you have to offer? Seven wolves? Is that all the power you've been able to generate as a familiar summoner? You really are worthless!"

"You have a death wish!" Trinity screeched as more familiar spirits began to rumble out of the woods, falcons, bears, and large badgers came charging through with Archer meeting them on the pass.

"Protect each other!" Archer ordered as he punched a hole through the first bear he encountered.

Not skipping a beat Julia led Luna past the chaotic cloud of combat that Archer caused. None of the familiars bothered with them as Trinity's order was clear, kill Archer Griffen.

Racing to the tunnels they were immediately enshrouded in darkness. Julia quickly pulled out a flashlight and shone it around the tunnels. Shining it around they saw that the tunnel led in two directions, neither

"I can see how you can go the wrong way." Julia said clicking her tongue as she looked back and forth over the two directions.

"Right." Luna said.

"What?"

"Let's go right. I think she went that way." Luna said sounding confident.

"How are you so sure?"

"I don't know, it just feels right." Luna said as she began to take charge and ran forward.

"Is this some link from getting possessed?"

"Maybe."

"At least some good came from it." Julia muttered before noticing a creature crawling its way along the walls, "Look out!" She shouted.

Luna saw it, it was a strange two-armed creature with an upper body like an armoured human with the lower half replaced with a long-barbed tail. It had an elongated head and a protective outer skull that looked as if it wore a helmet with spikes jutting from the face.

It unhinged its jaw to show its spiked teeth as it launched itself forward. Julia moved faster however and drove her blade through its skull. It gave a dying shriek before dissolving leaving a bright gemstone to clatter onto the floor.

"Thank you." Luna said breathing a sigh of relief.

"Let's keep going!" Julia urged on.

As they continued down the path a crashing could be heard behind them. Glancing back they saw that one of the wolf familiars made its way through the tunnel and spotted them. Archer came charging in as well smashing the wolf into the wall with a shoulder barge.

As the wolf vanished three more familiars jumped onto him attempting to pin him down as a serpent slithered its way past them and towards the two girls.

"Hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up!" Archer shouted as he shoved the three back before smashing one of them into dust with a taped fist.

"Not much further!" Luna said as she took another turn. They ran as fast as their legs could allowed them, sucking in air as they did their best not to fall on the uneven footing in near darkness. After who knew how long Luna halted and Julia nearly collided into her.

"What's going on?" Julia asked in a panic.

"She's here. Somewhere." Luna said as she scanned the area, "Buried somewhere." She said before she began to rummage around the stones.

"We need to hurry." Julia said as she began to help. They didn't have much time to search as they heard a hiss right behind them.

The serpent hand made its way to them and coiled up and launched itself at Julia. Too slow to react, Julia could only raise an arm up to try and shield herself as the serpent struck. Fortunately for her, Luna was there, with one swift strike she cut off the head of the serpent.

The head fell right next to Julia still snapping for something as the body writhed around the floor. Julia quickly kicked the head away from her before turning to Luna.

"Thank you, you just saved my life."

"Least I can do." Luna said noticing Archer was no longer dealing with the familiars but fighting Trinity's ghost herself.

It was an odd fight, it was clear that Archer was the stronger of the two, but with Trinity being a ghost, she couldn't die. Archer would land strikes on the incorporeal being making contact momentarily before she phased in and out.

Luna turned and helped Julia with the search realizing what was happening. Trinity was getting desperate, which meant that they were close to her body, but also meant that she was fighting far harder. She was throwing herself into the fight in hopes that it would allow one of her familiars to sneak past Archer and get them, it almost worked.

Luna stared intently around the area before she noticed an oddly familiar-feeling area of the ground. Quickly she reached down and found herself grabbing a corner of a stone and managing to push it aside she saw it.

A small hole two feet deep and barely large enough to fit a person was uncovered. Within the hole lay the curled-up bones of Trinity Boen. Both Lune and Julia took pause for a second, acknowledging the sad fate that this student had befallen.

Trinity's ghost however did not take pause, realizing that her body was uncovered she surged forward straight towards the two. Archer was stunned at the speed Trinity suddenly had, it seemed that she was throwing everything she had into this charge.

Archer leapt and managed to tackle Trinity to the ground. Archer then blinked as he noticed his grip slipping, not due to Trinity overpowering him, but because his arms were passing through her. Even the tape could only keep a hold of her for so long.

"Oil and salt now!" Archer shouted towards them.

Snapping out of their moment of pity they immediately acted. Luna opened the bottle of lighter fluid and quickly dumped the contents onto the bones while Julia tossed the rock salt in. The large grains scattered onto the bones mixing in with the oil.

Luna then opened the matchbox and scrambled to light one as Trinity slipped out of Archer's grip. Trinity rapidly closed the distance, just as she was going to wrap her long gnarled fingers around Luna's delicate neck when the lit match dropped.

Trinity froze in place barely an arm's length away from Luna in midflight. A second later while still stuck in place she extended her jaw and let loose a banshee-like scream. As Julia and Luna covered their ears they watched as Trinity's ghostly visage began to change.

Then it thrashed wildly around in place her body glowing and blurring. Then parts of her began to dissolve away into nothingness. Watching her slowly disappear there was a brief moment where they saw the monstrous form turn into the normal high school girl Trinity Boen. Her eyes were closed but on her face was a peaceful smile, seconds later her entire body dissolved.

Archer immediately got up and walked over to the two still staring at nothing and congratulated them, "Hey, the ghost is gone, you guys did great."

Him talking to them brought them back to reality, "So she's gone, no more hauntings?" Luna asked.

"Yep, we can go home now. Still we will have to climb back up to the surface, though I doubt the monsters will be bothering us now." Archer said as he examined the skeletal remains of Trinity Boen, she wore the basic armour still given to students of lower ranks.

"Why are the bones barely affected by the fire if she disappeared?" Luna asked peering down.

"Salt and burning is a ritual, you can't actually burn bones until around eight hundred degrees Celsius. It's the ritual that does it, not the heat itself." Archer explained.

"She looked happy when she disappeared." Julia said.

"Well she was a vengeful spirit that finally found peace. I'll be telling Professor Phil and he'll retrieve the remains and send them back to the family."

"You've thought that far ahead huh?" Julia said with a chuckle.

"Eh, it's the right thing to do." Archer said with a shrug and the trio continued up to the second level where Archer paused.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.

"Whoever else also got access to the dungeon is currently on the second level." Archer mused, "I'm gonna go quickly check, you two want to come?"

"Splitting up in a dungeon? Yeah, no." Julia said folding her arms at a shrugging Archer.

It didn't take long for them to find who was inside, it was that F-rank, Petyr Powl. He was somehow at the second level with basic equipment doing rather well for himself. Archer gazed at him curiously, he didn't really fight well but somehow seemed to avoid getting hit with any major attacks. The three watched from behind a corner, confused at how and why he was here.

"Interesting." Archer said, he swore he could see some attacks bouncing off of him, "Well let's go."

"That's it? You make us follow you all the way here and now we just leave?" Julia said annoyed.

"Well we need to report back, besides it's not like we need to talk to him." Archer said as this time all three of them heard movement.

Entering the room from the other tunnel were two angry-looking teachers. The dungeon master Alia Hearthstone and a combat teacher Zhen Chao, he taught a class of theirs earlier this week.

"Powl! What are you doing here?" Alia said looking angry as she approached and in one swift motion destroyed the remaining monsters.

"Oh! Uh…" Petyr said looking at a loss for words.

"Well, they're gonna catch us." Archer said, "But not me alone."

"What? Are you abandoning us?" Julia said alarmed.

"Relax, you both have passes, it will just be easier to explain with just the two of you." Archer said before moving behind a large rock and crouching behind it.

"You can't just leave!" Julia hissed as both she and Luna looked behind the rock only to find that he was gone.

"How does he do that?" Luna said looking impressed.

"Outrageous." Julia said shaking her head.

"Hey you two! Come out!" Zhen shouted at them.

***

"Uh, hello?" An elderly couple asked opening the door to their apartment after hearing the doorbell.

"Hello, are you two Mr. and Mrs. Boens?" Electa Cowen said politely.

"Yes?" Misses Boen said, "And you are?"

"I am Electa Cowen current principal of Trinity Academy."

"Oh, sorry, would you like to come in?" Mister Boen said quickly looking surprised that such an important person was at their door.

"No, no. It's fine I just have some important news for you two." Electa said, "We finally found your daughter's remains in our dungeon. We are going to return it and are paying for the funeral."

"Oh." Misses Boen said looking faint, "You found her, you found our baby." She said as her eyes began to well up.

"I am just doing what I should do, I apologise on behalf of the school for not finding her sooner." Electa said with a deep bow.

Sitting at the stairway Archer peered through the small door window watching with a small smile. They need to install cameras in the stairwell. Archer thought as he leapt down from the eight-story stairwell. He still needed to leave a letter to the Poljas.

***

Sitting inside a nice café Archer, Luna, and Julia enjoyed their meals. As they ate, Luna asked a question that she been wondering about for the last few hours.

"So what happens now?"

"Now you two go back to regular school life. Everything has been taken care of now and no one who doesn't need to know knows. Though I am a bit annoyed that I couldn't get Annaxia involved in this." Archer said between mouthfuls of chicken tender and fries.

"It's fine she isn't worth the time of day." Julia said, "Besides I'll find a way to get even."

"I'm sure you will." Archer said with a chuckle.

"What will you do then? The job is done right?" Luna said.

"I just go back to school too. I'm still a student."

"So that means we can hang out next week?" Luna asked looking happy.

"Absolutely not." Archer rejected immediately.

"What? Why not?" Luna asked looking crestfallen.

"Getting involved with me will only lead to bad things. You two know each other now so that's something, but do your best to stay away from me." Archer said taking a sip of his lime soda.

"But-"

"You have my contact info, if something like this happens again, only then come to me." Archer said sternly.

"You really don't want to make friends huh?" Julia said.

"It's easier for everyone for me alone to know the problems going on. It's my job, not yours, just enjoy your time at school." Archer said.

"There's no convincing you huh?" Julia said with a sigh.

"Nope." Archer said with an infuriating grin.

"Fine, I understand, we'll try not to talk to you much, but if you ever need to talk to someone, we both will be here."

"I'll keep that in mind, and that is very kind of you." Archer said with a nod.

***

Archer walked out of the shower and changed into his sleepwear, as he turned the lights off he checked the time.

 9:08 pm

Tomorrow would be the weekend and that meant two days of rest. Archer got to bed and closed his eyes and for the first time since coming here he got a good night's sleep.

***

"He did it! He did it! He did it!" Sariel cried out in joy as she hugged her sister Mariel.

"I honestly didn't think he could do it." Mariel said with a sigh of relief.

"Yes with the ghost gone this early that means Ran and the others have more time on their training!"

"Not only that but this means that Emmra won't be hurt and be forced to leave the school later!" Sariel said excitedly.

"Would she be important though?" Mariel questioned.

"Well we don't know. Who knows? Archer just changed everything!" Sariel said excitedly.

"But is that even a good thing?" Mariel said looking uneasy, "We have no idea what else might change, it could lead to the destruction of the planet."

"It was already going to lead to destruction, this time even if we don't know what's going to happen, there's a chance."

"A chance? That's why we brought Archer into this world? For a chance?"

"It's more than we've had before." Sariel countered.

Mariel let out a sigh as she relented, "I hope Archer can do it."