Atlas: Stepping Into The Paranormal World

"Freya?"

Atlas was stunned beyond words and couldn't help but blink a few times.

Why did she show up here and where exactly did she just drop down from?

"Hm, it's me." Freya nodded, ignoring the agonizing scream coming from below her.

"Get off me you bitch! I'll kill you, I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!" The ghost screamed.

"Hm." Freya nodded, looking quite nonchalant.

Atlas couldn't help but shudder at everything that just came out of that thing's mouth yet this girl was this relaxed.

"Ayro."

The moment she called out that name, the fiery ring blade came flying straight toward her.

The flames were still burning around the blade when she caught it with her bare hands and seeing that, Atlas couldn't help but widen his gaze in shock.

Noticing his gaze, Freya couldn't help flashing him a smile.

'God, what is going on tonight?'

"You've caused trouble for far too long," Freya said before pulling out a white paper talisman from her pocket.

Afterwards, she moved quickly, squatting down to slap the talisman on the ghost's forehead.

The ghost got sucked into the talisman instantly and she picked it up and squished it back into her pocket. It seemed just like any trivial matter to her.

With the problem now gone, Freya turned back to Atlas flashing him a smile as always.

"Can you not smile like that?" Atlas said. He couldn't hide the disgust on his face.

"Oh."

That was a whole bucket of cold water on Freya's mood and now she looked a bit sullen.

Atlas didn't pay much attention to her expression as his gaze shifted to the flaming blade ring she was still holding.

Apparently, he was still wondering how she was able to hold onto that thing as he could feel the heat coming off it just from where he was standing.

Noticing his gaze, Freya quickly put the blade ring behind her. She returned her hands later, and the whole thing was gone.

At this point, Atlas didn't have the strength to be shocked anymore.

"So, are you going to explain what's going on?"

He needed an explanation and the person in front of him looked like he could provide it.

"Oh, I thought you were never going to ask," Freya said.

She seemed to be sulking leaving Atlas a bit confused.

"That was a ghost just now." She said matter-of-factly. "When someone isn't satisfied with the way they die they end up becoming a ghost just like that one."

To be honest, Atlas already had an answer in his mind, he just couldn't believe it and wanted Freya to say something about it first.

He was also sure that he wasn't dreaming, everything that had just now was as real as real can be.

He was a bit rattled by the whole ordeal, but there was no way he was going to let himself collapse in front of this girl.

"What did you do to it just now?" He asked, maintaining his calm facade.

"Oh, I trapped it using a trapping talisman." She said, pulling out the talisman. "This one has done a lot of horrible things so he'll be going to hell for his punishment."

"Bad things?"

"Huh? Don't you know about what happened in this neighbourhood two weeks ago?"

Atlas carefully searched his memory but he couldn't find the answer to that question.

An exasperated Freya had to do the honours of explaining.

This neighbourhood wasn't usually this quiet at night, Atlas only noticed it was quiet when he came back from visiting his cousin a week ago.

The incident happened after he left so he had no idea of it.

It turned out everyone in the homes in this neighbourhood were all brutally murdered in their homes, their throats were all slit in one day.

The police failed to find any clues so the case turned cold.

Listening to all of that, Atlas couldn't help but gasp but shock.

"Are you saying that ghost…."

"Hm." Freya nodded. "He's the one that did it."

"But why?"

It was strange to ask why a ghost would kill, given how various media portrayed them, but he still felt that there had to be a reason.

"Half of his face was burnt in an accident when he was young and you know how society, people will always talk about stuff like that.

"His mental state became unstable afterwards, and he always felt like everyone staring at him was making fun of him; in the end, he took his life and came back as a ghost to take revenge. Well, that's all I know from piecing things together, I'll have to ask him to know if there's more to it."

"So, he kills everyone he thinks is laughing at him?" Atlas couldn't help but sigh. "That's quite unreasonable."

"You saw it for yourself," Freya said, returning the talisman to her pocket. "So, are you staying here or somewhere else? You can come to my place if you want."

Freya understood that many people who experienced this sort of thing for the first time would naturally be terrified so she was trying to help him out.

Sadly, Atlas was still putting on his calm persona. If he said he wasn't scared then he wasn't scared.

There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of after suddenly finding out that everybody in a neighbourhood close to yours was all slaughtered by a single vengeful ghost.

"I'm not going anywhere," Atlas said with a cold voice before turning around to start walking.

Freya stared at his back for a while and shook her head before deciding to follow him.

Seeing that she was following him, Atlas couldn't help heave a sigh of relief in his mind.

With the sky around dark, Freya didn't bother looking around the mansion and just followed Atlas inside.

After walking inside, Freya made her way to the table in the living room and put the white talisman down on the table.

Atlas, on the other hand, was heading upstairs without even sparing her a glance.

Anyone who saw this would think that Freya lived there and wasn't a guest.

Well, she wasn't really acting like a guest.

"I'm going to interrogate the ghost, you can stay and watch if you want but if not, I'll make sure he doesn't disturb you."

Atlas pondered for a few seconds before turning to her.

"I'll stay."

He had already been exposed to it, there was no point in hiding and pretending it didn't happen.

"Alright." Freya smiled.

It was obvious that she was satisfied with his answer.

She bent down and drew a straight line on the talisman and the moment she was done, the ghost burst out, a thick cloud of dark aura surrounding him.

"You damned sorcerer!"

He shot out a blast of dark aura toward Freya but before it could reach her, she shot out an attack of her own, something like a light blue energy beam.

The dark aura dissipated the moment the two met and the blue beam continued moving forward, hitting the ghost and immediately neutralising most of the dark aura around it.

"You bitch, I'm going to tear you apart!"

The ghost jumped toward Freya as it screamed trying to pounce on her.

"Are those the only words in your vocabulary? How vulgar."

Freya reflexively avoided the ghost and the next second, her right hand burst into flames as she slammed her right palm down the ghost's abdomen to send it tumbling back.

More of the dark aura around it dissipated and now it was grumbling angrily.

He was well aware now that there was nothing he could do against Freya so he turned to the next target.

Maybe with him, he might be able to get out of here without having his soul shattered.

"He's your lover, right? He doesn't seem to be as strong as you, watch me tear him apart!" The ghost sneered.

With Atlas standing close to the stairs, the ghost certainly had the advantage of getting to him faster and he didn't waste time dashing toward him.

Atlas staggered back a few steps in an attempt to avoid the ghost while hoping Freya would do something.

Unfortunately, he saw the person he was hoping to do something, shaking her head with her arms crossed.

Was she sending him to his death?

Well, that wasn't the case because she said something interesting the next second.

"You can't possibly touch him in your current condition."

It was just as he said because just as the ghost was about to reach out to Atlas, two armour-like red dragon wings dropped from above, instantly blocking him.

A loud roar resonated in the ghost's ears as it tumbled back, his body now covered in flames.

"Argh!!!" The ghost screamed in pain as his body burned.

No matter how he tried, the flames just wouldn't go off.

Freya could only click her tongue as she watched the struggling ghost.

"I warned you."