"Wonderful idea, Qunith," Talideth responded as she eyed Lorfyn. "But she has a weapon and we do not. I do not think walking up to her and assaulting her is the best idea either."

Talideth looked around, "Too many witnesses as well."

Talideth raised her head at the sounds of gunshots and screaming. She smiled and turned to Qunith, "I do believe we have our cover already Quni."

~*~

The worm bellowed as the gunshots and chaos went on down. Horik and Clorik both waited but Clorik was eager to see the bloodshed. The worm seem to stretch its head out, trying to get in on the action from a safe distance.

Horik approached from behind Seru, Clorik dragging behind her. Her eyes widened and she started digging in her pockets.

"Where uh, where did you come from?" Horik asked as she pulled out bandages when Seru had paused. "Did he come from your area, Seru?"

Shinigami turned to see the two ghosts who had come forward, walking through her fellow superheroes to approach her. Their outlines weren't clear to her yet. They looked like swirling energy and Akiko figured it was because they were newly dead. Maybe no more than a day or two.

"They're people who also got caught in the beas-" Shinigami abruptly cut off in her explanation to Wayland. As the two ghosts walked closer, she could see their figures become more clear. More... jagged. There were bite marks and it looked like they were missing some pieces of flesh. They had suffered a horrible death. Not more than a couple days. Less time than they had been at the hotel.

As the ghosts reached out to her, the Witchfinder lantern began to glow more brightly. Shinigami stepped back but one of them reached forward, desperation clear in her face. While the others hadn't felt the spirits walk through them, Shinigami felt electricty where the ghost's hand had grabbed her arm. The ghost hero cried out but the pain was gone as quickly as it began. The Witchfinder lantern dimmed but didn't go out.

The ghost was gone.

Seeing the fate of the other, the second ghost paused and then turned around. Shinigami watched in disbelief as the spirit fled and she felt a wave of nausea come over her. She fell to one knee and the Witchfinder lantern went out.

"Those were.. Civilians.. Caught in the crossfire," she explained as she tried to ride the nausea out. "Like you, victims of the beast. Resting now."

Shinigami was grateful ghosts weren't lie detectors. Though, she wasn't sure why she felt the need to even lie to Wayland about what had just happened. Perhaps because she had no explanation, or perhaps because she didn't want to explain she had just absorbed a ghost unwillingly.

She stood up slowly and turned to Wayland, saying, "We are very grateful for your help but I think it's time we go. We need time to process this information and we must attend.. the funeral in memory of all of you."

"If there's anything you need however, I am more than happy to fulfill any last requests. Otherwise, I hope your journey is a peaceful one Wayland."

"A presence? Oh the one from that weird place?" Shinigami repeated as she mulled the information over. It was a lot to take in. There were clues though, embedded in his words, his experiences, that now she had to relate to the others.

"We want to do what we can to eliminate this threat, even if it takes us going to the center of all of it," Shinigami said to Wayland. "If it even has a center anyway. Whatever you can give us is fine, even if there's no way to really put it into words."

She turned to the others, "Wayland said he didn't uh, he didn't survive. They didn't try to like kill him specifically but when he ended up on the beach, he was as good as dead. Most likely cuz he was around those other monsters in that weird place. They probably came into contact with him and by the time he ended up here, well, he decayed...He doesn't know how to fight it either. We were able to put up more of a fight thanks to our powers but that beast even gave us problems. We have to look for any clues we can find. He can't give us much unfortunately."

She added, looking back to Wayland, "Though we do appreciate whatever you can give us."

Back to the others, she continued, "What Wayland remembers is that he entered a really run-down house in a swamp he was looking into. It had a tower, a green glow coming from inside. He entered, place erupted. So by the sound of it, he went into the house, ended up in that weird world, and then ended up on the beach. He doesn't know how to get back to that world or that swamp house."

"Though Wayland, what were you investigating that lead to that house specifically?" Shinigami asked. She turned to the others to see if they had additional questions as well. As she did, she could see a couple spirits shambling forth and there was a small red glow from the Witchfinder lantern on her belt, a slight smell of burning in the air.