Ghosts have the fantastic ability of being non-corporeal beings, meaning that they have the amazing power of passing through corporeal things, and physical objects, and all of that. So I need Rose for that purpose as of now.
Of course, I have the power to extend my own soul outside my body and all, but I am not a complete ghost yet, and I still got a physical body to go around with, which gets in the way, Rose doesn't have this obvious weakness and can get anywhere now, literally.
So, using her help, I will infilter the big graves… in the graveyard.
"So this is the graveyard, it looks more like a garden to me." I said, as I looked around.
"Indeed, it doesn't look like a spooky graveyard!" said Rose.
This place was literally just a big garden made out of bright blue and pink flowers. It was behind the palace and barely got any damage from the battles and stuff, as the palace guarded it with its big size.
The graves were like small monuments here and there, below them, the people was buried in stone cases, I could clearly see that there were many skeletons through my special vision, and by expanding my senses, I was able to see that there were many shiny and glowing objects around… Kukuku… Mana Cores~
The Ice Moon sect also had a graveyard like this, but the corpses didn't had mana cores, they were probably given by the user to someone else through some written paper, but in here there is no such thing, so they're buried with their most precious item and prize.
I walked around as I ordered Rose to move her phantasmal ass. She quickly utilized her newly learned technique as a Shadow Blood Ghost "Shadow Storage" which let her store things inside a small dimension inside her own shadows. She began throwing all the Mana Cores she collected inside.
Meanwhile, as she collected my loot, I walked straight through the garden, and reached the area where the ancestor of the sect was buried… She was named… Yukihime Tsukuyomi Winter Lotus…
I looked into the grave in front of me and the large monument, which showed a figure of her, very faintly, of a beautiful woman wielding an ice katana-like blade and having a five-petal lotus behind her. Wow, they really went all out in this one…
There were also two pink cherry trees at each side of her grave… or his, some idiots like to think the ancestor was a man, as it wasn't properly registered.
But by just looking at her name you can tell it's a woman… But I guess they might not even know the real meaning behind Japanese names, so they think the name doesn't matter and could be either way.
Anyways, no point overthinking this… the delicious thing about this was that she was buried with her dragon who died with her in a war too, so the skeleton of the creature is right at her side, and its big and juicy mana core too.
"Rose."
"I am here, master. I've gathered all the Mana Cores… Additionally, I also found some of them from dragons, just as you had said there would be!" she said.
"Excellent, now collect this one." I said.
"Yes…"
Rose quickly extended her hands into the grave and dived into it.
However…
CLASH!
SPARK!
"Unngh?!"
I had used Rose just in case something like this would had happened… I had the suspicious that there might be some grave guarded by some magic formation or something but was pleasantly surprised that it only happened in the ancestor's grave… this means that there might be something more to it than the eye can see.
I looked into the grave and found out there was indeed a large quantity of runes, hidden in there until the moment someone tried to get inside. The thing is, there is also something- or well, someone else.
"Unngh…"
Rose was suddenly being held by something… or well, someone.
This someone resembled a tall woman with a dignified look in her eyes, her skin was pale blue, with long snow-white hair, sharp pink eyes, and wearing a kimono. She missed her legs, as she only had a phantasmal tail instead, she looked like a ghost.
And she was.
"You dare enter my inheritance, Undead?!" she roared, suddenly, ice gathered around her.
She had not noticed me or is simply fixated in Rose? Well, I wouldn't really like Rose to get more damaged. She was an asshole assassin in her previous life, but she had really grown on me now, so I already feel bad by seeing her like this to the point I want to smack this ghost.
Of course, this ghost was…
"So you're the ancestor. Let her go if you don't want me to exorcize you." I said.
"Hm?"
The woman looked at me, her eyes were sharp. Despite being a ghost, I felt like I was confronting a titan. She was dignified and powerful, even after dying already for way too long. She had not lost her lustrous appearance a single bit, and she seemed filled with power.
"You're…? Ah, I see, so you've been plundering the entire graveyard with this little ghost of yours?" she asked.
I showed her my hand as I covered it in the phantom dark aura of Death Mana.
"And I am a Death Mage and I can easily cleanse your soul. I am confident in that, Yukihime… Let her go if you don't want me to do this without you even realizing." I said.
"…"
The woman squinted her eyes at me, and then finally let go of Rose.
"Urk…"
Rose flew back behind me, like a fearful puppy that was too scared to confront the big dog in front of us.
"Who are you? What is the name of the petulant insolent that dares to come rob my family's grave? You've got the guts." She said.
"You can call me Drake." I said.
