Aldric focused on the {Create Spectre} skill in his notification window after both he and Anastasia decided that it was the only real means of defeating the marauders and taking back their fief.

  After reviewing their memories they had decided retaining their noble identity was crucial in this world since being a noble would open many doors for them allowing access to the resources they required to grow.

  Not to mention it would be difficult even if they were stronger than Clayton was to attain the fief they have now if they were to lose it to the marauders since deserting the fief to escape would cost them everything as a noble and losing their fief to a bunch of marauders would be considered humiliation.

  Aldric and Anastasia both knew from their memories that they could not ask for any assistance from the nobles nearby either, since requiring the assistance of another to retake the fief from marauders would be gravely frowned upon.

  The identity of a noble was considered highly valuable, and the Kingdom was always in need of available land to grant strong, valuable awakened who had achieved great merits territory to tie them to the crown.

  If their Father, Clayton was alive it would be a different story, but being a pair of fresh awakened who have achieved nothing of note, requesting the aid of a noble to take back the fief from the marauders would be the perfect opportunity to strip them of their title and use it as a reward for a powerful awakened that has great merits.

  Therefore, they needed to act fast in dealing with the marauders before the opportunistic individual's intervention.

  However, the main issue is they required a small army to defeat the marauders, and since their families' standing guard had all been practically eliminated, dealing with the marauders that was well over two hundred strong would’ve usually been an impossible task for two greenhorn nobles.

  Yet they were not ordinarily awakened and possessed the perfect abilities to rectify these problems.

  Aldric knew what he was about to do could be considered immoral, the very skill punctuated it belonged to a Ruler of Darkness after all, yet he felt no real guilt at the thought of what he was about to do.

  After all none of these marauders were good men and had openly slaughtered not just his father's guards, but even the servants who were of no threat to them just because they did not want to have the bother of feeding them under lock and key.

  Aldric and Anatasia were already rapidly integrating with their new identities, and although have not completely lost their former identities of another world, found themselves perfectly adapting to their new bodies.

  They felt exactly like Aldric and Anastasia, just more seeming to have merged with their souls becoming a mixture of their personalities.

  They had no idea how it worked but the rage both twins felt towards the marauders who butchered, not only their Father but the servants, and guards who were present throughout their childhoods demanded to be sated.

  And Aldric knew who the perfect target to test his new skill on would be, his thoughts drifting to that of the rat-raced man who was their would-be jailer making him think he couldn’t have found a more perfect target.

  Focusing on the {Create Spectre} skill he decided to try it out, meanwhile, his mind split off as Anatasia was looking through her abilities.

  And after reviewing them it seemed that {Soul Sight} was rather unique, allowing her to view the auras of individuals, she had yet to see awakened other than them so does not know for definite but when viewing their auras she was able to see a bright signature that enveloped the outline of their bodies, which after summarising identified that this likely reflects what the aura of an awakened would look like.

  And she was satisfied after seeing something else, it seemed thanks to the uniqueness of their soul, the nature of their energy was entwined, meaning that if another who had a similar skill to hers was to look at their aura, the light aura brought from her path seemed to encompass the darkness from Aldric’s, whose dark aura took the initiative to use it as a shield, remaining hidden and practically undetectable.

  She would not have been able to find it herself if not for the aura of darkness instinctively revealing itself to her eyes, it would mean that others would find it difficult to identify the nature of their abilities and would likely underestimate them.

  Both of them knew there were healers in this world and individuals who awakened as ones are considered highly valuable.

  And from viewing their auras Anastasia had an instinctive feeling that viewing her aura would reveal her as one and would likely identify Aldric similarly.

  This led her to grin at the thought of the chaos this could cause, yet she suddenly frowned at the realisation she could be hurting others.

  ‘I wasn’t even able to bear the thought of hurting a spider as Zoe’ she thought thinking of all the times she would gently carry the spiders to the safety of her porch instead of squishing them like her mother asked.

  As she grew lost in these thoughts an abrupt feeling filled her as she felt a converge of energy through the connection of their soul surge.

  It was then she noticed a dimming to their aura through {Soul Sight}, as the brightness receded a bit before intangible energy seemed to drift from their bodies before gathering at the front of their cell.

  Aldric and Anastasia found themselves frozen as the darkness of the room seemed to converge towards this area, as an outline slowly formed in front of them eventually assuming the shape of an average-sized man.

  Yet these were where the similarities ended, as the man-shaped shadow possessed a gaseous-like quality to it, as a smoky tar-like substance constantly evaporated from it.

  It was the creepiest-looking thing they had ever seen and it did not help when the beady-red eyes of the shadow regarded them with a look of worship.

  “Oh great lord of darkness, this one thank you for using your great powers to bring this one to life, I will endeavour to serve you to the best of my abilities.” The spectre's voice emitted squeals of sounds that were as eerie as its appearance.

  Both of them stared stupefied staring silently at the spectre as it decided to cock its head to the right as if confused at their stillness.

  After thinking for a period it decided something must be wrong with it since its masters were perfect, “O’ have I done something to displease you great ones…” the strange spectre looked down despondently at the thought of being disappointed.

  It was a strangely innocent, child-like gesture that was quickly ruined when it decided to let out a strange despondent cry when it opened its mouth impossibly wide as a maw filled with sharp teeth was revealed.

  “If this one does not meet your satisfaction…” The spectre was about to continue but Aldric decided to intervene.

  “Oh no, you’re perfect just the way you are… I’m just, no we’re unfamiliar with this, so you may need to bear with us when we figure out how this works exactly. Maybe we can start by asking you about what you can do for us?” Aldric said measuringly, his voice firm but he was also cautious when speaking to the spectre.

  The thing seemed to view them as its masters, but its evaluation of their power was beyond what they are, they were under no illusions of grandeur.

  Despite their unique abilities for their level, in reality, they were merely fledglings awakened at the moment, and though rare compared to regular humans there were thousands upon thousands of awakened like them that were present in this Kingdom alone never mind the world.

  Therefore, both of them couldn’t help but be incredibly wary of the seemingly naive, harmless behaving Spectre, its aura was simply ominous and seeing a real ghost-like creature was disturbing when comparing it to creatures similar to the stories on Earth.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Even Aldric and Anatasia had never seen anything like it, and they had heard many things from their Father who had fought plenty of horrifying creatures in the wilderness.

  The spectre seemed to pause at the question as if in deep thought, its red eyes stared at them and despite being motionless it gave off a sinister presence.

  Finally, it spoke as it replied, “I can serve as your eyes and ears from the darkness. I can possess what I desire so I can become a servant able to interact in the physical plane, I will retain all of the skills and experiences that the individual possessed, without their deficiencies such as fear, greed, and lack of loyalty, I will always be loyal, as my existence is bound to you. I am an extension of your power and will be until either I perish, or you terminate me yourself. Possessing a host makes me vulnerable, I will be tethered to the body and will no longer possess the specific invulnerability in this form, and will be subject to the vulnerabilities of a physical body. I also have other weaknesses, but your powers have reduced them significantly, a typical spectre such as myself is afraid of the light, if we are present when daylight emerges it would disperse us when we are a spirit, there are also powerful priests, and the individuals you term as healers that are also capable of purging us from the possessed with their light-attributed abilities though that always ends in the death of the possessed since we do not leave a soul behind, though your let's say, uniqueness of your paths has made me now highly resistant to all light aspected abilities, after all, we are extensions of yourself, servants to carry out your will.” The spectre replied as it did a deep bow to them as if to illustrate its point.

  Now further getting used to its presence, they grew more comfortable around the spectre allowing them to become daring enough to ask more forward questions, after all the creature was the first somewhat denizen of this strange world they could gain answers from.

  “If you are an extension of our power, how do you understand your abilities so well, how do you realise these new immunities brought by our connection and how do you know so much about your weaknesses if you had just been born?” Aldric's voice mirrored what both of them felt curiosity about.

  The Spectre gave them a deep look before replying, “Creatures of darkness such as I, we gain inherited memories of our predecessors, we are all aware perfectly of what we can do once born, we are aware of the threats our kind face here, especially among our favoured prey, humans. The skill you have, for our formation, you input an extension of yourself that if I were to use an appropriate analogy infuse a seed, such as I, this extension will form the basis of my personality but I will retain my base instincts and foundation from being a creature of darkness. That is why I am so pleased by the gift you provided me… you have no idea how great it is to be freed of the threat of those brainless priests, they have been bumbling about so long, no idea of the…”

  The spectre then looked at confusion as if at a loss of words.

  “Huh… the what?” Anatasia asked bringing the spectre out of its thoughts.

  “I can’t recall why we feel such hatred… strange.” The spectre mumbled with a distant look in its beady red eyes.

  That was when they were interrupted by the sounds of the door clicking as they realised someone was about to enter, realising he had to most fast Aldric locked eyes with the Spectre and said.

  “Alright no time for messing around we need to move now, wait in the corner for my signal, we may need to see you in action sooner than I thought.” Aldric ordered as the spectre obediently moved towards the darkness in the corner of the room.

  Its beady red eyes remained staring at them from afar, but Aldric had a feeling he could only identify the thing because it was his servant, to other individuals the spectre would not able to be gazed upon by normal means since it was an immaterial existence not of this plane.

  Soon enough the door was thrown open as the familiar rat-faced man barged in with a sneer on his face, “Ya miss me, twerps?”

  Unpleased by the blank looks on their face at his arrival, rat-face mouth opened hysterically as his rotten-yellow teeth in clear view yelled, “Looks like I have been too soft on ya…”

  That was when Aldric decided he had enough, nodding to the corner of the room to the Spectre who was able to understand his desires even without him saying anything verbally.

  Though it was a shame to give his first Spectre such a terrible host, he knew possessing the rat-face who was the jailor responsible for watching over them was a clear priority.

  Rat-face meanwhile was continuing his rant as he bellowed out to them, shaking the iron bars in an attempt to intimidate them as spittle left his mouth as he raged at them.

  It almost made him want to laugh at how much of a cartoonish villain vibe the guy was giving off until he saw the glint in the man’s eyes change as he turned dangerous.

  Aldric often knew fools and incompetent individuals could often be sheer dangerous just out of the sheer reckless thought of just proving they ain’t all talk, and this was the vibe rat-face gave off, shame he didn’t have the time to carry out such thoughts.

  As the Spectre that already began to envelop the man, soon started to seep into his body, the strange gaseous-tar-like body creepily, seeped into rat-faced orrices without the man even noticing.

  Rat-face was still babbling even when his eyes turned bloodshot, even when his expressions began to change rapidly without him seeming to notice anything amiss, it became even creepier as a spectre-like image of an exact copy of rat-face appeared behind him looking at him with an evil expression.

  The clone seemed to have an ethereal quality to it, but that did not seem to stop it as it slowly moved its hands around rat-faces throat, rat-face did not even blink as the strange clone started grinning as it started to squeeze his throat.

  It was then Rat-face finally reacted bringing his hands to his throat in a futile attempt, his face was filled with horror and pain as he started rolling around the floor.

  Gurgling rat-face eyes searched around for anything to save him, he banged the floors with all his might futilely trying to call for help as his throat let out a strange mumbled noise.

  Yet he quickly realised nothing was going to save him as he whimpered defeatedly, his last thoughts before he finally succumbed was when he found his gaze meeting the twins finding the coldest, apathetic eyes he had ever seen as the pretty boy Aldric stared at him from behind the bars emotionlessly.

  An eerie voice filled his mind, “You finally realised your folly, those who dare to mess with Master will suffer, and now your worthless body will serve him in death.”

  As the light faded from Rat-faced eyes something new replaced them, foreign red light filled his eyes before they reverted to normal like nothing was amiss, yet as Rat-faced brought himself back to his feet there seemed to be far more poise as he stood straightly before the twins.

  “Master…” Rat-face said with a servile grin that seemed extremely incompatible with his features.

  And that was when they received a notification from the system.

  [You have defeated mortal human. 1 EXP awarded. You are now 1/10 EXP towards reaching the next level {2}]

  “Looks like we have some work ahead of us, time to give you some more friends… hmm though we need a name for you, how about Marcus?” Aldric mumbled after he pooled his and Anatasia's minds together through their soul.

  “This one will accept master wishes, though we feel unworthy for a nameless servant as I to receive such an honour.” Marcus bowed servilely.

  However, after he tried to create more spectres he found, he felt his essence dwindling as he created the second, third, and fourth.

  “Hell, that’s my limit for now…” Aldric mumbled as both he and Anatasia felt the drain on their soul.

  Awakened had a pool of essence in their core that supplemented their powers, they were greatly weakened after running out of such essence since Mages could not pump out fire endlessly and neither could Warriors perform feats of supernatural strength forever, however, every awakened essence naturally replenishes over time and there were ways to even speed up this natural recovery such as meditation.

  Aldric and Anatasia had a larger pool of essence in comparison to others in their stage due to their unique soul and paths, but even they felt fatigued after overutilising their abilities.

  “Well… look like going to be busy…” Aldric thought as he imagined how long it would take to fully utilise all of the vacant spots for created spectres.

  [4/200 Spectres]

  “This is going to take a while…” Aldric said as he felt bottomed out just from creating four and having no idea his recovery time, he knew the number of marauders here numbered more than two hundred and this did not count awakened who he felt would not be so easily dealt with.

  Gazing at the remaining three spectres he ordered, “Go find three marauders to possess, and avoid any awakened, Marcus warned me your limit is mortal humans at my current stage of strength, so avoid any awakened and only target the most suitable targets you can find. And do not cause any disturbances like Marcus, it was fine to torment him a bit here with no witnesses but the rest of this place is crawling with them and I want no risks, understood?”

  The spectres just nodded accepting their orders, seeming far less emotive in comparison to Marcus, though he supposed that may have to do with him being the first.

  As they scuttled off to find a suitable target, he had already ordered Marcus to act as rat-face usually does to avoid suspicion.

  And since being awakened meant they required less sustenance he felt none of the pangs of hunger or thirst he did upon awakening in this world.

  Turning to Anastasia he felt her meditating to speed up their recovery of essence.

  Meditating speeds up the rate of the energy in the air being naturally absorbed into their body replenishing their soul core.

  It was something Clayton had taught Aldric and Anastasia in preparation if they had eventually awakened.

  Most noble children received such education since it was far more likely a child belonging to awakened to become one themselves rather than those from mortal families.

  Clayton had another son who was their older brother who was also awakened, however, he was also killed in the attack by the marauders deemed too dangerous to be left alive.

  Therefore, the skill came naturally to them being something both the twins often practised at a young age, making them efficient in the technique.

  They found meditating together seemed to double the speed of their essence recovery much to their delight.

  Now it was time to focus on creating more Spectres and converting each of the marauders one by one until they had the leaders enclosed in a vicious trap.

  The thought delighted them both, as soon it would be time to leave this cell and take back their birthright.