Ghost Billionaire

Matthew sat with his back against the cold wall, legs crossed, eyes closed. He didn't need to be in the middle of that chaos to know what was happening. His senses—Reader senses—extended outward like threads, brushing through the walls, the floor, the air itself. Every fluctuation of spiritual pressure passed through him. Like ripples across water.

Beside him, the ghost girl hovered, her form barely stable under the influence of the blood moon. She wasn't flickering exactly, but her shape distorted slightly at the edges.

"It's going out of control," she said. "That thing's losing it."

Matthew didn't respond right away. The entire building trembled as another wave of spiritual pressure burst out. He could feel it clearly now. The creature had snapped. The moment it started absorbing those people, something in its structure began to unravel.

"That's not just feeding anymore," he muttered. "That's frenzy."

"If they don't stop it soon, it's going to escape the ritual boundary. That entire warded floor's barely holding it in. Once it's out…"

Matthew already knew. If it got out, the city would feel it. There was no telling what kind of chaos it would cause. He kept his eyes shut and focused harder.

"And how do we kill it?" he asked.

"How should I know?" the ghost girl snapped. "It's a spirit entity. It feeds on cores. I've never fought one. Do I look like I've fought one?"

Matthew sighed inwardly. "Why the heck are you dressed like that if you aren't a fighter?" he asked. This girl was dressed like a samurai for some weird reason. Obviously, he would think she was some samurai from the past.

"You—"

Matthew ignored her. From his senses, he could still see the basement clearly. It wasn't normal vision, more like spatial impressions—heat, energy, movement, pain. He saw Dean lying near the chalk circle again. He had recovered. For a moment. Then another blow sent him back down.

There was a blade near him.

A dagger. It vibrated faintly with ritual energy.

Matthew extended his senses further. The creature was devouring now. Not attacking. Devouring. One of Viper's men crumpled, his face folding inward like paper soaked in water, rotting, then imploding. Dust.

Then another.

Cries echoed through the basement.

Matthew didn't see with eyes. He felt their energy twist, get pulled, then… silence. Like something exhaled and took their existence with it.

He saw Kray try to escape. He leapt, but midair, one of the limbs snagged his ankle. The moment it touched him, the pull started.

Kray didn't scream long.

"Dean had that dagger," Matthew said. "That might be something."

The ghost girl didn't answer. She was watching too.

Outside, Adam was on the ground. Unconscious. Matthew couldn't tell what happened. No injuries. No blood. Just… out. He frowned.

Then his attention snapped to the center.

Viper.

He was there. Still alive. But something was different now.

Matthew could feel it through the man's spiritual signature. Chaotic. Not controlled like earlier. Even Nexians trained in suppression couldn't fake that level of instability.

Viper had been hit. Not just physically.

The entity had shown him something. Or taken something.

"Interesting…" Matthew murmured as he slowly massaged his core. It seemed that he was starting to feel the effects of the blood moon himself. He could feel spiritual energy being sucked into his core. And it looked like he could barely control it.

"What?" the ghost girl asked.

Matthew stood up slowly, brushing imaginary dust from his jacket. Down in the basement, Mendez had just dissolved into particles like a cheap magic trick. From the looks of things, Viper was next.

"W-Wait, where are you going?" the ghost girl asked.

"Home," Matthew said, already walking.

"What?"

"I'm going home," he repeated without looking back. "I'm not dying in this haunted school for someone else's mistake."

"You—what about that thing down there? The entity? You're just leaving it?"

"Yep."

Her voice pitched higher. "This is your fault! You led them here. You're the reason this is happening!"

He stopped just outside the stairwell and glanced over his shoulder. "Incorrect. Dean summoned that thing. He did the ritual. I just borrowed the chaos."

"But you—"

"Do you know how to kill it?"

"…No," she muttered.

"Exactly. Neither do I." He shrugged. "So why are we still standing here?"

She hovered next to him, fuming. "You can't just leave! What if it escapes the building?"

"Then the Council can deal with it," Matthew replied. "Isn't that what they're paid for?"

"You're such a—!"

"Strategic thinker? Yeah, I know."

He stepped over the broken threshold, calm as ever. "The motorbike's clean. No prints, no trail. Let Viper explain why half his squad just got ghosted."

"You're unbelievable."

"I try."

And with that, he kept walking.

"You can't just walk away!" the ghost girl snapped. "Every Nexian has a responsibility to—"

"To what?" Matthew cut in. "Die fighting something they can't even see?"

"You can see it! You're a Reader!"

"So?" He frowned. "Do you want to die?"

"What—no! That's not what I meant!"

"That thing will drain you dry the moment it notices you. Is that what you're volunteering for now?"

"That's not the point! You're just being a coward!"

"And?" Matthew blinked at her. "What's wrong with being a coward? Cowards live. Heroes get eaten by invisible monsters."

Matthew snorted. He continued walking away. Currently, he needed to go back to the mansion and hope that the salt and circle he prepared for himself would work and stabilize his core.

Then Matthew's expression turned ugly.

He stopped walking. Slowly, his gaze turned back to the crumbling school building behind him. From here, the structure looked quiet. Still. But his senses told a different story. The energy in that basement was changing—unstable. No longer wild in an aggressive way… but distorted, twisted. Weirder.

Worse, his own core was starting to react to it.

He placed a hand on his chest. The energy spiraled unevenly now, like it was being pulled in two directions. The blood moon amplified everything—and his core, still in the middle of solidifying, was taking in too much. He gritted his teeth.

"This is bad," he muttered as he turned.

The ghost girl hovered in place, but something was wrong. Her form flickered hard—like static trying to hold shape. She looked down at her own hands, then at him.

"Oh… no," she whispered. "The blood moon—"

And then she vanished.

Matthew blinked. "What?"

She was gone. Just like that, the ghost girl vanished. Again.

Sadly, he didn't have time to process.

The ground shook beneath him.

Matthew's eyes snapped back toward the school. His breath caught as his senses screamed. The entity… had turned.

Turned toward him.

"Oh crap."

He ran.

Not away but toward the building.

Toward Dean.

Because right now, the only edge Matthew had—the only advantage in this whole disaster—was that he could see the damn thing. That meant he could dodge it.

And hopefully, grab that dagger.

The building's doors shattered behind him as he bolted inside. His feet slammed across tile and cracked wood. Down the stairwell in three steps. The pressure thickened immediately.

Then it came.

Tentacles.

One crashed through the floor above. Another slammed the hallway ahead. Matthew lunged, tumbled through an opening. Debris exploded behind him.

He didn't stop.

He jumped over a desk, ducked under a concrete beam, pivoted around a collapsed locker.

Tentacles chased him like living whips.

The creature wasn't just fast—it was brutal. But now, something was off. Its movements were… delayed. Not sloppy, but strained.

Matthew burst into the basement and saw it.

Dean, lying near the broken ritual circle.

Matthew reached him just as another tentacle swept overhead. But it didn't strike. It stopped.

It froze.

The creature hesitated. It hovered, giving him the opportunity to grab the dagger.

Why did it stopped? No. Why does it seemed... weaker?

Matthew narrowed his eyes, breathing hard. He scanned the entity with his Reader sight. And then—

He saw it.

One of the main limbs—just near the center—had something. A node. A core? No… a heart.

It pulsed.

He didn't hesitate.

He tightened his hand around the dagger's hilt.

Then Matthew jumped, slashing downward with all his strength.

The blade struck the heart.

And the creature screamed.