Red covered his face with his arms as he felt splinters and wind buffeting against him, almost lifting him off his feet. A tempest of dark blue Spiritual Energy blocked his vision, swirling outwards from the center of the room and dragging pieces of the building off the floor with its destructive force. The youth felt as if this whirling explosion wouldn’t end, until - a few seconds later - it suddenly did.

A shock wave came from within that maelstrom, dispersing the waves of blue energy into nothingness. The winds also died down, and the debris they lifted with it started to rain down upon Red and his surroundings.

As his vision cleared, the destruction became apparent. There was no more meeting hall to speak of. The explosion blew apart the roof of the building, along with the entire second floor, its pieces being thrown all around the courtyard and down the hill. None of the wooden furniture had survived either, and even the building’s foundations were uprooted from the ground, revealing the earth below amidst broken wood flooring.

What caught Red’s attention, though, wasn’t the destruction. Instead, it was the figure at the center of it all.

The white-haired woman was standing there, floating a few meters from the ground. Her face and bleeding, crimson eyes invoked a sense of fear and dread in the youth, just as it did the first time he saw her. Yet, at this moment, she wasn’t looking at him.

Instead, she was looking at something floating in front of her. White fragments, hovering just above her pale ghostly hands.

It was the bone dagger.

The weapon the woman sought so fervently for so long now laid in pieces. She seemed to be in a daze, staring at the remainders of the item.

A few dozen meters away from her was Hector, with his arms crossed behind his back. A deep-blue sword was floating above his head, the runes etched along its blade glowing in an intense white light. Spiritual Energy suffused from the blade, reaching even Red from afar.

This was the Deep Sea Sword, one of the defining artifacts of the Ocean Bearer’s Sect.

Indeed, the weapon had lived up to its name, shattering the seemingly indestructible bone dagger with a single blow.

Hector glared at the ghostly woman. It seemed like Red wasn’t the only one who could see her.

The elder spat on the ground in front of him. “Let this loss be etched upon your mind, foul ghost. It matters not where you came from, to threaten our sect was your biggest mistake.”

The woman’s figure trembled, and she raised her head, staring at Hector. A dark, almost invisible wave of energy started to expand from her body towards the elder.

The elder’s expression changed at this. “No, you don’t!”

He pointed forward with his right hand, and the sword floating by him vanished. A split second later, it reappeared above the ghost’s head, its tip pointed right at her.

The sword trembled, and Red swore he could hear the sounds of waves coming out of the artifact. A soft blue wave started to spread from it, encompassing the dark energy extending from the ghost before it could expand much further.

The two energy waves clashed, and the air twisted and crackled at their meeting. Despite that, the dark energy’s advance was stopped as the two energies seemed to come to a standstill.

Hector had a deep scowl on his face, displaying the effort it seemed to take to maintain this stalemate. The ghost, however, just stood there, unmoving, as she stared at the elder with a calm expression.

It didn’t seem like she was using her full strength in that confrontation, which didn’t fare well for the old man’s chances.

“Red, the exorcism technique! Quickly!”

Aurelia’s voice reached the youth’s ears. As soon as he heard these words, a shock ran through his mind.

‘That can work?’

Back when the necromancer taught him that mantra, he was under the impression it was a simple technique, useful only against lesser ghosts. If Aurelia said this would work, though, he wouldn’t doubt her.

There was a caveat to this, though. That was, he needed to get close to the ghost for the technique to work.

‘This isn’t the time to hesitate.’

Red grabbed the crystal core from his pouch and charged at the woman’s back, his special veins activating to push his speed beyond his limits. If the ghost heard his approach, it showed no indications of it. Perhaps it didn’t think the youth could hurt it.

In any case, this afforded him the opportunity he wanted. As soon as he got close enough, he started to chant the mantra that went unspoken for so many years, but was still fresh in his mind.

The dim crystal began to glow with a weak light. The ghost trembled, and she looked back at Red with undisguised shock in her blood-red eyes.

“Hahahahaha!” Aurelia’s delighted laughter reached his ears. “We’ll see which one of us is the ant in the end!”

A stream of green energy poured out from the ghost’s body into the crystal in Red’s hand. No more than a few strands of energy had entered the core that it seemed to regain its former strength, glowing with a bright light. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long as the woman reacted.

She pointed one finger at Red, and suddenly the youth saw death flash before his eyes. He tried to retreat, but he knew there would be no time for that.

“Pierce!”

Hector’s voice echoed over the courtyard. The sword floating above the ghost’s head disappeared, and there was a sudden explosion between the opposing energy waves as they both dissipated.

The next thing Red heard was a scream of pain from the ghost as she bent over. A hole had appeared in her stomach, from which blue energy poured out of. Looking into that puncture, there were no flesh or organs inside of her body, only a translucent, pale matter made out of ghostly energy.

It seemed that Hector’s sword was capable of hurting her intangible form.

The youth didn’t waste this opportunity either, and retreated as far away as he could before the ghost recovered.

The flying sword reappeared by Hector’s side, resting with its tip pointed at the woman. The elder had a frown on his face, and it seemed he wasn’t eager to press his advantage despite managing to wound the ghost.

“… Very well.”

A whisper came from the ghost’s mouth, and Red felt a shiver run up his spine.

The bone fragments that were floating in front of the woman started to evaporate into a thin white smoke that was absorbed into her ghostly form through the opening in her stomach. Tendrils extended from the hole, and the puncture closed like it was never there.

After that, the woman seemed to undergo a soundless change. It was as if her body had become more tangible, more real, and the terror Red felt as he stared at her figure only seemed to intensify.

Then, all of a sudden, her body seemed to turn into mist, dissipating into her surroundings.

Hector’s eyes narrowed, and he waved his hand. The sword by his side vanished, and a few moments later, an explosion of green and blue light happened in the air above him.

The figure of the ghost appeared briefly in that explosion before dissipating into mist again. Hector waved his hand once more, and another explosion happened in another direction, a few dozen meters away.

The same scene repeated itself with increased frequency and speed, each time the explosions occurring closer and closer to Hector’s body. It was happening too quickly for Red to keep up with his eyes, and yet he could see and feel the strain the elder was under as he tried to fend off the ghost’s attacks. It didn’t seem like the old man would be able to keep this up for too long.

The youth wanted to help, but how could he interfere in this kind of battle?

Red looked down at the now glowing crystal in his hand, extending his awareness towards it. “Aurelia, you need to help him!”

“I will! I need some time to absorb the energy!” The woman said.

The youth frowned. “He won’t survive for much longer.”

“Just do everything you can to delay her! I’m trying to be as fast as I can!”

‘How am I supposed to do that?’

Simply being caught in the aftermath of those blows could probably tear his body apart.

Just as Red was struggling to come up with a plan, he felt something stir within his body. He was quick to recognize its origin.

‘The crimson mist? But why…’

A second later, the youth understood the reason. An arc of blood red flame flashed through the sky, striking at a seemingly empty spot in the air. A second later, the air seemed to shift in the area where this flame just passed through, revealing the figure of the ghost.

She was looking down with a frown on her face. Red followed her gaze, spotting the origin of the sudden streak of fire.

Domeron was there, standing upright with his sword in hand, its blade covered by a dark-red flame. In front of him, though, there was something else. An illusory shape of a large humanoid figure, its general form outlined by these crimson lines, only its upped body being visible from which four arms seemed to sprout. Its proportions seemed too large to belong to a human, resembling more of a muscle-bound ogre brimming with power.

The most eye-catching feature of this creature, though, was its singular, straight horn sprouting from its forehead. This particular feature seemed more tangential than the rest of its body, the majority of this being’s power concentrated at its tip.

Staring at this made Red feel a sense of unbridled violence rise within his mind. Meanwhile, the crimson mist transmitted its fury and denial at the sight of this being.

The youth immediately recognized what this illusory figure was.

‘The Spirit of Slaughter.’