The vengeful spirit continued duking it out with the canisfangs. It was using a much more hands-on approach than the living armour, literally using its hands to punch and grab the canisfangs. It lacked the giant sword the living armor used to cleave them, but it was not having a harder time due to it. Rather, the canisfangs were completely unable to compete with it.

“It was hard to notice ‘cause of how much it healed, but the canisfangs did severely wound the living armour…” Kurushimi muttered, watching the fight. While the canisfangs were able to land a lot of good hits on the living armour, they were unable to inflict even a single point of damage to the vengeful spirit, even when roided-up by the crystals.

Holding her chin, she viewed the fight for a little bit longer before conjuring and sending out a single shadow tendril. “What are you up to?” Voice-san asked, watching her direct the tendril towards the canisfangs using shadow magic.

“Well… I’m wondering whether it’s just that they can’t damage it… or that there’s something else going on…” As Kurushimi explained, the tendril finally reached the foot of a canisfang. It suddenly sprung up at the canisfang and grabbed it by the ankle. It put up a futile struggle as the tendril quickly wrapped around its body.

[Target successfully bound!] Kurushimi let out a smirk at the notification of success, “I’m gonna direct it myself and try to land a good hit.” She said, explaining her intentions in a short sentence. Increasing her shadow magic’s level also led to an improvement toward her skill in controlling a target’s body. With this, she should be able to maneuver the bound canisfang with ease.

Manipulating the tendril attached to it, she moved it through the pack, all the while getting closer to the vengeful spirit. Luckily, it seemed that her control was good enough so as to not alert suspicion from the others; or it could be that they were completely engaged with their opponent, not that it really mattered. Now in the centre of conflict, even Kurushimi noticed that she could almost feel the frightening current through the tendril connecting her and the canisfang.

Watching with farsight, she waited for a good moment to send the canisfang in. And just as the vengeful spirit turned its back, she ordered the canisfang to charge forward and sink its fangs straight into the vengeful spirit's side. It couldn’t react in time and Kurushimi managed to land a successful hit.

However, an unexpected result occurred, with the fangs simply bouncing off their target. The frightening bite of the canisfang that Kurushimi had experienced on multiple occasions was made completely useless in front of the vengeful spirit.

“Perhaps it has super high endurance?” she asked, appraising the vengeful spirit to check its stats. ‘Lvl. 52, with 500 endurance and similar stats across the board… that’s not too different from mine! So it can’t be that. And it isn’t under any buffs or conditions that I can see…’ She quickly dismissed her theory. As she continued to contemplate, she noticed her canisfang had been grabbed by the neck.

“Ah-” She wasn’t too concerned but it looked like her canisfang was lost. The vengeful spirit wrapped its gauntlet around the beast’s neck, suspending it above the ground in a choking position. ‘BzZz-!’ Electricity crackled as purple lightning appeared before abruptly growing in intensity. “What’s it doing?” Kurushimi curiously asked, seeing the vengeful spirit’s strange behaviour.

“I’d unbind the shadow magic if I were you.” It wasn’t until Atelier’s warning that Kurushimi realised she should be concerned. The current that she could lightly feel through the tendril suddenly became an intense shock.

“Gagh!” Kurushimi shouted out, barely managing to break the tendril in time, cutting her off. She had been able to avoid the worst of it, but she had received some of the damage through the canisfang. A bit of smoke rose as she leaned against the tree, breathing out a sigh of relief as she checked her status.

“What was that?” She had somehow only lost a small amount of HP from being electrocuted, but more notably had gained a negative status condition. [The vengeful spirit has stolen your stats! Leave the effective range or defeat the vengeful spirit to regain them!] Hurriedly looking at her stats, Kurushimi had a mini heart attack before double-checking her stats and realising that she had lost a negligible amount.

Casting her vision back towards the captured canisfang, it looked to be in a much worse condition. Electricity flowed from its body and ran down the vengeful spirit’s arm. The vengeful spirit seemed to be absorbing this energy, growing its own strength while simultaneously sapping away the canisfang’s. The canisfang was in a sorry state, looking like an empty juice box.

Kurushimi shivered, squinting her eyes as she commented, “That’s a little creepy…”

“That’s literally what you do.” Voice-san replied.

“How is what I do in any way similar to that?!” Kurushimi retaliated.

Voice-san: “You kill them, sucking up their blood and absorbing their stats.”

Kurushimi: “...”

Atelier: “Quite literally like a juice box…”

“Not you too, Atelier!” Kurushimi interrupted them, not wanting to hear anymore. Getting back on track, she went back to thinking about the vengeful spirit. The plan of using a canisfang failed, so it was back to the drawing board. As she blankly stared at it, she was startled by an ear-piercing roar.

Her eyes now wide open, she quickly turned her head in the direction of the sound. Normally in this situation she would be trying to figure out what the hell made that noise. However, she immediately knew from that roar alone. “Ha… That’s an unexpected development.” Kurushimi stated, a little surprised and amused.

A living armour ran across the forest ground, dragging its giant sword behind itself. The sword carved through all dirt and foliage that was in its way and its mouth was split open, revealing its fleshy insides. But it's target wasn’t Kurushimi. The living armour dashed straight for the vengeful spirit, making you feel it should be the one to hold the title ‘vengeful’ instead.

With another roar, the living armour swung the large sword over its own head effortlessly, colliding with the vengeful spirit. Most of the canisfangs had been killed at this point, sapped for all the energy they were worth. The vengeful spirit didn’t hesitate to take on the new challenger, responding back with a blow of its own.

‘Bang-!’ Metal on metal clashed, causing a gust of wind to blow by Kurushimi’s face. “Hoh~” Trying not to get knocked out of the tree by the wind, she admired the two of them. The living armour tanked the entire hit with minimal damage, only being knocked back a few metres. She quickly went to appraise the living armour.

[Living armour Lvl. 50]

While she had technically encountered living armours a few times now, it had been the same one each time only across multiple timelines. That living armour was a measly Lvl. 26, but this one was Lvl. 50. Nearly double that of the old one, higher than her current level and only two levels off the vengeful spirit’s.

Kurushimi was definitely excited to see what the living armour was capable of now. And, a new opportunity was presented. “If I let these two fight, I can wait for them to weaken each other. Then I can swoop in, kill them both, and steal their exp and stats!” It was a perfect plan. They were evenly matched, so it wouldn’t be an easy win for either side. When the battle approached it’s climax, Kurushimi could then finish them both off with little to no effort!

“Isn’t that a little shameless?” Voice-san asked.

Kurushimi: “All’s fair in love and war!”

Voice-san: “When did love come into it…?”

So, as Kurushimi had planned, she watched over the fight between the two.

“Eh?”

“Uhmmm…”

“...”

She slowly lost words over the ensuing fight. It wasn’t a fight. It was bullying. Somehow, it got to be even more one-sided than with the canisfangs. The living armour laid on the ground in a pool of blood, it’s body charred black. But it wasn’t dead. Purple lightning struck down from somewhere above the trees and repeatedly crashed down into it. But it didn’t die.

In this moment, the living armour’s super regeneration had become a curse. To describe the fight; it looked even in the beginning. They had been trading blows. However, just like with the canisfangs, the vengeful spirit simply wasn’t affected by anything. Nothing the living armour threw at it did anything.

However, the very point it became a massacre was when the vengeful spirit started to use its lightning. Bolts of purple rained down from above the canopy, striking everything in the vicinity. Kurushimi had to nervously watch the skies above her to avoid getting hit. Battle instinct, evade and fleet footwork managed to assist her with that in the least.

It didn’t take long for the living armour to end up losing from there. In between lightning strikes, its body would heal, but it couldn’t get up or retaliate. All it did was delay the inevitable. While Kurushimi was unaware of the limits of its regeneration, it was almost certainly finite. And even if it wasn’t, it was evident that the repeated shock was beginning to overpower the monstrous healing factor.

“It probably doesn’t have long now…” Atelier said, observing the charred and smoking body of the living armour.

“But that’s strange isn’t it? Not even the living armour could damage it… that massive greatsword couldn’t even scratch it, isn’t it too strong?” Just like the canisfangs, any attempts at damaging it were futile. Was it invincible? How is one supposed to beat such a thing? Just as Kurushimi was beginning to feel stumped, she remembered Atelier’s earlier statement, “Atelier, earlier you said something along the lines of ‘so that’s what’s going on’, right? Do you know what’s happening?”

“I’ve more or less figured it out.” Atelier stated.

‘It really is useful to have someone native to this world’ Kurushimi thanked her luck for managing to find Atelier. Not only had she found someone native to this world, but she had found a god with a fair amount of knowledge. With her, perhaps she would be able to die slightly less often. “So, what’s the deal with it?” Kurushimi asked.

“It likely has a tether.” Atelier stated, which, with Kurushimi being Kurushimi, she naturally failed to understand what that meant. Seeing her visible confusion, Atelier elaborated, “The vengeful spirit is, as the name implies, a spirit; with a form similar to that other god and I. It also shouldn't be able to interact with the physical world like us. However, this one clearly has a tether. Something physical it has attached to so it can interact with the corporeal as it is. That’s also the reason it’s collecting energy, it needs to power its tether in order to stay in this world. Since you can’t attack it normally, the best method would be to cut off the tether or…”

“I could try dimensional magic.” Kurushimi suggested. Thinking about it, dimensional magic could just allow her to attack it directly.

“You could.” Atelier responded. Just as Kurushimi was feeling smart for coming up with another method, Atelier continued, “But, it’s unlikely you will be able to do much with dimensional magic alone. Not at your current skill level anyway. It would be more effective to use it to break the tether instead. After breaking the tether, it will be susceptible to attacks for a while.”

“Okay, so I just need to find this tether and cut it off right?” It was a simple enough plan on paper. However, a glaring issue quickly revealed itself “But how do I find it?” Kurushimi asked. She had no idea as to where this tether could be. And even then, what would it look like? It wouldn’t be good to accidentally pass it.

And to those concerns, Atelier simply replied, “I haven’t been sitting here doing nothing this whole time.” Not making an attempt to hide her smug facial expression, she explained, “I’ve already located where the tether is. It’s just north-west of where we are. About 157 metres away.”

“Oooh~” Kurushimi couldn’t help but feel impressed by Atelier’s forward-thinking and accurate report. But there was one slight problem…

“Which way is north-west…?” Kurushimi asked, scratching her head. Naturally, she had no clue where she was. She was in a different world, in an isolated forest and, would there really be any maps or guides to tell her which way is where in such a forest?

Looking at the sun wasn’t a possibility for Kurushimi either. Firstly, she couldn’t even see the sun through the canopy. Secondly, would the sun even rise up in the east like on Earth? Atelier sighed, reminding her, “Remember the map skill I told you to get? It has a compass, look there.”

“Ah, you’re right-” Opening the map, Kurushimi did indeed find a compass. Pointing north, east, south and west, the compass showed straight ahead, where the vengeful spirit was currently raining down lightning on the living armour, to be north.

“The living armour still has some time until it dies.” Suddenly, a voice cut in from the right. Turning over, Voice-san was sitting on the branch beside her in her spirit form. Dark hair flowed alongside a deadpan face, giving an illusion of a beautiful painting. Kurushimi still couldn’t get used to seeing Voice-san with an actual body; she understood it would be some time until it would feel normal. Interrupting her thoughts, Voice-san suggested, “It would be good to get going now. While that spirit is still distracted.”

Even though it was a suggestion, her domineering aura made it feel more like an order. Kurushimi briefly stretched before jumping down from the tree. “Alright, let's go~!”