So now seeing it attacking me like this, I was pretty terrified, as I also had no superpower like taming ghosts or something like psychic energy, and the only things that I could say I had were the ability to see and touch the spirits.
But with them, how could I even think about slaying them? It was more like a street fight match where a professional boxer fights with a child who has no experience in it; surely it would be pretty one-sided, but it was less one-sided than my condition because this bastard was also seeing me like prey, and I was feeling that this bastard wouldn't even think about leaving me in a single piece if I got caught in his grip.
So I was trying real hard to hit him with my bat, but whenever I felt like I was about to hit it, he always disappeared in thin air, and soon after my few such tries, I felt strange and way too creepy, and after paying attention to my surroundings, my heart started beating crazily, and I saw that I was standing in the middle of that same ritual.
Feeling how I screwed up the entire thing, I started to feel dizzy, and to my fucking misfortune, this ritual was for draining vitality, and it was even trying to suck my soul with my vitality.
And in such dizziness, I started to feel my head spinning, while my tongue started to lose the taste of my cigar, and even my hands started to lose their grip on my bat, while I started to feel way too drained and way too heavy to even move from my place.
But I could clearly hear the laughter of that bastard that was echoing in the entire surrounding, which was making fun of me and bragging about his lethal trap; hearing this laugh, I started to feel annoyance, and I started to recall how I came this far. The rage, madness, and bloodlust of all those past years began to flow in me, and I remembered how neither of these spirits were just gifted to me nor were they kind enough to let me capture them.
So feeling the flames of revenge in my heart, I took a deep breath and clenched my grip around my bat and started to open the wire from the bat; seeing me doing such a foolish thing was surely pretty funny and confusing him, so it seemed like I had lost my mind in such a situation, but I had dealt with this type of situation countless times.
So there's no way that I was just going to fall back after seeing a dumbass; he could become food for my other spirits, heh-heh. As the wire started to unwrap from my bat, laughter began to echo in the surroundings.
And as his expression began to change, so did mine; I started to feel again the sour taste and warmth of my cigar.
And a smirk began to emerge from my face, and I looked at that bastard, who had pretty terrified expressions on him, and he spoke in a terrified and shaky voice as my every spirit, which was remaining from the decoy, began to laugh while he spoke, "W-wh-who are you? And what have you sealed in your bat, and why are you even here?"
Hearing his words gave me amusement, and my laugh began to echo in the surroundings, but my amusement didn't last for long, and I started to feel that the wire started to show its effect; the magic circle was blasted to bits, and the ground below my feet lost its entire life as the wire started to radiate an intense dark and bloody aura.
And before anybody could understand anything, a hand started to appear on the throat of that priest, lifting him up, and a rugged appearance started to emerge. Seeing the image of this rugged creature, my spirits, which were outside, began to hide behind me.
And this guy was really one of my final resorts, and he was also one of the last people with whom I wanted to meet, but he was the strongest spirit of mine, 'Antak, the slaughterer of dead!' This bastard just loved to kill and torture.
Even I caught him a few years back; while I was getting mad in my rage, we had a pretty intense fight. The result of that battle was pretty clear: I was nearly dead, but for some reason I survived.
Even I was not sure about the reason, but when I woke up, I saw him on the ground near my bat in the form of wires.
And most of my spirits were scarred from him, as this creep devoured way too many spirits of my collections, and this time also this bastard was trying to suck this bastard's blood. First he lifted that priest above, came to my side, and said in a pretty cold and dominating tone, "Slave or slaughter!"
Hearing his words, even I started to feel chilled to my core; this bastard had way too insane a growth rate, so I surely didn't want to mess with him, and even when I captured him, he was way above average spirits, but now, in just a few years, he had already entered the realm of the higher spirit realm.
Well, this type of accession took at least 200-500 years, at least for a normal spirit, but this bastard achieved it in a few years, so he was a freak even for God. And he was one of the reasons that I stopped worrying about those throne-ass bastards, but to think this jerk would even think about speaking to someone—like, before, he would have just gulped every spirit in his sight, so even I was curious about what was different about this guy.
And hearing the antak's words, he spoke in a shaky voice, "Slavery!" Hearing his answer, he began to laugh again and threw that priest to my side. Surely he didn't gently throw him, but rather he reached me in pretty bad shape.
So I was pretty happy about the souls that this bastard ate over these years, but as the priest's matter became clear and he went inside my suitcase, this bastard appeared from behind and spoke in the same maniacal tone as last time: "Heh-heh, the brat gained some balls, huh! So asshole, I cleared the matter with that guy, but now you tell me, why didn't you summon me in front of that bastard?
Slaughtering his entire gathering would have insanely helped me in growth, and that bastard was right; war will start soon. This priest proved it. So now you answer my question, or do we have to seek it out in our old-fashioned way, huh?"
Hearing his question, I sighed and got ahold of my bat while taking a puff of my cigar. "Bastard, I didn't summon you because I knew you were going to slaughter everybody, and I couldn't afford the death of that divine lady, and for a second, fuck every one of you. Just how many times do I have to hear that your lame war is about to start?
Every motherfucker just keeps telling me that only. I don't want to know about your stupid war, and besides that, why should I even care about anybody else other than me?"