That ability was extremely lethal if it directly struck someone like Zuhen. Even though he was not a Hollow, he was an ordinary human who had become a "Magnet" to a being like a baby, yet not a baby, with two black wings beneath its small shoulders. Tell
Tell was a supernatural entity that became a contracted being of someone who had performed a ritual in Zuhen's residence when he was still a child. People in this world called it a "Recipestele," even though it could not be seen with the naked eye, and it also possessed a true form. However, humans could perceive it in the form of a little girl.
Exorcists were tied to history from 500 years ago when war was at its peak. At the first to intermediate levels, someone who became a Receiver of that ability was extremely troublesome, especially for a Hollow, because that power existed to counter them.
This misunderstanding was extremely fatal... if it was not explained directly!
Meanwhile, the two who observed Zuhen's movements felt confused and stood still, their minds momentarily blank.
However, Zavi realized it, because he had known about it before.
'This... belongs to the level 4 ability of a Prisoner, Punishment. Yes, I know it was beyond my control back then because I had not even reached the first level. But this... is different from what I imagined.'
After thinking for a moment and observing the surroundings, Zavi immediately shifted his gaze to Miss Felina, who stood right behind him. After confirming she was fine, he moved his attention to a figure standing under the evening light that enveloped it.
"Hey," he said, his tone rising. "Show yourself now!"
The silhouette approached, walking down the slightly sloped road with steady steps toward them.
"Who am I?" it repeated confidently.
"... Who are you?"
Without pause, the silhouette vanished as if swallowed by the earth, and in an instant appeared behind Miss Felina, who was patting Zuhen's shoulder, trying to support him.
Tap.
The figure emerged from the ground, more precisely through the shadow of a building at the roadside, forming into a blond-haired man with pale gray eyes, who twisted his arm backward, attempting to choke Miss Felina.
Felina's eyes widened.
Instinctively, her arm moved backward, and her elbow knocked the man's arm away.
She immediately retreated to take position after realizing that the man was truly targeting Zuhen.
"Hey, bastard," Felina said with an icy gaze, "if you dare hurt him, you will face the consequences." Her voice rose.
She made a motion as if about to shoot an arrow.
The man remained silent while smiling cynically, observing the movement.
Meanwhile, Zavi, who saw this and stood still behind Miss Felina, did not know whether he should intervene against someone like him. He still harbored resentment.
'I just realized, the anomaly experienced by Mr. Zuhen was written in the book I read at the library. If I am not mistaken, the title was, Mysteries and the Inverted World. Yes, although I do not remember it clearly, it mentioned people who suddenly became still in the middle of a battle at its peak!'
He let out a short breath, then stepped closer to Felina to whisper something:
"About that, I truly have not forgiven you." The corner of Zavi's lips lifted upward, forming a confident smile. "But for now, we will cooperate again."
Hearing that, Felina turned her face to the side, then said flatly without looking at him, "Ah, I know, a strange man who likes to stalk."
Zavi's lips twitched after hearing the piercing remark.
'Stalker, huh?' he thought, his brows raising.
"One against two," he said cautiously. "This will not be as easy as imagined."
He gripped his wrists at the same time.
Planning to summon a group of foxes and plant a spiritual anchor if the situation worsened.
A cluster of dark purplish aura formed into a group of foxes, wrapped in a soft grayish white aura like cotton.
A sharp hissing sound was heard as the aura shaped into the transparent forms of the foxes.
'I will switch it at the very last second.'
"Attack him." Zavi observed the ten foxes that shot rapidly toward the man.
The man chuckled while leaping left and right to avoid the creatures' bites.
However, as he focused on dodging, Felina, who had gathered enough attack power, launched a pale blue aura shaped like a needle through her fingertips.
Wushh...
The needle shot through the air toward the man.
The man, unable to avoid it in time, was forced to turn his left arm into a shadow, which shattered instantly after being struck.
A sound like something slicing through the air at the speed of sound echoed, loud enough to ring in the ears.
The man clicked his tongue softly. Something strange moved quickly up to his shoulder.
His body turned into a shadow as the group of foxes lunged at him, and the shadow drifting around the foxes seeped into the stone road like raindrops, making both of them cautious afterward.
The effectiveness of the foxes attacking the man with their small bodies on the narrow street was extremely high.
Although their attack and defense were not as strong as wolves, it was more than enough because Zavi was fighting together with someone else, not alone.
"Be careful, Miss," Zavi said as he began to move his body, pulling the foxes back. "He is transferring the damage into the shadow gripping his arm."
'Just moved, but this is more of a hassle than I thought. Hope this helps,' thought Zavi as he closed his eyes.
Felina snorted softly before stepping toward Zuhen, who still stood with an empty gaze forward, trying to protect him from further attacks by the blond man.
Meanwhile, from the perspective of the blond man, who was underground in the form of a shadow hidden behind the shadow veil, he thought of a way to defeat both of them at once.
'That man did not move at all while the swarm of strange creatures attacked me. The woman is slightly hesitant in every action because her focus is on the man affected by my shadow veil.'
He remained silent for a few seconds, then his body rose upward right behind Zavi and said in a raised tone, "In that case, I will target you first..."
He laughed lightly while tightening his arm and fist, directing it straight toward the back of Zavi's head.
Thud...
But something felt strange.
An unavoidable strike. Zavi felt as if the world spun, time slowing down before he was thrown several meters away from where he had stood.
Blood seeped from his head as it became the point of impact when he landed on the stone road.
"Hey, are you alright?" Felina was startled to see that. She quickly observed the surroundings as the blond man broke his body apart again and sank into the ground.
She wanted to help Zavi, but she could not. She feared that the blond man would do something that could endanger Zuhen's condition, and she did not want to lose her purpose.
Her fingers clenched tightly without realizing it, each second her breathing grew heavier as if a predator had found its prey.
'Damn it, this is the kind of situation I hate.' Her eyes did not stop observing the surroundings, including where she stood, because she knew the blond man could appear anywhere.
After ensuring his target was no longer capable, even if it was only an assumption, the blond man focused on restoring his arm, as he did not expect Zavi to understand the transfer of damage into the shadow within the shadow veil where they all were.
Simply put, if both of them exited the shadow veil within a radius of approximately one hundred meters from its initial point of manifestation, with that point as the center, they would be unable to help Zuhen from the shadow that obstructed his perception of the world.
There were two ways to escape: first, destroy the central point of the shadow veil; second, exit the shadow veil, although that was nearly impossible.
A few seconds later, the blond man, who had fulfilled the conditions for damage transfer, from where Felina stood, began to rise from the ground like smoke, then condensed into the form of the blond man.
The hand that had previously been a gathering shadow solidified and struck directly toward the right cheek of Miss Felina and the right arm of Zuhen.
Thud...
It was incredibly fast. Even Felina, who had not diverted her attention at all, failed to dodge.
She was thrown along with Zuhen and landed several meters away before colliding with Zavi, who lay on the stone ground under the orange glow of the fading light.
"Damn," Felina muttered in annoyance, "that was fast."
Even though the blow was not fatal and did not heavily burden her body, she pushed herself up using her hands first.
As she stood, she saw the blond man with faint gray eyes under the evening sun, smiling slightly at her as if there was something hidden behind his pain.
The man exhaled briefly. It felt strange. Time seemed to slow, his hands and feet trembling as he stepped closer to them to confirm the truth.
That was... the effect of box jellyfish venom that had entered through the shadow before the man solidified his body. Although the shadow itself was not affected, when he turned into a shadow again and reformed his body, the venom inevitably transferred quickly into its new host.
That technique was extremely deadly; a body that moved and transformed its original form into a manifested object could distort perception, slowing thought and altering visual response, making right appear as left or vice versa. And worse, the world seemed to move forward and backward.
The blond man's pupils constricted, his hands trembling, his throat burning as if scorched by intense flames.
'What the hell is this?'
His body repeatedly broke into shadows before solidifying back into human form, as if the pain itself reacted and caused all of it.