Chapter 96
The rapid burst of gunfire instantly echoed through Kharensya and Vabian's heads, making both of them reflexively stop in their tracks, their faces tense when Keilta was nowhere beside them.
"Did he... get shot?" Vabian muttered uncertainly, his eyes unable to see anything except Kharensya standing beside him and the white mist spreading in every direction.
Kharensya glanced to the side with a deep look in his eyes as he watched the white mist around them gradually fade with time.
Meanwhile, Hagi had slowed the movement of his hands before stopping completely, making the white mist seem as though it had been swallowed by the earth itself. Then, the corner of his lips lifted, almost forming a smile as cold sweat soaked his face.
The world returned to normal, and on the street where they had fought fiercely before; two people stood there, and not far from where they stood, a corpse lay sprawled with blood scattered everywhere.
As he stepped forward, Ren felt as though time had slowed down while his mind kept replaying the sound of shoes scraping against the stone pavement along with the slowing beat of his heart. He knew his body's condition was extremely weak right now, desperately thinking of a way to escape this fight and recover the stamina and spirituality drained during battle.
"Ren, are you okay?" Hagi asked, walking toward him with a face as crumpled as rolled-up clothes.
Ren slipped the pistol into his coat pocket as he lifted his gaze and answered in a voice barely above a whisper;
"I'm fine." He stopped walking, turning part of his body back as he continued, "Where are those two? Do you know their location?"
Hagi let out a short sigh before replying with a faint smile, "They're at that university now, probably."
Ren furrowed his brows as he turned around and continued walking to catch up with his two companions, who were still fighting seriously.
....
Meanwhile, in alley number 13, located hundreds of meters away from where the two groups had first met and analyzed each other. Two women were fighting seriously, and the devastating force of their attacks was enough to destroy anything nearby.
Roughly ten minutes had passed since the two started fighting, and both of them were now at their limit, with Narissa suffering the most as she struggled to fight her younger sister, avoiding bullets from her pistol as well as attacks from her contracted creature. A Hollow.
The moment she realized her younger sister had formed a contract with a creature that did not belong to this world, Narissa's heart completely shattered, her chest tightening painfully as she fought her.
She truly intended to end her own sister's life because she did not want her little sister to be controlled by her contracted creature or, more precisely, lose control.
"Why are you always so stupid, pathetic sister," Niva said with a grin, trying to provoke her older sister.
Narissa remained standing still, observing the movements of both of them while ignoring her words.
'Of course I look too weak and stupid here. You're cheating because you get regeneration from that damned creature, and that thing is incredibly hard to kill,' Narissa thought with a frown.
Then she took a deep breath and exhaled calmly before finally opening her mouth and saying with a faint smile, "I've been holding back this whole time because I didn't want my stupid little sister screaming in pain."
"What did you say?" Niva's jaw tightened further, her fingers gripping the pistol aimed at Narissa while her index finger prepared to pull the trigger.
"What, are your ears clogged?" Narissa mocked, preparing to blur her vision before attacking.
Hearing that, the veins on Niva's face instantly bulged while her breathing grew heavier. Then, with a blank expression hiding her anger, Niva pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets shot rapidly toward Narissa, who still stood there, her hand raised as tiny cockroach-like creatures began gnawing away at the bullets before dissolving afterward.
Niva clicked her tongue as she glanced at her Recipestele floating beside her left shoulder and said in an irritated tone, "Get rid of that woman and you can have whatever you want afterward."
Hearing that, her Recipestele wore a delighted expression as its two wings flapped powerfully before charging toward Narissa at the speed of sound.
Narissa immediately retreated quickly while moving her hands, summoning countless purple jasmine petals that surged toward the Recipestele with pressure like water bursting from a dam.
The Recipestele reflexively covered its face with its tiny hands while its legs, body, and outstretched black wings were torn apart once the purple jasmine petals stopped crashing into it.
Meanwhile, Niva stood still while observing and thinking, aware of her older sister's plan to force her Recipestele to keep regenerating until it reached its limit.
Niva sighed while smiling faintly.
"So my stupid sister has gotten smarter," Niva whispered while approaching her Recipestele, which was still restoring its spiritual form.
Then, Narissa raised her hand, preparing to snap her fingers as she advanced once more with purple jasmine petals circling her body and some drifting toward the two of them before she snapped her fingers.
Around five to ten jasmine petals floated toward them, but the Recipestele was so savage that it instantly turned the petals approaching both it and its master into ash, suppressing their spirituality.
Narissa showed no fear as she kept running toward it, and once the distance between them grew closer, she swung her hand from back to front, causing purple jasmine petals to appear and rush toward them.
Even though the Recipestele was powerful, it could do little when faced with thousands of jasmine petals shooting toward it. It wasn't worried about itself, believing its master would never be able to endure such an overwhelming attack.
Forced into it, the creature attacked, defended, and allowed countless jasmine petals to pierce through its spiritual form.
The wind shifted so violently it nearly collapsed the buildings behind them as both of them were hurled backward violently along with household furniture flying everywhere and shattering the street gas lamps, causing the hiss of leaking gas afterward.
The surrounding atmosphere became terrifying as darkness swallowed the street, along with the uneven stone-paved surface.
The attack was so devastating that Niva's body was crushed beneath household furniture as she was thrown into a house far across the street from where she had been standing.
From within the darkness of the room, she moved without making a single sound as she heard heavy footsteps not far ahead.
Meanwhile, her Recipestele repeatedly failed to restore its spiritual form, meaning its existence in this world would disappear within the next few minutes.
Because Niva did not realize this, she tried to leave the house while feeling around her surroundings, avoiding her sister and searching for the faint source of light outside from the moonlight.
The moment she took a few steps after exiting the door.
Bang!
A bullet shot out from the lurking darkness, making Niva's breath hitch and her face fill with panic and tension as she sensed intense heat flash past her.
With slow movements, she glanced behind her and vaguely saw something approaching her.
It was... a cockroach.
Bang! Bang!
More gunshots rang out, making Niva's chest rise and fall as panic gripped her mind tightly.
'Is she tracking me through those creatures?' she thought, holding her breath.
Her instincts told her that when she vaguely saw the cockroach, it felt as though her sister had intentionally let her see it. She couldn't tell whether Narissa truly knew her location or was pretending not to.
For now, her plan was simple; summon her Recipestele and channel spiritual energy so it could regenerate properly.
Moving silently, Niva carefully stepped to the side and prepared to carry out her plan before her older sister discovered her location.
And she realized her pistol had been taken by her.
Her mind kept spinning as she continued feeling her way forward, navigating without bumping into anything with the faint aid of moonlight hidden behind dark blue clouds and the soft shimmer of stars. She still felt that something about her sister's actions was unnatural.
Every step seemed to trigger her survival instincts and urge her to escape this situation, and she didn't know whether she would still be alive the next second.
Several minutes passed, and Niva had moved far from the previous location and finally began carrying out her plan.
Niva exhaled to ease the tension. "Come out now! I'm here."
The moment it heard the command, her Recipestele appeared in a distorted state, its black wings damaged, one arm partially missing, and only the upper half of its former form remaining.
Seeing this happen to her Recipestele for the first time, Niva was slightly stunned, her lips tightly shut, unable to say a word as she fell silent for a moment.
The atmosphere around her was terrifying as darkness completely filled the place, and she desperately wanted to leave, thinking of heading toward the one-way road leading to Zen University.
She finally moved again while allowing her Recipestele to regenerate on its own nearby, drawing from her spirituality so it could maintain its form.
However, it did not last long when a piercing, freezing presence pressed against the Recipestele's form, causing it to be consumed by its own destructive urges, its purple eyes blazing fiercely as it flew uncontrollably before shooting toward Niva and possessing her body.
The moment a supernatural being and a normal human occupied the same body, it became something that should never exist in this world and could only sustain one consciousness; once a single consciousness dominated the body, an explosion became inevitable.
Boom!!
Several meters before reaching the main road parallel to the university, the gas lamps lining the roadside instantly shattered from the shockwave of the explosion.
The explosion was powerful enough to destroy the surrounding houses, create a flaming crater in the street, and produce towering black smoke accompanied by thick flames surrounding it.
Anyone, including Kharensya and Vabian who were far from the location. Elmer, who was fighting Harann, as well as the other three; Veranica, Mizofra, and Febrica, could hear and witness the event that resembled sunlight suddenly appearing in the middle of darkness.
All of this was caused by Aaron's Exorcist ability pulsing violently as it detected the large number of supernatural Recipestele, a type of demon, not far from his location at the university, spreading all the way to where Niva currently was.
The explosion also destroyed the houses around the street where Narissa was searching for her younger sister's whereabouts at the intersection of alley number 14.
Without thinking much, she stepped toward the source of the explosion with purple jasmine petals protecting her from aftershocks and sudden attacks.
And only a few steps away from where she had previously stood, a mysterious figure, a human surrounded by a pitch-black aura, black wings flapping beneath its shoulders, and glowing purple eyes shining brightly in the darkness suddenly appeared and slammed into her body with tremendous spiritual pressure, powerful enough to send Narissa flying into the building behind her and destroy it instantly.
Narissa coughed up blood from her mouth, followed by her vision suddenly blurring and the sound of cracks from her spine, thighs, and legs, drawing a painful groan from her afterward.
If not for those purple jasmine petals, she would certainly have died. Then, she began forcing spiritual energy through her body as something cold stabbed into her head, causing the blood vessels on her forehead to bulge and her heartbeat to slow while blood flowed even more heavily from her mouth.
Believing its target had died, though in truth it had only detected Narissa's spirituality thinning from her body. The Recipestele, or more precisely the fusion of Niva, immediately turned around and floated away in search of prey at the nearest location.
That place was where Elmer and Harann were.
Seconds later, like an uninvited guest appearing in the midst of their fierce battle, the figure unleashed an overwhelming spiritual pressure that made their knees weak, nausea pangs spread, and a throbbing pain course through their foreheads, causing them to fall asleep in fear on the cobblestones.
As time passed, the pressure grew stronger until their chests felt tight and painful; they wanted to fight back, but their bodies were as powerless as the stones in the road, and they were forced to rely on the Recipestele named Nellie, who was half-frightened as she faced this combined entity born of destructive desires and revenge.
Nellie looked at her master, who resembled a cave creature trying to crawl across the ground, and she kept struggling to break free from the grip of fear while her purple eyes stared at the horrifying figure before her.
After struggling with all her strength, Nellie finally broke free from the grip of fear and immediately lured the horrifying figure away so her master could escape the pressure, holding the creature off for several seconds.
She immediately flapped her wings and shot through the mist toward the university because she could sense the aura of beings similar to herself.
Nellie knew very well that it came from Recipestele, a woman named Niva, a fusion of rage and destruction capable of causing chaos in this place.
However, escaping from that horrifying creature was not as easy as she had imagined as its spiritual pressure destroyed everything around it and slowed her movements more and more over time.
She knew she held the advantage because she could control the air however she wished, and eventually she manipulated the air behind her, hardened it, and hurled it rapidly.
And not far ahead, she sensed around two other Recipestele, and much farther ahead she sensed around three unfamiliar Recipestele.
Until she arrived at the edge of the university building, directly above a bridge with a steadily flowing river beneath it and a sharp atmosphere as her purple eyes caught sight of the battle inside the university.
Seeing the embodiment of revenge and destruction had arrived, her tiny hand immediately lifted upward and she willingly allowed herself to be attacked because her task was complete and she knew she would not die so easily.
An immense pressure instantly struck the moment Nellie entered the horrifying creature's range, making her spiritual form seem crushed apart before dissolving into the night wind.
The creature immediately turned to its right because it sensed a hot atmosphere mixed with cold not far away. With a sharp gaze and blazing purple eyes, it instantly flapped its wings and flew at high speed toward it.
And unexpectedly, the fierce battle between Zuhen, Felina, and the remaining members of Intersection Society instantly died down when the pressure-filled figure appeared in the middle of the battlefield, causing Tell, who had been fighting the Recipestele from before, to freeze as its gaze locked onto the center of the university outskirts where the ground below had been flattened.