As the light flickered, countless images shattered and cracked before him, revealing a normal world that had returned to its rightful state.
Cromwell looked around, no longer able to see those terrifying eyes or the translucent ghostly claws; only the overhead lights continued to shine, illuminating everything around them.
“Miss Nameless, was that… undead?” he immediately realized something, his voice dry yet filled with a hint of gratitude.
Firth was a border city of the Rustbone Free State, which was the birthplace of the Holy Spirit Sect; encountering the undead here was nothing out of the ordinary.
As a moderately skilled mage, Cromwell had never dealt with the undead directly, having only heard that they feared fire magic, believing that with his water wave flames, he would be sufficiently prepared.
However, he never expected the methods of the undead to be so frightening and bizarre. Had it not been for the unfathomable Miss Nameless by his side, he couldn’t bear to think about the nightmare in which he would have suffered a painful death.
“Should be,” Yvette replied, gazing towards a certain direction in the darkness. “It ran away; it shouldn’t be a rogue soul—someone must be manipulating it.”
The spirit they had just encountered had hidden in the shadows, inflicting some kind of attack that fell under the category of soul magic on the two of them, perhaps an illusion or mind magic, or something else entirely. Regardless, Yvette quickly detected it and located the true entity, unleashing an array of magical attacks that drove it off.
Unfortunately, while encountering skeletons or zombies might be manageable, this opponent was a pure spiritual entity, immune to a vast majority of attack methods, including but not limited to physical damage, water, ice, earth, and wind elemental magic.
Thus, the few ways she had to inflict direct damage on a spiritual body were limited to lightning and fire magic. Even then, their effectiveness would be diminished, and she wouldn’t be able to quickly dispatch the spirit.She felt somewhat helpless about this. However, for dealing with such malevolent spirits, there were primarily two types of attacks that could inflict significant damage.
One was the sunlight magic branch under light and shadow magic, which had special effects against undead creatures.
The other was the “mental/mind magic” branch under soul magic, effective against all spiritual entities.
However, acquiring knowledge of these two types was quite challenging, and she didn’t have much understanding of them.
That said, Yvette thought that killing a malevolent spirit could indeed be a bit troublesome; she would have to chase the opponent using lightning and fire magic, slowly grinding it down to defeat.
She also wondered whether her pure white tendrils would impact the spiritual entity… But it seemed a bit uncertain, as the devouring ability of her pure white tendrils currently targeted only material entities…
Yvette shook her head, then heard Cromwell’s worried voice asking, “Since there are undead here, will the Holy Spirit Sect come to capture us later?”
“In Rustbone, the Holy Spirit Sect is a legally recognized orthodox religion; they shouldn’t make a significant fuss over a group of slavers. That would give the federal government an excuse to act against Rustbone,” Yvette analyzed.
“True…” Cromwell felt reassured.
In the United New Eden, the Holy Spirit Sect was considered a cult, but in some smaller nations, and specifically in the Rustbone Free State, it was not only regarded as orthodox but also embodied a remarkably just and sanctified image.
Even for locals in Rustbone, the so-called cult was merely seen as an international smear campaign against the Holy Spirit Sect, believed to be motivated by envy over their magical techniques. Claims of experimenting on human souls and human trafficking were viewed as fake news, entirely non-existent.
Given this context, as long as the Holy Spirit Sect desired to maintain stability and preserve its image, it could not engage in excessive actions.
Cromwell suddenly thought of something and asked with admiration, “Miss Nameless, how did you see through those illusions and discover that spirit?”
Attacks at the soul level treated everyone equally; even powerful cyber mages or ordinary people would not vary significantly in spiritual strength. Without targeted equipment or appropriate countermeasures, even experts could easily fall victim to malevolent spirits.
Yvette, uncertain, replied, “It… wasn’t hidden very well. I just took a look and found it…”
You just took a look and found it?
Are you some kind of inspiration expert?
Cromwell was somewhat skeptical, feeling that the Miss Nameless might be dismissively deflecting his question. He could only laugh and express, “As expected of the Miss Nameless… I was almost scared to death; that ghostly thing was truly terrifying. It makes horror movies look tame…”
Yvette looked at him in surprise and asked, “Was it really that terrifying?”
“Yeah, uh, wasn’t it scary?” Cromwell found her reaction odd and started to describe the scene he had just witnessed.
Having spent years writing, his expression was vivid and engaging, making it feel as though one could readily visualize the terrifying scenes unfolding before them with their eyes closed.
Yvette remained silent.
What she had seen was completely different.
To put it another way, if the horrifying images Cromwell had witnessed were akin to a chilling horror film, what she had perceived was possibly just a hastily drawn… stick figure?
Wait, were those bloodied eyeballs she saw on the walls? Were the hands at her feet actually translucent human hands?
Why did it appear to her as a blurry mosaic, indistinguishable?
Moreover, why had she been able to easily spot that dark, lurking, translucent malevolent spirit hiding in the shadows?
With that thought, she concluded the answer lay in a difference of perception.
Yes, it was indeed about different insights.
To put it bluntly, years of effort in sleep had allowed her mental strength to be significantly higher than that of the average person.
Although she had little understanding of soul magic and lacked corresponding defensive methods, her deep blood pool made her resilient. The soul attacks from the malevolent spirit felt less like painful bites and more akin to mere annoyances, akin to a mosquito’s sting—unpleasant but harmless.
…
With practical experience behind her regarding her own spiritual body, Yvette felt somewhat reassured, no longer worrying about ambushes from mind magic.
The two continued down the damaged staircase, finally reaching the location where Cromwell and the others had initially been held, pushing open the door.
The red-haired youth, Donnell, was there alongside a few others, both male and female, one of whom was Donnell’s girlfriend.
When the door swung open, they all initially tensed up, gripping their makeshift weapons tightly, but upon recognizing who had entered, Donnell immediately let out a sigh of relief and introduced, “You’re safe, everyone… this is the Miss Nameless I told you about! See, I wasn’t lying!”
The silver-haired, red-eyed beauty was an unforgettable image that could hardly be mistaken, and when her appearance matched Donnell’s description, the victims inside immediately grew animated, erupting into a brief, low cheer.
Yvette turned to Donnell and asked, “What about Reese?”
“He’s in the room next door,” Donnell replied, walking to another door and calling out, “Come out! The Miss Nameless is back!”
Almost simultaneously, Reese’s figure emerged from the adjacent room, followed by several unfamiliar survivors, all tattered and sporting expressions of bewilderment mixed with disbelief.
When adding up the victims from both rooms, along with Cromwell, Donnell, and Reese, there were a total of 18 rescued individuals.
After counting the numbers, Yvette was delighted, thinking to herself that this meant a profit of 180,000!
This task was even easier than the man-wolf killer mission…
She then asked, “Are there any other facilities nearby?”
She recalled hearing the slavers mention capturing two little girls in the vicinity; perhaps they weren’t far from here.
A thin man standing behind Donnell hesitated before speaking, “…Yes, there’s one diagonally across, about a kilometer away. Those scumbags mentioned it while communicating… it seems these two are the only ‘industrial parks’.”
He pointed into the dark distance toward an area with more low-profile building silhouettes.
“Alright.” Yvette nodded; since they were out to strike, they might as well take out everything in one go to earn some extra money.
Donnell, Reese, and the others exchanged glances, realizing from the Miss Nameless’s tone that it sounded like one industrial park was not enough, and she intended to take down another?
That was quite audacious, wasn’t it?