Like that, three hours passed.

Throughout their short stint into the city, Ellis was overcome with a sense of scale. This city, it was massive. No matter how far they traveled, the city simply refused to end. It was always the same cube-shaped buildings, along the same square-tiled streets, beneath the same white-fogged sky.

What’s more, all the buildings here possessed the capability to self-repair. Ellis occasionally checked, but as of now, he had yet to be proven wrong.

A city like this was nothing short of amazing.

Thanks to his previous life’s sensibilities, it was a bit difficult to look at Ilpin forest and come to terms with the fact that one entity was solely responsible for its construction, but a city like this was different. As far as Ellis was concerned, a city was a strictly man-made concept, but this city, it was built in a way that was seemingly impossible for man to accomplish.

He couldn’t help but wonder, did this holy ground exist when Alma was still a God? Did he have something similar? A majestic capital for a kingdom he called his own?

Ellis did not know the answer.

The group continued on for another two hours.

Some of the buildings began to deviate from the normal cub-shaped template. Larger variations popped up, some with additional floors and extra rooms. In addition, there were some with weird jutting protrusions. They looked like spires that vertically stuck out from the walls like some sort of mutant parasite.

These new buildings looked like important landmarks, but like with the rest of the city, their insides revealed the same dust-covered emptiness.

They walked for another three hours.

The already wide streets that they traveled on opened up into a much larger, much wider street. The street in question was wider than the span of two football fields. It was a scale that bordered on the illogical. Then again, nothing within this city made sense.

Ellis could not figure out why the city needed such a large street. It made all the other streets look like back alleys by comparison.

He had to wonder, was this street purely aesthetic, or did the city truly once possess something that justified such an unreasonable design?

They walked for another four hours.

It should have been dark by now, but the environment had yet to change. A constant light leaked out from the fog-covered ceiling above and illuminated the city with a harsh, almost irritating glow.

Ellis merely looked up. Nothing had changed.

They walked for another five hours.

In actuality, the layout of the city was rather simple.

He had come to realize this soon after the group arrived at the ‘main street’.

There was one core pathway. Attached to that pathway were several divergent roads that lead to who knows where. After arriving at the core path, Ellis and the group did not bother investigating the city any further. It really couldn’t be helped. The city was simply far too large for them to explore each and every individual building.

For now, he simply wanted to see where the end of the core pathway led to.

They walked for another…. No, Ellis had long since lost track of how much time had passed. The group simply kept walking.

Eventually, a faint wind blew through the air. Ellis stopped.

He stood in the middle of the street, silent and without motion.

“Ellis?” Grisella also came to a stop. She looked up at him with confusion.

Ellis did not respond. He kept his ears peeled and his eyes wide, as he concentrated on his surroundings.

What was that?

Just now, he had heard a faint whisper. It was a similar experience to when he first walked into one of the cube-shaped buildings. Back then, he felt something brush up against his ear. He later dismissed the feeling as nothing more than a random thought in his head. Now, he could no longer dismiss such thoughts.

He had heard it again, but this time, it was a bit louder and a bit clearer.

Ellis waited for five minutes, but there was nothing.

Was it really just my imagination?

He looked over towards his companions.

… No, that shouldn’t be the case.

Grisella and the others were far more sensitive than him. Right now, they suddenly looked alert.

In particular, the solitary witch’s expression turned grave.

Unlike Ellis, she had yet to encounter anything odd like random cold winds or ephemeral voices, but when Ellis suddenly stopped and stared warily at his surroundings, she immediately prompted an investigation.

What she found did not make her the slightest bit happy.

She spat out a single word.

“Specters.”

“Specters?” Ellis tilted his head in confusion. “Are those like ghosts or something?”

“Close. They are lost souls of the deceased who have lingered for far too long on Lull. As a result, their spirits grow corrupted and they turn malevolent.” Throughout her explanation, her face remained grim. “They usually appear in grave sites or necromancer lairs.”

Grisella suddenly paused. “I did not feel it before because they lingered just outside of my senses, but when you suddenly freaked out like that, I sent out a spiritual probe. I felt it. They probably felt me too. These things, they are strong.”

“Specters… specters… so basically just ghosts?” Ellis muttered to himself. After a while, his expression suddenly hardened. He glanced over at Grisella and hesitantly asked, “These specter things, they wouldn’t happen to be the transparent kind that can phase through walls and stuff, right?”

“Ah, that’s right.” Much to his disappointment, Grisella nodded in confirmation. She did not notice the bitterness that twisted his face. Instead, she continued to explain, “if they really are Specters that have aged for a million years, then… things will get dangerous!”

Rather than dangerous, it’s another bothersome enemy!

An unbearable bitterness suffused from his heart. I can’t fucking punch a ghost!

He inwardly cursed at the world and all of its unfairness. One could only imagine Ellis’s current heartache. Even though he trained so hard, wasted so much time, suffered so much pain, was this really the end result of all of his efforts? The cold rigidness of reality was a tough pill to swallow!

Why? Why are all of my enemies so resistant to physical damage?! This can’t be natural. Don’t tell me… is that damn God behind all of this? Has he been watching all this time? You fucking bastard, quit screwing with me!

Ellis hurled insults and inwardly screamed in his head. He threw a complete and utterly childish tantrum! Still, on the outside, he maintained his calm, albeit weary expression.

After a few seconds, he eventually came to terms with reality. A single sigh leaked out from his throat.

Just then, a loud mournful moan echoed through the street.

“They’re coming.” Grisella’s cold words reverberated through his ears.

As if on cue, two semi-transparent creatures suddenly shambled towards them.

Exposed bones and taut faces. The Specters were humanoid in shape and wore rags all over their bodies. They possessed a slightly eerie green tinge to their skin. As if that wasn’t enough to cement their ghostly appearance, they also lacked legs. Instead, a thin, tail-like wisp replaced their lower half.

They originated from further down the street. The emergence of the first two prompted others to follow suit.

Specters, green-faced and decrepit, slithered out from the cracks within the pavement and from the crevices between the buildings. A quick glance revealed thousands, with the large majority of them coming from further down the main street.

Ellis braced himself. As a muscly meathead, he really had no defense or countermeasure against this type of enemy. If his body were to get possessed or something, then everyone here would probably die.

In comparison to his unsettled heart, Grisella had an even bigger reaction. Her face morphed into a truly panicked expression.

Beads of sweat dripped down the side of her temple she hurriedly rummaged around in her spatial satchel. Deep down, she knew that no one else within the group could fight against these specters.

These creatures took no damage from physical attacks. What’s more, normal magic dealt only a third of their usual potency. Ena might be able to do something with her natural affinity with magic, but even she was greatly hampered by these guys.

There was a common saying within this world: “A specter’s only weakness is light!”

As expected, creatures of the night like them were vulnerable to light and holy magic.

Right now, the group could only rely on Grisella. After so much inaction, it was finally her turn to shine!

Grisella first pulled out a shallow pot. The pot was wide, with a diameter larger than her arm span. It resembled a giant saucer. Inside the pot, there was a collection of dark-red dirt.

Without hesitation, she quickly threw the entire thing to the ground.

Ellis curiously watched her. The rest of the group followed suit and crowded around the flustered witch.

“What’s that?” he asked. Despite the oncoming Specters, he still had the nerve to act carefree.

“Fertilizer from Gallows Island. The soil there is notorious for its fast-growth rate.” She then pulled out a pastel-colored cloth bag. Without being asked, she quickly explained, “This is a bag full of carnivorous seeds, taken directly from the Crural mountains.”

The last thing that she pulled out was a small vial filled with transparent liquid. For a moment, her pupils glistened. “Last but not least, holy water. It’s from the main church of the Orthodox faith. I had to pay quite the price in order to get my hands on this thing.”

“Oh?” For a moment, Ellis’s heart lurched.

The Orthodox faith… That name instantly made him wary. After all, those guys were probably his most dangerous enemies within this entire world.

As Grisella revealed all of her items, her heart definitely felt the pinch. It couldn’t be helped. These things were immensely valuable, the sort of item that could not be traded for mere gold. Still, what else could she do? Her little life was also valuable.

The horde of specters drew closer. The nearest one was now a mere one hundred meters away from them. They moved like starved cheetahs.

She immediately emptied the bag of seeds into the pot. Then, without missing a beat, she uncorked the vial and poured all of its contents all over.

“Lastly, for control…” she chanted a silent spell and then bit down on her thumb. A single bead of blood emerged. It glistened like a priceless marble. Grisella knelt down and ruthlessly jabbed her thumb into the soil.

As the specters closed in, the pot suddenly shook. Grisella removed her thumb and instantly backpedaled. At the same time, a large pop echoed through the air.

“A witch’s pride lies in her creations!” She suddenly shouted something nonsensical and pointed her finger towards the approaching horde.

A giant, dark green vine abruptly emerged from within the shallow layer of soil. A bulbous head could be seen at the end of the vine. The head suddenly vertically split, revealing a mouth filled with thorn-like teeth.

Without hesitation, the vine darted forward. The carnivorous head chomped down onto the closest Specter.

For a seemingly intangible creature, it sure did react quite poorly to the sudden attack. The specter was lifted in the air by the vine and thrashed around like a rag doll in the hands of an unruly child.

The specter let out a mournful wail. It struggled to escape the vine’s clamp, but all of its efforts proved futile. As a final act of desperation, it spat out a black-colored sludge all over the bulbous head of the vine. The areas where the sludge touched immediately began to sizzle, but upon closer inspection, the sludge did not actually touch the vine. Instead, it was blocked by a thin layer of glowing white.

Seemingly unbothered by the sludge, the plant tilted its head up and quickly swallowed the specter whole.

Without pause, it went on to attack the next specter within its vicinity. As the vine accumulated more kills, a significant change suddenly occurred. A new bulb emerged out from the vine. It quickly branched off and formed another carnivorous head. After the second head popped up, a third and a fourth quickly followed.

The vine’s growth did not stop there. Soon, numerous vines and over a dozen heads thrashed in the air like wriggling snakes. A giant wall of dark-green had formed. It was not enough to cover the entire street, but it was more than enough to block the oncoming specters.

Ellis had watched all of this transpire with curious eyes.

“The holy water adds a holy attribute to the carnivorous vine, which is quite effective against specters.” Grisella curtly explained as she breathed out a tense sigh.

Despite the good results brought upon by her quick thinking, her hands had yet to stop moving. It was only natural. After all, the carnivorous vine was far from enough to stop the growing army of Specters.

Through her witch’s perception, she could see an entire city’s worth of spectral energy surging from deep within the heart of the city. Thousands upon thousands of Specters were already bad enough, but an even stronger, even more dangerous entity was rapidly approaching.

It was a Specter infinitely close to calamity-level. No, judging by how its energy keeps escalating, isn’t it already a Calamity-class?

Even when she explained all this the rest of the group, they could do nothing to stop it. Unfortunately for all of them, Grisella was the only one who could do anything within this situation.

But therein lay the problem.

Battling against a calamity-class? Her?

That was a truly laughable concept!

Just as she pondered whether or not they should mount a retreat, another surge of energy swept through the city. To her horror, seemingly dormant spirits suddenly rose from all four cardinal directions.

They were officially surrounded.