It seemed for a moment like the ghost and Rog were about to tear Domeron into pieces. Before that happened, though, the swordsman threw his head back and let out a guttural roar. The spirit mimicked his movements, and a wave of dark-red Spiritual Energy spread from its body.

The shock wave pushed Rog back far away, crashing against the side of a ruined building, and even the woman who was floating above Domeron’s head felt its impact, whirling through the air like a broken kite. She recovered quickly and seemed intent on diving and finishing the swordsman, but before she could do that, a wave of deep blue light came crashing against her.

The hand behind her back shielded her from the blow, but the impact was more than enough to send her hurling even further away.

Hector shouted in fury. “Stay away from him, you damn ghost!”

The elder made a hand sign, and the flying sword came to rest by him. Then, without hesitation, he hit his own chest with a fist, spewing out a mist of blood over the artifact with a pained expression. The sword absorbed this crimson mist and the glow surrounding it intensified.

Red was quick to notice the elder’s fluctuation becoming significantly weaker as he did this.

‘He’s using his life essence!’

The ghostly woman wasn’t too keen on letting whatever Hector was doing happen, and as she recovered from the blow, she shot towards him. It seemed like she was too late, though, as a wave of deep blue energy spread from the sword like lightning, swallowing almost the entire courtyard in its radius, including Hector and the ghost.

The woman’s expression changed as this energy covered her, and an instant later it was made clear why. Her flying speed slowed down substantially, and it looked as if the woman was wading through water.

For Red, who was looking in from the outside, it seemed as if a dome of darkened water had grown over the courtyard, making the surrounding few hundred meters its domain. This domain pressed around the ghost, slowing down her movements as it would anyone swimming in its waters. The youth then realized why the sword was called Deep Sea Sword.

Only Hector’s movements remained unchanged, and he pointed a finger at the woman. The flying sword swam through this domain unbothered, like a fish in the water, and in fact, its speed seemed to have increased even.

The woman didn’t have time to turn into mist, or perhaps she could not, and she used her fifth arm to block this attack. A flash of light passed her by, cutting a huge chunk off of the deformed limb. The appendage trying to regenerate, but before it could even do that, the sword struck again, cutting it apart once more.

The ghost frowned, and she held her hands together as if in prayer. A stream of energy seemed to be poured from her body to this deformed limb, quickening its regeneration and allowing it to defend the woman from being directly struck by the sword. Still, she had no choice but to stay there and take the blows like a living target.

For the first time, it seemed the ghost was at a disadvantage. Yet, looking at her and Hector’s expression, one might think the situation was inverted.

Even with this domain, the elder found himself unable to deal a fatal blow to her, while his energy and the one from the sword were being depleted by the second. If his fluctuation was any indication, it seemed unlikely he had enough life force to execute this technique again.

For the first time since Red met him, Hector looked desperate.

‘He needs help.’

The youth looked over at Domeron. The man was holding onto his bleeding chest, as if trying to close the wound. His spirit had turned around and was staring at the swordsman with a hateful expression, as if resenting his host for being this weak. The first sign of rebellion.

Red frowned and looked to the area where Rog fell. The hunter, now possessed of undead powers, seemed to be recovering from the blow, his broken limbs twisting and mending. It was evident now that the infection had taken him over, causing him to transform into an undead. Yet, it seemed as if he had jumped in power to the equivalent of a ghoul, and not only that, but he also acted in unison with the woman, wounding Domeron.

This could only mean one thing.

‘She can control him.’

Not only that, but she also caused his infection to flare. The hunter then jumped from a common zombie to a powerful Lesser Ring Realm ghoul in less than a minute.

The Rog he knew was gone. Domeron, though, didn’t know that, and he evidently didn’t have the time to consider it in that split second, hence why he fell prey to her trap.

‘Wait! If she can cause the infection to flare, then…’

He looked back at Domeron. The first few signs of black vein appeared on his face, and it seemed as if the man was fighting with all his might to keep the infection from taking him over. This meant, however, that he was unable to help Hector with the woman.

‘I need to-’

Red tried to take one step towards the man, but his body twisted in pain, and he felt a warning from the pit of his stomach. At that moment, the Spirit of Slaughter also turned towards the youth, its expression conveying a killing intent that caused the youth to tremble.

‘Damn it, why now?!’

The hateful feeling the crimson mist felt towards the spirit went both ways, it seemed.

As Red was bent over and trying to think about what to do, he heard a roar from behind him. The undead Rog seemed to be finding its feet again and looked as if it was just about to charge at Domeron. In the meantime, the youth also noticed that the domain Hector’s sword had conjured was visibly decreasing in size, and it probably wouldn’t take much longer until the ghost was free from it.

Their candles were burning on both ends.

Red gritted his teeth and grabbed onto the Spirit Core in his pouch, extending his awareness towards it.

“You need to go help Hector.” he conveyed his thoughts.

“I’m not done absorbing the energy!” Aurelia said. “I won’t be able to defeat her like this!”

“Help him now, or we all die! We can find another chance to use the exorcism technique later!”

It obviously wouldn’t be that simple, but this was the only plan Red could come up with on the spot.

A grunt of frustration came from Aurelia. “Gah! Fine!”

Suddenly, a stream of energy poured out of the crystal core. This energy converged above the youth’s head, revealing the image of Aurelia.

She seemed to be in her banshee state - her hair turning completely white, her eyes filled with blood, and her skin sallow like an undead’s. She resembled the very ghost they were fighting against, yet Red felt there was a fundamental difference between them he couldn’t quite figure out.

Aurelia let out a scream that pierced through the courtyard, and she shot towards the woman up above, just before the domain let her escape. Immediately, the ghost’s expression changed, and she looked over at the banshee in surprise.

Aurelia crashed into her opponent, sending them whirling through the air even while blocking with their ghostly hand. Before the ghost could even react, she was upon them again.

The banshee’s body seemed to be in a misty state, surrounding the black-dressed woman as her hands clawed with their destructive touch that seemed to corrode the very air it passed through. All her opponent could do to defend herself at the moment was to use her deformed hand to block her attacks.

The appendage seemed incapable of regenerating from Aurelia’s blows, though, and piece by piece, it crumbled into useless grey flesh.

Aurelia let out a maniacal laughter at this. “Hahaha! How is this for an-”

Before she could even complete her taunt, another deformed hand sprouted out from the ghost, this time from her shoulder, though. It swatted at Aurelia, hitting her even through her misty state and causing her to fly back from the impact.

The woman retreated in surprise, her shape reforming almost a few hundred meters away as she examined her opponent’s new deformed hand. This limb was smaller than the last one, though it retained its shape and undead features.

“What even are you?” Aurelia asked in anger and frustration.

The only response she got was a sneer, and her opponent, now outside of the ocean’s domain, disappeared into the air around her like a mist. Aurelia followed her lead and also merged into her surroundings like an ephemeral mist.

Red lost sight of the two of them, but almost an instant later, he heard an explosion in another area, almost a hundred meters away. When he looked over, the only thing he saw were misty remains, and the same explosion happened in another area. This repeated multiple times over the next few seconds, and soon enough, the sky was covered in this fog, leaving the youth unable to tell who exactly was winning the confrontation.

Judging by Hector’s shocked expression, the elder could also see it.

“She’s on our side!” Red called out to the old man. “Help her!”

The elder frowned and nodded with resolve, even through his pale expression. The youth could see he didn’t have much more in him, but he was going to fight to the very end. His sword traced through the sky, joining into the fray up above and assisting Aurelia in whichever way he could.

Hector couldn’t locate the ghost as easily without Domeron’s help, but wherever he heard his explosion, his sword would fly over, swiping at the black-dressed woman’s supposed location. He didn’t hit anything, and yet the energy in his sword would swipe away at the fog up above and slow down the ghost from merging into mist after every exchange with Aurelia.

Another delicate balance had been reached, though this one also seemed like it wouldn’t last for long.

That, then, only left one more unresolved matter.

Red looked over at Rog, now completely recovered. The ghoulish hunter was just about to charge at Domeron, but the youth ran over to intercept him with no better plan in mind.

Rog didn’t slow down at all, and he raised its claw to swipe at the one that tried to stop it, all the power of a Lesser Ring Realm existence behind its attack. Red saw death approaching, but he didn’t move away.

‘I’m sorry, Rog.’

He focused the power in his muscles and special veins, and just as the hunter entered within range, he exploded forward with the gathered potential of the White Beak art. His short-sword stabbed into the Rog’s chest before he could even swing its claw down.

Yet, his power was lacking, and all this did to the undead was to make it pause for a split second. The next instant, the claw swung down, digging into Red’s back through flesh and bone. The youth gritted his teeth and tried to hold on to his sword, dragging it across the hunter’s chest in an attempt to stop him, but it was to no avail.

Rog used his grip on Red’s flesh to pull him off, tossing him aside like it was nothing, still with the short sword embedded in his chest. Then, it turned around once more to charge at Domeron.

‘Damn it!’

Red ignored the burning wound in his back as he tried to get up. The ghoul had not even bothered killing him, so single-minded it was on its target. He didn’t know if the infection would spread to him at this point from the wound in his, but since he didn’t feel any immediate effects other than pain, he didn’t worry about it either.

However, only one idea remained in the youth’s head at this point.

‘I’m sorry for this Aurelia.’

“Hey!” he called out to Rog, pulling the insectoid core out of his pouch. “Over here!”

The crystal shined in his hand, and immediately the hunter ceased his movement as if sensing something, turning around to stare at the object in Red’s grip in a daze. Even through that woman’s control, it seemed as if the undead’s instincts were too strong to contain.

The youth turned around and started to run before the ghoul recovered. The next moment, he heard a guttural roar from behind as Rog charged at him.

Red fought through his pain to run as fast as he could, but even then, he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun someone so much stronger than him. He would be caught soon enough, at which point Rog, or rather the ghoul he had turned into, would tear him apart from limb to limb and devour the crystal core in his hand.

‘One last stand, then.’

As the youth made peace with himself and got ready to fight, he felt another fluctuation running in his direction. Red trembled and looked ahead, as someone emerged from behind a ruined building.

There, he saw it, the pale figure of a large, bald man, still wearing his apron, and holding a smithing hammer in his hand. He was charging towards Rog and Red like a mad bull, none of the weakness in his body apparent at that moment.

“I will not let you touch him!” Goulth let out a roar of defiance that seemed to come from the depths of his soul.