As he passed through the narrow ventilation duct, Ian's mind raced. The originally planned "Concept Erasure" required precise arrangements, now he could only initiate the backup plan—the semi-finished magic developed based on Paradox Divine Authority.
[Exile of Cause and Effect].
When Ian dashed out of the temple, the night sky over Memphis was already tinted with a sickly orange-red. Screams echoed from afar as seven ghost brides began their hunt across different neighborhoods. The closest one stood in the center of the market, the hem of her wedding dress extending countless blood threads, crawling into the window cracks of every household like living creatures.
"The first one." Ian reverted to human form, the broken magic wand reorganizing in his hand. The blue-gold eye at the tip spun wildly, locking onto its target.
The casting process of [Exile of Cause and Effect] was completely different from other magic. Ian didn't recite an incantation; instead, he directly tore open his left sleeve—golden runes hidden beneath his skin were exposed to the air, starting to writhe and reorganize like living entities.
"Define:" Ian's voice carried a multi-layered resonance, "The very existence of a ghost bride is an erroneous cause and effect."
The tip of the magic wand burst out pure white light, but instead of shooting towards the ghost bride, the light shot straight into the night sky! The beam refracted in the clouds, splitting into seven branches, landing precisely on each of the ghost brides engaged in their hunt.
The ghost bride in the center of the market suddenly froze. She turned slowly, a similar fear emerging in her golden sand eyes for the first time. Because her body was becoming... unreal.
"You should not exist." Ian's gray-green eyes reflected the white light, "It is an incorrect timeline that created you."
The ghost bride emitted a shrill shriek, her body beginning to flicker like an old television signal. She desperately reached out towards the nearest living person, but her fingers passed right through the other's body—she was being extracted from this reality!
"Return to the void."
Ian pressed down with the magic wand.
Her body began decomposing from the feet, turning into basic particles. She struggled and screamed, but could not stop the process—because Ian's magic was not attacking her.
It was correcting a "mistake" in reality.
Seeing the magic take effect.
Ian did not linger long, after all, there was more than one ghost bride.
As the first ray of dawn seemed to appear.
The city should have awakened.
Yet the streets were pervaded by a deathly silence.
Ian landed, transforming from raven back into human form. As he steadied himself, he heard a piercing scream coming from the entrance of an alley.
A mother clutching an infant was being cornered against the wall by a ghost bride in a school uniform. The ghost bride's eyes were blood-red, the corners of her mouth extended to her ears, blood threads shooting from her fingertips, entangling the mother and child.
"Please... spare the child..." the mother cried.
The ghost bride did not respond, the blood threads suddenly tightening.
In an instant, the mother and child's skin began to shrivel, their life force forcibly extracted, golden light flowing into the ghost bride's body. In just three seconds, the two turned into dried corpses, dragged away by her casually.
Ian roared, "Stop!"
With a wave of his magic wand, silver-blue light exploded: "Exile of Cause and Effect!"
This was his exclusive ability created based on "Paradox Divine Authority," combined with his understanding of the ghost brides' existence—it did not attack flesh, did not destroy souls, but instead severed the target from the "chain of cause and effect." The afflicted would be banished to the crevice "outside of reality," unable to influence reality, nor be influenced by it, as if they had never existed.
Sure enough.
It still required magic to deal with magic, the irrational to counter the irrational.
Silver light surged out like a tide, hitting the ghost bride squarely.
Her body suddenly stiffened, a flash of shock flickering in her red eyes, and then—her form began to blur, as if erased by an eraser.
Her existence quickly dissipated.
The street returned to tranquility, as if nothing had happened.
Ian did not stop. He rushed into the next street to find three ghost brides surrounding a group of civilians hiding inside a church. They lifted their hands, blood threads weaving into a net, beginning to extract the crowd's life.
"Exile of Cause and Effect!"
Silver light swept across, and the three ghost brides disintegrated simultaneously, turning into void.
Inside the church, the survivors sat paralyzed, dumbstruck.
"It's... it's that young man!" someone recognized Ian, "He... he defeated them all by himself?!"
Ian rushed into the market, finding a ghost bride trying to drag an elderly man who possibly needed an evil god embryo into a coffin. He waved his hand, and after a flicker of silver light, the ghost bride vanished instantly.
Ian leapt onto the bell tower, overlooking the entire city. He saw dozens of red silhouettes prowling the streets, spreading like a plague. There were too many ghost brides, heaven knows how many innocent girls had been turned into ghost brides.
"No time to deal with them one by one."
Ian gritted his teeth, raised his magic wand high, and chanted:
"With paradox as the guide, with cause and effect as the blade,
Let all who pursue death be pursued by death.
Exile—entire city range!"
After all, Ian himself was the embodiment of the God of Paradox, so how he phrased his incantation depended entirely on his talent, and in emergency, Ian's talent could only manifest to such a melodramatic extent.
In an instant, silver-blue light patterns spread from him as the center, rippling across the entire city.
All moving ghost brides, wherever they were, whether they had started reaping or not, all froze.
Their bodies began to turn transparent, red eyes extinguishing, blood threads dissipating.
Then—
They shattered in a roar.
As if wiped from the world by an unseen hand.
On the streets, under the eaves, in basements, countless ghost brides disappeared simultaneously. Those they dragged away fell to the ground, weakened but alive.
The whole city fell silent.
Then, cheers erupted like a tidal wave.