Inside the ruined wooden house,
the black shadow came at Ian in a rolling mass of cold mist.
"Damn it! How did it break free so fast?!" Constantine's face changed at once. He stepped in front of Ian and hurriedly raised a hand, trying to pull something from inside his trench coat to ward off the evil spirit.
But the shadow was too fast.
So fast that there was no time for any effective response at all.
Like a speeding truck, it slammed directly into Constantine and sent him flying.
His body traced an arc through the air before crashing hard into Charles, who was running over with a bottle in hand. The two of them were thrown together into one of the already unstable walls.
"Come on! Become my nourishment, delicious child!"
The evil spirit seemed especially greedy for a boy like Ian. It plunged straight into his chest and passed through him.
"Constantine really is an unreliable disaster magnet!"
Ian only had time to curse once before the whole world began to spin around him.
At the same time,
the system in his mind sounded with a notification.
[Special soul intrusion detected. Berserker Class EXP +1]
With that prompt, Ian successfully completed a level-up in his [Berserker] class. He could clearly feel every aspect of himself improving.
[Strength: 3.5 -> 5.6]
[Constitution: 3.0 -> 4.5]
[Intelligence: 2.3 -> 2.4]
[Spirit: 2.7 -> 2.9]
[Level-Up Reward: Class Skill Point +1, Rank Weight increased]
Under normal circumstances, this should have made him happy.
But Ian could not feel happy at all.
He did not even have the spare attention to think about what "Rank Weight increased" actually meant.
"Where is this?"
When his vision became clear again, Ian realized he seemed to be standing inside an unfamiliar room.
The room was eerie to the extreme, with a temperature that felt well below freezing.
Black vein-like lines crawled along the walls, pulsing in some strange rhythm. Outside, the darkness was thick like ink, endless and suffocating, as if everything had either vanished or already been swallowed whole.
This was clearly no longer part of the real world.
Ian tried opening the window, but it would not budge. It felt as if it had only been printed onto the wall. Even when he smashed a fist against the glass, the sound that came back was the dull thud of hitting stone.
The feel of it was all wrong.
"A realm of thought and soul?"
Ian looked up at the ceiling. Red droplets, almost like blood, seeped slowly from the cracks above and fell one after another to the floor.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
...
Ian wiped one of the droplets from his forehead. It was thick, and the air carried a metallic smell. Before long, the liquid gathering from the ceiling began forming disturbing red pools across the floor.
"Pretty creepy."
He felt like he should have been afraid.
But instead, his body seemed to have entered rebellion early. Rather than fear, the whole thing only kept pushing his rage higher.
Maybe this was part of the [Berserker] class traits. In any case, Ian was sure it was not his fault. He might have some mental issues, but probably not to that extent.
"I've always been an innocent boy who appreciates Teletubbies and In the Night Garden."
As Ian watched, the semi-transparent [Rage Value] bar in the lower right of his vision slowly climbed.
At the same time,
his four attributes were also receiving corresponding boosts.
The effect of [Blood-Reversal Furnace] was still working in this world of thought and soul, which probably proved that he was still under attack from the spirit that had invaded him.
"A mental attack?"
Ian looked around.
The room's only wooden door slowly creaked open.
A dark figure stood in the darkness beyond it.
It was an evil spirit dressed in tattered nun's clothing. Its pale face was horribly twisted, its mouth stretched too wide, and dark fluid kept running from its empty eye sockets.
It showed Ian a deeply malicious grin. A dark liquid dripped from its teeth, and even from a distance, Ian could smell a sickening stench.
"How many years has it been since you brushed your teeth?"
Ian swallowed.
His rage rose another little step.
And just then, the light in the room began to flicker, bright and dark, bright and dark, instantly tightening the tension in the air.
Each time the light and darkness switched places,
the nun spirit moved a little closer.
It was almost like teleportation.
In the blink of an eye, it appeared right in front of Ian and thrust out its thin hands, clamping them around his neck with all its strength.
"Suffer! Scream!"
The nun spirit's voice was sharp and shrill, full of vicious force.
But what should have been a terrifying scene suddenly turned weirdly awkward.
Because Ian was not even struggling.
"Are you stupid?"
Ian's expression turned strange as he pulled back a fist and punched the nun spirit square in the face.
"Do you think I need to breathe? We're both beyond the weakness of flesh in here!"
One punch after another.
Ian drove the spirit back repeatedly, its already hideous face getting caved in further with each blow.
"What is happening?!"
The spirit looked stunned.
It seemed unable to understand how it could be this weak. After Ian kicked it to the floor, it finally seemed to realize what was wrong.
"I didn't absorb your fear! Impossible! Where is your fear? Where is your terror?!"
The nun spirit let out a piercing scream, its voice full of confusion and disbelief.
It tried to flee and hide,
but Ian rushed forward and planted a foot firmly on its head.
"Exactly! Where did you hide my fear and terror? Give them back!"
Ian turned the accusation right back around and hammered down with punches like rain.
Even after being beaten flat against the floor, the spirit still screamed at him with venom.
"This is only your final struggle! In the real world, your life is already fading fast! No human body can endure my corruption!"
"Five minutes! You only have five minutes left!"
It was clearly trying to use that to trigger fear in Ian, laughing wildly through its mangled form.
"Hm?"
Ian's fist really did stop for a moment.
But
the spirit was horrified to realize it still could not draw any strength from fear.
"So within five minutes, I have to deal with you..."
Ian did feel the urgency now. His astonishing 2.4 Intelligence was already working at full speed.
Trusting the Constantine outside was definitely less reliable than trusting himself.
Five minutes.
How could he save himself?
"Human... you can't destroy a being like me..." the spirit began laughing, but before it could finish its boast, it suddenly realized Ian had thrown himself onto it.
In an instant,
its arrogant tone vanished completely.
The nun spirit became the first one to panic.
"Ahhh! What are you doing?!"
Not just panic.
Pure alarm.
Its scream echoed through the entire world of thought.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]