Secrets of the Universe

Minutes ago, Jake was busy rummaging his thoughts.

It was easy for him as he kept evading the wraith's attack. However, it became too strange for him.

'Something is wrong. A wraith is far stronger than this. It should be able to cause me substantial damage,' analyzed Jake.

It wasn't that he wanted to be injured, but he had entered the fight expecting an injury.

Yet, the fight was lukewarm with both sides exchanging weak attacks.

On Jake's side, he couldn't increase the scale of the battle due to their enclosed location. If he went all out, he would destroy the building.

However, what was the reason on the wraith's side? If anything, it shouldn't be concerned about the location, but be fully focused on eliminating him.

Dodging the wispy knife that came out of the wraith's body, Jake realized something, "It's clearly holding back, like me but for a different purpose. My purpose is plain, but its purpose should be....stallling!"

Wracking his brains, Jake used all the information he could find, 'I should have known all this while. A group of incorporeal netheran always act together. Yet, I could only spot three; the disappeared ghost, the shadow, and the wraith. The wraith, despite possessing the ability, is waiting for more of its people…...so that it can end things fast.'

The moment he made that discovery, Jake hollered at his mates, but only inaudible sounds came out of his mouth.

He, once again, cursed at his throat.

Nonetheless, he later realized something!

The energy in the air was concentrating at a rapid rate. Normally, something like this would mean the execution of a powerful attack.

Jake looked sideways and found the reason for the disturbance. It was Sea! She was about to dish her special attack.

He watched as she summoned a large water serpent that encased the entire room with water.

Engulfed into the sea-like room, Jake sighed, 'What a sad life?'

*Crack!* *Crack!*

The sounds he heard meant that the room couldn't hold the water anymore. Its hard structure broke apart!

Following that the building's walls also broke under the pressure of the water and the two parties found themselves in an open area that previously held the location of the building.

Finally being free, the water dispersed but the serpent remained to swallow the shadow, which caused the latter to shriek.

Jake coughed out the large amount of water that invaded his lungs.

He immediately focused on his battle, but couldn't find the wraith.

'Where is he?' he searched.

He could only guess that the wraith had disappeared before the water could engulf it.

This could mean something good and bad for Jake.

Jake ran to the exact location of the others to warn them of his conjecture.

He watched as the serpent lost shape and fell to the ground, not before dealing damage to the shadow.

Now, the shadow plastered on the ground had holes in its inky body.

Before he could warn them, Renee's loud battle cry drowned away his inaudible muffle, "[Destroy]!"

The woman raised her large battle-ax in the air.

[Destroy] was her only technique. However, it had proven to be one of the strongest techniques in the group.

Gaining momentum, she infused her ax with [Dark Elemental Spirit Essence]. This made the blade of the weapon far sharper than anything, it could cut away special crystals like they were nothing. 

When she brought down the blade, the air sang, announcing the presence of the attack.

*Swish!*

The large ax dropped on the shadow and split it into two, at the same time, creating a deep dent in the ground that was as deep as half a volcano.

*Shriek!*

The shadow screamed. Its body had been divided into two, and it tried to rejoin, but the attack by Renee prevented it.

The dark energy lingering on the edges of its two sides repelled them from regrouping.

This was another effect of Renee's [destroy], anything it cleaved apart was prohibited from ever fixing back for a long time.

This was also why Renee was qualified to join the Teglucas. Her [Dark Element] was just what they needed! 

*Shriek!*

However, the creature she was dealing with was a shadow! After mere seconds of screaming, the body of the shadow pulsed and ruthlessly eradicate the dark energy lingering on it.

The shadow then proceeded to form one body again. It didn't waste time after that and attacked Renee.

Luckily, someone appeared and stopped a drained Renee from having her shadow possessed.

It was Eden, who was already done with his preparation.

His large hands glowed with the intensity of sunlight and held within it was a large beautiful torch with white flames.

The torch shimmered with colorful white fumes, which traveled everywhere, contrasting to the grim atmosphere.

Getting straight to business, Eden bravely lashed out the shadow. He didn't care about his own shadow being possessed but instead focused on the torch.

As soon as the shadow began the possession process, he ruthlessly dropped the torch on it!

*Shriek!*

The shadow exited from Eden's shadow, but the white flames followed it everywhere.

It danced around the street and from the screams it released, one could tell that the fire was killing it.

Seeing this, Eden smiled. He was lucky to have arrived in time, if not, Renee would have been shadow-possessed.

His late arrival couldn't be helped though. The torch he used was something that he had created from the scratch.

It was a light torch, made out of various holy crystals that were harmful to netherans.

He had to carefully grind the crystals into particles and sprinkle them around a torch stick. Then, he would ignite a fire around it, which sealed the deal.

The problem was those holy crystals were not easy to grind, especially with a bare hand.

Not having time to think on that, Eden hollered at the rest, "We need to go."

"Go where?" asked River.

"I don't know, anywhere but here would suffice," shot back Eden.

"Hmm..." noticing the strange expression on Jake's face, he finally asked, "Jake, what is it?"

.....But it was too late!

*Kyaahhh!!!*

Suddenly, the entire group heard a loud horrible scream. They could tell that it wasn't the voice of a human, but that didn't help much.

The high pitch noise flowed into their body and punctured their hearts, along with the rest of their organs.

If it was a song, it was a horrible song!

It took them to their knees as they tried to cover their knees…..but that didn't help much!