The Gamer’s POV

I dropped from the air to the ground, landing a few meters behind the monk.

'Yeah.'~

The moment my two feet landed on the grass, the monk heard the sound and quickly turned around.

I quickly shook my head to clear the lingering dizziness, gritted my teeth and lunged at him as fast as I could, aiming to kill.

I wasn't sure of the specifics of Kaizen's skill. But… If magic was going to be dispelled before it could even reach him, then perhaps I could try to bring him down with a direct physical attack.

...That was what I thought.

All my attention was focused on him, as he was the only thing standing between me and Yami.

I had barely taken two steps, though, when Aika's scream tore through my concentration:

'Ced!'~~

I halted midstep snapping my gaze to the right where I could see the large phantom hand from the mouth of the soul eater inches away from me.

"Crap!"

My countdown to use [One with the Ravens] displayed: [02:33]

Aika's own countdown was even further away, displaying: [09:37].

We were screwed!

In that moment, my blood ran completely cold because I knew exactly what would happen to me if that hand were to phase into my body.

There was nothing I could do other than try to jump away, even though I knew that it was meaningless as I would not be able to escape from the massive hand in time.

However, right at that moment, a voice rang out, "Push!"

…It was Dion.

Almost immediately after he yelled, a heavy force, like an invisible battering ram, suddenly slammed into me, violently pushing me away from the approaching terror. My body was sent tumbling through the air and I had almost escaped it entirely… but unfortunately, a part of the hand still brushed against my side.

By the time I tumbled, skidded and came to a halt onto the grass several meters away, my world exploded in indescribable pain.

It was unlike anything I had ever felt before because it was not a physical pain, but rather, a pain to my soul.

It felt like a piece of my very being was being torn away, and my vision was suddenly distorted by a cold, grey haze. I could hear a female voice in my head and at first, I couldn't recognize it. It took a few seconds to finally realize that it was Aika's voice yelling:

'Ced! Are you okay, Ced?!'~~

Her voice was more panicked than I had ever heard it be before.

'Talk to me Ced… Ced?'~~

A few more seconds passed, and then my vision slowly cleared. The first thing I could see was Aika's face. Her face was pale and tight with panic, and she kept shaking my shoulders as if trying to pull me back from the brink.

I groaned, and the next thing I could see was a series of notifications that had appeared in red and were flickering violently across my field of vision.

[Warning!]

[Gamer Privileges has detected an immense threat to the Gamer.]

[Source of threat: Soul Eater.]

[Warning: If the Gamer is consumed due to the effect of the exclusive skill: Soul Eater, even Chrysalis will fail.]

Seeing the messages, I was chilled to the bone and my eyes suddenly widened as I stared at the flashing red text. The possibility of dying for real filled every part of my being with immense dread.

'Chrysalis will fail?'

I had finally found my absolute weakness. Turns out my bonded ability would not work if my soul were to be destroyed due to soul attacks.

Meanwhile… the hand, having failed to completely engulf me, slowly retreated back into the mouth of the massive creature behind Yami until its jaws snapped shut.

I didn't have to worry about the Soul Eater attacking again, at least for a few seconds. I knew that the skill had a cooldown.

I quickly tried to regain my composure and my senses before that cooldown expired and the creature could strike again.

Trying to ignore the pain in my soul, I turned to Aika and finally nodded weakly to answer her frantic cries and questioning gaze.

Then I shifted my gaze from her back to the battlefield, and through my hazy and flickering vision, I could see that Dion was engaged in a fierce melee battle with the monk.

While Kaizen used what looked like a long wooden staff, Dion attacked relentlessly with his spear.

Some meters away, I could see the figure of Celeste in her demon form. She was still lying motionless on the ground with her abdomen torn open and her insides exposed to the cold air.

In front of her was a massive wolf, its frame now towering over four meters tall. Its entire body was engulfed in a roaring inferno, with nine whips of concentrated flame buried deep into its flesh like glowing stakes. The beast let out a low, guttural growl as it struggled to break free from the fiery restraints.

In that moment, flames began to lick the jagged wounds on Celeste's broken form, mending torn muscle and knitting skin back together until she was completely healed.

She pushed herself off the floor with a sudden, eerie strength and then walked calmly to the wolf kneeling in front of her. The beast was still thrashing, trying desperately to claw a whip of flames from its eye, but it went still as she approached.

Without a hint of hesitation, Celeste plunged her entire arm into the roaring inferno of the beast's chest and violently tore out its heart.

Then she slowly turned her attention to Yami.

At the same time, even further away, I could see Evelyn just stabbing the head of a hollow dominant in armor that immediately disintegrated into lightning sparks.

Evelyn wobbled like someone out of mana as she tried to rise from the corpse, then flapped her massive bat-like wings, lifting into the air before charging headlong towards Yami.