Being corroded by an Evil Spirit is a terrifying ordeal.
Sanity gradually collapses, the mind becomes muddled, and the person fills with negative emotions, from despair to madness, until the final stage: death at the hands of the Evil Spirit or possession of the body.
The way to delay this erosion is to remain calm and control one's emotions.
This is also the only method ordinary people have when facing Evil Spirits.
And to rid oneself of this state, one must eliminate the related Evil Spirit.
In Alex's room.
Du Wei's expression had returned to calm, and that inexplicable pain had disappeared as soon as he entered Spirit Vision.
Of course, lying on the sofa in front of him was Alex, still as if dead, and that mysterious dark shadow remained as before.
Threads of black, fine filaments emerged from Alex's body and gradually merged with the dark shadow, conjuring in his mind the image of a creature—a leech.
Then, he took out the silver cross dagger from his clothing and approached Alex.
He shook the cross.
As he drew closer, some of the black fine filaments snapped and then, as if alive, attempted to merge again.
All the while, Du Wei kept his gaze on the dark shadow standing behind the sofa.
He noticed.
The outline of the shadow was somewhat feminine, with limbs, but no complete facial features on its head. Where the eyes should be, there were two empty holes, and looking into them revealed an indescribable eeriness and horror.
Clutching the silver cross dagger, Du Wei slowly drew it out as he approached the shadow.
But all along, the shadow remained motionless, its attention not on Du Wei but fixed on Alex.
Scrape...
He drew out the dagger.
Whoosh...
Du Wei swung at the shadow.
The next second, he felt an emptiness as the dagger passed right through the shadow with no effect whatsoever.
But...
At that moment, the shadow moved. It raised its head, looking at Du Wei, and their eyes met.
Du Wei's scalp tingled, the emptiness replacing the eyes seemed to pulse with malevolence and greed.
"This thing doesn't seem to be an Evil Spirit."
The thought flashed through Du Wei's mind, and he immediately chose to step back. The shadow's gaze followed him, as if triggering some mechanism.
Then.
The light in the room dimmed a shade further.
Many areas had become completely dark, with only a nearby region visible. Both the door and the windows were shrouded in a layer of black mist.
Du Wei took a deep breath, recalling the conversation he had with Alex earlier.
If his guess was right, the hallucinations Alex saw were no different from what he was seeing.
If there was a distinction, it was that hers were more severe, even the concept of space was blurred and indistinct.
Putting it in Father Tony's words:
"Evil Spirits have the ability to disregard space."
...
Fortunately, the changes in the room were limited to this.
The shadow continued to stare at Du Wei but made no further odd movements, which eased his mind.
Then, once again he cautiously moved closer to Alex, placing the silver cross dagger on her chest with one hand, while the other hand reached into his pocket, thumbing open a glass bottle containing Holy Water.
The shadow kept its hollow gaze fixed on Du Wei.
But inexplicably.
When the silver crucifix dagger was placed on Alex's body, many thin black threads snapped like they had encountered fierce flames, yet the dark figure made no movements.
"It has no effect on it?"
Du Wei furrowed his brows and quickly extended his other hand, dousing the dark figure with Holy Water from a glass bottle.
Hum...
An indescribable sound drilled into Du Wei's ears, causing him to involuntarily cover them. By the time he looked up again, there was nothing in front of him.
The dark figure had completely vanished.
The fine black threads extending from Alex also seemed as if they had never appeared.
"Is that it?"
Du Wei glanced at the Antique Clock hanging on the wall and said calmly, "No, not yet."
Tick tick tick...
The hands of the already damaged Antique Clock were moving non-stop in an extremely regular rhythm.
In the eerily silent room, only the sound of the moving minute hand could be heard, and its minute and second hands were always overlapping.
In a certain sense, this was already defying the rules of mechanical construction.
"Is this the medium? Does it exist in physical form, or is it attached to it?"
Du Wei took out a Shroud and spread it out, walking step by step towards the Antique Clock.
But he stopped one meter away.
He looked down at his right leg, where a pale, rotting hand emerged from the black mist on the floor and clung to his ankle tightly.
It was a woman's hand, mostly decayed, with bones visible, but the slender fingers, well-kept rounded nails, and the wedding ring on her ring finger, all attested to its identity.
Du Wei noticed some letters engraved on the ring: val…...
Then, he took out a handgun, cocked the safety, and pulled the trigger at the hand!
Bang!!!
The hand was blown to pieces in an instant!
Seeing this, Du Wei narrowed his eyes, "It's actually physical?"
Logically speaking, Evil Spirits are formed from certain deceased people or special existences, and they are often intangible, even though they can affect reality, their essence should not have any physical manifestation.
But as his gaze swept over the floor, he was slightly taken aback.
There were no bullet holes on the floor…
Where did the bullet go?
"Completely incomprehensible…"
Dimly, a thought surfaced in Du Wei's mind.
Apparently, he had run into trouble.
Without hesitation, he quickly approached the Antique Clock, stepped on a vase, and took it down.
The whole Antique Clock felt very heavy in his hands, with a structure made of wood and metal that looked very ancient. Some angelic patterns and crucifix engravings with a church style appeared holy and dignified.
Yet, on the back of the clock, there was a relief of a goat's head.
Goats are often metaphors in certain church cultures, symbols of evil and demons.
"Presenting holiness to conceal the evil behind it?"
Du Wei remembered a phrase used to describe certain pathological criminals from a psychology book he had read many years ago.
"Now, it's time to end this."
Then, he laid out the Shroud on the ground and placed the Antique Clock on top of it.
As Father Tony had said, Holy Water could temporarily dispel Evil Spirits, and the Shroud could isolate their power. These were common tactics used by Exorcists and also common in Exorcism Rituals.
However, at that moment, Du Wei's body stiffened abruptly as a smooth, well-moisturized hand rested on his shoulder.
Glancing from the corner of his eye, behind Du Wei stood Alex, expressionless with bloodshot eyes, raising a silver crucifix dagger high, aiming straight for his head.