As the ray of light diminished, only smoke remained. The smoke was quickly swept away by a wave of Mama Ipoh's hand. Breathing heavily, she took two steps forward and realized Hephaestus was no longer standing in front of her.
Then, she heard it—the unmistakable sound of sirens in the distance. Police cars. It seemed their battle had been heard.
Mama Ipoh's thoughts raced. Did he get away?
No. He switched Veil!
Without hesitation, she walked toward one of the damaged trees. Her hand phased through it, and soon, her entire body followed suit. She emerged on the other side, now in the same forest, but this place felt different—alive, more spiritual. The air seemed thicker with power.
Then she saw him again.
Hephaestus stood before her, and Mama Ipoh smirked.
"For someone who claims to be a low corrupted spirit chosen by the Wicked's followers, you sure know a lot about things you shouldn't. Now, tell me—how the hell do you know how to switch planes of existence through Veilwalk?"
Hephaestus let out a small giggle. His black kimono, adorned with blood-red symbols, was now completely ruined.
"Veilwalk... the concept of switching to the spiritual plane of a physical environment. Every natural place is more spiritually dense than the city, so they must have a spiritual side to them. They call it the Veil. Like two lines on opposite sides of the same piece of paper. Shamans from Sylvanara can switch between the Veil at will, right?"
Hephaestus gave a smirk.
Mama Ipoh, now in a battle stance, smirked as well. "Are you sure you're just some corrupted spirit who the Wicked's followers took pity on and let escape Hell? Because most spirits like you wouldn't know a thing about the country of Sylvanara or the concept of the Duality of the Veil."
Hephaestus shrugged, unconcerned. "I've done my research. But I already know what you're thinking, so I'll just say it anyway. No, I'm not one of the chosen."
Mama Ipoh took a deliberate step forward. Her voice turned serious as she spoke, "I never thought for a second that you were one of my people... Not even for a minute."
Hephaestus took a single step forward, his smirk brimming with malice. His black eyes glimmered faintly, like an abyss consuming the faintest traces of light.
"You know," he began, his voice carrying a sinister undertone, "you're pretty unlucky. Out of the ten lower corrupted spirits chosen by the Wicked, I'm the strongest. Not only that—I'm also the one with the most knowledge. The others? They don't know half the things we're talking about. They're all... blissfully ignorant."
As he spoke, the mangled remains of his damaged hand began to twist and contort. Blackened roots extended from his wrist, writhing like snakes, shifting in shape and texture until they solidified. Before long, the transformation was complete.
His hand was no longer flesh but a blade—a katana of dark crimson, gleaming as though it had been forged from blood itself. The edges shimmered faintly, radiating a menacing aura. He raised the weaponized arm and grinned.
"Let's see how your fire holds up against this."
Mama Ipoh raised her hand, her voice filled with unwavering determination.
"Let's show him what shamans from Sylvanara are truly made of, Thunder Wolf!"
At her command, the Thunder Wolf surged forward, moving at the speed of lightning itself. The corrupted spirit had no time to react. In an instant, the wolf's jaws clamped onto Hephaestus's body, launching him violently into the air.
While Hephaestus was still mid-air, the wolf dissolved into crackling electricity. The searing bolts surged through his body, eliciting a howl of pain.
"What a troublesome spirit!" he growled, his voice strained as the electric current wreaked havoc on him.
Before he could recover, the wolf reformed above him, its body now a pure, radiant mass of electricity. It shot downward like a lightning bolt, colliding with Hephaestus and sending him hurtling into the ground with devastating force. The impact stirred a cloud of smoke and debris that blanketed the battlefield.
Mama Ipoh sighed, her steps steady as she approached the crater. The remnants of the Thunder Wolf crackled faintly around her, illuminating her determined expression.
"How lucky I am that you decided to switch Veils, spirit," she said, her voice sharp and resolute. "Now I can go all out... and send you right back to hell."
Hephaestus, blood dripping from his torn kimono and battered face, sneered with malice.
"When you end up in hell, you're suspended above an endless abyss inside a cocoon of rotting roots, slowly descending. It can take decades… or centuries… even millennia. It all depends on the weight of your sins. And at the bottom? You find the Hellfire. A fire so absolute, it burns not your body, but your very soul—consuming every sin, every stain, down to the last ember. They say if your soul is cleansed, you can re-enter the cycle of reincarnation." He paused, his grin widening. "But that was the plan... until the Hellfire was stolen."
Mama Ipoh's eyes widened in shock.
"Stolen? That's impossible! Why are you telling me this?"
Hephaestus chuckled darkly, ignoring her disbelief.
"It will all make sense soon enough. I don't know exactly how the Hellfire was stolen, but the whispers of mankind—those who have been falling for millennia—claim they could feel its heat long before seeing it. They say Hellfire's pull was inescapable… until it wasn't."
His tone turned icy, his gaze piercing.
"Do you know what happens inside the cocoon of roots? Torture. Endless torture. Sometimes, it's from your own memories—haunting you until you break. Other times, it's unrelenting starvation, a hunger that gnaws at your very existence. But here's the kicker: if, by some miracle, you escape, you gain something… rare."
As he spoke, Hephaestus raised his katana. The blood-red blade began to glow with an ominous yellow light, radiating a searing heat.
"You can take the torment they inflicted on you and forge it into your own power."
Without warning, he slashed the air, sending a devastating bolt of lightning racing toward Mama Ipoh.
Mama Ipoh's eyes widened as the bolt of lightning closed in, mere centimeters from striking her. She ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack, as the searing lightning obliterated a nearby tree, leaving behind a charred stump and crackling embers.
Hephaestus strode forward, his laughter a sickening mix of malice and madness.
"Ah, the thrill!" he sneered. "Do you see it now? The stolen Hellfire gave me all the time I needed to escape my cocoon. And once I broke free—achieving what was supposed to be impossible—the followers of the Wicked showed me the path out of hell!"
His voice grew more frenzied, his katana glowing brighter, radiating an intense and menacing heat.
"The hunger… the torment… all of it became power! This blade is a testament to my suffering and my strength!"
Hephaestus's grip tightened as he continued, a twisted grin spreading across his face.
"And soon, I will destroy the Wicked and his followers. All of them! I just need to play along, follow his orders a little longer… until I'm strong enough to obliterate them!"
With a ferocious cry, Hephaestus unleashed another bolt of lightning from his glowing katana, but this time it clashed mid-air with a bolt of pure electricity fired by the Thunder Wolf. The battlefield lit up with a brilliant, blinding light as the two forces collided, the shockwave shaking the very ground beneath them.
The Thunder Wolf let out a ferocious howl, its crackling energy vibrating through the air, its fury directed squarely at Hephaestus. Meanwhile, Mama Ipoh staggered, coughing violently, blood staining her hand as she wiped her mouth. Each breath was labored, and she felt the sharp sting of exhaustion pressing down on her.
She threw up another dangerous amount of blood, her mind racing as she thought:
Dodging literal lightning… I didn't think I still had that kind of speed left in me at my age. I almost died back there. But how in the world could Hellfire have been stolen?
Her knees threatened to buckle, but she forced herself to stay upright.
Can Hellfire even be stolen? If there's a breach in Hell, then that means any of those damned spirits could escape if they managed to break out of their cocoons… like he did. And if anyone could steal Hellfire, it would have to be the Wicked.That bastard… It's not too crazy to think, after all. He managed to take on the Second and Third Great Sages themselves… and survive.
Shaking her head, she gritted her teeth and pushed herself to stand upright, her movements slow and deliberate, every joint protesting in pain. With great difficulty, she steadied herself, glaring at Hephaestus. Her voice was hoarse but firm as she whispered:
"Not yet… I'm not done yet."
"Oh, don't worry! I hoped you'd have more to offer—for my own enlightenment… for my hunger!" Hephaestus sneered.
The Thunder Wolf howled furiously, unleashing multiple bolts of lightning that clashed against Hephaestus' blade, now glowing with an unnatural, crackling energy. The battlefield was a storm of light and sound as the strikes stalemated, neither giving an inch.
Behind the Thunder Wolf, Mama Ipoh steadied herself, clutching a talisman bound to her wrist. Her voice, strained but resolute, rang out:
"By the devastating hurricanes that have shaped the earth's soils for millennia, I call upon you… Shōkanjutsu of the Kairei rank, the legendary Owl of Hurricane!"
Hephaestus' eyes widened in shock as the winds around them howled, heralding the arrival of something extraordinary. "She has an animal spirit of the Kairei rank?!" he spat, disbelief etched on his face even as he struggled against the Thunder Wolf's relentless onslaught.
The talisman glowed fiercely, and from its surface emerged the magnificent Owl of Hurricane. Its feathers shimmered with an ethereal, stormy energy. With a single, thunderous flap of its mighty wings, the owl severed Hephaestus' arm cleanly, sending it spiraling into the distance.
Before he could react, the owl flapped its wings again, faster than even lightning itself. In an instant, his other arm was gone, severed just as cleanly as the first.
Hephaestus collapsed to his knees, his eyes wide with both pain and terror. The owl let out a haunting cry before vanishing back into the talisman, its purpose fulfilled.
Mama Ipoh fell to the ground, her body trembling and her mouth overflowing with blood. She coughed violently, her strength all but gone. I don't have enough superflux to keep the spirit out of the talisman for long... she thought to herself, a faint smirk tugging at her lips. It was a risky move, but... heh.
Hephaestus, his arms severed and his body drenched in blood, sneered through his agony. "You do know corrupted spirits can regenerate their souls, right? You should've told that spirit of yours to take my head off the second it manifested, you old wretch!"
Mama Ipoh, still sprawled on the ground and coughing up blood, smirked despite the pain etched across her face. Her voice was laced with both exhaustion and defiance.
"Yeah, I guess I panicked and messed up... Heh. I may not be one of the elites back in Sylvanara, but I was still a damn good shaman in my day. Should've known better than to make such a rookie mistake... But now that annoying blade of yours is gone—how long will it take for you to regenerate before my Thunder Wolf turns you to dust?"
Raising her trembling hand toward the Thunder Wolf, which stood poised and ready, she commanded:
"Now, Thunder Wolf!"
The spirit howled fiercely, releasing a devastating barrage of lightning bolts that rained down upon the defenseless Hephaestus. Hundreds of strikes landed in mere seconds, tearing into him as he screamed in anguish.
Mama Ipoh, watching as her spirit relentlessly attacked, clenched her teeth as a grim thought surfaced in her mind:
The potential of this spirit is terrifying. He's just a low-ranked corrupted spirit, yet he survived the attacks of a Chūrei-ranked spirit and even stalemated it. And it took my strongest Kairei-ranked spirit to gain the upper hand... I can't let him grow stronger!
Hephaestus, writhing in agony under the relentless storm, clawed at the ground. His form began to blur, and with a desperate burst of energy, he disappeared into the earth, vanishing from the Thunder Wolf's sight.
"Damn it... Damn it!" Mama Ipoh hissed, her heart sinking. "He switched Veils again!"
Grimacing, she forced herself to crawl toward the hole he had escaped through. With great effort, she phased into the spiritual plane, emerging in the same forest, but with its atmosphere now muted, less vibrant.
Looking around, still gasping for air, she cursed under her breath. "He managed to get away... How frustrating."
Blood began pouring from her nose, and her body betrayed her, collapsing to the ground. Her vision blurred as she tried to cling to consciousness.
Heh... I overdid it again... This really sucks, she thought as darkness began to overtake her.
The Thunder Wolf let out a mournful howl, pacing around its fallen master. Then, with its summoner unconscious, the spirit was forced to retreat back into the talisman, unable to remain in the physical plane without her guidance.
The forest grew silent once more, save for the faint rustle of the leaves and the echo of fading thunder.
The orbs of blue plasma swirled protectively around Mama Ipoh, encasing her from all sides like a living shield. All except one. That lone orb drifted off into the distance, its purpose unknown.
Suddenly, Viora's vision snapped back to reality. She was in the same familiar house again, her heart pounding as the weight of what she'd just witnessed sunk in. Her voice trembled as she exclaimed:
"Mama Ipoh is hurt! I have to help her!"
Without hesitation, she scrambled to action. Grabbing her shoes, she jumped high enough to snatch her coat off the hook, quickly slipping it on as she rushed toward the door. In her haste, the moon-shaped talisman around her neck slipped free, tumbling to the floor.
As she reached for the doorknob, the spirit within the talisman materialized faintly, its form glowing softly as it called out:
"Fuwa-Fuwa!"
The sound stopped Viora in her tracks. She looked at the spirit, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
"Don't you want to save Mama Ipoh too?" she asked, her voice breaking.
The spirit gestured toward the fallen talisman on the floor, reminding her without words of its importance.
Viora's breath caught as she realized her mistake. She hurriedly wiped her tears, scooping up the talisman and placing it securely back around her neck.
"Right... Thanks," she murmured, her determination renewed.
She flung the door open and sprinted toward the forest, her mind filled with a single purpose: I'm coming, Mama Ipoh. Hang on.
chapter twenty-six end