Ghosts of the dead wolves manifested and took the hit of the mana blasts toward Weber.
"Gabrielle!" Weber yelled, but she didn't manifest, and he clenched his fists. "I'll just manage with the wolves."
He pointed at the cultists, and the wolves ran toward them. The cultists shuddered because just looking at Weber reminded them of a ghost with killing intent.
The wolves swirled around the attackers, but the terrorists ignored them.
"Don't look into their eyes!" one yelled to the other, but it was too late.
Physically, the ghosts didn't have influence. But when one of them looked into the wolf's white irises, he started seeing the wolves eat him and his comrades to pieces.
Then all the wolves howled and the terrorists faced them. "Forget the human and just shoot these dogs!"
They sent mana blasts to them, but the wolves became intangible and went into the ground, and their blasts only hit the floor.
Weber looked at his injured hand and sent his power to it. "Grasp of the Unmourned," he said, and a black aura enveloped it like a glove. The pain was gone, and he flexed his fingers.
Weber was observing the clash between the cultists, and it was clear the wolves could only trick them for so long.
"Gabrielle, please help out! We had a deal!" Weber whispered with gritted teeth.
"All you've done is run around, and now this is going to occupy you instead of you searching for my killer as you promised," she said to him, and Weber sighed.
"You're right. Then let's end this quickly." Weber dashed toward one of the cultists and punched him, sending him across the hallway unconscious.
The others shuddered and blasted him, and he shielded himself with his arms crossed in front of him.
"Weber!" Josh yelled, taking a step.
Then the light settled down. Weber's hands were red and his sleeves burned, and he turned to Josh with a smirk. "Have you forgotten? My body rejects mana," he said.
Weber punched the air in the cultists' direction, and the mana they blasted him with was sent back to them, knocking them off their feet.
Weber's smirk turned to a grimace as the pain increased. "Too bad a reflective ability doesn't make me invincible. So I can't take every hit."
He sent his power to his injured arms, and they were enveloped in a black aura like sleeves. The pain was gone, but the injury was still there.
Weber walked to the cultists and piled up their bodies. "What to do with them..." he said and looked at the wolves, and they didn't need speech to know what he wanted.
"Finish quickly and be ready when I summon." The wolves ignored him and began to eat the men.
Josh shuddered. Even Weber took a step back with a sigh.
"That fight slowed us down. I can still feel the fear down that tunnel," Weber said and began walking forward.
Weber turned back and saw that Josh was going through the corpses with gloves, and Weber furrowed his brows.
"What are you doing?" he asked, folding his arms.
"Behold!" Josh said, bringing out a dagger that had a curved blade and a crystal that glowed on its hilt. "I figured this might be helpful."
Weber nodded. "True," he said, and the wolves dissipated into smoke before completely vanishing after finishing their meal, which were the cultists.
Weber and Josh walked deeper into the tunnel for several minutes, and when it felt like there was no end, a light of fire from a room illuminated out of it.
"We have to sneak in," Weber said, walking slowly, and Josh slowed down as well until they could peek into the room.
There were three people: a middle-aged man and woman with a young boy that resembled them.
But they were chained and hung upside down with their bodies bloodied.
And they were surrounded by cultists in a circular manner.
"What do you want with us?" the middle-aged man yelled.
One of the cultists that had gold embroideries on his robe brought it down.
"We need your latent power," he said.
"But none of us can use mana!" the woman replied.
The cult leader shrugged. "We analyzed that. For some reason, you both have mana essence in your bloodline, but it just never manifested," he said, clicking his tongue. Then he looked at their son.
"Usually, in such a case, when you have an offspring, their power is at a threatening level," he said, raising his hand, and it began to glow with an orange aura.
"So we'll be taking that power and yours as well." The cultists did the same with him, and they began absorbing the life force of the whole family.
The old man was the first to faint, then the wife, but their son was still conscious, screaming.
"Stop!" Josh yelled.
And the cultists turned to him. He held up his dagger, his hand shaky.
"You're all dying!" Josh said.
Then a person in a white hood and black jeans appeared in front of Josh.
"You will not stop the Ones of Rite," he said, and he snatched Josh's blade out of his hand faster than Josh could see.
Josh jumped back, his heart racing.
He recognized the person in front of him as the assassin that had assassinated everyone on a train he and Weber were on, but spared Josh's life so that Josh could tell Weber of him.
"I'll let you know the cultists here are about finding a new mana art. One that will end this endless war," the assassin said.
Josh clenched his fist and tried to feign boldness. "All mana arts are equal if used efficiently. And discovering one isn't possible."
The assassin cackled. "If you must know, this mana art will allow the user to absorb mana and increase that absorbed power—limitlessly."
Josh glared at him. "It's the deceased sages that found mana arts! What you're saying isn't possible! Just let the family go!"
The assassin tilted his head. "Of course, when one tries to pass wisdom to fools, they're deaf," the assassin said and started walking toward Josh with his hands enveloped in a dark pink aura.
"But, before you die, just know my name is Shinto."
As he was about to swing his hand at Josh, a hand tapped Shinto from behind, but no one was there.
Then at his front, but there was still no one.
"Finally, the user of spectres has appeared," Shinto remarked.
Then Weber became visible, leaning against a wall with his hair white and his white irises glaring at Shinto.
"I think I prefer Wraith Keeper," Weber said.
Shinto rushed toward Weber at a speed Weber couldn't see, which made Weber shudder, and he turned intangible just in time to avoid his head being sliced off.
"I've seen your power against Ones of Rite in Fantasia. It's clear if I want to kill you, I need to move faster than you can become intangible," Shinto said, and Weber clenched his fists.
"Bite me!" Weber said, and a gray aura came over him. "Grasp of the Unmourned!" His hands were now enveloped in a black aura, and they brushed through Shinto's blade.
Shinto was about to thrust his weapon at Weber until he saw in the blade's reflection people with pale skin crying blood.
Shinto gasped. "How can a human have so much darkness and no mana art at the same time?" Shinto said, looking at Weber.
Weber didn't reply and just stared at him.
The other cultists walked forward behind Shinto to help him, but Shinto raised up his hand. "I do not need your inferior mana art of combat."
Shinto threw aside his blade. "So basically, what you touch becomes haunted. You're part ghost, part human, or just ghost. No issues."
He closed the gap between them in a single step, but Weber observed he moved so fast that one step was just a dozen in a flash.
Weber sidestepped just in time to dodge a punch that brushed his hand, but he couldn't feel it from being intangible.
Had it hit him, he'd be dead, because Weber heard something slam the wall, which was Shinto's punch being so strong it carried that much weight.
"Which mana art is this!" Weber said, dodging relentless kicks and punches from Shinto.
"Unlike other arts that thrive on manifesting blasts and the like, mine uses that power to make my body more... useful than most," Shinto said.
Weber smirked and jumped. "Telling me how your power works mid-battle? Amateur!" he said.
Shinto raised his clenched fists. "We both know you knowing such won't change that I just need one hit to kill you," Shinto said with his voice iced.
"Pack leader, show yourself," Weber said, and the leader of the deceased wolves that fought with Weber manifested.
Weber touched it with Grasp of the Unmourned, and its body became black and its eyes hollow white.
"Eat him," Weber said without hesitation, and the pack leader rushed toward Shinto, and Shinto barely dodged its jaws.
The wolf tirelessly followed Shinto with every dodge and parry.
Then the wolf scratched at Shinto, leaving a lot of blood to rush out of his arm, and Shinto grumbled.
But the blood was black, which made Shinto dart his eyes between his hand and the wolf. Then he looked at Weber with a glare.
Weber smirked. "Does it hurt?" he asked.
Shinto grinned. "If you were smart, you'd know I was holding back to confirm something," he said. And just when the wolf was about to sink its jaws into his neck, he caught it with incredible speed and tossed it aside, leaving a visible crack on the wall.
Weber gasped, and Shinto was no longer in front of him.
Weber felt a fist punch his chest, and it was so hard and fast that he couldn't even see when it landed. He was tossed across the room and rolled on the floor.
He struggled to raise himself up, wiped blood off his mouth, and gaped when he saw Shinto grab Josh and toss him aside with little to no effort, and that still sent Josh flying.
"The pack leader... I can't sense them!" he said as he looked at the wolf leader's direction, and it stood up.
"I promised that you'd never fall again. You and your pack fell off a cliff and died. I failed." Weber said, and the other wolves manifested and vanished, and Weber could no longer feel their power.
Weber clenched his fists.
Shinto's eyes were glowing as he walked toward Weber.
"That's him!" Gabrielle's voice said to Weber.
"Who?" Weber whispered.
"The person that took away my family from me!" Weber's eyes widened and he staggered to his feet.
Shinto tilted his head. "Are you really still attempting something when you're overpowered and outnumbered?" Shinto asked, pointing to the cultists behind him that were ready to fight for him.
Weber glared at him with his irises burning hot white. "Arrogant fool," he said with his voice low and eloquent, and quickly knelt down and slammed his hand to the floor. "Gabrielle, show yourself!" he yelled, and the cave started shaking.
He looked up to Shinto and said, "Wail of the Abyss."