With a loud bang, Ray hit the wall on the other side, nailed to it. Thankfully, with intense focus, he had time to raise a skin-tight crystal shield.
"That hurts," Ray murmured, peeling himself off the wall. Assessing his condition, he realized the impact had sent him flying. Additionally, he had a couple of broken ribs and a cracked arm, despite his reinforcement.
"Is that all you've got?" the man asked, a smirk on his face and his good eye burning with hatred. Never in his long life had he expected to lose his eye to a brat just because he let his guard down for a second. Now, completely overtaken by hatred, he was past the point of capturing Ray. All he wanted now was to torture him.
And Ray? Raising an eyebrow at the man, unfazed by the overwhelming bloodlust, he sensed something different, realizing something he smirked.
The mark on the man's forehead became more agitated after the last attack. Along with it, Ray noticed a change in his soul power every time the mark appeared or disappeared, as if two types had been forcibly merged.
'You notice,' he addressed Sophia in his mind, 'his soul power is completely abnormal! As if...'
'Not as if. There is a soul controlling that body forcefully. We're lucky he still doesn't have full control,' Sophia said. 'Be careful. From the fight so far, he can't control the body for too long or perfectly, meaning...'
From the beginning, she had noticed that the man was not even using his soul power as one would expect from someone at his level. With his wasteful output and occasional loss of control, she initially attributed it to their cultivation method, as consuming other people's souls tends to affect control and the mind.
However, after the last action, she noticed two distinct signals from the same body, and they were actually completely different. One was utterly disgusting and evil, the other, despite its dark properties, did not give the same evil feeling.
'The original soul is still resisting,' Ray finished her thought, knowing where the conversation was going. With a wider smirk, his second ring lit up, and the red light in his hands changed to white with a faint golden shine. 'And with that, I have an idea.'
If he were to fight him directly, he still had no chance, as the man was about to use spirit fusion. Nevertheless, with this opening, Ray had an idea to take him down without breaking a sweat.
Ray stood in front of the old man, both hands facing down. He said, "Catch me if you can." Then, from the openings in his palms, a heavy crystal mist blew out. Within seconds, the space was completely flooded. It not only hid Ray but also restricted the old man's senses and vision to less than two meters.
"You think the same trick will work twice?" Swinging his arm with a scream, the old man attempted to disperse the mist, but shockingly, the air current he generated only moved the mist a little before it was absorbed, and the area returned to normal.
"This is a new one, just to explain," Yuki's voice came from the mist. With a whistling sound, a small nail came flying in, and the man only noticed after his shoulder pierced. The force behind it made him slide away, almost falling.
"It's more of liquied than mist," Ray said, "meaning it's heavier, and with the little trick I added..."
Seconds later, the same voice came again. Instinctively, the man raised his right arm, activating his defensive fifth and fourth ring skills. To his surprise, the nail actually broke through his defense, embedding itself in the back of his hand. Shocked by this, he didn't notice another nail flying toward his back.
The moment they stabbed him, he fell to his knees, rage almost completely overtaking him—and that's what Ray was waiting for.
From the moment he discovered this setup, he changed his plan to simply infuriate the man, loosening his control over the body.
Standing not far away, Yuki raised his hand, and a crystal nail compressed from the mist appeared in his palm. Loading it into a compartment in his backhand, he fired it at the man who had just stood up. As expected, with a projectile flying at the speed of sound, even a Soul Saint could barely defend against it, let alone someone blinded by rage. The result: a perfect hit on his shoulder, driving him completely out of his mind.
"That's it! Playtime is over!" With a roar, his seventh ring glowed, and his body grew larger and larger, taking on the avatar of a dark gorilla. Its roar pushed back the mist, revealing Ray standing not far away. The gorilla, spotting Ray, banged its chest and was about to jump at him, but Ray only smiled.
"Got you!" With these words, Ray slammed his hands together. The moment he did, the nails still implanted in the man—and now driven deeper by his increased mass—glowed. Part of the gorilla's body shone for a second, then it froze in place.
Seconds later, the man reverted to his human form and started screaming in agony. Soon after, something like a phantom began to separate from the man's body. Ray seized the moment. The gauntlets let out two more streams of mist, forming chains that linked to the shining part of the old man. With a pull from Ray, the phantom separated faster and faster until it detached and was wrapped in chains.
What appeared in front of Ray was a man with an oddly, ugly-shaped face and dark eyes devoid of any color—no sclera or pupils. From his eternal form, Ray knew that this soul could somehow possess others.
"Well, I guess it worked," Ray murmured, moving the remaining mist to heal the man as he approached the imprisoned soul. "Well, how about a greeting first?" Ray raised his hand, and the chains tightened around the soul and began to burn it. "The name is Ray. Neat trick, by the way."
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Below is my Kofi page. There, you'll find the first part of Danmachi fanfic. A friend of mine is working on editing, and it's free to read as a series of posts. Tips are appreciated if you wish to support!
ko*******/brain_n_clouds