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The sudden turn of events left Asher completely stunned for a split second.
But once he snapped back to his senses, he charged straight at the tightly shut door.
He had known Ebina for less than an hour.
But someone who would step in to save him without hesitation, even before truly knowing him, was not someone he could abandon now that she was in danger.
He rammed the door with his shoulder several times, but it didn't budge at all.
Asher immediately began chanting silently in his mind, summoning the largest and strongest of his shikigami.
A flash of white light burst forth.
A massive, muscular figure over two meters tall appeared floating behind him. The Parasitic Soul radiated an overwhelming presence.
"Parasitic Soul, break it down!"
"Roar!"
Without the slightest hesitation, the shikigami let out a howl and charged at the door.
Boom!
The door shook violently, but it still didn't break.
Asher didn't tell it to stop.
The Parasitic Soul slammed into it again.
Boom!
Boom!
On the fifth impact, the ordinary metal door finally gave way, bursting open with a loud crash.
Without wasting a second, Asher rushed into the pitch-black apartment, the Parasitic Soul right behind him.
He crossed the entryway and moved quickly into the living room.
The room was completely dark.
But thanks to the moonlight reflecting in from the balcony, his vision wasn't hindered at all.
The moment Asher stepped into the living room, he saw everything clearly.
Ebina was suspended in midair at the center of the room.
Countless strands of hair bound her limbs, stretching her body into a spread-eagle position.
Her once cute, fair face, still round with a hint of baby fat, was completely drained of color.
And when she saw Asher burst into the living room—
Ebina lifted her face, despair written all over it, her wine-red eyes staring at Asher in disbelief.
But almost immediately, she shook her head hard.
"Ash… Asher, sir… run… hurry…!"
She was moved that Asher had come to save her even while she was being seized by a female ghost.
Yet Ebina didn't believe that Asher, just an ordinary human, could possibly stand against something like that.
If he didn't escape right now, he would be killed along with her.
As Ebina cried out desperately, Asher didn't answer right away. Instead, he activated his spiritual vision and slowly swept his gaze around the living room.
Sure enough, under spiritual sight, the ghost had nowhere to hide.
The moment Asher raised his head, a horrifying face filled his vision.
The female ghost was clinging upside down to the ceiling directly above him. Her face was pale and narrow, her pupils pitch-black, the textbook image of a vengeful spirit.
"?"
She clearly didn't understand why Asher could see her.
After freezing for a few seconds, the ghost revealed herself fully, staring down at Asher with a terrifying grin.
The corners of her mouth split all the way back to her ears, grotesque beyond words.
The next second, she let out a piercing, bone-chilling shriek.
"Heeheehee!"
Spreading her arms wide, she lunged straight at Asher.
"Asher, sir!"
Ebina, still suspended in midair by the ghost's hair, cried out in panic when she saw this.
But just as the ghost was about to crash into Asher, less than a split second away—
"Aoowoo~!"
A strange roar rang out from nowhere.
Then a massive, crimson-colored yokai burst out of the shadows, slamming into the ghost with its elbow and knocking her flying.
Thud!
Caught completely off guard, the ghost smashed into the floor and rolled across the living room several times before finally stopping.
The sudden turn of events left both the ghost and Ebina, still hanging in the air, utterly stunned.
When the ghost finally scrambled back to her feet and looked at Asher again, as well as the creature standing in front of him, her eyes were filled with wariness.
She had only been born for a month.
But in that short time, she had already killed several unlucky people who liked to wander outside late at night.
By her own reckoning, she was already very strong.
Ordinary wandering spirits nearby didn't even dare approach this apartment building.
And yet she had just been sent flying by this thing that suddenly appeared, something she couldn't even tell was an evil spirit or a yokai, leaving her dizzy and battered.
"Parasitic Spirit."
The living room fell into an eerie silence after the Parasitic Spirit appeared.
But Asher had no intention of waiting for the ghost to recover.
Strike while the iron is hot.
At his command, the Parasitic Spirit let out another howl and charged forward like a tank, barreling straight toward the ghost who was still frozen in place.
The ghost reacted quickly this time and collided head-on with it.
Thud!
A heavy, muffled impact echoed through the room, making it feel as if everyone's heartbeat skipped.
Asher watched, a hint of surprise crossing his face.
At first, he had thought the Parasitic Spirit wouldn't be much of a match for the ghost.
In his previous life's game, it had only been an N-rank shikigami, usually just fodder material, completely forgettable.
Yet here it was, holding its own in raw strength during its very first clash with the ghost.
It seemed his impression of it had been skewed by its weak performance in the game.
In reality, even a low-tier spirit like the Parasitic Spirit wasn't weak at all.
After all, anything recorded in the Shikigami Codex was never truly insignificant.
Realizing this, Asher stopped holding back as he looked at the ghost still locked in a stalemate.
With a wave of his hand, three beams of white light and one beam of blue light flared into existence around him.
The colors represented the ranks of the shikigami he had summoned.
(N-rank: white light. R-rank: blue. SR-rank: purple. SSR-rank: gold. SP-rank: red.)
As the glow faded, four shikigami appeared in the already cramped living room.
The three white lights resolved into Lantern Ghost, Grave Robber Imp, and Broom Spirit.
The blue light became Yamausagi.
"....."