The sexy beauty collapsed right in front of Rey.
They were less than a meter apart. When Reppel fell, her eyes locked onto Rey's.
Rey had just gotten an eyeful, his heart racing so fast he almost thought it would explode. For a split second, his hormones nearly hijacked his brain, tempting him into a foolish attempt at playing the hero.
Eye contact was his mistake. Rey's gaze couldn't escape Reppel's scrutiny.
His eyes darted away unnaturally, revealing the fact that he was no longer paralyzed. Reppel knew exactly how the Body-Bind Curse worked, but after a moment of surprise, she didn't call him out.
Exposing him now was pointless. Besides, the blood demon Mika didn't give her the time.
Mika summoned a massive amount of blood from the ground, shaping it into a long spear of gore. She aimed it squarely at Reppel's spine.
"Help me, or you die."
The moment Reppel realized Rey was free, she mouthed the words silently.
A wizard who could enter the Valley of Evil Spirits wasn't just a simple weakling—or at least, he was a weakling with some capability. Something was better than nothing. That was the mindset Reppel had when she threatened him.
The message was short and easy to understand. Rey read her lips perfectly. At that exact moment, the blood spear thrust down.
Reppel rolled to the right, narrowly dodging the strike. The blood spear plunged three inches into the ground, sending sand flying.
Rey closed his eyes as the grit stung his face. He had wanted to stay hidden until the very end, waiting for one of them to kill the other before making his move.
That would have been the perfect ending, and it was entirely possible. In their minds, he was just a paralyzed weakling.
But hiding was no longer an option.
If anyone was to blame, it was Rey's own biology. As a red-blooded male, having a stunner like Reppel fall in front of him wearing practically nothing... well, controlling his eyes was a losing battle.
Men think with their lower halves. It's a cliché for a reason.
Rey felt the truth of that statement deeply right now. But even though Reppel had caught him, he still didn't move.
---
When the spear hit the ground, Mika's attention was entirely on the rolling Reppel.
That should have been Rey's perfect moment to strike.
Reppel expected him to move, but Rey lay on the ground like a corpse, motionless.
The kid was stubbornly playing dead, and Reppel had no better options. At this point, even if she exposed him, Mika would probably kill her first before dealing with him.
Reppel narrowly dodged another attack, swinging her vine staff to unleash wind blades that forced Mika back. The remaining scraps of her black cloak surged toward her ankles, absorbing the blood binding her.
Upon contact, the cloak absorbed the sticky blood, freeing her. Reppel immediately retreated and flipped to her feet. By now, the tattered cloak was negligible; she was essentially naked.
"Ooh! You're completely naked now, and you still couldn't kill me?"
Mika cackled, her formerly melodious voice now a raspy, ghostly screech. Even lying on the ground, Rey shivered as the sound assaulted his ears.
"Mika, you bitch, you're not doing much better. Look at your shriveled muscles. Squeeze out another few ounces of blood, and you'll turn into a dried husk yourself."
Reppel might be losing the fight, but she refused to lose the verbal war. In terms of trash talk, Mika was no match for her.
"Shut up! I'll fulfill your wish to be a slut. You can die without a stitch on you."
Mika roared, tensing her shrunken muscles again. Blood poured from her body, forming a mist around her and pooling at her feet.
As the blood on the ground increased, Mika's muscles grew paler and more withered. She was truly going all out to kill Reppel.
Reppel didn't dare underestimate the attack. She stabbed her withered staff into the ground, kneeling on one knee while holding it. Naked and desperate, she chanted an incantation Rey couldn't understand.
As she chanted, the vine staff—which looked like multiple vines twisted together—suddenly unraveled counter-clockwise. It transformed into a brand-new black cloak that draped over her body.
"Without your staff, you can't even use magic!"
Mika laughed maniacally. With a wave of her hands, the entire pool of blood vaporized into mist and surged toward Reppel.
Reppel, now cloaked again, wasn't backing down. Her cloak rapidly dissolved into black mist, colliding head-on with the blood mist in the air.
Black mist versus blood mist. It was a direct clash of their magical energies, grinding against each other.
The black mist fell; the blood mist dissipated. Overall, the blood mist was more corrosive. Before long, Reppel was in danger again.
---
"If you don't move now, I'll rape you and then kill you!"
Desperate and struggling to hold on, Reppel screamed the threat regardless of the consequences.
The shout startled Mika, who looked around suspiciously. Seeing no one else and Rey still lying motionless, she relaxed again.
Reppel was at the end of her rope. Rey could see it. But he wasn't going to get up now. Even if he were to ambush them, it had to be when Reppel was grievously injured.
"You asked for this! If I die, we die together!"
Rey didn't move. Reppel couldn't hold on. The blood mist was right in front of her.
She straightened her back, and the black mist surged, pushing the blood mist back a short distance. At the same time, she freed one hand and raised it above her head. Her entire arm turned black as obsidian, emitting a soul-shaking dark light.
She was preparing to strike the "corpse" on the ground—Rey.
However, seeing Reppel so desperately raise one hand made Mika think she was about to unleash a forbidden curse. Panicking, Mika expelled every last drop of blood from her body, turning into a thick cloud of crimson that enveloped Reppel.
The blood mist crushed the black mist instantly. Mika rejoiced internally: Finally, after all these years, my nemesis is dead.
But the thought had barely formed when she heard an unfamiliar incantation from her left.
"Avada Kedavra!"
With a loud shout, a bolt of green lightning as thick as an arm struck Mika's upper body.
It caught her completely off guard. Mika hadn't even fully turned her head when the curse hit her.
Avada Kedavra was currently Rey's most powerful spell. Using it was a last resort. He believed Reppel would definitely kill him before she died—she was already fighting with hysterical desperation.
Threatened by Reppel, Rey had to act. Reppel was a spent force, while Mika still seemed to have strength left. That was the real reason Rey targeted Mika.
Moreover, Avada Kedavra targeted the soul. An evil spirit's physical form was just a manifestation of its soul. After much deliberation, Rey realized the Killing Curse was practically tailor-made for the spirits of this valley.
---
A powerful Avada Kedavra blasted Mika's upper body into dust. It was definitive proof that the curse was the ultimate weapon against souls.
Without an upper body, the lower half collapsed—looking like a skinned, bloodless corpse.
It was a close call. Reppel collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. She was exposed again, but she made no attempt to cover herself—or perhaps she simply had no strength left.
Rey stared unabashedly for a moment. Reppel was drained of magic; he didn't need to worry. Otherwise, she wouldn't have spared a hand at the last moment to try and take him down with her.
Ignoring Reppel's vicious glare, Rey walked over to Mika's remains with his wand drawn.
The upper body was gone, but the Specter Bead hadn't appeared yet. That meant Mika wasn't dead, or at least not completely.
Sure enough, as Rey approached, he saw Mika's lower body slowly liquefying into blood and seeping into the ground.
"Incendio."
When killing evil spirits, it's best to be thorough. Rey pointed his wand and cast the fire spell he learned at school. The remains sizzled as they caught fire.
Even as half a corpse, it twitched and convulsed in the flames. Rey could almost hear Mika's screams.
"I curse you! I curse you! You shall never leave this Valley of Evil Spirits for eternity!"
As the remains burned to ash, Mika finally transformed into a faint spirit rising from the fire. As she uttered her curse, a walnut-sized Specter Bead formed at the center of her soul.
Glowing with ghostly light, Mika's spirit passed through Rey's body and dissipated. Simultaneously, the Specter Bead flew toward Rey's forehead.
"So this is how the Specter Bead enters the body. Finally got it, safe and sound."
Rey thought to himself, ignoring Mika's curse as he prepared to accept the bead.
However, things suddenly changed.
A figure blurred in front of him. Reppel, who was supposed to be incapacitated, suddenly appeared and snatched the Specter Bead mid-air, inches from Rey's forehead.
Grabbing the bead, Reppel immediately popped it into her small mouth and swallowed hard, frowning with effort.
Gulp.
She forcibly swallowed the walnut-sized bead whole. Despite the discomfort—she pounded her chest violently to get it down—she managed to swallow it.
Whether it was Reppel's sudden movement or the act of swallowing such a large bead whole, Rey was stunned.
"Good job, little guy! Big sister will reward you properly in a moment."
Reppel lowered her hand from her chest, her eyes flashing with seductive charm as she smiled at the dumbfounded Rey.
---