In the town of
"Brother, I've heard that ever since the Dark Ages, people have gone missing from Bonn at irregular intervals. Could it be because of the maze-lock?" Lilith asked curiously. According to the intelligence she'd gathered, the longest gap between disappearances was over a hundred years, while the shortest was consecutive years in a row. It had cast an eerie hue over the entire town. The Church had sent priests to investigate, but they'd found nothing. All they could do was suspect that wild beasts or monsters from the mountains had sneaked down to prey on people.
Sarah shook his head with a bitter smile. "I don't know either. We can't even determine what kind of maze-lock it is—how could we judge? Still, I think there might be some connection. See that empty house over there? It used to belong to one of the few literate gentlemen in Bonn. But his seven-year-old daughter disappeared on the evening of April tenth, ten years ago and was never found. So he and his wife chose to leave this place that brought them nothing but sorrow, and moved to a country in the east." He pointed to a house along the street.
"April tenth… what a coincidence," Lilith replied thoughtfully.
…………
The little girl—as if she'd stepped straight out of a black-and-white photograph—broke into a radiant smile, spread her arms wide, and lunged toward Lucian with the innocent, wholehearted enthusiasm of a daughter greeting her father at the door. But her floating body and her hollow, emotionless eyes sent a chill racing down Lucian's spine. There was no way he was letting her crash into his arms.
He chanted the halting, awkward incantation, though neither he nor anyone else could hear the words. All he could confirm was that the spell had taken effect.
The air around the little girl began to churn, forming invisible ropes that lashed around her and held her in place.
Apprentice-tier spell: Spirit Bind!
Lucian was now certain without any doubt that she was a wraith-type spirit creature.
Her brilliant smile vanished instantly. Her small face twisted into a mask of venom and malice. She tilted her head back slightly, opened her mouth, and let out a silent scream.
A "Silence Barrier" materialized as a transparent shield before Lucian, but faint ripples—nearly imperceptible—made it shudder violently.
Lucian had begun preparing this spell the moment after casting Spirit Bind. It was born from knowledge of how wraith-type creatures attacked. Knowledge was a mage's true power!
But the moment the Silence Barrier appeared, those agonizingly slow ripples tore it apart completely.
The wraith's scream, only partially neutralized, struck Lucian head-on.
The world spun. His ears rang. Nausea surged upward. His feet felt as though he were treading on cotton—balance was impossible. His very organs seemed to resonate with the impact, and a flood of negative emotions crashed over him all at once: terror, dread, resentment. They nearly dragged him past the edge of consciousness.
The exposed skin on Lucian's body bloomed with a faint grayish-white glow, rapidly becoming hazy and wavering before slowly stabilizing.
The timely Moonlight Form saved Lucian from ruptured organs, mental breakdown, even death itself. But Moonlight Form couldn't weaken the Wraith Scream's assault—it only bolstered the defenses of fragile organs and the brain. Lucian still took a serious hit on the spot.
"That's a wraith with the strength of a proper Knight!" From that single attack, Lucian had gauged the "little girl's" power and classification. He planted his right foot and launched himself into a pale streak of afterimage, circling around to the other side of the terrifying wraith. Then, silently mouthing the incantation, he triggered the "Light" spell.
Even the weakest wraiths were immune to most elemental damage and shrugged off many spells. Only light—positive energy—fire, and sonic force could harm them.
But the orb of light that should have blazed bright turned pallid in this strange maze-lock world, then took on a faint gray haze. There was no illumination whatsoever.
The little girl floated half a circle after her Wraith Scream, ignored the Light spell entirely, and lunged at Lucian again.
Still in the casting recovery phase, Lucian could only闪 into a gray-white afterimage to dodge, swinging his sword "Vigilance" backward in a slash toward the girl.
The longsword passed through the "little girl's" body without the slightest resistance—and dealt no damage whatsoever. Even though it was an enchanted blade, even though its attack power was equivalent to that of a formal ordinary Knight.
Unharmed, the little girl showed no anger toward the sword or Lucian's attack. The twisted expression on her face smoothed out, and the smile returned.
Then her body turned transparent and vanished from where it had been. A few seconds later, she abruptly materialized right in front of Lucian, arms outstretched once more.
Lucian's agility and balance were well above average, and he still had energy to spare. He stomped down, instantly changed direction, and began preparing "Homann's Choking Cough."
A dusting of white particles gathered. The little girl miraculously appeared before Lucian again—just as the "noiseless roar" detonated. A cloud of dust erupted into the air along the street, and the girl's body shuddered with the shockwave.
Grievance and resentment flickered across the little girl's face, then curdled entirely into venom. She threw her head back in a silent scream, then, without pause, hurled herself at Lucian.
After casting Homann's Choking Cough, Lucian immediately changed course, successfully dodging the most ferocious frontal cone of the Wraith Scream, and quickly shifted into Moonlight Form.
But even so, the wide-area Wraith Scream caught him in its periphery. His legs went weak, his head swam, and his half-luminescent body rippled like the surface of water. He froze in place for a heartbeat.
That heartbeat was all it took. The "little girl" crashed into him.
Lucian's mind began to blur. In the abstract, he could feel his body temperature, stamina, strength, and life force all draining away at a terrifying rate.