Two hours had passed. It was just after midnight. A new day had begun. Yet nothing had changed. Only the gentle ripple of seawater and faint spiritual signals drifting by like night mosquitoes—harmless.
"Boring," Al whispered, taking a deep breath. "I can’t keep this eye active for too long."
He deactivated his Dinsional Eye. But then suddenly—his magical instincts flared. The vibration was subtle, yet rhythmic—enough to rattle his spiritual awareness. A group of people appeared at the edge of the beach. They wore black robes and carried various ritual items: incense, offerings, a carved dagger, black cloths, and glass bottles filled with cloudy red liquid.
Shamans, Al thought.
They’re doing a ritual here? An exorcism? Or maybe...
He observed from above. One of them radiated an aura that... felt familiar. Sothing that stirred his mory, though he couldn’t place it yet.
The ritual began. The head shaman stood in the center while three others ford a triangular formation around him. The shaman raised both clenched fists, then released a surge of energy—
Illusion Barrier: Activated
A magic barrier ford, creating an illusion do about a hundred ters wide. A faint purplish light shimred before vanishing from normal sight, leaving behind only a fog—seemingly concealing sothing massive within. From the outside, it looked like an empty beach.
But Al knew better. Unfortunately, he couldn’t activate his Dinsional Eye again just yet, so he had to get closer—inside the barrier.
He leapt down, touched the surface of the barrier, and smirked. Then he slipped inside with ease.
"No detection enchantnts... just pure illusion to fool regular people’s eyes," he said calmly as he walked in.
Inside, he saw four individuals seated in ditation, three of them forming a circle around the lead shaman. Magic aura flowed slowly but steadily, concentrating toward one point.
From the shore, the sea began to churn. A small whirlpool ford.
Once it stilled, a black rift tore open at the water’s surface—as if a dinsional crack had ford. From it erged a humanoid being: a woman in traditional white garnts, long hair, pale skin with patches of greenish tint. Her eyes were blank white, with no pupils—her expression vacant, but the energy she gave off was dense. A high-class spiritual being, or in this world’s terms—a Djinn, specifically a water-type Djinn.
The shaman solemnly offered her the ritual items: assorted fruits, a black-feathered chicken, and blood from a small bottle—origin unknown. The creature absorbed the offerings—inhaled them in an unnatural way—and discarded the vessels once drained.
Then, from her body erged a grayish-green orb of energy, pulsing like a living heart. It appeared to be so kind of dinsional exchange.
After the exchange, the water Djinn prepared to reopen a dinsional rift—to return to her realm.
But—
BOOM!
Her body was slamd violently into the sandy ground. Dust exploded in all directions.
A calm, black-robed figure stood atop her—Al.
The four in the ritual formation were stunned, but three of them couldn’t move. They were still bound by the ritual. Breaking formation before completion could lead to soul damage or death. Only the head shaman in the center could move—but even he was restricted to a ten-ter radius from the ritual core.
"What are you doing?! Who are you?!" the shaman shouted in anger.
The spiritual creature tried to rise. Her fury ignited, and her body began to transform. Her face shifted: greenish-blue scales appeared, her eyes turned blood-red. Gills and fins ford. A hiss escaped her sharp-toothed mouth. Her true form had erged—a humanoid, fish-featured water Djinn.
"What are you really doing here? Playing with things you shouldn’t be touching," Al said flatly.
The shaman didn’t respond and tried to attack. He drew a keris—a ritual blade with a serpent-like zigzag shape. It was infused with Entra energy, cloaking it in a dark aura.
But with a single swift move, Al snapped the blade. The shaman’s body was flung through the air, crashing far beyond the ritual’s range. His weapon flew into the sea.
anwhile, the water Djinn lashed out viciously—striking with her slimy limbs and blade-sharp fins, trying to bite with venomous fangs. Al evaded all of it with ease, then counterattacked.
But...
Because the shaman had broken the ritual’s spatial limit, a burst of wild energy erupted. The ritual destabilized. Magical aura exploded chaotically like a thunderstorm.
"Hm... the ritual’s broken. The battlefield’s unstable," Al muttered as he analyzed the situation.
Seeing the chaos escalate, he lunged toward the center of the ritual, seized the orb of energy, and delivered a brutal blow to the water Djinn, stunning her montarily. Before she could recover, he grabbed her and leapt out of the ritual zone.
The creature thrashed, clawed, and scread. But Al, calm and steady, slamd her into the ground again, completely subduing her—without killing.
"You must be frustrated not being able to use your full strength. Unfortunately, this isn’t your dinsion—so accept your fate..." Al muttered as he lifted the now-unconscious creature. Then he carried her away.
---
A few hours later – Makazhar Central Forest
Al sat high on a tree branch, silent and watchful. Below him, the water Djinn lay unconscious. Her terrifying form had reverted to that of a white-robed woman, though so aquatic traits still lingered. Her clothes were torn, her body battered—but not completely destroyed.
In Al’s hand, the pulsating energy orb remained. It felt... wrong. Dark. Like the source of the negative aura that had been mysteriously spreading.
Electric sparks snapped through his fingers, burning patches of his skin.
"Pure Helos... What are they planning to do with this energy? Just touching it damages the human body—let alone using it. So what do they want?"
His mind flashed back to the Martial Arts competition during the School Festival, when Yolanda had used Helos. The pattern was similar. But Yolanda’s Helos wasn’t pure. Still, it had significantly boosted her destructive power.
Then a wild theory surged in Al’s mind—a theory he’d considered back during the Yolanda incident. But tonight added weight to it—enough to make his eyes widen.
"Could they have found a way to extract Helos into a usable form—without corrupting the soul first? Unlike shamans who must sacrifice their sanity to wield it?"
Without hesitation, Al crushed the orb in his hand.
CRACK.
The orb shattered. The dark energy lashed out—but he neutralized it easily. It dispersed without a trace. Nothing remained that could be reused.
"If that’s true... this could be very dangerous."
After destroying the dark orb, he confird the spiritual creature was no longer alive. He incinerated her body with black fire—a unique fla that erased her without a trace.
Al prepared to return ho.
But before he could take another step—his ears picked up a faint sound.
Footsteps.
The clink of tal. And soft, labored breaths... of people carrying sothing heavy.
Reviews
All reviews (0)