"Um... what are you guys talking about? I... I don’t understand at all. Are you saying the Seal is in this direction?"
"Kuruba, Chaku chaku..."
"Huh? I really don’t understand what you’re saying..."
For Sister Ilois, it was the first time hearing these lively Little Guys speak. The previous night, at most, she’d witnessed the tangible souls of various creatures and occasionally encountered souls about to disperse, surrounded by these star-like little eyes.
But for some reason, tonight these eyes were particularly active, even starting to speak to her.
"Sister Ilois, did you find anything?"
The howling wind was biting cold. Balzac and Helldor caught up to her. They addressed her as she stood on the second-floor corridor of the shrine, but clearly, she hadn’t received the answer she was looking for.
Ilois shared her recent encounter with the two men, but neither the learned Balzac nor the seasoned mage Helldor had any idea what those eyes were. If Fisher were here, he might have known—those eyes were the Chaos Species hidden in the Spirit Realm, high-dimensional beings that had attacked the Northern Realm a thousand years ago.
"Forget about those eyes, we need to find the Seal quickly, the protection outside won’t last much longer..."
Before Balzac could finish his sentence, fine cracks began to spiderweb across the pale blue shield outside, like glass. Strands of wind, carrying the chill of Sema Snow Mountain and resembling the filthiest existences in the world, rushed in eagerly, making Balzac’s scalp tingle.
Because even someone as obtuse as him could feel that some presence had set its sights on them, or rather, on Ilois, the last Moon Rabbit Orphan.
"Move... move! Head upstairs, something’s coming! Damn it, that mage from Nali is totally unreliable. What kind of crappy Protection Array is this, it can barely hold for a moment."
Helldor’s face flushed with the steam of frustration, and the Magic Rings he wore on his mechanical arm began to glow brightly,
"Zzz...It’s not that Fisher’s Magic was flawed, it’s that the attacking curse is very strong. We’ve witnessed other members of the Moon Rabbit Clan being attacked before, but never has it been so intense... Could it be because she’s the last of the Moon Rabbit direct lineage, and the Source of the curse wants to eradicate her completely?"
"Don’t talk about this in front of me! Wah, I’ll go find the Seal right away!"
Ilois was so frightened by their discussion that her soul nearly left her body, not to mention she could see what that curse entity looked like outside. She turned to look at the group of little eyes twinkling at her. Right now, all those starry eyes seemed to be mocking her, but Ilois had no choice but to follow their hints and run upstairs.
Luckily, she had a location in mind on the shrine’s top floor where it might be.
In the next moment, a shadow-like phantom entity broke through the protection outside and surged into the center of the shrine like the wind. Under the bright moonlight, as clear as water, Ilois turned her head and caught sight of that phantom entity.
It was an ethereal, projection-like form, its body mostly composed of countless black feathers that churned like the tide, its shape ever-changing. Only at the very top could what might barely be called a "head" be discerned, covered with crowded eyeballs.
Those eyeballs clustered together but were not unified, each aimlessly glancing in different directions, southeast and northwest, making one question whether it could see things clearly at all.
Numerous eyes, yet sightless.
That was the perfect description of this enigmatic being.
"Traitor... traitor... Blood Bait... Blood Meal..."
Only Ilois’s ears could hear it—the phantom entity murmured an archaic Northern Language that even she could scarcely understand. But at the sound of it, the Magic Circuits in her body lit up uncontrollably, causing goosebumps to rise.
Helldor seemed to have noticed the changes in Ilois’s body. Though he couldn’t see the curse entity, he pushed her away and said,
"Zzz...Go find the Seal; I’ll set up Protection Magic for the path ahead."
Ilois pursed her lips, shook her head to cast aside her fears and, without looking back, ran toward the top floor.
"Zzz...Magic, Mobile Protection, Light Acceleration, Lighting Technique."
As Helldor continuously spoke, the Magic inscribed on his hand triggered Reverberations in the world, manifesting various enhancements and protections into the distance.
He couldn’t see the curse, nor did he harbor any illusions that his Magic could affect it. He could only facilitate Ilois’s progression, but in the next moment, the blue light on Helldor’s body suddenly flickered, and he collapsed uncontrollably onto the ground, spouting strange phrases,
"Drip drip...Error... drip drip...Error..."
"Hey, Helldor... What’s wrong with you? What did you just say?"
Balzac, about to leave, noticed what happened behind him and immediately turned to come back, yet Helldor abruptly raised his hand to stop him.