"Thanks, I owe you one again," Logan said, after taking out an anti-spiritual sight spiritual fabric from his pocket, he draped it over himself.
Malin turned around, with the purple light in his hand illuminating the area not far away, causing wraiths to wail as they retreated from the light’s range: "Wraiths, our guests have arrived, and the quality isn’t bad."
"Wraiths, I thought at most there would be female spectres, stronger than imagined," the Assistant Priest nodded. He activated the Holy Aura—this was one of the Church of Justice’s most reliable super abilities against ghostly Spiritual Bodies. All Spiritual Bodies attacking a target with an active Holy Aura would receive full counter-damage, and become confused within 12 yards of the aura, ignoring targets that they couldn’t bypass through exemptions.
To avoid any mishaps, the Assistant Priest also activated the Holy Abode, the same mini-abode that Malin had given to Logan.
Malin saw several wraiths lunging at the Assistant Priest, only to turn away after failing to resist the effect of the aura, one of them touched the abode while moving and disintegrated instantly.
At the Array, a Spiritual Body was breaching dimensions—a feat that Shelton was completely unable to perceive with his spiritual sight, leaving him utterly clueless.
Lillim sensed a Spiritual Body breaking through the dimensions and patted Malin on the shoulder, "Mr. Malin, can you see that Spiritual Body?" Her spiritual sight was only a 7, unable to catch a Spiritual Body that hadn’t entered the main world with the naked eye.
Clovis also sensed the presence of this Spiritual Body, but like Lillim, she couldn’t see the target, only vaguely feel the Spiritual Body’s location and size: "The target is a bit large... very dangerous."
"Damn, the sacrifice was too effective, things may be getting out of control, Mr. Malin, can you switch with Shelton? If I enter the fray, his trial will be deemed a failure," the Assistant Priest looked at Malin—since Malin had come to assist Shelton, it was acceptable for him to step in, which, although it would reduce Shelton’s evaluation, was still better than letting the trial fail by the Assistant Priest’s direct intervention: "Of course, if you also feel the danger, I agree, this Spiritual Body is indeed very dangerous."
"...I’ll give it a try," Malin said, drawing Blood Roar, then taking out the twig—unlike others, Malin could clearly see the Spiritual Body, quite distinctly.
The Spiritual Body was tearing at the ’membrane’ between planes, which was a manifestation of dimensions. As Malin approached, the entity’s hands had already breached the dimension, Malin clearly saw a pair of skinless hands.
"What in the hell is this!" Shelton saw it too and hastily retreated a few steps back in panic—it wasn’t surprising, beings of this power level were at least Class 5 or above.
"Shelton, step back," Malin reassured Blood Roar and approached with the twig transformed into a longsword, Ophie.
"No, no, Malin, this is my trial," Shelton said nervously, but he made no move to retreat.
By this time, the Spiritual Body’s hands had fully breached the dimension, its face pushing through the membrane to form a facial outline.
With terrifyingly huge, curled horns, like a devil or a demon?
"Step back, Shelton, fail the trial, wait another year to advance; lose your life, lose everything," Malin said, extending his hand: "Give me your hand." Their hands had to touch to make the switch, otherwise Malin would have already stepped forward to throw the creature out of the Array: "For heaven’s sake, Shelton Brice, I don’t want you to become the second member of the House of Brice to die in front of me."
Shelton fell silent for a moment, reaching out his hand as the Spiritual Body was about to complete its dimensional breach: "You’re right, please forgive my cowardice, Malin."
"No, I should thank you, after all, you’re the one who paid to hire me," Malin said as their hands touched, swapping places, and Malin inside the Array now faced the monster that had fully breached the dimensions. Its body was skinless, the muscles like crimson crystals, with blood vessels and organs visible through these crystals—completely unlike the crystallized organs of humans.
The huge horns, a substantive chest, the only regret was... this couldn’t be called life anymore.
Behind it, the membrane of dimensions draped over, as the purest blood and flesh composed Spiritual Body opened its mouth, and unexpectedly, Common Tongue came out: "Who is summoning... the Skinless Margen."
Malin turned to glance at the young lambs behind him.
With such a thought, Malin faced the Spiritual Body: "It was us."
"Why summon me..." the entity trailed off as it noticed Malin. It seemed puzzled for a moment and then shrieked: "You think by disguising yourself I won’t kill you? Coward!" It screeched as spiky, jagged Bone Blades slipped out from the slits in its palms.
"I’ll kill you! Kill you! All glory to the Lord of the End!" The name the Spiritual Body uttered seemed to be that of some Evil God: "Death is the finest gift I can offer you! Traitors shall drown in their own blood!"
Malin was silent, for some reason, he felt as if he’d met this Spiritual Body before.
Although it was their first encounter, they felt like the closest of friends, and he turned to glance at Lillim once more.
Then, his longsword blocked the incoming Bone Blade.
Although it was the meeting of bone-crafted artifacts and twigs, both sparks a great cluster of sparks in an instant—the scattering of Positive Energy and Negative Energy sparks.