"Remember, only Intent affects them..."
The darkness overpowered his awareness, not letting it spread more than a few meters in radius. The cries of the ghosts intensified as the ambient dark essence in the air churned.
He burned with power, creating a temporary light construct with radiance essence. The pathways lit up with an intensity that even the darkness was unable to waver. However, the howls of the corrupt spirits did flicker the light.
There were not one or two ghosts, but countless numbers of them. Some were in humanoid shapes, some were in other demonic or bestial forms, but most of them were huge in shape. Some were already onto Agnes, who was fending them off by infusing her blade with her essence and swinging it frantically. For some reason, most of them were going after her instead of him.
He came to help, his sword brimming with his Intent, which had reached a major realm of mastery. The sword bit into the ghostly creature easily, unfortunately, not dealing as much damage as he'd hoped. It was damaging them alright, but the corrupt spirits did not have fleshly bodies, even if they had a physical presence.
Simply fighting with Intent made it — Wait, radiance essence can purify the corruption of intent present in the ambient dark essence, he thought as realisation dawned on him. Why can't it purify the corrupt spirits?
After all, their manifestation was very much related to the corrupt intent and the dark essence.
With this realisation, he imbued [The Divider] with radiance essence, and the blade shimmered in golden light, contrasting its usual gloomy purple. The sword was already embedded in the ghostly shape of the spirit. The golden light blazing from the blade flickered within the shape of the spirit, as it let out a blood-curdling screech.
Twisting the blade, he pulled it upwards, bisecting its upper body completely. He thought the ghost would dissolve into pure essence, but a simple swing was far from enough to account for that. However, the result was more than promising.
The spirit deflated, its size condensing to a smaller form as much of its power dispersed into the atmosphere. It screeched, but without showing any hint of resistance, it flew away as though afraid of dying for a second time.
"Whatever you did," Agnes said, her voice coming in huffs and puffs, "keep doing it."
"Oh, yeah?" he smiled. "What if I can do better?"
"I'm barely getting used to my power," he said, letting out a breath. His radiant heart was pumping out a lot of essence to help him withstand the weight on top of them.
"I... we could have died," Agnes said, unable to even move a little under him.
He did not deny that, though his chances of dying were close to zero. Perhaps Agnes, too, would be able to withstand it if she were prepared for it.
"Sorry," he said. "Just give me a moment."
He moved his arm under her midriff, making sure to clutch her tightly, as he slowly stood up. The [Void Shroud] was still active. It had weakened only once when all the weight crashed down on it, but not after the warden understood what he was dealing with.
The huge chunks of stone moved and fell off all around as he stood straight, but even still, they were not completely out.
"What happened to you in the trial?" Agnes muttered.
He did not answer. Making sure her slender form was under his protection, he flared his Void Essence into the shroud. This time, he didn't go all out like he did with the celestial light. One lesson was enough for the day.
For not even a blink of an eye, he flared up the ability to 50% intensity.
The huge chunks of stone that were on them flew off under the jerking force of [Void Shroud]. Some of the stones closer to the force even disintegrated in some parts. .net
Agnes sucked in a deep breath, then shot him a piercing gaze, sizing him up and down. There wasn't any competitive spirit in her eyes like he had seen so many times when they sparred.
She let out the breath she was holding, finally, her eyes meeting his. "So when are you going to tell me the story of why you set up a light bulb in your chest?"