The spirit moved with urgency, crossing the distance between manifestation and Victor in less than a heartbeat. Its elongated limbs reached forward, hollow eyes fixed with predatory intent on the Watchman who stood closest to the ritual circle's edge.

  Victor's hand was still on his blade when the spirit made contact, and he could not react as Ulrich did.

  His body went rigid, muscles locking as the entity phased through physical defenses like they didn't exist. The pale gray of his eyes darkened to something approaching black, and his mouth opened in a soundless scream.

  Ulrich's mind raced through various options in the span of a single second.

  He had no experience banishing spirits, no training in exorcism rituals that might sever the connection between the entity and its host. The Ministry's protocols for possession scenarios flashed through his memory, most of them involving specialized equipment he didn't have or techniques that required assistance.

  But he did know one thing: spirits anchored to living hosts. It was a brutal solution. But the only one available.

  Ulrich activated Shadow Vision, watching Victor's shadow pool beneath his rigid form. Shadow Thread manifested from his fingertips, multiple strands weaving through the air with deliberation. They struck Victor's shadow like harpoons, pinning it to the floor with enough force that Victor's physical body stood completely immobile.

  "Ulrich, what—" Victor's voice emerged strangled, half his own and half something else. The possession was fighting for control, attempting to use Victor's body as a weapon.

  And the Seer could not offer any more consolation to his colleague. Ulrich had already manifested a Dark Arrow in spear form. He closed the distance in two steps and struck the blunt end against Victor's temple with measured force.

  Victor's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, the Shadow Thread dissolving as Ulrich released his hold. The Watchman hit the floor in a heap, unconscious but breathing steadily.

  The spirit erupted from Victor's form like smoke escaping a broken vessel. It reformed several meters away, that too-wide mouth stretching into what might have been rage or hunger, being impossible to distinguish.

  "More blood," it hissed, the voice reverberating from multiple directions. "More belonging."

  Ulrich backed toward the window, putting distance between himself and the entity while his mind worked through combat options. Standard weapons were useless against immaterial threats. Fire might work if he had Anna's purifying flames, but all he possessed was shadow manipulation and some innate abilities of a Rank 2 Shadowmancer.

  The spirit lunged again, moving with that unnatural speed. Ulrich used Shadow Step, sinking into the floor's shadow and emerging near the opposite wall. The spirit pivoted immediately, demonstrating an awareness that suggested genuine intelligence rather than beastly instinct.

  It attacked in patterns, testing his defenses. Ulrich responded with manifested spears that passed through the entity without effect, confirming what he'd suspected. Physical attacks, even those made of shadow-stuff, couldn't harm something without physical form.

  But as the spirit moved, circling him with malevolent intent, Ulrich noticed something crucial.

  Faint and distorted, barely visible even with Shadow Vision active, but present. The entity might lack corporeal form, but it still interacted with light and darkness in strange ways. And if it had a shadow, that shadow be targeted.

  The revelation manifested in his action.

  Ulrich activated Shadow Vision fully, letting his perception shift until the spirit's shadow became as tangible as any physical target. Shadow Thread manifested again, multiple strands weaving through the space toward that faint dark outline on the floor.

  The spirit noticed too late, its attention focused on Ulrich's physical position rather than the attack coming from below. And the threads struck, wrapping around the entity's shadow with binding force. His spirituality drained immensely, though the screeching of the spirit made it all the more worth.

  Ulrich didn't hesitate. He manifested a spear and drove it straight down into the spirit's shadow core.

  The entity's form exploded outward, dissolving into wisps of darkness that dissipated like morning fog. The temperature in the room stabilized immediately, frost melting from the windows in rapid streams.

  Followed by a muted silence.

  He stood over where the spirit had been, his spear still extended, and felt the familiar feedback from his Vital Rune that accompanied a successful kill. The lesser runes flowed inward, absorbed from the defeated creature's essence, yet it didn't feel quite right. The sensation nagged at him with bitter aftertaste.

  , Ulrich pulled out his silver coin and performed a quick divination. He focused his intent on a simple question.

  Is the banished spirit extinguished?

  The coin flipped in the air and landed on head, revealing the tail side of the coin.

  Ulrich pocketed the coin with growing unease. The spirit hadn't truly died. He'd disrupted its manifestation, forced it back into dormancy, but the incomplete ritual that summoned it in the first place still anchored it to the material world. Given enough time to recover, it would simply reform and continue wandering in the real world.

  He walked over to where Victor lay unconscious and used the blunt end of his shadow spear to tap the Watchman's cheek with deliberate lightness.

  "Wake up."

  No response. He tapped again, slightly harder.

  Victor's eyes snapped open, and he jerked upright, hand going immediately to the blade at his belt before recognition set in. "What happened?"

  "You were possessed. The spirit latched onto you the moment it manifested." Ulrich dismissed his spear and offered a hand to help Victor stand. "I had no choice but to knock you unconscious."

  Victor accepted the help, rising unsteadily. His hand went to his temple, feeling the spot where Ulrich had struck. "You hit me rather hard for someone with 'no choice.'"

  "Would you prefer I'd gone lighter and risked the possession taking permanent hold?"

  "Fair point." Victor rubbed his head again, wincing. "What happened after I went down?"

  Ulrich recounted the confrontation quickly, describing how he'd discovered the spirit's shadow vulnerability and used it to disrupt the manifestation. He concluded with the divination results, explaining that the entity would inevitably return.

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  "How long until it reforms?

  Ulrich clicked his tongue, a bit displeased. "How am I supposed to know that? Could be minutes, could be hours. Depends on how much spiritual energy it needs to reconstitute."

  Victor moved to the ritual circle, studying the salt marks and binding inscriptions with renewed attention. His expression grew thoughtful. "We need to perform a Spirit Reading before banishing it permanently."

  Ulrich frowned. "Why? We know what it is, a vengeful spirit summoned through an incomplete ritual. Just banish it and put it out of its misery."

  "Under normal circumstances, yes." Victor straightened his posture and met Ulrich's gaze. "But this wasn't a natural occurrence. Victor Suchet deliberately guided those boys through a binding ritual, knowing exactly what he was doing. That makes this a targeted attack, not random supernatural interference."

  "So?"

  "So if I banish the spirit now, we lose our only connection to Suchet's intentions and goal." Victor's pale gray eyes held certainty as he elaborated. "A Spirit Reading can extract memories, reveal what the entity knows about its summoning and purpose. That information could lead us directly to Suchet and whatever larger plan he's executing."

  The logic was sound, Ulrich had to admit. "What are the requirements for this Spirit Reading?"

  "Usually, it can be done even if a person dies and stays as a lingering spirit. Given that not much time has passed, since the Spirit World will naturally pull them." Victor began pacing, working through the process aloud. "Since this one has been dead for a considerable time, the reading will be more difficult. The memories have degraded. But if we can hold it in place long enough, I can extract what remains."

  "How long is 'long enough'?"

  "Five to ten minutes of continuous reading." Victor's expression grew serious. "The problem is maintaining in place. Most restraints won't hold a vengeful spirit for more than a few seconds before it breaks free. And I don't mean the physical kind of restriction, it's not like spirits have physical bodies."

  Ulrich considered options, especially Shadow Thread. The technique had worked to root the spirit in place, but maintaining it for ten minutes while Victor performed his reading would drain his spirituality significantly. Even he could not that long. And if the spirit struggled with any real force, the threads might not hold.

  "What about Ministry equipment?" Ulrich asked. "We must have something designed for spirit containment."

  "Nocturnal Charms." Victor reached into his coat and withdrew a small cloth pouch. Inside were several paper talismans, each inscribed with characters in what looked like Ancient Hermes. "They induce temporary slumber even in supernatural entities."

  "For how long?"

  "Ten seconds, maybe fifteen if the target is weakened." Victor pulled out two more pouches from different pockets. "I'm carrying three full sets. That's roughly thirty charms total."

  He mused with some consideration. Thirty charms at ten seconds each gave them five minutes of coverage, assuming every charm worked perfectly and the spirit didn't build resistance. Tight margins, but doable.

  "Here." Victor tossed one of the pouches to Ulrich. "You'll need these. My plan is simple: when the spirit manifests, you use your Shadow Thread to root it in place as you did before. That gives us the opening to hit it with the first charm. Once it's asleep, I begin the Spirit Reading."

  "And while you're reading?"

  "I'll be unconscious, fully immersed in the spirit's residual memories. You'll need to maintain the slumber state by repeatedly applying charms. The moment it starts to wake up, hit it with another one." Victor's expression was grim. "Miss the timing, and it'll tear free. Probably possess one of us in the process."

  "Comforting."

  "I prefer honest assessment over false confidence. Trust me, it's best to be honest in our line of work."

  Ulrich ignored the last remark and weighed the risks. The plan had multiple failure points, any one of which could prove fatal if not handled correctly. But Victor was right about the intelligence value. Understanding Suchet's intentions might prevent whatever larger catastrophe he was orchestrating. And Captain Ottis probably wanted that rather than a simple banishment to call it done.

  "Fine," Ulrich said, resigned to his fate. "We do it your way. But if this goes wrong, I'm blaming you on my official report."

  "Noted." Victor moved to the center of the ritual circle and sat cross-legged, preparing himself mentally for the reading. "The spirit will likely return to this location, drawn by the ritual's residual energy. We wait here."

  They settled into a still silence, Ulrich positioning himself near the window where he had clear sightlines to the entire room. His hand rested on a charm, ready to activate it the moment the spirit appeared.

  Minutes passed with agonizing slowness. Ulrich performed periodic divinations, checking whether the spirit's return was imminent. Each time, the pendulum swung with varied speed.

  After nearly three hours, the temperature plummeted without warning.

  He stretched his limb and looked at his surroundings.

  Frost gradually formed on the windows in a familiar pattern. And from the center of the salt circle, darkness began pooling upward. The spirit reformed exactly as before, elongated limbs and hollow eyes with that mouth full of broken glass teeth.

  "Now!" Victor shouted.

  Ulrich already moved. Shadow Threads erupted from his fingertips, multiple strands weaving through the air with practiced precision. They struck the spirit's faint shadow from multiple angles, wrapping and binding until the entity could not move a single inch.

  It shrieked, struggling against the restraints. But Ulrich poured spirituality into maintaining the threads, holding firm despite the drain on his spirituality.

  Victor rushed forward, one of the Nocturnal Charms raised. He pressed it against the spirit's flickering form and spoke a single word in Hermes.

  The charm ignited with pale light, characters glowing briefly before the paper dissolved into ash. The spirit's struggles ceased immediately, its form going still as the supernatural affliction manifested.

  Victor dropped to his knees before the frozen entity and placed both hands against its shadow. His eyes rolled back, consciousness departing as he plunged into the Spirit Reading trance.

  Ulrich counted the seconds in his head. The first charm's effect would last maybe ten seconds if they were lucky. He needed to time the next application perfectly, maintaining the slumber without wasting charms on an already sleeping target.

  Eight seconds. Nine. Ten.

  The spirit's form flickered, beginning to stir. Ulrich raised his charm and spoke the activation word.

  Pale light flared again as the spirit went still.

  Another ten seconds passed. Ulrich applied the third charm. Then the fourth. His spirituality continued draining from maintaining the Shadow Thread binding, and sweat beaded on his forehead from the concentration required. Fortunately, it didn't struggle, so all he had to do was maintain a delicate hold of its form.

  Victor remained motionless, his consciousness deep in whatever memories the spirit still retained. Minutes stretched with excruciating slowness, each charm application bringing them closer to running out of options.

  Twelve charms used. Fifteen. Twenty.

  Ulrich's hands shook as he prepared the twenty-first charm. They had less than ten left, maybe two minutes of coverage at best. If Victor didn't finish soon, they'd be forced to abort and banish the spirit without extracting anything useful.

  Twenty-three charms. Twenty-five.

  Then Victor's body reacted.

  Not a gradual response but a violent convulsion, his back arching as though electricity coursed through him. His hands remained locked against the spirit's shadow, but his head thrashed side to side, jaw clenching with enough force that Ulrich heard teeth grinding.

  "Victor?" Ulrich called out, preparing to forcibly wake him up if necessary.

  Victor's convulsions intensified, his entire body jerking with increasing violence. Foam appeared at the corners of his mouth, and the veins in his neck stood out like cables. The spirit began to stir again. Ulrich applied another charm with shaking hands.

  Twenty-six charms. Four remaining.

  Victor screamed, a sound of pure agony that cut through the room's oppressive silence. His eyes snapped open, but they were completely white, pupils rolled back until only the sclera showed.

  Something was wrong. , catastrophically wrong. His intuition told him so.

  Ulrich moved forward, hand raised to physically pull Victor away from the spirit. But before he could make contact, Victor's body went completely rigid, froze in a bizarre state, like a string puppet hung in the air.

  Then 'his' mouth opened, and a voice emerged that wasn't his own.

  This Ancient Aura, no doubt about it, Ulrich recalled the dreamscape. had been chasing him and him.