Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"I see." Akemi paused for a moment, then smiled knowingly. "Why don't you try it and see?"

"?" Yuka Yamanaka looked left and right, trying to find a conclusion.

Then, the instant the protective barrier shattered, Akemi rushed towards Yamanaka Yuka, hoisted her onto her shoulder, and ran—coincidentally, due to the appearance of an "insider," a gap appeared in the encirclement of the spirit puddles, and Akemi just happened to run out of the gap.

Then, all the Spirit Essence Dolls clumsily began to try to chase after Akemi, without making any attacking moves as they passed by Yuri.

Yuri thought it would be more difficult.

The guess was correct. Minagawa-dojin did not give each doll a precise command, but rather issued them general orders. These dolls would have performed better if he did not need to focus on dealing with the bound spirits, but for now they would only follow the rough orders Minagawa-dojin gave them.

Launch an attack—and the target has now been identified: Ms. Yamanaka Yuka.

After all, theoretically, she should be in her weakest state, and as long as we kill her, the spirit-binding creature will probably not fare much better—even if we fail, we can still restrain Yuri and Minmei, preventing them from interfering.

Besides the solution Yuri had previously considered—to confront one of them head-on—the most obvious one is the current tactic: escape.

If six enemies launch an attack together, unless you have the strength to crush them, you would need three heads and six arms to stop them. But if six enemies run together, they won't become six times faster.

They were already far inferior in agility, and although they were not slow when they stumbled along, they were still a bit short of being able to catch up with Mingmei.

If Yuka Yamanaka uses the thin thread in her hand to control the one running in the lead and make it interfere with the ones behind, then it will be even more impossible to catch up.

Even so, Yuri originally thought that at least one or two of them would be coming for him. What, does Yuri not deserve to be regarded as an enemy?

Before the Reaper could react and control the Spirit Essence Puppet to turn and pounce on Yuri, Yuri rushed towards him first.

The situation is starting to improve.

At least that's what Yuri hoped for.

Author's message

——The author has something to say——

happy New Year to all!

187 Ghost Cauldron

This offensive came quickly and ended quickly.

Yuri charges. → Yuri makes contact with the Reaper. → The Reaper urgently flaps its wings to attack Yuri from behind. → Yuri is knocked back by the wings.

The above is the result of Yuri's charge: he successfully distracted the enemy, but did nothing else.

"I'll deal with this old bastard first, then I'll settle things with you, Yuri!" The Reaper's voice trembled. "You're asking for it!"

Yuri knew perfectly well that his charge might not have been the right move, but the fact that the Reaper hadn't even turned around to attack him meant that the Spirit Binders were indeed putting a lot of pressure on him.

He had already aimed at the center of the opponent's back—the wings were closer to the shoulders, and according to Yuri's common sense, such wings should not be able to attack him from directly behind—he only needed to defend against the Reaper's spirit spikes.

The creation of a bunch of spirit sap dolls consumed a significant portion of the harvester's energy reserves, which could only reduce the power of Minagawa's spirit nails. Yuri believed his shield could completely block them.

He did block the spirit spike, but just as he was about to reach the Reaper's back, the wings clearly shifted position—not that the angle of the wings' flapping was beyond his expectations, but that the base of the wings moved directly to the position he was about to attack—and then swept him away with a single blow.

Supernatural things cannot be judged in a natural way, but at least they didn't turn into two hands behind your back fighting against you.

"Warlock, spells!" Bound Spirit was pointing from afar, and judging from his tone, he was quite dissatisfied and confused that Yuri was charging forward without using spells.

Yuri knew his own predicament. He wanted to use magic, but magic consumes energy. Now he had to supply energy to both the spirit and the two in the mountain, and he hadn't replenished his energy properly before, so his energy was already in a dangerous state.

Unless there is an open energy source nearby to recharge Yuri, recklessly using spells will only lead to an even faster defeat.

Unless there is one nearby—

Yuri brazenly bypassed the two men in front of him and approached the ghost vortex from another direction.

Pushing aside the ever-increasing stream of repeaters, Yuri approached directly and, after a brief observation, concluded that the vortex was composed of countless tiny ghosts. In this ritual, their spiritual bodies were stretched, and the entire ghost was compressed into a long strip.

Ghosts were constantly being ground up during this rotation, but their spiritual essence did not escape; instead, it continued to accumulate within it.

This is certainly an energy source, but... Yuri can only absorb energy after contact.

In other words, a part of the body must be inserted into the vortex in order to draw energy from it.

With little time to hesitate, Yuri raised his shield and extended his left hand.

You can feel the strong suction, but if you're just on the edge, you can barely stand. The next step is to absorb energy.

"Die!" came a furious roar from the side.

What happened? Before reaching out, Yuri had been watching the Reaper's direction, making sure he had no chance to deal with him, before he made his move—

Then Yuri was repeatedly rammed by a bunch of repeating machines, and he fell into the vortex.

Forgot that this guy can control ghosts to some extent! However, this was part of what was expected. Yuri had planned to jump in directly if he couldn't handle things from the outside—to absorb energy and strengthen his shield. Yuri began to spin rapidly in the vortex.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A millstone of flesh and blood—that's how Yuri described his surroundings—and the millstone itself was made up of other ghosts.

A large number of ghosts piled together, collided with each other, and were shaped into the most advantageous form (that is, a long strip). However, this was not enough. As more ghosts continued to pour in, they continued to collide with each other. The space they existed in also increased to some extent, but it was far less than the rate at which the number of ghosts was increasing.

Moreover, the moment a ghost loses its human form, it is essentially destined to die again—only ghosts whose bodies have suffered too much damage can become that long, thin shape. And too much damage means that they are constantly losing spiritual essence, like a massive hemorrhage in flesh and blood. They are not dead yet, but they are not far from death, and there is absolutely no way they can save themselves on their own.

The good news is that Yuri has the highest toughness among these ghosts—after all, those who are being controlled are just repeating themselves—so the damage he suffered was much less than previously expected.

The bad news is that these ghosts aren't so weak that they can't harm Yuri no matter what—constant dripping wears away a stone, so Yuri must always maintain a shield to absorb the blows.

Good news, the energy here is really abundant, so abundant that Yuri feels it is seeping into his body on its own without him even having to actively absorb it.

The bad news is even harder to digest than expected! The energy here hasn't been filtered, categorized, or broken down at all; it's just completely piled up together!

Good news: Yuri has no brain, no semicircular canals, and no physiological balance devices, so he won't lose his fighting ability just because he's frantically spinning around with a bunch of ghosts.

The bad news is that he might have difficulty getting out now. He's been wandering around, but he can't just wait for the people outside to solve the problem themselves. They don't seem capable of solving it on their own! And even if they could, it wouldn't concern Yuri. His motto isn't "what's the point of trying?" He'll keep struggling as long as he can.

He has now met his basic need for external energy by throwing himself into the energy source—but the “purity” of this energy (if that’s the right concept) is simply unreliable.

So, is the power derived from Yuri really that suitable for the current situation? What if the spirit suddenly gets an upset stomach because of all the random stuff it transmitted?

We must act quickly to save ourselves.

The attempt to immobilize itself in the air using methods that are relatively stable to the ground failed.

Yuri used to be able to maintain his position relative to the ground when he floated up with his feet off the ground—but in this vortex of spirits, he was completely unable to do so.

He tried to approach the ground by swimming, but failed—the place closest to the ground is also the place with the most chaotic energy, not to mention that his swimming movements could not provide any thrust in such chaos.

Trying to escape a whirlpool by swimming—the reasons for failure are exactly the same.

Use magic to stop the whirlwind!

Yuri attempted to dispel the ghosts with the mysteries of death, and although it was weak, it did have a slight effect—however, the vortex was not an unchanging stake, and Yuri's efforts to slow it down could not keep up with its rate of strengthening—even Yuri's literal act of betraying it by absorbing energy from within to fight against itself did not work.

It's too late. If Yuri had done this when the vortex was first generated, he might have been able to stop it easily. But now it's in a self-sustaining state, and stopping it will take a lot of effort. Even if he succeeds in the end, it will take too long, and it's impossible to predict what changes might occur during that time.

What was I doing back then? Oh right, I think I was grabbing someone and trying to jump off a building.

He grabbed the part of the spirit that hadn't completely escaped the vortex, trying to get it to pull him out—this plan was certainly feasible; he had thought it through before falling in, and if Yuri reached out now, he should be able to grab it reliably within twenty laps—but this might have a negative impact on the spirit. He and the Reaper had been locked in fierce combat for so long, neither side retreating an inch, yet neither daring to make any major moves. Yuri didn't know why the Reaper was trying to avoid injury, but the spirit was definitely worried about being sucked back in if it lost its grip.

Let's take it one step at a time and try other methods. First, reduce the wear and tear of staying inside. Yuri began to try to adapt to this environment.

The first step is to reduce collisions with yourself and the things around you—by adjusting your body to the appropriate angle, Yuri can also become a long strip—since repeated thrashing is useless, simply place your hands on your sides and slide along the vortex.

The second step is to quickly think about how to get out of here.

The reason why the spirit can maintain its stance is simple: it is powerful and large in size, and ordinary ghosts cannot break through it. Yuri obviously does not have that physique, unless he uses magic to create one.

And of course, this is a metaphor. It is difficult to determine whether a spirit is affected by inertia, and whether kinetic energy or momentum exists is also a mystery. It is not necessarily true that inflating one's body size will solve the problem. One might become a balloon that expands due to heat and be thrown even further away. However, even without this metaphor, Yuri himself is not very clear about what determines a spirit's ability to fix itself in place.

Another option is transformation. If Yuri could completely change his form, say, transform himself into a ten-meter-long pole—outside the vortex's influence—he could certainly place his body outside. Then, using the outside part as a base, he could simply revert to his original form. —If he were familiar enough with transformation, he would use this method. —However, unfortunately, how long ago was the last time Yuri changed his body form? It seems like it was in a past life.

Time was passing by—after noticing Yuri's predicament, Akemi was carrying Yamanaka Yuka and several dolls, traversing an arc past the vicinity of the vortex.

The girl who eats sins tries to pull Yuri out with her skills, but unfortunately, the puppetry technique requires the ability to interfere with the other party to a certain extent. Yuri can only watch helplessly as the threads extend toward him—and are then blocked by the vortex.

Furthermore, whether a puppet can actually manipulate a target to do things that the target itself cannot do remains a mystery.

Then, the sin-eater girl resorted to an even more reckless tactic, using silk threads to interfere with the movements of a spirit sap doll following closely behind, causing it to veer off course and head towards the vortex.

She might mean "throw this in to give Yuri a foothold," or "throw this in to make the enemy hesitate to attack," or "since Yuri is already beyond saving, we might as well take this opportunity to eliminate the enemy chasing him"—she seemed to be shouting something, but Yuri, who was spinning at high speed, only heard part of the words like "hold on," let alone be able to tell what she was saying from her lip movements.

Yuri heard Akemi's words very clearly.

She said, "Keep it up."

If possible, I hope you can send something more useful than just emotional support.

During this brief moment of separation, the sin-eating girl threw in two spirit-filled dolls.

They didn't take into account what these guys would do when they were thrown in.

They acted very fiercely, baring their teeth and claws, trying to climb out of the vortex... and failed—then, probably receiving new orders, they began to rush toward Yuri.

Yuri crashed violently into the puppet, and was then carried away again by the other ghosts—the spirit puppets performed better than Yuri in the vortex, so they suffered more damage, and their spinning speed was significantly slower than Yuri's.

If ordinary ghosts are like flowing water, Yuri is like a bubble in the water, and the bound spirit is like a stone at the bottom, then these spirit puppets are more like blocks of wood—they can't escape the water, but they're not so easy to follow either.

Yuri spun around again and bumped into another doll, which was then taken away by the other ghosts before it could react.

Being more stable means being less sociable, and being less sociable means constantly getting bumped into.

If you try to fit in, you'll be eliminated by the group; if you don't fit in, you'll be eliminated even faster. What kind of bizarre microcosm of Japanese society is this?

When Yuri crashed into the spirit puddles for the fifth time, they were already visibly worn down, almost unable to move, completely losing their human form, and were being consumed by the naked eye.

That's to be expected. In terms of actual skill, they are only at the level of specialized level two spirits, and they are probably not even as good as Yuri. In addition, given their lack of intelligence, it is only natural that they would get beaten up.

...But they are still much more stable than Yuri—even now, as they are about to turn to ashes, they are still more stable.

This might be the direction to escape. Yuri began to think quickly about what differences led to greater stability—what was it that bound spirits possessed the most, dolls had fewer, Yuri had even fewer, and ghosts had almost none?

The Reaper released four more spirit-infused puppets to surround and intercept Mingmei, who was running all over the field. It was clear that he was somewhat weak. Yuri had initially estimated that he could shrink one of the puppets to about one-twentieth of its original size, but now he had released ten. Faced with the attacks of the spirit-binding creatures, he had changed from a back-and-forth battle to a tight defense. It seemed that he was determined to wear down the opponent.

Perhaps this is what it is? Pure spiritual quality?

The situation is improving, so it's best not to wait for the next unexpected event to occur before making a decision.

Yuri immediately took action, increasing the spiritual quality within himself and preparing to change plans should the operation fail, directly grabbing the spirit binder and leaving—the Reaper had already been significantly weakened, so even if Yuri lagged behind a little, it shouldn't matter.

perhaps.

188 Spells, Polymorph, Madness

"Bang, bang, bang." Yuri added sound effects to his footsteps.

Although he couldn't be considered to be able to move freely yet, Yuri didn't intend to delay any longer since he could already move around with some effort.

The Reaper stared intently at Yuri, who emerged from the other side of the vortex, his eyes blazing with fury.

No, it really is breathing fire; you can see spiritual energy erupting from its eyes beneath the mask.

“There might be some plagiarism of your ideas, but I don’t think anyone here would consider that the most important thing right now.” Yuri looked at the other person and offered a brief explanation. “Right? I don’t think you’re the kind of person who would get this angry over a design—”

Now, he was covered in a thick layer of spiritual energy—a temporary suit of armor, a hybrid of Minagawa-do's original armor and the one worn by the spirit—Yuri really didn't want to design anything at this point.

The harvester remained silent.

Yuri spoke again, “The important thing is that the situation is now tilting in our favor again—Mr. Minagawa Dojin, I think you should surrender immediately and return the Bound Spirit you took.”

Yuri didn't sense any beings with the power of the Bound Spirit within the vortex, leading him to believe that the Reaper still held the Bound Spirit's spirit in its grasp, preparing to consume it together at the crucial moment of the ritual.

“Warlock, the outcome is not yet decided, let’s take down the Impermanent Ghost first!” Bound Spirit spoke up—after listening to him speak a few more times, Yuri suspected that he was not good at speaking and therefore tried to reduce the number of words he used, rather than always having to use classical Chinese.

And he was right; in the distance, Mingmei seemed to be surrounded by those eight spirit-infused puppets in a corner of the spirit field. The encirclement was still sparse, but breaking out wouldn't be easy.

Yuri began to accelerate, staggering as he charged toward the Reaper—now he understood why the previous Spirit Puppet had acted so comically, and he guessed that his movements would look similar to others—his entire body was covered in spirit armor, making him a size larger, but only the internal parts were moving, a conflict between the habits accumulated from long-term exercise and the sudden change in body shape.

Fortunately, I am a spirit, so even if my movements are a bit comical, at least I won't fall to the ground—if I were made of flesh and blood, I probably would have already fallen.

So, perhaps there's a more suitable version for those spirit essence puppets? Was it because this harvester injected too much power into them to enhance their strength, causing them to become like that?

Yuri punched the Reaper in the head with all his might.

The Reaper suddenly shrank by twenty centimeters—no, he abruptly crouched down—his claws slashing cracks in the spirit armor on Yuri's abdomen.

Yuri didn't stop; instead, he charged straight at the Reaper. The Reaper opened its mouth wide, seemingly about to do something, but whatever it was trying to do, Yuri aimed his other fist at its nose (if the empty space above its mouth could still be called a nose). The Reaper dodged the blow by tilting its head again and closing its mouth.

The Reaper suddenly turned and swept across, its wings slamming violently into Yuri. Yuri tried to grab the wing, but he was a fraction too slow, his outstretched hand missing its mark, and he staggered backward.

It's far from being a case of getting a good deal, but...