The Answering Head continued its chant, and from the mouth of the secret passage, phantoms poured out one after another, each scrambling to be first.
These phantoms ignored the closest targets, heading straight for Major Aud.
Richard could see it now: the Answering Head was focusing the brunt of its killing force on the Major alone.
His mind raced.
Winterworth’s circuit was on the verge of spinning out.
The Deep Ether Condensate was too potent, its side effects severe.
’He didn’t know how the condensate would react to the circuit spinning out. If it caused further damage, it would be all over.’
’There was only one thing: something fast, immediate, and capable of precisely activating a micro-circuit.’
’Moon Nail · Reflection.’
Richard’s hand was already in his shoulder bag, pulling out the Silver Needle Long Box.
This time, he skipped the usual cautious preparations, compressing the entire Piercing Needle procedure to its absolute limit.
Ready the needle. Breath Introduction. Piercing Needle.
The condensed ball of Ether formed at the tip of the needle, white with a tinge of cyan.
Richard fixed his eyes on Winterworth’s position.
The bonus from his Perception allowed him to clearly see the path of the main circuit inside Winterworth’s body.
The active part of the circuit was on the inside of his right arm.
That section of Ether was spinning violently, faster and faster, already at the breaking point.
Richard took a few quick steps forward and flicked the Silver Needle from his fingertips.
The entire ball of pure Ether flooded into the micro-circuit in Winterworth’s body that was spinning out of control.
The main circuit, on the verge of collapse, was scoured clean from within and reactivated.
The flush rising on Winterworth’s face froze, stopping just shy of the breaking point.
He gasped, stumbling back two steps and out of the Answering Head’s zone of Silence.
He glanced down at his right arm, where the needle had struck him, then looked back at Richard in the innermost ring of the formation.
Richard had already returned to his original position.
The Inspector had no time to dwell on it.
He gave Richard a quick nod.
Then he tightened his grip on his twin blades and circled around to the flank.
Richard slid the strap of the Colton 120 Camera from around his neck, letting the camera hang at his side. He then reached into the inner pocket of his coat and drew his Webley Revolver.
The grip grew warm in his sweaty palm.
He flipped open the cylinder and loaded six Enchanted Bullets from his cartridge belt, one by one.
The phantoms weren’t drifting quickly, and they were only a dozen or so feet away.
With his Perception at Lv. 2, the dim light at each phantom’s core was almost visible to the naked eye.
’Good enough.’
On the other side, Old Big had also raised his revolver.
The old coroner’s gun was shorter than Richard’s, its grip wrapped in coarse cloth so it wouldn’t be cold to the touch in winter.
The two of them each took a position in an angle formed by the Light Locks.
"Gray Eyes," Old Big said, not daring to use Richard’s real name. "Aim for the light in the center of the chest. Don’t aim for the face; the faces of these Evil Beings are a lie."
A bird-shaped phantom skimmed past the outer edge of the innermost circle, about seven or eight paces away from Richard.
Richard raised the revolver with his right hand, steadying his wrist with his left.
BANG!
The gunshot was a muffled boom inside the enclosed cavern.
The Exorcism Inscription on the bullet’s base blossomed into a tiny silver flower on the Ether Layer.
The bird was sliced in half, its entire misty form dissipating with a SIZZLE.
The recoil slammed into Richard’s right shoulder. He regained his stance and lowered the muzzle slightly.
Old Big fired a shot as well.
His shot was aimed at a phantom in the shape of a faceless child.
The bullet passed straight through the center of its chest, and the entire misty form dissipated vertically without causing the surrounding lights to even flicker.
During this exchange, Richard had fired four of the six Enchanted Bullets in his revolver.
He let two of the weaker phantoms pass; there was no need to waste a bullet on the kind that would dissipate with a single tap from the flat of an Enchanted Axe.
The four he had taken down were the ones that posed the greatest threat to Mr. Hutton’s line of defense, approaching the innermost circle from two different directions.
Old Big had taken down three. Between the two of them, they had relieved some of the pressure on the outer perimeter.
Richard raised his eyes, looking toward the center of the cavern.
The Answering Head was tied down by Mr. Hutton’s Judgments and Mrs. MacNeil’s Seven Spirits, its advance slowed to a crawl.
But it was still moving forward.
The Weaving Woman’s threads were stretched to their limit.
The Wolf Spirit’s Golden Silk Net was riddled with holes.
The seated figure of the old woman wearing the Bone Bracelet was starting to turn translucent.
Mr. Hutton’s voice, reciting his Judgments, grew steadily fainter.
The Answering Head was pinned down, barely able to move, but its chanting never ceased.
On the other side, the leader of Team Two raised his gun in support, aiming at two phantoms that were skimming along the ground.
But just an instant before he could pull the trigger, the pitch of the Answering Head’s chant suddenly shifted.
It wasn’t a new verse of the chant. It had plucked several syllables from the original line and reassembled them into an extremely short Technique.
The Technique was aimed directly at the Major.
Through his Hidden Spiritual Vision, Richard saw it with perfect clarity.
The instant the Technique struck the Major, the rhythm of his breathing faltered for half a beat.
Only for half a beat.
The phantom in front of the Major’s left leg seized that half-beat opening to lunge at his feet.
Team Two’s leader’s shot hit the phantom in the back, missing its core.
The phantom’s sharp claws raked across the Major’s left leg.
A gash was torn in his trouser leg, and blood seeped through.
The Major grunted, taking half a step back.
"Major!" the leader of Team Two shouted from the other side.
"I’m fine." The Major’s voice was steady.
His main circuit had been forcefully struck by that disruptive Technique, and its operating efficiency had dropped significantly.
The Answering Head didn’t stop. Its chant began a new verse.

Comments

Loading...