"More—war—"
Kaelitos twisted his neck. Blood patterns flickered as the wounds inflicted by the Abyss across his body healed in an instant, granting him renewed strength.
Looking at the battlefield in the distance, formed by the Touching Kindling Users and the Touching Kindling monster, Kaelitos grew increasingly excited. He strode forward, his pace gradually quickening.
With an enraged roar, he raised his battle axe high and brought it down upon the Touching Kindling monster with thunderous force.
"Roar—"
Seemingly sensing an attack powerful enough to threaten its life, the Touching Kindling monster had no choice but to temporarily abandon its pursuit of Brother Yu. With a roar, it drew upon other powers.
In an instant, dense Black Mist sufficient to blot out everything rose from its body and rapidly spread outward, engulfing the surrounding area and swallowing the attacks of Kaelitos, the Shepherd, and Long Night.
After a deafening boom—
The Touching Kindling monster, wrapped in darkness, broke free from Long Night's restraints and continued chasing Brother Yu without so much as a scratch.
Concealed by the darkness, the Shepherd and Kaelitos's attacks all missed. Only Long Night, thanks to his familiarity with the traits of darkness, barely managed to stall it for a moment.
"Such dense darkness traits!"
At the edge of the battlefield, Redrolta's incarnation could not help but feel alarmed. At the same time, he realized something was wrong.
"Earth, stupidity, darkness—"
"So the third Touching Kindling User it devoured really was Evil Night?"
"Then, is the other trait chaos?"
"Damn it, it's hidden by the darkness. I can't see clearly."
"Where did those extra traits come from? Could it have devoured other Touching Kindling Users without showing it on its exterior?"
Redrolta muttered uncertainly to himself.
Ever since the Touching Kindling monster had appeared, he had