(Heartfelt thanks to 'Cloud Demon', 'Pokémon', 'Li Jing Rui', 'O0 Tear Wound 0o', 'HJAkeno', 'This Guy Actually', 'Wufeng Haotian', and 'Mo Yu Linshang' for their rewards!)
Without warning, an intense malice suddenly filled the air and entered Noah's range of perception. His movements abruptly halted as he stopped in place.
"Hm?" Leora seemed to have noticed that something was wrong as well and decisively stopped.
Both of them turned to look around.
What they saw, however, left Noah and Leora simultaneously stunned.
"Buzzz—!"
Amid a piercing tremor, countless black shadows suddenly burst from the surrounding ground like a twisting swamp, standing crookedly upright like puppets.
They were a group of black shadows with human-like forms, yet their outlines were incredibly blurred. Like shadows themselves, they swayed like zombies, as though they could collapse at any moment.
Malice visible to the naked eye transformed into pitch-black resentment, wrapping around the silhouettes of those shadows.
In the blink of an eye, countless black shadows had emerged from the ground, surrounding Noah and Leora.
"What are those?" Leora asked in surprise.
"Are they spirits?"
Noah looked around, equally astonished.
At that moment, a voice sounded within Noah's heart.
"Master." Est suddenly spoke.
"Those are Wasted Spirits."
"Wasted Spirits?" Noah froze.
He had never heard of anything called Wasted Spirits in this world.
Est naturally knew that and explained.
"Wasted Spirits are a type of undead. If a spirit is annihilated while harboring excessively strong resentment, it loses its spirituality and becomes an undead, wandering the land. This ruined city was once the site of the final battle in the Spirit War. A great many spirits died here, and those spirits have now become mindless undead lingering in this place."
After saying that, Est added in her indifferent voice.
"During the past Spirit War,