Angel looked at Orucia's shell. The porcelain-white body was covered in wounds, and the armor once engraved with Abyssal Inscriptions had been completely ruined. The gravest injury was to Orucia's head, its features burned beyond recognition by the Lord of No Flame's fire, even the brain matter inside giving off a scorched stench.
Amid the torrential rain, pungent white smoke rose from Orucia's entire body.
Angel crouched down and was just about to reach out and touch the shell when a hoarse, pleading voice came from beside him.
"Don't... Shopkeeper..."
Angel's outstretched hand froze in midair before slowly lowering again.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Grewu looking over at him from not far away, his face full of pleading.
"Its body is already dead." Angel sighed softly.
The instant Angel spoke, Grewu froze. That manner of speaking, could it be...
Grewu immediately realized that the Shopkeeper was still the Shopkeeper. He had not been possessed!
At that thought, the gloom in Grewu's heart lightened somewhat.
If the Shopkeeper had truly had his core replaced, Grewu would not have known what to do.
Though Grewu was still somewhat puzzled—if the Shopkeeper's core had not been replaced, then had that phantom and that gaze merely been an illusion? The thought only flashed through Grewu's mind, and he did not dwell on it. "But Lord Orucia needs a vessel."
Even if this body was dead, as long as Orucia's soul could return, there would surely be some way to solve it. That was what Grewu thought.
But Angel shook his head. "No."
The light in Grewu's eyes suddenly dimmed. He opened his mouth, yet did not know what to say. Unable to move now, he could only place all his hopes on the Shopkeeper, yet the Shopkeeper had refused...