Although Shade mentioned the Doctor, the Doctor simply held his teacup and blew on the steam, saying nothing.
"Young hunter, what is the most effective Thaumaturgy you currently possess that can affect souls?"
the hunter asked again.
"Soul Whiplash. But are you sure your idea will work? I wasn't prepared for a fight tonight."
"Soul Whiplash is the most important core divine art of the Ancient Death Cult. Both the Punishment and Awakening Schools within the Church take this divine art as their foundation. But it is not basic—it points directly at the essence of death's power."
The hunter continued on his own:
"With this Thaumaturgy, things become much easier. In our era, there were many ways to awaken people who had been forcibly possessed by demons. One of them was whipping.
Although this practice later brought severe consequences, and the Pain School that emerged from it even twisted the hunters' mission with the idea that 'only by enduring pain can one await hope,' that did not prevent hunters from mastering methods of using it to give demons intense stimulation. Of course, after the Third Epoch, when evil spirits ran rampant, almost no one wanted to master such methods anymore."
At a time like this, Shade should really have asked, "Why did no one want to master it?" But he did not. Thus, the expressionless hunter continued speaking to himself:
"Because compared to directly harming demons, tracking their traces, or resisting their power, awakening people possessed by demons was simply not useful enough in an era when evil spirits had nearly vanished. Since you have mastered Soul Whiplash, you do not even need to learn any additional Thaumaturgy. The power mastered by hunters was originally created using Soul Whiplash as its template."
The Demon Hunter's Handbook floated toward the Doctor,