After waking from the illusion, the mental discomfort from continuing to absorb spirit had eased considerably. At that moment, the entire canopy rustled as though swept by a gale, and the corpses hanging beneath it swayed violently, as if they would all fall the next second.
The relic's Whisper Element fluctuated violently, while the shriveled hound's face embedded in the trunk became increasingly sinister and terrifying.
The little hound's spirit had collapsed weakly atop Shade's shoe, but unlike it, Shade—whose entire upper body was burning with Moon Fire—felt remarkably good.
The continuously burning Moon Fire was rapidly consuming his own spirit, but Shade still retained an enormous amount of spirit within him to support the actions that followed.
Keeping his finger pricked, he asked the hound:
"Can you still hold on? If you can't, I'll let go and we'll enter the second phase directly."
"No, I can still hold on. Every second I endure will make the third phase easier. I absolutely cannot ruin my master's plan from back then for the sake of my own freedom."
"Woof..."
The little hound resting on Shade's shoe whimpered, drawing the cat's head out again to look at it. After silently counting to five, Shade released his hand without asking the hound's opinion this time.
The extraction of spirit abruptly stopped, but rather than calming the Corpse Tree, it made the fluctuations of its Whisper Element even more violent. Under normal circumstances, it would not have been surprising for the tree to lose control the next second, but at this moment, it was still firmly suppressed by the hound's soul.
"I'm carrying out the second step now. This may hurt a lot—Soul Whiplash!"
After biting open his finger, he made a whipping motion. With a sharp crack through the air, a crimson long