Kalieqin's scream rang out especially harshly in the apartment, which had been quiet until then.
He curled up on the floor, both hands clamped over his eyes, but shutting out his vision was pointless.
The iridescent Eye of Spirituality hovering above Assistant Professor Allen's head burned itself directly into the depths of his soul like a branding iron.
Even more terrifying was the vast, pure psionic fluctuation he couldn't begin to comprehend, pouring toward him through that eye like an invisible tide.
It didn't feel like he was being deliberately attacked by some overwhelming force. It was more as if his soul were a tiny snowflake that had drifted, by chance, into someone's palm.
Even if that person had no intention of doing anything to the snowflake, it would still slowly melt in the warmth of their hand.
At that moment, Kalieqin could feel his soul letting out a desperate, overwhelmed wail under the force of that fluctuation, as if it might evaporate like water vapor and vanish at any moment.
The very existence of the other party, the fundamental level of their psionic nature, utterly overwhelmed him.
"C-Commander!" The junior investigator couldn't perceive the Eye of Spirituality as clearly as Kalieqin could through Inspiration, but he too felt the sudden, terrifying pressure that seemed to freeze his soul.
As Kalieqin watched the Eye of Spirituality, he was affected by it, refracting part of its spiritual fluctuation and spreading it into the study behind him.
The relatively inert Subspace residue in the study was like an oil depot struck by a spark. It instantly surged into a violent frenzy!
The junior investigator beside him gave a muffled groan. It felt as if countless red-hot needles were piercing his brain. His nose stung, and warm liquid began to trickle down. His knees gave way, and he dropped to the floor, bracing himself with both hands as he retched violently.
Kalieqin, at the storm's center, was in even worse shape.
In his consciousness, which teetered on the brink of collapse, the lingering energy of the Subspace entity in the study seemed to have found the perfect opening. It surged through the channel created by Gallo's psionic fluctuation and began furiously invading Kalieqin's soul!
In Kalieqin's mind, he saw it—endless scarlet blood mist roiling; beneath an enormous iron tower drawn by multi-armed monsters, huge wheels crushing mountains of corpses and bones. The phantom of the Six-Horned Red Demon projected through Subspace and appeared in his consciousness, clutching a spear wrapped in the wails of souls as it let out a deafening, destruction-hungry laugh!
"It's you!" The demon's will crashed down on Kalieqin's core consciousness like a sledgehammer.
It sensed Gallo's familiar spiritual fluctuation and thrilled at having found the detestable being who had banished it once before.
"Hm?" In the attic, Gallo looked up from his dinner and murmured in puzzlement.
Lily chewed on buttered bread and stewed lamb, then asked Gallo beside her with her mouth full, "What is it... did you bite... a bone fragment... and hurt your tooth?"
Gallo patted Lily's hair without saying much. He continued eating dinner at an unhurried pace, his expression unchanged, but the feedback from the Eye of Spirituality let him grasp the danger on the other side in an instant.
He had intended to use the Eye of Spirituality to watch what happened after the assistant professor went to Professor Jeffrey's house.
At first, the other party had called the police, bringing in officers and Investigator Clovin. That had all been within Gallo's expectations. But then two more Investigator Clovins arrived, both giving off an extremely faint spiritual fluctuation.
Through the Eye of Spirituality, Gallo could tell at once that they were psionic users. But their own Spirituality was pitifully weak, and the young investigator's was even lower than the middle-aged man's.
Originally, Gallo's Eye of Spirituality had merely been watching from afar, observing in secret.
But Kalieqin had gone and recklessly opened himself up to Inspiration, trying to sense the Subspace fluctuations in the study.
That left Gallo, who knew about Subspace, utterly speechless. The other man was a psionic user, but he clearly lacked even the most basic professional knowledge.
Then Kalieqin's opened Inspiration sensed Gallo's distant Eye of Spirituality and reached toward it. But he immediately proved incapable of withstanding the spiritual fluctuation Gallo projected from afar.
What had begun as simple distant observation had inadvertently put Kalieqin in extreme danger. Worse, Gallo's own projected Spirituality had been refracted through Kalieqin, drawing in the Subspace entity Blood-Howl Gorak—the very being Gallo had banished from his own consciousness last time.
After all, the study itself still contained traces of Gorak's Subspace energy fluctuation.
"Troublesome..." Gallo thought.
He tried projecting more of his psionic power over there to suppress Gorak, who was trying to take control of Kalieqin. If Kalieqin lost control under Gorak's influence, it would cause a tremendous disaster. The worst-case scenario was that he would become a gateway between Subspace and reality, allowing Gorak and the Subspace entities under his command to flood into the real world.
But by then, Kalieqin's consciousness had become Gorak's domain. The demon was even using the lingering Subspace fluctuations to obstruct Gallo's spiritual power, making his efforts as ineffective as scratching an itch through a boot.
"Not enough! My Spirituality isn't strong enough!"
Without hesitation, Gallo focused his thoughts, and the last attribute point he had available was instantly invested in [Spirituality].
[Spirituality Lv2]!
A more immense, more concentrated spiritual power erupted from deep within his soul! If it had been a stream before, now it was a mighty, surging river!
This time, his psionic projection met no resistance.
A pure, scorching radiance bearing the unique imprint of his soul ignored physical distance and followed the invisible link of distant sight, forcing its way into Kalieqin's consciousness, nearly drowned in blood and madness!
In an instant, Kalieqin's consciousness seemed to split in two.
One half was a crimson, tainted sea, filled with Blood-Howl Gorak's laughter and its will to destroy.
The other was a warm, majestic platinum radiance that had suddenly blazed to life!
At its heart, the vague silhouette of a human figure took shape. Though Kalieqin couldn't make out its face, the powerful force that drove away corruption and steadied his weakened soul gave him a glimmer of hope in his despair.
"It's you!!" Blood-Howl Gorak roared, fury and alarm in its voice.
The figure within the platinum radiance seemed to give the crimson sea a casual glance, then gently raised a hand—a direct interference with Subspace through powerful Spirituality, on a higher plane.
There was no earth-shaking collision, no elaborate, dazzling attack.
It was like a giant eraser gently wiping a smudge off a canvas.
The roiling sea of blood, the hideous demonic phantom, the laugh of destruction... The instant they touched the platinum radiance, they melted, crumbled, and vanished like snow beneath the sun!
Blood-Howl Gorak's furious, unwilling roar cut off abruptly. Its projected will was cleanly banished back into the depths of Subspace!
At the same time, a notification suddenly lit up on Gallo's attribute panel: [Available Attribute Point +1]!
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