The Reaper swung the soul-cleaving blade in its hand at Mingye. Mingye clenched the wooden stick between his teeth and watched helplessly as the blade passed through his body, cutting away a small piece of his soul. Cold sweat drenched his entire body as he let out a muffled scream, yet Mingye endured. Just as the Reaper's blade carried that fragment of soul toward its abdomen to swallow it, Mingye raised his index and middle fingers with one hand.
"Bind!"
The blood formation beneath his feet activated under Mingye's control, holding the Reaper's movements in place. Mingye knelt within the formation, panting as he looked at Ara.
"Quick, seal the soul on that blade! Use this!"
He pulled out a scroll he had prepared beforehand and tossed it to Ara through ragged breaths. Ara could see that Mingye would not last much longer. Moving swiftly, he flicked his tail open the scroll, then leaped into the air and flew toward the Reaper's blade with the scroll in his jaws. The sealing diagram on the scroll stuck to the blade's soul. A flash of blue light passed, and the scroll automatically spun and recoiled with such force that even Ara was flung away. Once that was done, Mingye pressed a finger to the center of the blood pattern on his chest. The Reaper remained silent, yet its cold gleam grew ever brighter. Still, beneath the formation on Mingye's chest, it could do nothing. It finally turned into smoke and vanished into the air.
"You really are insane!"
Ara looked at Mingye, who had become so weak after the Reaper vanished that his face was as pale as a corpse's, and could not help saying it. Those who dared to wrest souls from the Reaper—or rather, dared to deceive the Reaper—were not