"Gallo! Gallo!"
"Lord Gallo..."
"What's wrong? Gallo?"
Muffled voices kept reaching him.
Gallo was dazed, his mind seemingly trapped in a strange dreamscape.
Did Rain catch me with a sneak attack? There really was something wrong with that treasure he gave me!
An entirely new mental entity emerged, possessed of a rational detachment like a third-person perspective, calmly examining its surroundings.
This doesn't look like an illusion or any other mental attack spell. It should be an effect caused by something like a pact or a curse.
Soon, this mental entity made another discovery.
He vaguely suspected that Rain's Phylactery had been destroyed.
The voices from outside gradually vanished, and the sky darkened bit by bit, as though night were falling.
This seemed to indicate that the body's vitality was weakening, and the mental power it could supply as fuel for the soul was losing its source as well.
The mental entity drifted through this strange void, searching for a way out.
Suddenly, a vaguely familiar presence caught his attention.
He flew over and, sure enough, found a Hollow Corpse Monster wandering nearby, wearing an old-fashioned Mage Robe with a thick spellbook tucked inside his abdominal cavity.
A glimmer of spiritual light radiated from him, like a bonfire at night, standing out brilliantly in the darkening void.
"Rain. It really is you."
The mental entity spoke flatly.
"Gallo, you're actually still alive?
"No, there's something strange about your condition!"
The Lich, who had taken the form of a Hollow Corpse Monster, stopped.
Even though his cheeks no longer had muscles and could not display the rich expressions of a living being, a trace of astonishment was still visible on his face.
Gallo's condition had indeed caught him by surprise.
"Is it strange? The means you used to attack me merely