Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1143 - 255: Attack of the Twisted Souls_2

Chapter 1143: Chapter 255: Attack of the Twisted Souls_2

Although the girls were lost and despondent, the Twisted Souls were not. Devoid of reason and logic and left only with madness and hatred, their greatest hope was to inflict their own pain on all souls that still retained normalcy. Therefore, they continued forward without delay after crossing through the house, rapidly approaching the girls.

"Snap out of it," Catherine yelled furiously, her sense of responsibility as a knight pulling her out of her stupor in just a second. Crossing her sword and shield loudly, she commanded, "Lina, purify with your Divine Spell on a large scale, Vivian, be ready to unleash Psychic Impact at any moment, and also prepare your mental defenses to buy us time for any surprises. Everyone else, form a dense formation around Lina."

Catherine’s shout awakened the girls from their daze. Their formation quickly changed, with everyone gathering around Lina and Vivian, shielding the two main attackers with their bodies and also minimizing the distance to them in case they needed rapid rescue. Dillie looked at Pannis in surprise, then at the girls, seemingly astonished by their efficient and practiced moves, muttered a few words that seemed to be of praise, and joined the formation.

"O spirits of life," Lina once again raised her hands high, her face upturned in devout prayer to the benevolent mother earth, offering her prayers. As the girl prayed, clusters of light gathered on her raised, clenched hands. When the light in her hands shone as bright as two suns, almost illuminating the entire camp, Lina suddenly spread her arms, letting the endless light rush into the sky, then scattering like rain of light: "With your holy light, cleanse the weariness in the hearts of the faithful."

Pannis had once said that these Twisted Souls were most terrified of the Divine Art of Life. In fact, no matter how twisted they are, they remain a form of soul, and when confronted with the Divine Art of Life, they would inevitably be purified. However, having been twisted, they could not return to eternal rest after purification and would simply dissipate into nothingness. Second to this, they fear Psychic Impact from mages, which, targeting an already unstable twisted soul, stood a high chance of scattering them so they could never reassemble, effectively dissipating them, although this might seem more violent than purification, the result was actually the same.

Having no reason to doubt what Pannis had said, the girls, once the Twisted Souls came within an ideal range, Lina released her largest area of effect Divine Art of Life, "Ode to Life." The gentle showers of light raining around the girls seemed to resonate with a faint hymn. As the light rained down, the fatigue and weariness on the girls lifted rapidly, and even the drowsiness brought on by the alarm faded quickly, leaving their spirits and physical condition increasingly improved.

Such was the case for the girls, but not for the Twisted Souls. Or perhaps it could be said they were even luckier. The showering light rained upon them, and eerie black shadows emerged from their twisted forms, quickly dissipating under the nourishment of the light rain, turning into wisps of black smoke. As the black smoke faded more and more, the movements of the five Twisted Souls also slowed more and more, and the wrinkles and flickering edges on their forms became increasingly smooth, as if they were reversing into normal souls. However, as they neared a maximum return to normalcy, their forms also faded more and more, until their entire bodies turned into a faint mist, completely returning to nothingness.

"Is that the end?" Catherine stared blankly at where the five Twisted Souls had finally dissipated and whispered, "Did they just disappear that easily?"

"Yes," Pannis nodded. "At least they no longer have to endure the eternal agony of being twisted."

"It’s probably a good thing," the knight girl sighed softly, looking around and said, "Should be all gone, right?"

"I think so," Pannis said. "At least, I haven’t detected any other Twisted Souls."

"Then let’s stand down," Catherine commanded, letting the girls relax and disperse from their tight formation. The knight girl shook her head weakly, full of concerns and said, "Everyone, rest up. I want to stay here alone for a while."

"Don’t think too much," Pannis understood Catherine’s turmoil, patting the girl’s shoulder and signaling to the others, "Give her some space; let’s rest for a while."

"You guys go ahead, I’ll do some recording here," Vivian said as she pulled out her notebook, shaking her head. "Don’t worry, it won’t affect the elder sister."

Pannis nodded and didn’t say anything else, slowly walking back to the center of the campsite. As he turned around, he found that everyone was following behind him and couldn’t help but express his frustration, "Are none of you planning to sleep?"

"We can’t relax—she’s just saying it’s recording, but probably she can’t relax either; she’s staying close on purpose," Lina turned her head and nodded toward Catherine, who was standing alone not far behind. "It won’t be too late to rest after the elder sister is back to normal."

"Suit yourselves, then," Pannis shrugged his shoulders. Although he seemed unconcerned on the surface, his gaze still swept around the campsite, only withdrawing after confirming that there could not be any Twisted Souls hiding.

"Don’t you find it strange?" Dillie, unable to sleep as well, simply lay next to Pannis and spoke out of boredom, "How did they get in anyway?"

"What’s so strange about that?" Pannis retorted, "Defensive works don’t affect them; they can just pass through walls."

"Could it really be such a coincidence? We’re now inside their camp, and during the day we didn’t see them around, then at night we were attacked. The attackers weren’t any of the Twisted Souls we had confirmed safe during the day, but rather the inhabitants of the camp," Dillie shook his head, "Anyway, I don’t believe in such coincidences. There’s a saying in my homeland, ’There’s always a problem behind any abnormal coincidence.’"

"What do you mean?" A very unsettling premonition rose in Pannis’s heart, and he said seriously, "Do you think they were hiding in the camp all along?"

"We can’t rule out that possibility," Dillie replied, "Of course, believing that means first accepting that these Twisted Souls, while their intelligence might be twisted, still possess some smarts. To devour us, they might even restrain themselves from attacking until nighttime."

"That’s not unacceptable, after all, sometimes they fight in the manner they did before death, and lying in ambush might be instinctual," Pannis shook his head, "The problem is, during the day, we had carefully checked every corner of the campsite, including the sky—that was personally inspected by you, meaning they couldn’t be hiding there. Wait, there’s one place still..."

"Yes, there’s still one place," Dillie pointed downward with his claw, "They could be lurking underground, and that we would not be able to detect."

"If they really are lurking down there..." Pannis felt a chill spreading through him, abruptly raising his head and shouting loudly, "Catherine, Vivian, you two get out of there right now!"

However, it seemed everything was already too late. As his shout reached Vivian’s ears, a twisted shadow almost instantly surfaced from underground, appearing behind Vivian, mere inches from touching the girl with an upraised arm.