“Do you think this will stop me?!” Wilfred, the Failed Vessel, said in a deep voice. Perhaps because of how he managed to deal with the Ghost Hands and Skeleton Knights, he still felt confident even when facing a Dark Spirit.

Wilfred tried tearing apart the dark tendrils that were suppressing him, but even after doing this a few times, he realized it would simply replace the dark tendrils as they kept holding him into a kneeling position.

“Aahhh!”

As the Failed Vessel struggled against the dark tendrils, Vale advanced slowly, his gaze fixed upon his kneeling Failed Vessel.

As if Yvaine realized what Vale wanted to happen, she extracted some of Failed Vessel’s energy to replenish her strength.

Then, she strengthened her control over the dark tendrils!

“You! What did you do?!” Wilfred asked in horror after feeling the sudden loss of energy.

Thud!

In an instant, Wilfred lost his strength as the dark tendrils reached his head.

With its head bowed to the ground, Wilfred could not hide the fear and desperation in its eyes.

“Mhmm… Is that all you have, Wilfred?” Vale asked as he continued approaching him.

Although Vale was confident, he decided to take a caution and stopped a few feet away from Wilfred.

He felt that even in its weakened state, the Failed Vessel could still unleash dangerous attacks… probably.

Vale had to remain vigilant since he could still see the two threads of Arcane Energy that were helping Wilfred get stronger.

‘Yvaine… Did you take his energy? How was it?’ Vale asked, using his unique connection with the Dark Spirit.

‘It’s not good. The soul and the body don’t match well. However, I can feel that he had a strong connection to darkness… He probably possessed a body with an incredible affinity to darkness.’ Yvaine replied after analyzing the energy she took from the Failed Vessel.

‘So it was like that…’

‘Don’t touch him carelessly. He’s feigning his weakness. He definitely has a lot of strength left.’ Yvaine reminded.

‘Yes. I noticed it too… The threads of Arcane Energy are still providing him with a lot of energy.’ Vale replied as he remained on his spot while looking down on Wilfred.

In his mind, he was also wondering why Clare and Teresa were taking a lot of time to deal with the source Arcane Energy Threads.

At this time, the onlookers also started calming down as they realized that they weren’t the Dark Spirit’s target.

“Is everything alright?”

“Why are the police and special guards taking so much time to arrive here?”

“There must be similar incidents in other parts of the city.”

“The guards they sent here were not even arcanists and only wielding runic weapons. They’ll just die if they tried controlling the situation.”

“That’s true. In any case, the situation was already settled by that Necromancer. He’s probably a student from the Dark Arts Academy.”

Vale smiled after hearing this as he could tell that the Arcanists from various organizations had already arrived. However, for some reason, they weren’t thinking of interfering as if they had been instructed to do so.

Teresa already hinted at this, so he wasn’t too surprised.

Anyway, Vale summoned his Spectral Hands as his Ghost Hand Spell was still on cooldown…

As soon as the Spectral Hands appeared, the surrounding area’s dark energy grew thicker. This was because this spell was truly an offensive Dark Spell, unlike the Ghost Hand Spell, which was considered a Support-Type Spell.

Vale decided to extract Wilfred since he could no longer wait for Clare and Teresa’s help.

In an instant, the Spectral Hands grabbed Wilfred’s head.

“If you’re thinking that you’ll get another opportunity, you’ve made a mistake. Your tactic of feigning weakness is stupid.” Vale muttered as he looked at his system.

Combat Power: 505,000

As soon as he saw Wilfred’s combat power, he realized that the man was indeed still quite strong. He probably had several Dark Spells he hadn’t used yet.

However, he would no longer have an opportunity to use them because of his arrogant behavior. He shouldn’t have allowed himself to get captured by Yvaine so easily.

Vale sighed as he triggered the Extraction System.

Spiritual Being has been discovered. Would you like to start the extraction?

‘Oh? He’s not a human… Interesting.’ Vale commented as he gave permission for the extraction.

Extraction Successful. Energy 100, Strength 0.5, Agility 0.3, Intelligence 0.7, Fiend Essence 400

“What? Four hundred points?” Vale’s eyes widened as he saw the Fiend Essence being extracted.

He didn’t have a lot of chances to extract Fiend Essence. The last time he had a chance was from the mystical being, where he got his Echo Saber and the Memory Fragment containing the Barbaric Saber Technique.

“Aaargghhh! What did you do to me?!” Wilfred shouted as he felt his body suddenly weakening. Luckily, he still had a connection to the people secretly supporting him, so he was able to survive.

Vale simply smiled and didn’t answer his question. Instead, he continued extracting him using his Spectral Hands.

Extraction Successful. Energy 100, Strength 0.4, Agility 0.2, Intelligence 0.6, Fiend Essence 300

Extraction Successful. Energy 100, Strength 0.3, Agility 0.1, Intelligence 0.5, Fiend Essence 200

After his third extraction, Vale’s Spirit Vision finally noticed the disappearance of the Arcane Energy Threads.

***

While Vale maintained his hold on the Failed Vessel, Clyde, a member of the Order of the Illustrious Liquidators, observed the scene with keen interest.

His attention was particularly drawn to Yvaine, the formidable Dark Spirit that Vale had summoned. The strength and power emanating from her were awe-inspiring. He was even comparing this Dark Spirit to some Elders of their Faction.

“Mysterious indeed…” Clyde muttered to himself as his gaze shifted from Yvaine to the weakened Failed Vessel.

Despite its feeble state, Clyde knew that the creature could still pose a threat… Though its demise seemed imminent.

However, Clyde’s curiosity about Vale was the highest…

He believed that by saving the Failed Vessel, he might gain valuable insights and information about the enigmatic young man. The prospect of unraveling Vale’s secrets fueled his excitement.

With a sly smile, Clyde activated his most potent spell.

“Reality Shift.”𝒊𝒆𝓪.𝙘𝙢

𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮