'Shit! Just when everything seemed to be going right!'
Though he couldn't help but feel like it was his fault. After all, what were the odds that right after stealing the Soul Artifact, an event would start where, coincidentally, most of the Awakened-ranked evil spirits were?
Furthermore, the moon was the same color as the jewel on his new Soul Artifact.
As if noticing this, Aliyah let out a chuckle.
"Welp. We're screwed. Don't know about you, but I can't exactly kill an Awakened-ranked evil spirit. They're too powerful."
"Me neither," Julian replied, lowering his head. "But there must be some way to get out of here, right? You're a sorceress, so do you have any kind of levitation spells?"
She raised a brow and tilted her head.
"You want to jump down from here?"
He nodded, and so she continued:
"Well... I only have 19 offensive spells, 4 defensive spells, and one utility spell. That's about it."
She was being oddly cooperative, but that was just what they needed at the moment.
"I see... Hiding is most likely not going to work. The evil spirits will smell us. But we could try heading down to where the Soul Artifact was."
Julian had a feeling that all the Awakened evil spirits came from that room. So if that room was empty and they could somehow isolate themselves, then...
"Hmm..." Aliyah fell into thought. "I guess... that could work? Though, I feel like we're better off just sitting still and trying to survive through the night, hoping the Awakened evil spirits don't track us."
"It said the night is going to be longer," Julian reminded her. "Do you think we can survive here for at least the next 24 hours while we're hiding behind rubble that could fall at any moment?"
She grumbled, turning her head. Since they were now on the same page, Julian decided to put his trust in her, at least for the time being. After all, if they didn't work together, they were both dead.
Julian gave her a quick rundown on how the ring worked, and then he sat down in the very corner.
Aliyah stared with curiosity burning in her gaze.
"Spiritual Essence projection, huh? Sure. I'll protect your body, you scout for us."
He maintained eye contact with her for a few seconds longer than he should've, and then he closed his eyes, focusing on the Soul Artifact on his finger.
By now, it had stored enough Spiritual Essence that he could use however he wanted. And in this case, Julian wanted to project himself outward.
As if responding to his will, the Spiritual Essence inside the Soul Artifact was consumed. A moment later, he felt his consciousness slipping out of his body. His senses faded, yet he could still see everything.
And what he did see was his soul being projected out of his own body. He glanced down, realizing his hands and his whole body were transparent. Then he glanced back at his real body, which was now slumped over to the side.
An imaginary shiver ran down his spine at the sight. But even so, Julian could freely control his projection. He could fly up, down, and anywhere he'd like. Though it was a short-range projection, so he didn't get ahead of himself.
Putting a slight amount of trust in Aliyah, Julian flew up, hovering above the church. He overlooked the Land of Churches, and the number of evil spirits present was alarming.
There were at least several hundred gathered near the front of the church, and then there were thousands scattered all around. Getting to the room seemed nearly impossible.
Still, Julian willed his projection to move, and it did. He flew in the direction of the church where he first appeared. However, before he could get too close, he felt a tug at his projection.
He had reached the limit of the short-range projection, clearly.
'Though, for being called short... this is at least a range of 5 kilometers. It's really, really good,' Julian thought.
Though he realized that while there was a limit to how far he could go, there was no limit to how high he could fly.
So with that in mind, he flew further up until he was overlooking the entirety of the Land of Churches.
He could see every evil spirit as though it was an ant, and to his dismay, in the very center, where the church he arrived in was, he spotted three abnormally large evil spirits. They had some human, werewolf, and tiger traits, likely a chimera, and definitely something he had no information on.
The miasma they radiated was unlike anything he had felt before in the Second Heaven. Clearly, these three were the Awakened-ranked evil spirits.
But despite that, he remembered seeing five coffins. So where were the other two?
He looked desperately, but he couldn't find them. He was starting to get a bad feeling about it. What if they remained inside that room, and by going there, they'd only go to their deaths?
'Shit...' Julian rubbed his glabella. 'There's really no way out of this. I could maybe wait for my Spiritual Essence to fill up again and jump off, then before landing, I use it to propel myself.'
But the odds that only this much Spiritual Essence could keep him from dying when he was falling from thousands of meters up were very, very unlikely.
So in the end, there weren't many choices left. Either he could stay where he was and wait for the evil spirits to kill him and Aliyah, or they could go to that room and hide out the night.
Letting out a defeated sigh, Julian closed his eyes and willed his projection back into his body. A moment later, his senses returned.
Reopening his eyes, he saw Aliyah crouched right beside him, staring directly at him. It was a bit creepy, but if her goal really was to become an idol, being a little creepy was probably the bare minimum.
"So what did you see?" Aliyah asked. "Are we safe to go?"
Julian shook his head.
"It's a gamble. I only saw three Awakened evil spirits. There are two missing."
Just like him, she picked up on what was wrong, but instead of panicking about it, her eyes lit up.
"Hey... what if I told you I had a really... I mean... really reckless idea?"
She leaned closer, a mischievous smile on her face.
"Wanna try it out?"