The air around chills at the sight of the ghost.
"What, what is that!"
David exclaimed in disbelief as he watched the spectacle from a safe distance, away from the aftermath of the fight.
The appearance of the ghostly figure behind Osian was enough to make everyone gasp in horror.
"Uh, how......."
Homer, whose arm had been severed, pursed his lips.
The monstrous ghost had appeared and even more amazingly, it had protected Osian.
"This is my power."
Seeing the figure, Riccario stiffened and muttered.
"Yes, I finally understand.""Hmm?"
"This has been your doing all along."
Riccario gritted his teeth, glaring alternately at Osian and the ghost.
"That fight with that ghost was a set-up, because you were the one who summoned it in the first place."
"What?"
Osian stared at Riccario, puzzled.
Riccario spoke as if his reasoning was the truth.
"You deliberately fooled us by pretending to be hostile to the ghost, only to reveal your true colors after you exposed our hand. Was this your plan all along?"
"......."
"The mansion's been haunted for days. Considering he beat us to the punch, there must be a third man behind all of this, Delan. He's the one who set this whole thing up."
Uh, hmm.
Osian didn't know what to say in response.
Riccario had made a grave mistake.
When Osian had fought the ghost in the first place, he had meant it. At least at the time, they were enemies.
After defeating him, he was only able to use the power because he was properly recognized as its master.
However, to a third party, it was anything but that.
Riccario's words were nothing more than a rationalization, a way to fit the situation together.
In other words, his reasoning was very plausible.
Osian knew that, which is why he was so quick to deny that it had ever happened but no matter what he said, they wouldn't believe him.
So Osian had half given up trying to convince them and had to agree with Riccario.
"......Yes. That's right."
"I see!"
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement at Osian's words.
"Delan Goldiron. I can't believe he's been planning this behind the scenes."
"The truth is, we were dancing on a stage he set up."
"Yeah. It didn't make sense to call in just one fixer in a situation like this, not without targeting us in the first place."
Delan had unintentionally become the embodiment of fear, pulling all the strings behind the scenes.
Osian vowed that when this was over, he would go to Delan and apologize.
"You, you cheater!"
Homer, whose arm had been chopped off, reacted most furiously.
He'd thought he'd pushed Osian to the limit, and now he'd been beaten like this, the shock was indescribable.
Homer raised his other hand and tried to activate his powers.
The blood coursing through his body threatened to follow his will and break through his skin.
-Zzzzzzzz.
His skin turned blue and froze, solidifying.
Even the blood flowing within him was frozen, so he couldn't activate his powers.
One arm was severed, the other necrotic and the necrosis was growing wider and wider, engulfing him.
Homer stumbled backward, lost his footing, and fell backward.
"This can't be......."
Before he could finish his sentence, he was turned into a frozen statue.
Osian didn't even bother to look at Homer, just stared at Rachel.
"We still have work to do, don't we?"
Rachel bit her lip at Osian's question.
"What the hell are you all doing, it's only one of them, attack them at the same time, do what you're paid to do, don't you want to make money?"
David yelled like an immature child.
They were annoyed, but he wasn't exactly wrong.
‘Yeah, well, I've come this far and I can't back out.’
Now that the starlight was sealed, Osian had lost his most important defense.
No matter how powerful that ghost was, would it be able to protect its master from the onslaught of attacks from all sides?
At the very least, they had to win this fight before Osian’s sealed abilities were released.
Osian was thinking the same thing.
"You seem to be underestimating this power."
He could understand that.
Compared to a full-blown flamethrower, he might as well have a ghost on his back.
"But that's only if I don't use this power properly."
Osian raised the sword in his hand to the sky.
"So let me show you."
The ghost's form crumbled and dissolved like water, and it began to integrate into Osian's sword.
"The power of the moon."
The ghost had been completely assimilated by Ossian's sword.
In the first place, the essence of this power wasn't that of a ghostly form.
Rather, it was more like the essence of what Osian was about to show.
A bluish blue light spread out faintly.
A calm, dreamy aura, like moonlight on the ground, flowed from the sword.
Osian clasped the hilt of the sword with both hands and immediately split it into left and right.
-Boom!
The sword, which was originally a single longsword, split into two halves precisely at Osian's gesture.
In Osian's hand was a curved sword that emitted blue light.
[The Moonlight Double Sword]
The second attribute of a Sky Knight.
The most basic ability of such a moonlight sword.
As the Starlight has the Starlight Sword.
Moonlight had a Moonlight Sword.
"The ghost is gone?"
"He's turned into a sword! Everyone beware!"
"Don't get too close! He can't attack us if he can't get close enough!"
Rachel and Riccario stepped forward.
They had never worked together before and they didn't like each other very much.
They wouldn't get in the way, but they wouldn't actively help either.
However that unspoken agreement was broken the moment they saw Osian's moonlighting.
Rachel's hair stood on end as she unleashed a powerful jolt of purple electricity.
Unlike before, when she'd gathered and released electrical energy, she weaved the lightning into a net and spread it out.
She wanted to immobilize Osian, to grab him by the ankles.
Riccario did the same.
The cold was a natural enemy of his fire magic. It made sense to try to drain Osian's strength rather than fight him head-on.
The drained energy exploded into flames, streaking the floor.
The flames circled around Osian, rising high into the sky and forming a wall.
Three-star fire magic, Cylinder Flam, a cylindrical prison of fire and a dense web of electricity above it.
They don't think that's enough to take down Osian but it might hold him by the ankles.
‘First we buy time, then we feed him the biggest one!’
Riccario immediately prepared his next spell.
A four-star magic would be enough to finish off Osian.
Three and four stars are only one rank apart, but their power is at least thirty times greater.
Riccario was surrounded by mages of the Salaman School, who would assist him.
They moved as one, and knew what to do without being told.
‘Once and for all!’
He had to admit, it was a bit of an ego bruise to have to coordinate to deal with only one fixer but the stakes were high enough to make an arrogant wizard swallow his pride.
He could see Rachel biding her time and preparing for her big move.
Behind her, another mutant was empowering her with something.
An empowerment mutant?
By temporarily boosting their power beyond their natural limits, they would be able to wipe out their opponent with overwhelming firepower.
With great techniques on both sides, not even Osian would be safe.
Osian, of course, knew that better than anyone.
"Good judgment."
-Boom!
A blue slash cut through the cylindrical prison of fire, and Osian leapt out from within.
The web of electricity that tried to cover him from above had already been torn to shreds.
‘Fast!’
Riccario squinted.
Osian's movements were swift. Partly because he wasn't wearing full body armor, but even considering that, he was strangely fast.
A bluish afterimage trailed in the air as he moved.
It was one of the fundamental powers of the Moonlight.
If Starlight was the most common and balanced form.
Moonlight, on the other hand, specialized in special abilities and speed.
Osian's movements with the twin swords were as smooth as if he were skating on ice.
It wasn't an illusion. A path of ice crunched beneath his feet, making his speed even faster.
Snowstep (雪霜踏步).
This was one of the knight's skills that greatly increased his speed, as he stepped on snow and frost.
Whereas Nebula Silk is a fast, straight-line dash with the power and recoil of stardust, Snowstep was a slightly more advanced technique that allowed for dazzling and colorful movements.
"Don't come!"
When one of the Salaman mages saw that Osian was close, he cried out in fear.
His voice trembled, but he knew what he had to do.
The deterrent magic he had prepared in advance, a 2-star Flame Magic, lit up the air with colorful flames.
It was a spell that would blind Osian and block his approach.
If you ignored it and tried to break through, the heat would burn your clothes and melt your skin but it didn't work on Osian.
Already shielded with the chill of the moonlight swords he held in both hands, the heat was not even a warm breath on him.
The flames were easily extinguished, and Osian's twin swords danced through the gap.
"Ugh!"
The mages of the Salaman School widened their eyes.
Osian had already swept past them.
Ignoring them? Has he lost his mind?
The members of the Salaman School questioned their motionless bodies.
They’re not moving, they’re not turning their heads, their tongues were stiff and their voice was silent and it didn't take long to realize why.
Osian’s swords had already sliced through their flesh.
The swings were so fast and sharp that they didn't even realize they were being cut.
It was a death as calm and serene as the moonlight at night.
"Yi......!"
Riccario's eyes widened at the sight of his mages death.
The magic he had prepared was not yet complete.
‘Now that it's like this, I'll just have to force it.’
As he thought this, Riccario noticed that his vision was spinning.
‘What's wrong with my vision?’
The last thing Riccario saw was his headless torso crumpling to the ground.
"Next."
With Riccario down, Osian turned to his next target, Rachel.
A bluish glow emanated from his eyes and the moment she met his gaze, Rachel felt her entire body freeze.