Parker immediately leaped into the air and unleashed a Flame Breath straight at Alice.
However, Alice deftly dodged Parker's attack and continued charging toward Lynch. Her speed was astonishing—covering a distance of several meters in mere heartbeats, leaving Parker unable to release a second breath in time.
Her blood-stained mouth opened at an impossible angle as she leaped from the ground, pouncing toward Lynch like a ravenous beast lunging at its prey.
Having weathered the baptism of combat, Lynch was no longer the clueless newbie he once was. Though caught off guard by the sudden assault, he instinctively maintained his calm and acted accordingly.
He raised his Magic Wand in both hands. With a flash of magical brilliance, the wand twisted and transformed into a massive oak shield, just in time to block Alice's momentum before she collided with him.
"Bang!" A muffled sound rang out.
The impact of a fast-moving mass weighing dozens of kilograms sent Lynch rolling backward. The shield in his hands nearly flew out of his grip.
Without time to adjust, Lynch quickly clung to the shield and scrambled back to his feet, commanding Parker to engage the enemy while continuing to hold his shield defensively.
The recoil from the collision had clearly caused harm to Alice as well. Her already fragile body bore a noticeable dent on her forehead, yet she seemed utterly indifferent to the injury, continuing her frenzied rush toward Lynch.
"Parker, no Breath! Bite her—tear her limbs apart!"
The Flame Breath wasn't efficient against such a creature, so heedless of death. Following Lynch's command, Parker immediately lunged forward and began a savage series of bites.
At the same time, after a moment of hesitation, Lynch gritted his teeth, transformed his Magic Wand into an axe, and charged forward to join Parker in attacking Alice.
Biting, clawing, chopping, hacking.
Ultimately, her body—frail and delicate by nature—was unable to withstand such violence. While Alice's "invulnerability" may have been a fact, her arms, legs, and neck were far from impervious.
In no time, Lynch and Parker, working together seamlessly, completely dismembered Alice's limbs.
"Huff… Huff…!"
By now, Alice had been reduced to nothing but a writhing, mutilated torso. Her slender arms had been severed clean at the shoulders, her legs hacked off entirely, leaving only a bare trunk crowned by her neck and head.
Yet, even in this state, Alice's body writhed incessantly on the ground. Her mouth opened and closed in biting motions, producing an incessant "chomp-chomp" sound as her teeth clashed against each other. The blood-soaked scene was utterly horrifying.
Lynch stood to the side in bewilderment, his face pale.
What the hell was this?
Her body had already been dismembered to an unrecognizable state, yet she still moved energetically, even the severed limbs twitching and wriggling on the ground without any signs of stopping.
Dead spirits? Is she a Dead Spirit?
Lynch's first thought was of undead creatures mentioned in books—those eerie entities that exist in strange forms and escape the shackles of death. No matter how much damage they sustain or how many times they "die," they can still "persist."
If she really was a Dead Spirit...
Recalling his knowledge of necromancy, Lynch began using his spiritual power to perceive Alice directly.
Sure enough!
Upon activating his Spirit Perception, Lynch quickly spotted several hair-thin threads of blue energy coursing through Alice's body. These threads manipulated her limbs and movements, tying her parts together like a marionette.
Following the threads, Lynch finally located their source at the back of Alice's neck. Overcoming his overwhelming fear, he flipped Alice's body over and saw a fingernail-sized transparent plate embedded there.
This is undoubtedly a Soul Device...
A unique necromantic tool used by Necromancers to control corpses. Made using materials related to souls, it contains the Necromancer's Spirit Imprint along with enslaved souls. When placed onto the remains of the deceased, the enslaved souls are used to manipulate the body, achieving the mysterious effect of "resurrecting" the dead.
Lynch quickly transformed his Magic Wand into a dagger, suppressing his disgust as he pried the Soul Device from Alice's neck. Once the device was removed, the spiritual threads linking her body severed, and Alice's writhing came to an abrupt halt.
"Huff... Huff..." Ragged breathing echoed through the forest as Lynch collapsed onto the grass.
He stared blankly at the mangled remains of Alice before him, his mind completely emptied.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
After an agonizingly long moment, Lynch finally regained fragments of his spirit. When his thoughts returned, a wave of nausea hit him instantly.
"Ugh!"
His first reaction was a queasy stomach. Previously, his actions had been driven entirely by raw survival instinct, leaving no room for contemplation. But now, in the calm aftermath, Lynch abruptly realized he had just dismembered a fellow human being.
Murder!
From childhood, Lynch had been taught that killing was an unforgivable sin—a nightmare he'd never imagined experiencing as an ordinary office worker. And even worse, his first kill was done through bloody dismemberment.
Gazing at the bloodied fragments of arms and legs strewn before him, Lynch felt his head ready to explode.
"There's no point dwelling on this; it was bound to happen..."
Lynch closed his eyes, forcing himself to seek calm and self-reassurance.
This world is built upon savagery, darkness, and brutality. Fights and slaughter are commonplace here. To survive in such a cruel world, one must learn to face it all because...
This was no longer Earth!
Eventually.
Lynch opened his eyes.
The vacant gaze in his eyes gradually regained focus. His ragged breathing began to stabilize as he slowly calmed down.
Adjusting completely to this new mindset would take time, but Lynch knew he had none to spare. As his calm returned, he quickly became aware of the problem:
What exactly happened here?
In just a single day, Alice had gone from perfectly fine to her current state—a Dead Spirit.
Could the mission have gone wrong?
No, impossible!
The Tower's assigned tasks were designed to evaluate apprentice growth and were always kept within manageable difficulty levels, ensuring apprentices weren't sent to die. Moreover, this area was part of the Tower Protection Zone. All demons here bore the Tower's Spirit Imprint, making such an outcome inconceivable...
Wait, the Protection Zone!
Lynch suddenly recalled the scene he witnessed earlier near the boundary, where the defining line had visibly faded and vanished. Could this not have been a mere Witch Array malfunction or coincidence? Perhaps...
It was deliberate?
The thought turned Lynch's expression grim.
If someone had intentionally sabotaged the Witch Array, this entire area might have already slipped from the Tower's jurisdiction entirely, leaving the Tower unaware of any current developments.
Regardless of the perpetrator's intentions, judging by Alice's state, it couldn't be anything good.
He had to leave here, and fast!
With this realization, Lynch wasted no time resting, hurriedly packing his belongings before setting off to flee overnight.
However, after traveling only a few minutes, he passed a dense thicket that suddenly rustled violently, indicating something racing toward him at Extreme Speed.
Lynch's heart sank.
Dodging now was impossible. Clenching his Magic Wand and preparing Parker, he braced himself to confront the enemy.
Soon, a figure burst through the bushes. To Lynch's surprise, it wasn't a terrifying foe but a familiar face—Yuri, the apprentice he had been worrying about earlier.
Yuri looked in terrible shape. His hair was disheveled, his body wounded, and his clothes stained with blood.
Yet his eyes, expression, and the life he radiated through Spirit Perception all proved he was alive—not another Dead Spirit like Alice.
Lynch breathed a sigh of relief.
He hurried forward to greet Yuri and question him.
But before Lynch could utter a word, Yuri grabbed his wrist, his expression grave as he said, "Come with me, now!"
Without waiting, Yuri dragged him along urgently.