“Leave it to us!” Obeying the will in the Mana that Vandalieu transferred to them, the Fire Ghosts… the dead spirits of flames, attacked Kanata. Some of them became flaming spears, some crawled like snakes and others still transformed into giant skulls, moving to scorch Kanata with their dark red flames.

This was the effect of the Dead Spirit Magic skill that Vandalieu acquired a short while ago. One might assume that Dead Spirit Magic would be similar to the skills that allowed him to manipulate dead bodies and turn them into Zombies and Skeletons. However, it was effectively a skill similar to Spiritual Magic.

Just as Spiritual Mages would transfer their Mana and their will to spirits, allowing them to cast spells more efficiently than simply using magic of one of the attributes, Vandalieu transferred his Mana and his will to the dead spirits and had them cast spells on his behalf.

The Fire Ghosts, which had been charmed by his Death-Attribute Charm, attacked their enemy, Kanata, with no mercy.

Kanata tried to avoid them at first, but the Fire Ghosts had all changed their shapes to become spears, snakes and skulls made of flames. No matter how much he avoided them, they chased him persistently.

“F-flames, Wind – GAH?!” Kanata’s incantation was interrupted by his own scream. “Why can’t I pass through them?!”

Unable to withstand the persistent chase of the Fire Ghosts, Kanata had tried to pass through them with Gungnir and attack with wind-attribute magic, but against his expectations, the dark red flames had wrapped around his body and begun to burn him rather than passing through.

“Ground!”
Kanata tried to escape beneath the ground’s surface, but his legs didn’t sink at all.

“W-what the hell?! Why isn’t my Gungnir activating?!”

“It is,” Vandalieu told him. “But it’s just – it’s called Gungnir, is it? – That penetration ability just can’t pass through ‘spirit form.’”

Kanata’s Gungnir was an ability that allowed him to penetrate anything he designated as a target. If he designated weapons as a target, not only would his enemies’ weapons pass through him, but his own weapons would slip through his fingers and fall to the ground.

Vandalieu had more or less figured this out from what the spirits had told him. Kanata had apparently fought barehanded when he had designated ‘weapons’ as the ability’s target, and there were numerous similar examples in his use of Gungnir as well.

That was why Vandalieu used the one thing Kanata couldn’t slip through. Spirit form.

Spirit form was something that resided within the bodies of all living creatures, including humans. If Kanata were to use Gungnir to pass through it, this would be an act equivalent to his physical body discarding his spirit and soul. It would be no different from committing suicide; it was something that Kanata’s instincts prevented him from doing.

That was why Kanata couldn’t avoid the attacks of the Fire Ghosts, whose spirit form bodies themselves were burning. And Vandalieu had used Spirit Form Transformation on a part of his physical body, extended it behind the walls, floors and ceiling and used Materialization.