665,

The white wedding dress looked as if it had been burned by intense flames, parts of it charred black and yellowed.

Not just its head—even the hand reaching out was fleshless, a pure-white skeletal hand lunging straight at Cyclone as it let out a shriek like an evil spirit.

At such close range, Cyclone saw a truly horrifying sight.

A skull opened its jaws wide at Feng'er in Cyclone's arms. A chill, carried on the winter wind, crept closer.

In that instant, Onigashima abruptly spun around and brought the greatsword down behind them.

The greatsword was still in front of Cyclone, with a few charred scraps of cloth clinging to it.

The strike had landed. The Night Wraith hadn't teleported away—it had been struck by Onigashima's slash and burst into countless tiny red-and-white lights that scattered through the air.

“Don't move! I never expected to attract this many Night Wraiths! There normally aren't this many...”

As Onigashima spoke, more than a dozen Night Wraiths appeared all around them at once.

There were far more than Onigashima had expected.

Seeing so many Night Wraiths, all the wives broke into a cold sweat.

Under normal circumstances, with Yuna and the others' strength, no matter how many monsters or demons came, they wouldn't pose a problem.

But the problem now was their ability to teleport. If there were only one, they could still just about protect Cyclone.

If more than one Night Wraith teleported to Cyclone at the same time, even the strongest among them would struggle to protect Cyclone every second.

“Group up! Don't spread out!”

Onigashima shouted, raising their left hand before slamming their palm against the ground.

In an instant, a large magic circle appeared on the ground.

It glowed blue as it formed a small barrier.

The barrier didn't wall the Night Wraiths off. The monsters passed through it with ease and flew straight toward Cyclone.

But on closer inspection, the Night Wraiths inside the barrier had become incredibly slow.

Just then, two Night Wraiths suddenly teleported.

They vanished, then appeared at Cyclone's left and right.

But with their movements slowed so much, even when they reached Cyclone, Little Dragon and Hilmirya had time to react.

Each struck the nearest Night Wraith with a single blow.

But unlike Onigashima's attack, their blows didn't manage to turn the Night Wraiths into red-and-white points of light.

It seemed that landing a hit wasn't enough—the attack also had to meet a certain level of strength.

The battle was on. The wives and Onigashima fought desperately against the approaching Night Wraiths to protect Cyclone and Elyse.

After fighting for a while, just as the last Night Wraith was struck down, Cyclone cried out.

“Onigashima!”

Onigashima turned around, but no new Night Wraith had appeared.

“Onigashima! Feng'er seems to...”

Before Cyclone could finish, Onigashima had already reached out a palm.

It turned out that while everyone was fighting, Feng'er had slowly begun to wake up.

Their body had gone from translucent back to solid. Now that Feng'er was awake, they would probably take a big bite out of Cyclone, who was holding them.

So without saying a word, Onigashima used their ability to put Feng'er back to sleep.

“Good! While we have the chance, hurry! Run toward the church!”

Onigashima returned to a half-ghost state, and another Night Wraith appeared in the distance.

But this time, they ignored the monster and ran toward the church.

That was the plan, but after they crossed two streets, the single Night Wraith had become ten.

“You've got to be kidding me?!”

Eileen cried out as the terrifying Night Wraiths kept multiplying.

Onigashima cast the barrier again and shouted.

“There are too many of them! We have no choice—we'll have to thin them out first!”

With that, the battle began again.

After one fight after another, they finally reached their destination.

The church was just as it had been before, its ceiling still shattered.

Bathed in moonlight, Cyclone carried Feng'er back to where it had all begun.