There was a loud bang. It was not easy to hear any sound in Mars given its thin atmosphere. With the swing of a pan, Vivian hit the mysterious red-mist spirit and sent it flying before it landed ten metres away, leaving a trail of decay and corrosion on the ground. Vivian had not yet fully grasped what was happening, she just reacted out of reflexes. She was in shock. “What is this?!”
She was coughing. The air of Mars made it difficult for her to breathe. Though not deadly, it was an uncomfortable environment for the otherworldling like her. “*Cough cough*. Why is this place be so terrible? Where are we now?”
“Put the life-support collar on!” reminded Hao Ren loudly, but he had no time it to her. “Watch out! That thing’s coming again!”
The strike of the pan had not injured the evil spirit; after crashing down and flipping a few times on the ground, the evil spirit bounced back up in the air. Its red long hair fluttered despite the still air, the chill and blood mist around her were forming into a storm. However, she was not as unbridled as before. Facing Vivian, her dark eyes finally revealed a hint of shaken confidence; she flew around and rumbled angrily in the air, as if she was in a state of great hysteria. Everyone was confused about this situation but had not dared to do anything. They just watched as the monster went bananas. Meanwhile, Vivian’s eyebrows pulled together before she shape-shifted into a vampire the same chill air and blood mist around her. “…What is this? Where did you find this thing?”
“I don’t know! It just came out of the magic book!” Lily shouted. “I have wanted to ask what’s happening—why is that thing looks exactly like you? You have another clone other than Hessian?”
“Looks exactly like me?” Vivian was dumbstruck looking at the evil spirit that was flying aimlessly not far away. “How do you know it looks like me? That thing is faceless!”
Holding a spear in his hand and was ready for another round, Hao Ren was dumbfounded when he heard what Vivian said. “What did you just say? Faceless?”
“Yeah,” replied Vivian, pointing her finger to the faceless figure she saw. “It’s a shadow, it’s faceless. I’ve never seen otherworldling like this!”
Everyone was surprised. They invariably looked at the red-haired ‘Vivian’ who clearly had a face. Vivian was the only one seeing otherwise: to her, that thing was just a dancing mist with the figure of a human!
They had no time to figure out the details. The evil spirit seemed to have suddenly regained its consciousness. It was charging at them again, more ferociously. If her previous attack was somewhat elegant and gentle, then now she was simply a bloodthirsty beast in pursuit of the destruction. Sensing the dire situation, Hao Ren immediately stood in front of them. “Save your breath, let’s finish it off first!”
Hao Ren used his the silver spear’s plasma flare wounded the evil spirit, but he quickly felt his vitality was drained from his body when the evil spirit touched him. He swiftly dodged the thing in mid-air while Lily wielding her Frostfire Claws came up in his place. Behind them were Y’zaks and the Nangong father and son duet who were ready for a spell offensive.
The evil spirit was so powerful and strange that wherever her eyes landed and fingers pointed would leave a trail of destruction. Even the Steel Membrane Shield could not hold much longer. Fortunately, Hao Ren had drawn the monster away from populated areas before he let the MDT teleport them to this desolate place or else when the red moon shone, it was going to be a catastrophe!
Although Vivian had not figure out the situation, the tacit understanding among the team members had enabled her to react quickly. While Lily was wielding her Frostfire Claws engaging the enemy, Vivian began to summon a powerful lightning storm as large group of bats was circling in the air creating two tornadoes simultaneously. Hovering in mid-air, Vivian ordered the two tornadoes to converge. Meanwhile, she could see in her peripheral vision that Lily thrusted her claw into the enemy’s body. “Doggie, hold that thing up!” Vivian shouted.
Lily had no clue what Vivian’s intent was but she obliged by lifting her claw together with the spirit up. The next moment she knew it, a thunderbolt had struck her.
A powerful current ran through the body of the evil spirit and down the Frostfire Claws, Lily instantly lit up like a torch. She dropped and looked like a chow chow—in dark hair. The husky was furious. “Battie! You’re psychopath!”
“I’ve done the math. You will be fine!” Vivian felt no guilt—she had absolute confidence in her ability to control the precise amount of force to use.
Meanwhile, the evil spirit took 99% of the force of Lightning Storm. Just like what the pan did to her, she was blown hundreds of metres out before disintegrating in the air in a violent burst of red mist. She suffered a heavier blow this time. Immediately, Y’zaks had observed something. “Let Vivian deal with it! She could control this monster!”
“I’m not so sure…” Vivian charged at the spirit with her swarm of bats. “…but you can count on me!”
Seeing the swarm of bats flew towards her, the red-haired ‘Vivian’ wailed as if she was frightened. The ground began to decay, blacken, and char under the corrosive blood mist. An unstable magical energy filled the air. Vivian (the genuine one) seemed to be ignorant of all these. She went directly for the enemy.
The Lighting Storm was busting with lightning and ear-splitting explosions for a while. Soon, all these died down quickly as the bats came back into Vivian’s body. She looked at the scorched pit on the ground, frowning. “Is she dead yet?”
“Dead?” Hao Ren was shocked. He came up. “I was thinking to capture her alive…”
A dark pit was what was left after the battle of the two ‘Vivians’. The evil spirit was nowhere to be seen except a pool of red liquid flowing slowly at the bottom of the pit, as if the stubborn thing was still alive. Lily tossed a small rock into the red liquid cautiously, but there was no reaction.
The liquid gradually subsided, as if it had lost its last trace of vitality before it turned into a pool of blood, like the residue of blood magic.
Gaping into the pit for a long while, Nangong Sanba began to feel a chill ran up his spine. “What is that thing?”
Hao Ren’s brows knit together and went down the pit. Taking out a small metal tube and collecting the liquid, he said, “I don’t know… but guts feeling tells me that it’s wise to collect some samples if you don’t know what it is.”
Vivian found the pan on the gravel that she had thrown out, saddened by the dent on the pan. “I was thinking to make Rollie some egg cake… by the way, what were you guys doing? Why did you guys start a fight with that thing? Where is this place?”
“Before I answer your question, may I know how you come here?” Hao Ren was even more perplexed than Vivian was. “Do you know how far this place from home?”
“I don’t know,” said Vivian, shrugging. “After bathing Rollie at home, she demanded egg cake. So I went into the kitchen to make egg cake. And I realised that you guys had gone. I went out to look for you and saw a glowing pentagram circle behind the house. I went up to check out the thing, there next thing I knew, I was already here.”
Done with the explaining, Vivian frowned and looked at the desolate world around her. “What the hell… It feels like an alien planet.”
“You got it right. This is really an alien planet,” said Hao Ren, and then purged his mouth. He was at a loss of how where to begin. “This is Mars.”
Vivian. “What?”
“It’s a long story,” said Hao Ren, scratching his head. He knew it was not only because of Lily’s recklessness but also he had to take part of the blame for causing this. “You still remember that magic book… Actually Lily and I was doing a test.”
Vivian was stunned.
Just when she was about to ask, Lily suddenly beckoned to them on the side of the hill. “Can you people please talk later? There’s a situation here!”
Nangong Sanba looked up. “What situation?”
Like a brigand spotter, Lily sticking out her head on the hillside. “Dang it! Looks like there is a rover…”