Even as he was about to swing the Hoisline Fan artifact, his body's movements suddenly slowed, and the resonating threads rushing toward him experienced the same thing.
For a moment, the star and crescent moon artifacts floated motionless, their bright blue light driving away the darkness and revealing the underground creatures in the small river far to his right.
This surprised Zavi, as he discovered that the two artifacts seemed to be restricting his movements, just as they were restricting the thin threads dangling toward him.
'What exactly is the power of these artifacts?'
After realizing that the artifacts' abilities were not what he had assumed, a man flew in from the east and crashed dozens of meters behind the thin threads made of white aura shrouded in dense darkness.
Not only that, but four other men were thrown in the same direction, leaving Zavi wondering what was happening.
His mind went blank for a moment as he searched for a solution to his predicament.
'Time around me isn't moving, is that it?'
Zavi pondered this for a moment, recalling that the four men had fallen at a normal speed. When the first man fell, he hadn't seen him.
Then, as one of the men got back to his feet, his gaze immediately locked onto the thin threads made of white aura shrouded in dense darkness above him.
"Huh? What the hell is that?"
Of course, for an ordinary person like him, panicking after seeing that was only natural.
Although he had seen those thin threads before and had been flung here because of them, the threads here were frozen and nowhere near as vicious as they had been there.
"Hey, you four," the man said while pointing upward. "That weird thing is the same as the one in the southern part of the black market, right?" he asked as he wiped away sweat.
One of them got up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and replied,
"The same, although this one is bigger and there are more of them than before."
The five men looked up, staring at the source where those strange thin threads were emerging, tearing through the ground above.
"...Should we get out of here?" one of them asked, a man whose black hair was streaked with gray.
Another man, who had been scanning the surrounding area, spotted Zavi holding a fan and the two strange crescent moon and star-shaped objects beside him.
He pointed in that direction and said, "There's a man over there."
"Oh? I only just noticed him, and I was the first one to fall."
The brown-haired, dark-eyed man hurried over to Zavi, hoping he had a solution to his problem. The other four men, equally confused, had no choice but to follow him, hoping for the same thing.
After arriving, the brown-haired, dark-eyed man asked with a sigh, "Sir? Do you know how I can get out of this place?"
'As if I care. I can't even move myself.'
Zavi complained inwardly.
"Keep in mind, the crowd on the road leading to the stairs and elevators caused me to be thrown all the way here."
'I don't care. Not my problem.'
"Oh? That large building, right? The Ountakana Auction House?"
'Yeah, that's the place. Help me, hey, you weirdo.'
While admiring the architecture of the auction house, he glanced at Zavi and asked confidently, "Could it be that he can't hear us or can't respond for some special reason?"
'One is wrong and one is right. Just opening my mouth and breathing is already difficult enough.'
Zavi glanced at the two artifacts, sensing a change in sensation. The feeling shifted from warm to cold, even though he hadn't touched them.
'I don't know how these artifacts work, but is their presence the reason they feel cold?'
He glanced at the other four men who had arrived. One of them wasn't even slightly shaken by the thing above them.
The thin threads still floated there, their core still pulsating and twitching because of the two artifacts.
Zavi and the four men exchanged glances for a moment before he looked away.
"...How did you end up like this?" asked the black-haired man whose hair had almost completely turned gray, sounding confused.
'I don't know either. If I knew, I'd have been free a long time ago. Are they really that stupid?'
"Sir, he can't answer or hear what we're saying," the brown-haired man said, telling them to figure it out themselves.
The four curious men complied, and that became the condition that freed Zavi from the strange restraint.
Pluk!
The four men reflexively stopped in their tracks. Meanwhile, Zavi noticed the thin threads beginning to move again, and he immediately swung the Hoisline Fan artifact.
He twisted his body, causing the threads to slam into the ground above for a brief moment.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to escape, Zavi grabbed his suitcase and ran.
He had even momentarily forgotten about the two artifacts. He wanted to take them, but abandoned the thought because the two artifacts were still following him.
'I don't know what's actually happening. It's similar to...'
The artifacts at both sides suddenly lit up, causing Zavi to swiftly turn around and swing the Hoisline Fan artifact.
Whoosh!
The powerful wind slammed into the underground ceiling, causing the five men to run in terror for their own safety.
After running several hundred meters while dodging, Zavi found himself struggling when he saw several thin threads ahead.
However, that wasn't what surprised him.
'Like that creature?'
He saw a man whose body was partially covered in black, with purple lines running across his face, hands, head, and chest, and two black wings beneath his shoulders.
He was the captain of the Ghost Skull Syndicate, merged with his Recipestele.
Zavi was completely unaware of this.
On the contrary, Zuhen Mudelk often used it during battle, but he chose to leave it behind and act like an ordinary human with the strange creature, Recipestele, at his side whenever he was with Zavi and Aaron.
Attack power, durability, and regeneration became extremely powerful when a master and their contracted creature merged. Because of this, some factions out there whose members and leaders were Hollows were tasked with hunting down Exorcist Receivers for one reason: to kill them.
Therefore, Heinn Warlock, known as the 'Soul King,' remained under the banner of the order 'Blazing Dawn,' whose leader and members were all Receivers.
Not wanting to be discovered, Zavi chose to hide behind a stall in the underground market across the street, using the dim lamps lining the road for visibility. After running for dozens of minutes, Zavi finally reached the edge of the road and hurried upward.
When he arrived above ground and took several steps, he noticed vines not far from where he had emerged from the secret elevator.
He quickly looked over and discovered many people hanging from the ceiling like insects caught in a spider's web.
'This really does look like a spider web.'
He didn't know what to do, afraid it might harm him, so he tried observing the reaction of the two artifacts.
'No response?'
The light of the crescent moon and star artifacts remained stable.
He had not yet completely stepped out from the terrace where the secret elevator was hidden behind piles of rotting vegetables and fruit.
Instead, he tried a simple trick by tossing a foul-smelling apple dripping with yellow liquid in front of him.
'No reaction? Is this a trap, or is it because there are no signs of life inside the fruit?'
The heat carried by the wind struck his body, bringing both foul and pleasant scents with it, forcing him to abandon the idea of creating a clone as a test.
Zavi hesitated this time because his knowledge of this world was extremely limited. There was no such thing as luck, no power without a price, and everything carried risks.
Knowing this, Zavi growled and had no choice but to wait, sitting atop a wooden crate.
He also had no idea who had created those thin threads.
Furthermore, knowing that the enemy targeting his head was so determined, he thought twice before taking action.
Far from where Zavi was, another man who was the key behind the appearance of the thin threads made of white aura shrouded in dense darkness was struggling as he fought against two formidable women.
The man was an ordinary Receiver who survived by preying on others before they could prey on him.
Of the two women fighting him, one acted as a distraction while the other served as the executioner thanks to her agile movements and devastating attack power.
Again and again, the man climbed onto nearby objects and onto the rooftops lining the streets to avoid the attacks of the woman acting as the executioner, who seemed to appear everywhere.
"One at a time if you dare," the man said, causing the two women to smile at him.
The woman acting as the executioner, despite having lost her left arm, continued pursuing him and replied in an almost raised voice, "How about you keep quiet so we can kill you as quickly as possible?"
The man leaped from one rooftop to another, suppressing a hiss after hearing that painful remark.
'This woman? Is she trying to provoke me?'
He understood that the two women were constantly cornering him, trying to force several of their companions out of the area covered by the spider web-like thin threads hanging in the sky, preventing him from carrying out his ritual.
'How cunning. They're clearly not ordinary people.'
Yes, the phrase "not ordinary people" made the man feel foolish. How could ordinary people escape the thin threads that had nearly killed him?
But that wasn't the issue. He simply wanted to know who the two women worked for and whether they were affiliated with one of the dangerous organizations out there.
Living alone while being hunted by the security department, various factions, Hollows, and Receivers had turned his life into a walk across burning coals.
Suffering, pain, of course he knew them well. But to keep living, he would do anything, even if it meant becoming a devil.
The moment the man's steps halted atop a rooftop, the two women reflexively stopped as well.
Neither of them knew what the man was planning because before this pursuit and approach had succeeded:
Celina and Nitta had been forced to sacrifice two of their companions.
The man chuckled to himself as he looked at the panicked expressions of the two women standing to his right and left.
"...Why did you stop?"
As though something had been pulled away, the thin threads made of white aura shrouded in dense darkness vanished. The spider web disappeared, along with the core of the ability and the ritual itself, causing the threads extending into the underground to disappear.
The captain of the Ghost Skull Syndicate released his fusion after seeing that the thin threads had stopped moving the corpses around him, and he saw just how chaotic the underground had become.
He glanced at his eight companions and walked toward them.
"Captain, are you alright?" asked the large-built man in relief.
"..."
The captain did not answer the question. Instead, he gestured for them to leave immediately.
He knew that within five or eight minutes, this place would be reduced to rubble. The location, its technology, and its advanced underground facilities would vanish overnight, leaving behind only bitter and sweet memories and, of course, criminal activity, which had brought the underworld to ruin.
From outside, where Zavi was sitting, he heard the sound of something repeatedly striking rooftops and roads.
He quickly stepped out and saw the corpses of men, children, women, and even elderly people.
'Well, I knew this would happen.'
Only then did he realize that the piercing sensation and restrictions caused by those thin threads had vanished, leaving behind only the metallic scent of blood carried through the air.
His task this time was simple: escape and rest.
Meanwhile, at the place where Celina and Nitta were facing that man.
"...Why are you both so quiet?" the man asked once again, confidence now clearly visible on his face.
Receiving no response and having already withdrawn the technique that drained stamina and spirituality, the man stepped forward.
Carefully observing the two women, he moved three fingers without their notice: his index finger, middle finger, and ring finger.
The moment he reached the edge of the rooftop he stood on, Nitta, who should have been far away in front of him, seemed to be pulled by something.
Sret...
A sound like a thread caught between two objects and then yanked echoed briefly through the air.
Nitta flew toward him at high speed, and in an instant the man gained control of her body, while thin threads resembling pale white strings coated in pitch-black darkness spread around them.
Seeing this, Celina's trauma resurfaced, reminding her of the companion who had been slaughtered by a man she still hated to this day. Aaron Kwok.
"No, that's impossible," Celina said, her gaze vacant as she watched Nitta, who clearly did not want to be controlled by the man.
A Receivers from Puppeteer at the second stage, Marionette.