Amidst the explosion triggered dangerously close to himself by Tori, the vagabond leaped as high as he could, seeing only in the heights a temporary path to escape the range of the mix of illusions and dark entities on the brink of reaching him. Unfortunately, in this case, his pursuers could float by nature, and, worse yet, at great speed. To worsen the situation, the trick of making the lit cigarette explode had slowed down or neutralized, at most, three of the opponents. The rest chased him through the air, where the vagabond stood to lose all. The shadowy entities moved very similarly to one another and without showing deformities that could distinguish an illusory entity from a real one at first sight.
The young vagabond opted for direct confrontation, gathering qi in the soles of his feet, causing propulsion through the sudden and explosive discharge of Fire qi into the Yong Quan, he propelled himself forcefully back down, grabbing the nearest shadow with the palm of his hand, hoping it was a real entity, and crashing it to the ground with the force of the impulse, plus gravity, and the Yang energy of his left palm.
"Damn, an illusion..." Antorique thought as he watched his ethereal opponent fade away, "Wait... that's it"... The vagabond looked at the hand with which he had struck the illusory entity and opening wide eyes, he couldn't help but display a smirk of surprise and satisfaction on his face. Regardless of the reason, the state of happiness lasted briefly, interrupted by a heavy slap that struck his cheek so hard it made him roll on the ground before getting back up. The minions of the Yao Shu wasted no time; they had a goal, and that was to feed on Tori.
"Ah! You're failing the test, Antorique! Considering that your Triple Barrier was able to hold off the spiritual attacks from Carlino Castellanos' domain, I thought it would at least give you some advantage against the demonic entities... Not that they wouldn't harm you anyway, since I've brought them into the physical plane, but... Even putting that aside, your spiritual protection is weaker than I expected...
"Worse than that, and you still haven't realized it... It's true that following the Xie Dao has its costs..." Tori thought, a weary smile on his face. What the Yao Shu said was true, his spiritual protection was much weaker than in his encounter with Castellanos. When the vagabond decided to restrict the light of his "Vision in the Darkness" and thus of "True Sight," he partly chained his essence as a mage. That essence had as its starting point the flame that connected him to the spiritual and energetic plane, and allowed him to learn much faster than normal. It wasn't just the innate characteristic of the "Yin Fire" property, but the personal nature of the individual Antorique Veluard. For that reason, mastering the Triple Barrier had been so easy for him, and for that same reason, the self-imposed restriction had resulted in a significant drop in the power of this protection, especially in the third bubble, associated with the Fire element, and the one most akin to the vagabond at an essential level.
"And you, boy? What about 'your' vision? You're a Yin Fire too, aren't you?" Tori asked as he ran, fleeing from the group of shadows that were increasingly aggressive in their pursuit.
"It's one of the reasons I became interested in you in the beginning, Antorique... When your flame ignited they started calling you crazy, the same thing happened to me... Although it's becoming evident that we've had different luck over the years..." The mysterious dark mage had shifted from empathetic pity for Tori to judgment, now turning into dangerous disappointment.
"Let's see then what your flame is made of, kid!" Tori said, propelling himself straight towards his right side, taking one of the dark entities with him. He grabbed it by what would be its neck if it were a living being and violently threw it towards its summoner, who with a slight hand movement, cleared it from his path.
"A simple trick..." the disappointed Yao Shu said when he saw that, just behind the dark corporeal mass of the entity he had just made disappear, the vagabond's jacket flew towards him. "The explosion comes after the snap, right, Antorique?" he commented, anticipating Tori's move, who snapped his fingers and made the lighter hidden in the pocket of the garment he had thrown at his opponent blow, too late to harm him.
"It's not over yet!" the vagabond shouted, amused. He had reached the range of the dark mage to confront him in hand-to-hand combat. And after the explosion, which he used as a smoke screen, his left palm struck the young man in the indigo cloak squarely in the chest. "What about 'your' vision, kid?" Tori repeated the question as he felt his destructive Yang palm connecting. "Huh?"
"I don't need a luminous flame to see if I have the high magic of the Xie Dao to defend myself," he replied, his Wei qi mixed with demonic energy, probably coming from the same spirit that Tori had previously thrown at him, covering him and rendering the vagabond's attack useless. "You, on the other hand, Antorique, are unprotected and weak!" he exclaimed, covering his own palm in dark violet fire and delivering a powerful blow to Tori's solar plexus.
The impact of the qi emitted by the dark palm was so powerful that before being violently thrown through the air and losing consciousness, Tori could feel it piercing him from the front and exiting through his spine, destroying his Triple Barrier and reducing his Wei qi to nothing.
Antorique Veluard was thrown considerably far from his attacker, and also from the suspended Octavius. His unconscious body lay with its back against a rock nestled among the undergrowth, his gaze vacant like a corpse, chin resting on his chest with his skull weighing heavy. This position made the loss of blood from his nose, mouth, and eyes starkly evident. His pants and the surrounding area were rapidly being stained with crimson.
"I can't say I'm pleased with this outcome, Antorique! I suppose my mistake was not wanting to overcome childish idealization as the years passed. You may feed now! Feed, and put an end to the misery of this wretched man... You are not worthy, Antorique Veluard, that is my verdict," the Yao Shu finally said, pulling his hood back over his head. "Ah! Right, you're still here, acolyte..."
When the now hooded youth said "Feed," he was, of course, referring to the spirits, which could now easily enter Tori's unprotected body. Those entities, in particular, preferred to feed on the spirits of their victims. Thus, one by one, they entered the energetic and spiritual field of the vagabond, disappearing from sight in the physical plane.
"You've enjoyed enough with the remains of suffering after the massacre in the Valley of Rosalía! Now refrain from rejoicing and finish eating promptly," the Yao Shu said, resuming his serpentine smile and sitting cross-legged on the ground to wait.
"He looks quite... dead. Damn, what am I supposed to do now?" Octavius thought, he had done everything possible to appear asleep and resist the oppressive dark fire qi. "If he's no longer focused on Antorique... he'll soon notice me... Sanctum... Think, Octavius," the young man told himself, even managing the intensity of his emotions to avoid being discovered.
