They pounced on Lucian like a blurred shadow, stabbing at him with immaterial claws and ancient, rusty swords. They ...... quickly But not as fast as him.

His movements were like dances, his steps spinning and flowing, and the two guns of the relics in his hands shot dazzling arcane light bullets that lit up the rotten interior of the tavern.

Lucian's slender leather coat and tight braids fluttered and whipped with his movements, and he dodged the frenzied attacks that came from all sides. Each projectile burns like the sun, banishing a screaming evil spirit and sending it back into invisible darkness.

His mission was no longer satisfying for him. No more. All the light of this world has been darkened, because she has been taken away.

The claws of darkness sliced at one of Lucian's forearms, and he let out a painful inhalation, cursing his brief distraction as he exploded the head of the incoming evil spirit with a single bullet before continuing to focus on the task at hand. Standing firmly in the center of the tavern, he used his gun to destroy the ghosts that surged in like a tide, each grenade lighting up the darkness.

At last, he was the only one left, arms outstretched, weapons pointed at the sides, the stone ends still glowing. He glanced to the left and right, waiting for the next wave of attacks. The fire in the tavern fireplace seemed to burn a little hotter, driving away the shadows that came out of the depths and forcing back the biting cold.

Fatigue suddenly welled up, and Lucian picked up a bench and sat down with a sigh. He placed the twin guns on the table and examined his wounds.

He gritted his teeth and pulled the long black glove off his left hand. The leather exterior left no traces, but the flesh on his forearm had turned black where the devil's claws had cut it—as if it had been frostbitten.

His peripheral vision caught a slight movement, and Lucian immediately stood up, his guns on ...... A dark-haired girl, just in her teens, walked out of the hiding place in the warehouse.

She stopped where she was, looking at him, her eyes wide and unblinking.

"Please," she whispered. "Don't. ”

"Don't show up quietly," Lucian said, lowering his gun.

He was about to turn around, but the girl's eyes reflected a moving shadow. He immediately swirled, the muzzle of the gun turned behind him, but this time he wasn't fast enough.

A wraith rushed out of the shadows of the receding trail—an emaciated, immaterial creature draped in a shroud. A pair of hollow eye sockets and large jaws glowed with a bleak blue-green glow, and it slashed at him with its long dagger-like claws.

Lucian was flipped backwards by the force of the attack, flying over the bar, about fifteen feet away. He slammed into the wall, shattered dozens of empty bottles on the shelf, and fell to the ground along with the broken glass. His chest was struck by the wraith, burning with a burning pain, while his heart was clenched by a chill, and every breath he had to exert with all his might.

He frantically searched for his weapon. He saw one of them, lying on the flat ground ten paces to the left. It's too far. The other gun spun and slid across the floor and stopped at the girl's feet.

She picked up the ancient weapon and aimed it at the wraith, her hands trembling as the thing lunged at her, the jaw growing to an incredible angle.

"Can't fire!" she cried as she backed away. "No trigger!"

Fragments of memories came to Lucian's mind, as suddenly as a knife stab.

"But how is this going to be fired?" said Lucian, looking at the delicate weapon, his face full of doubt. "There is no trigger. ”

"No need for a trigger, my love," Senna said, her eyes sparkling with pleasure. She stroked his sideburns gently. "The trigger is here. ”

"I don't understand," Lucian said.

Senna raised her weapon—this one more elegantly—and aimed at a target twenty paces away. Her expression sharpened, and her eyes narrowed. "You have to make it fire with your mind. As soon as she finished speaking, her target exploded in a burst of yellow flames

"Okay. With your mind," Lucian said, aiming his pistol at the next target. Nothing happened. He shook his pistol and exhaled a heavi, half discouraged, generally bewildered.

"What is needed is control," Senna said. "It's concentration. The thought of firing needs to come from every trace of presence in your body. ”

Lucian laughed and turned to face Senna, raising an eyebrow. "Every trace of existence in the body?"

"Try it!" she urged.

He tried, but didn't suppress the smile that curled the corners of his mouth. "I give up," he sighed. He approached Senna and pulled her into his arms. "With you, how do you tell me to concentrate on something else?"

Senna pushed him away and said with a smile. "Don't think it's so easy to let you go," she said. "Come again. Get serious this time. ”

The girl had retreated to the wall, and there was no way back, and the slightly slimmer gun—Senna's—was just a useless stone in her hands.

"Throw it to me!" Lucian roared gruffly, lunging forward as he swooped forward.

Faced with the flying spirit, the girl screamed and threw the gun in Lucian's direction. The pistol spun upside down and flew through the air, directly through the Wraith. Lucian steadily caught the spinning handle of the gun while getting down on one knee and sliding against the floor to the other gun. When he got up again, both guns were ready, and he was firing all the time.

The evil spirit screamed and fled in a panic, curling up and twisting in an attempt to get out of his way, but Lucian refused. He lunged to the side with one lunge at a time, maintaining a continuous strafing like a giant wolf. The scorching light tore through the white ghost, its roar growing terrible, and its dark form dissolving like a morning mist in the morning sun.

Lucian froze, his guns still flat. Everything was quiet again.

"It'...... Are you gone?" the girl asked.

He didn't answer immediately, scanning every inch of the room with a skeptical gaze. Finally, he put both guns in his holster. "It's gone. It's okay. ”

"I ...... I can't fire with it," the girl muttered as she stared into the darkness. "I thought I was going to die. Just like everyone else. ”

Lucian thought back to the problems he had encountered in using the weapon—it felt like a long time ago.

What is needed is control, is concentration.

"I can concentrate now, my love," Lucian hid the words in his breath.

"Did you say anything?" the girl asked.

"No," Lucian replied. He cocked his head. The sound of chains could be heard from somewhere nearby. "Do you hear that?"

(End of chapter)