An ethereal figure.
A humanoid creature woven purely from radiant energy.
That was what Rexerd had summoned.
A Spirit.
Well, not a Spirit exactly, but an Essent.
Essents were ethereal entities from the Spirit Realm that manifested in the physical world, representing various forces, emotions, or concepts.
They existed on the fringes of our world’s reality, only partially visible or perceptible to most beings, and fully invisible to most.
They were drawn to certain stimuli that often reflected the nature of their existence.
For example, near an open fire, Embressents would gather. During raging storms, Tempessents would stir. And so on.
There wasn’t a proper ranking system for them because even within one type of Essent, there existed many species.
For instance, near an intensely emotional person, Imossents might appear. But depending on whether the person was scared or angry, those Imossents could either be Fearessents or Wrathessents.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is — there was a large variety of Essents. And they manifested in our world, drawn to the things that represented their nature.
However, they didn’t travel physically into our world. No, they merely projected themselves spiritually. This made them undetectable to most people.
Only those who had been on the brink of death too many times would begin to see them. Or those who had the innate power to see the unnatural.
In the game, Lily naturally gained this sight after ascending to B-rank because her innate ability was related to supernatural vision.
Michael, on the other hand, only started seeing Essents after narrowly escaping death at the hands of a very powerful Beast in the Spirit Realm.
And unlike corrupted Spirits, Essents weren’t driven by an insatiable hunger for human souls. They didn’t even attack unless provoked.
Also, many of them were naturally intelligent beings, especially the stronger ones.
Yet, because they weren’t visible to normal folks, most people went on with their lives without ever seeing an Essent.
Most Hunters didn’t see them either. Because while having close calls with death was a criterion, no one knew exactly how it worked.
How did one start seeing Essents?
After how many near-death experiences?
Some started seeing them after their first close call, while others never developed the sight even after putting their lives in mortal danger multiple times.
Some people called it a gift, others called it a curse.
There were no rules.
And there was very little known information about them.
Even in the game, they were mentioned only in passing, mostly as background details.
What was known, however, was that those with the innate ability to summon creatures could bring Essents into the physical world in their physical form.
And different Essent species had different physical forms.
For example, Tempessents were drawn to storms. When they appeared spiritually, they looked like little motes of whitish-blue light, small like fireflies.
But their physical form was titanic! An unholy mix of something between an eagle and a serpent.
So every time a Summoner tries to summon a Tempessent, they aren’t bringing forth harmless sparks of light — they are unleashing a beast of mythic proportions.
Of course, it’s worth noting that Summoners were rare.
Even rarer than Beast Tamers — and those were already one in a million.
But guess what? Rexerd was one of the few characters with the Original Card that allowed him to summon creatures in the game!
…Or so I had believed.
But looking at him now, something was off.
His Origin Card wasn’t manifested anywhere around him.
“What the—” I frowned, narrowing my eyes.
No, seriously!
Where was his Origin Card?!
The same anomaly occurred in the game as well.
You see, Rexerd was killed by Michael in the game.
It was right after the protagonist returned to the real world after being stuck in the Spirit Realm for several weeks.
Upon his safe return, Michael solved a long and arduous mystery related to one of his missions. In that process, he accidentally uncovered Rexerd’s deepest and darkest secrets.
So, when you played the game as Michael, executing Rexerd for his crimes was a major questline.
If the player ignored that route or failed to eliminate him, Rexerd would escape the Academy and return later as an impossibly strong adversary — one beyond reason or reckoning.
One that was almost impossible to deal with.
However, when you fought Rexerd in the game, you couldn’t see his Origin Card.
Some thought it was a glitch.
Others theorized that since Rexerd knew Michael’s power allowed him to copy others’ innate abilities, he hid his own Origin Card using some kind of forbidden alchemy or something.
But none of those explanations made sense now.
Rexerd knew I couldn’t copy powers. So why was he hiding his Origin Card from me?
Was it to keep it safe?
Some Hunters preferred to make their Origin Card float behind them to keep it from getting hit in an intense fight.
But I hadn’t even seen Rexerd’s Card manifest while he was summoning that Essent.
And since this was reality, not a game, I highly doubted there were any glitches involved.
I frowned. What the hell was going on?
But before I could dwell any further, Rexerd pointed a trembling finger at us.
Then he bellowed, “Kill them! Kill them both! Tear them limb from limb and bring me their heads!”
Immediately, the translucent humanoid figure made purely from deep blue light energy dashed forward — straight for my dear Shadow.
Startled, Juliana instinctively took a step back.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
The summoned Essent appeared before her in an instant.
Thankfully, she was ready for it by then.
Bending her knees slightly, she lashed out with her katana, aiming to cleave the creature’s faceless head in two.
But—
“Huh?!”
Juliana’s eyes widened as her blade harmlessly passed through the Essent’s flesh like she was trying to cut a ghost.
“What the hell?!” she tried to jump back, but before she could even take a step, the ethereal humanoid reached out to grab her by the throat.
But once again — thankfully for her — I was here.
Before the Essent’s fingers could even graze her, an arc of golden light struck its side and sent it skidding back.
Juliana gasped, stumbling away as the Essent righted itself. The golden light still crackled around its form before dispersing in faint wisps.
But the attack had done damage where it hit. Its deep blue glow fractured, splitting apart in jagged streaks of light as if something inside it had been torn loose.
Threads of blue light peeled from its form, dissolving into the air like embers in the wind. The wound where my attack had struck didn’t heal. Instead, it pulsed with unstable energy.
Silence fell.
And everyone in the room turned their attention to me.
Even the Essent shifted its faceless head toward me — as if looking despite having no eyes.
I slowly lowered the twin longsword in my right hand and pointed the one in my left at Rexerd.
Then, with a joyless smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes, I asked, “Is this any way to greet your dear students, Professor Rexerd?”