Just became an evil god and was summoned by the saint

The guardian ghost turned around and saw a mechanical creature rushing towards it. Ice walls converged on it from all sides, as if drawn by an invisible hand, quickly surrounding it.

It let out a sharp scream, and its body suddenly grew larger, attempting to break through the ice wall.

The next moment, it discovered that these ice walls were extremely fragile and would shatter at the slightest touch.

It let out a disdainful scream, but it soon realized it was wrong.

The shattered ice wall suddenly erupted with a huge energy shock, turning into ice blades that pierced its body from all directions.

Even though the guardian ghost has a high level of magic immunity, this incident still caused its body to become noticeably lighter.

This combo enraged the guardian ghost, which shrieked and unleashed three blue flames that instantly dispelled the remaining ice blades.

Hiding in the shadows, Celia controlled the puppet to dodge the three will-o'-the-wisps and approached the guardian ghost directly.

"Stagnant water!"

The ghost's speed slowed down.

"Getting close to ghosts is not a good choice," Ross said calmly.

Celia quickly grasped the meaning of those words, feeling the spiritual impact emanating from the guardian spirit through the puppet.

This mental shock felt like a needle prick in her mind, and the puppet's movements came to a standstill.

Upon seeing this, the guardian ghost let out a scream, the sound waves carrying magic and traveling a great distance.

Celia immediately understood what it was doing.

"Is it summoning other ghosts?"

Celia tensed up for a moment, but then relaxed when she remembered that Ross had said he wouldn't let other ghosts interfere with her duel with the guardian ghost.

While the guardian ghost summoned other ghosts, she controlled the puppet to rush forward, holy light emanating from her palms, and reached out to grab the ghost's body.

However, the puppet's hand passed through the ghost.

"Guardian spirits have no physical form."

Ross shook his head; he still lacked combat experience.

Fortunately, Celia reacted quickly. She condensed her mage's hand into a rope, tried to imbue it with holy magic, and then bound the guardian ghost.

This time, she succeeded.

Ghosts are adept at mental attacks, but mental attacks are also 100% effective against them.

As long as you also possess the ability to launch mental attacks.

Imbuing magic with divine power is a required course in spell classes at the Holy Magic Academy.

It adds a holy attribute to magic, granting it special attacks against specific units but not against general targets—but it looks good.

Your summoning is nullified. It's my turn!

Celia chuckled and manipulated the puppet, slamming fireballs into the face of the guardian ghost.

This is the only fire magic she knows. Although the power of the water magic is greatly reduced when used by the water magic puppet, it is still more powerful than ice magic because of its special attack against ghosts.

A large amount of magic power was channeled through the puppet and transformed into fireballs, which continuously bombarded the guardian ghost.

With the enhanced Puppet Heart, although Celia couldn't achieve the terrifying efficiency of Ross, it was still better than using magic herself, with magic consumption halved and power doubled.

At the same time, his mental energy was being rapidly depleted, and the rope formed by the mage's hands was resisting the guardian ghost's fierce struggle.

"Why does it feel like it's struggling harder and harder?"

Celia, her forehead beaded with cold sweat, stared in bewilderment at the bombed ghost.

The ghost's previously solid body has now become indistinct, as if it might dissipate at any moment.

But Celia sensed that its resistance was growing stronger and stronger, and even the ropes of the mage's hand were cracking and about to be forcibly torn apart.

Ross glanced at it and said, "It has a passive ability that makes it stronger the lower its health is. The weaker it is, the stronger its combat power becomes. If you continue to restrain it, you will be knocked unconscious once it tears apart your Mage Hand."

"Huh? There's this kind of side effect?"

"This is a side effect of your massive mental energy depletion, not a side effect of the destruction of the Mage's Hand. The destruction of the Mage's Hand will cause your mental energy to be rapidly depleted in an instant. When it is insufficient, you will faint, and in severe cases, it may even damage your soul."

"what?"

The mage's hand that had been binding the guardian spirit immediately loosened.

The guardian spirit, having broken free of its restraints, let out a shrill scream and unleashed a powerful burst of magical energy in all directions.

The puppet had no time to dodge and was hit directly, flying more than ten meters backward!

At this moment, the guardian ghost's soul form appeared to be faintly visible, as if it would dissipate at any moment, but the aura emanating from it was even stronger than that of the third-tier high priest Dylan whom they had encountered before.

On the contrary, Celia was not in good condition.

The puppet was hit so hard that although it didn't fall apart, many parts came off and the internal parts were damaged, requiring repair.

Her own magical and mental power were almost completely depleted after the continuous bombardment.

Even the impact of the guardian ghost breaking free affected her, causing her unbearable headache.

Although she was not physically injured, her situation would be reversed if she did not continue to suppress the ghost.

The girl gritted her teeth and quickly thought of a solution in her mind.

However, even if the puppet is uninjured, it cannot perform a challenge against a higher-level opponent when both its magic and mental abilities are depleted.

Even the most powerful magic puppet is just a lump of scrap metal without a supply of magic power.

There must be a way, there must be.

Celia quickly thought of ways to deal with the ghost.

But no matter how I look at it, it seems there's no way to deal with this ghost that gets stronger the more crippled it gets, except for Ross taking over.

wrong!

Celia had a flash of inspiration.

Maybe you could try this!

As the ghost rushed toward the puppet, Celia took out a magic scroll from her bosom.

That was a fourth-tier scroll, "Hymn of Baptism," gifted by Elena.

"Just like Mr. Ross said, scrolls are meant to be used. If we don't use them now, how can we get better scrolls?"

The effect of 【Hymn of Baptism】is to heal the ally and inflict the negative effect of 'Repentance' on the enemy, causing the enemy to fall into the state of repentance.

However, if used by a mage below rank three, it will result in an inability to accurately control the effect, potentially causing the enemy to be healed while one's own side is left to suffer on the battlefield.

Without relying on the evil god, Celia had no other choice.

The girl took a deep breath.

Take a gamble!

Just as she was about to tear open the scroll, Ross's soft laughter rang out.

"That's enough. This scroll shouldn't be used here. It's good that you're willing to use it. Now, leave the rest to me."

A faint resistance emanated from within her body, preventing Celia from activating the scroll.

The puppet that was about to be struck by the ghost changed its posture, from passive defense to active attack.

The girl's tense heart relaxed, and she collapsed to the ground.

She watched as Ross easily found openings to dodge the ghost's ferocious attacks and sighed softly.

"I... am too weak."

Chapter 73 Mental Breakthrough

"Is this the Ghost-Ghost Fruit?"

After Ross dealt with the ghost, Celia came to the ghost fruit tree that was guarded by the ghost and looked at the not-so-tall tree with curiosity.

The trees nearby are all very tall, but this tree is only about five meters tall.

However, there were no trees in a large area around it, only some grass.

"There are 21 Ghost Fruits in total, that's a lot. I wonder if they're worth anything."

"These ghost fruits are not ripe. Ripe fruits glow, like this one."

Ross pointed to the only glowing Ghost Fruit.

"It's almost ripe."

"So, is this the only one you want?"

"Since you're already here, are you really willing to give up everything?"

“I’m not reconciled.” Celia was very honest.

"There are ways to ripen any fruit, and the effects are not much different. The method for ripening Ghost Fruit is very simple: each fruit will ripen within three days if the soul core of a ghost is injected into it."

"The core of a ghost's soul?"

"This is it." Ross controlled the puppet to take out a white stone about the size of a thumb, which emitted a faint spiritual energy fluctuation.

"This is the core of the guardian spirit's soul."

Ross flicked his finger, and the core of his soul disappeared into an unripe ghost fruit.

The fruit began to emit a faint glow, gradually becoming brighter.

"Ah? This..."

Celia's eyes widened. "Isn't this like using a person's soul to accelerate its development?"

"What are you thinking? Ghosts are ghosts, and humans are humans. Ghosts are a special race, not something formed after a person dies."

"Huh? Is that so? I thought ghosts were formed after people died for various reasons."

"Those are vengeful spirits, not ghosts. If the conditions for ghosts to form are so complicated, how could so many ghosts gather here?"

Ross rolled his eyes.

"Ghosts are formed by death energy and pollution. They are more likely to be generated in a certain area where a powerful sorcerer has died. After they are generated, they spread death energy and pollution outward and assimilate the environment."

"The reason why the death aura around the Twilight Cemetery has not dissipated is largely because ghosts generate death aura, which expands outward."

"If we want to take all these fruits, do we have to kill 21... no, 19 ghosts?"

"Yes."

Ross looked out of the air wall he had constructed with his mental power.

Summoned by the guardian ghost, many ghosts have become restless and are constantly ramming against the 'invisible wall'.

After the guardian ghost died, even more ghosts gathered.

“Look up and see the ghosts around you. Even if you don’t intend to kill them, they will come to kill you when you take the Ghost Fruit.”

Ross stepped forward, picked the Ghost Fruit that he had just implanted into the core of the Guardian Ghost's soul, and tossed it to Celia.

"Eat it."

"This...is it edible?" The thought of it containing ghost ingredients made Celia feel uneasy.

“Any fruit is fine to eat,” Ross said irritably. “Why don’t you find it strange when you eat pork or beef?”

"Well……"

Feeling the warm, smooth texture in her hand, Celia suddenly swallowed. Why does it taste so good?

The girl took a bite, and the sweet juice burst in her mouth, like being doused with cold water on a hot summer day, refreshing her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.

Chew Chew Chew~

Celia finished off a Ghost Fruit in no time.

Before she could even savor the experience, a chilling magical power emanated from the fruit she had eaten, rampaging through her body and assaulting her mental space.

"Sit down and meditate, digest the fruit. It's a good thing to boost your mental strength, don't waste it."

Ross's voice came, and Celia immediately sat down, closed her eyes, and began to meditate, trying to absorb the energy from the fruit pulp.

After she entered a meditative state, Ross loosened the puppet's joints and removed the mental energy barrier.