Overwhelmed by the music spirit’s whistling volley, the ghost frantically plucked at its harp strings, its music as wild and uncoordinated as a child slamming their hands against a piano keyboard.


    The sounds emanating from the illusory ancient harp grew even more frenzied, dissonant, and insane. Yet, this chaos only heightened the potency of its invocation, enabling the ghost to finish casting its spell far sooner than expected.


    [<b>Dissonant Chords</b>]!


    A glittering surge of mana burst outwards from the instrument.


    Almost like clockwork, the whistling bullets punched effortlessly through the glimmering mana wave, only to get destabilized by the harsh dissonance in return. Nevertheless, by the time they had fully unraveled and detonated, many of the mana bullets had already advanced much farther than in previous attempts.


    <i>Boooom~! Boom~! Boom~!</i>


    The ghost was engulfed by a series of devastating shockwaves.


    Without waiting to see the result of her attack, the music spirit immediately slowed down her song’s tempo, transitioning from rapid sixteenth notes to drawn-out half notes as a sad and somber melody escaped her flute.


    A glimmering bullet of mana condensed before her, the surrounding wind element mana settling down considerately as if not wanting to disturb its formation.


    After about three or four beats, the malevolent vortex, who had managed to endure the spirit’s bombardment, roared with fury!


    Almost as if she had been awaiting this, Music promptly unleashed her spell.


    [<b>Whistling Lullaby</b>]!


    Instinctively, the evil ghost manifested its harp, strummed its strings, and sent out a glimmering wave of mana to intercept the spirit’s spell.


    <i>Boom~!</i>


    As the glimmering mana bullet burst against the dissonant mana wave, it sent out a serene shockwave that dissipated the surrounding turbulence, enveloping the area with a sense of tranquility.


    Music, seeing the ghost behaving exactly as she anticipated, became more confident about her “plan,” if it could even be referred to as that.


    It roughly went as follows. First, she would eliminate the ghost’s astral projection. Then, the moment it attempted to swirl back into existence, she would eliminate it once again. She would keep preventing this over and over again, until the other two spirits completed their preparations and came to fetch her. Then, when the little spirit saw how awesome and capable she was…!


    Just imagining it, the music spirit swirled in anticipation.


    In short, beat up the ghost, keep it from getting back up, and show off. Music’s future course of action was set.


    Still, if things didn’t go as planned… she could always fall back to plan A: allowing herself to be chased by the ghost while occasionally provoking it. This was how ghosts were normally dealt with.


    Concluding her thoughts, the music spirit entered an unprecedented state of focus. As she deftly manipulated the keys of her flute, weaving a rapid and intricate melody, a halo of whistling mana bullets swiftly materialized around her, orbiting her like the rings of a planet. In concert, the iridescent mana composing her swirling mana body began to visibly wane, her ethereal form shrinking naturally to suit the new amount.


    Stolen story; please report.


    The illusory silver flute, once perfectly sized for its user, now appeared comically oversized, its wielder resembling a kindergartener clutching a bazooka. Yet, despite the absurd sight, the glimmering mana bullets circling around her glimmered with a dangerous intensity, each one primed to unleash a devastating explosion upon the slightest provocation.


    Feeling as though she’d already won, the music spirit subtly looked down on the aberration in front of her.


    Alas, as much as she would have preferred to eliminate it outright… this was genuinely not worth the effort. Doing so would require her to not only exhaust the ghost of all its mana but also deplete all the wind-element mana from the environment. Otherwise, it would simply project itself onto a new wisp of mana before rapidly restoring itself by siphoning mana from the surroundings, as it had done once earlier.


    Not only was fulfilling these conditions immensely difficult but, considering that she could obtain virtually the same result—with far greater security and minimal risk—simply by cooperating with another spirit to cast the ghost ceiling ritual… insisting on the brute force approach made little practical sense.


    As for whether her partnered spirit might flee and abandon her, Music wasn’t overly concerned about this. After all, there was nothing physically preventing her from simply fleeing. Moreover, Curiosity was a spirit, and all spirits hated ghosts!


    “Aww~! You poor thing… Allow me to show you the sound of true music!”


    With a dramatic sweep of her instrument, Music unleashed the barrage of spells that had been circling her.


    [<b>Whistling Volley</b>]!


    A symphony of whistling sounds reverberated through the cavern as a flurry of wind spells surged through the air. However, rather than heading straight toward the ghost, the bullets scattered into countless different directions, missing their mark entirely. Just when it seemed like the music spirit had fallen under some kind of illusion, the numerous whistling bullets suddenly corrected course, closing in on the ghost from every direction at once.


    Facing the spirit’s overwhelming and meticulous bombardment, even in the event that the ghost managed to destabilize all of the whistling bullets, as it had pulled off until now, this would not be enough to save it from the ensuing chain of explosions.


    “Your finished~!”


    Right at the moment when Music became assured of her victory, the ghost did something that their opponent, a proud music spirit, never could have anticipated!


    In the split second before the whistling bullets made contact, the ghost, summoning a faint, ethereal mana tendril, grasped onto one of the illusory ancient harp’s strings and yanked on it with all its might. In unison, a vast amount of mana converged around the string, sparkling brilliantly like a flash of lightning before a thunderclap.


    Music, suddenly feeling an intense sense of forewarning, immediately transformed into a swirling current of wind mana and retreated as quickly as possible.


    <i>Crack~!</i>


    As the harp string tore with a resounding snap, a terrifying shockwave erupted from the instrument. Torrents of glittering mana surged outward uncontrollably, instantly reducing all of the music spirit’s attacks to nothingness.


    <i>BOOOOOOM~!!!</i>


    Numerous crystal flowers shattered instantly, their countless glistening pieces shooting through the air, filling the cavern with a symphony of sharp, tinkling impacts as they scattered in every direction. Stalactites fractured and plummeted from the cavern ceiling, their thundering impacts kicking up massive plumes of dust, sending it billowing through the air.


    A little further away, the now much more modestly sized music spirit had taken refuge behind a protruding boulder.


    After waiting a couple moments for the apocalypse to die down, she peeked out gingerly from behind her hiding place, only to be stunned silly by the utter devastation.


    Everything within about ten meters of the explosion’s epicenter had been reduced to ruins.


    Music, starting to have a bad premonition, glanced hesitantly at the ghost’s instrument.


    Now that she took a good look, she realized that the illusory ancient harp was missing numerous strings. With one more gone, it appeared even more dilapidated than before. In spite of that, the harp still had fourteen strings left.


    Fourteen more strings.


    Fourteen more times that it could unleash that devastating attack.


    The malevolent entity, instantly detecting her gaze, roared in her direction!


    It was at this moment that Music realized… she screwed up.