Salvatore realized that the time had come.
After creating a solid steel bar for Lin Yiyi as quickly as possible... he immediately opened his shirt and nailed the copper pot holding the Philosopher’s Stone into the front of his shoulder, slowly pressing the plunger at the back of the pot.
The agonizing pain of the needle piercing his deltoid turned Salvatore’s complexion pale in an instant, and he couldn’t help but let out a low cry.
This was not one of those ultra-fine needles, but the flat kind used for injecting preservatives into cadavers during dissections. Without a potent Healing Potion, it would be absolutely forbidden to inject with a syringe directly into the body.
Due to the thickness of the needle, it could not be used for stable intravenous injections, and in battle, one could only resort to intramuscular or intracardiac injections. The former was the way for healthy individuals, while the latter was a desperate attempt by battlefield medics to administer potent Healing Potion to the dying.
Originally, Salvatore wanted to inject the Philosopher’s Stone directly into his heart. But before he could do it, he faltered... so he had to reposition the needle to his shoulder.
As Salvatore grimaced in pain, the crimson Philosopher’s Stone, as though it had been granted life, surged into his body the moment it made contact with the muscle, immediately dissolving and permeating it.
Salvatore instantly felt as if his entire left arm was burning intensely, and soon he lost all sensation in it.
This burning sensation rushed to his heart at an extremely fast speed. The beating of his heart roughly doubled, his veins bulged, a wave of burning heat washed over his body, and blood pumped rapidly to his limbs and extremities.
Then, the burning feeling suddenly disappeared.
In its place came an extremely intense, incredibly refreshing sense of coolness.
Just like skin being swabbed with alcohol and then blown on—
Salvatore felt his mind become exceptionally clear in an instant.
All his Curse Bindings autonomously activated, black runes proliferated rapidly, spreading throughout his body in the blink of an eye, forming patterns of strange beauty.
He couldn’t help but close his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, his pupils had become incredibly strange:
His eyeballs turned a complete silvery-gray color, and those swirling, spiraling black marks, akin to downward vortices or an upward tower, had disappeared completely.
But Salvatore was momentarily panicked.
—Because the moment he opened his eyes,
The shadow that was always whispering in his heart suddenly fell silent.
It was as if it had completely died.
Or as if, it had left him completely...
...What, what should I do now?
"What you should do—don’t space out, Saul,"
Salvatore heard the shadow’s voice beside his ear.
It was not resounding in his mind.
But was indeed ringing right beside his ear—
Salvatore suddenly realized something.
He looked down abruptly.
—There was no shadow under his feet.
Then, behind Salvatore, a liquid-like shadow flowed out from his shoulder, extending in the air like a living thing, shaping into a fearsome and sharp claw.
It seemed to be a left hand.
The claw aimed at the sky, kindling a blue flame in its palm, like that from a windproof lighter.
"The lion swallows the eagle, killing itself and thereafter reborn—"
A low and hoarse voice rose beside Salvatore’s ear.
He turned his head back abruptly.
Only then did he realize that from his shoulder, a liquid-like shadow had emerged—it seemed somewhat to have feminine traits but was not a human head, rather closer to that of a demon’s...
"—What are you spacing out for, Saul!"
The severe and hoarse voice rang out beside Salvatore’s ear.
The demon’s head turned, shouting loudly at Salvatore’s ear, "Synchronize with me, you fool!"
It was then that Salvatore snapped out of it.
But he quickly realized what kind of spell the shadow was using.
He hesitated, "Isn’t this a bit too exaggera..."
The shadow’s head continued chanting, but another smaller head grew out on Salvatore’s other shoulder, bellowing loudly at him.
Meanwhile, the other head of the shadow was still chanting rapidly, "The wolf that devours the sun mates with the lily, the lion comes stepping through snow, crowned and arriving—"
Salvatore pursed his lips but said no more.
He simply extended his right hand, palm facing downward. A beam of blue flame emerged—entwining the two flames together.
He skipped to the final three lines of the prayer, chanting backwards from the end, at the exact opposite point to where the shadow was chanting.
"—Now, the twelve keys are all in place. The color like sulfur. The shape like grains of salt..."
Their surroundings, with the fog quickly fading away, dissolved at an alarming rate as they chanted, each word rising and ending simultaneously with the shadow’s.
It was not being dispersed.
It evaported as if something had boiled it away—
At this moment, Annan didn’t need the perspective of the Creator to see Salvatore’s current state:
Salvatore’s pupils shone with a pure white light, his skin turned to an ivory white reminiscent of a statue. His skin was wound with dense black runes... and from those runes, black smoke continued to seep out.
A demonic head dripping with tar protruded from his right shoulder, with entirely black pupils. Aside from the skin and the Twisted horns, the facial contours were like those of a young girl, yet they exuded a feeling of steel and stubbornness.
From Salvatore’s shoulder, a demon-like, Twisted, strong left hand emerged, dripping with black droplets. It connected to his own right hand with a blue column of fire above and below.
In the center of the column of fire, a golden sphere materialized, surrounded by a ring of light that resembled a halo of stars.
Just then, the Soul Eater had just appeared above Lin Yiyi, splitting her in half with its sharp tail!
It noticed the fog thinning and suddenly raised its head.
Its eye membranes opened in two layers, looking around before locking onto Salvatore.
Then it quickly closed its three layers of eye membranes.
It moved behind Salvatore in an instant without a sound, raising its claw to slash at him!
But at that moment, a demon’s right hand extended from behind Salvatore—
Her sharp nails pointed at the ground, and with a slight upward curl, a solid steel wall nearly half a meter thick instantaneously rose from the ground.
Of course, it was no match for the Soul Eater’s slashing.
In the blink of an eye, the Soul Eater’s tail—serrated and segmented like spinal bones—cut through the steel wall, leaving a crude and Twisted gash that hissed into existence.
Yet, with the steel wall’s intervention and filtration, the Ruby Shield that surfaced on the demon’s right hand was enough to block the remaining force!
And then, the Ruby transformed in the blink of an eye into steel needles, flying swiftly to nail themselves onto the cut wall.
On that wall, flames burst out like spears, forcing back the Soul Eater.
The flames turned to crystal in the blink of an eye and then to steel, speeding after the Soul Eater as it crawled rapidly on the ground.
Salvatore silently cheered the shadow on in his heart.
He knew he was useless, slow to react, and lacked adaptability. He simply closed his eyes, didn’t worry about anything, and chanted solemnly, ensuring the chant was completed on time.
As for my safety... I leave it all up to you!