Acaya, noticing this, immediately called out.

“Watch out!”

Obo turned. “Huh?”

But it was too late.

Several sharp tentacles suddenly tore through the concrete ground like spikes in a 5 meter radius around the Lunatic. The other Ghost Hunters backed up immediately, but Obo and Lauren, who had been too close at the time, weren’t as lucky.

“W-Wha…”

Shaped like crescent moons, the sharp white tentacles tore directly through their abdomen, before circling around and curving inwards to penetrate them again at the throat. They were completely impaled and unable to do anything but gurgle a bit as blood spilled out of their two wounds and their mouths, left for dead.

“Obo! Lauren!” Acaya cried in despair, but there was nothing he could do but watch as his friends’ lives were taken in such a brutal, cruel manner. There wasn’t any warning. It was instant. Two perfectly alive human beings, killed in the mere blink of an eye, from a Ghost that was thought to be dead.

“Heheheheheh…” The Lunatic’s unmistakable voice laughed darkly as its figure rose from the ground, both eyes now properly in place and wounds completely gone. The tentacles that protruded from the ground shrinked back into the holes they created, then slowly all retracted to the Lunatic’s body.

“Mm, mm, mm… human blood… delicious…”

“H-How… but you died already!” Tian Long cried in shock, getting into battle position once more.

“I almost did,” The Lunatic corrected, licking its lips. “I even constricted my own blood flow in my body by creating a gravitational field around my heart to slow down the spread of the fire and lightning, buying myself a few seconds more. And who would’ve thought… those few seconds rewarded me quite well.”

Narrowing its already-small eyes even further, the Lunatic spread its arms and rose to the sky as its tentacles, originally only 8, increased to 16. Above its head, five purple black holes, ranging in size, appeared to form an arc shape, almost like a crescent moon facing down.

This shape matched the symbol on the Lunatic’s forehead, which was now glowing silver as it was ignited by the moonlight.

“The moon has risen!” It declared, basking itself in the glorious, luminous lunar light. “You had your chance, Ghost Hunters… you had your chance. But alas… the moment the night falls… the moment the moon rises… is the moment you’ve lost. From now until dawn comes, THE WORLD IS MINE!”

“Tch… I can feel it,” Iris muttered. “The Lunatic’s power… it just surged by an immense amount. The moon—it’s fueling him!”

“Luck is truly on my side, to let the moon rise right before I died for good. In the end… the humans were DESTINED to LOSE, the Ghosts were FATED to WIN! HAHAHAHA!” It laughed like a maniac. “The OVERLORD shall RULE ALL!”

‘Oh? Overlord?’ Finn thought in his head. ‘How interesting.’

The Ghost Hunters all prepared to fight once more, filled with a mixture of emotions. Guilt, regret, fury, sadness, despair. None were good. And yet… they fought. They had to.

“Now then, my beloved Hunters… playtime is over,” the Lunatic said, smiling creepily as its tentacles writhed and thrashed all over the place behind its back. “It is time… to END you.”

Spreading its arms wide, the Lunatic declared:

“I am Moon Inherent no longer, puny mortals! I… am Moon Ascendant!”

– Outside the Paracausal Realm –

“The moon… has risen.”

Lei Feng glanced up at the dark night sky, illuminated by nothing but the pale orb of light known as the moon.

“… And they still have not returned,” Shuyara said with a grim expression. “If they are fighting the Emperor right now… the odds do not look so good.”

“That is, if they even are still alive,” Heartbeat said with a low chuckle. “In my opinion… it’s best to just assume they are dead. Why don’t we head home, reassemble new teams, and try again some other time? This mission was doomed to fail from the moment the higher-ups decided to let the younger generation do it.”

“… You sound awfully certain that they have already failed,” Lei said coldly. “Do you know something we do not, perhaps?”

Heartbeat took a sip of his wine, then smiled darkly. “You see… I can sense when my serv- ahem… students are dead. Call it… intuition. And right now, my intuition is telling me only one of my students who went in there remain alive.”

“… Intuition?” Shin snorted. “Sorry, but I have faith in my students. They will overcome this challenge, and grow to be some of the greatest Ghost Hunters in history.”

‘Greatest Ghost Hunters in history?’ Heartbeat laughed in his mind. ‘Your students are already dead, Shin. Too bad, too bad.’

“Even so…” Shuyara closed his eyes tightly. “… Never mind. I will pray for them. May the Light guide their way.”

“It will be fine,” Lei reassured, tone firm and decisive as he pushed his glasses up the nose of his bridge. “My disciple… has one final trick up his sleeve.”

– Meanwhile, Inside the Paracausal Realm –

“HAHAHA!” The Lunatic laughed in delight as it pummeled the Ghost Hunters with its tentacle attacks, blowing up debris and tearing through stone pillars like they were nothing.

“Tch-!” Qi Ling let out a frost aura and froze some of the rubble flying towards her before hopping into the air and using them as step stones to avoid one of The Lunatic’s deadly, speedy, and precise tentacles.

And that wasn’t all.

“Face my Lunafaction Brood, Hunters! Let’s see how you hold up then, HAHAHA!”

“SKREE!” Phantoms spawned by the Lunatic squealed in bloodthirst and delight as they rose from the ground, much like in the garden earlier. Wraiths soon followed behind them, launching attacks from range and unpredictable angles.

“D-Damn it!” Acaya rolled to one side to evade a Wraith’s plasma attack, then used his Pharaoh Angelica to bury several charging Phantoms in a pile of sand. “We can’t hold on for long like this…! There’s no room to even go on the offensive…!”

Shadow turned invisible and attempted to get closer to the Lunatic with his twin blades, but was slashed in the chest by one of the Lunatic’s tentacles.

“Ugh-!” He fell backwards and crashed into the ground, but not before Tian Long catch him in his arms and dive out of the way of a follow-up attack. The injury was not fatal, thankfully.

“FUTILE, FUTILE, FUTILE!” The Lunatic laughed in triumph and contempt. “You think I can’t see through your puny invisibility?! The moon grants me True Sight! None can hide in front of me! Even if you try that annoying bullet trick of yours again, it won’t work a second time, HAHAHA!”

“Ace… I’m out of ideas…” Iris muttered, downing a few Phantoms with her handgun. “What’s the play here?”

“… Relax,” Finn said, stepping forward. “I have one final ace up my sleeve.”

Amidst all the chaos and fighting, Finn calmly reached into his own soul and called upon the legendary beast lying within.

“It’s your turn now, Raiju.”