At a certain moment, the previously stabilized situation subtly changed. Though this change was barely perceptible, Glenn successfully captured it.
He felt something malevolent watching him.
This gaze carried undisguised malice, killing intent, hatred, and more than anything else... contempt.
But where exactly was the source of this gaze?
Glenn split his attention to activate his enhanced senses, spreading his perception around, but that feeling of being watched flickered and vanished, impossible to grasp again.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Glenn's tone was somewhat serious as he whispered in Hermione's ear, though he didn't stop what he was doing, continuing to coordinate with Hermione in controlling the Fiendfyre lion to steadily weaken the blood giant.
Before Hermione could reply, a bone-chilling cold sensation instantly crawled up Glenn's spine. Almost instinctively, he turned Hermione around in his arms and held her tightly against himself.
In the air, the head that Feng Lian had severed from the blood giant with one strike now crashed heavily to the ground, landing coincidentally not far in front of Glenn and Hermione.
But was it really a coincidence?
Glenn thought this might not be chance at all.
Because he finally discovered where that prying gaze originated.
That head—the head that had crashed heavily to the ground, the head that originally showed no discernible features.
On that originally faceless visage, a bizarre face had somehow appeared.
Its eyes were pitch black, like chaotic black lines tangled together in disorder, or like mysterious black holes in the universe that seemed to pull and draw in everything from the outside world. The enormous eyes occupied almost the entire upper half of the head.
The lower half of the head was rather monotonous, containing only a smiling mouth. The smile wasn't exaggerated, but its corners had stretched completely to both sides of the head, sending chills down one's spine.
At this moment, such a bizarre countenance was quietly gazing at Glenn who looked back at it.
And Glenn's gaze could no longer move away from those strange eyes.
[Look at me]
A string of vague concepts appeared in Glenn's consciousness—these concepts appeared abruptly and suddenly without passing through any medium.
[Look at me]
Sharp pain struck. When this concept appeared in Glenn's mind for the second time, Glenn felt as if his brain, his consciousness, was about to be torn apart from within by brute force.
[Look at me]
This concept was like a parasite, using its sharp mouthparts to continuously attempt to break through Glenn's consciousness, wanting to parasitize within it, wanting to... completely occupy this body, this soul.
[Look...]
"What are you? Leave my consciousness."
As the concept was about to appear for the fourth time, Glenn's own voice rang out within his consciousness.
Violent repulsive force instantly erupted from the center of Glenn's consciousness, spreading like a tornado, like a tsunami, sweeping away all foreign entities around it.
Having achieved considerable success in soul research, possessing a resilient soul and firm will, Glenn had long prepared comprehensive defensive measures against possible mental attacks.
Within Glenn's consciousness, Glenn was the master.
"Unwilling to leave? Then stay forever."
His black pupils were instantly dyed crimson red. Two trails of bloody tears flowed down Glenn's cheeks. The suppressed violent Obscurus within his body began to surge, and incomparable devouring power began to counter-crush the unknown entity attempting to erode Glenn's own consciousness.
[...&%￥&@%#·*?!]
Glenn's consciousness space was instantly filled completely with the Obscurus's black-red tentacles. That unknown foreign "concept" was immediately pierced and dismembered by the violent Obscurus, ultimately leaving only an incomprehensible string of words.
The foreign "concept" in his consciousness was devoured by the Obscurus until not even dregs remained, and the fixed bizarre smile on the blood giant's head in front of Glenn finally changed: its already enormous eyes suddenly widened, its tightly closed smiling mouth opened in pain, and black viscous oil-like tears flowed from its eye corners. It seemed to emit a soundless shriek.
Then the entire head exploded, dissolving into a pool of filthy blood.
At this point, Glenn's gaze could finally move away from those strange eyes.
From the occurrence to the end of this entire series of events, less than half a second had passed.
Though the time was brief, though Glenn had successfully resisted that unknown attack, the current Glenn was already exhausted, his mind completely muddled.
Merely resisting one attack from the opponent had consumed so much energy—the opponent's danger level was probably even more dangerous than Glenn had originally thought.
"Glenn? What's wrong?"
Hermione, who had been turned around and was now buried in Glenn's chest while being held tightly, finally managed to squeeze her head out of Glenn's embrace. Before she could even open her eyes, she felt the force holding her suddenly loosen.
Hermione quickly reached back to hold Glenn tightly, preventing him from collapsing to the ground.
"Glenn?!"
The inexplicable abnormality that occurred to Glenn made Hermione turn pale with fright. She quickly knelt on the ground, supporting Glenn as he lay down. Only then did Hermione see Glenn's unprecedented exhausted expression, his tightly closed eyes, and the fresh, not-yet-dried bloody tears beneath them.
Though her heart was greatly alarmed by Glenn's sudden condition, Hermione didn't lose her composure. She immediately released control of the Fiendfyre lion, assessed Glenn's current state, and began taking bottle after bottle of potions that could be useful now from her protective charm.
"Glenn's soul and consciousness seem somewhat wrong. Did something attack him just now?!"
While feeding Glenn the potions, Hermione exerted all her strength to activate the power of the Saint within her body, beginning to provide corresponding healing effects. White light poured into Glenn's body, and the girl immediately discovered the source of Glenn's problem.
But there was no time to think about it now—getting Glenn to recover quickly was the first priority!
Hermione's eyes were somewhat red, but under these circumstances, she didn't shed even a single tear, because she understood that crying was useless.
Usually it was Glenn who protected her, but once Glenn was injured and lost his fighting ability, then only she could protect Glenn.
Everything around them didn't matter anymore—that blood giant could go to hell. Now Hermione's eyes held only Glenn, and Hermione thought only of getting Glenn back to normal as quickly as possible.
Silently, Hermione gripped Glenn's hand tightly, until the latter squeezed back, responding to Hermione.
"I'm fine, just a bit drained, so don't worry."
Glenn slowly opened his eyes. His pupils had returned to their usual black color. Though he looked somewhat tired, there was nothing seriously wrong.
"...Mm... that's good..."
Hermione nodded. The girl bit her lip tightly, as if enduring something.
But in the end, she couldn't hold back. Teardrops silently slid down from beneath her eyes.
"...As long as you're okay."
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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