The Manananggal was no longer a graceful predator; she was a screeching blur of panic. Her wings beat the air into a frenzy, sending a whirlwind of dead leaves and dust into Leon's face. She knew the ancient law of her kind: the separation was her strength, but the exposed flesh of her lower half was her soul's undoing.
"Get away from them!" she shrieked, her tongue lashing out like a whip, narrowly missing Leon's ear.
Leon ignored the sting of the wind. He scrambled toward the hollow of the tree where the severed legs stood—still, pale, and grotesque, like a macabre statue. The wooden box in his hands was heavy, carved from sacred Antipolo wood and reinforced with silver filigree.
[ OBJECTIVE: DISRUPT REJOINING ][ ITEM DETECTED: SACRED SALT OF IRAYA ][ CHANCE OF SUCCESS: 88% ]
He flicked the latch. The lid flew open, and a crystalline white powder, glowing with a faint, phosphoric blue light, spilled out. It wasn't ordinary table salt; it was coarse, infused with the prayers of generations of Babaylans.
"Leon, now!" Maya's voice was a desperate rasp from behind the cart.
With a roar that echoed the defiance of a man fighting a flood, Leon upended the box. He didn't just sprinkle it; he doused the raw, open waist of the standing legs.
The reaction was instantaneous. As the salt touched the exposed flesh, it didn't just sting—it ignited. A brilliant, sapphire-colored flame erupted from the waist, accompanied by a sound like a thousand dry sticks snapping at once.
"NOOOOOO!"
The Manananggal screamed—a sound so laden with agony it felt as if the sky itself were tearing. She was ten feet away from Leon, her claws outstretched, but as the salt took hold, her body jerked violently backward. The connection between her two halves, the invisible thread of dark magic that allowed her to fly, was being cauterized by the purity of the salt.
[ CRITICAL HIT: ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS EXPLOITED ][ ENEMY STATUS: PERMANENT SEPARATION / AGONY ]
The creature tumbled from the air, her wings folding awkwardly. She slammed into the dirt, writhing as the blue flames began to spread from her lower half to her torso through the psychic link. The caustic fluid dripping from her entrails hissed and evaporated into a foul-smelling grey mist.
Leon didn't relax. He stood over the writhing torso, his Ancestral Bolo held in a reverse grip. His chest was heaving, the four red gashes from her claws throbbing with every heartbeat.
"You... you are a thief," the monster wheezed, her beautiful face now charred and melting, her violet eyes leaking black fluid. "You steal... the night... for a god who... abandoned us..."
"I don't care about your gods," Leon said, his voice cold and steady. "I care about the people you killed. I'm closing your case."
He raised the blade. The rust on the steel seemed to flake away, revealing a sliver of polished, silver-blue metal underneath.
[ FINISHING MOVE AVAILABLE: "ANITO'S JUSTICE" ][ COST: 20 SP ]
Leon didn't wait for the System's prompt to finish. He drove the blade down into the center of the creature's chest. There was no resistance—the metal slid through the corruption as if it were water.
The Manananggal gave one final, shuddering gasp. Her body disintegrated into a cloud of glowing embers that rose toward the canopy, vanishing into the sunlight.
The clearing fell silent. The blue flames on the legs flickered out, leaving behind nothing but a pile of fine, white ash.
[ THREAT NEUTRALIZED ][ EXP GAINED: 400 ][ LEVEL UP! LEVEL 4 REACHED ][ SKILL UNLOCKED: "SPIRIT BIND" – Capture the essence of defeated foes. ]
Leon slumped to his knees, the Bolo slipping from his numb fingers. The adrenaline was fading, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion he hadn't felt since his 48-hour shifts during the monsoon season.
"Is... is it over?" Maya asked, crawling out from under the cart, her face smeared with dirt but her eyes bright with a strange, new hope.
Leon looked at his hands. They were stained with black ichor and white salt. He looked at the girl he had saved—his first patient in this strange, terrifying world.
"For now," Leon whispered. "But the moon is still red, Maya. This was just one."