Autophagy

The door creaked open. Song Lei followed Mia and Isabel into the room.

"Uhh..?" Song Lei was awestruck when his eyes got used to the absurd amount of light in the room. The dining room had become a battlefield. A countless amount of goo was splashing around. Tentacles were exploding here and there, gradually forming new ones. It was an endless battle with no winner.

Right in the middle of this battle were two figures. Both of them had humanoid figures with certain discerning factors. One of the figures had six very thick tentacles coming out of its neck, instead of a head. On the other side was a human with disproportionate body parts. Its head was the size of a normal human but its lower parts became bigger and bigger as you looked down.

Other than that, there were few other figures lying around on the ground. On the tentacle monster's side was a single human lying on the floor. It had attached one of its tentacles to this human's head and was constantly draining something from him.

The bloated monster was doing exactly the same thing. Its body was covered in the purple goo and they formed their own tentacles to drain off something from the humans around it. Song Lei focused his eyes to see who these humans were. It was a bit hard to see because of all the battling going on.

'Those are the maids...' Song Lei thought. From their appearance and clothes, he could figure out that the bloated monster was draining the maids of the mansion. 'That must be Alan,' he thought while looking at the bloated monster. He turned his head to the tentacle monster. 'And that must be Amber.'

Song Lei looked at Isabel and could see that she was in a distressed situation. She was squeezing her fists while looking at the battle that was going on.

"What are we doing?" Song Lei asked. "It seems that they haven't noticed us."

"Yet," Isabel finished his sentence for him. "We have to wait and see for some time. They haven't weakened enough yet. It isn't necessary to waste our strength struggling with them," she said while frantically looking around the dining room. After a few seconds, she pointed her finger towards a Victorian-style bookshelf. "Let's go there and hide behind it. We don't want any stray attacks hitting us."

Song Lei nodded and followed along while keeping eye contact with the current battle. He didn't want to miss even a single bit of it.

They hid behind the bookshelf, crouched, and kept watching the fight that was going on. It looked really bizarre. Song Lei could say that if he was watching this in a film, it would've been enough for him to rate the film 10/10 just because of this single scene. Unfortunately, he was watching this in real life. Having his life threatened just to watch some high-budget fighting scene wasn't really worth it.

"What are they doing?" Song Lei asked while pointing at the people scattered on the ground. Initially, Song Lei had thought that the other ghosts would fight too but they just seemed to be some kind of resource for Amber and Alan.

"Amber and Alan are using them for soul nutrition. While fighting like this, they need to keep their soul strength at a certain level," Isabel said. She scratched her cheek and continued by saying, "You can think of them as energy bars. In the end, they are just food for Amber and Alan to eat. As long as they keep leeching those people off, they can fight for a long time."

"Isn't there any limitation to that?" Song Lei asked another question. Isabel turned at him.

"Technically, there is. The one giving the soul power should be doing it voluntarily. If they tried to take it by force, it would take too long for them to digest the soul power. In fact, they would have to spend their own soul power to consume the others, putting them at a disadvantage in the short run."

"I see..." Song Lei said. They kept watching the fight silently after that. For a long time, neither side seemed to be at any disadvantage for a long time. They were dead even in power. Suddenly, Amber's arm was hit by one of Alan's goo tentacles. A shrill scream echoed in the room. Song Lei had to close his ears with his hands to keep his consciousness.

"It's time. If we delay on any longer, Alan will take advantage and beat Amber. When that happens, we won't have any chance left," Isabel said calmly. There was a blank stare in her eyes that Song Lei had never seen before. She got up from her place. "I won't be able to protect you out there. Can you take care of yourself?" She asked. Song Lei nodded at her.

"If you can, you should take away their soul nutrients. Just pull them away or kill them. But know that both Amber and Alan will be protecting their nutrients to their best."

Seeing Song Lei approving, she held Mia's hand and left their cover. Song Lei followed along. As they were nearing the eye of the storm, Song Lei had to start dodging some stray attacks here and there.

For Isabel and Mia though, they seemed to have some kind of barrier around them. Isabel stopped walking. Her body started reddening and bloating. Flesh parts ripped themselves out of her body and flew around.

Amber and Alan turned their heads simultaneously and looked at Isabel who was manifesting her powers.

"How did you get out of your little room you bitch!?" Amber shouted at Isabel. She seemed to be agitated.

"It doesn't concern you. You should focus on not dying," Isabel said coldly. Currently, she was the side that had some amount of advantage. Obviously, Amber and Alan had fought for some time. No matter how much soul nutrients they absorbed, they would eventually tire out. However, for Isabel to win certainly, Song Lei had to take away some amount of nutrients from them.

Initially, the room was split into two sides, one side being controlled by Amber and one side being controlled by Alan. But now, with Isabel interfering in their fight, the tides were broken. Her flesh powers spread around and took control of half of the room. With the tempo on her side, Isabel was at a certain advantage.

'This is a full-on war...!'

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