It's only thanks to Ralts' shock and quick thinking and generally kinder-than-the-others' soul that Vespa is teleported out of the waterfall in time. The freezing cold is also amended by a Fuecoco that waddles over to Vespa to bring comfort, warmth and to be a black void where all braincells vanish.

"Sorry for that rough treatment. I didn't know the waterfall was there." Which brings them all the way back here ... and it also ... seems like ... the air is particularly cold right now. "We're watched. By multiple things," Fenelle says - or that's what dee thinks. Two pair of eyes, and then eyes that dee knows ...

Even if back then, it's been Admin Cross and not his actual patron.

And even here, it's not the actual patron.

Even more aggressive, without knowledge nor loyalty - a ghost like the others that ambushes them from the water fall, after perhaps having devoured the soul that has claimed Vespa temporarily. "Watch out!" dee calls out, but for once, Fuecoco actually is there and ready with Ember aimed at the vestigial spirit.

Vespa Baskerville
28 encounter one of the vestigial spirits of wo-chien, ting-lu, chi-yu, or chien-pao near a broken seal. it will not use its signature move, ruination, however, it will be incredibly aggressive before being warded off.

"Just try and hit it! Spook it!" Fenelle calls out as dee reads the text that Vespa says, gesturing towards the aggressive ghostly spirit. There's no moment to hesitate if there's anything dee has learned from Admin Cross - in fact, there might never be a moment where dee would hesitate to grab the blade ever again, possibly. It's hard to tell what the future actually holds, however ...

The Fuecoco holds her own fairly well with fire type moves that melt the surrounding ice, but this ... it doesn't seem like corporeal attacks actually do all that much. "I'm not sure if we can get it that way ... We kinda need ..." Dee pauses. Dee merely thought about it briefly, before immediately negating the thought.

No, they can't.

...

Now when dee signs, der Porygon doesn't react, merely staring back at Fenelle staring back.

Wait, why can dee see der own body?! But there's little time to think as dee needs to dodge out of Chien-Pao's way.

Vespa Baskerville
27 briefly detach from your body or bodies in order to accomplish a task using your spirit body or bodies.

It seems like Fenelle really has to engage this vestigial spirit in hand-to-hand combat now. Der physical body is motionless and seemingly deeply involved in a staring contest with the Poryphone floating in front of it. At least Vespa's texts are still translated on it, so Fenelle still knows what is said on that end.

Still, the Curse doesn't seem to take place immediately as the Hisuian Zoroark seems to hesitate some. It reminds dem of Makoto Kurumi's Kuro, actually - he also has been a rather shy type. Is this a trait common and shared among those of that kind? But it's not something that Fenelle can dwell on for long, as the Chien-Pao makes a beeline for dem specifically.

It seems like there's no delight in another spiritual being, only hatred and truly, dee would not expect anything less. At least the sudden appearance of even more wispy creatures should level the playing field, as way more troopers than usual charge the Chien-Pao spirit.

The physical Falinks' impact is miniscule, but the shadowy Falinks are hitting it, and Fenelle- running over, dee feels frost run down der spine as dee reaches forward.

But before dee could grab any piece of the sword, the Chien-Pao roars, fighting back and out of the Megahorn's restraint to now focus an attack on the Falinks!

Vespa Baskerville

Fenelle feels der spirit be covered by a layer of ice, perhaps even ice flowers but dee doesn't have any appreciation for such sentimentalities. Especially not if dee is still in an out-of-body experience without any clue how to get back. Maybe defeating Chien-Pao would be the solution ... dee really hopes so.

The Chien-Pao's attack at the troppers - at Vespa - at the troopers again?! is shielded, which only seems to increase its hatred for them. A hatred beyond reason and with no doubt, dee thinks, as the cat swirls around, eyeing all of them with fierce, piercing eyes. And then, a curse takes root at last. It's then that Fenelle lunges forward once more, grabbing the blade's grip of ice and yoinking it as hard as possible.

Since it's just vestigial, a weak remnant of its actual glory, the sword actually breaks from Chien-Pao's mouth, causing it to disappear with another furios roar. And then ... Fenelle snaps back into der body.

Falling back violently, as if the mere stare of the Poryphone has been enough to throw them backwards, Fenelle flails before unceremoniously landing on der butt on the ground, with both of their hands covered in ice.

Vespa Baskerville

Fuecoco is by Fenelle's side almost immediately, melting the actual ice that has suddenly covered der hands. Dee lets out a deep breath, shaking as it seems that indeed, something else has happened that dee didn't notice with being half-frozen to possible death. There used to be more shadow Falinks, yes, but ... now there's also something else.

An actual creature staring dem dead into the eye. "That's a Marshadow." Did they somehow convince the pokémon that they would be worthy of its presence? There are two of them, actually, but ... Fenelle looks at the other. It seems like theirs is one that has been in the outside world before - but now has ended up being trapped. Normally, dee would just ignore it then, but dee owes that Marshadow something.

"I think they wanna come with us." dee sighs, standing up. "Yeah, that was some wild battle. Let's get the hell out of here now," dee murmurs, and ... ah.

Were the Marshadow stuck because they couldn't pay the Gimmighoul ferrymon? "I wonder when that thing will be Gholdenego," dee comments as dee rummages der pockets for enough coins for all.

Vespa Baskerville
07 offer coins to the gimmighoul ferryman to take a ride across a river.
SPECIAL HUNT