"Ren!" Seeing Ren rush in, Eriri's pale face showed surprise.

Sawamura Sayuri's panicked face also showed surprise, then she suddenly cried out in alarm: "Ren-kun!"

"Ren-kun! Get out of the way!" Looking at Eriri's father, who had turned his knife towards him and was charging, Ren frowned slightly. Something was growing stronger inside her father's body. He raised a finger and made a slight movement. Eriri's father's body suddenly floated in the air, unable to move. The knife he held in his hand was also sent flying by a strange force.

"Eh!!!" The two women looked at this strange scene in surprise.

Ren could control the subtle air currents with a single thought, thereby inducing larger airflows. Then, by manipulating the direction, gathering, and dispersion of these air currents, he could instantly achieve an effect similar to psychokinetic control.

Ren stepped past Eriri's father and stood in front of the two women. "Eriri, Aunt Sayuri, are you two alright?"

Eriri immediately threw herself into Ren's arms and burst into tears. "Waaaah! I was so scared just now, the atmosphere at home became so weird, woo woo…"

Ren gently patted her back. Eriri was emotionally unstable, so he had to ask Sayuri. "Aunt Sayuri, what happened to you all?"

Sayuri looked at Eriri's father with worry, her expression dazed as she recounted the situation. "A few days ago, Eriri and I both fell ill, and neither medicine nor IV drips seemed to help."

"My husband hasn't been home for years, but he suddenly came back today, grabbed a knife to attack us, and then the house became eerie, filled with this black mist."

He knew that Sayuri and her husband had been estranged for a long time. As for the reason… it still had to do with Aki Tomoya. It was about how the incident in middle school was handled. Sayuri tried her best to protect Eriri. She wanted her husband to use his connections to deal with the bullies. Her husband did not agree. His words implied the difficulties of his position, that he couldn't do such a thing.

But facing Eriri's repeated suicidal tendencies, Sayuri didn't care about any of that. The two had a fierce argument. Fortunately, Ren stopped it all in the end. Ren found a good friend he used to know; her family had ties to the underworld. He gave her almost all the immense money he had earned at the time. He asked her for help. Those bullies all met bad ends, with many of their families being destroyed. Of course, the other party only used normal economic and legal means. From then on, no one dared to trouble Eriri again. Although Eriri also lost many friends, in the end, Ren was always there to accompany her, which allowed her to emerge from the shadows. But ever since then, the conflict between Sayuri and her husband intensified. Until now, their marriage was merely a shell.

*****

Eriri wiped away her tears and looked up. "Ren, are there ghosts here?"

He pondered for a moment. Now that the mother and daughter were already extraordinary contactees, they could know some basic information. So he slowly spoke.

"They are malevolent spirits and demons." He pointed to Eriri's father. "There's a demon in your father's body; he's affected by the demon's negative emotions."

"There's a malevolent spirit in this house."

"Your father's return, the demon and the malevolent spirit unexpectedly merged, which is why these black mists appeared."

"There really are!" They trusted Ren very much. Both Sayuri and Eriri were shocked by the existence of malevolent spirits and demons. At the same time, they were also shocked that Ren knew so much, and he could even make people float in the air.

But now was not the time for shock. Sayuri looked worried: "What will happen if they merge?"

Ren shook his head. He didn't know either. He had killed so many malevolent spirits, and only a few demons. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation. How deep must the malevolence be to allow the two to merge?

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!" Suddenly, Eriri's father let out a painful roar in mid-air.

Then, under the gaze of the three, the black mist floating in the room all drilled into his body through his mouth. Ren shielded the two behind him. With his broad shoulders, the mother and daughter felt exceptionally safe. He naturally wouldn't fear a Little malevolent spirit and demon. He didn't act simply because he wanted to see what these two things could merge into.

When all the black mist had drilled into Eriri's father's body, "Jie jie jie!" A strange, sinister laugh came. Immediately after, a pitch-black claw covered in eyes emerged from his mouth. And a second, a third… until the fifth claw. A more twisted head and body emerged from that small mouth, connected.

Undoubtedly, it was a monster. The mother and daughter's eyes trembled violently; this terrifying and disgusting scene made their hair stand on end.

"Ren…" Eriri, trembling with fear, pressed herself against Ren's back. Even Sawamura Sayuri was no exception.