The river blocking their path was wide, but a pair of small islands broke the current near the center. One large, one small, they divided the raging torrent into one wide channel and two narrower ones.
The wide channel was governed by a magical platform that circled the islands in a fixed loop. The narrower channels could be cleared with a simple running jump.
Crossing the water itself wasn't the issue. The real problem was the sheer, unadulterated malice packed into the Demon Realm by both the Space and the original game's producer.
The man behind Ghouls 'n Ghosts was Tokuro Fujiwara. He had originally worked at Konami, an experience that likely birthed his sadistic tendencies, before moving to Capcom. When he created Ghouls 'n Ghosts, he made his "joy in torturing players" painfully clear.
From the very beginning, he had designed the game to kill every single player who touched it.
Fujiwara even set up a test cabinet in an arcade near his office so he could hide in the shadows and watch people play. Whenever he saw someone clearing a section smoothly without getting stuck, he'd run back to the office and rewrite the code overnight, adding new obstacles to ensure they'd never clear it again.
It seemed the Heaven's Selection Space had reproduced that malice with terrifying accuracy.
'What an "authentic" experience this is!'
The moment Chris leaped off the floating platform onto the central island, he felt a sudden wave of goosebumps. Something was wrong.
In the distance, several shapes began to materialize out of thin air. They were floating sets of armor, hovering in a jagged S pattern as they slowly drifted toward the island.
[Wraith Armor: Common Template, Ghost Unit. HP: 1, MP: 120. Strength: 1, Agility: 5, Spirit: 12, Charisma: 0.]
[Monster Trait: Puppet Armament]
If Arthur were here in Chris's place, he would have recognized these suits immediately. They were the armors of the very knights who had died alongside him when they first stormed the Demon King's castle.
Now, those armors were being recycled, driven by wraiths into mindless puppets that served as a deterrent against any who dared trespass.
The Wraith Armors were unique. They couldn't launch normal attacks; instead, they used the weight of the armor and their massive shields to exert physical pressure on the intruders. Their goal was simple: push the players into the water.
This was why they had only spawned once the group reached the river island.
Chris and the others were now trapped on a tiny patch of land in the middle of a deep, fast-flowing river.
The wraiths within the armor had little intelligence. they followed their magical orders with mechanical loyalty. Their singular mission could be summed up in one word, "Harassment."
The armors circled the island, never coming too close but never leaving either. If anyone tried to approach the edge for a jump, the armors would swoop down and deliver a shield bash. The force wasn't enough to kill, but it was more than enough to ruin someone's balance.
In the middle of the island, it was merely an annoyance. On a moving platform or mid-jump, it was a death sentence.
The durability of a Wraith Armor depended entirely on the armor itself. Even if the shell was shattered, the wraith would simply fly off and find a new suit to return to the fray.
For a player who didn't know the trick, these enemies were the ultimate time wasters.
"Get ready," Chris muttered to the nervous students. His expression shifted from confusion to a sudden, enlightened grin.
He raised his hand and pointed a finger at one of the circling armors as if he were channeling a legendary Qi technique.
"TRANSFORM!!!" Chris bellowed.
The target armor seized up as if struck by lightning, freezing in mid-air.
[You have cast 'Midnight Parade of a Hundred Demons' on a 'Common' template unit, 'Wraith Armor.']
[Spirit Attribute Difference: 0. Charisma Attribute Difference: +9.]
[Check Result: 59% Probability of Success.]
[Check Passed.]
Cracks began to spread across the suit of armor as the skill took hold.
Just as the armors had materialized, Chris had realized that unloading his Vampire Hunter template had been exactly the right call.
Terrain like this, surrounded by deep water, was a death trap for a character who automatically leaped backward when hit. One shield bash would have sent him flying into the river, triggering [Soluble in Water]. At that point, no amount of swearing would save him.
Luckily, he still had the [Knight's Throw] granted by his strawberry boxers. He wasn't defenseless.
Even if his armor shattered and knocked him back, he'd at least have a chance to climb back onto the island if he wasn't instantly "dissolved."
But before he started throwing axes, he decided to try his new skill.
When he'd targeted the armor, the icon had lit up, meaning it was a valid target.
His expression turned... complicated.
A fresh enemy at full health shouldn't be under the 10% HP threshold. That left only one possibility: the Wraith Armor's total HP was in the single digits.
This was bizarre. Whether based on the game's original stats or the logic of increasing dungeon difficulty, These armors should have been tougher than zombies. Chris came up with two theories.
First: The armor worked like his own knight armor, a hit based health pool that ignored raw damage.
Second: The floating armor was just a shell with its own shield or armor points. Once shattered, the "true" target inside had only a few hit points.
Regardless, Chris had figured "If I fail, I just turn into a monster," and cast the spell anyway.
At the cost of nearly half his MP, the Wraith Armor began to warp.
But as the transformation completed and the "Youkai" form emerged, Chris was the one left stunned.
The shattered armor didn't just fall away; it reorganized and reshaped itself. It became... a strange, cicada-like creature with a white, crescent halo floating above its head. Its body was hollow and brittle, giving off a ghostly, empty aura.
[Transformation Complete.]
[You are now the temporary Trainer of the Pokémon, 'Shedinja.']
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]