Very soon...
Ethan had cleared out an entire corner of the ghostly mist in front of the Ghost Ferryman.
It was like a whole cake with one slice cut out.
That opening extended all the way to the Ghost Ferryman.
"Th... How is this possible!"
The Ghost Ferryman had never imagined that his black mist, which couldn't be cut apart, burned away, or even cleared, would actually be dealt with like this.
"I just noticed something. You seem impossible to kill, right?", Ethan stood in front of the Ghost Ferryman and sneered at him, "I have an idea I'd like to test on you."
"W-What idea?"
The Ghost Ferryman felt a chill under Ethan's gaze.
Ethan grinned, "Naturally, I want to see if you're really impossible to kill!"
"Compressed Great Fireball!"
At this distance, Ethan refused to believe he could miss.
Boom!
The Great Fireball smashed directly into the Ghost Ferryman's face.
The next second, the Ghost Ferryman's head was blown clean off.
But strangely enough, the instant the severed head hit the ground, it vanished.
Then... a brand-new head grew out of his neck.
Only this head was extremely small, looking like a tiny mushroom that had just sprouted from a dead tree. Compared to the body beneath it, it was completely out of proportion.
"So you really won't die," Ethan smiled.
Then he drew the Godslayer Sword and slashed hard across the Ghost Ferryman.
"Crescent Slash!"
Whoosh!
This time, the Ghost Ferryman's entire upper body was sliced off and sent flying.
Yet he still didn't die.
But this time, it wasn't the upper half that disappeared.
Instead, the lower half of his body vanished.
Then, below the waist of his upper body, a pair of tiny sprout-like legs grew out.
"Heh! Heh! Heh..."
After a brief moment of panic, the Ghost Ferryman looked at Ethan and laughed coldly.
"I told you already."
"I won't die!"
"The more you keep cutting me apart, the faster the mist will spread."
"I have all the time in the world."
"But you..."
"Don't!"
Ethan turned his head.
Only then did he realize that at some point, black mist had surrounded him again.
However, because fire elemental energy was so dense around his body, the black mist couldn't get close to him.
It could only swirl around about ten meters away.
"How boring. Forget it. I'm done experimenting."
Ethan glanced at the Ghost Ferryman and stopped playing around.
He switched the Godslayer Sword back to his wand and pointed it at the Ghost Ferryman.
"Hard as a Rock!"
BANG!
The Ghost Ferryman instantly turned into a stone statue.
But he still wasn't dead.
His eyeballs kept rolling toward Ethan as if mocking him.
And after a short while, the Ghost Ferryman's head continued growing larger.
Even after being petrified, he was still able to move stiffly.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
As the Ghost Ferryman, now turned into a stone statue by Hard as a Rock, slowly rotated his stiff head, strange cracking sounds echoed out.
Like a machine that hadn't been used in ages and had run out of lubricant.
"You're really tough," Ethan sighed.
But in the end, he tapped the Ghost Ferryman's head with his wand.
"Soft and Squishy!"
Plop!
This time...
The Ghost Ferryman, who had been turned into a stone statue, instantly became a puddle of flesh and blood.
His eyes rolled around atop the pile of flesh.
But his head could no longer continue growing.
Instead, the entire puddle of flesh grew together, making it look as bizarre as could be.
"You may not die, but that doesn't mean you can't change form."
Ethan put away his wand.
Then he turned to look at the overwhelming sea of black mist behind him.
He couldn't help feeling a little helpless.
He had no idea how he was supposed to deal with it.
Just then...
"Huuup!"
Ethan heard a strange inhaling sound beside his ear.
When he turned around, he discovered that the black mist behind him had thinned considerably.
Through the hazy mist, a tiny figure was rapidly approaching.
"Who's there?", Ethan asked.
Then the Doll's voice came from within the mist.
"It's me!"
"Doll? What are you doing inside the poisonous mist?"
Ethan looked at the tiny silhouette racing toward him through the black mist in confusion.
It was like a miniature vacuum cleaner, running while constantly inhaling.
By the time the Cursed Doll reached him, all the black mist behind her had already been completely sucked away.
"I'm eating!"
The Cursed Doll laughed.
"It's been so long since I've had something this nourishing. Now that I've finally found some today, of course I have to make the most of it."
"The last time I went to the Many-Eyed Monsters' home and beat them up, I used up quite a bit of energy."
"Don't worry. I've already eaten all the poisonous mist around the outside. There's only this little bit left in the core area. But it's much more concentrated here, so I couldn't bear to suck it all up at once. I wanted to save it and enjoy it slowly... Huh?"
As the Cursed Doll spoke, she suddenly let out a loud cry of surprise.
"Why is there a Flesh Fungus here? Holy crap, Ethan, your luck is way too good!"