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"Alright," said Vanderberk, looking between all the different faces, "you've proven you're more than a mere illusionist. If you want to play, then why don't you begin by telling me who I'm dealing with?"

"Curious, are you?" said the face directly behind him.

"Too bad for you," said one to his right.

"Die in ignorance," said the one straight ahead of him.

The next attack came from behind. Vanderberk only sensed it via another pulse of invisible helium, empowered with his soul. It was an orb of some kind, moving at high speed. He avoided it simply enough, but when he looked to see what the thing actually was, he saw nothing. Regardless, he sent a blind assault of freezing helium in the direction it had come from, not expecting it accomplish anything.

His eyes were useless here. In fact, they were probably working against him. He closed them.

He chose to rely only on Elinox's soul sense, for now. With constant helium pulses going out all around him, he had a rather clear picture of the area in his mind.

Psychics could sabotage that sense, if they knew how, but they would still have trouble making gaps disappear. And that was how he was using it. He looked for where the soul power couldn't reach. Where holes appeared.

"What's the matter, Weasel?" came the voice again. It sounded less like Croll now, though maybe that, too, was a trick of the senses. "Not going to use that special ability of yours?"

Vanderberk ignored him. The gaps. He was looking for the gaps. Empty space would alert him to another attack, just like before. And then he could mount another counterattack based on its direction. He didn't yet need--

Something big smashed into him, sending him sailing through the air against his will. It was a heavy impact. Enough to pancake a younger servant. For him, though, it wasn't enough to disorient him. He could still think clearly even as he was busy regaining control.

This shouldn't have happened. The psychic had interfered with his ability to sense even the gaps within soul power? He was not aware of any living psychic who would be powerful enough to accomplish such a feat, save perhaps the Weaver--and he could be quite confident that she was not the culprit here.

No. According to Elinox's memories, only the ancient Kingsparrows would have been able to pull this off.