After entering the tunnel, Rein patiently waited for the Blood Tiger to follow.
After 5 minutes, its impatience was at its limit, and the Blood Tiger entered the narrow tunnel.
It could barely fit, but as long as it could eat the human, it wouldn't mind being slightly vulnerable.
Rein was watching the Blood Tiger as it crawled towards her.
[ Ciel! ] She said in slight panic
Even though she was confident, seeing the Blood Tiger up close made chills run down her spine.
[ Got it. ] Ciel replied
The next moment, a large pole of Eternal Stone appeared in her hands.
It was large enough to touch both ends of the tunnel.
She made the pole stay horizontal, making it so that the Blood Tiger wouldn't be able to get past it without removing the pole first.
There was no point in just throwing a piece of Eternal Stone into the Blood Tigers mouth.
There was a chance that it could fall out, making the effort useless. It had to swallow the stone so it would stay in its body.
Once it was swallowed, there would be no way for the Eternal Stone to get out of the body, unless manually removed.
[ Alright, let's try this. ] Rein sent a few mental images about her plan
Ciel agreed and summoned a spear that had a tip made up of Eternal Stone.
Next to the spear, there was a corpse of one of the Feral Wolves he had slain earlier.
Rein used her katana to chop off its head, and stuck it into the spear. Then, she created a small cut on her forearm, letting her blood drip on the head.
The Blood Tiger instantly increased the pressure it was putting on the pole, trying to get a taste of the human blood.
'You're quite lucky that you're going to be getting it for free, you bastard.' Rein thought
There was no guarantee that it would swallow the head of the Feral Wolf. Thus, she put her own blood on its head to make sure it was too tempting for the Blood Tiger to resist.
Once the head was stuck on the spear with her blood, she pointed the spear towards the Blood Tiger.
Its mouth was large enough to fit the whole head inside with ease.
The Blood Tiger didn't hesitate, and gobbled down on the head. The spear was broken into two, with the Eternal Stone now entering its body.
'Damn, what a stupid cat. Well, that worked quite well, now I just need to get out of here.' She thought
The tracker was now complete, making their initial goal complete.
Luckily, Rein knew better than to make a one way tunnel, knowing that she would be luring Forsakened in here.
She started running down the tunnel at full speed.
Eventually, she saw the starry sky above, with a small hole to exit.
[ You should take a break while we still can. I'll get the food and water. ] Ciel said
They had melted plenty of the ice in the Soul World, giving them the drinking water that would be used during these upcoming days.
As for food, there were many corpses full of meat that they had in the Soul World.
Ciel had dried up the meat, making it similar to jerky. It would be able to last a long time in the Soul World without going bad.
Rein drank the water and ate the preserved food. This was what she would be eating for a while, and she had to get used to it.
Once she was done, Ciel exited her shadow once again. It was his turn once again.
[ We need to preserve as much Spirit Essence as possible. ] He said
Being a shadow didn't increase the rate at which Spirit Essence was absorbed from Spirit Energy.
It was the most vital resource they needed to preserve.
If the Blood Tiger was weakened significantly and they had no Spirit Essence to deal proper damage with, there would be no point in spending their time in a battle of attrition.
Their Spirit Essence reserves were constantly diminishing at an extremely slow rate due to the use of Soul Transfer, entering shadows and strengthening their bodies with Spirit Essence when running.
[ If we spend our remaining Spirit Essence on increasing the size of the Eternal Stone, do you think we'll start gaining Spirit Essence at a slow rate? ] Rein asked
[ it'll make it balanced at most. It's not worth the risk. ] Ciel replied
Feeding Spirit Essence to the Stone of Eternity could help them increase its size, thus granting them a faster rate of Spirit Essence renewal.
However, the change would be too small to make any sort of impact.
The duo still had enough Spirit Essence that would last them over 100 hours. Yet, they couldn't help but feel worried if it was enough.
Hours passed by, and they kept exchanging their roles as runners.
After an unknown amount of hours of constant running, they could finally notice the Blood Tiger weakening.
[ Just a few more hours… just a few more… ] Rein said
They both hadn't slept at all. They were slowly being driven into madness.
Their bodies were battered, with their clothes torn. Yet, they did not yield. They knew they had to last a little longer before a counter attack.
Just like that, multiple more hours passed by. They were now about to run out of their food and water preserves.
Ciel shot an arrow towards the Blood Tiger, who was trying to catch a break.
The two humans, who were much weaker than it, had somehow outlasted it.
It didn't have any time to rest. They somehow always knew of its location, while it had nothing to eat or drink at all.
They were like mosquitoes, slowly sucking its blood dry.
The beast was at its last straw.
[ It's time… ] Ciel said with no emotion
Rein exited his shadow, and infused an arrowhead made with Eternal Stone with all the Void element she had in the Soul Core.
This was their last attack.
If this failed, they would be dead.
She aimed the bow, before releasing the arrow that cut through the air like butter.
The Blood Tiger was far too weak to dodge, and the arrow hit it right in the head, followed by a massive explosion.
There was smoke everywhere, but it was still freezing cold.
The cold was much worse than they had expected it would be during all this time.
After half a minute, the smoke dissipated and the charred body of the Blood Tiger could be seen.
[ Did we do it… ] Rein said
At that moment, the corpse twitched and started to get up.
'Dammit… why the fuck are you still moving, you bastard?' Ciel thought
The Blood Tiger looked at them directly in the eyes.
Its body was covered in gruesome wounds and half of its head was missing. There was blood dripping out of it like a water spring.
Yet, the look in the Blood Tigers' eyes remained. Unrestrained malice and vitriol could be seen behind them.
Ciel could barely even hold his katana anymore, let alone summon anything new.
They were both completely exhausted, with no way to escape.
The only way to escape this situation was to kill the Blood Tiger directly.
"Just die already…" Ciel said as he slowly moved forward
He could barely even move now, but was now clenching the katana in both hands.
It was time for the final confrontation.
In front of him, the once magnificent snow white tiger was completely brutalized, yet still standing just like him.
It slowly started walking towards him. Rein couldn't move at all, and was left with no choice but to watch the conclusion of their recent misery.
Would their efforts pay off, or be wiped away as if they never existed?
Ciel took a stance, and ferociously fought with the Blood Tiger.
His entire body was getting filled with cuts and bruises, yet he didn't stop or give in.
One slash turned into two, and two turned into three. The Blood Tiger, with blood flowing out of its head, was being slowly pushed back.
Suddenly, Ciel's head started throbbing, and he fell to the ground in a stroke of pain.
The Blood Tiger saw the opportunity, and rushed to finish him off.
However, before it's sharp claws could reach Ciel, an arrow had been shot from behind him, piercing straight into the Blood Tigers open head with a small shockwave.
Rein had used up the last arrow she had, filled with every last drop of Spirit Essence they had with them.
A moment later, she dropped to the ground. Rein was now completely unconscious.
After that, the sky lightened up, and the sun was visible once again, after a countless amount of hours.
'We really won...no...not yet.' Ciel thought
They had cleared the night, but it was not over yet.
If they lingered here any longer, they would soon die from hypothermia.
They're bodies were filled with cuts, and it was too cold for them to stay any longer.
Ciel slowly regained his composure, and went up to Rein.
'Well done. You deserve some rest.'
He carried her in his arms, and slowly moved to the nearest ice building he could find while panting heavily.
Blood was dripping from his nose, eyes and ears.
After entering, he immediately closed the door and walked towards a nearby couch, leaving behind a trail of blood.
He carefully put Rein down, and before he could do anything else, he lost consciousness and fell to the ground.