Chapter 74: I’ll... I’ll become the vessel for—
"No! Stop!"
The woman screamed in panic. Her face, dark with fear and dread, her whole body trembling. Her gaze never once left that black slime, slowly moving, corrupting the very air around it.
Jingle—!
Bam—!
Bell’s chain collided with the thing, only to get flung right back with no resistance whatsoever. Then, the man, smiling with a twisted grin, stared at the slime, a fanatic glint burning in his eyes.
The black slime pulsed like a living heart, forming spikes, behaving as though it were about to explode.
The man raised his hand, consumed by madness.
"Use me! Use me, I’ll... I’ll become the vessel for—"
His sentence cut short. Because in the very next instant, that black slime shot out a long, razor-sharp tendril from its own mass, and horrifically bored a hole straight through the man’s head.
Blood sprayed out, the man’s pupils trembling rigidly, his body freezing in place, leaving him with a hole punched clean through his head, accompanied by a wet, sickening sound.
Thud—!
His body lost its life, dying instantly without so much as a struggle.
"...That thing...!"
Eiros watched the scene unfold, his face going pale. Unable to process what had just happened, he glanced at Bell, who muttered under her breath.
"Miss Bell, do you know anything about that thing?"
Bell looked back at him, then shook her head. Her sigh came out irritated as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"This is new. Damn it, why do they keep coming up with new, troublesome crap like this?"
Eiros clenched his jaw and turned his gaze back toward the black slime. That sight brought something back to mind—something similar he’d witnessed before.
That black slime resembled the corrupted Cray. Which meant whatever he was looking at right now had to be connected to that same corruption.
"Should we just destroy it? We have no idea what happens next."
Eiros offered the suggestion, looking at Bell, who seemed to be nursing a headache. But Bell didn’t look back at him—she just clicked her tongue, then hurled her lantern, which swung out with its chain extending.
The next instant, the lantern lost all its color entirely. Something dark slowly rose up, a dense, swirling darkness coiling around the lantern.
Whoosh—!
Bam—!!
Eiros watched, genuinely astonished. That lantern, normally something delicate, delivered a terrifying blow to the black slime—but that astonishment vanished quickly the moment he saw the shattered slime regenerating right back.
Just like Cray.
"See? It’s impossible," Bell muttered from across the way. "That thing, different as it may look, is essentially similar to the corruption seed. I don’t know exactly how, but... there’s no way to destroy it before it finds itself a host and forms its own Soul Core. That’s a fundamental trait of the Corruption Seed."
"...Sounds like a real hassle."
Eiros winced. Then his gaze quickly shifted to the woman, who looked too terrified to move, but the moment she snapped out of it, she immediately tried to flee.
Even so, Bell had clearly prepared for this from the start. The moment the woman tried to run, Bell’s chains were already chasing her down and snaring her.
It was almost too easy, given how genuinely panicked and terrified the woman was.
The chain coiled around her body, revealing her sobbing face, streaked with tears.
"No! Let go, let go of me! I’m not going to die here like that idiot did! Aaahh!! Let goooo!!"
Alongside the woman, Bell did the same thing to the hypnotized victim, though with a great deal more care and gentleness, of course.
Eiros watched calmly, then asked:
"So, what do we do now?" His gaze flicked toward the black slime, which hadn’t moved from its spot at all. "...That thing can’t be destroyed, and it doesn’t even seem to be actively trying to find a body to use as a vessel."
Remembering how it had killed the man who’d offered himself up as a vessel.
"Hmm... let’s just wait a bit longer—" Bell’s words cut off, since the thing finally started moving, slowly crawling across the wrecked ground left over from the fight.
Its mass shifted, slowly making its way toward a tree not too far away.
Eiros and Bell just watched in silence. But both of them could clearly sense that something about this was genuinely wrong, and dangerous.
"...Are we really just going to stand here?"
"Quiet."
Eiros felt cold sweat trickling down his back. The black slime reached the tree, and touched it.
The next instant, its mass spread wide, forming a massive clump. Then, slowly, it seeped inward, as though merging into one with the tree itself.
The leaves wilted, the trunk grew thin and withered, its once-healthy color turning dark and rotten.
But that wasn’t the actual problem. The real problem was, the ground beneath Eiros and Bell’s feet slowly began to tremble, and neither of them took the risk—they immediately started putting distance between themselves and it, giving it room to grow.
Rumble—!!
The next instant, a dense, terrifying accumulation of Soul Essence gathered in one spot. Along with it, the tree slowly grew larger and larger, while the trees around it seemed to lose all their nutrients, wilting completely under that overwhelming pressure.
Rumble—!! Rumble—!!
"No...! Get me out of here, please...! I don’t want to die...!"
Ignoring the woman’s increasingly panicked screams, Bell and Eiros couldn’t tear their eyes away from what was happening.
Eiros’s smile looked utterly drained of life, his face full of genuine unease as he said:
"...That thing is using the tree as a host...? Is that even possible?"
Bell answered that question instantly. "What are you talking about? Trees fall under the category of living things too. They breathe, so yeah, I guess it’s possible."
"Ah, right..."
The ground beneath them kept rumbling. Forcing Eiros and Bell to keep putting more distance between themselves and it, and by then, the tree had already grown so massive and tall that Eiros and Bell looked like tiny animals standing before it.
Its thick leaves blocked out the sunlight, its trunk had grown enormous, an overwhelming stench of rot poured out from that monster, and worst of all, dark, sticky roots could be seen floating in the air.
Eiros and Bell didn’t get a single moment to think before those roots shot toward them, intent on tearing them apart.
"Damn it!"
Bell cursed. With two people to protect at once, this fight was genuinely getting difficult for her. On top of that, White Swan was only an Awakened-tier fighter, and in this particular battle, he wasn’t exactly someone she could rely on much.
Especially now that Bell realized the tree itself was at the Luminous tier.
Craaack—!
Meanwhile, Eiros watched two enormous roots, each about twice his own width, closing in on him from both sides at once.
Unlike Bell, he could probably still fight through this. But because of that earlier poison, he could feel his left leg slowly losing all sensation.
That left him feeling somewhat crippled. But what else could he do?
Craaack—!! Spark—!
He drew his sword. The heavy, massive blade came up, red lightning crackling nonstop.
Channeling soul essence, Eiros reinforced his thigh, forcing it to keep working. The next instant, he dodged one of the roots.
Boom—!
The sound of an explosion echoed beside him, followed by another. Eiros dodged to the side, more precisely, climbing up onto the root that had just slammed into the ground.
Boom—!! Boom—!! Bam!!
Across from him, he saw another root come crashing down into the ground. Meanwhile, Bell kept dodging on her end.
"Hey! What’s the plan?" Eiros shouted, raising his sword and driving it downward.
Stab—!! Spurt!
He drove it into the root, revealing dark, thick blood spurting out, splattering across his face.
Bell, on her end, looked like she was struggling, but still managed to speak up:
"What else? Run, you idiot!"
But the tree clearly had no intention of giving them any chance to flee.
***