Our Family Has Fallen

The longsword cleaved through the flesh, but instead of blood, what poured forth was pure life energy, washing over them. Just one touch and the exhaustion on their bodies dissipated.

What is going on here?

Others joined the attack, Dismas slashed with a short sword, slicing open large swaths of flesh, while Balistan wielded his hammer to smash rotten meat.

Yet, what sprayed from the wounds was not fresh blood but dissipating life energy. Sometimes, it also carried a corruption that caused the flesh to decay.

Reynard and Balistan remained unharmed, but Dismas was unfortunate enough to be affected. The life energy that was nourishing one moment contained a hidden rot the next, causing his flesh to dissolve and decay, stripping away his life energy.

Life energy this rich is a poison, because human flesh cannot withstand it. Thankfully, Lance was here and easily dispelled the corruption.

Lance could afford to watch, but when had the Limping Walker in the void ever encountered such dense life energy? It went berserk, its tentacles flailing madly as it rushed toward the Heart of Incubation to swallow it.

"Get away!" Lance warned, signaling Reynard and the others to evade. His furrowed brow showed his displeasure with the Limping Walker; these Void Demons were indeed difficult to control.

Their attacks seemed to provoke the Heart of Incubation, which retaliated to protect what was nurturing inside.

Disperse!

The Heart of Incubation swelled as if inhaling, then shrank the next moment, releasing a miasma of corruption from the gaps in the flesh.

The Limping Walker, with its large body, inevitably came into contact with a significant part of it. Even though its resistance was decent, it couldn’t hold out, and large areas of rot appeared on its body.

The fool!

Lance was speechless—how did the hired brawler turn out to be such an idiot?

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on such matters. Lance had no intention of treating the Limping Walker, letting it suffer a bit to calm down.

In contrast, he drew Wolf Fang and charged toward the Heart of Incubation. Since there was no need for suppression against any enemy, there was only a threat that needed to be ended swiftly!

He raised his hand to offer a sacrifice, but there was no response. It was clear this thing was truly alive; he immediately swung his blade to slash, calling out.

"Quick!"

Reynard and the others followed, tirelessly swinging their weapons around the Heart of Incubation.

Lance’s ferocity in killing was unmatched. His sword slashed multiple times in a second, turning large swathes of flesh and the exuding life energy didn’t have time to dissipate. Instead, it congealed into mist, even crystallizing into blood-red snowflakes that clung to him.

Reynard and his group also fought fiercely, not to mention the Limping Walker’s greed, forcing the Heart of Incubation to hatch prematurely.

The exaggerated tremors seemed to throw all of space into chaos, and the flesh that covered the Heart of Incubation began to mutate.

The decaying flesh flowed as described by the Elder, coalescing toward the front, as if peeling away the surface layer of decayed flesh.

What emerged was indeed something heart-shaped, with its large arteries clearly visible.

The decaying, flowing flesh condensed in a breath into a twisted figure leaning against the giant heart, seemingly parasitic on it.

The figure’s design was exaggerated, towering four or five meters high, with long arms stretching out. Its form was distinct amidst the flesh, but it looked skinned, exposing not full but rather lean muscle.

The lower half was entirely covered in corrupted flesh, merging with the tentacles that supported it below, transforming into a tangled pillar of flesh, making it impossible to discern their shape as tentacles.

Within the flesh clinging to the humanoid form, there were many cavities, from which emerged an uncountable number of chaotic and exaggerated black eyeballs, blinking in time with the heartbeat rhythm.

The head was only covered in a small amount of flesh, exposing the skull, which made it hard to call it human, just humanoid.

For the skull was twisted, with non-human grotesque features sprouting sharp bones, and the eye sockets were filled with black eyeballs of various sizes.

Most striking was the crown-like bone plate growing on its head, connected to blood vessels of varying size which burrowed into the heart.

This was the Elder’s truest form, the root of Hamlet’s despair, the origin of all disasters—the Heart of Darkness!

"Behold, the heart of this world! The origin of life, father and mother, beginning and end! Once our creator... and our destroyer."

The Elder spread his arms, displaying his boundless power to everyone.

But the old thing might scare others, but it had no effect on Lance.

Because Lance saw at once that the Elder’s current state was incomplete. From the formed upper body and the muscle attached to it, one could see he was constructing his own body.

But just as he had only half a body, the power sacrificed by Hamlet’s millions of lives was not enough to complete the entire transformation.

In a way, the dungeon was his physical form in the real world, and the flesh could only fill three floors. The second floor was just a part of it, similar to the Elder’s current state, with only the upper body formed.

As for the lower body hidden within the decayed flesh, it was much like the first floor of the dungeon, with only the massive stone pillars remaining—wasn’t that just a skeleton?

More importantly, the Elder lacked the [Heart of Flesh] he had painstakingly cultivated, so he could only depend on that strange giant heart.

As seen now, the first two stages could only create small figures, and leaving this place, even resembled the phantoms encountered in the corridors.

This was a constraint; the Elder was trapped here.

But none of that mattered anymore, because Lance was ready for carnage!

"Let us face the final darkness directly!"

Lance shouted, charging at the Elder with his blade.

The Elder, naturally, couldn’t let this happen. He bent over immediately, manipulating the numerous pipelines behind his head and on his back, opening his mouth toward Lance, unleashing a power.

Know the Truth!

The voice was just a form of information transmission, and even its capacity wasn’t much.

Then using supernatural power as a medium, what would that result in?

Instantly, a huge amount of chaotic information surged into Lance’s brain, flickering with all kinds of disordered images, exceeding the brain’s processing capacity, giving the sensation of the head burning and about to explode.

This wasn’t an attack on the soul. The Elder seemed to see that Lance was under Sanctuary’s protection, so he bundled various memories and poured them in all at once, attempting to drive him insane.

And indeed, at this moment, Lance’s movement stalled as he fell into stagnation, the pain visibly manifesting, unable to care about anything else, clutching his head, barely able to hold his weapon.

While the Elder reached out, trying to scoop up Lance, the others seeing this didn’t hesitate any longer, hurriedly launching attacks on the Elder to stop him.

And the first to act was the Limping Walker. It roared, stirring the space and drawing Lance back, then charged forward with a body not much smaller than the Elder’s, throwing wild tentacles.

The earlier battle left the Limping Walker feeling very stifled, and now it was ready to truly showcase its power and engage in a fierce fight.

The Limping Walker’s bizarre form slithered as if gliding through the void, its tentacles swinging and slapping down like giant clubs on the Elder’s body, causing the whole space to tremble with its wild power.

But the Elder was not to be underestimated, spreading his arms wide, chest thrust forward, the next second opening a horrifying mouth full of layered fangs in the chest and abdomen, from which multiple tentacles suddenly extended.

Penetrate the body and soul!

The tentacles pierced the Limping Walker’s body, causing several pods on its front to burst. The strange power instantly corroded the flesh tentacles.

Then it swung its tentacles, tearing at the Elder’s flesh with the bone blades atop, the fierce battle between them instilling fear in hearts.

Today, this was a battle of two titans!