Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Shadows of Defilement
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“Oh, tentacles? Is that like tentacle hentai or something? Melting clothes and all? They even do tentacle corruption, right?”
“Purity soils the most easily. That's why it's so stimulating... unbearably so.”
A killer who had slaughtered countless humans.
Looking so utterly holy.
It only made him more curious.
The moment that steely gaze drowned in terror, her neck snapping under his hand.
How ecstatic would that be?
“I want to grind that woman down my way. Break her. Stain her red.”
His heart pounded. He'd imprisoned countless humans before, put their despair on display.
This feeling was on another level entirely.
“Ugh!”
His head felt like it was overheating, burning from the inside.
The Asrania he'd seen before never stirred emotions like this.
What was the reason?
“Haa, haa...”
He wanted to make her wail. Scream. Watch her crumble wretchedly beneath him.
“Ah, no denying it.”
Sage's eyes glazed over. A grotesque smile crept across his lips.
“This is lust.”
Like a man lost in pleasure, he drew in a long, ragged breath.
“Hooo...”
At that moment, a voice drifted from beyond the wall.
『Long time no see. Calendula.』
Sage's mouth twisted.
Marigold. Axiom #30.
The mischievous brat whose growth had stalled.
But...
Missing Axiom #3?
He had no idea how Asrania knew something even he didn't.
“Heh... hehehe.”
The thrill of eavesdropping on secrets. His skin tingled with excitement.
“This is just too perfect!”
As the conversation wound down, Asrania whipped her head around.
Staring straight at this wall.
“...!”
Cold sweat trickled down Sage's spine.
'Eye contact...!'
It should look like marble from her side.
Yet she'd looked right here. As if she'd sensed his presence.
'Did she feel my presence? Or just a gaze?'
Luckily, a girl who was the spitting image of Asrania came running up, and the suspicion seemed to fade.
But what came next brought even greater excitement.
『I only need Esira. I don't need anything else.』
The girl, a miniature Asrania, clung desperately.
『Mom...』
『Hm?』
『I want to call you Mom, Asrania.』
Mom?
“...Mom?”
Axiom #4 had become a mother?
Now it all made sense.
Asrania had become that holy figure because she was a mother.
The scene beyond the glass was bizarrely beautiful.
Identically snow-white hair.
Two pairs of snowflake eyes embracing each other.
“Aah... this is driving me insane.”
Sage raked his nails across the wall. A groan escaped his lips.
White wasn't just one sheet anymore.
Two sheets.
Pristine purity laid side by side.
A large blank canvas and a small one.
What kind of picture would emerge if he defiled them both at once?
Defiling the cub right in front of the dam—what color would that arrogant face crumble into?
Breaking the dam before the cub's eyes—how pathetically would that little girl wail in terror?
“Hehe, hahahahaha...”
Visions of blood and screams swirled through his mind.
At the same time, conviction struck.
The impregnable Asrania finally had a fatal chink in her armor.
'Her weakness is that girl.'
“Haa, haa...”
Sage leaned his forehead against the glass wall, exhaling excited breaths.
'How to exploit it. Asrania would demolish the whole building. First, take the daughter hostage—'
He was lost in happy scheming when it happened.
Sss.
A faint presence brushed past from behind.
A chilling, repulsive like needles scraping his skin.
“...?”
Sage jerked his head around.
No one but him could enter this sector. Only the architect.
“What the hell is that?”
The darkness pooling on the floor gathered of its own accord, taking form.
“Tentacles? What...?”
Shadow.
Black ink spilled across the floor, sticky darkness come alive.
It stretched long like octopus limbs, writhing.
Sage narrowed his eyes.
'A monster? How'd it slink in here?'
This building was Axiom #5's masterpiece.
Flawless.
Not even rats or cockroaches could enter without permission.
Yet some low-grade freak was dirtying his domain?
It felt like a blemish on perfect design.
Revulsion surged first.
Irritated, Sage flicked his finger.
'Clean it up.'
Kiiiek—!
The corridor walls and ceiling emitted grotesque noises.
Marble floor bulged up, ceiling fixtures twisted into spikes raining toward the shadow.
A mere shadow would be crushed like fate—
“Huh?”
In the instant the walls closed in, it slipped through the gap.
Then reformed.
'Not your average monster.'
The shadow slithered up the wall, lunging.
Distance closed in a blink.
“You don't know your place.”
Humiliation burned up his throat.
Spitting in his domain and still moving freely. Disgusting.
The moment a tentacle reached for Sage's ankle.
Snap.
Sage flicked his finger once.
He stood in place.
Yet the distance between them yawned open to dozens of meters instantly.
Tiles multiplied like cells, forcibly extending the gap.
“This is my domain.”
Sage snapped again.
“Structure realignment.”
The smooth marble walls shattered into hundreds of tile shards.
Each one morphed into razor-sharp spinning sawblades, erupting outward.
Viiiing! Viiiiing!
The noise filled the corridor.
“Get shredded.”
Sawblades from all sides bore down on the shadow.
Its fluid form stuttered rigidly. Tentacles tore into pieces.
“Stupid bastard.”
Challenging him inside here was like prey splashing in stomach acid.
The tentacles were digested now. Just scraps left.
Sage brushed dust from his collar.
“That said...”
His eyes narrowed.
He'd caught the rat, but the building had a hole now.
“Gotta check the entry point.”
Backtrack and patch the flaw.
“Any more monsters lurking?”
The building stayed silent.
No remnants.
Sage dropped his guard, checked the control panel.
'No trace of entry, clearly.'
Plus magic suppression installed specially for Axiom gatherings.
Unless an old-timer with deep inner energy, no magic use.
Drip.
Something sticky fell from the ceiling onto Sage's shoulder.
Cold. Bone-chilling frost.
'...Above?'
His pupils contracted sharply. No presence detected.
Sage looked up.
On the ceiling, a black mass hung grotesquely like a chandelier.
Pulsing slowly like a heartbeat, then—
Boom!
It crashed down on Sage's crown before he could scream.
“This...!”
Sage reflexively threw up his hands.
Just activate his power, an attack like this—
It was fast. He'd let his guard down thinking the building clear. No time for danger signals.
A sharp thorn burst from the black mass.
'Too late—'
Stab!
His fingers froze mid-snap in the air. No crisp snap sound came.
Hot fury erupted from his chest center.
Sage looked down at his trembling chest with bulging eyes.
From solar plexus straight through to his back. A pitch-black shadow blade had pierced clean through his torso.
“Guh, heuk...”
Dark red blood clots gushed from his mouth.
Sage's eyes flew wide in disbelief.
His perfect sanctuary.
'My domain... pierced by some black blob?'
Unbelievable.
The building had shown no monster response.
As consciousness faded, a thought flashed.
'Has the entire building already been devoured by this shadow?'
The shadow writhed inside his guts.
Like a parasite filling an empty shell.
Repulsive swelling from within.
Moments later.
Sage, head bowed with the shadow impaled in his chest, snapped his eyes open.
Unfocused pupils spun grotesquely. Blood-smeared lips twitched.
“...Perverted bastard.”
“Ah, Black Purple? One thing I'm curious about.”
“Y-Yes! Yesyesyes! Wh-What is it, Lady Asrania?!”
Black Purple. Axiom member and self-proclaimed monster enthusiast.
Once she latched onto a monster, she had to dissect it to the bone to satisfy herself. A dangerous mix of otaku traits and mad scientist vibes.
“Ever heard of the Abyss?”
“Th-The Abyss...?”
Black Purple's eyes widened into circles. She adjusted her glasses and asked cautiously.
“H-How do you know that name, Lady Asrania?”
“I asked first.”
“Eek! S-Sorry! Spare my life, please!”
Black Purple bowed so low her back nearly folded like a flip phone. Trembling, she slowly explained.
“Ah, it's a monster from ancient legends passed down forever. Some say it's a primordial lifeform, or it existed since the mythic age...”
“What's its true nature?”
“Almost no records, so I can't say for sure... Ah, not that I don't know! It's mostly described in texts as a tentacle cluster...”
The Commander listening quietly cut in abruptly.
“Oh, tentacles? Like tentacle stuff? Melting clothes and such? They do corruption too, yeah?”
Thwack.
Reina drove her elbow into the Commander's side.
“Owowow!”
“Commander. What vulgar nonsense is that?!”
“Hey, I was just asking about monster traits, why hit me...!”
“You nearly caused a disaster earlier, and you're flapping your mouth again?”
As the Commander writhed in injustice, the one whose face turned beet red was Black Purple.
“T-Tentacle corruption... such specialized terminology...”
“...”
Why was she more embarrassed?
Black Purple cleared her throat a few times, then continued with a flushed face.
“Ahem! Anyway! It's known as an entity of extremely low intelligence. Driven purely by instinct, mindlessly destroying and devouring everything. A brute.”
“Simple?”
“Yes. No ego, no pain, no senses. Recorded as a base lifeform.”
No emotions either?
I furrowed my brow.
I recalled the day I first met the Commander.
That day, I had clashed with the Abyss.
Everything visible in the darkness vanished in straight lines.
Hundreds of trees ahead were sliced silently like tofu.
Treetops exploded as if shelled by cannons, debris raining like a storm.
The black tentacle clusters touched by the trajectories evaporated instantly.
Their severed ends bubbled like foam, collapsing. The survivors huddled as if in agony.
No, less agony—more like bewilderment.
'Bewildered?'
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
The Abyss turned tail and fled.
'The Abyss... fleeing?'
Monsters ignorant even of death, terrified of dying.
'Something's off. Are the records wrong?'
Can't trust texts 100%.
Or this shady woman was hiding info.
I played dumb and asked again.
“No other abilities? Beyond physical force.”
“Well... it's such an ancient species, probably extinct now. No recent sightings.”
Esira shook her head.
She didn't say it, but the three of us had faced an “extinct” tentacle assault firsthand.
The Commander, mouth itching, blurted out.
“Not true? I saw one recently. In the forest.”
“Whaaat?!”
“Thanks to Asrania, I survived.”
Malboro's eyebrow twitched as he listened from the side.
Black Purple jolted like she'd been shocked, eyes nearly popping.
“R-Really!? The legendary monster? It exists?!”
“Yeah. Ran into it in the forest.”
Black Purple stomped excitedly, unable to contain herself. She leaned right into the Commander's face.
“How sticky were the tentacles?”
Question too low-level.
“Didn't fight, so not sure.”
“Th-Then Lady Asrania! How springy were they? Suction cup pressure? Mucus acidity?”
“Why do you ask?”
I dislike answering questions with questions, but I needed her intent first.
Black Purple twisted her body, face rapturous.
“So curious about the viscosity. Nngh, sucker grip strength... that slimy texture...!”
“Why are you curious?”
“It's on my bucket list!”
“Bucket list?”
“Someday, I'll cultivate my own tentacles and have all sorts of fun experiments...”
Too depraved for scholarly pursuit.
'This woman's unhinged too.'
Not the boss corrupted by tentacles. An Axiom corrupted by tentacles.
Then Marigold elbowed my side.
“Honestly, I'm the most normal one here, right?”
...Admittedly.
With juniors like this, even child-form Marigold seemed sane by comparison.
“Ah, sorry to keep you waiting.”
A male voice echoed from afar.
A man emerged with elegant footsteps.
It was Sage.
His black coat hem swept the floor like waves. Behind trailed an unnaturally long shadow.
A smile spread on his lips. Smooth, excessively leisurely—like a mask.
Sage stopped before us and slowly opened his palm.
“Welcome.”
He bowed gracefully. No excess motion, no falter in demeanor.
“To my tower.”