Chapter 553: The Source of Beast Blood
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 553: The Source of Beast Blood
"As expected, it wasn't going to end that easily, was it?"
Looking at the little girl—who no longer possessed a shred of her previous pitiable aura and had instead become ghastly and hideous—Muen wasn't frightened. He merely let out a helpless sigh.
Meeting a lost, crying little girl in the middle of the night was never a good sign to begin with. Now, to be so "passionately" clung to... At this rate, people are going to mistake me for some kind of stalker or a creepy pedo-alchemist.
"So, which Evil God do you serve as a lapdog for?"
Muen didn't hesitate. Before his opponent could act, he swiftly snapped his fingers.
Sizzle.
The Holy Light remaining in the girl's wounds was suddenly triggered. Carrying the purest power of purification, a white radiance surged upward, seeking to erase all filth.
This was a contingency Muen had left in her body just to be safe.
Regardless of which Evil God she drew power from, the Holy Light Elizabeth had poured into her was bound to severely wound or even kill her. After all, this was Holy Light personally blessed with Holy Water by the current Saintess herself. Its level was far beyond that of ordinary—
Slap.
Muen’s confident expression suddenly froze.
He watched as the sacred light bloomed, and while a flicker of pain did indeed cross the girl's face, it didn't last.
She reached out and—as if swatting a mosquito—slapped the spot where the Holy Light was erupting. Just like that... the most sacred, purest light was extinguished by a single palm.
Extinguished... snuffed out... gone...
The unbelievable image played on loop in Muen’s mind. He thought he had fallen under some illusion again. Black Flame covered his pupils, but the scene remained just as horrifying.
Only this time, with his vision enhanced by the pitch-black fire, Muen discovered the root of the problem.
"There's no... Evil God power?"
Deep within Muen’s consciousness space, the sun wheel of Black Flame and white corona continued to rotate silently. The terrifying authority formed by the fusion of multiple Evil Gods' powers showed no sign of being provoked. This meant the little girl before him had absolutely no connection to any Evil God.
She wasn't an evil believer, nor was she a creation of an Evil God.
That was why the Holy Light he had left in her body was so weak. Without the empowerment of the Power of Faith, and with the target not being an evil believer, the Holy Light could only manifest as ordinary high-intensity light and heat.
The power of that light and heat wasn't even as strong as Muen’s own Illumination Spell.
"If you don't have the power of an Evil God, then what kind of monster are you?"
Muen’s expression turned grave as he began to re-evaluate the girl.
"Wuu—"
After a brief silence, a sobbing wail once again leaked from the girl's pale lips. No emotion could be seen in her dead, hollow eyes, but as the crying grew louder, Muen felt the surroundings suddenly become "lively."
Countless blood-red threads extended and connected. The massive web that had already been woven here seemed to come alive. Every node constructed from the severed limbs of the beast-transformed ones began to throb rhythmically, as if linked by a common pulse.
Thump. Thump. Thump-thump.
It sounded like a heartbeat. The dead, mangled remains burst with life force once more under the stimulation of those threads. This massive surge of vitality, following the roar of that core-like heartbeat, converged into the little girl’s body.
Supported by countless blood-red threads, the girl floated into the air. Within a few short breaths, Muen felt something that had been gestating inside her for a long time... slowly waking up.
"This is..."
Muen’s expression shifted slightly. His figure blurred as he vanished from his spot.
Where he had just been standing, writhing blood-red threads extended out under the cover of blood and night. Finding no target, they curled about aimlessly in confusion.
"I see how it is."
Standing on slightly higher ground, Muen adjusted his top hat and looked down at the girl.
Those blood-red threads had indeed constructed a web, but to describe it more accurately... it was more like a dinner plate.
A plate woven from countless crimson filaments, and the food on that plate was, naturally, the beast-transformed ones... and the people among them.
The enemy's purpose in releasing the beast-transformed ones wasn't to kill the First Prince with them, but to use them to stall the group and then... feed them to this little girl as nourishment.
Muen felt a lingering fear. He suddenly realized that if he hadn't chosen to stay behind to hold these things off, and had instead tried to break through with the others, the cumbersome carriage convoy would have been ensnared by those beast-transformed ones.
First Prince Albert would likely have truly become the girl's food by now.
Those blood-red threads were so well-hidden that even he had barely noticed them. The First Prince, a mere ordinary human, would have been drained dry in an instant without even a chance to react.
"The threat level is no less than a large-scale Evil God contamination. Just what are you?" Muen whispered, but there was no answer.
More doubts surged in his heart, but Muen didn't have the time to search for answers one by one.
Besides, compared to observation with the naked eye, Muen always believed that close contact was the easiest way to unearth an opponent's hidden secrets.
With a flash of his silhouette, Muen no longer hesitated and charged straight at the girl.
The blade light was like the moon, clear and cold.
The countless blood-red threads pressing down along with the severed limbs were instantly parted before the extremely sharp blades, like a miracle of a god parting the sea.
In the gap created by Time Dilation, a figure swept through the opening at high speed, lunging directly for the girl herself.
The girl's eyes remained pale and dead. Her head turned slightly, seemingly sensing the approaching cold glint at the last second.
She only had time to raise her thin, withered arm.
Without a doubt, her arm was sliced open again. The clean cut through flesh and white bone was clearly visible; such mortal flesh could never hope to withstand Elizabeth’s sharpness.
Yet, the girl’s pale, weeping face still showed no sign of pain.
Muen frowned. He still didn't feel the sensation of actually wounding her with that strike.
His gaze quickly shifted from the girl's face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl's arm break off once more.
But he hadn't swung a second time.
Therefore... it wasn't that her arm had been cut off, but rather that a stitched seam on her arm had suddenly split open of its own accord.
And this time, what emerged from the split wasn't a wound of flesh and bone, but something... hideous and rapidly expanding!
Muen’s face changed. The Death Premonition in his heart suddenly shrieked!
"Dammit, what the hell is it this time?"
Muen cursed under his breath. At the critical moment, he practicedly crossed his dual daggers in front of his chest.
Boom!
The flesh within the split of the girl's slender arm—an arm so thin an adult could easily encircle it with a thumb and forefinger—suddenly ballooned. In an instant, it transformed into a hideous, scaled giant claw!
It looked like the claw of some massive bear-shaped magical beast. Under the starlight, the giant claw possessed a grim beauty, but as it descended, Muen felt that same terrifying sensation of a mountain falling that he had experienced when Indra King struck him.
"Crap... what kind of 'strength of a bear' is this?"
Muen was slammed directly into the ground like a sandbag.
Under the terrifying force, his internal energy and blood churned. Muen couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of congested blood.
He wiped it away casually and slowly stood up.
But before he could catch his breath, a massive shadow loomed over him again.
"How... so fast?"
A speed so great that even he nearly failed to react shouldn't have appeared on a humanoid monster with a hideous giant claw. But Muen had no room to think. As the Death Premonition blared again, the heat from the Alchemy Core on his back running at full power instantly dispelled the slight chill of the spring night.
The claw brushed past Muen, leaving terrifying gouges dozens of meters long in the ground. In the gap provided by dozens-fold Time Dilation, Muen finally saw the reason for the girl's incredible speed.
It was a pair of massive wings.
Pitch-black scales shimmered with a cold glint, and hideous bone spurs pierced the sky. When those wings unfurled, it was as if a boundless dark cloud had descended.
Those were... a pair of dragon wings!
The dragon wings spread wide, and endless gales lifted her small yet eerily massive body, granting her terrifying speed.
But how could such a pair of dragon wings appear on a little girl?
Just as Muen was stunned by the wings, the stitched marks on the girl's chest also suddenly split open. A massive mouthpart, accompanied by worm-like fleshy limbs, lunged out. It aimed at Muen and snapped shut!
"Begone!"
Muen certainly wasn't going to give her a second chance for a sneak attack. Dozens of thunderclaps roared in an instant. A blade light even more dazzling than before tore through the worm's fleshy body from the inside out.
The girl's brow furrowed slightly. This was the first time she showed a clear sign of pain. She flapped her wings and retreated rapidly once more.
"Just what is..."
Muen didn't pursue. He had taken a slight hit during that hurried exchange, and his blood was still churning.
However, the churning of his blood didn't bother him. Rather, it was the girl's current appearance that shocked him more and more.
The claw of a bear-shaped magical beast.
The wings of a giant dragon.
And that strange worm mouthpart.
Each one was far larger than the girl's own body, yet they grew out of her with eerie precision.
No, it shouldn't be called "growing." It was more like "stitching." Those parts clearly belonged to once-formidable magical beasts. Even now, Muen could feel the pressure of Overlord-class magical beasts emanating from those limbs.
The problem was, shouldn't this kind of fusion between different creatures or even different species be a "gift" from the Mother of Abundance? Why was it that even now, he still couldn't feel a trace of Evil God power from this girl?
Could it be that she was suppressing the rejection reaction between these various organs and parts solely through her own bloodline?
Wait, bloodline?
Muen’s eyes flickered. As if realizing something, he looked at the severed remains of the beast-transformed ones that were still throbbing under the control of the blood-red threads.
Beastification.
The drug.
The research laboratory.
The transferred research subjects.
Magical beast limbs.
Stitch marks.
...All the clues finally connected at this moment.
This little girl was, without a doubt, the origin of the beastification drug. She was the source of the process that turned innocent people into mindless monsters.
"I see..."
Muen looked up, gazing at the monster-like little girl with sadness and pity.
"Those magical beast limbs... they were forcibly sewn into your body, weren't they?"