Chapter 835: Source of Corruption |
835 Source of Corruption
As soon as Lumian's fingers touched the glossy black bone ring, he felt searing pain spread from the point of contact throughout his entire body.
He looked down to see thin wisps of purple-blue sulfur flames emerging from every pore, charring the surrounding skin bit by bit and giving off a pungent odor.
This pain was so familiar to Lumian that he merely furrowed his brow slightly, gritted his teeth, his expression barely changing.
He then took out the Devil's Whispers bone ring, slipping it onto his right ring finger with the twisted, agonized Devil's face facing up.
Lumian's gaze turned icy cold, a deep blackness forming in his blue irises that no light could penetrate.
The malice within him rapidly swelled, overwhelming the Ascetic's tolerance and clashing fiercely with his own will in a fragile balance, the excess spilling outward.
Lumian took out some Ice Lemon Fish fillets from his Traveler's Bag, stuffing them into his mouth and chewing to temporarily boost his fire resistance a bit. At the same time, he sensed the surrounding malice.
He was searching for the Mirror Person Guei!
With this premise, the Devil's Whispers also granted the Malice Perception ability, allowing the wearer to sense if those around them harbored ill intent. It could not detect dangers in their brewing stages like a true Devil, but it was still a mystical form of perception.
As long as the Mirror Person developed malicious intentions toward him within a certain distance, Lumian believed he could use Malice Perception to pinpoint their location!
Sulfur flames slowly burning across his body, Lumian's icy gaze swept the surrounding area littered with corpses clad in iron-black full-body armor amid smoldering fires, remnants of some recent slaughter.
Faint, nearly invisible flames also flickered at various points on the corpse mountain itself.
They illuminated the wasteland and sky, preventing total darkness from taking hold and allowing Lumian, Albus, and Celeste to remain visible despite no longer holding their carbide lamps or lanterns.
After just a second or two, the corners of Lumian's mouth curled into a cruel, cold smile.
He sensed intense malice directed at him from about ten meters behind and to the side!
It emanated from a corpse-no, from the smooth, mirror-black breastplate on the corpse.
Found you... Without turning around, Lumian abruptly teleported to the corpse's side amid his slow movements and activated the Mirror Cufflink.
Through the metal mirror's surface, Mirror Person Guei peered outward from within the black breastplate.
After discovering the two Demonesses had used the mirror world to reach this area, he had slipped out quietly, leaving it to Julie and Celeste.
He wasn't worried they would beat him to 0-01, since based on his knowledge and on-site investigations, he believed no one could gain 0-01's approval before its agent Wanak was eliminated. Brute force or exploiting loopholes would achieve nothing until the "throne" was vacant and chaos ensued, giving others an opportunity.
Guei felt relieved he had made this wise choice, having directly experienced the mirror world projection's destruction just now.
A mere aftershock of that apocalyptic scene could have vaporized him instantly.
Confirming Wanak's death, he then slipped back through an ordinary mirror world to the corpse mountain's vicinity, seeking a chance to gain 0-01's approval and take it for himself.
He saw Julie turning to filthy blood and fall, Albus Medici transforming into a fiery spear to stop it, Celeste screaming Albus's name in anguish, and Lumian Lee calmly putting on the ring, preparing to make his entrance and reap the spoils of victory.
An intense malice welled up within Guei: You're all obstructing me from completing my mission!
After entering Morora as one of the rare Readers turned Mirror Person, Guei had initially felt confident, supplementing his knowledge at the Knowledge Cathedral while conducting field investigations to gather intel for his final operation.
But after covertly observing the capabilities of Albus Medici, Wanak, Julie, and Lumian Lee, Guei began doubting himself.
Which of them could I actually defeat one-on-one by exploiting the special mirror world's power? Probably only Lumian Lee, the one my superior warned me to watch out for...
And when it comes to learning speed, although I far outpace Lumian, it seems I can't handle nearly as much corruption as him...
Am I really the one with the least hope among these people?
Shaken by these doubts, Guei devised a plan to lurk in the shadows, using his special nature to emerge once the heavyweights had clashed and weakened each other, then sweep up the remains.
So far, his plan had progressed smoothly.
The biggest obstacle, Wanak, and the most dangerous threat, Julie, were dead, their souls completely extinguished with no chance of revival through 0-01's leaking power as undead beings!
Once Albus Medici and Celeste decide the winner between them, I can join the fray, kill the survivor, and take on the weakest Lumian Lee alone...
Should I, should I ambush Lumian while he's off-guard? He's no Demoness or Mirror Person, with no substitute active, a single hit could kill him for real...
These malicious thoughts grew clearer and stronger in Guei's mind.
But before he could decide, Lumian's figure abruptly enlarged, appearing right before his eyes.
Then Lumian vanished from his sight.
In his place, a viscous pool of black liquid emerged underfoot, as if the deepest, most vile desires of the human heart had taken physical form.
Desire Incarnation!
The black liquid suddenly surged upward, enveloping Guei.
Crack!
The sound of shattering glass came from within the inky fluid as Guei's silhouette appeared on the edge of the dim, empty space behind the metal mirror.
He saw the liquid rapidly coalescing into Lumian's form, chuckling coldly with a fondness of teaching others. "Didn't know I had a Mirror Substitution, did you?"
A direct attack like this only costs me one mirror.
Before the words had left his mouth, an exceptionally violent emotion welled up within Guei.
He instinctively reached for his neck, feeling warm blood.
Pain immediately lanced into his mind.
Crack!
Guei deliberately triggered his own Mirror Substitution, shattering countless shards of glass that rained to the ground.
His silhouette now flickered in another corner behind the mirror, but a thin, deep bloody gash remained on his neck.
His emotions had become completely frenzied, vicious, and insane. His facial skin rapidly aged and withered like patches of brown tree bark. The words "my child, my child" echoed in his ears as flesh rippled on either shoulder, seeming to sprout additional heads.
His abdomen slowly swelled while his eyes took on a silvery-white with streaks of black. His aura rapidly dissipated as his body visibly decayed, chunks of flesh sloughing off and wriggling like maggots...
Lumian saw the various corruptions afflicting him directly manifested in this stark way.
It was a veritable smorgasbord!
When he used Desire Incarnation, that inky black pool didn't just contain his own emotions and desires, but also those from the corruptive emotions and desires deeply influencing him.
These higher-level corruptions would be difficult for any non-godhood being to resist-even Saints would suffer serious effects!
Facing such potent corruption, failure to proactively trigger one's Mirror Substitution immediately would be too late once the viscous fluid made contact. By then, it would already have tainted the target!
Now Guei was a horrifically corrupted monstrosity.
Seeing the Mirror Person degenerating toward an unspeakable form, Lumian had the intuition that continuing to observe might catalyze a similar transformation within himself.
He immediately stepped back, leaving the metal mirror surface to return to the corpse and surrounding wasteland at the base of the corpse mountain.
He then saw the smooth mirror-like surface of his chest plate, with tendrils of black mist seeping out, like illusory shadows seeming to try and grasp him.
Lumian swiftly turned his body and sprinted toward the corpse mountain peak.
Sometimes transforming into a blazing-white flaming spear to propel himself forward, sometimes teleporting dozens of meters, he continually climbed upward through the mountain formed of corpses and bones, scattered with lingering embers.
He aimed to lead the out-of-control, collapsing Mirror Person Guei, corrupted into monstrosity, to Albus Medici and Celeste, telling them "you're welcome."
Whether climbing by hand and foot, using his contracted abilities for short-range teleports, or ascending in flaming spear form, Lumian felt an immense oppressive presence behind him. An indescribable, constantly shifting black shadow was cast onto him and his path ahead, inevitably filling him with fear.
He now had no way to know what horrific form the pursuing monster had taken or what state it was in-he only knew for certain it was not something a normal human should observe or discern.
Suddenly, Guei's deep voice rang in his ears: "Mommy..."
Mommy... Lumian's mouth twitched, realizing that even with all the strange corruptions on himself, the one from the Great Mother, from the Omebella bloodline, still stood out as the most exceptional-after all, Mr. Fool had left behind a seal, not a corruption.
Lumian fled even faster.
Finally, he saw the summit of the corpse mountain peak, Celeste and Albus Medici.
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