"[Awaken!]"
"[Grand Thunder Barrage!]"
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Boom boom boom boom boom --
Lightning turned into a silver pillar of light, striking directly onto Revis at almost zero distance.
The terrifying thunder became calamity, rampaging through the narrow, elongated crystal street!
"Bang, bang, bang, bang --"
The beautiful, dreamlike cyan crystal clusters were mercilessly shattered into powder under this strike, reaching all the way to the end.
The ground was plowed into shallow pits, black scorch marks and lingering sparks flickering in the passage, the terrifying destructive power of magic once again became the ultimate trump card to overturn the situation.
"Fron, are you hurt?"
The golden-haired girl wrapped in wind had a trace of tension show on her otherwise expressionless face, lips pressed tightly as she gripped her silver rapier.
"With you drawing her attention, the pressure is much lighter. I finally have room to use parallel chanting."
Yes, before it wasn't that parallel chanting wasn't applicable, but that Revis' pressure on Fron was too overwhelming for him to spare even a sliver of focus to use magic.
Besides, he wasn't without retreat. Ais' presence nearby meant he didn't need to risk his life, if he could just stall until the golden haired girl arrived, even if they couldn't beat the enemy, escaping would be more than enough.
That's the way of adventurers, Fron showed this trait perfectly. If you can't win, just run, why die for pride and suffer in vain?
Now relaxed, he gasped for breath, and both turned their gaze toward the devastated end of the street, beneath the dungeon's enclosing walls.
Amid the scattered crystal clusters, a tattered, blood-soaked figure slowly straightened, one hand braced against the ground, standing back up, and cast a complicated look at them.
"This wind... I see. So you are Aria. To think 'it' entrusted them to search so long without any results, what useless trash. I never thought I'd meet you here. Is this considered an extra harvest? Even if I lose that thing, just taking you back is enough."
Despite her severe injuries, her face showed no concern. She wiped the blood from her lips, her cold eyes and smile locking on them.
'Aria?'
Ais' intense fighting spirit instantly collapsed. Her golden eyes widened in shock as she stared at the red-haired woman opposite.
The girl's heart wavered, her defenses pierced by a single sentence.
"Come with me, Aria. She wants to see you."
Ais' delicate, beautiful face was filled with panic, gripping her rapier tightly, voice trembling.
"Where did you hear that name? Who are you? Why are you calling me Aria!"
Fron planted his staff into the ground, lowering his short sword slightly, looking in astonishment at the girl beside him, shock in his heart.
'She really made Ais shout like that?'
"Hehehe..."
The woman laughed, her lips parting, about to speak, but at that moment, a sudden sound burst forth!
"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
An ear-piercing, sickening scream came from somewhere behind, instantly drawing all three of their gazes!
"Lulune?"
The canine girl of the [Hermes] Familia stared in terror at the green orb that had suddenly flown out of her pack by itself, completely clueless as to what was happening.
This sight left Fron's face frozen in horror!
--?
Sure enough, the fetus inside the orb abruptly opened eyes as large as lightbulbs, glaring viciously at the golden-haired swordswoman, its expression grotesque.
It seemed to want to break free from the orb's seal, struggling desperately inside. Its tiny hands and deformed head quickly stretched out through the orb's membrane!
"Aaaaahhhhhhh --"
The deformed fetus floated in midair, and then, from some strange power within its tiny body, it suddenly flew at a speed beyond the naked eye.
"Whoosh!", The orb tore through space, shooting straight toward Ais' face, as if to slam right into her!
But Fron understood, this wasn't just a collision. It was trying to parasitize Ais!
This orb fetus was in fact the embryonic avatar of a Demi-Spirit. It could choose its host to parasitize, merging into a dual monster form, inheriting the host's physical talents and abilities.
More terrifying, it was a [Variant Species], with a fundamental difference from other dungeon monsters.
It could use magic!
And not just any magic, but inherited [Spirit Magic] directly from the Corrupted Spirit!
Ais had already been wary of the fetus's movements, dodging its attempt to capture her with incredible speed, stepping aside.
...
"Splat."
Like a true infant, the fetus couldn't properly control its body. Its great inertia sent it crashing straight into the bud of a monstrous Violas writhing on the crystal wall.
Its body stuck to it completely, as though imprinted, skin fused to skin. Immediately, the man-eating flower, Violas began undergoing earth-shaking change, with the fetus at its core.
Disgusting crimson veins pulsed and spread across the flower, its already shrieking voice rising sharper, higher, like a chant.
The bud burst open, its grotesque maw growling in pain, and then... in the next instant, three surges of swelling energy erupted.
The plant's tissue wove itself into armor, its form growing beyond human comprehension, evolving, its upper body, arms, and head gradually taking on the outline of a woman.
This sight left Fron, Ais, and Lulune frozen in place, their pupils reflecting the evolving figure, a bone-chilling, world-shattering terror flooding their bodies.
"Tch, damn it!"
The red-haired Revis cursed under her breath. This sudden development seemed to be beyond even her carefully laid plans.
Everyone knew her goal was to retrieve the orb fetus. But now... the fetus had completed parasitism.
That plan was ruined.
Because what it parasitized wasn't a powerful monster, it was just a mass-produced Violas!
"Pa-parasitized...? So disgusting!" Lulune clutched her throat, bending over weakly, gagging.
As that humanoid monster gradually evolved its form, Ais trembled in fear, powerless, her grip loosening. The silver rapier slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.
Her spirit and blood resonated with "that thing," waves of indescribable sensation relentlessly assaulting her mental defenses, she hugged her shoulders tightly, crouching down.
A contamination of the spirit, from her bloodline itself!
"Ais! Snap out of it!" Ignoring the monster's screaming spiritual wave, Fron yanked the girl up by her arm, pulling her roughly to her feet.
But... what greeted him were her empty, lifeless eyes, and tears streaming from their corners...