Melissa gaped at the scene playing out in front of her eyes.
The moment Dr. Blessed injected Compound Erasure into the Nomu, a storm raged inside its distorted Spirit Body.
Countless golden motes of light, brighter than the ones the Nomu had, burst into the Spirit Body and began attacking its Spirit Particles.
The moment one of the foreign Spirit Particles collided with one the Nomu held, it ceased to exist.
No getting temporarily blocked from interacting with the physical realm — something that happened when Erasure Head used his Quirk, as Dr. Blessed had once told her.
No dimming, either, suggesting temporary or permanent deterioration of the Spirit Particles and Spirit Body at large, weakening the Quirk — something that had happened to all Quirk users over time as they aged.
It was complete erasure.
In just moments, every single Spirit Particle representing its Quirk Factor was gone, totally wiped from existence.
Melissa blinked, letting her Spirit Vision drop.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Dr. Blessed said, watching the Nomu. "How do you think Compound Erasure knows which Spirit Particles to erase and which to leave alone? If it killed every particle, the Spirit Body would never recover, and the person would become a walking corpse."
Melissa's heart raced.
Completely stunned, she stammered, "… Do they know that?"
If the Shie Hassaikai knew that truth, the world would become far worse, as the yakuza would do anything to exploit that power.
"No," Dr. Blessed said calmly. "Compound Erasure is something Overhaul — the Shie Hassaikai's leader — creates using a little girl named Eri. Using his Quirk, he destroys and recreates her body… over and over… to collect this substance, which is just a byproduct of her power."
Melissa gasped.
She had never met Eri, but she could almost hear the child's screams just from his words.
A deep sadness gripped her chest, bringing tears to her eyes, though the corners of her mouth curved into a tight smile. "… Our next mission, Leader?"
Dr. Blessed grinned back. "Of course. Why else would I bring it up? Still, it would take a massive supply of Compound Erasure and — if you'll pardon my bluntness — genius on my level to push it to this all-erasing state."
Melissa nodded, her hands balled into tight fists.
It meant that, as long as Leader didn't want to, there would be no Compound Erasure II on the market anytime soon.
It didn't mean that Shie Hassaikai would stop creating more of it; enough to supply it overseas as and when they saw fit.
A drug that could destroy Quirks…
The demand for it would never die down.
All the while, the little girl, Eri, would keep suffering at the hands of a monster… again and again.
Wasn't that the exact kind of nightmare she had run away from? Melissa thought.
"Haste is not our way," Dr. Blessed said, setting the empty glass tube aside. "Preparation is key, Miss Shield."
Preparation is key…
Melissa closed her eyes, and the wrinkles on her face vanished, leaving behind a small smile.
She looked at the Compound Monocle as Leader lifted it and gestured for her to reactivate Spirit Vision.
Learning from her previous tries, Melissa focused entirely on the Nomu.
She didn't know what to expect.
What happened next went beyond anything she could have imagined.
Similar to Compound Erasure's case, another deluge of foreign Spirit Particles occurred.
However, unlike Compound Erasure, these Spirit Particles were entirely wrong — … evil!
They were pitch-black.
The way they moved made them look like starving beasts.
The moment they struck any of the remaining Spirit Particles that Nomu's twisted Spirit Body possessed, they… devoured them.
In a matter of seconds, the evil motes of light consumed every single golden mote of light.
The surgically sewn Spirit Body, dull gray and golden before, slowly gained a blackish-red color, as if it was…
"… Corruption?!" Melissa gasped, her eyes locked on the creature.
"Keep watching," Dr. Blessed said quietly.
There was more?!
Melissa kept her gaze steady.
She quickly realized that eating the original particles was only step one.
The dark particles began moving through the Spirit Body with clear purpose.
From all sides, they swarmed together into a single point.
Slowly, they began arranging themselves in a closely packed matrix, comprising of various configurations.
Not only these configurations looked absurdly complex, but they also held strange symbols that looked just utterly… wrong.
A cold wave of déjà vu washed over her.
Dropping her Spirit Vision, she looked up at Dr. Blessed, who met her eyes with a dark smile.
"… Bioalchemy?" Melissa asked, dread sinking into her stomach.
At first, she had thought Leader explained Bioalchemy just so she could help build the Quirk Amplification Device.
That wasn't wrong, but it wasn't the whole story.
Seeing how Compound Monocle worked…
"It seems," Leader said with a nod, "He has always been after my Quirk. The story that Compound Monocle turns you into a Monocle by praying to a God, frees you from the shackles, is just a cover. In reality, it eats the Spirit Particles, corrupts the Spirit Body, and spreads like cancer — granting powers tied to a specific Pathway."
"… I see…" Melissa said slowly. "So Compound Monocle is really just a replacement for predigested Potion?"
Dr. Blessed shook his head. "It's far worse than that. Look closely…"
Melissa tapped into her Spirit Vision for the fourth time, her head throbbing as her spiritual energy ran low.
The dark cluster of particles inside the Nomu was still there.
It wasn't just sitting there, though.
Thin, dark threads reached out from the cluster, digging into the Spirit Body and slowly eating away at it.
Now Melissa realized what she was looking at. "A sacrifice…" she whispered. "Compound Monocle doesn't just make Beyonders using Bioalchemy's principles. It's…"
A red flash shot from Nyx's eyes, instantly killing the Nomu.
A moment later, the metaphysical evil matrix took the shape of a dog's tooth in the real world.
Leader carefully stored the Beyonder Characteristic and turned back to her.
"Yes…" Dr. Blessed said. "… it is a sophisticated Sacrificial Ritual hidden behind an evil face."