As the severed head rolled uselessly across the ground, everyone froze.
Some glanced around uneasily. It was obvious what they were thinking. Despite the woman's clearly hysterical behavior, it hardly warranted decapitation.
They soon changed their minds.
"...!"
The frozen expression on Maria's face suddenly twisted into a wild grin.
Then the flesh around her severed neck writhed grotesquely as veins shot outward, stretching toward her headless body in an instant.
Ashen did not simply watch.
His spear flashed again, skewering the head three more times before another flourish severed the corpse's limbs from its torso.
Alice moved immediately afterward.
More than a dozen slender blades slipped from beneath her coat before unfolding in a mechanical display, transforming into gleaming rotary blades.
At her silent command, they shot into the twitching corpse, reducing it to a mangled mess and splattering its innards across the ground.
Yet the grotesque phenomenon refused to stop. If anything, it accelerated.
Shredded flesh knitted itself back together at an unnatural speed until the body was whole once more.
As muscles and skin fused, Maria slowly rose into the air, floating beyond the reach of Ashen's spear.
He made no attempt to pursue her.
Having already noticed her abnormal obsession with Seraphine, he chose to remain by the saintess' side instead, just in case.
He even gestured for Alice to withdraw her constructs.
With the amount of commotion they were causing, it wouldn't take long before the Sin Lords' Domains noticed them anyway.
Everyone looked up at the now-naked woman.
Most couldn't help but recoil in disgust.
Embedded across her body… upon her abdomen, shoulders, back, and limbs… were human faces.
Some were crying. Some were laughing. Some were smiling. Every single one of them… Without exception… Kept muttering.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
"No way..." Seraphine's eyes widened.
Ashen already had an ominous premonition.
Even so, he asked,
"What?"
"Those faces..." Her voice trembled. "I know them."
She slowly raised a shaking finger.
"The one on her abdomen... that's her lover."
"Figured," Ashen muttered in disgust.
"And the one on her shoulder... that's her father."
"..."
As for the face on her back...
Seraphine couldn't see it clearly yet, but its features were unmistakably feminine.
More importantly...
They bore a striking resemblance to Maria herself.
Its identity was obvious.
Her mother.
"Did she stitch their faces onto her own flesh? How revolting." Even Lucia, who usually appeared nonchalant, wore an expression of undisguised disgust.
"Oh!"
It seemed Maria had regained her awareness over the last few seconds.
"So painful... so cruel... why are you hurting me...? I just wanted to... get ClOsEr!!"
Ragged breaths escaped her lips as she remained suspended in the air, seemingly trying to endure the phantom agony of being torn apart and stitched back together within mere moments.
Finally, she let out a relieved sigh.
{Ashen. That woman is being possessed by an Outer God.}
Ashen's eyes widened at the sudden revelation.
'Fuck. Where are Cornelia and Lola right now? This suddenly got way out of our league.'
{Well, it isn't a complete possession, so they may not have noticed it yet. Perhaps they're simply treating this as another abnormal monster.}
'So...? How do I make them notice?'
{Well... you could scream at the top of your lungs... or slice her up a few more times. By then, her disgusting aura should become obvious enough for everyone to sense.}
'I'll pass on the shouting, thank you very much!'
The Sin Lords' tents were soundproof. They had absolute confidence in their Domains' detection abilities—far more than in their own ears. If they were currently inside, shouting would accomplish nothing except making a fool of himself.
{Fighting it is, then.}
Right then, Maria's feet touched the ground once more.
She resumed walking forward with the same slow, unsteady steps.
"Please... I just want to get closer..."
"Why?" Ashen asked.
The instant she stopped to answer, he was already in the middle of a dash.
The tip of his spear turned pure white as mana surged into it alongside his slashing motion.
Maria didn't even get to finish the first syllable before she felt herself being bisected cleanly at the waist. But it seemed her tolerance for pain had increased dramatically.
At least enough to answer despite being bisected.
"Why...? I just want to embrace her!!"
The two halves of her body crashed onto the ground.
Then...
They crawled toward each other.
Strings of fresh flesh burst from the exposed organs, intertwining like living tendons before violently pulling the halves back together.
Squelch.
Her body was whole once more.
Another white arc flashed. Her left arm spun into the air.
Before it even struck the ground, Alice's rotating blades shredded it into a rain of crimson.
The detached flesh twitched.
Then every scattered fragment began crawling across the ground like worms.
Each tiny piece dragged itself back toward Maria, merging into her body one after another.
Her severed arm regrew...
Thicker than before.
"Can't you already see?" she laughed, pointing toward the crying face embedded within her abdomen.
"Look at him!"
"Mark is so happy now that we're finally this close..."
Ashen thrust his spear straight through her skull.
The back of her head exploded.
She barely reacted, and her mouth kept talking, despite her brain matter splattering around.
"Now that he's inside me…" blood trickled from her smiling lips, "he can feel all my love…"
"...and we'll never be separated!"
Alice's blades whirled once more.
This time, they carved through Maria from every direction.
Limbs.
Torso.
Neck.
Chunks of flesh rained onto the dirt.
For a brief moment... There was nothing left resembling a human body.
Then every piece began moving, wet flesh squirmed; bones cracked, muscles stretched. Everything rushed toward a single center.
Instead of returning to normal, the excess remained as an additional shoulder bulged from her back.
A malformed arm slowly forced its way out beneath it.
Another smiling face appeared beside Mark.
"I love you."
"I love you."
"I love you."
"Sera!" Maria smiled as though nothing had happened.
"You told me to treat him as my other half!"
"Are you proud?"
Ashen frowned.
'She's getting bigger…'
"He kept saying things like, 'We're going too fast'…"
Another thrust.
Her chest burst open.
Alice followed with another volley, reducing the cavity into minced flesh.
Yet before their eyes, new meat flooded the wound, not only sealing it but expanding it until swollen muscles piled atop one another.
Her ribs twisted beneath the skin and another pair of arms slowly emerged from her sides.
"He kept avoiding me..."
"He kept hesitating..."
"Even though I gathered all my courage!"
"But then..."
Her grin widened.
"I remembered your advice!"
Ashen severed both legs. Alice obliterated them before they touched the ground.
Yet dozens of fleshy tendrils erupted from the stumps.
Rather than reforming into two legs, they split. Four limbs slammed against the earth simultaneously.
Maria lurched forward with frightening speed.
"I kept him close!"
"I showed him my way of loving him!"
"I made him feel how much I cared!"
"Hahahaha!"
The malformed limbs struck the ground like the legs of some grotesque insect, propelling her body forward.
Ashen intercepted her.
His spear flashed, and half her torso vanished.
Alice's blades diced the remainder into ribbons.
Still...
The mountain of flesh simply grew larger.
Dozens of hands now protruded from her back, clawing at empty air.
Laughing mouths opened across her shoulders.
Crying faces blossomed across her ribs.
Every single one repeated the same words.
"I love you."
"I love you."
"I love you."
"And it worked!"
She pointed proudly toward the face embedded within her abdomen.
"Look how much he loves me now!"
"See?!"
Seraphine stood frozen.
"My parents were exactly the same!"
"They couldn't understand how deeply I loved Mark!"
"They said he was a womanizer..."
"They said he'd lead me astray!"
"So I showed them!"
"I soaked them in my love until they finally understood!"
Another arm burst from her abdomen.
Another face appeared.
Another mouth whispered.
"I love you."
"See?!"
"They understand now!"
"They can all feel my pure love!"
"All thanks to you, Master..."
Her ever-growing body lurched forward again.
This time, dozens of malformed limbs struck the earth together, dragging the writhing mass relentlessly toward Seraphine.
"So..."
"Won't you join them?"
"Then..."
"We can all be together."
FWHOOOSHHH!!
A torrent of blinding white flames erupted without restraint, swallowing the writhing mass of flesh in an all-consuming blaze of destruction.
The inferno roared like a raging dragon.
Everyone nearby instinctively shielded their faces from the scorching gale as waves of unbearable heat swept across the space.
At its center stood Ashen.
His outstretched palm was aimed directly at Maria, the glowing magic circle upon it resembling the muzzle of an enormous flamethrower.
Beneath his breath, he continuously muttered the incantation, feeding more and more mana into the torrent.
'Maria' screamed, and then the sound of thousands of mouths shrieked in unison before melting into bubbling sludge.
Limbs blackened and faces burst apart. Bones calcified before crumbling into ash.
The ever-growing mass rapidly collapsed under the relentless torrent, reduced layer after layer into nothingness.
Ashen only ended the spell nearly a minute later...
The moment his mana senses confirmed that the last remaining strand of flesh had been incinerated.
The white flames gradually faded, letting steam billow skyward.
When the blazing heat finally subsided… nothing remained.
Only a patch of scorched earth, glowing faintly from the residual heat.
"...Did that do it?"
Someone muttered with a trembling voice.
Ashen eyes slowly narrowed.
His mana senses had detected something… a strange fluctuation.
Not below.
His eyes snapped up.
'Above.'
The surrounding mana abruptly began flowing toward a single point high in the air.
Then...
Ts.
A tiny strand of crimson flesh sprouted from seemingly empty space.
Tss.
Another.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
Thousands.
Millions…
Hair-thin ribbons of flesh erupted into existence all across the sky before converging toward a single center like rivers flowing into an ocean.
They intertwined, twisted, and then knotted together.
The monstrous sphere rapidly swelled until night descended on the metropolis, as it accepted the veil from the sun.
It no longer resembled anything remotely human.
Countless malformed limbs rapidly forced themselves from its surface.
Arms, legs, hands. Some impossibly long; others grotesquely stunted.
Alongside them, countless mouths of all shapes and sizes tore themselves open across the pulsating flesh.
For a brief moment… every one of them smiled.
Then they all screamed together.
"""SERAPHINE!!! JOIN ME!!!"""