After Geno's consciousness connected with the monster, his vision changed as well.
The originally pure-white space suddenly began to collapse, then plunged into pitch darkness, twisted rainbow-colored light shimmering all around, leaving him momentarily dazed.
"Something's off! What's going on here? Is this the drugs kicking in? Why does it feel like I ate some magic mushrooms?"
The effect didn't run deep for Geno, and he soon shook it off, then began searching for Filth's energy within this chaotic labyrinth.
"How am I even supposed to find anything? There isn't so much as a concept of up, down, left, or right here."
Everything before him was pitch black. Apart from the hallucination-like rainbow glow, there wasn't a single marker to gauge direction by — let alone locate the Filth energy.
Just as he was at his wit's end, Geno's right hand flared with light once more, and a strange pattern surfaced on the back of it. Then, as if sensing something, he turned his gaze toward a certain direction.
"Is that Filth's power? So that's where the target is, huh?"
Geno acted with remarkable speed. Following the guidance of the glowing pattern on the back of his hand, he soon discovered where his target lay.
The murky, dark-red Filth energy wasn't very conspicuous within this warped space, but compared to the eerie, otherworldly scenery around it, Filth's presence was actually rather easy on the eyes.
"Hmm, still kind of gross. Do I really have to take this thing in?"
Although Filth had told him to clean this thing up, Geno figured that since he could absorb Filth's power, simply carrying it out was the easiest, most convenient method.
He thought it, and he did it.
Without a moment's hesitation, Geno reached his hand straight toward that puddle of Filth.
And right away, that puddle of Filth was like a dog that had spotted a turd—
Ah, pfft!—
like a son laying eyes on his dad, it came snuggling up to Geno. In the blink of an eye, the Filth energy had been absorbed clean by Geno.
So... it was that easy?
Geno never expected the whole process to go so smoothly. Yet before he could so much as celebrate, the dark space around him began to quake.
Quite literally — Geno's entire body started trembling nonstop, and then he felt as though he'd crawled into some strange pipe. The space around him abruptly narrowed, and he had the sensation of being moved.
Inside Geno's Mind Space.
Filth, still struggling painfully on the ground, watched the unknown black mass before him swell and shudder — and then Geno was expelled from inside it, like it was taking a dump.
Pretty disgusting.
But before Filth could even spare the energy to be grossed out, he saw that thing lunge straight at him the instant it had expelled Geno.
Filth's pupils contracted at once. He seemed to grasp something.
This mass of a monster had been born clinging to Filth in the first place. With the Filth inside its body drained away by Geno, naturally it wanted to obtain a fresh portion of Filth's power once again.
And so, Filth — collapsed and grappling with his own frailty — became its top target.
Despair.
Despair flooded every corner of Filth's mind. Gazing at that utterly pitch-black monster, this peculiar life form that wanted nothing more than to keep on living was finally about to meet its end.
Once absorbed by this thing, it would be just like Cell absorbing the Androids — his entire existence would be erased, clean and complete, not a scrap left behind.
No! Someone — can someone save me?! I don't want to die!
Filth desperately tried to dodge the monster's assault, but his body was already so weak that, forget moving, he couldn't even make a sound.
In this moment, his heart brimmed over with despair, and he could only watch helplessly as he was devoured, bit by bit, by the utterly pitch-black monster.
Plop!
"Looks like you're about to do something rather impolite to my tenant."
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, the monster was sent flying as if slammed by something. In a whoosh it was torn apart from Filth, then pinned to the ground by an enormous gravity.
If Filth could still speak, he'd definitely have gotten a line out: Oh, I know this feeling all too well.
Geno had dealt with him in exactly this way before — the sensation of a several-dozen-ton truck rolling over your body was, more or less, just like this.
"Alright, the hero makes his entrance. So how about it — not too late, am I?"
Having subdued the monster, Geno looked at Filth with a grin. But he soon noticed that Filth's condition wasn't quite right.
"What's going on here?! Why have you gone all pixelated? Wait — don't tell me you handed me the very power that was holding you together?"
Like a blind student stumbling right onto the highlighted point, Geno pieced together the crux of it all.
But what he couldn't wrap his head around was that Filth would actually go this far.
Seeing Geno fall silent, Filth — who still hadn't recovered — stopped struggling now.
Because he was already completely beyond saving.
If earlier he'd still been counting on holding out just a little longer and reclaiming his power from Geno afterward, now, seeing that Geno had figured it all out, he no longer had the faintest sliver of a chance to take his power back.
Because all Geno had to do next was watch him dissipate bit by bit, and he could wipe out both threats in one fell swoop.
Would anyone really hesitate over something like that?
The Filth of this moment felt that his earlier actions had been stupid beyond measure — why on earth had he agreed to help Geno deal with this whole incident?
No matter what became of this Geno, as long as he himself stayed alive, he'd have gotten through just fine.
So why did he have to go wading into these muddy waters?
Filth couldn't make sense of it, and he no longer wanted to try.
In the final moment of his life, he was no longer willing to ponder all those pointless little things.
Brief as it was, dying as a creature capable of independent thought wasn't half bad.
But still — never having managed to walk out of this cage that imprisoned him — the thought did leave a lingering trace of unwillingness.
Filth's consciousness grew hazier and hazier, and his body gradually began to turn grainy. He was about to vanish, dissolving into the purest Filth energy, and then be absorbed by Geno.
As if to bear out his own thoughts, the moment Geno saw Filth begin to dissipate, he stepped forward at once, seeming a little too eager to dig in.
Plop!
To Filth's astonishment, a warm hand closed around him, and then a familiar power surged back out of Geno and into his body.
The body that had been steadily dissipating began, little by little, to mend.
In no more than a moment, his body had already been restored to its original state.
And not only that — beyond the portion of Filth he'd lent to Geno, yet another colossal helping of Filth came flooding into his body.
A fullness he hadn't felt in ages left Filth incredibly comfortable.
Then, beneath Filth's disbelieving gaze, Geno smiled.
"Hey, buddy — you still renting the place?"
____
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