"Despite my best effort," I said, brushing a stray strand of hair away from my face as I examined the faintly glowing residue inside the emptied vial, "it is almost impossible to craft something this powerful and complex without side effects, especially when I forced the entire process into such a short window."
"Then that's even more reason you should have told me beforehand!" Rui snapped, her voice rising as she pointed a trembling finger at me. "You don't just force an untested drug down someone's throat without warning them first!"
Immediately after, Rui's posture stiffened as if an invisible force had locked her joints in place.
The air around her began to distort, like a heat haze rising from scorched ground.
Then it worsened.
Her corruption aura, which had already been unstable, flared violently—flickering in and out of existence like a stubborn flame refusing to be extinguished even as a storm battered it from all sides.
