At nighttime, in the vast desert of Buserite, a battle that should have ended resumed after an unexpected turn, and intensified further.
"""Just what in the world... happened over there!?"""
On the edge of the ancient city of Bastis, within a large oasis, atop a small hill, Naifnis, clad in a long robe, was anxiously observing the camp before her, where countless people had fallen to the ground, their wails filling the air. She spoke with a solemn expression, recalling how the roars and tremors in the distant desert, which should have subsided not long ago, had suddenly erupted again. At this moment, she couldn't help but worry about the battle in the distance.
"""Is Miss Dorothy's side not going well?""" Neff said worriedly, gazing into the distance.
...
In the desert far from Bastis, after receiving a boost from some external mysterious power, Amyaba burst forth with renewed growth from a near-death state, instantly evolving into a gigantic and terrifying monster.
Under the supply of Spirituality like a flood, the rapidly growing Amyaba directly released large swaths of green rust-iron mist onto the entire land through its body. This dense fungal mist quickly spread outwards from Amyaba as the center, instantly covering a large area of land, stretching for thousands of meters and hundreds of meters thick. Amyaba's huge and ugly insectoid body hid within this dense fungal mist, continuing to grow while also relying on the mist to evade the incessant artillery fire from the sky and constantly launching counterattacks.
Awei, being a Saint Steel Ship, hovered in the sky over three thousand meters high, continuously using various firepower channels on her body to bombard the center of the spreading fungal mist below. However, because the weight of the fungal mist released by Amyaba this time exceeded the previous release by dozens of times, creating a dense and extensive mist cluster, Awei's highly effective and powerful physical shells began to fail completely. For a time, she could only rely on energy shells for firepower output, which was completely incapable of inflicting fatal damage on Amyaba. Furthermore, because this mist was released directly by Amyaba's main body rather than being deployed by flying insects, Dorothy's spirit silk was also unable to inhibit the spread of the mist this time.
As its volume gradually increased, Amyaba slowly lost its previous method of high-speed agile movement. Now it could only remain stationary within the mist, continuously enduring attacks. Fortunately, Awei's firepower was severely limited by the fungal mist at this time, and Amyaba's own size had grown to a degree that made it extremely difficult to eliminate in one go. Coupled with its terrifying regeneration speed, Awei, only able to fire energy shells, could at most limit Amyaba's growth but could not completely eliminate it.
Amidst the continuous roars, countless energy shells poured down from the hovering steel behemoth and drilled into the dense green mist, accurately bombarding the massive, grotesque insect body within under the guidance of the biological radar, splashing out countless thick juices. Meanwhile, the grotesque insect body with a human face was screaming and writhing, simultaneously expelling countless insect eggs and shooting sharp keratinous matter from the dense openings on its body.
The insect eggs expelled by Amyaba either hatched into flying fungal bomb bugs with bacterial sacs and huge insect wings, flying out of the fungal mist towards Awei, or hatched into beetles equipped with keratin launchers, firing sharp, spike-like keratinous arrows with pure muscular strength towards the sky three thousand meters high. Facing these continuous attacks launched from within the green mist, Awei's close-in defense system effectively intercepted all of them. However, due to Amyaba's continuous growth, the number of bugs it hatched and the keratinous arrows it fired increased, and the scale of firepower projection grew larger and larger. As time passed, Awei's defenses would eventually feel the pressure.
"""No... this guy's Spirituality is simply too much, practically endless... I can't completely suppress its growth. If this continues, the situation will eventually get out of control..."""
Hovering in mid-air, Awei's avatar spoke with a serious expression. Currently, she and Amyaba were almost in a stalemate. Although Awei still had the upper hand and Amyaba was suppressed, as long as Amyaba's continuous massive Spirituality support remained, this advantage would eventually be reversed.
"""Amyaba's source of Spirituality is the people throughout Buserite infected with the """Wasting Decay""". The main purpose for which this plague was created seems to be to widely collect Spirituality from ordinary people... Now, the people suffering from the """Wasting Decay""" in Bastis are showing aggravated symptoms, which is probably because this guy has increased the degree of Spirituality extraction from the patients.""" Not far from Awei's avatar, Dorothy's floating Corpse Puppet spoke to her, and after hearing Dorothy's words, Awei couldn't help but speak with an even more serious expression.
"""So, this monster has millions of Spirituality reserves. In terms of consumption alone, we can't outlast it no matter what."""
"""Yes, given the current situation, to solve it now, we must first solve the """Wasting Decay"""...""" Dorothy's Corpse Puppet said in a deep voice. After saying this, Dorothy and Awei fell silent for a moment, and the atmosphere became heavy.
Dorothy and Awei came for Amyaba this time primarily to capture her and interrogate her for a method to cure the """Wasting Decay""". However, the current situation tells them that to solve Amyaba, they need to first solve the """Wasting Decay""". The whole matter has suddenly become putting the cart before the horse, making things very difficult for them for a time.
"""Do you... have any other methods? This was once the homeland of the First Dynasty, and you have inherited ancient power. Do you have any way to reverse the current situation?"""
Awei asked Dorothy's Corpse Puppet again with a solemn expression. With her abilities, it was naturally impossible for her to have any possibility of curing the plague. She could only place her hope on the miraculous and ancient inheritance of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment).
Listening to Awei's words, Dorothy was silent for a while again. After seemingly considering it carefully, she had the Corpse Puppet speak slowly.
"""Well, there is a way... but the risk is very high."""
"""Risk? Do we need to execute some very dangerous operational plan?""" Awei asked curiously, listening to the Corpse Puppet's words, while Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet shake its head slightly in response.
"""No... it's not us who face the risk, but Vanya."""
"""Sister Vanya...""" Listening to the Corpse Puppet's words, Awei showed a look of surprise, and then immediately spoke.
"""What kind of risk? What kind of risk does Sister Vanya need to take to solve the problem?"""
"""An experiment, we need Vanya to conduct an experiment. If this experiment succeeds, the predicament we are currently facing will be easily resolved. However, this experiment carries a certain risk. Perhaps you have some method to reduce the risk...""" Dorothy said this, and then continued to have the Corpse Puppet explain the content of the experiment to Awei. The more Awei listened, the more solemn her expression became.
"""This kind of experiment... the risk is completely uncontrollable. No, Sister Vanya cannot participate. My mission is to assist Sister Vanya in completing her promotion task. If this task fails in Buserite, we can simply go to another place. There's no need for her to take such a risk here."""
After listening to the content of the experiment, Awei spoke with a serious expression, and Dorothy also had her Corpse Puppet nod in response.
"""You are right, Sister Evi. Sister Vanya is also an important friend to us, and we have no intention of letting her take such a risk. Since you don't have any way to assist with this experiment, then we can only give up."""
Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet say this. The reason she revealed the content of the experiment was to see if Awei had any way to assist and reduce the risk probability, but if not, she could only give up.
Given the current situation, Dorothy planned to temporarily abandon the struggle for Buserite with the Order of Rot, have Awei and Vanya give up and retreat from here, while she would stay behind alone, entering the world of False History (Virtual History) to lie low and diligently research methods to find Heopolis. Anyway, the Order of Rot didn't know the location of the world of False History (Virtual History), so staying here alone would be very safe.
Facing Amyaba, who had the Spirituality boost of millions of people, Dorothy had already begun to consider a safe retreat plan. It was at this moment that Vanya, inside the steel behemoth in the sky, suddenly spoke.
"""Please wait! Sister Evi, Envoy of the Divine Master... please wait, I am willing to undertake this experiment!"""
As soon as Vanya spoke like this, both Dorothy and Awei heard her. Both of their faces simultaneously showed looks of surprise.
"""Sister Vanya, how did you hear our conversation?""" Dorothy first used her Corpse Puppet to ask Vanya. Dorothy remembered that she hadn't conveyed the content of the experiment to Vanya through the information channel.
"""Uh... I'm sorry to have overheard your conversation, but it was unintentional. The blessing given to me by the Divine Master is very powerful, and coupled with Sister Evi's temple, it makes it difficult for me *not* to know some things..."""
Vanya said with clear apology in her tone. To allow Vanya to gain a more detailed insight into the battlefield, Dorothy directly allocated a significant portion of computing power to her. Using Awei's temple, Vanya could detect all life forms, big and small, within tens of kilometers, and Dorothy's computing power allowed Vanya to conduct detailed observation and monitoring of each of these life forms, from large ones like humans and animals to small ones like insects and bacteria, thus gaining super-strong life dynamic detection capabilities.
The blessing given to Vanya by Awei's temple and Dorothy's computing power together even allowed her to observe and understand the movements of Dorothy's Corpse Puppet's mouth, reading out the Corpse Puppet's words through lip-reading. Although Vanya didn't understand lip-reading, she could deduce the content of the conversation based on hard calculation, and this didn't require her to expend much effort; it was almost natural.
"""Sister Vanya, you said you want to conduct this experiment?"""
Awei, floating on the other side, directly spoke with concern about the content of Vanya's words just now, and Vanya also gave an affirmative answer.
"""Yes... Sister Evi, I do want to conduct this experiment. Although we can run, the millions of people in Buserite suffering from the """Wasting Decay""" cannot. I cannot stand by and do nothing!""" Awei said this firmly, and Dorothy also controlled her Corpse Puppet to speak directly.
"""Sister Vanya... your path to promotion doesn't necessarily have to be in Buserite. There are people in need of salvation everywhere in this world. You can simply perform your ritual in another place. There's no need to take this kind of risk here."""
"""Yes... if it's about the promotion ritual, I can definitely go to another place. But if I have the opportunity to save the people right in front of me and don't, how can I feel at ease saving others?""" Vanya said seriously. At this moment, she could truly feel the suffering of the countless people in Bastis being tormented by the illness. To cure this """Wasting Decay""", she had already given up on hundreds and thousands of people, but abandoning millions just to avoid the """Wasting Decay""" itself was something she absolutely could not do.
"""Sister Vanya, you need to understand that you don't need to take such a risk to become Scarlet...""" At this time, Awei continued to say to Vanya, but Vanya still showed no intention of being persuaded.
"""Sister Evi... I believe the Holy Mother's Path I cultivate means the path of salvation... Salvation is the purpose of promotion, not the means of promotion. If I have the opportunity to save the millions of people right now but don't, then what use is this promotion?"""
Vanya said firmly. Listening to her words, Awei paused slightly, then let out a soft breath and said nothing. Meanwhile, Dorothy, after a moment of surprise, used the information channel to speak secretly to Vanya.
"""Vanya, are you serious? The risks involved here are no joke."""
"""Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, Miss Dorothea. Things have already reached this point, and I won't abandon so many people who need saving..."""
Vanya also responded firmly to Dorothy through the information channel, and at this moment, Awei, who had been silent until now, also spoke.
"I understand. Since this is Sister Vanya's choice, I won't stop you. I have some emergency medical life support devices, precious Extraordinary medicine, and an altar that can be used as a portable temple ritual site in my warehouse. Take them with you, and they should be of considerable help to that experiment..." Awei sighed and then spoke again. Hearing her words, Dorothy, through her Corpse Puppet, said in surprise.
"Medicine... life support devices... portable temple ritual site? These things will undoubtedly greatly reduce the experimental risk. Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"There isn't one hundred percent trust between us. I wasn't comfortable handing Sister Vanya directly over to you, but now that Sister Vanya has made her own choice, I can't hide things anymore. Hurry up, I will suppress this guy here and buy you time," Awei said frankly after glancing at Dorothy's Corpse Puppet. Hearing Awei's words, Dorothy didn't dwell on it and immediately had her Corpse Puppet speak.
"Okay, I promise it won't take long..."
...
After finishing her communication with Awei, Dorothy immediately began to implement her plan. She first had Awei descend in altitude, then sent several of her Corpse Puppets flying into Awei's ship. Under Awei's guidance, they found the emergency life support devices, medicine, and altar within her ship and brought these items to the grand chapel.
Afterward, Dorothy had Vanya temporarily interrupt her battlefield perception and come to the material storage point. Then, Dorothy had her Corpse Puppet, Vanya, and all the materials come into contact and made them all levitate.
Finally, Dorothy's main body in the distance took out a manuscript from the magic box and picked up a pen to write a passage on it. The moment Dorothy lifted her pen, she herself, as well as the Corpse Puppets and materials inside the distant warship, and Vanya, instantly disappeared from their original locations, their whereabouts unknown.
"They disappeared... 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) truly has many secrets..."
Watching the Corpse Puppets and Vanya disappear within her, Awei sighed like this. After a brief scan that failed to detect their whereabouts, Awei continued to focus all her energy on suppressing Amyaba, outputting firepower towards the ground below.
...
Using the pseudo-historical manuscript pages hidden on the Corpse Puppets as a medium, Dorothy transferred herself, Vanya, and the materials given by Awei to a fictional historical world she had created. Then, by crossing out records, she caused the era in which she, Vanya, and the materials were located to regress three years, arriving in the past of the fictional historical world.
In the year 1358 of the fictional historical world that continued the Atrea Dynasty, Dorothy and Vanya appeared together in the Bastis Oasis, which was much vaster than in the real world. Here, they saw a scene of peaceful and harmonious life.
"This is... Bastis? It's completely different from before... it's more beautiful... everyone can live here peacefully, is this all real?"
Standing on a small hill, Vanya looked at the open gates of Bastis City in the distance, where people were coming and going, and couldn't help but exclaim. Meanwhile, Dorothy calmly replied from the side.
"This is the Bastis that doesn't exist in history. It is both real and illusory, but at least for us who are here now, it is real... Let's complete the experiment here..."
"Okay, then let's not delay, let's start immediately! Sister Evi is still buying us time!" Vanya said eagerly, while Dorothy smiled and waved her hand in response.
"Don't worry, we have plenty of time here. You don't need to worry about the situation of those steel Sisters. We can go into the city and rest first. Then we can hire people to work..." Dorothy said this, then left the Corpse Puppets to handle the materials and walked towards the distant city of Bastis with the still very curious Vanya.
...
After arriving in the fictional history, Dorothy immediately began her plan after a brief rest. She first hired a group of locals, along with her Corpse Puppets, to renovate a purchased residence in a valley relatively far from Bastis. Then, she transported the materials brought from real history here and used these materials to build a laboratory within the residence.
Afterward, in the laboratory, Dorothy used the altar provided by Awei to set up a "Light" temple-level ritual site. After spending more than a month, everything was finally ready.
In a secluded stone building within the wind-blown valley, in a clean and tidy room filled with various strange instruments, Dorothy had Vanya come to the ritual site and took out a syringe.
"Alright, Vanya, our preparation is almost complete. Are you ready?" Dorothy said seriously, and Vanya also nodded firmly.
"Yes! I'm ready, let's start now, Miss Dorothy!"
After hearing Vanya's words, Dorothy nodded and handed the syringe she was holding to Vanya. After taking it, Vanya took a deep breath, then rolled up her sleeve, pricked the needle of the syringe into her arm, injected the liquid inside into her body, and then removed the syringe.
After putting down the syringe, Vanya began to sit cross-legged in the laboratory's ritual site. After connecting to the ritual, she closed her eyes and carefully examined the condition of her body. At this moment, she had already sensed the foreign substance that had just been injected into her arm and was now flowing in her blood – some tiny viruses.
Looking at these viruses, Vanya began to mobilize her abilities, controlling her powerful immune system as an Extraordinary of the Holy Mother's Path, allowing them to ignore these viruses and let them reproduce freely within her body.
A few days later, the viruses, almost unimpeded, had spread throughout Vanya's body. Even as an Auxiliary "Cup" Extraordinary, Vanya showed obvious symptoms: weakness, fatigue, pain...
These were all symptoms of Wasting Decay. What Vanya injected into herself was the Wasting Decay virus. Through this method, she deeply infected herself with the Wasting Decay virus, becoming a patient of the epidemic.
"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."
Sitting in the laboratory's ritual site, Vanya, sweating profusely, was panting while enduring the pain all over her body. In front of her at this time was Dorothy, with a serious and concerned expression.
"Are you okay, Vanya?"
"I'm okay... everything is still manageable. We can start the first round of immunity now..."
Vanya said this, then closed her eyes and officially began to use her abilities to stimulate her immunity, killing the Wasting Decay viruses that were spread throughout her body. During this process, Vanya's body temperature rose, and while all symptoms worsened, new symptoms such as nausea also appeared. Vanya performed self-treatment in severe discomfort, killing the viruses in her body. After a long period of struggle, Vanya finally completely eliminated these stubborn viruses within her body.
"Hoo... hoo... hoo... How is it? Miss Dorothy, have they changed?" In the ritual site, Vanya, dripping with sweat, panted as she spoke to Dorothy on the side. At this time, Dorothy was wearing a white coat, sitting at a table, using the Church optical instrument provided by Awei to observe a petri dish on the table under a microscope.
"Yes... your immune action just now once again prompted these interconnected bacteria to uniformly undergo a structural change. I think their immune resistance has further increased..."
Sitting at the table, wearing glasses, Dorothy said this to the weak Vanya in front of her. After hearing this, Vanya couldn't help but laugh.
"Is that so... there's a change, that's good..."
"Alright, you've worked hard, Vanya. Today's experiment ends here. Rest for a few days, and then we'll start the next one."
"Okay..."
...
In the following period, Dorothy and Vanya continued the process of injecting Vanya with the Wasting Decay virus and then Vanya performing immune killing. Although the immune resistance of the Wasting Decay virus was already very high, even to the extent that ordinary Chalk Redemption Extraordinaries would find it difficult to handle, Vanya was still able to cope.
After the incomplete promotion ritual, Vanya herself was an extraordinary Chalk Redemption, and coupled with her immune manipulation of her body, her efficiency was greatly enhanced. In addition, with the blessing of the temple ritual site, Vanya was still able to relatively easily cope with the Wasting Decay virus in her body, killing it after repeated infections.
In the infections that occurred every few days, Vanya honed the Wasting Decay virus that Dorothy had brought into the fictional historical world, making it increasingly resilient. It trained its immunity... or more directly, its ability to fight against microorganisms, making it stronger and stronger, eventually reaching a point where even Vanya's utmost efforts were difficult to cope with.
At this point, Dorothy began to have Vanya inject various other types of bacteria into her body. These bacteria were found by Dorothy in Jemarr's laboratory. They all came from other places in the natural world and shared a common characteristic: they would fiercely kill and devour each other.
After Vanya injected these external bacteria into her body, she began to use her control over her body to drive and guide them, strengthening them, and making them fight against the Wasting Decay bacteria. Vanya would use her own immunity to eliminate the external bacteria that did not fight against Wasting Decay.
These external bacteria began to act as mercenaries, constantly fighting against Wasting Decay within Vanya's body. The Wasting Decay bacteria thus began to accumulate combat experience against these external bacteria, slowly evolving corresponding mutations.
In this way, in this fictional historical world, the Wasting Decay bacteria brought in by Dorothy began rounds and rounds of survival confrontation, constantly encountering various enemies at the microscopic level. In the confrontation with all these enemies, the Wasting Decay bacteria followed their basic design, becoming stronger and stronger through self-evolution, beginning to be able to resist both the strong immunity enhanced by Extraordinary abilities and various competing bacteria.
The path of evolution and strengthening of the Wasting Decay bacteria seemed to be able to continue indefinitely...
However... for living organisms, evolution does not mean being completely without cost. While gaining some things, they also lose some things. For example, when whales evolved limbs into fins and swam into the deep sea. After entering the evolutionary path to the top of the marine food chain, they also lost the ability to survive on land.
Evolution is not without cost. The evolution of every life form has potential limitations, which is true for macroscopic life and even more so for microscopic life...
The form of microscopic life is simple. When it evolves a structure to achieve a function, other structures and their corresponding functions will be squeezed. And the more, more complex, and stronger the pursuit of this function becomes, the larger the structural space occupied to achieve this function will be, leaving less and less space for other functions.
When a person equips weapons on all four limbs and bites swords in their mouth, how can they eat?