Luka constantly glanced between the massive seed and Luvia, keeping her status panel open in the corner of his vision in case something happened.
He knew he was being too anxious,
However, the eerie tendrils that slipped from the seed's mouth made his spine tingle, and it only became worse whenever the seed's walls slowly peeled away further.
A thought crossed his mind as he held the fake Oblivion against his shoulder.
'Can I not just kill it with Oblivion?'
He gradually lowered the blade.
And aimed the tip towards the seed.
'Seems like nothing will happen after all.'
However, the moment he did, Luka felt a sense of dread, a subtle throbbing in the back of his head. The next moment, the seed shrieked. It released an ear-piercing noise that forced Luka to stagger to his knees while clutching his ears.
'Ugh, I can't stand properly!'
The sound distorted his sense of balance as it tore through his eardrums.
He turned to Luvia's state, but she remained still, her ears and nose dripped with blood, but she remained in her state of meditation.
'Wow.'
Luka admired her unbreakable will in the face of this mind-numbing racket.
Unable to stop the pain, he sank his teeth into his tongue, biting hard enough that the shock and pain overwrote the buzz in his ears.
A warm, copper taste of blood filled his mouth as he struggled to his feet.
He felt it was his only choice in the heat of the moment, now only able to hear the sound of distorted bells ringing.
The seed slithered with a disgusting squelch.
It peeled further as the sutures split all the way down, and four massive sheets of moss green shell drooped into four perfect segments of husk.
"W-What?! A woman... but why?"
"AWOOO!"
From the cliff top, a loud howl echoed through the valley. Luka didn't hear, but felt the violent vibrations rush through the air as a gust suddenly rushed past his face like blades of wind.
Before he could breathe, a huge black wolf stood silently, glaring at the figure within the seed.
A female humanoid.
Luka stepped forward, only for Reina's black body to nudge him back, her low growl transmitted through the air.
"I should stop, but why?"
The wolf didn't 'speak' again and just stood, glaring at the seed, her fur standing on end as the shrieking slowly faded.
'What the hell is going on?'
Despite his desire to question Reina, he first approached Luvia while glancing at the woman inside the seed. Though their faces and body shape were different, the husk of a body was most definitely a dark elf.
"Who would put a dark elf inside, no... was she some catalyst or ingredient? But for what!? would there be something smart enough—!"
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
There was.
It was staring right at him from the opposite side of the river.
Cold, blue eyes.
A true monster, something he might have met in a few months, maybe a year or longer.
The pale-fleshed humanoid held a mottled, pale-white bone crozier, covered in rotten leaves, with a skull as its centrepiece, set within its curved top.
"...."
He opened his mouth to chant something as a green mist leaked.
Crack!
Rustle!
Almost instantly, the ground beneath Luvia began to stir. Nevertheless, she remained lost amidst her meditation as dozens of sharp, claw-shaped bones ripped through the dirt, digging their way out of their earthen grave.
"Reina, please. Protect Luvia with your life!"
Luka cursed over and over in the back of his mind as he gripped the fake Oblivion and rushed at the furthest bone wolves.
'Damn Necromancers, damn Necromancers, Damn it!'
With the memories of his past, he swung the blade in a smooth arc, cutting cleanly through the air, aiming to shatter the necks of two half-emerged wolves.
The woves stood little chance against his black steel.
Oblivion shattered their bones.
[Oblivion Absorbed Failed to Absorb the Bone Wolf's soul]
[Oblivion Absorbed Failed to Absorb the Bone Wolf's soul]
"DAMN IT!"
This unique trait was the reason he hated necromancers: to gain any credit for the minions summoned, he needed to kill the summoner!
The issue was that most necromancers were cowardly.
They lacked the explosive spells of a sorcerer, or the extensive mana reserves of a wizard and instead ended up lacklustre and caught between a conjurer and healer.
Though some types of Necromancer were terrifying in close combat and magic, the general type lacked that danger.
But he found them just as annoying.
Especially when a higher level than his troops.
'Luvia, keep absorbing this bastard's meal!'
His thoughts of this being his brother's plot were foolish. If they wanted to kill him now, he'd have died instantly. 'It was the Fallen!' They didn't just defeat Babylon and spread like a plague; these rats had sunk their teeth into Babylon way before then!
'The goblins are just the tool prepared to light the fuse!'
Intense emotions churned inside his abdomen as he poured Miasma into Oblivion, the black gauntlets stirring slowly and boosting his attributes.
[Activated Miasam Boost: all attributes +3]
[Detected Fallen Savant: all attributes +1 (Permanent)]
"Huh?!"
He quickly checked the backlog of various achievements, experience gains and other useless information to find a single line.
[Luvia Morgenstern has reached 99 Corruption: Mutation in progress]
'Ha! No wonder the shriek failed to affect Luvia!'
He no longer felt that his own reaction and suffering were so pathetic. This perverted woman was just in a state of complete separation; her body might be here, but her mind and soul were elsewhere.
"Oh my! What wonderful news...! But how long does this mutation take to complete?"
[...]
However, this didn't make the situation any easier, with the bubbling lake of corruption between them and seven bone wolves ganging up on Reina, he needed to make a choice, one that might endanger them all.
The pale blue eyes stared at him from the other side.
A wrinkled, dark elf male, his once dark skin now a pale blue after experiencing death, became a Necromancer.
'I see, so he killed that woman to take her power.'
Luka rolled his head in a circle to crack the stiff bones in his neck.
"So I have to suffer because you noticed the elf with me and she stole your seed of Envy..."
The faint green glow coming from the Necromancer clashed with the deathly black of his undeath powers, but Luka didn't care about the specifics.
Because the mysteries began to unfold one by one.
'Since he's not part of my brother's plot, and just another fool about to damage Babylon, then I will end his life without mercy!'
Luka ignored the danger, and with a fleeting glance into Reina's golden eyes, he took off running and jumped high, launching himself into the centre of the corrupt river.
SPLASH!
[Warning - Corruption Level Rising!]
[Corruption + 5]
[Corruption + 5]
[Corruption + 5]