The change happened too suddenly. Coupled with the heavy impact Byrne had sustained, he was unable to dodge in time. In an instant, he was bound by the shop owner's fleshy tendrils. Then, the tendrils hoisted Byrne into the air, moving him toward the man.
"Cackle... kid, stop struggling. Peacefully become a part of me."
The owner's voice was filled with a morbid excitement. As he spoke, his upper body swelled violently. Then, his entire chest cavity split open like a gaping maw.
Inside that chest cavity, there were no organs as one might expect. Instead, there was only a writhing sheet of dark red flesh membrane, emitting a suffocating stench of decay.
Suspended in mid-air, Byrne felt a sharp pain where the tendrils constricted his limbs. He struggled with all his might to break free, but the strength of the tendrils was too great; the more he fought, the tighter they coiled around him.
Dammit!
Byrne gritted his teeth and cursed, the sharp pain in his chest mingling with the despair of being trapped. He had tried physical attacks, psychic rays, and fire, yet this monster was like an unkillable cockroach, healing rapidly after every injury. Now, firmly restrained, Byrne could only watch as the chest cavity filled with viscous membrane drew closer and closer.
This was the first time since his reincarnation that he felt the approach of death so vividly. Am I really going to die here?
Just as Byrne looked on in despair, on the verge of being swallowed whole, the dormant energy within his body suddenly moved. At first, it was just a faint warm current drifting from deep within him. Then, the flow of energy grew stronger.
This energy flow was different from when Byrne usually channeled his own psychic power. It was like the first ray of morning light, instantly dispelling the pain caused by the constricting tendrils. Following that, this energy surged through the tendrils wrapped around him, sweeping toward the owner's main body.
"Eh?"
The owner, who was holding Byrne aloft, seemed to sense something. The morbid smile on his face froze instantly. He could clearly feel an unfamiliar energy surging into his body through the tendrils.
This energy was not foul and violent like Chaos energy, nor was it mild like ordinary psychic power. Wherever it went, the Chaos energy within him—granted by the blessing of Nurgle—began to vanish rapidly, like a clay ox entering the sea.
"No... impossible! How could the Grandfather's blessing..."
The owner let out a piercing shriek, his crimson eyes bulging so hard they nearly flew out of their sockets. He tried to mobilize his Chaos energy to resist, but the power he cherished so dearly was helpless before this energy. Upon the slightest contact, it was completely dissipated.
What terrified him even more was that this energy didn't just dissolve his Chaos power; it was even disintegrating his empowered physical body. The split chest cavity contracted frantically, and the writhing dark red membrane shriveled at a visible rate. For him, the regenerative ability from the Grandfather's blessing had become completely useless in the face of this energy.
At the same time, the tendrils wrapped around Byrne lost their strength and snapped one after another, crumbling upon contact. With the tendrils shattered, Byrne fell to the ground.
"This power..."
The moment he landed, Byrne looked down at his right hand. A faint golden glow was currently swirling around his palm. He had never actively channeled this power, yet it seemed to have a consciousness of its own, frantically countering the owner's Chaos energy. To Byrne, it felt like a passive ability had been triggered.
Suddenly, he felt this power in his hand pulling him toward the shop owner. When they were less than a meter apart, the golden glow in his palm converged into a thin beam of light, shooting straight into the owner's brow.
The moment the beam touched the owner's forehead, there was no violent explosion—only a wave of golden light spreading outward. Then, the owner's body dissolved visibly. The dark green rot, the viscous slime, and even the reinforced bones all crumbled. Finally, the owner reverted to his original appearance and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Having dealt with the shop owner, the anomalous energy within Byrne finally settled back into dormancy.
"Huff... huff..."
Byrne's chest heaved heavily. Although that burst of energy had saved his life, it had drained a great deal of his mental strength. Currently, Byrne felt his head spinning. It took him a good while to recover.
Byrne glanced at the unconscious owner on the floor. Seeing that the man wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, he felt relieved. He then went to the door and pulled back the curtain. The fleshy growth blocking the way was still there. However, compared to when he first saw it, the growth's condition had weakened significantly. It likely wouldn't be long before it collapsed.
Thinking of this, Byrne turned back to look at the iron cabinet against the wall. He remembered that when he first entered the back room, his psychic threads had detected a barrier on this cabinet. Back then, before he could break it, his threads had been discovered by the owner. Now, without the owner's interference, and while the growth had yet to collapse and his companions hadn't arrived, it was the perfect time to investigate the cabinet.
Byrne approached the iron cabinet again. But just as he moved close and began to probe with his psychic threads...
Eh?
Byrne was surprised to find that the barrier on the cabinet had vanished. Though he didn't know the reason, it was for the better, saving him the effort of breaking it.
Opening the cabinet doors, he saw many items inside. Besides ordinary mechanical tools, three things caught Byrne's attention.
The first was a notebook. Its cover was dark brown, heavily worn at the edges, clearly having been used for a long time. In the center of the cover was a crookedly carved symbol—the iconic plague sigil of Nurgle's followers. Because of the previous incident with Taim, seeing a notebook again made him think there might be something extraordinary recorded inside.
However, after flipping through it, he found to his disappointment that the entries were very ordinary. Most of them were daily accounts of the owner's mechanical repairs, occasionally interspersed with complaints about slow business. There was absolutely no trace of anything related to heresy.
"Heh, I guess I overthought it. Not everyone is like Taim."
Byrne smiled and set the notebook down. His gaze shifted to the second item. It was a red glass bottle. The moment Byrne touched it, the cold sensation made him instinctively pull his hand back. He then probed with his psychic threads and found that the bottle was filled with a dark green liquid.
Could this be concentrated plague essence? Byrne thought to himself.
The so-called "Plague Essence" was a thick liquid produced by Nurgle's followers through the catalysis of plague spores. This solution was not only highly corrosive but also contained foul spores capable of spreading rapidly. Once in contact with living tissue, it would quickly invade the flesh and trigger horrific diseased mutations. Even if a psyker were tainted, their mind would be eroded by Chaos energy and they would become a puppet of Nurgle if not purified in time.
"This thing is too dangerous. I'd better wait until Renee and the others arrive."
With that thought, Byrne's gaze moved on to the third item.