“Mommy!”
A little girl cried out in heart-wrenching sobs, the edges of her pupils trembling in terror as she struggled fiercely to break free from her mother’s embrace.
Crack, crack, crack…
Her mother wrapped her elongated, curled fingers around her daughter’s slender limbs. With a burst from her spine, her neck stretched inch by inch, like a horrifying snake toy. Her lifeless eyes stared blankly somewhere unknown, and her gaping maw revealed a bed of teeth writhing like centipedes, with a single gold tooth gleaming brightly…
The Blue-Haired Loli flashed past from the side, her blade thin and icy as it sliced through the spine, injecting toxin to paralyze the nerves at the fastest speed.
From the zombie mother’s body tensing and lunging to collapsing limply, it took only seconds. But the daughter was already scared silly, sitting dazed on the ground.
Ashley wasn’t sure if the infected could still be saved.
From what she knew, most parasites hid in the host’s digestive system, mingling with feces and completing their reproductive cycle through two or three carriers. A few burrowed into flesh and organs, far deadlier than the former. Yet these rampaging black, wriggling worms targeted the central nervous system first!
This wasn’t parasitism—it was invasion! They could wipe out an entire natural population in a community in a short time!
Due to this nerve-eroding trait, the infected were likely doomed.
From the sounds, four or five infection outbreaks had erupted simultaneously on Fourth Avenue. If it was an accidental carrier brought into the city, the transmission model would be single-point diffusion, not multi-point. So…
A chill ran through Ashley’s heart. This was absolutely a terrorist attack targeting civilians!
Though police had arrived, they lacked effective containment methods and only added to the cross-infection numbers. The infected multiplied exponentially, and the scene was spiraling out of control!
Though Ashley fought with all her might, after a period of intense exertion, her body burned hot and her joints ached, forcing her to stop and catch her breath.
Standing still to observe, she keenly spotted something eerie!
The first batch of infected had completely lost mobility. The black worms showed no interest in the flesh, instead gnawing along the spine to form bulging blisters of all sizes. These bubbled and burst sporadically, spraying viscous pus. The brain swelled and deformed severely, like a giant’s corpse, its pitted surface eroded into ink-black, rough honeycomb-like holes. From the narrow, twisted tubular openings drifted bright light spots, like fireflies rising from rotting wood.
Ashley first thought they were the adult form of the parasites, but closer inspection revealed the light spots were illusory and transparent, not physical entities.
Suddenly!
The infected’s shadows writhed discordantly from their forms. Slender, twisting shadow snakes emerged, snapping up the light spots and slithering toward the street’s edge, converging into a dim alley.
“Lost Paradise? Extracting spirituality from intelligent beings’ brains?”
Capturing the ability and checking its description, a nameless chill rose in Ashley’s heart.
Was this that guy’s doing? A sense of dread hit her. If a family member was the culprit and she happened to be at the scene, she had to capture the mastermind with everything she had, or she couldn’t clear her name!
Her feet turned, and she dashed across the street into the alley!
At a glance, she saw the eerie figure glowing in the darkness!
“Heh heh heh… you’ve finally come…”
That bizarre crystal skull resembled a human’s but differed vastly in details.
Precise geometric lines divided it into a crystalline faceplate at the front, a transparent spherical shell at the back, oval glass compound eyes on the upper sides, and a crystal-carved mouthpart area below—like an insect evolved into higher intelligence.
Myriad Stars converged from the sky, forming threads that draped down and pierced the skull’s top. Instead of a spine, complex white veins like tree roots connected to it. These soft, branching veins pulsed rhythmically in the transparent fluid’s tidal surges from the heartbeat.
Starlight illuminated the non-human shell, making it gleam translucently. Chunks of muscle sparkled like flawless gems.
Though the appearance had changed drastically, Ashley immediately recognized him—Moracha Hazlit!
The raspy murmur in her ear wasn’t sound but radiating waves of conscious pulses!
“What the hell are you?!”
Even having seen plenty of monstrosities, Ashley found it horrifying and shouted loudly to suppress her inner panic.
“Accept the blessing of Myriad Stars…”
Moracha staggered forward, step by step toward Ashley!
“Don’t come any closer!”
Ashley sensed something wrong and tried to retreat, but the starry sky above spun like time-lapse photography, tracing bright arcs.
Her body lost balance instantly, and she fell to the ground sitting. The eerie, illusory monster closed in, extending slender, twisted fingers—only two, but each with over ten joints!
At the same time, from the corner of her eye, she saw shadow snakes surging madly from the alley mouth, gathering at Moracha’s feet. His shadow ballooned into a bloated mass, writhing desperately—enough to make one’s scalp crawl!
Countless light spots surged upward along the dark tree’s veins formed by the coiled shadow snakes, condensing at his fingertip into a small Apple of Light!
This fruit inspired both dread and intense allure, as if only accepting it could free one from humanity’s mediocrity and ascend to a realm of pure clarity!
It was the forbidden fruit, the serpent’s deception, the devil’s temptation—the source of humanity’s eternal loss of paradise!
A massive fear surged in Ashley’s heart. She finally understood where the Family Spirit Elixir came from—spirituality stripped from human brains!
In that instant, her mind shook violently. Reviewing her past experiences from every angle, it all boiled down to two words—cannibalism!
Whether elegant chewing or savage tearing, flesh feasts or spirit draining, it was all eating people!
The Apple of Light continued growing at the monster’s fingertip, Spirit Points skyrocketing!
10w… 20w… 100w…
“Humanity is just a laughable ornament… don’t wear it like a clown… come… join us… break free… total freedom…”
Moracha’s conscious pulses formed delirious whispers that flooded in like tides, repeatedly eroding Ashley’s rational foundation, pulling her mind into the dazzling starry vortex. Her soul felt tugged upward by starlight threads—rising, rising, infinitely rising! With heaven among the stars!
Ashley bit her tongue hard, forcibly breaking her mind free. A Metal Lifeform condensed into a blade and slashed forward!
Crack!
It pierced straight through!
But Rose Blood Drain and Gray Impatiens only worked on flesh-and-blood life!
Moracha didn’t care about bodily damage—his movements didn’t slow at all!
And Lost Paradise stole spirituality; he’d love for her to absorb it… None of her three techniques worked!
How could this be…
The light orb, condensed with over a million Spirit Points, swayed and flew into the Blue-Haired Loli’s petite body!
Ashley immediately felt intense physiological discomfort. This… this was exploitation! Though she lacked capital herself, it felt like harvesting countless people like leeks!
In the crisis, the spiritual light spots were drawn by a powerful attraction into Rat Rat’s head in her pocket!
Though she couldn’t see it, the slight wriggling heralded the start of the Second Cycle!
At the same time, another change quietly occurred!
In the alley, both looked up simultaneously—the starry sky had vanished, replaced by a sea-clear dusk sky!
Twilight rays pierced the city’s silhouette in beams through streets and traffic, making people pause involuntarily, gazing at the endless horizon, thoughts stagnating in that moment’s serene idleness.
But a fear a hundred times stronger surged in Ashley’s heart. Oriole Harmony formed a new bullet! What ability could alter the weather? What domain could blanket a whole city?
Fireflies danced, their faint glow illuminating Moracha’s face frozen in terror. His body fragmented piece by piece, dissipating in the wind.
