Chapter 453: Change and Shock

Cambion Boden let out a muffled grunt.

He saw black, tendon-like blood vessels spreading from the gap in Virgil's knee.

They pulsed madly toward him along the bone spurs that had pierced his body, like living things.

Boden even saw that the tips of several of those great tendon-vessels had clear mouth-like fangs, looking like terrifying cosmic creatures—blight worms.

"What the hell is this?! This isn't 【Bio-Weave】!"

His face, which always wore a roguish, wicked grin, was now full of horror, and he hurriedly spread his massive bat wings to flee.

But a duck already in hand trying to fly away—that was impossible.

Virgil lunged forward, his thick, large hand squeezing out pus and blood as if his life didn't matter, its force not diminished in the slightest, and firmly clamped down on the base of the bat wing.

Crack—rip—

And with a sudden wrench, tore it clean off.

Boden screamed sharply, the smell of sulfur surging from his body, about to once more unleash that orange flame like the 【Spirit Overload】 technique.

But at that moment, the blood-vessel worms on the bone spurs had already burrowed into his body.

Instantly, his spiritual energy throughout his entire body stalled, unable to circulate.

His face changed drastically, as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Psionic energy? Aether? What is this! You madman—did you absorb a cosmic creature?!"

Hearing that—

Virgil stiffly raised his face.

Squelch—a line of blood slid straight down the center of his face, from forehead, over the bridge of his nose, to his chin.

The skin of the left half of his face then tore open.

Flesh, eyeball, meridians—all gone; in the empty half of bare bone, a wrist-thick, bloated worm had taken up residence.

That bloated worm was covered all over in yellow bone spurs, its surface slick with disgusting, foul-smelling mucus.

Though it clearly had no face and no eyes, it instantly locked onto Boden—and with a wet splat, sprayed a great glob of stinking water right onto his face.

"Aaaaaaaaaa——————"

Boden screamed again.

Hoarse and desperate, the despair and panic in his voice reaching their absolute peak.

But that stinking water clearly had no power whatsoever; it didn't even corrode the skin.

Virgil took advantage of him while he screamed.

His right hand seized the swollen seam on his belly and suddenly yanked upward, the seam stretching wide and larger once more.

The black, broken suture line began to writhe, truly turning into sharp, savage teeth—crack! —and chewed Boden whole, grinding him down like an old ox eating grass.

"Ugh—"

Rod was thoroughly disgusted.

That was a brutal bit of work.

From Cambion Boden's scattered words, it wasn't hard to tell that the half-elf Virgil had absorbed a cosmic creature over the past five days.

The recent other-dimensional-space weather hadn't been good; almost every daily newspaper warned mages to enter with caution.

The Blood Drop struggle in the Abyss was still ongoing; every ninth-tier expert on the continent had, by all accounts, gone to join the fray, and Axe Beach was no Deepwater City—what powerful mages would it have?

As for how he got that cosmic creature, no one knew.

【Bio-Weave】?

Rod hadn't met many half-elves; all told, just four.

One was a researcher doing Bio-Weave studies at the Bahadur Academy of Magic; one was the illegitimate daughter of Elder Elder Manla, the elven Elder of the Arcane Control Union; one was a half-elf grandmother who had set up a survivor camp during the Therianthropic Plague on the Korari Plains; and the last was the thing right in front of him.

Of those four, three had given him trouble.

Looks like half-elves were of questionable quality.

The commotion in mid-air naturally alarmed the watching crowd below in Axe Beach once more.

A moment ago, some had still been guessing that the private army and the demon were in cahoots; now that this scene had played out, they were immediately a bit unsure.

The puppet lord named Burgo Torres spoke first, choosing to firmly uphold his master's face:

"Mr. Virgil is truly righteous—to destroy the demon, he chose to sacrifice himself to seal it!"

The Zhentarim personnel of the private army beside him were stunned for a moment, then one after another chose to second the motion.

They were far away, and it was the height of blazing sunshine; in truth, they hadn't really seen clearly the mutations happening on Virgil's body.

The Zhentarim mixed in among the militia and adventurers also began stirring up public opinion.

"It must be a three-way melee—the greatsword man, the fiend, and Mr. Virgil each form one side. Lord Burgo is diligent and ambitious—how could he collude with the Abyss?"

"Where's the other one? That looks like Old Ed from the militia—when did he get this strong?"

"Didn't you see Old Ed and my lord Virgil joining forces against that greatsword man? You may not know my lord Virgil, but Old Ed has served as captain in Axe Beach for over thirty years—you must at least know what kind of man he is."

"That's right. I heard Old Ed was even chosen by the Centaurs as a 【Hero Candidate】—I don't need to tell you what that means."

"Pfft, being chosen as a 【Hero Candidate】 doesn't necessarily make one a good person. I've heard that some Centaurs with impure intentions, when they meet a talented person and already have a candidate of their own, will choose to kill them, to prevent other Centaurs from discovering them."

"That's an isolated case, understand? Don't use an isolated case to represent everyone."

"Setting the Centaurs aside, it's the same story—Old Ed has been a dutiful man his whole life. Him being together with my lord Virgil must be to protect Axe Beach; the fiend and the greatsword man are both enemies of Axe Beach."

This person spoke loudly, clearly using 【Ghost Sound】 to amplify his volume.

Added to the prior prejudice—one man from the private army, one from the militia—they naturally leaned toward their own side.

So they all began, one after another, to cheer my lord Virgil on.

Rod didn't really care.

It had just been a casual act; if it didn't work, so be it.

Wynna's patricide case had already been some time ago, and with the Scattered Tundra Forest coming to power, much of the evidence proving it had been wiped clean.

Even if he killed every single member of the Scattered Tundra Forest this time, it would be useless; people would still deem her guilty.

Forcefully backing her into power?

Then there's no need to mention it—once Rod leaves, Wynna could very well be melted away by a group of scheming people.

The best case scenario would be for Wynna to get her hands on evidence of the private army's collusion with Purgatory, and through communication and promises, regain the trust and support of those suppressed old retainers of her father and the militia, only then having a chance to regain her position.

While pondering.

Virgil underwent an even more drastic change.

He had originally been an exaggeratedly muscular figure, but after devouring Boden, his subcutaneous fat grew violently, and in no time at all he had grown into a giant fat man.

An exaggeratedly drooping, massive round belly, three or four layers of stacked chin fat—the cold, piercing gaze from their first meeting had completely vanished, blocked by the thick flesh sagging from his forehead, making it hard to even see his eyes.

The only thing remaining was that swollen, purplish-black skin.

Splash!

The giant maw on his belly opened, trailing sticky, foul-smelling saliva; a pink tongue covered in blisters and cysts stretched out from within, and at its tip was conspicuously a fleshy head resembling a giant dragon's head, roaring once more toward Rod with its mouth wide open.

The cheering of the private army, militia, and adventurers on Axehead Beach cut off abruptly.

Looking at the terrifying monster in the sky, they felt panic, despair, and fear being drawn out one by one from within their minds.

And Rod was also momentarily stunned.

Not because of Virgil's transformation, but because the Dragon-Slaying Greatsword in his hand had begun to tremble faintly.

(End of this chapter)