Chapter 632: Beastification Disease and the Siren

Sharon got smacked on the head.

She cursed and grumbled with her mouth, but didn't hit back.

Rod was the passive offender; Dimia hadn't originally wanted to bother with him.

But a certain forest ranger's hand was restless, and when it touched the soft flesh, he instinctively dug his five fingers in.

It would've been fine if he hadn't used force.

The moment he did, the softness was astonishing, and his hand sank right in.

Dimia shrieked in embarrassed fury and, without thinking, slapped him across the face.

So Rod and Sharon ended up with matching red marks on their foreheads.

And Dimia's domain-pollution treatment, amid all the roughhousing, quickly drew to a close.

The sea breeze blew, the sun blazing at its peak.

The boundless rippling sea, the people floating in midair, the giant twisted corpse suspended by gravity chains in the empty sky, and the ice-carved ship drifting farther and farther away.

The person in Rod's arms had been swapped out for a new batch.

On his left thigh sat the dog-person Sharon, back ramrod straight, her short ponytail brushing against his face in the sea breeze.

The rounded, full peach-shaped butt and thigh, upon mere contact, conveyed an unrivaled elasticity and wild strength.

Sharon shot Rod a glare, her eyes warning him not to grope.

Yet she herself draped her arm over Rod's shoulder, her fingers secretly toying with the ends of his hair at the back of his neck, twirling them in circles, quite intimate.

As for Tally, sitting on his right thigh—

The moment she sat down she flushed crimson, steam practically rising, and with a sharp gasp she fainted dead away on his shoulder.

"."

"So, what exactly is this thing?"

The witch Young Lady conjured a massive Mage's Hand, cradling the still-unconscious sea-elf Lola in her palm.

Only then did she turn her head to look again at the giant Siren's corpse hanging in the air.

Just looking at it made her stomach begin to cramp faintly.

"Perhaps some kind of aberrant mutant? Caused by a mage illegally dumping spell waste?"

Rod said.

He recalled the monster movies he'd watched back on Earth in his previous life.

Nuclear waste, mutated creatures.

Very nuclear-logical.

In fact, it wasn't all that rare on the Spirit Continent either; the newspapers in Etheron had broken several scandals about the disposal of spell waste.

The country of Karinshan across the Munster sea might well be doing the same.

The dog-girl swatted away Rod's pig-trotter hand resting on her butt, her expression turning solemn:

"Although illegally dumping spell waste is certainly bad, the ocean's self-circulating energy is stronger than we imagine. I just checked—this is an old friend you both already know."

She still insisted on pausing.

Only when her dog-man and her best friend both looked over did she say: "This monster is infected with Beastification Disease."

"Beastification Disease? How is that possible—"

Dimia blurted in astonishment.

Rod's brows knit tight: "No, it's still possible. Remember that group of Beastification patients bleeding themselves out in the Hansen River?"

The Hansen River originates from the Kor Plain, cuts straight through the entire Twilight Hills, and then empties into the Hester Sea.

Over this period, he'd been periodically clearing out Beastification patients from the Kor Plain; although he ran into the occasional blood-letter, they weren't exactly few in number.

To be honest—

Talking about toxicity while ignoring dosage is just being a hooligan.

He himself had thought this bit of blood meant nothing to the vast Hansen River, and the regular water-quality tests had all come back stable.

He'd even figured that once everyone on the Kor Plain died off, the Beastification crisis would be over for good.

Now it seemed he'd been a bit too optimistic.

Sharon pondered for a moment: "It's possible, but I also spot-checked some seawater, and there were no Beastification blood factors."

"Could it be man-made?"

She shook her head: "This stretch of sea borders quite a few powers; too many factors, can't tell. It might even be Beastification that drifted over from the Karinshan side. I suggest we check all the way upstream along the Hansen River."

The Kor Plain was indeed the region where Beastification had broken out in force.

But it wasn't the only place with Beastification.

Rod nodded: "Let's first get the situation clear on our end."

Everyone had been hit by the domain shock, and aside from Rod, none of them were in great shape.

After taking research samples from both the contaminated sailor's corpse and the giant Siren's corpse, they used Wraithfire to burn the ship and the bodies clean, leaving nothing behind.

"That's about it."

Rod watched the pink-purple flames leap up and decided to sweep along the major coastal shipping lanes once more.

Plop—

The crisp splash of a fish leaping and smacking the water's surface came from not far away.

In the ocean, this sort of thing was common.

But the blurry image transmitted by 【Spider-Sense】 clearly showed a distinctly human silhouette.

He gave a cold snort.

Behind him, the ferocious battle-spirit of a giant Hyakume materialized; its withered, stick-like arm plunged into the sea with a lightning crack.

Not long after.

Gurgle, gurgle—dense bubbles rose to the surface of the water on the spot.

Then the withered red arm swiftly pulled back.

Splash—water sprayed everywhere.

"Ahhhhh—"

A girl's clear, piercing scream rang out in midair.

Rod turned his head to look.

There, beneath the blazing sun in midair, a half-human, half-fish creature, clad in nothing at all, was lifted up; a head of bright pink hair, wet yet dry, fluttered freely in the wind.

A siren sea demon.

Just as in the legends, their upper bodies were exquisitely shaped—slim where they should be slim, full where they should be full, not an ounce of excess flesh, truly a rare beauty.

Rod raised an eyebrow, locked his gaze on her chest at the speed of light, then immediately showed a disappointed expression.

"Although she's not wearing any clothes, there are scales covering it, huh."

That's pretty good too.

A peek-a-boo look—I like that too.

The crimson Hundred-Eyed Ghost arm contracted and lifted, suspending her upside-down in midair.

Yet this Miss Siren had no intention of surrendering without a fight.

Her face shifted from gentle and beautiful to a snarling, ferocious grimace, baring sharp fangs and claws as she launched a flurry of attacks against the withered arm gripping her tail.

Though it was of no use, of course.

She was also extremely quick to change her face.

Realizing it was futile, she swiftly switched back to a gentle, pitiful look, gazing at Rod with teary eyes.

Jabbering away in some unknown tongue, her voice plaintive and melodious.

And not just one language—she kept switching between them.

Sharon glanced over in surprise, then immediately glared fiercely at Rod.

"You're really planning to catch one and take it home to raise? This thing eats human flesh."

"Impossible—she was peeking at us."

Rod felt a twinge of guilt.

Eating human flesh is no big deal.

Just this morning, the ghoul Pan Ni tore a chunk of meat right off my arm.

Dimia then said: "She seems to be saying something."

The group's brief exchange also reminded Miss Siren; she thought for a moment, then spoke a fluent stream of the continent's common tongue.

Mainly addressing Rod, her expression adoring:

"Great hero who vanquished the evil! On behalf of the Thousand-Throat Dirge Clan, I invite you to our palace for a victory feast! If you're willing, you may take your pick from among our entire clan~~"

As she spoke,

her alluring eyes gleamed like silk, utterly bewitching.

Sharon calmly explained to Rod:

"Did you hear the tone of her speech? Rising and rhythmic—that's the siren's trick of weaving magical song into conversation. Anyone with low mental resistance would be hypnotized in an instant, then walk into the sea and drown, becoming their food."

"I see~~"

Sharon froze for a beat, then turned to look at that scoundrel of a man.

Seeing his raised eyebrow, how could she not know he was tempted?

Fury instantly flared: "Are you serious? Right in front of me!?"

(End of this chapter)