Chapter 775: Cries of Distress

Pallor rapidly consumed the "Otherworld" of the bird-clawed monster child, dimming the sprawling wasteland to a single hue, indistinguishable from the ruined palaces, towers, and corridors around it.

This "Otherworld" had also lost its quality of separating inside from outside.

It was effectively withered and dead.

As the bone giant serpent collapsed, Lu Mi fell straight downward, plummeting toward the broken walls and ruins scattered across the "wasteland."

He strained his waist and back, leaned forward, executed a backflip, and landed steadily, without using his avatar's blazing white spear to mitigate the fall's impact.

——In this pale realm, the power of the earth and the world's rules seemed similarly eroded; falling from forty to fifty meters felt no worse than leaping from a six-meter-high building.

At this moment, the monster child's head from Oseto retracted into the pale fleshy ball; Salvationist demi-god Sharon was forced out of its body and hovered midair.

In this region near the "God of Death"'s main hall, five or six terrifying undead creatures, influenced by the "Otherworld," staggered to their feet.

Among them were two giant serpents with feathered wings and hairy corpses; a bloated, bluish-black giant, its flesh highly decayed; a humanoid peak formed of white bones; and a woman with hair as thick as snakes, two-thirds of her face rotten.

Each of these corpses summoned by the bird-clawed monster child inflicted overwhelming pressure upon the "Sword Knight" Marichi.

As a Sequence 5 "Prisoner" capable of commanding undead, he felt utterly incapable of controlling these corpses; any attempt to forcibly awaken them would end with his soul and flesh torn apart on the spot.

The massive, terrifying, or both kinds of corpses instantly locked onto Salvationist demi-god Sharon.

Yet their movements were stiff and sluggish, as if affected by something, and they failed to launch an immediate attack.

Sharon could likewise manipulate undead and command spirits, and she was a true demi-god, her rank higher than the premature bird-clawed monster child!

Sharon's distraction in influencing the former "God of Death"'s devotee gave Oseto's monster child a chance to be reborn; the pale fleshy ball bloomed like a flower's pistil, expelling a giant infant washed clean by pure lake water, while the ball itself rapidly withered, turned pale, rotted, and fell to the ground.

Just as the giant infant reopened its half-pale, half-brown wings, Sharon voluntarily relinquished her influence over the corpses.

Her pale eyes reflected the floating bird-clawed monster child; she opened her mouth and emitted another scream, as if originating from the depths of her soul.

The giant infant froze instantly, transforming into a lamb covered in pale down, incapable of flight or supernatural abilities, plummeting straight toward the ground—and toward Lu Mi, who gripped the "Sword of Courage" in both hands.

"Transformation Curse!"

Without Oseto's monster child sustaining it, the "Otherworld" gradually disintegrated; the summoned terrifying corpses lost the foundation sustaining their existence, their movements slowing under the pale influence until they collapsed into the ruins.

The lamb's body, covered in pale down, appeared contaminated from within; as it fell, its skin split open, sprouting feathers of half-pale, half-brown hue, its belly bulging and writhing as if gestating new life.

No living being could escape the fate of corruption by evil and the birth of new life—even an ordinary lamb!

This was the trait of the "Lady" Path; the "Transformation Curse" could not strip the corresponding adept of these two traits!

Sharon never expected the "Transformation Curse" alone to eliminate Oseto's premature child; seizing the opportunity, she let her pale-shadowed form reflect into the lamb's eyes.

The lamb's belly ceased bulging as rapidly, and its corruption-induced mutations slowed.

It continued hurtling toward the ground.

Standing on the ground, Lu Mi tilted his head upward, smiled, and raised his large straight sword, blazing with white-and-blue flames.

Just as the lamb entered his attack range, a spear forged from pure, blazing sunlight shot forth from the half-collapsed tower.

The "Sword Knight" Marichi once again endured severe injury and excruciating pain as he launched a spear of sunlight capable of illuminating this pale realm.

This time, the bird-clawed monster child, still in lamb form, could neither dodge nor find a shield; it could only watch helplessly as the golden sunlight spear pierced its abdomen and erupted.

Only now, as the scorching white light engulfed the target, did Salvationist demi-god Sharon use Lu Mi's eyes and the pure gold scattered among the nearby ruins to perform "Mirror Leap," escaping the radiant, pale-fading zone.

Though the lamb's body shielded her from the most direct damage of the explosion, as a spirit-transformed adept, she still suffered considerable effects.

When her figure reappeared on a golden pattern embedded in a wall hundreds of meters away, it was noticeably thinner, dripping many wax-like fluids like sweat.

Lu Mi stood close to the pale lamb but, brimming with courage, did not dodge; he stood firm, resolutely "welcoming" the spreading sunlight.

Wearing the Eges family's golden mask, his entire body ignited, blackening and melting like a candle, bringing excruciating pain.

Fortunately, he was not at the core of the sunlight's explosion; most damage fell upon the bird-clawed monster child, and Sharon bore part of it too—otherwise, he would have been purified in a single strike.

Of course, the "Sword of Courage" absorbed half the damage, so his actual injuries were far less severe than they appeared.

Lu Mi gritted his teeth, advanced instead of retreating, raised his pale-eroded straight sword with both hands, and sprinted toward the spot where the bird-clawed monster child would land.

With a faint plop, the half-melted, horrifying pale lamb landed atop a pile of broken, dim stones.

Lu Mi arrived a second late; his eyes first turned iron-black, then pale.

He strained both arms and slashed with the "Sword of Courage."

A blaze of white-and-blue flame flared as the hard, sharp blade struck the lamb's chest and abdomen.

A thunderous explosion, though not loud, sent forth fire and a violent shockwave that hurled nearby rubble skyward, tearing a jagged, uneven wound across the lamb's chest and belly.

Boom! Boom!

Lu Mi struck two more firm blows, splitting the bird-clawed monster child's lamb body into fragments, each charred black.

The charred blackness was instantly consumed by pallor, leaving behind a dull, lifeless sensation.

Just as Lu Mi prepared to strike again with the "Sword of Courage," the corpse fragment from the lamb's abdomen suddenly exploded, spraying decayed flesh and strange-smelling liquid in all directions.

Lu Mi instinctively slashed his "Sword of Courage" toward the empty air before him, cleaving through everything there.

A thunderous boom erupted; white flame and violent shockwaves formed a solid wall, blocking the rotting flesh and vile liquid.

With the explosion of the lamb's abdominal corpse fragment, a small, ethereal figure emerged—covered in a layer of pure flowing water, bearing bird claws and wings—flying straight toward the black egg beneath the ancient God of Death's corpse.

This time, the bird-clawed monster child, now reduced to a wraith, no longer crept cautiously or circled slowly.

The "Sword Knight" Marichi could no longer launch a sunlight spear; doing so would obliterate his severely wounded body entirely within the blinding light. He could only open his arms, summoning a divine column of pure flame descending from the heavens to engulf the bird-clawed monster child's wraith as it flew toward the "God of Death"'s main hall.

The bird-clawed monster child's figure vanished, then reappeared instantly, evading the divine column—but was immediately locked onto by Sharon's pale eyes.

Sharon instantly became a dull, lifeless puppet, encasing herself in layers of ice.

As she did so, layers of glistening ice sprouted around the bird-clawed monster child, briefly pinning its form in place, preventing disappearance or forward motion.

The bird-clawed monster child lifted its head, filling the ice prison with wailing shrieks.

The ice prison shattered soundlessly.

The layer of clear, pure water on the bird-clawed monster child's body splashed outward toward the ancient God of Death's corpse, transforming into countless glistening, unpale, pale-gold droplets.

These droplets, drawn by some unseen force, converged into a river, carrying the bird-clawed monster child toward the black egg burning with pale flames.

As Lu Mi witnessed this, he instinctively sought to avoid the Ancestor of the Undying Phoenix's corpse; he leaned back, raised his arm, and hurled his "Sword of Courage" with all his strength.

The straight sword, pale-eroded yet blazing with white-and-blue flame, became a self-aware projectile, zipping hundreds of meters through the air, its fiery trail arcing toward the bird-clawed monster child.

"Lock-On!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Above the black egg, the sky churned with swelling white flames, forming a pale cloud shaped like a mushroom.

Soundlessly, within the expanding fire and cloud, faint, charred fragments of corpse drifted down like a duststorm.

Before these dusts touched the ground, they all turned pale; some were blown by the wind onto the black giant egg.

Almost simultaneously, Lu Mi heard a phantom cracking sound and felt his "Reaper" elixir had been fully digested.

Before he could rejoice, his spirit and consciousness, protected by the Eges family's golden mask, were flooded with fear and dread.

He lowered his head, knelt to the ground, hugged his body, and trembled violently.

He only wished to obey the commands of the Ancestor of the Undying Phoenix's corpse.

As an undead being, he had lost his "Courage"; even his vision was darkening.

Plop. Splash… The terrified Lu Mi heard the sound of his heartbeat, the rush of his blood.

It came from nearby, from some object within this pale realm.

It resonated strangely with Lu Mi.

Faintly, he heard a piercing cry:

"Child!

"My child!"

Who is your child? Who are you? Lu Mi unconsciously formed these two thoughts.

The piercing cry continued:

"My child, where are you?"

The voice paused, then rose slightly:

"Oumibela, where are you?"

(End of Chapter)