Chapter 98: When the Flower of Sin Blooms (11)
[What a delightful surprise, Little Black Charcoal.]
In my memory, on that thunderous day when the rain was pouring like a waterfall, there stood a small tent shrouded in the power of the Divine Reliquary “Reversing the End.” It was in front of this tent that the Pope, named Angel, grinned like a mischievous child.
[The heretic’s corpse was initially meant to be burned and buried by the knights. The “bl**d Sacrifice” phase is anything but ordinary; no one knows whether that thing might spring back to life… Luckily, Isaac’s sharp instincts kicked in, and he thought I should take a look.]
He had told me this back then, urging me to come see it. Even now, thinking back, that feigned innocence was almost flawless.
[That’s right, it was that piece of meat, the one exclusively present during the “bl**d Sacrifice” phase. It grew right here… inside the left chest cavity, snug against the heart, half-wrapped around a lung… like a newborn organ.]
At that moment, Angel wove me a tale that sounds extremely convincing.
[The power of a deity cannot be contained within a human’s flesh and bl**d. But what if the source of power isn’t the flesh at all, but that extra organ… What if it’s that thing that allows them to s*ck the bl**d of others, unleash an even fiercer infernal fire, and even recover from a shattered head… Little Black Charcoal, what do you think of this?]
…What do I think of this?
At that time, I was solely focused on devouring that…
I feared that the same thing might exist within me.
I was fooled…
And now, once again, I found myself staring at something almost identical.
But this time, it was in the “sacred and solemn” church.
“Heh…”
Angel…
I really want to ask you face-to-face how it felt to deceive me back then…
To you, what would this count as?
I slowly bent down to pick up the container bottle. Ignoring the filthy dust on it, I awkwardly hugged it in one arm and brought the torch closer, allowing the liquid soaking the contents to come into clearer view.
Indeed…
It was that kind of thing.
Disgusting, yet capable of granting humans immense power, a tumor parasitically nestled in the body…
However, the one in the bottle seemed to have withered a bit, possibly due to a long absence of a “host” while being submerged in the same unknown liquid.
I didn’t know if it could be considered “dead”…
Regardless, a piece the size of my fist, compared to the “living flesh” I recalled, this one looked a bit shriveled and wrinkled, its surface dark in color, giving off a sense of decaying meat, rather shockingly similar to the corpses outside… although it didn’t appear burnt, it merely resembled that in some regards.
Even as I held it up and gently shook the bottle, the tumor floating in the liquid remained utterly still.
…Only the heretics in the “bl**d Sacrifice” phase have this?
Oh for heaven’s sake.
Angel…
…Wait a minute…
I lifted the bottle a little higher, holding it up to my eyes for a closer look.
It seemed…
A bit different.
“This thing…”
Its skin didn’t have those grotesque veins I remembered… it wasn’t dry rotten like that after “d*ath”… it seemed like it inherently was this dark color.
And this dark color… I was all too familiar with it…
I was sure this thing was still alive.
!
Suddenly, a thought struck me.
…Let’s give it a shot.
I raised the bottle high in the darkness, glanced around, then took a deep breath, and hurled the bottle to the ground with all my might!
Crack—
With a dull thud, the container shattered beneath my feet, the moment it hit the ground, yellow liquid splattered everywhere, the sound echoed in the darkness, but at that moment, I no longer cared if something would hear me.
Come at me…
Then d*e.
Though that thought crossed my mind, I couldn’t shake off the jitters. I quickly backed up a couple of steps, raised my guard, and kept my eyes locked onto the black tumor that rolled out from the broken bottle, as a “hum” echoed, my pupils gleaming with a crimson glow.
Come…
Move for me.
One second…
Two seconds…
Seconds ticked by.
Squish…
Suddenly, that “dead” tumor seemed to quiver slightly.
!
Just as I thought…
I widened my eyes.
Then I saw the “lying” tumor on the ground start to tremble violently, accompanied by sharp “sizzling” sounds reminiscent of steam, wisps of ethereal black mist began to rise and burst forth from within!
It’s Dead Smoke—!
I reacted quickly, swinging my right hand.
Similar dark mist erupted from my delicate palm instantly, but was several times denser than what the tumor produced, forming a slender smoke serpent that wound its way out, intermingled with flickers of scarlet fire, slamming down onto the writhing mass of meat with a “thud.”
The tumor contracted suddenly!
Sizzle sizzle sizzle—
The Dead Smoke fused with the Dead Smoke, intertwining around the tumor and swiftly spreading out across the ground, however, in the next moment, a wave of scarlet flames erupted from its very being.
Crackle pop…
The sounds of the raging inferno, like igniting a wooden stake, caused flames to leap up, swiftly dispersing the surrounding Dead Smoke. I casually waved my hand, and the mist rushed back to me, flowing into my chest while the tumor began to struggle fiercely amid the rising flames.
It seemed to be in great pain, writhing like a worm rolling frantically on the ground, such agony lasted only a few seconds before the black tumor was completely reduced to ashes in the searing inferno.
This is…
A faint, red, nail-sized glimmer suddenly shot out from the flames, and before I even had time to react, it vanished into my chest along with those black mists.
!
This is the power of the Abyss…
At this point, how could I not recognize this energy.
Though it was extremely weak, offering hardly any resistance, it could be extinguished with just a small flicker of infernal fire, but this red light’s entry and this slight tingling sensation were eerily similar to the light from the Abyss, which I had “devoured” after killing it…
Unlike humans and other “pale white light mists,” this was red light.
No mistake…
This is the power of the Abyss.
I stood there, holding the torch, staring at the still-burning flame on the ground. The glow of infernal fire was far brighter than the torch, gradually staining the surrounding darkness a deep, bl**d-red hue… my face was illuminated in this color, and for a moment, I was lost in thought.
This thing…
Holds the power traits of Gidales, which is “deity’s” strength… these chunks of meat are from the deity’s body… but this one isn’t from the Goddess of Sin, it’s from the Mother God of Abundance…
Whoosh—
Suddenly, I heard rustling from all around.
!
What…
Out of the corner of my eye, those bl**d-colored vine-like plants began to slowly squirm and spread from the distant, bl**d-like glow, countless soft, twisted tendrils reaching out from the ground ahead and from both sides, slowly curling towards me as if intending to surround me and engulf me completely.
!!!
They’re alive…
