Gunfire rang out with a thunderous boom.
A.50 caliber armor-piercing bullet, trailing a scorching spiral of air barely visible to the naked eye, tore through the bloody air.
Its target was the massive, sophisticated cylindrical Cultivation Tank standing quietly in the distance against a backdrop of darkness and blood.
"Roar—!!?"
The flesh behemoth, completely consumed by a frenzied desire for slaughter, let out a distinctly different roar the moment it heard the gunshot and judged the bullet's trajectory.
That sound no longer held pure rage and tyranny.
Instead, it was an extreme panic and despair originating from the deepest depths of instinct.
Its massive, hideous heap of flesh trembled violently for the first time.
Those two giant, deformed claws, which had been welded shut before its vital chest and abdomen like the sturdiest of shields, snapped open without hesitation at this moment.
It abandoned all defense of its core, and even gave up all attacks on Noah and Claire.
The dozens of hideous tentacles dancing wildly also seemed to have their pause button pressed, freezing stiff in mid-air.
Then, those clawed arms, large enough to tear through tanks, swung out with a martyr-like madness.
They moved to intercept the bullet that was about to hit the Cultivation Tank.
This subconscious action left its front wide open.
In that split second,
Noah moved.
His body suddenly sank low, his muscles, containing terrifying explosive power, tensing instantly.
With one hand, he grabbed an irregular, table-sized metal plate from the mess of metal wreckage on the ground.
The edges of the metal plate were jagged and sharp from being violently torn apart earlier.
Noah's fingers, like iron pincers, dug deep into the metal surface, producing a tooth-gritting "creak."
The G-Cells inside his body roared wildly at this moment, injecting surges of massive power into every muscle fiber.
His back and waist were like a powerful bow drawn to its limit.
Then, he suddenly catapulted forward.
"Whoosh—!!!"
That heavy metal fragment, enough to instantly crush an ordinary person into pulp,
turned into a light and deadly silver cyclone in his hands.
It spun at high speed in mid-air, creating a shrill whistle like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves.
There was only one target: Durand's core in his chest and abdomen, now completely exposed due to his abandonment of defense.
That fatal weak point formed by stacks of countless flesh.
"Pfft—shhh—!!!"
A dull, nauseating cutting sound, completely different from any previous sound of tearing flesh, suddenly rang out.
That high-speed spinning sharp metal fragment was like a red-hot dinner knife cutting into a giant block of cold butter.
Without the slightest hesitation,
it easily sliced into the left side of Durand's massive, deformed flesh fortress.
Then, carrying large chunks of black shredded meat and foul-smelling pus, it pierced through the right side.
A smooth, terrifyingly large gash, two meters long and deep enough to show bone, was instantly formed.
Blood did not immediately gush out from the wound.
Because deep within that completely severed cavity of flesh,
something was crawling outward frantically.
"Hiss—!!!"
A non-human howl, sharper and more filled with pain and malice than any previous screech, suddenly erupted from that massive wound.
A pale, deformed parasite, as thick as an adult's arm but long and slender like a giant leech, burst out from that deep canyon of flesh.
It had no eyes, no nose.
Only a circular mouthpart that occupied a third of its entire head.
Inside the mouthpart were rows upon rows of fine, sharp teeth like the blades of a meat grinder.
This was Durand's true body.
This was the core born from the Fusion of the NE-Alpha Parasite and the Mother Goddess Megamycete.
"Aargh... No... No!!!"
The monster Durand's giant arm, which had intercepted the bullet, suddenly stiffened.
It let out a roar filled with unbelievable terror.
It wanted to pull back its arm to protect that completely exposed fatal core.
But it was already too late.
Claire had been waiting nearby for this fleeting opportunity.
In those beautiful eyes, the hideous figure of the pale parasite screeching frantically in the distance was reflected.
The quadruple-barreled Grenade Launcher in her hands was already held steadily before her chest.
The moment the parasite fully emerged from Durand's body,
Claire pulled the trigger without hesitation.
A dull firing sound, full of violent aesthetics, rang out.
The 40mm high-explosive grenade, trailing a faint tail of flame,
smashed with absolute precision into the pale parasite twisting frantically in the air.
The next second,
"Boom—!!!"
A violent explosion thundered.
The deafening blast caused the entire blood-colored hall to tremble violently.
Dust and blood-grime on the ceiling fell down frantically like a waterfall.
At the center of the explosion,
the pale parasite that had just emerged didn't even have time to let out a full wail.
It was instantly blown into the most primitive dust of flesh and blood by the violent energy, powerful enough to tear steel.
Durand's massive flesh body also suffered a devastating blow due to the complete annihilation of its core.
His chest and abdomen, sliced by the metal fragment, were like a giant powder keg ignited in an instant.
They exploded.
A hole, larger and more terrifying than any previous wound, appeared in the center of his body.
Large chunks of broken, charred flesh tissue mixed with white bone fragments and the viscous slurry of internal organs splattered frantically in all directions.
Durand's chest was like a giant dam being blown open.
Viscous, foul-smelling black-red blood gushed out frantically like a flood from a burst dam, with an uncontrollable and terrifying momentum.
In just a few short seconds,
the entire hall's metal floor was completely stained red by the monster's sinful blood,
forming a shallow, blood-colored Lake.
"Heh... heh... ah..."
Durand's body twisted and convulsed frantically in intense pain.
His massive body, formed from stacks of countless flesh and tentacles, was like a tattered sandbag with all its support removed.
It collapsed heavily into the bloodbath he had created.
It struggled and twisted a few times.
Then, it went completely still.
The world seemed to fall into complete silence at this moment.
In the air, only the thick, nauseating smell of blood remained, mixed with the pungent scent of gunpowder smoke.
Noah and Claire's chests rose and fell violently as they gasped for air.
However,
at the very moment the two of them breathed a sigh of relief,
that heap of deformed flesh, lying motionless in the blood like a small mountain,
suddenly had a massive human-shaped silhouette bulge upward from the thick, cuticle-like black skin on its back.
"Rip—"
Accompanied by a scalp-numbing sound of tearing flesh,
a blood-soaked figure, half-bodied, crawled out from that massive, still-twitching mountain of meat.
It was Durand.
Or rather, it was Henry Durand, who still retained the form of a human upper body.
His lower body had completely disappeared.
In its place were countless black-red tentacles of varying thickness, twisting and writhing frantically.
They were like the ugliest, most evil tree roots, deeply rooted in that pile of massive, slowly collapsing flesh.
His entire body was covered in hideous, terrifying wounds.
Black-red blood gushed out frantically from every pore and every wound as if it cost nothing.
Yet, not a hint of pain could be seen on his face.
Only a madness and obsession burning to the extreme.
His blue eyes, completely soaked in blood and madness, stared fixedly in one direction.
Emily's Cultivation Tank.
He suddenly let out a raspy roar that didn't sound human.
His deformed lower body, composed of countless tentacles, suddenly exerted force.
He turned into a black afterimage, moving at high speed through the pool of blood.
With an unbelievable, terrifying speed,
in an instant, he crawled to the front of that massive, cold cylindrical Cultivation Tank.
He reached out his trembling right hand, stained with his own and the monster's blood.
He slammed it heavily onto a control panel on the cold metal base of the Cultivation Tank.
"Hum—"
A low, distant drone, as if from the depths of Hell, suddenly rang out.
Accompanied by this drone,
countless blood-red hyphae, finer than a strand of hair,
like a blood-colored spiderweb endowed with life,
instantly grew frantically from every crack of the Cultivation Tank.
In the blink of an eye,
the entire massive Cultivation Tank, emitting a faint golden glow, was completely enveloped by this layer of airtight blood-red hyphae.
Yet this was only the beginning.
After completely covering the Cultivation Tank, those blood-red hyphae did not stop their frantic expansion.
Like a blood-colored tide at high tide,
they spread out frantically in all directions from the base of the Cultivation Tank.
They crawled up the walls, across the ceiling, and over the massive pile of flesh on the floor that was once the monster Durand's body.
They were like a pack of greedy, thirsty vampires,
frantically absorbing the scarlet pool of blood on the ground,
frantically devouring that pile of collapsing massive flesh.
That mountain-like corpse of flesh withered and collapsed at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Eventually, it was completely absorbed by those frenzied hyphae.
Leaving only a massive meat carpet woven from countless hyphae, filled with sinister totems.
Like a flesh altar prepared for the descent of a deity.
Durand was in the center of the altar, slowly spreading his arms.
A smile of immense satisfaction and pious fanaticism appeared on his face.
He extended his thickest black-red tentacle, its tip as sharp as a scalpel.
He gently drew it across his pale, blood-stained neck.
A terrifying wound, deep enough to show bone, appeared instantly, and blood gushed out.
Yet he seemed unable to feel the slightest pain.
He used the last bit of strength in his life,
in an exaggerated, aria-like tone, he roared loudly,
"With the blood of the believer..."
"Welcome the Holy Advent!!!"
The moment the words fell,
he suddenly leaned back.
He threw his broken, dying body heavily into the center of the flesh altar woven from hyphae.
He completely merged with Emily's Cultivation Tank, which was wrapped in blood-red hyphae.
"Hum—hum—hum—"
In the entire hall, all the blood-red hyphae began to pulse violently at a high frequency.
With every pulse, they seemed to be extracting the most Origin life energy of this world.
The blood pool was instantly drained, and the meat carpet quickly dissolved.
Then, at the very moment the pulsing reached its peak,
all the blood-red hyphae, as if receiving some supreme command,
suddenly all retracted toward the Cultivation Tank.
Everything happened too fast, so fast that people had no time to react.
As if that battle, tragic to the extreme, the terrifying beast that obscured the sky, and the overwhelming blood-red hyphae,
everything was just a bizarre and absurd nightmare.
The entire hall instantly returned to an eerie tranquility.
Leaving only the hideous traces of destruction all over the floor, proving that a tragic, unknown battle to the death had indeed taken place here.
That massive Cultivation Tank, which had been completely enveloped by blood-red hyphae,
at this moment, also instantly returned to its original clear and cold appearance.
Inside the tank was still that clear, shimmering pale golden liquid.
Emily floated quietly in this sacred yet eerie golden glow.
As if nothing had happened.
However,
the next second,
her face, which had always maintained a peaceful smile, twitched slightly.
Her eyes, which had always been tightly closed, slowly opened.
They were a pair of eyes with no pupils, no focus, only a pure, brilliant golden color like molten gold.