Washington.
Late at night, the daylight lamp inside the house was still on.
Diana, changed into a beige house dress, sat on the living room sofa. Her long, fair legs were pressed together and crossed, and she leaned beneath the lamp as she read books on archaeology and law. Her intellectual, noble bearing seemed to have settled into an aura around her.
Yet even while focused on her reading, Diana would occasionally glance toward the door.
She clearly knew Xi Nian would be staying in New York tonight and would not be coming back. And yet, she still subconsciously repeated this behavior, one that even Diana herself found utterly baffling.
Was it because she had grown used to it?
Used to Xi Nian coming home every day, eagerly calling her Auntie, circling around her, and telling her about the things that made him happy or sad.
Used to the warm, ordinary life they had shared for sixteen years.
Used to having Xi Nian by her side.
"Am I feeling... lonely?" Diana was somewhat surprised as she stared blankly at the silent, empty living room before her.
Before meeting that child, she had lived alone in the human world for decades. She had made it through all those long years by herself, so why had less than a day brought her such unbearable loneliness?
Yes, loneliness.
As a goddess descended from the bloodline of ancient Greek deities, she seemed born without much understanding of that feeling. After all, the fate of one who could live eternally was destined to be lonely.
But clearly, loneliness came in degrees.
Diana returned the book in her hand to the shelf and walked gracefully toward a room.
Xi Nian's room.
Without turning on the room's lights, Diana sat by the bed in the tranquil darkness, then slowly lay down.
Her slightly curled hair spread across the bed like blossoming petals. Diana gently wrapped her slender hands around the down quilt, drawing the familiar scent of the boy into her embrace.
Beneath her elegant white gauze dress, her ivory-smooth legs slowly pressed together before relaxing completely.
"What is that child doing right now?" Diana's face was slightly flushed. She naturally closed her eyes and drifted into sleep on Xi Nian's bed.
New York, Queens.
"Venom, I never said I wanted to kill her." Xi Nian, in his Venom-feline Tri-Symbiotic Form, widened his beastly eyes as he briefly hovered above the rooftop, looking at the model woman who had been cleaved in two by the armed sword formed from his tail.
This was unlike before, when he had only gained the abilities of Auntie or the Essence Devourer Beast one-sidedly.
Under these special circumstances of parasite upon parasite.
Xi Nian simultaneously possessed the racial abilities of both Venom and the Essence Devourer Beast. Internally, he controlled the Venom Symbiote parasitizing him, while externally manipulating the host body of the Essence Devourer Beast. The difficulty of controlling his current body had increased by far more than a single level!
Fortunately, Xi Nian was not fumbling around with his abilities alone this time.
The consciousnesses of Venom and the Essence Devourer Beast were like secondary systems to a mainframe. They could appropriately remind Xi Nian of his own racial abilities, as well as offer the best next course of action and advice.
Yes, this was a true tri-symbiotic mode.
That was why Xi Nian had been able to respond so accurately just now and skillfully use the symbiote's shapeshifting ability to transform his tail into an armed sword.
However, Xi Nian himself had decided on the first slash, while the second had been delivered under Venom's guidance.
"It won't die that easily." Venom's voice sounded in Xi Nian's mind.
Just as it said.
Reflected in Xi Nian's slit-pupiled cat eyes, no blood emerged from the model woman's body after it had been cut in half, nor from the wrists that had been severed first. Instead of splashing blood, strands of thick brown liquid poured out!
Brown liquid surged from the cuts in the model woman's mangled body, converging together and swiftly pulling the four sections of her body back into one!
In roughly two seconds, the model woman had completely recovered without a single hair out of place, landing on the ground.
Venom's raspy voice sounded:
"This human woman is beyond saving."
"Judging by her current state and behavior, the symbiote inside her is clearly the one in complete control. In this situation, her brain and body have long since been mostly destroyed. She is practically a vegetable, retaining only the last trace of life and unable to offer any conscious resistance."
"Her wounds just now were also being maintained by the symbiote inside her. Once the symbiote dies or leaves her body, she will die immediately as well."
"Is that so? Then I have nothing to worry about." Xi Nian suddenly flashed a savage grin. His tiny mouth split into an arc spanning half his cat face, revealing a gaping maw packed with sharp, interlocking fangs.
The previously cute and soft Black Cat seemed to have transformed into a little demon from hell.
The symbiote's ruthless savagery and the Essence Devourer Beast's violent ferality continuously eroded human reason. Even Xi Nian, who held the dominant position in the Tri-Symbiotic Form, now displayed monstrous behavior beyond comprehension.
Knowing it had no chance to escape, the symbiote parasitizing the model woman immediately formed a layer of hard brown spikes over her entire body. Almost the instant it created its symbiote defensive armor—
The Black Cat in front of her moved.
The model woman only saw a blur before her eyes. Before she could prepare any attack or defense, she looked down with a slight delay and saw that her chest had become a hollow opening through which she could directly see behind her.
"What just happened?" The symbiote parasitizing the model woman was stunned.
The tough symbiote armor, the flesh within, the bones, even the internal organs—all of them had been pierced through in an instant!
So fast!
A speed too great to see clearly!
No, speed alone could not have accomplished this!
The model woman covered the gaping hole in her chest as the symbiote inside her continued surging to repair her body.
"It's useless, you can't kill it like this! A symbiote can regenerate almost endlessly!" Venom cried hoarsely.
The Black Cat behind the model woman paid no heed and continued charging and pouncing forward like lightning, its tiny body resembling a supersonic missile warhead!
Boom!!
Another pitch-black hole appeared in the lower abdomen of the model woman's body, which had yet to finish repairing itself!
Screech, screech, screech!
The Black Cat's high-speed movements traced paths like lightning, leaving deep gouges across the rooftop terrace while countless dense cat-claw indentations appeared in the surrounding walls!
As if battered by an onslaught a thousand times fiercer than a storm, the model woman standing in the middle could not move. Her body was constantly mauled and torn apart, while the symbiote's restoration speed was far too slow to keep up with the destruction!
"Why? How?!" The symbiote inside the model woman was terrified. "What kind of monster is that damned Venom parasitizing? How can the difference in strength be this great?!"
It could no longer endure it!
Brown liquid burst from the mouth of the woman's mangled body and rapidly shot toward the crowded street below the rooftop!
"Stop it! It wants to parasitize another human body!" Venom screamed sharply.
"Wishful thinking."
The Black Cat coldly waved a paw. An armed claw larger than its own body shot forward like a tentacle, firmly seizing the brown liquid still suspended above the street.
"You can't kill me!" The symbiote in the shape of brown liquid boiled with violent fury as it struggled frantically.
"Oh."
The Black Cat revealed a sinister smile, pulled the symbiote back before itself, and tossed it directly into its open mouth!
Xi Nian closed his mouth. Without even making a swallowing motion, the symbiote vanished completely from this world.
It had not been eaten as it appeared.
Instead, it had been exiled into the Essence Devourer Beast's alternate dimension.
Without a host in there, the seemingly difficult-to-kill symbiote would soon lose its life as well.
"Quickly end this. In my current state, let's clear out the rest." Xi Nian murmured in an evil, raspy voice as he coldly overlooked New York beneath the night sky. The longer the three coexisted through parasitism, the more his behavior gradually leaned toward that of the Venom Symbiote and the Essence Devourer Beast.
Human reason was twisting and collapsing.
But precisely because of that, the power possessed by the Tri-Symbiotic Form began to emerge in earnest!
Before you continue