Flesh-and-Blood Creation

Moria frowned at the sight, raising a hand as if to cast a prayer for the gnome, but forcefully restrained himself. Li Wen, meanwhile, took a few steps back. If she still had any Magic Power, she would have attacked then and there; after all, it was normal to sneak in some damage while the enemy was transitioning phases.

The gnome Zotes grabbed the half-face skin and tilted his head, placing it into his mouth. He wrung out its blood, drank its fluids, then clutched his bloody face, his pained wail slowly turning into a roar, and finally devolved into a beast-like panting.

He removed his hands, his dim, cloudy pupils constricting into vertical slits like those of a reptile. The muscles of his mangled face twitched incessantly, and fine spikes, as if grown from his skull, covered the flesh.

"Shedding skin and drinking blood... Careful, it's a Blood Lust Cultist," Moria warned.

Li Wen had expected this and wasn't surprised.

After Zotes finished with the skin on his face, he began to tear off the skin from his entire body. With each peeling, each bloody agony, his shriveled body would swell. By the time all his skin was shed, Zotes's body, already a head taller than a human's, had expanded to four to five meters.

His entire body was covered in scales of rock or bone. Each beat of his heart thundered like a drum, and each scale had grown from his flesh, thus being stained scarlet.

His dim vertical pupils contracted, locking directly onto Li Wen. Zotes's massive body moved instantly, its speed far beyond that of any normal creature. In Li Wen's eyes, the monster was nothing but a blur.

A gust of bloody wind hit her face. Li Wen, gripping the Eye of the Transcendent, remained unmoved until, after a metallic clang, a figure flew out from near her.

Li Wen watched Moria fly away, speechless. The Firstborn of the Holy Temple is just this?

"Such beautiful power, such sweet fragrance... I will drink all of your blood, one by one, especially you, Hypocritical Knight."

Zotes licked his claws, his gaze sweeping between Moria and Li Wen. As for the other two Wild Mages, they were not worth mentioning.

"You still have other choices, Zotes. Not all suffering is predestined; it depends more on your choices. No matter what you've been through, it's not too late to turn back now."

The knight of the Holy Temple stood up again. This time, he drew his Knight Sword and looked seriously at the gnome.

"What do you know! What do you know!" Zotes roared, blood flowing in his pupils, every cell in his body screaming. "It's all humanity's sin, all your fault! And I will use your blood for the final purification!"

"Are these people all dead because of you?" Moria looked at the corpses on the ground.

"They were just a bunch of greedy people, just like you. I don't need to say more; I only needed to reveal the existence of this Dungeon, and they would come to die on their own. You cannot defeat the Great Blood, so it's better to give up now than to struggle in pain."

Moria ignored him further. He prayed to his longsword, and scarlet flames, like blood, wrapped around the blade.

"You're the one who should give up."

Zotes was already impatient. He had originally intended to kill Li Wen first and then deal with Moria slowly, but since this knight was so unappreciative, he would have to deal with him first.

He felt the Great Blood flowing within him, as if it had a life of its own, yearning for a nobler, more worthy sweetness.

"This is—Blood Curse!"

As if showing off, Zotes shouted the name of the spell. Crimson light shot out from his body, like blades piercing Moria.

The Firstborn of the Temple remained unmoved, not even resisting, letting the crimson light pierce his body.

Even with the knight's armor blocking, these crimson lights still penetrated his body, and blood continuously flowed from the wounds, showing no signs of stopping.

One of the effects of the Blood Curse was that it would cause wounds to bleed incessantly until death.

Seeing Moria fall victim to the curse, Zotes felt he had already won half the battle. This knight, though seemingly unfathomable, was, like all other humans, arrogant to the core. He didn't realize that his spell was amplified by the Great Blood, making its power several times stronger than an ordinary Blood Curse.

As he reveled in thoughts of how he would drink the knight's blood, immersed in the sweet scent of blood, Zotes suddenly felt a searing pain throughout his body. His scales, as hard as rock, developed bloody holes. The number and position of these holes were identical to those on Moria.

But the difference was, the more Moria was injured, the brighter his eyes became, as if flames were dancing within them.

This was the Divine Art "Shared Fate" from the Path of Sacrifice, which could reflect all damage taken by oneself back onto the enemy. In the hands of others, this might be a desperate measure or a suicide move, but in the hands of those on the Path of Sacrifice...

"All who sacrifice shall be granted a Gift."

Clear candlelight burned in Moria's hand, and the wounds on his body vanished like wisps of smoke from a candle.

"All who do evil shall be punished!"

The candlelight in his hand instantly blazed, becoming the only sun in the dark underground.

Zotes felt a great threat. The Great Blood warned him frantically; if he didn't dodge, he would die.

The gnome panicked. He wanted to distance himself from the knight, but the light had already pointed at him.

The dazzling light forced Li Wen to close her eyes. When she opened them again, the gnome was no longer in her sight.

Dead?

Li Wen immediately dismissed the thought. She looked up and saw the gnome hanging upside down from the ceiling.

The creature bared its bloody maw and swung its claws at the ceiling.

"Victory shall be mine!"

The immense force shattered the ceiling. Along with the crumbling debris, scarlet liquid and countless mangled corpses rained down, instantly engulfing everyone in a sea of blood.

Zotes stood in the center of the blood sea. Behind him was a massive, indescribable, deformed monster.

It had no limbs, its body a sphere of bloody tumors, covered in scales identical to those of the gnome and other monsters. It had sixteen mouths, each lined with sharp, pointed teeth, and scarlet liquid constantly dripped from them, emitting an unusually sweet fragrance.

Just looking at it made one's flesh feel as if it would burst out and merge with the monster.

Li Wen rose again from the blood sea. She looked at the numerous corpses on the ground, which the blood sea couldn't even conceal. So many bodies... perhaps all the adventurers who met with misfortune are here?

Moria also saw the corpses, his eyes filled with pity, regret, and self-blame.

"Witness! This creation of the Great Blood!"