Corrupted One

What exactly are you?

"Humans," Han Dong replied without hesitation.

Sylest finally compromised and reached a temporary cooperative combat agreement with Han Dong, "Alright... if I'm not injured during the battle, you don't need to come out."

Even if you're not afraid of pollution, given your physical condition, you could easily suffer dismemberment in the face of such Corrupted One.

"Um."

Suddenly, Sylest, who had been looking stern, shifted her gaze slightly and began to stammer, "Well... anyway, thank you for treating my wounds."

"If we can kill this fully Corrupted One, we can discuss your abilities privately."

"Good."

Han Dong wasn't worried at all.

After all, Mr. Black and White had left him a way out in this matter.

Once this matter is resolved, Han Dong will unroll the scroll immediately. Even if some information is leaked, Mr. Black and White will handle it privately.

And so, their battle plan began.

This will be Han Dong's first indirect contact with 'life outside the city', and also Han Dong's first time fighting alongside a true knight.

The Baker Manor.

Flames have been ignited inside the giant, distorted sycamore tree.

Before the trees burned down and collapsed, Cas and his two companions escaped safely through the Tree Hole.

The trio's combined strength and skillful teamwork allowed them to successfully penetrate deep into the interior and kill the main ghost entity—'a female head entwined among countless tree roots'.

During the battle, Cas, who was in charge of the vanguard, had deep cuts on his shoulders, armpits, waist, abdomen, and inner thighs, and was also contaminated.

Sophia is currently applying healing holy light magic, along with holy water, to cleanse the contaminants from the wound.

Where are the Andeva brothers?

Cas, who was receiving treatment, thought of Han Dong first and looked around while calling out his name.

But no sound came from inside the gloomy mansion.

"Impossible... Andeva, with his powerful summon, is probably even stronger than me overall. His summon can kill ghosts directly, so there's no way he could be out there covering the rear.

Cas discovered that the communication devices were also unreachable.

After receiving proper treatment, Cas immediately began searching the mansion... his eyes filled with worry.

"Captain Cas, we've found something here!"

Koslin's ability to detect things is quite strong.

Inside the original head of the family's first-floor bedroom, Secret Corridor leading downwards was found.

Clearly, this passage and the passage at the bottom of the pool outside should lead to the same place.

"Brother Andeva, did you choose to go down first?"

Sophia, standing nearby, quickly added:

"My sister said she would only let us down when she needed our help... We'd better not go down, otherwise disturbing her might make her Life Force. If there's really danger, going down would only be a hindrance."

Cas, however, held the opposite opinion.

"Andeva's friend was aware of this, but he chose to go down... The reason may be related to time."

Our search of the mansion, including the subsequent killing of the main ghost, took over One Hour. Meanwhile, the Knight of Sylest, who had gone to the Underground Area, sent no further information.

If everything went smoothly for her, she should have come up already.

Hearing this, Fia also began to worry. "Yes... my sister has always been very strong-willed. Even if she encounters danger, she won't ask for help, let alone us who are just Knight-Errant."

"Go down! Get your spirits up and go down to support them."

Cas would not allow his comrade-in-arms, with whom he had shared life and death, to die in this Bounty Mission. He was determined to get Han Dong out of the mansion safely.

Underground Area.

At the center of the sacrificial array, where green flames burned, Han Dong finally saw the true form of the family head, [Beck Marcellus]. To be precise:

[The Fall of Baker]

"What... is this?"

Baker's current 'form' has exceeded Han Dong's imagination.

They immediately understood what life outside the city meant, and why humanity, which had already mastered firearms, was completely defeated in a short period of time.

Since his rebirth, Han Dong has seen some Corrupted Entity.

Ghoul

"The old woman who was moved"

"Tree Spirit Ghost"

Even Though lost their self-awareness, they still basically maintain a human form... at least 80% of them still look like a person.

In terms of body shape and other characteristics, they belong to the human category.

but.

This Baker Marcellus has gone beyond that limit.

Let's start with body shape and posture characteristics.

Three meters... it must be close to four meters high.

Apart from its swollen head, which still barely resembled a human, the rest of its body was dehumanized, consisting mostly of a crimson tentacles.

As the tentacles that make up his body wriggle, one can vaguely see hideous human heads hidden inside.

These were the poor security personnel and their families who were used in the sacrificial ceremony.

These tentacles appear to be under Beck's complete control.

It can be soft at will, quickly wrapping around and invading the target's body.

It can be harder than steel, and can be transformed into a drill bit to tear apart the target's flesh.

To fight something like that, with Han Dong's current abilities, he'd probably be easily toyed with and die.

Moreover, the Fallen Beck possesses a terrifying characteristic.

On his back grew a giant eye with a radius of about one meter... making it impossible to attack him from behind.

An ordinary Knight-Errant would probably turn into pus if he Eye Contact directly into this giant eye.

A few people's bodies may be able to withstand this intense pollution, but they themselves will also degenerate and become slaves of Beck.

Sylest gave a simple analysis of the current situation:

"This guy seems to be planning to activate the evil array again to suppress the sacrificers whose consciousness has not yet completely dissipated within him... Once all the sacrificers' consciousnesses have died, he will become a completely independent individual, making him even more difficult to deal with."

I'm ready to go!

Allen, you'll remember this!

Once you see that I've been 'traumatically contaminated,' come out immediately and heal me... After the treatment, hide quietly; I'll attract its attention, so don't worry."

"Good."

That's all.

Sylest began preparations for the battle.

Drinking a bottle of magical holy water that shimmers with blue starlight... This holy water not only enhances an individual's resistance to pollution, but also continuously replenishes magical power.

At the same time, it continuously applies buffs to itself.

"King's Blessing"

"Life Blessing"

"Retribution Blessing"

"Strength Blessing"

Application complete.

Just as [Fallen Baker] was about to activate the formation again.

Sylest leaped forward, swinging the flail in her hand with all her might.

A holy hammer, about a meter long, formed in mid-air and struck Beck's chest head-on, shattering and breaking several of his tentacles.

However, as soon as the broken tentacles fell to the ground, they seemed to have an independent consciousness and immediately crawled back to the main body.

Han Dong, hiding in the shadows, noticed a crucial detail...

[The Fall of Baker]

I just made a subtle contraction and extension motion.

When attacked, quickly store an important item, similar to a book, in the back area.