Basically Harmless

Darkness boiled.

The pitch-black Cursed Blood rippled. For the first time in its life, under the stimulation of such an immense sense of crisis, it felt unprecedented terror.

And death close at hand.

Amid the grinding of countless joints, the Spirit of Birth's body rapidly contracted, transforming from its original feral hunting state into a nimbler, more frenzied form.

This was evolution. Driven by its own desire, it emerged from chaotic disorder, assumed a form, and transformed once more toward an even greater realm.

Scouring the experience and insights preserved within those alchemists' Source Matter, it was instinctively changing itself!

Like some game's battle sprite undergoing a super evolution.

Accompanied by a frenzied shriek, the Cursed Blood churned and madly drew upon Helios's inexhaustible calamities as a brand-new heart began to beat.

Sharp twin horns like a stag's antlers grew from beneath the Cursed Blood. Darkness stretched out and wove itself into bundles, attaching itself once more to the warped skeleton and forming a gigantic half-beast, half-human figure.

Sixteen arms pierced out from its back, while a bizarre bone mask emerged upon its chest.

The Spirit of Birth rose onto its hind legs and lowered its head. Three pairs of eyes atop its stag-like head darted about before finally fixing upon the enemy before it.

Flames rose from its shell.

It let out a long, shrill cry.

In an instant, Huai Shi retreated.

The formerly invisible sound wave had been given substance. Everything in its path was torn apart by that unreasonable, brutal force. Even its gaze contained vile poison, endlessly injecting the madness of its grief and joy into Huai Shi through eye contact.

In the blink of an eye, it had become entirely different from before.

Even its type was no longer the same...

Was that a Stigmata?