Instance

With a crisp snap of his fingers, the sound of cloth tearing spread through the air.

The sleeve of Huai Shi's spacesuit burst open over his right hand—the countless tiny mechanisms and joints within his half-flesh, half-metal right arm began operating, unfolding its intricate structure.

Forging Furnace: Hand of Confinement opened the gateway to the furnace core's abyssal ruin.

Then came the sound of a tsunami surging forth from within.

A deep roar like the trembling of the earth and a towering tidal wave swept outward with a hurricane. Then, endless blood erupted like geysers from every crevice in the mechanical right hand.

At first, it was like a frozen pipe bursting. Then it became a leaking fire hydrant, then something comparable to a high-pressure water cannon... until finally, it became a terrifying flood hundreds of times greater, shooting skyward like a waterfall and spreading indiscriminately in every direction.

Shadows, puppets, monsters, and even the stunned Mahoraga.

There was no room or chance to evade. In the blink of an eye, they were all engulfed.

The writhing scarlet mass swiftly took on the texture of flesh. Countless slender nerves and blood vessels swayed within it like seaweed, attaching themselves to fascia as twisted limbs rapidly grew.

Like tens of millions of viscous palms, they frantically groped toward everything within reach, twitching in dying spasms. Wherever they passed, veins spread across the rocks and earth, rapidly bringing them to life.

That was life.

Life out of control, reproducing uncontrollably in an instant.

Within the rolling shadows, the Solidifiers who had long since been made into puppets froze in place. When the blood and writhing fleshy tendrils touched them, their ashen-gray skin unexpectedly took on the rosy pallor and fair complexion of the living, and hearts silent for years began to beat