Shade took a step forward. As the white fog parted to either side like stage curtains, he rose to his feet by instinct without even looking at his surroundings.
The leather restraints around him snapped at once. After leaping down from the operating table in the "Blood Collection Workshop," Shade pushed off with both feet and darted toward the nearest wall the instant his vision fully returned.
[It's obvious that you're truly in a hurry.]
"She" spoke with a gentle smile, but Shade had no time to respond to "her." It was as though the Factory could tell how anxious he was as well. Though he moved swiftly, the "Blood Collection Workshop" still reacted in time.
This time, it was not a Flesh Aberration disguised as a door. As Shade neared the wall, disgusting slime seeped from within it, forming a vast number of upright, elongated blobs of fleshy gelatin.
They resembled the "slimes" rarely seen in the Sixth Epoch, but ordinary slimes did not contain bones and human remains. Such creatures had never appeared in the Factory before. Presumably, the Life Furnace's latest activation had caused even more severe mutations within the Factory.
Shade knew without thinking that Moonlight's cutting power and Thunder's piercing force would be useless against gelatinous creatures like these. They might even split into more individuals.
So he chose the most direct method:
"Thaumaturgy—Feliana's Witch Light!"
Light capable of melting any substance burst forward, instantly clearing a path for Shade to the door in the wall. The fleshy slimes struck by the light did not even leave residue behind, while those untouched by the Witch Light continued closing in on Shade.
The good news was that while these creatures appeared to possess formidable physical and elemental resistance, they were genuinely very slow.
Flesh-colored mud balls