Fente threw back his head in excited laughter as he continued pursuing Oko's retreating figure at full speed.
That pitch-black insect body, bristling with countless blades, appeared ever more grotesque, ever more profound—like a bottomless, lightless bog that, after all these years, intended to drag Oko's life back into its depths once more, and this time never give her another chance to escape.
Meanwhile, although Oko continued flying low at breakneck speed under Sainsai's relentless mental assault, her expression was exceptionally strained, and her movements were far less steady than at the start.
Oko should have been faster than Fente by a fair margin.
Even if she could not tear through Fente's defenses, if Oko wanted to leave, Fente would have found it difficult to keep her.
However, due to Sainsai's ongoing mental interference, part of Oko's consciousness was still stripped away from her body. It was as though a healthy person had suddenly come down with a cold, plunging her into a state of headache and weakness. For the moment, she simply could not bring out one hundred percent of her strength and speed, allowing Fente to steadily close the distance between them.
"We dwell in falsehood and sing praises to hypocrisy!"
"We shun the truth and forget history!"
"We boast of life's greatness, never realizing that it is precisely this greatness that has wrought the sins of this world!"
In the blink of an eye, Oko and Fente, one after the other, arrived at a location dozens of kilometers away from Sainsai.
And yet, even so, Sainsai's emotion-laden words still echoed and reverberated relentlessly in Oko's mind like a subwoofer.
Oko's brows were tightly furrowed, sweat streaming down her cheeks as she struggled to hold fast to her consciousness while forcing herself to think.
*(Damn it, my head