"Not good! Our Flesh-Weaving Machine has been exposed!"
The Marrow Eaters were badly startled by this sudden change. Everything had happened too abruptly; they had not even had time to react.
In the blink of an eye, the Grudge-Binder had rushed outside the clan grounds, the Mire Abyss. A twisted black rift slammed into the crimson barrier that resembled a slab of flesh.
The barrier caved in from the impact, then sprang back.
The entire barrier became increasingly vivid in color, with vast amounts of blood overflowing from its outer surface, as though the whole barrier were weeping.
It made a squirming sound, accompanied by strange "Beng! Beng! Beng!" noises coming from within the clan grounds.
The sound seemed to expand rapidly, yet also thundered like a heartbeat, spreading across the entire wilderness. Both the air and the ground buzzed.
Then, an enormous blood-colored, wooden branch resembling a human hand surged out from within.
The rugged ancient tree in the core area actually moved. Transforming into a war machine, it thrust half its body out from the red barrier—a bizarre upper body that was half human, half tree.
Its body was as immense as a mountain.
Black mist coiled around it as it wielded crimson power, bringing with it a flurry of snow-like red flakes as it bore down on the Grudge-Binder.
The Grudge-Binder had not expected this tiny patch of darkness—these ordinary people who had obtained a few minor tricks, these pitifully weak humans—to withstand its methods.
After all, even those great evil spirits could be killed with a mere thought from it.
Yet the Marrow Eaters' power had only reached this level.
It truly could not underestimate this kind of food!
While it was still surprised, the Ever-Rotter, which had only been delayed for an instant and was