Af II

The black feathers seemed to lose their strength, fluttering down from the sky.

Gilan looked up.

The sallow, scrawny little boy stood not far ahead of him, but his appearance had changed drastically.

From the stump of his severed right wrist grew a massive, phantom red python. After coiling several times around his thin, small body, the python reared high and continuously flicked its tongue.

A pair of ruby-like vertical pupils stared fixedly at Gilan.

The boy's left leg was missing from the knee down, replaced by a deep black shadow like the starry sky, incomparably splendid.

Af's left eye was gone as well.

His empty eye socket seemed to have become a bird's nest. A translucent cuckoo with a blue head and gray wings poked its head out from within, lively and vivid.

"The fourth primal essence of my path is called 'Cuckoo.' A cuckoo entrusts its young to another nest, meaning that flesh and blood lodge in another's home, drawing upon its nourishment to nurture new life..."

"Unfortunately, the tibia sword just now failed to harm you in the slightest. Otherwise, once the white bone drilled into your body, this 'Cuckoo' would not have needed to take root in my own eye. It would have hatched from your body instead."

Hearing this and seeing the smile on Af's face, Gilan's heart tightened.

The other party's methods came one after another.

If Gilan had not summoned his armor in time to protect his arm, allowing the thorns formed from that tibia shortsword to pierce his flesh, he would have been parasitized by the other party's power.

That power would draw upon his flesh, blood, and will, causing a bird's nest to bloom and hatch a "Cuckoo."

Though Gilan did not know what effect this "Cuckoo" would have on him,