The Swollen Thing

Seeing this, Celine hesitated no longer. Her spear drove violently into Rigel's neck, and with a hard wrench, she tore the bones in his neck to pieces.

The head wrapped in that full mane of silver hair rolled away, bouncing all the way down the stone platform's steps, the silver strands stained with blood and filth.

He should have been dead through and through.

Yet Lynn's intuition felt as if something were tearing at it, slicing it apart, until his head throbbed unbearably.

He clutched his forehead. When he looked up again, shimmering green light spilled all around them. Rigel's headless body convulsed and toppled, and the eerie red glow on him had completely vanished.

Charlotte's breathing gradually grew rapid, sweat beading on her forehead. It was plain she was about to lose her hold on the domain of the "Heart of Nature."

Wuu, wuu, wuu...

The sacrifices within the Flesh Ring all let out whimpers, human voices and beastly roars mingling together, making the scalp crawl.

The irregular flesh on the surfaces of their bodies, half-melted and half-congealed, gradually lost its luster, like plants slowly withering away.

Only those plants were still writhing ceaselessly, as if sensing their time of death was near, struggling with the instinct to live while also longing for release from this curse-like torment.

With the death of the one conducting the ritual, their vitality was about to be utterly severed as well.

Elaine raised her staff, her green eyes blank as she looked toward Lynn and Charlotte. "Can... can I go save them? Those adventurers—Tana's teammates might be inside..."

Her voice was very small, but hurried. "I still have plenty of magic. I can use Restoration many more times. Right, I brought a lot of Mana Potions too..."

As she spoke, she tried to take Mana Potions from her staff to refill her half-empty magic pool.

"It's impossible," Charlotte said, looking at her with a calm expression, but Lynn could tell there was a faint trace of panic in her blue eyes. "The Heart of Nature ensures that living beings within its domain won't suffer 'unnatural' interference. Elaine, your Life Magic also falls within what it prevents..."

She closed her eyes and said softly, "I can release the domain, but that could very likely allow the evil to rise from the ashes. And even if you truly could pull their lives back, they could never possibly return to their original state."

In other words, no matter what choice they made, these people who had become sacrifices could no longer be saved...

Lynn remained silent. In his heart, he inevitably felt ashamed.

He had clearly promised Tana he would do his best to bring her teammates back...

They watched helplessly as the sacrifices making up the Flesh Ring completely lost their vitality, becoming a mass of shriveled, dried-out things. Charlotte took a deep breath and released the domain of the "Heart of Nature."

She withdrew that incomplete Emerald Fruit back into the Vine-Wrapped Staff.

Everything returned to calm. Even the rotten stench had been purified away.

Under the moonlight lay a scene of utter misery.

The group checked the area and confirmed that Rigel and the sacrifices had all lost any sign of life. After a brief discussion, they decided to leave this place for now and have Charlotte lead them to a nearby safe area to rest for the night.

Tomorrow, they would return to Colin Town and report the incident to the Magic Association and the Adventurer's Guild.

Charlotte summoned the Magic Wolf again, preparing to carry the others away.

She herself silently walked toward Rigel. Her blue eyes lingered for a moment on his head, stained with mud and blood, then turned to his headless corpse.

She searched around, as if looking for something.

She extended the Vine-Wrapped Staff, and when it drew near the corpse's chest, the staff suddenly radiated green light.

Charlotte's pupils shrank slightly. Just as she was about to do something, Rigel's corpse erupted with an intense red glow!

Boom!

Her body was blasted back several meters in an instant. Fortunately, Celine caught her with agile movements, preventing her from being injured.

Wuu, wuu, wuu...

In the night, a hair-raising sob suddenly rang out.

Lynn looked toward the source of the crying in disbelief.

Beside the stone altar, a slender body covered in filthy blood knelt by the steps.

Above his neck, there was still nothing at all.

But his hands reached out, and at last they groped their way to the head that had rolled into the weeds on the ground.

The head had silver hair plastered to its face with filthy blood, its purple pupils filled with grief. His face was withered and wrinkled as if all blood had been drained from it. He opened his mouth and whimpered, yet no tears could flow.

Under the shocked gazes of the group, Rigel lifted the head with both hands and placed it back onto his own body.

Crack, crack—the teeth-aching sound of bones grinding against each other kept coming.

Whoosh!

Ulshi had already loosed an arrow with a cold expression. Fired at the same time was the Fire Arrow condensed by Lynn.

The arrow pierced through his forehead, and flames scorched his chest.

But Rigel seemed not to notice. His eyes only stared faintly at the blond druid already mounted on the Magic Wolf's back.

"Charlotte... my bride. Didn't you agree to my proposal? Didn't you agree to become her 'vessel'?"

He muttered to himself, turning his head with a series of cracking sounds to look around the altar. When he saw that the Flesh Ring had all withered away, he immediately covered his face with both hands and began to weep bitterly.

In his hand, he still clutched the white veil the blond girl had dropped earlier.

"I failed again... No, teacher, you were right! I will always be a useless piece of trash..."

His fingers arched, digging into the flesh of his face, and his nails slowly tore at his own cheeks, until blood and tears flowed together.

Through the gaps between his fingers, his dazed eyes stared at Charlotte.

"...If you refuse to become the 'vessel,' then whose womb am I supposed to use?"

As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked at his own flat abdomen, then began to giggle.

"He's completely turned into an undead creature," Charlotte said with a frown.

Elaine forced herself to calm down. Hearing this, she immediately chanted an incantation, released Blessing Spell, and once again applied a radiant enchantment to Celine and the other two.

At the same time, arrows, spears, and daggers stained with golden-white brilliance flew at him one after another.

But it was already too late.

Atop the stone altar, blood-red light blazed!

The surrounding Flesh Rings were drawn in by the bloody light, gathering toward it like a surging tide.

The dense aura of death forced Celine and Liam back several steps in a row.

At the same time, Rigel, drowned in blood-red light, shouted, "My Lord, O Mother of Ten Thousand Offspring, I willingly sacrifice my filthy soul to you. I beg you, bring me into that truly harmonious land!"

Like a poet lost in rapture, a performer upon a stage, he was swallowed by the vortex of flesh and blood in the blink of an eye.

"Run!"

Charlotte shouted, her breathing ragged. At the same time, she flashed onto the back of a Magic Wolf beside Lynn, grabbed Lynn's arm in passing, and yanked him behind her.

The Magic Wolf's back was broad, its fur stiff and somewhat prickly.

But at that moment, Lynn had no attention to spare for any of that. He turned to look at his teammates. Charlotte had already blown a whistle, ordering the remaining Magic Wolves to pick them up.

Ulshi nimbly leapt onto the back of one Magic Wolf, while Celine and Liam shared another.

But those Magic Wolves had barely run a few steps when they suddenly turned their heads in unison, looking toward the flesh-and-blood vortex in the depths of the valley.

It was as if they had been drawn by something, and even Charlotte's powerful domination magic lost its effect.

Charlotte pressed her lips together, pulled a small dagger from her chest, and swiftly cut her fair arm.

Under Lynn's startled gaze, she raised her injured arm high, blood streaming down in rivulets.

The Magic Wolves that had been drawn by the ritual immediately turned back, their eyes glowing green as they stared at her bleeding hand.

Just like that, guided by Charlotte's blood, several Magic Wolves and the Giant-Horned White Deer Elaine was riding climbed over the low mountain and, under the moonlight, fled the area.

Lynn and Charlotte shared a Magic Wolf, and on the way, he was nearly thrown off. Fortunately, Charlotte grabbed him in time.

After fleeing all the way down the mountain in one breath, the Magic Wolf's stride also became much steadier.

Suddenly, a deep, heavy roar came from behind them, and within it seemed to mingle the wails of countless living beings.

Lynn looked back. Beneath the full moon, a massive figure appeared on the mountaintop.

Its body had no rhyme or reason to its shape, like a flesh-and-blood doll kneaded together at random, its form resembling a tumor of meat.

As if sensing Lynn's gaze, its skinless surface abruptly split open with countless seams, blooming with blood-red light.