Thanks for the Invitation, I'm in Terra, and I'm a Parasite

"Yes, indeed. I didn't expect your dance steps to be so outstanding either. You surprised me."

She stroked Zuo Jian's pupil and spoke softly.

"But it isn't completely over yet."

"If nothing unexpected happens, there should still be two people left."

"How ironic. They were shouting the loudest at the beginning, yet slipped away amid the chaos without anyone noticing, Bishop Quintus."

Laurentina spoke the man's name, laying her killing intent completely bare.

Zuo Jian hesitated for a moment, wanting to ask something.

"I know what you want to ask, Zuo Jian. Don't worry, I'm fine. It's just that... I witnessed some unpleasant things along the way."

After saying that, Laurentina headed directly toward another passage.

Her steps were steady, without the slightest significant change.

[Laurentina, there are

people... one...]

[No, five, ten, damn it, more.]

[Do they have reinforcements?]

Zuo Jian froze as several life auras suddenly emerged around them.

What was going on? Why hadn't he sensed them before?

Laurentina's left hand instantly became covered in claws, but the next moment—

She reached out herself, placed a hand on her left arm, and stopped Zuo Jian, who was preparing to fight.

[Laurentina?]

"They aren't enemies."

The girl lowered her eyes and answered with a sigh.

"There are lamps around us, Zuo Jian. Light them and take a look."

He seemed to realize something was wrong, but he didn't hesitate. His skirt turned into nimble tentacles, their tips forming rigid finger-like structures as they snapped at an extinguished oil lamp nearby.

A few sparks from the friction lit the lamp.

The next instant, the eyeball on Laurentina's chest, disguised as a jeweled brooch, widened.

All around them stood rows of iron bars.

And inside, the enemies he had sensed earlier were children, each one barely clinging to life.

What shocked him even more was that the children were covered in surgical scars, and—

Some of them seemed to have been forcibly sewn with extra limbs that didn't originally belong to them, limbs resembling those of marine creatures.

Others had begun undergoing severe mutations from within their bodies.

Yet beyond that, all of these children were covered in massive amounts of pitch-black Originium Crystals.

"They tried to find a path toward evolution through the Seaborn. This is only part of their experiments."

"As far as I know, they also use methods such as living sacrifices."

"To control these test subjects, they inject Originium Solution into their bodies, making it struggle against the Seaborn portion and keeping the host in a permanently weakened state."

"...A bunch of lunatics."

After speaking, Laurentina lowered her head and looked at the silent Sapphire.

"Do you understand now, Zuo Jian? Abyssal Hunters have always danced to hunt monsters."

"Close your eyes. That bastard Quintus can't have gotten far. Before that—"

She stepped forward, placed her clawed left hand against the iron bars, and tore open a gap.

Laurentina entered through the opening and approached the nearest child.

She crouched down gently before a child whose body was half-covered in Originium Crystals, whose skin had turned pale blue and grown dense, short tentacles.

[...Can't they be saved?]

She shook her head and looked regretfully at the vacant-eyed child before her.

"I don't know much about how well the land-dwellers can treat Oripathy, but at this stage, there is basically no possibility of treatment."

"What's more, his body is continuously turning into a Seaborn."

"The current situation is that two lunatics are frantically rejecting each other inside this frail body, while both constantly try to erode what remains of his flesh."

"The only thing we can do is free him."

"Close your eyes, Zuo Jian. I know you don't want to see this."

Now, Laurentina was the one comforting Zuo Jian. Then, she placed her clawed left hand against the barely breathing child's neck.

"I've dealt with mutated Hunters too, Zuo Jian. Close your eyes. I'll handle this."

When she realized Zuo Jian still hadn't closed his pupil, Laurentina's voice became firmer.

...She's starting to sound a little like the Captain. She thought mockingly.

[Judging by the physical development I sensed upon contact... he's less than twelve years old.]

Zuo Jian spoke abruptly beside her ear.

[He's just a child...]

"I know. That's why I must understand his pain."

[Your hand is shaking... If you personally strangled one... or a group of children... would you feel better afterward?]

"So what? Do you think leaving them here to suffer is a good ending?!"

"They can't be saved, Zuo Jian. Someone has to end their pain!"

Laurentina rarely lost control, but this time, faced with everything the Church of the Deep had done—whether to herself or to these children...

Whether it was rage, hatred, or the tangled emotions between them, they battered her again and again.

She was only an ordinary young girl. She wasn't old, and on the battlefield, the only thing she excelled at was devoting herself wholly to hunting Seaborn.

Only now did she finally understand the emotional turmoil the Captain faced whenever she personally put down comrades who had once fought beside her.

If it were the Captain... she would surely make the most correct decision without hesitation, wouldn't she?

But she wasn't here now...

"So... someone has to."

[But that someone shouldn't be you.]

Laurentina froze and found that her left hand had suddenly been stopped.

[You said Abyssal Hunters have always existed to hunt monsters.]

"That's true..."

[They're children, not monsters.]

As Zuo Jian's voice fell, the skirts around him rose and extended, their ends—

all transforming into sharp scythe blades.

[Someone has to do this, but that someone shouldn't be you, Laurentina.]

"Wait, Zuo Jian, what are you doing?!"

The scythe blades split apart, sweeping through the prison cells along the corridor like swift water serpents carrying razor-sharp edges!

Flesh, Originium Crystals, even Seaborn body parts—all of them were cut apart as easily as tofu before those blades.

In only a few seconds, those children lying on the ground, those children suffering torment, those children who had been tortured until they could no longer make a sound...

They understood something.

With grateful eyes, they looked at the figure crouching in the distance.

[This time, the blades were the sharpest they had ever been, and the most precise.]

Zuo Jian's voice was steady and cold. This was how he showed intense anger.

[Laurentina, didn't you say you were an Abyssal Hunter?]

[Then get up. We still have fleeing "monsters" to deal with.]

A tentacle extended toward Laurentina, taking the shape of a hand.

At the same time, a deep-blue pupil opened in the center of that palm, staring directly at her.

She was slightly dazed. She had seen that look before in her Captain's eyes.

For a moment, it felt as though she had returned to the days when she first became a Hunter.

'Get up, Laurentina.'

'Don't forget what those Hunters died for.'

She reached out and grasped the hand before her.

Letting him pull her to her feet.

Clang!

Then, the hand Laurentina held transformed once more.

An exaggerated Meat Saw appeared in her grasp.

At the same time, the skirt around Laurentina gradually drew in, shifted position, and hung straight down.

Like... a Hunter's mantle.

A Hunter's hat with shark-tooth-like patterns slowly formed atop her head, covering her flying silver hair and revealing the equally furious crimson pupils in her eyes.

"You're right. As Hunters, this hunt isn't over yet."

"Let's."

[Go hunt]

"Those who have abandoned their humanity."

[Monsters]

(Please, have pity on this helpless author who got nothing from pulling.)

(Please give me some monthly tickets!!!)

The End of Chapter Nine

"Pant... pant... Damn it... that damn Hunter..."

Quintus appeared on the beach beneath the cliff.

He turned back in terror, staring at the old church atop the cliff behind him.

He had no time to confirm whether that Hunter was pursuing him. All he cared about now was why his legs were already exhausted after running only a few steps.

His lungs felt as though they were about to burst.

It was all this body's fault. If he had received God's favor, none of this would have happened!

Yes, that had to be it!

Thinking that, he didn't hesitate and continued running forward on his aching limbs.

Yes, as long as he reached there—reached that place—he could turn the situation around.

Panting heavily, his eyes bloodshot, he leaned against the edge of a sea cave he had reached.

Drip... drip...

The sound of dripping water echoed through the cave, making one's heart tremble like the flicking tongue of a venomous snake.

Quintus felt as though his heart had skipped a beat, as if something were approaching him.

But then, as though realizing something, he swiftly pulled out a bottle of deep-blue liquid and drank it in one gulp.