Pollution

Well, it wasn't as if there were no men's clothes at all. For example, there was the outfit Lanevus was wearing... Turning her gaze toward Lanevus's corpse, Rachel felt no psychological burden whatsoever about wearing a dead man's clothes.

It seemed she had no choice but to wear Lanevus's clothes in an emergency... After rummaging through the carriage and finding no men's clothes, Rachel sighed and jumped down from it. As for the two horses pulling the carriage, she had released them long ago.

Besides, Evelyn's personality had already begun eroding my spirit... Rachel pressed a hand to her head again, and her golden eyes grew hazy for a moment.

She had spent too much time on the road. She had long since exceeded three hours of using the gloves, yet it was impossible for her to take them off—the spirituality stored in the gloves was only enough for her to transform back one more time. If she had removed the gloves earlier, Aster, who only possessed the abilities of a Spirit Medium, would have had great difficulty killing Lanevus quickly... With only five minutes of Demoness abilities, he might not even have caught up with Lanevus's carriage. If Rachel hadn't constantly used the Demoness's spider-silk ability to pull her body through the trees in explosive bursts of movement, she probably wouldn't have been able to catch Lanevus today.

"Ah, I suppose this is the price I paid to kill this guy... No, this is the price I paid to save the world. I recommend that all the citizens of Tingen City kowtow to me twice."

After making a joke no one could understand, Rachel performed another divination. Only after confirming that Lanevus no longer had any dangerous objects on him did she reach toward his corpse.

She didn't dare touch Lanevus's spirit body and could only let it dissipate. Since Megose was already pregnant with the True Creator's child, he had most likely received that evil god's reward as well. There was certainly divinity from the True Creator remaining in his spirit. She would have to wait at least a month before daring to attempt Spirit Channeling. Otherwise, the best outcome would still be suffering severe injuries from a backlash of divinity.

"Time to loot the corpse, time to loot the corpse." Rubbing her eager little black hands together, Rachel could barely conceal her anticipation as she reached toward the "Swindler" Beyonder Characteristic that had separated from Lanevus's corpse.

"I wonder what skill this equipment will come with... Hopefully the negative skill won't be too troublesome, or I'll have to spend money to find an Artisan to reforge it..."

The Swindler Beyonder Characteristic had already fused with a button on Lanevus's shirt. It glimmered with a faint silver light, like a mirror. The instant Rachel's finger touched it, a massive amount of black contamination suddenly surged out of the buttonhole!

This contamination carried an intense sense of defilement and Corruption, while also giving off an aura of extremely high status. It was practically impossible to resist.

The surging contamination was momentarily deceived by the "Witch's Kiss" gloves, but in the next instant, the True Creator's contamination within Rachel was simultaneously stirred up. The two merged together, ultimately forming a defiled seed in Aster's mindscape beneath the Demoness skin gloves.

"What was that just now..." Rachel covered her chest in astonishment. Completely unprepared for this scene, she instinctively opened her system panel.

Her gaze first swept over the two buffs:

[Personality Contamination -6%]

[Status]: 5

[Effect]: Distorts the user's personality and synchronizes it with the personality of [Demoness of Affliction - Evelyn].

[Note]: If you find this buff's name too grandiose and difficult to understand, I also recommend manually changing its name to "Female Corruption Progress."

[Deep Fusion - Evelyn]

[Status]: 4

[Effect]: Fuses deeply with the "Witch's Kiss" gloves, acquiring Evelyn's appearance and abilities and allowing Evelyn's personality to take control of the body.

Current Duration: 4:21:36

[Note]: Guess why these gloves were created?

Both buffs reminded Rachel that she had to strip off the gloves as soon as possible. Otherwise, the consequences could be severe.

But in the face of the final debuff, removing the gloves could be put off for a little while.

[Fallen Self - Lv. 7]

[Status]: 3

[Effect]: Grants you the quest [Dazzling].

[Note]: You know who issued this quest to you.

This is... Rachel quickly summoned the quest panel, her expression shifting between gloom and uncertainty.

"Your eyes have returned to their original color, but that doesn't mean you've escaped the danger period," Dunn said thoughtfully in the carriage on the way back, his fingers interlaced. "You mean that when you saw 2-049 earlier, its eyes had also turned silver?"

"Yes," Klein replied, looking somewhat anxious. "When it controlled me, I clearly saw that its eyes had turned silver."

"Since something abnormal happened to you personally, and there isn't a second person who can corroborate your information, you'll need to come with me to see Daly again once we return." Dunn looked somewhat tired. It seemed the effects of the Goddess's Gaze potion were fading.

"All right." Klein had no objections. More than anyone else, he wanted to know why his eyes had also turned silver.

"Al, did the information you brought mention anything similar?" Dunn turned to question Al Hassen.

"No. I can confirm that," Lorotta cut in. "The records never mentioned 2-049 changing the color of its eyes. Uh, judging by the current situation, it seems it can even spread." She made a joke, but no one found it funny.

Spread... Could it be some kind of contamination...? Klein shuddered slightly. He didn't want to be contaminated by some strange thing—not only for his own safety, but also because he couldn't withstand an investigation.

What if they discovered the existence of the Gray Fog while checking whether any contamination remained in me? Then I'd be in trouble... Klein anxiously rubbed his cheek.

Wait... Silver eyes... Could they be related to Melvin? Klein suddenly thought of Melvin's silver eyes, but for a moment, he felt that it was unlikely.

His own silver-eye phenomenon had clearly been caused by some influence from 2-049, while Melvin had most likely already left Tingen. Besides, couldn't someone simply be born with silver eyes?

Still, this was more or less a clue. The next time he saw Melvin, he absolutely had to ask him about it... Klein reminded himself inwardly.

Aster walked slowly along the road. The cold wind blew against his bloodstained shirt, making him rather uncomfortable.

Although it was still summer, the temperature in Kuman City had already fallen somewhat. The Crimson Moon was hidden behind dark clouds in the sky. Perhaps it was going to rain.

His spirituality had been excessively depleted, and he had no means of transportation—the two horses pulling the carriage had been released, while the horse he had seized when he first rushed over to pursue Lanevus had also been abandoned. By now, it should have returned to wherever it belonged. Aster could only rely on his own two legs to make his slow way back.

Although this wasted time, it also gave him enough time to think about everything that had just happened.

Perhaps I've really been too reckless and taken too much for granted all this time... Aster slowly closed his eyes, braced one hand against a roadside tree trunk, and stared blankly at the quest panel.

A brand-new quest had been highlighted and pinned to the top of his personal quest panel, with a priority even higher than the advancement and daily quests.

Quest: [Dazzling] (Personal Quest)

Requirement: Bring 1-27 out of the seal in the "River and Sea" Church.

Progress: 1/90 days (Incomplete)

Reward: 1-27

Penalty: ?

When he saw the [Fallen Self] debuff on his personal panel and the new [Dazzling] quest, Aster had already figured out many things.

From the instant he was contaminated in Lanevus's room at the Rose Hotel, the evil god worshiped by the Aurora Order—the True Creator—had set its sights on Aster.

Afterward, he had successfully pursued Lanevus to Kuman City, without even encountering especially strong Anti-Divination resistance. After finding Lanevus, he hadn't put up much resistance either, and Rachel had killed him with ease.

If Lanevus had been any other Swindler, there would have been nothing suspicious about Rachel's easy victory. But this was Lanevus, a top-class con artist who had just pleased the evil god, the True Creator. Even if that evil god hadn't given him any tangible reward, merely being present when the True Creator's consciousness descended should have been enough to grant him a high-status Anti-Divination trait for a certain period. The fact that Lanevus had left behind a provocative letter that could be used to divine his whereabouts proved that he himself knew he should possess an Anti-Divination trait.

Yet Aster had successfully pursued and killed Lanevus through divination. This meant that the True Creator had deliberately paid attention to Lanevus's condition and prevented the divinity it had bestowed from functioning as it should within him.

From this perspective, there was also an explanation for why Lanevus had chosen to take this deserted path instead of leaving Loen through the busier steam-train station: his mind had most likely been influenced... If Lanevus had really left through the steam-train station, Aster would have found it rather difficult to do anything to him.

Aster wasn't a law-abiding citizen, but he was unwilling to pursue the slippery Lanevus in public. That would undoubtedly cause him a great deal of trouble.

Yet Lanevus had chosen to take the suburban path used by smugglers, which also made it convenient for Rachel to unleash her full strength and kill him quickly.

When all these signs were combined with the abnormalities on his personal panel, Aster understood everything: from the very beginning, the True Creator had been targeting him.

After suffering Corruption in Room 201 of the Rose Hotel, the contamination within him had begun influencing him... Perhaps it was the aggregation of the contamination itself, or perhaps it was caused by something else. He had quickly sought out Lanevus and killed him, but all of this had been part of the True Creator's plan. Lanevus clearly possessed divinity within him, yet it had failed to function as it should because he was merely a container. The meaning of Lanevus's existence was to be killed by Aster, thereby releasing the True Creator's divinity within him and using it to contaminate Aster.

After a long period of preparation, the True Creator had finally revealed its true purpose.