Grace

"These were what I originally wanted to give you," Neph turned her head and explained. "Since we ran into each other early, I might as well give them to you now."

She paused briefly before introducing the mushrooms:

"These are mushrooms. As you can see, they don't need light the way normal plants do. They only need to absorb the flesh and blood of monsters to grow.

"Even contaminated monsters are fine. As they grow, the corruption and toxins gather together on their own, forming these black mushrooms-"

Neph picked a black mushroom out from among the others and continued:

"They contain potent toxins. The other mushrooms, however, are safe."

Colin quietly knelt on one knee beside Neph, reached out, and picked up a cluster of mushrooms. After examining them for a while, he put them down. He repeated this several times before finally stopping and staring at the corpse on the ground, his voice exceptionally hushed:

"There are traces of evil and impurity, but very little. It's tolerable."

As a Demon Hunter who had spent his entire life dealing with corruption, he had no difficulty discerning this.

But Colin remained cautious. When Neph said nothing, he asked again:

"Is this a gift from the Lord?"

"Not exactly," Neph answered honestly. "Affliction occupies the Lord's consciousness. Most of His energy goes toward resisting madness, while what little remains is devoted to preparing for His revival. He doesn't have that much energy to spare. Besides-"

She frowned before continuing:

"For you, and for everyone living on this land, there used to be another problem.

"The Angel of Time, the Lord's child, refused to acknowledge the current Lord as his father for the past several thousand years. He believed He was someone else who retained the Lord's memories. That misunderstanding was only