Eldritch Horror Theatre

It hadn't been a natural birth, but the incision was in the wrong place too.

Even the folds of flesh around the wound looked entirely un-mammalian.

Compared to the other Amber, the position of the corpse on the ground was undoubtedly unique.

It simply wasn't very conspicuous, hidden by the murky color of its gelatinous casing and the denser fog on this layer.

Yet facts proved that every anomaly had a reason behind it.

Besides being the only one to have birthed an Offspring so far, the curled-up corpse also exhibited the most extreme degree of non-human mutation.

Even its facial features had completely lost their human structure.

The entire lower half of its face was grotesquely elongated, making it almost impossible to locate the mouth, while its eyes were shockingly massive, nearly bulging right out of its skull.

"The more severe the corruption, the more likely they are to birth an Offspring?"

The sight before them seemed to faintly align with their previous theories.

"Possibly."

Professor Fu, however, maintained an intellectual's caution and held back from drawing a definitive conclusion.

"Is the dead Transcendent Tier flesh inside those other bodies of the same nature? After such a vast span of time, did the ship erode them through that connection, trying to use these original human Offspring to manifest itself?"

Su Gao naturally didn't mind his caution, continuing to sketch out the hypothetical scenario.

"It's a reasonable explanation. We can try to verify it."

Professor Fu finally gave a slight nod. He looked past the empty wheat field, peering into the deeper, more structurally complex areas beyond.

Even there, the space was already bathed in a warm, gentle radiance.

"For instance, let's see if there are any grotesquely shaped little ones inside."

...

There really was one.

Even though their perception was heavily suppressed, finding something in such an enclosed space posed little difficulty for Fu Qian and Su Gao.

Just as Su Gao entered the third room and dodged a lunging, razor-sharp claw, the figure that had lashed out shrank back into a corner and let out a roar.

Its size, however, was a bit large for a "little one."

At a glance, the groveling attacker was already tall enough to require a full-price transit ticket.

Furthermore, compared to its mother, it bore vastly more exaggerated mutations.

Webbing didn't just exist between its fingers and toes. Its two seemingly boneless legs were entirely fused together by that very same structure.

The only parts of its entire body that remained remotely human were its head and two arms.

But it didn't look like a ship, either.

Excellency Hamadus's grand manifestation as a fleet-god had not repeated itself here.

By comparison, this body looked more like a mollusk that had sprouted inexplicable Feathers across its skin.

And those trembling Feathers already radiated a brilliance that made them difficult to look at directly.

Not wasting time clearing out those Natives earlier had clearly been the right choice.

This transformation from darkness to light clearly wasn't orchestrated by them; the radiant phenomena simply appeared on their bodies as a symptom.

"This should be it."

Frowning as he examined the creature for a moment, Fu Qian nodded to Su Gao.

...

"It possesses a degree of sentience, though it doesn't seem capable of speech. Furthermore, its Rank isn't low at all."

The speed of that claw strike had been quite impressive, yet Classmate Su Gao had evaded it with practiced ease. Now, keeping her Curved Sword leveled at the creature from a distance, she offered her assessment.

"How should we deal with it?"

She hadn't immediately counterattacked, not out of any misplaced mercy, but to defer to Professor Fu's judgment.

Hmm...

Yet this time, Expert Fu, whose notoriety was known far and wide, displayed a rare hint of compassion.

He didn't speak immediately. He studied the hostile figure from head to toe, noting the blinding Feathers on its body... and even the way their radiant glow illuminated Classmate Su Gao's face, making her skin appear a brilliant white.

"Don't frighten the little one."

Stepping forward, Fu Qian pressed down on the tip of Su Gao's blade.

Her skin was whiter than snow and as fine as White Porcelain. In that instant, her appearance almost mirrored the very first time he had met her.

Even that very first meeting back in the Rotten Forest.

Though she was still made of flesh and blood, Su Gao currently radiated a purity that rivaled the Perfect Doll from back then.

"Aim here."

Pinching the tip of her sword, Fu Qian guided the blade toward an empty patch of space nearby.

"Is there a problem?"

Frowning in surprise, Su Gao clearly understood his meaning.

"There is. The sooner you open a passage, the better."

Fu Qian confirmed the severity of the situation.

...

Sure enough, the light wasn't entirely a good thing. His earlier decision to pick up their pace had been the right one.

He had no doubt that Classmate Su Gao would have noticed the anomaly herself soon enough, but every second delayed meant a higher risk.

Glowing white skin and a steadily purifying aura weren't exactly strange changes.

After all, based on their past dealings—especially their experiences in the Angel Dungeon—it was well known that the Angels were always professional when it came to purification.

It wasn't strange for such an effect to accompany the fusion with The Ark.

Su Gao was surely aware of it too. She had chosen to press onward because she believed the changes were still within a controllable range.

The problem, however, was that he hadn't felt a single thing.

That was exactly it. Fu Qian was absolutely certain. Compared to the progressively purified White Porcelain girl, he was effectively an inert rock amidst this escalating radiance; his inner self remained firmly rooted in gloom.

He could chalk it up to his higher Rank and greater resistance, of course. Yet they had already reached the Third Layer, and the ambient light here was nearly as blinding as the midday sun.

It was only a one-Rank difference. Su Gao was visibly on the verge of relapsing into the Doll Realm. Surely, after absorbing this much light for so long, he should have experienced at least a sliver of purification by now, right?

Unless this wasn't the standard purification power of the Angels they were familiar with.

And perhaps, on a conceptual level, the gap between Su Gao and himself spanned far more than just a single Rank—

Immune to flesh distortion, unless the caster's Rank exceeds that of the King of the Abandoned Prison.

Was it possible that the effect of this Great Radiance Technique wasn't actually cleansing "filth," but directly subjecting its victims to some twisted form of transformation?

If that hypothesis held true, on one hand, it validated his earlier deduction: in the fusion of the two powers, The Ark remained the dominant force, while the Angel's purification was merely a superficial addition.

On the other hand, this distortion acted by silently nourishing all things. Even the reaction from Echo wasn't obvious. For safety's sake, Classmate Su Gao had better leave quickly—Wait, that was too fast!

"Alright."

Unsurprisingly, Su Gao didn't question his abrupt advice. Ignoring the creature writhing on the floor, she raised her sword toward the empty space in the room.

However, as she did so, Professor Fu watched in horror as half of her brilliantly pale face literally transformed into the texture of White Porcelain.

And it wasn't just her face.

In the blink of an eye, her empty left hand not only turned into White Porcelain, but even the structure of its joints and bones warped away from human anatomy, adopting the distinct shape of a Doll.

Mythical Form?

Wasn't Classmate Su Gao's execution a little too absolute?

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