Eldritch Horror Theatre

Anjing's operation was certainly moving at a frantic pace.

Despite hearing only a few brief exchanges, Fu Qian easily sketched out the shape of the situation.

He already knew that Gene had struck a deal with Anjing.

The exact details remained unsaid, but given the timing, working as mercenaries or thugs would be entirely expected.

Judging by his tone now, they had clearly just made their move, but something had gone wrong along the way.

Gene already looked as though he was on the verge of collapse.

Because the Greed Worms had earlier severed their shared perception to operate freely, he couldn't even locate the person in charge, Old Man Laurie. Left with no other choice, he had fled to Laywoman Tooth-Throat's Place.

"So what exactly is this?"

Unfortunately, she had been his backup choice for a reason.

Yet even with her undivided attention, she still couldn't figure out what was actually wrong with him.

"Tumor Flower Blooming—"

Gene practically roared in the next second.

"But ignore the rest! It's right here... dig it out! The faster, the better!"

He tore away a chunk of his shirt as he spoke, jabbing a finger at his left waist.

"But what am I supposed to dig out? I don't see anything."

She could clearly feel his frantic anxiety, but even with her face pressed almost directly against his skin, Laywoman Tooth-Throat couldn't spot a thing.

Although his exposed flesh exhibited that same strange shift in color and texture, there wasn't so much as a single cut on him.

"My bone! Hurry... or it'll be too late!"

He looked as if he wanted to rip his own flesh open just so she could see it clearly.

Yet his trembling claws forcibly resisted the urge, stopping short and merely pressing hard against his side instead.

...

Huh?

He understood, but it caught him a bit off guard.

Laywoman Tooth-Throat clearly couldn't fathom why he would beg her to tear open his flesh and rip out his bones.

"What's the exact location? I can't just keep tearing into you."

But thanks to the traits of the Greed Worms, she was well-accustomed to scenes of flying blood and gore. She quickly forced herself to calm down, readied her stance, and asked.

"Just keep tearing... you have to be fast. Don't stop until I tell you to."

The response she received, however, was unexpected yet again.

"Remember to put on your gloves..."

Gene's voice was already laced with despair. It trailed off into a low mutter before he finally squeezed his eyes shut.

"Alright..."

Though startled once more, Laywoman Tooth-Throat clearly took the warning to heart. In the next moment, she slipped on a pair of Grayish-White Leather Gloves.

Without wasting another breath on questions, she tore a gaping slit straight into the spot Gene had pointed out.

Beneath lay bright red flesh and blood; no emerald fluid seeped out.

Beneath the layers of tissue, however, the exposed section of bone was a vibrant emerald-green.

Crack—

Without needing another reminder, Laywoman Tooth-Throat snapped the piece of bone and yanked it out. Gene let out a tortured groan, losing his strength to sit upright and collapsing to the floor.

"Is that it? Do I need to keep going?"

She carefully tossed the sinister-looking bone aside. Unable to just thoughtlessly rip out more, she couldn't help but ask for confirmation.

"...No need."

Surprisingly, with blood gushing like a fountain from his side, Gene struggled to feel out his condition, only to shake his head.

Though there wasn't a trace of relief in his voice.

"It's too late..."

He muttered the addition in a dead, ashen tone.

"...How is that possible?"

The sudden shift was incredibly jarring. Having just breathed a sigh of relief, Laywoman Tooth-Throat's voice spiked in pitch.

"It moved somewhere else... This is why I couldn't dig it out myself. It runs. It is me..."

"Before I even try to move, it already knows. It will always escape, which is why I needed someone else to do it... but unfortunately, it still got away."

Gene finally opened his eyes as he spoke, staring blankly at Laywoman Tooth-Throat.

"Then tell me where it is now... with the connection between us, you won't die no matter how grave your injuries are."

She clearly struggled to understand him, but Laywoman Tooth-Throat still let out a low growl through gritted teeth.

"It's too late... It's faster than I imagined."

Unfortunately, Gene spoke with the resigned tone of a man knowing the mandate of heaven. Repeating his earlier words, he ran a hand over his own body as his gaze grew vacant.

Even more vacant were his movements; a wooden puppet with just a few extra joints would have seemed more agile.

"His Excellency..."

Right then, Laywoman Tooth-Throat snapped to attention, awaking as if from a dream, and yelled again.

"He won't let us die like this! Try praying for His help..."

...

He made no sound, but it was clear the words struck a chord with Gene.

After another moment of dazed stillness, he struggled to pull himself slightly more upright and closed his eyes once more.

The human will to survive was powerful. Fu Qian was quite certain he wasn't just humoring Laywoman Tooth-Throat's suggestion.

Because in the very next moment, Gene's prayer surged with sudden intensity.

This was exactly why so many religions emphasized suffering.

Fu Qian mused to himself.

The problem, however, was that this Excellency they worshipped, the King of the Abandoned Prison, only seemed to excel at inflicting suffering—

Even so, Fu Qian answered the prayer in the next second, establishing a connection.

His perspective plunged forward, throwing the condition of Gene's body into sharp clarity.

It was indeed grave. The man's judgment of his own condition was flawlessly accurate.

In Fu Qian's perception, delicate, thread-like veins of green were tangled across the surface of nearly half of Gene's bones. It gave his skeletal structure an overwhelmingly inhuman aura, ultimately making the man look like a tree draped in human flesh.

On a more abstract level, that green really was hard to classify as an invading parasite. Just as Gene had claimed, it felt like an inherent part of his own body.

The visual impression was incredibly bizarre. If forced to describe it, it looked as if multiple personalities had physically manifested inside his body.

This was certainly a thorny issue. This thing was no ordinary corruption.

Not to mention that, given the current state of his prayer, the connection between them was still pathetically weak.

Just as he had noted before, he couldn't even use this connection to channel his authority and strike down their enemies for them.

The only thing the authority was good for was dispensing corporal punishment to believers.

But looking at it from that angle... given the peculiar relationship between Tumor Flower Blooming and the victim, could he punish it as well?

Tracing the connection, Fu Qian concentrated and locked onto Gene and every fiber of his being.

In the next moment, various scales of the Eye of Calamity slowly blinked open across Gene's body.

It seemed it actually could work.

Though the target was blurry, Fu Qian soon zeroed in on one particular spot. Once the orange eye there expanded to its absolute limit, he violently detonated it.

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