Extra's Sign In System: The Hero's an Idiot!

Chapter 181: Chapter 181: Dissecting the Parasite

Chapter 181: Dissecting the Parasite

THUD.

A heavy body hit the floor of the Ash Caverns. A thick cloud of gray dust plumed into the stagnant air.

Nyx stepped out of the shadows. Lucien materialized right behind her. The swordsman brushed a speck of soot from his diplomatic uniform.

Cole Rust and Bram Stoneheart walked over from the campfire. They stared down at the bound and gagged figure writhing in the dirt.

The captive was a human man. He wore the fine silk livery of the diplomatic sector. Black veins pulsed violently against the pale skin of his neck. His eyes rolled wildly, showing nothing but pitch-black voids.

"We intercepted him near the lower courtyard," Nyx reported softly.

"He is one of Lord Lionel’s personal servants. He was carrying encrypted missives meant for the lower armories. The corruption took him completely."

Draven sat against a jagged pillar of black slag.

His breathing was incredibly shallow. The heavy iron chainmail of his host body felt like a crushing weight. The spatial jump had nearly destroyed his internal organs. He suppressed a violent cough and forced himself to stand.

"Is he still alive in there, Captain?" Cole asked. The young blacksmith gripped his heavy rifle tightly.

"The human consciousness is suppressed," Draven replied, walking slowly toward the thrashing servant.

"The Treachery-Fiend has hijacked his nervous system. It is steering his body like a cheap vehicle."

Bram frowned heavily. The giant boy crossed his thick arms.

"We need the parasite intact, Captain," Bram noted quietly.

"If we crash the peace summit tomorrow, we have to present undeniable evidence of Lionel’s treason. A dead host proves nothing to the Dwarven King or the Elven Council."

"Normally, we would rely on Lyra for a chemical extraction," Lucien added, adjusting his silver cuffs.

"She has the alchemical knowledge to smoke the parasite out. But the Elven canopy is completely locked down. The royal guards have sealed all transit lifts. Lyra and Estella are trapped in the upper gardens."

Draven stopped in front of the bound servant.

"We do not have time to wait for the lockdown to lift," Draven stated coldly.

"The peace summit begins at dawn. I will extract the parasite myself."

Cole blinked in surprise.

"You can remove it without killing the host, Captain?"

Draven did not answer. He knelt in the ash next to the struggling servant.

The man gurgled behind his gag. The dark entity inside him sensed the presence of the Warlord. The servant violently thrashed his bound legs, desperately trying to scramble backward.

Draven placed his heavy, calloused hands firmly against the servant’s temples.

[Microscopic Perception]

The dim light of the Ash Caverns instantly faded away.

Draven’s vision zoomed past the physical skin, piercing directly into the cellular structure of the captive. He saw the intricate network of human biology pulsing in real time.

Then, he saw the nightmare.

Wrapped tightly around the servant’s brain stem and spinal cord was a writhing, chaotic mass of dark energy. It looked like a cluster of thorny, black vines. The parasite was physically anchored to the human nerve endings. It fed directly on the host’s electrical impulses.

If a normal healer tried to cut the dark energy away, the host’s nervous system would instantly rupture. The brain would liquefy.

Draven remained perfectly calm.

He was the undisputed master of kinetic forces.

[Cellular Suture]

Draven carefully applied microscopic vectors to the dark, smoky tendrils. He did not pull them blindly. He grabbed the exact kinetic friction holding the parasite to the human cells.

He slowly and methodically reversed the friction.

HISS.

Inside the host, the dark vines began to peel away from the spinal cord.

The servant convulsed violently. A muffled, agonizing scream ripped through his gag.

As the parasite tore free, microscopic tears opened in the servant’s delicate nerve endings. Draven did not hesitate. He utilized the healing aspect of his skill, instantly forcing the damaged human cells to knit back together.

He pulled the dark energy upward, navigating it safely through the throat cavity.

The physical toll on Draven’s host body was devastating.

A fresh trail of dark blood leaked from Draven’s nose. His lungs burned. His vision flickered dangerously. Maintaining microscopic surgery through a failing container required an ungodly amount of focus.

"Cole," Draven rasped, his voice strained. "A container."

Cole immediately rummaged through his canvas sack. He pulled out a thick, reinforced glass jar forged with runic seals. He unscrewed the metal lid and knelt beside Draven.

Draven forced the parasite up through the servant’s airway.

SQUELCH.

A thick, oily cloud of pitch-black smoke erupted from the servant’s mouth. The dark mass hit the cavern floor and instantly tried to slither away into the ash.

Cole slammed the heavy glass jar directly over the entity.

CLINK.

Cole screwed the runic metal lid tightly shut.

The servant gasped wildly for air. His eyes rolled back into his head, the pitch-black void fading back into normal white sclera. The man slumped heavily into the dirt, completely unconscious but entirely alive.

The squad gathered around the glass jar.

Inside the reinforced glass, the Treachery-Fiend thrashed wildly. It was a storm of dark, corrupted smoke. It slammed itself against the runic barriers, desperately seeking a new host to infect.

"Ugly little thing," Nyx muttered, her eyes narrowing in disgust.

Draven wiped the blood from his upper lip. He stared intently at the thrashing parasite.

He reached out with a very faint, precise thread of his vector manipulation. He did not try to kill the creature. He simply applied a highly concentrated, squeezing pressure directly onto the dark smoke inside the jar.

SKREEE!

The parasite let out a high-pitched, vibrating shriek that rattled the glass.

At that exact millisecond, a low, deep tremor shook the stone floor of the cavern. Dust sprinkled down from the rocky ceiling.

The squad looked up in confusion.

"Was that a forge explosion?" Bram asked, steadying his footing.

"No," Draven said quietly.

A cold, calculating light ignited in Draven’s gray eyes. He applied the squeezing kinetic pressure to the jar a second time.

SKREEE!

The parasite shrieked again.

RUMBLE.

Another faint, distant tremor echoed through the mountain rock. It came from the direction of the human diplomatic sector far above them.

Lucien drew his breath sharply. The elegant swordsman connected the dots instantly.

"The tremors synchronize perfectly with the pain response," Lucien noted, staring at the glass jar.

"A hive mind," Draven confirmed, a dark smile pulling at his scarred face.

"These parasites are not independent monsters. They are literal extensions of the King Level Beast hiding inside Lord Lionel. They share a unified nervous system. They share a single consciousness."

Cole grinned fiercely, tapping the reinforced glass.

"So if you hurt the little guy in the jar..." Cole trailed off, leaving the implication hanging in the air.

"The King feels it," Draven finished.

The magnitude of the discovery was staggering. The King Level Beast had infected the entire upper echelon of the human diplomatic sector. Lord Lionel believed he was untouchable behind his political shields and corrupted allies.

Lionel believed his parasites were perfectly hidden spies.

He never realized those spies were a two-way street of suffering.

"This is our key to the summit," Draven declared, standing up straight despite his aching ribs.

He pointed at the exhausted, unconscious servant lying in the ash.

"When we crash the Council of Harmony tomorrow morning, Lionel will deny everything. He will call us terrorists. He will try to rally the Elves and the Dwarves against us."

Draven picked up the glowing glass jar. He held the trapped, shrieking shadow up to the dim light of the campfire.

"But words mean nothing against physical proof. We march into that summit, and we present this parasite. If Lionel tries to deny his involvement, we simply crush the jar."

Nyx stepped forward, a lethal gleam in her dark eyes.

"The King Level Beast will react to the pain," Nyx smiled coldly. "Lionel will flinch in front of the entire assembly. His human disguise will break under the agony."

"Exactly," Draven said.

The 24-hour countdown was nearly over. Dawn was rapidly approaching.

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