Chapter 48: Even Pollution Can Fear

Xius was merely of mortal flesh and blood. The instant Nini hurled him away, he felt as though he had been struck and sent flying by a semi-truck.

Pain racked his entire body.

Yet immediately, a torrential surge of vitality poured through the symbiotic contract. Before he had even fallen back to the ground, his injuries were completely healed.

The monster that Monica had transformed into caught sight of him, but its attack was intercepted by Ashe. He successfully charged forward, coming within a hair's breadth of touching the creature's body.

However, before he could make contact, the pollution swirling around the monster sought him out first, wrapping itself around him.

The banshees' hearts leapt into their throats.

"Here it goes! Let's see if my hypothesis is correct!"

Xius showed not a trace of tension. Without a moment's hesitation, he reached out his hand toward the massive cluster of dark pollution.

Everyone raised their heads, staring fixedly at Xius.

"You have to succeed..."

The pollution instantly devoured Xius.

Xius felt as though he had plunged into water. The sensation was bizarre; although the black pollution churned and roiled, it felt ice-cold against his skin.

It was like diving into the vast ocean, slowly sinking toward the abyss.

Overlapping voices echoed in his ears, as if someone was desperately trying to communicate something, yet the sound was far too chaotic to ever make out.

The tangled murmurs carried a frantic madness. Although it was quiet enough for him to hear his own heartbeat, there was simultaneously the illusion of a noisy racket, as if his soul were standing in a bustling vegetable market.

Xius closed his eyes, remaining entirely unmoved.

Outside the shroud of pollution, the monster abruptly ceased its movements the moment Xius charged in. The banshees wore anxious expressions, not daring to move a muscle.

They were waiting.

Xius had just laid out the plan for them: should he fail, they would resume their flesh-and-blood magic to stall the monster momentarily, allowing Ashe to seize the opportunity and pull Xius back.

With the symbiotic contract in place, there was a high probability Xius would survive.

If Xius succeeded...

How could he possibly succeed? That terrifying pollution was something even flesh-and-blood magic could hardly endure for long, yet he had rushed right into it alone, with nothing but a mortal body?!

Just how was he going to resist the pollution?

And how was he to save Monica?

Had the banshees not been fiercely loyal, they would never have consented to execute such an order.

Ashes bit her lower lip, staring死死 at the spot where Xius had collided with the darkness.

She would rather fight the monster alone than endure this agonizing suspense.

Her hands were trembling. She knew she could not falter, yet she could not stop her mind from running wild with anxious thoughts.

"He will succeed."

Ashe glanced back. It was Nini who had spoken.

"He told me about his plan... Trust him, he will succeed."

Ashe said nothing, tightening her grip on her shield.

Would he really succeed?

...

Not far from the front of the monster, Xius was enveloped by the pollution.

Feeling the state of his surroundings, Xius suddenly broke into a smile. He had succeeded.

"As expected, though I have no idea why—"

"The pollution in this deep sea is actually afraid of me."

It all began not long ago—when Monica had suddenly lashed out, knocking Nora away, and Ashe had blocked that blow for him.

The attack had not landed on him, but those gouts of black pollution had splattered all over him.

At the time, Xius's first instinct was to strip off his outer garments to minimize contact with the corruption.

Yet before he could even move, that pollution rapidly dissipated.

Like snowflakes falling into a sizzling pan of hot oil, the pollution shrieked as it tried to flee, but to no avail.

Moments later, not a shred of pollution remained on him.

What was going on?!

Filled with doubt, Xius had no time to investigate as a life-and-death crisis unfolded before him. Dodging Monica's attacks, a faint intuition had taken root in his heart.

These manifestations of pollution were afraid of him.

...

The pollution that had previously lunged forward in a roar, attempting to devour Xius, suddenly shrieked the instant it touched him, fleeing backward at an even greater speed.

As if encountering some natural predator or nemesis, it scrambled away in a frenzy. The moment they witnessed this, a thought abruptly surfaced in the minds of the onlookers.

"The pollution is... afraid of him?"

Nini, sprawled upon the ground, murmured in disbelief.

As the pollution receded, Xius abruptly found that the monster's true form was right before his eyes.

Everything had happened too fast. The attack of the monster-turned-Monica had just been parried by Ashe, and already Xius stood directly before it.

The giant mass of pollution that had originally orbited the creature dissolved in an instant, like a punctured balloon, exposing its original form just as it was in the middle of turning around.

Xius raised his eyes. What he saw was a bloated, hideous corpse, bearing a faint resemblance to what a banshee or a cursed one might look like, yet far more twisted. The corruption had rendered Monica's flesh entirely unrecognizable.

Before him lay a mountain of bloated meat.

Not a single trace of remaining sanity could be discerned upon it.

Could he truly still save Monica? Could he save that tiny banshee?

Xius's gaze flickered as he recalled what had happened shortly before.

He had extended his hand into the seawater, and the banshees had formed contracts with Xius one by one. Soon, the water emptied out, leaving only the very last banshee remaining.

Looking at the hand Xius extended toward her, she hesitated.

"My lord, I was just slightly eroded by the pollution."

Her abilities were relatively weak. When Monica had suddenly erupted, she had taken a direct hit. Her flesh-and-blood magic had suffered a momentary fracture; though she had not exploded from within, she had been unable to prevent the corruption from seeping into her body.

Though the amount was minuscule and the impact negligible, what if...

What if it traveled along the symbiotic contract and infected the others?

Xius's gaze shifted as he recalled how rapidly the pollution had vanished earlier. Without hesitation, he grasped the banshee's hand.

The contract was sealed, and vitality surged.

"The pollution... has vanished?!"

The banshee stared at her hand in disbelief, the black tendrils that had just coiled around her arm completely gone.

What had happened?!

Xius felt the anomaly transmitted through the symbiotic contract, a tumultuous wave of emotions churning within him. The moment the contract was forged, he could clearly feel the presence of pollution within the banshee's body, and that corruption had even attempted to slither across the contract toward him.

Yet the polluted vitality, upon touching him, was instantly purified by an inexplicable force. This purifying energy even traveled back along the contract into the banshee, cleansing the corruption on her side as well.

He seemed to be, quite literally, the bane of all pollution!

...

Xius snapped back to reality, gazing at the "Monica" before him.

The previous banshee had only suffered the most negligible contamination, which he could easily purify, but the Monica before him...

She had completely transformed into a monster.

In a fleeting trance, Xius felt as though he were back at the docks once more, where a strange fish had cried out to him in a weak voice, begging for help.

Equally twisted, ugly, bloated, and repulsive.

Xius reached out his hand without a moment's hesitation, just as he had always done.