Chapter 47: The Unveiling of a Catastrophe

Trolope, still bewildered by the unfolding events, roared at Ellis and Larry, who seemed the most suspicious. “What’s happening? Is this your doing?”

Before Ellis and Larry could even respond, he prepared to draw his sword, intending to attack them both.

However, before he could advance two steps, a sudden dizziness assailed his mind, and a wave of powerlessness washed over him.

A moment later, a liquid surged up from his throat, erupting from his mouth.

It was crimson blood.

Trolope stared, dumbfounded, at the gush of blood he had just expelled. He had no idea when he had been poisoned.

Just then, a gentle radiance enveloped him, granting his mind a brief moment of clarity.

It was Ellis. She had realized that the cause of the transformation affecting Trolope and those around him stemmed from something within their bodies resonating with an evil mental fluctuation.

Ellis frowned. “No, I can’t dispel it. This land is continuously sustaining this mental fluctuation. And whatever is resonating with it has been inside their bodies for some time now. I can only delay their mutation.”

Larry pressed further, “Turning into a Demon Spirit?”

Ellis nodded gravely.

Trolope now understood that the two weren’t there to harm them, yet he remained utterly bewildered by the situation. “What are you talking about? What are you talking about?!”

“Alas, look at the person beside you.”

Ellis sighed, her voice heavy.

Trolope turned his head to look at the personal guard, only to find him writhing frantically on the ground, his face contorted in agony.

His body was continuously mutating. Sharp, hard claws sprouted from his hands, transforming them into formidable talons.

Yet, these talons relentlessly tore at his own body. He wildly clawed at his head, not stopping even as his skull became a bloody mess, until his head stretched open and shattered like ceramic tiles, revealing an octopus-like monstrosity.

Slimy tentacles, oozing with repulsive mucus, writhed around the octopus-head’s mouth.

He seemed to be just adapting to his new form, swaying unsteadily as he rose. His clothes had already ripped apart due to his mutated physique.

His skin was no longer that of a normal human. Its dark, viscous surface filled Trolope with profound revulsion.

The newly born Demon Spirit seemed to grasp that Larry and Ellis were enemies. Just as it prepared to attack them, Larry cleaved it in half with a single sword strike.

“Will I turn into something like that too?”

Trolope asked blankly, staring at the demise of his subordinate.

“Yes, I can only delay the time of your transformation.”

Ellis asked gravely, “Did Gapp lead you in? Also, did you see anything unusual here?”

“It was Gapp! He led us in! That beast actually plotted against us!”

Trolope’s eyes, blazing with fury, seemed almost to leap from his sockets. However, the intense pain radiating from his head quickly rendered him incapable of thought.

He clutched Ellis’s hand, speaking through his agony, “Revenge… those statues… the map. Kill me!”

The last three words were uttered with his final ounce of strength, and immediately after, his body began to change.

Ellis sighed, preparing to act, when Larry swiftly decapitated Trolope for her.

Ellis looked at Larry, who simply stated, “There’s no time for sentimentality.”

Ellis nodded resolutely, raising her staff to the sky. A colossal, transparent barrier instantly radiated outwards from her, encompassing the entire Aitran County within its protective bounds.

Now, these Demon Spirits were like beasts trapped in a cage, awaiting their harvest.

In stark contrast to Trolope’s demise in anger and despair, Marjorie was currently riding a wave of triumph.

With so many excellent hosts, he would soon be able to birth a formidable army of Demon Spirits.

Of course, even with such a vast army, he would not be qualified to establish a foothold on the Mazesli Continent.

After all, the Adventurer’s Guild had branded him a forbidden race and issued a continent-wide bounty for his entire species.

The Demon Spirits had once been far grander and more glorious, even establishing an empire during their heyday.

However, after being declared forbidden by the Adventurer’s Guild, that empire crumbled within a mere year, and the Demon Spirits themselves became pariahs.

The Adventurer’s Guild harbored a collection of true monsters. Marjorie, a survivor of the former Demon Spirit Empire, knew all too well how terrifying an entity the seemingly approachable Adventurer’s Guild—which accepted any task—truly was.

Therefore, once all the hosts had incubated, he intended to lead this contingent of Demon Spirits in a swift retreat from the Mazesli Continent. Outside the continent lay the Guild’s blind spot; though still perilous, as long as they weren’t directly targeted, there would be room for their survival.

Yet, just as Marjorie was meticulously planning for the future, a barrier suddenly erected itself in the sky, trapping all of them within.

Sensing that something was amiss, he immediately unleashed a mental shockwave, attempting to shatter the barrier.

However, the barrier’s robustness far exceeded his expectations.

The fact that such a massive barrier could maintain such terrifying rigidity indicated a level of power that reminded Marjorie of the S-rank members of the Adventurer’s Guild—those monstrous beings.

Through his mental perception, he pinpointed the core of the barrier. Consequently, he dispatched the already hatched Demon Spirits to test its strength.

Ellis, having expended considerable energy to erect the barrier, felt her steps falter. Supported by Larry, she reached Trolope’s desk and saw the map he had mentioned.

It was a topographic map of Aitran County, but it was marked with several strange red dots.

Ellis speculated, “Could the statues that fellow mentioned be located at these red dot positions?”

“Highly likely.”

Larry observed the map. “Even though the infected cannot be saved, this mental pollution cannot be allowed to continue. All these suspicious statues must be destroyed.”

“Then let’s act quickly.”

No sooner had Ellis spoken than a piercing shriek and a surge of hostility from outside instantly put them both on high alert.

Hundreds of Demon Spirits drifted in from the sky and surged from the ground, encircling them completely. Their eyes, like black pearls, fixated on the two, and simultaneously, their lizard-like claws extended, aimed directly at them.

The combined mental shockwave unleashed by nearly a hundred Demon Spirits instantly leveled the entire building.

However, their intended targets did not vanish as they wished; instead, they stood completely unharmed.

This time, it wasn’t Ellis’s power. Larry had used his sword qi to shred all the incoming mental shockwaves.

Then, in the very next second, his sword qi expanded outwards, and the encircling Demon Spirits were likewise pulverized under Larry’s indomitable sword qi.

All of this was witnessed by Marjorie.

The leader of the Demon Spirits could access the perceptions of any of their kin.

Marjorie’s expression grew solemn. He had seen these two before, in Gapp’s palace.

He simply couldn’t fathom how they had ended up here.

“At least A-rank adventurers.”

Marjorie sighed softly. A-rank was still within his capacity to deal with, but to eliminate these two would undoubtedly come at a significant cost.

Marjorie disliked such unprofitable ventures.

“We should focus our strength on breaking this barrier. I refuse to believe she can maintain such a high-intensity barrier indefinitely.”

The barrier deployed in Aitran County was not only intended to mentally pollute those who entered but also to facilitate Marjorie’s collection of the leyline energy from this region for his own use.

However, this method would impose a heavy burden on his body and completely destroy the area’s leylines.

But at this point, he could no longer afford to care about such consequences.

He could not allow his painstaking efforts to be ruined by two ‘A-rank’ adventurers.

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