Chapter 364: Convergence of Resentment
From the ground of Kyoto City, dark red blood vessels stretched upward.
Each one was dozens of meters thick, like towering trees rising from the earth. Around those blood vessels, the ground and the surfaces of buildings were covered in densely packed veins that pulsed without pause.
Asagiri looked down at the city beneath him from high altitude.
Amid that bizarre sea of red, he found dozens of normal areas that looked slightly out of place.
Among them were the seven areas where he and the four members of his team had previously cleared the underground embryos.
"So the areas where the embryos haven't been cleared will turn into this state..."
Asagiri ascended even higher.
Looking down at Kyoto City from near the height of the clouds, he found that only the city center had turned dark red. The outer areas had not been affected.
However, from his perspective, the affected area of the city center already covered at least one hundred square kilometers.
After obtaining basic information through observation, Asagiri quickly landed back on the ground and told Yuuki Asuna and the others what he had seen.
Upon hearing that Kyoto City had turned into that state, Iwanaga Kotoko immediately entered deep thought. She gently pinched her fair chin and spoke thoughtfully.
"The twelve hour Dungeon time limit has only just passed the halfway point, yet such a change has already occurred..."
Just as Iwanaga Kotoko was pondering, an extreme sense of danger suddenly surged into her heart.
She immediately scanned the surrounding area with her deep purple eyes, but saw nothing.
At first, she was slightly stunned. Then she reacted immediately, raised her head, and warned,
"Above!"
Kato Megumi immediately drew the Nightingale Blood Crying Bow, aimed at the black shadow rapidly diving from high altitude, and fired.
Yuuki Asuna, Yamauchi Sakura, and Asagiri also launched attacks at the same time.
"Ice Spear."
"Holy Light!"
"Sword Skill, Stinger!"
Seeing this, the black shadow in the air dodged Asagiri and the others' attacks with astonishing speed.
The wing-like shadows behind it flapped.
It seemed to realize that the five people in front of it were not easy to mess with, so it wanted to hide back into the clouds high in the sky.
"Hmph, want to escape?"
Seeing this, Asagiri immediately summoned Walrider.
Dark gray nanoparticles rapidly condensed, appearing directly above the black shadow.
Then Walrider extended both arms and directly tore off the black shadow's wings.
Accompanied by shrill screams, Walrider dragged the black shadow down from high altitude and smashed it onto the ground.
Although the black shadow's flight speed was fast, it was still flying.
Walrider's floating ability was completely different.
It was an astonishing ability that allowed it to walk on air as if on flat ground, even while suspended in midair.
Only then, under the illumination of the red moonlight, did Asagiri and the others see the black shadow's true appearance.
It had a fierce, twisted face like a beast. Sharp fangs gleamed with cold light, and its eyes were bloodshot.
Although its face was ferocious and distorted, one could vaguely tell that this thing had once looked human.
"What is this thing?"
Just as Iwanaga Kotoko was searching her memory, trying to determine whether there was any Cursed creature with this type of appearance, the monster with flight ability suddenly let out a manic laugh.
"You're doomed... You are all going to die..."
"Bang!"
Before the opponent's provocative words could finish, Asagiri conjured a Holy Cross and stuffed it directly into the monster's wide open mouth.
The moment the monster touched the Holy Light, its body began twitching violently, and it let out screams of extreme pain.
"It seems it really is a being tainted by Cursed power."
Asagiri raised his foot and stepped on the monster's chest, then looked at Iwanaga Kotoko.
"Extract its memory."
"Okay, understood."
Iwanaga Kotoko nodded and immediately summoned a Pale Ghost Hand, reaching toward the top of the monster's head.
However, after extracting its soul, pain appeared in Iwanaga Kotoko's eyes, and she subconsciously covered her head.
"Necro, what's wrong!?"
Hearing Yuuki Asuna's concerned cry, Iwanaga Kotoko waved her hand weakly and forced a smile.
"It's nothing, just a mental shock..."
Hearing Iwanaga Kotoko's words, Yuuki Asuna could not help showing disbelief.
One had to know that Iwanaga Kotoko's mental strength was absurdly high.
Because she was a mental type profession, combined with her exclusive talent, her mental strength was the highest among the five members of the team.
To be able to cause a mental shock to her, just what exactly was contained within this monster's soul?
Even though her mind had been shaken, causing her head to ache as though it were splitting apart, Iwanaga Kotoko did not waste any time. She spoke through the pain.
"I just saw many fragmented memory images. After that came pain, hatred, resentment, and a massive shock of negative emotions. If I'm not mistaken, this guy's essence..."
Iwanaga Kotoko pointed at the monster's corpse on the ground and slowly said,
"Is a monster born from human malice as nourishment."
Looking at Iwanaga Kotoko in pain, Asagiri gently placed his hand on her back and patted it, asking softly,
"A monster? Not an evil spirit?"
"No, it has a materialized physical body."
Iwanaga Kotoko took a deep breath and spoke softly.
"If it were a pure evil spirit, it would dissipate after being eliminated and wouldn't leave behind a corpse. This thing is a creature that fused with Cursed power."
"Then what should we do now?"
Yuuki Asuna supported Iwanaga Kotoko and looked toward Asagiri as she asked,
"According to the rules of the Dungeon, the next six hours are the real test. To be cautious, should we wait for Necro to recover before taking action?"
"I'm afraid there's no time for that."
Hearing Asagiri's words, Yuuki Asuna could not help pausing.
But before she had time to ask, she, like Asagiri, noticed dozens of black shadows rapidly approaching from the distance.
"That is..."
Under the illumination of the scarlet moonlight, the black shadows gradually revealed their true appearance.
They had human-like forms, but their bodies were covered in dense, dark red blood vessels.
Just like the pale woman from before, their pupils were entirely ghastly white, like manipulated walking corpses.
"Persona, Mita, Human Asura."
Asagiri did not hesitate and immediately summoned Crazy Mita and Human Asura.
He handed the Oracle Shield with black stripes to Crazy Mita, instructing her to protect Iwanaga Kotoko and Yamauchi Sakura, who had temporarily lost their combat ability, together with Human Asura.
Then he spoke softly.
"Violet, Phantom, we're going in."
"Understood."
In the next second, Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna charged out from two different angles.
Kato Megumi activated her exclusive ability, reducing her presence to the minimum. Then she took out the Crescent Scimitar and the Nightingale Blood Crying Bow, preparing to assist the two main attackers in battle.
"Holy Cross! Frost Spear!"
Before approaching the enemies, Asagiri first condensed a cross of Holy Light and a spear of ice, throwing them directly at the two humanoid monsters standing there.
However, unexpectedly, the blood vessels on the monsters' bodies suddenly grew at that moment, intertwining to form a blood net that blocked his attack.
Immediately afterward, dark red blood sprayed out, forming a bright red spear that thrust toward him.
"Die, die, die, die, die, die, die!"
Hearing the resentful cries emitted by those humanoid creatures, Asagiri quickly dodged to the side, avoiding the dark red blood spear, and laughed lightly.
"Why are you still doing a pre-battle prayer here?"
Teasing aside, since he did not know the opponent's specific abilities, Asagiri did not rashly approach.
Instead, he directly threw the Rope Dart of Deathly Grievance in his hand, continuously piercing through the heads of three blood-men from the side.
Yuuki Asuna made the same choice, unleashing the midrange sword skill Stinger and slicing the bodies of several blood-men in two.
However, in this situation that seemed completely in their favor, an unexpected turn suddenly occurred.
Viscous blood burst out again from the blood vessels on the bodies of those blood-men, forming a giant arrow.
But the target of the attack was not Asagiri or Yuuki Asuna.
It was aimed at Kato Megumi, who stood in the distance.
"Bang!"
Kato Megumi quickly dodged the shot of the blood arrow.
The blood arrow struck the ground, but suddenly reverted to the nature of ordinary blood, splattering everywhere.
"Castling."
Noticing that Kato Megumi did not have time to dodge the splattering blood, Asagiri directly used Castling to swap positions with her.
He pulled up the hem of his Hunter's Windbreaker to block the splattered blood.
As the windbreaker made contact with the blood, dark red smoke appeared on its surface, as if it were being corroded by some kind of power, but it did not suffer any serious damage.
"These guys..."
Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi quickly retreated, opening distance between themselves and the blood-men.
The two girls looked at each other, both realizing something extremely strange that had never happened before.
Even though Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna were both present, and Kato Megumi had activated her exclusive talent ability, she had actually become the enemy's target.
How exactly had the enemy noticed her existence?
Were they immune to mental type effects?
Asagiri decided to verify it himself.
Golden light shone from his eyes, and the hem of his Hunter's Windbreaker fluttered without wind.
His golden eyes swept over the group of blood-men in the distance, and a heart-palpitating wave of power erupted from his body.
The special class passive effect of Unrestrained Tyrant activated.
Facing the terrifying aura emitted by Asagiri, the dozens of blood-men that had been approaching all stopped in their tracks.
On their faces, which had previously lacked any emotion, fear appeared.
They even could not help retreating, and their resentful cries came to an abrupt halt at that moment.
"Is it only to this degree?"
Asagiri spoke in a flat tone.
Immediately afterward, his golden eyes locked onto one of the blood-men, staring straight into the other's ghastly white pupils.
The golden light in his eyes became even more dazzling.
"Bang!"
Under that intense mental pressure, even Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi had not expected that the blood-man would actually...
Explode directly.
.....
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