Asura in Arknights

"I understand... I won't touch it."

Although others did not step forward, most of them shared similar ideas with Provence.

However, seeing that Warfarin had given them such a serious warning and even invoked Kal'tsit's name, they had no choice but to abandon any such inappropriate thoughts.

It can only be said that Kal'tsit's name is sometimes quite effective.

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's get on with the plan. We don't have much time left." Warfarin sighed and ended the conversation.

Seeing this, everyone began to work on the tasks assigned to them.

Chapter Sixty-Nine BOOMMMM!!

"...I'm ready."

Warfarin rejected her idea without hesitation, and Provence's feelings were still a bit complicated, but she nodded to indicate that she was ready.

"Are you alright? If you're not feeling well, just let me do it alone."

Seeing that Provence was not in a good mood, Huang leaned over and asked in a low voice.

Warfarin assigned the two a rather special task: they didn't need to participate directly in the next decoy plan, but rather wait until all the mutants were trapped, then seize the opportunity to enter the laboratory and collect everything of value inside.

It wasn't that Warfarin didn't want to send more people, but if the plan went smoothly, they would have to deal with at least dozens of mutants with maxed-out defenses at the same time, and they simply couldn't spare more manpower to assist the two of them.

“I’m not that fragile, I’m just a little depressed…” Provence glanced at Huang speechlessly.

"Haha, it's good that you're alright. I was worried about you too."

Huang chuckled twice, then pointed ahead and said, "They've already started, so let's get ready too."

A small point of light emerged from the tip of Elena's short staff, and under her control, it wobbled and flew deeper into the passage ahead.

Under the tense gaze of everyone, the black algae covering the passage seemed to be stimulated, and the speed of its changes in light and dark suddenly increased several levels.

"They actually came out!" Elena exclaimed in surprise.

Illuminated by the light, a black figure staggered out of the passage, and behind it surged a dark wave, countless mutants lured out by Elena's move.

The facts are undeniable, and even Elena has to admit that her family's inherited magic does indeed attract these strange things.

"Don't just stand there! Get out of here!"

After patting Elena, who was in a daze, ACE pulled her back quickly.

Those mutants were a size larger than even the most robust Foolish Men, and looked extremely clumsy.

But in reality, they are not slow at all; in fact, they can be described as 'swift'. Otherwise, they would not have been able to suppress two skilled swordswomen in the previous close combat. Their high defense is one aspect, but their speed is indeed very fast.

The mutants writhed in a bizarre manner, gliding close to the ground towards them. They didn't look human at all; instead, they resembled some kind of crawling creature that had just grown two legs.

In no time at all, in the short time it took Elena to be in a daze, the mutants had already chased the light and closed to a very dangerous distance.

ACE pulled Elena, who had regained her senses, and quickly retreated outside the area covered by the black algae.

Just when they thought everything was going smoothly, the breakthrough beings suddenly stopped, crowding at the edge of the black algae area, as if they had taken root under their feet. No matter how Elena tried to entice them, they refused to take a single step outward.

“It’s those black algae. They need those black algae to maintain their activity,” Li Ang said abruptly.

He had already learned a lot about Hai Si from Shui Yue, and after observing for so long, he finally figured out a bit of the trick.

Those black algae are actually a mutated form of 'Ming Hem'.

The mutants are the same; they are all 'Minghen' occupying the lowest ecological niche in Haisi's ecosystem. They only control some of Ayin's clones, and their life forms have not undergone a qualitative change.

Essentially, the Minghen and these mutants are all 'collectives' composed of countless single-celled organisms.

Li Ang's perception happens to block out these faint 'microorganisms' that react to life. Otherwise, his field of vision would be filled with a dense array of mosquitoes, bacteria, and other messy things, requiring him to expend a lot of mental energy to process this useless information.

No wonder Li Ang failed to detect the existence of these mutants at the time; it turned out that his perception judged them as a collection of countless tiny organisms, rather than a single life form.

Looking at Elena, who was still trying to attract the mutants, Li Ang said, "No need to try anymore. If I'm not mistaken, they can only move within this small area."

The Road Shaper suffered fatal damage. Although it retained some of its genetic information about high-energy lasers and the outer space environment, its ecological niche also degenerated from the marine life to the lowest level of the Netherworld.

It's unclear what the specific reason is, perhaps something the person who created these Netherworld Marks did, but in any case, these Netherworld Marks are confined to this small area of ​​the lower structure and cannot continue to spread. As a result, the mutants eroded by these Netherworld Marks cannot leave even a step.

"So what should we do?"

Elena turned to Warfarin for help.

Right now, almost all the mutants have been drawn out by Elena's magic, completely blocking the road to the laboratory, leaving them unable to retreat or advance.

“Then let’s take care of them here.” Warfarin made a quick decision. “Candle Knight, I’m counting on you for the rest.”

Warfarin didn't know anything about things like the Nether Trace Fear Fish or the Sea Spawn. All she knew was that these dangerous creatures had gathered together and were obediently staying put. Could there be a better target? Probably not.

As for what to do next... we can just put in some effort later to carry out and dump all the incapacitated mutants one by one.

Upon receiving Warfarin's order, Viviana also raised the three-candlestick in her left hand.

The flame burning quietly on the candlestick suddenly shot upwards, and at that moment, the people around Viviana felt their vision suddenly darken, as if all the light had been absorbed.

In this strange darkness, the only light was the flickering candle in Viviana's hand.

So... this is the Candle Knight.

At this moment, everyone had the same realization.

A tiny flame, almost invisible to the naked eye, flew from the candlestick, passed over the heads of the mutants, and silently landed in their center.

The next moment, the raging flames spread outwards from the point where the flame landed, and the suddenly expanding air stirred up a gale in this small underground space. The translucent, illusory flames almost engulfed everything here, and all objects burned silently in the sea of ​​fire.

Warfarin's deduction was indeed correct. Under the cover of flames, the mutants' skin hardened rapidly at a visible speed, forming a reflective, hard black shell that firmly locked the mutants inside.

In just a few breaths, those troublesome mutants were transformed into crudely made, low-quality statues.

Although some unexpected things happened during the process, Warfarin finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that everything was proceeding according to her plan.

After waiting patiently for a while, Warfarin finally stopped Viviana.

She had to stop. The ambient temperature had reached its limit, and the illusory, translucent flames had burned away everything flammable around them. If it continued, even the protective suit would probably catch fire.

As the flames died down, dozens of black 'sculptures' stood before the crowd, and everything became incredibly quiet, with only a barely perceptible breeze still blowing through the passageway.

The quiet atmosphere didn't last long before Elena couldn't help but ask, "Is it over already?"

"Wait a minute, let's see what's going on," Warfarin said.

They're going to throw all these sculptures out one by one, and if these mutants suddenly 'burst out' during the transport, things could get quite bad.

Most people would not gain any advantage in close contact with such a fearless monster.

So they stopped where they were and observed the mutants from a distance.

"...It should be fine now."

Several minutes passed, and their eyes started to ache from staring at them, but they still couldn't see any special changes in the statues.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started!"

Huang rubbed his hands together and walked forward, randomly choosing the nearest statue. His gaze kept moving around the statue, as if searching for a suitable spot to exert his strength.

These mutants are not only huge, but they also have bizarre shapes. It's not easy to pick them up.

"Let's go too."

Seeing that Huangdu had already gotten the hang of it, ACE went over to help.

The remaining group discussed it and concluded that, apart from Li Ang, the other ladies could probably move a mutant by working in pairs.

We'll likely need to use Viviana's Originium Arts next, so she'll need to conserve her energy. We won't need her to do these troublesome things.

Just as they were discussing what to do next, a strange noise suddenly reached everyone's ears clearly.

"Snap—"

"Ok?"

Huang looked up alertly and saw that it wasn't just the mutant she was about to lift; within a few seconds, almost all the mutants that had turned into statues had developed dense cracks.

"Doctor, your method doesn't seem very reliable. Only a few minutes have passed?"

This amount of time is simply not enough for them to eliminate all the mutants.

Huang casually complained and prepared to retreat further away.

However, what Huang didn't notice was that the group of people behind her, led by Xingji, seemed to have experienced a mix of emotions, their expressions changing repeatedly.

Here's the question: since these mutated 'Nethermarks' have the ability to absorb and transform Originium radiation, and have reduced the radiation intensity in this area by several levels in a short period of time, then... where did this absorbed energy go?

Now, they have found the answer.

A blinding white light burst forth from the cracks that appeared on the bodies of those mutants.

The energy reaction intensity emitted by them increased dozens of times in a short period of time. Such an exaggerated rate of increase can only be seen in some reactors that are on the verge of going out of control.

But who can deny that these mutants in front of them are, at this moment, humanoid 'bioreactors'?

"It's too late..."

Before they could even close their eyes in despair, the cracked shells on the mutants shattered with a deafening roar.

"boom--!!"

With a deafening roar, a white light engulfed everything.

Chapter Seventy: Ferdinand in Action

At the same time, within the Great Knight's territory.

"boom--!!"

With a deafening roar, a strange tremor suddenly spread throughout the entire Great Knight Territory.

Caught off guard, Ferdinand, who was sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper, accidentally spilled half a cup of coffee on himself.

"Earthquake? It doesn't look like..."

Ferdinand put down the newspaper, picked up the coffee cup that had fallen to the ground, and a hint of doubt flashed through his mind.

"It sounds like something exploded."

With such a commotion, could it be that the core power furnace of some urban plot exploded?

Shaking his head, Ferdinand banished the pointless thought from his mind.

The core power reactor exploded? Such a low-probability event is negligible; the chance of it being an attack from Ursus in the north is countless times higher.

The core that sustains the survival of countless people in this world cannot be blown up so easily. Even if you bombard the reactor with heavy artillery to pieces, such an accident is not guaranteed.

Ferdinand casually wiped his chest with a tissue, then walked to the hotel's floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at everything happening outside.

The streets below were in chaos. Although the tremor was brief, it was quite intense, and many people, like Ferdinand, had suffered a setback.

Ferdinand was alright; he only lost one piece of clothing. Some of the others fared much worse.

For example, a driver lost his grip on the steering wheel, causing a chain-reaction car accident; or a knight suddenly lost his balance during a race, allowing his opponent to seize the opportunity and turn the tide... Such tragedies have occurred all over the Great Knight Territory.

But Ferdinand looked around and couldn't find where the explosion was coming from.

"Never mind, it has nothing to do with me anyway."

Having already wasted several minutes, Ferdinand was not about to waste any more of his precious time.

With that, Ferdinand walked toward his large pile of suitcases, seemingly preparing to change his clothes.

However, as he passed the coffee table, Ferdinand glanced at a spherical 'ornament' on the table out of the corner of his eye.

Ferdinand's expression turned extremely ugly when he saw the silver liquid constantly swirling inside the ornament.

However, this expression lasted for less than half a second. He quickly maintained his nonchalant demeanor and changed into a spare shirt that he took out of his suitcase.

After doing all this, Ferdinand calmly returned to his previous spot and picked up the newspaper he hadn't finished reading.

However, a closer look reveals that Ferdinand's attention was not actually on the newspaper at all.

His fingertips trembled slightly, indicating that Ferdinand's mood was definitely not as calm as it appeared.

Ferdinand's mood at this moment was far beyond what the word "unsettled" could describe. He was so angry he felt like he was about to ascend to heaven.

When are those damn bastards going to stop spying on me? When will they ever stop?

Ferdinand thought through gritted teeth.

Ferdinand discovered he was being watched after waking up this morning.

Regardless of who was monitoring him, Ferdinand was unable to carry out his work under these circumstances, and he was not foolish enough to expose his plans to those with ill intentions.