Chapter 342

"So... do you have any way to deal with spiritual contamination, Ansu?"

Rei Kanzaki asked silently within his mind.

"A solution? Heh... I’ve got quite a few."

"But for this little girl, none of them are really usable."

"Spiritual contamination... it all originates from the Polluted Source Nest. Once it latches onto you, it clings for life."

"I once... deliberately exposed myself to spiritual contamination."

"Heh. That feeling... was truly something else."

"After being contaminated, there wasn’t the slightest sense that anything was wrong. Everything felt like it came from my own thoughts—every action, every decision, all seemed to be my own will."

"Even if I did something completely contrary to what I would normally believe, I wouldn’t notice anything strange."

"It all just felt logical. Correct."

"If you don’t resist it—if you simply follow that sensation—then it becomes an incredibly smooth, almost liberating experience."

"In a way... it’s not entirely a bad thing."

Ansu recalled that life—the one where he had been infected by the Polluted Source Nest.

In that life... he had slaughtered countless innocents.

Used innumerable lives as experimental material. Committed atrocities beyond counting.

But...

In truth, it wasn’t all that different from what he had done in several of his other lives.

Ansu himself was a Controller of Death. He had never been a good person to begin with. Even when tainted by the Polluted Source Nest, there wasn’t much further for him to fall.

At its core, the contamination of the Polluted Source Nest pushed a person closer to their origin—accelerating their ascent along the path of class evolution.

It wasn’t about indiscriminate slaughter.

It was about erasing one’s original principles and moral boundaries.

For someone like Ansu, who had never really possessed such boundaries to begin with, the contamination might as well not have existed at all.

"If you want to completely remove the contamination, you’d have to strip away the portion of her spirituality that’s been tainted."

"But once it begins manifesting in her personality, that usually means the contamination has already fused deeply with her spirit."

"If you truly try to separate it... it’s equivalent to extracting all of her spirituality."

"And she would become an empty shell. A complete idiot."

That answer...

To strip away all spirituality—just thinking about it made Rei Kanzaki reject the idea outright.

And besides, if all spirituality were removed, how would that be any different from death?

Could someone without spirituality even still be called human?

Wasn’t the very reason monsters were monsters because they lacked spirituality?

"Unless... you can find a way to eradicate the entire Polluted Source Nest."

Rei Kanzaki paused, then asked, "Is there any way to suppress it temporarily?"

He couldn’t keep Luluwi by his side forever.

Nor could he watch over her indefinitely.

"Heh. You’re talking about sealing it, aren’t you?"

"There are quite a few restrictions designed to seal people like her..."

Luluwi stood quietly, waiting.

As she watched Rei Kanzaki deep in thought, countless thoughts flickered through her mind.

Rei Kanzaki lifted his gaze again.

"Luluwi... have you come into contact with anything unusual? Something you obtained after leaving the Moonsea?"

Luluwi searched her memories.

"If I had to say..."

"At the Archer’s Guild in Atlante City, I came across a storybook called Black Secrets."

"After I finished reading it, I felt a bit lightheaded."

"But it only lasted for less than half a day before the feeling disappeared."

"Oh, right... recently, while practicing Perception Enhancement, I also sensed a very distant calling."

"It was faint, though—barely there."

"And my sea of consciousness... it changed because of the Perception Enhancement technique."

Her sea of consciousness... had changed?

"Luluwi."

"Can I take a look at your sea of consciousness?"

Rei Kanzaki suddenly asked.

"...Mm."

The sea of consciousness was one of the most vital parts of a person.

Allowing someone inside meant completely lowering one’s guard.

If the other party launched an attack within it...

The damage would be fatal—devastating—and nearly impossible to defend against.

Luluwi hesitated for a moment.

Her soft, delicate hand pressed against her chest, as though she were struggling with a difficult decision.

Her full, fair chest rose and fell with the turmoil of her thoughts.

Finally, her expression turned resolute.

She nodded.

"...Alright. Come in."

"Then... I’m going in."

Rei Kanzaki’s perception connected with Luluwi’s.

This time, it wasn’t mere internal observation—his awareness directly examined her body, sweeping across her entirely in a fleeting instant.

A faint blush appeared on Luluwi’s cheeks.

If it were ordinary perception probing, she might not have noticed his scan at all.

But now that their senses were linked...

That unabashed sweep was laid completely bare before her.

...Whatever.

He’s already seen so much anyway.

And he’s still just a kid... though, he doesn’t really look like one anymore.

At that thought, Luluwi felt her body grow slightly warmer.

Rei Kanzaki sensed the shift in her emotions and let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Her reactions were still normal.

At the very least, it meant the contamination hadn’t gone too deep.

Buzz—

A ripple spread through his perception.

Tap—

At that very instant, Rei Kanzaki activated his simulation of the future.

[Divine Ability · Future Deduction]

Future Deduction did not consume real time.

Whoosh—

Guided by Luluwi, Rei Kanzaki entered her sea of consciousness.

The moment he stepped inside—

He saw nothing but a vast expanse of pitch-black, stagnant water.

This...

was her sea of consciousness?

Why did Luluwi’s inner world look like this?

Was this what a normal person’s sea of consciousness looked like?

Rei Kanzaki, widely knowledgeable, had seen descriptions of others’ inner worlds in books.

Most people’s seas of consciousness were open and luminous—vast skies, islands, palaces—manifestations shaped by their inner desires, further influenced by their class.

For archers, it was usually an endless horizon beneath a boundless sky.

But here...

There was only stillness.

A dead, silent black sea.

Looking toward the distant horizon—

He could make out countless enormous, writhing worms churning in the depths.

What... was this?

The sea of consciousness was a reflection of the inner self.

A dark inner world rarely belonged to a bright heart.

"Luluwi... don’t you think there’s something wrong with the state of your sea of consciousness?"

Rei Kanzaki’s voice turned heavy.

He turned to look beside him—

And what he saw made his pupils contract.

Luluwi’s form within the sea of consciousness had changed.

Her neck was riddled with fine holes, from which pale white worms crawled out.

In her right hand, she held a twisted longbow—its body formed from writhing, earthworm-like creatures.

This wasn’t just the environment anymore.

Luluwi...

Your condition is far worse than I imagined.