Chapter 550: Source of the Beast Blood

“So it really wasn’t going to end that easily, huh?”

Looking at the little girl who no longer had even a trace of that pitiful, helpless air from moments ago—now twisted and horrifying—Muen wasn’t frightened. He only let out a helpless sigh.

Running into a lost, crying little girl in the middle of the night was bad enough already. Getting this enthusiastically entangled on top of that... at this rate, big brother here was going to be labeled either a pervert or a practitioner of illegal taste.

“So then,” Muen said calmly, “which Evil God’s lapdog are you working for?”

He didn’t hesitate at all. Before the other party could act, Muen snapped his fingers.

Hiss.

The Holy Light lingering in the little girl’s wounds was violently triggered. Wrapped in the purest power of purification, white radiance surged upward, intent on erasing all filth.

This was the contingency Muen had left inside her—just to be safe.

No matter which Evil God she had drawn power from, the Holy Light Elizabeth had infused into her body should have dealt a devastating blow, or even killed her outright. After all, this wasn’t ordinary Holy Light—it had been personally blessed with holy water by the current Saintess. Its level was absolutely not comparable to the usual—

Smack.

Muen’s confident expression froze.

Because as that sacred radiance bloomed, pain did flicker across the little girl’s face.

But then she raised her hand, like swatting a mosquito, and slapped hard at the spot where the Holy Light was shining.

And just like that... the supremely holy, supremely pure light was slapped out.

Slapped... out... gone...

That unbelievable scene looped endlessly in Muen’s mind. For a moment, he even wondered if he’d fallen into some kind of illusion again.

Black flames covered his pupils—but what he saw was still that same horrifying reality.

Only this time, through the vision enhanced by black fire, Muen noticed the real problem.

“There’s... no power of an Evil God?”

Deep within Muen’s consciousness, the black-flamed, white-crowned sun wheel continued to rotate in silence. The dreadful authority formed from the fusion of many Evil Gods showed no sign of stirring at all.

Which meant—

The little girl in front of him had no connection whatsoever to any Evil God.

She wasn’t an evil cultist. She wasn’t an Evil God’s creation either.

That was why the Holy Light left inside her had been so weak. Without the reinforcement of faith power—and with the target not being an evil cultist to begin with—the Holy Light could only manifest as ordinary brightness and heat.

Its effect wasn’t even stronger than Muen’s own illumination spell.

“If there’s no Evil God backing you,” Muen said gravely, “then what exactly are you?”

His gaze sharpened as he reassessed the little girl.

“Wuu—”

After a brief silence, the sobbing began again, spilling from the girl’s pale lips. There was no emotion visible in those dead, hollow eyes—

But as the crying rose, Muen suddenly felt the surrounding world grow lively.

Countless blood-red threads extended and connected. The massive net long woven through this area seemed to come alive. Each node—formed from the severed limbs of beastified victims—began to pulse in rhythm, as if linked by blood vessels.

Thump. Thump. Thump-thump.

It sounded like a heartbeat.

Bodies that had already died burst forth with vitality once more under the stimulation of those threads. And that immense life force, accompanied by a heart-like roaring at the core, surged together into—

The little girl.

Supported by innumerable blood-red threads, the little girl floated upward. In just a few breaths, Muen sensed that something long dormant within her was slowly awakening.

“This is...?”

Muen’s expression changed slightly. His figure blurred, vanishing from where he stood.

The spot he had just occupied was invaded by writhing blood-red threads that stretched out under the cover of blood and night. Finding no target, they flailed about in confusion.

“So that’s what it is.”

Standing at a slightly higher vantage point, Muen adjusted his top hat and looked down at the little girl.

Those blood-red threads did indeed form a net—but to describe it more precisely...

It was more like a platter.

A serving platter woven from countless fine blood-red threads.

And the food on that platter was, naturally, the beastified ones... along with the people among them.

The reason she released the beastified creatures had never been to kill the Crown Prince.

It was to block them—and then feed them to this little girl.

A chill ran through Muen as he suddenly realized something.

If he hadn’t chosen to stay behind to hold these things back—if he had chosen to break through together with the others, leaving the bloated convoy to be tangled up by the beastified creatures—

Then Crown Prince Albert would probably have already become this little girl’s meal.

Those blood-red threads were hidden to a degree that even Muen had difficulty detecting them. A normal person like the Crown Prince could have been drained dry in an instant, without the slightest chance to react.

“On par with large-scale Evil God contamination...” Muen murmured. “Just what the hell are you?”

There was no answer.

Questions kept surging up in his mind, but Muen didn’t have the time to chase them one by one.

Besides—compared to mere observation—Muen had always believed that closer contact made it easier to uncover what someone was hiding.

So without hesitation, his figure flickered, and he charged straight at the little girl.

The blade flashed like the moon—cold, pure, and bright.

Countless blood-red threads, along with the crushed remnants pressing down, were cleaved apart instantly before the blade’s extreme sharpness, like a divine legend of a god splitting the sea.

And within the slowed flow of time, a figure darted through that opening, lunging straight at the girl’s true body.

The girl’s eye sockets were still deathly pale. Her head tilted slightly, as if she sensed the approaching chill at the last moment.

She only had time to raise her thin, withered arm.

There was no doubt—the arm was severed again. Torn flesh and exposed bone were clearly visible. With nothing but flesh and blood, there was no way she could block Elizabeth’s edge.

Yet the little girl’s crying, pale face showed no sign of pain at all.

Muen frowned.

This strike, too, had failed to give him the sensation of truly wounding her.

His gaze slid away from her face—

And in the corner of his eye, Muen saw her arm break off another section.

But he hadn’t swung a second time.

Which meant—

It wasn’t that her arm had been cut off.

It was that the stitched seam along her arm had suddenly split open on its own.

And this time, what burst from the rupture wasn’t flesh and bone—

But something that expanded suddenly... something grotesque!

Muen’s expression changed sharply. An overwhelming premonition of death screamed through his mind!

“Damn it—what kind of thing is this now?!”

Cursing, Muen reacted purely on instinct. At the critical moment, he crossed his twin blades in front of his chest.

Boom!

The flesh bursting from the arm—thin enough that her thumb and forefinger could have easily encircled it—expanded violently, transforming in an instant into a terrifying, scale-covered giant claw!

It was the talon of some massive bear-shaped magical beast.

Under the scattered starlight, the claw possessed a grim, chilling beauty.

But when it came crashing down, Muen felt the same horror as when King Yintuo had slapped him with a single palm—like a mountain collapsing.

“Damn... what kind of bear strength is this?!”

Muen was smashed straight into the ground like a sandbag.

Under that monstrous force, his qi and blood churned violently. He couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of congealed blood.

He wiped it away casually and rose slowly to his feet.

But before he could even steady his breathing, a massive shadow swallowed him once again.

“How is it... this fast?!”

Speed so extreme that even he nearly failed to react shouldn’t have been possible for a humanoid monster wielding such a massive claw. But Muen had no time to think.

As the death premonition screamed again, the alchemical core on his back roared at full power. Blazing heat surged forth, instantly dispelling the chill of the spring night.

The giant claw brushed past Muen, carving dozens of meters of terrifying ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) gouges into the ground.

And within the interval granted by dozens of times temporal deceleration, Muen finally saw the reason for the girl’s incredible speed.

A pair of enormous wings.

Black scales gleamed coldly. Savage bone spurs pierced the sky. When the wings spread, it was as if boundless black clouds pressed down from above.

Those were—

Dragon wings.

With a single beat, countless gales lifted that petite yet monstrously massive body, granting her terrifying acceleration.

But how could such wings ever belong on a little girl?

And just as Muen reeled from that shock, the stitched seam across the little girl’s chest suddenly split open as well.

A huge, worm-like maw thrust outward, writhing with bloody flesh, locking onto Muen—

Then snapped shut!

“Break!”

Muen wasn’t about to give her a second ambush.

Dozens of thunderclaps roared at once. A blade-light even more dazzling than before erupted from within, shredding the worm-like flesh in an instant.

The little girl frowned.

It was the first time she had shown a clear sign of pain.

With a powerful beat of her wings, she retreated rapidly once more.

“What in the world is this...?”

Muen didn’t pursue.

That brief, frantic exchange had cost him a small loss; his qi and blood were still surging.

But that wasn’t what troubled him.

What truly shook him was the little girl’s current form.

The claw of a bear-shaped magical beast.

The twin wings of a giant dragon.

And that bizarre worm-like mouth.

Each of them was far larger than the girl’s own body—yet they all grew, grotesquely, from within her.

No... “grew” wasn’t the right word.

They were stitched on.

Those parts clearly belonged to once-dreadful magical beasts. Even now, Muen could sense the oppressive aura of apex predators clinging to those limbs.

But that made no sense.

The fusion of organs and body parts from different creatures—even different species—was supposed to be the “gift” of the God of Abundance.

So why, even now, did Muen sense not a single trace of Evil God power from this little girl?

Could it be that she was suppressing the rejection between these organs... purely through her own bloodline?

Bloodline...?

Muen’s eyes flickered.

He turned to look at the still-pulsing beastified remains, trembling under the control of the blood-red threads.

Beastification.

Drugs.

Laboratory.

Transferred test subjects.

Magical beast limbs.

Sutures.

...

Every clue finally connected.

This little girl—

Without any doubt—

Was the origin of the beastification drug.

The source that turned innocent people into mindless monsters.

“...I see.”

Muen lifted his head and looked at the monstrous little girl with sorrow and pity.

“So those magical beast limbs...”

“They were forcibly stitched into your body, weren’t they?”