On Ainola’s back, Winona—barely conscious—saw this thing and was utterly confused. She could also smell a strange, foul odor in the air.
It smelled a bit like rotten vegetable leaves.
And as the scent grew stronger, her mental state deteriorated rapidly.
After Spark finished analyzing, the sprite immediately shouted to Ainola.
“This Black Water is volatilizing into the air! Don’t breathe it in!”
“I didn’t want to inhale this stench either.”
Ainola cast a magical barrier on herself and also put one on Winona, but it seemed to have little effect.
The volatilized Black Water substance could even enter the body through wounds.
Ainola could already see Winona’s wounds starting to blacken bit by bit, as if they were turning into the same unknown black substance.
“I need to get her out of here fast.”
Ainola was about to leave, but the monsters formed from the Black Water had no intention of letting her go easily.
The Black Water kept spreading outward, centered on the attic, covering everything within a kilometer in this strange black substance.
Fortunately, Ainola had cast a magical barrier on herself in advance; otherwise, it would have been trouble.
But even so, the black substance was climbing up the outer wall of the barrier, trying to engulf Ainola.
“Tch…”
Facing such a troublesome situation, Ainola could only say to Spark.
“Can you still use the Bubble spell?”
“Of course.”
Spark nodded, and Ainola continued, “Send Winona out.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll think of something.”
Since the Bubble spell could only carry one person, Ainola prioritized evacuating the wounded from this damn place.
And with one less burden, she could move faster.
“Stay safe.”
Spark didn’t waste words persuading her; she carried the unconscious Winona and left.
Soon, only Ainola was left, confronting the monsters of indeterminate form and nature.
These monsters seemed to be made of liquid. To test her theory, Ainola pulled a high-explosive bomb from her pocket and threw it.
The bomb arced in a perfect curve and landed in the middle of the Black Water monsters.
BOOM!!
A deafening explosion erupted, and the powerful shockwave instantly shattered the Black Water monsters.
The liquid on them was blasted everywhere.
A lot of it splattered against Ainola’s magical barrier.
But even though they were shattered, these unknown black monsters slowly reassembled.
It was like a monster from a movie in her past life, something like Venom.
But even scarier was that Ainola was facing a swarm of Black Water monsters.
“Tch… What the hell is this?”
The monsters moved very fast.
Seeing them lunge at her, Ainola sidestepped to dodge their pounce.
At the same time, she threw another high-explosive bomb, blowing the Black Water monsters to pieces again.
Ainola put distance between them, feeling extremely irritated.
Though she didn’t know exactly what these Black Water monsters were…
This might be related to the plague on that man named Qiaozhi.
When she saw his corpse earlier, his skin had turned black, and the blood flowing out was also this unknown black substance.
“Grrr…”
The Black Water covering the ground churned endlessly, and the earth began to tremble. Soon, a huge black figure appeared before Ainola.
This figure looked a bit like a giant bear, but also a bit like a gorilla. Its form was still made of unstable liquid.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…”
Ainola’s mouth twitched as she saw this thing.
“This is way out of my league.”
She knew that her small dagger was nothing more than a mosquito to a monster of this size.
And she was well aware that this thing defied common sense. As an ordinary person, she couldn’t possibly defeat it. Let Anderson’s Glory Empire deal with the headache.
Although the monster had no consciousness, it seemed to have locked onto Ainola. Eerie, incomprehensible echoes filled the air.
“Remnant… bloodline… extermination… evolution…”
The fragments of information couldn’t be pieced together, making it impossible to analyze anything useful.
But Ainola wasn’t going to overthink it. She just wanted to run.
“Whatever you are, see ya later, alligator!”
Ainola turned to flee, but the giant monster wouldn’t give her the chance.
It slammed its hand against the ground, instantly raising a black wave dozens of meters high, intercepting Ainola mid-run.
After the wave crashed down, her magical barrier was completely bound by the Black Water.
And at incredible speed, the entire barrier was covered.
“Crap…”
Ainola knew that now, the duration of her magical barrier was the countdown to her death.
Once the barrier dissipated, she would be instantly devoured by the Black Water.
She had to think of something fast.
***
Meanwhile, using Ainola’s Front Armor Protector as a medium, Anderson had already located her position.
He was on his way there.
“An abandoned attic in the suburbs… Is that her meeting point with the Fengting Association?”
Anderson frowned as he looked at the location provided by the Divine Miracle.
And in his heart, he had a vague, uneasy premonition.
For some reason, the air was filled with the stench of rotting vegetable leaves.
And as he got closer to the attic, the weird stench grew stronger.
When Anderson finally approached the attic, he found the source of the smell.
“What… is this?”
Anderson looked at the surging black liquid on the ground, momentarily puzzled.
He tried to step onto the black-soaked ground, but the moment his armor touched the Black Water, it was completely stained.
He quickly pulled his foot back and immediately cast a dispel and purification spell on himself.
But it didn’t work.
The armor below his calf was completely contaminated.
To be safe, Anderson had to replace his shoe and cast a magical barrier on himself to ensure the contamination wouldn’t touch him.
He hadn’t gone far when he saw a giant monster roaring, grabbing a sphere-like object and repeatedly smashing it into the ground.
Like cracking a coconut.
“Don’t tell me Ainola is inside that black sphere… Well, let’s cut it down and see.”
With that, Anderson assumed a combat stance and instantly lunged forward.
“Light-chasing Slash!”
A white sword flash instantly severed the Black Water monster’s arms.
As the Black Water receded from the magical barrier, Anderson faced the black bear and said to the stunned Ainola behind him.
“So you’re here after all… Miss Red Sparrow. In the end, it’s me saving your life. Why do you do this to yourself?”