Chapter 14: The Aberrant Blood Cocoon

Everyone was immediately drawn to that voice.

The ancient ruin’s gate remained perfectly still, but a few meters to the left, an esper was clutching his head, unable to stop his anguished wails.

He stood all alone—every other esper had retreated far away, forming a wide empty circle around him, as if terrified of being affected by whatever was happening.

Half-kneeling on the ground, the howling esper’s body began to twist and mutate in the next instant. His skin was melting like wax, the flesh underneath writhing grotesquely, as though countless maggots were burrowing through his muscle and blood.

The hands pressed to his head suddenly warped and stretched, his five fingers elongating and fusing together like modeling clay, until they became two tentacles riddled with bulbous growths.

Nearby, Raj stood up abruptly, his expression grave. “It’s a mutation!”

“Why did he suddenly mutate?!”

No one answered, but it was clear that everyone shared the same question.

At first, all the expedition teams hesitated to approach the alien ruin, daunted by the visible, intense energy emanating from it. But when the Defense Bureau’s team tested the area and found that the energy levels around the ruin were only three percent higher than those in Sector Two, everyone’s anxieties eased.

The reason for the visible energy was the mysterious red patterns etched all over the ruin’s surface. With every “breath,” these markings exhaled a faint mist of energy, cloaking the area in a subtle red haze.

Only after understanding this did the teams dare to set up camp and attempt to breach the gate.

They all knew mutations only occurred when one left an area with sufficient energy—like returning from Sector Three’s energy-rich environment to the sparse energy of Sector One, akin to being suddenly deprived of oxygen. Only then did various mutation symptoms appear.

Moreover, earlier pioneers had proven that returning from Sector Three to the less energized Sector One at worst resulted in the body feeling compressed, suffocated, and in mental exhaustion—nothing so drastic.

And yet now, someone had mutated so violently?

Such extreme distortion and melting of flesh were thought only possible if one were used to Sector Three’s energy and then suddenly thrust into the energy-void of Edge City.

So, what on earth had happened to this esper?

Was it still safe to enter the ruin?

“Look at that!” Raj’s voice, trembling with shock, snapped Ye Mi out of her thoughts. She looked up at the mutating esper—

His spine cracked with a sickening snap, his torso twisting as though an invisible hand was wringing it into a knot. Ribs burst through his skin, splaying outward to form a ring of savage bone spines.

From the gaps between these spikes, countless tiny buds of flesh sprouted and writhed, tangling together and swelling rapidly into clusters of pink polyps.

The mutation was still spreading—this had already surpassed anything anyone had ever witnessed.

“Back! Everyone fall back!” someone shouted in terror.

The mass of flesh that had once been a man was now unrecognizable, writhing in agony on the ground. With every convulsion, foul, dark-red mucus oozed from its skin, reeking of rot.

And when that mucus touched the ground, it began to squirm as if alive.

Kira’s face was grim, her fists clenched unconsciously as she pronounced the esper’s fate: “With the mutation this advanced, there’s no coming back. He’s beyond saving.”

As if to confirm her words, a C-rank esper from the Defense Bureau acted without hesitation—an inferno roared to life, engulfing the mutated man and the area around him in flames so intense they forced everyone near the ruin to retreat.

Amid the blaze, Ye Mi saw the ruin’s already bizarre markings twisting even further.

Only when everything in the fire was reduced to ash did the esper cease his power.

After this, no one dared continue trying to breach the gate; all returned to their camps.

Their captain, Red, a middle-aged man with shorn silver hair, exuded an aura as sharp and piercing as his own abilities—a presence like an eagle.

Raj hurried over to him, voicing the question everyone was desperate to ask for Ye Mi and Kira: “Captain, what just happened? How did he mutate? Did the energy around the ruin get stronger?”

The barrage of questions didn’t faze Red. His gaze swept over his team, his expression grave as he answered quietly, “It’s not about the energy concentration.”

He opened his hand, gesturing to indicate size. “I don’t know what that esper was doing, but a blood-red, cocoon-like creature—about the size of my palm—emerged from the patterns on the ruin’s surface. It latched onto him instantly.”

Raj drew a sharp breath. “A cocoon-like creature? That thing was alive? It triggered the mutation directly?”

“Yes,” Red confirmed, lowering his voice further. “And then… we discovered that the red lines flowing through the cracks of the ruin weren’t just patterns. They’re masses of these same creatures—densely packed together. Until now, they’d all been dormant. No one realized they were alive.”

So the thick energy around the ruin was actually the result of these blood cocoons “breathing”?

Kira’s face was pale. “This ruin… it’s entirely composed of living organisms that can release energy and induce mutations?”

She didn’t finish her thought, but everyone knew what she meant.

The ruin stood about fifty meters tall and a hundred meters wide—a structure not much smaller than a pyramid. If its entire surface was covered with these blood cocoons, just how many could there be?

And that didn’t even account for what might lie inside.

This mission was perilous beyond measure.

Raj’s face had gone ashen. “Are we… really going to keep going?”

Red fell silent for a long moment, his gaze sweeping over his team.

Kira’s fingers unconsciously rubbed the hilt of her throwing knives, her nerves stretched taut; Raj’s lips were set in a strained line, his expression conflicted; and Gina—Ye Mi—remained calm and inscrutable, her eyes never leaving the ruin’s gate.

“But if we just retreat now, won’t this whole journey be for nothing?” Kira gritted her teeth. “The Defense Bureau’s people aren’t backing down. Are we really more cowardly than them?”

Raj managed a bitter smile. “Call it cowardice if you want, but I have no desire to end up as some… tentacled mass of tumors.”

As he spoke, he made a twisted, serpentine gesture with his hands, clearly still haunted by the mutation he’d just witnessed.

Red turned to Ye Mi. “Gina, what do you think?”

Within the team, Gina was the steady hand, the voice of reason—her opinion always mattered.

Ye Mi finally spoke. “Only one blood cocoon appeared…”

Her voice was soft but clear enough for all to hear. “And the way it emerged was deliberate—almost as if it was released or disturbed on purpose.”