Chapter 37: Frenzied Mutation

"You... how can this be..."
For the first time, a ripple of emotion disturbed the vice captain's previously serene expression. His voice trembled ever so slightly.
As the poisonous mist receded, Ye Mi's silhouette gradually emerged. She stood where she was, making no move to pursue, merely tilting her head as the tip of her venomous spear tapped gently against the ground.
The vice captain gritted his teeth and suddenly triggered the spring-loaded blade on his left arm. But just as he prepared to launch a surprise attack, a sizzling sound interrupted him.
Black, liquid metal swiftly crawled up the blade's edge, fracturing the joints that held it. The entire knife was enveloped by that sinister metal until it vanished from sight.
He stared in terror at the woman before him, watching as those black threads of metal reached out from her skin like silken cords. "No... no, how is this possible...!"
Ye Mi offered no reply, only gazed at him with calm indifference.
A few seconds later, the vice captain collapsed to his knees with a heavy thud.
All the metal augmentations on his body had corroded and failed, leaving only his frail, bloodied flesh. He tried to lift his head, but even the reinforced joints in his neck had dissolved, and at last he toppled, utterly losing the ability to fight.
Without hesitation, Ye Mi ended his life with a single thrust of her spear.
In the distance, Anders finally sensed something was amiss. He roared and tried to rush over, but was forced back by a swooping attack from Red.
Raj seized the moment, furiously shaking his bell. The strange sound forced Anders to avert his gaze—but even so, he accidentally glimpsed the eyeball dangling from the Bell of the Eyeless.
A splitting headache assailed him, and his vines' assault faltered in disarray.
"Damn it!!"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the vice captain fall and Ye Mi approach, her poison spear held at the ready. Panic reached its peak in his expression.
Why!
Why hadn't this woman from Gray Hawk Squad died?!
Why was she here?!
Why had she grown so strong?!
Was he going to die here? Impossible!!
A chorus of "whys" screamed in Anders's mind as his eyes reddened, locking fiercely onto Ye Mi.
Ye Mi returned his stare, her face blank and unmoved.

Her expression was icy, and to Anders it seemed she regarded him as utterly inconsequential.
"So, you think you can kill me just like this?"
Anders's emerald eyes glinted with a hint of madness. His voice was neither loud nor soft, but reached everyone present.
Ye Mi frowned slightly and gave no reply. Instead, she raised her poison spear and charged forward with unwavering resolve. No matter what Anders said, she would not give him another chance; she would swiftly eliminate the Defense Bureau's relentless esper who had hounded Gray Hawk Squad.
Yet she did not expect Anders to pull from his person a crystal of Voidlight energy. It was half the size of his palm, brilliantly red. Without hesitation, Anders bit through the nanogel and swallowed it whole.
The sheer madness of this act stunned every esper present.
How could a human body possibly withstand Voidlight energy directly?
All current espers had grown stronger by gradual exposure to Voidlight’s transformative power—none had ever dared infuse such a massive amount directly into their bodies!
Supernatural abilities always carried side effects, whether beastification, mutation, or the dreaded curse of retribution. These dangers made explorers of the Voidlight tread cautiously before its unpredictable might!
Anders's actions now were reckless, irrational—a desperate, self-destructive gambit.
The moment he swallowed the crystal, his body convulsed violently as if struck by some invisible force.
Strange blue-green patterns surfaced beneath his skin; his veins bulged and writhed like living vines, emitting an unsettling creaking sound.
“Ah—!!”
He threw his head back and let out a howl that was barely human. His arms suddenly swelled, skin tearing to reveal the rampant growth of plant tissue beneath.
His fingers twisted and deformed, morphing into five or six thick, vine-like tendrils, each covered in dense black poison barbs, ominous in color.
Raj, now perched atop Red, sucked in a cold breath. "What the hell kind of monster is that?!"
Instinctively, he shrank behind Red, nearly forgetting to shake his bell.
Realizing his lapse, he resumed frantically ringing it, hidden from Red's view.
Anders was utterly transformed. The left side of his face began to turn woody, his green eyes bulged from their sockets, his mouth split to the ear, revealing ghastly white teeth.
Looking down at his mutated arms, he erupted into crazed laughter. "Ha ha ha... Power... This is power!"
With those words, Anders whipped around, his cold gaze sweeping over the four present. He spoke with chilling intent: "I will kill every last one of you... Sacrifices for my new abilities..."
Before he finished, he raised his vine-arm abruptly.
A barrage of poisonous barbs whistled through the air, hundreds streaking toward the group like a sudden storm!

"Dodge!"
Ye Mi dashed to the front with a single swift step, instantly deploying her defensive shield.
The barbs rattled against the transparent energy shield, some even piercing its first layer, quivering ominously in midair.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps because he was still evolving, the power of these needles was not as formidable as she'd feared.
Had Anders unleashed his vines at full force, Ye Mi's shield would have been shattered instantly.
"You will all die here!"
Anders's voice had grown hoarse and harsh; he staggered forward, each step spawning new vines from the ground.
He intended to capture these reckless rats, tormenting them one by one—ensuring Gray Hawk Squad would meet a miserable fate.
Ye Mi narrowed her eyes. Cracks were spreading across her shield.
There was no need to let him evolve at leisure. The time for swift action had come!
Amid the stunned gazes of her companions, she suddenly dropped the shield and lunged forward, her poison spear tracing a cold arc beneath the moonlight—
With a wet, sickening sound, the spear tip struck Anders's chest, but was caught by the mass of vine-muscle that had erupted there.
Anders grinned ferociously, releasing another volley of poison barbs from the wound!
Ye Mi was ready. Rust Tide enveloped her body, blocking the needles that couldn't breach her shield. Though numerous, their strength was insufficient to pierce her hardened defenses.
Where Ye Mi's spear had struck Anders's chest, the flesh began to blacken at a visible rate. Yet he seemed to feel no pain, swinging his arms with even greater frenzy.
"Useless... Now... I cannot die!"
He howled, wound perpetually regenerating, new vines sprouting to cover the pierced flesh like grotesque, newborn branches.
His body was mutating wildly, no longer anything resembling a human being.