Steam Age: I Fight Against Divine Authority with Otherworldly Tales

Chapter 33 A Frenzy of Flesh and Blood

In the dimly lit room, the strange changes continued. By the faint light from the window, Suren could clearly see that Ellie's head had been completely engulfed by the fleshy growths. The writhing fleshy growths, like a virus, instantly covered the girl's entire body.

The writhing sound of flesh echoed in the room, a wet, viscous sound like the simmering of a pot of meat broth. The fleshy growths continued to multiply, and almost instantly, Ellie's figure was swallowed up, leaving only a fleshy mass covered in fleshy growths that continued to swell in the room.

The air was filled with a salty, fishy smell, so strong that it was hard to breathe. Suren held his breath and raised the "Eye of Withering".

The gun's cylinder was already pre-loaded with "incendiary" bullets, and because the target was large enough, Suren pulled the trigger without needing to aim.

Gunshots rang out in the small room, making eardrums buzz. The bullet's trajectory even carried a faint, dark mist—the effect of the "Eye of Withering."

The bullet tore through the air and pierced into the flesh. The granulation tissue near the point of impact contracted sharply, and then the bullet exploded from inside the flesh, flames spreading along the wound.

Because of the "Eye of Wither" effect, even the flames of the enchanted bullets have a special "Wither" effect.

The flames devoured the flesh buds frantically. The flesh buds kept writhing, trying to regenerate, but slowly began to rot, gradually turning into grayish-brown ulcerated tissue. Layers of flesh peeled away, revealing the flesh deeper inside. Suren could vaguely see slender fingers.

Although the monster could not make a sound, judging from the constant spasms of its swollen mass of flesh, it must have caused great harm to its opponent.

Suddenly, a slit opened on the side of the chunk of flesh, and the fleshy buds at the edge of the slit curled up from the middle, revealing fleshy tissue. A thick, fleshy whip squeezed out of the slit, almost as thick as an adult's arm, and its surface was also covered with those white fleshy buds.

The long whip drew an arc in the air, sweeping towards Suren with a whistling sound.

Suren's pupils suddenly contracted. He exerted force with his legs and lunged to the right. He felt the long whip whistling past his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fleshy buds on the whip falling through the air like raindrops as the tentacles swept across. Finally, the whip slammed against the wall with a "bang".

Suren rolled on the ground, not yet relieved that he had dodged the attack, but when he looked down, he found two disgusting white growths writhing wildly on his right shoulder and left hand.

The granulation tissue on my right shoulder writhed like leeches, frantically burrowing inwards, hissing as it pierced through my thin jacket in less than a second. Upon contact with my skin, a piercing pain shot through my left shoulder, as if countless tiny needles were stabbing into my skin.

The granulation tissue on Suren's left hand was also writhing wildly, but the difference was that Suren's entire left hand had turned deathly pale, and the granulation tissue that had been growing wildly just moments before withered and fell off his skin.

"The 'Evil Spirit in the Mirror' can suppress this erosion!" Suren was shocked. Without thinking, he raised his left hand and pressed it hard against the granulation tissue on his right shoulder. In an instant, all the granulation tissue on his shoulder withered, and the excruciating pain disappeared.

At this moment, the long whip of flesh and blood was pulled out of the wall, adjusted its direction in mid-air, and prepared to strike again.

Suren didn't linger. He mustered all his strength, smashed open the wooden door behind him, and was outside. He stumbled a step on the floor before regaining his balance.

Behind him, the long whip, like a leech, shattered the wooden door and danced wildly in the air.

Suren swiftly turned to the side, aimed, and raised his gun in one fluid motion, pulling the trigger on the whip that followed. The bullet splattered a flower of blood on the whip, and flames spread across it, engulfing the flesh on its surface.

The whip convulsed violently for a moment, then shrank back into the room.

Suren stepped back a few paces to create distance between himself and the doorway. He turned the reel of the "Eye of Withering" while holding the "Eye of Annihilation" in his right hand. He took two "Explosive" bullets from the bullet pouch at his waist and loaded them into the empty reel.

His gaze remained fixed on the door, where the mass of flesh was slowly moving out of the house. As it moved, the tissues unaffected by the "Withering" continued to grow wildly.

"Large physique but weak gate."

Suren silently pondered to himself, already having some guesses: the monster's proliferation should not be unlimited.

He put the "Eye of Withering" into its holster, raised the "Eye of Destruction" loaded with bullets, and planned to use this gun to weaken the opponent first, and then use the "Eye of Withering" to finish off the monster and completely stop its proliferation.

Before he could pull the trigger, the lump of flesh suddenly convulsed violently, a dark crack split open in the middle, and then the entire lump of flesh split in two, revealing the cut surface of flesh and blood between them.

Then the two lumps of flesh convulsed wildly, and the granulation tissue on their surface all writhed downwards. Using the force of the granulation tissue, the two disgusting lumps of flesh leaped out of the door, then glued together in mid-air, like a piece of clay that could be freely reshaped.

Before Suren could think, he raised the "Eye of Annihilation" to his ribs with his right hand, the muzzle already aimed at the massive chunk of flesh, while his left hand rested on the hammer.

Without any unnecessary movements, he pressed down with his left hand, firmly lowering the hammer. In that instant, his index finger, already resting on the trigger, pulled it as if by reflex.

"Bang!"

Even as the gunshot echoed in the air, the left hand pressed down again and pulled the hammer. This time it was faster; the hammer had just engaged when the trigger followed immediately, the two actions almost becoming one.

With each shot, his shoulder remained motionless, only his thumb and forefinger repeating the same mechanical motion, firing one shot after another, unleashing six "explosive" bullets in an instant.

Six sprays of blood erupted from the surface of the mass of flesh, which then convulsed violently. The explosive bomb detonated inside the flesh, tearing it apart as if by an unseen hand, scattering fragments of flesh across the ground.

But Suren frowned, for he saw that the ruptured mass of flesh was still writhing frantically. The splattered flesh on the ground was also stubbornly proliferating; Suren could even see the granulation tissue extending in the air.

"Even if it's troublesome, it's only a Level I evil spirit. But its terrifying regenerative ability is something that even with all the bullets in my 'Eye of Withering,' I can't completely cover it. There must be something wrong with it."

Suren's heart was pounding, but in the midst of the crisis, his mind became increasingly clear. Finally, he caught a detail he had previously overlooked—the slender fingers within the flesh.