A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"Calm down, Ellie!" Tristie hugged Ellie.

Tristia was now filled with endless regret, lamenting that she hadn't stopped Kegel earlier.

Tristé could not allow Ellie to repeat the fate of Cager and Rolando.

"But! Sister Tristia!" Ellie's tears kept flowing from the corners of her eyes.

No matter what, she couldn't believe that the two people who were just laughing and joking with her had now turned into such a distorted figure.

Ellie didn't want to admit the truth, even when it was right in front of her.

Most importantly, Ellie didn't want to admit that the love in her heart had suddenly vanished.

That love seemed to have never existed; it vanished from Ellie's heart without a trace.

This made Ellie panic and feel terrified.

"What on earth happened?" Ellie covered her face, tears soaking her robes.

"Don't stand still! If you don't want to end up looking like that, start running!" Eric roared.

Eric was exasperated by the stunned look on these people's faces. They were in a situation where they could be turned into monsters at any moment, so why did they have time to daydream?

Indeed, the web of contaminants beneath their feet has never stopped spreading.

"They're getting closer!" a guard exclaimed in alarm.

"Get back!" Eric sneered, then said in a deep voice.

However, many people were still stunned, because the horrific scene brought by the polluter was too shocking to their minds.

It was during these moments of dazedness that many guards became entangled in the fine threads extending from the cocoon net.

Once you're entangled in these fine threads that you can feel pulsating within them, there's no chance of escape.

More and more filaments will coalesce into tentacles, piercing through the skin and flesh, and eventually transforming it into the likeness of Rolando and Kegel.

"Captain Alice, you better watch yourself!!" Eric suddenly said to Alice.

"Colonel, be careful not to turn into that strange look," Alice said softly.

Eric's concern was straightforward, but Alice could still sense it.

Then a snap of fingers rang out.

An ice wall suddenly rose from the ground, blocking the spread of the cocoon web.

However, even though the ice wall blocked the spread on the ground, the cocoon web continued to climb the ice wall.

"Cook you all, you rotten meat," Eric said expressionlessly.

The surface of the ice wall suddenly began to melt, and the resulting water boiled.

Unfortunately, Eric seems to have underestimated these seemingly pinkish fleshy calluses.

The boiling temperature of water cannot cause any substantial damage to these cocoons.

“Colonel Eric, you should use fire magic,” Alice retorted.

"If I knew how, I would have used it already!" Eric said helplessly.

"Your academic performance is too unbalanced."

“This is a common problem among mages.” Eric felt a stomachache now. Why didn’t he learn fire magic back then?

The polluters have never paid any attention to the struggles of these tiny beings.

The polluters now have only one goal: to destroy the empire.

"Why destroy the empire?"

Doubt arose from the depths of the polluter's soul.

Unbeknownst to him, Rivi’s voice became increasingly indistinct.

The polluters' thinking also began to become muddled.

—"What am I?"

"Where am I?"

"Where is the empire?"

Countless questions arose, beginning to weigh on that already collapsing soul.

That's right, the will belonging to Rivi is beginning to collapse, which is the inevitable consequence of the Black Iron race's attempt to use "divine source".

Having power comes with a price.

The reason why Levi is so crazy is because of the attraction of "divine source".

Temptation drove Levi from an ordinary scholar to madness.

This is a temptation that almost no one can resist.

To some extent, it's quite remarkable that Revi didn't immediately acquire the power within the "Divine Source" after extracting it.

However, the reason why Levi was so patient was simply because he wanted to become a higher being that surpassed the Black Iron race.

Ultimately, they are just letting their desires control their actions.

From the moment the thought of greed for this power that did not belong to lower species arose, Levi's fate was already sealed.

"I will destroy the empire."

The polluter, who was previously able to have a fluent conversation, could now only utter a few sentences.

A tremendous voice echoed.

The polluter responded with a snap of his fingers.

The icicles instantly buried the polluter's legs.

“Hey, destroy the Empire? That’s not funny at all,” Eric said coldly, tilting his head back at the Corruptor.

"Colonel, even if you get angry, you can't beat this big guy," Alice advised.

"It's true, but we still have to try to stop it," Eric sighed.

"Otherwise, why do you think I would wear this military uniform?"

"The duty of a soldier is to protect the country and its people."

“kala——”

The thick ice was easily broken by the corrupted creature, its legs stepping on the cocoon web, moving straight toward the empire.

But as more ice surged up, the polluters began to find it difficult to move.

"Are you kidding me? If I let you keep going like this, all the way to the Empire, where would I put my face?!"

Eric was covered in sweat and looked rather pale.

Large-scale ice spells aren't something you can just throw out whenever you want, but even so, could Eric possibly hold back?

From the very beginning, the polluters never took anything seriously.

Even that despairing cocoon was just something done casually.

It's like when a human sees an ant and wants to kill it, they can simply press it with their finger.

These horrific scenes were created by the polluters without any effort.

The ice that Eric painstakingly created with all his magic made the Corruptor feel unable to walk for the first time.

To the polluters, Eric was like an ant that had turned into a stumbling block.

“Insignificant and foolish,” the polluter mumbled in a garbled voice.

The polluter was still a long way from Eric.

However, this doesn't bother the polluters.

The dense muscle fibers at the joints of the polluter extend into countless muscle filaments.

The next moment, these muscle fibers shot straight toward Eric's position.

The muscle fibers extending from the polluted creature, though they didn't touch anyone, instantly transformed the surrounding guards into twisted monsters.

Indeed, even these muscle fibers possess the effect of "concept" and "distorting life in the world".

Moreover, it doesn't weaken at all; it will twist and become unstoppable as soon as it gets close.

This is the huge difference in altitude.

No matter how hard the Black Iron type tries, it's all in vain.

Faced with the power that holds the concept of the world, everything else seems insignificant.

So-called advanced spells and advanced martial arts seem to be meaningless.

There wasn't even anyone who could stand upright in front of the polluter.

"Alice, if I turn into a monster, remember to kill me." Eric smiled bitterly.

Although it wasn't particularly fast, Eric felt he couldn't get out of the tens of meters range of those muscle fibers immediately.

But at least Eric could get Alice out of there.

"Colonel..." Just as Alice was about to say something, she suddenly felt herself being thrown backward.

The water swept Alice down, causing her to fall onto the ground that Eric had somehow frozen over.

Before Alice could react, she had moved a full hundred meters.

"So what should I do?"

Pushing someone away with water is a great method, but it doesn't work for the caster themselves.

"I don't want to become a monster at all," Eric thought to himself, even at this moment.

"Boom—" Dust rose from the ground as the polluters attacked.

Alice's eyes were filled with sorrow, but she remained silent.

But Alice's sorrow was quickly swept away.

Unconsciously, Alice shed tears, tears of joy.

However, it seems Eric couldn't notice it, since it was too far away.

Eric is currently more concerned about his own condition.

"Huh... I'm still perfectly fine?" Eric carefully examined his body.

There wasn't a single strange thing about it.

"Aaaaaah!! I haven't turned into a monster, have I?" A pleasant voice rang out from the dust.

Katrina looked at her body very carefully.

Not too fat, not too thin, still so perfect.

“Don’t stray too far from me,” Bray said in a low voice, touching his blindfold.

"I thought it would be an elegant way to move around, but it turned out to be quite brutal." Sass dusted himself off.

Just as Eric was about to be attacked, Katrina inadvertently moved to Eric's side.

"Wasn't it supposed to be a fixed-point mobile system...? What a rip-off." Bray said expressionlessly.

“Because the coordinates are very unstable around this guy, okay!” Katrina protested.

However, Eric became unsettled while Bray and the other two were talking.

"It's you, you con artist, you bard!?" Eric suddenly realized that he had probably been saved by these three guys.

"Hey, that Imperial soldier." Sass exclaimed in surprise.

“Use ice…” Bray felt a headache coming on. How did he end up with someone who wanted to capture him?

“Don’t arrest me now,” Bray said.

"Do you think I have the luxury of doing this?" Eric pointed to the big guy. Even if Bray hadn't said anything, Eric wouldn't have been so brain-dead as to do this now.

Bray fell silent, then ignored Eric and stared straight at the massive polluter.

Although Bray wanted to get rid of the contaminated ones, there didn't seem to be any other way at the moment.