Chapter 508 - Mutation
Duna was surprised by Leon's straightforward answer and wondered if she should have demanded more.
However, it was too late to change her mind since Leon had already accepted. Besides, she was not that unscrupulous.
"Alright." Duna nodded.
Shortly after, the power of destruction manifested in her palm before she waved them at the approaching tentacles.
The fleshly red tentacle arms and legs were immediately vaporized into ashes when they came into contact with the wall of destruction before it continued onwards, straight towards the fleshly abomination's main body.
Kriiiii!
The fleshly abomination exhibited its fear before retreating from the invisible wall of destruction advancing towards it.
However, its main body was incomparably slow compared to its tentacle limbs and failed to outrun the destruction wave before half its main body was cleanly shaved away from existence.
Kriiiii!
A piercing scream was heard, resounding throughout the underground space before the other half of the fleshly abomination quickly attempted to regenerate its missing half, albeit at a much slower rate than it had previously showcased.
"Duna, quickly finish it off!" Leon shouted with a frown. He was concerned that the fleshly abomination's cry would attract more powerful enemies towards them.
"I know! I don't need you to tell me what to do!" Duna responded unhappily with furrowed brows, not expecting her first attack to be insufficient.
The slight crack on her hand expanded, spreading through her fingers as a result of wielding the Destruction Law. Nevertheless, it was far from reaching the same level as last time.
Another wave of destruction was birthed into existence, gathering around the tips of her finger with a gloomy crimson glow.
Evidently, this concentration of destruction was greater than her previous attack as its form could be partially seen like a black hole, except eerily crimson in color.
At the same time, the tips of her fingers cracked at an accelerated rate.
However, Duna did not hold the power of destruction for too long and sent it shooting towards the escaping fleshly abomination.
Kriii—!
The fleshly abomination was struck as the power of destruction shaved off another portion of its body before making its way towards the standing energy conversion tower and disintegrated it into dust.
"Tch!" Duna snickered at her unexpected miss.
Before she could summon the power of the Destruction Law again, the fleshly abomination collapsed to the ground with a thud.
"Did it just die?" Duna gazed at the motionless corpse that started rotting as black blood flowed out of its body.
"It seems this thing had a weakness hidden somewhere in its body, and you had inadvertently destroyed it," Leon spoke after analyzing the fleshly corpse.
The internal structure of the fleshly abomination was not much different from humans. In fact, its flesh was also made from the same components as humans.
The only difference about its internal structure—which was also the most significant difference, was that it had far more organs than a single person should have.
It was like numerous people had been fused together through some sort of diabolic means to produce such a grotesque abomination.
However, of all the organs Leon detected with his divine sense, the heart was missing, and only half a brain remained.
"What kind of weakness could it have? With its powerful regenerative ability, I wouldn't be surprised if it can regenerate its missing organs." Duna said.
"That's true." Leon nodded in agreement before saying, "However, the heart is missing, and half a brain is left before it died. This cannot be a coincidence, can it?"
After all, the heart was a vital organ responsible for pumping the blood flow and was the source of a person's vitality.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Let us quickly get out of here." Leon suddenly said before Duna could respond to his previous question.
At the same time, he collected as much Demonic Energy as he could fill his empty pill bottles.
"We are not going to explore deeper? There are multiple entrances down here. It might lead us to more of those energy conversion towers you wanted to destroy." Duna said with surprise.
Leon shook his head and said, "No, destroying all those energy conversion towers is no longer my priority. Returning to the empire is. We don't have time to go looking for all these energy conversion towers out here in the Wildlands."
If there are energy conversion towers producing Demonic Energy in the Wildlands' underground, then chances are, there are also energy conversion towers back in the Human Domain's subterranean world.
Those were Leon's concerns.
Why would he still care about the Wildlands when he still had his own home to look after? That was like putting the cart before the horse.
"I see…" Duna shrugged.
She was just tagging along anyway. Whatever they decide to do rests on Leon's shoulder. She would just follow along since she had nothing else to do.
"How's your hand?" Leon asked while staring at the cracks on Duna's arm.
She waved her hand around for a moment nonchalantly before she answered, "It's alright. But it can do better after you supply me with some Pseudo-Grandmist Energy to absorb."
She licked her lips as she said this.
"Right, absorb it as we leave. I don't want to linger around here any further." Leon nodded as he channeled a few strands of Great Pseudo-Grandmist Energy out of his body and send them to Duna.
"Alright." Duna nodded happily while receiving the Pseudo-Grandmist Energy from Leon.
The Pseudo-Grandmist Energy were quickly absorbed into her body before repairing the cracks in her hand, while the excess amount reinforced her Corporality.
"By the way, what do you think that fleshly thing was? For something that produces Demonic Energy, it sure didn't look like your average demon… uh… actually, it doesn't look like a demon at all." Duna mentioned while they were leaving.
"Right," Leon nodded before speaking with a thoughtful frown, "It looked more like a giant tumor that grew controllably—Watch out!"
He immediately warned after sensing danger.
Bang!
A bone arrow struck the ground a split second after they quickly retreated from the spot before Duna turned her head to spot the assailant.
"Oh, damn. Now, what the heck is that thing?" She exclaimed with a raised brow.
It was another being with tumorous flesh all over its body. However, it appears more humanoid, except for its extra third leg, four arms, nine eyes, and numerous bone pikes growing out of its body.
It was quite a monstrous figure, but not quite demonic.
If Leon had to define just a hideous figure, he would say it looked more like a mutation gone wrong—terribly wrong from intense radiation exposure or something similar, in fact.
"A mutated person, perhaps?" Leon frowned before his eyes flickered with a possibility.