Chapter 37

Through the connection of souls, I feel all the pain that is now tormenting my friend.

- Peru-Peru! The cure is upon me! - Yelling and giving my power, my life through our connection to Botsom, thus expanding it, making it deeper. 

Minutes turned into hours. The pain was shared between us. I felt three different acids melting me, the enemy's machinery gnawing at my skin, trying to work its way to my insides. 

Even as the cross spread a disgusting slurry, even as Botsom was pulled from the toxic lake, even as both he and I were restored to maximum health, even then the pain didn't want to let go of its victims. 

I was hugged, something was said, but I continued to pull the pain out of my comrade with the persistence of a ram. 

And then the fanfare sounded, the pain abruptly replaced by relaxation, and I almost fainted from the sudden change. Botsom groaned, raised his head, and looked around at us and the Gon holding him with a puzzled look. 

Attention!

You killed Alpha!

Access to the Modest Girl's Game Room is now open!

As a reward, each member of the group receives:

5 levels

100 points of prana

+5% to physical resistance

+5% acid resistance

+5% to armor ignore resistance

Your group receives the following items:

The coat of arms of the noble Enemy

Impala

Alpha's horns 

A can of wolf acid 

The embodiment of the Alpha foul is destroyed!

To access the sanctuary, you must destroy 3 more Incarnations of Abomination of Perversity

Time to Astral Parasite awakening: 25 hours 45 minutes and 11 seconds.

- Am I alive? - Botzom wheezes. I waddle toward him. I don't even have the strength to cheer. That fight was terribly exhausting. The whole team is lying down trying to catch their breath. 

I approach the seated knight, whose armor has already begun to be restored by the law of this dimension. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze.

- Thank you friend, thank you.

Botsom, swaying, stands up, pounding his fist into his chest and looking me squarely in the eye, minting every word as he utters it:

- My loyalty is in your hands, my Lord! 

***

Zelech rose from his knees with ease. He looked around. The evolutionary possessed had felt an incredible lightness and freedom as soon as he had appeared in this unusual place. As part of the Supreme Complete, he had never known autonomy before. Always on the edge of audible sensitivity he felt the presence of his brothers, always. He, being the weakest of the parts, the one who embodied the human desire for self-development, the obsession with that development, had always been limited by the norms of White and the rage of Red, but now that the game convention had completely severed the anchor with Green's consciousness from the main body, making him an independent individual, Zelech realized that he could do whatever he wanted! Experiment, evolve, train, and finally become something more than the Supreme Complete! Green Man had always been dismayed by the stopping of his and his brothers' evolution. They were no longer evolving, their reatsu was not getting denser, only increasing in quantity. They had forever remained the weakest of the Supreme Completes, even the Theater of Madness, which had completely divided itself into many Completes, was much stronger than them. All in all, he used to be miserable and didn't realize how miserable he was himself. 

Now, looking around, he couldn't think of escaping this place, reuniting with the core and becoming an appendage of a creature frozen in development again. 

After assessing his condition and conducting a full body diagnostic, Zelech concluded that his menoso powers were being suppressed by some force, but at the same time that same force was giving rise to his special abilities to manipulate pseudo-living matter. He rarely used these powers, because he didn't need to, and experimenting with menosas and shinigami was forbidden by White and his Obsession with Justice. The only thing worse was Black, who was obsessed with God, and who constantly seized control of the body as soon as Zelech (a name the High Full liked better than the Green Man he'd had before) wanted to dissect the subject's soul. 

He did not immediately notice the inscriptions burning in front of his eyes. Their meaning eluded the newly converted druid, for the creature could not read..... 

Shrugging, he headed toward a large gate, near where something lay. The closer he got, the brighter the green eyes lit up in the darkness of his hoodie. The strange creature, though unfurled caused an exploratory itch within Zelech. If there were professions in this game and Druid would definitely get a Vivisector. 

Raising his hand towards the corpse, Zelech used his power as if he had done this hundreds of times before. The ghostly grass swept over the corpse of the Hedgehog and took it apart in a second, giving Zelech information about every cell of this unusual organism. The druid pondered for a moment, something in his mind that would allow him to break the evolutionary deadlock and move on to the next stage of development. 

Zelech stepped into the hall and opened his mouth in surprise. Whatever was going on here, no matter who was fighting, he just had to research it all! So many specimens! 

The figure in the gray robe flashed green, and from it a carpet of ghostly green grass began to spread in all directions. 

If Zelech could read, he would have realized what the lines flashing before his eyes meant. 

Zelech has activated the ability [Grass 800 level].

***

We were walking down the tunnel. Everyone was extremely focused. Diana lurked in the shadows, occasionally scouting the path ahead, she informed me of the enemies hiding in the recesses of this labyrinth of tunnels.  We had been walking for a couple of hours towards the main arena of the next boss battle, and without Peru-Peru with us, who was able to find the right path with the help of her pheromones, we would have gotten lost. Even so, our path was not easy. There were traps and lots of spiders lurking in ambushes. These little things, a couple of centimeters, carried a terrible poison that could kill even me in a couple of seconds. 

The previous fight had given everyone in the group a jolt of insight into their strengths. 

I learned how to unleash my anger, turning it into a titan soul flame capable of damaging even armored enemies. Definitely incorporating it into my combat system will make me even stronger! The combination of flames and fluctuations alone will have a truly terrifying effect, and I've only just begun to understand [Titan Strike] and [Titan Wrath].

Diana had learned to take full advantage of her stealth and the use of shadows to move. Previously, she had not been able to do so with the available poison techniques, because it was easier to speed up sonido and poison the enemy or use the same butterflies than to use a complicated ability. Therefore, deprived of such an aid in combat as flight and poison, with the help of the game convention that named her [Assassin - Master of Shadows], the girl in the shortest time achieved great success in the art of stealth assassination. 

You can say about Botsom: this guy is a knight to the core.  The mere fact that he survived the enemy's postmortem tech speaks volumes. 

Peru-Peru's healing pink mist, Bioha's shooting and Qui-Gon's powerful lightning bolts, without all these abilities we wouldn't have defeated those three bosses. 

- We're almost there. - The rabbit whispered. 

- Diana, check it out, but don't take any chances. 

After a while, our scout emerged from my shadow. 

- A large room, about a hundred plush toys, ranging from a bear to the ceiling to bunnies as tall as me. In the center is a bed on which a hunchbacked girl sits. All the toys are monsters, but their lives are gray for now, maybe when we show up they will come to life. 

- About the girl on the bed. - She's ugly, short, half her face disfigured by a burn, the other half covered in pimples oozing some kind of poison.  No abilities displayed, life bar grayed out. Name is Shy Girl. Level 265. Whew. - Diana took one breath, then took a breath.

"If even blank says she's scary, I don't even know." 

- Any suggestions? Before we strategize, I want to hear from you. 

- Suggestion: Lure one at a time into the tunnel. Conclusion: Unless something unforeseen happens, we will kill the enemies one by one. 

I nodded in agreement. It might work. 

- I can try to use an area attack. I don't know how or why, but after fighting Alpha, I realized how to use the Force Storm. - Gon said thoughtfully. 

- In the tunnel, you can create a powerful barrier and hold enemies while Biokhi and Gon knock them out. Perhaps the boss can use attraction like the previous one. - Botsom rightly pointed out. 

- If I can keep them at the tunnel entrance, I can concentrate the healing mist to the max. Not atomize it into multiple clouds like before. And the piece of iron is right, all this will work if the boss has no gravity. 

- How wide is that tunnel? - I'm asking Diana.

- It widens slightly, but not by much. Six paces, maybe. 

- We do as you say. We cling to the tunnel, and if the boss uses gravity, we retreat immediately. If the boss does use gravity, I take the boss and pull him aside and don't argue! I have the most life, in a pinch I'll summon a mask. 

- Diana, as usual, you'll be there to protect and take out the boss at the right moment. You can use that wolf acid I gave you. Now let's move out carefully. 

We reached the edge of the tunnel. The ugly girl woke up from her dream and turned her disfigured face in our direction. It was spooky because her action was repeated by hundreds of toys all over the huge room. 

Modest Girl wants to play with you!

Shy Girl 265 levels. 

Elite floor boss

The Laughter of the Unhappy; The Crying of the Wretched Child; The Game of Hide and Seek; The Unlovely Handmaiden; The Playing of Dolls with Loneliness; The Grateful Smile of the Sick Girl 

- Heeheeheehee - She laughed at that. Jumped off the bed and, pointing her mangled pen in our direction, set her army upon us. 

The walls closed in behind us, cutting off our escape.

"No one said it was going to be easy."

***

What can I say? It was exhausting. Endless army - that was the tactic of this boss. While we were chopping down the invading monsters, she was sewing new ones, healing the wounded that managed to retreat with her crying, and raising the parameters of her army with laughter. The boss girl herself was covered from Biokhi's arrows and Gon's lightning by two bears that were always near her. The stalemate continued until Gon ventured into the Storm of Power. The terrifying hurricane of spatial disturbance mowed down more than half of the monsters. And the tug of war began. 

Boss used [Playing Dolls with Solitude], killing all the toys except the bears, but making them invulnerable. These plush giants nearly killed Botsom, who was holding his shield properly. She then activated [Hide and Seek Game], and the light disappeared. In total darkness, it was only because of my soul connection and Diana's sense of shadows and darkness that we were able to survive. When it was light again, this Modest Girl made a bunch of monsters, summoned back her bears, and laughed a pure childish laugh that made my heart clench with pity. And so on around the circle. Gon uses storm, taking some lives off the boss - bears crush Botsom's shield - darkness - toy army. 

For three hours, we'd been picking at that nut. And now, when the ugly girl has only a little bit of life left, and she starts clawing at the monsters by the dozens, turning the lights on and off in a panic, I leave the group to Botsom and rush towards the monster. Diana on my command delivers a series of blows on the only defender who is covering the army general. I couldn't let any of my comrades take responsibility for killing this poor girl. Here I am in front of her, my silhouette reflected in the frightened eyes of the poor child, and I, gritting my teeth, putting all my anger at the freak who gave birth to such a boss and forced us to fight with her, pierced through her body with my burning hand. The army of toys immediately fell to the floor of the room.  A faint smile appears on the ugly face of the child looking at me.

Modesty Girl activates the ability [Grateful Smile of the Sick Girl]

I was surrounded by a yellow glow that did me no harm, however. 

The girl's eyes close and she dies with a smile on her lips.  And I feel like I didn't kill a monster, but a real, sick, lonely girl, giving her relief from her suffering. "But it can't be like that! It can't, can it?" 

Attention!

You killed Shy Girl!

Access to the Skeleton Library is now open!

As a reward, each member of the group receives:

5 levels

100 points of prana

+5% to the recovery rate of all indicators

Your group receives the following items:

Verochka's doll

Daughters sewing kit

The evil incarnation of Shy Girl has been destroyed!

To access the sanctuary, 2 more Incarnations of Perversity must be destroyed

Until the Astral Parasite awakens: 15 hours 10 minutes 37 seconds.

A portal to the next floor opens in the middle of the bed, and I stare at the doll the boss' corpse has turned into without taking my eyes off it

Verochka's doll

Artifact Type: Living Artifact [Animate]

Charms: [Mystic Guardian].

Descriptions and history of the Artifact:

In this doll little Verochka put all her gratitude to her father. By giving this artifact to a child under ten years old, you will make him/her the happiest child in the world! 

This doll has fallen into the hands of the hero Yasun. What will he do with it? Destroy it? Give it as a gift? I don't know.

"..." 

- Yasu, are we moving on or staying for a break? 

- Let's go. We have a long way to go.

***

Cabinets full of books soar to the ceiling, but if you look closely you can see that the books on the shelves have long since rotted away. Sometimes worms crawl through the colorful covers, looking for surviving food. 

In the central part of the library there is a "fight" between two creatures. A small skeleton in a jester's hat with bells dodges the fists of a man two heads taller than himself. Not far away, sobs are heard in time with the bells. The whole group, except for the leader, fell under the attack of the skeleton in the jester's costume. 

The leader tried to keep his emotions in check with heroic efforts, his stony face covered with sweat, the corners of his eyes glistened with barely restrained tears, the corners of his lips twitching. The flames of rage had long since died down, and the speed of his attacks had fallen. 

All the forces of Yasuna, former king and now mercenary of the world of Hueco Mundo were not thrown into killing a fast opponent, no. 

A fist whizzes past the jester's skull frozen in a perpetual grin. 

This boss didn't have any special abilities. He was in the library alone, without an entourage.

His health would be enough for a couple of accurate hits. The skeleton had no weapon either, except a rattle, but he was winning nonetheless. 

Bouncing off of Yasuna, he performed a victory dance of jest, setting the rhythm with the clanking of his bones, and the hero couldn't stand it. Kneeling down, Yasuna lowered his gaze to the floor. Tears and snot streamed down his face, his face ached and his muscles cramped. 

The jester, crooked, walked over to the defeated enemy and crouched down, peering into Yasuna's face...

***

"Am I going to die so stupidly without even throwing a single punch. All my plans will be ruined, all my dreams burned. And all because of a foolish jester. An imp buffoon! I can do it, I can take it! I CAN TAKE IT!

And then I looked up.

"..."

  -...

- BUHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! 

Five sobs from my friends who were no longer able to laugh were my answer. 

-Clack. Clang. - The sad clang of the creepiest opponent I'd ever met came through the laughter. Even when he couldn't make me laugh with his mental attack, even then he didn't give up. Constant wiggling, dancing, clacking, forming jokes in my head. And towards the end, that face, finished it off. I laughed like I hadn't laughed in a long time. 

After a few dozen minutes I suddenly realized that I was still alive and well. Laughing from time to time, I looked around and saw a pile of bones, on top of which lay a skull with a cap of bells. White light surrounded me. 

Attention!

Jester Skeleton made a joke of you by killing himself!

  Access to Beloved's Love Nest is now open!

As a reward, each member of the group receives:

+10000% chance of a buffoon making a joke on you!

+100% to Humor. 

Your group receives the following items:

The omniscient skull of a humorist.

The Book of the Reluctant Librarian

The embodiment of the foulness of Skeleton Jester has been destroyed!

To access the shrine, you must destroy 1 more Incarnations of Perversity

Until the Astral Parasite awakens: 11 hours 52 minutes 21 seconds.

Laughing, I sighed. Then I sighed again. I looked at the skull grinning at me, and then put my hand to my face, clapping it in the eternal gesture. I was echoed by five claps from my waking friends. We looked at each other, and a smile came to each of our faces. 

Skull clanked. 

I took it in my hand, and it, like the rest of the artifacts, turned into an inconspicuous tattoo at my will. A smiling skull in a cap appeared next to the needle and the doll. The horns went to Botsom, and the acid to Diana. 

- An hour. An hour of rest, or I'm exhausted...again.

- Honey, why don't I give you a massage? - Peru-Peru came up to me, smiling sweetly and without asking permission, and started kneading my shoulders. Biokhi was talking to Gon, smiling and waving her arms. Botsom stood glumly as a statue to himself. The knight was watching the portal that had appeared. Diana was looking sadly in my direction, sighing every now and then. 

The hour flew by. 

Nodding to my companions, I stepped toward the portal. They followed me. 

***

If there were no outside monsters in the library, it was the opposite. All sorts of creatures were coming from all directions, trying to crush us with their numbers. From the first step on the last, fourth floor, all we had to do was crush the crowds of monsters. 

The floor itself looked like a large room like the second, except that the giant bed was in the shape of a heart, the monsters were not plush toys but naked girls with ugly faces and beautiful figures, and there was no boss in sight yet. 

Qui-Gon Jinn has activated the [Force Storm] ability

The invisible hurricane and flashes of lightning mowed down opponents by the hundreds, completely clearing the space ahead. 

Biokhi has activated the [Salvo] ability

The white beam reached those monsters at the edge of the storm and exploded with a dazzling flash. 

When the last damsel fell down, killed by my blow, all the monster corpses started flowing into the center of the bed. 

Favorite Whore is interested in you!

Favorite Whore 300 level. 

Elite floor boss

Air Kiss; Customer Sympathy; Sexual Bribery; Romantic Date; Loyalty of a Vicious Woman

A beautiful woman, of ordinary height with black curly hair and a mischievous smile in a simple monochromatic dress and a round hat is not something one wants to fight. 

- Hi there! - She spoke up and sent us a kiss. 

Favorite Whore has activated the [Air Kiss] ability

I was numb, and so was Gon, and so was Botsom. But the girls weren't affected by the strange power. 

Diana was the first to react, momentarily, ahead of Biokhi and Peru-Peru. 

The shadow swaddled the completely unresisting opponent, and in a second she was chopped to pieces. 

- Pretty boys, you want to have some fun?

Favorite Whore has activated the ability [Customer Sympathy]

I remained a salty pillar, though I could feel my "immunity" to the mental influence shivering. Botsom and Gon waddled like zombies toward the unharmed woman who had materialized in front of us. 

An arrow crushes the skull of a woman. But the woman is unharmed again, but she is standing somewhere else, smiling ingratiatingly. The knight and Jedi walk toward her with blissful smiles. Diana chops her down. Biokhi pierces her with arrows. The body count grows, but the woman keeps appearing and looking at the men. 

"Maybe it needs to be killed a certain number of times, but I think there's another way. Apparently these bosses aren't just monsters, they're trying to tell their story. If I'm right, then I need to resist its effects until the end. But then what? Like the jester will give up?" - I look at the beautiful woman, realizing what needs to be done and realize wrong. It's the opposite of standing up to her! 

- What is it, sweetheart? Come here, let me give you pleasure! - The woman puts her hands on her chest. 

Favorite Slut has activated the [Romantic Date] ability!

I'm transported right into the arms of a woman. My mental shields collapse, and I sink into the depths of bottomless eyes. I hear the echo of two female voices, vaguely familiar. The woman's lips are close, and I can't make sense of it; I'm filled with desire. I put my arm around her waist, a millimeter between our lips, but without realizing it, I put my finger on her chin and pull her face away, preventing the kiss from happening. Everything inside is screaming, demanding to quench my carnal desire, but her eyes, namely what's in their depths wakes me from the obsession. There in the depths is not me, but a completely different man, and I realize that I too have another woman, not her. 

The woman smiles. A death counter appears next to her name, and it begins to decrease until it is zero. 

Favorite Whore has activated the ability [Vicious Woman's Loyalty]

The woman bursts with blue petals, they surround me and flash with pure blue light. The two friends immediately knock me to the ground. And I can't remember which one of them I saw in the depths of my eyes, which were reflected in the depths of the fallen woman's eyes. 

Attention!

You killed Favorite Whore!

As a reward, each member of the group receives:

5 levels

100 points of prana

+5% to the strength of mental shields

Your group receives the following items:

The Dreamer's Fan

Beloved's wedding ring

Access to the Sanctum Sanctorum is open!

***

The sanctuary of the abomination met us with cold wind and rain. It was in the open air. 

A simple altar stood in the center of the empty space. An eye, instead of the moon, followed our actions. 

Assignment Updated!

"The Spore of Scourge."

Once an unintelligent Astral God, obeying his instincts, released a Spore into the world, infecting nearby worlds and several beings.

  Find and destroy the Desecrating Spore that consumed Ritia'o, thus finally killing one of the two hundred Apostles ???.

1.  Kill the four incarnations of the Apostle's corruption, thus opening the way to the sanctuary

2.  Desecrate/destroy the Altar of God

3.  Kill the Incarnation of the Apostle's mind.

4.  Destroy or cleanse the spore from its filthiness.

Rank: ?

Reward: Variable

Failure: Death or Mutation or Desecration 

How can you desecrate the altar of a god that spreads evil. Before that, I thought it should just be destroyed, but after all the way through, I realized - it's not that simple. 

Each boss told a different story, and while I'm not sure about Alpha and Modesty, the message of Skeleton and Beloved reached me. 

-Spread out to the perimeter and be ready to fight, but only on my command. 

There were no objections. 

I approach the pedestal. A lingering ache echoes in my chest, because it looks so much like the one from the past. 

Touching the crest tattoo. A flash. A torn handkerchief with a cock crowing lies on the pedestal. A viscous substance begins to flow from the holes in the base, filling the surface of the altar. 

Next I put the sewing kit I received from the girl. Both items start flashing: the handkerchief in red, the box in yellow. 

After the small book took a seat nearby, there was a crackling sound and the intensity of the blinking increased. 

I twirl a simple silver ring in my hands. I nod to myself, and all the objects are on the pedestal. 

Crackle! 

The altar breaks apart. Objects glow, and that light forms into four figures, and a fifth, a crusty middle-aged man with gray hair, emerges from the darkness opposite them. 

The world is graying. The first to open his mouth is a dapper dandy, with the crest of a rooster on his chest, and I see the story of two rivals who challenged each other to a duel, how the dapper one lost the fight but was not finished. The story of a feud that became an unbreakable friendship through life. The nobility and honor of a first life. Frant shakes his friend's hand and disappears, absorbed into the man. 

The man from the darkness takes on the appearance of a sturdily battered old man. 

The ugly girl opens her mouth. 

The world lightens up a little. A little girl, abandoned to starvation by her parents because of her disfigurement, and an old herbalist who took the sick child into his own hands to raise. The girl's death in the hands of the man who became a father, her grateful smile. The smile of the one who took pity on a child no one wanted, the father. The kindness and mercy of a second life. The girl leaps into the old man's arms and her spirit is absorbed into him. 

The old man undergoes another metamorphosis. He's now a boy of about ten years old. 

Sounds appear. An old dwarf librarian and a little boy. The collapsed life of the former and the sad childhood of the latter. The child's laughter at the librarian's silly wiggles. The laughter that pulled the dwarf out of the darkness. The duo who composed hilarious and funny stories that gave joy to millions. The joy and hope of a third life. The dwarf walks up to the child and begins tickling him to soak him. 

The darkness shakes, and then a scowling soldier with a scarred face appears on the stage. 

The world fills with colors. A girl, blushing sweetly, approaches her soulmate. A story about two people who found themselves in a house of lust and vice. A woman who was not afraid of a murderer and a man who fell in love with a whore. The one who, selling her body before meeting her lover, became faithful until death, and the one who was not afraid to go against public opinion, not afraid to marry a fallen woman. Love, fidelity and courage of the fourth life. The girl kisses the soldier and disappears into him. 

The darkness is letting go of the soul that has become the foundation of the Apostle. 

There will be no battle. 

An indistinct silhouette stares at me, the world begins to swim - it's a parasite trying to wake up, to prevent the soul from being released. 

Silhouette opens his chest and hands me a round spore. 

I take this thing in my hand. I clench my fist, using the fire of rage, and the abomination crumbles to ash. 

The silhouette is fading. The world begins to falter, and it looks like it's time to leave. 

- Well, that's it. It's time to go. - I nodded to the group, and we headed toward the portal that had just opened. 

- Interesting - Suddenly it comes from behind me. 

I slowly turn my head, ready to rush into battle. 

- Run to the portal. FASTER! - I don't recognize my own voice. 

-No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" wails THIS. It throws up its arms and all around it, it's filled with green. 

- So much for the experiment! That's great! - That was the last thing I heard. The image of the woman I had suddenly fallen in love with faded before my eyes. It was...

***

Twenty hours later. 

Zelech watched the crystal moving away and thought: How did this happen? He hadn't expected that at the end of the experiment, when he had already made a breakthrough, space would collapse. All he could do was to save his child by pointing it toward the Sun World, but he was carried in the opposite direction. 

The shell began to disintegrate, but Zelech didn't regret his possible death. After all, he had created a masterpiece! Six and a half masterpieces that would break the evolutionary deadlock that all of the High Fulls had fallen into.

Zelech flew in the astral, his consciousness beginning to fade, but the current picked up the villain and carried him toward the A-Mira crystal. A-Mira, where a villain was needed. But that's another story.