Lotus agent

[? POV]

Finally, I arrived at the damn town.

The Lotus vehicle dropped me off at the northwest entrance of the dark forest, so I had to traverse the entire forest to reach the cursed town.

In my adventure through the dark forest, I came across a couple of interesting things.

I found several magical diagrams painted in restricted areas of the forest, alongside horrible homunculi created through illegal transmutation.

Normally, when a homunculus is created, it doesn't usually survive for long as the creatures themselves decide to end its life since its existence is a nature's error.

But in very rare cases, they can integrate into a certain group of beasts and eventually become a kind of leader due to some special pheromones rarely emitted by some of these beings.

Lotus reports indicated that a large group of beasts has been behaving more aggressively, so it is likely that someone is trying to deliberately force a beast avalanche by creating these beings.

"Well, whatever, sooner or later, I'll find the bastard who's been doing this" I sighed.

After investigating the forest, I decided to go to the town to warn the Lotus agents in the area.

And after half an hour of walking, I finally arrived at the town.

The town had no lights illuminating my path, so I had to rely entirely on my vision.

This town seemed to have been left behind in time, as the houses and stores were made of stone, giving them a primitive touch due to the lack of streetlights.

Of course, it couldn't be compared to the towns on the eastern border, as those had been ravaged by war and always emitted a gloomy feeling that plunged you into deep sadness.

"With the money Lotus spent on the war, we could have used it to remodel towns in poor condition like this" I thought.

The war truly brought tragedies to this great country.

Not only did many comrades die, but in this short truce period, many people are dying of hunger, and all the budget, instead of going to the people, goes towards creating new weapons and developing new talents to serve in the war within 3 years.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm really with the good guys" I sighed.

After a while of walking, I finally saw in the distance the only building that seemed modern, the Lotus headquarters.

Just as I was thinking they were going to give me dinner, I heard a faint scream coming from a sinister alley.

I quickly entered the alley and found a gruesome scene.

It was a kind of hybrid between different creatures with a human.

"Well, it seems we have another disgusting homunculus lurking around here" I said exhausted.

As I observed that vile being and unsheathed my swords, I could glimpse a small child lying on the ground.

He seemed very battered, in a state of agony, spitting blood, and strange black veins protruded from his body.

The boy, with his trembling eyes, said to me:

"Save me, please."

The boy seemed, no, was desperate; I could feel how he clung to life.

This brought distant and painful memories of my past.

With the brightest of my smiles, I replied:

"Don't worry, child, that's my job."

It seemed that my words had an effect, as the boy seemed to stop resisting fatigue and immediately passed out.

The abomination turned towards me instantly, and with its piercing crimson eyes, it gave me a murderous look.

"This one seems bigger than the others; I guess I'll have to exert a bit more effort" I exclaimed.

The creature wasted no time and fiercely lunged towards me.

With a swift movement, I dodged its charge and to immobilize it, I delivered a vertical cut with my two swords to its legs.

This caused its horse-like legs to fall to the ground mutilated, producing a dry sound.

The homunculus, barely flinching, continued attacking with its remaining limbs as if it felt no pain.

Due to being in an alley in the middle of the city and with a child in the scene, I couldn't use my sixth-circle powers freely to deal with this thing since it would cause a disaster in the area due to the high mana concentration it would produce.

So, I was using the power of a second circle, thinking that would be enough.

It wasn't until it instantly grew two new legs that I realized I would need more than that.

'Very well, you asked for it' I thought.

I began to concentrate mana at the tip of my sword, giving the edge a bright red appearance.

The homunculus seemed to know that something was wrong because it also started to concentrate dark mana around its skin, turning its previously green scales dark.

Without wasting more time, I aimed my sword at the creature, and a bright light shot out from my sword, creating a flash in the entire alley.

Once the light disappeared, the previously wild homunculus could be seen completely still.

The abominable being had a kind of point right on its forehead, and it wasn't until it began to spew inhuman amounts of blood from there that it could be seen it had a deep perforation that reached its brain.

"I guess your body couldn't assimilate 3000 degrees Celsius" I laughed.

I wanted to take the monster's body to the headquarters, but the boy remained lying on the ground, no longer having those strange veins but still in critical condition.

When I picked up the boy and was about to take him to the hospital, I saw how strange black veins emerged from the homunculus's body.

It began convulsing and contorting in ways I had never seen until it finally stopped abruptly.

When I was about to prepare myself to fight again, something unexpected happened.

The large body of the homunculus exploded into a thousand pieces, creating a loud noise and leaving only flesh and entrails behind.

My eyes went blank, and my brain was trying to process what had happened. It wasn't until a sneeze snapped me out of my thoughts; turns out, the guy in my arms was coughing up blood.

'I can investigate this later; first, I need to save the guy' I thought.

I carefully placed him on my shoulder and quickly left the scene.

As she took him to the hospital, a faint glow emanated from the alley where everything had occurred.

On the ground lay the heart of the former homunculus.

But what was curious was not that it seemed rotten, but that on that heart, there was a kind of small tattoo.

A tattoo in the shape of a triangle emitting a mesmerizing purple glow.

Suddenly, as if someone had drained all the blood from the heart, it began to dry up until there was practically nothing left but dust.

And at the precise moment it turned to dust, the purple glow stopped.