I’ll Return Stronger

"Wasn't Gallo the first in your world to truly die?" The Humanoid Keras smirked, "So, it means that the possibility exists."

"And now," It grinned, nodding at the nearby Titan Aberrant that plunged its hands through the Whale's teeth, prying its mouth open, "We'll experiment on you and gain the necessary data."

"Eventually, we'll figure out the method to kill the lot of you."

"Arghh!" The Whale screamed in pain as the Titan Aberrant opened its mouth, breathing in a dense stream of corruption that flowed through the Whale's internals, rapidly affecting the organs.

The Whale tried to return to her human form, fearing when she failed to transform, grunting in pain as the corruption continued to attack her.

Soon after, it entered her empty Origin Space, trying to settle there in an effort to truly convert her very being.

"Gah!" Followed by a scream, the Whale's skin began to peel over, causing tendrils to develop from the muscles within, gradually blooming like flowers.

The Whale was gradually being converted into an Aberrant to bring over their side.

Boom!

The two Keras watched in anticipation as the countless Titan Aberrants poured their corruption into the Whale, causing it to resemble an Aberrant more and more before soon, a dense stream of corruption erupted from it, rapidly sparking a change.

"Keuk!" The Humanoid Keras shielded itself, skidding on the ground for tens of metres due to the explosive force emanating from the Whale.

The Titan Aberrants were sent flying for more than a hundred metres while the regular Aberrants were straight-up killed, their corruption absorbed into the swirling mass in the centre.

"It's…working." The Serpentine Keras roared in laughter upon hearing crunching sounds from within the dense cluster of corruption, sensing the body of the Whale gradually shrink in response.

A couple of seconds later, all the corruption vanished mysteriously, as if they had arrived at the eye of the storm.

The two Keras stared with expectation as they noticed a woman standing before them, humanoid, barely reaching two metres in height.

Her body was covered by what seemed to resemble rotten vines, with their ends revealing mouths filled with jagged teeth, expanding like a snake from time to time.

Her appearance was the same as when she was a human but in the place of her eyes was a pair of flowers, budding and blooming nonstop, similar to the flutters of a human eyelid.

And contained in her was a dense stream of corruption that began to settle down, turning into something tangible, causing her to continue to change as her mind too was being affected as a result.

"This is a pretty good result. She's almost on our level…" The Humanoid Keras muttered when suddenly, it flinched, hurriedly turning around to gaze eastward.

There, hovering two hundred metres above the ground was a woman, condensing a large sphere of what seemed to be sand as a suffocating stream of Nacre filled it before suddenly, the sphere flew towards them in a torrent.

"Evade!" The Serpentine Keras shouted as it slithered away, intending to avoid the sand sphere when suddenly, the sphere splashed out like a wave as the sand coated everything in their vicinity.

"Pah!" The Serpentine Keras gasped, feeling suffocated as the sand flowed in through all of its orifices. But suddenly…

Bam!

The Humanoid Keras punched it in the face, sending it flying away as its shocked voice resounded, "What the fuck…is happening?"

The woman in the sky raised her hand, bringing it forward as she twirled around, spinning a couple of circles.

And in response, the Humanoid Keras repeated the same, raising its rotational speed as it skipped a good distance before slamming all the stored momentum into the Serpentine Keras, sending it reeling into the ground, causing a large crater to form.

Hiss!

The Serpentine Keras turned its tail into a blade, plunging it into the chest of the Humanoid Keras, retracting it before a second stab, followed by the third, repeating the same multiple times.

The Serpentine Keras continued to stab into the Humanoid Keras while the other party retaliated with punches and kicks. Both the creatures began to fight each other, their actions becoming more fluid the longer they fought.

But shockingly, their bodies weren't under their control, fully controlled by the lady dancing in the air.

Boom!

The Serpentine Keras lashed out with its mouth, ripping apart one of the arms of the Humanoid Keras, throwing it into a building farther away, causing it to collapse.

In response, the Humanoid Keras condensed a sword to riddle the Serpentine Keras with large gashes. Both sides expended their corruption to fight as the sand covering their skin gradually seeped deeper into their flesh.

And in response, their actions became faster, exploding more and more of the strength in their bodies.

As for the Aberrant-turned lady, she was currently still, her body too covered by the sand. Her muscles twitched nonstop, the signs of her struggle to break free.

But, the sand ensured to keep her immobile.

The dancing lady suddenly took out a hairpin that she thrust in her stomach as the Humanoid Keras repeated the same, condensing a long spear that it plunged into its stomach, causing it to bleed profusely.

The Serpentine Keras used the chance to bite out a chunk of its neck.

"Stop…" The Humanoid Keras tried to warn the other party when the sand began to seep into its throat muscles too. And soon after, its voice resounded even without its intention, "Heh, you're just trash."

"What can you do?"

"I'll kill you!"

Sand seeped into its open wounds as the Humanoid Keras began to trash talk its opponent. And slowly after that, its corruption was expended to heal its injuries.

Even though it was aware that the words from the Humanoid Keras were forced by the dancing lady, as it heard more and more, the Serpentine Keras was eventually offended enough.

And it expressed its anger, brimming with a powerful corruption that accumulated in its throat. Its body automatically reacted in response, causing its mouth to open before unleashing a beam onto the Humanoid Keras, targeting its face, and rapidly destroying it.

In response, the Humanoid Keras plunged its hands into the open mouth of the Serpentine Keras, exerting all its strength to tear its opponent in half.

Both the entities killed each other simultaneously as soon after, the dancing lady transformed into a Whale and swallowed them both.

Immediately after, spilling out of its blow hole was a stream of sand that washed out throughout the city, causing every single Aberrant to turn immobile.

The Whale then transformed back into the dancing lady that landed before the Aberrant-turned lady, waving her hand as she said, "I'm Neena. Are you conscious?"

"…barely…" The Aberrant-turned lady stated, her eyes darting towards the old man that was on the verge of death, "Save him…please."

"Definitely." Neena nodded as she waved her hand, causing a dense stream of Nacre to flow into the old man, gradually healing his injuries while destroying all the corruption in him.

His horn too began to regrow, gradually regaining its lustre.

Neena then looked at the Aberrant-turned lady, frowning as she said, "You've barely managed to retain some of your sentience. But I'm afraid even that would vanish in a couple more minutes. Your body has fully become an Aberrant."

"Those bastards…" The Aberrant-turned lady took in a deep breath before saying as the flowers forming her eyes revealed a massive mouth covered by teeth, "They are experimenting to replicate Gallo's death."

"Those fuckers!" Neena grunted in anger before placing her hand on the Aberrant-turned lady's stomach, probing her Origin Space, muttering, "Your Inner Beasts have been corrupted too. I don't have the means to treat you. You'll have to wait for the Saint to save you."

"But, there's not enough time for that…" Neena sighed.

"I understand." The Aberrant-turned lady nodded, sighing as she spoke, "Just kill me then. Don't leave behind any intelligence for those bastards."

She then faced the old man, "Father-in-law, I'm sorry for being useless. I couldn't protect your son."

"No, you were brave until the end." The old man teared up in response, "We were just too weak. So, we held you back until the end. It is I that has to apologise."

His breathing suddenly grew ragged as the old man said weakly, "All of us had been killed. I don't wish to burden you, but please…"

"Avenge us!" The old man said, "Only then can we rest in peace."

"I will!" The Aberrant-turned woman said resolutely, "You can rest assured. I won't rest until I wipe out every last Aberrant from this world."

"Train hard, child." He smiled, closing his eyes as he breathed his last, "And return stronger."

"No!" The lady teared up in response, roaring in pain as all that her senses could perceive were death, desolation, and endless slaughter.

Everything they worked on for the past two years had been razed to the ground, and the people they formed a bond with, creating a happy community were now no more.

Everyone had been killed. And she…was the sole survivor.

"Ma'am…Neena was it?" She looked at Neena, stating in anger, "Kill me please, do it while my mind remains human."

"And once I revive, I'll return stronger."