The world pulsed with a tinge of red.
…It pulsed in a rhythmic manner, like a slow beating heart.
Bright.
Dim.
Bright.
Dim.
Within the pulsating city, Lazarus’s gaze was fixed on the numerous ‘statues’ staring in his direction. He could sense that the situation wasn’t good, but he didn’t run away.
There was no point in running away.
He could only calmly gauge the strength of the statues around him.
‘The majority don’t seem very strong, but I can feel the presence of several powerful ones.’
He just couldn’t tell where they were. And that made things complicated. He was worried that they might ambush them at any given moment.
‘…Should I just back up to the surface?’
This was an option.
The only issue was that he didn’t know how fast the statues were. Could they catch up to him or not?
Lazarus was lost in his own thoughts, but it wasn’t for long.
He couldn’t afford to be lost in thoughts as the situation below him grew more and more tense.
He was just about to make a decision when he felt a tug coming from An’as.
“….?”
Lazarus turned his head to see An’as staring in a specific direction. Lazarus followed An’as’s line of sight, and his brow rose.
‘Corals? Why is he staring at the corals?’
Did he perhaps figure something out?
Lazarus’s eyes glinted with keen interest. He didn’t really want to abort the current situation. While he could always go back down, every second mattered. He couldn’t afford to be wasting time going up and dow—
“…..!”
Lazarus’s face quickly changed as he felt something behind him. He didn’t even look before increasing the intensity of [Step of Suppression].
Whatever was coming at him quickly slowed down shortly after as Lazarus turned his head to see a statue moving in the water, its movement slowed, and its arms stretched towards him. Almost as though it was trying to rip his throat.
But that wasn’t all.
Right after the first ‘statue’ moved, another one came, shooting at him like a bullet.
Lazarus didn’t hold back. Flicking his finger, a thread shot down towards the statue, coiling around its neck. Lazarus clenched his hand as the thread closed in and severed the statue’s head.
‘That should—’
Lazarus’s heart sank when he saw the headless statue continue to move. Thankfully, its movements had slowed down considerably.
But the problem was that it wasn’t dead.
…Could these things even be killed?
The situation looked worse and worse when he looked around and saw that more and more statues were starting to move in their direction.
‘Should I just go back up? At this rate… Eh?’
Lazarus’s thoughts were broken by An’as, who suddenly moved towards the decapitated statue.
‘Wait, what is he doing?’
Right as Lazarus looked at him, An’as turned around and motioned something with his hands, pointing around him.
Lazarus cocked his head in confusion, but soon understood.
‘He wants me to protect him?’
This realization further heightened his confusion, but he didn’t think twice. He trusted An’as’s judgement, and as such, he increased the output of [Step of Suppression] to the maximum while his eyes started to slowly close.
He had been holding back because he was afraid his actions might attract the attention of extremely powerful predators, but there was no point in holding back now.
If An’as figured something out, then…
‘It’s worth a shot.’
Opening his eyes again, the world around them turned dark again.
An’as’s steps paused, his gaze looking up as his expression nearly fell from shock as he saw the formation of a domain. However, quickly recalling his situation, he moved towards the headless statue.
That was also when the domain closed in, swallowing everything within it as hands began to emerge in all directions.
They clung to any of the statues that were within the domain, changing colors as red orbs appeared everywhere.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The world stirred, the domain shaking as Lazarus felt the statues outside trying to peer into the domain.
He tried his best to ignore those statues while taking care of the ones inside, as the hands grabbed the statues before smashing them against each other.
BANG!
Fragments of the statues shattered and tumbled throughout the domain as the hands repeated the process.
None of the statues were able to put up much of a fight against the hands that numbered in the hundreds, but the situation was not as good as it seemed.
Standing still, Lazarus could feel more and more statues cling to his outer domain.
Riiiip!
Like cockroaches, they latched onto the domain and started to tear through the very fabric of it. Lazarus tried his best to pay them no mind, but the more they latched on, the more difficult it became for him to keep the domain standing.
‘It’s still manageable. It’s still…’
Thump!
The ground quaked all of a sudden.
Lazarus’s brow shot up as he looked towards the distance, a certain dread creeping up through every part of his body as he heard another loud ‘thump’.
It appeared to be coming from a distance, slowly approaching his domain.
His heart squeezed when he felt the pressure coming from the distant ‘creature’ or monster. He couldn’t quite tell, and his gaze hastily directed itself towards An’as, who was busy studying the headless statue.
He wanted to tell him to hurry up, but he was too immersed in analyzing the statue.
Lazarus clenched his teeth and reinforced the domain. At the same time, he merged the red and green orbs within his mind, his eyes started to turn yellow.
Power started to erupt from within his body, ready to explode at any given second.
Thump!
Another muffled ‘thump’. This time, it was closer than ever.
Lazarus remained firm, his eyes locked towards the distance as his domain started to tear, the hands of the statues tearing through the black fabric that made it.
It was also through such tears that Lazarus was finally able to see the source of all the noise outside, and his body tensed.
…It was another statue.
One much bigger than the rest. With its eyes void, and features worn out from time, it moved mindlessly in his direction before extending its hand, massive enough to engulf his entire domain, reaching forward, trying to grab him and his domain.
Lazarus braced himself, his entire body tense as the domain around him lowered, and the statues that clung onto it fell down.
He slowly tensed his back, his entire body popping and squirming beneath the water as his eyes turned completely yellow.
Then—
Swooosh!
He thrust forward, his fist directed towards the approaching hand.
His fist soon connected with the statue.
Everything paused.
But not for long, as the surrounding water rippled.
BANG!
A terrifying explosion quaked within the water as the statue’s hand recoiled back, as the massive frame of the statue staggered.
Lazarus, on the other hand, remained standing on the spot.
Partially because of the hands that emerged from beneath him, holding him in place.
At the same time, he hastily looked in An’as’s direction.
‘Surely he’s done…’
His expression changed when he saw that he wasn’t where he was before, but he soon felt relieved when he saw that he wasn’t too far off, his face pale.
Their eyes met, and An’as wryly smiled.
‘I couldn’t help it.’ So his gaze seemed to say before he shook his head, and raised his hand, displaying a large chunk of the coral.
Lazarus cocked his head, confused by the sight.
But soon, he watched as An’as brought the coral to his neck.
“….!?”
The next scene took him by surprise as the coral quickly latched onto An’as’s neck, wrapping around it like a collar, and pulsing into life. A dim glow materialized from the coral around his neck, and seconds after, his right hand started to turn gray.
…No, stone.
‘What is he…?’
Lazarus didn’t move towards An’as. Although he was confused by his actions, he understood that he must’ve had a reason for them.
And sure enough, not long after the coral latched onto An’as’s neck, the statues around him stopped looking at him.
‘So that’s the case…’
The statues were controlled by the coral, and by ‘wearing’ one, he’d be able to mix with the statues.
Lazarus understood everything in an instant, but as soon as he did, his head flicked up towards the distance where he saw the enormous statue heading in his direction again.
Thump! Thump!
The water shook as it rushed in his direction, its lifeless eyes locked towards him.
Lazarus quickly looked around him before flicking his hand, several threads shooting out to pick up one of the corals coming from the statue and bringing it towards him. The gigantic statue continued forward, its fist driving down towards him, the very water getting sucked into a vacuum as its fist moved towards him.
Swoooosh!!
‘….!’
Catching the coral, Lazarus brought it to its neck as he felt a sharp pain piece his neck shortly after.
The world came to a sudden standstill as everything stopped.
Keeping his breath in check, Lazarus slowly turned his head to see the fist just a few inches from his face. He broke into a cold sweat when he saw the fist before turning to look at An’as.
He was okay, but looking at his hand, Lazarus grew worried.
He already noticed the subtle graying of it.
‘Don’t tell me…’
He reached for the coral on his neck and tried to pull it, but found himself unable to pull it. He exerted more strength, but it refused to budge at all.
Lazarus’s expression turned grim at the realization, but before he could think of a way to solve the problem, he saw An’as walk up to him and point up.
‘Up?’
Lazarus frowned, but then he saw An’as point at the coral on his neck and then up again.
That was when it hit him.
‘Is he saying that as long as we can go up on the water surface, the coral will fall off automatically?’
But how did he know this?
Lazarus wanted to ask, but stopped himself.
‘Judging from the rate of certification, I assume it’ll take about thirty minutes for me to turn into a complete stone. That’s more time than the amount of breath I have left. In that case, I’ll use this time to figure out the entire situation.’
His gaze slowly turned towards a certain direction.
His eyes flickered.
Using [Mana Sense], he could still more or less make out where the two figures were. They weren’t too far from here.
However, just as he was about to take a single step forward, he felt a sudden throb in his head, halting him on the spot.
‘What the…’
Throb!
His head throbbed again, and he pressed his hand against the coral latched onto his neck.
Lazarus clenched his teeth as he realized what was happening.
‘The true mind of the corals… It’s trying to take control of my mind.’
A [Mind] type monster?
His lips slowly curved upwards.
‘…What luck.’
