"You hurt me!"
"Crack!"
The sound of broken bones.
A deep dent appeared on the stone floor, Juanlu's entire waist and abdomen sunk into it.
Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, and he coughed with his eyes wide open.
Two orange balls opened their toothy maws and bit down on each of Kalutto's legs.
The one on his left leg bit down so hard, with such incredible force that Kalutto thought his left leg was about to break.
Compared to his left leg, his right leg was completely gnawed away, leaving only a sliver of flesh clinging to it.
The one on his right leg bit precisely on the freshly penetrated wound.
The last one.
Hiding behind the barbecue in the corner, an assassin puppet girl stood above the orb, slightly imbuing it with her ability to evade shadows.
Reducing its presence.
The lone orb, meanwhile, devoured the barbecue with frantic relish.
Kalutor, his hands wrapped in the sides of his cloak, struck the two orbs once again.
This time, he seemed to be using all his might.
An unknown energy, reeking of sickening blood, flowed into the orb along with the attack.
Instantly, the orb, the size of a baby's head, shrank back to its original fist-sized form.
Clearly having temporarily lost its devouring power, it fell powerlessly to the ground and rolled to the side.
After doing this, Kalutor didn't even glance at Juanlu at his feet. His back was broken and paralyzed, leaving him clearly unable to fight again.
He looked up at the sky.
At this moment, a puppet girl, its wings fluttering, was about to find an opportunity to throw another flaming ball.
"Got you, you damned little fly!"
Of all the damage inflicted on him, the iron ball, emitting high-temperature flames, was the most serious.
Even his right thigh, which had been completely broken, had somehow reattached itself.
Only his abdomen remained charred, like a piece of burning charcoal stuck there.
It was almost the only wound on his body.
The blood-red cloak draped around him transformed into spikes, piercing upward at an incredible speed.
At that moment, a club struck him hard in the face.
Caught off guard, he fell to the side, rolling twice on the ground.
After rolling over, he saw that the nearly paralyzed Juanlu had somehow regained his feet, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth and glaring at him fiercely.
"You damned human? How did you even stand up?"
He shook his head irritably, "Forget it."
His cheek had sunken from the previous attack, and his eyes had become somewhat shrunken.
But he didn't care.
With that, he wrapped his cloak around his entire body, and he thrust forward like an arrow.
A blood-red drill pierced through at high speed.
Unable to dodge, Juanlu looked at the drill headed for his chest and reached out to hold it tightly.
But the spinning didn't stop.
The flesh on Juanlu's hands immediately fell away, and the flesh and blood on them turned into silk threads that melted into the drill.
Instead, it became his strength.
The flesh on the palms of his hands, which had been blocking the drill from both sides, had vanished, revealing the white bones beneath.
If he continued to resist, even his bones would be cut. Such damage would be difficult to recover from.
But if he didn't resist, he might lose his life.
The mirrored floor beneath his feet rippled faintly, as if clouds and abstract light and shadows were spreading above.
The mirror no longer reflected the scene within the cave.
Instead, it displayed a bizarre landscape.
This scene finally brought a sigh of relief to Juanlu.
"Swoosh!"
A sound pierced the sky.
A blue light flashed like a meteor, and Alka appeared above the blood-red drill without him noticing.
From his frown, it was clear that he was in a bad mood.
He extended his right fist from behind.
He spun in the air and brought his right fist down fiercely.
A meteor fell.
"Bang!"
The drill stopped abruptly, and Kalutor, clad in a blood-red cloak, was slammed to the ground.
Surrounding rocks flew up.
"Cough, cough."
He coughed up blood, along with bits of internal organs and bone fragments.
The blood-stained cloak had already wrapped around him, transforming into his close-fitting leather jacket. It was like a human without skin, leaving only exposed muscle and the fascia covering it.
Alka's five fingers formed claws and reached for Kalutor, who lay on the ground below.
Kalutor's speed instantly increased, and his entire body, compressed by the blood-red robe, became a long, narrow strip.
The figure slipped under Alka's crotch, attempting to escape from behind.
Alka reacted quickly, raising his leg and stomping on the tail of the long strip.
Even through compression, it was clear it was a leg.
He clamped down firmly on his ankle.
However, what Alka didn't expect was the sound of tearing and breaking.
Kalluto showed no sign of stopping.
The left leg he had stepped on was left in tatters.
The base of his thigh showed signs of a tear, and thick, crimson blood flowed out. Kalluto had actually escaped with a broken leg?
And in such an outrageous way.
Thankfully, this only left Alka momentarily stunned. Then, his body instantly transformed into a meteor and rushed out.
From behind him, Juanlu's pained voice warned, "Don't get hurt!"
The meteor streaked across the sky.
Trailing a long blue trail, it charged with overwhelming force towards Kalutor, who was flying diagonally downward.
Kalutor's eyes widened as he watched Alka pursue him. The pressure of the overwhelming force caused some of the flesh on his face to peel away with the wind.
A hint of fear flashed across his previously frantic eyes.
He threw the object he was holding with all his might.
The object he threw was the puppet girl with a broken wing, the same one who had just thrown the bomb into his arms.
In his grip, even one of her arms and two legs were crushed.
She flew through the air like a sandbag.
Looking at the puppet girl flying towards him, Alka's meteor-like form froze instantly.
Watching this unfold, a smile of relief crossed Kalutor's face. He knew his gamble had paid off.
He was incredibly grateful that he'd used the brief moment of escape time to grab the puppet girl beside him.
The starlight effect enveloping him vanished, and a mirror instantly appeared before him.
Inside the mirror lay a world of pink and white mist.
The puppet girl, hurled with heavy force and shattered, was immediately tossed into the mirror.
Another mirror appeared above.
The puppet girl fell from above, but this time her power had vanished.
She fell at a steady pace.
She was caught in Alka's hands.
The moment she was caught, Alka turned to look in the direction of Kalutor's escape.
Just then, he saw Kaluoto's shambling figure vanish into the air, emerging into a hole that looked like a mass of flesh and blood with countless skeletons stuck in it.
This hole of flesh and bones, which appeared out of nowhere, swallowed Kaluoto and then vanished.
"You ballless bastard! You don't even dare to say a harsh word."
If this guy had dared to stop for a moment, utter a few harsh words, Alka would have been confident he could stop him.
But it was clear that this guy didn't waste a single moment in his escape.
Looking at the now empty air, Alka glared fiercely.
"Run? Is it that easy to get away?"
Kaluoto had already been marked on the map. If Alka had opened the map at this moment...
The original red cross would have been replaced by a skull with a dagger stuck in it.
The galaxy of the [Scepter] couldn't coexist with the other two [Holy Grails].
Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to retract the galaxy's power before he could use the mirror's power.
And he had to stop.
The force thrown by that damned coward was incredibly powerful. If he had taken it head-on, Alka would have been fine, but the puppet girl would have surely shattered to pieces under that immense force.
That wasn't what Alka wanted.
Thinking helplessly, Alka held the completely shattered, paralyzed puppet girl in his palm and grinned at him.
"Ah, you're still laughing."
With that, Alka returned to the nearly ruined makeshift camp.
Upon entering, he saw Juanlu and Narvi shrouded in a faint golden film, as if frozen in time, transformed into lifelike stone statues.
Both were enveloped by the [Freeze] spell.
This spell had once saved Simon, allowing him to survive for ten years.
The mirror on the ground rippled once more, and Pororo, walking at the end, emerged from it.
Then, unable to withstand the pressure of so many people being transported, the mirror shattered and vanished into thin air.
The two men whose time had been stopped lay on stretchers. Matresa and Julia were discussing how best to treat them.
Narvi, who wasn't very strong to begin with, had a collapsed chest.
Juanlu looked incredibly miserable, as the bones within his palms were exposed.
But in this situation, at least he wasn't in danger of death. The reason for stopping his time was to better preserve his hands, to prevent even the slightest aftereffects from the treatment.
Lucilia was pulling a large amount of food from her pocket ring and feeding it to the only remaining orb.
Those who knew Juanlu knew that with enough food, he could recover his strength, even from serious injuries.
Now that Juanlu had been frozen in time, this orb had become another mouth for him.
"Did he escape?" Sofia asked, looking at Alka.
Alka nodded. "Sorry, it was my mistake."
Sofia shook his head, and the others said nothing.
Now was not the time for such talk.
Alka found a spot, placed the broken doll girl on the ground, and began repairing her.
Simon had already been repairing the other doll girls on the other side.
Though those doll girls weren't as damaged as the Jiu San in Alka's hands, they were still in a miserable state.
This time, more parts needed to be replaced.
The others, unable to provide much assistance, came outside and stood guard for the others.
After waiting for about an hour, Alka and Simon had already repaired the severely damaged puppet girls.
were hugging each other and circling, celebrating their new life.
Though they were only paralyzed for a short while.
As this was being fixed,
Matrica and Julia had also decided on a perfect plan for the two and were ready.
They first carried Juanlu over, preparing to rescue him.
Although, logically, they should have saved the dying Nervi first.
Since time had been frozen, they naturally had to save Juanlu first.
After everything was ready, Julia looked in Lucilia's direction. "Is he full?"
"I'm still feeding him," Sofia said, picking up another large, bloody piece of fish and stuffing it into the ball's mouth, which was already almost full.
"Eat quickly. You need to reserve enough energy."
The ball swallowed as hard as it could. Though only its mouth was visible, its round face betrayed a hint of pain, a hint of exhaustion.
The energy reserves within it now gave it a faint glow.
The entire ball's surface was smooth and shimmering, like jade.
No one had ever seen a ball eat so much, with such a vast reserve of energy.
It even felt heavy and ready to fall to the ground at any moment.
Each ball could be considered a smelting furnace, rapidly melting food into energy.
Everything he ate would quickly melt and disappear, transforming into energy that would be transferred to Juanlu through an unknown connection, or temporarily stored within his body.
Seeing that everything was almost ready, Mathilda looked at Julia and said sternly, "Get ready! I'm about to release it."
Julia nodded.
The golden membrane covering Juanlu's body instantly vanished.
The moment it vanished, Juanlu's eyes, which had been half-closed, suddenly widened.
"Ah!"
He screamed for a moment, then stifled it.
As the adrenaline of battle faded, intense pain returned.
"Energy transfer!"
Mathilda shouted the command, and the 16 needles on her body were inserted into Juanlu's hands.
Julia, beside him, controlled the green energy, wrapping it around an unknown liquid and pus-like substance.
A shiny sphere not far away also began to feed its stored energy back to its host.
The three combined.
Juanlu, in agony, visibly began to relax.
And his hands, already shorn of dust, debris, and broken flesh, had been removed at some point.
Countless threads of blood spread from the wounds and began to envelop the exposed bones.
Almost visibly, fresh flesh grew, clinging to the bones, transforming into complete hands.
The only difference between the color of the newly grown flesh and the flesh on the back of his hands was the distinct difference in depth.
Juanlu gasped as he looked at his fully healed hands, but a smile crossed his face.
He couldn't help but gently touch the palm of his other hand with one finger. A painful hissing sound echoed.
"Don't worry, it's just a mental phantom pain. It will heal after a while," Matlisa said.
Bandages and a wooden board appeared in her hands, wrapping Juanlu's hands and hanging them around his neck.
"Although they've fully grown back, to be on the safe side, don't use them for a few days. It won't be too late to use them again after a few days."
Hearing Matlisa's advice, Juanlu nodded.
This side
It's done.
After a brief rest, the two began preparing to treat the other side.
This side was less troublesome than Juanlu's. Although he was on the verge of death, his injuries were purely external.
It wasn't a difficult task for the two.
With everyone watching, it took less than 10 minutes to get him out of danger.
Though he was still unconscious, at least his life was no longer in danger and he would be fine after a while of recovery.
After treating the two, Mathilda and Julia, feeling slightly exhausted, leaned against the nearby stone wall.
The makeshift camp still retained its former ruined appearance.
The walls were riddled with deep pits and depressions. The ground was also sunken, and only a small portion of the steel support at the top remained.
This small portion was in danger of collapsing at any moment, exposing it to the open air.
"Before we figure out what happened, let's fix this place up a bit.
We'll rest for a day and then leave and move to another location."
Alka said, leading everyone to start repairing the place.
The repairs were quickly completed.
They sat in the newly cleaned and repaired camp.
Everyone sat together.
Alka looked at Juanlu: "Now, what exactly happened? Why did Kalutto suddenly appear here?"
Juanlu nodded and began to share what he knew.
"You mean he found himself here out of nowhere? And he was coming for Narvi?" Jason asked, frowning beside him.
Juanlu nodded.
"I suspect it's a blood connection, because after getting close, Narvi also sensed Kalutto's presence," Juanlu said. After a brief exchange, Alka concluded, "That's all we know for now. We'll talk more about it when Narvi wakes up.
As a family member with Kalutor, he should know more."
Although Narvi had made it clear from the moment they boarded the ship that he and Kalutor were related,
they hadn't expected them to be brothers.
"Gurgle!"
A rumbling of hunger.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.
Pororo, curled up slightly, smiled awkwardly at the group's gaze.
Then everyone's eyes turned to Juanlu's hands.
They discovered something remarkable.
No one was cooking.
The entire camp suddenly fell silent.
"How about...we each make a dish we're good at?"
"Good idea."