Chapter 368: Alice's New Stance
"Huh? What is this?"
Feeling the light above them suddenly being blocked, two of the Players looked up.
When they saw the Black Particles floating above their heads, their expressions changed involuntarily. They immediately took out their weapons and entered a state of alert.
The reaction of the other male Player was different from his two teammates.
The moment the light was blocked, he suddenly let out rough, heavy breathing like a beast. The blood vessels on the surface of his body turned visibly red purple, and hideous bloodshot lines appeared in his eyes.
"Thump, thump, thump..."
Hearing the heartbeat like a drum coming from the Player's chest, the other two Players could not help freezing for a moment.
"What is this..."
Before the two Players could finish speaking, several huge Pale Ghost Hands suddenly emerged from the ground, tightly gripping the Player's body.
At the same time, a portion of the Black Particles in the sky split off and turned into two black IBMs, which directly grabbed the Player's shoulders and held him firmly in place.
Standing on the roof of a distant building, Iwanaga Kotoko extended her hand through the air. Pale purple light shone in her eyes as she spoke softly.
"Control complete. Phantom!"
"Understood."
Kato Megumi drew her bow and nocked an arrow. She aimed at the Uncontrollable restrained by the Pale Ghost Hands and IBMs, then shot a pitch black arrow directly at him.
"You..."
Seeing their teammate being attacked, the other two Players, although they did not know what was happening, immediately launched a counterattack.
The tip of one Player's staff condensed a light green wind blade, locking onto Iwanaga Kotoko standing there.
A wide red shield appeared in the other Player's hand, intending to block the arrow shot by Kato Megumi.
Iwanaga Kotoko was not flustered in the slightest. She even had the leisure to smile at Asagiri beside her.
"Kill them together?"
"No. I still have things to ask them."
As the words fell, the two Players saw two afterimages, one black and one deep red, suddenly flash from the rooftop dozens of meters away.
Even with such a distance between them, by the time they finally reacted, Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna had already arrived in front of them.
"Excuse me, move aside."
Although Asagiri used a smiling tone and spoke words that sounded very polite, his actions were not polite at all.
He immediately delivered a step in side kick, sending the Player holding the red shield flying nearly ten meters away along with his shield.
"Yo, I actually didn't kick you to pieces?"
Watching the Player struggle to steady himself, with two charred marks left on the ground by his feet, Asagiri chuckled.
"You really do have some strength."
Seeing this, the mage type Player was just about to change the wind blade's target to Asagiri when he suddenly felt a cold sensation on his neck.
After cautiously turning his head, he discovered that a swordsman wearing a deep red cloak, whose face could not be seen clearly, had already pressed the tip of a crystal clear blade against his throat.
"Take a close look. There's something wrong with your teammate."
Hearing Yuuki Asuna's words, the warrior holding the shield and the mage whose throat was pressed by the longsword both looked toward their restrained teammate.
Sure enough, they saw his terrifying appearance, now completely different from that of an ordinary person, as well as the spiteful malice revealed in his eyes.
"This guy, how could he..."
Hearing the sound of blood vessels violently throbbing inside the Uncontrollable, and seeing fine cracks gradually appearing on the Pale Ghost Hands and IBMs, Asagiri knew the opponent was about to break free from control.
He immediately pierced the opponent's skull with the Rope Dart of Deathly Grievance in his hand, but found that this Uncontrollable did not die immediately.
Instead, the speed of the blood vessel throbbing became faster and faster.
"Violet."
"Understood."
As Asagiri retreated a distance, Yuuki Asuna, holding the rapier Shimmering Light, had already arrived in front of the Uncontrollable.
The crystal-like blade of Shimmering Light began to bloom with light.
"Sword Skill, Space Killing Art!"
The moment Yuuki Asuna's words fell, hundreds of reflections suddenly refracted through the surrounding area.
Then those reflections turned into cracks carrying sharp sword intent, rapidly landing on the Uncontrollable and cutting his body into fine fragments.
Amid the sword intent of Space Killing Art, only one heart remained floating there.
It was still beating continuously, its color dark red to the point of being nearly black.
"Persona, Human Asura!"
The moment Asagiri summoned Human Asura, the two Players could not help changing their expressions as they looked at the tall black figure that suddenly appeared and felt the violent fluctuation of power.
In the very next second, Human Asura made a shocking move that even Yuuki Asuna had not expected.
It stretched out its pitch black hands and directly grabbed the dark red heart floating in the air.
On its featureless face, a split suddenly appeared.
Then it actually swallowed the heart directly into its abdomen through that split.
"It... ate it?"
Neither Yuuki Asuna nor the two Players had expected Asagiri to let Human Asura do something like this.
The two Players' eyes were filled with shock, while Yuuki Asuna's eyes revealed worry.
What was this situation?
Was Asagiri hungry because of the continuous high intensity battles?
But...
He could not just eat anything.
Yuuki Asuna had not known that her boyfriend actually had such a habit.
Just then, the sound of the heart beating violently came from inside Human Asura.
The dark red patterns on its body surface emitted an even more intense, continuously flickering light, and its body rapidly expanded from just over two meters tall to nearly four meters.
"Holy cow."
Standing on the rooftop of a distant building, Yamauchi Sakura held her hands in a circle in front of her eyes, making a cute binoculars pose as she exclaimed,
"Dynamax? So Shadow really is a Pokémon Trainer!?"
Kato Megumi pursed her lips, revealing the trace of a smile, and spoke in a gentle tone.
"March, neither Necro nor I play video games, so even if you use gaming memes, we won't understand."
At this moment, Human Asura's body suddenly began shattering like an avalanche.
"So it's something of this nature..."
Asagiri looked at the dark red heart floating in the air.
Through Human Asura's intuition, he had already roughly understood the nature of this thing.
The heart itself was very fragile, and this thing did not possess autonomous consciousness.
It only created blood vessels and supplied blood to reinforce existing Cursed objects, using them to protect its fragile body.
If a host with suitable conditions came into contact with its body, it would assimilate with the host.
Assimilation required a certain amount of time.
Before assimilation was completely finished, the host could only maintain a human appearance while under the illumination of that strange red light.
The host's physical fitness and mental strength would be greatly enhanced by assimilation, and their resistance to Curse attribute damage would also increase significantly.
But the price was that their mental state would become extremely unstable.
Simply put, they would become monsters that craved slaughter.
After all, the essence of these hearts was not material.
They were collections of human resentment and hatred.
The consequences of fusing such things into one's body could be imagined.
Consuming these hearts did not count as a real battle, so even if Human Asura was destroyed, it could not obtain the corresponding resistance improvements.
Just as Asagiri was planning to use holy attribute light to destroy this heart, a strange feeling suddenly arose in his heart.
"Persona, Alice."
After the blonde haired, blue eyed Alice, holding her teddy bear, was summoned by Asagiri, her gaze immediately locked onto the heart floating in midair.
Then she asked in a pure and sweet voice,
"Big Brother, this thing... can you give it to me?"
"Oh, come on, we're close. Just take it."
Hearing Asagiri agree so readily, joy appeared on Alice's face.
"Thank you, Big Brother!"
After thanking him, Alice looked at the dark red heart floating in the air.
Her voice turned cold, devoid of any emotion and appearing aloof, completely different from her sweet and cute demeanor just moments ago.
"Come here."
The dark red heart trembled slightly, as if it felt intense fear.
Immediately afterward, several blood vessels extended from its surface and connected to Alice's fair, tender wrist, turning into a stream of dark red mist that enveloped her.
When the mist dissipated, Yuuki Asuna saw an unexpected sight.
"This is my form after growing up..."
The originally cute little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, Alice, had now transformed into a woman who appeared to be in her twenties.
She wore strange black light armor with dark red stripes, and a pair of dark red wings grew from her back.
Although her face was incredibly beautiful, it exuded a ruthless and cold aura.
"This... this... the loli turned into a mature woman?"
In the distance, Iwanaga Kotoko saw this scene and froze for a moment.
Then her dark purple eyes shone with surprise and excitement.
"A heart, is there another heart!? Get me one too!"
Kato Megumi pursed her lips, showing a smile she could not suppress, and spoke softly.
"Although Alice looks like a little girl, she is essentially a pure Cursed entity. It's normal for her to grow after absorbing a heart formed from that kind of Cursed power, but that probably wouldn't work for you, right?"
"Eh... what a pity..."
Iwanaga Kotoko puffed out her fair cheeks.
Looking at Alice, whose figure now had mature curves and whose smooth golden hair cascaded down to her waist like a pale gold waterfall, exuding a mature charm, she muttered softly,
"If I had that scale of fat deposits... I would definitely ruthlessly mock that evil black haired, red eyed woman."
On the other side, Asagiri, as the Persona user, had also sensed Alice's change.
[Your Persona Alice has awakened a new form by fusing with a "Heart" containing powerful Curse power.]
[Alice's Exclusive Ability: Reaper's True Form.]
[Reaper's True Form: After entering this form, Alice will gain flight capability and can use the Curse power she has mastered to fight. By fusing various powerful Cursed forces, Alice's power may achieve new growth.]
[Strengths: Speed, Agility, Mobility, Mid to Long Range Attacks.]
[Weaknesses: Holy Resistance, Physical Defense, Close Quarters Combat.]
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