Chapter 402: Breaking the Cocoon
"We can't let it finish!"
The shout tore through the chaotic battlefield. Up until this moment, Ya and Stelle had been locked in a grueling clash against the two Purple Giant Hands—monstrous appendages wielding Demonic Blade Projections, manipulated by the Primordial One to guard the massive, pulsating cocoon. Seeing the nauseating fusion accelerating within the fleshy sac, both warriors intensified their assault in perfect, unspoken synchronization.
"Hah!" A fierce, golden-red light flared in Stelle's eyes, reflecting the burning resolve of the Trailblazer. She tracked the sweeping arc of the Purple Giant Hand. The moment its colossal blade completed its swing, a microscopic window of stiffness opened. Stelle didn't hesitate. The chaotic Power of Destruction roared to life along the length of her star sword. She stepped into the guard, her muscles coiling before unleashing a devastating, heavy diagonal slash that slammed directly into the spine of the Demonic Blade Projection.
Beside her, Ya blurred into an ice-blue gale. The biting cold radiating from her Tailless blade condensed the ambient moisture into glittering frost, carrying a chill sharp enough to freeze the very fabric of space. With stunning precision, she executed an exquisite, blinding thrust aimed squarely at the exposed wrist joint of the second Purple Giant Hand.
But the expected clash of titanic forces never came.
The Purple Giant Hands—which had previously fought with suffocating pressure, flawless defensive control, and a distinct tactical advantage—suddenly faltered. Faced with this dual assault, their reactions turned bizarrely sluggish. Their parries, once ironclad, were now weak and disjointed.
Clang!
The metallic shriek echoed across the cavern as Stelle's heavy slash violently repelled the Demonic Blade Projection. The sheer kinetic force threw the Purple Giant Hand entirely off balance, forcing it to stagger backward. Its massive bulk shifted, exposing a glaring, unprotected gap leading straight to the Pale Cocoon behind it.
Ya's thrust met resistance, barely blocked by the tsuba of the second giant hand's blade. Yet, the blocking motion was rigid and mechanical, completely stripped of its previous fluid adaptability. The extreme cold from the Tailless blade instantly bit into the monstrous appendage. A thick layer of white frost rapidly spread across the giant hand, freezing its joints and crippling its movement speed even further.
"Hmm?" Ya's brow furrowed, a flicker of deep suspicion crossing her eyes.
'Something is wrong. Terribly wrong.'
This was the absolute climax of the Primordial One's scheme. Bringer's fusion with the Spine King Worm required impenetrable protection. Logically, the will commandeering these hands should be at its most hyper-focused and lethal. Instead, they had become dull. Wooden. It was as if the consciousness of the Primordial One had abruptly abandoned its vessels, leaving behind nothing but a hollow shell operating on residual, automated defensive commands.
Why would the mastermind retreat during the most critical phase of the metamorphosis? Ya's mind raced, piecing the chaotic puzzle together. Her thoughts snapped back to Paimon's bizarre, unorthodox method of suppressing the Spine King Worm just moments ago. 'Could that ridiculous attack have actually disrupted the Primordial One's connection?'
Stelle's thought process, however, was beautifully straightforward. She didn't care about retreating wills or tactical anomalies. She only saw a gaping hole in the enemy's defense.
"What a chance!"
Without a fraction of a second's hesitation, she capitalized on the opening. Before the staggered Purple Giant Hand could even attempt to right itself, the ground beneath Stelle's boots shattered into a spiderweb of cracks. She launched herself forward, turning her entire body into a living missile.
Roaring flames engulfed the star sword. The chaotic, burning aura of Destruction smoothly intertwined with the warm, unyielding glow of Preservation. The dual energies condensed into a blinding, golden-red streak of pure lethality. Completely ignoring the sluggish giant hands, Stelle threaded the needle through the fleeting gap. She thrust her blade straight toward the violently wriggling, murky Pale Cocoon, aiming directly for the nauseating fusion taking place within its fleshy walls.
"Stop right there!"
Stelle's blade sank into the violently wriggling Pale Cocoon, slicing through the grotesque membrane without a shred of obstruction. She braced herself for the inevitable backlash—the crushing pressure of the Primordial One's will or a desperate, suicidal interception from the Purple Giant Hands.
Neither came.
Instead, the two colossal hands collapsed like marionettes with their strings abruptly severed. They swung their blades once in a vain, pathetic display of residual momentum before their massive forms drooped weakly. Within seconds, they disintegrated, dissolving into harmless specks of purple-black light that drifted away into the cavern's drafts. The entire sequence was so smooth, so utterly devoid of resistance, that it bordered on eerie.
The instant the tip of the star sword buried itself into the core of the massive cocoon, a dull, sickening thud reverberated through the air.
The golden-red sword light clashed violently against the murky, dark-red energy pulsing within the sac. A grating, acidic sizzling noise filled the cavern as the energies corroded one another. The surface of the Pale Cocoon caved inward under the immense pressure. Dense, spiderweb-like cracks fractured across its pale exterior, bleeding unstable, dark-red light into the surroundings.
The stalemate lasted for less than two seconds.
BOOM—
The entire Pale Cocoon detonated in a deafening explosion of gore and corrupted energy! The grotesque amalgamation of Pale Giant Hands that had formed its outer shell blew apart. The singular, unblinking eyes embedded in their palms instantly dimmed and shattered like cheap glass, reducing the fleshy constructs to a storm of pale dust motes.
A shockwave of violent energy erupted outward. It carried a nauseating, suffocating stench—a vile cocktail of acidic insect fluids and rotting flesh. The blast wave swept across the cavern in all directions, churning up a blinding wall of billowing smoke and debris.
"Retreat!" Dan Heng's sharp command cut through the roaring explosion.
The group immediately fell back, channeling their respective energies to brace against the impact. At the rear, Lumine stood firm, her hands glowing as she maintained the Mountain Suppressing Spirit Locking Array. The golden light barrier violently shuddered under the concussive force, groaning under the strain, but it held true, deflecting the vast majority of the foul, corrosive energy away from the team.
Thick dust billowed through the cavern, temporarily blinding them.
Yet, before the debris could even begin to settle, a voice drifted out from the epicenter of the blast. It carried an unsettling, hollow sense of devotion and absolute satisfaction.
"Praise the Primordial One... who granted me... the ladder of evolution."
It was Bringer's voice, but the tone was unrecognizable. Gone was the unhinged madness and frothing rage that had defined his earlier strikes. This voice was steady. Ice-cold. It was imbued with a chilling, mechanical rationality, sounding exactly like a zealot who had just completed a sacred, agonizing ritual to purge himself of all unnecessary emotional impurities.
Heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed from the smoke. Each deliberate step caused the bedrock beneath their feet to tremble slightly.
A brand new Bringer—or rather, a completely new, terrifying existence—stepped into the dim light.
His physique was no longer the bloated, deformed monstrosity born from his initial Ghoulification. Instead, his body had condensed into something exceptionally well-proportioned and terrifyingly powerful. Standing nearly three meters tall, his new form radiated a sleek, simplified sense of apex lethality.
The most striking change was the thick layer of carapace encasing him. This was no longer the crude, externally attached Crystallize armor he had relied on before. This shell had grown organically from his very flesh, tightly contouring to every sculpted muscle and curve of his new physique. The carapace bore a dull, deep-red hue, gleaming with a slick, insectoid luster. complex, microscopic patterns etched across its surface, while the jagged edges pulsed with a pale, cold light. It was a flawless suit of living bio-armor.
But his head was the true nightmare.
Every trace of his human facial features had been violently erased. In their place sat a massive Ethereal core embedded directly into his thick neck. It throbbed rhythmically, constantly emitting a sickly pale glow interspersed with dark-red, vein-like pulsations.
This core was vastly different from a typical Ethereal core. It was highly structured, its faceted surface vaguely resembling the terrifying, complex geometry of an insect's compound eye. The pale light burned from deep within its center, wrapped in an outer layer of continuously flowing, wicked dark-red energy. Serving as his new face, the core became the absolute focal point of his existence, radiating an aura that was cold, flawlessly rational, and immensely, suffocatingly evil.
He stood before them as a grotesque masterpiece—an artwork that perfectly fused a humanoid silhouette, predatory insectoid traits, and the corrupted essence of an Ethereal core. He was a weapon of mass slaughter that had successfully discarded every ounce of human weakness, retaining nothing but absolute rationality and overwhelming power.
"What a... marvelous feeling." Bringer flexed his carapace-covered fingers. The armored joints ground together, producing a faint, skin-crawling scraping sound. "Chaos has been organized. Weakness has been purged. All that remains is... pure power. And a clear purpose."
His faceless gaze swept over the tense, battle-ready group. The pulsing core finally locked onto Stelle and Ya, the dark-red light flaring as it focused entirely on the star sword in Stelle's hand—the very blade that had just shattered his cocoon.
"As a gift in return for helping me complete my final metamorphosis..."
Bringer slowly raised both arms. Two small, jagged Spatial Rifts silently tore open in the air beside him. He reached into the voids, his armored hands closing around the hilts of two familiar Demonic Blades. Only now, the weapons appeared infinitely more solid and terrifyingly real.
The twin blades, interwoven with streaks of dark purple and sickly pale white, hummed with a thirsty vibration. They radiated an oppressive, resentful aura and an absolute will to sever all life.
He crossed the massive swords in front of his chest before pointing the tips directly at the group. When he spoke again, his voice dropped into a freezing, mechanical register, dripping with absolute killing intent.
"This time, none of you... will be spared."
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]