Chương 49: Gray Chrysalis

The instant the sparks filled the passage, Rowan did not retreat. Behind him was the half-collapsed metal grate. To his left was a wall, and to his right were abandoned pipelines. Grey Raven had thrown the spell card at a tricky angle. It was not aimed straight at Rowan. Instead, the sparks first struck the overhead pipes and side wall, then scattered downward. Like a fire net being dropped over him. Rowan kicked off the ground and slid half a step low against the floor.

His right hand was already pressed against a thinner cooling pipe beside him. [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] formed again. This time, it was not to block the fire. As ice covered his palm, Rowan clenched his fingers and twisted hard. The cooling pipe's outer shell had already aged, and the earlier tremors in the manufacturing room had torn several cracks into it. As [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] pressed down, white frost immediately formed inside the cracks. The next instant, Rowan smashed down with the handle of his dagger.

Bang. The cooling pipe burst. Murky low-temperature fluid sprayed out and collided with the falling sparks. A mass of white steam exploded through the narrow passage. Sparks burst one after another inside the mist, and a wave of heat swept across Rowan's face like countless grains of burning sand striking his skin. He still failed to dodge completely. One spark punched through the steam and exploded against the outside of his right shoulder. His flesh charred instantly. Rowan let out a muffled groan.

His entire right arm went numb for a moment. Pain drilled from his shoulder toward his neck, as if someone had hooked a piece of red-hot iron into his bones. Grey Raven did not give him time to breathe. Before the fire curtain had fully dispersed, a wind blade cut through the white steam and pressed in from the side. Rowan rolled close to the ground. With his left hand, he took a [Violet Frostvine Pill] from his waist, shoved it into his mouth, and bit through the shell.

The medicine slid down his throat with a bitter taste. Soon, warmth spread through his chest and abdomen, flowing with his blood toward the wound on his right shoulder. The wound began to itch. A flame whip lashed out from the steam like a red-hot snake, curling toward Rowan's left hand. Rowan did not meet it head-on. With a turn of [Wellspring Step], his body scraped along the floor and avoided it. The flame whip struck the spot where he had just been, burning a patch of abandoned metal mesh red.

Grey Raven stood on the other side of the manufacturing room, the preservation box fastened at his waist. The earlier fight with the failed chimera, along with the repeated cracking of control console permissions, had clearly consumed a great deal of his strength. But his attacks were still steady. The flame whip sealed off the front. Wind blades cut off the side routes. Rowan was forced to keep shifting positions between metal racks, pipelines, and scattered fixing arms. Rowan raised his hand.

Two Water Blades flew out one after the other, cutting toward Grey Raven's waist and thigh. Grey Raven stepped behind an abandoned fixing rack. Wind pressure shook from his sleeve, pushing the first Water Blade half an inch off course and into the rack. The second Water Blade followed immediately. This time, he did not dodge. The flame whip snapped back, colliding with the Water Blade and bursting into steam. The white mist grew thicker. Rowan did not stop. Water Blade. Wellspring Step.

A brief condensation of [Frost-Chill Gauntlets], then another broken pipeline. He looked as if he was growing desperate. He used steam to block vision, then tried to force Grey Raven into revealing an opening through continuous attacks. Grey Raven did not pursue immediately. His gaze passed through the steam and landed on Rowan. Rowan was also watching him. More accurately, watching his hand. That hand had made a small gesture in front of the control console earlier.

Thumb pressing against the second joint of the ring finger. Then a gray-white chrysalis shadow had appeared on the back of his hand, and the failed chimera's flesh had begun to turn on itself. Rowan did not know what kind of spell that was. Nor did he know whether it could be used again. Grey Raven's fingers suddenly moved. His thumb slowly pressed toward the second joint of his ring finger. Rowan raised his hand almost immediately. A Water Blade did not strike at Grey Raven's chest.

It cut straight toward his right hand. Grey Raven dodged again, and the Water Blade sliced into a nearby fixing rack, sending metal fragments flying. But his movement also paused for an instant. He looked at his own hand, then at Rowan. Behind the steam, he gave a short laugh.

"So you really saw it." Rowan did not answer. He merely shifted his right foot half an inch back. And activated a trigger array inside the toolbox. Almost at the same time, halfway up the maintenance stairs, the signal spike Rowan had inserted into the seam between the steps lit up. The green light was not strong. From the manufacturing room and through the maintenance passage, it was almost invisible. But to those things, it was enough. In the distance, pale blue fungal light began to brighten little by little.

Rowan heard the sound of tiny claws scraping across metal grating. Grey Raven frowned, his gaze shifting slightly. Rowan moved at once. He hooked a second signal spike out of the toolbox and, while rolling away from a flame whip, flicked it along the ground toward the entrance of the manufacturing room. The signal spike rolled a few times, green light flickering. The first Electric-Fungus Rat crawled out of the maintenance passage. The fungal colony on its back pulsed on and off, like blue fire about to ignite.

Then came the second, the third, and more. They crawled out from wall seams, beneath pipelines, and along the edges of waste-fluid channels. They were not coming for Rowan. They had locked onto the signal spike. Grey Raven immediately understood what Rowan was doing. The flame whip swept sideways. The first few Electric-Fungus Rats were burned into charcoal, and the fungal colonies on their backs burst into tiny clusters of sparks. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen.

Please report the infringement. But the ones behind them did not stop. Drawn by the signal spike, they spread their blood membranes and glided down along the pipelines. Blue-white arcs jumped between them. The manufacturing room was already damp. Cooling fluid, nutrient fluid, and blood covered the floor. When the arcs struck the liquid, rings of fine blue light spread outward. Rowan used the chance to slide to the right. Grey Raven was not delayed by the Electric-Fungus Rats for long.

He threw out a wind blade, precisely cutting the node between two rats, then kicked the glowing signal spike away. The spike struck the wall, its green light went out, and a small section of the electric net collapsed at once. But Rowan had not wanted this one exchange. He wanted the noise. The screams of the Electric-Fungus Rats as they burned. The crackle of electricity bursting through waste fluid. The sharp beep as the signal spike disconnected.

All of it spilled into the darkness on the other side of the manufacturing room. A heavy breath came from there. Rowan's steps paused for the briefest instant. He remembered the Electric-Fungus Rats he had seen in the maintenance passage. They had been hanging upside down in the pipe shadows, their fungal light pulsing on and off, as if dormant. But it had not looked like simple dormancy. They had all crowded to one side, avoiding the wall seam on the other.

Even when drawn by the signal spike, they had not dared to crawl in that direction. So that was it. The Fifth Biological Warehouse had been sealed for who knew how many years. Life-support fluid had fed the fungal colonies. The fungi fed the Electric-Fungus Rats. The rats, in turn, had become food for something larger. A food chain had grown here on its own. The next moment, something squeezed out from a damaged breeding trough on the side. It was a Pincer-Eyed Toad.

Smaller than the ones in the containment room, but with more flower buds on its back, like a string of yellow-white pus sacs bulging beneath its skin. Its two pincer-like eye organs snapped open and shut under the stimulation of the electric light. The furry claw in its throat extended halfway out, scratching wildly at the floor. The Electric-Fungus Rats scattered by instinct. Several were too slow and were swallowed in one bite.

The fungal colonies on their backs burst inside the toad's throat, and blue light flashed between the seams of its mouth. The toad's back flower buds swelled from the pain. Grey Raven realized the danger faster than Rowan. His flame whip snapped out, curling straight toward the flower buds that had just swollen on the Pincer-Eyed Toad's back. He wanted to destroy the spores first. Rowan did not hesitate. A Water Blade cut across. Not toward Grey Raven, but toward the middle of the flame whip.

The Water Blade was instantly evaporated by the flame whip, exploding into white steam. At the same time, Rowan flicked his toe and sent a signal spike rolling between the toad and Grey Raven. The green light flared. Two Electric-Fungus Rats pounced on the signal spike, and the fungal colonies on their backs burst with blue-white arcs. The flame whip shifted half an inch. It did not destroy the flower buds. It only burned a black mark across the side of the toad's back. The Pincer-Eyed Toad shrieked in pain.

Rows of flower buds across its back swelled. For the first time, Grey Raven's expression truly darkened. Pale yellow spore mist exploded outward. The mist spread quickly. It mixed with white steam, black smoke, and electric arcs, dyeing the entire manufacturing room a murky yellow-gray. Rowan inhaled once, and the familiar feeling returned. His mana circulation slowed. The Water Blade model grew dull. [Wellspring Step] also lagged half a beat. Grey Raven was not unaffected either.

His flame whip shortened, and the edge of his wind blades was no longer clean. The wind pressure that had once been precise enough to shave past Rowan's skin now began to show tiny deviations. Rowan's chest rose and fell. Pain. His shoulder hurt. His right hand, burned by sparks and strained by [Frost-Chill Gauntlets], had almost no feeling left. But his body could still move. The muscles, bones, and blood tempered by [Furnace Melding Art] had become his foundation now.

Once both their mana had been slowed, Rowan felt for the first time that Grey Raven was not so far above him. Grey Raven clearly realized the same thing. He no longer cared about the Pincer-Eyed Toad. Nor did he prioritize clearing the Electric-Fungus Rats. Instead, he curled the flame whip and pressed straight toward Rowan. Rowan stepped back half a pace, gripping his dagger in his right hand. With his left, he threw the last unstable signal spike behind Grey Raven. Grey Raven did not look back.

A wind blade swept backward and cut the signal spike in two. Its green light had only just appeared before it went out. At that moment, Grey Raven's right hand moved again. His thumb pressed toward the second joint of his ring finger. Rowan's pupils shrank, and his guard rose at once. This time, he did not immediately retreat. Because the gray chrysalis shadow did not appear. Grey Raven had used this gesture more than once now. If that thing could truly be used freely, he would have used it already.

Was it impossible? Or was the cost too high? Rowan had no time to think further. But he could not keep letting that gesture control him. Grey Raven swept the flame whip sideways. Rowan met it head-on. [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] covered his right hand. Before the ice layer could fully form, he grabbed the flame whip. Hiss. The ice boiled instantly. The flame burned through [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] and into his palm. Rowan felt as if the skin of his entire right hand had been peeled away and shoved into fire.

The pain nearly blackened his vision. But he caught it. Grey Raven's flame whip was held in place for half a breath. Grey Raven's eyes turned cold. He raised his other hand, and a wind blade formed between his fingers. He had seen Rowan's [Wellspring Step]. He had seen the rhythm of Rowan's Water Blades. Under the effect of the spore mist, that kind of burst was slower, and its trajectory heavier. In Grey Raven's eyes, Rowan's charge was nothing more than a final struggle. Wind pressure sank.

The flame whip pulled back. Grey Raven shifted half a step to the rear and side, perfectly avoiding Rowan's most likely frontal route. And Rowan did charge forward exactly as expected, like a cornered beast at the end of its road. Steam, spore mist, electric light, and sparks crowded between them. Grey Raven's wind blade cut toward Rowan's chest, sealing off his last hope. It was over.

Just as the blade-like wind pressure was about to fall, Rowan's figure seemed to be sliced apart by mist and electricity at the same time. There was no water-blue trail. No starting motion from [Wellspring Step]. His entire body seemed to briefly distort. [Lancer · Instant Shadow]. Grey Raven's wind blade cut through empty air. Rowan was already at his rear side. During the previous battle, the locust-octopus had torn part of Grey Raven's black robe, exposing a corner of dark armor beneath.

Rowan had remembered that position. The armor itself was not broken. But between the armor and the armpit was a narrow gap. The dagger drove upward from below, avoiding the front of the dark armor and stabbing into that gap, so narrow it was almost invisible. The first strike did not fully pierce in. Grey Raven reacted faster than Rowan had expected. He twisted his body by force, swept the flame whip back, knocked Rowan's dagger away, and the wind pressure drove tightness into Rowan's chest. Rowan did not retreat.

His left hand locked onto Grey Raven's torn black robe. His right knee slammed into the side of Grey Raven's leg. Then he reached back and drew the high-frequency straight sword from behind him. Violent ripples of water surged across the blade's surface. Rowan aimed at the same spot. And stabbed again. Pch! This time, the tip of the blade sank fully into the gap in the armor. Grey Raven's body stiffened. The flame whip that had been half-condensed dispersed.

Rowan clenched his teeth, twisted his wrist, and used all his strength to drive the blade another half inch inward. Grey Raven raised his hand. He seemed to be trying to make the Gray Chrysalis gesture again. Rowan gave him no chance. With his forehead almost touching the shadow beneath Grey Raven's hood, Rowan drew the sample knife with his left hand and slashed straight at Grey Raven's wrist. The blade cut across. Blood sprayed out. Grey Raven finally let out a low, suppressed groan.

But his other hand had already made that special gesture. Thumb pressing against the second joint of the ring finger. This was not a feint like before. Rowan's mind tightened. Bad. He leaned back almost by instinct. [Wellspring Step] erupted beneath his feet, but it was half a beat slow. He had just used [Lancer · Instant Shadow], and his body had not recovered from that tearing burst. He tried to pull away, but Grey Raven's other hand clutched his collar tightly. Grey Raven raised his head.

For the first time, Rowan saw his eyes beneath the shadow of the hood. They were not mad. Nor were they filled with fear before death. They were cold and dark, almost numb. The next instant, a thin crack opened across the white of Grey Raven's eye. Not blood. Gray-white threads. The threads crawled out from deep within his eye socket, crossed his pupils, then spread along his cheeks. His skin rapidly lost all color, as if something inside was draining him dry. His body beneath the black robe began to shrink.

His shoulders and back arched, and his bones made fine clicking sounds. He was turning into a chrysalis. A gray-white shell surfaced bit by bit across his chest, neck, and cheeks. It was thin and dry, like dead insect skin, and like ash left after bone had burned away. Rowan tried to retreat. Too late. From Grey Raven's cracked eyes, a gray-white shadow lunged out. It really looked like a chrysalis. No wings. No eyes. Only layers of half-transparent gray membrane wrapped around something that had not yet hatched.

Rowan raised his left hand. [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] formed in haste, ice blocking the space before his brow. The Gray Chrysalis shadow passed straight through. The ice remained intact. Rowan's mind felt as if it had been cut open with a rusted blade. The instant the gray-white shadow entered his mental sea, all sound vanished. The flames in the manufacturing room, the electric arcs, the toad's breathing, the dripping water from the pipelines—everything was pulled far away.

All Rowan could hear was a faint gnawing sound. Click. Click. Click. Like countless invisible insects chewing through his Mental Power. Inside his mental sea, gray-white threads spread wildly. They did not erode slowly. They rushed forward. Like a net that had been starving for a long time, it lunged over his consciousness. Rowan tried to contract his Mental Power, but the gray threads reacted faster. They crawled along his Mental Power, slipped into every tiny crack, and wrapped his perception section by section.

Then the Gray Chrysalis began drilling deeper. Rowan finally understood what it wanted. It was not simply trying to kill him. It wanted to hatch inside his mental sea. No. Rowan desperately pulled his Mental Power inward, trying to stop it at the outer layer. But the Gray Chrysalis shadow trembled hard. More gray threads burst from within it, like a swarm of insects breaking from their shells, spreading through his mental sea in every direction. The mental defense Rowan had barely formed was torn open at once.

In reality, his body dropped heavily to one knee. The high-frequency straight sword was still lodged beneath Grey Raven's ribs. But his hand could no longer hold the hilt. Warm liquid ran from his nose. The manufacturing room before his eyes blurred into murky yellow-gray. From the corner of his eye, he saw Grey Raven's body arch completely. A gray-white chrysalis shell had covered his black robe and flesh. Gray-white flames seeped from the cracks in the shell. Grey Raven's face could no longer be seen.

Only a shriveled human outline remained. Inside Rowan's mental sea, the gray threads continued spreading. Cold. So cold. He felt his thoughts slowing down. Only now did fear truly surge up. Was he going to die? Rowan tried desperately to grab onto something. Water Blade. Frost-Chill Gauntlets. Wellspring Step. Lancer · Instant Shadow. Every Spell Model was like a fragment sinking into black water, drifting farther and farther away. He could catch nothing. Deep inside his mental sea, the Gray Chrysalis opened.

It condensed into a hollow gray-white mass. Then the chrysalis slowly stretched out two wings. Rowan's consciousness began to sink. At that moment, the Möbius Ring on Rowan's wrist emitted a blue glow. The gray-white threads stopped. The Gray Chrysalis shadow stopped as well. In the next instant, an indescribable force spread from the ring. The Gray Chrysalis shadow began struggling violently. As if it had finally felt fear, it tore madly at the gray threads inside Rowan's mental sea.

But the Möbius Ring flashed again. The Gray Chrysalis shadow was forced back to the edge of his mental sea by an invisible power. The gray threads that had already pierced into his memories and perception snapped one by one. The pain nearly made Rowan lose consciousness completely. He saw the gray-white chrysalis being pressed into a corner of his mental sea. Like an insect egg not yet fully dead, pinned in the darkness. The manufacturing room slammed back into Rowan's senses.

Grey Raven's fully chrysalis-transformed corpse collapsed little by little within gray-white flames. Rowan opened his mouth but made no sound. His vision darkened in waves. But around him, those tiny crawling sounds were drawing closer and closer.