1627 Parasite

Parasites were…disgusting.

The tentacles of the creatures swayed in the air, sucking away droplets of blood that spilled out of the avatars as they marched in a hurry.

These creatures had no eyes but multiple crevices all over their body which seemed to serve the same purpose.

"Can I get an introduction at least?" Varian's index finger drew a glowing white line in the air and drew a complex geometrical figure.

The surrounding regions shook for a moment before the matter of the ground turned into explosive but restricted energy.

But these explosions did not touch the parasites or the avatars they were attached to. Rather, these continous explosions formed a wall behind them, blocking them off from any escape.

"@#&~"

The tentacled creatures swayed lightly before issuing a hissing sound.

Through his soul power, Varian could vaguely peek into their conversation despite their obvious attempts to shield it.

They seemed surprised at him not running and even foolishly acting brave by cutting off their way of retreat.

Then, an avatar stepped forward, his arm muscles swelling with the scent of death.

Without any hesitation, he threw a punch, pouring out every bit of death energy he could muster.

"Maybe I wasn't clear." Varian's glowing gray index finger blocked the fist enveloped in red aura.

Chaos swept the death energy and collapsed it from the source. The avatar, bereft of the very energy that ran him, collapsed like a broken doll.

The parasite on the avatar squirmed and shot its tentacles at him, each of them spraying out beams of death energy.

Despite his confidence, Varian decided he'd rather evade the attack than face it head on.

The time around him slowed down and he took a slight step to the right. When the creature realized what he was doing and tried to move faster, it was already too late.

Varian escaped the death beams with ease and pointed his palm at the creature. A beam of glowing golden light shot from his palm and enveloped the creature.

It twitched violently before collapsing.

Life or Death, soul was the common. When hit by a powerful soul attack, it would have to be hurt.

But it didn't die.

"Urgh!"

The collapsed avatar stood up, its body wriggling and splitting into multiple parasitic tentacled creatures.

<Parasite> was a path of divine. The way was parasiting all living and dead. Any infested would become 'self'.

Even though the creature's body was destroyed, the infested avatar was not. So, it came back.

"I am a non-violent person. Please don't make me fight." Varian punched the ground and a tsunami of black aura swept the creatures that tried to sneak upon him while he was focused on this one enemy.

The power of chaos infiltrated their powers and disrupted the flow of death energy, rendering them momentarily helpless.

Such an attack would've been the limit for a chaos awakener and would've given these creatures room to escape.

Unfortunately for them, Varian had more than just one path.

With a snap of his fingers, a mix of gold and green flame materialized on the creatures without warning.

First, they were hit by powerful vitality which negated the death essence that made up their body. Using that, soul power struck in and dealt a fatal blow.

They screeched in an unpleasant voice before dropping to the ground.

Perhaps they had other infested bodies. No, they definitely did. But his surroundings were taken care of.

There's nothing to fear for n—

Varian jumped back abruptly but a huge tentacle still grazed him. The veins on his leg bulged red before it wriggled and expanded.

"Fuck, disgusting!"

Crevices began to form on the lump of flesh and tentacles sprouted.

The process which happened in a blink despite his fierce resistance pulled away a good chunk of life essence flowing in his body, weakening him and making him even more vulnerable to the all permeating death energy in this region which

wished to turn him into an Undead.

A sword materialized in his hand and Varian cut off the infested leg without hesitation.

It crashed to the ground before shooting at him at a ridiculously high speed.

Simultaneously, the ground shook with a parasite as big as a mountain approaching Varian.

As if it wasn't already bad enough, the infection wasn't fully removed as his torso began to wriggle.

"…You're kidding me!"

Varian poured out vitality to stop the process but it was futile.

The giant parasite raised its tentacles and only then did it become clear that thing was far more powerful than the the watermelon-sized creatures that infested his avatars.

It's a powerful mid rank 1.

"Fuck my luck."

The retreating Varian created a step made of solid space behind him and kicked it hard.

He shot toward the infested avatar and when they came into contact, his body exploded, decimating the surrounding hundred miles.

The giant creature stopped its swaying tentacles as if it was surprised and then swiftly turned in one direction.

Varian's weakened body appeared in the far distance and he was about to run. With a shrill scream, the creature slapped its tentacle across the air in his direction.

The world seemed to dim for a moment before the death energy around Varian suddenly concentrated and struck him like a hammer.

He crashed to the ground and his back began to wriggle with crimson flesh.

"Do you love me so much you can't leave me alone?" Varian smiled in pain.

The infestation was damn too strong to be removed with his current powers. And exploding just the body part was not enough as the smart infestion was spreading before the explosion.

And a full body explosion was not enough. He had to blow up his entire vitality while safeguarding his soul.

This process had to be done while fending off the death energy that tried to infest its way into his new body through the connection.

Varian escaped three more times but grew weaker with each explosion. Forget exploring this place, he decided to get the hell out of purgatory.

Unfortunately, with this giant monster chasing him with all its might, he found no chance.

In the back of his mind, he wasn't so anxious. It wasn't that this was a safe situation.

He could literally die. And in a gruesome way at that.

But he had been so used to life threatening situations that he was able to deal with them in a calm state of mind.

And that state of mind gave him the room to think.

'First, diversion from life region to death region. Then, encountering parasites I should not encounter so quickly. Even more suspicious is drawing out a mid rank 1 parasite.

This is no longer something Yami's plan to turn me into an Undead.This is a plan for murder.

Out of the five, who would gain by my death…who is threatened by my ascent?'

The face of an old man with emotionless eyes flashed in his mind and Varian clenched his fist.

Almost at the same time, sky cracked as three equally large parasites fell out of nowhere, surrounding him in the middle.

Varian froze in place, looking at them with a dumbfounded expression.

The power of space enveloped him, ready to take him out but he wasn't so sure if he could escape anymore.

When he wondered if he should make a desperate attempt. If he could reach Aphosis, no matter how bad his situation would be, as long as he's not dead, he could be saved.

When his thoughts reached that dangerous direction, a light flashed and the three creatures were struck by powerful waves of death energy.

A light flashed behind and Varian allowed himself to be pulled away.

When the world came to a still a few seconds later, a tall, ash- skinned man was looking at him with a curious gaze.