The masked man struck the air with his scythe again, creating ripples, but at the same time he also jumped, moving back a few meters.
"Master..." Noctua continued to wheeze while lying on the ground.
My body was starting to act with more independence from me, but for now I could still control it.
"Alec?.." the semblance of my body's lips asked, temporarily stopping the growth.
"Yes, Master," he replied in the local language, crawling closer to me, all bloody, without legs, half transformed into an iron bird, his arms resembling neither wings nor normal human limbs.
"I will spare you if you make me a promise," I said.
Yakov really saw no point in continuing to pursue Alec, since he was no longer under Noctua's control and was able to speak a language he had never heard before. The only thing that was required of him in return was loyalty.
"Pray to me now, and promise to pray from now on," I said. "Do you remember my Honorific Name?"
Even though the demigods in my world could no longer benefit from prayers, I still forced my followers to pray to me so that they would show more loyalty to me, as if to their god.
"A Witness and Participant in ancient history,
The Mage of Flesh, Blood and Bones,
The Meat King!
Praise You!"
At the same time, a part separated from my body, splitting into two more parts, similar to snakes, which crawled towards Alec's stumps of legs, creating functioning limbs in their place.
After a while, I felt my soul getting warmer, but this pleasant feeling quickly disappeared, giving way to the ongoing pain from the influence of the fool.
The magic of darkness is really dangerous. Now I felt whole and strong, but at the same time I felt that this power did not belong to me. It has tried and is trying to enslave me, to make me its puppet in exchange for healing my soul, but it seems that this was not enough.
After all, my soul is much larger than that of ordinary mages, so the energy poured in was not enough to gain full control.
As for Noctua and Alec, their souls could either mix or give Alec the opportunity to take full or partial control.
My gift to him in the form of new legs was not so much a gift for prayer as an attempt to control him.
If a battle between two personalities suddenly starts in him, then I can influence or destroy him. Of course, regardless of my condition, the distance between us will play a serious role, but even so I will be able to feel it and influence the outcome of events, with more or less effectiveness.
"Great, now go away, go away and don't come back here," my body croaked, growing and expanding again, moving forward, towards the exit from the dungeon.
Alec felt his legs and stood up, running towards the exit, sometimes using his half-wings to soar a couple of centimeters above the ground to start running again.
The fool is gone, he has already escaped. Very soon, my body grew so much that it completely clogged the entire space of the dungeon, breaking through the front side through the stairs to the upper floor. The walls and ceilings threatened not to withstand such a load.
***
"Order, I call for order!" The Baroness shouted over the crowd of people gathered.
All conversations subsided, but they did not have time to wait for the next statements from their lady, as the hall suddenly began to shake from a slight earthquake.
Restless faces appeared among the people, and the rhythmic shaking did not stop.
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"Are there any strong earth mages among us?"
"The earthquake is getting stronger, don't you think so?"
When the Baroness again set out to call for order, sprouts of skin and muscle color began to sprout from the floor, turning into arms and tentacles. They slowly reached out to people, but mostly tried to grow higher and further.
People in white robes – mages – ran into the room, and then began to take people out of the hall and destroy the sprouts that were more actively reaching out to the audience than others.
Some of those present also fought back, such as Skell, Max and their teams.
When all the people were taken out, the hall was already completely filled with sprouts that connected to each other, forming something like a huge tumor. New shoots began to extend from it in all directions, covering the neighboring rooms and moving to the roof.
At some point, a bright light and a burning flame flashed in one of the rooms where the Confectors were located, which destroyed the sprouts, angering the body.
This clot of light and fire continued to expand and move, destroying the entire large area of the tumor.
The body began to be covered with bone growths to withstand the heat, and began to attack the aggressor.
Hundreds of tentacles in bone armor flew towards him, trying to hit or grab him, but he was unperturbed, raising the temperature, which led to the melting of bones.
But there were a lot of appendages, and what was melting was regenerating very quickly, becoming overgrown with new limbs and strange shapes that quickly moved towards the light.
But this time he flew high into the air, after which he flew down at high speed into the epicenter of the tumor, destroying everything in his path.
By this point, almost all the people, except for the mages and the rest of the protectors of the mansion, had already been evacuated in their carriages from mount Arisland to Centrofold.
Those who remained were preparing to give battle to the invader.
Although the guards did not possess magic, they were Awakened. Their equipment was enchanted, consuming their magical energy in return for spells.
One of these items for all of them was a helmet that amplifies the sound of their voice.
Standing in one long semicircular line, they jointly issued a battle cry, directing it towards the tumor, causing its distortions and ruptures.
They used their swords, lightened with the help of wind runes, to prevent the appendages from penetrating further and leaving the territory of the estate.
The archers did not have good positions, so many of them were at a disadvantage, but even so they continued to shoot enchanted arrows, which had various effects when hit: fiery explosion, frostbite and rot.
The mages either hovered in the air or stood on the same level as the archers, pouring a storm of spells on the enemy.
All this was very harmful to the body, plus the man from the light was very much in the way.
But this battle did not go so smoothly for the allied forces. Sometimes the appendages got to the exhausted guards, sometimes to the mages floating in the air, abruptly lowering them to the ground.
But the body had already guessed that it was necessary to act unexpectedly, so its shoots began to sprout from the ground, wrapping around the legs of some of their victims, which forced the rest to step back, freeing the way to the city.
The man from the light tried to reach the hub, but he did not find a hint of a brain center there, which did not allow him to end the battle with one precise blow.
He flew up, punching and turning these parts of the tumor into ashes with his body.
At some point, the entire place where the mansion was located turned into utter ruins, in place of which there was a huge burning tumor, whose roots and appendages were actively moving towards the densely populated city.
***
His face expressed humility as he once again broke through the sea of flesh, blood and bones outside, and then returned there again, burning and destroying everything in his path.
Bill was ready to fight on, despite the fact that the enemy was recovering after each of his blows.
He flew in and out again and again, at some point reaching the lowest point of the huge parasite.
This place most likely used to be one of the compartments of the basement, which now completely filled with bodies, in some places without skin, in some with obvious veins, in some with eyes and mouths that moved involuntarily.
He flew into the mess, making his way farther down, underground. Using his fire magic, he blasted the area around him, then began sending fireballs where the tumor's roots led, trying to destroy as much of the thing as possible.
However, when he flew out, half of the tumor that had engulfed the estate was still holding on, slowly recovering.
All over the area around the mansion and on the road to the city, huge bodies sprouted from the ground, like large flesh-colored pumpkins, which continued to grow and spread further, like a plague.
These parasites acted independently of the main focus.
With this understanding, Bill soared higher, after which he cast a spell, "Flame of Purification!"
Fire droplets began to fall from his entire body to the ground, which very quickly turned into huge fireballs, devouring a large area under the soaring Bill, destroying parasites and causing their roots to boil underground.
But even though they were burning, they continued to grow, and the influx of new skin and blood extinguished the fire, albeit with little effectiveness.
This spell had exhausted Bill a bit, so he needed time to catch his breath and get back to work.
Meanwhile, the roots of the tumors have already penetrated even deeper into the ground, creating new foci of infection there.