After walking a short distance, Mithra turned the lantern back on.
Even in flashlight mode, she wouldn't shine the light upwards, to avoid attracting another Herald of Eternal Night.
As she approached the breach, she felt uneasy.
She stopped and shone the light on her hand, noticing fur had grown there.
Her eyes flickered between bestial and human pupils before settling back to normal.
"I'm starting to transform without realizing it. Is it this world's influence?" Mithra murmured.
Lowering her hand, she looked ahead. It was time to move quickly.
She was familiar with the buildings around her. She had reached the Southwestern District of Sun City, where the buildings were low and sparse. Her lantern shone across vast fields, where various monsters were chasing each other.
Reaching this point hadn't been easy. Despite knowing her direction, Mithra had gotten lost several times.
The dimensional pouch had reduced her sense of space, making her slightly disoriented.
Instead of going directly to the Xyrin energy point, she decided to walk towards the breach.
Arriving there, she saw a creature that resembled an insect made of flesh.
As she approached, it stirred, its limbs extending as it stood. Human-like eyes appeared and looked at Mithra.
Eyesight, and a reaction to the light?
Mithra briefly moved the lantern, but the scuttling sound continued, clearly not a "deeper creature of darkness."
When she shone the light again, the creature lunged at her.
Mithra slammed her hand into the ground. A spike of earth erupted, impaling the creature.
["Fertile Ground": A magma miracle. It can alter the shape of earth, mud, and rock. Ineffective against special materials. The more common the material, the easier it is to use.]
[—"Stone is just stone. The meaning it carries is merely an impurity; this is its pure form."]
The insect struggled on the spike. Mithra drew her hammer and brought it down on its head, layering Reinforce Body for extra force. The blow shattered the insect's head and body.
Although its head was crushed, the body remained active, twitching. More fleshy tentacles emerged from the severed neck.
Seeing the earth spike was struggling to hold it, Mithra ignited her hammer and began pounding the fleshy remains.
Fire suppressed the remaining activity. The writhing flesh quickly turned into cooked meat.
Mithra examined the remains and obtained information about the "Chrysalis" cursed creature via Night Eyes.
Looking up at the flesh clinging to the wall, she confirmed her suspicions about the connection between these creatures and the Chrysalis.
Unlike the simple yet complex Sunshine Village in the real world, this Sunshine Village in Eternal Night had become a breeding ground for Chrysalis cursed creatures.
The writhing flesh defied biological norms, growing into every form they had encountered.
Insects, humanoids, quadrupeds...all were present.
The imitations weren't perfect, just suggestive, as if they had grown randomly in this darkness.
Searching here was different. If the flesh was exposed to light for too long, eyes would develop, and the creatures would react, attacking Mithra.
This seemed to distinguish the flesh from the other Creatures of Darkness.
Mithra followed the path in her memory, climbing upward.
Suddenly, while climbing a staircase, she heard footsteps and looked upwards.
From a higher level, through a gap in the wooden planks, she saw a moving figure. It walked unsteadily, either lame or simply learning to walk.
After a moment, the figure stopped, bent down, and pressed its face against the wooden planks. From the contorted face, a single, swollen eye stared directly at Mithra.
"You're not..."
Before Mithra could finish, the figure began pounding the wooden planks. The weak planks shattered, and the figure fell in front of her.
"Ugh, ugh..." The figure struggled to its feet amidst the dust, letting out a guttural groan.
But as it rose, a purple light filled its vision.
Mithra had moved in for a preemptive strike, quickly plunging her sword into its chest. Then, turning, she threw the figure into the air with a powerful thrust, activating Control Object and a red energy that enveloped the sword, sending it soaring.
Holding the sword with one hand and the lantern in the other, she examined the figure's face.
"I may be directionally challenged, but I'm not blind. You're one of the people I encountered earlier, the one I hit twice," Mithra nodded.
The face was one of those she had seen when encountering the "Chrysalis" group. Of course, now it was somewhat obscured by swelling flesh and bloated eyes; recognition wasn't easy.
"Ugh..."
The figure couldn't speak.
It was no different from the cursed creatures. Upon closer inspection, its body showed little differentiation; it seemed to have simply been split from a larger mass of flesh.
Mithra remembered that the group had been larger during their second encounter.
"Are you a copy or someone left behind?" Mithra asked.
"Ugh..."
Naturally, the creature couldn't answer.
Mithra used Control Object to retrieve her sword.
The creature fell to the ground with a thud. Mithra glanced at the mangled remains before continuing her ascent.
She sheathed the sword and used one of the maw's tongues to wipe the blood and strange fluids from the blade before storing it back into her body.
No need to waste "tissues."
The maw, apparently, didn't mind.
"Hungry..."
Mithra reached a narrow, elevated passage.
Halfway across, another figure appeared, similar to the previous one—another member of the five-person Chrysalis group.
But this one seemed more "complete," moving more smoothly.
Like the previous one, it approached as soon as it saw Mithra.
Mithra drew her hammer, but before she could move, she heard a noise behind her.
Another twisted figure emerged from the shadows, blocking her retreat.
They had surrounded her on this narrow passage.
Mithra narrowed her eyes. "This strange sense of déjà vu..."