A simple call to her sister took Ilona's thoughts far, far away, to a home she could never return to, a face she could never see again, and a fork in the road she had missed that she could never choose again. right.
The raven in the dark night flapped its wings and hovered outside the window. Its scarlet eyes watched everything happening in the castle, and it stretched out the feathers on its neck and let out a long cry of "ah--".
The chirping of birds seeped into the depths of her soul, like a warning bell from reality, which instantly brought Ilona's consciousness back to the Earl's bedroom. She blinked away the tears from the corners of her eyes, watching the hyphae gradually covering her body. The wrapped Cesare seemed to have made the right decision.
But... the hands holding the sword seemed to be petrified and were not in control. All the strength in his body only made his arms tremble violently, and he was still unable to stab Cesare's heart with the sharp blade.
Ilona's self-consciousness repeatedly warned her that her sister did not belong to her, that her brother was dead, and died from the sword in her hands... She was not wrong, there was no cure for the infected, Erasure equals their salvation.
But the courage required to recognize this reality far exceeds the strength she has learned over the years.
Just when Ilona was forcing herself to become more cold-blooded, she seemed to have forgotten that there was another swordsman in this room.
Anya pushed her shoulder against Ilona's body regardless of her own safety. While knocking the silver-haired girl away from Cesare, she also accurately and quickly hit Ilona's wrist with the hilt of her sword.
The sudden pain and instinctive reflex forced her fingers to release the weapon.
The metal blade made a "ding" sound when it fell to the smooth floor. Ilona's sword fell to the ground and was stepped on by Anya's boots in an instant, leaving Ilona no chance to retrieve the weapon.
Ilona shook her painful wrist to make sure that no bones were injured, and then hurriedly wiped away the tears on her face with her cuffs.
"Give me the sword back!"
She yelled angrily. The double trauma in her heart and body made the silver-haired girl look embarrassed and pitiful. She helplessly hugged her aching arm and gave in to her final stubbornness.
"No." Anya replied briskly with a smile. She kicked out the silver sword she was stepping on with a slight force of her feet. The sword slid along the ground and entered the gap under the bed next to her.
The bottom of the bed was not high enough from the ground to reach in, so it would definitely take some time to take out the sword.
Ilona was anxious and angry. She opened her mouth slightly and was about to say something, but Anya interrupted her directly.
"My swordsmanship is good, much better than the boys in the city."
Anya first smiled and bowed with a victor's attitude. When she straightened up again, the girl's expression had completely lost the smile. Anya's eyes were serious and angry at Ilona's attempt to hurt Cesare just now.
"But I repeat...as long as I'm alive, don't even think about touching Cesare."
At this moment, Cesare, who was lying on the ground unconscious, suddenly moved his arm. Although the amplitude of the mycelium was small, it was still noticed by the two nervous girls.
The floor trembled slightly, and black hyphae extended and grew along Cesare's side, like a pool of blood that was gradually spreading.
"Cesare...?" Anya was about to approach but was suddenly stopped by her opponent Ilona.
"Stay away from him! That thing is no longer Cesare..."
Just as Ilona said, Cesare's young body stretched and relaxed repeatedly in pain, screaming in pain as if his body was being torn apart alive.
The skin of his body showed an ominous black-purple color and the surface was covered with densely packed tiny mycelium.
The limbs also became deformed and twisted as the infection spread, and the face turned into a wild beast due to the pulling of hyphae.
Every muscle in Cesare's body was struggling pointlessly, twisting his joints weirdly and rolling on the floor, trying to get up again and again and falling again.
And in the next moment, countless hyphae burst out from Cesare's body and twisted into nightmarish tentacles waving their limbs in the room, like a group of evil guards protecting the parasitic host to complete the mutation.
Cesare's screams slowly became weaker in the process, and were finally submerged in the ocean of mycelium.
Both Anya and Ilona could only retreat in front of the terrifying sight, unable to get even half a step closer to Cesare.
Anya wanted to seize an opening and go to Cesare, but suddenly a thick mycelium tentacle slapped down on her head. She dodged in time and at the same time, the tentacle also made a depression on the floor.
If a human head received this blow, it would probably turn into a puddle of mud immediately.
"It's too late..." Ilona frowned and watched the disaster coming but she could do nothing.
Like the flood dam reaching its breaking point, Cesare's own struggle against the infection came to an end, and like other infected people, the mycelium won the final victory.
The hyphae that filled the room surged up and down like a tide, and suddenly gathered back into Cesare's body at the same moment.
Those mycelium-condensed tentacles disappeared, and instead formed a tight layer of armor that tightly covered Cesare's body, completely turning him into a mycelial monster.
Before the two girls could react, Cesare stood up slowly with his forelimbs on the ground and his hind legs like a wild wolf. The hyphae on his body were like the hair of a beast, shining faintly in the moonlight, and his eyes seemed to be overflowing. Red as blood.
He glanced at Anya and Ilona with ferocious eyes as if looking at strangers, lowered his head and let out a threatening growl.
He bent his body, raised his sharp ears, and opened his split mouth slightly to reveal sharp fangs.
At this moment, the door to the room was suddenly knocked open. Mr. Andel stood outside the door nervously, followed by several people in black.
Even though they were already demon hunters who had experienced countless battles with monsters, they couldn't help but be surprised and stunned when they saw the scene inside the house.
Cesare, who had turned into a monster, roared at the uninvited guests, and the desolate voice echoed in the castle. Then he rushed to the floor-to-ceiling window of the room, smashed the glass with a "bang!" and rushed out.
Glass shards and flying hyphae mixed together and scattered all over the floor.
"Cesare!" The moment Cesare jumped out of the window, Anya immediately rushed towards the broken glass without any extra thought. Seeing that the direction she ran in was very wrong, Ilona roared incomprehensibly. "What are you going to do? Are you crazy!"
