"It seems you possess quite a few secrets!"
The meat-mountain spirit, having fully restored itself, was in no rush to strike. Instead, it used the massive, singular eye in the center of its belly to size Eros up. Seeing that Eros offered no reply, the spirit didn't mind, continuing to speak through its thousands of mouths.
"According to the fragments of knowledge bestowed upon me by the Great One, that enticing life aura of yours belongs to the legendary Elven race. But didn't the Elves migrate to the Emerald Realm tens of thousands of years ago? So! Why are you here? And why does an Elf like you harbor faith in the Night?"
"If you answer these questions, I might consider... not eating you."
After speaking, the meat-mountain actually took several steps back and placed its hands behind its back as a gesture of "good faith."
"It is using Profane Speech (亵渎之语) against you," Barbara’s voice explained in his ear. "The moment you answer—regardless of whether you tell the truth—it can use the connection to inflict mental contamination, stripping you of your will to resist."
Eros’s mouth twitched. This 'old schemer' is truly insidious. Playing the 'I won't eat you' card while trying to rot my brain from the inside. Talk about wearing a halo while sharpening a butcher knife.
Eros narrowed his eyes, making a swift decision. He let out a cold laugh. "You think I'm stupid enough to believe you?"
The moment Eros responded, a glint of cunning flashed in the spirit's giant eye. A wave of foul, invisible power manifested out of thin air, burrowing toward Eros’s soul. Eros’s body stiffened for several seconds, looking as though his mind had been seized.
The meat-mountain let out a triumphant, raucous roar. Its rotting right hand instantly snatched Eros, thrusting him toward the gargantuan eye in its belly. Simultaneously, the eye split down the middle, revealing a cavernous maw lined with jagged fangs.
It wasn't going to dally or gloat; it wanted to swallow Eros immediately, as if terrified that he might slip away if it delayed even a second.
However, just as it stuffed Eros into its mouth, "Eros" dissolved into a puddle of liquid shadow, slipping through the gaps in its fingers. All that remained in the spirit's palm was a tiny, pitch-black orb.
Trapped! He wasn't contaminated! Panic flared in the spirit’s mind.
The next instant, a blinding, radiant light erupted from the spirit's palm. Screaming in agony, the meat-mountain threw the miniature sun away. While it was distracted by the Brilliant Sun, Eros had silently emerged from the shadows behind it.
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He gripped the alchemical longsword burning with emerald-green flames. Springing off the creature's rolls of fat, he leaped into the air and swung. The blade, coated in his blood, once again sheared the mouth-covered head clean off.
Eros’s blood smeared across the raw neck stump. Where the crimson liquid touched the dark-green muscle, it hissed and sizzled like acid, but that was all. Clearly, against a Beyonder-level existence, his blood no longer carried its once-devastating potency.
The remaining mouths on the spirit’s body let out a collective shriek. Rotting hands and lashing tentacles slammed toward Eros simultaneously. He raised his sword to parry, but the sheer force sent him tumbling back over a dozen meters, crashing through a crowd of lesser spirits.
Struggling to his feet, Eros felt the green light of healing surge through him, mending his internal organs. He looked at the alchemical sword—it was now covered in cracks, ready to shatter at the slightest touch. He tossed it aside and drew Dead by Daylight from his waist.
On the other side, the severed head once again dissolved into transparent, writhing worms that flowed back into the creature's body. Soft flesh began to bulge at the neck, reforming a new head.
BANG!
A thunderous gunshot rang out. The half-formed head and a chunk of the creature’s upper torso were vaporized into a mist of blood.
Eros had channeled Barbara’s power into Dead by Daylight, triggering the Judgment skill to amplify the bullet—formed from Barbara’s own Ling—by twelve times its original power. Only a twelve-fold amplified Beyonder-level bullet could deal such devastating damage.
Looking at the half-missing meat-mountain, Eros exhaled. That's got to be it, right?
But Barbara’s next words were a bucket of cold water. "Those transparent worms are the Beyonder spirit’s Spirit Worms . As long as those worms survive, it can restore itself infinitely."
Sure enough, the gore began to shift back into writhing worms, flying back to the main body. Within moments, the spirit was whole again, though its overall size had visibly shrunk. The shot had clearly drained a significant portion of its essence.
Enraged, the meat-mountain abandoned its games. Its massive bulk charged at Eros with the force of a runaway train. Eros dodged the collision and, using the creature's momentum against it, fired another shot into the back of its head.
When the head burst into Spirit Worms again, Eros aimed directly at the worms. Bang! Bang! Bang!
The worms exploded one by one, and the spirit let out a harrowing wail. Just as Eros thought it was finally over, the shattered fragments of the Spirit Worms coalesced once more, appearing slightly more translucent than before.
Are you kidding me? They can reform even after being shot? I refuse to believe you can do this forever!
The battle dragged on for several more minutes. Eros blew the worms apart multiple times, but they reconstructed themselves every single time. The meat-mountain seemed truly unkillable. At this rate, he was going to be the one who ran out of steam first.
As if echoing his fears, Barbara’s voice rang in his mind: "My power is nearly depleted. If the next strike doesn't kill it, I will use my remaining strength to pull you into the Shadow Realm."
Eros went silent. If he entered the Shadow Realm, he wouldn't be able to return until Barbara recovered enough to reopen the gate.
But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that without him here to restrain this Beyonder horror, Undine and the others would have zero chance of survival. They would be nothing more than snacks for this thing.