Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The Verdant Turtle

"Adelfred!?"

Rosa was at a complete loss as to what to do — she wanted to do something, but just couldn't think of anything as she saw her lover's face being grabbed by a long penis that looked like a human arm. And upon further look, the fingers actually do look like 5 penises of different girth and length… all of them, leaking some sort of white fluid.

"...There's a chance that those are my cousins."

"W… what?" Rosa stuttered as she looked at her palm, only to see Lucian with a weird smile on his face; almost as if he was trying his best not to laugh there and then.

"Woah!" Lucian, however, just felt himself dropping to the ground as Rosa let go of him and grabbed her wand.

"I… I am the servant of the elements," Rosa started chanting even with her trembling breaths as she pointed the wand at the mutated wolf, "Life is fire, and fire is life. Fire is neither—"

"Do you really need to say all of those?"

Rosa's casting was interrupted as she saw Lucian just leaped up right between Adelfred and the mutated wolf, a crescent glint then flashed in the air as Lucian spun in the air; swinging his Scorpion Assassin blades and just slice the mutated wolf's long penis into pieces.

Adelfred's quickly shot back as he pulled himself away, falling straight to the ground butt-first. Unfortunately, the tip of mutated wolf's penis was still tightly latched onto his face like a spider; he struggled to pull it away, but 5 penis fingers weren't going limp at all.

"A…Adelfred!" Rosa immediately rushed toward Adelfred, trying to pry and pull the penis hand away but seemingly failing to do so as it just started to stretch — and it did not help at all that it was slightly slimy.

"What are you doing!?" Lucian slithered his way toward the couple with his hands on his head, "Stop rubbing it, you're making it harder!"

"I'm not rubbing it!" Rosa screamed.

"Well, it looks like you're rubbing it!"

"And what else do you want me to do!? And why would it even become harder if it's already severed!"

"Ho… well, some penises just strive better than—"

"Can we please stop talking about penises!"

"Tell that to Freddy!" Lucian then slithered right next to Adelfred's face and started pointing at him, "Freddy, my boy! Whatever you do, do not swallow because then it's gay!"

"W…what!?" Rosa was trying her best not to loosen her grip from what she just heard — fortunately, "What are you—"

And before she could finish her words, the penis hand finally just went limp; the penis fingers, just slowly shrinking in Rosa's hand, who quickly threw it away to the side to check on Adelfred.

"Aw… that's nasty," Lucian quickly looked away as he saw Adelfred's disfigured face covered in gunk, some of it even seeping into the cracks of his face, "I… I think I'm going to puke. Freddy, don't swallow, spit it out! Spit it out!"

Of course, Adelfred did as Lucian said as he just lay on his side and started puking out anything that might have gotten into his mouth.

"Adelfred!" Rosa quickly opened a jug of water and started pouring it onto Adelfred's face, who immediately started washing all of it away. As for Lucian, the expression on his face couldn't be painted anymore; he couldn't even look at Adelfred without looking away a second later.

"Well… on the bright side…" Lucian then very hesitantly placed his tiny hand the size of a kernel on Adelfred's shoulder as he just lay there defeated, "...At least you know how Rosa feels whenever you shoot it out of her face."

"We—we have never done that act!" Rosa quickly denied.

"It's fine, it's human," Lucian showed his palm to Rosa while shaking his head before just walking away, "...Unlike the semen that got onto Freddy's face!"

"L…Lucian!" Rosa was worried, yes — but she was actually also trying her best not to laugh at what just happened.

"P…pft…" Adelfred, however, couldn't contain his laughter as he just shook his head several times; of course, trying his best to close his mouth just in case anything would get in it.

"W…wait, speaking of, where is—" Rosa looked for the mutated wolf, and before she could finish her words, she saw it just lying on the ground… with all of its limbs dismembered.

"You people need to eat, right?" Lucian then approached the mutated wolf's corpse while pointing the Geiger counter at it, "Oh? .2? Is that the highest we've seen so far?"

"We—we can't eat it, Lucian," Rosa shook her head as she stood up and helped Adelfred up, "Its meat is tainted, corrupt."

"And so are the two of you," Lucian's voice turned serious as he looked Rosa in the eyes, "This is not time to be picky — you actually need to be alive to reach this… Scualor settlement place."

"We… we can't…" Rosa shook her head, "I… I would rather die than to eat its meat, Lucian."

Adelfred nodded in agreement.

"So… if it's not tainted, you'll eat it?" Lucian let out a small sigh as he moved closer to the mutated wolf's corpse; his hair, extending toward it and piercing through its open wounds.

"What are you—"

And there, both Rosa and Adelfred watched as a green substance was slowly being sucked and absorbed by Lucian's hair — and after what seemed like an entire minute, Lucian retracted his tendrils and slithered away before pointing the Geiger counter at the wolf's corpse again.

"There, 0," Lucian then showed the Geiger counter, "It is no longer tainted."

"You… you removed the creature's Corruption…?" Rosa's eyes turned wide; her breaths, slowly turning heavier by the second as she stared at Lucian. And before she could even say anything else, Adelfred suddenly knelt on the ground again and started praying to Lucian.

"Stop being so weird, Man," Lucian could really only wave his tiny hands to shoo Adelfred away, "Wh—"

"Is… is it possible…?" And before Lucian could finish his words, Rosa also suddenly kneeled, "Can you… can you remove the darkness that ails us…?"

"...You mean absorb the radiation out of you?" Lucian blinked a couple of times as he looked at the two for a couple of seconds… before just letting out a sigh and shaking his head, "No."

"But— but you were able to remove—"

"From a corpse," Lucian shook his head again, "If I try to absorb the radiation from you, you will die."

"But—"

"You're already gone," Lucian once again looked Rosa in the eyes, "And radiation and mutation work funny in this world — your corruption, as you say, is eating you alive. But at the same time…

…it is also the only reason you're still alive. Remove that, and all you will have are damaged cells that would cause your body to just collapse almost instantly."

"Cells…? That means—"

"You die," Lucian shrugged, "Rosa, you are going to die, that hasn't changed. The only choice you have now is how you die — nothing else."

"That…" Rosa closed her eyes and just bit her lip; placing her hand on Adelfred's back as she tried her best not to cry there and then. And as she opened her eyes again, she quickly looked at the mutated wolf,

"Can I… request you to cut it into pieces, Lucian?"

"No, butcher it yourselves. Are you children?"

"..."

And so, days passed and Lucian's adventure with the two lovers continued on. Fortunately, without any more penis arms.

"...How far is that Scualor settlement!? We've been walking for days!" Lucian finally could not help but complain.

"But… you've just been resting on top of my head for 2 days—"

"I asked you how far it is, now how long I've been on top of your head, Woman!"

Rosa could really only let out a sigh as she had already gotten fully used to Lucian's choice of vernacular. She then started rummaging through her bag before grabbing a piece of paper; which already had all sorts of cuts on the side and its color turning back to bark.

"Let me check on the map—"

"Wait, you've had a map all this time? Where's this Wall you speak—" Lucian then crawled down Rosa's non-disfigured cheek and stood on her shoulder as he looked at the map… only to see scribbles and doodles, "—are you kidding me? Who drew this, Adelfred's messed up face?"

"L… Lucian, please don't be rude," Rosa glanced at Adelfred, who just shrugged as he too, was already used to it.

"I am guessing that thing with the trees is where you guys are from?" Lucian then pointed at a part of the map with trees on it.

"It's almost on the border of Hestia, and this is Murcana," Rosa pointed at the other end of the map which had drawings of what seemed to be black towers, "And this is the Scualor settlement we are hoping to get to — there are other settlements. But… they're too close to Murcana territory."

"...And what is this big green mountain?" Lucian then pointed at the large mountain at the center.

"That's the landmark, the Verdant Turtle, it means if we see it — we are already only 3 days away from the settlement," Rosa squinted her eyes as she looked toward the horizon.

"3 more days!? And when will we even reach this Verdant—"

"It's right… there," a smile then crawled onto Rosa's face as she pointed toward the horizon. Lucian turned to look to where she was pointing, only to see a mountain filled with trees far into the distance, "It's… it's the Verdant Turtle!"

"Woah…" Lucian could not help but blink a couple of times as the mountain looked completely out of place, surrounded by the brown Wasteland, "...And is it just me, or is a part of it moving…?"

"Oh, that is the sacred Verdant Turtle's head. It's the only part that it could."

"Head…?" Lucian squinted his eyes,

"…Are you saying that's a real turtle?"