บท 19: Rotten Core and Diamond Skin
Woran exited the safe zone, condensing corruption in his wings to blast towards the ocean immediately after. But, his wings had just flapped once when he lost all strength in his body, fainting in the process, "What the heck…happened?"
Bzzz!
Hovering next to him was a wasp, sporting a scorpion tail that had stung his neck, injecting a copious amount of poison into him that instantly knocked him unconscious.
The wasp then ballooned in size as its scorpion tail elongated in length. It then coiled around the Keras, bringing it back into the safe zone.
The wasp then entered a secured building, transforming into Rhizen as he gazed at the figure of Woran that gradually turned into a human once again, with his Keras form vanishing.
"Hmm…?" He frowned, tipping Woran to the side as he looked at a tiny worm-like creature stuck on his spine, "So, this is your true identity."
This particular Keras was a parasitic individual that had infiltrated the safe zone by latching onto Woran when he had ventured out on a mission. And due to the sheer difference between their powers, he hadn't even sensed it latching onto him.
And through that, it managed to use his body to infiltrate the safe zone, fully parasitising him to gain intelligence about the Mystic and Horned Humans.
And eventually, he targeted Yanka to obtain the most recent information, intending to escape after that. But unfortunately for him, he was found out by Rhizen that happened to be in the same building.
Rhizen carefully pried out the parasitic Keras, watching Woran grunt as he gradually regained consciousness. He was still profusely injured, unable to move for the time being.
"Take him to the healing ward and keep an eye on his state. Tell Shika to oversee him." Rhizen said to the couple of people nearby, watching them take Woran with them and vanish.
He then wrapped hundreds of feathers around the Keras, sealing it up before carrying it with him to an underground dungeon, intending to interrogate it.
He dropped it on the ground, retracting the scorpion stinger, watching the Keras gradually regain consciousness.
The moment it noticed Rhizen, it immediately whirred its corruption, intending to commit suicide. But unfortunately for it, the same thing that it had done to Yanka was now reciprocated.
Rhizen's poison constricted its movements, also preventing it from riling up its corruption.
"Now, how many of you have infiltrated this safe zone?" He asked.
"I alone." The Keras responded spontaneously, surprised at the result as it stared at Rhizen in fear, trembling under his gaze, wondering how he was able to force it to talk. After all, it was a freaking Keras and not a run-of-the-mill Aberrant.
"What about the other safe zones?" He asked next.
"Two other safe zones have been infiltrated by the Keras similar to me." The Keras replied.
"What's your plan?" Rhizen asked next.
"We need time for the corruption to settle in the inner core of this planet. And we plan to buy time until then." The Keras said, "As long as we settle there, wiping us out would be impossible with your methods. So, this planet would never be fully cleansed by you. We call this the Rotten Core Principle."
"How long until a Celas is birthed?" Rhizen asked next.
"The corruption is still lacking to birth another Celas." The Keras said, "But, once we stabilise in the inner core, we'll be able to create a stronger Celas."
"The first Celas was created in a hurry, so it wasn't strong enough. But the second one would be a lot stronger than you." It spoke.
Rhizen then interrogated it for a while longer, extracting all the information from it before transforming into a Whale that swallowed it.
As the dense stream of corruption was transformed into Nacre, he could feel his Mutated Beasts growing in accordance, bringing a smile to his face.
'Before this loop ends, I'll attempt to reach Stage 10.' He thought, 'But before that, I need to raise the horns of all my Mutated Beasts to nine.'
He then snapped his finger, watching Yulna kneel on the ground behind him, "Inform the other safe zones of this information. Dispatch Dwun and Shika to deal with the two Keras."
"Yes, Saint!" Yulna saluted in response before taking out her whistle that she used to transmit the information to the other safe zones.
Following that, Rhizen transformed into a wasp and exited the safe zone, heading east as he raised his speed, travelling 270 kilometres in an hour, reaching the Yalore Sea, and taking a dip.
Guoong!
He transformed into a Whale, covering himself with the Celestial Armour for protection against the corruption while rapidly devouring any and all the corruption around him.
And once the corruption was digested, the Whale exited the ocean water and shat out a large pile of poop.
This poop was practically solidified Nacre, possessing a corrosive property against the corruption, also able to affect the corruption and convert it into Nacre slowly.
Since the Aberrants planned to dominate the ocean, Rhizen planned to dominate the land and firm his control over the place. And for that, the land itself should produce Nacre. As long as that happens, it would imply that the corruption would be trapped in the core of the planet.
And over the years, as the Nacre grows stronger and stronger, it would start to purify the corruption deeper and deeper into the planet, over time eradicating it entirely.
Moreover, by that point, the planet itself would begin to produce Nacre naturally, ensuring Apocalypse wouldn't be able to devour this world easily in the future.
It was the plan that he had created to counter the Rotten Core Principle, naming it the Diamond Skin Plan.
The Whale opened its mouth, gobbling up all the Aberrants in the vicinity, digesting everything before shitting out a condensed mass onto the shore. Tens of thousands of feathers flew around, pressing the pile of poop from all sides, beginning to compress it.
Rhizen continued with the action for three days before creating a pile that spanned a height of two hundred metres.
He then exited the water, arriving before the pile to activate an ability.
Apocalyptic Arts—Static Force (V)!
The air around him turned still, including a stretch of the ocean. Moreover, as the ocean currents continued to stream into the still region, the kinetic energy within it too was absorbed and funnelled into the target area.
And, this target area formed a surface over the hill, perfectly outlined over it.
Rhizen waited for a couple of seconds before feeling that he had accumulated enough kinetic energy, causing a feather within the pile to gently touch the transparent film.
Immediately after, the entirety of the kinetic energy stored within the transparent film was ejected out as a force, slamming into the pile of poop from all sides, instantly compressing it into a sphere with a radius of ten metres.
Upon seeing that this was the limit to the extent of control he had over this ability, Rhizen stopped after a single use, gazing at the tremendously dense sphere of poop that he named the Nacre Ball.
It weighed hundreds of tonnes, something impossible to lift by human standards, even considering most Horned and Mystic Humans.
This wasn't where his work was done though as Rhizen selected a spot a hundred metres inward from the shore, pointing his hand at it as he activated another ability.
Apocalyptic Arts—Dust Wave (IX)!
The Dust Wave bored a hole—with a diameter of ten metres—into the ground, stopping at a depth of hundred metres.
Rhizen created a transparent film at the bottom of the bore using Static Force, triggering it using a Homing Feather. The resulting force emission sent all the dust in the deep bore outward, ejecting out a cloud of dust.
Rhizen constructed a fan using the Homing Feathers, making them rotate at terrifying speeds to unleash a gust of wind that sent the dust flying away, now able to see his surrounding clearly once again.
He then inspected the bore to see that its walls were smooth, smiling as he used the Homing Feathers to slowly transport the Nacre Ball to the bottom of the hole.
Of course, it was tremendously difficult to do so as he had to maintain the utmost concentration. Once it was transported to the bottom, he filled up most of the bore using pebbles, layering the remainder with sand scooped from the beach.
He then closed his eyes, sensing the Nacre and corruption in the region.
The Nacre Ball gradually affected the nearby corruption, converting it into Nacre. Even though this was a slow process, it was working perfectly despite the concentration of corruption in the place.
"Okay, it's working." He nodded, returning to the Yonka City as he informed the PADS members, bringing everyone with a Whale with him to the shores.
Yulna informed the details to the other safe zones, following Rhizen as she too possessed a Whale.
And with that, their Diamond Skin Plan began in full swing.
At set distances of a kilometre from each other, bores spanning a diameter of ten metres and a depth of hundred metres would be created. And placed at their bottom would be a Nacre Ball each before being covered up.
They would then trail through the shore in the same manner, creating a defensive line that would also begin to affect the nearby ocean water, purifying it of its corrosion too.
This way, the Nacre production would spike, with the stellar quantity leading to a qualitative result.
The first line of defence would be on the shore. And after that, they would gradually proceed inland, eventually covering the surface with Nacre Balls.
This was the true Diamond Skin Plan.
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