On the surface of the massive Flesh Sphere, amidst the exposed muscle tissue, one could faintly discern countless distorted human faces contorted in agony. Especially when Aglaea and Lucas stood nearby, many of the eyeballs slowly swiveled to gaze at them.
Lucas couldn't help but grimace. "Ugh... this thing is utterly repulsive."
As he spoke, he hurriedly glanced at Aglaea beside him, as if trying to cleanse his eyes.
Aglaea, on the other hand, merely crooked her fingers. Golden Threads shot forth from all directions, piercing the Flesh Sphere. The sphere immediately writhed violently, and the human faces on its surface opened their mouths in anguished howls.
Moments later, palm-sized gaps erupted across the Sphere's surface, and globs of flesh-like slime spewed forth in all directions.
Without any visible action from Aglaea, a dense web of Golden Threads surged from the ground at her feet. Forming an impenetrable barrier one or two meters ahead, the net intercepted every flying chunk of flesh.
She now had a clearer understanding of how the city's inhabitants had been corrupted—undoubtedly through contact with this strange flesh.
After the initial appearance of a few Corrupted, they began behaving like zombies. Any wound they inflicted on others would spread the Corruption.
In her previous life, she had often seen online discussions about what would happen if a zombie virus truly appeared in reality.
In truth, unless it was a supernatural strain of zombie virus, even with creatures like Tyrants and Lickers, they would never stand a chance against a modern military. The virus would be detected within an hour of its emergence, triggering an immediate national response: the city would be sealed off, and the military would deploy.
However, if a zombie virus were to appear in this medieval setting, it would be a truly terrifying scenario. Communication methods in this era were rudimentary. If something happened in one place, it could take days or even weeks for news to reach other regions.
Moreover, the average quality of people in this world was remarkably high, with a diverse array of Class Holders. If a Warrior, Barbarian, Priest, or other such individual were infected, their power would become terrifying. Even an ordinary zombie virus would pose a massive threat to this world—let alone this was no ordinary virus, but Outer God Corruption.
Aglaea shared her thoughts with Lucas. "Therefore, as long as we avoid contact with this flesh and blood and remain uninjured while fighting these monsters, we should be safe from corruption."
While the flesh corruption looked terrifying and was agonizing, it was actually less dangerous than spiritual corruption. Now that they understood the principle of corruption, the next question was: How did this corruption originate? How did the first person become a zombie?
As she pondered, Aglaea subtly flexed her fingers. The protective Golden Thread net before her slowly dispersed, while the massive Flesh Sphere opposite them had been shredded into a bloody mess, reduced to a disgusting puddle of meat pulp.
Lucas spoke up, "Since the source of the corruption is within the Adventurer's Guild, it proves that the first person infected must have been an adventurer. They must have encountered something while out on a quest and brought the corruption back with them."
As he spoke, Lucas took a deep breath, held it, and stepped forward across the fleshy membrane covering the floor. After entering what had once been the Adventurer's Guild, he glanced around, then crouched down, his hands moving so quickly they became a blur as he sifted through the debris on the ground, picking up something.
Thanks to the cloak Aglaea had given him, he didn't need to worry about being infected. Still, the sight was repulsive. Lucas accelerated his movements, and soon, the Adventurer's Guild's mission board, used for posting quests, was completely restored.
The scattered wooden fragments coalesced into a whole plank, and the blood-soaked scraps of paper reassembled themselves on the board, looking as good as new. The scene was like time-reversal magic, leaving even Aglaea momentarily stunned.
Truly worthy of being called a Divine Artifact, the Master Hand was an utterly miraculous creation.
After the restoration was complete, Lucas quickly scanned the bulletin board, grabbed two quests, and hurried back to Aglaea. "Only two adventure quests have been completed recently," he reported. "One was to slay an Evil Wizard, and the other was to clear out a nearby Goblin settlement."
"Then the first Corrupted adventurer likely returned from one of these two locations," Aglaea deduced, taking one of the quests. "I'll take this one, you take the other. Report back to the starting point immediately after investigating."
"Mission assured!" Lucas replied.
Aglaea naturally chose the "Evil Wizard" quest, and the moment she saw the title, she had a strong premonition of what she would find.
After a long trek to the destination, she gazed upon the Summoning Circle in the cave and the rotting, foul-smelling corpse of a Mushroom Demon lying on the ground. A look of weary resignation crossed her face as she sighed, "Just as I suspected..."
The Arcane Federation could issue a decree banning all Conjuration School Wizards from casting spells, but such a measure would be nearly impossible to enforce in the All Nations Alliance. The nation was too free, and there were far too many Self-Taught Wizards.
Even if news of the ban on Wizards summoning demons reached all Wizards, there was no guarantee they would comply. In fact, it might even backfire.
For example, some might think, "Why are you forbidding me from summoning? I'll summon anyway, just to see what happens."
Aglaea quickly returned to her starting point, where Councilor Perseus was still waiting. Seeing her return, he immediately approached her and asked, "Lady Aglaea, did your investigation yield any results?"
Though less than half a day had passed since Aglaea's departure, Perseus might have suspected a normal investigation team of deserting their post. But Aglaea was a god. Finding results in such a short time was perfectly natural, wasn't it?
Aglaea nodded and was about to speak when an Alliance soldier suddenly ran up, shouting, "Disaster! Another city in the far south has just lost contact!"