Lucian watched as Millicent walked along the main road toward Stormveil Castle. He sighed softly.
'Let's hope nothing happens to her.'
Almost immediately, he felt a familiar warmth press against his back — Melina had taken her seat behind him once more.
"You really are kind to everyone, aren't you?" she murmured, her tone both gentle and faintly reproachful.
"She's entangled with two demigods… and with the very goddess who is the source of the Scarlet Rot. You didn't even know her before this, and yet you just rush to help her. You should really be more careful."
Her voice lingered by his ear, quiet but firm.
Lucian smiled lightly. "I can't help it. The people of the Lands Between… they live such difficult lives."
"I can't just stand by and watch their suffering without doing anything."
Melina said nothing more. She simply rested her head against his back, her voice fading into silence. She knew what kind of person Lucian was, and in truth, it was that untainted kindness of his that one couldn't help but feel drawn to.
Through a Site of Grace, Lucian returned to Redmane Castle.
The moment he arrived, he made his way straight to Hildegard's laboratory to check on the current state of her research. A day had passed since they began experimenting — surely, by now, Hildegard must have learned something about the peculiar nature of that altered Scarlet Rot.
When Hildegard saw Lucian return, she immediately beckoned him over, her expression filled with excitement.
"Ah, perfect timing! We've already made some discoveries."
Lucian raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What did you find?"
Hildegard paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before speaking. "I'll start with the conclusion."
"The plants that were transformed from the Scarlet Rot have indeed lost their toxicity."
"Even when fed to living creatures, there's been no immediate or visible reaction."
She hesitated, frowning slightly. "However… the situation may not be as optimistic as we first thought."
Hildegard took out a container identical to the ones used previously and set it in front of Lucian.
She pointed at the small clump of Scarlet Rot within it, signaling for Lucian to take a closer look.
Lucian leaned in, observing it carefully. At first glance, there didn't seem to be any difference between the rot inside and ordinary Scarlet Rot.
"What's wrong? Isn't this just normal Scarlet Rot?"
Hildegard shook her head and spread his hands helplessly. "Unfortunately, this is actually part of the batch you transformed yesterday using your power."
Lucian blinked in disbelief and looked again at the container's contents. Sure enough — it was ordinary Scarlet Rot. The distinct features that had once marked its transformation were completely gone.
Yet just yesterday, those very specimens had begun to change under sunlight, turning into plant-like growths.
"What happened? Did they… revert on their own?"
Hildegard nodded. "Exactly. It seems that without nourishment, they all reverted back to Scarlet Rot."
"Remember how, after being influenced by your power, the rot began expanding?"
"Well, after they returned to their original form, their quantity remained the same."
She sighed, adjusting her glasses. "If we can't find a way to prevent this reversion, we may actually accelerate the spread of the Scarlet Rot instead."
Lucian frowned deeply. "So, that means this method won't work after all…"
Hildegard waved her hand quickly. "Not necessarily. Come, let me show you something else."
She brought over several more containers, stacking them neatly on the table for comparison.
Inside each, the Scarlet Rot samples looked different — some had reverted, but many still retained their plant-like forms, continuing to grow. Only one or two had turned back into Scarlet Rot.
Lucian scanned across them, noting the clear contrast between each container. "These ones didn't revert? What did you do differently?"
Hildegard pointed to the first container.
At its base was a shallow layer of water, slowly evaporating. The plant within still appeared healthy, though its color had darkened slightly. "In this one, I only added water."
"As you can see, it's still alive. The color's deepened, but it continues to grow without reverting."
"So, it seems even pure water can sustain it — at least for now."
She then gestured toward the second container. This one held a layer of soil, though it was starting to dry and crumble into sand. Yet the plant growing within was tall and lush.
"In this one, I used soil from another region — untouched by Scarlet Rot."
"These plants are astonishingly greedy for nutrients. The soil beneath them has already been drained dry, turning to sand."
Then Hildegard pointed toward the third container — where the plants were thriving most vibrantly, their color a rich, healthy green.
"And for this one, I added animal flesh."
"The growth rate and vitality of these specimens are far greater than the rest."
Lucian's gaze shifted toward the remaining containers — three of them. Inside, the plants were slowly deteriorating, their structure collapsing as they reverted to Scarlet Rot.
"These three," Hildegard explained, "were treated the same way as the first three, except I used only half the amount of materials."
"They've already absorbed everything available, and as you can see, they're beginning to revert."
"This confirms that the transformation fails due to a lack of nutrients, not some mysterious cause."
Lucian turned his attention to the final container, which held nothing but the red corruption once more. "And this one?" he asked.
Hildegard glanced at the label. "This one? I directly added unaltered Scarlet Rot into it."
"What's interesting is that the transformed plants seem to share nutrients with the untouched rot."
"When only a small amount of Scarlet Rot is added, the plants can even turn the new samples into plant form as well."
"But once their energy runs out, they all regress together — reverting back into Scarlet Rot at the same time."
She paused, then continued with a more thoughtful tone. "These transformed plants can function like ordinary vegetation in an ecosystem."
"When fed to animals, there's been no noticeable abnormalities so far."
"We tested them on sheep and mice that had never been exposed to Scarlet Rot — they showed no strange reactions, and the plants didn't transform back into rot inside their stomachs."
"Of course, it might also be that the experiment's duration has simply been too short," Hildegard added. "We'll need more long-term observation before drawing a real conclusion."
Lucian's eyes drifted between the rows of containers filled with Scarlet Rot, deep in thought.
The plants born from the Scarlet Rot had extremely high demands for nutrients. Sunlight could indeed induce their "fertile" state, transforming them into flora. But to maintain that state, they needed a constant, abundant supply of nourishment afterward.
From the subsequent tests using different single elements, it became clear that the Scarlet Rot could absorb nearly any kind of nutrient. In other words, it wasn't picky at all.
In fact, when given only sunlight and no additional materials, it had still managed to grow and even spread beyond its container. Yet once the nutrients ran dry, not only did it revert to Scarlet Rot, it actually expanded in size, consuming more space than before.
That meant any purification plan would need to be executed all at once, on a large scale. Gradual cleansing wouldn't work—the plants' nutrients would simply be siphoned away by the surrounding Scarlet Rot.
Still, that wasn't a major issue for Lucian. He had already planned to use the enhanced sunlight created through Wind Spirit Moon Shadow to conduct the cleansing. But the matter of sustaining those plants afterward… that was another problem entirely.
The sunlight enhancement could indeed purify the Scarlet Rot, transforming all of it into plant matter. However, if they were left unattended afterward, the entire process might backfire—spreading the Scarlet Rot even farther.
Judging from current results, these plants consumed nutrients from water, soil, and even flesh at an alarming rate. Perhaps with proper sunlight exposure, their nutrient consumption would decrease to a manageable level. But the problem was—there was no way to keep them under sunlight continuously.
The sun was still blocked—hidden behind the Bleached Sun.
If that was the case, then the first step must be to resolve the issue of the Bleached Sun before any large-scale cleansing of the Scarlet Rot could even begin.
Lucian thought it through carefully and decided to postpone the purification of Caelid for now. After all, even if he managed to cleanse the land temporarily, once the plants ran out of nutrients, Caelid would turn once again into a hellscape of Scarlet Rot.
Perhaps it would even be necessary to study how to eradicate these transformed plants entirely on a large scale. They were, after all, born from divine power—treating them carelessly could easily lead to disaster.
At the very least, they needed to be confined within a specific area. They were plants now, yes—but who could say what they might become later? Perhaps one day, new life—animal-like creatures would emerge from them.
Lucian sighed softly. He certainly didn't want to wake up one morning to find the ground sprouting green-skinned creatures shouting "WAAAGH!" at him.
So he turned to Hildegard and asked, "Is there any way to dispose of these plants transformed from the Scarlet Rot? We'll need to manage them properly afterward, can't let them grow unchecked."
Hildegard nodded in agreement. Indeed, such things had to be contained. If they were left to spread freely, the consequences could be catastrophic.
After a moment of thought, Hildegard said, "We've been testing methods for that as well, and we've gathered a few results."
"Fire," she began simply, "is still extremely effective."
"Just like regular Scarlet Rot, these plants burn away easily. They even instinctively avoid flame, slowly retreating from high temperatures."
"Other means can also harm them—extreme cold, lightning, and a variety of other forces. Once they become plants, even the Withering Incense I developed earlier can affect them."
"In short, once they take plant form, their weaknesses multiply. It's likely that the rot's natural state was meant purely for spreading and survival, hence its far greater adaptability."
"Still, even with more weaknesses, the simplest and most efficient method remains fire. The Withering Incense works well too, and it's far cheaper to produce than Neutralizing Incense. If production can be scaled up, it might become a viable option."
Lucian pondered silently.
'Fire, huh?'
If purification truly proved too troublesome, then perhaps the best solution was to use Wind Spirit Moon Shadow to amplify the power of flame, to burn the entire land clean.
But if he did that, Caelid would become nothing more than scorched wasteland. It would take millennia—thousands of years, for the ecosystem to recover from that devastation.
On the other hand, the Scarlet Rot plants did serve an ecological function. They were real plants now, capable of supporting life and restoring some balance to the land.
Each method had its pros and cons.
If he could find a way to contain them safely, it might actually be better to let them remain. He would wait for the results of future experiments before deciding how to proceed.
Lucian exhaled deeply. "…Do we have any animals suitable for experimentation?"
"I want to see how the Scarlet Rot behaves when attached to a living host."
Hildegard nodded, then called for one of the Redmane soldiers outside to bring in suitable test subjects.
Before long, several soldiers returned, pushing a large iron cage into the lab. Inside was a massive hound—one of the wild beasts commonly found roaming the plains of Caelid. Its body was riddled with wounds, its breath shallow, its life barely hanging by a thread.
Hildegard gestured toward it and explained, "This one was captured by the knights outside. We have several others. They've been used for testing medicine and studying corruption in living beings. You may use them however you wish."
Lucian approached the cage and extended his hand, releasing the radiant power of sunlight.
Warm light enveloped the hound, spreading across its body. Almost immediately, the Scarlet Rot that had coexisted with it began to writhe violently, making the creature howl in agony.
The rot spread outward, its crimson mass swelling and crawling until it covered the entire beast. Lumps of flesh bulged grotesquely across its body.
Then, within moments, the hound's body began to wither, its flesh shriveling until its skin hung loosely over bone. The Scarlet Rot appeared to be devouring its host's flesh directly, rapidly converting it into plant matter.
Unfortunately, perhaps because the host had been too weak, the hound soon collapsed and died.
Moments later, the Scarlet Rot pulsed, consuming what was left of the corpse, turning it into a mound of pale, fleshy sludge. Then, slowly—deliberately, green buds began to sprout from the mass.
Lucian did not stop channeling his sunlight. He continued to pour the warmth upon it until, eventually, the creature's remains solidified into the trunk of a small sapling.
When rough bark formed and leaves unfurled upon its branches, he finally ceased the flow of light.
It seemed that the Scarlet Rot plants, while demanding immense nourishment, were truly capable of transforming fully into genuine vegetation—and at an astonishing growth rate.
Hildegard studied the sapling carefully. "…A failure, perhaps? I suppose the hound was already too close to death to withstand the process."
"Let's try again, with stronger subjects this time."
Lucian nodded, instructing the Redmane soldiers to bring in the rest of the captured hounds for further experimentation.