"Huh?"
Every person present turned to stare at Shasha. The silence was suffocating.
Her husband's face went blank, as though his mind had simply... stopped. His pupils trembled violently, disbelief washing over his features in waves.
Elric, meanwhile, couldn't contain himself. He burst out laughing—a cold, knowing sound that echoed through the ruins.
So this is human nature.
When survival was on the line, when comfort beckoned from just beyond reach, when a better life dangled before desperate eyes—love became negotiable. Vows turned hollow. Loyalty was just another word.
Only survival was real. Only survival mattered.
"Shasha..." Her husband's voice cracked like breaking glass. "Why are you... why are you doing this?"
His hands trembled as he reached for her.
"Didn't we promise each other? No matter what happened, we'd stay together. Live together. Die together." His voice rose, desperation bleeding through every word. "After the disaster struck—wasn't I good to you?!"
"There was barely any clean water left! Just a few bottles! And you drank every drop while I—" He choked on the words. "While I had to drink my own urine just to survive!"
"I went out there three times searching for food for you! When those monsters came near, I stood in front every single time!" His voice climbed toward hysteria. "Have you forgotten all of that?! Everything I did?!"
He grabbed her arm tighter, his eyes bloodshot, teetering on the edge of complete collapse.
"You're really going to abandon me... for him?!"
Shasha frowned, irritation flickering across her face.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue. "Who ever had enough water to drink? You act like you made some grand sacrifice."
She pulled her arm back slightly, her expression turning colder by the second.
"You say you went looking for food—did you actually bring any back? If you were capable, would I still be starving right now?" Her eyes narrowed. "And did I ever force you to do those things? No. You did them yourself. That was your choice."
She looked at him with undisguised contempt.
"Besides, after everything you just said—doesn't it just prove that you're useless?"
The words struck like physical blows.
She took a breath and continued, her voice like ice.
"I'll admit it. Before all this, you had money. You treated me well." She paused. "But that was before. This is now. And now, I'm choosing a better life for myself."
A cold smile touched her lips.
"Shouldn't you be happy for me? Shouldn't you bless me?" She tilted her head mockingly. "Don't be so selfish."
The man froze completely. Something inside him shattered—you could see it happen in real time, like watching glass break in slow motion.
"I'm... selfish?" His voice was barely a whisper. "You—!"
He couldn't finish. The words wouldn't come. His grip on her arm tightened unconsciously, knuckles white.
But Shasha didn't care about the pain.
What she cared about—what truly mattered in that moment—was whether Elric would misunderstand the situation.
Panic flashed across her face.
SLAP! SLAP!
She suddenly raised her free hand and struck her husband across the face. Hard. Then again. And again.
While continuing to hit him, she twisted her body toward Elric, speaking in rapid, anxious bursts.
"Mr. Elric, please don't misunderstand! This has nothing to do with you!" Another slap. "Just give me a moment—I'll handle him myself! I promise!"
"What a show."
Elric stood perfectly still, hands in his pockets, watching the entire farce unfold like a patron at the theater.
If what the man said was true—and he had no reason to doubt it—then Shasha's character was certainly questionable. Cold. Calculating. Ruthlessly pragmatic.
But Elric didn't care.
Character didn't matter to him. Morality was irrelevant.
As long as she met the system's standards for recruitment, and as long as his emotional perception couldn't detect any hidden intentions or deception—that was sufficient.
Besides, in this broken world, refusing his offer was the rare choice. Accepting it was simply common sense.
BANG!
A sudden, wet, heavy sound shattered the moment.
The half-bodied blood mass slid back into view, surfing forward on crimson waves.
The man with glasses had returned.
Even without his lower body, his upper half surged forward with unnatural speed, carried by roiling blood. Rachel and the others had failed to intercept him in time.
"Don't get too comfortable," he snarled, blood dripping from his mouth.
"It's not over yet!"
His eyes blazed with madness.
"Blood Arts—Devouring Mouth!"
He roared the words like an incantation.
The blood coating his body suddenly surged, doubling—tripling in volume within seconds. It rose up around him like a living thing, twisting and reshaping itself.
A massive, grotesque mouth formed from pure blood. Rows of jagged crimson teeth gleamed wetly in the dim light.
It lunged forward.
"Aaaaah—!"
Shasha reacted on pure instinct.
Without thinking, without hesitation, she shoved her husband forward with all her strength.
"AH!!"
He screamed once—a short, sharp cry of betrayal and terror.
The blood mouth clamped shut around him.
Crunch.
Then... silence.
Nothing remained. Not even bones.
The blood mouth didn't stop.
It swiveled toward the other Ginkgo Society residents, who stood frozen in horror.
"No—ugh!!"
Shasha screamed in terror—
And vanished.
In the next instant, she appeared beside Elric, saved by his spatial displacement ability. Her chest heaved with panicked breaths.
The others weren't so fortunate.
The blood mouth moved through them like a harvester through wheat.
Thirty people. Forty. Gone in seconds, consumed entirely, their screams cut short.
After devouring so much flesh and blood—
BOOM!
The mouth exploded outward in a spray of gore.
All the blood—every drop—surged back into the man with glasses like water flowing downhill.
His body began to expand. Violently. Grotesquely.
Ten meters tall.
Then more.
A towering monstrosity of pulsating blood stood before them, veins bulging across its surface, steam rising from its superheated mass.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
His laughter was shrill, unhinged, echoing across the ruins.
"Did you think you'd won?! Did you really think it would be that easy?!" He threw his massive arms wide. "I'll tell you something—our powers aren't that simple!"
His voice boomed like thunder.
"As long as we have fresh flesh and blood, we can grow infinitely stronger!"
He looked down at Elric with pure madness burning in his eyes.
"So tell me—" He grinned, blood dripping from his teeth. "Can you kill me again?"
Elric didn't panic.
He didn't even blink.
Instead, he simply turned his head toward Natasha and Rachel, who had just arrived, slightly out of breath.
"You took too long." His voice was calm, almost conversational. "If you can't handle something like this—" He paused meaningfully. "—I'll have to start questioning whether you're truly worthy of the Devil Fruit I gave you."
Both women's expressions turned grave.
"Yes, sir!"
In the next instant—
Click.
Two overwhelming powers erupted simultaneously, the air itself seeming to crack under the pressure.
Gamma Knife.
Dark Hound.
The abilities collided with the blood monster in a devastating convergence—
BOOOOM!!
A massive explosion tore through the night, lighting up the sky like a second sun.
The blood boiled—superheated by surgical radiation and hellfire.
It melted—structure breaking down at the molecular level.
It evaporated—turned to crimson steam that dissipated into nothing.
The towering monster managed one final scream—a sound of pure agony and disbelief—
And then it was gone.
Completely.
Meanwhile...
Far away, in the western outskirts of the ruined city...
A woman sat alone in the darkness.
Her third eye—the one in the center of her forehead—slowly opened wide.
Shock and fear flooded her face in equal measure.
"How..." Her voice trembled. "How can there be so many powerful superhumans in one place...?"
She had been watching. Observing through her ability.
What she'd seen defied everything she thought she knew about this world.
And for the first time since gaining her powers—
True fear took root in her heart.
There is 60 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
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