Ada quickly understood why everyone reacted that way. Ethan, who had been standing still, suddenly rushed toward the monster at a speed she couldn't even react to, then kicked it, sending it flying.
"Very slow reaction."
Compared to the Tyrant, whose reaction time was surprisingly quick for its size, William's first form was significantly more sluggish.
After being kicked several meters away by Ethan and landing heavily on the ground, William slowly got back up and stubbornly advanced toward Ethan, raising the steel pipe in his hand as if trying to smash Ethan with it.
"Slow reaction, and it seems he's lost his intelligence too."
In his current state, William was purely driven by instinct. The highly intelligent man who had once developed the G-virus had completely turned into a mindless monster.
"Quite durable though."
Dodging William's attack in a flash, Ethan could tell from the speed and force of the strike that although the strength was considerable, it was still weaker than his own in this current form.
"Could the G-virus really be this worthless?"
Like many average players, he used to think the defining feature of the G-virus was evolution. It wasn't until he did more research that he discovered, according to official lore, the G-virus's primary trait was uncontrollable mutation.
Even after long-term study, the mutation caused by the G-virus remained impossible to truly control. Moreover, its infection process had severe limitations—it required implanting an embryo into someone with close blood ties, allowing the embryo to grow naturally and eventually cause mutation. For people without a blood relation, it couldn't successfully produce a true G-virus lifeform.
Combined with the T-virus growing increasingly refined, and the later emergence of parasites and the more advanced Uroboros virus, which were continually improved and modified, the G-virus—with all its flaws—was naturally phased out.
Perhaps the only successful G-virus infectee was Sherry, who was still just a little girl. She had been infected with the G-virus and later received treatment. But the virus, which had already begun fusing with her, was never completely removed. As a result, she developed an extremely powerful self-healing ability and aged much more slowly. More than ten years later, Sherry, nearly thirty years old, still looked like she was in her early twenties.
While Ethan's mind wandered, his movements didn't slow at all. After dodging another of William's attacks, he punched him hard, sending him staggering several steps backward. Then Ethan stepped back slightly, widening the distance between them, and extended his right hand, palm open and facing William.
Compared to before, Ethan mobilized even more magic power. The vast surge of energy erupted with intense magical fluctuations. The sewage water, which had reached up to Ethan's thighs, was pushed aside by the force, forming a small vortex due to the current of magical energy.
As he controlled the flow, the energy gathered around his right arm, eventually taking shape as five orange-red fireballs, glowing with intense heat. The five fireballs slowly revolved around Ethan's arm like satellites in orbit.
"What the hell is that?"
Ben and Ada, already shocked from watching Ethan physically overpower the monster, couldn't contain their emotions when they saw this utterly unscientific sight.
Ada was better off. As a trained elite agent, although shocked, she could still maintain control over her emotions. Ben, the reporter, on the other hand, had completely lost it. He could rationalize the existence of monsters since he understood they were bioweapons. But what was this in front of him? How could one person display so many inexplicable phenomena? Let alone the five fireballs rotating around his arm.
If Ethan hadn't been facing a terrifying monster, Ben would have rushed over, ripped open his clothing, and exposed the trick just to prove the world was still normal and that such absurd things couldn't actually happen.
Ada also wanted to figure out what was going on, but she concealed her emotions well, only showing appropriate surprise without taking any extreme actions.
She didn't get the chance anyway. As soon as Ethan finished forming the five fireballs, he launched them. Once William got back up again, Ethan released all five at once.
The G-virus might have had many flaws, but in terms of durability, it certainly surpassed the Tyrant. Out of caution, Ethan launched five fireballs at once. He believed that even if the G-virus enhanced the host's vitality, it would still be incapacitated by this attack.
However, releasing five fireballs simultaneously and ensuring both their accuracy and power meant sacrificing some of their speed.
Fortunately, William in his current state had no idea how to dodge. He just stood there as the five fireballs slammed into him, followed by a series of explosive roars and blinding flames. The blast was so intense that everyone temporarily lost their sight and hearing.
Luckily, it didn't last long. Once they recovered and looked again, only Ethan was still standing within their field of vision.
"Did that monster get destroyed?"
The impact was like being hit with a tank shell. Even a rocket launcher wouldn't cause that kind of explosion. From their perspective, there was no way that monster survived.
But then Ethan dragged a half-ruined corpse out of the sewage. Though the body was badly damaged, it was clearly the same monster from before.
"It wasn't blown apart?"
Not only were the others stunned, even Ethan was surprised. The mutated body after G-virus infection was absurdly durable. What astonished him even more was that William hadn't died from the explosion. His body was still brimming with vitality and would likely regain mobility after a short rest.
Dragging William's body behind him, Ethan returned to the platform where the others were gathered. There was no sewage here, and the area was spacious, making it a good place to rest and discuss next steps.
"Why did you bring that thing over here?"
Ben Bertolucci was clearly nervous about the monster, especially seeing its half-blasted, burned body still twitching after taking so much damage from Ethan's bizarre ability.
Ethan ignored him and waved at Claire, who was holding Sherry.
Ever since Ethan had dragged the corpse over, Claire had picked up Sherry and wouldn't let her look. She was confused when Ethan suddenly called her over, wondering what he was trying to do.
"I want Sherry to see if she can recognize who this is."
"Are you crazy? How can you show something like that to a child?"
Claire scolded Ethan immediately, but he was helpless. This was Sherry's father, after all. Of course he had to let her confirm it.
"This person should be William Birkin."
Everyone quickly caught on. Sherry's last name was Birkin, and she had said her parents worked at the Umbrella bioweapons facility…
No one believed it was a coincidence. Claire finally understood why Ethan wanted Sherry to identify him, but she still didn't want a twelve-year-old child to face something like this.
"How do you know this is William Birkin?"
The question didn't come from Claire but from Ada, who had been playing the role of an ordinary passerby protected by a group of kindhearted, powerful people and a good-natured young police officer.
She couldn't help but speak up, because William Birkin was directly connected to her most important objective: the G-virus.
Ethan had originally planned to say he just knew because he had played the game countless times and read tons of lore. But now, he had a much easier way to prove it.
He had encountered William in his first form. Although his face was heavily distorted and even his own daughter might not recognize him, he was still wearing clothes, and there was even a name tag on his white lab coat.
Ethan simply pointed to the name tag, which was covered in so much grime that it was hard to read without a close look. Once people saw it clearly, the identity of the monster was confirmed.
"William... Birkin..."
Sherry couldn't see, but she had been listening to the conversation. When she heard Claire read her father's name out loud near her ear, she realized that the monster she had been running from was indeed her father.
She wanted to turn around and look, but Claire held her shoulders firmly, not letting her turn. All she could do was bury her head in Claire's shoulder and cry uncontrollably.
"Poor child."
Everyone fell silent, not knowing how to comfort Sherry, nor what to say about her father, who had become a monster, in front of her.
Only Ethan remained calm. After scanning the deeper mutations within the G-virus host using his mental power, he crouched down and placed a hand on William's head.
Then, with his left hand, he lightly held the Holy Light Cross hidden beneath his clothes and silently drew upon the holy energy stored within.
He wanted to see what effect his Holy Light energy would have on this type of bioweapon virus.
The others didn't know what Ethan was doing, but when they saw a golden, holy light begin to radiate from his body, they instinctively fell silent, afraid of disturbing him.
The process didn't last long. The light around Ethan quickly faded, but for some reason, everyone sensed there had been some subtle change in William's corpse.
They looked back and forth, but the body seemed the same as before. Finally, Leon, unable to contain his curiosity, asked, "What did you just do?"
"I wanted to try purifying his soul."
Purify the soul? It sounded unbelievable, but Leon had already experienced so many unbelievable things today that he simply asked, "And the result?"
"The result was that his soul was already fragmented and shattered. What was driving the monster was a collection of physical instincts."
Ethan didn't mention the other discovery. After destroying the twisted and broken soul inside the monster's body, he had noticed the Holy Light within the cross had changed again.
(To be continued.)
***
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