Waves of invisible gas seeped out from the altar, twisting into the form of giant serpents that slithered toward the people present.
This force was unlike the surrounding Death Nen, it was something far stranger, an even more uncanny power!
Even Gardevoir's Mystical Guard couldn't completely shut it out.
The hip-hop guy, who had been barely holding on, suddenly roared as though injected with a stimulant, his fists smashing wildly into the onrushing swarm of insects.
But his eyes held no clarity at all, as if he had fallen into a genjutsu.
The exhausted Wind and Fire Duo had, at some point, staggered up onto the altar.
In the blink of an eye, their bodies shriveled into dry corpses, utterly lifeless!
Taking their place were two bizarre, abstract monsters, one red, one green, exuding a suffocating aura of chaos and violence, as though they intended to devour everything around them!
Aside from the unconscious leather-clad woman on the ground, only Pete and the bespectacled man still managed to hold on to a shred of rationality, resisting the tide of emotions.
Even Linck felt it,
An inexplicable surge of negativity flared within his chest, a sudden urge to destroy everything he saw.
But the feeling vanished as quickly as it came, gone without a trace, as if it had never been.
Seated cross-legged, the bespectacled man and Pete exchanged a heavy glance, their eyes filled with pain and confusion. Both could sense the tremendous change that had overtaken the battlefield.
At this point, neither side could continue fighting. The only choice left was escape.
Treasures could be claimed anytime, but life was irreplaceable.
Meanwhile, Linck's mind was racing, trying to piece together the cause behind this sudden upheaval.
It had to be connected to the altar, that much was clear. But what lay deeper behind it?
Somewhere in the back of his memory, he could almost recall seeing intelligence related to this, back when he was still on Blue Star.
Beside him, Gardevoir quietly prepared for instant teleportation.
The current situation had already spiraled far beyond Linck's expectations. He had to brace for the worst.
His thoughts were cut short when a black, mist-like being crawled out from beneath the altar.
Unlike the Death Nen lingering in the air, this creature's body was tinged with violet, with visible arms and legs formed from smoke itself.
The sight of it ripped open a sealed memory in Linck's mind. His pupils constricted violently, cold sweat dampening his palm.
This was,
A creature from the Dark Continent!
One of the Five Great Calamities that plagued the Six Continents!
The Desire Entity, Gaseous Lifeform, Ai!
Linck recognized it because he had once read about the Five Calamities in the manga.
On the Dark Continent, there exists a primordial liquid known as the "Three Great Original Waters."
Wherever these waters could be found, the fog-like creatures called Ai roamed freely, possessing the terrifying ability to drive humans into madness.
Long ago, the Mingbo Republic of the V5 had once enlisted the Hunter Association's aid in an attempt to seize these mystical waters. In the end, their expedition was nearly annihilated.
Only three men returned, mindless husks, their sanity destroyed…
…
In that moment, the fragments of information in Linck's head locked together, forming a complete chain of knowledge.
Long ago, humans had discovered an altar inhabited by Ai.
Humans craved power. Ai craved desire. Thus, a pact was struck, a mutual exchange.
The monsters now born from the lives of the Wind and Fire Duo were the very powers once granted to the royal members depicted in the murals.
These abstract monsters were nothing more than emotions made flesh!
It became clear why the altar demanded sacrifices of emotionally rich beings.
Because Ai, as a Desire Entity, could only survive by feeding on the desires of living creatures.
The stronger the emotions, the more intense the desires!
The questions that had puzzled Linck before were finally answered.
The black "hollow" in the mural wasn't an indentation at all. It had been this very black mist, a Dark Continent calamity, Ai!
At that thought, Linck suddenly remembered his Pokédex-like ability. Though it claimed to identify all things, could it recognize Ai as well?
[Name: Desire Entity – Gaseous Lifeform (Ai)]
[Strength: Indefinable]
[Ability: Influences the mental realm to control living beings; can also generate monstrous constructs through hosts.]
So it really was Ai!
Linck let out a bitter laugh, his handsome face etched with helplessness.
Although it was a relief to confirm that his Pokédex could even identify creatures of the Dark Continent,
the problem remained: knowing was useless if he couldn't do anything about it…
Who would have thought, after arriving in this world for only a short while, he would already encounter a being of such terrifying magnitude.
He truly didn't know whether to call it luck, or misfortune.