Chapter 164: Miasma Vessels

Though it was imperceptible, she could see how the skin was patching itself up quicker than normal.

"Be careful around them," Nykos warned her quietly in her ear. He had also realized what was wrong. "There’s huge traces of Miasma inside their bodies."

Clearly, he knew more than she did. That was the advantage of an experienced SS-ranked Sentinel.

Finally understanding where the uneasiness came from, Aisha looked back at the two Outerworlders in front of her. Underneath the skin where she had sliced off their arms, black root-like tendrils wriggled and twisted there, reconnecting the skin and muscles that had been slashed.

"Aren’t they wonderful?" The red-skinned Outerworlder suddenly said from nearby the ship. She approached them in a leisurely manner and continued, "They’re one of my favorite toys. They were once princes of their own planets, twins who went hand in hand even in battle, sex, and death. I admired them for a long time and finally got my hands on them."

"What have you done to them?" Aisha narrowed her eyes at the woman.

"I liberated them from the restrictions of their bodies."

Aisha gripped the handle of her dagger tightly. "They don’t have souls."

"Of course they don’t..." The woman replied, scoffing. "It was too bad that they didn’t have their souls when I got them. But they still move, don’t they?"

Seeing that the woman wasn’t attacking yet, Aisha decided to hear more details from her.

She asked, "How are they moving if they don’t have souls?"

Bodies without a soul can only be called undead. They feed off raw meat and are driven by their most primitive instinct, which is to devour, but these two Outerworlders do not possess that instinct.

Aisha had no information about something like this, not in the fragmented memories she inherited or the books she had read before. But in her world, there were beings like that roaming everywhere. Their brains had melted and turned into Necrocores.

But this world did not have anything like Necrocores.

And the most obvious thing was the traces of Miasma in their bodies that Nykos had told her about earlier.

Could it be...

"The Eldress I report to gave them the Lord’s Blessing. They resisted quite a lot, begged for mercy, and even tried to convince me to let them go by becoming my slaves. I can’t deny I was tempted..." The look on the Outerworlder woman’s face showed a hint of sadness, as though she grieved over the opportunity she had wasted. "Unfortunately, they’re far more useful and beautiful if they embrace the Lord’s Blessing."

"So you fed them Miasma."

Aisha came up with the answer herself. The terminology the Outerworlder woman used was confusing. Anyone else who heard it would draw a blank and wonder what this Lord or Blessing she was talking about. But Aisha had witnessed what they were with her own eyes.

"By letting the Miasma override the brain’s control over their bodies, they can move as if they still had their souls," Aisha muttered, more to herself. "Miasma is sentient by nature. If it replaced the biological makeup and DNA of a human, the human could live with a physical body."

A hint of admiration appeared in the woman’s eyes. She hadn’t expected Aisha to get so close to the whole truth with just one trip to this place. She almost wanted to scout her out and turn her into a subordinate.

But seeing as how Aisha had radiated murderous energy from her body since the very beginning until now, she knew that there was no chance she would agree.

Thus, she said, "You’ll die if you fight here. There’s only one of you, while I have several people with me."

The Outerworld woman didn’t include herself in their number. She, too, could fight. But she wouldn’t stoop so low as to get herself involved in a fight her subordinates could finish on their own.

"So, I’ve got an offer you might want to listen to before you die."

Aisha’s eyes sharpened, but she didn’t stop her from continuing. But in the corner of her eyes, Nykos was already wrapping her body in thin tendrils of his shadow.

His voice was so close to her ear that she almost felt his breath touching her, even though it was just his shadow rubbing against the shell of her ear.

"Just hold on for five minutes. I’m on my way there now."

Aisha subtly nodded. But her next words made the shadows freeze for a moment.

"When you arrive... don’t forget to save my brother."

Then before the shadows could react and stop her, Aisha charged forward.

The woman was surprised to see Aisha abruptly advance, although she had clearly told her she was offering her a lifeline.

"Stupid," she said as she waved her hand.

The two Outerworlders who had Miasma in their bodies also rushed at her. Their hands outstretched to grab her.

They were going to capture her. But Aisha didn’t let them get what they wanted. Even after knowing that cutting them wouldn’t do anything since the Miasma would reconnect their cut body parts again, she still swung her dagger around.

The veil lifted from one of the miasmic Outerworlders. Aisha stared into its empty, full-black eyes. Something inside her wanted to cut it into pieces and see if it could reconnect faster than she could cut them some more.

Following what her instinct told her, she danced with her blades, cutting whatever came close to her. Their blood splashed over her, and the Miasma in them also started moving to infect her.

But Aisha did not stop.

Like a mad dog high on drugs and booze, she cut down the Outerworlders who no longer had their souls in their bodies.

Even though they were huge and their jumping skills far surpassed a human’s, they still couldn’t move like humans. The Miasma inside their bodies could not control the vessels they were using, not during a battle that needed speed, strength, and agility. And most importantly, they didn’t have human thoughts.

And so, they didn’t know how to dodge or move as swiftly as Aisha.

As the rotten-smelling flesh crumpled to the floor with a squelch, Aisha finally stopped her sword dance.

Her entire body was covered with blood, almost as if she were bathing in it.

Seeing her fearlessly fight, the Outerworlder woman pursed her lips.

Glaring at Aisha, she said, "You ruined my toys."

Aisha spat out something that had gotten in her mouth and looked back at her indifferently.

"Aren’t you too old to still be playing with toys?"