Cloud Thinking

Chapter 342 Dissecting and Eating

Just as madness intensified in Mobius's eyes, and the magical vortex in his heart was about to explode out of control—

"Teacher...stop."

A clear, though weak, yet exceptionally firm voice pierced through the rain and the roaring of surging magic, flowing like a cool stream into Möbius's nearly burned-out sea of ​​consciousness.

He was startled and turned to look in disbelief.

Helia, who had been unconscious under the ruins, had somehow managed to rise to her knees.

The black aura on her shoulder, which had been spreading due to the filthy river water, was now suppressed and dissolved by a soft yet resilient pale light. The wound healed at a visible speed, leaving only a faint pink new flesh.

Even more astonishingly, the bone blade that had been embedded in her abdomen, radiating an ominous and malevolent aura, was now transforming into specks of shimmering white light, rising slowly like shooting stars and dissipating into the night sky.

Within those particles of light, there seemed to be a faint sigh of relief, before finally fading into silence.

It was the last remaining will of Mobius's family and friends within the bone blade. After sensing Helia's genuine understanding and protection of her teacher, it chose to let go and forgive, transforming its last strength into healing, dispelling the resentment, and completely severing the painful bond between the murder weapon and Mobius.

Helia's face remained pale, but a flame, completely different from before, burned in her sapphire blue pupils—

It was a calm that came from profound insight, and a determination to burn one's bridges.

She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, stood up unsteadily, and stood side by side with Mobius.

“Silly child…you…” Mobius’s throat tightened, and the magical vortex in his heart temporarily stopped due to this sudden change.

He was overjoyed at his student's awakening and healing, yet also deeply anxious about her stepping back into that perilous situation.

“Teacher,” Helia interrupted him, her gaze fixed on the water ghost man who was reforming his form and whose aura was growing increasingly chilling, “your past should not become your grave today. The light that was extinguished because of you… their last wish was not to see you end up like this.”

The water ghost man was clearly surprised by this sudden turn of events. His inhuman eyes lingered on Helia for a moment, as if assessing the reason for her recovery and the disappearance of the bone blade.

“A death throes…it’s pointless.” He coldly pronounced his verdict, and the black water beneath his feet boiled again, with more and more powerful water monsters beginning to coalesce.

“It makes sense.” Helia’s voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a strange penetrating power.

She slowly raised her hands, no longer in gestures for casting fire magic, but as if guiding invisible threads.

“Teacher, you’ve forgotten… I was once trapped at the bottom of a murky river.”

Her words startled both Mobius and the water ghost man.

“There, there was no light, no hope, only endless malice and monsters trying to devour everything.” A trace of painful memory flashed in Helia’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by determination. “In order to survive, in order to tear a path out of the world… I learned to devour them.”

Before she finished speaking, countless fine, jet-black, lifelike threads suddenly burst forth from Helia's fingertips—the very same black threads that had briefly appeared earlier!

This time, however, these black lines were more solid and more agile. They were no longer just for defense or strangulation, but were like greedy tentacles, actively shooting towards the monsters formed from the filthy river water!

A bizarre scene unfolded—

The moment the black line touched the water monster, it didn't evaporate it like a flame, but instead, like a blood-sucking leech, frantically absorbed the black energy that constituted the water monster!

The water monster let out a silent roar, its form rapidly shrinking and disintegrating, while the black lines seemed to be nourished, becoming thicker and darker.

"What?!" The water ghost man exclaimed for the first time, his voice filled with shock and anger.

The power of the filthy river was his source and the guarantee of his infinite regeneration, yet now it was being "devoured" by the other party in a more fundamental way!

Helia's face flushed an unhealthy red after absorbing the black water energy, clearly indicating that manipulating and bearing this power was a huge burden for her. However, she gritted her teeth, and the black lines danced even more rapidly.

"I can devour those nameless monsters... so I can devour you, you wicked demon who crawled out of the filthy river!"

The battle situation changed instantly!

Mobius felt much less stressed and immediately understood Helia's intentions.

He no longer tried to confront the almost endless black water head-on with his flames, but instead focused his magic on support, defense, and precise strikes.

His flames transformed into agile shields, deflecting the water ghost man's cunning sneak attacks; they also transformed into scorching chains, restricting his movements; and he seized the moment when Helia used black threads to devour and weaken the water ghost man's power, launching a thunderous counterattack!

For a time, the master and apprentice worked together seamlessly.

Helia used poison to fight poison, employing power derived from the Filthy River to combat its incarnation, greatly limiting the Water Ghost Man's ability to recover power and create monsters.

Mobius, with his experience and explosive power as a top fire mage, was responsible for both offense and defense.

Flames intertwined with black lines, and intense heat clashed with chilling cold.

Although the water ghost man is still powerful, he has lost his previous almost invincible advantage and has begun to become hesitant due to the unexpected interference of Helia.

He tried to focus his efforts on eliminating Helia, the "anomaly," but Mobius, like the most solid bulwark, always managed to intercept him in time.

"Damn it...you vessel...you actually..." The water ghost man roared angrily, his body twisting and changing under the attack of flames and black lines.

Helia was moved by what she heard, but she had no time to think about it at the moment.

She focused all her energy on controlling the dangerous and powerful black line, and together with her teacher, they fought their way out of the desperate rainy night!

The balance of power in the war is fragile and short-lived.

The Water Ghost Man, the embodiment of malice in this filthy river, realized that Helia's bizarre "devouring" ability seriously threatened the very foundation of his existence, and that Mobius's flames were still deadly. In this way, the cunning and madness of "evil" completely overwhelmed the last vestiges of his rationality.

It let out a shrill, inhuman screech, and the black water armor flowing around its body suddenly contracted and compressed inward, emitting extremely unstable and dangerous fluctuations, even causing the surrounding space to begin to distort slightly.

It abandoned all defenses, concentrating all its energy on one point, its goal no longer entanglement, but ultimate destruction!

"Let's...sink together!" The water ghost man's figure transformed into a black streak of light that was almost impossible to see with the naked eye. He ignored the black threads that Helia tried to entangle him with, and also withstood several fiery slashes that Mobius hastily unleashed. With a speed that exceeded the limits, he pierced straight into Mobius's heart!

It chose the most tragic way—self-destructing its core and pouring all its energy into this final blow, striving to perish together with the greatest threat before it!

Mobius's pupils shrank sharply. The opponent's desperate attack came too fast and too fiercely. He had positioned himself slightly forward to coordinate with Helia's attack, and now it was too late to completely avoid it!

"teacher--!"

Helia's scream and the dull thud of a blade piercing flesh rang out almost simultaneously.

The black light, condensed with extreme malice, failed to pierce Mobius's heart as intended, but at the last moment, he managed to turn to the side and it pierced his left abdomen!

The terrifying impact sent him flying backward, crashing heavily to the ground.

"Ugh...!" Mobius spat out a mouthful of blood. Looking down, he saw a short blade made entirely of solidified, pitch-black venom embedded in his abdomen. The flesh around the wound instantly turned black, and the blackness spread rapidly in all directions as if it were alive, bringing excruciating pain that tore at his soul and a bone-chilling cold.

The attack from the Water Ghost Man, which was imbued with the very essence of his being, contained a resentment and corrosiveness far exceeding all his previous attacks.

The water demon who launched the attack also became much more transparent and ethereal, like a candle flickering in the wind. However, it still let out a triumphant, intermittent savage laugh, and its figure began to become unstable, as if it would completely dissipate at any moment.

However, its laughter stopped abruptly.

A fair hand, stained with mud and blood, gripped its almost illusory neck, made of black liquid, like an iron clamp.

It's Helia.

She had rushed forward without anyone noticing, her sapphire blue eyes now completely filled with an intense, overwhelming bloodlust and savagery.

The severe abdominal injury, the lingering chill in his shoulder, the corrosive effects of being immersed in the corrupting power of the River of Sludge for so long, and especially the shock of witnessing his teacher suffer another fatal blow...

Everything, like the last straw that broke the camel's back, completely ignited the most primal and savage "devouring" instinct that she had been forcibly suppressing with her will since escaping the filthy river—an instinct blessed by the god of war!

The string of reason snapped.

“You… hurt him…” Helia’s voice was hoarse and distorted, not like her own voice at all, but more like the low growls of countless hungry beasts.

She stared at the water ghost man, her eyes devoid of anger or hatred, only filled with the purest, most naked... appetite!

For the first time, the emotion called "fear" appeared in the inhuman eyes of the water ghost man.

It struggled, trying to transform back into water and escape, but Helia's hand seemed to possess some kind of binding force at the level of law, preventing it from breaking free.

The next moment, Helia did something that shocked even Mobius – she suddenly opened her mouth and bit down on the water ghost man's shoulder, which was made of energy!

Although she had no physical form, her sharp teeth seemed capable of tearing apart souls, forcefully "ripping" a large chunk of pure dark energy from the water ghost man and swallowing it whole!

At the same time, her other hand, with its five fingernails suddenly becoming long and sharp, gleaming with a cold metallic luster, like a legendary dragon claw, fiercely pierced into the water ghost man's "chest," tearing and scratching wildly!

"Roar—!" The water ghost man let out an extremely shrill scream. Under Helia's savage tearing and devouring, its body rapidly disintegrated like a broken rag doll.

The inherent malice that constitutes its existence becomes the nourishment that Helia devours in a frenzy.

Helia was completely absorbed in this brutal "feeding," letting out satisfied yet terrifying whimpers from her throat. Her eyes grew even bloodshot, and her movements became faster and more ferocious.

The water ghost man's struggles quickly weakened, and finally, when Helia yanked out the last remaining, most vital wisp of dark energy and stuffed it into her mouth, the unsettling screams and writhing ceased completely.

Where it was, only a pool of black water that quickly lost its activity and became indistinguishable from ordinary rainwater remained, along with... a mangled "remains" that was almost unrecognizable as human.

It couldn't even be called a corpse; it was more like a pile of energy residue after being violently dismantled.

Helia knelt beside the filth, her mouth and face covered in splattered black energy droplets. She was breathing heavily, her eyes empty and frantic, seemingly still not recovered from that extreme, brutal, and devouring state, and was subconsciously licking the lingering "taste" from her lips.

“He...Lia…”

A very weak voice, filled with indescribable heartache and anxiety, rang out behind her.

Despite the excruciating pain in his abdomen and the blurring of his consciousness, Mobius used his last strength to call her name.

Seeing the students looking like demons crawling out of hell, his heart ached so much it felt like it was going to break.

This is not his Helia; this is a monster twisted by power and malice.

That familiar call, like a faint starlight, pierced through the boundless crimson fog in Helia's consciousness.

She shuddered violently, the mad, bloodshot look in her eyes receding like a tide, replaced by a profound sense of bewilderment.

Then, when she saw her hands covered in a sticky, dark substance, tasted the nauseating, salty, fishy flavor in her mouth that seemed to have been sitting for centuries, and saw the shapeless "thing" at her feet...

"My grass..."

Her body went limp and she collapsed to the ground. A violent urge to vomit overwhelmed her, but she couldn't vomit anything; only a chilling shiver swept over her entire body.

Mobius moved with difficulty to her side, and despite his own serious injuries, he reached out with trembling hands to gently stroke her hair, which was soaked with sweat and blood.

“It’s over… the children… it’s all over…” His voice was weak, yet carried a reassuring strength, “Look at me… come back…”

Helia looked up and met her teacher's eyes, which were still clear even in pain, filled with worry and comfort. Overwhelmed by grievances and fear, tears mixed with the grime on her face and silently streamed down her cheeks.

The rain had subsided at some point, falling in a light drizzle, as if even the sky itself was weary after this fierce battle.

The black water that once flowed from the filthy river and exuded an ominous aura has receded, leaving only mud and the scars of battle.

The tower ruins were filled with the smells of burnt blood and a sense of emptiness after an excessive release of energy.

It seemed as if the battle was over, and they had won.

But the faint light of dawn could not truly tear through the thick, leaden clouds, and the world remained shrouded in darkness.

The brief pause was filled with an unsettling stillness, as if silently brewing a fiercer storm to come.

They leaned against a section of crumbling wall and slowly sat down, the cold stone seeping through their soaked clothes. In their brief moments of restless breathing, only the heavy, weary sounds of their own breaths and the patter of rain against the ruins filled the air. A sense of utter exhaustion, a feeling of surviving a catastrophe, mixed with a deep anxiety about the future, weighed heavily on their hearts.