While still maintaining Oksana's body, the desperate surge of adrenaline began to stabilize, and the genetic mimicry wavered slightly. My lone jade-green eye shimmered, the rare family hue shifting back into the dark, cold purple color that belonged to the dead drug lord's physical form.
Evelyn noticed the shift, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she looked at me with deep, protective urgency.
"I'm freeing you, sister," she whispered.
With a precise, fluid movement, Evelyn extended her calcified claws and carefully sliced through the thick, pulsing bio-slime cocoon holding me hostage. The moment the pressurized vertical binding was severed, gravity took over. I dropped instantly, my head hitting the hard stone floor with a dull thud.
I let out a sharp, ragged groan of intense pain, my vision swimming as the sudden change in blood pressure rattled my already broken body.
"Sister! Are you alright? I'm so sorry!" Evelyn gasped, quickly kneeling beside me, her hands hovering over my shoulders in panic.
Using Oksana's deep, strained voice, I forced the words out past my teeth.
"I'm... I'm all right. Don't worry."
I tried to push myself up, but as I looked down at my torso, my breath caught in my throat. The corrosive, anti-mana slimes that had bound me in the cocoon had completely dissolved my heavy traveler's cloak and my underclothing. In their place, the residue had mutated, forming a tight, organic slime bodysuit identical to my sister's. The bioluminescent blues and purples illuminated my entire frame in the dark cave, and the material was so incredibly tight it looked and felt exactly like high-gloss latex, clinging to every inch of my skin and molding over my single-armed silhouette.
I tentatively pressed my right hand against my stomach. The catastrophic claw wound from our fight was still there… I could feel that my intestines were still severely damaged… but the tight, living slime of the bodysuit had completely sealed the massive gash like an organic bandage, keeping my internal organs securely in place and stopping the external bleeding.
Despite the sealing, my instincts were screaming. I needed blood. My reservoir was empty and my cells needed a massive surge of vitality to permanently regenerate the internal trauma. I looked at Evelyn, but I immediately dismissed the thought of asking her. She was a half-human, half-slime hybrid, her circulatory system was fueled by concentrated parasitic fluid and bio-slime core energy, not mammalian blood. She had nothing to give that my vampiric shotgun or magic could use.
I lay back against the stone for a moment, simply staring at my little sister as she watched over me. It was a bizarre, jarring sight. Because bio-slimes age their hosts at a rapid, hyper-accelerated pace, she had physically grown into a remarkably fine, beautiful woman in just six short years. She carried our family's striking brown hair with the pulsing slime tips, and her physical curves… including her breasts, were visibly larger and more developed than my own natural body. Yet, beneath that mature, lethal guardian exterior, she possessed the innocent, frantic mental age of a six-year-old child who had just found her sibling in the dark.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief behind my stolen face. If it hadn't been for that unique, sixth-sense hive resonance that alerted her to her dying bloodline, I would have been torn to pieces in the ravine. I was safe, the executioner's hunt was temporarily over, and for the first time in six years, I wasn't alone in the deep.
"Another family reunion, get a hold of yourself Eirene. That shit is a monster." Plasma said
"Man, shut your bitch ass up." I thought
Evelyn turned toward the darker corner of the secluded cave and retrieved my gear, gently placing the heavy, cold steel of the Death Chant Shotgun and my weathered goat-hide purse beside my right hand. She looked down at the weapons with a slight, curious tilt of her head.
Staring up at her from the stone floor, the reality of her sheer power settled heavily in my chest. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that my little sister was significantly stronger than me. The low, vibrant humming of the biological heart pulsing behind her translucent chest lattice was no joke… it was a generator of pure, cataclysmic kinetic force. Wielding two innate, high-tier human skills like Reinforced Mana and Explosion Magic, gifts bestowed by the gods themselves at birth, and flawlessly synergizing them with her apex bio-slime traits made her an absolute, living weapon. If she hadn't stopped her assault in the ravine, she would have completely erased me from existence.
To see the further details, I used inspect in her so that I can see her stats properly.
Evelyn Rynd
Skills: Slime manipulation, Corrosion, Reinforced mana, Explosion Magic
Vitality: 6000
Strength: 7000
Defense: 4300
Agility: 8400
Mana: 1000000
Skills:
Slime manipulation- manipulate and create slimes out of thin air. Color is bioluminescent.
Corrosion- corrode everything it touches.
Reinforced mana- coats the user's body in a hardened shell of mana, increases defense stats thrice.
Explosion Magic- generate explosions out of thin air, low explosions but damage can tear limbs.
According to my data from my appraisal, Evelyn can control the horde possessing a terrifying baseline of slime manipulation, capable of creating and shaping bioluminescent, glowing slimes out of thin air to overwhelm vanguard formations in an instant.
Coupled with an absolute sub-trait of corrosion, her creations could melt through reinforced steel breastplates and dissolve flesh to the bone within minutes of contact. But it was her defensive and offensive capabilities that made my blood run cold beneath my merchant cloak.
My sister could deploy a reinforced mana shell, coating her half-fluid body in a hardened layer of pure magical density that increased her baseline defense stats thrice over, rendering standard physical blades and basic arcane projectiles utterly useless.
And if anyone managed to bypass that impenetrable armor, she could instinctively detonate the surrounding air with explosion magic, generating immediate, localized concussive bursts out of thin air that, while low in absolute radius, possessed enough concentrated, localized damage to tear human limbs cleanly from their sockets.
"Your sane Eirene, that thing is a fucking bioweapon." Plasma was worrying
Slowly, using Oksana's stolen voice, I began to speak. I told Evelyn about our mother, Linera Rynd, and broke down the agonizing reality of what had happened to our family over the last six years… the quiet meat shop, the sudden metallic knock of the soldiers, the cold report of a body burned with nothing left to bury, and the dark path of vengeance that had turned me into a bounty hunter.
Evelyn listened intently, her twin jade-green eyes softening, her fierce guardian demeanor completely melting away into a tender, sisterly caring expression. When I finished, she looked down, her voice carrying a hauntingly beautiful, gentle tone as she spoke of our mother.
"I consumed our mother six years ago, Eirene, but because of my unique nature, I retained her memories completely. As I remember from her thoughts, she was sent down here by the Capital Knights Bureau Association to launch a desperate investigation into the constant, unchecked spreading of the slimes. Before she descended into the depths of Caria, she was deployed in Town Allure." she said softly, the confession striking my heart like a physical blow.
Evelyn paused, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to sift through the fragmented, six-year-old human data swimming inside her young mind.
"Through her mind, I can barely remember my human siblings waiting back in the Rynd household... perhaps it would be you."
A profound, bittersweet ache bloomed in my chest. The soldiers had lied to us. They hadn't found a ruined body to burn, they had simply found the empty site of the breach and covered up the horrifying truth that a legendary Capital Knight had been absorbed by the plague. But Mama's soul, her memories, and her love hadn't been entirely erased. They lived inside the very child she was carrying.
I looked up at Evelyn through Oksana's purple eyes, a heavy, genuine tear slipping down my cheek as I gave her a slow, definitive nod.
"Yes, it's me, Evelyn. It's really me." I whispered, my voice thick with emotion.
Evelyn's twin jade-green eyes drifted toward the dark, yawning cavern outside our secluded sanctuary, her sisterly tone dropping into a solemn, heavy whisper as the retained memories of Linera Rynd flooded her consciousness. Evelyn continued, her voice trembling slightly with the weight of a history she hadn't lived, but entirely possessed,
"Six years ago, the infection hadn't spread past the lower sectors yet. It only reached through the fourth and fifth mineshafts. Our mother was deployed directly there, despite her pregnancy, because the Bureau panicked. But as Mama and her squad reached the edge of this very ravine, Master was already waiting for them. Master... a colossal, sentient bio-slime the size of a multi-story building."
She tightened her hand around her organic bodysuit, her chest core humming a low, sorrowful note.
"Master ruthlessly slaughtered our mother's entire party. It could shoot out pressurized, high-density slimes at the speed of sound, piercing through steel armor like paper. Mama tried to mount a desperate escape, but the concussive force blew her off the precipice. Instead of plunging to her death, she miraculously survived the fall, landing on a jagged ridge down below. She managed to crawl into a tiny, concealed air pocket in the ravine wall and hid. Her party members weren't so lucky... they were entirely corroded, dissolved, and digested in minutes."
Evelyn paused, taking a deep, shuddering breath as she tapped into the deep, agonizing sensory data left behind by our mother.
"Mama survived in that dark, cramped small hole for seven days, her injuries from the fall were catastrophic… both of her legs were completely shattered, the bone fragments tearing through her muscle. As I remember from her thoughts, on the first day, she could only survive by scraping bugs and glowing insects off the damp stone walls, forcing them down her throat just to stay conscious."
I lay completely paralyzed on the stone floor, Oksana's purple eyes wide with horror as the gruesome truth of the soldiers' unrecognizable body report was violently unraveled.
"The second and third days were absolutely grueling, she lay in the pitch black, listening to the echoing roars of the monsters, praying for the Knights Bureau to send a rescue party. But no rescuers ever arrived. And soon, Mama's tummy began to gurgle with intense, agonizing contractions. The labor had started. The baby was coming out early because of the trauma. So, on the fourth day, completely alone in the dark, she gave birth to me."
A cold, suffocating dread gripped my throat.
"She had no medical tools, Eirene. So she drew her heavy family sword… the one from the shop… and used the razor-sharp edge to cut a crude C-section straight through her own tummy. Because she was a retired knight, she tried to suppress the agony, but she felt every single agonizing slice of the steel tearing through her flesh. Yet, through sheer iron will, she pulled me from her womb, held my wet, tiny body against her bloodied chest, and whispered through her tears, 'Evelyn... you look just like your father.'"
Evelyn's shoulders shook as she related the impossible endurance of Linera Rynd.
"She survived the birth. She frantically reached into her weathered rucksack, pulling out the rare plant herbs she had stored, and packed them into the raw, gaping incision to stave off the infection. Then, she tore the remaining fabric of her blood-soaked knight's cloak, wrapping it tightly around her midsection to form a massive, makeshift bandage. Our mother was an incredibly strong woman... a woman of pure iron."
Evelyn leaned closer to me, the bioluminescence of her slime wings pulsing erratically as she reached the darkest chapter of the memory.
"But then the fifth day arrived. The herbs were failing, and Mama felt every single line of agonizing, blinding pain racking her broken body. She was starving, dehydrated, and her breasts couldn't produce a single drop of milk because eating insects provided no real sustenance. She looked at my frail, crying form, knowing I would starve to death in hours. So, first, she forced herself to eat her own placenta. And when that wasn't enough..."
Evelyn choked back a sob, her sisterly voice dropping to a horrified, reverent whisper.
"...she did the absolute unspeakable. Using her butchering precision, she took her blade, sliced the flesh from her own shattered legs, and ate it… purely to force her body to produce the milk required to keep me alive. She endured the ultimate, self-inflicted mutilation, successfully stopped the heavy arterial bleeding with the last of her herbs, and against all laws of nature, she was still breathing in that dark hole, entirely driven by her absolute refusal to let her baby die."
Evelyn's voice broke completely, the blue-green bioluminescence at the tips of her brown hair flaring wildly, casting frantic, erratic shadows against the dark cave walls. The sheer psychic weight of our mother's final days was pouring out of her, unfiltered and agonizingly raw.
"The sixth day arrived, in the memory, I wouldn't stop crying. I was a tiny, frail newborn, starving and freezing in the dark. Every time Mama's body failed to produce milk, I let out a piercing shriek that echoed right out of the air pocket, drawing the attention of the nearby high-tier monsters. But Mama... even with her legs mutilated and her body burning with fever, she just pulled me closer to her chest. She shushed me so gently, whispering over and over that it was alright, that she was there. Even though I was a fatal burden, she never blamed me. She was so, so strong."
I lay completely paralyzed, Oksana's purple eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as the tears freely flooded down my face. My breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. The image of our legendary, invincible mother reduced to a bleeding, self-sacrificing ghost in a hole in the wall tore away whatever remained of my hardened mercenary soul.
"Then... the seventh day arrived, the scent of blood was too strong. The low-tier slimes finally discovered the air pocket. They began to slowly, rhythmically ooze their way through the jagged rock opening. Out of pure, unyielding motherly instinct, Mama didn't even think about herself. She frantically tore off her remaining dry cloth, wrapped me tightly in it, and shoved me deep into a hollow crevice beneath the stone floor, hiding me completely from view."
Evelyn whispered, her twin jade-green eyes widening with a sudden, primal terror as the climax of the memory took hold. Evelyn reached out, her hand trembling violently as she touched the tight slime bodysuit over my chest.
"She whispered her final words to me right there, Eirene. She told me she loved me. She told me to survive. She couldn't run… her legs were entirely gone… so she dragged her upper torso up against the stone wall, raised our heavy family sword with both hands, and screamed a defiant war cry. She used every ounce of her remaining knightly strength to slice the incoming slimes to pieces. But... precision means nothing to a plague. The blades did nothing. The slimes just split and multiplied on impact."
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the cave, broken only by the sound of my sister's choked breaths.
"The slimes swarmed her, they dragged her down and began to devour her alive. The highly concentrated acid began to melt her skin, her muscle, her bones... I heard her screams so clearly from beneath the floorboards, Eirene! She screamed until her throat dissolved. She was shrieking 'GET OFF ME!' and throwing herself around in a hysterical, agonizing frenzy until every single bit of Linera Rynd was melted into inert, liquid sludge." Evelyn cried, burying her face into her hands.
She pulled her hands away from her face, her eyes flashing with a sickening, tragic realization.
"After she was completely gone, the slimes turned their gaze toward the crevice. They pulled me out. But instead of digesting me, Master sensed something inside my soul. I wasn't just a regular human baby… I was born in the very heart of the infection, and the gods had gifted me with two devastating, high-tier human skills at birth: Reinforced Mana and Explosion Magic. Master saw a living weapon. So, instead of killing me, they treated me as their own."
Evelyn looked down at her voluptuous, eighteen-year-old body… a body that had matured in just six years due to the parasite's hyper-acceleration.
"They flooded my veins with their own genetic code, combining their elite bio-slime traits into my human DNA. I became a monster. A half-slime, half-human hybrid. And for six years... I lived in this dark, toxic labyrinth, completely brainwashed by the collective hive-mind. I spent my entire existence fiercely protecting the very Master... that brutally murdered our mother."
The horrific irony of her existence hung heavily between us. The sister I had come to avenge was the very guardian standing in my way, raised by the killer, wearing the face of the victim. I stared at her, my heart breaking for the little six-year-old girl trapped inside the body of an apex predator, completely surrounded by the ashes of our past.