Greg remembered the last time he had watched a silent comedy; it was back in elementary school, a Charlie Chaplin film.
He never expected that after transmigrating to this world, he would have the chance to watch a silent comedy again.
Except this time, the actor wasn't Chaplin, but a genuine monster.
“......”
The Thirsting Maw’s throat had expanded to its absolute limit, its gullet vibrating violently as it went through the motions of a full-powered roar!
Yet, not a single sound escaped.
The terrifying sonic energy, capable of tearing through space, struck an invisible wall of silence the moment it was about to erupt, vanishing without a trace.
Instead, because the skill had completely failed, the monster suffered a backlash, and its aura instantly plummeted to its lowest point.
This situation caused a flash of shock to cross Vivian’s ice-blue eyes.
This sudden, eerie domain had instantly stripped her of her auditory perception of her surroundings, and her battle instincts immediately put her on high alert.
But then, she saw Greg signal for her to continue the attack, a calm expression on his face.
Vivian understood instantly.
This was another one of Greg’s methods.
Without a moment's hesitation, she suppressed the turmoil in her heart and seized the opportunity provided by the enemy’s total paralysis from the skill backlash, pushing the surging ice magic within her body to its peak!
She brought her hands together in front of her chest and slowly pulled them apart. A two-meter-long spear, composed entirely of highly condensed deep-blue ice and swirling with magnificent magic circuits, rapidly took shape between her palms!
She gripped the Ice Crystal Spear and, like throwing a javelin, hurled it at the Thirsting Maw with all her strength!
“!!!”
This time, it was a clean impalement!
Carrying terrifyingly low temperatures and piercing power, the ice spear plunged into the opening of the throat and emerged halfway out the upper back of its neck, pinning it firmly to the stone pedestal behind it!
Extreme cold spread instantly, freezing a vast portion of the monster’s internal tissues!
The fifteen-second effect of the Silent Covenant ended right at that moment.
The sounds of the outside world rushed back into their ears, but the first thing they heard was the Thirsting Maw’s dying wail, sounding like a broken bellows.
Its life force was as weak as a flickering candle in the wind, appearing as though it could be extinguished at any moment.
“Time to end this for good!”
To finish the battle quickly and prevent any further complications, Greg’s eyes flashed with a cold light.
He quietly raised his right hand, and a strand of extremely subtle black magic, like a lethal venomous snake, silently sank into the core area of the Thirsting Maw that had been pierced by the ice spear.
Void Erosion!
【Target has entered “Sensory Deprivation”!】
But at the very moment the system notification flashed in Greg’s mind—
A sudden change occurred!
The Thirsting Maw, which should have completely lost the ability to resist and was quietly awaiting its demise, suddenly went into a violent convulsion!
Immediately following that, it locked its gaze onto Greg!
“##...#%...!!”
Hoarse yet exceptionally clear syllables squeezed out of its mangled throat once more, but this time, Greg had no time to ask Nightmare what they meant.
Boom—!!
A surge of dark red energy, far more frenzied than anything before, exploded from within its broken body like a volcanic eruption!
The force shattered the Ice Crystal Spear pinning it down and sent Vivian, who was closing in for the final blow, flying back. She slammed heavily into a distant wall, her ice-blue shield instantly covered in cracks. She let out a muffled groan as blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
Using the recoil of this self-destructive explosion, the Thirsting Maw’s massive body moved with incredible agility and resolve, lunging toward the headless female stone statue behind it!
Bang—!!
It didn't attack the statue. Instead, it used its mangled body to slam its head heavily into the statue's chest in a posture that almost looked like a kowtow!
Under the force of that sudden impact, the ancient stone statue shattered!
The upper body, including everything above the neck, exploded into countless stone fragments!
However, the interior of the shattered torso was not solid stone or ordinary building material. Instead, it revealed something else.
An irregular stone tablet, ancient and deep dark red in color.
The tablet was densely carved with various symbols and patterns, and it radiated a heart-stopping aura.
Upon seeing the tablet, the Thirsting Maw let out a final screech mixed with fanaticism from its ruined throat. It then swung its mangled, giant mouth wide open and swallowed the entire stone tablet in one gulp!
Gulp...
It was as if it had swallowed the heaviest, most ominous object in the world.
The next second—
“ROAR—!!!!!!”
A roar even more powerful than before erupted from within the Thirsting Maw!
Its body began to undergo a horrific mutation!
Its originally twisted humanoid form completely collapsed.
Its limbs distorted and elongated like melting candles, and countless new, wildly flailing dark red tentacles and bone blades burst forth.
And its signature massive, pulsating throat tore open vertically down the middle!
Like a flower blooming, it split into four or five massive, hideous flesh petals that dripped with viscous black liquid!
The inner side of each petal was lined with even denser spiral teeth and constantly opening and closing sucker-like mouthparts!
Though its size hadn't increased significantly, the aura it radiated was several times more dangerous than before!
A sense of pressure originating from the very essence of its nature filled the entire hall like liquid lead.
“A Phase 2?!”
“Nobody in the game or the community ever mentioned this form! What the hell is this thing?!”
Greg’s pupils shrank.
This was completely beyond all his expectations!
“Run! It is extremely dangerous now! You are no match for it!”
Nightmare’s unprecedented scream exploded in his mind!
However, it was too late.
The mutated Thirsting Maw, its head now a multi-petaled flesh flower resembling an entrance to hell, snapped toward Greg.
“ROAR—!!!”
Another twisted howl.
With that howl, the space in front of Greg suddenly became covered in spiderweb-like cracks, as if struck by a heavy hammer, before shattering completely!
The mutated body of the Thirsting Maw then ignored the dozens of meters between them and appeared directly in front of Greg!
The massive flesh petals, lined with teeth and suckers, snapped shut from all directions toward Greg at the center, like a predatory man-eating flower carrying a nauseating stench and the absolute scent of death!
Under the suppression of this Essence of Fragmentation, neither Shadow-Step nor Insubstantiality could be activated!
The only power he could still use was the dark magic within his body.
In this life-or-death moment, Greg no longer cared about hiding his strength!
A fierce light flashed in his eyes as the shadow magic within him, sourced from Nightmare, surged frantically at an unprecedented speed!
“Dark-Erosion Armament!!”
Pitch-black magic that seemed to absorb all light erupted from his body, attempting to condense into that sinister and powerful black armor to protect his vitals.
However, the moment the LV2 Dark-Erosion Armament came into contact with the dark red fluctuations emitted as the Thirsting Maw’s flesh petals closed in—
Snap!
With a light sound, the black armor that hadn't even fully formed shattered inch by inch, dissolving back into raw shadow magic and dissipating from Greg’s body.
“What?! Even Dark-Erosion Armament...?!”
For the first time, true horror appeared in Greg’s eyes.
This was his strongest defensive form, yet it hadn't even lasted a single second?!
The next moment, darkness descended.
The split flesh petals snapped shut with irresistible force, completely swallowing Greg’s figure.
His vision was stripped away, sounds were cut off, and even his thoughts began to freeze.
Before his consciousness sank completely into the abyss of nothingness, the last thing Greg heard was a cry from the distance, filled with endless despair and grief:
“Gre—eg—!!”
Then, there was only absolute silence and darkness.
Rate on N.U.
