"We aren't—" The male Participant instinctively started to deny it.
He had barely let out half a syllable when the female Participant beside him slammed her elbow into his waist, cutting him off mid-sentence.
It seemed this woman was a smart one, keeping the rule about not talking back to the Master firmly in mind.
However, the expressions on Ren Yi and Lu Zihan's faces turned strange.
Given that they were holding hands, the motion of an elbow strike should have involved the female Participant raising their joined hands to create space before swinging her elbow.
But the scene before them was entirely different. While the female Participant did raise their clasped palms, their forearms and elbows remained pressed tightly together as if fused with glue, without the slightest separation.
The male Participant's arm, which should have been passive, moved in perfect synchronization with the woman's movements.
In fact, to complete the motion, his arm bent into a very awkward "L" shape, as if their forearms were lashed together.
The result was that the male Participant was actually elbowed by both his own elbow and the woman's simultaneously.
At that moment, the two Participants also looked bewildered. They stared at their fused arms, clearly not understanding what had just happened.
Ren Yi thoughtfully raised the hand he was holding with Lu Zihan.
His attempt immediately drew Lu Zihan's curious gaze.
The two Anomalies stood side-by-side, their eyes fixed on their own interlaced fingers.
Ren Yi tried to bend his thumb joint, attempting to give a "thumbs up" while still holding hands.
He failed. A faint sense of resistance came from his knuckles, as if they were submerged in thick honey. Immediately following that, a sharp, needle-like pain radiated from deep within his flesh.
He looked closer and discovered that in the gaps between his and Lu Zihan's tightly pressed fingers, their skin tones were beginning to merge.
He forced himself through the pain and pulled hard; his thumb barely lifted a fraction of an inch.
This time, he saw it more clearly.
Thin, red fleshy filaments had sprouted between their fingers, like plant roots, tightly entwining and binding Ren Yi and Lu Zihan's flesh together.
Even the slightest movement sent a sharp, tearing pain through his muscles and tendons.
Without them realizing it, their clasped hands had already begun to "grow" together.
However, Ren Yi could feel that as long as he reverted to his true Anomaly form, this bizarre mutation would immediately lose its effect, and his flesh would return to normal.
"Is this an ability specifically targeting flesh-and-blood creatures?" he mused silently.
Meanwhile, the two Participants across from them finally discovered the horrific change occurring to their own bodies.
Unlike Ren Yi and Lu Zihan, they had been in the Herb Garden longer, and their fusion was far more severe.
Their palms and forearms had completely merged. Beneath the skin, a mesh of fleshy filaments could be seen writhing, and similar web-like growths were appearing on their upper arms.
"Ah!"
The male Participant let out a terrified scream, instinctively trying to yank his hand back and break free from the fused arm.
The female Participant beside him also completely lost her composure, her face turning as pale as paper, unable to maintain her previous calm.
"Don't move! It hurts..." she cried out, but it was too late.
The male Participant possessed immense strength. He used his free hand to grip the woman's shoulder and pulled back with all his might.
With a sickening ripping sound, the fused flesh on their arms tore apart like paper.
Fortunately, he still remembered the rule about "acting together" and did not tear their clasped hands apart.
But their flesh had truly grown together; as they tore apart, drops of dark red blood trickled down from the severed filaments, falling onto the soil beneath their feet with a drip, drip.
The moment the blood hit the ground, the woman's face went deathly pale.
"Run!" she shrieked at the man.
The male Participant snapped into action, scooping the woman up and throwing her over his back. He was careful to place her against his clothed shoulder to prevent further skin contact.
Immediately, his muscles began to swell rapidly as if being inflated. Almost before the woman's voice had faded, he had grown half a head taller, and his arms had thickened significantly.
He was a physical-enhancement type Esper.
Though he didn't seem particularly bright, he had managed to survive this long thanks to his cooperation with the woman.
The male Participant didn't even spare a glance at Ren Yi or Lu Zihan. Carrying the woman, he made a massive leap into the air, charging toward the direction where the sunlight was filtering through.
Ren Yi looked up slightly, squinting.
Because the mist was so thick, he couldn't tell if they were currently near the Wutong Tree.
But that question was quickly answered.
The vine skulls huddled on the ground began to writhe. Long, limb-like vines instantly extended, shooting toward the two in the air like javelins.
The rule "Do not let blood hit the ground near the Wutong Tree" had been triggered.
Not only that, Ren Yi saw at least dozens of long, narrow shadows emerge from the thick mist, weaving into an inescapable net from all directions as they closed in on the two Participants.
Ren Yi looked at the spectacular sight in the mist with a hint of shock.
Isn't this... a bit overkill? It looked as if the tree intended to whip them into dust on the spot.
Until now, the Anomalies in the Instance had mostly used their various abilities to kill; this was the first time he had seen one use its physical body so directly.
This Wutong Tree Anomaly, for some reason, exuded a strange sense of "urgency."
Suddenly, a strange ripple spread out. Ren Yi felt as if time had slowed down in that moment.
Just like when his perception had first awakened, the hazy sunlight in the mist, the rough texture of the vines, the panic on the Participants' faces, and the blood on their arms all became exceptionally clear in this slowed space.
Everything was like insects trapped in amber, suspended in mid-air, looking like a bizarre set of exhibits.
It felt as if something had "descended" from a very high, very distant place.
Ren Yi was equally unable to move in this frozen space-time, forced to watch helplessly.
The expressions of the two Participants began to fade—or more accurately, they melted.
Their entire bodies, like heated wax statues or paint poured into a river, turned into various colors and "flowed" downward. Then, they silently turned into foam and dissolved into the air.
The space where they had been was now a blank void.
Yes, Ren Yi could tangibly feel the concept of a "blank void" within three-dimensional space. That area of space was clearly still there; sunlight still pierced through it, and dust still floated within it, but it had become blank.
Existence itself had been gouged out and vanished. The matter that had once occupied that space—whether molecules, atoms, or any more fundamental particles—along with its mass, volume, and color... every concept associated with it had been thoroughly and cleanly erased from the world.
Nothing remained.
In a daze, Ren Yi seemed to hear a faint wail from the world itself. Even though it was such a tiny wound, a part of the chain of material cycles had undeniably been annihilated at that moment.
Irreparable and unrecoverable.
In the next instant, the frozen space-time resumed its flow.
The space before him returned to normal. Dozens of vines snapped shut like a swarm of snakes, but they only tangled and knotted among themselves, hitting nothing but air.
Only then did Ren Yi realize what had happened.
Those two Participants... they had "together" felt the same pain of tearing flesh, and they had "together" felt the same fear of being hunted by the same Anomaly.
They had 【felt pain together】.
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