The Best Outcome

Writhing in pain, the tentacles began to spasm violently. Yet under the golden seal, they quickly stopped attacking and swinging, hanging limply and stiffly on the ground, seemingly completely under control.

The chains tightened, digging deep into the monster's flesh. Tiny flecks of golden light flickered along the lines of the seal before gradually stabilizing.

The surface of the sea regained its calm.

The tide began to rise again, slowly washing over the drooping tentacles. The massive body, resembling a broken tower, remained stationary, bound by the chains like a shipwreck that had been aground for years, finally secured by a sufficiently thick hawser.

Panting, Clement took a step back, his forehead drenched in cold sweat. Mia wiped the blood from her blade and sheathed her sword. Standing at the edge of the reef, Gale cast a complex look at the monster.

“The rest is up to you, Saintess of the church,” he said.

Lovene nodded, taking a step forward into the seawater.

The hem of her holy robe dragged across the surface of the water, leaving a slowly dispersing ripple. She walked up to the monster, raised her hand, and closed her eyes.

Using blood instead of the Holy Light to purify the contamination in a situation like this would not only fail to purify this massive monster, but it would also fail to harvest the emotions of everyone present.

Therefore, she chose to directly cast Holy Light purification.

If Mia and Clement questioned why her purification method was different from before, she would just make up some random excuse to brush it off; she wasn't worried about them not believing her.

Golden light surged from her palm, bright as the midday sun.

As the light shone upon the monster, it let out a painful shriek as if being burned by fire, and dark energy constantly dissipated from its body.

At the same time, a bizarre mist rose from Lovene's ankles, climbing up her legs, passing her waist, sweeping over her shoulders, and finally swallowing the top of her head.

When the mist dispersed again, she found herself no longer by the seashore.

She stood amidst a white mist. There was no ground beneath her feet, yet there was a solid sensation, as if she were stepping on an extremely thick layer of clouds. Aside from the mist, there was nothing else around.

She took two steps forward and suddenly noticed a black crystal ahead.

It was spherical, floating in the mist, emitting a dull glow. Every pulse of this light carried a certain damp, breathing sensation. Around the crystal, thick black energy cascaded down like a waterfall.

Marcus appeared beneath that black crystal.

He was submerged in the black waterfall, buried completely from the shoulders down. His face was pale, his lips chapped, and his eye sockets sunken, yet his eyes remained open.

“...This is what contaminated me.”

His voice drifted up from the surface of the black water, exceptionally raspy. Lovene's gaze pierced through the dark water and landed on his face.

“Are you Marcus?”

Although Lovene had never met Marcus, based on Elena and Gale's descriptions, she imagined him to be a young, courageous man, and the person before her looked very similar.

Though he looked highly sickly right now, his eyes shone with an unquenchable light.

The corner of Marcus's mouth twitched, carrying a hint of self-deprecation.

“I never expected that the one who would come to purify me in the end would be the church's Saintess. My name must have been struck from the church's registry long ago.”

“This was my duty to begin with.”

“How is... the territory?” Marcus asked.

After turning into a monster, he had been almost entirely unable to project his consciousness to the outside world, so he had virtually no idea what this monstrous body had done to the territory over all these years.

This worried him deeply, fearing that he had inadvertently destroyed the Oswell territory.

But now, the appearance of the church's Saintess brought him a sigh of relief.

“It's fine.” Lovene paused. “The territory's development has temporarily halted, but the residents are still alive. They are supporting one another, and I believe they can pull through together.”

Marcus lowered his eyes and murmured, “That's good. That's good.”

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something, and a bitter expression involuntarily appeared on his face. After a long silence, he sighed.

“Once you go back out, please tell my wife and child that I'm sorry. I am an unfit husband and an unfit father.”

“Why should I say it for you?”

“The church's purification can only sever the connection between me and the source of contamination; it cannot completely purify the contamination itself.”

Marcus looked up.

“Once severed, it will immediately seek out its next host. Only by truly killing me can it be exposed to the outside. At that point, the church's Heresy Inquisitor can find a way to contain it.”

Over the years, he had already learned some of the habits of that black crystal. Once the connection between him and it was broken, it would immediately find a new host and turn them into a new monster.

This trait completely eliminated the possibility of purification.

Unless someone in the church could purify both him and the contamination on the black crystal at the exact same instant, but that was simply impossible.

After all, the level of purification power required for this was far too exaggerated. Even the most powerful purifier in history could not have achieved it.

Lovene's eyes flickered slightly after learning of this trait.

“But you'll die, won't you?”

Hearing this, Marcus let out a soft chuckle.

“Who doesn't die in this world? I made my peace with it long ago. Death is a release for me, and it will allow the territory to develop once more.”

“What about Elena? What about Dorothy?”

Without waiting for Marcus's reply, Lovene continued, “Elena loves you very much, and Dorothy has been spending all her time in the library, flipping through ancient texts that even adults can't understand, all to find a way to save you.”

“You made them wait all these years, and now you're just going to leave like this? Without saying a single word to their faces?”

Marcus's lips parted slightly. He lowered his head, staring at his collarbone submerged in the black water. After a few breaths, his voice turned very low:

“...This is the best outcome.”

This was the only best outcome he could think of.

Sacrificing himself in exchange for a future free of mutations for the territory.

At the end of the day, it was simple math.

He died, the contamination's source was cut off, and life would slowly return to normal. The people he knew, and those he didn't, would all be able to go on living.

Yet, even after doing the math, there were still debts that could never be settled.

He had promised Elena that he would accompany her through this lifetime. He had promised Dorothy that when she grew a bit older, he would teach her how to use a sword. He hadn't forgotten those promises; he just could no longer fulfill them.

Then there was the territory, that heavy responsibility. Once he was gone, all of it would fall onto Elena's shoulders alone. He didn't know if she could bear it, but he had no other choice.

The contamination on the black crystal would not vanish on its own. As long as it remained attached to him, the white mist behind him would never disperse. The residents would gradually lose hope, homes would empty out one by one, and in the end, nothing would be left.

So he had no choice.

This was the best outcome he could think of.