Chapter 237 - The Leech Egg

The leech on the ground gazed at the hole before it, its upper body dancing for a couple of minutes before it slithered into the hole, landing onto a large serpentine creature. The serpentine creature was bleeding out from a wound, its body turning cold.

The leech moved through the cave, sensing around as it noticed Grisha's body turning colder, a sign of blood loss. And based on the scent of the dripping blood, it realised that she was the same individual that it had been feasting upon just recently.

Its attention then trailed over the serpentine creature, smelling its blood, approaching the area where six bullet holes existed, latching into it before beginning to suck in all its blood.

The serpentine creature's body flinched instinctively but nothing happened beyond that. It had already died since Grisha had accurately aimed at its brain, turning it into a mush.

As the leech began to drink the creature's blood, it noticed that it was unable to hold itself back, beginning to drink in more and more blood of the serpentine creature.

At the start, it only felt like normal, edible blood. But once it began to drink, it was like a narcotic, preventing the leech from detaching even though it had drunk beyond its fill. As time passed in such a fashion, the leech's body continued to bloat up before something whirred into life from within it, beginning to rapidly consume the excess energy stored within the blood.

After absorption, the wastage seeped out of its body, causing a pungent stench. But, its bloated size remained the same as it ravenously drank blood.

A mystical change occurred when the leech swallowed the serpentine creature's pearl and orb while devouring it. Starting from the head, till the tail, the leech managed to finish swallowing the serpentine creature wholly.

And all along, its body's metabolism was rapidly accelerated under the effect of the drug-like blood. Moreover, after digestion, it constantly excreted the remains.

A leech had 32 brains and its body was rather special. So, even though it had bloated up to resemble a sphere, it was still alive…somehow. Moreover, the abundant energy circulated within it, turning into something that condensed in its ovary.

It was pregnant now. As they were hermaphrodites, this was easy, not to mention the biological changes they experienced thanks to the evolution.

It was as if time was accelerated as an egg began to rapidly grow in it. In the meantime, Grisha had been unconscious all along.

But, after she fainted, a pearl that she stored in her mouth gradually moved through her throat and was digested by her immediately, causing the energy to circulate in her body. Since there was no means to expel the energy, her wand was summoned automatically.

It activated, gushing the healing energy into her, healing her injuries and stopping her bleeding. Moreover, it also recovered some of her blood loss.

An hour later, she woke up, gazing at the scene of the leech swallowing the serpentine creature, smiling in response. Though, she didn't move, maintaining silence, watching the other party.

She observed, finally sighing in relief when she was able to sense minute fluctuations in the leech's body, 'Great! It's pregnant now.'

She told Compass Carburettor to remain in his position, patiently watching the leech's body beginning to turn into a mess, 'The one you swallowed is a leech's natural predator. At least, that was what it had been in that loop. I hadn't ever seen a second of its kind, so it should have been an almost extinct species that had evolved in the apocalypse.'

'It is like a drug to the leeches. Once they taste its blood, they wouldn't be able to stop themselves until they devoured it whole. That was also another reason this serpentine creature is a coward, despite being the predator of the leeches.' She smiled.

'And finally, once a leech devours it, it would evolve rapidly and condense a horn, giving birth before dying from cancer.' She thought, seeing the leech's body tremble constantly, as if it was getting damaged by whatever was happening from within.

For the next two days, Grisha remained in the same place, relying upon the pearls she had brought with her to sustain herself. The leech didn't even notice her since it was occupied by itself. Moreover, since this was a cave created by the leech hunter, the leeches on the ground never entered it.

The only reason this leech had entered it was because it had been preying upon Grisha and had only let go of its hold instinctively. So, after some time, it followed into the hole.

This was her calculated risk.

'Finally, it is happening.' She grinned, watching the leech—that had now grown a horn—laying down an egg before its body began to rot.

Getting up, Grisha arrived before the egg, gently patting it as she placed a pearl atop it. The pearl was slowly sucked into the egg as if it was still a gelatinous membrane.

Seeing that it was a success, she cut open her wrist, dripping some of her blood onto the egg, watching it absorb everything like a sponge. Slowly, after a couple of minutes passed in such a fashion, the egg cracked.

A normal leech's egg hatched anywhere between 21-330 days depending on the environmental condition. But as this was a product of special evolution, it had hatched so soon, revealing a tiny figure resembling a horned beetle.

Or at least, its head resembled that. The rest of its body still was that of a leech's. Upon seeing it, Grisha smiled, "Alright, the entity has been born, and with a horn at that."

Even though it was just a hatchling, it slithered towards her at full speed like a snake, intending to latch onto her. Without any hesitation, she took out Anthozoa and shot it a couple of times, watching it die immediately after.

She then took out an Armament, condensing an energy blade that she used to cut open its body, prying it to reveal a pearl and an orb.

Without any hesitation, she swallowed them, grunting in pain as she experienced an information load, laughing after a couple of seconds, "I remember being knocked out for a day when I obtained this ability before.. It seems remembering all my loops has strengthened my mind to the extreme."