Chapter 225



225 The Explosion

Selma Payne’s POV:

Dorothy solved the problem that had been bothering me within a second. She accurately found the ‘heart’ among the dead pine trees – an unremarkable piece of charred wood.

“This is it.” She touched the dried bark and felt the flow of power. I could see that all the curses were produced from this tree. It was the source of all evil.

This was good!

I immediately tried to devour the tree, but just as New Flow wrapped it up, Dorothy suddenly said, “It ran away! He’s on that tree!”

She pointed at another crooked tree not far away.

This cunning fragment could move!

New Flow followed the demonic fragment, but it was always one step behind it. The fragment was like a rat in the sewer, familiar with the escape route.

“It’s expanding.” Dorothy’s expression was solemn. “It is trying to create more creatures that can be used for hiding. It is constantly absorbing Captain Frank’s soul!”

The barren land under my feet began to thin visibly, and I realized I couldn’t continue the endless pursuit.

“Help me observe its path! I have to force it into the encirclement of New Flow.”

Like flowing water, a power swept across the wasteland like a colossal wave. I didn’t intend to swallow it in large mouthfuls like before. I only intended to firmly wrap up the dead trees and roots to reduce the potential carriers of the demonic shards as much as possible.

The speed of devouring was always faster than the speed at which the demonic fragment created new things. Soon, the demonic fragment would realize it had no escape. New Flow surrounded it like a wall, blocking all dead trees and roots.

‘Let’s see how you will run now!’

New Flow kept devouring the demonic fragment’s creations, slowly shrinking its range of activity.

Seeing that it was doomed, the demonic fragment hid in the roots underground and stopped moving as if it had given up struggling.

However, we did not let down our guard. Dorothy kept an eye on its every move, preventing any danger from happening.

Just as New Flow was about to touch the demonic shard, Dorothy suddenly stopped me. “Wait! Don’t devour it yet!”

“What’s wrong?” I quickly stopped what I was doing.

“The demonic fragment is shrinking. It seems like… it is compressing itself? It’s like a landmine now, and any external contact may cause it to explode.”

“You mean the demonic fragment wants to take us down with it?”

“It’s hard to say what will happen to us, but Captain Frank will definitely be affected. This is his spiritual world. An explosion is enough to destroy a soul!”

Now I had to be cautious, but if I left the demonic shard alone, it would still explode after it had compressed itself to its limit!

I could use the shard to cover the space around the fragment and absorb the shockwave. In essence, the demonic fragment could only shoot the energy it contained and cause an explosion-like phenomenon. Since it was all energy, there was nothing I couldn’t eat.

It was just that to do this without touching it. Some sacrifices would be inevitable. At least, the souls around the demonic shard would not be able to be preserved, and I needed them to act as a barrier between the shard and the soul.

But what kind of effect would this have on Frank?

The completeness of his soul was no longer something he could hope for. He could not even retrieve the things that the demonic shards had absorbed. However, it was better to minimize the losses. Unavoidable damage was one thing, and taking the initiative to cause damage was another.

The loss of a large number of souls could cause soullessness. Its effects ranged from amnesia to fainting and death. No one knew what would happen to Frank.

I was lost, but the demonic shard would not wait for anyone.

After knowing my plan, Dorothy immediately said firmly, “There’s no time, Selma. We can only make a Hail Mary effort now. Compared to the problem of losing his soul and memory, if we let the demonic shard explode now, Captain Frank would die immediately. There will be no future for him!”

Alright then!

After making up my mind, I controlled New Flow to wrap up the demonic shard, the surrounding roots, and the soil, trying to reduce the damage to my soul as much as possible. Dorothy predicted that the explosion range of the demonic shard would cover the entire spiritual space, so the coverage could not be too small, or it would be penetrated. However, if it were too big, it would affect too much of Frank’s soul.

New Flow kept stacking up, and it gradually grew from the size of a ping pong ball to the size of a space ball. I had no experience, so I guessed this should be the balance point between the two.

However, before I could adjust, Dorothy shouted, “Focus! It’s going to explode!”

A dull explosion came from the ‘space ball’ a second later!

At that moment, I felt like I was eating mint-flavored lollipops frozen in liquid nitrogen on a drop machine. I fell to the ground under the impact of intense dizziness and explosion.

This is simply the most unappetizing food I have ever eaten!

Fortunately, every bit of the shock wave was perfectly absorbed by New Flow. Other than my damaged sense of taste, no one else was hurt.

“Are you alright?”

Dorothy rushed over to help me up.

As the demonic shard disappeared, the dead trees on the wasteland gradually withered. I quickly devoured the ash-smelling residue.