Chapter 9.1: Mori no yōsei

After an entire day spent installing magical support points across the plantation, dusk finally descended upon the land. The last workers had long since left, and the fields, once bustling with labor and movement, now lay eerily silent under the fading sunlight.

At the entrance of the greenhouse, Ishi and Li-Jua stood side by side, their expressions grim and focused. Lying at Li-Jua’s feet was Miller, his condition worsening by the hour. His already pale skin now had an almost ghostly hue, his vacant eyes staring into nothingness. A thin strand of drool dribbled down his chin, his mouth slack, his entire presence totally disconnected from reality.

Ishi exhaled, steadying herself. "Alright, the time has come," she announced. "I'm going to cast the Time Acceleration Spell."

Li-Jua nodded. "Fine. What do you want me to do in the meantime?"

"Head to the Pao-Pao storage facility," Ishi instructed. "That’s where all the harvested fruit is being kept. It would be absurd to destroy the plantation while leaving behind stockpiles of the very thing we’re trying to erase. Go inside, open the doors, and bring out all the carts loaded with fruit, the ones ready for shipment."

Li-Jua frowned slightly. "And what are we going to do with them?"

Ishi smirked. "Simple. I’ll absorb them into the pocket dimension within my stone. They’ll be useful later,we can sell them to merchants in the future. After all, once we’re done here, Pao-Pao fruit won’t exist again for at least five years. And in an emergency, we can always use them for food. Two birds, one stone."

Li-Jua rolled her shoulders. "Got it. I’ll take care of it."

Without another word, she bent down, grabbed Miller by the back of his shirt, and effortlessly swung him over her shoulder. Despite his dead weight, she carried him with ease, heading toward the storage facility.

Now alone, Ishi took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The spell itself wasn’t overly complex, but casting it across such a wide area required an enormous amount of mana. She couldn’t afford distractions.

She spread her hands, feeling the natural energy around her, and began to chant:

"Accelerat Cronus, deus aevi pater,

tuorum mortem subditorum,

quorum pulvis et cinis tuae pars erit.

Festinare."

The magic pulsed through her veins, a tangible force that vibrated through the very ground beneath her feet. The runes she had carefully placed around the plantation flared to life, emitting a soft, purple glow. The air itself grew thick with power, humming with an ancient energy that crackled like static.

As Ishi’s voice carried through the fields, the sun dipped behind the Sanmyaku Mountains, casting the land into darkness. Night unfolded like a great veil, wrapping the plantation in shadows.

Meanwhile, at the Pao-Pao storage facility…

Li-Jua finally reached the massive wooden warehouse. Without a shred of delicacy, she dumped Miller onto the ground as if discarding a sack of rice. He landed with a dull thud, unmoving.

Stretching her arms, she glanced up at the enormous double doors blocking her path. "Alright," she muttered to herself, rolling up the sleeves of her white tunic. "My turn."

Taking a firm stance, she prepared to deliver a single, devastating punch meant to shatter the wooden gates to splinters. But just as she was about to strike...

A voice rang out from behind her.

"Not if I can stop you!"

Li-Jua froze mid-motion. Slowly, she turned her head.

Standing a few feet away was Pil, the small, seemingly harmless girl, her ever-present red scarf fluttering in the wind. Her dark eyes burned with determination as she stood firmly, blocking Li-Jua’s path.

Li-Jua blinked. "Oh. Hey, Pil," she said, feigning innocence. "I was just… admiring the grandeur of this fine warehouse. You know, taking a peaceful stroll with our dear friend Miller." She nudged Miller’s lifeless body with her foot.

Pil crossed her arms. "You’re a terrible liar, Li-Jua."

The child’s voice was sharper than usual, carrying a weight of certainty and authority that sent an uneasy chill down Li-Jua’s spine.

"I know exactly what you and Ishi are up to," Pil continued, stepping closer. "I’ve seen the strange symbols appearing in the fields. I’ve noticed how you two whisper in secret when you think no one's listening.”

Li-Jua narrowed her eyes. Shit. How much does she really know?

Pil clenched her fists. "You plan to destroy the plantation. But I won’t let you." She took another step forward. "And once I’m done with you, I’ll take care of your little sorceress friend next."

A smirk tugged at the corner of Li-Jua’s lips. "Look, Pil, I don’t know how you figured all that out, and honestly? You’re really brave for thinking you can stop me." She sighed, rolling her shoulders. "And since I don’t actually have anything against you, why don’t you just step aside and let me—"

She never finished her sentence.

Pain. Blinding, unbearable pain.

Her breath hitched as her body jerked backward.

A spear of condensed wind had pierced straight through her chest, leaving a hole the size of a fist.

She staggered, coughing violently as blood splattered onto the ground. Her vision blurred, the world spinning around her as she collapsed onto one knee.

She looked up, her mind struggling to process what had just happened.

Pil was gone.

Or rather…

The thing that had been Pil was gone.

Floating before her now was an ethereal figure, hovering just above the ground.

Her small, childlike form had been replaced by that of a grown woman, one with a curvaceous, almost hypnotic body.

Her once-short hair had grown into a cascade of silky chestnut waves, flowing around her like liquid gold. Her delicate features now radiated a beauty almost too perfect to be human.

She wore a sheer, crimson gown, its diaphanous fabric leaving little to the imagination as it clung to her every curve. Her eyes glowed, an otherworldly light burning within them, filled with something ancient… and dangerous.

Li-Jua coughed up another mouthful of blood, her vision dimming. She understood now.

"Son of a bitch…" she rasped, spitting blood onto the dirt. "I knew something was off about you."

Her trembling fingers pressed against the hole in her chest. She let out a weak, bitter chuckle.

"A motherfucking forest nymph," she muttered, her voice barely more than a whisper.

A searing pain coursed through Li-Jua's chest as she instinctively pressed a hand against the gaping wound left by the wind spear. Blood flowed freely between her fingers, warm and sticky, but she didn’t panic. Instead, her body reacted automatically, a surge of magical energy spread through her system as she muttered a healing incantation under her breath.

A faint green light pulsed from her palm, knitting flesh and sinew back together with an almost unnatural speed. Her natural passive regeneration kicked in as well, amplifying the spell’s effects. In less than a second, the injury was gone, no trace of the gaping hole remained, as if she had never been wounded at all.

Li-Jua let out a sharp breath, stretching her arms. "Damn," she admitted, brushing the dust off her white tunic. "That was a solid hit. You really caught me off guard."

She lifted her gaze to the ethereal figure floating before her.

Pil’s glowing eyes widened in disbelief. "What the hell?!"

The nymph’s delicate features twisted in frustration, her lips curling into a sneer. "You’re no ordinary healer," she spat. "But it doesn’t matter. You’ll never be able to defeat me. I am a higher spirit, bound to the very essence of this land. What could a simple support mage possibly do against me?"

Her disembodied voice resonated through the air, carrying an unnatural echo that sent shivers through the night. As she spoke, her long chestnut hair began to rise, strands of it floating around her like a living entity, a telltale sign that she was already charging another spell.

Li-Jua’s mind raced.

She’s right.

There was no white magic in existence strong enough to defeat a spirit of her caliber. And even if Pil didn’t know about Li-Jua’s monstrous physical strength, it wouldn’t make a difference. Spirits weren’t bound by the same physical rules as living beings, they were incorporeal, hovering between the realms of the dead and the living. Physical attacks would be useless.

If Li-Jua wanted to win, magic was her only option.

But she wasn’t exactly a combat mage.

Still, she wasn’t about to let Pil see her sweat. Instead, she let out a mocking laugh, eyes flicking over the spirit’s barely-there attire, the sheer red fabric that clung to her form, transparent in the moonlight.

"Well, well," Li-Jua smirked. "Looks like the half-naked forest whore knows how to fight."

Pil’s glowing aura flickered, her expression turning into one of sheer indignation.

Li-Jua shrugged. "But let’s be real here. I can’t hurt you, and you can’t hurt me. Even if you manage to land another one of those spells, I’ll just heal myself again." She tilted her head mockingly. "So why don’t we call this a draw and save ourselves the trouble?"

The air around them crackled with tension.

Pil's fingers curled into fists. "You… filthy, ragged excuse for a healer," she hissed through clenched teeth. "How dare you talk to me like that?"

Her voice rose, her ethereal form trembling with rage. "Fine. Maybe I can’t kill you. But what about your pathetic zombie friend?"

Li-Jua's smirk vanished instantly.

Pil’s arms lifted above her head, her body rising higher into the air. The energy around her intensified, causing the wind to pick up around them.

A massive swirling mass of air began to form above her, condensing into a colossal sphere of spiraling wind, easily the size of the entire warehouse behind Li-Jua.

Shit.

Li-Jua's eyes darted to Miller, still lying limp on the ground behind her. That idiot swordsman, in his current half-broken state, there was no way in hell he’d dodge something that size and all his passive spells were off due to his strange illness too.

If she stepped aside, he’d be obliterated.

If she covered him, she’d take the full force of the blast herself, leaving her wide open for whatever follow-up attack the nymph had planned.

Her instincts screamed at her to move, to dodge, to prioritize her own survival.

But she didn’t hesitate.

Stepping forward, she planted herself directly in front of Miller, raising her arms into a defensive stance.

She let out a breath.

"Alright, you red-haired bastard," she muttered under her breath. "You owe me for this one. You’d better buy me a damn good beer after this."

Pil’s eyes gleamed with cruel satisfaction.

"So you choose to shield him?" Her laugh was shrill, unhinged. "Then die, bitch!"

With a scream of pure fury, she threw her arms downward and the massive vortex of compressed wind came crashing down.

The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the air, flattening everything in the immediate vicinity. The sheer force of the spell split the ground open, carving out a massive crater where Li-Jua had stood.

A thick cloud of dust and debris billowed into the night sky.

And then, silence.

For a moment, there was nothing.

Then, as the dust began to settle, a figure emerged from the wreckage.

Li-Jua was still standing.

Barely.

Her body was a ruined mess. Blood poured freely from countless lacerations. Her right shoulder had been completely blown apart, leaving a ragged mess of torn muscle and shattered bone. What remained of her right arm dangled uselessly, attached only by a thin strip of flesh, it looked like it could fall off at any moment.

But she was alive.

And, somehow, she was still grinning.

She coughed, spitting blood onto the ground, then lifted her head, her gaze locking onto Pil’s.

"That’s it?"

Her voice was hoarse, trembling, but unmistakably mocking.

She staggered forward, every movement dripping with exhaustion, but she still managed to smirk.

"Is that really all you’ve got, you overgrown, half-naked leaf sprite?"

The nymph stiffened, her expression contorted in pure, seething rage.

Pil hovered in the air, her body shimmering with raw magical energy as she sneered down at Li-Jua’s battered form.

"You’re tough. I’ll give you that," she admitted, her voice laced with grudging respect. "But this is the end for you, whore."

She raised her arms once more, fingers stretching toward the night sky. Power crackled around her, a swirling mass of energy coalescing above her head. Her expression was one of pure, sadistic glee.

"With this next spell," she continued, "you’ll die like the cockroach you are."

Li-Jua braced herself, but before Pil could unleash her attack, something unexpected happened.

From out of nowhere, a set of golden chains materialized, shooting through the air with blinding speed.

"What?!"

Pil barely had time to react before the enchanted bindings wrapped tightly around her limbs, her wrists and ankles snapping together in an instant.

Her once elegant, floating posture was abruptly reduced to something ridiculous and undignified, her body contorted at awkward angles. Worse yet, the delicate fabric of her already revealing dress twisted and shifted, exposing even more of her glowing, ethereal skin than she had ever intended.

"What the fuck is this?!" she shrieked.

But before she could spit out another curse, the chains yanked her downward with brutal force.

Pil’s body collided with the ground face-first.

A sickening crunch echoed through the air as her delicate features met the hard earth, a spurt of glowing blood and saliva escaping her lips. A sharp, strangled cry of pain burst from her throat.

But it wasn’t over.

The chains didn’t stop pulling.

A moment later, the enchanted bindings wrenched her into the air again, only to slam her back down into the dirt.

Then again.

And again.

And again.

Pil’s frail body was mercilessly dragged, flung, and smashed against everything in her path, tree trunks, shattered crates, the hard stone of the warehouse walls. Every impact sent a fresh shockwave of agony coursing through her, her once graceful form reduced to a ragdoll, completely at the mercy of an unseen force.

Through the haze of her pain, she saw it.

A shadowed figure approaching through the dust.

The chains were coming from them.

Li-Jua, barely clinging to consciousness, squinted at the silhouette. Then, despite her mangled state, she let out a hoarse laugh.

"Took you long enough, noble princess," she muttered.

She grimaced, holding onto what little remained of her right arm with her left hand, trying to keep it from falling off entirely.

The figure stepped into the dim moonlight.

Ishi.

Her petite frame was trembling, but not with fear. Her crystal blue eyes, usually so calm and intelligent, burned with something primal.

With one hand stretched forward, she clenched her fingers into a fist and the golden chains tightened further, digging deeper into Pil’s flesh.

The nymph let out a strangled scream.

Ishi's voice rang out, low, almost inhuman.

"How dare you."

Her tone was quiet, but the sheer weight of rage behind it made the air shudder.

"How dare you lay a single hand on MY Li-Jua."

With a flick of her wrist, the chains wrenched tighter, twisting Pil’s body painfully. The nymph cried out, her glowing essence flickering in distress.

Ishi’s voice dropped to a chilling whisper.

"You disgusting little spirit."

Her gentle, scholarly demeanor was completely gone. In its place stood something terrifying, an aura of pure, unfiltered malice radiating off of her in thick, suffocating waves.

"I’m going to erase you."

Pil’s heart stopped cold.

She could feel it, something ancient, something far older than her own existence looming over her.

It was not a bluff.

Ishi wasn’t just going to kill her.

She was going to erase her. Not just her body. Not just her current form.

Everything.

Her past, her present, her future, all of it would cease to exist.

Pil’s very essence, the core of her being, would be ripped from the fabric of reality, as if she had never been born at all. She would be gone from this world and every other world that had ever existed. Her existence would be nothing but a void.

Pure. Absolute. Oblivion.

Terror like she had never known before clawed its way through her mind.

"No!"

The mighty nymph of the forest, the ancient spirit that had once struck fear into humans, was now reduced to nothing more than a sobbing, broken girl.

Tears spilled from her glowing eyes as she thrashed against the chains, her entire body trembling.

"No, please!" she shrieked. "No, no, no! Please don’t—please, have mercy!"

Her voice cracked, her dignity shattered. A warm trickle ran down her trembling thigh. The once-proud guardian of nature had just pissed herself in terror.

"Prepare to disappear."

Ishi’s voice was cold, absolute, the voice of a goddess passing judgment on something beneath her notice.

The air around them crackled with unseen power, the very space twisting and distorting as if reality itself was waiting for her command to erase the spirit from existence.

Pil let out a broken sob, her entire body trembling.

"STOP! STOP, STOP, STOOOOOP!"

The desperate cry pierced through the night, but it didn’t come from Pil.

Ishi blinked, her expression darkening as she turned toward the source of the voice, Li-Jua.

The healer had fully recovered.

Her body, which had been shredded to ribbons just moments ago, was now completely unscathed.

Her right arm was back where it belonged, her shoulder restored, the once deep, bleeding wounds now nothing more than smooth, flawless skin. The only evidence that she had ever been injured at all was the tattered state of her tunic, torn in several places, exposing hints of her toned stomach and the generous curves of her chest beneath.

Ishi's breath caught in her throat.

She wasn’t expecting that much skin.

Her gaze flickered, trailing over the ivory-white complexion of Li-Jua’s bare midriff, the subtle rise and fall of her breath, the delicate contrast between her soft skin and the rough edges of her torn clothing.

A deep blush spread across Ishi’s face and even a little drop of blood fell from Ishi’s nose.

The tight grip of her spell wavered for the first time. The golden chains that bound Pil shuddered, their glow dimming slightly.

Ishi quickly shook herself free of whatever distraction had momentarily gripped her.

"W-What do you mean, stop?!" she snapped, trying to sound as composed as usual, but the slight quiver in her voice betrayed her.

She recomposed herself, eyes narrowing.

"This worthless third-rate spirit nearly killed you, Li-Jua! And you’re telling me to stop?!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Li-Jua sighed, rolling her shoulders as if brushing off the near-death experience. "But in her defense… we were the ones who started destroying her Pao-Pao plantation."

Ishi frowned, but Li-Jua kept talking.

"And besides," she added, crossing her arms, "I’m very interested in knowing why the hell a nymph, a being of the forests, would disguise herself as a little girl and dedicate herself to growing magical fruit for the Empire. There’s got to be a reason behind all of this."

"Yes! Yes, there is!"

Pil, still bound and trembling, seized the opportunity.

Her glowing eyes were wet with tears, her once ethereal presence reduced to something pitiful and desperate.

"Please! I’ll tell you everything, just… just let me go!" she sobbed. "I swear it! I swear it on the forest, on my sisters, just, please, have mercy!"

Li-Jua turned back to Ishi, giving her a pointed look.

"Come on, let her go," she said, voice gentler now. "Do it for me."

Ishi pursed her lips, clearly unconvinced.

"You really expect me to just let her walk free after what she did?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

Li-Jua smiled, tilting her head.

"I’m fine, aren’t I?" she said, stretching her perfectly healed arms out to her sides. "Look at me. Not a scratch left."

Ishi exhaled, clearly reluctant.

"…Fine."

She crossed her arms, looking down at Pil like one would look at an insect they weren’t quite willing to crush yet.

"I suppose I forgot that you’re not a real healer," she muttered. "You’re a monster."

Li-Jua grinned.

"Glad you’re finally understanding that."

Ishi turned back to Pil, her expression dead serious.

"Listen to me, spirit," she said, her voice laced with a quiet, underlying threat. "I’ll let you go. But if you so much as breathe the wrong way, there won’t be a warning. I will erase you. Instantly. Understood?"

Pil nodded frantically, still trembling on the ground.

"Y-Yes, ma’am!" she choked out, immediately bowing so deeply her forehead touched the dirt.

With a simple flick of Ishi’s fingers, the golden chains vanished, dissolving into the air as if they had never existed in the first place.

Pil slumped forward, her entire body shaking with relief.

"Alright," Li-Jua said, casually lowering herself to the ground, sitting cross-legged beside the nymph.

"Now… let’s hear it. What the hell is going on here?"

Pil took a deep breath, gathering herself. Her hands, still trembling, gripped the fabric of her tattered red dress.

"It all started fifteen years ago," she murmured, voice distant, lost in memory.

"An emissary from the Emperor himself came to our forest at the foot of the Sanmyaku Mountains, searching for rare herbs to be used in his medicinal treatments.

"But he wasn’t alone. He was guarded by an entire battalion of powerful mages, men whose souls had long since rotted, who saw us spirits as nothing more than tools to exploit."

Pil swallowed, hands tightening into fists.

"When they found my sisters and me, they demanded to know if there was a plant in our lands that could increase the Emperor’s virility.

"And when we told them there was no such thing, they threatened to burn our entire forest to the ground unless we gave them the answer they wanted."

Ishi’s expression darkened.

Li-Jua clicked her tongue. "Classic Imperial bastards."

Pil let out a humorless laugh, her voice bitter.

"We were left with no choice. We gathered and pooled our power, granting the Pao-Pao fruit, a common fruit from our land, a new magical property.

"From that moment forward, the Pao-Pao fruit became known as the Fruit of Love."

Pil shuddered.

"But the Emperor’s greed knew no limits.

"One day, he sent his men back, not for the fruit, but for us.

"He captured every nymph in the forest. Every minor spirit, every guardian, all of them were taken, imprisoned in chains of magic stronger than we could break.

"He gave me a choice, create an endless plantation of Pao-Pao fruit for him… or watch them all be slaughtered."

Pil’s voice cracked, her breath hitching.

"And so, here I am," she whispered.

"Fifteen years later.

"Alone.

"I don’t even know if my family is still alive.

"And I… I’ve lost my spirit, my essence, my purpose, spending my days cultivating these cursed fruits for a man I’ve never even seen."

Her shoulders shook.

Her entire body felt empty, like a hollow shell of the vibrant nymph she had once been.

Li-Jua and Ishi exchanged glances.

Neither of them spoke.

For a long moment, there was only the sound of the wind whispering through the ruined plantation.

Li-Jua took a deep breath, her gaze steady as she locked eyes with the trembling nymph before her.

"Alright. We’ll help you, Pil."

Pil flinched, as if she hadn’t heard correctly.

"You… will?"

Li-Jua nodded, a reassuring smile spreading across her lips.

"You won’t have to cultivate this cursed fruit any longer," she said. "Go back to your forest. We’ll make sure your sisters survive."

Pil’s breath hitched. Her lips parted, but no words came.

"But… how?" she finally whispered, her voice unsteady. "I-I can’t just leave! If I stop delivering the Pao-Pao fruit to the Emperor, my sisters will be killed!"

"Don’t worry."

Li-Jua’s confidence never wavered. She crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly.

"The Emperor’s emissaries don’t come to collect the harvest for a few more months, right?" she asked.

Pil hesitated before nodding slowly. "Y-Yes…"

"Then it’s fine," Li-Jua continued, flashing a smirk. "We’re already on a mission to destroy the Empire anyway. We’ll just have to speed things up a little so we can save your family in time."

Pil stared at her.

For a moment, she looked as if she were gazing at a goddess of hope herself, a savior, someone capable of the impossible.

Her glowing eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she stepped forward, closer, too close, and grasped both of Li-Jua’s hands in her own.

"You… you would do that for me?" she whispered, her voice filled with awe.

Li-Jua blinked in slight surprise but didn’t pull away.

Ishi, however, did not handle it so well.

Her mouth dropped open as she watched the scene unfold before her.

Pil, a stunningly beautiful nymph, still in her tattered, revealing dress, was now standing practically pressed against Li-Jua, who was just as breathtaking, her torn tunic exposing her smooth, toned stomach and the soft curves of her chest.

It was… too much.

Ishi felt her brain short-circuiting.

Her eyes widened, her pulse quickened, and before she could stop it—

A thin trickle of blood dripped from her nose again.

She quickly wiped it away, but the damage was done.

Pil tilted her head, amused by the reaction.

"Please. I swear, I’ll be of great use to you." Said teh nymph.

Li-Jua hesitated.

But before she could answer—

"No."

Ishi cut in immediately, stepping forward with a sharp glare.

She marched up to the two women and, without hesitation, forcefully yanked Pil away from Li-Jua.

"Absolutely not."

Pil let out a soft, knowing "Ohhh…" as realization dawned on her.

Her lips curled into a mischievous smile as she glanced between Ishi and Li-Jua.

"This is the only reason I can’t come with you, isn’t it?" Pil teased, looking directly at Ishi now.”

Ishi bristled.

"YES! That’s exactly right!" she snapped, crossing her arms. "You can’t come, so shoo! Go back to your damn forest, you naked little tramp!"

Pil gasped dramatically, clasping her hands over her chest.

"Ehhhhh?!" she whined. "But if Lady Li-Jua wants me to come, then I will! My lady, please allow me to serve you! I swear I will be useful!"

She turned to Li-Jua, smiling sweetly, but her eyes flickered with mischief, fully aware of how much this was enraging Ishi.

Ishi saw red.

Her rage manifested physically, golden chains beginning to form around her arms, ready to erase the smug little nymph from existence.

"Why, you little—!"

Before things could escalate any further, Li-Jua quickly stepped between them.

"Okay, okay, that’s enough, girls!" she said, trying to defuse the tension.

She turned to Pil with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, Pil, but you really can’t come with us," she said, her voice firm but kind. "Ishi’s right, everything has to stay normal here. If you suddenly disappear, it’ll raise suspicion."

"Noooooooo…" Pil groaned, pouting in disappointment. "That’s so unfair…!"

"Life’s unfair. Get over it," Ishi muttered, still glaring.

Li-Jua sighed and finally stood up, brushing the dust from her clothes.

"Alright," she said, stretching her arms. "Let’s grab the Pao-Pao fruits from the storage and get moving. We have things to do."

Ishi, grateful for the change of subject, immediately nodded.

"Right. And we still need to heal Miller."

She turned toward the unconscious swordsman, still sprawled on the ground with his mouth hanging open, barely clinging to life.

"Ah. Right."

Li-Jua had almost forgotten about him.

Ishi wasted no time, raising her hands and conjuring a portal to her pocket dimension, a separate storage space within her enchanted stone.

With a wave of her fingers, her gravity spell activated, pulling every last Pao-Pao fruit from the warehouse into the swirling vortex of the portal.

But, she did it too quickly.

The fruits flew through the air chaotically, bouncing off walls, rolling across the ground, and—

—one of them fell directly into Miller’s open mouth.

The moment it touched his tongue, his jaw instinctively closed.

And then…

With the mindless reflex of an automaton—

He swallowed.

Li-Jua and Ishi froze.

A cold silence settled over them.

Ishi blinked. "Uh… that’s… not good, is it?"

Li-Jua just stared.

Then, slowly, she turned to face the unconscious swordsman.

"It's fine, don't panic," Li-Jua said, lifting a hand in an attempt to reassure everyone.

Her tone was calm, far too calm.

"Like I said, I have no idea why, but his Megalopassive ability seems to be turned off, so there's no need to worry. I mean, the odds of the only passive skill still functioning being Magnify, the one that amplifies the effects of everything he ingests, are basically—"

Her voice trailed off.

A deep, foreboding silence filled the air.

And then...

As if cursed by fate itself—

Miller's body twitched violently.

A shadow loomed over them.

A horrifying, unnatural, monstrous harden began to grow between his legs, stretching the fabric of his trousers to its absolute limit.

It didn't stop.

It kept growing.

Bigger.

BIGGER.

The effects of the Pao-Pao fruit, the ultimate aphrodisiac, were being multiplied to an unimaginable degree.

Miller’s virility had reached levels beyond human comprehension.

He was mere seconds away from exploding into the most colossal erection ever witnessed by mankind.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The three women screamed in unison, their voices overlapping in sheer horror and disbelief.

Li-Jua stumbled backward, her brain shutting down as she stared at the grotesquely expanding bulge with wide, terror-stricken eyes.

Ishi clutched her head, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, not from sadness, but from overwhelming mental distress.

Pil was just standing there, mouth agape, her hands slowly rising to cover her face as if witnessing the birth of an eldritch horror.

Ishi turned to Li-Jua, her voice breaking.

"Li-Jua…"

Li-Jua swallowed hard, her hands clenched into tight fists.

"I know," she said grimly, rolling up her sleeves.

They exchanged a single, solemn glance.

Then, with deep resignation, they nodded to one another.

Ishi wiped a tear from her eye and placed a gentle hand on Li-Jua’s shoulder.

"I’m sorry," she whispered, her tone filled with melodramatic sorrow.

Li-Jua let out a heavy sigh.

"I understand."

Her expression was filled with pure resignation as she cracked her knuckles, preparing herself for the inevitable.

"We have no choice."

She took a step forward, her gaze locking onto Miller’s doomed form.

"We have to kill him."

Her voice was firm. Resolute.

It was a mercy.

It was the only way.

She readied her fist, muscles tensing, but just before she could deliver the fatal blow—

"WAIT!"

Pil suddenly stepped in front of her, arms outstretched.

Li-Jua and Ishi skidded to a halt, nearly crashing into her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ishi yelled.

Pil took a deep breath, steeling herself.

"I can cure him," she declared.

Li-Jua and Ishi snapped their heads toward her in unison.

"You can?!" they both exclaimed, their voices overflowing with desperation.

Pil nodded confidently.

"Yes. I know exactly what's happening to him," she said, placing a hand over her heart. "And I have the knowledge and power to reverse it."

For a moment, it felt like the gods had shown mercy upon Miller.

Pil’s lips curled into a devious smile.

"However…"

Her eyes gleamed with mischief.

"I’ll only do it if you let me join you on your journey."