Chapter 19: Resolute and Shiny?!

[Day 3... Is it really a mouse, though...]

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[POV, Unknown Cockroach]

Jumping at her when she reached the side of the giant's nest, the "mouse" opened its mouth, causing the world around her to slow down from an outside perspective.

Feeling as if her limbs were stiff, she struggled to move as the "mouse" got closer and closer as it flew through the air.

Sensing that she was going to die, she was filled with reluctance at this situation, as she had just become self-aware of everything.

Her gaze followed the giant that her instincts told her to follow, but thinking of it now, her instincts told her that it was dangerous.

So why did she follow it? What had told her to follow it this whole time?

Darkness encroached, surrounded by sharp needle-like teeth, closing in on her. Like how she had come into this world from darkness, she would also leave it in darkness.

As she felt those needle-like teeth sink into her and they fell to the ground, she looked at the giant one last time, wondering if any amazing things would happen as her world faded to darkness. She only saw two glowing green eyes that wanted to swallow her whole, but they too started to disappear into darkness.

All she heard was a vague voice mixed with pain and sadness that had a resolute tone hidden like the undercurrents of a storm within it saying, "I don't know why, but this shouldn't be like this; I WON'T LET IT BE LIKE THIS!"

'Green.' That was the word for this color all around, mixed with the darkness she remembered from listening to the humans subconsciously as she lived this past month.

She felt that faint lingering pain that had been present since the "mouse" had bitten her slowly fade away.

Strength and power, replacing it!

She felt amazing and invincible, like she could create a whole Roachdom for herself; nothing would stand in her way!

Power kept building inside her as her body started to change in a way that she was just naturally conscious of, like it had always been that way.

The knowledge and words of the giants, or should she now call them humans, flowed unceasingly into what she now knew as her brain.

With all of this, her understanding of what was happening was further expanded, also bringing forth the reason that she was meant to follow the human she now knew as her king.

All of it was to make her stronger and increase her survival chances by making her his own.

Not knowing anything else other than she should serve and repay him for saving her and giving this gift to her.

She was now his creation, and what was vaguely known to her as a Corruption, for now, was his partner in this newly Apocalyptic Multiverse.

Forms of people gradually started appearing in front of her as her eyes and senses adapted to the light as the black and green energies receded back into the hand that she stood on.

When she saw the people before her and the one whose hand she stood on, she was very nervous.

Muttering shyly in her mind towards the only person that would be able to hear her, "H-Hello M-M-Mashta!"

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[POV, Abel]

As they walked along the corridor, Abel heard a 'Keek, keek!' from the roof, followed by some quick scuttling and something hitting the right wall and falling behind them before he could even look at the roof where it started.

When he turned around and saw what looked similar to a mouse with the cockroach that was following them in its mouth, he suddenly felt rage towards the mouse-like creature.

Instinctively, he wrapped Corrupt around his hand and sprinted, what looked like teleporting to Kylie, towards the mouse-like creature.

Not being bothered to use Appraise on the creature yet, he reached the hand covered in Corrupt out, grasping it and squeezing it like soft clay, causing its intestines, skin, flesh, and bones to ooze out between his fingers.

Ripping the head into two parts from wanting to pry its jaw open and throwing it away.

Looking at the little roach that was following them earlier, which was so intelligent he felt loss as such an animal was having its light snuffed out.

He found himself saying words filled with an unknown resolution: "I don't know why, but this shouldn't be like this; I WON'T LET IT BE LIKE THIS!"

He then chose to use most of his stats, mana, and health, just leaving 1hp, 1mp and 10 of each stat, making him compared to a peak human now, wanting the intelligent creature to live.

At his mental command, Corrupt was activated, and eight different colors started appearing on his body, converging towards his right hand that was holding the little cockroach.

He felt as if he was going to die from the pain of his health, which appeared as a black liquid matching his blood, getting extracted and used for the skill Corrupt, along with feeling exhausted from his mana getting drained but not emptied.

The colors, blood-like substance, and mana merged into a black, green energy that covered the cockroach in a tiny, condensed energy cocoon.

When the cocoon finally started to dissipate, it was already nighttime, and Abel had his max mana yet still had only 1hp.

Abel looked down at the cockroach in his hand that he felt connected to all of a sudden.

With its new appearance and size, he was sure that it would have been able to kill the mouse-like creature.

Having become a grayish bone color with what seemed to be a spine, like that of a humans, growing over its shell, it split in the middle so that the wings could still open

With legs that seemed to be able to pierce through steel, they were so sharp and sturdy, having a very smooth appearance without any spines.

Its eyes had become sharper and less round while they shone with a green light that began to get brighter.

'H-Hello M-M-Mashta!' Suddenly hearing a voice in his head, Abel thought it might have been Omi, but quickly denied that as the voice was way too immature, having a naïve quality to it.

Looking at the cockroach in his hand, Abel took his left index finger and caressed its antennae while saying in a gentle voice, 'Hello little one.'