The Chronicles of the Mysterious Alchemist: The Chronicles of the Mysterious Alchemist, #9

By Wesley Wang

He accidentally traveled to a brand new world, where he discovered some pathogens that had long disappeared in human history, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. With his profound knowledge and technology in modern biochemistry, he began to exert influence in this world. He made up his mind to help those who were ostracized by society, possessed special abilities but were called "Mutants." These people were isolated and discriminated against because of their unique abilities. Through his efforts, he established a powerful group composed of marginalized individuals—the Mutant Knights. They not only bravely confronted the old feudal system and hostile forces but also fought for equality and respect for the mutants. The establishment and efforts of this team gradually changed society's view of people with special abilities and led a profound social transformation.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wesley Wang
• Release date: May 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224658992

Book preview

Chapter 1

Cumberland said towards the adjutant beside him, Pass the word down, prepare for battle!

A long horn sounded, and the knights of the Twilight West Knights began to urge their warhorses and started to slowly advance towards the battlefield.

As the distance traveled increased, the Knights adopted a rare loose formation, and the gaps between the knights grew wider and wider.

After the Knights advanced three hundred meters, the drums of marching also sounded in the Holy Church Army.

The first square, the second square, one in front of the other, almost close together, moved at the same time, and both began to catch up with the Knights at a very slow pace.

The Knights marched forward for about two kilometers more, and gradually dispersed into a dozen companies by teams.

The first and second squads of the Holy Church Army, on the other hand, had already lagged behind the Knights by a distance of nearly one kilometer, and were following far behind, without the slightest intention of increasing their speed.

As for the Holy Church Army’s third square formation, those lizardmen, ratmen, and dwarves …… stayed where they were, still without the slightest movement.

Standing on the temporary watchtower built on the city wall, Cumberland held a monocular to look into the distance and said towards his adjutant, Tell those lads to remember that keeping the distance and utilizing the speed difference is the key.

The adjutant nodded, and the hive contact in his keel armor began to emit a subtle soft beep.

The adjutant, after conveying the instructions, glanced at the binoculars in Cumberland’s hand and whispered, My lord, the Eagle Eye Ability is a very convenient ability.

Cumberland waved his hand while observing the battlefield, I don’t like those messy things, in the end, the only thing that can be relied upon is the sword in your hand and the horse beneath you.

The adjutant glanced at the keel armor on Cumberland and shrugged without saying anything.

The Knights marched forward for another three kilometers and finally stopped at a grassland about five kilometers from the walls of Twilight West City.

Right at this moment, on the distant horizon, first one black dot after another appeared, followed by a large swath of blackened dead spirits lumbering in with low roars.

Those dead spirits had rotting flesh, piercing white bones, and violently writhing black parasites were like tentacles that kept swinging on their bodies, and if they were carefully distinguished, their faces were vaguely recognizable from before they were born.

Farmers, artisans, soldiers, nobles, their original identities were no longer of any use in the face of death.

In addition to those original humans, even more eye-catching was a large group of livestock and wild beasts.

Cats, dogs, cows, pigs, wolves, and bears ……

The fur on these animals had long since rotted to a grayish-white color, revealing black and purple rotting flesh.

Cumberland, who was observing the dead, lowered his binoculars and whispered, There are more than expected.

The adjutant came closer and said, As the tide of corpses travels, it will continue to absorb those stray dead spirits, so the number will get bigger and bigger; moreover, when the Valkyrie counts the number from a high altitude, the large targets such as human beings and livestock are easy to count, but small targets like cats and dogs are easy to ignore.

Cumberland said, It’s useless to consider this now, let the Valkyries take off, we need their support …… Everything will be fought according to the original program.

Adjutant: As you wish! Grand Master!

Dozens of Valkyries riding griffins slowly rose into the sky from the city, and the Knights of Twilight West began to advance.

More than ten coalitions made up of hundreds of knights began to approach the tide of corpses from multiple directions.

As for the first and second squares of the Holy Church Army, the distance between them and the Knights at this point was already more than three kilometers.

Right at this moment, an order for the Holy Church Army reached every soldier’s ears - stay where you are, do not trespass.

Walking at the forefront of the battle formation, the orc Carol, who was ordered to stop advancing, gripped the double-bladed axe in his hand, stretched his neck to look ahead and asked, Why are we being told to stop?

Alden, the werewolf standing beside him, said unconcernedly, What’s wrong with that? If the gang on horseback, can take care of the dead, all we have to do is watch.

Carol glared at Alden.

At this moment, the dozen or so Knights’ Order allies, from all directions, had already approached the necrotic tide less than five hundred meters

Finally, some Necromancers noticed these approaching Knights.

Accompanied by deafening roars, the Necromancers began to pounce frantically towards the nearest Knights’ Union, and the entire tide of corpses suddenly split into dozens of corpses running wildly across the grassland.

The Knight Commander, who was the leader of the Knight Union, used the hive on his keel to send out a signal, and the entire Union quickly turned their horses around and quickly withdrew in the opposite direction.

Just like that, a dozen knight alliances led the scattered corpses and started running in different directions, southeast, northwest, and north.

Among them, there were two knight alliances that attracted about three hundred necromancers and retreated back towards the Holy Church Army’s square formation.

Cumberland, who was standing on the watchtower, stared at the group of Dead Spirits rushing towards the Holy Church Army and spoke, It’s their turn to contribute.

The adjutant who was communicating with the Hive suddenly raised his head and said to Cumberland, Grand Master, Team 9 has discovered a Blasted Alienation Necromancer.

Cumberland sniffed and hurriedly picked up his binoculars to look, amongst a group of dead spirits in the northwest direction of the entire battlefield, there was a dead spirit wearing a gray and white top, it was running on all fours like a panther at a gallop on the ground, it had almost reached the speed of a fae warhorse.

Cumberland said in a deep voice, Finish him off!

A few seconds later, a Valkyrie who hovered in the air ceaselessly, commanded a griffin to approach the Knights’ Ninth Coalition, raised her bow and arrow to aim at the speedy alienated necromancer that was in hot pursuit, and nailed the opponent to the grass with a single arrow

Facing the rapidly approaching corpses, the commander of the Holy Church Army sounded the drums of engagement.

The orcs and minotaurs erected huge shields more than a person high, the wolves raised their crossbows, while the elves, snake-haired banshees and velvet people stepped into the space behind the shield wall one after another, observing the battlefield while beginning to prepare for the release of their powers.

Soon, the knight alliance responsible for luring the enemy retreated to the near side of the Holy Church Army, while the first batch of Necromancers had already rushed to a position less than three hundred meters away from the Holy Church Army’s position.

The commander of the Holy Church Army let out a roar, and the wolves snapped their crossbows first.

A rain of crossbow bolts shot towards the corpses, and in the blink of an eye, dozens of dead spirits were shot down to the ground.

The wolves placed the crossbow in their hands on the ground, and unhooked another crossbow from the backs of the orcs and minotaurs in front of them, and fired towards the corpses again.

After two rounds of shooting, the onslaught of corpses became much more scattered.

The ones rushing at the front were the smaller and faster animal necromancers, such as cats, dogs, wolves, and so on;behind them were the human and livestock necromancers.

The velvet people waved their arms, and the water vapor in the air began to condense, and large sheets of rainwater dripped down onto the grass in front of the position.

The elves who possessed cold ice-based abilities began to cool down the front, and the wetted grass instantly froze and turned into a smooth ice surface.

The Necromancers that rushed onto the ice surface were unable to maintain a stable stance and fell to the ground, their speed greatly reduced.

Then, under the cover of the orcs and minotaurs, the fire and electricity elves began to remove the dead spirits that couldn’t stand on the ice, one by one.

Occasionally, there were a few lucky Necromancers that were able to dodge the intensive strikes and approach less than ten meters from the Holy Church Army’s position

However, the snake-haired banshee with the petrification ability became the strongest barrier for the Holy Church Army’s defense line, turning them into piles of rocks.

Not to mention, the Valkyries that kept hovering in the sky were also helping to clear the dead spirits.

Soon, the first batch of corpses, which numbered about three hundred, were cleaned up.

Cumberland observed the battlefield while saying to his adjutant, Have the Holy Church Army square withdraw back a hundred meters and stay away from the corpses of those Necromancers;also, have the next team lure the Necromancers over.

Chapter 2

Forty minutes after the battle began.

Grand Master, this is the seventh group of corpses.

Hearing his adjutant’s report, Cumberland shifted his sight to the battlefield.

The tactics of the Knights baiting the enemy in batches and the Holy Church Army fighting and retreating were fruitful in dealing with the Necropolis.

The large number of tattered remains of the Necromongers were spread out from the center of the battlefield in the distance, nearly a thousand meters away.

Cumberland said as he watched, Warn them once again that they are not to engage in melee combat with the Necromancers and to keep a safe distance.

The adjutant reported towards Cumberland while sending and receiving messages with the Hive, Another Fae Necromancer, Fire Immune, has been spotted, located in the 11th team of the Holy Church Army which is in the middle of the battle.

Cumberland fixed his eyes on a Necromancer whose body was ablaze with fire, rushing through the flames and charging straight towards the shield wall of the Holy Church Army.

An elf with ice-type powers, replacing the fire-type elf, sprayed a frost spit at the fire-immune necromancer.

After a blast of white mist, the cold, biting frost froze the fae necromancer into an ice sculpture, no longer capable of movement.

Cumberland sidled up to the adjutant and asked, How many is that?

Adjutant: My lord, this is the eleventh.

Cumberland mused, Eleven have appeared so far in the battle?This is a higher percentage than what was reported previously ……

Adjutant: What do you mean, my lord ……?

Cumberland said, In the battle report submitted by the Holy Guardian City, it took about one mutant species to appear out of eight hundred Necromancers …… But today, that ratio has risen fourfold …… There are two possibilities.One is that we’re having terrible luck, and the other is that …… the rate of Necromorphization is accelerating ……

The adjutant whispered, If it’s the latter possibility, then it’s very bad news.

Cumberland said expressionlessly, There’s already enough bad news, don’t care about this one more already.

The adjutant let out a long breath and returned his attention to the battlefield.

Having just fired his crossbow into the Necromancer’s brow, Alden the Werewolf hadn’t even had time to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard Carol yell, Watch out ahead.

A decayed Necrotic Dog, utilizing its agility, jumped over the siege of arrows and fireballs, leapt into the air, and jumped straight towards the back of the shield wall.

Alden, with his hands full, tried to reach for the crossbow bolt hanging from Carol’s back

A white light flashed past him, and the completely petrified Necromantic Dog, fell out of mid-air, shattering into several pieces as it hit the ground.

Alden heaved a heartfelt gasp and looked at the Necrohound, which slowly stopped moving, and said, I hate dogs.

Carol carefully sweeps the necromantic remains, with her axe, outside the shield wall, nodding first towards the exhausted snake-haired banshee, then towards Alden, No time to complain, load the damn crossbow you’re holding, the next wave of enemies will be here soon.

Alden watched the snake-haired banshee, who had just finished using her powers, fall limply to the ground, and with the help of an elf, returned to the back column of the square, and said worriedly, Those human necromancers aren’t much of a threat, but instead it’s the smaller enemies, such as the cats, dogs, and rats, that are going to take a lot more of our strength.

Carol said, The key problem is still those bugs, whoever gets a little bit of them will become a member of the Necromorphs, which causes the melee forces of the Holy Church Army to be ineffective at all.

Alden looked up at the Valkyries hovering overhead, Not to mention, the spores are forbidden to be used.

Carol maintains the shield wall formation with the orcs around her while saying, Fortunately, the enemies are getting fewer and fewer. It won’t take long for us to destroy the remaining Necromancers.

Alden spoke in a voice that only he could hear, But the number of these Necromancers in front of us is like a puddle and an ocean compared to those outside ……

The battle still continued…..

After another hour of fierce fighting, the Holy Church Army and the Knights finally faced the last wave of enemies.

The adjutant looked at the battlefield, wiped his sweaty palms with his shirt, and said to Cumberland, My lord, this is the last batch.

Cumberland nodded, What about casualties?

The adjutant said, No one was killed, forty-six were slightly injured, mostly from dislocation caused by overuse of their powers.

Cumberland nodded and said to the adjutant, Have the third square of the Holy Church Army start cleaning up the battlefield.

The adjutant used the hive on the keel to make contact while asking towards Cumberland, Do we need to capture a few Necrotic samples alive and give them to the Institute?

Cumberland denied the proposal, The samples at Wayne’s place are already enough, all moves at the moment prioritize safety, clear out all the Necromancers!

Adjutant: Yes, my lord!

Watching the last of the Necromorphs fall into the fireball in her vision, Carol, who had been under mental tension for a long time, suddenly relaxed, her body almost almost falling to the ground.

Damn, it’s finally over.

Looking around, the remains of the dead spirits were almost spread all over the grassland.

Carol glanced at Alden, who was paralyzed on the ground, and said with a smile, I’ll buy you a drink when we get back.

Alden waved his hand in an uncaring manner.

The third square of the Holy Church Army, a battle formation composed of lizardmen, dwarves, ratmen, and other species groups, took on the job of cleaning up the war.

Some of them were in charge of scouting, some of them were in charge of recording, and some of them were holding simple flamethrowers and acid bottles made from oil drums, nozzles, and pressurizers to thoroughly exterminate the remains of every dead spirit on the war to make sure that there wouldn’t be any residual dead spirit paras

Several teams of heavily armed knights roamed the neighborhood, acting as a guard and support.

After burst after burst of fire and blue smoke, the Necro Parasites that had escaped the net and were writhing on the ground turned into puddles of black scum.

A lizardman walking in front of them, using his Perspective and Eagle Eye powers, kept checking out the remains of the dead spirits, and suddenly saw something strange.

In a corpse of a dead spirit that had already been burnt, there was actually a lump of flesh entangled by paras

Those parasites were entangled with each other like countless veins knotted together, exuding a rhythmic rhyme.

The lizardman raised his hand high and issued a loud warning towards his back.

However, it was too late.

The lump of flesh made up of parasites suddenly moved.

Countless parasitic tentacles broke out from the corpse and swooped towards the remains of the corpses scattered around.

Like ants foraging for food, these parasite tentacles dragged dozens of corpses to their side and tightly stuck together, turning into a giant corpse ball in the blink of an eye.

Looking at this strange corpse ball in front of him, the lizard man’s first reaction was to run.

But when he pulled out his legs, countless tentacles on the corpse ball pushed on the ground, and the whole sphere suddenly rolled up at high speed, and almost instantly swallowed the lizard man into the corpses.

The adjutant who had already walked down the watchtower, heard the communication from the hive and almost couldn’t believe his own ears, he hurriedly called out to Cumberland who was walking in front of him.

Da …… lord, there’s another necromancer!

Cumberland stopped walking and turned his head with round eyes, What did you say?!

There’s another Necromancer, a spherical Necromancer ……

Cumberland pushed aside the adjutant and rushed up to the watchtower with an arrow step, quickly picking up the binoculars and looking into the distance.

A four-meter-high giant corpse ball made up of dozens of corpses was rolling at high speed on the battlefield, devouring corpses and soldiers.

Cumberland shouted, What the hell is that thing?!

The adjutant had no way to give him an answer, In the report …… there has never been that kind of necromancy ……

Seeing that corpse ball swallow two dwarves who were in charge of cleaning up the battlefield into the ball, the shocked and anxious Cumberland hurriedly ordered, Order all military formations to retreat and reorganize their formation.

The adjutant was just about to convey the order when he was suddenly stopped by Cumberland again.

Cancel the order just now.

The adjutant was dumbfounded, My lord, why cancel the order?

Cumberland frowned tightly and said, Those soldiers of the Holy Church Army simply can’t outrun that damn corpse ball! Pass down the order, all third square formations retreat, first square formations re-structure the shield wall, and second square formations prepare to meet the attack!

Waiting for the adjutant to pass the order down, Cumberland said to him again, Send a separate order to all the Knight Commanders, once you find the Holy Church Army soldiers infected, no matter who it is, eliminate them immediately in situ without sparing a single one!

The adjutant winced and nodded in agreement.

On the other side of the battlefield, Carol and Alden looked at the corpse ball that was rolling closer and closer, their eyes straightening up, as if they were dumbfounded.

What is that thing?!

I don’t know.

At this moment, the commander of the Holy Church Army conveyed his orders - erect a double shield wall, reinforce the support, and make sure to block the onslaught of that necrotic spirit.

Looking at the necroball that kept devouring corpses on the battlefield and getting bigger and bigger, Alden trembled as he picked up his crossbow and whispered, Can that damn thing be blocked with a shield?

Carol stood with the other orcs, holding her shield above her head, and said in a deep voice, I don’t know if it can be blocked, but if it can’t, then we’re all going to die.

The spherical necromancer presented an S-shaped traveling trajectory on the battlefield, and after devouring nearly two hundred corpses, its entire size had already grown taller to the size of eight meters.

Countless parasitic tentacles, like the tentacles of an octopus, reached out from the corpses, acting as boosters for the corpse ball to roll.

As this spherical necropolis approached the shield wall’s two hundred meter position, a wave of crossbow arrows shot out.

Like a stone smashed on cotton, the crossbow arrows failed to cause any damage to the spherical necromancer, and didn’t even slow it down in the slightest.

When the Necromancer approached a hundred meters, the elves and velvet people began to release their elemental powers.

Fireballs, lightning, and ice strikes on the surface of the spherical spirit of death, at most, could only explode a few corpses that acted as the armor, and still did not manage to cause any damage.

Finally, the sphere-shaped dead spirit ruthlessly crashed into the shield wall of the first square formation.

The orcs holding their huge shields were pushed back a few meters by the huge impact, but in the end, they succeeded in stopping the Necromongers from advancing.

The snake-haired banshee standing behind the giant shield began to fire petrifying rays at the corpse ball, and a petrified corpse peeled off from the spherical necromancer.

However, the Spherical Necromancer extended its tentacles to the scattered Necromancer remains on the battlefield, constantly replenishing and repairing the corpse shells.

Worst of all, the necromantic parasites on the spherical necromorphs began to bypass the shield wall and attacked the orc holy army behind the shield.

The black parasites burrowed into the skin of the Holy Church Army soldiers, and screams rose up as blood spilled like rain on the ground.

Even so, the orc soldiers did not retreat in the slightest.

For the Dragon God!

All to the glory of the Dragon God!

When an orc that had been gnawed away by the parasites fell, another orc didn’t hesitate to take over the shield in his hand and continued to maintain the defense of the shield wall, never letting the Necromancers invade the back of the shield wall in the slightest.

Cumberland, who was standing on the watchtower, saw this scene, his palms unconsciously clenched together, unable to see the color of blood.

He thought about countermeasures quickly in his head, then ordered, Order the second square formation to gather firepower and attack towards the center of that ball!

Fireballs, lightning bolts, ice lances, and petrification rays were focused and blasted towards the center of the giant corpse ball.

Corpse after corpse was broken into pieces, and the speed at which the Necromancers were mending had gradually failed to catch up with the frequency of the attacks.

Finally, a deep scar was blasted into the shell of the spherical necromancer’s corpse, revealing the chunk of flesh made up of that parasitic tangle at the core of the corpse ball.

A Valkyrie hovering in the air, swooped down to the ground, removed her lance from her back, and threw it with all her strength towards the core of the corpse ball.

The lance shattered the parasite core, and the entire corpse ball instantly fell apart like dry clay.

Chapter 3

Soulspace, Institute Conference Hall.

Cumberland stood beside Ethan with a sullen face, watching the battlefield replay on the screen.

The giant spherical Necrotic Spirit in the screen, accompanied by a loud bang, crashed into the shield wall of the Holy Church Army, the flames and lightning strikes on the Necrotic Spirit didn’t seem to have much effect, and countless parasites crawled into the shield afterward, gnawing on the soldiers who swore not to retreat.

Ethan looked at the scene in front of him and asked in a low voice, Fifty-five killed in action?

Cumberland nodded and said, Most of the fallen were orcs who were responsible for maintaining the shield wall during the first onslaught.

Ethan reached out and paused the image, looking at the strange dead figure in the picture, and opened his mouth to ask, There was never any mention of such an enemy in any of the previous reports?

Cumberland affirms, Yes, I have never seen or heard of such a contraption.

Ethan stared carefully at the image and said, An organic core body made up of parasites that enhance themselves by constantly adsorbing corpses …… so that it looks like the host becomes the parasite and the parasite becomes the host instead.

Cumberland sighed, Sire, I am a martial artist, I don’t understand those deep truths, but I do know one thing, and that is that I screwed up this fight.

Ethan said as he waved his hand to continue the image, I’ve watched the replay of the entire fight, no one could have done better than you in that situation, you don’t need to blame yourself.

Cumberland: If only I could have been more careful and cautious ……

Ethan waved his hand to interrupt the old knight’s self-condemnation, The battlefield is ever-changing, and it’s impossible to anticipate every single detail of the occurs, what an excellent commander should do is to make correct and quick choices in response to unexpected events …… Have you forgotten?This is what you taught me ……

Cumberland smiled bitterly and whispered, Your Majesty ……

Ethan continued to ask: How’s it going over there with the Holy Church Army?

Cumberland: What else can happen …… The shamans have united to turn on the Knights because on the battlefield, I ordered the Knights to pounce on the infected soldiers.

Ethan looks to Cumberland, I can shut them up.

Cumberland shakes his head, No need, sire. Anyone with any sense would have understood the pain I was in at the time……. Sooner or later these shamans will be able to think this through, not to mention this is a victory.

Ethan turned off the battlefield projection and turned to Cumberland, This wave of necromantic corpses is just a prelude to the great battle to come. Before long, there will be more and more Necrotic Spirits attacking Twilight West City, and I hope that the Knights and the Sacred Church Army will be prepared to face whatever comes next.

Cumberland stood up straight, As long as there is a day that I am here, no enemy will be able to take half a step into Twilight West City.

After saying this, Cumberland bent down and said to Ethan, However, Your Majesty, if you stay in the city, it will be of great help to morale.

Ethan shook his head and said, Like I said before, the next battle will not just be ours, it will be a duel between life and death. We must gather allies with the greatest effort possible, the Southern Empire, the Legion of Strife, the Council of Elders …… in short, all forces that may sway the outcome of this battle. I, on the other hand, staying in the city will not help in any of this.

Cumberland saw that Ethan’s intention was resolute, so he stopped persuading him, Your Majesty, I understand …… But you are alone out there, everything must be careful ……

Ethan smiled and reassured him, I am able to guarantee my safety.

Suddenly, a ripple rippled up through the walls of the conference hall.

Wayne-Dunlop, dressed in a lab coat and staring at dark circles under his eyes, walked into the room

Cumberland glanced at Wayne, then bowed to Ethan, Your Majesty, please allow me to leave first.

The latter nodded, and Cumberland then disappeared into thin air.

Ethan looked at the shaky Wayne in front of him and asked with a frown, How long has it been since you’ve rested?

Wayne counted on his fingers, Two days? Three days? I can’t remember, sleep isn’t a big deal to me.

Ethan said seriously, If you want to do your job then sleep is the most important thing, I don’t want to see you collapsing on your research desk!

Wayne nodded helplessly.

Ethan slowed down his tone, Let’s get down to business next, you came to me, it’s the antibody research of the Necrosis Virus, has there been progress?

Wayne said, You can say yes or no.

Ethan: Give me more details.

Wayne: We took a live sample from Marcus, the patient zero, from his nerve center, and through screening, isolation and culture, we got a large number of plasma cells ……

Ethan interrupted: What about Marcus? Is he intact?

Wayne froze, then said, Ohhhh, he’s fine, there was some stress after the surgery, but nothing major, I’ll continue from before ……

With those plasma cells, I isolated a large number of globulins , which morphologically, come in a variety of forms, including lectins, sediments, antitoxins, lysins, conditioning proteins, neutralizing proteins, and so on, and I spent a great deal of time next to sifting and categorizing these functional forms.

Wayne paused for a moment as he said this, then suddenly said, Your Majesty, do you remember an experiment I once conducted, the weight of the soul experiment?

Ethan frowned, he was a little less comfortable with this jump in Wayne’s thinking.

He was clearly talking about virus antibodies, why did he suddenly bring it to souls?

Wayne was still there, saying to himself, In the process of sifting through the categorized antibodies, I suddenly became interested in Marcus, a dead spirit with a human soul. He’s obviously dead, but how does his soul work?

I extracted a portion of his nerve cells, and some of the necrotic parasites connected to them, and found an interesting phenomenon.

Ethan’s interest was also piqued by this time, Interesting phenomenon?

When this part of the living body was placed on the weight counter, the numbers on the counter changed from moment to moment, sometimes lighter and sometimes heavier.

Ethan asked, Are you sure you eliminated all distractions?

Wayne: Yes, the air, the temperature, the gravity, the humidity …… I’m sure I’ve ruled out all the confounding factors, but the weight of this part of the living tissue that was stripped from Marcus’s body, it did change all the time.

Ethan mused, Back when you were at Twilight West University, you did that experiment where when a human dies, the weight decreases a bit,

Wayne: So I was thinking, assuming that souls really do have weight, then it’s a normal thing for humans to lose weight when they die; But the repeated weight changes in nerves infected by the necrotic parasite, does that indicate that the necrotic parasite acts as some sort of conduit that allows the host’s soul to connect somewhere, back and forth.

The more Ethan listened, the more confused he became, A channel? Shuttling? What exactly are you trying to say?

Wayne took a deep breath and decided to explain in more detail, Your Majesty, I once read a book in the Heavenly Library called Wave-Particle Duality.

Ethan remembered that it did read the book in its previous life, but only remembered the contents of the book

Wayne: Any microscopic particle, when locked by consciousness, collapses into a localized point particle; however, when consciousness is no longer locked to it, it forms a diffuse wave that spreads through any space, any location.

Ethan’s eyes widened, I’m still not sure what all this has to do with souls ……?

Wayne said anxiously, Your Majesty, isn’t it obvious? The so-called soul is actually such a particle that when it is in the consciousness of a living being, it exists as a point particle and thus creates weight; however, once it is released by the consciousness, then it becomes a diffuse wave and no longer possesses mass.

Chapter 4

Ethan chewed on Wayne’s words over and over and said, You’re hypothesizing that if the soul is a special kind of particle, then according to wave-particle duality, then it can either take on a particle state inside a living organism or a diffuse wave form in the outside world.

Wayne said excitedly, That’s right, yes.

Ethan continued, Since the particle body possesses weight and the wave is weightless. Then it can be deduced that the Returning Soul Bugs, I mean Necro Parasites, that have been modified by the Tyrant Virus, possess a special ability that allows the soul to freely shift between the two forms of particles and bands according to the host’s will, and nevertheless caused the phenomenon of the weight going up and down in Marcus’s living tissues?

Wayne nods vigorously, When the Necro-Parasite encounters souls in wave form, it can capture them and store them in particle form; and when the Necro-Parasite wants to, it can turn the particle-form souls in its body, into wave-form souls, and release them.

Ethan began to recall what the Forerunners Skaha and Leviathan had once said.

Souls are a special kind of dark matter.

Then, if the soul was a polymorphized particle of dark matter, then Wayne’s explanation would indeed make s

Ethan propped his right hand on his cheek and said after some meditation, If your hypothesis holds true, I have many, many questions.

Wayne: Your Majesty, I too have many questions without necessarily having answers, but we can at least discuss them.

Ethan: First of all, if the Necro-Parasites have the ability to harbor and diffuse souls, then where are these souls stored when they’re being held? When dispersed, what do they end up becoming?

Wayne: I don’t know.

Ethan rubbed his forehead and laughed bitterly, Of course you don’t know ……

Wayne thought for a moment and added, But do you remember before, Your Majesty, that is, the living creatures that were killed by the undead, and among their souls some will not be able to return to Heaven.

Ethan mused, I remember this matter, anyone who has completed a soul link with the Kingdom of Heaven, if they are killed in a war with the undead, then there will be a certain chance that their soul will not be able to return.

Wayne said, If the Necro Parasite has the ability to send and receive souls, then everything is well explained, at the moment of a creature’s death, it can capture those diffuse wave type souls that are wandering around and store them as particles. So, my guess is that these souls are stored by the Necromantic Parasite within the body of the worm. As for what happens to these souls eventually, at worst, they will be digested within the parasite, or of course, they could be transferred elsewhere.

Ethan: So, you’re trying to say that the Necro Parasites use the souls as sustenance.

Wayne: Yes, that explanation just about explains everything.

Ethan: Okay, second question, why is it that people like Marcus can become Necromorphs with autonomous consciousness, while all those other living creatures killed by Necromorphs just turn into soulless living corpses? Shouldn’t it stand to reason that any living creature that comes into contact with a Necromantic parasite should be stripped of its soul?

Wayne: There’s no way I can give a definite answer to that question, but I can try to speculate. I once heard you, Your Majesty, mention the birth of the Tyranids, first using the Satherlan Archaea to improve cellular immunity, and then using the Tyranids to mutate body tissues. Reasoning by this, when the organism becomes a co-host of the Satherlan Archaea, Tyrant Virus, and Returning Worms, then its nervous system mutates into a tissue capable of coexisting with the Necromantic Parasites.

Wayne: Even this mutated nervous system is able to resonate with the necro-parasites on certain occasions.

Ethan thought for a moment and asked, If a person, who has both the Satherlan bacteria, the Tyrant virus, and the Necro Parasite in his body, would have a mutated nervous system that is able to resist soul erosion?

Wayne: Judging from Marcus’ current state, that is indeed the case.

Ethan rubbed his forehead, There’s another question, soul spaces, including the heavenly realms created by the Forerunners, also store and emanate souls, could these also have something to do with the Necromantic Parasite?

Wayne froze, unsure how to answer.

Ethan glanced at him and shook his head, I’m the one who’s talking too much, you can’t answer this question ……

Wayne looked at Ethan, who was full of distress, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say, and the two of them fell into a long silence.

Ethan finally sighed, waved his hand and said to Wayne, Forget about the academic issue of souls for now, let’s bring the topic back to Marcus, what exactly is the result of the Necrosis Virus’ antibody experiment?

Wayne looks down and says, Your Majesty, the results were not too favorable.

Ethan: Tell me about it.

Wayne: After quite a long time of sifting and separating, I finally selected about one hundred and forty antibody samples, all of which came from Marcus’s nervous system, and all of which are immune proteins of the plasma cells, only with different forms and functions.

Wayne: Next, I categorized the different samples of the Necrosis virus. Necrosis viruses from different locations, different environments, different organisms, and I made viral controls for each of them.

Wayne: Again, I fused each of those one hundred and forty or so antibody samples one by one with the Necrosis Virus control agent, and used this to see which antibodies had an immune response to the Necrosis Virus.

Ethan leaned forward, his tone a little nervous, And the results?

Wayne: After fusing the controls, I found that the highest efficiency of Marcus’s antibody samples to produce an immune response to the Necrosis virus was only 53%.

Ethan was shocked, That low?

Wayne’s face was a bit embarrassed, Your Majesty, I didn’t expect it to be this low beforehand, the antibodies in Marcus’ body can actually only produce an immune efficacy against 53% of the virus samples at the most, which means that close to one-half of the Necrosis Virus is still able to cause harm to Marcus.

Ethan was incredulous: If half of the Necrotic Virus was able to poison Marcus, then how did he survive until now?!

Wayne: Environment, community, and a little bit of luck …… I’ll explain it this way, the vast majority of the 53% of the Necrosis virus that Marcus’s antibodies were able to immunize him against this time around were specimens collected from the land.

Ethan: Collected on land?

Wayne nodded, Among them were virus samples from the Necromongers of Tairo City, as well as those from Holy Guardian City, Silver Ring City, and some southern empires ……

Wayne: However, the Marcus antibodies were unable toproduce immune effectiveness, most of the virus samples are from the ocean, such as the samples of the Necromancers provided by the Merfolk, the samples of the Necromancers provided by the Knights of the North Island, the samples provided by the Valkyries who go out to patrol the sea, and the samples of the Necromancers caught by ocean-going merchant caravans ……

Ethan: "You’re telling me that Marcus is immune to Necrotic viruses from land, but has no