God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 819: Soul Parasites (3).

"The sedatives are strong enough to take out a Mutant Ox. They aren't waking up any time soon." Steve said as he threw three empty vials to the ground with a satisfied smirk.

Cain gave him a nod.

Calio sighed,

"So now what?"

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Cain grinned,

"Now comes the fun part."

His gaze drifted over to the worst case.

The body of the Pilgrim had truly changed a whole lot.

When he looked at him through the {Eye of General Observation}, it still showed he was human, although there was a change.

***

{Human, Devil-Corrupted}.

***

Not zombie, but a fully Devil-Corrupted human.

'So this is what that looks like. How fascinating...'

The system had told him several times what the consequences of prolonged exposure to Devil Essence would look like.

He had expected something terrible, but somehow his expectations had been completely upended.

'The changes run deep. Not just his body. His brain has been infused with Devil Essence. More than that, even his Ley Lines have been corrupted.'

His eyes glowed with the eerie radiance of the {Beholder's Eye}, peering through the body and then some, going deeper until he was on the verge of gazing upon his very soul.

A river of blackened blood flowed through his body.

Streams of corrupted mana flowed through his spirit as well.

'The physical mutations and changes are merely surface level.' Cain thought to himself as he stared at the origins of the corruption.

There, embedded right at the base of the man's spine, was a wriggling black mass.

'So that's what you really look like...'

The world he saw through the {Beholder's Eye} was different from what the normal eyes could perceive.

With the {Eyes of Clairvoyance}, he could perceive the truth of the world.

The {Beholder's Eye} allowed him to see even more than that. Sometimes, the truth is merely a rendition of what is perceived.

In a world of magic and mysteries, reality is subjective to change. Hence, its properties are time varying, never solid, and as flexible as the wind.

Then comes the truth.

The truth of such a reality cannot be simple and linear.

Instead, it becomes complex and varying.

Like a field of colorful flowers.

Or a big filled with an innumerable number of different poisonous critters.

The {Beholder's Eye} allowed him to be able to perceive the ever-changing truth of this twisted reality.

In this case, the subject of his observations, was the creature embedded into the flesh of the man, extending its fleshy tendrils into his central nervous system, pushing them all the way into his brain.

Cain sucked in a deep breath, then he turned to Hunter and Blaze,

"Hold him down. Tight."

The two exchanged glanced.

Cain reiterated, "I'm not sure the chains will be strong enough to hold him if something goes wrong."

Steve walked closer,

"I'll help."

A moment later, Hunter and Cain held into the unconscious Devil-Corrupted man.

For extra protection, Cain added on a few more chains while Steve cast a binding enchantment.

Wiping a bead of sweat away from his temple, Steve turned to Cain,

"So what's the plan?"

Cain said nothing.

Instead, a small, thin blade suddenly appeared in his hand.

It was a scalpel.

Steve frowned. Then his eyes widened,

"You are..."

"Make sure to hold him still and form. He might be a gonee, but I'd rather not have him killed by this. There are more honorable ways for a man to die."

Blaze nodded.

Cain let out a sigh then turned back to his patient.

"Hey, have you performed something like this before?" Steve said, his voice trembling a bit.

Cain snorted, "I kill Mutant Beasts and Devils. This shouldn't be too difficult either."

Steve sighed tiredly,

"You are insane. This is delicate work. How can you compare this to swinging a giant sword to lop off the head of a fifteen feet tall abomination?"

Cain shrugged, "They shouldn't be too different."

He paused for a moment, then turned to Calio,

"Tell Susan to get over here as fast as she possibly can. We can't perform a surgery without a healer on hand after all."

Calio saluted and jumped out the window like he was being chased by a horde of rabid Mutant Beasts.

Once he was gone, Cain took a deep breath and tried to calm himself once again.

Despite all he had said, he was also rather nervous.

He was trying to cut a man open and pull out an enormous parasitic Devil after all. There was no easy part about this.

Normally, such operations would require professional hands, but with his level of control and perception, he didn't think he would do terribly.

He reached down with the scalpel.

He first tore through the layers of cloth, quickly arriving at bare skin.

Cain frowned, "There is a lot of discoloration here. What the hell are those?!"

Not only did the back of the infected Pilgrim look like a terribly done patchwork, it was also covered in sores and cysts filled with black goo.

Cain felt a bit nauseated, staring at this, but he quickly pushed it down.

He quickly located the point of entry. However, the body of the parasite had traveled up a bit before settling down.

Since there was a lot of swelling on the outside, it was nearly impossible to locate the creature through normal sight alone.

Cain's brows furrowed as he placed the scalpel on the man's back, ready to begin the procedure.

"Stop!"

Cain jolted, surprised by the loud call.

Hunter grimaced,

"Damn it, Steve. What is the matter now?!"

Steve's face was a bit red. He pointed a shaky finger at Cain,

"You... Do you want to kill him?! You have absolutely no idea what you are doing, do you?"

Cain grimaced, "Well, what do you expect?! I was just a highschooler before all this crap! Of course I can't perform surgeries!"

Steve reached out and snatched the scalpel right out of Cain's hands.

He wore a hesitant look on his face,

"I had promised myself a long time ago that I would never do this again, but here we are." He said with a heavy sigh.

Cain raised a brow,

"You know how to perform surgeries?"

Steve grimaced, "I have some experience..."

"The human body is a delicate thing. Practitioners of medicine are not only given extensive training before they can perform, they are also made to fully understand and study the anatomy of the human. A human is not a pig you can just slice open anyhow."

Cain let out a sigh.

"That makes sense."

Him trying to go in without any experience would have just gotten the man killed for no reason.

While he was not a paragon of all things holy, he couldn't damn anyone to a pointless death in such a manner.

Doing so would be the epitome of evil.

Steve turned to Cain, a grave look on his face,

"I don't have your eyes, so I cannot see what you see. We'll work together on this. I'll be the hands, you'll be the eyes."

Cain nodded. His eyes took on the eerie, magical glow.

"The {Parasyte Soulfiend} is located about four and a half inches above his spine right now. The point of entry is exactly the base. It has a lot of tendrils that extend down to the base of the spine before they travel up and into the spine itself. Beyond that, the tendrils also extend into his Ley Lines and Spirit. There's no better way of saying this, but you'll have to be careful."

Steve nodded.

His hand flashed with light, and a leather bag appeared.

Cain watched in amazement as Steve began pulling numerous vials filled with all sorts of colorful liquids as well as a few containers filled with a strange paste or sludge.

Taking one of the vials, Steve uncorked it with his mouth and poured it other the entry wound created by the {Parasyte Soulfiend}.

Then he poured the rest over where the creature currently rested.

Cain couldn't help but ask,

"What was that?"

Steve answered swiftly,

"A numbing and clotting agent. It works really well."

Watching this happen, Blaze couldn't help but feel uncomfortable,

"Are you sure this is the first time you are doing this in a while?"

Steve nodded, "Of course. It has been a few years since I cut a human open. Although, I've had quite a few mutant beast specimens to work with these days."

Hearing this, the other three in the room shivered lightly.

Taking another vial, Steve cleaning the scalpel gently with the light blue liquid.

Then he took in a deep sigh,

"I'm ready."

Carefully, Steve ran the scalpel across the skin of the man. At first, Cain thought he wouydraw blood.

Instead, he began to see flesh, but there was minimal blood flow from the wound.

Steve continued slowly. Cain got to work as well. With his keen eyes, he expertly guided Steve through, ensuring he missed all the needle thin tendrils the {Parasyte Soulfiend} had extended into the body of the Pilgrim.

Slowly but surely, they worked around it, eventually removing the several layer of skin and flesh without touching even a single tendril.

Wiping off the layer of black blood on the scalpel, Steve stared at the form of the creature that had been revealed to them.

"How vile..." Steve muttered, his face scrunched up in disgust.

Staring at it as a drawing was much more different than actually seeing the thing in real life.

It was several times more ugly and terrifying.

Its many fleshy tendrils pulsed and moved in a consistent, rhythmic pattern, almost like the veins and arteries of a beating heart.

Staring at it, Steve muttered to himself,

"Now then... How the hell do we get rid of this thing?"