"Whoa, what was that?" Tris broke out of character, exclaiming with her mouth hung open while she shakily pointed at Kazuichi.

In that split second when he blew up Takahara with his pure power, he transformed into a monster straight out of an apocalyptic setting in a video game. However, oddly enough, Kazuichi’s body and head didn’t transform into something hideous. It was just his appendages that were affected by whatever change happened to his body.

"I’ll tell you about it later," Arisu commented before she signaled for everyone to pay attention to the small cavern on the far end of the small clearing. "For now, we have to deal with that thing."

Kazuichi’s expression went from pure shock and bewilderment to complete understanding as he heaved a sigh of relief. Knowing that Arisu was aware of his condition and it reassured him.

Adding to that, the vibe that surrounded Arisu felt like she wasn’t panicking based on his condition. This lessened Kazuichi’s worry over what just happened to him. Instead, he put his entire focus on the situation that Arisu pointed out.

Now that it had come to their attention, the cave actually felt far more sinister than it once was. Adding to that, they finally realized why Takahara reeked of the Bulwark scent despite having the qualities of a Merc Hybrid.

As it turned out, his scent was not actually ’his’. It was just stuck to him due to close contact with another Bulwark. And that same Bulwark scent emanated from the small cave. In fact, it reeked so bad that it filled the entire place, which totally threw off Arisu’s super sensitive olfactory sense.

"Should we check it out?" Surprisingly, it was Tris who took the initiative to ask. With a certain level of cautiousness in her steps, she carefully inched her way forward to the small cave.

"Careful," Arisu advised, following right behind her, ready to spring forward just in case Tris was attacked by something.

It would only take a split second for Tris to get snatched by something in the cave so Arisu made sure that it wouldn’t happen. As for Kazuichi, he actually walked forward, overtaking the two ladies so he could tank whatever it was inside.

It didn’t take long before they heard the low groans and moans coming from the mouth of the cave. Well, they were more or less akin to wailing and weeping, and it was a totally disturbing noise.

Even Kazuichi, who had already steeled his resolve into engaging whatever it was in a fight, felt doubt in his mind. The noise just didn’t make any sense, and Kazuichi concluded that something might’ve gone wrong inside the cave for something like that to happen.

Little did they know, there was another infected inside the cave!

"Graarrghh~! Urghhhh~!" The sound was almost inaudible, but everyone heard it, sending a chill up and down their spine as they froze on their footsteps.

Whatever it was, it was certainly not human!

"I’ll go in first." Kazuichi gulped nervously at his own saliva as he went down on his knees. He felt like his position had so many openings, but he simply had no choice but to go through with it. After all, that was the only way to take a peek inside.

Scratch. Scratch.

As soon as Kazuichi put his head into the small opening, he squinted his eyes to get a closer look inside. It was thanks to his enhanced eyesight that he could get a clear picture of the contents of the cave.

"What is it? What do you see?" Arisu asked, crawling beside Kazuichi to see if she could take a peek as well. However, the gap in the cave was too small for her to crawl into. Only Kazuichi could fit in it.

"Can you see it, Kazuichi?" Tris voiced out as well, trying to stop Amaya from waddling too near since she was especially curious as well.

In the depths of the cave, Kazuichi could make out a figure that looked like a huge blob... or rather, a huge pile of meat that seemed to quiver and flinch in reaction to the slightest movement. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Then Kazuichi caught a glimpse of its face, and his pupils dilated in sheer shock.

As it turned out, Takahara wasn’t lying. There was a couple of misinformation thrown at them, but in essence, he was telling the truth— well, it could be perceived as more than a half-lie though.

The huge formless pile of meat turned to the side, its body bobbing up and down as it tried to get a better look at Kazuichi. Its neck, too meaty to even move, impeded her movement and she couldn’t turn her head completely. She let out a groan, probably trying to call out for someone...

It was the same wail, an agonizing cry coming from someone who couldn’t utter words. Kazuichi felt like throwing up when he witnessed such a scene— a Bulwark that had almost been taken over by the virus. With her sliver of consciousness in her mind, she called out to her husband... but her husband would never come.

Shaking his head so as to get rid of any guilt present in his mind, Kazuichi reached out as far as he could in order to get a grip on the deformed Bulwark’s face. It tried to struggle, but its entire body fitted so snugly in the cave that it couldn’t move at all.

Out of desperation, the Bulwark snapped at Kazuichi, but there was little it could do. In the end, Kazuichi managed to grab hold of its head, and he squished it to a pulp, like an orange being juiced in a squeezer.

Splat!

"Tris, can you hand me a Molotov?" Kazuichi asked out of nowhere. It was so sudden that Tris didn’t even bother asking him why. She simply handed it to him.

Without thinking twice, Kazuichi popped his head out of the gap and advertently threw the Molotov inside after lighting it on fire. The cavern’s inside caught on fire in an instant, and it steadily burned, marking the end of their side quest.

"What was it?" Arisu curiously asked, her eyes fluttering while she tried to get an answer out of Kazuichi.

"Nothing much, let’s get going," Kazuichi turned away as he led everyone out of there.

The raging fire inside the small cavern burned for the entire day, a billowing cloud of smoke rising out of it as it brought about the scent of death and flames.