CRACK-BOOM!
The ground beneath Eldrum's feet detonated. Not from a bomb, but from a sudden eruption of gigantic black roots shattering the earth's crust. The roots were three times thicker than primeval anacondas, writhing wildly and lashing the air with ravenous hunger, attempting to crush Eldrum into meat paste.
He jump up, but like a persistent predator, the roots soar up to him.
With desperation triggering pure adrenaline, Eldrum did the unthinkable. His feet stomped on empty air as if an invisible wall existed there.
THUD!
A miniature sonic boom created under his boot soles launched him downward with the speed of a bullet, dodging the deadly root lash by mere millimeters, before crashing face-first into the muddy slush with a dirty SPLAT.
Eldrum:
"Cough-cough!"
Air was forced out of his lungs as his chest slammed into the hard ground. He rolled, trying to get up, but his eyes caught a glint on the ground. Shards of glass from the liquor bottle he threw earlier were scattered near the ruined wall, and a pool of cheap alcohol had collected there, mixing with the mud.
In front of him, Danica's nightmare squad—the red Muscle Doll and the white Skeleton—had recovered. Controlled by Danica's veins floating in the air like puppeteer strings, they ambushed him in unison, ready to tear the Rat apart.
Eldrum didn't think. He reacted.
His hands moved with lightning speed, pulling the axe from his waist and the shotgun from his back. With a rough motion sparking fire, he ground the steel axe blade against his metal shotgun barrel, right over the alcohol pool.
SKREEEET—TING!
Sparks fell.
WOOOOSH!!
A wall of orange fire exploded instantly, creating an impromptu inferno curtain between Eldrum and the dolls. The heat was stinging, the smoke of burning alcohol burning his eyes.
Danica, in her cold Wooden Doll form, didn't care. She slammed her Muscle and Bone dolls through the fire without fear. However, when their fists struck the ground behind the curtain of fire...
THUD!
Empty. No flesh to strike. Only burning mud.
Danica:
"Tch... filthy cunning rat..."
Her organ-eyes twitched in annoyance. She tried to pull back her control veins to command a follow-up attack. However, something strange happened.
SNAP!
The controlling veins simply snapped. Danica fell silent. She felt no pain—of course not, she had discarded her nervous system long ago to fight without limits—but she felt a loss of control.
Danica:
"W-What?"
She looked down, staring at her own wooden body. In several places, the sturdy wood was hissing and frothing. A yellowish-green liquid smelling of rotting acid was eating away at her wood fibers, melting them like wax under a blowtorch.
It wasn't just her. Her Muscle Doll looked blistered, its red meat softening into mush. Her Bone Doll began to turn brittle and black at the joints.
Eldrum hadn't touched them directly, but his presence alone was enough.
Danica:
"Hm? So this is... your Sin Aura?"
Thick black blood instantly gushed from Danica's organ heart, dousing the corroded parts. The black fluid worked like magic cement, neutralizing the acid and gluing the melted parts back together, though leaving ugly burn scars.
Danica raised her faceless head, staring into the darkness where Eldrum had vanished. That Rat brought a plague of corrosion with him.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away...
A shadow moved too fast for the naked eye to catch. Eldrum bounded from one building wall to another, ricocheting in a zig-zag like a mad rubber ball, his form just a gray blur in the night air.
CRASH!!
He smashed through the second-floor window of an old general store, rolling in on broken glass, and finally stopped lying flat on the dusty wooden floor.
"Hah... hah..."
His breathing was heavy. His entire body felt like it had been ground through industrial machinery. Sore, aching, and bruised in every inch. But he wasn't done.
With a staggering step, Eldrum dragged his feet down the creaking wooden stairs to the cellar. He pried open an old storage crate with a crowbar, his eyes lighting up as he found what he was looking for: a bottle of hard, locally-made moonshine.
Not bothering to look for a bottle opener, he smashed the bottle neck against the table edge—CRACK!—and immediately swigged the hard liquor greedily. The alcohol burned his throat, washing away the taste of dust and blood, providing a fleeting warmth to his tense nerves.
"Cough... cough..."
He cleared his throat loudly. His throat felt strange. Itchy. Not a normal itch, but a tickling sensation, as if sawdust were stuck to the walls of his esophagus. It felt stinging and... moving?
Eldrum:
"If I can get close to that damn wooden doll... cut her core organs..." he muttered hoarsely, trying to ignore the itch. "Then I can mutilate her quickly. Heh, if my theory is right, that's the only key to closing the door to this hell."
"Kuhuk-COUGH!!"
The cough came again, this time more violent, wetter. He covered his mouth with his hand. When he pulled his hand away, he saw blood... but there was something wrong with the blood.
Amidst the red fluid, there were small white specks. Spores. And several small white worms writhing in their death throes.
Eldrum's eyes widened. The itch in his throat turned into a sharp pain, as if something was growing and clawing to get out. Something solid was clogging his airway.
Eldrum:
"AGHHH!!"
Panic-stricken, he jammed his fingers into his own mouth, reaching the back of his throat, gripping the end of the slippery foreign object. With a painful and nausea-inducing jerk—like forced vomiting—he pulled it out.
SLURRP... PLOK!
The object fell onto the wooden floor. Eldrum stepped back, breathing raggedly, his eyes fixed on the thing.
It wasn't mucus. It was a young plant root. White, slick with bloody slime, and still moving slowly, seeking soil to grow in.
Eldrum stomped on the thing with disgust and horror until it was crushed.
Eldrum:
"W-What the hell is this?!"
He touched his own neck with trembling hands. The terrifying reality of this Sin battle began to sink into his mind.
If Grog's Sin Aura was a shockwave shattering internal organs instantly through physical pressure...
If Oldred's Sin Aura was a reality distortion triggering madness and brutal internal shredding...
Then the Sin Auras belonging to the two of them were a slow but certain plague.
Eldrum (The Rat): Radiates a Corrosion Aura. Everything around him rusts, rots, and melts as if doused in acid, including the flesh of his enemies.
Danica (The Horse/Tree): Radiates a Parasitic Growth Aura. Invisible spores infiltrate the victim's body, turning their internal organs into potting soil for forest biota—fungi, worms, and roots—growing from the inside out, eating the host alive.
Eldrum realized one fatal fact: His time was limited. Before he succeeded in melting Danica... Danica might turn him into a human tree from the inside.