Chick 333

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At that moment, the girl flapped her hand at Gru.

“W-we have to hurry!”

“Uh, okay. I’ll be right back!”

“Should we come with you?” Wooju asked with concern.

“No. Wooju and the others, stay and watch the shop,” Gru replied, making sure neither Wooju nor any Familiars would follow. She grabbed the girl’s hand to go, but just then, the girl turned around sharply.

“Aren’t you taking that bag?”

“Oh, right,” Gru said, picking up the bag containing the Filial Pastry mk.2 (S+), and hurried after the girl.

The girl grabbed Gru’s hand and started running.

“Let’s hurry.”

“Yeah.”

After running for several minutes, Gru caught her breath and looked back.

‘Was the Director’s office always this far?’

The girl took several turns, leading Gru all the way to the far end of a secluded garden.

Finally, Gru asked, “Hey, where are we going?”

The girl turned her head. Now, her demeanor was calm and cold, a stark contrast to before.

“Somewhere no one else is.”

“Huh?”

Gru was startled, feeling her heart drop.

At the same time, the girl’s black hair began to shift to crimson red.

A long scar appeared on the girl’s left eye.

[“You should have known I would have another vessel, Han.”]

Gru’s mouth dropped open as the girl spoke in English, in words she couldn’t understand.

‘I have to run…’

Gru instinctively started to back away, but before she knew it, Theodora—now appearing as an adult—ripped the bag from Gru’s arms.

“Got you.”

“…!”

Gru stared at her empty hands.

The Filial Pastry mk.2 had been stolen!

“If you release your magic like that, everyone will know, you realize.”

Theodora smiled.

Just then, a silhouette shot by and snatched the bag from Theodora’s hand.

“Yurian!”

A white Maltese snarled, clutching the little bag in its jaws.

Gru ran over frantically and retrieved the bag, only to find—

‘It’s gone!’

The shining Filial Pastry was already in Theodora’s hand.

After identifying the Filial Pastry, she burst out laughing.

An S+-grade booster.

This was in a kindergartner’s bag?

Her body trembled with joy and shock.

An unexpected opportunity had arisen.

‘I must use this, whatever it takes.’

After becoming Shea’s vessel, Theodora had been shattered.

With great effort, she had just managed to gather the remaining fragments and reconstitute her body, but this vessel was too weak.

If things remained like this, she would soon crumble into dust just like before.

‘Hanrowoon…!’

How dare you deceive me!

Grinding her teeth, Theodora roughly seized Gru’s wrist.

[“Yurian. Use your skill on my left eye.”]

“Argh…!”

[“Well? Are you going to cooperate? Or do you not care what happens to your friend?”]

“…!”

What was she planning to do to Gru?

Yurian hesitated, torn.

Gru twisted her arm, trying to free herself from the woman’s grasp.

If she could just extricate the wrist with the watch, she could contact her dad.

But the woman’s strength was far beyond that of an ordinary adult.

A five-year-old’s struggles were useless.

“Hold still!”

As Theodora immobilized both Gru’s arms,—

“Growl! Yip!” (Leave her alone!)

—magical energy erupted from Yurian’s body.

[Activating skill: Spectrum Echo (SSS).]

—Perceives and reverses the flow of past time or residual energies.

Theodora’s left eye, the skill’s target, began to reverse through time.

Soon, a round, marble-like object welled up in her eye.

“I knew it would work!”

With a delighted gasp, she inserted her finger into her left eye.

Gru recoiled in horror at the gruesome sight.

A moment later, Theodora pulled a round core from the socket.

Yurian’s eyes trembled as he recognized its significance.

“Yip yip!”

Theodora clenched the core tightly.

[“If it’s come to this, experimenting on my own body is not a bad option.”]

She would reconstruct her own body, becoming master of the dungeon herself. And the magical power for the foundation would now be supplied by the S+-grade booster.

As Theodora popped the shining Filial Pastry into her mouth, the core began to shine.

“…!”

In a blink, the scene before them began to change.

Crack, craaack, crick—

Theodora’s spine hunched, her back splitting open like the zipper on a doll.

Creeeak—

Slither—

From her small body, something impossibly large began to emerge, shedding its skin as if molting.

A viscous slime dripped from the whole form, and the figure—its limbs unnaturally long—stood hunched, like a butterfly drying its wings after freshly hatching.

Its grotesque appearance sent shivers racing up Gru’s spine.

[Modified Theodora Weiss (SSS)]

‘SSS?!’

Can a human become a monster?!

There was nothing left of humanity in this perfect monster.

Gru, paralyzed in shock, was struck by a stinging, acrid chemical smell.

At last, she looked around.

Scattered across the area were metal tables.

Experimental apparatus was strewn haphazardly upon them, with sticky fluids oozing between.

Above, hanging from the ceiling like cocoons, glass capsules dangled, each containing hunched specimens suspended in liquid.

Gru’s jaw fell slack.

The outlines of test subjects were hazy through the fluids, none of them resembling humans.

“Eek!”

As Theodora lifted her hand, the specimens inside the capsules began to stir one by one.

They tumbled out of their capsules, dropping with wet thuds to the damp floor.

These grotesque test subjects glared at Gru, breathing raggedly.

In the blink of an eye, Gru found herself surrounded by altered monsters; her eyes quivered in terror.

Amused by the frightened look in the child’s eyes, Theodora gave a low, lewd gasp.

“Haah…!”

She felt a shudder of magical power course from head to toe—a rush so intense that her heart raced and heat flared in her veins.

It was as if her entire body was a bonfire of magical power.

Overwhelmed by the surging force, a fierce certainty welled up within her that she could now master it.

Theodora clenched her fist tightly.

With this power… she could seize Shea.

She couldn’t win in direct combat, but if she used that child as Shea’s vessel—

Wouldn’t she be able to take on Shea’s full power in this body?

‘I can’t kill her yet.’

Theodora lifted her hand to restrain her own test subjects.

A sly grin slipped between her lips just then.

Bwooooom~ bwooom~ bwooooooom

Pshhhhhhhhh—