Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland novel Chapter 211

Chapter 211 A Binary Parasitic Beast?

Chapter 211 A Binary Parasitic Beast?

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“Really?” Merrick said. “Because it seemed like you lived through every second of it. Like you were alone for a very long time.”

The dream was too vivid. Nobody remembered a dream that clearly, with every detail burned in like it was real.

“Clerics just have good memories,” Gillian said. “You know that. And come on. Do you really think I could have survived alone that long? With my face destroyed and my tendons cut? I’m way too soft for that.”

Merrick watched her smile like none of it mattered, and it twisted something sharp inside him. He wanted to believe her. Maybe this stubborn woman really was exactly what she claimed to be.

The air between them felt strange. Gillian let out a quick breath, like something had just occurred to her

“Commander Cole, the idea that the taint is alive is still debatable. But you can’t deny that the scale parasites are life forms inside it. There could be other forms of life mixed in there too-things we haven’t seen yet.”

“Keep going.”

She saw she had his attention and gathered her thoughts.

“Before my dream ended, Levi’s crew-the ones disguised as space pirates-were searching for something. At first, I thought they were hunting for blackstone deposits. Now I’m not so sure. There might be something else. But I already changed everything that happened before. Even if we catch Levi and his people, they won’t know what they were originally sent to find.”

In her last life, she’d been too low on the ladder. There was no way to dig for answers even if she’d wanted

Both of them stared at the taint core, turning the same question oyer in their heads.

“Merrick, the parasite’s trail is starting to give off traces of the purge,” Gillian said. “If the concentration builds up too high, that’s going to be a problem.”

They’d been down here for fifty minutes. If they didn’t get anything soon, they’d have to cut the connection.

It was at least a half-hour walk back. But the trip hadn’t been a waste. They’d confirmed an unknown taint point, found two newborn wolf pups, and figured out that scale parasites could be used to probe taint cores. That alone made it worth the risk.

“Let’s head back.” Merrick said.

Just as they were about to pull out, the feed went black. Something severed Gillian’s psionic power.

The White Griffin’s transmission cut off. She swayed from the sudden snap, and Merrick’s hand caught her arm immediately.

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Chapter 211 A Binary Parasitic Beast?

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Her face went pale. She pulled her psionic power back and grabbed a thumb-length piece of blackstone, draining its energy fast.

“Gillian, what happened?” Merrick’s voice was low and tight as he watched her.

Is she drained? Or did something cut her connection?

“Something down there took the parasite.”

After absorbing the blackstone, the color slowly came back to her face. She tugged Merrick back from the

taint core.

“White Griffin, replay the last feed.”

“Replaying now.”

Gillian spread her fingers and zoomed in on the recording. Her breath caught. Merrick stared. Neither of them had expected this.

A long tentacle-like thing had whipped out and snatched the parasite. In the same blink, it sliced through her psionic power and dragged everything deeper into the taint core. The feed ended right there.

Merrick froze the frame. “White Griffin, analyze.”

“Analyzing. Loading. Fifty percent probability: an octopus-like creature. Forty percent: a tree root system. Eighty-five percent: a Binary Parasitic Beast. However, it appears to be a semi-plant, semi-animal mutation. Distinct from the Binary Parasitic Beast currently gestating inside the user, Gillian.”

“A Binary Parasitic Beast?”

Gillian hadn’t expected that to be the system’s top guess.

If one is down there, does every taint core have one?

Is that what’s behind the taint outbreaks? The Binary Parasitic Beasts underneath?

A new thought hit her. She wanted to catch one.

“Merrick, can we capture one and bring it back?”

“How?”

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