The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 902

Chapter 902: A Validation

Step two was not pretty.

If step one had been identifying the source of the mutation, then step two was the part where everyone was forced to confront what that source had already done. Purging it wasn’t a clean process, nor was it a gentle one, and Luca didn’t, more like couldn’t, pretend otherwise.

Catching the parasite itself had been one thing. Doing something about the spiritual pathways that had already mutated because of it was another matter entirely.

Theo couldn’t help but glance at the containment cube Luca had placed off to the side. Inside it floated a magnified object that, at first glance, looked almost harmless. Compared to the damage it had done, it was barely the size of a mote. Insignificant. Easy to underestimate.

But that was probably the image it was going for.

However, when magnified, it was the stuff of nightmares. From the tiny mass extended dozens of filamentary tendrils, impossibly thin yet disturbingly deliberate, like they had once known exactly where to go. Theo’s stomach twisted as his mind filled in the missing image, those fine threads latching onto Elior’s spiritual pathways, threading themselves in so neatly that even experts had missed them. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

What made it worse was when the thing convulsed.

A viscous smear of corrupted goo leaked from it and splattered against the inner surface of the container.

Theo swallowed hard.

Shit.

He could still remember the moment the elders made comments about what they were looking at.

"Is this their version of Gu?"

The question had been asked quietly, almost reverently, as if speaking louder might make the thing notice them.

"Likely. But it doesn’t entirely feel like Gu."

"Definitely," another elder muttered, leaning closer despite himself. "But in my opinion, this is worse. You realize it has a core, right?"

"But is it really a core?"

"Well, it’s got to be," Elder Wei insisted, then hesitated. "But you’re right. It doesn’t quite feel like a beast core."

The discussion had spiraled, voices overlapping, half arguments and half disbelief, until Elder Pao Xi finally spoke.

"No," he said calmly, cutting through the murmurs. "That is a core."

The room had gone still.

"Huh? But—"

"Well, at least a piece of it," Pao Xi continued, unfazed. "Like a small shard that definitely had to be a whole core at some point."

"!!!"

Theo hadn’t known what a Gu was at the time, and in hindsight, he felt fortunate for that ignorance. He didn’t need to know about worlds where people cultivated toxic creatures through ruthless survival of the fittest, letting the strongest poison devour the rest for maximum potency.

Seeing proof of such a thing implanted inside another living being wasn’t exactly a recipe for good sleep.

Moreover, even setting aside the Gu comparison, it was impossible to ignore the implications of core fragments.

Could fragments actually be used like this? And what kind of core would have such a fragment?

Still, if Theo felt unsettled just watching from the sidelines, one could only imagine what Rahil was feeling.

The man was already on his knees, staring at the containment cube with hollow eyes, as if silently asking the universe a single desperate question.

For the love of all that was holy, did he really just witness that?

__

Haaah!

It was a very small thought, one he desperately hoped was wrong because of how sick it made him feel just considering it.

After all, from the moment they had been shipped off to Solara, neatly packaged and strangely untouched, something had felt off.

He was going to sound a little unhinged, but forgive the person who had been in hiding for so long that sunlight had already felt foreign. For people like them, getting ambushed, especially when everything had been arranged by their nemesis, was practically a given.

But no such thing happened.

No crash. No sudden attacks as they had expected, and no tampered nutrient solutions.

Of course, they still drink anything they hadn’t personally sourced out, but it still didn’t change the fact that nothing happened.

Too much nothing.

It was as if someone genuinely wanted them to arrive safely and settle in comfortably.

As if.

Because villains like that insane bastard never did anything without expecting to reap something far better in return.

And right now, that truth couldn’t have been clearer.

Rahil’s gaze snapped back to Elior just in time to see his master convulse again, his body arching as another wave of pain tore through him.

Oh gods.

Rahil didn’t know if such pain was even possible to survive. Because he was certain of one thing.

He wouldn’t survive it himself. Not if his own spiritual pathways were being burned away like that.