Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 746 Kindness within Corruption

To Professor Frances’ horror, she felt that her left foot, which she tried to move even after Alex warned her to not move, has begun contorting too just like the space around her.

"Argh!"

Pain exploded inside the professor’s mind as she tried to mitigate the effects of her foot’s distortion, but it failed even when she tried to cut her foot off. It even got worse, which made her growl in both anger and humiliation.

"Argh!"

What should be aligned in her foot became crooked at this point, and what were crooked became even more crooked, which just induced more confusion and pain to the professor’s already overwhelmed mind.

"Argh!"

The insides of her left foot blended together as if it were like a fruit shake, and its outsides obtained a shredded appearance, as if it were being shredded in a meat grinder.

The bones and muscles present in this foot quickly became unrecognizable, and they combined with the skin to form a flesh monstrosity that was no different to an actual monster.

As for her nails, it virtually became another object entirely, and the professor could not even identify what it is. She just knew that her nails became metal posts at this point, which is in no way a good news for her.

"Argh!"

Needless to say, this distortion essentially broke every part of the professor’s left foot, leaving her basically limping at this point.

But even if she could still use this foot to move, she would never attempt it now, as she felt that any attempts to manipulate this foot could spread the distortion’s effects to her other body parts.

"..."

So the poor professor was left with no choice but to just observe her mangled body part, treating it with the great caution that was previously unknown to her.

"S**t..."

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Even with all of her experiences with injuries, the professor could not help but feel dismayed after witnessing her mangled foot, as she realized that even with all the enhancements that she placed in her body, a part of her was still easily injured by Alex.

And this injury was not just a normal injury that she can heal through rest.

"S**t, so Alex had already reached the level where he could use the power of the Abyss to corrupt the laws themselves? This should have been a good news to us, but since he’s our enemy now, this is just the worst case scenario!"

"S**t, this just makes my situation more hopeless!"

Professor Frances could sense that the ’distortion’ Alex had induced on her left foot was the kind of injury that did not just affect it physically.

Alex’s ’distortion’ affected even the essence of her left foot itself, giving it damage that was already at the level of ’concept-level’ attacks!

Such kind of attacks were the ones that were extremely difficult to heal from, and the fact that Alex had used it on her made her situation terrible!

And it even got worse, as Alex did not stop from just attacking her left foot.

"Argh!" The professor’s left hand was targeted next, and just like her left foot, it began to contort too until it became extremely mangled and unusable. Her right foot then followed, which just had the same fate as her other limbs....

"Argh!"

___________

___________

It was only when her right foot was completely distorted that the attacks from Alex stopped, although this did not make Professor Frances lower her guard.

After all, more attacks could still come from Alex at this point, which will most probably happen on her right hand next...

"...."

With this grim anticipation in her mind, the professor prepared herself for the soul-tearing pain that will occur in this body part, and she then imagined how bad her right hand will look in comparison to her other mangled limbs.

She then resigned herself to a future where none of her limbs will work properly, since this is what will happen once Alex finishes playing with her hands and feet.

"F**k this s**t and f**k this stupid Alex! Argh! Now I have to deal with temporarily living with these mangled body parts!"

"F**k this! Why do I have to experience this s**t, after everything that I did to be stronger?"

"F**k f**k f**k f**k f**k!"

Of course something good might come out from these attacks like a sudden breakthrough of the professor’s biological abilities, but she doubted that it could happen with Alex watching her intently....

The professor’s situation is obviously not bound to be better, and with the track record that the semi-corrupted Alex had at this point, whatever he does to her next will be worse than what is happening to her now....

So basically speaking, the current Professor Frances is once more f**ked, and it will happen at the hands of what should be her greatest ally....

"S**t, s**t, s**t! Today is really the worst day in my life! S**t!"

"Not only was I separated from my allies and chased by monsters, I was now about to be captured by the guy that I should be avoiding!"

"This sucks like hell, and it will only get worse if he brings me with him!"

"Argh!!!"

The imagination of this fate looming over her was enough to infuriate the professor, but what can she even do about it?

She’s powerless against whatever Alex was doing, so the current her has no choice but to be defeated by him.

The best that she can just wish for was to survive this encounter, although ’survival’ here might mean getting corrupted by him...

"..."

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Fortunately(Really?) for the professor, the future that she just envisioned did not pan out at the exact way that she imagined it.

"???"

The pain that she was expecting to happen on her right hand did not occur, and no distortions appeared on her right hand. It was left in its pristine condition, with no possible hints of another attack landing on it.

This state lasted for a few more seconds, which made the professor feel as if Alex was not interested on attacking her anymore.

This was good on its own, and it was even made better by the fact that no signs of contortion or mangling appeared on any part of her body, which further proved Alex’s lack of interest on attacking again.

"..."

Naturally, Professor Frances was slightly relieved by this change, and she even had the ’radical’ thought that maybe Alex still had some compassion inside his heart.

This might be a far stretch for her to think, but since Alex stopped attacking the professor when he could have fully disabled her, then maybe he still feels kindness, considering the fact that the professor’s right hand was her dominant hand.

Preserving this hand allows the professor to perform most of her basic and complex tasks, which means that maybe, Alex did not attack this hand in order to let her live her life a little easier...

This is obviously kindness, and even if Alex did not say it that much, Professor Frances was sharp enough to notice it.

"..."

This might be just a small token of kindness from him, but considering Alex’s semi-corrupted state, being this kind was already a miracle on its own.

In fact, this kindness was so surprising on itself, that for a second, the professor thought that she could maybe use this kindness to fuel her escape.

Oh, now that she thought about it, Professor Frances realized that it could actually work.

Maybe she could indeed escape by using Alex’s compassion, and she just had to thread carefully in order to make this work!

"..."

Of course Alex might just be acting at this point to make the professor lower her guard down, but what could go wrong for Professor Frances if she thinks that Alex still had some kindness inside him?

She’s about to be captured by Alex anyway, so she might as well do everything that she can in order to escape using his kindness.

Failing is still fine since she’s about to be held captive, but if she succeeds on stoking his kindness, then she could maybe free herself from him...

"Well, doing nothing is worse than not fighting for my life, so I might as well struggle a little bit to find my escape route. Who knows, Alex might feel ’kind’ enough to let me free."

"Although I do not know how to actually make that work..."

With this bold plan formed inside her mind, Professor Frances began to think of all the proper words that she could say to trigger Alex’s heartstrings.

She considered her personality profile of him, along with what the current him was doing, in order to have her map the path that she will cross to make him at least listen to her...

The end result was a mish-mash of sentences that did not make sense to the professor, but considering that it was a semi-corrupted person she was targeting, then these phrases might work.

All that she had to do was to say them, which given all the free time that Alex was giving her, was extremely easy for her to do.

"So Alex, how are yo-" And she indeed managed to start talking to him normally, but her words were suddenly caught in her throat before she could finish them, as she saw something that made her stop talking.

More specifically, she saw something from Alex that made her stop, and it also made her stop thinking for a second.

\u003c\u003cWhat’s the problem, Professor Frances? Aren’t you about to say something? Come on, I have all the time here to listen to you talking.\u003e\u003e

"A-Alex, what are those things behind you? Are t-those..."

\u003c\u003cOh, these people behind me? They’re the enemies who tried to attack me once they saw me. They look like they want to attack me, so I attacked them first.\u003e\u003e

"You attacked them? But why do they look like-"

\u003c\u003cI attacked them, but I did not kill them. So they are still moving now, although I am the one that is in control of their movements.\u003e\u003e

"You’re controlling them? They don’t even look alive at all! And they’re not even moving! How could you even say that you are controlling them!"

\u003c\u003cOh Professor Frances... you don’t have to understand what I can do now. Just accept the fact that I am much more powerful than what you could ever hope for.\u003e\u003e

"..."

Even with all of her experiences with the macabre, this was the first time that Professor Frances witnessed something like the scenery in front of her.

D̷̙̦̳̈Ì̸͖̰̟̇S̴̘̟͓̀̃̕T̷̺̝͛͐͗O̵͓̣̒͗Ŕ̴̖̀T̷̞͚̂͜I̶̩̕Ő̸̢̡̬̊̓N̸̝̯͐̈̏

And this scenery was enough to make her forget her hopes of Alex still being kind, as there is no way that a kind person would do something like he is doing just now!

D̷̙̦̳̈Ì̸͖̰̟̇S̴̘̟͓̀̃̕T̷̺̝͛͐͗O̵͓̣̒͗Ŕ̴̖̀T̷̞͚̂͜I̶̩̕Ő̸̢̡̬̊̓N̸̝̯͐̈̏