Raven gently ruffled Yuka's hair.
Their intimate gesture instantly broke Kaido's heart, but he didn't dare show it. His rival was simply too formidable: handsome, capable of driving back the Emperor's Belt user, and able to effortlessly kill the consistently powerful Masato Kusaka.
Kiba noticed Kaido's dejection but could only pat his shoulder in comfort.
With Kusaka's matter concluded, everyone dispersed and returned to their tents. Raven was getting hungry; the fight with Psyga had consumed a significant amount of his Amazon cells, and he needed protein to replenish them.
Yuka was well aware of this and managed to procure several eggs from somewhere. "Mr. Raven, meat is scarce in the camp, so eggs are the only source of protein," Yuka said apologetically.
"It's fine, we can make do." Though Raven would have preferred meat, he had no other option right now. Survival supplies were sparse in the refugee camp.
Meanwhile, in a hidden part of the camp, Mizuhara was raging alone, letting out his impotent fury against a wall.
"Why! Why!"
"I must get a belt!"
Mizuhara's expression turned sinister as he picked up the M4 rifle beside him. "If I kill you all, the belts will be mine!"
He specifically asked around to find out which tent Raven was staying in. As night deepened and the camp lights gradually went out, he crept toward Raven's tent, rifle in hand. He confirmed Raven's motorcycle was parked nearby, assured he had the right location.
"Die!"
Mizuhara completely snapped, pulling the trigger and spraying the tent with ceaseless gunfire.
Rat-a-tat-tat!!
Soon, the entire tent was shredded by the intense firepower.
"…"
Before Mizuhara could laugh in triumph, he realized the tent was completely empty.
"How could this be…"
Suddenly, he felt a chill down his spine.
"Ugh!"
His feet lifted off the ground as someone grabbed his throat from behind and hoisted him up. The person was Raven.
Behind Raven, Yuka wore a look of intense fury. Luckily, Raven had been cautious, and with his Orphnoch's superior hearing, he had sensed someone approaching. Otherwise, she didn't want to imagine the consequences. But what truly angered her was that this man had interrupted her time with Raven.
"L-let… let go… of me!" Mizuhara's face was beet-red, his gun had fallen to the ground, and his limbs thrashed desperately.
"You have a truly black heart. A rotten seed from birth." Raven's voice was frighteningly calm.
He casually flung Mizuhara to the ground. Mizuhara scrambled to catch his breath. But before he could recover, an eerie purple glow appeared. He turned his head and saw a ball of purple flame hovering in Raven's left palm.
"W-what are you going to do!"
Realizing the impending horror, Mizuhara was so terrified that he lost control of his bladder, scrambling backwards on the ground.
At this point, others in the camp, alerted by the gunfire, arrived at the scene. They saw what was happening.
"What happened? Why was there gunfire in the middle of the night!" Keitaro asked, looking half-asleep.
"Quick, save me… save me!" Mizuhara, utterly terrified, begged the people around him for help.
"You brought this on yourself." Raven was unmoved, tossing the purple flame toward Mizuhara.
The purple fire quickly spread over Mizuhara's entire body.
"Ughh!"
The agonizing pain of the flames manifested fully. He was in torment, and the skin on his face began to melt, becoming completely unrecognizable and extremely gruesome.
This sight utterly horrified Keitaro and the others, who still didn't understand what was happening. For a moment, no one dared to step forward.
"W-water!" Mizuhara unleashed a shocking survival instinct and ran toward a nearby pool of stagnant water.
Splash!
But even plunging into the water, the flames wouldn't extinguish. In fact, they burned even brighter upon contact with the water! The entire pool burst into flames and rapidly began to boil.
Finally, Mizuhara was burned alive, dying an extremely painful death—a fate far more tragic than Kusaka's.
"What have you done!"
Someone finally couldn't hold back their question. First, he killed Kusaka, and now a major figure of the resistance was dead, too.
"An Orphnoch is an Orphnoch. Not of our kind, their hearts are surely malicious!" Voices of hatred arose from the crowd.
A few others began to agree. Hearing these accusations, Yuka couldn't remain silent. She shouted:
"Are you all blind? He was the one who attacked us first! If Mr. Raven and I hadn't left the tent early, we would be dead right now!"
Hearing Yuka's words, the crowd gradually calmed down. However, a few individuals who held a deep hatred for Orphnochs remained unconvinced and tried to continue stirring up trouble.
Raven casually scanned those few individuals, committing their faces and auras to memory. Since these people hated Orphnochs so much, he would turn them into something even more terrifying than an Orphnoch.
Indeed, an idea had sprung into his mind: attempting to create Amazons. Since he was in this alternate world, he didn't need to worry about laws or moral boundaries. Using a few scumbags for an experiment carried zero psychological burden. Whether they lived or died would be up to fate.
Raven squeezed his finger, drawing a few drops of blood. Taking advantage of the deep darkness, he flicked the droplets with precision into the noses and mouths of those few agitators.
The terrifying thing about Amazon Cells (Lysogenic Cells) was their extreme infectiousness. Once inside the body, they would quickly transform the person into an Amazon.
Before long, the most aggressive of the hecklers suddenly exhibited strange behavior in the middle of the crowd. White smoke began to billow from his body.
"Ahhh!"
Simultaneously, the others began to undergo a hideous metamorphosis. They screamed in agony, their bodies catching fire before they transformed into various monstrous forms of Amazons!
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my patreon ——— patreon(.)com/JuanFiction [remove the parentheses ( )]
There are over 100 advance chapters available for you!