After grabbing a hefty amount of Biomass YuJu had her seal up the dome once more while he turned to Ellis

The redhead didn't need instructions, kneeling down and making a cut on her hand, ready for the suffering

He conjured blood chains and sank them into her, then took out one of the poisons prepared not by Genus Insania, instead by his faithful maid, a poison essence extracted from the crow's endless supply of changing toxins

'It's crazy how every minute a new toxin will seep from it'

He recalled when the crow fought in defense, at the time it shot poison that melted steel and another that did nothing to harm even the blades of grass, he thought one might be an energy attack or that they were two different poisons, turns out the latter was the truth

Thus the poor redhead had no idea that this painful vail being poured into her wound was not the last, but the first of many to come

Following the poison he allowed a small piece of Biomass to wiggle into the wound as well before he himself followed with a drop of blood

There wasn't any nauseating feeling or disorientation, he was used to this environment after countless purifications, his movement was seamless and he knew exactly where he needed to go to achieve the best results

Finding a major artery he spread himself thin, latching to the thin walls for support, producing holes in the stretched body to make something like a spider's web

Through this web everything except chains was allowed passage for quite a while, only when the chains could cover his string like lines did he grip onto the well fed Biomasses passing through him, swallowing them into his web as the chains went through him, fighting with the invader so he could extract at ease

The reason he has changed to such tactics was due to the improved capability of his blood drops which seemed to have gained plenty vitality after the time on earth, now he could probably extract many blood drops the size of himself

After the round of purification was done he repeated it twice more before having her cut her other hand, pouring another poison essence there along with the Biomass before he started purifying

"Why the change?"

Ellis found the opportunity to ask during one of his momentary breaks

"To spread it evenly through your body, extracting in the same point will cause a result where only a few parts of your body would be affected majorly, the scales on your body being an example, whereas extracting through different arteries would cause minor overall change"

The explanation was simple and easy to follow, not something one would expect plenty human lives were lost to discover

What followed were arduous hours of purifications, hard for both Ellis who suffered pain and YuJu who was exhausted beyond limit

"Now for the last one"

YuJu announced with a somewhat hoarse voice, in his hand clutched the last wooden bottle made to assassinate him, the other two being given to Belinda

"Yes Master"

Replied a tired Ellis, already numb to the pain

When the bottle was opened she even started to drift to sleep, head bobbing up and down as her mind suddenly found itself comfortable with taking a nap here

"Are you sure about this?"

Questioned Belinda from the side, this was no simple toxin, even she might die with just a simple bottle

"Well, somewhat"

"Somewhat?"

"Risks are required if one wants to scale the world"

And so with 'some' conviction YuJu poured it directly through the cut under her chest

Ellis succumbed to sleep right after, not even breathing as this deadly poison did what it does best, put victims into an eternal slumber

"!"

At least for a moment, for her eyes went wide open, like someone waking up from a nightmare, the two slits making up her iris full of alert and energy unlike what the victims of this poison suffered

"What are you feeling Ellis?"

He asked, but she didn't reply or move, not even a blink came from her, only her energy sprouted about wildly while her aura swept through the surroundings without purpose

'She's awake, yet not in control, perhaps her Equanimity is at work here'

That seemed like the most freezable guess, meaning his chances of success were improved once more

Without wasting another second he followed by adding the Biomass and started purifying

'So quiet'

Rather than the three way battle he expected the scene was desolate in her bloodstreams, the purple poison covering everything in sight, be it blood, Biomass, or chains, everything was hidden under a still clot of purple

"?"

For some reason he was suddenly thrust back into his own body, the connection with the drop long lost

Ellis's condition seems to have deteriorated in the manner of moments, her chest turning deep purple, slowly but surely spreading through the rest of her body

'What happened there? Did I get one shot because the chains weren't there to protect me?'

There was no time to waste on debating, he could only start with a noninfected area and set a blockade from there

'It's so quick to spread'

Once more in a spider web formation coated with chains and Biomass alike, he watched as the purple encompassed the artery he was in, covering everything within moments before flooding further through the body

He wasn't instantly killed this time, allowing some of the poison to seep along pieces of Biomass in minuscule amounts

At least he tried to, the purple clot didn't react how he thought it would though, instead covering the small opening he made and returning to stillness

'What?'

That wasn't normal, he tried again but the process only repeated itself

'Now that I take a closer look, these chains are not fighting back?'

Was everything dead? No, that didn't make sense, the blood drop would have died as well when it came into contact with it

Unable to understand what was going on yet running out of time he decided to take direct action, poking into this purple stuff and extracting it without the chain's help

'This feels a little familiar, yet so different'

The purple mass now stuck inside him didn't wiggle or fight, it only spread silent death through his own blood drop, a lethal danger if not for his overbearing control over this concept

That wasn't what weirded him out the most however, it was the fact that he could extract it directly meaning...

'This is blood? Wait, the purple swamp is made of blood?!'

Unbelievable, much too unbelievable, if it was blood how could it last for centuries upon centuries, much less the fact that Genus Insania were around for ages yet couldn't figure out that an entire swamp of this stuff was actually blood and not poison

'Or maybe they knew but never said anything about it'

That was also plausible, either way it was a good thing, now he didn't need the Biomass and could directly extract the deathly blood

Thus he went about extracting it with as much efficiency as he could, he might have had to enter through a new artery every time since the blood already covered the places he'd been to but eventually the spread stopped, it even started to recede slowly with the help of the immunity against it given by the many purifications

"Are you okay? Would you like a hand"

"Hm? Yes, no problem"

"Really? Your eyes are shining green, as enchanting as I usually find them this time I cannot help but feel dread"

YuJu blinked at Belinda's uneasy comment, hurriedly taking out a mirror for a look

"....Its nothing"

The matter was shoved aside by him, while it seemed important to her Belinda was keener on seeing the result of consuming and purifying the deadliest poison known to Hortus than seeking out one of his many scary secrets

'She should heal on her own, still...'

He wanted to know what that blood was, and his curiosity got the better of him, so while he was downright dead with exhaustion he still decided to do one more round, this time harboring a different objective

Diving into her bloodstream he found one of the slowly retreating masses of purple and took a small piece, instead of extracting it however he sunk his mind into it

.....

Everything down here, up there, all around, was no challenge, no threat, no effort

Whatever float before this elegant body would face the same end, a silent one, before drifting to the bottom of the ocean

Day after day they never felt different anymore, it was all silent, it was all heavy, it was all so...

.....

He opened his eyes, once more looking at Ellis, this time however he was the one with the lower view as his head was rested on her kneeling thighs

'Did I sleep? No, I didn't go to that nowhere of a place, I was 'somewhere' this time, it felt much like the sea?'

The last thing he recalled doing before falling into that vision was sinking his mind into the purple blood drop, were those the thoughts of the creature it belonged to?

'The purple swamp....It seems even more of a puzzle than we thought'