The top of the energy conversion tower came crashing into the ground after Leon exerted more strength in his spear strike and sliced off the building, diagonally in half.
At the same time, black blood spurted out like a fountain from the remaining top of the sliced tower before a dreadful high-pitched cry rang out from within.
Kriiii!
"What the hell is that thing?" Lumi exclaimed in shock at the sight of fleshly heap revealed from both parts of the tower as she shielded herself from the raining black blood.
"A fleshly abomination!" Leon stated with surprise.
He had seen a similar fleshly abomination under the Black Swamp in the Dark Continent. However, the one before them was much smaller in comparison.
His expression turned grave before he quickly retreated from the red tentacles that shot out from the wriggling fleshly heap!
Swish! Swish!
The red tentacles were sliced to pieces by Leon's bone spear as he retreated while some red tentacles were directed towards Lumi.
However, before they could coil around Lumi, they were diced into numerous pieces by threads of darkness.
After the diced up red tentacles dropped to the ground, they continued to wriggle before morphing into numerous mini fleshly heaps with growing tentacles.
"Ew! That is so disgusting!" Lumi cried with repulsion as the small fleshly heaps chased after her and Leon with their thread-like red tentacles.
"Welp! At least, we know what is really generating the Demonic Energy here!" Leon said with a frown while hacking away all the tiny tentacles with his bone spear.
The fleshly abomination was able to absorb artificial Spirit Energy into their bodies before outputting the Demonic Energy.
In a sense, they were the opposite of World Trees.
After the small fleshly heap was hacked into pieces, they shortly morphed into even smaller fleshly heaps with tentacles.
The black blood was absorbed into their bodies, and Demonic Energy was also drawn back towards them to fuel their growth.
Shortly after, they began to proliferate rapidly on a cellular level before merging together to form a larger fleshly heap.
Bam! Bam!
Leon evaded a few tentacles as they slammed into the ground with impressive force, cracking the earth while hurting themselves in the process as black blood spurted.
However, its damaged tentacles regenerated back to peak condition in a short instance.
Leon's eyes flickered at the sight before he spoke while retreating further, "These things aren't very strong, but their lifeforce and vitality are off the charts! I have never seen anything like this before!"
"And I have never seen such ugly things in my life! How are they not dying after being chopped up like this?" Lumi frowned with disgust before a wave of destruction obliterated the tiny fleshly heaps into ashes.
They did not come back after that.
"It seems the Destruction Law is still effective against them." Leon mulled before burning the fleshly heaps with his conjured flames.
At the same time, he flashed Lumi a subtle glance, seeing she resort to using the Destruction Law so casually without regard for its backlash.
Its fleshly parts squirmed in the scorching hot flames. However, it regenerated as quickly as it burned, rendering Leon's flames ineffective in dealing it a finishing blow.
"Not good enough, huh?" Leon frowned while evading a flaming tentacle attack before retaliating with an upward spear sweep, cutting off the fat flaming tentacle.
Kriiii!
The fleshly abomination continued to cry painfully before attacking more furiously, focusing all its attention on Leon.
Lumi shortly appeared beside Leon as they retreated together.
"I think your fire made it mad." She casually commented.
Leon swept her a glance and noticed she was enjoying his plight while not seeming all that concerned herself.
"I can see that much." Leon shrugged before requesting, "Can I entrust you with the task of finishing it off for me, Duna? It seems by my abilities alone are not enough to deal with it."
At that moment, the fleshly abomination had crawled out of the energy conversion tower and merged with all its counterparts, swelling to five times its original size.
It was nothing more than a big ball of meat with excessive flesh.
Its so-called tentacles turned out to be its arms and legs. However, they were ridiculously long and fleshly that they were not so easily recognized as limbs.
Meanwhile, countless eyeballs could be seen poking out of the surface of its round main body. It was a truly grotesque appearance and could be said to be a living abomination.
"See? You need me after all—" Lumi shortly smirked before she suddenly froze, flashing Leon a look of surprise, "When did you realize?"
"I had my suspicions since earlier, but the real nail in the coffin is your utilization of the Destruction Law. Lumi shouldn't be able to cope with the backlash so calmly like you." Leon explained before smiling ruefully, "Just what are you scheming by pretending to be Lumi anyway?"
To be honest, he was puzzled by their aura swap after discovering Lumi had actually been Duna the whole time.
Lumi was usually white like lilies when she is in control, while Duna would be accompanied by her blackening aura of malevolence and darkness.
It was strange to see Duna in white, but it also made him concerned about Lumi's well being. Their condition was rather puzzling and complicated.
"Eh? No real reason. I don't need to tell you anyway." Duna said nonchalantly while flourishing her white dress made of Yin Energy.
A tiny crack could be seen on her hand.
Suddenly, the two of them leap out of the way moments before a large tentacle arm slammed down at their original spot.
Boom!
After softly landing some distance away, Duna negotiated, "I don't mind dealing with this thing if you transfer some of that Pseudo-Grandmist Energy and help me recover from the backlash after."
"Of course." Leon agreed straightforwardly without trying to haggle with her.
He had yet to refine much Great Pseudo-Grandmist Energy, but he did not mind giving them all to Duna if the present situation could be dealt with swiftly.
The longer they lingered in the subterranean world, the more unpredictable the situation become.