Anime Crossover: The Losing Heroines Have Become Witches

Chapter 577 572: ■El■■ro■s

Asakura placed his hand gently on the surface of the golden fruit.

In the next instant, under Kasumigaoka's gaze, his figure was swallowed by the light radiating from the fruit, dissolving without a trace like a snowflake illuminated by sunlight.

Setting aside for a moment the current state of mind of the girl witnessing this scene, Asakura only felt as though he were suddenly drifting in a golden ocean.

His body felt as if it were melting.

And during this process, Asakura gained an even deeper understanding of the "knowledge" coming from True Sight.

The Harvester of Stars, the God of Agriculture, the Great Sin of World-Devouring, the Evil God ■El■■ro■s.

Because His true name cannot be depicted in human language, he shall be referred to here simply as Elros.

Although in certain long-extinct worlds He was crowned with seemingly harmless titles like the God of Agriculture, in reality, this thing was not such a gentle existence.

He would sow seeds across countless worlds.

The seeds would use the hearts of the chosen ones as a nursery to sprout, using their destinies as nutrients to grow, and finally replacing their existence to bear fruit.

Subsequently, the fruit itself would turn into new seeds and, in the form of seeds, root themselves within civilization to repeat the process, though this time what it would replace would be the entire civilization.

When the civilization withered and the fruit ripened, the next target for "fruiting" would be the planet.

Then the star system, the universe, until finally, at the moment the entire world turned into fruit, it would be the moment Elros crossed ten thousand realms to arrive and pluck it for consumption.

Once this vicious cycle began, there was almost no possibility of stopping it, for a single world did not possess the power to stop the status of an "Evil God."

Once targeted, the entire process of "sprouting, growing, and fruiting" was like the entropy increase of the universe, advancing in an irreversible form until the world marched toward its end.

To be honest, with Asakura's current strength, he could not confront a monster that fed on worlds.

However, "unable to confront ≠ no way out."

As long as one could indefinitely delay a certain part of the process, it was equivalent to indefinitely postponing the time of Elros's descent. If this "indefinite" became literal, it would mean this Evil God posed no threat to this world.

To achieve this, Asakura needed to take a small risk.

It was worth mentioning that had Asakura chosen to stand by idly earlier, or simply killed Kasumigaoka, neither action would have stopped the fruit's

maturation; and once he did that, he would truly have missed the opportunity to save the world.

"Body... already... can't feel it..."

[...Novels... not recognized...]

"Ugh... in this state... maintain consciousness..."

[...Always... alone...]

"Much harder... than imagined..."

[...So lonely...]

Chaotic thoughts echoed constantly in Asakura's mind (if he still had a brain), and in the next instant, he was suddenly jolted awake.

No, many thoughts had appeared in his mind that were not his own.

He could not be interfered with.

He had to concentrate his spirit.

If it was the power of an Evil God, he had that on his side too!

And there were two shares of it!

Two against one, the advantage is mine!

Asakura worked hard to cheer himself up in his heart, maintaining his perception of "self."

In the next instant, even more vast and chaotic thoughts submerged him like a tide.

If his thoughts earlier had been mixed with only a few fragments of Utaha's mind, then at this moment, what swallowed him were the deepest, most unforgettable, most regretful, and most painful thoughts of countless people from long-extinct worlds who had been chosen as "seeds"—though occasionally there were some positive ones, as it turns out, the more tragic a memory is, the more clearly people remember it.

At a certain moment, Asakura even felt he was about to be drowned by the infinite thoughts, becoming a vegetative person unable to even maintain his own self, when a warm power came from his mind, jolting his spirit.

Immediately following, what surged in from the outside was a pressure even heavier and more terrifying than the fragmented memories of the infinitely many seeds that had been devoured.

Asakura could feel that it was some kind of indescribable existence, a mere momentary glance.

The melting of his body stopped for a time.

But an even worse situation occurred.

Asakura only felt his body undergoing a bizarre and terrifying transformation.

The eyeballs gradually softened in their sockets, turning into succulent grapes; the teeth fell out in neat rows, becoming a line of golden, plump corn kernels; the hair wi-

thered and fell, like autumn leaves destined to rot in the mud; the skin split open, peeling away layer by layer like flower petals; the bulging muscles transformed into luscious fruits amidst silent tearing; the increasingly viscous blood flowed slowly from cracks all over his body, turning into a sap as sweet as milk and honey; and the bones cracked inch by inch amidst soft popping sounds, finally disintegrating into tubers buried in the mud—

His entire person seemed to be "harvested" anew by the earth, losing his form as a "human."

There was absolutely no mistake; the existence glancing at him was the Harvester of Stars who had sown the seed, Elros.

Following that was a turbid and chaotic, heavy and terrifying aura, bringing information as if from chaos that brought one's spirit to the brink of collapse.

[It is the weary one...]

[No, you are not Him...]

[He has shed the bones of calamity, donned the skin of a mortal, and walked toward rest on the path of His choosing]

[Who are you...]

Who am I?

Chaotic thoughts echoed constantly within the existence that could no longer even be considered human.

Asakura Takuma.

I am Asakura... Taku... ma?

No, that's not right.

I am who I am.

At the instant this thought surfaced, accompanied by a "pop" sound that felt like a hallucination, Asakura opened his eyes again.

His right eye, which throbbed with pain, was pitch black, but his left eye was no longer a grape; it had turned back into a human eyeball.

His body had also returned to its original state, neither melting nor turning into a crop platter, as if everything he had just experienced was merely a dream.

But Asakura knew very well that it had not been a hallucination; even now, he was still floating inside the golden fruit, being watched by that Evil God from countless trillions of worlds away.

However, this glance vanished in an instant.

Before Asakura himself could figure out what had happened, he could no longer sense the presence of Elros.

That feeling was very hard to describe; if one had to put it into words, it was like you were standing at the foot of Mount Fuji getting ready to climb, and then in the blink of an eye, Mount Fuji was gone.

It was essentially that feeling of bewildered helplessness, like: "Where's my mountain? Where is my mountain that was this big? Where is the mountain that was just here a moment ago?"

Then, Asakura discovered that the light inside the golden fruit was continuously receding into his body.

No, rather than saying it was receding into him, it felt more like his body was actively absorbing this light.

Asakura subconsciously opened the system page of the Nameless Grimoire, and new text surfaced upon it.

[Fifth Authority: Fruit]

[I Do Not Eat Forbidden Fruit: Granted the authority to pluck and store the fruits of ■El■■ro■s; all plucked fruits shall receive the blessing of ■El■■ro■s.]

"I really did obtain a new authority..."

Asakura murmured softly.

Although it was a bit different from what he had initially envisioned, the result seemed quite good.

Asakura's original plan was to come into contact with the Evil God's power to grant himself a similar aura or something alike for a short duration; in short, as long as he could pass the "seed's" anti-counterfeit authentication, it would suffice.

Then, in the capacity of Elros or one of his kin, he would remove the seed from Utaha's body.

Whether to store the seed carefully afterward or use [Scale] to slice through space and toss the seed into the void to let it fend for itself was a matter for future consideration.

Although it was risky, Asakura felt that with the two authorities from other Evil Gods he possessed, plus the protection of the Nameless Grimoire, he had a decent chance of winning—and a significant one at that.

He hadn't expected the interior of the golden fruit to be this treacherous.

To be precise, this golden fruit should be Utaha's own fruit.

Asakura had originally thought this sea of trees was a Demon Realm, but from start to finish, he hadn't sensed any magic power in this space. Thinking back carefully now, this place should be Utaha's inner world; after all, Elros's seeds use the hearts of the chosen as nurseries to grow. This space must be the nursery forcibly opened within the girl's heart.

As for why a JK's heart would be a sea of forest, besides Kasumigaoka being quite deep-thinking, it was likely also because this space had been remodeled by the seed.

If Asakura guessed correctly, even if he hadn't appeared, the girl would have instinctively moved toward the location of the golden fruit and subconsciously entered this tree hollow—in fact, she was already doing so, Asakura's appearance simply accelerated the process.

Once the girl arrived at the tree hollow, she would be immediately attracted by the golden fruit, touch it, and be absorbed by it.

Unlike him, the girl had no authorities from other Evil Gods to protect her, nor any supernatural power to help her maintain her sense of self. Most likely, the final result would be her melting away completely inside the fruit, her existence eventually replaced by the fruit itself, disappearing from this world entirely while simultaneously triggering the countdown to the destruction of civilization.

When Asakura finished absorbing all the light within the golden fruit, he struggled slightly and broke out of the fruit's shell with ease.

"Mr. Asakura!"

Utaha, whose eyes had been vacant and who had seemed hopeless, couldn't help but cry out in pleasant surprise upon seeing his appearance.

"It's okay now... wait, something still seems a bit off..."

Asakura looked back and found that the previously glittering fruit had now withered, turning into a grayish-white husk that looked like it could shrivel and shatter at any moment.

But he couldn't help but frown.

Although it appeared the problem had been solved, after obtaining the "Fifth Authority: Fruit," Asakura could sense that this "fruit seedling" hadn't truly withered; it had only temporarily lost its activity and would continue to grow after a period of time.

The most critical part was that the nourishment for this thing's growth was the "destiny" of the chosen one. Although Asakura didn't quite understand what "destiny" was specifically, it was likely the same as when Asagumo was eaten; once overdrawn too much, the original owner of the destiny would perish.

Of course, there was a way to solve it. As someone who had mastered the power of Elros to a certain extent, Asakura was already able to change the nourishment absorbed by the "fruit seedling" from destiny to magic power—it wasn't that he hadn't thought of using other safer and cheaper things as a substitute, but clearly, Elros's seed was not a trash recycling station; the price it extracted had to be at least at the level of magic power.

In short, as long as he provided magic power on time and plucked the fruit promptly so it wouldn't turn into the next round of seeds, the problem with Kasumigaoka would be temporarily resolved.

Fortunately, Asakura's current magic power was quite sufficient; after all, he had almost drained Hitori dry earlier.

...Strange, why did using Hitori's magic power to provide nourishment for Kasumigaoka give him a vague, guilty feeling like a scumbag using the money his wife worked hard to earn to support a mistress?

Asakura decided not to look too deeply into this question.

"Don't resist, the pain is only for an instant."

He said to Utaha.

At this moment, due to the massive emotional fluctuations, Utaha looked somewhat weary, but having finally felt a bit relieved, she still gave Asakura a glare: "In my current state, I couldn't resist even if I wanted to, right?"

Indeed, she was still trapped on the ground by several wooden snake-shaped branches. Furthermore, the snakes Asakura had subconsciously used to bind her were placed along relatively easy paths, so the girl's current posture, combined with those wooden strips that could substitute for rope artistry, looked rather like a wondrously provocative scene of being ready for the taking.

Asakura coughed somewhat awkwardly: "I didn't have the energy to pay attention to that much just now; it's just a coincidence, a coincidence!"

Saying so, he reached his hand toward the girl's left chest and lightly touched her peak.

Just like before, the sensation was still hard to the touch. Even though the golden fruit had been dealt with, the mutation on the girl's body had not disappeared.

However, by this time, Asakura had roughly understood the condition of the girl's body.

He slowly injected magic power into the girl's chest, further catalyzing the light within. When it formed a fruit shape discernible to the naked eye, Asakura's hand gradually lost its color and became transparent, filled with countless glittering dust particles like the night sky. Just like that, it passed through the girl's clothes and the mutated chest, reaching directly into the heart area, and nimbly plucked the fruit within.

It was a small, golden fruit shaped like an apple.

"This is..." Utaha had been a bit nervous, but seeing Asakura take such a thing out of her chest, she couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

"Let's just call it a Golden Apple for now." Asakura said.

"But it's not mine..."

Wasn't it my heart? The girl was momentarily dazed.

"Don't worry about it," Asakura stuffed the Golden Apple into the girl's mouth: "Eat it and you'll be able to recover."

With her hands still bound to the ground by wooden strips, the caught-off-guard girl could only wriggle her body piteously: "Mmph, mmph, mmph..."