Chapter 155: Chapter 155:Painting a Self-Portrait [2]
Looking at the corrupted figure in front of e, I actually thought it seemed human-like if we included the fact that it had no eyes and a pitch-black face.
Well... this is the best I'm going to get.
Using my remaining corruption, I manifested a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt before quickly putting them on.
The corrupted figure and I had essentially switched places.
Looking at Lily, who was getting ance while staring at the wall, I said she had started tapping her foot.
"Alright, now, what do you think?"
As I raised my blood-red daggers, creating a makeshift torch and illuminating the figure to her, Lily didn't even bother to say anything.
Instead, upon taking one glance at my now fully clothed corrupted sculpture, she immediately covered her eyes.
..?
She had been fine with it earlier... but not now with the clothes.
Was my clothing style that bad..?
However, as I continued pondering while staring at the silent Lily, who was muttering incoherent words while still covering her eyes, I realized something.
...am I a rom-com protagonist or something?
How the hell did I not manage to understand this situation could be completely understood?
To be fair, when someone's life, Alya in this scenario, is on the line, I'm not going to be thinking about how my actions are going to be misinterpreted.
Still...this wasn't a damn rom-com book!
This was a fantasy...why was I being so oblivious?
Sighing, I shook my head as an expression of disappointment appeared on my face due to my severe case of oblivion, and I quickly said to Lily.
"I have an extra pair of clothes."
Opening her eyes and glancing at me, she redirected her attention towards the figure before saying.
"And you didn't think to mention that first?"
"I mean, you said, 'Do what you need to do,' didn't you?"
"...you think that gives you a reason to strip down and exchange clothes with your sculpture? I was obviously thinking that you were going make clothes out of whatever that slime substance is."
"But, that would make it look even less r-"
Interrupting mid-sentence, Lily walked toward the corrupted figure and said.
"Alright, that's enough; we have more important things to do right now."
Holding in the urge to respond back, I watched as Lily carefully scrutinized the sculpture before turning to me.
"It's realistic... creepy realistic. But, the face gives it away."
Raising my hands, I held in the urge to tell her to do something about it instead of just criticizing me before replying.
"Well, it's the best we're getting."
Moving the sweatshirt up to cover the sculpture's pitch-black further, Lily asked.
"You do know that the one way to break a spirit contract is for both sides to agree, right?"
As I nodded my head in approval, Lily continued.
"I do understand your plan here is to make the spirit break its contact with Alya by giving it a contractee who is more powerful...but what exactly does this sculpture have to do with it?"
Glad that I didn't have to explain any of the plain to her, I got up and walked in front of Lily, standing right before the motionless and lifeless corrupted figure.
Humans were animals, too, right?
As the corrupted figure and I were the same height, due to him being a replica of me, I raised my hand to my height before placing it on the corrupted figure's forehead.
Feeling the cold and slimy feeling of the corruption, I resisted the urge to immediately remove my hand and instead pushed my hand further into the corruption.
My hand slowly went through the slime-like corruption until it finally completely emerged in the corruption.
From Lily's standpoint, it looked like I just shoved my hand right into the forehead of the corrupted figure.
As the slimy sensation enveloped my hands, I moved the last of my corruption out of my chest into my hand that emerged into the corrupted figure's forehead.
"...never thought I'd run out of corruption after receiving that lake."
Making a raven required a small amount of corruption as it was a small and uncomplex animal... however, creating a human clone of myself was a different story.
It would take up almost 50% of my corruption, even though I basically had a whole lake of corruption flowing inside me.
As the corruption flowed up of my hand and into the corrupted figure, I made sure to hold my hand steady, not allowing for any disruption.
If I was disrupted during the process, I would have to restart, and there was also the possibility that I put too much corruption in.
This sculpture, despite its solid and pitch-black appearance, wasn't made out of hard substance like stone or concrete.
It was made out of glass.
If I input too much corruption into a single part instead of slowly spreading it around the corrupted figure's body, it could shatter.
"LILY!"
"LILY, WHERE DID YOU GO!?"
"LILY, WE'RE OVER HERE."
As countless voices entered my ears, I didn't stress or increase the speed at which I was inputting corruption, painting my composure.
It was a miracle that the main cast had taken this long to notice Lily's absence as if they had just noticed a minute earlier, I wouldn't have been able to make the corrupted figure in time.
Well... it wasn't really a miracle.
I was sure the cause of them not noticing Lily's disappearance immediately was Alya... or the spirit that influenced Alya.
The whole group must have been in a rush to reach the end of the path due to the spirit's influencing Alya, so they probably hadn't been looking backward, therefore not noticing Lily's absence.
As the last bit of corruption left my body and entered the corrupted figure, I sighed and wiped the sweat off my forehead.
If the mechanics were the same as creating the crow, this should work.
Just like with the crow, I had inputted the corruption equally in the body, making sure to increase its size or change its shape in the slightest.