Versatile: Alternate World

With Tsuru on our team, we continue looking for everyone else. Just like Tsuru said earlier, the stare coming from the Pope is exceptionally troublesome and a bit discomforting. Since it continued throughout our exploration, a little part of me feels like going crazy knowing someone is looking at us like that. But thankfully, Cotton's [Aromatheraphy] allows me to relax and easily forget about the stares he is making at us. But this also made me a bit troubled.

Because Tsuru barely held it for long until he met us, he should still be okay by now but it wasn't the case with the others. We still haven't found them all and if the stares the pope is making at us induce a feeling that you are about to go crazy, what about the others? I don't know what is currently happening but I hope it's not too serious.

We continue to traverse the maze of invisible walls and unless we run into an invisible wall, we don't get to see where we are going as the [Transform: Bat] and [Echolocation] trick I did earlier doesn't work sh*t as the [Echolocation] does not detect the invisible walls and treat them as not existing. Due to this trick not working, we are back to mapping despite the constant threat that the Pope is giving to us. It was like he is watching us in amusement while we traverse his labyrinth. Not only that but I can also feel something is wrong. Thankfully, the [Aromatheraphy] of Cotton is working marvelously here, allowing us to not experience what was going on outside the range of the [Aromatheraphy] skill.

"Wait, I am hearing something..." Tsuru suddenly ducked and he signed us to follow suit as well.

We listened for a bit and soon, we hear the scream of someone. Not the scream for help but a scream filled with anger. It's totally a raging scream belonging to a girl. For Tsuru, it's new to his ears, but to Sigma and I, that scream is not new and something we always hear when something doesn't go right her way.

"That's Sparrow's voice!" Sigma looked at me and we rushed toward the location of the scream.

"Sparrow!" Sigma arrived but she stopped and went into a defensive stance. We also arrive on site and I immediately knew the reason why Sigma goes straight to a defensive stance.

"Careful...Sparrow is not in a good state right now."

Before us is Harmless Sparrow. She is not fighting anyone right now and there are multiple monsters of the tentacles and those crawling in four limbs monster around her while Harmless Sparrow is screaming as she continues to swing her sword around the place, attacking the invisible walls and the walls that are made of black meaty flesh. Her behavior is not the Harmless Sparrow we know but she is still the one currently before us, just not in her right mind.

"I see... so this is what happens if you are exposed for too long to the corruption without the protection of Cotton's [Aromatheraphy]. I now understand why the Pope suddenly made us separated into different areas. So that when we meet with the others... we will be forced to kill each other..." Tsuru analyzed immediately making me frown.

There is no debuff related to players going crazy... though I think this is related to the power of the dark gods that the Pope has contracted with to gain power just like how the cult leader tried to use the others to gain more power but was bested by me after the fight due to its incomplete state.

Perhaps I can heal her?

"Let me try something..."

I pulled out a Full Restore Splash Potion, a potion that heals HP, and special conditions like stun, sleep, poison, and many more once thrown. I have no other option choice since it's gonna be a hard thing to do to use the consumable one to Harmless Sparrow in her current state. The Splash Version will be the best bet as I can just throw it to her straight and the effects would still be added straight to the one who got splashed by the potion.

"Stay back everyone, I will be throwing a potion and see whether we get any effect."

I made sure Harmless Sparrow is standing still for a bit before I throw the potion to her. The bottle exploded on Harmless Sparrow's body, splashing the contents directly into her body. The effects should be good to-

Wait, no!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

She turned around and angrily snarled at us.

"F*ck, instead of healing her, you just made her angrier!" Tsuru backs off.

"Master! I can feel severe corruption energy present on Harmless Sparrow's body, especially on her head! It seems that was the main cause of her getting crazy like this!" Lucia steps forward, ready to fight.

Harmless Sparrow swings her sword like a madman and I quickly parried it with my Versatile Weapon. She was stronger for some unknown reason and I had a bit of difficulty deflecting her attack. I managed to do so, but she immediately dash to us again, with the intent to slice us down to pieces. Atlas immediately moved in and blocked her attack using his sword as she continue to scream while releasing her swings left and right like a real madman.

"Master, we have to subdue Miss Harmless Sparrow right now or we will be too late on saving her corruption!" Atlas immediately suggested.

I frowned at this. Since Alternate World can influence the real world, isn't it bad that Harmless Sparrow is afflicted by this? She can go crazy by this alone if we didn't do anything.

"Alright! We have to knock out Harmless Sparrow as soon as possible. The longer we stay here talking, the more she will be in danger."

Everyone nodded.

"Tsuru, fire the cannon at that wall!"

Tsuru was confused at first but he followed suit and shoot a cannonball at the nearest wall, causing Harmless Sparrow's attention to shift to the cannonball that was shot by Tsuru, and rushes to the site while trying to attack it.

"I knew it. The sound enhancement seems to be affecting her as well."

Sigma didn't bother to ask any questions on how I did it and summoned her chains and bind Harmless Sparrow on both legs and arms to stop her from moving.

"Alright! We got her!"

I went behind the struggling Harmless Sparrow and hit the back of her neck, enough to cause her to faint and lose consciousness and fall slump after. We carried her with us by putting her on Atlas's shoulder.

"Looks like we have to expose her to the [Aromatheraphy] area to make her recover herself and lose the corruption building up on her head. The Corruption is slowly weakening as we talk."

"That's good to hear. However, we still have others to think of. If Sparrow got crazy the moment we got here, the others are also going crazy there as well. We have to hurry!"

Due to the new problem, we had right now, we started running around and finding the right way to move around and find the others. We still needed to find Leoran, Popo, Kylan, Tatsumaki and Viola and we still don't know how long will it be before we will get to see them.

"Thank goodness I didn't go crazy and you guys managed to find me very fast earlier. I can't imagine myself losing my sh*t and starting attacking my allies as a result," Tsuru expressed his fear of the new problem.

I don't know what the Pope was thinking but he must be enjoying it with us being forced to fight our allies and forced to fight him in the end with fewer members than we should have already.

"This is the way the boss is reducing our numbers so that we are easy pickings. I can see it now."

Then, the Pope started chuckling, hearing what I just said. "I didn't expect someone would understand my intent. But what will you all do? You all looked like you have a cure for my brainwashing effect but they will be out cold for a while. Do you think you all are thinking the right thing right now?"

"We can just beat you just fine with our numbers. Do you think a f*cker like you has any chance to defeat us with these petty tricks? Never!"

The Pope started laughing maniacally. "Very well. Let me see you try and "kill" me with everyone being forced to kill you all."

SNAP!

All of a sudden, the walls collapsed and the invisible walls cracked and shattered, opening up all our paths and reuniting with the others...with a catch.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHH..."

The five missing members are now conflicted with the same power that caused Harmless Sparrow to go out of control.

"Let's see how you all will fare against your friends?" the Pope grinned, as he watches us who are now gonna face our teammates.