The moment Lansi and Winsor finally regained their footing, they didn't waste a single second and rushed straight toward the lighthouse.
Not long before, they had witnessed Will tear off a fragment of his remaining mass and launch himself directly into the upper levels of the structure. The sight had left both Lansi and Winsor deeply anxious that the parasite might find a way to slip through their fingers and escape for good.
Outside, the leftover sludge was dissolving rapidly without its core anchors. Beneath the shadow of the lighthouse, the spreading black tide shrank down until only foaming seawater and scattered, messy debris remained on the rocks. Within minutes, the last traces of the entity would vanish completely.
Ignoring his raw, unhealed acid burns, Lansi hauled Winsor up the stairs of the lighthouse. He threw his weight against the control room door, kicking it wide open with a frantic shout:
"Doctor?!"
Inside the central hub, the figure of the scientist was curled up tightly on the floor, his back turned completely toward the entrance.
"Dr. Murin?"
Lansi scanned the room, his eyes darting into the corners. He couldn't see any obvious sign of Will, but he was absolutely certain the creature had breached the room. Not far away, the glass of a massive window had shattered inward, scattering sharp shards across the console, and a distinct, wet trail smeared the floorboards—all undeniable proof that Will had dragged himself inside.
At the sound of Lansi's voice, Dr. Murin finally stirred. Shaking uncontrollably, he forced his body to turn around, fixing his gaze on the merman as a strange, strained syllable left his throat:
"Lansi?"
"Fuck!"
The moment Lansi registered Dr. Murin's face, a sharp curse ripped from his lips, and he instinctively took a giant step back.
His visceral reaction was entirely justified; Dr. Murin looked utterly terrifying.
Intricate, branching black veins laced across every inch of his exposed skin. Worse still were his eyes. Originally a uniform brown, one of his irises had completely shifted, leaving him with one brown eye and one piercing, crystalline blue eye.
As far as Lansi knew, out of everyone involved in this nightmare, only he and Will possessed that distinct shade of blue.
Seeing Lansi recoil, Dr. Murin's expression darkened into a grim, familiar scowl. Bracing himself against the console, he pushed himself up onto his feet and let out a cold, mocking sneer:
"Heh."
The sheer arrogance of that scoff was pure, undiluted Dr. Murin.
Sensing a flicker of the scientist's actual personality beneath the horror, Lansi halted his retreat. He reached out, grabbing Winsor's arm just as the ancient entity was about to step forward to obliterate the threat. Hesitating for a fraction of a second, Lansi tentatively asked the figure:
"Are you... actually Dr. Murin?"
"Yes."
Despite the monstrous corruption warping his flesh, Dr. Murin remained as icy and composed as ever. He pressed a hand firmly against his own throat, seemingly marshaling every ounce of willpower left in his biological frame to force the words out:
"Get out of the way... and help me down to the black prison. Do it now, while I still have the upper hand over Will."
Winsor's brow furrowed into a deep, distrustful V. "How can we be certain you aren't just Will wearing his skin?"
"Do you honestly think a creature like that has the capacity to break my mind?" Dr. Murin shot back, his voice dripping with venomous pride.
Even with a cosmic parasite burrowing into his nervous system, his staggering arrogance remained entirely intact. It was that exact disdain—a stubborn, human hubris unique to him—that allowed Dr. Murin to abruptly chain Will's consciousness down within his own mind. An ordinary human, relying on nothing but sheer, spiteful willpower, had successfully locked a monster in place.
Wanting an absolute guarantee, Lansi threw out a highly specific test question:
"Do you remember the night we first met? How did I prove to you that I was a merman?"
Dr. Murin froze for a second before realizing Lansi was verifying his identity. He let out a weary, dramatic roll of his mismatched eyes and sighed:
"You yanked your clothes open."
Lansi let out a massive sigh of relief, turning a bright smile toward his boyfriend. "See? It really is Dr. Murin."
That chaotic first encounter was a secret shared exclusively between the two of them. Since the scientist could instantly recall a detail that explicit, it was definitive proof that the human mind was still at the wheel.
Winsor, however, completely missed the relief of the moment. He whipped his head toward Lansi, his eyes wide with absolute disbelief. "You physically stripped in front of him?!"
Lansi: "..."
Why does the air in here suddenly taste so incredibly sour?
"Save your pathetic displays of affection for later," Dr. Murin snapped, weakly waving his hand to summon Lansi over. "Get over here and support me. We need to reach the black prison."
Lansi went quiet for a few seconds. The gravity of the situation settled heavily in his chest, but he stepped forward anyway, draping Dr. Murin's arm over his shoulder to hoist him up.
It was a sickening feeling. Lansi knew exactly what Dr. Murin was marching toward. The scientist intended to trap himself and the trapped remnant of Will inside the subterranean vault, then trigger the dead-man's switch to detonate the island, purging Will from existence permanently.
Even though they were framing this as a relocation, Lansi knew the truth: he was physically escorting a living, breathing man straight into his own coffin. It was a brutal, merciless necessity, but they had run entirely out of options.
The three of them boarded the heavy service elevator, descending deep into the bowels of the island until they reached the threshold of the black prison.
The structure was a literal manifestation of its grim name. The subterranean vault was entirely lined with a specialized, dense black alloy engineered specifically to disrupt and suppress Will's psychic brainwaves. Behind the reinforced walls lay the intricate detonation switches Dr. Murin had secretly wired, leaving absolutely no room for failure.
After entering, the massive black doors would seal permanently, locking from both the inside and the outside with no possibility of escape.
"Unexpectedly, you're the one who gave me my last ride."
Dr. Murin stood at the door of the black prison, looking at Lansi with complicated eyes.
Now the black lines on his face were becoming more and more obvious, proving that Will was still alive inside him and trying to seize control of his body.
Lansi did not know how to respond to Dr. Murin. He understood what the doctor meant, and his mind was filled with mixed emotions.
After smiling at Lansi, Dr. Murin took a test tube from his pocket and drank the red liquid inside in one gulp. Then, Dr. Murin said to Lansi:
"I just drank a poison. If nothing goes wrong, I will die within ten minutes. After I die, the entire island will blow up. Hurry up and escape."
After speaking, Dr. Murin stepped into the black prison. A thick iron plate rose from the floor to block the entrance. Then, a mechanical arm moved over, quickly melting the entrance with high heat to seal it completely.
At this point, Will and Dr. Murin were locked inside the black prison together.
"He and I..."
Lansi watched Dr. Murin's actions, feeling a bit lost. Perhaps these worries were caused by Dr. Murin's willingness to die just now, which touched his heart.
He originally disliked Dr. Murin because of many things the doctor had done before. But at the very end, he had to admire the man again.
Humans are truly strange creatures.
"Hurry up."
Winsor shook his head. He pulled the dazed Lansi and left the area immediately.
Ten minutes was too short; they had to move fast.
---
Inside the black prison, after the only entrance closed behind Dr. Murin, everything plunged into total darkness.
He fell along the wall, finally curling up in a corner to quietly wait for the poison to take effect.
"Why...?"
Although Will, who was a parasite inside Dr. Murin's body, could not take control, he could feel what was happening outside through the doctor's senses.
Will was very confused. He did not understand why Dr. Murin would choose to sacrifice himself. Under normal circumstances, shouldn't a living creature's survival instinct make it avoid danger to stay alive?
Dr. Murin buried his head between his knees. He did not answer the question directly, but replied in his mind:
"It doesn't matter anymore..."
He thought of his relationship with Will at the very beginning. He could not help but sneer, letting out a soft sigh:
Forget it. Consider this something I can finally do for you as a "father."
Let's go to hell together.
---
Ten minutes was a very strict limit. Lansi and Winsor did not try to save the remaining humans on the island.
Those humans seemed to know their time of death was near. They did not stop Lansi and Winsor from escaping. When the pair reached the harbor, someone even pointed them toward the two fastest small yachts.
Winsor started a small yacht and drove Lansi away from the island.
Shortly after Winsor and Lansi left, Lansi heard a massive explosion behind them. Then, he saw thick smoke rolling up, fire blazing, and huge waves rushing toward them from a distance.
"Dive into the sea."
Winsor stopped the small yacht and jumped into the water with Lansi.
To blow up a whole island, the amount of power required had to be as strong as an underwater volcano. When an island sinks or explodes like this, it always causes a small tsunami nearby. Instead of waiting for the waves to smash them into the ocean, it was better to find a safe shelter underwater and wait for the danger to pass.
After driving the yacht away from the black liquid near the island, Winsor decisively abandoned the boat and dived into the sea with Lansi.
In the water, Lansi and Winsor became mermen again.
Lansi had never encountered such violent waves in the sea before. Since he was still a beginner at swimming, he was almost washed away by the current. Fortunately, Winsor held onto him tightly.
Winsor quickly found a suitable cave and pulled Lansi inside. With the protection of the huge reef, Lansi finally did not have to worry about being carried away by the water.
Amid the roaring noise outside, Lansi leaned into Winsor's arms. After a moment, Lansi reached out to touch Winsor's chest. When he felt a steady heartbeat under his palm, he let out a long sigh of relief.
Winsor lowered his head. He held Lansi's waist firmly to keep his little fish from drifting away, and asked, "What are you thinking?"
"You are real." Lansi raised his head, looking at Winsor with a dazed expression. "Everything just now was real."
Winsor was silent for a long moment. He reached out and gently touched the acid burn on Lansi's face. His own digestive juices were incredibly dangerous, and the wound on Lansi's face had not fully healed yet.
As the wound was touched, a sharp, tingling pain passed through it. This pain finally made Lansi realize he was not dreaming.
He smiled at Winsor, then suddenly cheered happily:
"I succeeded! I really rescued you!!!"
He, Lansi, had saved a powerful ancestor in his lifetime—someone even stronger than Winsor!
Winsor blinked, not quite understanding why Lansi was suddenly so excited. But when he realized his little fish did not fear him because of the earlier events, Winsor felt deeply comforted. He was very happy.
Winsor leaned down, kissed Lansi's forehead, and promised, "I will never hurt you again."
"Oh, it's okay!" Lansi was very forgiving. He quickly started bargaining, holding up a palm toward Winsor. "Well, to make up for my pain and comfort my young soul, you must promise to meet five of my demands unconditionally in the future!"
Winsor: "..."
The little fish was certainly quick to take advantage of a good situation.