Timeless Assassin - Chapter 1146 Dumpy Is Back

(A few days later, planet Satoru, Leo’s POV)

Even after Leo approved Dumpy’s transport outside the Time Stilled World and toward Planet Satoru, it still took the Cult engineers nearly an entire decade of work to successfully devise a transport craft capable of surviving prolonged exposure to his corrosive presence, because ordinary metals dissolved within minutes around him while even reinforced alloys gradually softened and warped if left too close to his skin for extended periods.

As although Dumpy learnt how to control his corrosive aura, what he could not control was his naturally acidic skin and the heat it radiated naturally.

Entire engineering teams had been reassigned exclusively toward the project, with countless prototype vessels failing one after another as the researchers slowly realized that the problem was no longer simply Dumpy’s physical weight or size, but the fact that his very existence had become fundamentally incompatible with normal environments.

Eventually, after years of experimentation, they abandoned conventional solutions entirely and instead recreated an artificial swamp ecosystem inside the transport vessel itself, constructing an enormous muddy containment chamber layered with ancient mire minerals, abyssal clay, corrosive-resistant monster membranes, and specially cultivated fungal matter capable of absorbing fragments of Dumpy’s leaking aura before the surrounding structure could destabilize.

As only after all that…

Only after ten full years of obsessive refinement….

Did the Cult finally succeed in transporting him safely to Planet Satoru.

As now, at long last, his vessel reached the new Cult capital planet.

*FSHHH*

A colossal black craft descended slowly through the cloudy skies of Satoru while dozens of stabilizing thrusters roared beneath it, their flames distorting beneath thick waves of muddy green vapor leaking from the transport chamber, as the surrounding landing zone had already been evacuated nearly two kilometers in every direction under direct military order.

Nobody except Leo had been allowed to remain nearby.

Even the Transcendent guards stationed around the landing zone stood much farther back than usual, their expressions tense while faint warning alarms echoed from monitoring devices strapped around their wrists, because the environmental mana surrounding the craft had already begun fluctuating abnormally before the doors had even opened.

Meanwhile Leo stood alone near the landing zone itself with his arms folded behind his back, a faint smile resting across his face while he waited patiently for the transport chamber to open.

It had been a long time since he had seen Dumpy properly, and hence, he was excited to meet his old friend, as despite everything that had changed throughout the years, a part of Leo still instinctively remembered the cute tiny frog that used to happily leap around behind him demanding food and attention.

Which was why, despite all the warnings the engineers had given him beforehand, some small part of his mind still expected something vaguely familiar to emerge from the craft.

Maybe larger.

Maybe stronger.

But still… the same old Dumpy.

However, the reality was something entirely different, as the moment the transport vessel landed.

*BOOOOOOM*

The entire landing platform trembled violently beneath its weight while pressure waves rippled outward across the surrounding plains, scattering dust and loose debris into the air as the thick containment doors at the front of the craft slowly began unlocking one after another.

*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK*

Massive locking mechanisms disengaged while corrosive vapor hissed through widening gaps between the doors, the air itself beginning to distort faintly as dark green mist rolled outward in heavy waves across the ground.

And immediately—

Leo’s smile faded slightly.

Because something about the mist leaking from inside the vessel felt wrong to his instincts.

As although there was nothing wrong about it on the surface, it was still oppressive to his senses, which was surprising because he had never felt this intimidated even in the presence of an actual God.

Then—

The first footstep landed.

*THOOOOOM*

*BUBBLE*

*SIZZLE*

The reinforced titanium-metal stairs of the ship blackened, sagged, and bubbled apart beneath the sheer corrosive pressure radiating from the creature stepping onto them, while thick clouds of acidic steam burst upward violently as entire sections of metal dissolved into bubbling sludge within seconds.

The watching soldiers instinctively stepped backward.

One Transcendent subconsciously activated his mana barrier.

Another’s face visibly paled.

Meanwhile Leo simply stared.

Because what emerged from the vessel no longer resembled the Dumpy he remembered, but rather a different beast entirely…..

“The hell?”

Leo muttered, as the new Dumpy looked enormous!

At a staggering 45 feet tall base form, he was now far larger than before, with his swollen body looking less like flesh and more like a living swamp condensed into physical form, as the once-light green skin was now replaced by a deep muddy brown coloration that was covered in irregular black patches that pulsed faintly like infected stars beneath its surface.

And wherever those black markings existed—

Reality itself seemed slightly unstable around them.

The air warped faintly.

Space shimmered unnaturally.

Even ambient mana avoided those regions instinctively.

*Drop*

*Drop*

Thick corrosive slime dripped constantly from Dumpy’s massive body while the ground beneath him liquefied with every step, entire chunks of reinforced flooring dissolving into bubbling pits of black sludge before hardening again into dead stone.

Plants nearby withered almost instantly, their structure simply collapsing, as though life itself gave up trying to exist near him.

While even Leo, with his Demi God durability felt his skin begin to tingle

Then burn.

As a faint hiss escaped from the fabric near his sleeves as microscopic corrosion began eating away at the outer layers of his clothing despite the natural mana reinforcement surrounding his body.

And as though that alone was not enough to make his eyes narrow….

He felt the flow of divine essence disrupted within his body, as Dumpy’s presence alone made it harder for him to channel divine power.

“Whoa…. He might be even stronger than me….”

Leo muttered, as Dumpy finally completed his descent, before lowering his gaze towards Leo as he said—

“Greetings, Lord Father. This lowly frog greets you in earnest.

I am back and ready to be deployed wherever you please….”

He said, as although everything else about him had changed, it seemed like his attitude and devotion towards Leo was still the same.