“Richel… How can it be her?” Wang Yue’s gaze went vacant, her lips parting in stunned disbelief.
Though the overlap between reality and this nightmare made her mind stall for a moment, she forced herself to accept the reality with lightning speed. It was a narrow road for enemies to meet; the Church and the mysterious figure had joined forces.
This wasn’t a case of two unrelated groups happening to strike at the same time. This was an inside job—a conspiracy!
The mysterious figure wanted to destroy the Demon Tree’s consciousness to ensure it couldn’t regenerate. This would allow the villains of the Church to enter. It was like a house pet opening the door for the wolves.
At the Academy gates, the chain-sword in the young nun’s hands suddenly jolted, its teeth beginning to spin with a violent hum!
As the pitch-black, jagged chain whirled, it sprayed sparks of burning metal that flickered like cold fireworks. Within the Thornbird Sisterhood, the sisters affectionately referred to this chain-sword as their “Fairy Wand.”
Natya brandished the horrific weapon—a blade entirely disproportionate to her small frame—and the air around her seemed to warp, filled with sharp, transparent fracture lines.
Crack!
A thunderous boom erupted!
The strike was so fast it was a blur, adding immense kinetic force and a wide, sweeping arc to the already high-speed rotation of the chain-saw. Even a wall of solid iron would have been instantly shredded into slag by this Special Grade Relic.
However, the wall of the Demon Tree before her only underwent a slight ripple of distortion.
Richel’s pupils contracted, her face pale with shock.
In the instant the young nun attacked, Richel clearly saw that just before Les Misérables could bite into the wood, the python-like trunks had surged and bulged, forming a dense, hardened burl to meet the impact.
Though the chain-sword sliced through as if it were a hot knife through butter, the tree possessed a hyper-regenerative ability. It moved like water; the wound healed before it could even truly form.
Natya took a few steps back, shouldering the massive chain-sword. “That person hasn’t destroyed the tree’s consciousness yet, so we can’t get in. The tree doesn’t just regenerate; it possesses high intelligence and razor-sharp perception.”
“Why not try opening a hole large enough to charge through?”
The speaker was a tall Paladin with wavy golden hair and a handsome face. He wore a brilliant smile, flashing a row of sturdy, white teeth.
Richel spared him a glance. This was Hosune, an elite selected from the Diocesan Knights. A son of a prestigious family, he feigned humility while oozing arrogance, desperate to prove his worth.
The expeditionary force was led by three commanders, all of whom were Captains of the Diocesan Knights. Including Richel, two of them were women.
Throughout the journey, Hosune had been nauseatingly attentive to her and the other female captain, even asking things as disgusting as, “Are your feet cold?”
“You’re quite the little genius,” the young nun said. “Let’s use you to test that theory.”
Natya’s figure blurred and vanished, reappearing behind the Paladin in the next heartbeat.
Though Natya was tiny, barely reaching the Paladin’s waist, her “Little Hand” reached out and hoisted him up with effortless ease.
“Eh? Lady Natya? What are you…”
The young nun’s ankle pivoted as she stomped the ground. The impact caused the earth beneath her feet to cave in, forming a shallow, radiating crater over ten meters wide!
Immediately after, she stepped into a wide stance and spun twice like a hammer thrower. With a massive swing of her arm, she hurled him forward while Les Misérables carved a path of terrifying power through the air!
CRACK—!
A shrill, mournful shriek exploded in the air, sounding as if it had been ripped from the depths of hell!
Black light surged forth as the tree wall was pulverized, leaving a massive, hollow cavity over thirty meters in diameter.
The young nun completed one more rotation.
Thump!
The Paladin was launched like a cannonball!
A ring of transparent shockwaves bloomed in the air as the violent gust of wind swept the ground clear of rubble and dust. The Paladin broke the sound barrier, flying straight for the cavity opened a moment prior.
But just as he was about to pass through, the cavity snapped shut like the mouth of a monster, countless jagged thorns biting inward!
The scene froze. In the center of the hollow, the Paladin was impaled by a dense thicket of thorns like a human pincushion. He let out a few ragged screams before his body slumped, dangling limply and motionless.
The members of the expeditionary force looked away, unable to bear the sight.
Hosune’s grizzly end looked like a bicycle wheel, where dozens of spokes held a single axle tight. The wooden spikes hit first, and then the roots squeezed inward to fill the gaps. The Paladin’s waist grew thinner and thinner as blood and filth ran down his twitching legs. Finally, with a sickening pop, he was snapped in two.
“Ah, I guess that doesn’t work,” Natya said, a look of sudden realization on her face.
“It seems we must wait for that person to succeed before we can breach the wall,” Richel analyzed. “Otherwise, even if we get inside, we’ll be ensnared by roots at every turn. We won’t be able to move an inch.”
***
Seeing the Church’s failed attempts to break through, Wang Yue felt a slight sense of relief.
Combined with Lhouctoug’s Aperture, the Delusional Demon Tree was powerful beyond imagination. Even if the Church broke through the wall, they would be caught by the omnipresent root system and ground into mincemeat—it would be like jumping into a meat grinder of their own volition.
Lhouctoug’s Aperture was a vital resource point. Its nurturing capabilities could grant any lifeform a boost similar to Gigantification. The creation of the Fetal Monstrosities and the strengthening of the Demon Tree were proof of its value.
Therefore, the most important task right now was to protect the two Lantern-Bearers. As long as the tree’s consciousness remained, the Academy would be an impregnable fortress.
If they could hold out until the Apostle was slain and the three Taboo-Named Witches returned to Sector G24 via the Recall mechanism, dozens of Lantern-Bearers would arrive as reinforcements. The situation would reverse instantly, turning a desperate defense into a hunt against the Church.
Wang Yue relayed this information to the Lantern-Bearers through her crows, while simultaneously telling Lilith to “put on a show” and act like she was trying her hardest to break the tree.
In the current stalemate, Lilith was her most important trump card.
“Master, please have some tea.”
Dorothy placed a cup of lemon tea on the table. She stole a glance at the focused, black-haired girl and asked with a giggle, “We’re out of fresh lemons! Is lemon candy water okay?”
“Shut up!”
Wang Yue whipped her head around, glaring at her fiercely.
Dorothy’s heart tightened in fear. Feeling a wave of inexplicable grievance, her eyes welled with tears as she bit her lip and scurried away.
It wasn’t that Wang Yue had a short fuse; she was simply too tense. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point as she shifted her perspective back to the underground basin.
A crow poked its head out from a crevice in the rocks, monitoring the Blue Lake.
The small basin was now covered by a carpet of pulsating, nodular roots. The strange, dense network of veins climbed up through the cracks in the rock to the surface and plunged down into Lhouctoug’s Aperture to drink its power. It had become a force of nature.
No wonder Decaying Aminata, with her power over plants, was chosen to hold the tree’s consciousness. If this thing ever went out of control, it would be a catastrophe.
Through the crow’s eyes, a woman wearing a wide-brimmed red hat approached the lakeside.
Her features were exquisite, her hair like dark clouds, and her long dress clung to her graceful silhouette.
She was like a streak of cinnabar, a shimmering drop of blood, a vibrant red rose.
Granahl.
The name flashed through Wang Yue’s mind, though she didn’t dare chant the full name.
She vaguely recalled Headmaster Gwendolyn mentioning this newly ascended Taboo Name, calling her:
“The student I am most proud of.”
