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Chapter 806: An "Egg"

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

"It looks like that the worm found its lair." As soon as the basket reached the ground, Agatha glanced about the surroundings while holding the Stone of Lighting. The furrow between her brows deepened. She asked, "Did you see Fran?"

"Miss Fran isn't here." Lightning had inspected every corner of the cave. "The Blackstone Pagoda seems to be stuck in here. There're some empty spaces on either side of the tower. Could she fall off the top and roll over to the side?"

The diamond-shaped stone tower spanned across the deep hole like a bridge, with its two ends rooted in the rocks. Nobody knew how it ended up like that. The tentacle demon and the Multi-eyed Demon could not be found anywhere either.

"The tower doesn't affect my magic power," Nightingale revealed herself from the mist.

"But you can't walk through it like you walk through a wall, can you?" Agatha squatted down and produced an ice piton. She threw it toward the Blackstone Pagoda. The ice piton immediately broke to pieces, whereas the stone tower remained intact. "There's a rumor saying that this tower is made of God's Stones of Retaliation. Although it won't affect magic power on a mass scale like the prism of magic stone, it can block it."

Elena corrected Agatha in a low tone, "It's not made of God's Stones of Retaliation but it creates them. Corrosive magic power can change the mineral vein of the magic stones and thereby shapes them into a rectangle stone tablet. Only the mineral vein born under the Bloody Moon, however, has the capability to create Red Mist. The others simply help slow down the dissipation of the Red Mist. This was a top secret in the Union age. We learned it from Lady Eleanor after the fall of Taquila."

Nightingale was displeased at the delay of the information. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

Elena snapped, "You didn't tell me there's going to be a demon spire. There're so many things that can possibly affect magic power. How am I supposed to know which one it is?"

Lightning flew in between them and intercepted their confrontational conversation. "We have to keep going down, as we haven't got to the bottom yet. I just managed to dive a little bit more and heard distant running water. It's very likely that there's an underground river down there. If Miss Fran did fell down from the side of the stone tower, she might still be alive."

Elena's voice brightened. "Really? Is it possible that Sylvie didn't find Fran because of this underground river?"

Agatha nodded. "Very likely. As the stone tower has blocked most of the vision of the Eye of Magic, Sylvie couldn't see the bottom. If Fran was flushed down by the water, naturally she couldn't detect her magic beam." She then turned to Lightning and said, "You fly up to tell Wendy first. Ask her to instruct Margie to send some God's Punishment Witches down here... as well as the soldiers from the First Army. Advise them to also put sentries here. We'll continue with our search."

The little girl nodded. "Alright, leave it to me."

...

With the help of the gondola and the Magic Ark, they soon had enough people to rescue Fran.

Lightning took advantage of this interval and thoroughly investigated the area below the Blackstone Pagoda. As she had expected, the vertical cave wall soon moved into a sloping position. The air also dampened. After she descended for another 30 to 40 meters, she saw a wide underground river.

Snow water trickled down the cave wall and pooled before cascading into a thundering waterfall that poured down in torrents from the mouth of the cave. When the little girl drew close, she could feel a crisp chill play upon her cheeks.

As a result of the moist air in the cave, at the bottom of the hole grew various mosses and mushrooms, one of which gleamed a ghostly blue light that lit up the surrounding area. Even without a Stone of Lighting, Lightning could clearly spy the outline of the cave. With the fireflies floating about, the underground area looked like an entirely different world.

When the ark took the witches and the Taquila survivors to the bottom, they were all fascinated by what they saw.

Nightingale exclaimed, "If only we can grow those glowing fruit in Neverwinter. In that case, everybody can clearly see the road at night."

"Let's bring some back and grow them!" Lightning rubbed her hands in excitement. To discover and grow some new species was one of the most common enterprises for explorers. Sugar canes and corns, for instance, were brought to the Fjords from other small islands by explorers and later flourished. Lightning was not sure if these giant mushrooms and illuminating cattail fruits would be as sweet and delicious as bird beak mushrooms.

Agatha started a head count. "Let's finish our business here first. Margie, you stay here to help the First Army to establish a sentry post. We'll continue with the procession along the underground river. If Fran is more than two miles away from us, we'll pitch some temporary tents."

Nobody made an objection. Lightning, Nightingale and Agatha all knew how to escape and protect themselves. The 10 God's Punishment Witches led by Elena were all exceptional combatants as strong as Extraordinaries. They did not constitute a huge group, but it was actually the most powerful combination in the united front.

Once in the limestone cave, the roar of the rushing water rang off the rocks and down the underground river, producing thunderous reverberation. Lightning had to keep a close distance with the group so as to hear everybody.

Agatha asked, "Can the devouring worm swim?"

Elena shook her head. "Nobody has seen it swim. But the worm is colossal, so I think it shouldn't be far away from the deep hole even if it was flushed downstream."

"Are you able to tell where this river comes from and head?" Another God's Punishment Witch put in. Lightning vaguely remembered that her name was Zooey.

Nightingale answered, "If I remember correctly, it comes toward us and heads to the snow mountain. In other words, it's a water vein from the Western Region heading to the hilly area in the south."

It was a known fact that there was plenty of underground water in His Majesty's domain, but Lightning wondered why those rivers ran toward the south, for there was not a single river there. She was curious where all those water went.

Suddenly, she saw something flutter on the rock not far away.

"Hang on, I saw something move there!"

Hearing her warning, everybody halted and drew out their weapons.

Nightingale immediately gave an affirmative answer. "No magic reaction is detected, but there's indeed something over there..." She then paused and slowly approached the object. "It looks like a semi-spherical... egg?"

"What?" Agatha was a bit surprised.

"Since it doesn't have magic power, it poses no threat to us." Elena waved at the God's Punishment Witches coming with her and said, "Follow me."

They soon successfully surrounded the egg. When Lighting made a close study of the tremulous egg, however, she knitted her brows.

A layer of gray skin was clinging to the rock, completely blending with the surrounding environment. When she held up the Stone of Lighting and gradually approached the skin, she spied many stomas opening and shutting as if it were breathing.

Elena coughed out a spittle. "What the hell... is this? It's gross."

"If it's really an egg, how big should its parent be?" Lightning roughly measured the area of the skin with her fingers and concluded that it was about three meters in length and width. The swollen part in the middle could almost house a full-grown dairy cow.

"The shape... No, it can't be..." Zooey took a sharp intake of breath. She drew out her longsword and gave the skin a fierce stab, after which she pulled the steel upwards.

A large amount of slimy liquid gushed out of the "egg" as a piercing shriek rang off the cave wall. Then they saw a black shadow come out of the swell and collapsed to the ground.

To Lightning's dismay, it was a Mad Demon.

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Chapter 807: Inside the Ruins

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

Almost at the same time, the entire "skin" shrunk and rolled, and a worm climbed out of the stone wall. With runny mucus pouring out of its skin, it then quickly climbed towards the top of the cave.

But Nightingale was much faster.

She suddenly appeared from the Mist and hung upside down on the cave ceiling as agilely as she was on flat ground and blocked the worm's way ahead. Before falling to the ground, she stabbed a shining dagger into the worm's head and nailed it firmly to the stone wall.

The worm struggled for a while, and then all of its six legs drooped. It was dead.

At that moment, Lightning finally noticed that the "egg" was merely the worm's torso. With its head and legs buried in stones and blocked by its giant belly, its torso did look like an egg.

The worm's figure was out of proportion. Its front part resembled an enlarged ant, with the length of no more than half a meter. Its rear part, namely the "skin" part that enveloped the Mad Demon, was big enough to hold three large barrels inside. Although over a half of the mucus had spilled out and the swollen "skin" had shrunken, its area was still astonishing.

"Is the demon born out of its belly?" the little girl asked in surprise.

"I've never heard of something like that." Agatha crouched and carefully studied the demon under the light of a Magic Stone. "This Mad Demon... is completely mature. Look at its arm. The scar here is caused by the inlay of a Magic Stone. Its girth is larger than the other arm, meaning the demon had constantly thrown pikes with magic power."

"Then where is the Magic Stone?"

"No idea. It's probably been taken away."

"So was it taken by this worm?" Elena asked impatiently. "It swallowed the demon and digested it while hanging itself on the wall. Unfortunately, it came across us. Its Magic Stone was either digested by itself or lost during a war. Does this make sense? Don't worry about this disgusting worm, looking for Fran is more urgent."

"It swallowed the demon?" Lightning questioned in her heart. "Its mouth is not big enough for an adult human being to go through, not to mention for a strong Mad Demon of nearly three meters tall."

"That's weird..." Nightingale's voice came from the void. "Obviously it's dead, but why didn't its magic power dissipate until now?"

"What?" Agatha was surprised. "Do you mean this is a demon?"

"Yes, its magic power is as thin as mist. I didn't notice it until it rolled out of the worm's belly. But it's surely dead. Judging from the decomposition level of its skin, it died one or two days ago." Nightingale then asked with bewilderment, "I thought that it was impossible for magic power to gather on a dead body?"

"If you saw it right, it is indeed weird..." Zooey nodded. Inserting the sword deep into the stone wall, she then said, "Perhaps we should take these two bodies back for further investigation. Let's leave a mark here and collect them when we finish camping."

As they walked forward, they ran across more "egg worms", and again, though not all were buried under the stone wall, some were standing right beside the river bank or were in a cluster like mushrooms.

Being experienced, the witches could now make sure their strikes hit right at the worms' crucial points or cut their heads off, which were buried under the dirt, one after another. Cutting open the worms' bellies, they found that there were not only Mad Demons inside, but also Fearsome Demons and human bodies.

That startled the witches.

Beyond the Border Area, there was no human residence. How did the worms hunt humans?

Could it be that the worms had stretched their legs into the domain of Neverwinter without a trace?

At that moment, Nightingale suddenly alerted, "There is a magic reaction ahead. Wait, no... is that, Fran?"

"Where?" Elena did not rush forward, but fanned out with the other God's Punishment Witches, holding their swords and guarding all around.

Lighting understood that in the misty world, everything was black and white, and most of the objects she saw were constituted by visualized and twisted silhouette lines, except the magic power, which was in bright colors. That was why the dark underground environment had no influence on Nightingale.

"Front-left, 200 meters... about 400 steps. She seems to be entangled by something." Nightingale's voice went further and further and was blurred under the noise of water sprays. "I can't see... I'll go first... Wait!"

A moment later, two gunshots sounded.

"Bang! Bang!"

The firing of the flintlock sounded particularly loud under the ground. The God's Punishment Witches took a look at one another and walked forward while maintaining their formation. Lightning was faster. She flew over them and toward the gunshots while firmly holding the revolver in her hand.

Luckily, what she had worried about did not happen. Soon, Nightingale held up the Stone of Lighting to guide the way.

Lying under the witches feet were two monsters with sickle-like forepaws. The flintlock shots made two holes on the worms heads and blue blood flew on the ground.

"Are these the demonic beasts that you mentioned which can hide their figures?" Floating in midair, Lightning asked.

"Yes, but no matter how skillful they are, they can't hide from my eyes." Nightingale put away her revolver and patted at Fran who was tightly stuck, she asked, "Am I right?"

Fran struggled a bit and groaned something, but it seemed that her mouth was sealed.

Nightingale noticed that both sides of the worm carrier were winded with white jelly which firmly fixed Fran on the ground. Her giant mouth was blocked too. Other than that, her strong body was full of wounds. Apparently, when she fell out of the deep hole, it hurt her badly.

Furthermore, to Nightingale's surprise, there was more than one such giant worm. Another two devouring worms quietly lay on the ground, as if they were in deep sleep.

"Is this..." An idea flashed into Lightning's mind. She quickly landed and pushed aside the moss on the ground. A mottled slate appeared in sight.

"Oh?" Nightingale whistled. "Nice, it seems that we've found..."

"The legendary snow mountain ruin!" she said with excitement.

"What happened?" The others arrived one after another. In order not to stretch their formation too loosely, the God's Punishment Witches had moved at a fixed speed. Walking in the front had always been Elena, which slightly changed Lightning's opinion on her.

"I've found Fran, and two monsters who seemed to want to make a meal out of her," Nightingale explained briefly. "Fran is alright, but stuck on the ground. This is already part of the underground ruins, which means enemies could be around. Let's take Fran out of here as soon as possible and call the First Army to set up sentry posts."

Elena nodded, pulled out the heavy sword on her back, and neatly and quickly cut open those resilient jelly things. When Fran's giant mouth regained its freedom, everybody heard her low growling.

"Don't look up!"

When Lighting heard it, she had subconsciously raised her head.

It was pitch-black overhead, nothing could be seen at first sight. At this spot, the cave extended upward, creating an enormous dome-like space. The Stone of Lighting could only illuminate a very limited space on the ground, offering no detailed vision atop. The next moment, Nightingale felt that the fine hairs on her body rose up.

In the darkness, appeared one scarlet eye, then two eyes, three eyes...

She did not know how many eyes were staring at her at that moment. She saw those tens of thousands of eyes, like tens of thousands of stars, cohere into a gigantic red plate... which looked like a "Bloody Moon".

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Chapter 808: Close Quarter Combat

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

"Did you hear any sound?" Edith looked at Brian who was instructing the soldiers to arrange an underground defense line.

"Any sound?" Brian stopped what he was doing, looked around in puzzlement, and said, "No, Miss Edith, I haven't heard anything except the sound of running water."

"Really?" Edith frowned. "Am I mistaken?"

"What kind of sound was that?"

"Like the sound of a horn, very muffled... similar to the sound of water," Edith paused. "It seemed to come from the south."

That was the direction where the witches went for a deep exploration. The turbulent underground river went from north to south, and disappeared in the pitch-black underground cave. Although there were weird illuminating plants on both sides of the river, they could not provide light for far away places. The entire waterway was like an entrance to an abyss which devoured everything she saw.

"That... I think probably because we're deep in the mountain, which deprives us the vision of the sky, plus the lack of the light of a fire, you might be hallucinating." Brian smiled thoughtfully. "For the soldiers who have been to a battlefield, this isn't a big problem. It's no wonder that you might feel nervous. If you feel uneasy, Miss Margie can accompany you to return to the aisle exit."

A familiar look, familiar words... Edith was not surprised by the speech of the Gun Battalion commander. Although she was in light leather armor and a helmet, with a walking sword hanging on her waist, most of the people there still took her as an observer from the City Hall, or... as a pearl-like girl, just like her title, pretty and fragile. That was also the reason why people cared and pleased her all the way.

What those people did not understand was that the pearls produced by the giant clams in the Northern Region had been soaked in blood.

The blood of fish, of water beasts... or even of the fishermen.

That was why they could grow so big, into the size of a fist.

Roland Wimbledon was probably the only one who ignored her appearance in the beginning and even took her as an opponent.

"Thanks, but I'm better off here. If I run back, doesn't it mean I'll humiliate His Majesty's City Hall?" Although Edith did not tell Brian what was in her mind, she rejected his suggestion with a smile. For a moment, Brian was lost in her smile. After a long while, he shunned away in embarrassment.

"I don't think His Majesty or Barov would mind it..." Brian coughed twice. "I just don't understand why you came with the First Army to such a dangerous place?"

"For only in this way could you trust me," Edith said frankly.

"W... What?"

"You must have heard of the Battle of Divine Will," she said calmly. "When such a battle that determines human's lives comes, it'd be hard for His Majesty to consider every aspect of the war situation. He'll need many officers to assist him to command the army, and the army will depend on the City Hall for logistics. By that time, will you trust an officer who has fought with you shoulder by shoulder or one who sits in the office every day dealing with paperwork?"

Brian was startled. After a moment, he said, "You're really brave to make such a speech."

Edith understood what he was referring to. Even an indigenous former Patrol Leader understood what she meant. At best, what she wanted to do was called assistant commanding... or it could be called power interference, which was totally unbearable in the eyes of other lords who claimed total control of their knights.

But now, the number of soldiers of the First Army had exceeded 5000, so the knightage's management method was obviously outdated. As a matter of fact, the Adviser Department assembled by His Majesty was an organization between the army and the City Hall, which was eventually under Roland's control but the commanding right underneath would further spread. Because Edith understood Roland's ideas, she dared to make that speech. It was not that she intended to join the Adviser Department, but she wanted to extend her influence as much as possible.

"If it was any other kings, I'd definitely not do that, but His Majesty is different..." Edith said, smiling, "You know that it was me who proposed that anyone who wants to be promoted in City Hall needs to go to a battlefield first. This being said, it's better that I set an example for the others."

"Has His Majesty... agreed?"

"Not really, but he didn't object to it."

"Um, doesn't it mean that he agreed?" Brian asked confusedly.

"In politics, you can't interpret things this way," Edith said with her hands laid out. "Even an oral commitment may change anytime before it gets written down, let alone the silence the king gave me for my asking."

"I see..." The Gun Battalion commander said with mixed feelings, "Politics is really complicated."

"That's true."

Apart from that, she also planned to get closer to the witches, to understand their abilities and characters, and to spend more time with them.

Undoubtedly, His Majesty had exerted big efforts on the witches, and the construction of Neverwinter could not carry on without the witches. To reach the peak of power, she would need their support.

So far, her plan had gone very smoothly. Probably because they were the same gender, her contact with the witches did not draw their rejection, yet Barov was not that lucky.

"Are the God's Punishment Witches the next batch to come?" Edith changed the subject.

"Yeah, I think so. Miss Margie can only deliver five to six people per time. To set a sentry post, she would have to run about 10 times," Brian replied accordingly. "Where do you think the second machine gun should be positioned?"

"Somewhere high... Um, I remember there is a suitable location near the rock behind..." Right when she turned around to observe the cave behind her, an illuminating plant seemed to distort in a certain way, as if something broke the stability of the air, making everything look blurry.

"What's that?" she asked.

Before she could alert the First Army soldiers, the air was again acutely distorted. This time the air behind the machine gun squad members rippled.

A light sound came, then a soldier's head fell off his neck, with a smile frozen on his face.

"Enemy attack!" Edith shouted out, "It's invisible!"

Almost at the same time, two more soldiers' chests were pierced through. When their blood spurted, the ripple was dyed red.

"There is more than one!"

Edith thought swiftly. Throwing a dagger with one hand toward the place where the first soldier fell, she pulled out her sword and raced to the enemy. When her dagger was knocked away by the invisible thing, she pricked her sword to the root of the ripple from another angle.

Edith clearly knew that if they chose to retreat, they would end up being attacked from front and back. There was a bonfire at this place, which was their only source of light to find the enemies' whereabouts. Without light, they could find no way to resist these nearly invisible monsters, so escaping should be their last choice!

While they could roughly locate the enemies, offense was their only chance to win!

Through the sword-tip came a sense of softness, as if it was pricked into some skin and flesh, which thrilled Edith.

If she was not wrong, whether humans or beasts, the contacting point of a weapon and a body was definitely a weakpoint—such as a hand holding a sword or a tip of a claw, which if hurt, would not regain its attacking ability in anytime soon.

Just as Edith was about to draw back her sword, a chilly wind swept towards her from another direction, coming at a speed that was so fast that she felt coldness hitting right on her face.

"Damn it! This thing has two weapons?"

Years of experience in fighting and killing made her subconsciously loosen the sword-holding righthand and roll on the ground. At that moment, she felt something touching the back of her head and then her long hair flew about like fallen petals scattering everywhere.

Having no time to get up, she shouted at Brian, "Now, shoot in my direction."

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Chapter 809: The Moment of Crisis

Translator: TransN Editor: Meh

By the time that the soldiers realized what was happening, it was too late for them to adjust another machine gun in order to take aim, so they directly pulled out the revolving rifles tied on their backs to fire at the enemy.

The long sword shoved in the invisible monster's body was now giving away its trail, making it an easy target for it to aim at. At such a short distance, Brian and all the other men fire all their bullets at once. The hail of bullets swept over Edith's head and she could even hear the whoosh sounds as the bullets tore through the air.

She turned back and saw the distorted air had solidified as a monster emerged out of the void. It was bloodcurdling. The monster wore a taupe shell all over and was nearly two meters tall while standing. A height that would allow it to tower over most ordinary men. Apart from a pair of forelegs as sharp as sickles, it also had seven or eight pairs of supportive legs sticking out of its abdomen. Luckily, the bullets were fierce enough to pierce through its shell, and they finally cracked open the monster's thin, long and locust-like head. It twitched a little and fell to the ground, bathed in blood.

"Get out of my way!" Suddenly, someone roared behind Edith.

A heavy sword proceeded the voice, piercing through the air with a strong power that caused the blade to buzz. It smashed right in the space before the first machine gun squad, blowing away the other two monsters and dispelling the invisible rippling air.

Hard on the heels of Ashes' strike, several God's Punishment Witches moved forward to slash the enemies, tearing their bodies into halves before they managed to get to their feet.

"The reinforcements finally arrived." Edith let out a sigh of relief as she realized it.

The enemies had lost their advantage of invisibility, plus with their small numbers, it had not taken long before the Transcendent Warriors dismembered all of them.

Edith noted that as the monsters inched nearer to the God's Punishment Witches, their form turned weird, half of their body invisible in the void while the other half was revealed in the light as if their hiding skills had been abated.

"Are you alright?" Margie pulled Edith to her feet. "We spotted these enemies on the cliff and moved as fast as we could, but we're still a little too late."

"You spotted them with the colorful Magic Stone?"

"Yes." Another tall man came up to her. "Weapons of common people don't work well in this kind of situation. You'd better inform the people above to bring more God's Punishment Witches down here."

Edith remembered her name was Betty. She asked, "You're capable of destroying their camouflage?"

"It's a trick that works the same way as the God's Stone of Retaliation." The man shrugged. "So far, it can only deactivate their invisibility skill for a short period of time."

"But they also wear God's Stone of Retaliation. How could they not see the enemy?" Brian asked with his teeth gnashed, as he looked at the three dead men on the ground.

"It's not surprising," Betty answered calmly. "For light, distance, and attention will all affect our sights. A general God's Stone works only within the area of one or two paces. Since the enemies only exposed in our visions for less than a second, it was reasonable that they couldn't see the targets, not to mention in such a dim place."

Edith could not help sighing. Betty was right. They had not noticed the sickle monsters until they showed their half bodies during the fight. The beasts' long forelegs and invisibility skills had given them a great advantage. It was undoubtedly too late for ordinary people to react, even though they had sensed something wrong. There would have been no way for the First Army to defeat them unless they had buried God's Stones beforehand to give them a clearer view to see through the enemies' disguises.

"Damn it!" Brian wielded his fist fiercely. "I should have sent down the wire netting first!"

"I think we should go back. I have a feeling that something unpleasant is going to happen in the hole," Betty urged again. "The weird shriek almost startled the entire snow mountain."

"Did you hear that too?" Edith asked in surprise.

"Losing most of our sense of touch has made our eyes and ears extraordinarily sharp..." Betty studied Edith for a little while before replying. "I didn't expect that a common person would be capable of hearing the sound too."

Sure enough, it was not her illusion to hear the sound. Edith nodded as she removed her God's Stone of Retaliation and threw it next to the machine gun. She and the other men gathered around Margie who weaved the Magic Ark. Together they descended to the bottom and then ascended along the steep wall. Brian, the leader of the Gun Battalion, was slightly reluctant to hand over the frontline to the Taquila witches, but had to follow the trend. After all, once the God's Punishment witches were involved in the fight, they could not ignore the witches and fire at the enemies recklessly.

The men who were stationed at the Blackstone Pagoda were unclear of the details of the battle at the bottom of the hole, so they kept sending down equipment such as tents, God's Stones, guns and ammunition etc. After Brian commanded the soldiers to stop transporting, they did not transfer to the vacant steam-engine-powered elevator but continued to ride the Ark to ascend.

Just as they were approaching the worm passage, a hail of gunfire broke out above them, causing a sound as if a mighty storm were striking. That meant that the First Army which was guarding at the sentry post, had opened fire without leaving themselves a loop-hole.

Their faces changed. Margie pumped up all of her power to accelerate the Ark.

As the Magic Ark dashed out of the hole, Edith could not help widening her eyes.

Body parts were showering down from the upper cave. Three machine gun squads that were lined up in one formation were firing at the pitch-dark ceiling of the cave under Sylvie's command. The revolvers and precision shooting squad concentrated on handling the blind corners above them, firing at the cave wall without taking aim.

"What are you fighting against?" Brian caught one man and asked.

"Demonic beasts, my lord!" the man reported as he was loading ammunition. "A pack of demonic beasts charged down from snow mountain!"

"Damn it! Why do they bother us at this time?"

A thought suddenly flashed through Edith's mind.

"Could the muffled buzz be the sound of it summoning its own kind?"

It was something she had read from His Majesty's book, a unique sound in this world that was inaudible to the human ear but was particularly clear to some creatures. Some species were even able to make such sounds to help them communicate with each other in their own way. Was it possible that the sound they had heard was a kind of signal between the same species?

However, Misfortunes did not come alone. When Brian was watching the battle, one man ran in and reported to him, "My lord, Lady Maggie spotted the abnormal trail of demonic beasts in the east to Misty Forest. They seemed to be marching on the snow mountain, moving towards Neverwinter as we expected."

"What? This..." The leader of Gun Battalion was stunned for a moment.

"My lord?" the man asked urgently. "What do we do?"

"How can this... How can this be..." Brian muttered repeatedly, his face grim, his forehead sweaty.

Edith frowned at Brian's inexperienced behavior. In her view, a leader should never wear a bewildered look openly, especially in front of his men.

"Ahem," she interrupted, "things are simpler than you think. First, if we summon back the First Army deployed outside the snow mountain and gather them to guard the cave, the battlefront will be much smaller and only a few machine guns will be needed to stifle the attack of the demonic beasts."

Brian turned to look at her. It took him a long while, but he managed to compose himself. "Exa-Exactly," he stuttered.

"Second, tell Lady Maggie to contact His Majesty and ask for reinforcements, just in case. After all, our ammunition and food are supplied through Redwater River. Once we give up the entrenched passage, our battle couldn't last long because of the lack of replenishment." Edith said calmly and clearly. "The beasts can't swim, so we should keep the cement ships and deploy a dozen of men who will help to pin down the enemy as well as guide the reinforcements."

"Lady Sylvie'll be responsible for annihilating the demonic beasts on the ceiling of the cave. Temporarily, we should collect everyone's God's Stones and bury them at the sentry post in case of sneak attack from the enemy. Lastly, remember to send the Taquila witches to the bottom of the hole to support Betty so that she'll have enough men to march on the south of the riverway to look for Agatha and the other witches." Edith's composed voice eased the tension and discomposure among the crowd. "We must send the witches to Betty as soon as possible. If I'm not wrong, the source of the weird sound will be the key to solving our problem."

Brian inhaled deeply and said, "I see. Let's do as you suggested."

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Chapter 810: A Dilemma

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

"Uh... I feel so... disgusting."

Agatha covered her mouth and retched as she crept along the worm carrier's narrow esophagus to get out. "I feel like I was in some kind of mucus-filled bag that was flung onto the wall dozens of times."

"You couldn't find any words better than that?" Nightingale asked as she walked out of her Mist leisurely.She stared at the others who were bathed in mucus. "If Fran hadn't collapsed the cave's mouth, we'd be in great danger." The advantage of walking in the Mist, that enabled her to travel seamlessly between spaces, had saved her from needing to hide in the carrier's stomach. Ultimately saving her from being bathed in the foul and corrupted mucus.

"Sorry... did I act impulsively?" Fran asked warily, however, Agatha was too busy retching from the stench to reply.

"For me, it was okay." Lightning said as she wiped mucus from her hair before smelling it. "Being swallowed by a giant worm and then crawling out safely is an unparalleled experience, an adventure that no other explorers have gotten to taste."

"Don't be too greedy." Elena rolled her eyes and said to Agatha, "For us, who have no senses, even smelling the reek and feeling the clammy touch is enviable."

Other God's Punishment Witches echoed her sentiment.

"Fine... let us say no more." Agatha coughed and interrupted in a hoarse voice, "On to the next problem, what should we do?"

There was fear lingering in every witch's heart as they recalled the accident from minutes ago. Despite Fran's quick warning, in that moment, the instinct to turn their eyes towards the source of the weird buzzing was faster than their minds could process the warning. As a result, more than one of them failed to keep their head down as the sound rang out.

No one had been able to see the actual visage of the monster, all they could see was it's ten thousand scarlet eyes.

They believed that the cluster of eyes belonged to the watchful Multi-eyed Demon that had coiled on the top of the tower. The only image they could associate it with was the black stone tower that had been swallowed by the worm. However, unlike the ordinary Multi-eyed Demon, the scope of this one's eyes had been much wider, as if the demon's body had been flattened and considerably stretched.

After the buzzing had subsided a large number of hybrid demonic beasts emerged from the deep ruins and charged towards them. All Nightingale had been able to see while she was in the Mist was the sudden appearance of numerous magic power light spots. They had abruptly appeared out of the void and from every corner of the cave. They had come from the stone walls, the streaming water, and the dark dome. The monsters had gathered together, creating bright streams, and their noisy, raspy roars drowned out the tinkling of the running water. It had been as if the entire mountain had come alive to chase off the intruders.

In that moment of peril, it had been Fran who made the executive decision.

She swallowed everyone, except for Nightingale, and turned so she could bore into the cave wall. Once her whole body had been submerged in the stone wall, the demonic beasts approached and started to snap at her tail fiercely. Even with Nightingale proving cover, she had been able to drive away so many enemies.

Although she had been in pain, Fran persisted and tunneling about 30 feet into the rock formation before she rolled back onto her rear and smashed the demonic beasts with her giant body. Subsequently, she gathered all of her strength into her tail and whipped it hard against the ceiling of the tunnel, knocking down the stones. By blocking the mouth of the tunnel, she finally eliminated some enemies.

During the struggle, the witches hiding in Fran's stomach had had an unforgettable experience. They tumbled and rocked inside the worm while she was fighting and they nearly threw up. As if the rolling and whipping wasn't enough, they had also been confined next to the rotting meat that was in the digestive cavity and it had reeked.

Ultimately, at least, all of them were safe.

"First we have to figure out what's going on." Elena looked at Fran, "How did you get stuck down here?"

"I think the rock formation must have been eroded by years of water washing so it collapsed abruptly as I twirled in the passage. It all happened so fast that I was already fallin by the time I realized what had happened. Then I knocked into something and blacked out," Fran said limply. "When I woke up, I found myself being transporting by dozens of invisible worms and then they left me in this place."

"I see... They've taken you as a vacant carrier." Elena raised her eyebrows, "At least, we're lucky."

"We're indeed, very lucky, especially since we were not eaten on the spot," Fran muttered. "It's a pity that I accidentally glanced up at the ceiling of the cave when I was about to escape.

"Is it really a watchful Magic Eye?" Agatha asked in a deep voice.

"I don't know. The moment I saw it, it spotted me as well, but I'm not sure what it really was. This monster was much bigger than the Multi-eyed Demon." Fran sighed, exhaling a nasty wind that assaulted the people around her. "Ah, sorry... since Elena and the other God's Punishment witches lost their smell a long time ago, I stopped paying it any attention..."

"Ahem, it's fine." Ice Witch Agatha held her breath for a long time before saying, "Did you happen to get an overall view of the monster?"

"After I had been bound, it landed and took its time as it bathed in the lake..." Fran paused for a moment as she looked for the words. "I don't know how to describe it. The monster looked like a failed experiment, it's like a lump of flattened guts that has been laid over the body of the Multi-eyed Demon. The two parts don't mesh naturally and they look more like a forceful patchwork. I also noticed that it had tentacles writhing in the gaps between the parts. I am not sure if they were living worms or a physical part of the monster. Regardless, that lump of the guts was much larger than the Multi-eyed Demon, even bigger than the Fearful Beast of Hell."

"Is it possible that the monster is consuming demons?" Nightingale frowned, "I believe it can't be considered a simple hybrid demonic beast."

"I think we should figure out how to get out of here before we try to figure out what it is." Elena patted Fran's huge mouth. "Next time, remember to alert us before telling us the details. Do you understand?"

"Um..." Fran answered gloomily.

"Can you move now?"

"I can't. I've run myself out..." Fran shook her head. "I consumed all the food in my stomach during the time we have been trapped here, so I need food for fuel."

"What if we give you the last of our food?" Lightning suggested.

"That's barely enough for her to tunnel 100 steps." Elena took a deep breath, "All we can do is wait or risk it and break out."

"Waiting isn't safe either," Agatha said calmly. "The space in here is too small and we'll all suffocate in less than a day if we don't find a way out." "Even if Sylvie manages to locate us, they will have to destroy the beasts before they can try to save us." She paused, "Don't forget the enemy also possesses devouring worm carriers."

"Unfortunately, if we charge out now, it's unlikely we won't be devoured by the numerous beasts." The God's Punishment Witches hesitated. "Besides... what do we do about Fran? She can't escape and there's no way for her to defend herself from so many enemies."

"Anyway... let me check the situation outside first." Nightingale turned, unwilling to be involved in this dilemma.

"If you guys figure out a way to escape, don't worry about me," Fran said suddenly. "Taquila witches don't fear death. I'll always belong to them no matter what I've become. By the way, I've got something else in my stomach that may be of some help." She wriggled her body, slowly spitting out several sticky iron boxes.

"What's..."

"The garrison supplies that the First Army asked me to carry," Fran said, coughing. "They said these things were too heavy to carry and asked me for help, so I swallowed all of them."

Agatha opened the boxes one by one—there were building tools and materials in them, such as shovels, spades, wire nettings, etc. As the things in the last box were revealed, Agatha froze for a moment.

The iron box was not very large but it was especially heavy. Apart from the shockproof wheat-straw stuffing, there were a dozen wooden boxes labeled "the second chemistry plant, sample 64, qualified".

If she remembered correctly, most of the nitrogen generated during decomposition had been sent to this factory.

This box actually held explosives.

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