Catching his breath, Theo whispered, "This isn't the end, old fox. It's just the beginning."
In his thoughts, he asked, ‘Demoness, can you really handle this?’
‘Shut up. Hurry and open the portal…’ A furious voice came via telepathy. Theo swore he had never heard her this angry before. He even felt a slight fear hearing this displeased tone of hers. Soon, a portal appeared behind a neighboring tree, and a shadow slipped out, so quick that even Theo failed to see it.
Surrounded by the flicker of torches, Theo limped to the front of the tree. Leonard was standing a few meters away with a smirk on his face. Theo offered him a soft smile.
“Now what, Lord Silverblade?” Leonard taunted.
“Since I'm on the brink of dying, shouldn't I at least know my killer?” Theo asked, pretending to be a poor soul.
“That's an interesting last request. But it's best you leave this world without knowing.” Leonard then signaled to one of his men, “Finish him.”
As a man stepped ahead with his sword, he found his line of sight changing. His sight moved to the ground and started spinning. He felt a shower of warm liquid splashing over his face. Before he could understand his situation, darkness enveloped him. With a thud, his beheaded body collapsed on the ground.
Seeing this gruesome sight, fear gripped everyone who witnessed it, including Theo. This was the first time he'd seen someone decapitated right before his eyes.
Panicking, one of the men shouted, “Who's there? Show yourself, or he dies!”
But just as the words left his mouth, he suffered the same horrifying fate, his head rolling to a stop.
The remaining men were overwhelmed by terror, their bodies trembling with fear. Leonard, despite his earlier bravado, also retreated. Drawing his sword, he scanned all directions for the hidden enemy.
As they were engulfed in horror, an eerie yet chilling voice, akin to that of a demon, reverberated through the forest. "Speak!!! Who sent you? For each second you delay, another life will end..." Even Theo, who was familiar with the crazy, lively Lilith, couldn’t connect this voice to her. This was insane; This was demonic, there was an extreme level of wrath flowing in her voice.
*Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
As no one answered, the heads continued to roll and staining the ground with crimson blood.
A desperate voice cried out, “Wait! Wait! Wait!”
"Answer!!! Who dared to lay a hand on what's mine?” The chilling voice demanded an answer.
“Hey, I’m not your property,” Theo muttered with a hint of agony in his voice as blood had already dyed his cloth in red.
“Shut up,” Lilith retorted him fiercely.
*Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
More heads rolled down on the ground beside the man who told her to wait.
As the horror unfolded before his eyes, the man could no longer hold his secret. Valuing his own life above all, he began to divulge, his voice trembling with fear, “It was the Count of Ironkeep City; we are in his employ. I have answered your question truthfully. Now, I beg of you, please spare my life. I vow never to serve him again. I will retreat to a village far from here and lead a quiet life. Please, grant me this mercy. I have a wife and children at home who depend on me.” Tears streamed down the previous desperate man’s face.
Leonard muttered a curse under his breath when the man blurted out their secret. The others hoped that this confession might calm the anger of the shadowy figure who was picking them off one by one.
As the man who spilled the secret waited, he hardly dared to breathe, hoping against hope that he had saved himself by telling the truth.
But as the seconds ticked by, an eerie calm settled over the forest, a deceptive silence that was the herald of something sinister.
Suddenly, without warning, wild storm broke out from nowhere. It blasted through the trees with a ferocious howl, a gale so powerful it seemed to slice the very air. And then, heads started to roll across the ground in a grim dance, as if they were mere playthings of the wind. Leonard's head was among them, his face showing shock, showing the terror of what had happened too quickly for him to ask to be saved.
*Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
"Nooooo," The man shrieked, terror filling his voice as the scene before him spiraled into chaos. His instincts screamed for him to escape, to flee from the unfolding nightmare.
He spun on his heel, heart pounding in a frenzied rhythm, and launched into a desperate sprint. Unfortunately, his legs betrayed him, continuing their frantic dash, while his upper body slumped to the ground in a grotesque manner. His vision blurred, his eyelids grew unbearably heavy, and as the darkness claimed him, he felt the relaxing embrace of death that released him from this horror and pain.
Theo could scarcely believe the horror playing out before his eyes. He turned away, his stomach rebelling with a violent lurch. "Blerghh..."
The overwhelming stench of blood, combined with the grotesque sight, was too much to handle, and his stomach churned. He slumped against the tree trunk, trying to find his bearings, and then vomited once more, "Blergh..."
After vomiting enough, he dropped to the ground, sitting with the support of the tree’s trunk. A figure appeared right in front of him, causing the air to slightly shift.
As she saw the three arrows embedded in his body, her chilly eyes softened at the sight of his blood. She knelt beside him and moved her hand to take them out, but she hesitated. Theo could see her hands and eyes trembling.
‘Didn't she just behead so many people? Yet she's afraid of taking these out... Is she still thinking about sipping my blood in this condition?’ He joked inwardly.
With the blood continuously flowing, she gritted her teeth and quickly pulled out the first arrow from his chest.
“Arghhhh…” Theo groaned in pain, causing Lilith’s eyes to tremble slightly.
Her gaze shifted from his contorted face to the remaining arrows that were stabbed deep into his flesh. Taking a deep breath, she grasped both arrows and pulled them out simultaneously.
“Demoness!” Theo yelled, his eyes widened by her daring move. However, he soon calmed down, gritting his teeth. Though the arrows were out, the blood leaking out even more freely.
“Give me the healing potions that you bought,” She demanded in a concerned voice.
Theo retrieved a high-quality elixir from his golden vault and handed it to her. He noticed there wasn't a single drop of blood on her clothes. Moreover, He couldn't connect her current self to the same terrifying girl who had beheaded those men with a single slash. Theo had jokingly called her ‘Demoness’ in the past, but now felt it would be more accurate to call her a true demoness when angered.
Lilith poured the elixir into her hand and began applying it to his chest wound, her face was filled with intense seriousness.
As it touched his skin, he felt both warmth and coldness. His skin began to heal at a visible rate.
The girl used the entire bottle on his chest, then she asked for another, and Theo gave her two more. She did the same with his shoulder and leg.
He wanted to tell her he could do it himself but he was not in condition to complain and he feared there would be a sharp retort. Given her recent actions, he didn't want to test her temper.
As she was done applying the healing elixir to his leg, Theo requested with a displeased voice, “Can you help me move away from this place?”
Lilith nodded, understanding his discomfort from the stench of blood. With the tree’s trunk as support, he stood up, and the girl wrapped her arm around his back. A rosy scent enveloped him, and he became acutely aware of Lilith's closeness, particularly her rounded chest pressed against his side, which made him uneasy.
Trying to maintain his composure, he began to move away from the gruesome scene, but he was internally battling the distracting sensation of her plumpy flesh brushing against his side.
Every step was a battle for Theo as he tried to focus on anything but the sensation of Lilith's body beside him. Once they were at a distance from the corpses, he settled near the roots of another tree, releasing a sigh of relief as if an intense tribulation had ended and he somehow survived.
Seeing him relieved, Lilith mistakenly thought it was for escaping the putrid smell of blood, unaware of Theo’s original thought. She retrieved a transparent water bottle from her ring and handed him, "Here..."
For Theo, it was strange to see her care for him in such a manner like a loyal maid. But he wasn’t in any condition to tease her, especially after such a traumatic experience. With all the blood he had lost, he felt like he could faint at any moment.
While drinking cold water, a few notifications popped up before him.
<<<<
[You have unlocked ‘Abyssal Devour’]
[Abyssal Devour]
[~ Offer a corpse to the Eldritch trees for its nourishment. This will slightly enhance the rate at which they generate abyssal energy.]
[26 Corpses detected. Would you like to offer them to the Eldritch trees?]
[Yes/No]
>>>>
He was surprised to see the corpse-related notification in front of him. Given the nature of his demonic farm, this wasn’t outside the realm of his expectations.
Theo pondered how the demonic farm had detected all those corpses around him and how it would manage to devour the corpses outside its realm. However, as he selected [Yes], the mystery began to unravel.
Roots, like serpentine tendrils, erupted from beneath the ground. They wriggled their way deep into the forest, an army of dark, twisted soldiers. One by one, they wrapped themselves around the beheaded corpses, engulfing them an eerie intimacy, like a lover's embrace turned predatory. The roots began to pulse and thicken around the bodies, akin to snakes constricting their prey.
Once their grim task was complete, they retracted into the ground, leaving behind only the disturbed soil as evidence of their presence, while other tendrils slithered off in search of more corpses, relentless in their grim harvest.
Theo noticed that these roots belonged to the Eldritch trees, though the trees themselves were nowhere in sight.
More messages began to flash, confirming that the roots had accomplished their task.
<<<<
[1 humanoid body devoured by Eldritch tree]
[Abyssal Energy generation rate of Eldritch tree increased by 0.5%.]
[2 humanoid bodies devoured by Eldritch tree]
[Abyssal Energy generation rate of Eldritch tree increased by 1%.]
[1 humanoid body devoured by Eldritch tree]
[Abyssal Energy generation rate of Eldritch tree increased by 0.5%.]
>>>>
He was satisfied with the notifications, and as he finished the water content, the roots completed their task. Handing the bottle to Lilith, he noticed her brows furrow.
Moments later, she warned, "Someone is coming..." before vanishing from her spot.
Catching his breath, Theo whispered, "This isn't the end, old fox. It's just the beginning."
In his thoughts, he asked, ‘Demoness, can you really handle this?’
‘Shut up. Hurry and open the portal…’ A furious voice came via telepathy. Theo swore he had never heard her this angry before. He even felt a slight fear hearing this displeased tone of hers. Soon, a portal appeared behind a neighboring tree, and a shadow slipped out, so quick that even Theo failed to see it.
Surrounded by the flicker of torches, Theo limped to the front of the tree. Leonard was standing a few meters away with a smirk on his face. Theo offered him a soft smile.
“Now what, Lord Silverblade?” Leonard taunted.
“Since I'm on the brink of dying, shouldn't I at least know my killer?” Theo asked, pretending to be a poor soul.
“That's an interesting last request. But it's best you leave this world without knowing.” Leonard then signaled to one of his men, “Finish him.”
As a man stepped ahead with his sword, he found his line of sight changing. His sight moved to the ground and started spinning. He felt a shower of warm liquid splashing over his face. Before he could understand his situation, darkness enveloped him. With a thud, his beheaded body collapsed on the ground.
Seeing this gruesome sight, fear gripped everyone who witnessed it, including Theo. This was the first time he'd seen someone decapitated right before his eyes.
Panicking, one of the men shouted, “Who's there? Show yourself, or he dies!”
But just as the words left his mouth, he suffered the same horrifying fate, his head rolling to a stop.
The remaining men were overwhelmed by terror, their bodies trembling with fear. Leonard, despite his earlier bravado, also retreated. Drawing his sword, he scanned all directions for the hidden enemy.
As they were engulfed in horror, an eerie yet chilling voice, akin to that of a demon, reverberated through the forest. "Speak!!! Who sent you? For each second you delay, another life will end..." Even Theo, who was familiar with the crazy, lively Lilith, couldn’t connect this voice to her. This was insane; This was demonic, there was an extreme level of wrath flowing in her voice.
*Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
As no one answered, the heads continued to roll and staining the ground with crimson blood.
A desperate voice cried out, “Wait! Wait! Wait!”
"Answer!!! Who dared to lay a hand on what's mine?” The chilling voice demanded an answer.
“Hey, I’m not your property,” Theo muttered with a hint of agony in his voice as blood had already dyed his cloth in red.
“Shut up,” Lilith retorted him fiercely.
*Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
More heads rolled down on the ground beside the man who told her to wait.
As the horror unfolded before his eyes, the man could no longer hold his secret. Valuing his own life above all, he began to divulge, his voice trembling with fear, “It was the Count of Ironkeep City; we are in his employ. I have answered your question truthfully. Now, I beg of you, please spare my life. I vow never to serve him again. I will retreat to a village far from here and lead a quiet life. Please, grant me this mercy. I have a wife and children at home who depend on me.” Tears streamed down the previous desperate man’s face.
Leonard muttered a curse under his breath when the man blurted out their secret. The others hoped that this confession might calm the anger of the shadowy figure who was picking them off one by one.
As the man who spilled the secret waited, he hardly dared to breathe, hoping against hope that he had saved himself by telling the truth.
But as the seconds ticked by, an eerie calm settled over the forest, a deceptive silence that was the herald of something sinister.
Suddenly, without warning, wild storm broke out from nowhere. It blasted through the trees with a ferocious howl, a gale so powerful it seemed to slice the very air. And then, heads started to roll across the ground in a grim dance, as if they were mere playthings of the wind. Leonard's head was among them, his face showing shock, showing the terror of what had happened too quickly for him to ask to be saved.
*Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*
"Nooooo," The man shrieked, terror filling his voice as the scene before him spiraled into chaos. His instincts screamed for him to escape, to flee from the unfolding nightmare.
He spun on his heel, heart pounding in a frenzied rhythm, and launched into a desperate sprint. Unfortunately, his legs betrayed him, continuing their frantic dash, while his upper body slumped to the ground in a grotesque manner. His vision blurred, his eyelids grew unbearably heavy, and as the darkness claimed him, he felt the relaxing embrace of death that released him from this horror and pain.
Theo could scarcely believe the horror playing out before his eyes. He turned away, his stomach rebelling with a violent lurch. "Blerghh..."
The overwhelming stench of blood, combined with the grotesque sight, was too much to handle, and his stomach churned. He slumped against the tree trunk, trying to find his bearings, and then vomited once more, "Blergh..."
After vomiting enough, he dropped to the ground, sitting with the support of the tree’s trunk. A figure appeared right in front of him, causing the air to slightly shift.
As she saw the three arrows embedded in his body, her chilly eyes softened at the sight of his blood. She knelt beside him and moved her hand to take them out, but she hesitated. Theo could see her hands and eyes trembling.
‘Didn't she just behead so many people? Yet she's afraid of taking these out... Is she still thinking about sipping my blood in this condition?’ He joked inwardly.
With the blood continuously flowing, she gritted her teeth and quickly pulled out the first arrow from his chest.
“Arghhhh…” Theo groaned in pain, causing Lilith’s eyes to tremble slightly.
Her gaze shifted from his contorted face to the remaining arrows that were stabbed deep into his flesh. Taking a deep breath, she grasped both arrows and pulled them out simultaneously.
“Demoness!” Theo yelled, his eyes widened by her daring move. However, he soon calmed down, gritting his teeth. Though the arrows were out, the blood leaking out even more freely.
“Give me the healing potions that you bought,” She demanded in a concerned voice.
Theo retrieved a high-quality elixir from his golden vault and handed it to her. He noticed there wasn't a single drop of blood on her clothes. Moreover, He couldn't connect her current self to the same terrifying girl who had beheaded those men with a single slash. Theo had jokingly called her ‘Demoness’ in the past, but now felt it would be more accurate to call her a true demoness when angered.
Lilith poured the elixir into her hand and began applying it to his chest wound, her face was filled with intense seriousness.
As it touched his skin, he felt both warmth and coldness. His skin began to heal at a visible rate.
The girl used the entire bottle on his chest, then she asked for another, and Theo gave her two more. She did the same with his shoulder and leg.
He wanted to tell her he could do it himself but he was not in condition to complain and he feared there would be a sharp retort. Given her recent actions, he didn't want to test her temper.
As she was done applying the healing elixir to his leg, Theo requested with a displeased voice, “Can you help me move away from this place?”
Lilith nodded, understanding his discomfort from the stench of blood. With the tree’s trunk as support, he stood up, and the girl wrapped her arm around his back. A rosy scent enveloped him, and he became acutely aware of Lilith's closeness, particularly her rounded chest pressed against his side, which made him uneasy.
Trying to maintain his composure, he began to move away from the gruesome scene, but he was internally battling the distracting sensation of her plumpy flesh brushing against his side.
Every step was a battle for Theo as he tried to focus on anything but the sensation of Lilith's body beside him. Once they were at a distance from the corpses, he settled near the roots of another tree, releasing a sigh of relief as if an intense tribulation had ended and he somehow survived.
Seeing him relieved, Lilith mistakenly thought it was for escaping the putrid smell of blood, unaware of Theo’s original thought. She retrieved a transparent water bottle from her ring and handed him, "Here..."
For Theo, it was strange to see her care for him in such a manner like a loyal maid. But he wasn’t in any condition to tease her, especially after such a traumatic experience. With all the blood he had lost, he felt like he could faint at any moment.
While drinking cold water, a few notifications popped up before him.
<<<<
[You have unlocked ‘Abyssal Devour’]
[Abyssal Devour]
[~ Offer a corpse to the Eldritch trees for its nourishment. This will slightly enhance the rate at which they generate abyssal energy.]
[26 Corpses detected. Would you like to offer them to the Eldritch trees?]
[Yes/No]
>>>>
He was surprised to see the corpse-related notification in front of him. Given the nature of his demonic farm, this wasn’t outside the realm of his expectations.
Theo pondered how the demonic farm had detected all those corpses around him and how it would manage to devour the corpses outside its realm. However, as he selected [Yes], the mystery began to unravel.
Roots, like serpentine tendrils, erupted from beneath the ground. They wriggled their way deep into the forest, an army of dark, twisted soldiers. One by one, they wrapped themselves around the beheaded corpses, engulfing them an eerie intimacy, like a lover's embrace turned predatory. The roots began to pulse and thicken around the bodies, akin to snakes constricting their prey.
Once their grim task was complete, they retracted into the ground, leaving behind only the disturbed soil as evidence of their presence, while other tendrils slithered off in search of more corpses, relentless in their grim harvest.
Theo noticed that these roots belonged to the Eldritch trees, though the trees themselves were nowhere in sight.
More messages began to flash, confirming that the roots had accomplished their task.
<<<<
[1 humanoid body devoured by Eldritch tree]
[Abyssal Energy generation rate of Eldritch tree increased by 0.5%.]
[2 humanoid bodies devoured by Eldritch tree]
[Abyssal Energy generation rate of Eldritch tree increased by 1%.]
[1 humanoid body devoured by Eldritch tree]
[Abyssal Energy generation rate of Eldritch tree increased by 0.5%.]
>>>>
He was satisfied with the notifications, and as he finished the water content, the roots completed their task. Handing the bottle to Lilith, he noticed her brows furrow.
Moments later, she warned, "Someone is coming..." before vanishing from her spot.
