"Tilly, you can't—" Ashes was about to stop her, but Tilly interrupted.

"To enter the cave, we must rely on witches with the ability to fly to bring people out," Tilly shook the ring on her finger, "Although the magic consumption will increase greatly after carrying heavy objects, at least I can bring an extra witch, which is crucial for the operation—bringing one more witch means we can deal with more situations." She paused, looking at the witches of Border Town, "Anna, Lightning, Maisie, I need your help."

The three of them didn't object, and the little girl even showed a eager expression.

Tilly breathed a slight sigh of relief, "Then, the people going to the bottom of the cave will include Ashes, Shavi, Sylvie, and the rest of the sisters, we'll leave the ground entrance to you."

"Lady Tilly, let me go with you," Andrea said.

"In case we encounter a horde of demon beasts, Nightingale alone may not be able to handle it," she shook her head, "You and her, one far and one near, can cooperate well."

"Don't worry, I will guard the exit for you," Nightingale seemed full of confidence, "Neither devils nor demon beasts can approach this place a step."

Tilly had considered it very clearly. How many witches could go down depended on the carrying capacity of the flying witches. The heaviest was the "Ice Coffin". If they couldn't wake her on the spot, and had to cut it into pieces to take away, it would be equivalent to the weight of at least two to three witches. Only Shavi's intangible barrier could support such a heavy object.

Sylvie's Magic Eye was a must. Without her, they simply couldn't find the exact location of the ruins in the monster's stomach. Anna's cutting and heating abilities were the same, but neither of them could fly. Fortunately, they were lighter and could be transported by Maisie after she transformed into a magic bird. Finally, there was Ashes, the extraordinary who could fight steadily under any circumstances, who would be carried by herself.

Although Lightning could fly, according to her own words, once she carried personnel, the altitude would drop very sharply, and she might not be able to fly out of this deep cave. Her advantage lay in her excellent flexibility and speed, which could effectively play a role in guarding, scouting, and flanking.

The importance of these witches was almost irreplaceable. Losing one would make things extremely tricky, so her decision to go down was not an impulse, but a decision made after full consideration.

As for Andrea... Her destructive power was extremely amazing in close quarters, but once she encountered a narrow area where she couldn't see her fingers, her ability would be greatly reduced. It would be better to stay on the ground with Nightingale to guard against the demon beasts wandering nearby.

Tilly had also considered giving up the rescue and returning home. But she always had a bad feeling in her heart. Why were the surrounding areas intact, but this stone tower ruin was singled out? Especially the direction the giant beast was crawling—she looked towards the mountains in the northwest, which was where the devils lived after that.

Could there be some connection between the two?

Under the control of Wendy and Anna, the hot air balloon quickly landed steadily. Tilly put aside the distracting thoughts in her mind, reviewed the plan again, took a deep breath, and said word by word, "Let's go."

…

This pit was deeper than she expected. The cave was about two stories high. At first, it went straight down, but soon it began to slope, eventually forming a horizontal passage. The surrounding soil exuded a foul smell. If you got close, you could see viscous liquid dripping from the surface of the soil, like the moist traces left by slugs.

As the group continued to go deeper, the light entering the cave quickly disappeared. Except for the faint light of a few torches, the entire bottom of the cave was plunged into darkness. Not only that, the howling wind also subsided, and the feeling of coldness was gradually replaced by geothermal heat. Tilly felt her body was warming up.

Looking at the flickering torchlight, she couldn't help but think of fireflies.

"The giant beast is ahead," Sylvie said softly at this moment.

But even without her reminder, everyone knew that they were not far from their target—strange noises came from the depths of the cave, some like the rustling of autumn wind through the trees, and some like the crunching sound of chewing.

"Descend," she had Ashes behind her wave the torches twice, and then controlled the magic stone to lower the altitude until her feet fell

into the soft, sticky mud.

Then Anna's cold light lit up.

She turned the black fire back into heart fire, and the cold and gentle light suddenly filled the surroundings. Under the green fire, the witches clearly saw the giant beast's tail. It crawled forward slowly, its wriggling gray skin constantly secreting mucus, and the putrid smell was even stronger.

"A disgusting big bug," Ashes drew out her greatsword, "What are we going to do next, cut open its stomach?"

"Wait, let Anna kill it," Tilly shook her head, "I don't know if what's in its stomach is a threat to us. It's too risky for you to get close and swing your sword."

"Well, let me try." Anna, while keeping the green fire burning, summoned another ball of black fire—in the blink of an eye, the black fire turned into a thin line as thick as a finger, and flew straight towards the giant beast.

This thin line pierced the monster's skin without resistance and cut towards the side of its belly. Perhaps the temperature was too high, the skin that the black line touched instantly burned, and the liquid in the body was vaporized, spewing out billowing white mist. Shavi, who was already equipped, erected an intangible shield to block the splashing juice one by one.

This is the power of evolution, Tilly thought to herself. Although Anna had introduced her abilities before departure, she was still shocked when she actually saw it. The black fire, which could move away from the body at will and was as thin as a line, was sharper than any greatsword, and it was extremely difficult to observe its movement trajectory. It was impossible for enemies to dodge it.

The monster let out a high-pitched wail, and its body wriggled frantically. But the black fire continued to cut forward, and soon shattered most of its fat body. The flowing liquid was evaporated by another ball of green fire before it could get close to the witches.

Gradually, the giant beast stopped struggling, and its skin became loose.

"It's dead," Sylvie said, "Its heart has stopped beating."

"This guy has a heart too?" Ashes asked, pinching her nose.

"In the head, about the size of the Longshot's basket. And..." She paused, "There is magic flowing on it."

"So, is this a hybrid demon beast?"

"No one knows the answer," Tilly said, "There are very few records of demon beasts and the Barren Land in history. There are too many unknown things here, so let's quickly dig out the Ice Coffin."

After Anna's re-incineration, the stench was not as strong as before. Under Sylvie's guidance, they quickly found the swallowed ruins—of course, now the basement had become scattered stones, and it was impossible to see what it looked like before. Most of the glowing magic stones that Lightning mentioned had turned into clumps of paste. Fortunately, the transparent crystal stone pillars were still intact. After being turned out from the sticky belly, there was not even a trace of corrosion on them, and the woman sealed in the crystal stone was still lifelike.

"Now it's up to you," Tilly said to Anna.