Chapter 107: Relics of the Snow Mountain

Almost simultaneously, the entire "skin" contracted, and a reptile crawled out of the stone wall, dragging a sac dripping with mucus as it rapidly ascended towards the cave's ceiling.

But Nightingale was even faster.

She materialized from the mist, inverting herself on the ceiling as if walking on flat ground, blocking the reptile's path – even before her figure had descended, a silver bishou had already pierced its head, pinning it firmly to the stone wall.

After struggling for a moment, the insect's six slender legs all drooped, lifeless.

It was then that Lightning noticed that the so-called "egg" was merely the reptile's torso, only its head and legs had been buried in the stone, obscuring it beneath its massive abdomen.

This insect's body was entirely disproportionate. The front half resembled an enlarged ant, barely half a meter in length; but the rear half, the "skin" that had enveloped the Mad Demon, could nearly accommodate three large wine barrels. Even with half the viscous fluid already spilled, leaving the stomach deflated, the unfolded area remained astonishingly large.

"Did demons come out of this thing's belly?" the little girl asked in surprise.

"I've never heard of anything like it," Agatha squatted down, examining the demon closely with the help of the magic stone's light. "This Mad Demon… is already a fully mature individual. Look at its arms. Not only are there scars from embedded magic stones, but one is significantly larger than the other, indicating it has used its magic to hurl spears more than once."

"But where are the magic stones?"

"I don't know, probably taken by someone."

"So, this insect did it?" Elena said with a hint of impatience, "It swallowed the demon whole, then hung on the wall to digest its food, and then unfortunately encountered us – the magic stones were lost during the battle, or directly digested. Does that make sense? Never mind this disgusting bug, finding Fran is the most important thing."

Swallowed whole? Lightning thought, its mouth could barely swallow an adult, let alone a hulking Mad Demon nearly three meters tall.

"Something's odd…" Nightingale's voice suddenly echoed from the void. "It's already dead, but why is the magic only now beginning to dissipate?"

"What?" Agatha was taken aback. "Are you talking about this demon?"

"Yes, its magic is very faint, like a mist. I only noticed it when it rolled out of the insect's belly. But it was indeed lifeless then – judging by the degree of skin decomposition, it must have been dead for at least a day or two." Nightingale wondered, "Isn't it impossible for magic to gather in dead things?"

"If you're not mistaken, it's indeed very strange…" Zoe nodded, forcefully inserting her long sword into the stone wall. "Perhaps we should take these two corpses back for further study. Let's leave a mark first, and come back to collect them after setting up camp."

However, the group hadn't gone far before they discovered several "egg-insects" one after another. They weren't all buried in the cave walls; some stood directly on the riverbank, or in mushroom patches.

This time, the group had experience. Each strike was aimed at the vital spot, severing the buried insect heads one by one. Opening the insect bellies, they found not only Mad Demons, but also Fear Demons and human corpses.

This made the witches' faces turn grim.

There were no human settlements outside the Border Area, so how did they capture these prey?

Or, unbeknownst to them, had the enemy already extended its tentacles into the territory of Neverwinter?

At this moment, Nightingale suddenly issued a warning, "There's a magic reaction ahead! Wait, no… that's, Fran?"

"Where?" Elena didn't rush forward immediately, but instead dispersed with the other Divine Punishment Witches, holding her sword ready.

Lightning knew that in the Mist World, only black and white existed, and most objects were composed of intuitive and distorted outline lines, but magic had distinct colors, so the dark underground had no effect on Nightingale.

"Two hundred meters to the left… about four hundred steps – she seems to be entangled by something," her voice faded further away, becoming indistinct under the sound of splashing water. "I'll go first… wait…"

Not long after, there were two gunshots –

"Bang, bang!"

The roar of the firearms echoed loudly at the bottom of the cave. The Divine Punishment Witches exchanged glances, maintaining their formation as they advanced forward. Lightning was one step ahead, flying over the heads of the crowd directly towards the location of the gunshots, while holding the revolver in her hand.

Fortunately, what she feared hadn't happened. Nightingale quickly raised the glowing magic stone to guide everyone.

At the latter's feet, lay two monsters with scythe-like claws, their heads blown open, blue blood staining the ground.

"These are the Evil Beasts you said could hide their bodies?" Lightning asked, hovering in mid-air.

"Mhmm, but no matter how clever the technique, it can't escape my eyes," Nightingale proudly tucked the sniper rifle into her belt, patting the thoroughly bound Fran aside. "I was right, wasn't I?"

Fran twisted a few times, uttering a few incoherent sounds, as if someone had sealed her mouth.

It was then that the little girl noticed that the worm carrier was covered with white gelatinous substances on both sides, firmly fixing it in place, even the giant mouth was blocked. In addition, her sturdy body was covered in scars, apparently from the fall into the deep pit.

And to her surprise, there was more than one such giant worm like Fran. Beside her, there were two other Devouring Worms quietly lying, looking as if they were asleep.

"This is…" A thought suddenly popped into Lightning's head. She leaped down, brushing away the moss on the ground, revealing a mottled stone slab.

"Oh?" Nightingale whistled. "Not bad, it seems we've found it –"

"The legendary Snow Mountain Relics!" she excitedly continued.

"What exactly happened?" The others arrived slowly at this moment. In order not to stretch the formation too far, the Divine Punishment Witches always maintained a certain speed, and Elena, who was at the front, had slightly changed Lightning’s opinion of her.

"We found Fran, and two monsters who seemed to want to feast on her," Nightingale explained simply, "She's fine, just unable to move. This is already part of the underground ruins, the enemy is likely nearby, let's rescue her and leave as soon as possible, and then call the First Army over to set up a哨点 (shàodiǎn)."

Elena nodded, pulled out the heavy sword behind her, and quickly chopped open the extremely elastic gelatinous substances – when Fran's big mouth regained ziyou (freedom), everyone heard her low roar.

"Don't look up!"

However, after hearing this sentence, Lightning subconsciously looked up.

The top of her head was pitch black. At first glance, there was nothing – the cave here expanded upwards again, forming a huge space like a dome of a hall. The glowing magic stone could only illuminate the ground around her, and she couldn't see the details above. But the next moment, she felt the hair on her body stand on end.

A scarlet eye appeared in the darkness, followed by a second, a third…

She couldn't count how many eyes were looking at her at the same time. Thousands of eyes were like thousands of stars, condensed into a huge red disc… looking like the "Red Moon".