The towering Gothic castle loomed grand and magnificent, its spires and interwoven domes dizzying to the eye. Sunlight filtered through stained-glass windows, scattering across the ground and casting humanity in a thousand shifting hues.

Yet the place was not gilded in splendor—on the contrary, it was blanketed in dust and cobwebs. Furniture had long since been reduced to ashes, the remnants bearing scars of some great fire. Simply sitting on the ground left their bodies caked in soot that could not be shaken off.

"Goddammit, where the hell is Silvanus?!"

Drake roared. Losing his legs didn't affect him much—he looked as if he could keep shouting for another two hundred years without pause.

Then, the others realized Silvanus hadn't entered this place with them. And Lilith… she was gone without a trace as well.

"Maybe he did go off to marry Lilith," Cocona said, half-joking, half-serious.

She was already standing upright, using her charred, skeletal hand to shove her dangling eye back into its socket, even pressing it deeper to hold it in place.

"Never thought I'd live to see myself like this." Cocona sighed as if lamenting, then turned toward Drake with a mocking grin. "But you're even worse off than me, Drake. Ha ha ha."

Drake's face darkened instantly. With both legs gone, he was sprawled helplessly on the ground, the feeling of being truly crippled gnawing at him.

He dropped his black-scaled hand on his blade and drove its tip into the ground. At that moment, the weapon suddenly expanded, hoisting Drake upward.

Using one hand as a leg and the blade as his support, he hovered above the ground, face cold as he looked down on everyone.

"No, Lilith, no goddamn mission. I'm done. Monsters, wherever the hell you're hiding—get out here! Let's have ourselves a slaughter!"

He had heard something.

And sure enough, the moment his words fell, clattering and scraping echoed around them.

From nowhere, a horde of broken-bodied monsters emerged. Their flesh was charred, as if embalmed corpses had risen, their blackened forms dripping trails of dark ichor with every step.

Instantly, the scent of ash turned into the stench of rot, flooding the entire castle.

They spilled out of the void, their garments in tatters. Some still carried scraps of cloth, hinting that before their corruption they might once have been servants… or nobles of the court.

What had happened here that they all perished in fire and were buried with this castle for eternity?

Drake, at least, wasn't the type to wonder.

His lips curled into a grin so wide it was nearly deranged. His eyes burned crimson.

Then, with a sickening tear, two great gashes split open on his back. A pair of skeletal dragon wings burst forth, trailing blood and chunks of flesh. Yet Drake seemed unfazed, even tilting his head back in maniacal laughter.

Each flap of his wings sent gales of hot wind surging through the hall, carrying the suffocating breath of a dragon itself.

Scales began to creep from the base of his wings, embedding themselves deep into his flesh.

"Ha ha ha! A pack of monsters? Die—all of you!"

Drake roared, his blade stretching four meters long and two meters wide, massive beyond reason. Folding his wings, he dove onto the battlefield like an arrow loosed from the bow!

Wherever his blade swept, monsters collapsed in droves. Bodies are split in half, strewn across the ground, or hurled into the air, crashing into those behind them. The swarm seemed endless—yet before Drake, they were nothing more than ants.

"He doesn't even want to torch them and be done with it. He… wants to fight." Cocona muttered darkly, though her face was already dark enough as it was.

Drake's current state was abnormal.

"Leave him. He won't die."

Leonard suddenly spoke up, startling Cocona, who turned in disbelief—she hadn't expected those words from him.

Leonard lowered his head slightly, saying nothing more.

It was just a feeling, but those chosen by the gods… could not die so easily.

"A pack of insects… and you dare trespass into the castle of House Zarukel?!"

A thunderous voice suddenly rang out, shaking the entire castle. Even the monsters dragging themselves forward faltered and stumbled.

All eyes turned upward. On the balcony of the second floor stood three figures. At their head was a bald older man with a long, snow-white beard, dressed in finery—an ornate tailcoat with velvet lapels embroidered in silver, a serpent-emblem of authority pinned to one side.

Behind him stood two youths, equally resplendent, utterly out of place in the castle's ashen ruin. They looked as though they were about to attend a grand ball, not struggle in the ruins of the past.

"Ha, so this is the main boss, huh?"

Drake sneered, and the next moment, his body shot forward like a bullet, hurling himself at the trio!

They seemed just as shocked as anyone else, genuine surprise flashing across their faces—faces so real they might have belonged to actual humans.

But standing here, they could never be human.

In an instant, their forms twisted and writhed, transforming into three massive serpents, their bodies swelling larger and larger still.

But before they could grow fully, Drake's blade had already sliced through their necks—separating heads from bodies in one clean strike, ending them far too easily.

Drake's laugh was cold. Sure enough, the next moment, the monsters reared back up, blood gushing from their necks as new heads sprouted from the wounds.

Silas shouted: "No weak point—they have no heart!"

The serpents grew and swelled, their crimson eyes glowing with sinister light.

Yes, they would never die. Never die. Ha ha ha!

[Sh*t, I'm terrified of snakes!]

[What, they're not even leaping out to bite anyone, why so scared?]

[Honestly, these dungeons are getting trickier and trickier. Humans should've already found the two main faction hearts in the previous space, but there wasn't a single clue for them to follow—and everything was way too rushed and cornered—especially the heart of the sunflower field, Lilith's family. Without Bunny and Meow leading the way, there's no way anyone could've even entered that space, not to mention escaping once they got the heart. Thank god for Silvanus.]

[Thank god? Silvanus is suspicious. He clearly could've just ripped both hearts out, but he still left the humans to struggle alone. Maybe he's trying to train them? But don't you all think his attitude feels a little… familiar?]

[Well, he is a priest, right? He follows the will of the gods. It wouldn't be surprising if the deities are all yelling instructions in his head right now.]

[Exactly. Let's see whose top believer gets dragged through the most suffering, ha ha ha!]

[The gods can't stand it unless they torment humans.]

[For real. Without Silvanus, how would we even get to see this castle map? Everyone before this just died in the first space.]

[Nothing beats having a scripted storyline, ha ha ha.]

Silvanus, playing four roles at once: "…"

Technically, they weren't insulting him—but in truth, they were. It wasn't that he didn't want to end this…

But right now, there was something far more important on his mind. Silvanus lowered his gaze, eyes falling on the young girl kneeling sincerely in prayer before him.

"Oh, divine one, do you hear my words? I beg you to please grant my wish. Please help me overcome everything—help Father see me, help me be acknowledged, help me become the heir of House Zarukel."

The girl was about ten years old, clad in a pearl-white princess dress trimmed with bands of sapphire blue. Her golden curls were tied into twin braids, fastened with ribbon bows.

She revealed a face as beautiful as a porcelain doll when she lifted her head. The one praying before the idol was none other than Lilith…