CHAPTER 315: LOVE HELL - DORIAN’S PART (20)

A larger monster was rising from beneath the ground — or perhaps it simply wasn’t under the ground at all...

All that could be seen was the forest beginning to split apart; the entire ground was trembling, there was nowhere to hide!

Austin carried Alice on his back; Fiona and Nyx at his side had recovered and were constantly dodging between the enormous slabs of earth and rock. But it was all almost pointless — the violent tremors made it impossible to stand in one place for long, and if they weren’t careful they’d be thrown into the fissures ripping the ground open.

Just when things were at their most desperate, massive vines appeared from nowhere, writhing upward and twisting toward the sky as if about to pierce the heavens. From the giant vine grew smaller tendrils that wound around Austin and the others, pulling them away from the ever-shifting ground below.

In the blink of an eye, the colossal creature finally revealed itself completely before their eyes.

Its head and neck stretched across the forest — long and lanky — the trees and soil above it swayed and cascaded down.

Its body was the whole area around the mansion.

After shaking off the earth, its proper form was exposed. The long neck was full of wrinkles, heaving up and down like labored breaths.

Its torso was flattened, like an oval shape with ragged, uneven edges; its belly extended and remained buried deep under the ground, not yet fully visible. The exposed parts of its body were slick with clinging soil, slimy and sticky; its tissues looked like a mass of gargantuan jelly. Round, bulging eyes stuck to the brown-black body, and bizarre, ferocious facial features stretched across its length, spanning the width of the mansion.

It had legs too, but they were huge and not tall — fused to the ground. Its tail was massive like a hammer, completely black and impenetrable; it was impossible to see what, if anything, lay inside.

Its head had no precise shape, tapering to a point with a small mouth like a straw from which thick black slime continually oozed.

It let out a booming sound, somewhat like a howl, but distant and far larger, as if carrying a gust of air capable of shredding anyone in its path.

Sure enough, when it lowered its head and howled, the gust it expelled swept the ground, creating countless pits that stretched along with its movement.

"All right, I’m here to kill you!"

Fiona’s sharp voice rang out. She leapt down from the giant vine, sword in both hands; the bright golden filigree inlaid along the blade seemed to flare, light flickering in the darkness with power — ready to tear the monster’s head apart!

But just then, everything suddenly changed. The small mouth on top of the monster’s head abruptly widened — and in the next instant, its entire neck split apart, the flesh tearing open into an upper and lower jaw.

Before Fiona could even react, the split extended — and then snapped shut! Like a predator finally catching its prey, the monster swallowed her whole!

"Fiona!"

Alice screamed, but Austin pushed her back. "Stay here. We’ll save her."

With that, he leapt down from the giant vine. Nyx was already at the front; her staff shot forward and instantly transformed into a blade fan, slicing toward the monster’s neck!

The sharp blades cut into the creature’s body almost immediately — but then stopped short.

Nyx’s eyes widened. She could now see the inside of the monster — and what she saw was a layer of solid stone, like the rock deep underground. That was why she couldn’t cleave through its neck in a single strike!

Meanwhile, Austin had grabbed hold of one of the creature’s legs. The monster didn’t seem to have any means of attack other than its head and mouth.

Austin’s feet sank deep into the ground. Then, with all his strength, he pulled!

Each step he took left a deep crater, and the creature’s massive body was dragged along with him. But soon, Austin realized something was wrong.

What he was pulling wasn’t the monster’s actual leg — it was almost like an outer "skin."

The skin looked gelatinous, and as it tore away, thick black liquid began to pour out. Beneath it, the creature’s "bones" turned out to be slabs of hard, indestructible earth and stone.

Dorian stood beside the massive vine, quietly watching the entire scene unfold.

Meanwhile, underground — or rather, inside the monster’s stomach —

Hermes quickly regained his balance.

Suddenly, his eyes flashed. As if receiving some unseen signal, he vanished in an instant, sprinting at full speed toward the place he had come from — heading straight for where he had lost Nyx and Fiona.

[What—what’s going on? Why did he suddenly take off like that?]

[Hermes always acts as if he knows exactly what’s happening, even when he never actually saw it.]

[I’m sure of it. He’s heading straight for that coffin. It’s always the same — anything important ends up right in his hands.]

As expected, Hermes stopped right where Nyx and Fiona had disappeared. Then, he stretched out his hand — the threads at his fingertips now sharp as blades — piercing straight through the soil and rock, weaving their way deep into the ground.

Moments later, he pulled back hard, and the threads sliced through the earth, dragging chunks of stone out with them.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Hermes looked down into the hollow space below and jumped in.

The layer of sand had vanished entirely. Mrs. Andersen still lay quietly within the coffin, her face serene, as though she were merely sleeping.

Outside, the moment Hermes cut through the stone, the monster seemed to sense it. It let out a pained roar — each gust it exhaled slicing through the air, blowing Nyx’s fan blade backward until it shot into the giant vine, embedding itself just above Alice’s head.

Its massive legs stomped furiously against the ground, its enormous tail whipping up and down in rage, shaking the earth with every impact.

Austin could only dodge swiftly, barely avoiding being crushed into paste.

Meanwhile, inside the creature’s body, the sand began to pour into the pit like a collapsing flood — but Hermes had already lifted Mrs. Andersen into his arms.

His hand reached toward the only exit, where the sand had yet to fall. Threads spread and anchored themselves all around, pulling him forward as they climbed.

At the same time, torrents of sand cascaded downward, but Hermes’s pace didn’t falter — the threads supported every step.

The path ahead of him, aside from the falling sand, was eerily clear — so clear that even if he stepped on any hidden mechanism, no arrows or blades emerged from the walls to attack him.

Hermes lowered his gaze to the woman in his arms and quickened his pace...