CHAPTER 318: LOVE HELL - DORIAN’S PART (23)

"Angelia! Angelia!"

Alex’s thunderous voice echoed throughout the dungeon. Suddenly, his abdomen lit up—the crimson glow almost spilling past the jelly-like membrane of his body.

[Why did it suddenly light up? Has this scene ever happened before?]

[I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve asked this, but seriously—since when did Alex have some tragic love story with Angelia? Weren’t they having an affair?]

[The newer the plot, the better! Bring on more twists—I’m ready!]

[It feels like humanity doesn’t stand a chance. This team is way too weak, especially when the one entering isn’t even Hermes himself but his puppet!]

[Even if Hermes went in personally, it’s not like he has any powerful moves.]

[If you dropped this bunch into the "Freedom Dove" dungeon, they’d die before realizing it.]

Alex roared in agony, "They must pay. They must pay!"

The light—it was a formation embedded inside Alex’s stomach.

A faint whisper seemed to drift through the air, and suddenly, tiny sprouts began pushing up from the ground.

The strange and familiar trees kept shooting up, sprouting nonstop, as though a time-lapse film of their growth was unfolding before everyone’s eyes.

A soft green light enveloped the shoots, guiding them as they grew higher and higher, surging upward to coil around the enormous monster before them.

"You can’t kill me! You’ll never be able to kill me!"

Alex bellowed, his distorted voice now completely inhuman.

The vines wrapping around his massive body truly couldn’t crush him.

However, just a second later, his body convulsed violently. Every time he roared, the ground itself trembled.

And then—tiny saplings began sprouting from his rocky flesh.

Before long, his entire form had transformed into a dense thicket. Excess chunks of soil and debris crumbled to the ground, unnoticed.

The group stared at the mountain of vines, jaws hanging open. Everything had happened so fast—in just a blink, the colossal monster, easily the size of a mansion, no, even larger, had turned into fertile earth for new growth!

They turned back, only to see Dorian still standing there, one hand resting against the massive vine, his calm gaze fixed on them. Yet this time, no smile graced his lips.

The wind tousled his hair slightly. His green eyes brimmed with sorrow. "I’m sorry. My judgment was wrong."

"Huh?"

Fiona almost jumped out of her skin, rushing toward Dorian—arms flailing, though she didn’t dare touch him. "No—why are you apologizing? Look! That supposedly invincible monster just turned into a forest with a single thought from you! Isn’t that extremely cool? You can’t apologize—you’re not allowed to apologize!"

Dorian couldn’t help but look at Fiona in surprise. Nyx quickly bowed and said, "Thank you for saving us."

Alice was also overjoyed—at the very least, they hadn’t needed to fight a bloody battle. It was unbelievable! None of them had expected Dorian to step in and help before they were completely crushed!

Looking at them, Dorian said softly, "It was merely my responsibility."

He lowered his gaze, a heavy weight in his heart, as though something still troubled him.

[That was so cool—he dealt with the enemy without spilling a single drop of blood, neither his nor theirs!]

[I don’t think it was that cool... it just felt calm and serene, like him.]

[When I saw those plants suddenly surge from the ground, I felt this weird sense of awe for nature’s power.]

[Dorian keeps talking about responsibility. Anyway, he will probably be dead last on my character popularity ranking.]

[Thanks, but Dorian doesn’t need your ranking. Get a grip!]

Just then, the dungeon’s darkness suddenly tore open, like some horrifying existence stretching its limbs into this small, fragile world.

High above, lightning bolts converged, ripping the fissure wider—revealing a blood-red sky illuminated by flickering streaks of lightning.

"Boom! Crash!"

Moments later, the darkness poured down from above like a flood, tearing the very fabric of space apart.

By then, Dorian had already positioned himself between the humans and the oncoming force.

The transformation happened with terrifying speed.

The rolling darkness swiftly gathered, forming a circular magic formation on the ground before Alex’s corpse. At the same time—like clay being molded—the shadows shifted and twisted, releasing bursts of light around it. The figure within the formation had taken shape when the chaos finally stilled.

Angelia floated in midair. As before, she did not wear a single piece of clothing. Yet her body was strange—lacking any human features, instead giving off the sense of something artificially crafted.

From her form extended countless tendrils that coiled and danced through the air—a sheer white veil-like membrane draped from her head to her ankles, fluttering softly in the wind.

She swayed gracefully in midair, one hand delicately covering the corner of her lips that had curved into a smile—then suddenly, her eyes snapped open. The once-blue irises now blazed a vivid, blood-red hue.

"Oh my, how lively this is. Luckily, I was successfully summoned. Otherwise, I would’ve missed all the fun."

Her voice echoed—soft, distant, yet lingeringly seductive, curling through the air like a hook that effortlessly tugged at the listener’s heart.

Dorian tilted his head upward, his expression calm. "You’re a fragment of the Outer God."

It wasn’t a question.

"Is that the new way to greet someone?" The Outer God chuckled softly. "You’re right. So what if I am? I deliberately created that monster—a perfect one. But because you’re here, it could never win."

The Outer God sighed. "Still, that creature wasn’t entirely useless. At least it could use its entire soul to summon me. Ah, no—haha—it thought it was summoning the one it loved."

"Oh, isn’t love beautiful? Don’t you think so, my young god?"

The Outer God’s tone was tender and melodic, as though the two of them weren’t enemies—as though it had never once tried to devour Silvanus, and Silvanus had never torn it apart in that ancient battle.

"Would you like to try it for yourself? The taste of love... We’d make a lovely pair."

From the moment the Outer God appeared, the unseen spectators had been forcibly disconnected—otherwise, yet another "ship" might have set sail by now.

Fiona frowned. How could something that sought to invade and consume other worlds be worthy of Dorian?

No one could ever be worthy of their god!