CHAPTER 271: CHAPTER 270 - IN THE SWAMP.

Darkness.

Cold, slimy, and slightly smelling of expired soup.

That was the first thing Raven registered after getting gulped by the swamp.

The second thing was that he could breathe... somehow.

The third thing was—

"Bro, if this is your idea of a spa day, I want a refund," Omni’s voice echoed from his arm.

Raven blinked, realizing his vision was adjusting to a dim, eerie glow coming from faint bioluminescent moss coating massive... walls?

No, not walls. Ribs.

After all, they weren’t just in the swamp—they were inside a beast.

The beast was the only entrance to the place they needed to go.

Somewhere to his left, a loud, muffled voice bellowed:

"WHERE’S THE EXIT?!"

That was Graye. Of course, it was Graye.

She was standing ankle-deep in some weird purple sludge, sword blazing brighter with her signature violet fire. Every swing sizzled against the fleshy floor.

"Not cutting my way out yet—" she grinned, "—but it’s tempting."

Selena stood beside her, perfectly composed despite looking like she’d just stepped into a digestive nightmare.

"This organism’s anatomy is fascinating," she murmured, letting one of her shadow devourers sink into the wall.

The shadowy creature melted into the flesh like a cat slipping under a blanket.

"It’ll report back," she said with calm finality.

Lia, staring at her surroundings, kept shaking her head, as this wasn’t her idea of romance.

She had come here expecting something like a dangerous situation where she and Raven would get close, then maybe kiss—

"This isn’t what I had expected!" She stomped her feet, her cheeks red.

Worse, she couldn’t find Planty anywhere.

"Raven, I can’t find Planty," she quickly said, but Raven shrugged, pointing at the surroundings.

"This is the stomach of a herbivore creature. What do you think happens to plants in their stomach?"

Lia went quiet, mourning Planty’s death.

Siris, some distance away from them, was crouched over a pulsating vein, poking it with a dagger.

"This looks important," she beamed.

Selena’s calm voice cut in instantly. "Don’t stab it yet."

"Yet," Siris repeated, eyes lighting up like a child promised candy.

Clara floated nearby on a thin vibration wave, which kept the sludge from touching her boots.

She was humming, her magic turning the hum into faint illusions—tall arched doors, stone steps, and open skies—meant to soothe the group.

It would’ve worked if Rufus hadn’t immediately walked face-first into an illusionary door.

"WHO PUT THIS HERE?!" He yelled, helmet clanging.

Jake, of course, was silent—just leaning against his scythe, shadow-strolling along the curved interior like a broody mural painting.

Jessy, meanwhile, was scanning the whole place with a floating magnetic orb.

"This thing’s anatomy has a lot of metal traces," she said.

Raven grinned. "So... you could make it fart us out?"

Jessy did not dignify that with a response.

Alex was sitting on his lava boulder like it was a beanbag chair while Blargh’s black tendrils probed the gooey walls.

"Feels like... beef jerky left in a sauna," Blargh commented in his bubbly, unsettling voice.

"Cool," Alex replied, casually tossing molten pebbles into the sludge.

On his head, Nibbles was levitating blobs of mucus, only to drop them onto Rufus’s helmet.

"STOP THAT!" Rufus shouted, swiping slime away.

Nibbles raised a little sign: "Make me."

Cluckles, perched serenely atop a pulsating fleshy mound, announced:

"Cluckles has decided. This is a large stomach."

Everyone stared.

"How do you know that?" Jessy asked.

"Cluckles’s prey instincts are speaking," the chicken replied gravely, as though this explained everything.

"Well, it is a large stomach," Raven nodded from the side, making everyone turn to him.

"A way out?" Clara raised a brow.

Raven looked away, muttering. "...It would be natural."

Before anyone could say anything, the walls around them shifted.

A deep, rumbling growl reverberated through the chamber, the floor tilting under their feet.

The corrupt panther—who had apparently been chilling the whole time—perked up. It bounded forward, tail swishing excitedly.

It pounced onto a moving fleshy ridge... which promptly catapulted it down a slick fleshy tunnel like a living waterslide.

"CHASE IT!" Raven barked, already blasting forward on fire-propelled feet.

Graye whooped and followed, purple flames leaving streaks on the walls.

Selena’s shadow steed dissolved into inky mist as she leapt forward, Siris hot on her heels.

Lia, still in full salad mode, ran after them while grumbling, "This is NOT what plants are for—"

The rest?

They followed, too, partly because they didn’t want to be left behind... but mostly because they were already slipping.

They barreled down the twisting organic tunnel like some nightmarish waterpark ride, slime splashing, Nibbles screaming in tiny squirrel laughter, Rufus flipping upside-down on purpose again, and Cluckles somehow gliding ahead of them all with dignified speed.

They didn’t know where they’d land.

They didn’t know what they were sliding toward.

Well, of course, none of them other than Raven knew that, but Raven wasn’t going to tell them.

It was for their mental health.

..........................

After what felt like an eternity, the slide ended abruptly.

With a squelch.

Then, a splorch.

The next thing they knew was a smell that instantly made Nibbles gag so hard his tiny squirrel body went limp on Alex’s head.

Raven landed first, boots sinking into something warm, gooey, and offensively fragrant.

The rest of the group piled in right after, tumbling over each other until they were all sprawled on the same disgusting heap.

Jessy was the first to lift her head, gagging. "Oh... no."

Graye wiped slime from her cheek, looked up... and froze.

The wall before them was throbbing.

Pulsing.

Circular.

Above all, it was suspiciously... puckered.

There was a long, painful silence.

Siris broke it.

"...No. No way. That’s not..." She turned to Raven. "That’s not what I think it is, right?"

"Of course not," Raven said instantly, his voice smooth and confident. "It’s clearly—"

He waved a hand vaguely at the pulsing ring of muscle. "—a... highly advanced, self-regulating... security door. Yes. Guarded by bio-organic hydraulic compression."

Clara squinted. "That sounds fake."

"It’s science," Raven countered. "Look at the precision in the muscle contractions. That’s craftsmanship. Not—"

He made a vague scoffing noise. "—you know. That

."

Selena actually tilted her head, studying the structure. "...It does have a symmetrical muscle pattern consistent with an engineered gate—"

Then, just like that, they were starting to believe him.

Until the "security door" shuddered... parted just a little... and let out a sound that was half sigh, half trumpet.

The stench hit them like a physical blow.

Everyone turned.

Every single one of them.

Slowly.

To Raven.

Their faces were identical—wide-eyed, betrayed, and slightly green.

Raven lifted his hands defensively. "Okay, yes, maybe it is an organic... posterior exit... but I lied for a good reason!"

"Oh, this better be good," Lia muttered, holding her nose.

"If I’d told you," Raven said, "you would have thought about it the entire ride down. And then you’d be here, feeling like shit. Now? You’re feeling like literal shit. And there’s an important difference in the life lesson there."

"Which is?" Jessy deadpanned.

"Always keep your expectations low," Raven said solemnly.

All of them groaned before they turned away from the pulsing "door" just in time to notice their surroundings.

The ground wasn’t just goo—it was layered with bones.

Old, brittle ones. Piles of them.

Human, beast, and... something in between.

Cluckles flapped up onto one pile, scanning it like a war general.

"These are the fallen," the chicken intoned gravely. "They came here unwillingly... and were never heard from again."

"Comforting," Clara muttered.

Ahead of them stretched a huge chamber, the walls opening into... at least a hundred different tunnels.

There, right in the middle, mounted on a crooked wooden post, was a signboard with curling, slightly slimy parchment.

Jessy stepped up and read aloud:

"RULES OF THE LABYRINTH: -

Pick the wrong path once → gender swap.

2. Pick the wrong path twice → immediate ejection. (No refunds.)"

There was a long pause.

Then Rufus started walking. Purposefully. Toward the nearest tunnel.

"Rufus," Selena called. "Where are you going?"

"To make a brave tactical error," he replied without hesitation.

Jessy didn’t even blink—her magnetic orb shot out, bands of metal snapping around Rufus’s boots and locking him in place.

"HEY! Let me go! I’ve always wondered what I’d look like as—"

"No," Jessy said flatly.

Rufus’s helmet drooped forward. "...You’re no fun."

From Alex’s head, Nibbles held up a tiny sign: "I wanna see it happen."