Since her promotion to the third stage and gaining knowledge and wisdom from fragments of human memory, Abella had never experienced such hellish days as these past two.

This feeling made her feel as if she had regressed back to her first and second stages, lost in a fog of confusion and ignorance. The key difference, however, was that back then, she didn’t have any memories—what happened didn’t matter. Now, she possessed a heightened level of intelligence and had demands for living standards and personal dignity. To be stripped of her abilities and forced to survive like a low-tier aberration was tantamount to a death sentence!

In fact, during the morning two days prior, just after Yvette and Dugrabi had abandoned her, Abella had felt disoriented but not particularly hopeless. After all, she was still a fifth-stage lord. Even if she lost her evolution factors, she merely needed to seek out food to supplement her strength. Once her body converted the food into evolution factors, she could gradually restore her power. She still had hope for the future.

Moreover, as the guard of the Pale Mother Nest, she was well-acquainted with the conditions around Kux. She knew the area had nearly been stripped bare of resources. Living alone in the wilderness, as long as she avoided Kux and stayed clear of the Mountain Whales, her chances of encountering another aberration were low, thus minimizing her risks.

With this thought in mind, she had decided to settle near the remnants of the ruins, a place that could at least offer some shelter from the wind and rain.

But when hunger struck, the realization hit her like a ton of bricks—she had no channels to procure food.

For years, she had relied on the nutrients provided by the nest, meaning she didn’t need to eat often—one meal a month would suffice. Now, due to her weakened state, she found herself reduced to needing three meals a day, just like an ordinary human!

Where on earth could she find a suitable source of food?

Thus, Abella was forced to abandon the ruins and began to roam the cold northern wasteland in search of sustenance.

This search lasted a day and a night. In the midst of the biting cold and difficult terrain, she had no idea how far she had traveled, only that she followed the direction in which the black dragon had flown away. Along the way, she encountered some goats, but she couldn’t catch even one; the only things she could catch were strange insects, which she found repulsive and refused to eat.

After two days of starvation, Abella finally spotted something—a flock of snow-white, plump sheep.

At that moment, she couldn’t care less about how there could be such a clean flock in this desolate place; all she wanted was to catch one and devour it with her sharp, white fangs, tearing it apart to quickly regain her strength and end this nightmare of wilderness survival.

But…

The outcome of her hunt was vastly unexpected.

She couldn’t believe that she had become so weak that she couldn’t even catch a single sheep! She was directly chased away by an especially fierce ram, running without daring to look back!

This shocking reality left Abella dumbfounded. She had previously fantasized about regaining her strength and one day becoming a commanding expert, returning to make a glamorous revenge on that silver-haired girl who had abandoned her, making her pay in blood for the torment she had suffered today…

But now it seemed she might die before her ambitions came to fruition!

Minutes later, after being knocked over by the ferocious ram once more, Abella’s mindset finally shattered completely. She collapsed to the ground, unwilling to rise again.

After all, as long as she didn’t get up, she wouldn’t be butted. Plus, she was so starved that she lacked the strength to get up again; if she forced herself, she’d only end up tripping over her own feet.

This tactic worked well; seeing her lying on the ground, the ram no longer attacked her but merely waited nearby.

After lying there for a while, thinking about her current predicament made Abella feel incredibly aggrieved, and soon tears began to fall. She thought that if she couldn’t even defeat a sheep, then she wouldn’t be able to eat mutton either, and how pathetic would it be to die like this? Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs NoveIＦire.net

While she could accept being slain on the battlefield by a commander-level powerhouse, she absolutely could not endure such humiliation! This was far too damaging to her dignity!

Just as her emotions reached their absolute low, she spotted an unexpected figure standing atop the grassy slope, quietly watching her.

It was…

Yvette?

Abella blinked in surprise, seeing the very girl she had come to loathe the most, the one she longed to slice into a thousand pieces for revenge. Even in her dreams, she wished to consume her.

Yet unlike in her dreams, encountering her now brought forth a sense of overwhelming excitement, akin to seeing an angel from beneath the goddess herself, and she felt like crying from joy.

Of course, she wasn’t genuinely thankful. She simply wished to cling to the other girl so that she could survive this dire situation.

“Lady Loxivia, are you finally here to save me?”

When Yvette approached, Abella strained to get up, fearing she might be butted while standing. Instead, she flipped over and crawled toward Yvette, finally prostrating herself in front of her, as if in a humble gesture of worship.

Looking at the once-beautiful but now disheveled face of Abella, Yvette wasn’t quite sure what to say. Seeing that Abella still appeared somewhat fearful of the ram, she walked over and kicked it away, sending it off into the distance. Once that was taken care of, she said, “Wait here. I’ll go get you something to eat.”

Despite it being lunchtime, it seemed that Dugrabi was preparing the last roast lamb for their farewell meal, so she could borrow some.

“Thank you, Lady Loxivia!” Abella exclaimed, her excitement evident. Due to her exhaustion, she couldn’t follow behind and could only lay on the grass to rest.

Once Yvette’s form disappeared into the valley, Abella breathed a long sigh of relief. For a moment, even the face of her sworn enemy seemed less detestable, even eliciting some genuine gratitude.

After lying on the ground for a while, Abella felt this position was too undignified, and she resolved to get up.

However, as soon as that thought crossed her mind, she shivered, instinctively glancing to her side and, unsurprisingly, saw the ram once again inching closer, its demonic eyes focused intently on her, seemingly waiting for something.

Taking in a deep breath, Abella silently returned to a prone position, thinking that once she was well-fed, she would surely take revenge on that smelly sheep first.

If I can’t defeat Lady Loxivia, how could I be scared of you?

…

A few minutes later, buoyed by wind magic, Yvette returned before Abella with a juicy roasted lamb leg, crisped on the outside yet tender within. Watching as Abella devoured the entire leg in ravenous bites, Yvette measured the satisfaction in her eyes and then asked, “What do you plan to do next?”

“Me?” Abella displayed a puzzled expression, kneeling on the ground and suddenly turning anxious. “You… still won’t allow me to follow you?”

“I told you I have no Mother Nest, so I can neither help you advance nor provide you additional nutrients. Following me won’t be beneficial,” Yvette stated, squatting down to meet Abella’s gaze.

In truth, Yvette wasn’t entirely averse to Abella. After all, in a world where humanity had been extinguished, there were no clear factions left for her. Between aberrations, there would inherently be no conflict. To lower-tier aberrations, she simply viewed them as nutrients to devour for her own sustenance, much like the other beings already did.

And what if she were indeed an aberration? A specially mutated one?

However, she had no way of knowing what Abella’s true thoughts were as an aberration.

In the absence of a Mother Nest’s constraints, could she maintain loyalty like a human? Would she have ulterior motives, presenting herself as submissive while secretly plotting to devour Yvette?

“But I still wish to follow you…” Abella looked up at her with pleading eyes, resembling a little dog worried about being abandoned by its owner.

At this moment, her plea was genuine; after all, without this support, she would have to revert to survival in the wild, which was no life at all—she wouldn’t survive even with the aid of a God.

As for revenge, that was a long-term plan—a matter not to be rushed.

Yvette studied her face for a moment before giving a slight nod. “For the time being, you may.”

She decided to take Abella along for a while, hoping to deepen her understanding of high-tier aberrations through their journey. Once Abella’s strength recovered to the third or fourth stage, or if she felt the urge to leave, Yvette would then willingly release her.

“Really?!” Abella exclaimed in delight, immediately kneeling down on the ground once more and sincerely saying, “I will not disappoint you, Lady Loxivia!”

Yvette hummed in response. She had to admit the decisive factor in her decision was Abella’s beautiful mature woman appearance, which resembled that of a nearly human form, making her quite pleasant to gaze upon.

In the journey ahead, having such a stunning maid to serve her, drive her around, and handle some chores wouldn’t be so bad after all.