Time seemed to pass without notice. As the colorful magical particles faded into the void, Yvette’s gaze fell upon the burnt and charred corpses of the “Mechanical Tyrant” and “Night Stalker Demon.”
After landing, she checked her remaining mana, noting that it had dwindled to about 377 points. With 100 points designated as an unspendable reserve, this left her with 277 points of freely distributable mana. Given the three third-phase aberrations she anticipated confronting, including the Nest Master, this wouldn’t suffice for an all-out assault.
Fortunately, there was still a means of replenishment.
Approaching the immobile corpse of the “Night Stalker Demon,” she drew her alloy blade and began to extract its mana core, struggling to navigate the charred remains. After a laborious effort, she finally unearthed a mana core from its blackened belly.
However, upon absorbing its mana, she frowned slightly upon realizing that the core contained far too little energy—just over 20 points, barely enough for a minor spell.
It appeared to be the residual mana that the Night Stalker Demon had not consumed during the battle… indicating that its ability to summon bats was a spell that required mana… she surmised.
This meant every third-phase aberration must possess at least one unique spell; otherwise, the mana cores would be wasted.
What special spell did the Dual Blade Demon possess? Speed enhancement?
Having finished looting the corpses, she summoned a fire column to incinerate the remains of the two aberrations. Afterward, she completed her cleanup, removed her magitek skateboard from her back, and soared swiftly toward the depths of the fog.
The final stretch took about half an hour of flying.
It was evident that the source of the fog was reluctant to allow intruders to find their bearings, continually adjusting the path. But Yvette was no ordinary mage; as a runic hacker, even if she couldn’t disrupt the operation of the magical array, she could still use spell parsing to trace clues and identify the correct route.
Ultimately, she broke through a particularly dense gray area of fog, unveiling an eerie expanse before her.
—The ground was entirely covered by a writhing purplish-red flesh carpet, forming a rounded island several hundred meters in diameter, entirely surrounded by thick fog above and around it.
Although she couldn’t see the Mother Nest, the pulsing tissue on the ground indicated its proximity.
In addition, at the center of this area loomed a far more bizarre entity—an upper half that appeared as a large, gelatinous, pale mass of flesh, while its lower half draped down, undulating with dozens of long, red-and-white tentacle-like appendages, resembling a terrifying jellyfish crawling from the depths of a nightmare into reality.
As Yvette appeared, a jagged mouth brimming with sharp teeth split open from the center of the mass, causing the surrounding fog to billow violently as if sensing something unsettling.
This was the “Mist Beast”?
Runic rings flared around Yvette, and countless elements surged into dazzling energy, launching toward the entity.
However, the jellyfish Mist Beast was not so easily dispatched; it used its tentacles to scuttle quickly across the ground, evading Yvette’s magical bombardment like a cockroach, all the while unleashing several tentacles in retaliation.
Amidst the dodging and counterattacks, Yvette quickly realized that this Mist Beast was far more troublesome than the “Mechanical Tyrant” and “Night Stalker Demon.” It was nimble, successfully evading many of her spells, unlike the former two guardians who had simply stood there, absorbing the brunt of her magic without fear. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝•𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝘯𝘦𝘵
Adding to her troubles, at that moment, a horde of lesser aberrations surged forth from the fog—at least a hundred of them. None resembled tide insects; each possessed unique shapes, evidently the final defense force of the Mother Nest.
The tide insect army from the outside might also be returning; she couldn’t waste another moment… Yvette slightly bent, her body surrounded by a swirling green energy, propelling her towards the Mist Beast like a cannonball.
Of course, she didn’t intend to engage in close combat like Rosalyn; that was not her forte. The only reason for closing the distance was to enhance the accuracy of her spells, ensuring she could pack her runic rings right into the creature’s mouth!
In an instant, without allowing the Mist Beast a moment to respond, she summoned a multitude of runic rings to mere arm’s length. The blood-red tentacles whipped in from all directions, but they couldn’t breach her Crimson Armor’s defenses.
The next second, spells roared as ice, fire, wind, and lightning intertwined, bursting forth like a vibrant rainbow! The Mist Beast, unable to escape the ever-closing attack radius, was instantaneously blasted back, losing a significant portion of its head, collapsing to the ground in a twitching mass of charred, ruined flesh.
Seeing the Mist Beast almost kill itself instantly, Yvette’s expression remained impassive. So far, there hadn’t been a single third-phase aberration whose defenses she couldn’t breach; given slightly more mana, the outcome was not at all surprising.
Then, while clearing the surrounding lesser aberrations, her gaze drifted toward the deeper fog.
At that moment, the dense fog enveloping the core area began to dissipate rapidly, as though being lifted by an invisible giant hand, revealing visible ground as it rolled back.
In the distance, as the mist cleared, a colossal mass of flesh shaped like a small mountain lay exposed, finally revealed in the glaring sunlight.
However, what surprised her was that the Corrupted Beak Griffin, which had nowhere to be found, was now stationed next to the Mother Nest. One side of its body was scorched, its murky gaze now exhibiting some clarity mixed with evident fear. It was highly likely that it had been ordered back by the Mother Nest.
She merely glanced at it before turning her focus onto the Mother Nest.
Unlike the one in Grayport City, the Mother Nest in the Corrupted Forest was significantly larger, its grotesquely oversized body resembling a pulsating, massive blood-and-flesh heart exposed on the ground. Through its translucent, resilient membranous wall, she could see the upper half of a figure resembling a female human and the lower half encased in a hard shell, lying dormant within.
This must be the Nest Master, the “Tide Insect Queen.”
After using over 100 points of mana to take down the Mist Beast and accounting for additional expenditures, she found she had roughly 260 points remaining…
She mentally took note of this, just as the Corrupted Beak Griffin suddenly lunged at her with a shriek, indiscriminately spewing forth torrents of green acid, behaving like a shattering, deranged three-headed dragon.
Half a minute later, after watching the Corrupted Beak Griffin’s corpse collapse, Yvette rechecked her mana reserves, discovering she still had a little over 200 points left.
That should be sufficient.
At this moment, the Mother Nest stirred as well. The previously dormant Tide Insect Queen opened her six crimson eyes simultaneously with a human-like visage.
Tearing through the membranous wall, her insectoid body, towering four floors high, thrashed as it broke free from the incubation chamber, crashing down upon the fleshy ground.
Simultaneously, Yvette noticed the dual pair of massive insectoid appendages protruding from the abdomen of her female half, ending in a giant bone-like sickle, its thick blade glistening like metal—far more threatening than the Dual Blade Demon’s fragile blades.
But perhaps due to a failed evolution, Yvette observed numerous fissures across the body of the Tide Insect Queen, especially along the insectoid portion, giving it the appearance of being battered and weak, panting heavily, devoid of any oppressive presence.
This seemingly boded well, yet Yvette felt a sense of unease.
She had readied herself to confront a top-tier third-phase aberration, one that, even if it had failed its evolution, would still be formidable. Instead, her foe arrived with an apparent debuff of weakness… which felt like a waste of her emotional investment.
Let’s end this quickly, she thought as she launched into a full-scale assault. A torrent of magical elements swirled in the area, accompanied by the Tide Insect Queen’s anguished shrieks.
Yet, the Queen was not without her own struggle; she twisted her body to minimize exposure to the barrage while unleashing a torrent of aberrant tide insects from her abdomen, surging in Yvette’s direction. The Queen even cast some spell enhancing her self-healing capabilities, allowing decayed flesh to rapidly regenerate, driving up the mana cost to defeat her.
Yvette’s brow furrowed tighter; clearly due to insufficient mana, her spell bombardment diminished visibly, like shifting from a high-pressure water gun to a mere trickle.
Fortunately, it was the Tide Insect Queen who could no longer withstand the assault. With a final wail, she collapsed heavily on the ground, rendered motionless. However, to be cautious, Yvette unsheathed the alloy blade at her waist, preparing to finish off the fatigued Tide Insect Queen and conserve her last drops of mana.
But in that moment, a sudden rush of wind behind her caught her off guard.
She instinctively turned around, trying to block with her blade, but her rigid motion and improper grip caused her weapon to be brutally knocked from her hands before she could regain her grip.
In desperation, she managed to grasp the incoming blade with her hand covered in red runic light. The abrasive screech of metal against metal sent sparks flying! The next moment, she was slammed down from her levitation state, crashing into the ground and creating a shallow crater.
Before she had a chance to rise, her assailant quickly swooped down, unleashing a series of strikes aimed at the silver-haired girl within the pit, forcing her to unleash spells in retaliation, which managed to push the attacker back temporarily.
When the assailant refrained from attacking again, Yvette slowly rose from the pit.
She looked down at the gory wound in her palm and then raised her head, emotionlessly stating, “You truly haven’t disappointed me.”
At that moment, the figure of her assailant came into focus: it was the Dual Blade Demon—but not quite.
Its scaled body had swelled more than double its original size; bulging muscles moved violently beneath its skin, radiating explosive power.
Two pairs of thin, membranous wings, gleaming like metal, ripped through its back, while a pair of enormous claws and a humanoid pair of arms sprouted from its shoulders and waist, emerging as if grafted on.
At that moment, rather than simply the Dual Blade Demon, it was more fittingly described as a Six-Armed Demon. Its dark-scaled body glimmered in the sunlight with a metallic sheen, now equipped with towering claws, dual blades, dual hands, six wings sprouting from its back, and an even more robust physique, looking every bit the embodiment of a demon lord.
“each other,” the Six-Armed Demon replied, its lips curling into a slow, triumphant sneer—one radiating arrogance and ill intent.