At the edge of the Water Lily Lake’s central pavilion, Shirley Quinn and Cade Barret hunched over an array compass, its jade surface pulsing faintly as they calibrated it to pinpoint the Gloomwater Phantom Lily Array’s elusive breach location. Shirley’s Ninth Layer senses, honed to a razor’s edge, caught the subtle shift in the pavilion’s atmosphere—Lordi Payne’s theatrical slump, Ruru Rosa’s panicked grip on his hand. Her beautiful emerald eyes narrowed, a faint smirk curling her rosy lips.
The lake’s serene surface quivered, a sudden shimmer fracturing its glassy calm like a flawless painting splintering into mosaic shards. Shirley’s head snapped up, her tone sharp and commanding. "It’s breach time! Thorn Cide Squad, move! We’re leaving this cursed Hanz Clan Estate—now!" Her gossamer dress flared as she spun toward the disturbance, her raven hair catching the starlight.
The air cracked open, a silent rupture tearing through reality itself. A shimmering disc of liquid light materialized, hovering vertically like a pool of dark mercury defying gravity. Its surface rippled faintly, disturbed by an unseen force, yet it held unnaturally still, a defiant anomaly that mocked the laws of the world. The breach exit had opened, its eerie glow beckoning the squad to escape.
Ruru, still clutching Lordi’s cold hand, her violet curls bouncing, snapped into action, her voice urgent. "Come on, Lordi, you’re not dying on me!" She half-dragged him, her Eighth Layer aura flaring protectively.
Cade, gripping his Bronze Shield, dashed forward, his gruff voice a low rumble. "Move it, kid. Don’t make us carry you." Lordi, playing up his feigned weakness, staggered alongside, his Blade of Life Hater sheathed.
They stepped toward the breach, and the world dissolved. The moment Lordi’s face met the portal’s surface, reality unraveled—no resistance, no barrier, just an eerie, weightless plunge into ink-black nothingness.
The void pressed in, formless and infinite, neither hot nor cold but wrong, its humming energy prickling his skin like a thousand unseen needles.
Fleeting shapes danced at the edges of his vision—half-formed silhouettes, distant glimmers, impossible geometries that slipped away before he could grasp them. Was this the space between dimensions? The raw fabric of existence? Or his mind’s desperate scramble to comprehend the incomprehensible? Time lost meaning, direction vanished, and for a heartbeat, there was only the suffocating dark.
Then, abruptly, it ended. No transition, no warning—just a jarring snap as light, sound, and gravity slammed back into place. The world reassembled in a blink, as if they’d never left, the disorientation so absolute Lordi questioned if he’d moved at all or if reality had reshaped itself around them.
The air carried a new scent—sweet cherry blossoms, damp earth. The ground beneath his boots felt solid, familiar yet foreign.
Lordi blinked, steadying himself, and saw the breach’s ripples fade behind them, the portal already gone, swallowed by the estate’s curse.
The Thorn cide Squad stood beneath the delicate canopy of a cherry blossom forest, the same grove where they’d entered the Hanz Clan estate days ago. Petals drifted lazily, catching the moonlight, the serene beauty a stark contrast to the lake’s earlier horrors.
Lordi had just begun to relax, ready to slip away unnoticed—until Ruru’s voice cut through his motion.
"Senior Sister Quinn."
She held up an elixir vial, its contents gleaming—the very same legendary level treasures Lordi had given her on the Blood Puppet Float. "I know you’ve mastered the Life Absorption Art. How about this? Here’re two legendary level Bone Tempering Pills, Teach Junior Brother Payne now, and these are yours."
Cade Barret blinked, his broad frame tensing under the weight of his Bronze Shield, his dark eyes flicking between Ruru and Shirley. His gruff mind churned, but he held his tongue and kept silence.
Shirley Quinn turned, her gossamer dress catching the moonlight, her raven hair swaying as a faint, elegant smile curled her rosy lips.
"Deal," she said, her voice smooth as silk. Her delicate hand reached out, snatching the porcelain vial with a fluid grace, tucking it into her storage pouch with a flick of her wrist. Her emerald eyes gleamed as she stepped closer to the trio.
The squad braced, expecting Shirley to begin imparting the Life Absorption Art’s secrets to Lordi. But a faint, unfamiliar fragrance scent, not the cherry blossoms, not the familiar sweetness of the night. Something cloying.
Thick. Like honey left to rot.
Before he could react, the tiny snake earrings—Hissy—on Shirley’s ear released their bite, uncoiling with lethal speed. The serpent shot toward Lordi like a venomous dart with a speed that blurred into the dark, its fangs glinting with malice, aimed for his throat.
Shirley’s hands flashed.
Her aura erupted—two vicious palm strikes with Ninth Layer power crashing down towards Cade Barret and Ruru Rosa like a tidal wave of pure malice.
Two thunderous impacts shattered the night at same time, the sound of Shirley Quinn’s palm strikes landing with lethal force.
Cade Barret and Ruru Rosa, caught off guard, took the blows square in the chest, their bodies flung backward like broken dolls, blood spraying in crimson arcs as they crashed into the earth, their auras flickering, dimmed by pain. Cade’s bronze shield clattered uselessly beside him, his gruff voice choking on a groan. Ruru’s bone dagger slipped from her grip, her sharp cry cut short as she crumpled, her violet curls splayed in the dirt.
Lordi Payne’s instincts, honed by countless brushes with death, snapped into action. The sweet scent—not cherry blossoms—had barely pricked his nose when his wrist flicked, muscles coiling like springs. His Blade of Life Hater slashed a deadly arc, the bone edge singing through the air. It met Hissy, Shirley’s serpent earring, with perfect precision, cleaving its skull in a single stroke. Scales, bone, and sinew parted like rotten fruit, the snake’s halves twitching as they hit the blood-soaked ground.
Shirley’s anguished scream tore through the forest, her beautiful emerald eyes blazing with murderous fury as she locked onto Lordi.
"Fucking liar! You were never seriously injured!" Her voice dripped venom, her Ninth Layer spirit energy surging like a storm.