She scanned the ground. There was indeed a formation carved beneath her feet—ferocious beast statues stationed at the four corners like pillars.
Shit. She knew nothing about formations. Edmund and Briar were even worse.
That left only one option.
“Briar,” she said coldly, “force it open.”
She drove her sword down into the center of the formation. Frost spread outward from the blade, chilling the earth, creeping through the cracks. Through the freezing aura, she sensed it—
A vast space below.
Briar didn’t waste time. Its vines thickened and burrowed downward. After shedding its outer bindings, its roots punched through every crack they could find, drilling into the stone like living spears.
Below, the Demonic Cult disciples felt the tremor.
“What’s that sound?”
“It’s like… something drilling through the wall.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The walls are made of mystic stone. Nothing can—”
He stopped. He was wrong. Red vines—like exposed veins—began pushing through the stone walls, wriggling inward in horrifying density. The sight alone made their scalps go numb.
“What the hell is that?!” someone screamed.
No one had an answer.
“Cut it down! Just hold on a little longer and the ritual will succeed!”
Above, Briar wailed dramatically, “They’re cutting my feet!”
Lauren gritted her teeth. “Don’t kill them yet. Send me down first.”
“Got it.” Briar punched open a massive hole and lowered her through.
Outside, it had fully revealed its true form. For miles in every direction, the forest had been erased—nothing remained but writhing crimson vines carpeting the land.
The demonic cultivators below were already encircled. Briar was simply waiting for Lauren to free the captives before beginning its feast.
From a distance, the alarmed Demonic Cult members watched in terror. None dared approach.
In the natural order of this world, humans sat at the top. Demonic beasts came next. Spiritual plants were at the bottom.
Human infants were protected—low mortality. Demonic beasts reproduced quickly and in vast numbers. Spiritual plants?
They couldn’t run. They were eaten by both humans and beasts. It took them centuries—millennia—to develop intelligence.
An ancient tree might one day gain sentience. And then be chopped down for alchemy.
A spiritual plant monster like Briar—this powerful, this aggressive—should not exist. It was an impossibility.
Down below— Lauren saw him.
Tarot lay stretched out on a stone platform. Each of his limbs was nailed down with a thick, black spike as long as a forearm. Blood streamed from the wounds, running along carved grooves and dripping into a pool beneath the platform. And inside that pool—
A naked man sat cross-legged, eyes closed, soaking in Tarot’s blood.
Lauren’s vision went red. What the fuck kind of twisted ritual was this?
Tarot’s eyelids trembled. He forced them open just enough to glimpse her blurred silhouette. His lips moved. No sound came out.
“A righteous sect disciple?” A woman’s mocking voice echoed through the cavern. “Heh. You came to save him?”
She swung an iron hook lazily, letting the curved tip hover over Tarot’s dantian. “With just a little push,” she said sweetly, “I can dig his core right out.”
Lauren slowly removed her hood. The black robe slid from her shoulders and fell to the ground. In an instant, pure spiritual energy surged outward—clean, unmistakable.
The demonic cultivators’ eyes lit up.
There had been an agreement after the great war: any righteous sect disciple who trespassed into Demonic Cult territory could be killed on sight. No retaliation. No consequences.
She had walked in on her own. Straight into her grave.
“Oh?” The woman looked Lauren up and down and giggled. “Quite a pretty little sister.”
She bent down and patted Tarot’s pale cheek.
“So this is your type? The delicate kind? If she gets beaten, she’d cry for hours, wouldn’t she?”
Laughter erupted in the cavern. Lauren didn’t react.
She noticed Edmund’s shadow coiling silently along the ceiling of the cave, positioning himself above them. Then her soft, gentle voice drifted through the laughter.
“I’ll give you one chance to live.”
The laughter faltered.
“Otherwise,” she continued calmly, “I’ll make sure you die a far worse death than him.”
“Oh?” The woman blinked, then burst out laughing again. “You? Little sister, you don’t look capable.”
Lauren reached out and gently stroked one of Briar’s drooping crimson vines. Her smile was innocent. Almost shy.
“Yes, sister,” she said sweetly. “Haven’t you heard? A good hunter often appears as the prey.”
The laughter died. They finally noticed how intimately she was caressing the blood-red vines that had quietly crept into the cavern.
“Brothers and sisters,” she went on lightly, “you—and the entire—are surrounded by me.”
Her youthful face and syrupy voice made the words even more chilling.
A man muttered, “Anyone from the righteous sect who can make it here isn’t simple. She’s probably more dangerous than the one nailed up there.”
“Look at those things… what even are they? Maybe she’s not bluffing.”
The woman at the center wavered. Success was right in front of her. The ritual was almost complete. How could she give up now?
Lauren gave Briar’s roots a small tug.
Several skeletons dropped from the cave entrance, clattering loudly onto the stone floor. The crowd’s expressions changed instantly.
Lauren’s clear voice rang out again. “They got off too easily. If I’d known you liked bleeding people slowly, I wouldn’t have let them die so fast.”
No one was smiling anymore. They stared at the girl who looked barely past her teens. No one dared move first.
Edmund’s voice sounded in her mind. *Ready.*
Lauren smiled faintly. “I’ll give you time to think,” she said calmly. “I’ll count to three.”
She raised one finger. “One.”
Panic flickered across their faces. All eyes turned to the woman in charge.
If she was telling the truth—if the entire Dark Souls Land was really encircled—then even if the ritual succeeded, they’d still die here.
The woman’s grip tightened on the iron hook. If she let Tarot go, this attempt would fail. But there would be other chances.
If she didn’t…
“Three.”
Before anyone could react— A massive dragon head smashed down from above.
Crunch.
The woman vanished between its jaws. She didn’t even have time to scream before blood exploded across the cavern walls.
Edmund didn’t swallow her. He spat her mangled body out.
It slammed straight into the man soaking in the blood pool, knocking him over and plunging him completely beneath the surface. Drowning him in the very blood he’d been cultivating in.
A voice gurgled up from the pool. “Hey, little sister… you forgot to say two—”
“Two my ass.”
Dozens of Explosive Spirit Talismans flew from Lauren’s sleeve and detonated midair.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The cave shook violently. The demonic cultivators were caught completely off guard, thrown into chaos and smoke.
Appearances really were deceptive. While they scrambled, Lauren moved.
“Briar!”
Vines and branches exploded through the cavern, locking down escape routes and tearing apart anyone who tried to regroup.
Edmund descended and yanked the four black nails out of Tarot’s limbs with his claws.
Lauren caught Tarot as he slumped forward. She shoved a blood-clotting pill into his mouth, followed by life-saving and restorative elixirs. One after another, she forced them down his throat, circulating her spiritual energy to help him absorb them faster.
His breathing gradually steadied. After a long moment, Tarot’s eyes fluttered open.
“How… how are you… so fast…” he rasped. Then he passed out again.
Fast? Fast to arrive—or fast to break through?
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