Night.
Darkness thick enough to be inseparable enveloped the Eternal Night Peninsula.
A shadow, almost merging with the dark, moved along the ground like a ghost, silently weaving through the twisted woods.
The Templar scout, "Holy Eye," had been inside this restricted area for a full three hours.
He was in a foul mood. Shocked, even.
As the church's top reconnaissance expert, he had infiltrated demon castles and escaped the realm of the undead unscathed.
But here...
Everything reeked of an indescribable eeriness.
The "monsters" patrolling the perimeter wore uniform uniforms, marched with synchronized steps, and were as disciplined as a human regular army.
In the sky, winged "angels" (Battle Sisters) flew by from time to time. Their eyes were cold, and they carried oddly shaped alchemical weapons that emitted a dangerous aura.
Where was the exiled heretic? This was a well-organized, highly-trained... dark legion!
"That idiot Lancelot... the intelligence he gave was absolute garbage!"
Holy Eye cursed inwardly.
But he didn't retreat.
The stranger it was, the bigger the secret hidden within.
He bypassed several sentries and even avoided a "dragon girl" who was digging a hole with her tail.
Relying on the 【Cloak of Divine Concealment】 bestowed by the church and his god-tier stealth skills, he finally reached the black castle at the center of the forest—the base of the Benevolent Heart Clinic—without incident.
"This is the place."
Holy Eye hid behind a massive rock, looking up at the building crouching like a giant beast in the night.
The castle was quiet.
Most windows were dark.
Only one window on the second floor shone with a ghastly white light, and from time to time, strange sounds drifted out.
"Zzt... zzt..."
It sounded like someone sawing through bone.
It was mixed with a man's excited and fanatical muttering.
"Perfect... simply perfect..."
"This texture, this color... it's a masterpiece..."
Holy Eye's heart sank.
He climbed the rock silently, clinging to the cold wall like a gecko as he crept toward the lit window.
The window was high and made of a sturdy crystal; he couldn't see inside from the outside.
But that wouldn't stop him.
Holy Eye pulled out a device resembling a monocular from his robe.
【Mirror of Truth】, a specialized scouting artifact from the church, could see through most illusions and physical barriers.
He brought the 【Mirror of Truth】 to his eye and aimed it carefully at the window.
Hum—
A faint golden light lit up on the lens.
The blurry crystal window became transparent instantly.
The scene inside the room was clearly presented before him.
Then.
Holy Eye's breathing stopped completely.
His eyes, the "Eye of Truth" said to see the color of souls, widened like a bull's, instantly bloodshot.
What did he see?
It was a room... less like an operating room and more like a slaughterhouse.
In the center was an operating table made of an unknown metal. On it lay a "monster."
The monster had the upper body of a human female—curvy and beautiful. But her lower body was a massive spider's torso, with eight long legs covered in black chitin spread out menacingly, possessing an alien beauty.
Beside the table stood the legendary "Pale Demon" mentioned in the intel—Victor Corvinus.
He wore his signature white lab coat, stained dark red with blood, and a pair of exaggerated goggles.
But the most terrifying part...
Was his back.
A dozen... no, dozens of pitch-black, slimy, giant tentacles covered in purple suckers protruded from the void behind him, dancing like a horde of demons!
Some tentacles held gleaming scalpels. Some held blood-stained gauze. A few others were roughly pinning down the spider queen's limbs to keep her from struggling.
Victor himself held a buzzing miniature electric drill in one hand, while the other... was actually thrust directly into the spider queen's opened chest cavity, as if he were digging for something!
Bright red blood and green bodily fluids mixed together, flowing onto the floor.
"Don't move! It's almost done!"
Victor seemed impatient, and the tentacles behind him suddenly tightened.
"Hiss—!!!"
The spider queen let out a pained shriek.
But there was a hint of... excitement in that voice?
"Shut up! No chatting with the doctor on the operating table!"
Beside them, a little girl in a black Gothic dress (Alice) was humming a song, skillfully trimming the spider queen's fingernails (dismembering excess limbs) with a pair of great scissors.
A red-haired woman in a dark nurse uniform (Elizabeth) held a goblet, drinking blood while using blood magic to control the blood flowing out of the spider queen, preventing it from splashing on the floor.
There was even a skeleton soldier in a security uniform standing in the corner, dutifully...
Handing the man various sizes of drill bits.
Undead. Demons. Vampires. And this... indescribable evil god with tentacles on his back!
This wasn't a "clinic."
This was a blasphemous and bloody... live dissection ritual, involving numerous evil entities, that should only happen in the deepest parts of the Abyss!
"Night Owl's" intel wasn't wrong!
No! He was too conservative!
This was ten thousand times more terrifying than what he described!
This man wasn't possessed by an evil god; he was the evil god himself!
He was using these poor monsters for some god-defying taboo experiment aimed at creating even more horrifying beings!
"Ugh..."
A strong sense of nausea rose in his throat.
Holy Eye felt his stomach churning.
His heart, which had been baptized by the Holy Light for decades and was as solid as a rock, cracked at this moment.
The god he believed in collapsed before his eyes.
Because he realized that compared to this man...
The "Abyssal Demon Kings" and "Hell Lords" described in the Holy Light scriptures were... simply like a group of innocent kindergarten children!
"No... I can't..."
"I must... I must take this news back..."
"Holy War... a Holy War must be launched immediately!"
"Only the strongest Templar Knight Order, only His Holiness the Pope himself wielding a holy artifact... can possibly... purify this demon!"
Holy Eye's body shook violently.
His "Eye of Truth" began to bleed two lines of tears because he had seen a sight far beyond his comprehension. His sanity was screaming, about to snap.
He didn't dare look again.
He forced himself to look away, wanting to slip away silently.
However, the moment he turned around.
The man performing "surgery" in the room suddenly stopped, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
He slowly turned his head.
Those cold, sharp eyes hidden behind the goggles seemed to pierce through the wall and the night, locking onto Holy Eye's position with precision.
Then, he smiled.
His mouth curled into a grin, revealing a row of ivory-white teeth.
There was no anger or surprise in that smile.
Only a kind of...
Pure joy, like a chef seeing ingredients that had delivered themselves to his door.
"Oh my."
Victor's voice wasn't loud, but it hit Holy Eye's heart like a heavy hammer.
"There's actually a little mouse peeking."
"Perfect."
Victor's tentacles turned toward the window simultaneously.
"Today's experiment... is just missing a live human sample."
"Since you've delivered yourself, it saves me the trouble of going out to catch one."
"No—!!!"
Seeing those dozen slimy tentacles pointing at him, Holy Eye's mental defenses collapsed completely.
The string of sanity snapped.
"Devil!!! He's a devil!!!"
He let out a shrill scream that didn't sound human. No longer caring about stealth or concealment, he scrambled down the rock and turned to flee into the forest.
However, he had only run two steps when his foot slipped.
Looking down, he saw a puddle of green, jelly-like slime on the ground.
The slime seemed alive, instantly wrapping around his feet.
"Bo?"
A soft, curious sound came from the green mud.
"Let... let go of me!"
Holy Eye struggled in terror.
But the slime was slippery, and the more he struggled, the tighter it clung.
Just then, an emerald-green, translucent little head popped out of the slime.
It looked like a little girl of seven or eight.
She tilted her head, her pure green eyes looking curiously at the intruder.
Then, she opened her mouth and gave an innocent smile.
"Bo-bo... (Food...)"
She opened her mouth.
That cherry-like mouth split open all the way to her ears right before Holy Eye's terrified eyes.
What was revealed wasn't teeth, but a bottomless, swirling green vortex.
An irresistible suction force came from the vortex.
"Ahhhhhh—!!!"
Holy Eye's scream stopped abruptly.
His entire body, along with the artifact cloak given by the church, was swallowed in one gulp by the seemingly harmless little girl.
"Burp—"
Bobo let out a full burp, her body growing a size larger.
She smacked her lips, seemingly savoring the taste.
"Bo. (A bit hard, not very tasty.)"
She complained, then turned back into a puddle of green mud and continued to diligently...
Mop the floor.
As if she had just swallowed a fly.
The whole process took less than three seconds.
A generation's gold-rank scout, "Holy Eye," had... disappeared.
Disappeared without a trace, not even a bone fragment left.
Because... he had made the floor dirty.
Rate on N.U.
